Board of Supervisors Meeting of December 4, 2018

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. Hello. Hi. . Thank you. This meeting is adjourned. And this meeting will be held in conjunction with the Board of Supervisors meeting. This meeting is being recorded and will be available to all members who wish to make a comment on this item. Thank you very much. I'd like to introduce Mr. Mr. Michael McFadden. He's an assistant district attorney for the District of Columbia, and he's going to talk to us about how we're doing today. But before that, I want to ask Mr. McFadden if he has any comments or questions. First of all, I just wanted to say thank you both for coming out tonight.

Substitutes, please. I'm going to This is a test. I'm This meeting is being recorded for the purpose of discussion and public comment at this time. I'd like to invite members to join me in congratulating the Board of Supervisors on their new position as Supervisor of the University of New York. This meeting is being recorded for the record so that members of the public can see it as well. It's extremely important to be able to participate in this meeting, and I encourage all of you to do that. And if you have any questions or comments, please feel free to reach out to our board of supervisors. Thank you very much.

I'm going to This bill is passed unanimously. This meeting is adjourned. Let's get started. This meeting will be recorded so that we can continue the discussion on whether or not the Board of Supervisors would like to make a motion to adjourn this meeting. Members, if you wish to speak, please do so at this time. I'd like to start by saying that this is not a complete bill.

It's a proposal from the Board of Supervisors, and we're going to have to fight for it. We're going to have to fight against it, so we've got to have full discussion about whether or not we want to vote on this. And I just want you to know that Barbara County Board of Supervisors will be voting on this in front of members all over the country. So we'll look at what we think we can do with this bill.

Thank you. This is a test. I'm going to be talking about He was a member of the Board of Supervisors, and I'm very grateful to him as well. And so it's an honor for me to be here with you today. As we talked about yesterday, we've been talking a lot about the process itself, but also what I have learned over the last couple years is that there are some things that need to be done in order for the benefits of the public to be served by the public. And if it's not served by the public first of all, then I don't know why this is important.

And basically, we're asking the Board of Supervisors to look at how it's going to improve. If they have a negative view on this item, then we need to take it straight to the Board of Supervisors so that we can see if there are any technical issues in some areas. If not, then we'll go back and see if we can support them with amendments or if there is an issue that needs to be looked at more. We will do what's necessary before we go forward with this item. Thank you.

I'm going to be speaking on behalf of the Supervisory Board of Supervisors, and I'll be speaking on behalf of the Board of Governors. But before I do that, I just want to make a specific point about some of the comments made by members of the board over the years. And I would like to thank them for that, especially because it's not just my department, this is not only me. It is at least all the board members in the University of Wisconsin and so forth. Again, I think that's an excellent point.

I'm going to Speaks. This meeting is being recorded. Thank you. That is kind of the extent to which this is going to affect the county. It's an honor and a privilege to serve on the board of Supervisors. This act will be recorded as a session of the Board of Supervisors meeting on January 4th, 2015. Today is September 4th, we're in the middle of this month. And I want to start by saying thank you very much to all of those who have supported us at this time. We've had a lot of support over the last year and a half, so thank you very much for your support. We'll try to respond as quickly and as soon as we can. Thank you very much, members of Congress, and members of the public as well. I'm excited to be here today because it's such a wonderful day.

So let me start by thanking all of our faculty and staff. I'd just like to ask Mr. Chaffee if he has any comments or questions on this case? I know it's a big one, but I'm not going to go through all of them at once. So thank you for just sitting down with me today and I hope that you guys have some great meetings in the future as well. Thank you very much.

One, two, three. And one more. Thank you.

So I would just like to say thank you to Santa Barbara County because great work is occurring in every county in California, but we don't always hear about it. And when we do, it allows great services to grow and for other folks to look at the innovation that's occurring here, replicate that in their counties as they try to provide the most outstanding services to their communities. There's nothing more relevant and important than protecting communities. That's exactly what This mapping tool allows for, and we will continue to learn from you and learn from others as we move forward to have more resources and greater protections for communities in the face of disasters. And so thank you all very much.

We have two ceremonial items today, Ceremonial Resolutions A23 and A24. We have one item pulled for A2. Can I get a motion on the balance of the A agenda so that any staffers that are waiting for that can?

Second.

All those in favor please say aye. Aye. Opposed? And then can I get a motion on the ceremonial resolutions, A23 and A24. All those in favor please say aye. Aye. Opposed? We'll hear A23.

All right, Chair Williams and members of the board. Item A23 is sponsored by our chair Supervisor Williams. It's a resolution of commendation honoring Diana Estorga from the Public Works Department as our December 2018 Employee of the Month for Santa Barbara County and if Diana could come on up with Scott and his team I'll read the resolution into the record Whereas, Diana Estorga is a project manager with the Public Works Department Transportation Division. She's been nominated as our Santa Barbara County Employee of the Month for December 2018. Whereas, Diana started her career on August 2nd 1999 in the Public Works Department as part of a rotation program where she had the rare opportunity to work in the flood control section of the Water Resources Division as well as the traffic construction and engineering sections of the Transportation Division exposing her to the variety of roles that engineers serve in in the department Diana continues to serve today in the engineering section of the Transportation Division.

And whereas, throughout Diana's career she has surpassed expectations working countless hours of overtime as an overtime exempt employee to diligently provide excellent service institutional knowledge and leadership to everyone she works with including the interns new hires project team members management executives and most importantly members of the public across all districts in the county And whereas, Diana continues to be a model representative for the Public Works Department in a variety of roles including serving as department representative on committee meetings as well as designing, managing and supporting projects ranging from small sidewalk enhancements to complex multi-million dollar capital improvement projects and disaster relief efforts.

And whereas Diane has excelled as Public Works employee by always being well prepared and exemplifying the meaning of civil service, by remaining courteous while listening and evaluating concerns of the public and other team members. Her positive attitude and approach to her work are commonly recognized and complimented by a variety of departments within the county state federal agencies as well as members of the public who often go out of their way to contact our department to thank her for outstanding customer service. Now therefore be it hereby ordered and resolved by the Board of Supervisors As they commend and recognize Diana Estorga for exceptional and continuous contributions to the work of Santa Barbara County, I name her Employee of the Month for December 2018.

Pass and adopt.

Chair Williams and members of the board, thank you for honoring Diana Storger this morning as our county's Employee of the Month. And we want to thank Diana's family for being here as well to honor her. She is just fabulous. She is a tremendous representative of the County of Santa Barbara in our Department of Public Works. As mentioned in the resolution, Diana works tirelessly to serve the public that we serve. You'll often find her at night, late into the evening, early hours of the morning Working and on any given day, we've heard a lot about the debris flow today out in Montecito. You would have found Diana covered in mud directing contractors and redesigning roadways that needed to be fixed and put back together so the community could get back on their feet and she just did a fabulous job and through all that She's also stayed involved in the disaster recovery team.

I think we've had 15 roads put back together from a permanent restoration perspective and her leadership has been instrumental to make that happen. She's out there ensuring that we maximize our FEMA and our FHWA reimbursements as well, which is key. And she just exemplifies the best aspects of engineering and applying expert technical knowledge and good judgment to her work every day. She's a tremendous representative of all of you on the board, myself as the leader in Public Works and we're just tickled that she's being honored today as County Employee of the Month. So Diana thank you so much.

Good morning. Thank you, Chair Williams and members of the board. I brought a notebook today because that's what I do when I go to meetings. I always try to take something away from every meeting I go too. Always try to learn something. There's not words of a speech in here but I really wanted to speak from my heart today I thought a lot about why I dedicate so much time and work those extra hours or take that time to research something. It's about the people around me, and first it's my family.

They taught me dedication, dedication to each other. They've always showed their love for me and they believe in me, and many of my friends and family are watching at home. Thankfully they were worried that it wasn't going to work. But they have always been so supportive of me, and they've taught me what hard work is. My parents are my first example of what hard work is and being involved with my community.

My community also drives me to do the same work. I love being out engaging with the public, going out to public meetings good and bad. I love hearing what they desire for their community. It shows that they care and has really taught me to listen and try to take that back and incorporate that into the projects I work on. I also want to thank my colleagues who 19 years ago when I started at the county, I had the opportunity to rotate through all the divisions in public works as well as through many sections in transportation.

And not only was it an opportunity to grow as an engineer and learn all the aspects of public works, but really to put a name to a face for the people that I'd be working for in the coming years. They've offered me so much guidance. It taught me so much and they've always done it graciously. And I think those relationships and those experiences Have really transcended today and especially this year.

With the Thomas fire, I've never been so proud to be part of a team that every morning would get out there for the community of Montecito and for the county to work hard and really care about the people that were struck by tragedy. I'd also like to thank Walter, my manager and who has supervised me for so many years. Just the daily consulting and guidance that he's given me.

He's also an inspiration. Many weekends he dedicates his time to volunteering in the community. And to Scott and Chris, Alex and Julie and Mark and Tom. I thank you for this recognition. It's really been an honor to have their leadership and for them to recognize my growth, and to trust in my input and to trust my work. I've had the opportunity to go back even as an employee of transportation and work with Tom and Mark whether it be on a project or review team so I appreciate those opportunities and that experience.

And finally, I just want to say how proud I am to be representing Public Works and the county today. I can't really express how much this means to me and I just hope that I can pass on the same experience And be a mentor to many of my new colleagues. That is something that I cherish, is to be able to teach them what I've learned and hopefully continue at the county. Thank you so much.

Chair Williams, members of the board. Item 824 this resolution is co-sponsored by Supervisors Wolf and Hartman it's a resolution claiming December 1 2018 as World AIDS Day in Santa Barbara County and we're going to go to Santa Barbara for this presentation where we have Stephanie Laufenburg and Patrick Lara and they should be in attendance in Santa Barbara and I think we have staff there to present the resolution to them at the appropriate time.

There they are and I will go ahead and read the resolution into the record. Whereas December 1, 2018 marks the 30th anniversary of World's AIDS Day. Launched in 1988, the annual observance highlights worldwide efforts to combat HIV-AIDS. World AIDS Day is also an occasion to show support for those living with HIV and to remember those who have died from the infection. And whereas the 2018 theme for World AIDS Day is Know Your Status.

36.9 million people globally live with HIV and only 59% roughly have access to antiretroviral therapy, whereas new HIV infections have been reduced by 47% since its peak in 1996. And whereas ending the AIDS epidemic is more than a historical obligation to the 39 million people who have died of the disease, it also represents a momentous opportunity to lay the foundation for a healthier, more just and equitable world for future generations Ending the AIDS epidemic will inspire broader global health and development efforts demonstrating what can be achieved through global solidarity, evidence-based action and multi-sector partnerships.

Whereas through global health partnerships and awareness campaigns including at the local level the UNAIDS organization strives to achieve the following global health outcomes by 2020 that 90% of all people living with HIV will know their status That 90% of all people with a diagnosed HIV infection will receive sustained antiretroviral therapy, and 90% of all people receiving antiretroviral therapy will have viral suppression. And now therefore be it hereby ordered and resolved that this Board of Supervisors of the Santa Barbara County does hereby proclaim the first day of December 2018 as World AIDS Day in Santa Barbara County pass and adopted today.

Hi everyone. I'm Patrick Lyra Lanier, the LGBTQ plus program manager for Pacific Pride, Santa Barbara County's 42 years young LGBTQ plus and HIV AIDS center. And on behalf of our many clients and our staff we just want to thank you from our hearts for this important proclamation in this acknowledgement of the 30th anniversary of World AIDS Day. Thank you so much from all of us

Our last item on our agenda is A2.

Chair Williams, members of the Board, Item A2 is from the Auditor-Controller. It's to consider recommendations regarding the single audit reports for fiscal year ending June 30, 2018.

Supervisor Lavendiniu. Thank you Mr. Chair well I'm kind of glad today I pulled this item because since we're We're in a mode of honoring employees. This was something when I first got here that, well, I felt like I needed to pull it this time because when I first got here and I don't think the department was as focused maybe on this single audit. And so I wanted to pull this item today to acknowledge all the hard work that Department of Social Services has put into Implement systems and corrective actions. I think this item probably singularly tells us how well we are protecting taxpayer dollars. This is the item where, I think we were in that department charged with over in this particular audit, we were looking over $100 million worth of funding that came from the federal government.

And so the feds come in to see how we're handling their money and These are very complex programs from the eligibility requirements all the way through the processing timelines that need to be met, to the reporting. And I think this audit shows once again the great work that Department of Social Services is doing from the top all the way down to the folks that are answering the phones in the Eligibility Center.

I just wanted to acknowledge those folks, say great job and keep up the good work. So we really appreciate everything that you've been doing.

Can I get a motion on A2? All those in favor please say aye. Aye. Opposed? Thank you. And any public comment for items not on the agenda?

Chair Williams, members of the board we have four requests to speak this morning. We're going to go to Santa Barbara first for Nancy Emerson to be followed by Ed Kolaski.

Good morning Chairman Williams and Board of Supervisors. I just want to comment that reading your agendas surely has made me aware of the complexity of your responsibilities, and I just wanted to say thank you for all you do. And now I want to talk about one matter that you work on. I'm Nancy Emerson, President of We Watch in the San Ynez Valley. When the cannabis land use ordinance was being developed as far as we know no San Ynez Valley public entities or citizen organizations participated in the decision making and that includes We Watch.

Now the only citizen organization focused on land use issues in the valley. For our absence, I apologize. Our valley is unique in the county in being agricultural but with much income from the large wine and tourist industry because of our rural setting, Solvang, and the casino. Cannabis cultivation creates a compatibility problem not addressed in the ordinance.

The ordinance does not honor our San Ynez Valley community plan update. We began studying the ordinance last spring and asking questions. We noted that Montecito, which has a planning commission was able to opt out of cannabis activities on its agricultural lands. We're not asking for that. We saw that you outlined the problems cannabis can cause in the Right to Farm Ordinance and acknowledged in the Cannabis Ordinance that revision of it would be needed.

We are now convinced that the ordinance must be revised or the Santee and Nez Valley will be badly damaged. The urgency level has risen due to a totally inappropriate but allowed cannabis cultivation application. Residents have had to hire an attorney to protect them. We respectfully request that sections B and D of the ordinance Be reviewed and revised to protect residents, tourists, and wineries in the cities, townships, and on Ag 1 and 2 parcels in our valley and beyond our valley as applicable. In the text which I'm leaving for you here there are some examples of ordinance problems.

We recognize that long-range planning staff are already on overload, but this matter needs priority status. Please help us. Thank you.

Our next speaker is Ed Kalaski to be followed by Tim Mahoney in Santa Barbara.

Would you put my drawing on the board Ken? For the last five years, I've been trying to remodel my house. We wanted to add 400 square feet for a garage and 300 square feet for living quarters. Have not been able to do it. If anyone believes that this is a democracy in the second district you are sadly mistaken. Here are few items illegal functions that have been carried out by the Board of Architectural Review.

These have been sanctioned by our supervisor in the second district This is really disgusting. I mean, it's not just one or two items. I got 15 here and if I sat down, I probably can think up a few more. Isn't this embarrassing to at least the other supervisors? How can you stand this? I don't understand. We have to live like this in the second district just because of our supervisor?

This is what we vote for? We vote for this kind of action or lack of action. You turn your heads, aren't you embarrassed? You should be. This is why we pay our taxes so we can talk to our neighbors and our neighbors can complain too. They're all corrupt as they put it but we should celebrate. Celebrate that our second district supervisor will be leaving. This is a joyous moment I can hardly wait.

It cannot possibly, possibly be worse. We don't need a dictator. We need the democracy. You know you've got rules for the supervisors? Well we the people have laws and those laws should have been enacted back in 1776 they knew about this! In the First Amendment they said that well if you have a problem you bring it before your congressman or whatever and they will correct the situation.

I've been here five years and all I get is people with the exception of Adam turning their heads away and not dealing with this You know it's at least time for Alex Pujo to be removed from the Board of Architectural Review downstairs. He's carried out these actions, everything from kicking us out of the meeting in 15 seconds, the fifth meeting we did exactly what they requested. No you cannot show your drawing! No you cannot speak! Get out of here! We've got one guy jumping up and screaming at us to get out of here!

This is how you run the Board of Architectural Review? You should be ashamed, totally ashamed. How could anyone be like that? So ignorant of what's going on downstairs. Thank you.

Stay in Santa Barbara for Tim Mahoney. Tim and then we'll come back to Santa Maria for our final speaker, Deb Andrews.

Good morning Mr. Chairman, members of the board, Tim Mahoney I'm with Southern California Gas Company here today to talk about renewable natural gas and energy balance but before I do I just wanted also to point out my respect for the first responders for the Thomas fire and the debris flow a gas company and myself were part of that Was going down to the Ventura County Fairgrounds there for the incident command post. And then as the fire moved up here, was working at the EOC here and the Office of Emergency Management as well as the Earl Warren.

And then just recently was down there at the Camarillo Airport Incident Command Center for the Woolsley Hall Fire. So a great deal of respect for all of the first responders and the people that were also mentioned as our second and third responders. But getting back to my topic at hand now is talking about natural gas. Your constituents, my customers all enjoy this particularly at this time of the year waking up when it's cold they flip on the thermostat out comes the warm air from the natural gas.

Our residents and customers really enjoy this but I wanted to bring to your attention and awareness to the public that there is a movement in California to electrify everything and that would mean that people's choice to use natural gas and other fuels would be taken away with the electrification. And that is a mistake quite frankly. I'm not here to oppose electricity, I am an electrical customer myself as everyone is but there is a need for balanced electricity within the California energy portfolio We're up here at the end of my service territory, my last customer's camp Roberts in San Luis Obispo County. Beyond that all of the farmers and rural people they're all on bottle gas. They're all using propane and butane in those large bullet containers that you see out there, the silver ones.

That's an example of balanced energy and California when we try and electrify everything, it's gonna cost thousands of dollars and misplace a lot of good people's intentions. And the solution for this, I started off with this is renewable natural gas. And that is natural gas from dairies, agricultural waste, Wastewater treatment centers, sewer plants and landfills dumps things of that nature.

This operations of those entities they're already creating emissions that methane is going to the atmosphere. Southern California Gas Company can capture that, clean it, put it in our pipelines and specifically use that for heavy duty trucking fuels. We're pretty well blessed in Santa Barbara County because most of the refuge trucks are all run on natural gas and that's an example of how the balanced energy portfolio can be used. So I wanted just to thank you for this time and certainly we'll be sending out some more information. Thank you.

Back to Santa Maria for Deb Andrews.

Hi. Deb Andrews, Lompoc. Highway 1 south of Lompoc resurfacing project looks beautiful. They did a great job but there's one big problem with the design. They put sharp curbs along the outer edge of the roadway. The highway is very scenic lots of hills curves up and down driving it's a two-lane road If a vehicle's tires contact the curb, or worse go up over the curb one can easily lose control of the car. It would be very difficult to return to the roadway over the high sharp curb. There have recently been a series of fatal accidents on Highway 1 south of Lompoc. I urge you to have the curbs removed.

Eighty years ago, Iowa put curbs on the highway. My family frequently drove across Iowa on our way to Illinois. The curbs were more of a gentle slope on that highway at that time. I experienced firsthand how the curbs seemed to grab the steering wheel out of the driver's hands if the wheel came into contact with that curb. Iowa removed the curbs. You can access the information online, it's the Iowa Highway Commission Curb Removal Report of 1962.

The curbs are a known hazard. Another safety issue, I've read about complex fire warning discussions. I suggest contacting perhaps the Nuclear Energy Agency officials about the warning system they developed to warn around a 30 mile radius of nuclear power plants. The system may be helpful to your discussion. Thank you.

That concludes public comment.

We'll hear departmental item number one.

Chair Williams, members of the board as we move into item number one I just have a couple of quick announcements for anybody who is in attendance here or in Santa Barbara or watching online or on channel 20 that item two from community services regarding residential property assessed clean energy financing that item will be withdrawn from the agenda today And item four from the sheriff, which is a hearing to consider recommendations during the annual truth act report and community forum will not be heard today prior to 3 p.m So that's information for the for the public

so it will be heard but only at 3 p m Right. Thank

you before three Item number one is from social services as a hearing to consider recommendations regarding the Child Welfare Services 2018 annual update

Good morning Chair Williams and Supervisors, Daniel Nielsen with the Department of Social Services. In 2016 the Department of Social Services made a commitment to your board to provide an annual report on our Child Welfare Services Program as a result of the Child Welfare Safety Net Task Force Report that was presented to your board in the spring of 2016 so this is our third annual report to your board.

During the course of this report today, Deputy Director Amy Krueger will be referencing several items that are actions and outcomes that tie back to that Child Welfare Safety Net Task Force Report for the purpose of clarity in terms of ongoing actions that tie back to those recommendations. So with that I will turn the presentation over to Deputy Director Amy Krueger.

Thank you. Good morning, Chair Williams and Board. Today we will be covering a snapshot of updated Child Welfare Services statistics

as...

I had it? Sorry Can you hear me now? Okay. Thank you. All right, apologies. So we'll be covering a snapshot of updated child welfare services statistics. We will be covering an overview of the Child Welfare Services System Improvement Plan as well as providing important updates on two items, the commercially sexually exploited children's program as well as continuum of care reform.

So here we have a snapshot of some of our recent caseload data from calendar year 2015 through 2017. And as you can see, there have been downward trends in both the number of in-person investigations as well as the average number of open child welfare cases. And significantly, the number of children who are placed in foster care has also continued to decline.

We have an average of 361 in care in 2017 down from 406 in 2016 which is an 11% decrease over just one year. And part of the reason for this is because we're seeing fewer children entering foster care, and that is because of our investment in prevention and early intervention through our programs such as differential response and voluntary family preservation.

The other reason for that is because we have a high number of children exiting to permanency still. Because we have less coming in the front and more quickly moving out of the back, we're seeing that number in care remaining low. As you can see also, the average time they're spending in care is also remaining fairly low down slightly 14.5 in 2017 from 14.7 in 2016.

In looking at the placement types, we are seeing positive changes in the types of placements children are in out-of-home care when they're entering foster care. The majority continue to be placed in home based family settings and the highest number of those are placed with relatives and nonrelated extended family members. We're also seeing an increase in the number of children placed in our county resource family homes.

And at the same time, we're seeing a corresponding decrease in the number of children we have placed in foster family agency homes and that's because of that shift in since we have more resource family homes with the county were relying less on foster family agency homes. A high number of our transition age youth are choosing to live in supervised independent living placements. So as you can see, that number has increased and finally our group home placements have declined 2% in the last year and we'll talk a little more about those efforts later on in our presentation.

Oops, did I? Okay. So to put into context where we are in terms of our CFSR timeline, our five-year system improvement plan was submitted to the state for review in December of 2017 and was subsequently approved by your board on February 2018. Our first year SIP progress report was submitted to the state in September 2018 and we just received approval last week of our progress report.

Over the next few slides, we will cover our current performance on CFSR measures as well as updates on our system improvement plan focus areas, strategies and goals. So this slide has a lot of information on it, and I apologize for the small font. But we wanted to make sure you had all of the information to make sense of this here. It shows our performance on these seven federal children family services review measures as well as the three key California measures. So starting from the left, we have the measure We have the federal and state standard in the second column, our current county performance in the third column. And then in the last column that is just the percentage of the standard we are meeting. So anything above 100 percent, we're meeting it and those are indicated in green.

If we're not meeting it, it's in red, anything below 100 percent. I know it's hard to see but I'll let you know exactly what those numbers are. So on the first two measures which look at safety, we have maltreatment in foster care and recurrence of maltreatment. And we consistently exceed the federal standard in these areas. In the next three measures, we're looking at permanency.

Although we have not been able to consistently meet the standard for permanency in 12 months, we consistently meet it in the 12-23 month and over 24 months time periods. The under 12 months there that's actually a 99 percent in the red so we're very close but not quite meeting it. And the reason for that is largely due to systemic factors such as court continuances and timeframes that are associated with complex issues that families are dealing with, such as substance abuse and mental health treatment.

In the area of reunification in particular, moving to permanency too early can lead to an increase in the fourth permanency measure which looks at reentry to foster care, another area where we're exceeding the federal standard. The final permanency measure, placement stability is an area where we have struggled to meet the standard. And 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 placing them with relatives or longer term placements can have an impact on this measure.

We also consistently exceed the performance standards on the three key state measures for timely investigations and social worker visits. And this is another top priority for our staff as timely investigations and visits to children in foster care are important components of ensuring child safety. And we consistently rank among the top percent of all counties in these measures because we prioritize them.

Mr. Chair? Can we go back to that previous slide? And you're right this has got a lot of information on it but it really is important and I just want to acknowledge the importance of what you talked about with the timely investigation, seeing those numbers. I can't recall where we were before. I know we've always been high but this is really exceptional and I think this is what I just wanted to ask a question on the maltreatment in foster care.

If you can go into that a little bit more, because that actually is a little disturbing. That even occurs. So if you can just talk about it and then what happens to those kids? Because it seems like then they're kind of re-victimized.

Yes, absolutely. Supervisor Wolf through the chair. Maltreatment and foster care looks at any child who's victimized while they're in out-of-home care and so that can include either while they're in care with a resource family, a relative or it can also include when they are with a parent still So that is something that we absolutely take very seriously. We prioritize any responses to allegations of abuse or neglect in out-of-home care, and we treat them all as immediate responses because we want to make sure that any children who are placed in out-of home care are absolutely cared for at the highest standard possible.

Thank you.

Supervisor Hartman.

I just had a question about the policy underlying the transition from children in foster family agency care versus counties, are we trying to get more children placed through county foster care as opposed to other organizations? And what's behind that and what changes does it imply?

Thank you, Supervisor Hartman through the chair. We don't have a policy necessarily for that change. I think it's largely just a result of our increased recruitment efforts around continuum of care reform and the Our County Our Kids campaign so we've seen a huge increase in the number of county homes that we have available We still rely on our foster family agency partners to provide placements. And either way, it's a home-based family placement so we're really looking for the best fit for the child.

But because of our efforts we just have more county homes now than we did previously and more options to be able to do the best match for kids.

Are there any budgetary implications? I know one of the things is that a child doesn't receive two visits from two different social workers. That is, from the family agency as well as the county. Are there any other differences?

Foster family agencies are considered a higher level of care than a county resource home. They do have the additional social worker support and they do have a higher administrative cost associated with the placement than county homes do.

Let me repeat that one more time. So

the outside agencies have a higher rate of?

The rate for placement, it has an administrative cost built in for the foster family agency and so it is a higher payment for the placement than a county home which is just a direct payment to the family.

And are the, statistically are the outcomes about the same or

That it depends. I mean, there's a lot of different outcomes associated with the placement so it depends what outcome we're looking at. They're both like I said foster family, family placements as opposed to congregate care. So as far as the outcomes in terms of permanency, they tend to be fairly similar. A lot of our resource family county homes are also relatives And so the outcomes also differ from relatives to unmatched families and foster family agencies.

Got it, so because our county ones have a higher incidence of family members it might be an unfair comparison?

It is a slightly different population yes. Okay, so moving on to our system improvement plan focus. The focus areas chosen for the system improvement plan are based upon the information learned from the county self-assessment, the peer review and are aligned with the strategies of the state and California's program improvement plan. The first two measures permanency in 12 months and placement stability are focuses of our previous SIPP. And that is because those are the two areas where we're trying to meet the federal standard.

And for this system improvement plan, we have a new focus which is a systemic factor and that is workforce wellness. So many of the strategies included in the system improvement plan continue to align with the recommendations of the Child Welfare Safety Net Task Force report. In particular, strategies which address the need for strengthening collaboration and communication, support for increased trauma-informed training, promotion of reconciliation, increase resource family recruitment, retention and support, expanded services for youth and families As well as greater support for our social work staff.

So our first SIP focus area, permanency within 12 months is about achieving permanency for children in the form of reunification, adoption or guardianship and the federal goal is that 40.5% of children will achieve permanency in less than 12 months. According to the data for quarter four of 2017, 73 out of 183 or 40.1% of children who entered care between January and December found permanency within 12 months.

Although we were just short of meeting the federal standard, we made significant improvements in this area from our baseline specifically in the area of reunification. We've made progress in this area and we're cautiously optimistic that the trend will continue over the next four years as we continue to implement a number of strategies from our plan, including expanding the use of safety organized practice. Increased focus on quality engagement of families and improved communication with our juvenile court partners.

And on this slide, we just wanted to highlight the progress we have made in our first year to improve family engagement through the implementation and increased use of child and family teams also called CFT meetings. And one of our goals for improving permanency in 12 months is to strengthen engagement of children, youth, families, and stakeholders in case planning and decision-making processes.

And the use of a strength-based family centered CFT process is really key to engaging children, youth and families in the development of their individual case plans as well as other related services designed to meet their needs. In addition to the child or youth and family members, the CFT composition includes the social worker, current caregiver and any individuals identified by the family as being important to them.

In some cases, the CFT may also include mental health clinicians, foster family agency social workers, parent or youth partners, court-appointed special advocates or school personnel. Our second SIP focus area placement stability is about keeping children in stable placements and minimizing the number of placement moves in the selected 12 month period. The federal goal is that the rate of placement moves will be less than 4.12, and on this measure it's just important to note that 4. 12 is not the number of placement moves per child but rather a calculated measure based on several different data points During the review period, there's been an increased effort to place children into non-shelter care placements. And these efforts have been bolstered by the addition of a dedicated emergency placement social worker who works to approve relatives for the first placement of the child whenever possible.

Relative placements as a first placement have increased by 8% from 2016 to 2017 as a result of this change. Despite these efforts, the placement stability outcome did see a very slight decline in performance from the baseline to the current measurement. And while this measurement considers stability it does not take into consideration positive placement moves that may improve overall outcomes for children. For example when a child is placed in a group home and is able to become stable and moved back with a relative or when we're able to move a child out of shelter into a long-term placement Those are positive placements for the child, but it negatively impacts our performance on this measure.