Board of Supervisors — 2017-09-12

Right, OK. So after the honorary. Good morning and welcome to the Santa Barbara County Board of Supervisors meeting of September 12, 2017 here in the county Santa Barbara hearing room. Ms. Alexander would you call the roll?

Mr. Lavagnino, here.

Mr. Williams,

There is nothing to report this morning Chair Hartman.

Okay turning to our administrative agenda we have 10 honorary resolutions to approve A17 through A26 could I have All in favor say aye. Any opposed? They are all approved and we're presenting five of them would you read a 22 into the record Ms. Alexander.

Chair Hartman and members of the board item A22 is from Supervisor Williams it is to adopt a resolution proclaiming September 2017 as National Recovery Month in Santa Barbara County and if the recipients hear from CADA From Good Sam and up in Santa Maria we have someone from Coast Valley in Santa Maria. If you can all come to the podium that would be great.

And I'll go ahead and read the resolution. Whereas the Santa Barbara County Behavioral Wellness Department provides, in partnership with community-based organizations, a continuum of care which includes the prevention, intervention, treatment and recovery from mental health and substance use challenges. Promoting the message that behavioral health is essential to wellness. And whereas this year's Recovery Month theme, Join the Voices for Recovery Strengthen Families and Communities The 2017 theme highlights the value of family and community support throughout recovery, and invites individuals in recovery and their family members to share their personal stories and successes in order to encourage others. And whereas the County of Santa Barbara Behavioral Wellness Department supports recovery programs in all areas of the county to assure everyone has an opportunity to achieve and sustain long-term recovery by improving their health and wellness Living a self-directed life and striving to reach their full potential.

And whereas we encourage individuals and groups who are in long term recovery to be vocal, assertive, and promote recovery. Now therefore be it hereby order and resolve that the Board of Supervisors proclaims September 2017 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 our community past and adopted today.

I would like to thank the Board of Supervisors for recognizing all of us in the recovery community for the important work we do. It's a very impressive group of community-based organizations that provide these services and were very thankful for the recognition. With me today is some of our key people. Ed Quay on the right is with Teen Court, we've got Jill Franzen who runs our adolescent treatment program.

We have next to Dr. Gleghorn we've got John Gabbert who runs our adult program and Wynn Bracayakou's administration.

I'm Sylvia Bernard. I'm the Executive Director of Good Samaritan Shelter and with me is our CFO, Hector Giron.

Again thank you very much for the recognition.

Thank you and Mr. Hamlin in Santa Maria were you going to say a few words?

Mr. Hamm is not with us this is Chuck Madsen, Director of Programming for Coast Valley Treatment Centers. Thank you Board of Supervisors for recognition of those struggling it with addiction and mental health disorders and recognizing September as National Recovery Month.

Thank You Turning to item A23

Chair Hartman and members of the board, Item A23 is from Supervisor Wolf. It is to adopt a resolution of commendation honoring Custody Deputy John Furster upon his retirement from the Sheriff's Office after over 21 years of faithful and distinguished service to the citizens of Santa Barbara County. If I can have John come to the podium? Whereas, John Furster Jr. will be retired from county service on Monday August 28th 2017 having faithfully served the Sheriff's Office for over 21 years during which he served as a Sheriff's Corrections Officer and Custody Deputy. And whereas, John Furster Jr. started his career with Santa Barbara County on July 29th 1996 when he was appointed to Sheriff's Corrections Officer and was initially assigned to the main jail In December of 1998, he transferred to the Honor Farm now known as the Medium Security Facility where he finished his career having well and faithfully discharged his duties for approximately 19 years.

And whereas John Furster Jr throughout his career provided the employees of the Sheriff's Office friendship loyalty and whereas John Furster Jr provided the citizens of Santa Barbara County extraordinary professionalism and sensitive law enforcement service while dedicating his life to the pursuit of justice And now, therefore, be it hereby order and resolve that this Board of Supervisors commends John Furster Jr. for his faithful and distinguished service to the citizens of Santa Barbara County, congratulates him upon his retirement, and wishes him and his family continued good health and many years of happiness passed and adopted today.

I'd like to thank the board for their recognition. I also would like to thank my wife for putting up many years of the hardships we had to go through and helping me through them. Also, thanks to the Sheriff's Department, my partners. Couldn't be the best family that I ever could have had. Thank you very much.

A 24.

Chair Hartman and members of the board item a 24 is from Supervisor Williams and Supervisor Wolf it is to adopt a resolution proclaiming the week of September 17th 2017 through September 23rd 2017 as Constitution Week in Santa Barbara County. And if I can have Anne Rycroft and Kathy Green who are receiving on behalf of the Mission Canyon Chapter National Society Daughters of the American Revolution come to the podium go ahead and read the resolution.

Whereas September 17, 2017 marks the 230th anniversary of the drafting of the Constitution of the United States of America by the Constitutional Convention. And whereas it is fitting and proper to accord official recognition to this magnificent document and the anniversary of its creation And to the patriotic celebrations, which will commemorate the occasion. And whereas it is fitting and proper to protect the freedom set forth in the Bill of Rights. And whereas public law 915 guarantees the issuance of a proclamation each year by the President of the United States of America designating September 17th through 23rd as Constitution Week. And whereas Constitution Week urges all citizens of the County of Santa Barbara to study And reflect upon the privilege of being an American with all the rights and responsibilities which that privilege involves.

And now therefore be it hereby ordered and resolved, that this Board of Supervisors proclaims the week of September 17th through 23rd 2017 as Constitution Week in Santa Barbara County passed and adopted today.

I'm calling Kathy Green up here with me because she worked for two years to get this proclamation. So on behalf of all of the members of Mission Canyon Chapter, National Society Daughters of the American Revolution we are very happy to accept it and we're grateful that Supervisor Williams and Supervisor Wolf have recognized the value of this important document as what you say is the 230th anniversary We feel that it has ensured the freedom of everyone who lives in this, what I believe is the best and always has been the best country in the world.

And in the spirit and memory of the men and women who fought for American independence sacrificing their lives and fortunes. Thank you very much.

Item A 25.

Chair Hartman and members of the board, item A 25 is from Supervisor Wolf and Supervisor Hartman. It's to adopt a resolution proclaiming the week of September 10th 2017 through September 16th 2017 as National Suicide Prevention Week in Santa Barbara County. And if I could have Gina Carvalho on behalf of the Glendon Association come to the podium? And anyone else who's here with her as well?

I'll go ahead and read the resolution. This resolution recognizes suicide as a national and statewide public mental health problem, and suicide prevention as a national and statewide responsibility, and designates September 10th through 16th as National Suicide Prevention Week in Santa Barbara County. This week overlaps World Suicide Prevention Day, September 10th, recognized internationally and supported by the World Health Organization.

And whereas suicide is the 10th leading cause of death in the United States and the second leading cause of death among individuals between the ages of 25 and 34. And whereas in the United States, one person completes suicide every 11.89 minutes resulting in 44,193 suicides according to the Centers for Disease Control. And whereas, suicide is the only top 10th cause of death in the United States that has increased every year for the past decade. And it is estimated that there are over 1.1 million suicide attempts each year. And whereas, over 90% of the people who die by suicide have a diagnosable and treatable mental illness. It is estimated that 4.73 million people in the United States are survivors of suicide loss according to the American Association of Suicidology.

And whereas the stigma associated with mental illness and suicidality works against suicide prevention by discouraging persons at risk for suicide from seeking life-saving help and further traumatizes survivors of suicide, recognizes suicide as a national and state public health problem and declares suicide prevention to be a priority. Promote awareness that suicide is a public health problem that is preventable. And develop and implement strategies to reduce the stigma associated with being a consumer of mental health, substance abuse and suicide prevention services.

Now therefore be it hereby ordered and resolved that this Board of Supervisors recognizes September 10 through the 16th 2017 as National Suicide Prevention Week in Santa Barbara County passed and adopted today.

I want to thank the Board of Supervisors through the many years that we have been working on suicide prevention you've been such supporters of not just suicide prevention but mental health. I want to accept this resolution This is Anne Grimacy from Santa Barbara County Behavioral Wellness. It is a partnership, all of us together here in this community are helping to deal with suicide prevention and mental health and it's definitely with this partnership that we've been able to do the work that we're doing in this community. And I would like her to say a few words too to the Board of Supervisors and I want to thank you for your acknowledgement and your support.

I also brought fliers today. If anyone, we are launching these Save a Life flyers. They're very simple how-to if you're worried about somebody so I'll leave these here for you and thank you.

I echo Gina's words. We thank you so much for not only recognizing the importance of this week but recognizing the importance of this area of attention within our community. Thank and recognize the community for their involvement in so many activities that have taken place this month And also want to recognize and really thank and underscore the value of our partnership and collaboration between the Department of Behavioral Wellness, and the Glendon Association, the Santa Barbara Response Network, and so many others as we work together on this important cause. Thank you.

Thank you.

Chair Hartman and members of the board, item A26 is from Supervisor Hartman. It is to adopt a resolution of accommodation honoring Jamie Bohorkas of Child Support Services as the September 2017 Employee of the Month in Santa Barbara County. And if I can have Jamie come to the podium? I'll go ahead and read the resolution. Whereas, Jamie Bohorkas has been selected to be the September 2017 Santa Barbara County Child Support Services Employee of the Month for her outstanding work as a financial office professional and as the department's safety officer. And whereas, Jamie embraces her role as the department's safety officer and performs such role enthusiastically and diligently which has been acknowledged even by those who were observed exiting the building using unapproved exit routes during the past three fire drills.

While continuing to perform her financial office professional responsibilities in an exemplary manner. And whereas Jamie is appreciated for her dedication and her craving for perfection in all tasks assigned to her, as well as for her communication skills infectious smile and humble behavior when working with clients and staff members. And whereas Jamie's individual efforts as a member of the child support services team have been made co-workers Feel safer in the workplace and have made a meaningful difference to families and children throughout Santa Barbara County.

Now, therefore be it hereby order resolved that this Board of Supervisors recognizes Jamie Bohorkas as the September 2017 Employee of the Month passed and adopted today.

I just want to mention what a delight it is to work with Jamie. She always brings an attitude of cheerfulness and joy to the workplace, and from her many years on the payment window, I can attest that she even makes people enjoy paying their child support.

I just want to say thank you to the board and to child support and to my family for making me the person that I am today and keeping us safe besides doing my other everyday duties. And they always say it takes a village, well it does take a village to get child support to the children in our community. Thank you.

Turning to the rest of our administrative agenda, Ms. Alexander were there any announcements regarding any items on the agenda?

Yes Chair Hartman and members of the board we have one announcement and that is the department is requesting to continue items A2 from behavioral wellness to consider recommendations regarding first amendments with transitions mental health association Mental Health Association for fiscal year 2017 through 2018. And items A3 is from behavioral wellness and it's to consider recommendations regarding a contract renewal with Crescent's first fiscal year 2017-18 to our meeting next week which is September 19 in Santa Maria.

So may I have a motion to continue those items to September 19?

So moved.

Second. All in favor say aye. Aye. Any opposed? So those items are continued so I have already A5, A7 and A24 are there any other items in the administrative agenda that any supervisor would like to pull? Do we have any public comment asking for any of these items to be pulled?

Yes chair Hartman members of the board we have requests on item a five and a twenty four.

Would you read a five into the record please?

Chair Hartman and members of the board, Item A5 is from community services it is to consider recommendations regarding the continuum of care program for fiscal year 2016 grant agreements and applications for the fiscal year 2017 continuum of care program competition.

Okay and Supervisor Lavinino I believe you yeah could we have public speaker first that might okay.

Chair Hartman members of the board we have one request to speak on this item and that's Chuck Flax.

Good morning Chair Hartman, members of the Board of Supervisors and members of the public. Chuck Flax from C3H, Executive Director. I'm also a member of the Continuum of Care Board of Directors. I also sat for the whole day as the Rankin Review Committee observed and approved The list of projects for this year's continuum of care grant. The item before you has several things going on but as I understand one of them is that you're gonna approve the county's entering into a plan to use next year's continuum of care money to administer some changes to our system And I just want to mainly say that I'm here if you have any specific questions about the process.

We did vote unanimously in favor of putting forward the application as is we are, I feel personally very sad that we had to pull some funding from existing We've been hearing from HUD how they plan to change the rules and make sure that we're doing things their way, or we risk losing millions of dollars. And so we felt that it was important that the county become very engaged in overseeing this work and ensuring that year after year we continue to get those funds.

It requires administrative oversight. It's an incredibly complicated system and process that I don't think any single agency can handle, and it needs the county's blessing and process to make it go forward. I don t like it. I don t think anybody likes how HUD is administering this. It s this annual very complicated process. But at this stage where we are in this transition, we need the county's support and involvement on an ongoing basis.

And again I'm happy to answer any questions. I know that HCD is here as well. Thank you.

Mr. Plax, I did have a question

and

that is so you participated in the process. Yes. Could you describe the criteria and how they've changed if they have?

You know I'm not an expert in this and I would defer to the expertise of HCD, but what I do want to say that my understanding is that when these funds were originally approved long ago we were in a very different situation in terms of homeless service providing. And shelters were really the front line to provide services to homeless people. Unfortunately in Santa Barbara to a large extent that's still true. We absolutely desperately need the shelters to continue their support because in many cases that's the only way to get people off the streets in the short term. However, HUD has made it very clear that the requirements now are really housing first and to get people off the streets as rapidly as possible. That includes, and in some cases the shelters are doing this, rapid rehousing and finding alternatives to sheltering people getting them into housing as quickly as possible So the big change that's happened is this push towards Housing First.

The second big change is the requirement that we develop a system called Coordinated Entry, and this particular system—this is where I think we need the county's support—it's a fairly complicated change in how we're doing business countywide. It involves opening up our HMIS system, expanding the number of licenses tremendously, I'd like to start by saying thank you to all of To an oversight to make sure that we're in compliance because if we're not in compliance, we risk losing the funding. And it's this annual complicated application that needs staffing support to make sure that that continues. Ideally, we could be independent and you know, we wouldn't need county administration to do this but I'm not aware of any counties that aren't doing this.

I mean, in general counties across the country are the ones that are administering the coordinated entry process and the continuum of care process.

Thank you. Any other public speaker slips on this item?

Chair Hartman and members of the board, that was our only request to speak on this item.

Are there any questions or comments? Supervisor Lavanino.

Thank you Madam Chair I do have a question so if but probably for HCD. So this is a complicated so the way I remember it and I was always kind of the one that was I didn't understand why always the same projects always got We're going to go through that process of why this is different.

So HUD has definitely been asking communities to prioritize projects that provide permanent supportive housing, that implement a housing first model of service which is to rapidly get chronically homeless individuals quickly into housing and then provide the services afterward. And while we have a number of very outstanding homeless service providers throughout the county HUD requires communities through their continuum of care, which is the group of stakeholders to really double down and do a very methodical process looking at performance measures on how programs have been able Thank you very much.

is we had the community go through this process of identifying a scoring tool which would really look at projects and look at how well they've done through their annual performance reports. So this was a very objective review of reports that they are already submitting to HUD, and what we did is we put that information into a grid. And so depending on how well projects did or how many individuals they served Whether they were able to draw down their funds in a timely manner, it actually created a quantitative score for those projects. So afterward those projects were ranked and then it was up to the committee to essentially provide a subjective review and they could also add what other priorities the community wanted to place on top of that if they wanted to adjust those priorities.

Okay thank you. So the, but it seems like there's a and we've contracted now with Home Base that is out of the Bay Area which has a housing first kind of model I mean background or are they just trying to match us up with the HUD requirement?

They're actually matching us up with the HUD requirements so The board of Supervisors meeting And I'm a

real late comer to housing first because I totally did not buy into it at all originally and now I do see a place for it but for me, it's not instead of clean and sober housing. It's in addition to and so I have Because and I thought this was kind of the way our county was moving. I know at least in the North County we have clean and sober shelters. My thought was that the South County was also because funding partners in the private sector were more interested in funding clean and sober shelters than they were maybe a housing first or rapid housing can you talk speak to that at all why?

So what HUD has found is they've been implementing what they call an evidence-based model, which is to get the chronically homeless very ill individuals off the street very quickly because they found that to provide services in a transitional emergency shelter setting was simply not going to help those folks who have issues of mental health And I think Santa Barbara County has done that. We've stepped up with our general fund funds for shelter projects here locally We have the Human Service Commission.

We also have been very successful in getting state emergency solutions grant funding, and this board approved over a half million dollars last year, another $650,000 this year from state ESG funding. And what's interesting is that both the state and HUD are saying the same thing. They're saying that communities need to implement a housing first model They need to also implement a coordinated entry system, which is to assess people equally throughout the communities that you're getting the very sickest people into housing first.

The other grant that we expect to get in the near future is called No Place Like Home. That is specific funding to construct permanent supportive housing for those chronically mentally ill Individuals and that's actually a grant that behavioral wellness is working on now, and we're at we're working with them as well

Okay, my last request would be Well when do we find out? What the result of this application is

So we're submitting the application but HUD always works a year in advance, so we won't receive notification about our funding award until possibly sometime in December of this year with contracts to be available in 2018. So this change is not really going to go into effect until mid-2018 and at that point I think we'll have an opportunity to look Thank you.

Supervisor Wolf. Thank you Madam Chair, Ms Lockhart thank you for being here and for monitoring this program which is very extensive and your reporting your staff report was also extensive and it brought up a concern for me. And that has to do with the monitoring of the clean sober living in the LTHP program I think we talked to you I would like to get some. Assurance because what what is stated in the report is that there has been some concerns with the findings related to program design client documentation and misclassification of line items that had been identified and that staff believes a resolution of these findings will be completed If those findings are substantiated, do the funds continue to go to the organization as specified?

And I'm sure you understand the reason why I am bringing this up because of our past experience with another provider.

Absolutely. So yes, Supervisor Wolf through the Chair. This county and HCD and CSD takes HUD regulations very seriously. And to that extent, as part of our fiduciary duty as the grantee which sub-grants money to Good Samaritan, part of our duty is to monitor projects and so we did that this year. In fact, we did it twice this year. We involved Home Base who is a technical assistance provider and they did the review using HUD regulations using the HUD handbook They went out, they did an assessment, wrote up their findings.

They also provided those findings to staff. We went out there a second time, reviewed those notices and findings with Good Samaritan. We did a financial review of their bookkeeping and we found that There are issues as they pertain to the strict adherence to HUD regulations. So for example, HUD wants you to document chronically homeless individuals. They want you to have in your records how you've identified how many times a particular homeless individual has been homeless over the last three or four years. Many times homeless individuals don't recall The other issue regarding of funding.

Expenditure line items again it's it's not that money was ever misspent or miss or incorrectly used It's simply that if you indicated some operational expense, but you classified it as case management. You either have to do a budget revision or provide the time sheets and documentation to support that. So it was at that level of specificity none of the issues rose to the level Miss use of funds or or the program was not impacting or or effect. Improving the lives of homeless individuals it was an issue of documentation and simply making budget revisions so that the budget that had has is consistent with the invoices and documentation were being that we're being submitted by good Samaritan so staff is working through those issues we consider them at the level of technical assistance And we expect those issues to be resolved within the next 30 to 60 days.

It's simply now a matter of getting a final report out to Good Sam and Good Sam to provide documentation that they have been able to provide all the documentation that home base and staff have found

they need. Okay well thank you for that explanation and so based on what you said I trust that everything will move forward in that Your staff has reviewed everything and it will be fine. Yes. And thank you for doing the follow up that we would expect. Appreciate that. Thank you.

Supervisor Williams.

Well one thing I noticed about the scoring in system in this case that there was one. Applicant that did not get as high but the points were very close and it can't how does the work of the process work in those cases, I mean do we sometimes you go when when it's that close to go well what if we reduced all grant amounts by 5% and then we we Fund one more project mean do you ever think about doing things that way and of course I guess the ramifications in this case would be depriving ourselves of. Of money but I mean.

How is that ever part of the process and shoot and if it's not should it be.

So that would be a great solution and staff would gladly jump on that solution if that were permitted and if that was something that HUD looked favorably on. But HUD wants communities to really Fund those projects that are meeting community needs, which are the permanent supportive housing projects assisting chronically homeless individuals. And simply shaving off from all the projects to fund a less priority project for the community is not where HUD wants us to be. HUD looks at the entire application, they score the entire application. They look at your scoring process so this whole process that we've gone through, the use of the scoring tool, the use of three committees, the rank and review and appeals committee and the COC board all of that is part of our point score to really We're going to secure the entire funding that's available to this community, which is $1.7 million.

But this is competitive funding so our entire process is transparent. It's transparent to the community and it's transparent to HUD and they will score us depending on how we have selected projects. So that's why we went through this very difficult

process. So if I'm understanding correctly we would undercut our position in winning the grant if the board changed what the public process or what this very tri-level process has determined.

Yes, yes at this point I would not encourage the board to go in that direction because Again, HUD wants this to be a community process and the other issue I would say is that even the county has applications in this.

So it's a conflict of interest? Absolutely. I just wanted to say a couple of things and echo what Supervisor Lavinino said about clean and sober living and housing first. It seems to me In housing, there are many different populations and people who are mentally ill and addicted and isolated. The Housing First model is a really appropriate one but for families who were evicted from their home or women with children who are recovering Thank you.

I also want to just say that I've had the opportunity of visiting the Good Samaritan facilities in Lompoc and in Santa Maria they were featured and we brought a busload of people with first five seeing what works. And we visited the Santa Maria facility and it was extraordinary so I'm a big supporter of that model as well, and I just want to put that on the record. Supervisor Wolf?

Thank you Madam Chair this conversation just brings up another question for me. Who is on the COC board? Because it looks like from your report that the board then recommends the COC review and rank committee that is appointed by the board. So I'm just curious who sits on the board?

So I'll speak to the question in general and then get specific so although the COC Board approves the final ranking Those COC board members who are conflicted, that is those who have applications being considered must recuse themselves. And board members that also participated in the rank and review process or appeals process must also recuse themselves. So the individuals on the COC Board who actually approved the final rank and review We're a subset of the board and that was only 3 individuals on those 3 individuals who had the final approval were not conflicted.

But to get specifically to your question on the board are representatives from transition House good Samaritan people self-help housing, housing authority, the city of Santa Barbara, a city of Santa Barbara representative County of Santa Barbara, I hope formerly homeless community member Housing Authority of the County of Santa Barbara, New Beginnings Counseling Center, County Public Health and the City of Lompoc. So those agencies are formally represented on the COC Board.

So I can only hear one that might not have a conflict. So which would be the homeless representative but you said that there's three or is at the ranking committee?

So so I neglected to mentioned that the board has a new member which I forgot to mention was Chuck Flack so the individuals who voted for the final rank and review committee were City of Santa Barbara, Central Coast Collaborative on Homelessness and People Self Help Housing. So I forgot to include. Central Coast Collaborative is on my board as well.

Okay all right thank you.

So I see no more lights. Do we need to take a vote on this item or just vote as part of the administrative agenda? Okay, well we'll move on then thank you. Thank you. A7 would you read that into the record?

Oh one last question. And this thing maybe should have been a D, it's probably going to be our longest item of the day.

Please let us know if you want it to be a D item

next month. I think any time we're passing out money. On the licensing that you had mentioned, how many licenses are we putting out there right now in the community? It's a lot.

So I don't have that exact figure and I apologize for that. But we don't, we don't have enough licenses so we have prioritized those agencies that are required to have a license which are the COC funded agencies and those agencies which have other federal funds which get their funding if they are partnering with the local continuum of care such as Veterans Administration and I think runaway and homeless youth. There's a couple of grants that also receive federal dollars that are required to partner in HMIS.

Thank you. Go ahead and move the item.

I think we decided we didn't have to vote on this one okay so read A7 into the record Ms. Alexander?

Thank you. Thank you.

You know when we originally did this you know we were adding dollars to a recording fee and I just wanted to give a big shout out to the DA's office and our district attorney Joyce Dudley. You know for one full time employee I want to start by saying thank you to the board of Supervisors. We've been pursuing 45 investigations and I don't you know, I kind of wish everybody had a chance to read this report in public. There are some people doing some crazy things out there in real estate fraud.

Amazing, and it's great that we have people looking out for us. And I really applaud the DA's office of sitting down in the recorder assessor's office trying to kind of be a voice of reason for people that are trying to defraud the county by encouraging them not to move forward with their illegal activity. I saw the monetary loss suffered by victims of this case close to $5 million. So, I think it was money well spent and just a big shout out to Joyce and her crew.

Okay. And the only other item I had was a public speaker on A24 is that correct?

Chair Hartman and members of the board yes we have a request to speak on Item A24 and that was previously read into the record and the speaker on that is Denise Adams.

Good morning. Thank you for allowing me to speak and thank you Supervisors Wolfe and Williams for acknowledging the importance of the United States Constitution. As a resident of the county I'd like to know what that means now that we've acknowledged the importance of the constitution, I want to again share What I know, the typical student and person in Santa Barbara County doesn't even know about our Constitution. So my question to you is how are we going to implement something related to Constitution Week for the 231st anniversary of the Constitution?

For example, one of my personal concerns here in Santa Barbara County is that my Sheriff Brown, he's up in Sacramento. I've met with him on Washington D.C., and he's in full support of implementation of the Constitution. He rose recently with the Sheriff's Association. He's blasting SB 54 which is our sanctuary state building. And the U.S. Constitution's a unifier, and if people understood the Constitution they would understand that Sheriff Brown is trying to uphold the rule of law in the Constitution If you go like I have for years to the Boys and Girls Club, I've been involved there for 30 years on both. The typical student has no idea what it is they've never read it so I wanted to share with you today that I'm very willing as are others who support the Constitution if you want a plan and expand the constitution week for next year we will provide pocket constitutions to students so that the schools whether in Santa Maria Orchard Santa Barbara, Carpinteria.

They can read the Constitution and at least know what the preamble says that we are the people and we're a unified group of people. I then went to a meeting at the Hyatt Hotel as a guest where my district attorney for the county she spoke in front of approximately 400 people at the National Women's Political Conference meeting and she assured us that They do not have to follow the rule of law, and that everyone's safe. Then I went and read the mission statement for the county district attorney. The mission statement doesn't say anything about the Constitution. It makes no reference to upholding the Constitution or following the rule of law. Rather it says our mission is to be ethical and moral. That's important too but I hope you'll take this opportunity Make this meaningful week more than just a proclamation on a piece of paper.

As a citizen I want to thank the Daughters of the American Revolution and again our two supervisors for putting it at the forefront now with discourse, I think it has a very important role to play in our community and I want you to know when you decide how to implement it or what to do to expand it for 231 there's a group of us who will help make those constitutions available. Thank you