Board of Supervisors — 2017-10-10

Good morning and welcome to our October 10th, 2017 meeting of the Santa Barbara County Board of Supervisors here in the Santa Maria Hearing Room. And Mr. Allen would you call the roll please?

Mr. Williams. Here. Ms. Wolfe. Here. Mr. Adam. Here! Mr. Lavinino. Here Mrs. Hartman.

And may I have a motion to approve the minutes of October 3rd, 2017?

So moved.

Second? All in favor say aye. Aye. Any opposed? The minutes are passed. Do we have a CEO's report today, Ms. Miyasato?

Chair Harmon and board members we do just some quick announcements for this week before we start the meeting there's several public meetings coming up we wanted everyone to be aware of the County Water Agency is holding two meetings this week to receive input on its preparation of the integrated stormwater resource plan That's a meeting tonight and a meeting on Thursday in Santa Barbara and then one in Santa Maria. Tomorrow, Community Services is hosting a first-time homebuyers workshop for anyone living in the South County. It's at 5 p.m. in the hearing room in Santa Barbara. Attendees must RSVP. Planning & Development is presenting the draft EIR for the Cannabis Land Use Ordinance and Licensing Program this Thursday in Santa Barbara.

next Tuesday in Santa Maria. And County Parks held the first workshop to envision a new park near Highway 154 and Foothill Road. Two more master planning workshops are scheduled for the San Marcos Park on Saturday, the 21st and Saturday October 28th and you can see information on the parks webpage. Just to remind everyone to stay informed on our county news, the public can join our mailing list or follow us on social media which are all linked at the top right of our website and our homepage. Thank You!

Thank you. Any questions for CEO Miyasato? Okay, turning to our honorary resolutions we have four A10 through A13 with two to be presented today may I have a motion to approve? Second? All in favor say aye. Any opposed? So would you read A12 into the record Mr. Allen

Chair Hartman, members of the board. Item A-12 is sponsored by our chair Supervisor Hartman this is a resolution reclaiming the week of October 8 2017 through October 14 2017 as National Fire Prevention Week in Santa Barbara County and our chief Eric Peterson is here and I'll go ahead read the resolution into the record Whereas October 8-14 has been declared National Fire Prevention Week as a time to reflect on our nation's past fire history, remembering the Great Chicago Fire of 1871 and how out of that tragedy a national interest in fire prevention and safety emerged.

And whereas in 2017 National Fire Prevention Week theme is Every Second Counts Plan Two Ways Out. This is so important it reinforces why everyone needs to have an escape plan. And whereas, a home fire escape plan includes two exits from every room in the home, a path to the outside from each exit, smoke alarms in all required locations and a meeting place outside where everyone in the home can meet upon exiting.

And whereas practicing home fire escape plan twice a year ensures that everyone in the household knows what to do in a real fire situation. And whereas the Santa Barbara County Fire Department is dedicated to the safety of life and property from all harmful effects of fire. Now therefore, I hereby order and resolve that this Board of Supervisors proclaims the week of October 8th through 14 as National Fire Prevention Week throughout Santa Barbara County and encourages everyone to participate in fire prevention activities at home, at work, at school, in all locations making this fire prevention week the beginning of a year-long effort to improve fire safety passed and adopted today.

Chair Harmon, board members I want to thank you for recognizing Fire Prevention Week in this really nice way. We have our fire marshal Steve Oaks here who has some remarks about what we're going to do for Fire Prevention Week and before I have him up here I just wanted to talk about the fires that we have going in the north of the state and down there in Anaheim.

You've heard us mention the California State Mutual Aid System and how effective it is. It really truly is the best in the nation We're lucky to be a part of it. At this point, we have 20 fire trucks out of the OP area at various locations in the state assisting in those incidents as they have come to assist with our incidents. Eight of those fire trucks are from County Fire.

We have various people from our Type 3 Incident Command Team that are integrated in the fires north and south so they're being fully utilized We are at drawdown right now so we won't be sending anything else out. As far as the weather goes, today is a transition day. We're expecting the weather to improve considerably over the next couple of days in the north of the state.

So hopefully that will have an impact on those incidents. Steve Oaks

Hi Madam Chair, members of the board. Thank you for this recognition and for the resolution. Our fire department mission statement says that we safeguard the community against fires, medical emergencies and natural disasters And we do this through leadership in planning, prevention, education, code enforcement and all hazard emergency response. And four of the five of those are part of my responsibilities as the fire marshal.

With the ever-increasing cost of fire suppression, it's upon us to look for fire prevention measures and things that we can do to help reduce that liability for us. This week is Fire Prevention Week however throughout the year we go out into the community and put on education programs such as the fire safety trailer where we take a a small home essentially on wheels to community, to the schools and to let them, the kids crawl around look for fire hazards and then practice getting out of smoke-filled rooms.

We participate in numerous career day and health fair activities at schools, and then also classroom tours at any of the 16 fire stations. And at many of the local elementary schools as well. For the adults we have a CERT training or Community Emergency Response Team. Training I'm And this year, the 26th annual Buellton, a little plug here, Buellton Fire Prevention Breakfast that we have. It's at 9 o'clock on Saturday.

It's central in the county. Everybody can be there. Everybody is welcome and we have that going on and it starts at nine o'clock goes till about 12. This year, the fire prevention week theme, as we saw from the resolution, Every Second Counts Plan Two Ways Out. It focuses on escape plans and home exiting but in light of all of the events that have happened over this last week or so it also speaks to just having an overall situational awareness and being cognizant of your escape route wherever you are, wherever you happen to be.

So I do appreciate and I thank you for this resolution.

Thank you, any questions? Where is the Buellton Saturday event?

It's at the Albertson Center right there off the highway.

Thank you Turning to A13, would you read that into the record Mr. Allen?

Chair Hartman, members of the board item A13 is sponsored by Supervisor Lavinino this is a resolution proclaiming the month of October 2017 as Energy Awareness Month in Santa Barbara County and Dave Cross... Is Dave here? Dave is here from the Santa Barbara County Energy Watch Partnership and also Glenn Morris from the Santa Maria Valley Chamber. Anybody else you have come on up?

And I'll read the resolution into the record. Whereas, the county is an active member of the Santa Barbara County Energy Watch Partnership which is a partnership between local governments in Santa Barbara County, Pacific Gas and Electric Company, the Southern California Gas Company, and the cities of Santa Maria, Buolton, Guadalupe, Santa Maria and Solvang.

And whereas the Santa Maria Valley Chamber of Commerce serves as the implementer of the Santa Barbara County Energy Watch Partnership. And whereas citizens and businesses spend substantial amounts of money and resources for energy, it makes economic sense in good public policy to encourage energy awareness in Santa Barbara County. And asking individuals to take five minutes to review their daily routine to conserve energy empower others to take action and join together to save energy and money.

And whereas energy efficiency programs enhance our environment by improving air quality, reducing greenhouse gases and other pollutants and conserving natural resources. It's vital for communities to incorporate energy efficiency into everyday business practices in their personal lives. And whereas Santa Barbara County seeks to promote innovative methods to advance technologies in the design and construction of new residential and commercial buildings within the county And whereas energy efficiency improvements can be realized through the wise use of wise energy attitudes, behaviors and organizational decisions.

And whereas Energy Awareness Month is a national effort first proclaimed by the White House in October 2010. Now therefore it is hereby ordered and resolved that this month October 2017 is declared to be Energy Awareness Month to be celebrated in Santa Barbara County as employees residents of all ages and businesses throughout the community pass and adopted today.

We appreciate the recognition and the acknowledgment of our efforts on this area. I want to introduce with me Dave Cross, who is our program manager for the program here in North County, John Schultz with PG&E and Alma Briseno with Southern California Gas. The utilities are partners in this program in addition to the municipalities. The chamber has been involved in this program for eight or nine years now as the administrator You know often we're here with folks like these guys asking you to help us figure out ways to deliver more power, more energy to consumers and businesses in the community. But we believe in a balanced approach and so we also are here today to talk about Good morning. I'm very proud of this

Recognition and I just want to say that on behalf of Southern California Gas Company, I want to thank you for the collaboration that we've had. It's been great working with the supervisors in this area in order to bring our programs to those folks that are in most need. There has been a lot of work through you know, Energy Watch to provide some of the services to those who are more income qualified in areas of need. And so I really want to applaud the efforts that this organization has done as well as the collaboration that we've received from all of the supervisors in this county. So thank you and I look forward to having more of that in the near future.

Thank you. Good morning Supervisors, John Scholes I'm with Public Affairs of Pacific Gas and Electric Company. Thank you so much for this recognition. I would like to just say that PG&E appreciates the partnerships that we've got in Santa Barbara County starting with Glenn Morris and Dave Cross they do a great job with this program And then working with the supervisors, you've all been very important in the decisions that you make. We believe that the best kilowatt saved is a kilowatt not used and so we are strong advocates of energy efficiency. So just want to say thank you very much for this recognition today and look forward to continuing to work with yourselves as well as our partners in Santa Maria.

Thank you. Thank you for being here and Supervisor Williams?

I'm going to just take the liberty to say first of all, appreciate the resolution. Because John's up there, I'm gonna try and give you a softball question because we've been talking a lot about lately the ramifications of the difference of $10-$14 difference in your bill. A lot of people don't realize they could save $10 to $14 in their bill already if they just give you a call and ask for an energy audit or to take advantage of one of your other many efficiency programs. So maybe you might be able to pitch folks your website, or your phone number, or just direct them where on their bill that they can look.

Madam Chair, members of the board, Dave Cross. I manage the program. It's very easy simply contact the Santa Maria Valley Chamber of Commerce and we'll get them headed in the right direction. Very easy to contact them but just an update just to let you know that since 2010 we've helped over 400 businesses in North Santa Barbara County and just this year over 30 businesses with over 1.3 million kilowatt hours saved That's enough to power 120 homes. So we're doing a lot of work, we're continuing on and we really appreciate working with the supervisors so thank you

Thank you, well done.

And I'll just add for those who are either here or at home, you know for residential customers we want you to take charge of your energy conservation and so you can certainly call us and basically my phone number is 805-595-6451 get it to me then i will give you to our customer reps and they can assist you in those efforts

thank you very much

I did want to pitch our customer assistance programs for both SoCalGas and PG&E. There is that 20% customer discount for those customers that are qualified on an income basis, there's also...and that's 20% off of their monthly customer bill on both utilities There's also a energy savings assistance program and that is a program that comes into a customer's home and looks at various You know, systems within their home both on the electric and the gas. And you know through this partnership something that we did that I feel is very important is we partnered with one contractor. That's almost impossible to do when you're you know with two utilities but we were successful at partnering with a contractor so that when folks are being visited they're not you know being Visited by two different contractors, because that sometimes causes confusion or lack of credibility.

So we've been able to do that in this area and that's something that we consistently promote while we're out there doing the outreach events that we do so successfully with you know with the supervisors and in their areas. So thank you.

Thank you.

Turning to the remainder of our administrative agenda, does any supervisor have an item he or she wishes to pull? Do we have any public items that people want to comment on?

No requests to speak this morning on the administrative agenda from the public.

OK. May I have a motion to approve the balance of the administrative agenda? So moved. Second? Second. All in favor say aye. Aye. Any opposed? approved so now we're turning to the time in our agenda when any member of the public can comment on items that are not on today's departmental agenda do we have any speaker slips mr. Allen

chair Harmon and members of the board we have two requests this morning from Santa Barbara so we're going to go there remotely for Ed Kolaski to be followed by Brian Rosen

I need to put my drawing up, Ken. Can you hear me?

We can.

You can hear me?

We can and we can see your drawing as well.

Okay, thank you. When I started this off, I got a chance to meet with General Wolfe, my 2nd District Supervisor and I pointed out to her that there were on numerous occasions that SBAR had violated the law. I expected her to be somewhat embarrassed by the fact that you're running a group down there that has no respect for the law She wasn't the least bit embarrassed.

I asked her to explain why we were kicked out of the meeting in 15 seconds. We had a 5-2 vote in our favor for our project prior to this meeting and yet they kicked us out. I asked her to explain why Dylan kept jumping up and screaming at us that we couldn't even ask a single question. She not only hasn't explained any of this, she came into the appeal in the next day or so and praised SBAR for their actions.

Which implies that perhaps she was responsible for those actions. And yet she has not explained how we violated guideline 4.7 By locating our second story solely over the garage. When it's over the garage, the kitchen, the dining room and part of the living room in a laundry room? How can we fix it? I've talked to other architects and they think I'm crazy to even suggest that it's solely over the garage.

You are the leaders here! The five of you! We got like one leader, one corrupt and three Put the other drawing on, Ken. See no evil, hear no evil and speak no evil. You are our leaders. You are supposed to take some action. When we get kicked out of a meeting that we paid for within 15 seconds this is clearly against several laws. It's basically now called a scam.

You charge us to show up and then you kick us out and you collect our money. When is somebody going to correct the situation? You know, I hear from a lot of people that no, I would never fix our house or remodel our house because I would never want to go through what you are going through. It's well known. I had people come up to me before I even started and they said wow they're all corrupt. Well, I find out they're not all corrupt but we got the three monkeys there When is somebody going to take some action?

This has been going on for years. Thank you. Silence is consent.

Our next speaker is Brian Rosen

Hello members of the Board of Supervisors. Every meeting you start with a Pledge of Allegiance and quite frankly I don't like it. I was listening to Dennis Kucinich and Jesse Ventura and gave me, I really liked what they had to say that Jesse Ventura forced patriotism is not patriotism at all its nationalism And there's no law that says we have to pledge the flag.

But there is a constitution which constantly gets weakened, our law of the land by our government. We need to uphold the constitution. I don't believe in forced prayer. In the old days people had to pray in a certain way or they'd get in big trouble. Now they're supposed to be patriotic in a certain way. Perhaps Samuel Johnson said, patriotism is the last refuge of the scoundrel. Well I believe in patriotism but I think we have to and there's truth in that because a lot of our politicians are betraying their country while they're saluting the flag.

But I believe in patriotism and we need to do it in an appropriate way. in our own way that we feel led to. But your first and foremost duty is to defend the Constitution, and all these little resolutions are coming up, and that's well and good, but look what's happening in Washington. Our Constitution's being attacked. We're on threat of a war with North Korea or a bomb killing a lot of people, maybe a nuclear exchange. You should be doing, it's your first duty to defend the Constitution. You should be speaking out against Trump and every city in the country should be doing the same. Here is the Constitution I'd be glad to give you a copy of it.

You know, if you're too busy, you're doing, I think you all mean well. I was maybe a little mean on Doss last week. He's really good on the environment. And that's very important and I'm going to go on with some good points about Doss. He was very weak on the Constitution, and I'd like to talk with him about that sometime The environment is extremely important.

I wanted to talk about conservatorship, in our own county our constitutional rights are being, the elderly and others are being trampled on so it's your duty and my duty as a citizen to put a stop to this, to speak out and this poor William Entay has been wrongfully put under conservatorship for so long And he's completely independent, he's not barely allowed to see his mother. She had to spend like $200 an hour to see him supervise visitation. It's crazy! It's a gang of thieves. They're trampling on our constitutional rights and freedom. This man is completely independent.

So let's start defending our constitutional rights, our rights to life, liberty and the pursuit of happiness. This is your highest duty and please for God's sake speak out against Trump. We need your help we need divine intervention I'm sure in a lot of these things. Thank you very much

We have one additional public comment speaker.

And before you, if you could just come up and speak and then fill out the slip later.

Sorry I'm late. In February 2010, my son William's plans for the future were halted abruptly when he was kidnapped by my former spouse Dr. Philip Enti and Tri-Counties Regional Center. William was secretly placed into a level 4 group home for developmentally disabled youth against his will and without the evaluation and hearing required by state law. This placement was also in violation of our divorce agreement, which stated that any such placement must be approved by both parents. Tri-County's Regional Center also violated state law and are guilty of a misdemeanor by approving and funding this placement having the knowledge that I was the primary caregiver and that we shared custody of William. Most importantly, William's rights were violated by this involuntary confinement.

Dr. Ente's pattern of isolation and abuse continues unabated, and I've been isolated from William for the past seven years. As William approached his 18th birthday, Dr. Ente filed a petition to become the Liberty Conservator at William. These actions were concealed from me as was the notice of having hearing received by my daughter and I two days after the hearing had taken place. The position for conservators violated the probate code four times by not giving notice to the relatives in a required time period, and by not facilitating William's mandatory presence at his hearing. The court investigator said he was unable to make contact with me although I've lived at the same address for over 30 years therefore I was not interviewed as required.

However in the report issued after we had interviewed William the court was made aware of that I was not interviewed. William opposed the conservatorship and asked to speak to an attorney William's preference was for me to be the conservator. William opposed his placement in the Groove home. William's sister opposed and described the home as a punishment home. Tri-County's regional center described William as overall self-sufficient, then in complete disregard of his findings Daniel McNamara recommended to the court that William be placed under the conservatorship of Dr. Enti. Judge Art Garcia, the initial judge, recused himself from the case but prior to his recusal He dictated that prior to the granting of conservatorship, proof of service shall be...

that notice of the hearing had been served and shall be shown. And also William's preference for me to be the conservator should be addressed. Approximately 45 minutes later Judge Staffel was assigned to the case He placed William under temporary conservatorship and approved ex-party permanent conservatorship. By the immediate granting of conservatorships without investigation, Judge Stafford proved at least 11 violations and irregularities. He also disregarded the probate code five times. Now the conservatorship has been placed seven years and although California's Assembly Bill 1085 clearly states that every adult in the state has a right to visitation, I am still fighting this issue. William has been violated- William has been isolated from me despite requests to see me noted and served to the court via the court appointed investigator.

Judge Staffel continues to restrict my visitation allowing only restricted supervised visits in the dismal resident for one hour every week I better go because I've done my three minutes. Thank you.

That concludes public comment.

Thank you, so turning to our departmental agenda today are we ready to go with item number one? Okay. We're going to start with item number two would you read that into the record Mr. Allen?

Chair Hartman and members of the board item 2 is from social services this is a hearing to consider recommendations regarding the Child Welfare Services 2017 annual update

Thank you Mr. Nielsen

Good morning Chair Hartman and Supervisors As I promised in 2016 when Terry Nisich and I presented our response to the Child Welfare Safety Net Task Force Report, the department is now making an annual presentation to your board on the performance improvements, outcomes, challenges, and systemic issues we have in child welfare. To include our activities and outcomes associated with the California Child and Family Services Review.

This is our second annual presentation. With me today is Deputy Director Amy Krueger. Amy will be making today's presentation.

Here's the clicker. Is there a way to do it on

the clicker?

Thank you. Good morning Chair Hartman and Supervisors, today we will cover a snapshot of updated Child Welfare Services statistics as well as an overview of the Child Welfare Services System Improvement Plan Additionally, we would like to provide an update to the board on two critical issues continuing to impact child welfare services. The continuum of care reform and commercially sexually exploited children We will also give an overview of the California Child Welfare Core Practice Model This is a snapshot of some of our recent caseload data from calendar year 2016 The good news is that the number of children in foster care continues to decrease, averaging 406 down from an average of 431 in 2015. Another area of improvement is the average time children and youth spend in foster care, averaging 14.7 months down from 18.1 months in 2015.

Finally, the majority of children in foster care continue to be placed in family-based settings with the highest number of them in placements with relatives and nonrelated extended family members. The number of children in group homes continues to decline and we will discuss our efforts in that area more fully later in our presentation Here is an update on our CWS staffing levels.

Although the number of social worker positions were reduced from fiscal year 15-16 to 16-17, the reductions were in unfilled positions. In addition there were reductions in administrative support positions including administrative office professionals and department business specialists. As the reductions were to support staff it did not increase caseloads directly.

However, increased time spent on administrative tasks does mean less time available for primary case management responsibilities including face-to-face contacts. The Child

Welfare Services... Can I just ask a question about that slide? Who does recruitment of those? Who recruits resource parents? Which of those categories does

that? A department business specialist in our Child Welfare Services staff is the primary person responsible for that activity, and we also have some contracted community-based recruiters who he works with. The Child Welfare Services Outcome and Accountability Act of 2001 required the establishment of the California Outcome and Accountability System. Through this system, the state is able to ensure conformity with federal child welfare requirements, determine what is happening to children and families as they are engaged in child welfare services, and assist counties with enhancing their capacity to help children and families achieve positive outcomes.

The act also increased oversight of child welfare services by requiring all system improvement plans be approved by the respective Board of Supervisors every five years and be made available for public comment. This item will be coming before your board in November. The System Improvement Plan is the culmination of the California Child and Family Services Review process, which consists of a county self-assessment and a peer quality case review.

Child Welfare conducted its self-assessment in partnership with the Probation Department between September 2016 and February 2017 We focused on obtaining extensive input from our many public and private partners, believing that their knowledge and experience were critical in identifying the strengths, needs, and gaps in our service delivery system. The process focused on soliciting feedback from the stakeholders who are integrally involved in promoting the safety and well-being of children and families in our community from groups such as the Kids Network, Child Abuse Prevention Council, community-based organizations, service providers and child welfare and probation staff.

In addition several focus groups were held during the peer review including transition age youth, parents and parent partners and the Child Welfare Services Leadership Team The Peer Quality Review process is conducted by child welfare and probation peers from neighboring counties, as well as state social services representatives. Our peer quality review focused on timely reunification and was conducted in January of 2017.

In total more than 100 people representing the public private and consumer sectors participated in the process which was used to inform the self-assessment. We extend our deep appreciation to the many people and agencies that devoted considerable time and effort to this process. As can be seen by this slide, the California Outcome and Accountability System provides a robust system of federal and state oversight in order to measure these seven outcomes.

There are seven federal measures associated with the outcomes. In the area of safety we strive to ensure children are first and foremost protected from abuse and neglect and safely maintained in their homes whenever possible and appropriate. In the area of permanency, that children have permanency and stability in their living arrangements. And there is continuity in family relationships and connections.

And in the area of well-being, that families have the capacity to provide for their children's needs, and that children receive the services they need to meet their educational, physical, and mental health needs. In addition to the federal measures, there are also 15 California data measures. We will be covering three of those measures here today. This slide shows our performance on the seven Federal Children and Family Services Review Measures, as well as the three key California measures.

Performance on these measures reflects the critically important work that our social workers and supervisors perform on a daily basis. We consistently prioritize the safety and permanency of children in these key areas. In the two safety measures, maltreatment in foster care and recurrence of maltreatment we consistently exceed the federal standard. In the area of permanency although we have not been able to meet the standard for permanency in 12 months we consistently meet it in the 12-23 month and over 24 month time periods This is largely due to systemic factors such as court continuances, as well as time frames associated with complex issues such as substance abuse and mental health treatment.

In the area of reunification in particular moving to permanency too early can also lead to an increase in the fourth permanency measure which looks at re-entry to foster care another area that we are exceeding the federal standard The final permanency measure, placement stability is another area where we have struggled to meet the federal standard. While we strive to minimize the number of placement moves for a child systemic factors such as the practice of placing children in shelter care initially before being placed with a relative or long-term placement contribute to the number of moves We also consistently exceed the performance standards on the three key state measures for timely investigations and permanency.

This is another top priority for our staff, as timely investigations and visits to children in foster care placements are an important component of ensuring child safety.

Supervisor Wolf. Thank you Madam Chair, so this first of all these last three measures this was obviously a good thing to see but Is this just as it relates to visits to foster care homes? In other words, do we have a measure of timeliness if there is an abuse or neglect case that's not necessarily in foster care?

A measure for visits to children who are still with family. The timely investigation. So the timely investigations are the timeliness to our first response to an allegation that we've received of abuse or neglect? Okay, so it's not just related to foster care

placements.

No, the first two are related to investigations whether they're an immediate response or a 10-day response. So that's those first two reflect our timeliness in those two areas when we're responding to allegations of child abuse and neglect. Okay yes thank you.

Supervisor Adam?

Thank You. Ms. Krueger can you tell me How these, especially these last three, we'll get to those first and then we'll talk about the others. How do we get over 100% on those?

The federal and state standards for those, the last three are the 90% and 95%. And since we exceed those thresholds our performance is actually considered over 100%.

It's 110% of the standard. Yeah Yeah, they're comparing it to the standard.

It's just a way to try and make our performance uniform so you can see because they all have different thresholds so it's hard to put in context so that performance related as a percentage just kind of shows where we are either if we're not meeting it that were at 80-90 percent of meeting it or if we've met it have we met it or exceeded

it? So 110% would actually equal 99 That's the, okay so now I get it. The Santa Barbara County performance is 99.1 so that gives you 110% of that? Okay all right good deal thank you.

The focus areas chosen for the System Improvement Plan are based upon the information learned from the County Self-Assessment, the Peer Quality Case Review and aligned with the strategies of the State of California's Program Improvement Plan. Many of the strategies included in the System Improvement Plan are also in alignment with the recommendations of the Child Welfare Safety Net Task Force report.

In particular, strategies which address the need for strengthened collaboration and communication, support for increased trauma-informed training, promotion of reconciliation, and increased resource family recruitment, retention, and support. Our first focus area of the System Improvement Plan, Permanency Within 12 Months is about achieving permanency for children in the form of reunification, adoption or guardianship.

The federal goal is that 40.5% of the children will achieve permanency in less than 12 months. Although we are not meeting the federal standard, we have continued to make improvements in this area specifically in the area of reunification. Our second focus area of the System Improvement Plan, Placement Stability is about keeping children in stable placements and minimizing the number of placement moves in the selected 12 months.

The federal goal is that the rate of placement moves will be less than 4.12%. It is important to note that this standard does not represent 4.1 2 placement moves per child rather it is a calculated rate based on several data points It is also important to note that while this measure considers stability, it does not take into consideration positive placement moves that may improve the overall outcome for children.

For example when a child in a group home is stabilized and placed with a relative or when a child who was taken into custody and placed in emergency shelter is placed with a resource family. The outcome is positive for the child however the placement move has a negative impact in terms of the county's performance in relation to this outcome measure Having completed our county self-assessment process, we are in the midst of preparing our system improvement plan with the Board of Supervisors approved five year system improvement plan due to the state December 1st of 2017. This item will be before your board in November.

One of the updates we want to give you today is regarding commercially sexually exploited children. Since 2014, our department has been working to address the emerging and critical concerns of the commercially sexually exploited children's population, a concern shared by the Child Welfare Safety Net Task Force. With the passing of SB 855, Child Welfare Services has been able to better assist exploited children.

When a referral alleging commercial sexual exploitation is received at the child abuse hotline, Child Welfare Services conducts an assessment to identify the risks and needs to the child and or their families When a child has been identified as a possible victim of sexual exploitation, a multidisciplinary case staffing involving the district attorney, juvenile court and behavioral wellness occurs to assess how to best meet the child's needs.

I cannot emphasize enough the incredible collaboration between our various departments and community-based organizations in this critically important issue. SB 794 passed in 2016 added new requirements focused on implementation of policies and procedures to identify, document and determine appropriate services for children and youth who are victims of or at risk of commercial sexual exploitation.

Further, it requires child welfare to implement protocols to locate missing children and youth as well as new reporting requirements to law enforcement for any known or suspected instance of commercial sexual exploitation of children or youth in foster care. We continue to participate in the District Attorney's Human Trafficking Task Force and have established a commercially sexually exploited children steering committee. The Steering Committee, led by Child Welfare and comprised of Probation, Public Health, Behavioral Wellness, the District Attorney, Rape Crisis, and the Juvenile Court have finalized an MOU to further help serve this population as required by SB 855 The current focus of the Steering Committee is to operationalize the First Responder Protocol.

We are in the process of training first responders on the use of screening tools and protocols. The Steering Committee also sees the CSEC allocation expenditures in alignment with identified areas of need such as specialized staffing or services. In our county, a diverse group continues to work together to address this incredibly important issue. This has been a huge undertaking and impressive demonstration of how multiple agencies are able to come together and focus on the needs of this critical population.

Various collaborations and programs such as the Human Trafficking Task Force, Resiliency Interventions for Sexual Exploitation known as RISE, Rape Crisis, Victim Witness, and CALM continue to work together to this end. Development of local services and placement resources continue to be a top priority. Placements for this population are extremely limited throughout the state, and we are very fortunate that through all of these collaborative efforts plans for a specialized CSEC program in our county are nearing completion.

A letter of support has been provided for the program, and the application for the short-term residential therapeutic program has been submitted to Community Care Licensing for review. Another update we have for you today is regarding Assembly Bill 403, which implemented continuum of care reform. The continuum of care reform draws together a series of existing and new reforms to child welfare services, probation and mental health programs designed out of an understanding that children who must live apart from their parents have better outcomes when cared for in committed nurturing family homes.

Continuum of Care Reform seeks to further improve California's child welfare system outcomes through increased engagement, limiting congregate care and increasing the availability of services and supports in home-based family care settings. As of January 1, 2017 all children who enter the child welfare system and require a foster care placement are required to have child and family team meetings at regular intervals.

Child and family teams are comprised of caring individuals committed to support the child, youth, and their families to meet their identified needs and goals. One of the guiding principles of CCR is that children shouldn't have to change placements to get the services they need. As such, there has been an increase in the array of services available to children and youth in their home-based family settings.

With the passage of Continuum of Care Reform a new rate structure for home based family care was created In response, a level of care assessment has been developed using five domains – physical, behavioral-emotional, health, educational and permanency in family services. The level of care assessment allows social workers to use a strength based approach to identify the individual needs of children and determine appropriate rate to support their placement in a family setting.

Children who cannot be safely placed in a family can receive short-term residential care with specific care plans and intensive therapeutic interventions and services to support transition to a family. In order to meet the challenges of continuum of care reform, the department has formed internal and interagency work group structures to develop a framework for cross agency teaming In order to ensure adequate capacity, we are working closely with Behavioral Wellness to support our local providers as they transition from a group home to a short-term residential therapeutic program.

This strategy aligns with the Child Welfare Safety Net Task Force's recommendation for development of short term mental health placements within the county for children with greater needs.

Supervisor Wolf.

You know, one of the recommendations or concerns that was raised by the task force as it relates to mental health services and I'm just reading from part of their report Mental Health Services and Occupational Therapy for Foster Youth and Families there was a suggestion that there be a blanket consent for services to be signed by the birth parents to avoid additional steps that serve only to slow down the process So as you're talking about the cooperative relationship with behavioral wellness, I don't know that this is the answer. But are you seeing any interruptions in ensuring that foster youth get the care they need without interruption?

Or are we seeing some problems with that kind of smooth transition to getting treatment?

In terms of, Supervisor Wolf through the Chair, in terms of consent we've worked with our juvenile court on the issue of the blanket consent and they're not willing to go to that at this time but they have agreed if we are unable to obtain a consent from a parent at the first hearing then we can ask for the order And the judge will authorize that. And that's what we've done so far and it's been working, and we haven't had any delays in getting that consent from the court when we need it. Okay thank you very much.