Board of Supervisors — 2017-04-21

Last day.

Good morning, it's Friday April 21st this is the last of three days of our budget workshops for the Santa Barbara County Board of Supervisors here in the Santa Barbara County hearing room Mr. Allen would you call the roll?

Mr. Williams, Ms. Wolfe, Mr. Adam, Mr Lavinino, Ms Hartman

And do we have any CEO update

Ms. Miyasato?

No updates this morning.

Okay and now is the time for public comment for matters that are not on today's agenda, do we have any speaker slips?

I do not. I'm unsure if Mr. Caldwell is in Santa Maria. I don't have a slip but if we find him we'll let you know.

All right thank you.

Madam Chair I think we have somebody that looks like might've thought he turned in his speaker slip so.

Yeah, okay we do. We're going to start with Scott Wentz then Maureen Earl and I'm gonna be talking to Santa Maria here.

Madam Chair members of the board Scott Wentz representing cars are basic and myself. I've been at the speaker comment for last 25 years it's not something that I intended to be at this long Reality comes up and bites you in the you know what that you're sitting on. And for the last 20 years I've been talking about transportation and infrastructure. And for 20 years previous boards have ignored it.

Supervisor Adam came up with a great idea in the establishment said You can't do that. You can't box us in. And now you're faced with an infrastructure nightmare You haven't been able to cover $25 million in infrastructure repairs, what for the last 15 years? That's terrible. You're on the SB CAG board. Yesterday was brought up the issue of 246. We've been complaining about 246 for 15 years. I was on the taxpayers' board for a long time.

Caltrans came back and said oh no we've done all the engineering don't worry about it when we get the money we'll do it. All of a sudden Caltrans comes back and says we don't have the engineering necessary. We asked the Board of Supervisors to fight Caltrans over 246 in La Parisma. Caltrans by intent is now guilty of manslaughter because of that stupid roundabout at La Parisma.

Didn't have to put it in there, cost millions of dollars they had an option that was much preferable. Caltrans put in the 154-246 roundabout. We asked the Board of Supervisors to stand up and tell them no, don't do it. Didn't get that response. Christmas morning they had a tollway accident where they had a guy destroy his car on that roundabout. He was not drunk.

And he was out wandering around in the middle You have issues coming up with the widening of 101. Hot Springs Roundabout, talk about a stupid plan. The county put in millions of dollars of bicycle and walking paths along Jameson Lane and now you're going to put in a roundabout there that's not ADA compliant, it's not bicycle friendly, and it's not pedestrian friendly?

You have to start thinking about reality. You can't continue doing this and if it means you have to cut back in perks and other things, to cover the basic infrastructure then please that's what you have to do.

Maureen Earl.

Good morning I'm with CLU clergy and laity united for economic justice. After watching the board presentations last Monday I am here to offer a comment. In these board presentations you heard that most departments included three common threads, reducing incarceration for mental illness, the need for housing and treatment alternatives and commitment to the stepping up initiative reducing the number of this population in jail These departments, the board and community organizations including CLUSB are working to achieve a common goal.

However there is a barrier. The solution for reduction in this targeted jail population is providing enough alternative forensic beds for people with mental illness. We would estimate 100 or more. This funding was missing from the individual department budget requests and rightly so. No one department has overall responsibility for funding this significant increase All in the stepping up team including the CEO and the board and us are responsible for this unjust system.

The good news is that when stepping up is implemented, the county will save millions in jail costs Eight hundred clue petitions to the board in 2013 asked for this action and no jail reduction has yet been documented. So my question is will you as a board move beyond approval of the stepping up initiative to identify funding and delegate responsibility for a forensic bed proposal targeted for this initiative?

Here's one suggestion. Setting aside $1 million as a pilot for proactive investment in enough forensic beds to achieve measurable jail reduction outcomes by 2018-19. Behavioral wellness has the capacity and successful experience to write the proposal and implementation plan. This funding could be invested this year in less expensive forensic beds in permanent housing with support, like beds in Pescadero lofts.

The ongoing costs are expensive, inexpensive compared to the more severe treatment. Our HEART team meetings clarified that No Place Like Home proposal will not include targeted forensic beds. This new funding would bring a balanced access to the continuum of care. It adds to the budget proposal this year by the Community Corrections Partnership for $4 million for a lock facility for 14 forensic beds with long-term treatment.

The sheriff projects that by this fall we will have a new data system providing reliable baseline data to measure the impact of the increased support of forensic beds on jail numbers. Next year at this time, we will know how many more beds and what kinds of services and estimated funds needed to reach our final goal. And that is your time Ms. Earls.

Thank you.

Supervisor Adam. Madam Chair I would like to respond to that some degree. You know, I am a little bit frustrated with the mental health wellness community a little bit because you guys keep coming back here and telling us to spend money but you never show up when we are going to give everybody a raise and you never show up when we've got revenue projects in front of us okay? So there's two sides to this thing.

You know I want to help people with mental health issues as bad as anybody up here and everybody does. We don't, it may have escaped your attention but we don't have enough money to make the go on what we've got going already okay so you know the whole idea that we're just gonna do another hundred beds somewhere and it's gonna save us money That dog won't hunt because you've got to come up with the money for those hundred beds in the first place.

And we're out. So, you guys need to start engaging on a different level and start talking about revenue and expenditures in other places and not just coming in here with your handout and this may seem a little bit brutal but it's what's gotta happen

So we are, Supervisor Williams.

Well it is ironic after that exchange that the department is proposing a $1.1 million pilot I do not believe that it is at At the treatment level that you are proposing, but that the idea is for us to expand our continuum of care and that some folks who would otherwise end up in those beds could be interdicted beforehand and be in what they are terming crisis residential program. And so that is on our scope of work For the coming year.

Approximately the same amount of money that the speaker was just referring to so Yes it is difficult to come up with funds to do this. Yes we need to because it saves money in the long run but Supervisor Adam has pointed out the challenge which is coming up with the money in the first place so we will continue to attempt to chip away at that I want to particularly thank the work that Supervisor Wolf and the department has done in the past couple of years before Joan and I have gotten here, because this is what we need to be doing more of instead of waiting until they're at the most expensive and crisis level and expensive level to treat

Supervisor Wolf. Thank you Madam Chair, usually I don't respond to our public commenters even if I may disagree with them but I want to say to you Ms. Earls that I appreciate the fact that you come and speak to us As someone who you know, not everyone has a luxury of coming to board meetings all the time or picking up on certain issues I think it's important for folks like you who? Advocate for particular issues to feel like you are welcome to this board and and to know that your input is Respected and appreciated just wanted to end with that. Thank you

Thank you. And now we're turning to our first departmental workshop and that's Agriculture Weights and Measures and our Agricultural Commissioner, Ms. Kathy Fisher.

Good morning Chair and members of the Board. I am pleased to present the Agriculture and Weights and Measure Department's operating budget for fiscal year 2017-18. Beginning in January 2018, the department will be responsible for implementing new regulations that involve pesticide enforcement, cannabis licensing and inspecting new commercial weighing and measuring devices such as commercial electric vehicle charging stations. Additionally, the department will be responsible for enforcing new regulations for transportation systems such as Uber and Lyft commercial vehicles.

The challenge is not, it is not known at this time how many licensed cultivators will be allowed by local jurisdictions in the county and how many commercial charging stations and commercial transportation system vehicles there will be in the county to inspect. Once this has been determined we will be in a better position to know whether there will be a need to request an expansion for new positions.

New commercial devices will generate new revenue, which will offset costs for new weights and measure positions. As well as new cooperative agreements with the California Department of Food and Agriculture to cover cost for work related to licensed cannabis cultivators. The recommended 17-18 operating budget is approximately $5.2 million, which includes $1.6 million of general fund and will sustain 33 FTEs.

I am pleased to share with your board that our operating budget does not include any service level reductions or expansion requests. 52% of the department's revenue is provided by state and federal aid. 30% comes from the county general fund, 8% comes from fees for services and 9% from licenses and permits. 77% of the department's funds are used for mandatory agricultural programs. 15% goes to our weights and measure programs, and the remainder 8% goes through administration and support. There are approximately 16 agricultural programs in five weights and measure programs that consist of a variety of inspection services that our agriculture and business community depend on.

The staffing summary chart illustrates for the fourth year in a row, the number of FTEs remains consistent at 33. The graph of the five-year summary of the department's operating revenue shows a slight increase from last year's operating revenue. The graph of the five-year summary of the department's general fund contribution shows a 5% decrease from last year's which is equal to $40,000.

The department will continue to collaborate and provide education and outreach for citrus growers, the public, and beekeepers on the Asian Citrus Psyllid Area-Wide Treatment Program in the county. And assist the California Department of Food and Agriculture in monitoring the effectiveness of the use of biological control agents to slow the spread of ACP. We have initiated the training of staff on the use of the statewide California Pesticide Enforcement Activities Tracking System, also known as CALPETES.

The new database along with technology will enable our biologists to conduct pesticide monitoring inspections using tablets versus paper inspection forms. This new data system will provide an efficiency for the pesticide enforcement program. Our Weights and Measures staff placed into service the first alternative hydrogen fueling dispenser in the county, which serves as a midway fueling point between the northern and southern California for hydrogen-fueled vehicles.

The detector dog team has integrated into all county parcel facilities And has started the process to become certified to begin work in the United States postal facilities. The team also conducts public education and outreach events to emphasize the importance of preventing invasive pests from entering the county and the state. Our staff will continue to provide education and outreach sessions to our agricultural community, such as growers, agricultural pest control businesses, labor contractors, and the structural pest control industry.

Our Weights and Measures staff continue to work with our state partners on developing testing procedures for alternative energy fuel sources, such as hydrogen and electric vehicle charging stations. Our staff will initiate an online credit card payment system to improve convenience and efficiency in the payment of department business permits. Administrative staff will review our scheduled fees to improve cost recovery.

For FY 17-18, staff will work to complete 100% of our employee performance reviews by our due date. Our staff will strive to conduct 100 planned education and outreach sessions to our agricultural industry, other organizations and the public. The 17-18 agreement with the Department of Pesticide Regulation includes a goal of completing 400 pesticide use monitoring inspections. I am proud to share with your board that agricultural biologists have so far met or exceeded this goal since FY 13-14.

Our county currently has 14 certified farmers markets and our staff plans to conduct inspections at each market at least twice during the fiscal year. Our weights and measures staff will continue to strive towards inspecting 100% of the 750 businesses throughout the county that use scanner pricing systems, in addition to inspecting the 6500 commercial weighing and measuring devices operating in the county.

I am pleased to share with your board the Agriculture Department will have no service level reductions in FY 17-18 as a result of an increase in state aid and decrease in expenditures. In summary, our mission includes protecting local agriculture and the environment from invasive pests. We protect public safety, the environment and farm labor from pesticide exposure in addition to protecting consumers and creating an equitable marketplace for local businesses. We will continue to implement innovative creative solutions to manage the new challenge that the future holds.

That concludes our presentation we'd be happy to answer any questions.

Do we have any questions from members of the board? Supervisor Lavanino.

I just want to thank Kathy, I know she's out on the forefront of something that a lot of people probably don't realize is in the Ag Commissioner's office which is the whole regulatory environment now with cannabis and she's a statewide leader again like a lot of our department heads are throughout the state on their different Whatever fits inside their bailiwick. So I know Kathy's been Sacramento quite a few times and I just appreciate you keeping me up to speed and also the ad hoc subcommittee as well.

Thank you. And I just wanted to add my thanks. I know your vigilantly protecting our agricultural industry in our landscape and it's an ongoing job of great vigilance so thank you so much. Thank you Supervisor Adam and then Wolf

Yeah, and from the ag community we thank you for I just haven't had any complaints at all. And everybody would call me anywhere in the county because they would They would know that I would be the guy that has the most experience with this up here. And you're running a great shop, and the people in your shop are doing a great job out in the field and interacting with the growers. Even when there's some kind of violation, I think everybody views it as a helpful thing rather than an adversarial thing, and that's neat. So thank you.

Thank you.

Supervisor Wolf. Thank you Madam Chair I also want to lend my support and compliments to you and your department in the leadership that you've taken on statewide as Supervisor Lavagnino mentioned. I want to also thank you and your department for being at the farm worker labor forum that Supervisor Carpajal and I had in December. And I know that there is outreach to the farm worker community, You know, we just anticipate that outreach will continue and that openness from your department to assist in any way that's possible.

The weights and measures, you know, that was a program that you brought on board when you came to this county and you've done an excellent job. And I just, you know, on behalf of all of us consumers, Watching over those matters means a great deal and your performance measures I think are excellent. You know one thing I just want to say just as a general comment the EPRs you mentioned in your summary are at 100%.

And I think that's an expectation that we should have for every department. I think as we've been going through this, there have been some... Have you noticed that too? Big range. Yeah, there is a bigger range and I just hope in general terms CEO Miyasato that that's something that we strongly encourage our directors and supervisors to ensure that EPRs are done annually.

But thank you. Kathy for all of your work and your and your staff's work on this.

Mr. Allen do we have any speaker slips for this item?

No request to speak.

All right thank you very much in turning to child support services and Miss Joanie maybe?

Good morning Chair Hartman and members of the board. I'm Joni Maiden the interim director at the Department of Child Support Services and with me today is our business manager Meta Richardson, entourage of one. The child support services program works with parents and guardians to ensure children and families receive court-ordered financial and medical support.

Our mission statement is to Serve families and children by establishing parentage and enforcing support orders in a fair and equitable manner. Our challenge is to continue to provide excellent services while our funding remains flat and our staffing decreases. To that end the department will reshape our caseload management reassess service delivery and make use of technology and automated processes This will allow staff the time to provide real and timely help to our customers as they deal with sensitive and complex issues affecting their family dynamics.

Protecting confidential information of our clients is also a focal point for us. While we have solid processes in place, we continue to incorporate the ever-changing information security requirements pursuant to state and federal mandates. Our department is straightforward. Our budget is approximately nine and a half million dollars, and while we historically have been self-sustaining your board previously approved $50,000 general fund contribution for us in fiscal year 17-18. And we're very appreciative of this because that enables us to receive a federal match of $100,000.

We have 71.5 FTEs, a $314,000 in service level reductions with no anticipated layoffs for fiscal year 17-18. Typically one third of our funding comes from state government and two thirds from the federal and this year's chart also includes the $50,000 that we've received from general fund contribution. We have one program based management and collections. We use attrition to balance our budget since our funding has remained unchanged for many years and our 10 year staffing summary shows we've gone from 90 FTEs in fiscal year 9-10 to the projected 71 point 5 in 17 18.

And as I mentioned our funding is pretty flat. We might be a small department, but we've had some impressive accomplishments. We distributed over $27 million with 23 million of that going directly to families and 4 million going to federal state and local governments to reimburse public assistant grants. We decreased the average number of days to get a first payment on a new case that had an existing order from the average of 52 days to 36.

We migrated 73% of our cash paying customers to use the Pay Near Me and MoneyGram options for making payments, becoming the third highest in the state for both the number of customers and dollars being paid using Pay Near Me. We expanded electronic filing with the court using their public web portal for legal actions such as default judgments and notice of motions.

And we've implemented electronic service of process through our child support computer system, and we conducted a workshop with the North County employers discussing the wage garnishment process and available technology options. In the next few years we intend to tackle several critical objectives. We will implement more technology tools such as TurboCourt which is an intelligent software program that will guide customers through the process of submitting legal documents to us by using easy-to-understand questions and then taking those responses and completing the forms automatically for them, and DocuSign which will enable users to electronically sign documents.

Next year we will implement a state funded upgrade of our technology infrastructure and operating platform. We will assess how we're using our office space and develop cost saving recommendations, we'll continue to operationalize security requirements pursuant to state and federal mandates, and finally we will remain dedicated to strengthening our partnerships with other county agencies such as the Department of Social Services and First Five and build referral systems to community providers.

So there's a lot of numbers in our performance measures. A lot to absorb and I'm not going to go into the details about them other than to note that all local child support agencies are judged by the same federal performance measures and we continue to increase ours and exceed the state average across the board. Again we perform well above the state average collecting and distributing almost three dollars for every dollar spent.

And we also are 100 percent on our employee performance appraisals. In the coming year we aim to increase efficiencies by migrating remaining 27 percent of our cash paying customers to use alternative payment options. We are already in the process of installing payment kiosks in our offices so that our customers will have another means to make their payments.

We are going to expand use of the court's public web portal to further automate serving legal documents and we'll be implementing an automated lien processing system with the clerk recorder assessor office to electronically file liens. We continue to manage increased costs by not replacing people when they leave, and we don't anticipate any layoffs in 17-18 fiscal year.

In summary, our history shows we have been able to use attrition to balance our budget and will continue to employ this method. However, to better address the challenges that lie ahead, we will also need to continually evaluate cost-saving options and maximize the use of technology and efficiency measures both independently and in collaboration with the state and other county departments.

By keeping a global perspective, being open to all possibilities and working collaboratively with our county teammates we are dedicated to building one county one future. That's the end of my presentation I'm happy to answer any questions.

Thank you very much do we have any board questions or comments? Supervisor Lavinino.

Thank you madam chair will Johnny I just want to say that first off, you know it's been a seamless transition and we really appreciate this department for as efficient. As you guys are if you look at your history it's it's amazing in the end your service your performance measures are always above the statewide average in an area that Can be very difficult. Yes so I know we asked this before but I was I was one of your put your percent of paternity established for children born out of

wedlock.

Curious how you get over a hundred percent.

Yes that's typically

see 109 percent.

So that measure is they're comparing the most current fiscal year amount of children that we established parentage for. Divided by the previous fiscal year for the number of children that needed to have parentage established. And so in the year we had more that we established than the previous year that needed it to be. It's a wonky one that we kind of don't like but that is what

we have. Great, thank you.

Any

other questions or comments? Yeah I think overwhelming consensus up here is a great job and you run a really tight shop and you bring back, as you say $1 invested three dollars back. And I think that there's a tremendous having such an effective office means that people know they need to pay and they do and it protects children and families in our community so thank you. Thank you.

Are there any public comments?

No requests to speak.

All right. Turning then to

Chair Hartman. Yes I just got a fax I just want to check it. It's Mr. Caldwell but it's for a different item.

OK so turning to Mr. Romo and first five.

Thank you Madam Chair, members of the board. Happy to be here today. I'm Ben Romo. I am the Executive Director of First 5 Santa Barbara County. I want to thank our wonderful and amazing Wendy Sims Moten who is here with a hoarse voice and to support us. Wendy's our business manager and keeps our fiscal house in order which is definitely fulfilling a need area in my personal strengths category.

Just for a bit of background, First Five was established by Proposition 10 in 1998. We get our revenues from tobacco, from sales taxes on tobacco products. Each county has its own first five commission and the amount of funding we get is tied to the birth rate in the county and our proportionate share throughout the state. Our mission is to help get children ready for kindergarten by supporting families to be healthy and strong, and by enhancing the availability of high quality preschool and child care.

And we do that through three categories, our admin and support program evaluation and research. And then our major category which is children's wellness and support where we are investing in program investments in many different ways. Some key, whoa goodness gracious some key challenges you know with the declining revenue source as the number of smokers goes down which we have discussed with the board a number of times.

Thank you Jacqueline, so very sweet. The first five has always planned for the future and the years ahead reflect the need for such planning. A number of legislative changes in Sacramento and on November's ballot will affect our revenues I'll touch on that in just a moment We are mindful of also, we're mindful of the difficult cuts that many county departments are facing and the trickle-down impacts that's going to have in the system that we co-invest in with the county and other departments and partner with. So we're mindful of our need to be strategic in how we're investing to support that system as much as we can with our flexible dollars.

Also, uncertainty at the federal level especially in the area of health care and also in the increased level of fear that immigrants feel in signing up for programs and signing their children up for programs out of fear of deportation. The challenges tied to revenues and reductions in the availability of services reinforces our ongoing efforts to simplify our model internally so we can continue to invest in direct services for children and families.

And a big part of this you'll see is the shifting of work that we used to do internally, to outside partners. Just to summarize our budget in 17-18 we're looking at $4.2 million in expenditures. We're moving from 11 FTEs this year to 10 next year as we no longer fund a management position and shift those services to outside agencies. In this next year we intend to use a larger portion of our reserve than we had planned to help make up for a 17% unanticipated drop in our revenues which is tied to the passage of prop 56 which imposed new sales taxes on cigarettes and tobacco products. It averages out to $2 per pack.

of additional taxes on cigarettes and as you can imagine if cigarettes cost that much more there will be fewer smokers. The authors of prop 56 with our urging were kind enough to include a backfill mechanism in the ballot measure which protects first five at its annual rate of decline of about 3.5%. It's historic rate of decline of about 3.5%. So we have that backfill language in there, but the backfill doesn't kick in until the year after the taxes are collected so we'll see a one-time drop in funding and our reimbursement from that year won't be until the subsequent year.

So we're looking at that 17% drop in our expected revenues for that year which is causing us to use our reserves at a little bit of a higher level. Here you can see just the source of funds being primarily our tobacco tax allocation. You see the use of reserves there and you also see a $378,000 grant which we get from First 5 California to help fund our preschool and childcare quality improvement efforts which we also invest in with our own tobacco tax allocation.

You can see we invest most of our funds in program-related investments. We're also required to analyze and research and report on our outcomes so we invest in evaluation, that's part of our statute that established verse 5 is requiring that. And we have a policy of spending no more than 15% of our funds on admin and support. After shrinking our internal staff footprint through attrition in recent years. Next year we'll be moving from 11 to 10 FTEs by no longer funding a management position and transitioning that work to our partners in the community so we can maintain our impact by investing in our partners and their leadership to lead that work into long term.

While overall we are experiencing a decline in revenues over time, in recent years we have been kind of up and down as we have received grant funding for some of our work. We used to receive a significant amount of funding for our preschool and childcare quality improvement work and that outside funding has been cut in half so you will see that decline but again our average rate of decline in our projected revenues is about 3.5% which works out to about $130,000 a year.

In terms of some of our anticipated outcomes, obviously like I said we are investing mainly in program investments. So you will see 1230 children and approximately 1000 parents supported through our contracts with outside agencies that are providing those direct services. Our work in the area of preschool and childcare quality has helped improve services that are in programs that are serving more than 4000 children.

As a measure of that improvement in quality you'll see that 68 of the 152 child care centers in the county have become nationally accredited which we help support. That's up from 48 in 2015-16 and So our rate of nationally accredited centers in the county is 45% and we're unique in the way that we invest in that here in our county. And so you can compare that to the average rate nationally of about 10%, and throughout the state of about 6%. So we're very proud of that outcome.

And we've also begun investing now in the accreditation, well much more heavily in the accreditation of in-home family child care programs. So we're up from about 2 or 3 to 20 and we are looking at increasing that in the years ahead as well. We also have been investing in the creation of preschool and childcare spaces. We helped create 92 preschool and childcare spaces that we funded directly but we also as a part of this had leveraged funding that allowed us to expand far more beyond those.

Those spaces, we created a new strategic plan this year that will launch us for the next four years. We moved into new office space which is something we had on our docket to do for a number of years and were able to make that move out to Nolita and were saving about $40,000 a year on that. Eastern Goleta I'm sorry supervisor through the chair. We transitioned the majority of preschool and childcare quality improvement services to outside partners again as I mentioned to simplify and streamline our work internally so we are able to more invest in the community.

This year looking ahead, we are going to go through a new competitive grant process to fund agencies. So we will be doing that process in 17-18 and we are looking at doing three-year contracts for those agencies. We are looking at continuing to shift that preschool and childcare work which we used to do a lot of internally out to our partners as I have mentioned a number of times.

We are also looking to increase, continue to increase the number of preschool and childcare spaces. We really have to navigate and adapt to fiscal uncertainties. We always get our revenue projections and then they are always different so it could be higher or lower there are a number of policy changes in Sacramento that are affecting that. So we just need to be nimble and quick about that.

We're emphasizing as I said in this strategic plan we are really emphasizing direct services. Again recognizing the needs in the community as they are growing. Just continuing with our objectives, we're looking at really trying to continue to leverage and align funding with other funders in the public sector and the philanthropic sector not necessarily Receiving funds for first five but instead encouraging funders and giving them information that helps them invest wisely into the zero to five system and augments the investments that we are making.

Like I've said a number of times, we're looking at simplifying internally to create efficiencies and we have to maintain flexibility and we are also continuing to build direct connections with parents Through our communications efforts where we're recruiting parents to join first five and were able to then share information about how they can support their child's brain development directly with them.

In terms of performance measures I've touched on pretty much all of these so I won't run through them unless supervisors have a question on any of them and happy to come back to them as well. And then in terms of efficiencies as I mentioned we are no longer funding one management position in our organization and we continue to shift work to our partners. We are looking at revenue generating strategies and leveraging funding with others, and then were encouraging other funders to align their investments with First 5 like that.

In terms of service level reductions in 17-18 we have none as we are no longer funding a management position but were shifting that work out to partners to fund that work. And in closing I'll just To summarize, the challenges and uncertainty in revenues that we face are things that we can adapt to and weather that storm and that uncertainty because of good planning. And it allows us to also move smoothly to new models and opportunities.

Like I said, we're really emphasizing direct services in funding and we're looking to streamline and simplify Thank you. Use a quote from a Yiddish proverb, to a worm in horseradish the whole world is horseradish. The CEO's office kindly added that last line from me but I thought this was fitting for Art for where we are in the world and as a member of the county family You know if one were to find oneself in the very unenviable and very strange situation of being a worm in horseradish, it would be easy to understand how difficult it might be to focus on anything but the searing torturous pain that you would feel.

In such a state, and thankfully we aren't worms. We humans have brains and we have passion and guts and the craving for community that's at the core of who we are as a species. And it's these things among many others that differentiate us from the worm. As Sister Janet once told me, nobody has it all together but together we can have it all. Thank you Supervisor I'm sure you've heard that too.

Throughout these difficult months I've seen my colleagues our CEO team and you on the board step up be creative and work together to chart a positive path forward despite the challenges we face. And we at First 5 are thankful to be a small part of the larger county family. And we remain eager to follow that positive path with you for the benefit of the community. So with that, that ends my presentation and I'd be happy to take any questions comments jokes whatever.

I'll lead off but I don't see any other lights so I'll go first. The first thing I would like to do is serve on the First 5 board and had to actually elbow out some of my colleagues for that privilege. And the degree of professionalism and commitment is extraordinary. Mr. Paz, Ms. Simms and your leadership. I think how you collaborate with partners and build capacity in your partners is just really extraordinary.

I'd like you to comment on two things because this is really I think long-term where we need to be thinking about and that is the importance of zero to three in terms of young people and what that means for public policy. And the link that seems to exist between the decline in juvenile crime and early school preparation.

Absolutely. So 80 percent of the brain is developed by age three, 90 percent by age five. So it's really the foundation for success and later in life that takes place in the early years. So Chair Hartman we appreciate your service and your participation in what really is a community wide effort to build a system of support for zero to five year olds. Unlike most of that brain development taking place in those early years of life And, you know right when a child turns five or six they're entered into a robust free system of universal kindergarten that supports children and families in their learning. And in the first five years of life we have much less of an infrastructure even though the foundation for all that support is taking place later in later years so by investing in the first five years of life were really If we're successful in doing that, we are able to achieve great things for the system later on because it costs a lot more to remediate after the fact when children don't have the support they need with those kinds of costly remediation strategies.

Families are so key to that, so the social services that we're supporting are supporting families, supporting children and research has definitely shown that when children have the support, when families have the support that they need in the first five years of life there are many positive benefits educationally but also in terms of their ability to chart a positive path for themselves in adulthood and seeing those subsequent declines in juvenile justice and delinquency.

Thank you Supervisor Wolf. Thank you Madam Chair and thank you for being our representative on the first five. You know this is one area, sometimes I feel like I can go on and on about this. It's just it is so important and I really do thank you and everyone in first five. You know this year I've had the privilege of serving on, I had to find out what the name of this, the Child Care Planning Council. Oh yeah.

And you know what is so impressive about this county are the number of people who are involved in this important task of taking care of our children and I'm just, you know I sit there and everyone goes around and talks about the things that they are doing in the community North County, South County, public schools, private entities. I am just overwhelmed by the commitment of people in our community.

I guess to everyone out there, I just want to thank them for being a part of this partnership that we have to make our community good and safe. And I also just want to thank you for bringing up the partnerships that First 5 has within the county and as Supervisor Hartman mentioned The impact that our departments have in collaboration with you on what happens to children as they grow older and how we can prevent some of that in these very early years. And your working with social services.

I think there's also, and I see Dr. Dean out here, Charity Dean. I know that there's connections, well it's just really the people who are on your commission. Probation, public health, mental health. It's everyone even so within the county family working together. That's why this whole budget process to me is so important because as I've said before if you pull a thread out of this fabric we don't want everything to fall apart. So we have to be very strategic.

So Mr. Romo thank you, I know that there was some concern on the council about the elimination of that management position but I also understand that there are folks who came to talk to you and I appreciate having that dialogue with folks in the community. You know keep up the good work. We it's one of these things that we are so happy that people are stopped you know that they're not smoking but it definitely impacts your budget but we hope that the message gets out there enough so that its generational, people start really understanding the focus and importance of that zero to three or zero to five and it becomes really institutionalized in our community Anyway, thank you. I love the numbers of the accreditation. I know that it's going to continue to improve.