UnGovr Transcript
iHow this transcript is madeUnGovr transcribes the official recording with automated speech-to-text, separates speakers by voice, and matches voices to the seated roster. Names and attributions are AI estimates and may contain errors.Verify any quote yourself: click anywhere in the transcript and the official video jumps to that exact moment, so you can check any quote against the recording.0:00 – 0:026 turns
Thank you. ♪ All right, good morning everybody. We'd like to welcome you to this meeting of the Santa Barbara County Board of Supervisors. Mr. Allen can I get a roll call please?
Ms. Wolfe, Ms. Farr, Mr. Adam, Mr Carbajal, Mr Lavagnino.
Can I get a motion to approve the minutes of the August
26,
2014 meeting?
Moved and seconded. All those in favor? Aye. Any opposed? Passes unanimously
0:03 – 0:1217 turns
We will move on to our public comment period. Mr. Allen, do we have any speakers?
We have one request to speak, Mr. Gene Zannon.
Good morning. Chairman Lavagnino, members of the board. My name is Gene Zanin. I'm here representing Quiama Valley Conservancy as well as myself as a Quiama Valley landowner of 30 years and business owner of 25 years. I am speaking to the issue that will come before you next week which is the water study And some things I wanted to at least suggest in terms of some complications relative to that study and things that have happened subsequently both on the state and the regional level.
The complications are cross jurisdictions, that as you know, the area encompasses four counties. Also you have the Forest Service as well as USDA and all the accompanying agencies 661 zoning, which has become a real problem in terms of what can be done relative to the land out there. That it basically restricts land to 100-acre parcels, which makes it very, very difficult for people to break up land and subsequently what happens is the land becomes in play basically to the industrial ag interests because of the size of the projects Also, we're dealing with absentee landlords and absentee landowners which quite frankly have not shown a great deal of cooperation in the project. In the study as you know they took their wells out of the study.
They also have not been particularly supportive of the community. There's also a complication in terms of Measure P. We're told that you could lose as many as 40 jobs in that community, which as you are probably aware is a low income area which is in need of revitalization. You also have the complications presented by the new state legislation AB 1739 and SB 1168 We'll be posting this information, it isn't up and running but should be in operation by the end of the week. The county involvement I think needs to look at a couple things creating this as a high priority basin The state legislation indicates there are different categories. There's a critical designation which basically allows the counties to five years in which to put some sort of legislation in place, otherwise there's like a 20-year timeline in which counties can do that if they don't choose to do it themselves.
The state will mandate it be done. Um, we think that you need to update the well data of the study. The latest information was in 2010 and significant things have happened since then. I'm going to be going over, I apologize. Can I get another minute or so?
I'll give you 30 more seconds.
30 more seconds, okay. I think that inventory of new industrial wells, new industrial and accountability for reservoirs, new owners etc., it basically comes down to getting together the interested parties and whether it's going to be a resolution or war is yet to be seen. There are some good things happening in the valley Family Resource Center, RICS and the Recreation Center have been revitalized. Community, Quiamaville Community Association has been established. The Buckhorn is about to be reopened. There's been a consolidation of community property so the gas station is open again. First solar project will be Coming online hopefully Spring of 2015 and the airport. Hopefully is going to be reopened Quiama Valley is worth saving I hope all of you can come out and visit so you can see for yourself Thank you very much.
Thank you very much. Mr. Zen,
and we have a request speak from dr. Robert Jones
Thank you board members. Now I do recall that Hitler proposed a Nazi Youth Corps back in the day and those youth came on the train from the Pacific Ocean up here to Long Polk, to the Long Polk Camp Cook we all know that that's historic Now, Carvajal you have an opportunity to redeem yourself. You cheat on your wife, you cheat on your taxes.
Dr. Johns? Yes. We're not going to- This is my,
this is your time now?
There's not going to be any time for you if you're going to go with personal attacks and those types of things so let's direct this to the board and keep it within the lines What we expect here at the Board of Supervisors,
please. Okay so I've got to at least-
I'm going to go ahead and give you two minutes and 45 seconds. That's where we stopped you. So I don't want to have to keep interrupting but if you're going Continue down that road. So mr. Gazzone if you could help us with this as well, please
Sure, let me know yes I think what you're referring to is that any public speaker may criticize board actions board policies? But at the point where their public speech becomes disturbing then the board has the ability to restrict that Further and I think that's what you're saying here. Yes
Okay, you become a bit sensitive in your old age haven't you well anyway two minutes and 45 seconds. Okay. Well so So you have a chance to redeem yourself? And I'm proposing that we have a an Internship program now, you're gonna say what we already had that we don't already have that where are they? I want internships there their lawyers CEOs planning Mr. Geis, interns, people who learn Santa Barbara City College.
UCSB, when these kids get out of school they have no place to go, Carbajal. You could implement that program. This would be a redeeming value for you and all what you have done to this county. Now these internship persons, young people, some gang members, I know you've had some gang members but they should be visible when the attorney here walks from here to here The internship should walk, the intern person should walk with him.
When Mr. Geis comes here, the internship to come here, the intern person should come here with Mr. Geis. You see the reason why these programs are not implemented is that these people have to work. Because these students are going to be not only giving them new ideas, new thoughts they're gonna be questioning and that's good for the county but why do we always have stayed old thoughts old ideas coming from the county?
The reason is you don't have injection of youth in this county So I'm proposing that you get busy on an internship program Carvajal so that you can redeem Yourself, so you can bring yourself back around into the community. You see this this 15-year Miramar You see you're gonna have to produce out of the people of Montecito are gonna shift you out of here Okay, that's all I want to say. Thank you
Thank you Supervisor Carbone. Thank you Mr. Chair, you know I don't mind when any citizen like Mr. Johns comes and says speaks his mind but when I think he crosses the line and fabricates and I think provides defamatory comment I urge you as our chair to censure him and within the spirit of the law working with our County Council that we limit his comment on
Very good. All right, Mr. Allen, that closes our public comment period? Okay. Do we have any changes to the administrative agenda?
0:12 – 0:1612 turns
Chairman and members of the board, I have one change that would be item A4. This comes to the board from Supervisor Adam. It's a resolution proclaiming September 2014 as Childhood Cancer Awareness Month and we're going to continue that item until our meeting next week in Santa Maria on September 9th. That's my only change.
Do we need a vote on that too?
We can include that in the in the motion to adopt the resolutions
all right, and then I think we had one from last week that We're gonna take care of now. So
yeah, we had a resolution last week And I believe supervisor far has that and she's going to introduce it
okay? so let's first will do can we get a motion to approve items a 1 through a 6 with the exception of 4 can tip with the continuance of for
some
moved and seconded all those in favor Aye. Any opposed? Passes unanimously. Supervisor Farr.
Thank you, Mr. Chair. Well last week we voted on a resolution in honor of Debbie Lux and she wasn't able to be here but she's able to be here today so we're going to start our resolutions this morning with the presentation to her and I think our fire chief Mike Dyer is going to come up with her if they want to come down to the podium. Debbie is a firefighter paramedic here in our county and as we know, our first responders have excellent training. But of course you never really know how they're going to respond until they're actually in an emergency situation. And today we're honoring Debbie for her actions in a large scale emergency that also had a high level of personal risk for herself.
And yet she performed admirably and saved somebody's life. So this is a resolution recognizing her for lifesaving actions under pressure, and Mr. Allen is going to read the resolution so we know what she did.
Chairman Labnino, members of the board. This is a resolution recognizing firefighter paramedic Debbie Lux for her life-saving actions under pressure. Whereas on May 23rd 2014, Firefighter Lux was sent as a team member on the joint fire sheriff SWAT medic program to assess or rescue possible victims of a shooting and whereas immediately after assessing several of the victims of the tragic event, Firefighter Lux was notified of an officer down at the Sheriff's foot patrol office And whereas, Firefighter Lux upon hearing this responded immediately to find a Santa Barbara police officer not breathing and with no pulse.
And whereas, Firefighter Lux having only moments previously dealt with the disturbing situation had the skill and presence of mind used available life saving equipment to revive the officer and put him on the path to complete recovery. Now therefore it be hereby ordered and resolved that this Board of Supervisors of Santa Barbara County does hereby recognize the outstanding skill and calmness under pressure of firefighter paramedic Debbie Lux. This was passed and adopted by the board last week, and we're presenting it today.
Good morning Chairman Labanino, members of the board. On behalf of the men and women of Santa Barbara County Fire Department and also a number of Debbie's family and friends that are here I'd like to express our appreciation for this resolution. Debbie has been a member of the department for ten years and she's performed in amazing fashion and this is just one example.
And I'd say that we save lives You know, probably on a day in and day out basis. This one was particularly significant because it was another member of public safety and also during this large incident that was very trying on all of us. So with that I just wanted to say thank you this morning for the recognition on behalf of the department and Debbie's family.
All right, congratulations. And I don't think it can get better than that so we should just adjourn but we will move on. We'll go to item A1, Supervisor Carbaugh?
0:17 – 0:225 turns
Thank you Mr. Chair, that is a tough act to follow. Could I have Beverly Schwartzberg come forward and somebody else who I don' t know. This
is Volunteer Tutor Anne Wall Frank from the library
Welcome man. It is a real pleasure for me today to present this resolution which marks the 2014 30th anniversary of the California Library Literacy Services and I think we all know how important being literate and becoming literate is, and there are still many folks who struggle to become literate and our libraries play such of a crucial role in making sure that we provide Ample services to try to outreach to as many people as possible, to make sure that we develop those skills within everyone so that they could live productive lives in our communities and our society. So it is a real pleasure for me to present this resolution.
The clerk is going to read it but if you could pay attention to the few whereases there are really cool quotes from various very cool people. Mr. Allen?
Chairman Lavinino, members of the board. This is a resolution proclaiming September 2014 as Adult Literacy Month in Santa Barbara County. Whereas to learn to read is to light a fire, that's by Victor Hugo and whereas there is no friend as loyal as a book, Ernest Hemingway. Literacy is a bridge from misery to hope, Kofi Annan. Books are uniquely portable magic, Stephen King.
Once you learn to read, you'll be forever free, Frederick Douglass. And there is more treasure in books than all the pirates loot on Treasure Island, Walt Disney. And whereas in 2014 marks the 30th anniversary of the California Library Literacy Services as part of this effort, the Santa Barbara Public Library System offers free one-on-one tutoring for adults living and working in a library district.
And whereas 18% of adults in Santa Barbara County lack basic prose literacy skills, which impacts their ability to achieve financial independence and their ability to fully communicate with their families, friends and the greater community. Now therefore it be hereby ordered and resolved that the Board of Supervisors proclaim September 2014 as Adult Literacy Month in Santa Barbara County and encourages all residents to raise awareness about the essential role of literacy and the resources available for those who need assistance. Passed and adopted today.
Thank you, Supervisor Carbajal and thank you for the entire Board of Supervisors. This is the 30th anniversary year for California Library Literacy Services and many people think of libraries as places for those who are already literate but in California we're so fortunate to have a state library that supports literacy services and makes all California libraries welcoming for those who need help developing their reading and writing skills. Our programs are distinguished as being volunteer-based. All of our instruction is provided by trained volunteers There are thousands of those volunteers throughout the state of California. And in the county of Santa Barbara, I would actually like to praise we have a number of county employees who volunteer their time and give of their skills and of their heart to help other fellow citizens learn how to read and write and improve their skills.
We're distinguished also by being focused on what learners come to us And want to learn whether that is building their job skills, learning how to read a book. But sometimes things that are very important such as being able to help their children with homework and being able to read books to their young children. And we see a lot of parents coming in because it's when their children are getting ready to start school that they see the importance of building their own reading and writing skills when they haven't had the opportunity to do that. My favorite goal of a learner this year is writing love letters to his spouse as well so All of those things are worthwhile goals. We help people with what they want to learn every year we have about 200 volunteer tutors who work with our program providing about 8,000 volunteer hours working with individuals helping them read and write.
We always have at any snapshot between 150 and 200 active tutor learner pairs in the libraries of the Santa Barbara Public Library System. You guys are one of many counties throughout the state of California and all the municipalities in our library district will be declaring September as Adult Literacy Awareness Month, in celebration of that 30th anniversary. And I just want to show for the camera also this lovely poster about low literacy and refer you to our website which is libraryliteracy.org or calreads.org Telling the story, you'll see this film about veteran Steve Tafoya telling his story of what it was like to be a low literacy adult and always be ashamed and fearful that he would be discovered in coming to the library and getting the help he needs.
It's really through the efforts of our volunteer tutors and through the word-of-mouth that many of you have spread throughout the community that our adult learners strive for and achieve their goals so thank you so much for acknowledging this program today.
0:22 – 0:286 turns
All right, well we will move on to a two which is also Supervisor Carbajal.
Thank you Mr. Chair. Could Sharon Byrne come forward? Sharon is the chair of the county advisory board on drug and alcohol problems and the first district representative on that board. It is a real pleasure for me to present this resolution proclaiming September 2014 as National Recovery Month in Santa Barbara County. And I think we know that the challenges that are associated with recovery And we're lucky that we have a good support system here in Santa Barbara County, including our drug and alcohol division in the public health department. That implements grants and programs with our various non-profits in the community to create that safety net and that supportive not only prevention and intervention but The safety net to help those individuals seeking recovery so they can stay in recovery.
And I think we have a lot of wonderful non-profit staff as well as county staff that contribute towards that effort. So, also it's important to recognize that sometimes with some of the folks in recovery, we also see certain conditions of mental illness. And that's, we see that usually within the homeless community that we're trying to help. Obviously not everybody in recovery has mental issues but it's important to understand that sometimes there is an association between those two. So Mr. Allen if you could read the resolution?
Chairman Labinino, members of the board this is item 2. It's a resolution proclaiming September 2014 as National Recovery Month in Santa Barbara County. Whereas the Santa Barbara County Mental Health, Alcohol and Drug Prevention Intervention Treatment and Recovery Continuum of Care Providers promote the message that behavioral health is essential to wellness. And that prevention and treatment is effective in increasing awareness to the substance use disorder recovery process.
And whereas the Journal of American Medical Association has seen a correlation between people who have severe mental health condition and who have a substance abuse problem. In the United States, more than 500,000 people die each year as a consequence of alcohol, drugs and tobacco use causing one in four deaths per year. And whereas this year's Recovery Month theme, Join the Voices of Recovery Speak Up Reach Out focuses on preventing and overcoming mental and substance abuse disorders in achieving healthy lifestyles both physically spiritually and emotionally. And whereas the County of Santa Barbara ADMHS Department supports recovery programs in all areas of the county to ensure everyone has an opportunity to achieve and sustain long-term recovery and healthy lifestyles.
And whereas we must encourage our relatives and friends of people with mental and or substance abuse disorders to implement preventive measures, recognize the signs of the problem and guide those in need to appropriate treatment and recovery support services. Now therefore it is hereby ordered and resolved that the Board of Supervisors proclaim September 2014 as National Recovery Month in Santa Barbara County and encourages all residents to support men, women, youth and their families who are in drug and alcohol addiction treatment and mental health recovery programs throughout the community.
Today.
Chair Calderon. Thank you so much for honoring and recognizing that September is National Recovery Month this has been going on for 25 years I don't know if you knew that and it has evolved from initially recognizing the work of treatment professionals in the field it expanded to honoring people who are recovering from substance abuse disorders and now has fully expanded to honoring everyone involved in any kind of recovery in behavioral health. Supervisor Carbajal, your comments were especially salient given we are undergoing a large systems change process which I know this board is very familiar with In alcohol, drug and mental health. And there has been consistent acknowledgement that what needs to happen is mental health and alcohol and drug need to no longer operate as silos but work together to help folks that have both mental health and substance issue problems.
We also want to thank you for supporting certain moves that we've made on the alcohol drug side of the house. To strengthen the ability to provide services in this county, one of those has been to institute the process of evaluating our service providers. To make sure that the results that we think we're getting are the results we really are getting and I know it's very important to you to see that the money is spent and that is used to most effective benefit. We also have instituted a process of asking for requests for proposal, so that we can see the services that will be provided up front. We hope these make operations much more transparent on the alcohol drug side of the house. There are people here today that also need a thank you for their continued support.
One is Dr. Wada who has had to helm Alcohol Drug and Mental Health during a very difficult time and has done a terrific job. Sheriff Bill Brown with the Sheriff's Treatment Program is also a very strong supporter of those in recovery. And I think poor Sheriff Brown has had to deal an awful lot with those kinds of issues, especially in this past year. Our service provider Council on Alcoholism and Drug Abuse is also here today.
And I had to drive past Project Recovery to come here and see you this morning, and it's one of the very keystone providers in our community. And of course we want to thank the staff at the Alcohol Drug Program. We're going to present a resolution to you shortly to change our name from alcohol and drug programs to alcohol and other drug programs because we feel that alcohol also is a drug. And I would be remiss if I did not nudge Supervisor Lavagnino to find us a great representative like Rick Bindle who is sorely missed on this team.
Yeah, they stole him from Texas when my commissioner left and moved out of the state so I am looking. I'm on the lookout.
Thank you and thank you so much for honoring us with this resolution and for supporting National Recovery Month and for understanding that recovery can and does happen. Thank you.
0:28 – 0:355 turns
All right, we're moving on to A3. A3 is Supervisor Wolff.
Thank you Mr. Chair. I'd like to ask Gina Carvalho from the Glendon Association and Anthony Rodriguez from Santa Barbara Response Network to come forward and accept this resolution. This resolution is to proclaim September 2014 as Suicide Awareness Month in Santa Barbara County And I just, I want to thank the Glendon Association for the work on suicide awareness, suicide prevention and the programs that I know that Glendon has instigated in our schools. So I want to express appreciation for that and of course your combined work with Santa Barbara Response Network. And I know that was formed in response A rash of suicides among young people a few years ago.
And I've mentioned at this dais the response network's work with some of our, some of the folks in the neighborhoods that were affected by some of the recent killings. And I think the work with Glendon, the Santa Barbara Response Network and of course our mental health department has been superb under the most difficult situations. This resolution though is to highlight the prevention, the prevention of suicide and I'm sure you will speak to what we can do as a community, as a society, as person to help prevent something that is so tragic.
I want to thank you both for being here.
Mr. Allen. Chairman Labnido, members of the board. This is a resolution proclaiming September 2014 as Suicide Awareness Month in Santa Barbara County whereas September is National and International Suicide Prevention Awareness Month. Suicide is a public health problem and suicide prevention is a community responsibility. And whereas, worldwide there are more deaths by suicide than by homicide and war combined. And in the United States one person dies by suicide every 13 minutes with over 39,000 deaths by suicide in our country.
And whereas, in the United States suicide is the third leading cause of death for 15 to 24 year olds and it's the 10th leading cause of death for people of all ages. And whereas in Santa Barbara County suicide was reported as the fifth leading cause of premature death according to the Santa Barbara County Public Health Department statistics. And whereas each person's death by suicide intimately affects at least six other people with over 200,000 people newly bereaved each year.
And whereas a great many suicides are preventable and can be reduced through awareness, education and treatment. Now therefore it is hereby resolved that this Board of Supervisors recognizes September 2014 as Suicide Awareness Month in the County of Santa Barbara passed and adopted today.
Thank you very much for this proclamation. I want to extend a thank you to all of the Board of Supervisors, Chair Lavallino, Salud Carbajal, Doreen Farr. And Janet Wolf, of course and Peter Adam. But everybody on this Board of Supervisors has been both supportive, incredibly responsive and caring. And that's in light of what's happened recently in our community.
And as Supervisor Wolf mentioned, the Santa Barbara Response Network including Anthony Rodriguez, myself and a cadre of volunteers have been unfortunately very busy and responding to the incidents in our community. But I also want to talk about the fact that suicide being a public health issue in our country and around the world. That it is something that we can all help to prevent, and one of the things that we can do is know the signs. And I brought pins and information in English and Spanish which we plan to distribute throughout the county. That if everybody does know the signs and does know where they can call, and does know where they can reach out that we can make a difference. We are a community that has a lot of resources. We have opportunities for people to get help but often they're not educated as to where to go so we're part of the Know The Signs campaign which is a state campaign And I'm very pleased to be able to let people know that you can become more informed and can make a difference.
We also are going to be having a vigil, which Anthony Rodriguez will speak more about, that we hope everybody will come and join us on September 10th. Is that right, Anthony? And he can say more about it and how you can learn more about how to get involved in Santa Barbara. And then also, we're going to have a walk every year. We have a suicide awareness walk this year will be in November but it's November 1st at Leadbetter Beach. Let's all walk together and become informed as a community.
And I'll let Anthony say a few words and I want to thank you again for this proclamation and for your support.
Sorry, I had to bring it down. I'm a little short. But in recognition of World Suicide Prevention Day, the Safeguarding Children Committee and the Santa Barbara Response Network along with the Glennon Association will be having the suicide awareness vigil. And this will be Wednesday September 10th from 7 p.m. to 8 p. m. at Our Lady of Guadalupe Church. In 2009 is when we had the rash of suicides and it hit the east side very very hard And so we felt that it was very important to go ahead and bring awareness, not to just the location but to everywhere involved or anyone involved.
We want to remember those who have passed away or died by suicide and support the survivors and to increase the sensitivity of when it's being spoken about and also its prevention which is very important. And we need to bring suicide out of the darkness. So, we invite you to the vigil September 10th at 7 p.m., at Orlando Guadalupe. And again, thank you very much for recognizing Suicide Awareness.
0:35 – 0:404 turns
Thank you.
All right. We're going to move on to A5. And that is a resolution honoring our employees of the month. And I think we've broken a record this month with, I think we have a dozen or so employees in the month all are either members of the treasurer tax collectors office or the auditor controllers office and they are on the property tax system implementation team.
Now, I have a love hate relationship with this department because As a county supervisor, we all know property tax is the lifeblood of what we do here. And nobody's department would exist without property tax. And as a taxpayer, it's very difficult to write that check to Harry Hagen twice a year. But we really appreciate, as a board, the work that this department has done, this team has done and really worked with an antiquated system And hats off to Harry and his team, and Bob and your team for moving us into the next century. And getting us a system that's going to be reliable and dependable, and exactly what the taxpayers should be getting. So Mr. Allen if you could please read the proclamation please? Let's invite them all up I'm sorry let me read the names here we have from the auditor's office Danny Forner, Amy Herron, Andrea Labby, Stuart McGee, Ward Kwan, Mark Shadler, Kim Bally, Xiao Li Chang King.
And from the Treasurer Tax Collector's Office we have Dan Chandler, Leanne Haggerty, Matthew Phillips and Cheryl Smith. If Bob and Harry would like to come up as well that'd be great. Mr. Allen?
Chairman Labnino, members of the board. This is a resolution of commendation for Danny Forner, Amy Herron, Andrea Labby, Stuart McGee, Ward Kwan, Mark Shedler, Kim Valeli, Xiaoli Zhang King, Dan Chandler, Leanne Haggerty, Matthew Phillips and Cheryl Smith They represent the property tax implementation team and have been selected to share in the September and October 2014 Employees of the Month honors for their dedication and excellence in performance of their duties.
And whereas, property taxes are this largest source of discretionary revenues for the county and are significant revenues for many of the cities schools and special districts within the county. Whereas, this team over a multi-year period implemented a large scale integrated property tax system replacing A legacy mainframe used to build, collect and distribute property taxes. And whereas the varied project tasks included project management data conversion, configuration system interfaces, vendor coordination, server infrastructure, report development, business process documentation, training and user support. And whereas these individuals demonstrated consistent commitment, enthusiasm and professionalism on the project which was essential to its success.
Now therefore be it hereby ordered and resolved that this Board of Supervisors recognizes the Property Tax Implementation Team as the September and October 2014 Employees of the Month for exceptional contributions in outstanding service to the County of Santa Barbara pass and adopted today.
Chairman Laminino, members of the board. You don't know how hard this was I pulled out an agenda dated August 17th 2010 which is when we started this project Some of the people invited to that meeting were Bernice James Jim McClure Rick Colley Brian Richards they're all retired but this team stayed with us and It was while you guys were taking four weeks off, they worked every single weekend. And so bringing that system up was a tough adventure. We're only the second county that did it. We also survived that company being Manitron being brought out by Thomson Reuters. So our contract survived the change. Brian Fiebert did a great job on the contract. County Council helped us write a good contract at the beginning to deliver this system.
You know, it takes a team to put something in this big. And you know, with Almentum we also hired Simpler Systems to do some great data conversion and report writing for us. The assessor lent their staff. We had mainframe programmers that have been here for a long time. They're both retired but they stayed with us, Mark Holland and Molly Gleason. And then I want to just thank Amy Herron. She kind of led the everyday implementation She managed the vendor, the team managed the vendor.
And then all our support staff and management did a great job. So just it's a tough system. We have a year to go though. You will really be successful if I can stand up here next year and say hey we made it through the first cycle so we have some stuff to do still thanks.
0:40 – 0:4310 turns
You know I just want to say how How proud I am of this team here, how ethical and technically advanced and determined to be successful they were. And you know Bob's right he when he said only one other county has been successful every county in this state is struggling with this issue of legacy systems and the mitigating the risk of staying on the mainframe and they did it just fantastic thank
It's all yours.
I just want to say thank you for this award on behalf of my team, we really appreciate the recognition.
Great great All right. Yeah, yeah. You might want to travel around with us during our four weeks
off. Listen guys you meant when we were on recess right? When we were still having all those meetings.
Okay. Yeah okay so... Alright so we are moving on to the balance of our A agenda Mr. Allen, is there any other are there any other changes? What's that? No.
Chairman I need a members of the board yes item I just want to note the item 828 is from the county executive office This had to do with recommendations running amendments to chapter 12 of the center of our county code and that item Is going to be withdrawn from the agenda today and they're gonna redocket that at a later date
That was a 28 yeah, okay All right, is there are there any requests to speak from the public on the agenda?
I have two requests to speak on items a 2 and a 14 from dr. Johns
Okay, and how about colleagues supervisor Adam? 10 and 11 supervisor wolf Supervisor far Okay, and I have 17 So let's start with the public place 8 2 & 14. Oh
0:43 – 0:475 turns
Chairman Lavino, members of the board. Item A2 has already been read into the record. Item A14 is some community services requests that the board consider recommendations regarding a Community Development Block Grant. These are subsipient agreements to implement projects and programs approved by the board on May 6th 2014. This is Dr. Johns And he has two items so he'll have five minutes to talk on both those items
Well, I guess I should apologize to Mr. Geis here because one of his cohorts said that they saved millions of dollars doing this new tax program that they were in and they didn't have to do the old system. They updated a whole new, well that's a relief, a whole new tax system. That was a quick two-minute learning factor that I had from the accountant person, one of Mr. Geis' accountant person. That's very interesting. They saved a lot of money here. He said San Diego at $40 million but Santa Barbara County only took $2 million to run that program so...
I don't believe it. But anyway, that's very true. Now, the alcohol and drug Now I have some comments I have to make because you're applauding yourself too much. Now, I happen to have number one influence Number one, knowledge that people are. I volunteered until I became a little bit ill in the kitchen at Esperanza and people are running around looking for programs, looking for beds, looking for places to get services and why is that?
Why is that? There are no beds here, there are no beds for anybody. And every time they call some place they can't get into a program Now somebody's got to look into that and find out what the heck is going on. As I say, I'm talking from number one firsthand knowledge. On this thing about suicide also that's what creates suicide it's people who can't find programs, who can't find beds, who can't find out what's going on in this county.
Every time their referral to something They get on a waiting list. They're on a waiting list, and these are homeless people. These are people who need services. So that's what creates the suicide here. That's what creates the people running into trains, running into cars. And I know, I'm just wondering What could be done about that? I mean, you are the people.
You are the people who are supposed to create the beds, to create the programs and you can't just take clapping and wonderful applause and say that everything's okay, everything isn't okay. And all you got to do is pick up the phone over at Cass Esperanza and there's somebody screaming, I gotta get a place to go to I got to have a place to go to. And there isn't anyplace and thank you.
All right supervisor we're going to need some folks back here. Because we have supervisor Adam needs 10 and 11 and minus 17 but I think mine's going to need. I just wanted a roll call on 17 for me.
Move to approve item a 17.
We have it you can't you have to have three votes. OK we're back all right let's read 10 and 11.
0:47 – 0:5215 turns
Chairman Lavinino, members of the board. Item A-10 is from Community Services. The request is that the Board consider recommendations regarding the Lake Kachuma Marina Cafe project and the award of the construction contract. Item A-11 is also from Community Services and the request is that the Board consider recommendations regarding the scope of work for the Homeless Management Information System grants.
Surprise and well, I just wanted to say that there was no information in this in this board letter and I got the Square footage on the project which is 1620 and that's four hundred and sixty two dollars a square foot. It's pretty expensive Construction and I'm just wondering Is there anything else? Aside from the building that is being built there. Are we paving a parking lot too or what else is going on out there?
Mr. Chairman, Supervisor Adams. So actually the construction contract is about $479,000. The total cost is what you're looking at so that makes it a little under $300 per square foot. The information on the square footage is on page two of the board letter under background in the second paragraph, the paragraph that begins a Lake Kachuma Marine Project. It is both the demolition of the snack shack and the construction...
Demolition of the snack shack bathroom storage room and shed so there's demo and then there's the new construction for this marina cafe and all that together is the total cost of this.
Okay, yeah I'm just. Was that all in there? Was the demo in there too? Yes.
If you go to page 2, the second paragraph under background. The Lake Kachuma Marina Cafe project involves a demolition of the existing 663 foot snack shack.
Okay. Well, I guess I didn't get it broken out for me so I couldn't understand it.
So we can be more specific next time.
Okay. Good deal. Thank you. Yeah. I just wondered, I know it's going to be really expensive construction out there because it's out in the middle of nowhere but uh, I just thought when I saw that 462 should throw a flag. Thanks.
Okay, and then a 11 is also supervisor Adam okay
I See that we have on exhibits or attachments A&B we have Administrative portions of these these Grants and I'm wondering if they cover the actual administration of them
Mr. Chairman, Supervisor Adam, no. The continuum of care allowance for administration which is I think less than 7% doesn't even come close to paying for the administration. Your board approved one new position this last budget cycle to help administer continuum of care and in previous budget cycles you had already approved another so you have two positions funded by the general fund that support this because these monies alone would not.
Okay, so we have a fiscal analysis box here that's incomplete then?
So Mr. Chairman, Supervisor Adam, what we don't go into in the fiscal analysis is the total cost of everything associated with each of these programs instead we were looking at this $169,000 allocation and how it was supported so you're correct in that we didn't say and there's two general fund positions that help support all the continuum of care programs including HMIS
Okay, well I think we should know what we're doing. And I'm not saying it's a bad idea. I'm just saying that we should be able to specifically identify what it's going to cost to do any one of these projects. So every one of these projects that comes before us, I think we should have a complete picture of and if you leave two people off, I think it's an incomplete picture.
So thank you. All right very good.
We'll move to I just I just want to pull item a 17 for a if you can read that strong.
0:52 – 1:089 turns
Item A17 is from the county executive office. The request of the board consider recommendation regarding the children's health initiative for fiscal year 2014 2015. OK.
Move
to
approve
Mr.
Chair. Moved and seconded. Let's take a roll call please.
Aye. Ms. Wolf? I miss for Mister Adam. No, Mr. Carbajal Mr.. Levin you know no the motion passes three to two with supervisors Adam and And let me know voting no
okay Can I get a motion to approve the balance of the administrative agenda? Seconded all those in favor aye Opposed and we will take a 10-minute break and take up our departmental agenda
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1:08 – 1:2429 turns
. . All right, I'd like to reconvene this meeting of the Board of Supervisors. Move on to departmental agenda item number one, Mr. Allen?
Members of the board, item number one is from the Fire Department. It's a hearing to consider recommendations regarding the 2014 Hazard Reduction Program and we have a request from the department to withdraw that from the agenda at this time.
Supervisor Wolf?
I'll make a motion that we withdraw this item.
Moved and seconded all those in favor? Aye. Opposed? Passes unanimously okay that was quick
move on to item number two
Item number two is from the County Executive Office. It's a hearing to consider recommendations regarding the lifting of the county-wide hiring freeze. All right,
Jerry?
Chair and members of the board, before you today is an item that is requesting that the freeze that was implemented in December 2010 be lifted. In December 2010, the Board implemented a county-wide hiring freeze that required human resources to work closely with departments to examine whether or not positions should be filled, and that was in response to a significant projected budget shortfall in 2011 and 2012. Since that time the economy has improved and departments have had additional positions approved by the board during the budget hearings this year, and the hiring freeze process Really slows down their ability to recruit and fill those positions. So we are requesting that the board lift the hiring freeze. All
right, any questions from the board? Not seeing any, can I get a motion to approve? Is there any public comment
Mr. O'Neill? No, no. Request from Dr. Jones just received.
Supervisor Adam, maybe while dr. Jones is making his way up I'm just gonna make the observation that controlling staffing costs by ensuring any vacancies filled were critical to the organization and Had sufficient and stable funding sources don't don't we do that anyway? I mean seems like something we ought to be doing
Supervisor Adam through the chair. Yes, we we still will review the requisitions and the budget shop does confirm that that the positions are funded and that they're only filling those positions that they have funding for okay.
Thank you.
And thank you board members for allowing me to speak Now this I have inside information that there's going to be many many positions open here in this county retirement, there's gonna be people retiring and You don't have a good record a good service record of hiring people of color Have you ever hired any Chumash? Yeah, I guess so. Have you hired any black people? Yeah there's a smattering of people.
Have you hired any Mexican Americans? Yeah Carvajal there's a smattering of people but you look around this room when I take a quick look around there's just a smattering and when I first came for this board in 05-06 It was a disaster, because that's when I was discriminated. And I looked around there and all I saw was you, Carvajal, and that's the way you... Wait a minute. That's the way it was now.
So I'm looking forward to hiring many new people of color what they call minority people into this new county government. I know, I know, I know. You're going to be very careful and as one person told me, well they got to get to know somebody first. That's racist and that's discrimination. They gotta get to know the person first. How many years does it take you to get to know them?
So I'm going to be expecting with this releasing of the hiring freeze that you're going to be hiring many, many minority people. As you look up at the clock wanting me to get through through this now, I, uh, well, I got a one minute here, so I'm gonna spend it on an 0 5 0 6 I didn't realize how racist this county really was and still is. I was decimated when I went for a position as a psychologist, I was slandered, I And I'm going to tell you something. By the way, before I finish this, I want to commend Dudley, our district attorney.
She has hired a black district attorney in Santa Maria and she has hired Mexican-American district attorneys in Santa Barbara County. That's wonderful. Thank you, Dudley. Thank you. Mr.
Allen?
No further requests.
No further requests to speak. Do we have a motion to approve? Moved and seconded, all those in favor? Aye. None opposed? Thank you very much, Jerry.
Move on to item number three.
Chairman Labnino, members of the board, item three comes to the board from Supervisor Farr and the district attorney. It's a hearing to consider recommendations regarding the assisted outpatient treatment services. That would be Laura's law.
All right, Supervisor Farr.
Thank you, Mr. Chair. Well a few weeks ago after District Attorney Dudley and I decided to bring the subject of Laura's Law to the Board of Supervisors for discussion, I was contacted by a county resident who wanted to tell me about their situation. Without divulging any confidential information, the situation was this. They were the parent of an adult child who was living at home with them.
The adult child had a serious mental illness with co-occurring substance abuse issues and it cycled in and out of hospitalizations and incarcerations. When the adult child took their medication, they were a different person and could be a productive member of the community. But when they didn't, they ended up on the street. The parent couldn't bear to see their child living like that, so they let them come back home to live.
Even though having them live there caused disruption and sometimes danger to the parent and other family members. This was not the first time I had heard a very sad story like this. In fact, I've heard basically the same story from different people in our county on a regular basis since the first year I was elected and I'm sure some of my fellow supervisors have heard some of these same sad stories as well.
Parents or roommates or friends want to help their loved one get healthy and back on the right track but are constantly frustrated by the fact that they have no alternative way to try and intervene. These heartbreaking situations are going on all around us in this county, made worse by the lingering stigma some families still feel about reaching out for help for someone they care about that has a mental illness.
Even without hearing about these stories firsthand from our residents we know that our hospital emergency rooms are overflowing with people experiencing some form of mental crisis and our own sheriff has told us a number of times that our main jail is the single biggest mental health facility in Santa Barbara County. Laura's Law was named after Laura Wilcox, a 19-year-old college student in Nevada County who was helping out in the clinic over school vacation when she was shot by a man who was schizophrenic. In 2002 the California Legislature passed AB 1421 called Laura's Law which allows for assisted outpatient treatment or AOT for mentally ill individuals and Nevada County was the first to adopt it and implement it and since then a number of other counties have followed suit some just recently Our county staff and Mental Health Commission had looked at possibly implementing it twice, once in 2003 and again in 2010 but decided not to move forward with it at that time.
Despite the fact that we are constantly working to improve the care of the mentally ill in this county and are making substantial improvements to the delivery of those services, the terrible shooting rampage that took place in Isla Vista last May triggered a much wider debate both in our county and throughout the state and nation about treatment options for people with mental illness.
The very recent and terrible stabbing deaths of the Holzer family in Goleta has added an even greater sense of urgency to this discussion. As an outgrowth from a discussion at an IV-SAFE meeting some months ago, DA Dudley and I decided it was time to reexamine the possible implementation of Laura's Law here. So last summer our district attorney made a special trip to Nevada County to learn firsthand about how Laura's Law was working there.
She was joined by Michael Kraft of our ADMHS department who was kind enough to take some time away from his family vacation to meet her there and learn more about it too. Today we're going to hear about what they learned on that trip and other pertinent information from our ADMHS Department and County Council. Despite the fact that Laura's Law is designed to assist the mentally ill, it entails a complex process that must be followed and the actual implementation of it would not just affect ADMHS but also a number of other county departments and the courts as you will hear during the presentation.
I see today as just a first step in what could be a two-step process. I hope that by the end of this agenda item, my fellow supervisors, other county departments, the courts and the public will have a better understanding of Laura's Law. And then I hope that our board will give strong consideration to moving forward with what is envisioned as the second step which is to direct staff to do additional work to assess the feasibility of fully implementing Laura's Law here.
And now I'd like to turn over the next part of the presentation to our wonderful district attorney, Joyce Dudley.
Thank you, Supervisor Farr, Chair Lavanino, fellow supervisors. When I became district attorney we decided we would expand our mission to include protecting the innocent and preventing crime. After the mass murder in May, I became convinced that in order to do so, we must expand our ability to address the needs of those suffering from mental illness. My quest took me to seek more information on the implementation of Laura's Law in the founding county, as Supervisor Sarfar said, Nevada County California.
Early this summer I went there with DA Chief Investigator Dave Saunders and ADHMS Deputy Director of Clinical Operations Michael Kraft. What was most important to me at the outset was what criteria needed to be met for the program and then what kind of results Did Nevada County really see? So we prepared these slides. First of all, the criteria. I love when my New York accent comes through, criteria. Apparently there's an ER after that A.
Anyway you have to have all nine criteria must be met so it's not okay to have eight out of nine, all nine must be met. You must be a county resident with a minimum of age 18. You must have a serious mental disorder. It may also include coexisting disorders, but it must be a serious mental disorder. The person is unlikely to survive safely in the community.
There must be a lack of compliance with treatment as indicated by one or two, one or two of these. That is twice in 36 months you must have been in the hospital, Has to be serious and violent acts, threats, attempts to sell for others. And the element of dangerousness is a lower threshold than for 5150 and 5350. 5150 eminent danger, 5350 we normally think about conservatories and not gravely disabled, and yes.
Supervisor. DA Dudley would you prefer that we ask you questions at the end or
Anytime I have 4 children, they interrupt me constantly.
Just consider me one of them. That's good training for this. Can we go back? Good preparation being given. The first slide. You know, I think one of the most challenging things to understand by all of Laura's law is this criteria.
Yes.
It all comes down to the criteria So for me, a lot of the questions I have are really laser focused on that. So when we say persons is unlikely to survive safety in the community, how broad is that? Because there are many... In my limited understanding of Laura's law what really stuck out to me were violent history and of danger to themselves or others. But when we talk about likely to survive, there are many folks who have not accepted our treatment and end up being homeless but can survive on some level.
So for me it's really important to understand what does that mean? Survive safely in the community.
I can give you my general thoughts and then your county council will also give you his thoughts about that. 5150 is very clear, that's likely to self or others we already explained that one so in my mind it's slightly less than that if somebody was 5150 they would be hospitalized for 72 hours in order to make a determination about whether they could survive or they would harm someone else.
So in my mind this is a standard slightly less than that but still significant
1:24 – 1:3941 turns
Okay. And the only reason I hone in on that is because there's, uh, I think, um, where I think there's also some division in our community and amongst the mental health community itself is making sure that the criteria is as clear as possible because of the concern of people feeling that they easily get put into this forced treatment And so there's always that give and take of how easy is it to track someone into that first treatment or not. So anyways, those are the things that for me are really important as we consider this entire issue because I think this, as I gathered, this is a really great tool and Cognizant of the concerns that some of the members have, so we could come up with a balance.
Sure and I can also tell you that it's not easy. This criteria is rather rigorous and it's going to be very difficult to get into this program and it's going to be the most serious of the most serious unless your 5150 which is automatic hospitalization But again, my colleague Michael Gazzone will tell you more about that. But you're absolutely right Supervisor because we hear the word safe means one thing to one set of parents and one thing to another set of parents so why shouldn't it be different county wide in the assessment? But we'll be depending on County Council and our mental health people to help us with that as well. And there'll be some legal definitions.
Okay, so I went through this slide. Was there anything here Supervisor Carpall? Anything he wanted to ask about?
The gist of it.
Okay To continuing with the nine things a person has been offered an opportunity to participate in treatment and failed to engage or refused So this is someone who was already referred to treatment, and they refused that treatment The condition is deteriorating they're getting worse
supervisor Adam,
and
I
just want to clarify This is a judge making these determinations
No, this is not a judge. It doesn't get to the judge. The criteria's first decided through mental health and county council. And ultimately it'll be the judge who will decide what kind of treatment should be mandated but the judge doesn't look at the criteria. The criteria is something that's made beforehand. The judge can say I find the criteria wasn't met but he's not the first or she's not the first person to look at it.
Okay, so the judge is going to review the application of the criteria.
I would expect a judge would do that if someone said I shouldn't even be on this list your honor then please take a look at the criteria the judge would have the opportunity to do that as well.
Let's go to Mike just for clarification Mr.
Gazzani? Chair Lavagnino and supervisors, so we actually have our work group has met several times in setting up this presentation and District Attorney Dudley is going on the overview of the criteria within the package We also have a visual flowchart describing how Nevada County thinks of their process including where these steps occur And one of the probably the easiest answer to supervisor Adams question is that there is a filter of that Nevada County has used and which seems to work well, which is the mental health department sends in a package to county council who vets each of the nine criteria.
And then county council finding that each of the nine criteria is met files a petition with the court and the burden there is to present the court with this clear and convincing evidence on all nine criteria So there is a safety factor that the court does apply this on all nine criteria. And the public defenders had a very active role in Nevada County representing a potential patient to help ensure that all nine criteria are met.
Okay, Supervisor
Wolf?
Thank you, Mr. Chair. So when we get to that visual chart it would be helpful to know with the diamonds and the circles who are the folks that are responsible for instance meeting the AOT criteria?
Thank you. Deputy Director Kraft will handle that part of the presentation. Next we have that is necessary to prevent someone from getting that status, that condition at 5150 and that they will benefit from treatment Now, this is the part that made it very exciting for those of us that were up in Nevada County. For the 19 unduplicated individuals for the most recent 12-month period and I think it's important for everyone to see, that's not a lot of people but let's look at what happened during their 12 month pretreatment versus 12 months post treatment. Psychiatric hospital days went down 43.1%, 510 versus 290 Incarceration days, very important in Santa Barbara County more than half. 687 days versus 327 and as Supervisor Farr said this is a situation we won't be using our jail to incarcerate those who are mentally ill.
Homeless days 254 days versus 117 more than 50%. And what we see is emergency intervention and we see that that number went up. And again, Deputy Director Kraft can explain that to you but that meant the people were finally getting the treatment that they needed. And so what we ended up seeing was even though there was an increase in the ER, there was a decrease in hospital days. There were fewer jail days. There was higher employment rates. There was less homelessness. There was overall cost savings, better treatment engagement and higher milestones of recovery scores. And again Deputy Director Kraft can explain that to you.
Now- Supervisor Wolf?
Yes. Thank you. DA Dudley on the incarceration days. Can you just so I better understand this, if someone commits a crime it goes to your department? Correct. And then do you look at the mental health issue of an individual before you prosecute?
I'm one of many, so the first thing that happens is let's assume someone commits a crime on the street. The first person who makes that determination is a law enforcement officer who decides whether there's probable cause to arrest and then once the person is arrested then they go into the jail and the ORBR unit makes a determination about whether this person can be released pending a decision about whether to file the case. So we've had two sets of eyes. Then it comes to filing deputy at the district attorney's office And when you're asking me, do we consider mental health? We do.
But if it's a situation where for public safety reasons the person, we believe the persons, if they were released from custody were likely to hurt themselves or others, we would not recommend a release from custody.
So how then is this number almost cut in half? What is the DA doing in Nevada County?
Well, what's happening is if people are being treated they're not committing those kinds of nuisance crimes that we're predominantly talking about. So it's a decrease in terms of the commission of crimes because they're being treated.
So it could potentially just be that the incarceration rates are down. I mean, there may not be a cause and effect with
Laura's law because- Well, I can't stand by their statistics. I can tell you what was presented to me. My best guess is your district attorney is to tell you that if people are being treated they're less likely to commit crimes. Of course. And therefore the incarceration would be down, the filing would be down, the arrest would be down. And I totally
understand that. It's just, I just thought it was interesting that you know they were talking about 19 individuals and yet you've seen a decrease in half of the number. I mean that's a lot almost 300 people so I don't know that it's a cause effect to Laura's law there may be other issues that are
part of that number. Certainly and I think that that's an important thing it's and that's why I want to keep going back to those its fact that we're talking about 19 These results are very exciting. I believe if we implement Laura's Law, we will have another means by which we can protect the innocent and prevent crime. What I don't believe is the passage of Laura's Law alone will make a huge difference. In fact, I think in and of itself, the impact may be small but extremely significant.
Now to get a closer look at some of the questions you've asked, I was going to turn the program over now to Deputy Director Kraft. Was there anything else of need?
No, I think my question is going to be for Deputy Director Kraft and if you can just touch on this more. The increase in ER time is troubling to me. Explain that to me when we get, you know, when that falls into your portion of the presentation. I'd kind of like to hear more about that and then let's Supervisor Carbajal then Supervisor
Adams. DA Dudley one of my questions is of all these 19 folks how many of them were homeless? Half? One third? Of all the 19 unduplicated individuals how many of them were homeless? Because then you could see the correlation, 254 days. My
understanding is that they looked at the people that were homeless and they looked at them before treatment and after treatment. That's how I interpret it.
So are all of these homeless? The 19 unduplicated?
Of the 200, no not all of them are homeless but of the 254 days, I don't know what percent
became
homeless but that percent had more homeless days and less homeless days after treatment.
And the only reason I ask that is You know, one of the issues associated with at least the homeless or those that have the mental illness that end up maybe falling into this category is we need to make sure that we have that transitional housing. So you know, we could have Laura's Law all we want but unless we have all the components are going to help us be successful We could fail so When we consider this, I know we're going to study this. That's one of the actions you're asking us. But just for, I guess as assuming our board takes an affirmative step to study it and to look at the feasibility of it, I think we really need to look at what Supervisor Wolf said all those other ancillary I want to start by saying thank you to all of the people who have contributed to Laura's Law succeeding, at least in Nevada County so that we don't inadvertently go down the road and then later on not have all those other support systems in place.
That's just one of the observations.
And Supervisor Carbajal, there are some very smart people out there who believe you take all the money you would have put in Laura's law and you put it in giving people homes and you'll see a drastic reduction. I'm of the belief that we really need all of the components to be successful.
Thank you. And lastly, Mr. Chair, Ms. Craft I would appreciate it if you could also touch on how the ACTO project that we've implemented in Santa Barbara County has worked over the years. What kind of data and outcomes did we achieve or not? Because that's really helpful in understanding how it's basically For those of you that are wondering, it's Laura's Law Light that we implemented short of implementing the court piece.
And that project is known as ACTO which I'm sure you'll tell us what the acronym stands for but it was the Mental Health Commission who really pressed when the County of Santa Barbara did not implement Laura's Law last time And this was the result of a compromise that was reached, shy of implementing Laura's law in the past. So if you could help us understand what that was, how successful that was, what the outcomes were, that would be really helpful.
And before that, let's, Supervisor Adam. You're going to just- Mr. Kraft is going to get his chance here in a second.
One more question for DA Dudley. We have welfare and institutions code allows conservatorship for gravely disabled persons. Why isn't that statute adequate to cover this?
And that's 5130. And I mentioned that a little earlier, it doesn't quite meet the criteria of that. And Mr. Gazzone will explain why because it's his department that handles not the district attorney's office.
Would you like to go for that? Chair Labadino, Supervisor Adam, I'd be glad to take a cut at that right now. Towards the end of this we'll go over really the three prongs of the legal framework. District Attorney Dudley has summarized the required criteria all nine of which must be met and really if we think of the criteria as a continuum If somebody is in exigent enough condition to be a harm to themselves or others or gravely disabled at this time, then they're really not meeting these nine criteria. They're meeting either the criteria for 5150 or the conservatorship So really the criteria boil down through a nine-way filter of providing you somebody who's substantially deteriorating in their mental condition, unlikely to survive but are not so exigent or so gravely disabled to fit into the programs for either 5150 or the conservatorship program.
Supervisor Wolfe?
Thank you, Mr. Chair I appreciate The question it was going to be one that I had as well, but can you explain then how? How someone obtains? Gets into the conservatorship Public Guardian how do they how does that happen what is the criteria for that and
Well with Chair Lavagnino and Supervisor Wolf, so for the conservatorship program what we're really talking about is somebody who's suffering from in quotes a grave disability. And when we take those cases in, what we're focusing on is somebody who literally cannot survive without intervention. They may not be able to feed or clothe themselves without intervention.
And this program, the Assisted Outpatient Treatment is for people who may be at the present time able to feed and clothe themselves. But are essentially teetering on falling out of that or otherwise becoming a threat to themselves or others. So this is meant to be, this assisted outpatient treatment is really set up to be some middle road between doing nothing and waiting until somebody is so severe a threat to themselves or others or so gravely disabled that they require not outpatient treatment but actually being restricted in their mobility and receiving these patients, these treatments either at the psychiatric health facility or something similar?
1:39 – 1:4611 turns
I can just follow up. So Laura's law or the conservatorship guardian that would mean then that the individual would be admitted to an inpatient facility whereas in Laura's law it's outpatient
Chair Levine you know and Supervisor Wolf yes that's the key distinction is that when although referred to as Laura's law in our state the title throughout the statute is assisted outpatient treatment. And really that is the focus is it somebody receives an order from the court to show up and participate in this outpatient treatment. And the thought behind it is that intervention at this level requiring outpatient treatment helps the person before they fail into needing inpatient treatment.
Can I just follow up? Could the public guardian though make the decision that inpatient treatment is not appropriate, and refer that individual to outpatient treatment?
Chair Labadino and Supervisor Wolf. So one of the criteria, the short answer is yes. And the longer answer is that one of the criteria here is that anybody who's going to be the subject of a petition for court-ordered assisted outpatient treatment has to have been offered first voluntary outpatient treatment. And within Nevada County's fairly complicated visual flow chart They described the process.
And I also went up to Northern California, met with the county council and her staff up there for some practical discussions of how this works. And if the board directs this to come back for a resource study We've already done some of the work of figuring out out of X number of cases. What was Nevada County's experience? In terms of what percentage of people when they're contacted say yes, I'm all for the voluntary program even before a petition gets signed what number of people won't do that, but upon the filing of a petition and appearing in front of a judge then decide to enter a voluntary program at that point. Or what percentage of people actually after the hearing with the court are ordered by the court into a program? And there really is, Nevada County has some data on that and we also have some other counties who have fairly recently I would like to know a little bit more about our public guardian.
Program and I see we have someone here who might be able to speak
opportunities or the implications of that program and how it differs from Laura's Law. And what I'm understanding from you is that if someone is part of that, is within the public guardian's office they can be referred to outpatient services just like someone in Laura's Law. Trying to understand the difference Is it because one has choice and the other one doesn't?
Chair Lavagnino and Supervisor Wolf, I'm going to come at an answer sideways here. And say that one of the experiences that worked for Nevada County was to ensure that the same people who were meeting with patients or clients in one potential program be it 50-150 conservatorship or Laura's Law That they really have the same people as the point of contact. So instead of shoving or shunting a client or patient from one program to the other, they have the same deputy county council handle all three programs there and working with the different departments whether it's mental health or their public guardian trying to figure out what's the best fit But it does boil down to, as you said, Laura's Law is a court-ordered outpatient treatment program unlike a conservatorship or a 72 hour or longer stay at the psychiatric health facility.
It is an outpatient program and when I get to the legal framework a little bit after Michael Craft summarizes We'll go through really the three prongs including the type of wraparound services that are required if the county ups into Laura's line. I think that might help answer some of your questions that thank
you
supervisor Carbajal,
thank you so opting in for us would be an option after we do our feasibility and Analysis and what-have-you, right?
That's correct.
Okay well You know I'm looking forward to the rest of our presentation. I'm really excited about this opportunity And I know we're asking a lot of questions But for the most part I'm supportive of this moving forward and I just want to thank DA Dudley and supervisor far for bringing this to us because I think it's it's been long time coming we since we last At least the Board of Supervisors last consider this and I think it's going to really provide some opportunities, but for me The most comforting part of this Action we may take in a few minutes. It's really that it's gonna include all the stakeholders It's really going to include the Mental Health Commission, the mental health community, individuals who are suffering from a mental illness.
Everybody is going to have to come together and find the types of protocols and system that we developed for Santa Barbara County for consideration to opt in. I'm hoping buy-in by all because that's what you need because this provides a lot of opportunity and you could imagine for individuals who do suffer from mental illness and their families. Some want it because they want a hook to be able to provide a better treatment course for folks who are suffering from mental illness, but then there's some individuals who have mental illness who also have rights and want to make sure their rights are protected in that we walk that fine line of being supportive and intervention of treatment Create a system that has inherent flaws, that is only putting people into a system that really don't deserve to be on that system.
So I'm looking forward to the opportunities.
1:46 – 1:5612 turns
So I'm sure let me know members of the board it is a pleasure again to speak with you. And before I start, I would like you to know how much all of us appreciate your very sensitive discussion about this topic that has some very serious ramifications and you have asked wonderfully astute questions here in the beginning And just as Joyce's training as a parent prepared her to talk with you, I just discovered that my training as a clinician where we wait impatiently has also trained me.
And so I'm glad to answer some of the questions. So let's go back a little bit to the slide that we are still looking at and the question about emergency interventions and that is one of those data artifacts. Emergency intervention doesn't necessarily mean that it rose to the level of an emergency room contact. It means that it rose to the level where a potential 5150, let's see. Right there is good. Thank you.
A potential 5150 assessment was implemented and so the question why would we have more emergency contacts? In part the answer is because as people are more engaged in treatment they're in contact with the system and so the system is much more aware of when they're rising to that level of crisis. And so in some ways that's actually a good thing The other three data elements, the other three metrics are really useful metrics because those are the same metrics that we use in our full service partnerships for our MHSA programs. And so those are widely recognized nationwide as good indicators that outpatient intervention is effective with the most seriously mentally ill.
Great. Oops. There we go. Thank you. So Moore's Law and ADMHS are familiar with one another. Back in 2003, a study group was convened with about 30 members, very good representation throughout the community. ADMHS of course participated in that and at the time it was determined that there were insufficient resources Now, some of the questions and comments that you offered earlier I think showed your understanding that there are two key elements in a full implementation of Laura's Law Assisted Outpatient Treatment. The first, of course is the judicial element and all the legal oversight The second is that there must be adequate programming and staffing available to reach out and implement the treatment. Because ultimately, treatment engagement is the goal.
So in 2003 it was determined we didn't have adequate resources with 2004 in the passage of the MHSA and subsequent implementation of our assertive community treatment teams, we have more resources In Nevada County, their Assertive Community Treatment Team or ACT team is the team that provides treatment under Lohr's Law. In 2010, the Mental Health Commission brought up this topic again.
And at that point the department adopted a Laura's Law Light version and so Supervisor Carbajal I appreciate your awareness of that by designating 15 out of 300 slots countywide. So currently we have three ACT teams one in each region and they each serve 100 consumers We took five slots from each team and we designated them for an extended outreach and engagement period.
Because one of the tenets of standard outpatient treatment is that it's voluntary, there's a point in the engagement process even with robust ACT teams where if someone refuses, the engagement and outreach stop. Through our adoption of a kind of Laura's Law at Light outreach and engagement, we extended that period. And we put in a six-month review window so that we could do six months of outreach where the staff would go out to wherever the person in need was. Sometimes even the psychiatrist would go out and go to their home, go to the neighborhood, look for them.
And that even if the person was refusing engagement, that wouldn't cause them to be deemed unacceptable for treatment.
Supervisor Wolf?
Thank you, Mr. Chair. Dr. Kraft is this ACT program something unique just to Santa Barbara County or do other counties implement have the same program?
Chair Lavagnino and Supervisor Wolff, the ACT program has been an empirically based program that's been present nationwide from about the mid-1970s so ACT is one of those very standard well respected kind of programs that is available nationwide. So many other counties have ACT programs as well, and MHSA funding was a great boon to the ACT movement.
Okay, thank you for that. And if I could just go back to... Just to clarify one thing you said, so there's 100 consumers currently receiving this service and then you said something about 300?
Right, so 100 in each of the three regions for a total of 300 countywide.
And do we know if there is a need for more?
So there is a need for more for that higher level and that's evidenced by the difficulty in making referrals in the flow through the system. And so as part of the broader system change effort that is underway, of course We're looking at the fact that there were other gaps in the system. And in two weeks, we'll be back to talk about capital needs and in that capital needs presentation what you're going to hear is that our focus is not just on capital needs it's on the nature of the system and how consumers flow through So it's the right kind of treatment at the right level of treatment. And currently we have some people on the ACT teams who would be better suited by a different kind of treatment that we don't have available.
I understand, thank you. If we move forward and you look at this, I think part of what needs to be looked at is while we may have additional funds, you haven't gotten to your last bullet yet. What is the best use of those funds? And it may be to implement Laura's law, or it may be to serve the other consumers that we are not serving right now. I don't know what that number is but it sounds like it's over 300 people. So I think we have to look at what is the evidence and apparently other counties are using this, we're using it.
I'm assuming that there is, and I know that there is a benefit to what we're doing. So I think we're going to have to look at what we're doing. Is it better to enhance our program Or is it better to look at beginning Laura's Law? I mean, we're going to have a finite amount of money. And I think that's gonna be the discussion. Thank
you Mr. Chair. Supervisor Wolf through the chair absolutely. I think your summary is really point on and it would be of course one of the elements that we would look at if we do a further analysis yes.
Supervisor Adam Yeah, what is the difference between the crisis response teams? created by systems change initiative the act teams That you're referring to here and what you would do with Laura's law if you end up Implementing that or if we end up implementing that
Supervisor Adam on through the chair. We have 3 kinds of teams that you're referring to the first is our current mobile crisis team some some folks call them cares because they're housed in the same facility as our care staff The mobile crisis team respond any time there's a potential 50-150 situation. So the criteria that County Council was outlining are the criteria that need to be in play before the mobile crisis team responds. So when they respond, they're doing two things. They're assessing whether those legal criteria are met and they're looking to see whether or not they can divert people out of hospitalization by doing some safety planning.
With SB 82 along with the facilities funding, we also received funding to add a mobile crisis team in Lompoc because currently we have Santa Maria staff and Santa Barbara staff covering the whole county including Lompoc after hours. In addition, we are adding three mobile crisis triage teams and those triage teams function at the front end and at the back end so Their job will be to go out anytime someone seems headed toward a crisis to see if they can provide supports in place, so in vivo, to keep people from rising to that level where a 5150 evaluation would need to be conducted.
So they will not carry ongoing caseloads, neither of those two teams and those two teams, of course, will work together. The ACT teams carry ongoing caseloads. And so we have some consumers who have been act service recipients for many years. So the idea is that with an act team, you have a very low case load ratio. So less than 10 to one ratio of consumers to staff.
In addition, you have a range of services that are provided through the act team including housing and vocational services as well as psychiatry and casework. The higher level of outreach and engagement with Laura's Law is an element that we have partially implemented. And again, that's that ongoing outreach and engagement, and it's about getting out and providing services in the community where the consumers are who need them, and it's ongoing.
Now one of the things that we haven't touched on too much that is extremely important in any implementation of Laura's Law and in any really effective service delivery It's an expectation that is embedded within
1:56 – 2:045 turns
You know, it strikes me that that may be a little bit adversarial at least in the beginning stages because if you go get somebody who's. You know confused or scared or whatever and marching before the judge with all the uniforms and badges around That may not be the best way. To bring somebody in and maybe that's the only way that you can bring some of these people and I'm not saying it's bad or good. I'm just.
Saying that it seems like if you're having trouble getting somebody to engage. And again, I'm not saying I'm opposed to it because that may be the only way we can get some people to engage. But it's complicated.
Yes, Joe Lavagnino and Supervisor Adam, beautiful comment there. It's a very powerful insight and one of the things that Laura's law does that helps clinicians is it removes clinicians from being in that dual role of I want to help you but I also have the authority to make a decision about mandating treatment. And by removing that power from the clinician and embedding that with the court, with county counsel and the public defender then the clinician is maintained in a position of always being an advocate for the person that they're reaching out to help. So what you described is absolutely right on.
The key thing to understand about this chart Is the green circle on the right. The goal is to get people into treatment and so walking through the chart if we start with the blue circle at the center there's a referral made. We moved to the yellow diamond their screening there's outreach there's engagement and then we moved to the red hexagon on the right
supervisor will.
Thank you, Mr. Chair. Dr. Kraft this is the chart I was referring to earlier so if you can say for instance in that diamond screen outreach engage who does that and as you move through this it's to the best that you can.
Great thank you. So Gerald Avenino and Supervisor Wolf a small clarification my mom would love you for calling me doctor but I didn't quite make it that far so I thank you yes and The screening outreach and engagement is done by the clinical staff. And one of the things that we envision, that you'll hear more about in a couple of weeks, it is a system that is truly welcoming where as a department that we recognize our responsibility in being welcoming and doing that extended outreach that we meet people where they need us. So that's a fundamental shift and of course part of what we've been struggling with as a system When under-resourced, people tend to function in silos and they become a little bit protective and deflective about receiving referrals.
And so one of the beautiful elements in Laura's Law is that the legislators anticipated that. And so they require that any place where Laura's Law is implemented, that the services be adequate. And so the yellow diamond is done by the clinical staff and they make an initial determination. Does this person rise to that level? And if the answer is no, but they do meet what we call medical necessity which means they require care and they want care then we provide ongoing care.
So that's an ideal outcome If however, moving to the far right they meet medical necessity meaning that we would treat them if they were willing but they're not willing and they do not rise to the level of Laura's Law meaning that they are not deteriorating. They are not their survival is not in danger then we don't serve them and that of course is a population that as a community we definitely want to engage So back to the yellow diamond and then moving to the left, if the person meets the assisted outpatient treatment criteria and they do not accept treatment then we continue to do the outreach. And Supervisor Adam this goes back to your comment about the distinction between the outreach clinical component versus the judicial power to make decisions affecting someone's life.
In parallel with that, there's a petition that goes to the Superior Court through County Council. So the mental health staff have to complete a packet that document the particular need. So what's the clinical situation? And one of the take-home lessons from Nevada County is that the clinical staff were not very thorough in the beginning. They didn't fully understand the seriousness of the judicial element and so They had many packets returned by county council until they were adequately trained that the bar is high and there must be adequate documentation of all nine elements in the criteria.
So if the petition is denied, we stop and in essence we're back over to the red hexagon on the right. If the petition is granted then there are periodic review hearings and the mental health staff who are continuing to do the outreach work and treatment participate. One of the things that I was struck by in Nevada County is the fact that That everybody involved functions as a team, and so everyone has their role. The public defender takes their role very seriously and they will argue to defend somebody's rights because if we are mandating them in treatment with potential consequences, we need to make sure that all due process has been followed.
The public defenders in Nevada County are also now clinically very astute, so they know how to speak the mental health language Same with county council. County council, like I said, would screen out a lot of the packets and as we do our next analysis if we go forward with that, that's one of the things that we'll look at is we do a projection about how many of these cases we think will have in Santa Barbara County.
And then finally if the person really disengages with treatment and they are potentially at imminent risk then a 72 hour hold is possible. So currently the services we have available, Supervisor Carbajal you touched on this already that our ACT team or teams would be the most likely place that we would implement some version of Laura's Law. And we have all of those elements in place.
The one thing of course that already was touched on that would be a concern is at the bottom the housing element. That one of their requirements for assisted outpatient treatment is that sufficient housing resource be present And then finally, a suggested analysis. There are many elements that we would need to look at going forward. Our clinical capacity, Supervisor Wolf, your insight about is this how we would want to use the funding that would be required?
The question of what is the need and how many cases would we serve? What sort of outreach, what sort of cultural sensitivity would we need to make sure is in place? How do we integrate this with the rest of the system because one of the things we want to avoid is creating any more siloing and fragmentation in
2:04 – 2:1312 turns
Chair Labadino and supervisors. The package, the board agenda letter package that you have includes as its first three attachments the different welfare institution code excerpts describing the legal framework in which the county would be operating if the board decided to opt into providing these assisted outpatient treatment services. And really those three sections that we provided in the board agenda letter package describe the three legs of this program. The first attachment discusses required criteria, which Judge Attorney Dudley had already summarized.
The next required services and then the third funding requirements and I'd like to go into a little bit more detail about that. Attachment A is an excerpt from California Welfare and Institutions Code section 5346. And as the district attorney summarized, that states that a court may order assistant outpatient treatment services only to people who meet all nine of these criteria. So those nine criteria are a filter and we had some back-and-forth question and on that already, but some of the criteria that are included as I mentioned before include making sure that we have already offered an opportunity to participate in a voluntary program.
The next attachment, Attachment B comes from Welfare and Institutions Code Section 5348 And it states that a county that opts into providing assisted outpatient treatment services must provide all five of these numbered services, including what is referred to as a service planning and delivery process. That includes 11 separate components. And in response to one of Supervisor Carbajal's questions, One of the separate components within this service planning and delivery process includes some form of supportive housing.
And then the next attachment, attachment C is the excerpt from Welfare Institutions Code 5349 which tells you that a county that opts into providing this program of assisted outpatient treatment services must include a finding by the Board of Supervisors that voluntary mental health services for adults and children's mental health services would not be reduced in order to fund this program. So it's essentially an anti-supplantation provision that if the county Ops into this program, it would be different funds not in lieu of these existing mental health programs The other comment that I'll make one
supervisor Correct me if correct my understanding from wrong. So what you're saying is If this costs Whatever the costs are associated with this program, it would have to be above and beyond what we're already funding. Correct?
Chair Lavagnino and Supervisor Carbajal, that's correct. It could not reduce an existing adult or children's mental health program. And that's part of what could be studied.
I just want to understand that because in our board's budget language that means General fund additional general fund to find this program and that's I just. Is that my is that a correct understanding? Which is not necessarily wrong, I'm just calling it what it is. I just-
Chair Lavenino and Supervisor Carbajal. So the 5349 describes multiple sources of funding that could be used outside of the general fund in different forms of state money. And at this point, If the board directed further study, one of the things that would come back is to what extent have we used all of the available mental health funding that comes from sources other than the general fund.
Thank you.
So in response or impartial response to Supervisor Wolf's question I'll go back to the visual flow chart that Nevada County provided and ask Michael Kraft to just put that back up if he would? So that the visual flowchart you know I will describe as a summary of how the process works and on the far left side lower left side of the flow chart is basically the court interaction.
And in the in the square box on the left Where we have a description of does not accept treatment or refuses assessment. From my discussions with Nevada County, both the county council and her deputy who handles these cases for Nevada County. And I think my experience was the same as what mental health was hearing is that coming out of this box does not accept treatment and going into continue to outreach is although not an infinite circle The practice in Nevada County was if somebody does not accept treatment, they really try to continue the outreach and achieve a voluntary result before going the route of appearing before the court. So that although described in a line here there is somewhat A feedback loop where they will try a few times on the outreach before going to petition the court.
And there is a requirement with the nine criteria, is to have offered these voluntary services. A couple other legal observations on top of the nine criteria, the code, Welfare Institution Code 5346. does spell out the role of the court and that is that a person the court may order a person into this program only upon finding that all nine criteria have been met and the Welfare and Institution Code also requires that a person appearing in a hearing of this nature is provided counsel. They can either hire their own counsel or they're provided a public defender so there's definitely a public defender component on this, and I think if you I've come to think of this as basically a series of filters that when the mental health department were they to decide that a case was suitable to go in front of the court, it goes to county council.
We would have a discussion with them as to meeting the criteria and both the superior court judge and the assigned public defender or private counsel would have an active role at that hearing. So the only other thing I'll add is that as, as staff has described stakeholders we do have present today. The court executive Mr Parker who has been in some of our initial discussions on this and that would be one piece of this that would be studied where the board to direct further research in this area is resources of the court resources of the public defender and different staff resources supervisor Wolf
Thank you, Mr. Chair. Mr. Gazzone, your description made me think I have a question now about the role of the public defender because if County Council is bringing this to the Superior Court it's not a criminal It's not a criminal case, correct? It's a civil matter. So how then does the public defend, I thought they were only, public defenders only involved in criminal cases.
Chair Lavigno and Supervisor Wolf. No, the public defender by statute would be involved in this matter with the statute stating that if the person meaning the potential person receiving outpatient treatments so elects, the court shall immediately appoint the public defender or other attorney to assist the person in all stages of the proceedings. So it's not a criminal proceeding but the statute does task the public defender at the direction of the court.
OK, is that unusual?
It's actually not that unusual that we have frequent. I would say daily interactions with the Public Defender's Office on related mental health issues, whether it's incompetency to stand trial 5150 or public guardian public conservatorship issues. So when people are represented, it will normally be the Public Defenders office even though this is not a criminal proceeding. All
right, thank you for that.
2:13 – 2:209 turns
Where does our presentation go next? So are we done with the presentation at this point? Supervisor Farr.
Yes, Mr. Chair I think now unless there's more questions from the board at this time we can go to public comment.
Okay, Mr Allen how many public speakers do we have?
Chairman Lavinino members of the board we have 11 requests to speak starting with Dr. Johns then Lorraine Neenan. Jeff.
Okay, thank you supervisors Now first of all I want to make a comment about your public guardian program And you know this already people come forward that come before this board about this public it needs to be investigated People come here daily wanting to It needs to be investigated okay now. That's it now I would like to see this Laura's Law implemented because it's throughout this country.
Now, I would like to see this county but this county has refused and I'll say for the third time because they're going to refuse this time also because when you hear the budget that's it! Right? You're not going to pass this program because of the budget and those legal requirements. Housing boy, are you kidding me? You're not going to pass this so. And it also you don't have the proper services. This alcohol drug and mental health program does not have the proper training supervision with service. The personnel.
It's not a fully functioning mental health department. You cannot implement this program. Now, how do you do it? Dr. Johns always has a solution. You may not like it. Like it? You need to get a non-profit program and let it deal only with Laura's Law. That's it! Get that out of the hands of the Mental Health Department. And I'll tell you something, it will function.
It will function perfectly. They will contact the public defender, the defenders, the attorneys get it out of the hands of this Department of Mental Health as you just heard, it is very complicated. They need training, they need supervision. And at this particular point they can't even take a call from a client who says I need help! They can't take the call thank you.
Lorraine Neenan to be followed by Michael Gorodewski
Mr. Chair, Board of Supervisors, I'm going to read my letter to you. I'm here today to tell you how my son's health and future depends on the passing of Laura's law. It would provide the assisted outpatient treatment that he needs which is because of his nature of illness he refuses. For the past 13 years since my son Patrick's 18th birthday, his life has been an unending roller coaster of hospitalizations, conservatorships, evictions, homelessness, incarceration and victimization due to gravely disabling schizophrenia.
He has one of the all too common side effects of this brain disorder, which is anosognosia or lack of insight and the willful denial of the treatment that he requires to stay sane and stable. I have desperately sought help for Patrick over and over only to be told that if he hasn't threatened to kill himself or someone else there is no recourse. Once, after getting out of jail he was hospitalized at the Santa Barbara Puff.
After three weeks there we were told that he had to leave even though he was not stabilized as the puff is only for short term stays. There were no housing options for him and we cannot allow our sick and vulnerable son to become homeless again. So we let him move into our home until housing became available. As usual, he refused to take his medicine. During this time, his symptoms became worse and worse.
I called his doctor and caseworker many times begging for help without result. After eight weeks, he snapped and he broke every window mirror and glazed frame in our house. Sheriff officers had to subdue him threatening the use of a taser gun. And he went off in handcuffs to a puff in Bakersfield. Supported, supervised court-ordered outpatient treatment such that Laura's Law would bring is crucial to Patrick and many, many others suffering with mental illness in Santa Barbara County.
Please consider the consequences and the costs of not implementing assisted outpatient treatment services. Recently our community suffered horrible loss of lives due to violent homicides in Isla Vista and in Goleta, due to untreated mental illness. The emotional costs are incalculable to the perpetrator and the victim's families and to our community. Families of the mentally ill are desperately trying to help their loved ones, only to find that there is no hope.
Santa Barbara County must provide essential services to the mentally ill by mandating treatment for those who refuse help. It is an impairment to implement Laura's law. Thank
you.
Michael Gorodesky to be followed by Jan Winter.
2:20 – 2:255 turns
Good morning. Supervisor Lavagnino, members of the board. I'm Michael Gordeski. I am the newly elected chair of our County Mental Health Commission and although I'm new to that position, I'm not new to mental health. I've been involved in public mental health for about 35 years. Regarding your hearing today on outpatient treatment services, we understand that many departments within the county would participate in this assessment and you've heard that described this morning including ADMHS.
The District Attorney, Public Defender, Probation, Sheriff, County Counsel as well as our many community advocacy groups and some of whom I'm sure will speak today who are anxious to be involved in the dialogue and the discussion. Although the Mental Health Commission has not yet taken or considered a position on assisted outpatient treatment services, the Mental Health Commission is ready to do so if the board directs us And if we do that, we'll make a very careful consideration of the potential costs and the benefits of the program.
I think this is going to be, uh, this is the beginning of a good dialogue. There's a lot of people with a lot of very strong feelings and there's been a lot of work done to prepare answers for those. And the mental health commission is ready to be of assistance should the board direct us. Thank you.
Jan Winter will be followed by Yoni Harris
Chair Lavernino and supervisors, I'm here as chair of the Joint Public Policy Committee of the Mental Wellness Association and NAMI of Southern Santa Barbara County. We have voted to support the implementation of Laura's law and we thank you for taking these first steps. I'm here to speak in favor of Laura's law, but I want to add some fundamental considerations as a family member.
The word awesome has become a tired cliche, but I have to use that word when I think about the prospect before us. It is truly an awesome responsibility to have to tell some of our mentally ill citizens in effect that we do not believe that they know any longer what is best for them and we believe that we do know. It is no wonder that many of our friends with mental illness oppose this law.
Many of them have heard this before, and they do not trust that others indeed do know what is best for them. How terrifying it must be to be told, do not trust your own decisions and choices. Do not trust your own mind, your own thinking instead for now at least trust us If we choose to undertake this truly vital work, and with all of its evidence that it can free people from far more restrictive and coercive consequences of their untreated illness.
With all the evidence that it can free up public resources for more productive uses. I hope we will undertake it in a spirit of humility and a commitment to be trustworthy stewards of people's prospects for better lives. Thank you.
Thank you. Yoni Harris to be followed by Jacqueline Inda. Jacqueline here. Then we're going to go to Anne Eldridge. To be followed by Doctor Elizabeth Downing.
Supervisors, my name is Jacqueline Inda. I'm here representing the Coalition Against Gun Violence I come to you today as an advocate for my community. I advocate for systemic changes that will better impact the lives of our youth, our families and our neighborhoods. Laura's law was passed in 2002. The state left it up to each county to implement this law to prevent tragedies like what we witnessed in Ivy and the most recent tragedies in Goleta.
This law was created not as gun control but to bridge gaps of services that are most desperately needed in our community. We're at the end of 2014, yet we have not moved forward in this county to implement the safety nets that we need in order to build Laura's Law effectively within our county. As a founder of Santa Barbara Response Network and a parent advocating side by side with other parents that cry out Not One More I come to you today to ask that you consider developing implementation of Laura's law in this county.
Our county is better than most and we can develop a plan with our community to evaluate this law, and we need you as our supervisors to stand up and take leadership to make sure that we have all of the safety nets that this law would create within our community. Thank you.
2:25 – 2:326 turns
Yes, good morning Supervisor Lavagnino. And by the way thank you for reappointing me to the commission I have been in favor and Board of Supervisors this has been an issue for me as a NAMI member at this local and state level for ever since 1421 was passed And I think you all know much has changed since that time. We now have more funding, we have several different bills that have enabled us to have access to more funds.
Coincidentally sponsored by Supervisor Steinberg and I don't know if you know but just recently has come out that his daughter had gone through a horrendous experience as a young person. Since she was under 18, they were able to see that she got proper care. They sent her to various places where she spent two or three years actually. When a person turns 18 no matter what's going on those abilities are no longer there for families to seek help when it is needed.
Laura's law would certainly enable more long-term consistent outreach and engagement by mental health professionals even before they get to the court. Nevada has shown that many, I think probably more than half of the people, I'm not sure Michael what the number is except that many people agree Who had formally not agreed after a long time of an engagement. In fact, I talked with the person who is a director of Turning Point up there and he said you know we'll go back as long as a year they'll tell us to go away well We'll knock on their door and bring them a cup of coffee And most of the time people will finally agree so I think the We see it as an interim between 5150, which is total removal of rights for a certain amount of time. Conservatorship, which is also a removal of rights.
Laura's law is mainly voluntary. The only involuntary part of it is if a judge decides that the person meets 5150 criteria He can be remanded, the person can be remanded to a hospital. Otherwise all during the program a person can just bow out which they have not done too much. Finally LA County actually was the first county that did work on Laura's Law. They did it a little differently though. They just took people who were in jail and gave them a get-out-of-jail free, not free but early card By accepting Laura's law services, so it's been done long enough New York was certainly the model for this their experience has been Very successful and it has it has shown excellent outcomes and it has survived two Supreme Court challenges So thank you.
I hope you will Thank
You supervisor Carmel
Thank you Mr. Chair, I do hope as again if assuming we were going to move this forward that we do look into that particular program implementation that Los Angeles did because I think for those that go through an episode that wind up in jail We know they're there because of the episode so if as soon as I guess we're able to stabilize them if we can offer them You know here's a chance to get out but you got to go into treatment And if that's some way it helps us with reducing beds and costs, at the same time it helps us implement a better intervention. That would be great. So it'd be great to learn about Los Angeles' effort in that regard and to see how we working with our sheriff and jail could actually implement something similar assuming we get there which I'm hopeful we will.
Dr. Elizabeth Downing followed by Suzanne Riordan
My name's Elizabeth Downing. I'm here today as a member of Coalition Against Gun Violence. I've had the privilege of living and working in Santa Barbara as a physician for the last 35 years, primarily at UCSB Student Health and Cottage Hospital Emergency Department though I've also worked at the neighborhood clinics, the county public health department, and Planned Parenthood.
Like most of us, though perhaps more often for me in an acute setting I've witnessed many students and adults suffering very gravely from untreated mental illnesses causing heartbreak and sometimes very dangerous situations to all concerned parties. Most of you know that gun violence is perpetrated by people with serious mental illnesses a very small percent of the time. And in fact, a recent California study shows that that happens about 4% of the time.
Clear cut evidence has come out however in the last year or two that shows that mentally ill persons with a prior history of violent behavior are definitely at higher risk to seriously harm by guns or otherwise, self or others. And I was encouraged by the objective data that almost Dr. Kraft presented that not only gives some great evidence-based data from Nevada County, but the fact that one of the criteria involves violent behavior. So that's a very good thing and of course 19 year old Laura Wilcox was the victim of just such a person in 2001 I believe that Laura's Law is a long overdue tool which can be used in a very humane and legal manner to relieve suffering and prevent violence by the seriously mentally ill, and in addition the objective data that we're finding Today particularly seems to indicate that it would also be cost-effective I think as supervisors you're in the enviable position of being able to save lives both figuratively and literally With the passage of this law, and I strongly urge you to go forward with its implementation.
Thank you
Suzanne reordering followed by Jeff Bard
2:32 – 2:384 turns
Good morning. I'm grateful that our county is again considering the passage of this, considering passing Laura's law. I think there's a tremendous need for more and more adequate array of mental health services. And I know that there's quite a concern about the rights of everyone in our community And about the rights of people with mental illness. But we have to remember that in the United States, 40% of persons with serious mental illness have been in jail or prison at some point in their lives. So we've got to keep this into perspective okay? If we're asking someone and we're putting a little bit of additional incentive in front of someone to get some treatment I'm We've got to find the money. We've got to find the money to get better mental health services to our community residents, and there are some gigantic gaps.
This kind of a program as it's been implemented in other counties and other states has saved money. As it goes forward, it has definitely saved money. And the money is saved because incarcerations are avoided Hospitalizations are avoided. There are a lot of costs associated to all of us with homelessness, but initially we may need to allocate the resources to implement this before we can see the savings. One of the tremendous gaps that some of us advocates have seen in our continuum of mental health care is residential treatment. You can call it transitional residential treatment, intensive residential treatment. If we had more available in this county Laura's Law would work better and our entire system would work better so we want to make sure to consider that need as we're going forward And that's something that Families Act has been representing for several years now.
It's an incredibly important missing component in our continuum, but so is the need to help people who don't realize that they need treatment. They go together, they're not mutually exclusive and with some of the savings that we realized through implementing Laura's Law eventually we will be able to provide more robust residential treatment. Thank you very much.
Jeff Bard before by Wayne Mellinger
Good morning. Mr. Chair, members of council I don't have a simplistic thumbs up or thumbs down very complex law. I was actually going to college in New York when Kendra's Law was implemented and the mythology is that this was a treatment refuser It was not a treatment refuser it was someone who was begging for treatment Who had been kicked out of Bellevue Hospital? And he went you did something horrible and the UN cry went up for coercive mandatory treatment similarly I really think it's a mythology that there is this lack of insight.
I encounter a lot of these individuals all the time, and most of them know they have a problem. Some of them have been to CARES and they stopped going on purpose. So yes, there is some anecdotal evidence that there is lack of insight but most of these characters are in and out of jail and in and out of the puff. They know they have problems. And I really think the course of treatment is a step onto a very steep slope, but I'm willing to acknowledge in light of the recent tragedies that onto this steep slope we must step. And I don't think we can stop Laura's Law. I think it's an inexorable necessity that's going to be forced upon us and the key is the implementation. We need to maintain the quality of our mental health services.
However, I do have one very powerful objection that no one else has brought to your attention The non-supplantation clause is good, but we do not have a non-supplantation provision applying to housing. So what this means is when this law goes in there's going to be another 200 or 300 Laura's Law people or maybe a few SCORE and they're all going to get primary access to supportive housing. And I hate to say it, but a lot of these people are simply obnoxious jerks who are not taking responsibility.
They're not dealing with their clinicians, they're not showing up for their appointments because they'd rather go out and get a gallon of whiskey. Okay? I'm facing my 10th winter in this county living in a tent. I'm not committing trespassing. Landscapers with a wink and a nudge are letting me get away with this so I'm not a trespasser. On a regular basis, my campsite is invaded by alcoholics and drug users, and people who are supposed to be going to CARES. I've even gone so far as to try to escort them to CARES, okay?
I have to physically defend myself. Now this activates my PTSD, and I've sought mental health care for the stress of that situation. I have to knock a guy 25 years younger than me on the ground and whack him a couple times gently with a stick to let him know I'm not afraid to use my martial arts training. And I recognize that's a mental health crisis for me. And I'm desperately seeking help and I'm having trouble, and I'm probably going to go over and try to get a restraining order. But the problem is that's the guy you're going to give housing to.
So there's a problem there. It's a race to the bottom. And I remain in the tent.
Thank you. Wayne Millinger? Anna Campbell?
2:38 – 2:453 turns
Honorable Supervisors, my name is Wayne Mellinger and AB 1421 I think is a very complicated issue. And I've heard very good arguments on each side and I think it's something that we really need to carefully hear all sides of things. I think that as the law is implemented, it's gonna be in the details You know, pay attention. I will urge you to put together a task force to look into these issues and have it made up of community members.
This is very exciting times for ADMHS. I think that the systems changes that are going on right now are outstanding Michael Kraft and Dr. Wada are overseeing some really great things, and I think that as we build the system, that's going to be able to solve a lot of our problems. Many years ago, I think we heard from a grand jury task force telling us that having the jail be the central place where people get mental health services in our community is wrong. And I think one of the great things about AB 1421 is that it lowers the amount of people that are sent to jail and as we've heard from other people, that it could lower the cost.
I'm a little concerned that it costs so much and that we would be taking money away from housing people. And I think that, I have heard that AB 1421 would be used for people that do get supportive housing. You know, stabilize people and have them in housing and offer them treatment. And that can go a long way. Anyway I do hope that you keep going with the good efforts that you're doing here. Thank you very much.
Good morning. First of all, I want to say how happy I am that this is again before the board. I appreciated Doreen Farr's introduction. We were one of those families for many years And I appreciate the insightful questions that have been asked especially Supervisor Adam about the the potential adversarial nature of doing this but I want to say that there's nothing more heartbreaking than the adversarial relationship that happens and When a family tries to get conservatorship for their daughter or son.
When we were looking into conservatorship, our son disappeared because he didn't want to lose all of his rights forever which is what happens when you are conserved. You also lose all your rights for 72 hours when you're under 5150 but then you're back on the streets or wherever you were So this is, there's a huge gap there. And so this is a way to try to fill that gap and yes there will be some adversarial feelings and I know that if someone told me that I was mentally ill and someone else had to make my decisions for me about treatment that I needed I would resent it and I wouldn't accept it because I don't believe that I'm mentally ill.
And neither do these people. But there are so many worse things that can happen. I happen to know a young man who's mentally ill, who on September 9th is facing a 25-year sentence for a crime that he did under the Under his mental illness because he didn't think that he needed treatment and He didn't get the treatment. And now he did commit a crime and he's facing 25 years in prison Next Tuesday a week from today So the the loss of rights is so minor compared to the other things that can happen, of course The worst thing that can happen is death and I want to say that and And Andrews and Eldridge said she'd been advocating since it Laura's law was passed I just want to correct you and I happen to remember that you were advocating for Laura's law before it was passed and You're one of the people that helped it get passed But a number of us were advocating for Laura's Law back then and we were so happy when it came before the Board of Supervisors, and I could hardly believe it When the finding was made that we didn't have the resources, I thought the next step would be then to create some residential housing in the county so that Laura's Law could be implemented.
And instead what happened All of us had such great hopes because we had been going through that process that Doreen described. Our son ended up dying in 2005, he was missing, we didn't know it until 2006 but I remember that one of the feelings that we had was relief because his life had been so difficult since he'd had a head injury from a fall And so I really want to say that this is a very happy day, that this is before you. And that this will save lives and make lives worth living for many, many people in our county. Thank you so much. Thank
you. Dr. Leslie Lunt to be followed by Debbie McCoy who's our final speaker.
2:45 – 3:0416 turns
Good morning, Supervisor Levin and Supervisors. Leslie Lent, I'm the Medical Director of the PUF. Thank you for allowing me to speak today and thank you for permitting a stimulating discussion about a difficult and complicated topic. There are three areas I think we haven't talked about enough or at all today that I'd like to address. The first is the overwhelming need that we have in this county for alternatives to hospitalization.
So today, on Monday or Tuesday I guess, Tuesday September 2nd we have 16 people at the PUF. We have 20 of our county residents at this Del Mar hospital today. So anything that can help people receive treatment prior to becoming so severe that they need to be in the hospital, I'm certainly in favor of. The second issue is there was an extremely well written, but I think misguided editorial in the Los Angeles Times that many of you may have read.
That the headline was that Laura's Law doesn't work and I think it's important to address that particular editorial. It was written largely about a program in the United Kingdom Which is not at all analogous to Laura's law. It's it's called CTO community treatment order in the UK and the data in that Op-ed piece in the LA Times was from a paper published in The Lancet, which is a medical journal saying that the CTO group did not do any better than the alternate treatment group and Again, it really doesn't apply to what we're talking about here. That particular paper addressed people coming out of the psychiatric hospital. They all received treatment. They were just in two different batches of treatment. Here, we're talking about people who are possibly getting treatment or not getting treatment at all.
So I really hope that you read that article carefully and realize that it doesn't apply at all to what we're speaking about here. The third issue is what this assisted outpatient treatment might do to the therapeutic alliance with the consumer and their providers, and we see people certainly in the PUF most often who are there against their will usually from a 5150 or a conservatorship And the humanness of the interaction transcends that involuntary nature. And most often we do have a good rapport with the patient, they don't feel that they're coerced with respect to their relationship with their psychiatrist or their treatment team So the legal issues are often able to be put aside From the human and therapeutic interaction so I don't think that this necessarily means that somehow the treatment would be Contaminated if there is a legal piece involved So again, I appreciate the time today and look forward to hearing more about this in the future Thanks
Debbie McCoy It's our final speaker
Board of Supervisors, thank you for allowing me to speak today. I was sitting in a courtroom Watching the proceedings of Mental Health Court. And one of the things I kept hearing Thursday after Thursday when I would go to see what's going on with my daughter's case was, I'm sorry we don't have the resources or the program that you need so we'll have to put you in jail because that was the only option Commissioner Maxwell had available to her and she told my daughter not once but on many occasions, I'm sorry we don't have the right program for you.
And she spent many days in jail and None of them should have been a day in jail. All of them should have been a day in a hospital. I realized that she committed a crime, I wasn't letting her off the hook for that but again it was under the influence of her religious ideation that she thought She get to have a car from Toyota because God said so. Well, Toyota didn't agree with that statement very well and nor did I. However, part of the reason that she believed all of these things is because of a medical condition that we all know about I always say this wrong.
Agnosia, and it's the condition where we are totally unaware of a mental illness that we have. The homeless and the mentally ill are just jerks. I would really argue differently here, and I would like to say that most people including my daughter now would say that they're very glad that they got treatment And that they can take their medication and that they can be contributing members of society.
And I am very happy to say that she is doing way better and has been in a hospital since January, and is doing very well, very well. And I expect her to come home soon. I can only say to you that the one resource she needed most of all was housing and supportive transitional treatment, and that would have been the key to her success in not having to be hospitalized.
But that doesn't exist, and yet I work with the mental health department to try and make that a different situation, and I thank you very much for listening.
All right, thank you very much. Is that the conclusion of our speakers? I'll bring it back to Supervisor Farr.
Thank you Mr. Chair. Well, you know, I would like to thank D.A. Dudley and Dave Saunders, Mr. Kraft, Mr Gazzone for the presentation today and also even though they haven't said anything to Dr. Wada and Terry Mosnicich for their very deep involvement in making this presentation happen I really appreciate the board's very astute questioning. As always, it really shows the level of interest and concern that I know we all share in this issue.
And also to the public who came here for the presentation and those that might be watching it on television and particularly those who spoke. And I did want to thank Lorraine for sharing her personal story And even though the elements of her story are virtually identical to the one that I referenced at the beginning of my comments, she was not the constituent that I was talking about. So I think it just goes to show that this is a very common story out there unfortunately and this might be a way that we can help to alleviate the suffering of those families.
I would like to go ahead and make a motion that we receive and file this presentation. And that we do direct the CEO's office to work with affected departments, external partners, and stakeholders to assess the feasibility on potential resource needs for implementing Laura's law and come back within six months to report. I think that this analysis fits in well with the overall information that is going on as far as the analysis of our systems change operation. And whether the board decides at the end to go ahead and move forward with implementing Laura's Law, I think that this will still be very important information for us to have.
As far as what this process looks like, how it does fit into our existing system of care. The costs, the process itself is, as Dr. Luntz said, it is a difficult and complicated topic. So the process, the cost to the various department and the potential savings perhaps to some of our departments. But of course most importantly the potential to change the lives of many people who live in Santa Barbara County.
So again, thank you to everybody and I hope that we can move this item forward. I'll second
that motion.
Seconded by Supervisor Wolff. And I just
wanted to ask and I do have comments and Supervisor Farr was part of your motion to include the staff report talks about stakeholders but I just wanted to make sure that specifically that the Mental Health Commission will be also a big part of that making a recommendation
Absolutely,
okay I
do have some comments and I wanted to thank All the people for being here today and Sharing the stories that are very difficult to share. And you know we've heard these stories before and And it's been very difficult to hear the stories, but I do feel that. This opportunity to embrace Laura's law may help. As was said by a lot of people, this is a very complex and complicated implementation process that's before us.
One of the things that continues to frustrate me though Is what we have in place right now, but what we're not doing enough of. And that is and what we know works and that is the current treatment. And I go back to Mr. Craft's statement about our teams and how well they are working and yet how great the need is for more assistance. And then the speaker who talked about, I'm sorry. I don't remember your, I didn't write down your name ma'am but I thought your comments were really touched a nerve for me when you mentioned that your daughter had been in mental health court and that there was the statement that there was nowhere for her to go but to jail I think as a county that is one of the worst things I've heard.
And as we are moving forward in this process with looking at Laura's Law, I think that we have to address that predicament immediately because I don't think we should ever hear that. I want to thank Supervisor Farr for bringing this forward and District Attorney Dudley. I want to thank our staff who has already been looking into this, also Mr. Gazzone I want to thank you And Dr. Lund, I want to thank you for coming forward as a professional staff person to speak about some of the issues. I had read that article or that piece in the LA Times and I've been reading a lot of emails going back and forth. And so again this is really a difficult issue but I think this is the right step for us to take and we'll see what the outcome is.
So anyway, thank you.
Great.
Supervisor Carbajal and Supervisor
Adam. Dr. Lunt, thank you for adding the doctor into our other almost doctor presentation so... And Mr. Kraft, you did an extraordinary job of presenting. So doctor or no doctor, you did a great job. I do want to thank Supervisor Farr and DA Dudley for bringing this forward. I think it's ripe to revisit it, and a lot has changed since last time. And I think this may be the opportunity to implement something that yet gives us yet another tool to really help those in need that are falling through the cracks at the end of the day.
I'm really excited about the opportunity that this means for those that are suffering from mental illness, the families that have to endure those complicated circumstances. And I'm just very thankful for everybody that's going to play a role. But again, for me, I really hope that we really include as many stakeholders in the feasibility The systems development that we're going to embark on so that I think at the end of the day when it comes before us, we almost have consensus on what that looks like.
So that we could really consider something moving forward. I'm hoping that it's going to be positive. And just really looking forward to the opportunity and very thankful to Supervisor Farr for her leadership in bringing this to us at this point in time. And D.A. Dudley.
Supervisor
Abbott? You know, if this was easy it would have been done a long time ago. I think our institutions in defense of the courts telling somebody that they have to go to jail, it's for lack of a better suggestion. So although it certainly isn't the perfect fit, You know they may just not have a choice. And you know this subject is just so vexatious because there is no.
Despite all the science it's really an art. I mean you have to just feel each person's all the doctors and almost doctors are nodding their heads up. You know it's something that you just have to feel each person's problem and attempt to respond in a in an appropriate way. You know, I think that the courts and the jails and the sheriffs and Everybody that comes in contact doesn't always have a good feel and People are especially these people with these problems are so Different each and every one of them is so different that it just defies our being able to lump them into a Category and up. Well, we know what we can do for them.
So you kind of have to to Wrestle around with each person and and that I think that just takes longer than the 72-hour hold to me Is especially when somebody is in a crisis. I don't see how anybody thinks they can actually get a handle on a person's problems in 72 hours and so I think that this is a step towards, I think we're evolving our understanding of this problem And and maybe trending back towards where we were back in the 70s when we had institutions.
Where people could get checked into and maybe it was too hard in those days to get out but now I think that you know, we've tried the I don't know if you call it freedom strategy for long enough that we know that doesn't work either. So, I think we're maybe embarking on a stepping stone back towards longer term Treatment for some of these people and especially at what I call the front end on a continuum of Front-end being You know, somebody that's having a crisis and back in being somebody who is almost or is ready to be on their own and self-sufficient.
And we talk about the recovery based strategy. And I think that has to be the continuum from total crisis to total self-sufficiency And not I think there's a tendency to start talking about one side or the other Because different people have different problems and family members with different problems and different focuses professionally and Just just different motivations, and I think that Whoever is in charge at the top As we go through all this needs to be focused on.
The whole continuum and not just get stuck on one end of the other but anyway I think it's a good idea obviously support the motion.
3:04 – 3:124 turns
Very good. I want to add my thanks to supervisor for India Dudley. You know, I'm grateful for the increased attention that mental health services are being shown Right now it just seems like it's a priority among all of our board members. And looking forward to staff returning with not only having this come back, but also our capital needs assessment in that area. So with that we will take a vote.
Mr. Allen? I guess we have a motion and second on the floor. All those in favor? Aye. Nobody is opposed. Passes unanimously. Very good. Okay. All right, as a little part of agenda management we're going to blow right through our break and lunch and whatever, and we're going to take on item four. Mr. Allen? Oh, Mr. Gazzone. I'm
just wondering if we might have just a few minutes, five-minute break here. No.
We aren't going to. No, yes, of course. ♪♪ ♪
Thank you. ♪ ♪ Good morning. ♪ ♪ Good morning. ♪ ♪ I get one, he gets one.
3:12 – 3:229 turns
All right, let's oh this is in. Is this in Supervisor Carball's district? Can we call him? Bob can you drag him in here? Here he is. Missed opportunity all right so let's reconvene our meeting of the Board of Supervisors Mr. Allen item four
Item number four, some planning and development. It's a hearing to consider the Caltrans-Oreo Parita Bridge Appeal. This is in the First District.
Ms. Caltrans? Dr. Rousseau? Alice? Oh, Jennifer Siemens. Ann.
Ann Almey. Hmm!
Okay. Yes, I had the wrong one.
Good afternoon. I am Anne Almey, and I'll be making the board presentation for the Caltrans Arroyo Parida Bridge Appeal. Caltrans is requesting approval to replace the Arroyo Parida Bridge and its approaches located in the carpentry area along Highway 192. The project is subject to design review on September 7th 2014. The South Board of Architectural Review denied the design due to their determination that the project would be incompatible with the surrounding natural environment.
Caltrans timely appealed the SBAR denial to the County Planning Commission and on May 7th, 2014, the County Planning Commission denied the Caltrans appeal affirming de novo this South Park Board of Architectural Review's denial. On May 16th, 2014, Caltrans timely appealed the planning commission denial to your board. Here is an aerial of the project area. State Highway 192 runs east-west, left right through the center of this photograph.
Highway 192 is also known as Foothill Road in this area. The project occurs between post mile 15.4 and 15.6 at Foothill Road approximately one half mile west of Cravens Lane Carpentaria. As you can see there are residential area to the east of the project. There's riparian quarter running through the project And then there are ag lands to the south and to the northwest of the project site.
Here's a site plan of the project. The project includes replacing the existing bridge with a new bridge 40 feet wide by 60 feet long, flanked on both sides with new highway approaches comprising two 12-foot lanes, four foot shoulders and bicycle lanes. The highway approaches would extend 690 feet to the west and 290 feet to the east before transitioning back to the existing narrow scenic roadway that is Foothill Road.
The project would raise the profile of the road by filling a dip in the roadway approach to the bridge to improve sight distance. There would also be a 74-foot long, nine foot high retaining wall at the southwest corner of the bridge. The project also includes fish passage improvements to the stream but neither the Planning Commission nor the SBAR considered this element in their design reviews of the project. They focused on the roadway, the bridge and the project landscaping.
This is a tree planting plan produced by Caltrans for the project. 75 trees, some of which are mature native sycamores and have attained the height of 80 feet may be impacted by the project. 64 of the trees to be impacted are proposed to be removed. Of those 29 are natives and 35 are non-natives. Native trees removed would be restored using Santa Barbara County approved replacement ratios with plantings ranging in size from one gallon cans to 36 inch boxes.
Non-native trees would be restored with native understory plants at a 12 to 1 ratio. Replacement trees would maintain a 30 foot clearance from the edges of the road right away. Here's a shrub planting plan prepared by Caltrans, and you can see that the shrubs would also maintain a 30 foot clearance from the road right away. Here are two photographs that show some of the existing vegetation that would be impacted. On the left side of the screen is a cluster of sycamore trees located on the north side of the bridge, that will be impacted.
On the right side of the screen is a photograph facing the northwest side of the creek. Here are photographs documenting the current condition of the roadway and bridge. On the left side of the screen is the approach to the bridge facing west, on the right side of the screen is the approach to the bridge facing east. Here's a visual simulation of the post-construction bridge and roadway approaches.
The Planning Commission denied the project and affirmed de novo the South Bar's inability to make their required findings number one, eight and nine. Finding one requires compatibility of projects with the character of the surrounding natural environment. In the instant case, the project would level and widen the approach to the bridge and would widen the bridge itself removing vegetation within 30 feet of the road right away and creating an incompatibility with the character of the narrow county highway leading up to the project in both directions.
Finding 8 requires layout of project elements to be in an appropriate and well-designed relationship to the environmental qualities and topography of the site. In the instant case, the project would require removal of up to 64 trees, many of which are native specimen trees including 12 sycamores and 21 oaks. Finding 9 requires adequate landscaping in proportion to the project. In the instant case proposed new landscaping would maintain 30 foot clearance on both sides of the highway and would be planted at one gallon can sizes up to 36 inch boxes inconsistent with the current setting, which includes mature landscaping in this area.
Additionally BAR finding number 7 cannot be made. Finding number seven requires there to be a harmonious relationship with existing and proposed adjoining development. In the instant case, the proposed project would replace an existing narrow stone bridge And would level and widen Highway 192 for a total of approximately 690 feet on the western approach, and 290 feet on the eastern approach.
The engineered bridge and roadway design would be incompatible with the existing character of the roadway which is narrow, scenic, and rural extending both east and west of the project. As designed, the project would be inconsistent with 12 policies from the Coastal Land Use Plan and the Toro Canyon Plan which address protection of visual resources in native plants.
The project was designed for higher speeds than the posted 40 mile per hour speed of the roadway in this area. Caltrans will explain to you that this is their standard approach to highway design. Highway Design Manual Chapter 80 states, quote unquote, the goal is to increase person and goods throughput, highway mobility and safety in a manner that is compatible with or which enhances adjacent community values and plans.
The Highway Design Manual identifies mandatory design standards in Table 82.1A and advisory design standards in Table 82.1B. Highway Design Manual Chapter 80, Topic 82.2 sets forth the decision makers and procedures to approve designs that deviate from mandatory and advisory standards. P&D does not believe that Caltrans has exhausted its discretionary flexibility regarding exceptions to design standards for this project.
In other words, we believe that Caltrans can design an alternative bridge with fewer impacts and with greater compatibility with the setting. That said, staff recommends that your board deny the appeal Make the required findings for denial of the preliminary design. Determine that denial is exempt from CEQA and deny case number 12 BAR96, thereby affirming de novo the decisions of both the Planning Commission and the South Board of Architectural Review.
That would complete staff's presentation. We're here for questions.
Thank you Anne. All right I forgot to do ex parte so we'll start over there Supervisor Farr?
Mr. Chair, I have no ex parte on this item.
Mr. Chair a number of constituents contacted my office. I'm not recalling specifically myself speaking with any of our constituents, my constituents on this issue. I know my staff have spoken to them but As for myself, I haven't. Council is do we have to be more specific? Even though I didn't have those conversations my staff did.
3:22 – 3:3624 turns
Chair Carbajal no you're fine with disclosing that there was contact and that provides Caltrans with an opportunity to address that in their presentation if they have any questions.
And Caltrans staff also spoke to my staff so. Supervisor
Wolf.
I've had no contact.
Supervisor Adam. No contact. Okay, mine neither okay so we will now move to our appellant is it Amy Donatella be given 10 minutes thank you for being here
Hi, my name is Amy Donatello. I'm the project manager and I want to thank Planning. They've been great with me and especially thank you. I want to emphasize that this is not just a bridge replacement project we're doing four main elements. We're replacing the bridge where we're installing of a new fish passage. We are helping the flood control situation out there in a 50 or 100 year storm and we're correcting the sag in the roadway And I want to also emphasize that we've done everything to minimize the footprint of this project. And I also want to clarify maybe some miscommunications about the scope of the project in our design speed that we actually used.
The bridge was built in 1921, it's almost 100 years old and 1972 Whoops. We installed a concrete apron because the water was eroding around the abutments, so our maintenance crew went in and built a concrete apron. In 1988, the structure was recommended for replacement. We initiated a project in the early 90's But since then there has been extensive damage under the bridge.
We have gone in, in 2006 we went in and did some minor repairs. We put some steel plates underneath there. What's happening is the concrete is deteriorating There is no strategy to fix the deterioration. The only strategy at this time is to actually replace the bridge, but in 2006 we did these bridge repairs. That's a steel plate and here's the original steel plate where a bolt has sheared off. This is underneath the bridge.
Also you can see this was the original bridge of the bolts are starting to rotate out. This is from the heavy load on the bridge Abutments, the bridge rail is coming apart at this abutment here and also there's a railing missing right here. And this railing has been gone for awhile. I actually complained about this several times and finally our instructors department came down and looked at it and they said oh my because you can see there's a big drop off.
They came down and they wanted to attach a rail to the bridge, but the strength of the bridge would not hold the heavy bolts. And the strain was worrisome to the engineers so that we actually have one way on that bridge right now with stop sign until we find out a good solution to this project. Okay. The second thing that needs to be done to this bridge is install a fish passage. All bridges that Caltrans works on are required by the Department of Fish and Wildlife to to create a fish passage. Right now, fish cannot go upstream.
There have been steelhead trout sighted in this stream that need to go upstream and that's a four-foot drop off. And during heavy rains or any kind of rain, fish cannot get up there to spawn. So we want to fix that and Fish and Game, or I guess it's Fish and Wildlife now refuse to give us a permit for the project at all unless we fix that. And the problem is we have to make it here's another angle. We have to do a 4% slope in order to get a 4%. Slope we have to go forward upstream and downstream about 100 feet to establish a flat enough slope so A lot of the, here's another picture here. This is all in the creek bed. This all has to be repaired.
We're going to remove that concrete apron and we're going to replace it with a roughened channel and I'll show you an example one at the example of a roughened channel at the end of this presentation. The next thing that we're doing for this project is fixing the drainage. This is an 18-inch culvert that goes under the roadway. We're going to replace that with a 10 by 6 box culvert, and in order to do that We had to raise the road that so we're not only raising the road that but we are allowing the water to go under the road versus over the road in a 50 or 100 year storm that Creek's gonna overflow and it's going overtop the roadway.
What we've done is we've designed a bridge with abutments are wider apart to Increase the flow through there and we're increasing raising the profile of the road about 5 feet. And the water will now go under the roadway in that kind it brings me to my next point throughout this staff report, it says were flattening and straightening the road but we're really not flattening or straightening the road where actually adding This is exaggerated, I have to tell you. But we're raising the road bed. We're actually creating a hill. We're not straightening and the road is going to stay in the exact same spot that it's at. We're not changing the horizontal alignment. We are not shifting anywhere. And what I wanted to stress was the importance of fixing this vertical sag in the roadway.
That dash line represents the existing Center line of the road now and that solid line is how we would like to fix it. There's a driveway right on the other side of that bridge about less than 100 feet away, and I'll get this picture here. This is actually the driveway to your left. That's about 50 feet away from the bridge. And as you can see if you're pulling out of that driveway, you can't really see if cars coming until you ride out on the driveway. So that's called stopping sight distance, and I did a brief diagram to show you. That stopping sight distance is the time that it takes a driver to see an object in the road. And for a car going 40 miles per hour, that would be 300 feet.
And I know when we first did the design several years ago, I think maybe Anne is getting that confused. We did have a larger design speed. We designed for 65 because that's our standard but we went back to the drawing board and we reduced it to 40 miles per hour and that stopping sight distance is a curve for 300 feet. That's why I want to stress that misunderstanding that we used the minimum design standard And the reason we have to go back so far on the east side of the bridge is to conform. You want a nice smooth transition.
Let's see, let me go back to this one for a minute. Okay, the accident rate at this location... We went back three years and we found three collisions. People turning left into their driveways, there was a collision and then there was a motorcycle. And I believe there is another one where somebody actually went off into the creek where we have that missing approach rail. But I couldn't find any police record on that one.
Let's see. Okay, the shoulder width, let me go back to this one if I'm still on this one. The shoulder width is four feet. We're actually not really widening the road that much because the existing shoulders are 0 to 2 feet and the existing roadbed is from 11 to 12. We are widening the lanes to 12 feet to allow for our standard, we have to design for at least 12 and then we're widening the shoulders from like two to four so our total width we're widening is really between 4 and 6 feet. That's the width we'er widening the road The bridge we're widening, we're putting eight foot on the bridge to allow for bicyclists and pedestrians to walk across the bridge and have a recovery area. So that's our standard for new bridges.
Let's see, now we can go to the trees. I'm not real happy with this map but this is all I could find. These trees, the red dots represent the trees that are removing and this line of trees those are 34 non-native cypress trees that are coming out Because they're within the clear recovery zone and that's another discrepancy are clear recovery zone for this area is not 30 feet. It's it's 20 feet and it's not 20 from the edge of payment, it's 20 from the edge of traveled way so that 20 feet includes the shoulder These are coming out because they're within the 20 feet of the clear recovery zone and they're also within the fill. When we raise the profile of the bed, of the roadbed, we have to have embankment to support the road and that's where we have the four-to-one slopes.
We tried to steepen them up to two-to one but then by steeping them up by two-to one you're creating a runoff the road rollover type situation. And these
And I just want to know how much longer you think I'm going to
be 5 more minutes.
Each actually we're going to go 2 more minutes
okay was
for 10
minutes a little
12,
I'm sorry. Okay, I'd like to emphasize that we're only planting new trees 30 feet from the edge of Traveled Way. All the other plants are going to be removed if they're in the clear recovery zone. Out of the 75 trees 41 are native But 34 of them are native Cypress, which we're removing. So only seven are native due to the roadway. The bridge and the creek are actually removing almost half of the trees being removed because of the fish passage, which we are required to do. So the red is being removed. Yellow we're going to try to save by We're doing our best to save as many trees and I wanted to emphasize that most of the trees are being removed not because Of the creek work and the bridge. And here are two pictures, here's a picture of where we're doing the shrubs and you can see that the brown line, that's our fill line because you can see our fill line is not 30 feet.
The 30 feet is the new right-of-way and we're planting new trees at 30 feet away but all the new shrubs and everything are all going to be within Outside the fill line. And then here's a picture of the roughened channel, an example of what it will look like after they put it in. It's for fish passage and its rock slope protection. And that's a picture of the bridge rail that the bar actually worked with us on and agreed on. You can't, it's not a very good picture but it's very rustic looking and it has bricks.
And this is a picture of the road or how it will look at about 15 years and just real quick less than a minute summary. We've minimized the scope as much as much as possible we reduce shoulder width from 8 to 4 feet. We reduced the design speed to 40. We've increased the number of 36 inch. We're planting 12, 36 inch oak trees which grow about two feet a year so within 20 years the oak should be about 30 feet high.
And in a bad storm, what would happen is that bridge could wash out and then we would have to put up another kind of bridge in an emergency situation which we really wouldn't want to do. And we may have to close the road which we definitely don't want to do
Supervisor Carbajal Thank you Amy obviously You're the authority on this stretch of the road. It's a state road Is You have the road open. The bridge is open right now, correct? Right. So while it's deteriorating, it hasn't reached an imminent danger circumstance where you would close it?
Not yet.
But because it's deteriorating that's why we want to...
We go out about every six months our structures department inspects it and at the last inspection they determined that it was still good for regular permitting loads.
I just want to make sure
yeah, it's not going to collapse any minute. But but like the Rincon bridge I don't know if you're familiar with that the last in 1994 the whole bridge washed out and we had to put an emergency bridge
Thank you.
Yes. Okay.
Very good. Thank you. If we have any other questions, okay We'll call you back up. Thank you very much Move on to the public comment portion. Mr. Allen how many speakers do we have?
We have six requests to speak. We're gonna start with Anna Carrillo
3:36 – 3:426 turns
I just have to leave. Switch spots. Is that okay? Go ahead. I'm just Anne Louise Bardak, thank you for hearing this matter. The community has no problem with fixing this bridge. We've been trying to get Caltrans to fix it for around 15 years. That's not the issue. The issue is whether we want something that's completely out of scale and, you know, it's like putting the Tappan Zee Bridge in this little country road.
We need an appropriate bridge. We've been arguing about this and it just seems such a waste of time. For instance these shoulders, these big shoulders for the bicycle Well, 192 is basically a little country two lane road. There is no bicycle path so you're going to take out all these sycamore trees to put in a bicycle path that runs only on the bridge. And then you get off the bridge, and there's no bike path. And that's why we're going to affect 75 trees here?
It's just completely out of scale. We've been trying desperately to find a congenial resolution here, and it's just been incredibly difficult. So yes, we'd like to fix the bridge. And in regard to the steelhead trout, other people can talk about it more authoritatively with me, but I don't think they've been seen in 100 years And that just, it just doesn't seem very credible. So we reject the Caltrans plan because we want something that is to scale and that works for this neighborhood and also throughout 192.
You have these stone bridges. And so to suddenly put up this state of the art, ode to God massive bridge, we just don't need it. Let's save the money, give it something that really needs it and just fix the bridge. That's all I have to say. Thank you.
Thank
you.
Anna Carrillo? To be followed by Vera Benson.
Hello Supervisors, I'm Ana Carrillo and I'm representing the Carpinteria Valley Association which is an environmental group. 50 years we've been interested in preserving the valley in its nice rural nature. I did submit a letter, so I'll just read the letter also. The Carpinteria Valley Association has been dedicated to preserving the beauty and rural feel in the Carpinteria Valley for the last 50 years and as such we are opposed to the Caltrans proposal for replacing the Arroyo Parita Bridge on Foothill Road 192.
Caltrans has proposed replacing the current 1920s era bridge with a new larger bridge that is completely out of character with a rural country road. They are replacing the current 20 foot wide bridge with one that is 40 foot wide After four presentations to the county BAR on February 7th, the BAR denied this proposal as being too large and out of character with the surrounding rural agricultural and residential area. Caltrans then appealed the decision to the County Planning Commission which also denied the Caltrans proposal based on three findings dealing mainly with the incompatibility of such a large straight bridge in an area Trying to protect based on three findings dealing mainly, I'm sorry with the incompatibility of such a large straight bridge in an area trying to protect the environmentally sensitive habitat of the Arroyo Pareto Creek.
Not only is the bridge itself large but it expands its reach approximately 980 feet on both sides. I've made a mistake there and therefore does not follow the natural contours of the existing landscape. There are some plus or minus 80 foot tall Clustered native sycamore trees with an active hawk nest. Widening and flattening the roadway for this bridge would be incongruent with the stretches of the highway to the east and west of the project area. The project includes removal of 12 sycamores and 21 oaks, many located within the riparian corridor. Even though Caltrans would replace the trees targeted for removal, the new landscaping would not be in proportion to the project, the site or the area adjacent to 192.
Um, they cited the County Planning Commission cited numerous inconsistencies. I won't go into all those since a denial of this expansion Caltrans has made this bridge into a one lane bridge with stop signs at either end which the neighbors and CVA find quite agreeable and much more pleasant and safe. It has slowed traffic and speed down considerably and made the bridge much more in keeping with the rural character of this area. This has been especially true on Sunday afternoons when returning out-of-towners like to use 192 to bypass southbound traffic on 101. Caltrans has stated that the project footprint has been reduced to Caltrans minimum allowed state safety standards, but has also acknowledged that safety standards can be modified by Caltrans on a case-by-case basis.
CVA supports the neighbors, the BARs and the County Planning Commission's denials of the project as being incompatible with the rural nature of this area. Thank you very much.
Mayor Benson? Be followed by Llewellyn Goodfield. I
3:42 – 3:4920 turns
think Mr. Goodfield left.
OK.
Uh, my name is Vera Benson. I'm a part of the Carpentry Valley Association also. Um, My thoughts are this. I can't understand why Caltrans wants this project so much. Um, there was so much more highway 101 in our area that needs to be done by Caltrans. If the bridge is damaged. Just fix it, the damaged part and don't widen it so much and take out all the plants.
As mentioned we want to preserve our rural environment in Carpinteria along 192. And many close neighbors and Carp citizens want to retain this country road. I just decided I would take 192 from Santa Barbara to Carpinteria the other day. About two weeks ago, I guess. And through the Montecito area and beyond there must be three or four bridges just like this one And they're not wide and they have vegetation around them. Why are they picking on this one?
Um, why does Caltrans want to put in a big bridge here when there's so much more to do in the Carpinteria area? It just doesn't fit in. We don't need a four lane highway here. Thank you very much.
Thank you.
Our next speaker is Robert Lessig. Is Robert here? Is Mandy Bersama here?
It's Maud. I'm Maud Borsma. Hi, so I am the property owner directly southeast of the bridge my husband and I live there so I also would like to speak on certain points and not to repeat myself what some valid points Anna made but with some help of some fellow neighbors I drafted a letter that has received 34 signatures primarily or actually entirely of residents west of Cravens. So that is within a quarter mile of this bridge, so that is the vast majority of the residents and as I said not to repeat some other things but there were a few points that I'd like to read off. As concerned citizens property owners and in many cases parents to young children the neighbors would like to voice their concern for the increased speed and volume of traffic the proposed bridge would accommodate Until Caltrans has submitted a plan that would acknowledge and offer some sort of mitigation for the current concerns for safety those residents Most directly impacted by the bridge.
The residents asked the Santa Barbara Board of Supervisors deny the proposed changes We have gone to multiple meetings and have asked them face-to-face with all of their traffic specialists and speed I'm going to go ahead and get started. So the first thing that we're going to talk about is speed limits. Speed is an issue and there are many people with children under the age of 7 including my 15 month old daughter that are terrified What the speed increase will be the result of a bridge like this?
so we ask you as our supervisors to voice these concerns so that we can hopefully find some kind of Mitigation where the bridge won't accommodate such high speeds and that we can feel safe having our kids live within 100 feet of a bridge like this 200 feet a quarter mile. Thank you very much.
Thank you So is at the end of public comment
sir final speaker,
okay very good We'll go back to rebuttal so Amy if you'd like you have five minutes If you have any rebuttal that you'd like to bring back
Yes, my rebuttal is that I do not feel that we are going to create an area that people are going to speed more than they already are. We're only widening the road as I said two to four feet. The bridge after five years or so when We're replanting almost 400 shrubs and trees in the same area. It's going to be overgrown, it's going to be beautiful. The new pavement is going to fade and match the existing pavement. And the trees that are being removed are once again not due to the bridge or the road. The bridge is not taking out those sycamore trees. The rock slope protection in the creek and the roughened channel, we required to dig up the side slopes of the creek and the roots of the trees that are 20% more going to be damaged. We're gonna try to save them.
We're gonna build wells around them and try to do everything we can to save every single tree but once again everything is gonna be all grown up and people are gonna wonder like what the big deal was you know five or ten years from now when everything's grown And so that's the point I want to make. And safety is our number one concern, and to not fix that vertical curve would just create a situation that an engineer would not sign...I tried to check every engineer where I work and nobody would sign off a set of plans without fixing that little hump in the road before you get to the bridge. It's just not something an engineer would sign off on.
I'm
sorry about my rambling. Okay, so we're going to go Supervisor Wolf has a question?
I do have a question On either side of the bridge are there bike paths, bike lanes?
That was another thing. We don't have a bike path out there. We're not planning to put a bike path. The bike path that they're referencing is the four foot shoulder. Right now there's a two foot shoulder so we're adding a four foot shoulder and we're putting eight foot on the bridge because there's no recovery area on a bridge like there is on a shoulder when you're driving. So the eight foot is for safety for the bicyclists but there is no bike path It's just a show to
show you can so you're calling it a shoulder, but someone else could call it a bike path.
Well, it's a shoulder. It's a 4 foot shoulder. There's no stuffing. It is not designated by path is just your standard for foot shoulder and 8 foot on the
bridge so outside of the bridges 2 feet
yeah, there's also they're okay. There's a bike rail on the bridge for to protect for so that people don't fall off over on their bikes and pedestrians
are engineering reason or some. Some reason why it couldn't continue to be 2 feet
All, if you look in the design, well not you but in the design manual they have a policy that all rehabilitated roads will have a minimum of four feet shoulders. We just don't put two, we don't build roads with two foot shoulders anymore it's just not done in the state of California.
So is that the issue staff? Where some folks and maybe P&D are saying that they have discretion
3:49 – 4:0026 turns
Mr. Chair, Supervisor the numbers are jumping around a bit today but yes we do believe and we have heard from Caltrans representatives that there is discretion in the design once all the appeals have been satisfied at a local level there would be going back to the drawing board
We are limited by what we can do. There are safety standards that we can't compromise and one of them would be, we would never design a new road with a two-foot shoulder. They're called mandatory designed specifications that we cannot change. So what is not mandatory? Mandatory would be if there was an environmental reason or there was a really high cost That we would design, we would never design for the two foot shoulder but like say on the bridge. If it came down to where the bridge was either going to fall in the water and collapse or we were going to put one up with four foot shoulders then I would have to take that to headquarters and I would have to go to them and tell them well we can't get you know we can't get a permit to build a job if you really want us to put that bridge out there We're going to have to you know bring the shoulders down and all right.
Thank you sorry no that's OK thank you
supervisor for.
Thank you Mister chair is this bridge in the coastal zone yes so the permit could be appealed to the Coastal Commission.
I think so if they would take it. I believe that they would have to look at the project and decide that it was something, but that would be my next step yes.
Okay. I guess I'm confused now as to the purpose of the project. So what is the driving reason why Caltrans wants to do this project now of this type?
What triggered the project is the state of disrepair that the bridge is in.
But you just said that the bridge was okay?
Today it's okay, today it's okay but you could see from the bolts pulling out, you could see by a hundred year old bridge when they build that bridge they only build it to last 100 years. It's if you look at the, I looked at the bridge reports from the past few years and the bridges slowly deteriorating. And it's not built like they build bridges now there's no steel reinforcing in the deck. There's underneath it starting to crumble that concrete apron is falling apart and the fish can't get upstream. The fish passage is a big deal right now with the resource agencies.
Okay, and so there's no way to repair it? No. And sit to the way it is right now?
No you cannot. That bridge is not repairable. It's non-standard and there's no way to get reinforcing into the deck and into the concrete. Okay. That's lost its strength.
And what about the similar bridges that one of the public speakers talked about that are on another part of 192 that are very similar to this bridge?
This one is in worse condition. This one was triggered to be replaced in 1988, which was like 30 years ago, more than 30?
Triggered by what?
Triggered by the strain reports and they go underneath the deck and they test and they look at the strength of the different concrete materials and the rebar and it was triggered and the scour underneath the abutments when it starts scouring around the abutments then the strength of the whole bridge I'm going to ask
you a couple of questions and then we'll get back to you. The first question is why is it impending right now?
It needs to be replaced. It's 100 years old, and it would be great to get one in there. Eventually we will be posting a permit loading on that but only allow certain loads on there. They were going to do it last year. They went and checked, and they didn't put it up, but it's coming real soon as you could see. The strength of the bridge is weakening quickly.
Okay, and is the 70-foot long 9 foot high retaining wall a mandatory requirement?
That's a hydraulic reason that we're doing it. It's in 150-year storm where they design the water, it takes the water plus we're also saving some trees but the retaining wall is holding up the embankment that is required to put the abutment for the bridge in and in so doing, we're saving about three oak trees because of that retaining wall and you will not see the retaining wall from the road. You will see it. It'll be invisible when you drive through there
Okay well I'm having a lot of difficulties here. Thank you Mr. Chair, thank you.
All right great. Thank you. Well we closed because this is a hearing I have to ask Mr. Gazzone we have public comment that was closed but I understand, but I have to follow certain rules. So I'm going to the lawyer.
Chair Lavanino, if you allow public comment, I would recommend providing another opportunity for rebuttal by the applicant or you could just not allow reopening of public comment? I
think we're just going to proceed because I don't want to open that back up and we opened that back up and I'm sorry, but I think we're far enough into this. We're back to staff comments and do you want to close out
Mister chair and supervisors the only thing I want to clarify is that what we're looking at today is the design review. Application not the application for the development plan that discusses the fish passage that of course we would all support But strictly the design review and we stopped this at the design review phase With a denial so that they could move forward Without having to pursue the rest of the engineering that they would otherwise have had to do So we've taken a shortcut to come here to get a decision on the design.
Okay, very good Supervise carboholics in your district you want to kick it off? Thank
you, Mr. Chair. Well first of all I want to express my appreciation at Caltrans. I think you have a difficult job and you do your best. I think sometimes you do fall short like in today but I think you for the most part are charged with very important responsibility as with Highway 101 and many other roads I think it was really important that staff just redirected us to what's before us.
It's not the overall project, it's a design of the project and I think that goes back to being that we're talking about the design why this was denied by the BAR and then the Planning Commission and I will say that I think From all the evidence and the testimony by the constituents who came today, and I Certainly understand Caltrans Boilerplate cookie cutter approach which seems you have certain standards but I also understand that you have variances and We could look throughout the entire system in California. We could find Variances that have been that have allowed certain exceptions so I think I think this is a country rural road. And what is being proposed is really out of scale, not to mention that as a result it has a lot of impacts on the vegetation, the specimen trees.
It, I think it really warrants something that's more appropriate and in scale and in keeping With the rural nature of the community. And this road in the entire stretch or the entire corridor, this would really stick out like a sore thumb in this entire system. And I think Caltrans needs to go back and really examine what alternatives exist to build, to design a bridge that can be rebuilt here Provide for the safety enhancements that need to be had, but is in keeping with the rural nature of the community.
As staff has said this is in conflict with the comprehensive plan, the coastal land use plan and the Toro Canyon Plan. This couldn't be more out of context and out of place than has been articulated by so many. For me, I think it's pretty straightforward and I'm encouraging you in Caltrans to go back to the design board. Go back to headquarters. Look at all the creativity you have to look at and consider other instances in other communities where we have struggled with similar circumstances.
And I think you will find that Caltrans has identified alternative solutions that have been more conforming with the character of the community So with that, I will say that I don't think we can make the findings as the Planning Commission asserted finding number 189 in the Board of Architectural Review finding number seven. And I'll read number seven because I think it captures the essence of all the other findings.
Requires there to be a harmonious relationship With the existing and proposed adjoining development. And finding one, require compatibility of projects with the character of the surrounding natural environment. Finding number eight requires appropriate and well designed relationship to the environmental qualities and topography of the site. And finding number 9 requires adequate landscaping in proportion to the project.
So with that, Mr. Chair, I'll move staff's recommendation as outlined in the staff report.
4:00 – 4:055 turns
Moved and seconded. All those in favor? Aye. Any opposed? Passes unanimously. Thank you very much. Alright before we adjourn to closed session I think Supervisor Farr has somebody she would like to close the meeting in honor of, as well as I also do. And I don't know, as board members, I think this is something we could look at that we move somewhere else in the meeting because I understand that the idea of adjourning in somebody's memory But we usually do it at the end of the meeting when there's few people left and I don't think he gets the attention or respect that it deserves so.
We might talk about this or maybe as a new chair coming in a few months might take a look at moving this to the beginning are somewhere else anyway surprise for
Thank you Mr. Chair, well I would like to close today's meeting in honor of a constituent of mine that lived in the San Inez Valley for 40 years and her name was Bernice Dots. She passed away peacefully on August 19th in Solvang. She was originally from Wisconsin, but as I said lived in the Solvang community for over 40 years. Devoted to her family, to the community she had a heart of gold and will be forever remembered for her love and generosity. She loved to travel, made friends everywhere she went, and she touched everyone's spirit in some way.
She actually touched mine. She was one of the first people that I met when I moved to the Santa Ana's Valley. She was always, to me as she was to so many others very kind and supportive a woman of great faith and as I said was involved in the community in many ways As a teenager, she had taken up archery and taught it at camp. And then had left all that behind and gotten rid of her archery tackle when she married and had seven children and ultimately 13 grandchildren.
At the age of 84, she saw an advertisement for an archery class and decided that she would give it a try again. And she said that there were 10 little boys and her in the class. And she thought, well hey I can still pull a bow so I can still shoot. So she did that and she followed that up then by practicing and ended up competing in the California State Field Archery Tournament competing against six other people 65 and older in the master senior class and walked away with a third place medal.
So that kind of zest for life in your 80s is something that I certainly want to aspire to and I think that we all do. And she was just a great person who's going to be greatly missed. Her funeral and celebration of life was held last week at Bethania Lutheran Church, and anybody who's interested can make a donation in her memory to Bethania Lutheran Church Preschool. Thank you Mr. Chair.
Very good. Well, and we'll also be closing in memory of Dolores Rose Greenwald, everybody knew her as D. She was a definite force to be reckoned with in the Santa Maria Valley. If you're an elected official and you thought you knew what you were doing, you only had to talk to Dee and she would set you straight that you had no clue what you were up to. Dee was born in New York in 1934.
She loved Frank Sinatra, Dodgers baseball and horse racing. She claimed to have her own bookie by the time she was 16. She attended Greenbrier College and graduated from Weber College in Florida. She worked at Cape Canaveral After college as a systems analyst on some early NASA projects, she met her future husband there, Walt Greenwald. They were married, moved to California, had two children, Richard and Susan.
She remained committed to politics her entire life and devoted herself to causes and people in whom she believed. Her proudest accomplishment I believe was helping to raise the funds for the new Santa Maria Public Library. She loved travel Visited many countries including Israel, Italy, Germany, Holland, France, Panama. Spent time in the Caribbean and Hawaii. She connected with people everywhere in a manner beyond language.
It is certainly an understatement to say that Dee was a wonderful wife, mother, and friend. And there are many individuals who considered her a second mother. Dee died in the living arms of her family on August 12th. Her ceremony was at the Los Alamos, she's interred at the Los Alamos Cemetery. So we will all definitely miss Dee, she was a great person. So Supervisor
Carbone? This actually prompted me to also close in memory of Yesenia DeCasal's son who was 24 and had an unexpected death. And I know she's been devastated because of this and she's part of our UDW labor family. And I just wanted to express my condolences to her and her family on the passing of her son, Eagle.
Okay, our thoughts and prayers are with her and her family. Mr. Gazzone we have a closed session report.
4:05 – 4:072 turns
Chair Lavagnino and Supervisors, we have two items. Notice for closed session. The first is a conference with legal counsel for existing litigation in the case of Schaefer versus County of Santa Barbara US District Court for the Central District of California. Case number CV11-8110. And the second item is a public employee appointment agricultural commissioner and sealer of weights and measures.
All right very good. We will move to closed session. Yeah. Yeah. ♪
4:16 – 5:031 turns
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5:04 – 5:083 turns
Yeah. Board of Supervisors, we have a report out of closed session. Mr. Gazzani?
Gerald Avenino and supervisors, we had two items. The Schaefer litigation which was no reportable action in public employee appointment for Ag Commissioner and sealer of weights and measures. And the direction of the board was to report that the board will bring to open session later this month the reappointment of Ms. Kathy Fisher for a new four year term as agricultural commissioner.
And sealer of weights. That
is all. Okay, very good we will adjourn to September 9th in Santa Maria. ♪ Yeah. Yeah.