UnGovr Transcript
iHow this transcript is madeUnGovr transcribes the official recording with automated speech-to-text, separates speakers by voice, and matches voices to the seated roster. Names and attributions are AI estimates and may contain errors.Verify any quote yourself: click anywhere in the transcript and the official video jumps to that exact moment, so you can check any quote against the recording.0:00 – 0:041 turns
you Okay. She's a smart woman. One more.
0:04 – 0:1015 turns
Good morning, everybody. I'd like to call to order this meeting of the Santa Barbara County Board of Supervisors for February 26th. All right Madam Clerk, can I get a roll call please?
Mr. Williams?
Here.
Mr. Hart? Here Ms. Hartman? Here Mr. Adam? Here Mr. Lavagnino?
Can I get a motion to approve the minutes of February 12, 2019? So moved. Moved and seconded. All those in favor? Aye. Any opposed? Okay we'll move to CEO's report. Ms. Miyasato do you have a report today?
I do good morning Chair Lavineto and board members it's my honor today to introduce our new fire chief and to swear him in so Chief Hartwig could you come up please So Chief Mark Hartwig as we know comes to us from the county of San Bernardino where he was a fire chief since 2011. And in that department he serves over 1,000 employees 70 fire stations 10 incorporated cities and 60 unincorporated communities. He was recognized as the 2017 California Fire Chief of the Year by the California State Fire Chiefs Association and was appointed by Governor Brown to the California Commission on Emergency Medical Services prior to being named the County of Santa Bernardino Fire Chief, he served for six years with the Rancho Cucamonga Fire Protection District where he is promoted to the rank of Deputy Chief.
And prior to that, he was with San Bernardino County Fire starting as an extra help firefighter in 92 and working his way to the rank of captain serving as the department's emergency medical services supervisor and training officer. Chief Hartwig has a master's degree in emergency services administration, a bachelor's in zoology and emergency medical care and associate degrees in paramedic studies and fire administration and many other certificates in fire studies. So it's my honor to now administer the oath of office.
All right you ready chief? Please raise your right hand There we go. There we go. I, Mark Hartwig, do solemnly swear that I will support and defend the Constitution of the United States and the Constitution of the State of California against all enemies foreign and domestic, and that I will bear true faith and allegiance To the Constitution
of the United States
and the Constitution
of the State of California, that I
take this obligation
freely without any mental reservation
or purpose of evasion.
And that I will well and faithfully
discharge the duties upon which I am about to enter Congratulations Chief Hartwig. Thank you Ms. Miyasato and thank you board, thank you for the confidence that you've placed in me I don't take that lightly. I'm excited about the challenges we have in front of us.
I'm even more excited about the team that you've surrounded me with, and so I come in. I have to officially tell you that there is nobody better that welcomes folks to a county than Santa Barbara County from the very first time I interacted with anybody here to today. My colleagues, members of the community just humbled by the support I feel like I've had about five weeks worth of information, and this is the five working days.
So there's a lot to do. I'm excited and ready to roll up my sleeves and engage with the community. I think I've met, had to greet with most of you, and I think the rest of you are this week. Just couldn't be any more impressed with, I would call it the passion of the folks here in this community and in the organization. They're not mailing it in, they're doing a hard job each and every day. And so looking forward to being their leader. I appreciate the confidence that you've placed in me and the support that I have here today. Thank you.
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Chief, on behalf of the board we just really want to welcome you. We have supreme confidence in your abilities and you've got a great team behind you there and we just look forward to some great things. We expect all the problems to be fixed. We'll give you six to eight weeks. We'll bring you back and start roasting you so thank you very much for being here and Holly welcome appreciate it.
All right that takes us to our Agenda, unless Ms. Miyasawa do you have any other? Nope okay we'll go to our agenda let's take our resolutions first can I get a motions for a one through three please so moved moved and seconded all those in favor aye any opposed okay
let's move to item a1 madam clerk
Chair Lavineto and members of the board, item A1 is sponsored by Supervisor Hart and Supervisor Hartman. It is to adopt a resolution of accommodation honoring the Junior League of Santa Barbara on its efforts to serve survivors of commercial sexual exploitation. In receiving this resolution today we have the Junior League of Santa Barbara President Kyle Horton and she is going to be accompanied by the Junior League Board Members. And if they can please come down to the podium?
And I'll go ahead and read the resolution. Whereas, the Junior League of Santa Barbara Inc is an organization of women committed to promoting volunteerism, developing the potential of women, and improving the community through the effective action and leadership of trained volunteers. Its purpose is exclusively educational and charitable. Whereas, educating and empowering young women to reach their full potential while working to prevent injustice and exploitation in our community is the focus area of the Junior League of Santa Barbara. Whereas human trafficking, including the exploitation of youth for commercial sex is a significant issue that exists across the state of California and in our county.
Since the launch of Santa Barbara County's Human Trafficking Task Force in 2013 over 150 teens in Santa Barbara County have been identified as commercially sexually exploited children. Whereas in May of 2018, the Junior League of Santa Barbara in partnership with Four Kids Two Kids Inc opened the doors of Safe House Santa Barbara Saving at-risk youth from exploitation. Safe House is the first short term residential therapeutic program in Santa Barbara County for child survivors of commercial sexual exploitation, whereas the six bed short term residential therapeutic program is a significant development as there are few shelter options in California that are focused exclusively on serving the needs of girls who have been commercially exploited.
Now, therefore be it hereby ordered and resolved that this board commends the Junior League of Santa Barbara in partnership with 4Kids2Kids on its work to serving survivors of commercial sexual exploitation through Safe House Santa Barbara passed and adopted today.
Thank you so much, and we just wanted to say a quick word of thanks to Supervisors Hart and Hartman for sponsoring this resolution. And to the entire board of supervisors here in our county, it was a great honor for the Junior League of Santa Barbara to partner with Chris Hart of 4 Kids 2 Kids. To bring Safe House to Santa Barbara County, while quite a challenge.
It truly was our privilege and our honor to be able to bring this really as a gift to the county and to these girls who are so deserving of having a beautiful safe therapeutic home to go to after surviving what they've been through. We did not do this just between the league and four kids, two kids. It was truly a full county collaborative effort and we couldn't have done it without the support of so many other agencies and so many other people in this county. So it's truly an honor to be here today and receive this resolution on behalf of our nearly 500 members of the Junior League of Santa Barbara And on behalf of 4Kids2Kids, thank you so much.
I just want to thank the Junior League representatives for being here today and the achievement that you have accomplished is really incredible. It is one of the most difficult things in our county, is to develop housing for needy populations and provide services to them and for your determination to go through the process, your inspiration to come up with the idea and your perseverance to make it all happen. It's truly an incredible achievement we're really proud to recognize your great work. Thank you.
And Supervisor Hartman?
0:15 – 0:207 turns
Well, I just really appreciate. I know that it's really wrenching work and it takes a lot to sustain that commitment and to bring others to it but it really matters and so on behalf of the board thank you.
Okay thank you very
much let's go to item A2 I know you're going to have public comment at the end, but I need to tell you something. I can't be here. I have a disability. So anyway, the shelter has been...
We're not gonna... Public comment is not at the end sir. Public comments not at the end. Public comments not at the end it's... Public comments not at the end if you wait five minutes everybody else has to wait. Everybody else has to wait. Public comments 5-10 minutes away. Okay? That doesn't solve anything, all right? Let's go to A2. You can wait for five minutes.
I didn't accomplish anything. A2 please.
Chair Lavinino and members of the board, item A2 is from Supervisor Hart is to adopt a resolution of accommodation honoring Samuel McKinley Vickers as the February 2019 Veteran of the Month in Santa Barbara County and if I can have Samuel McKinley Vickers and any members of his family join him at the podium? And I'll go ahead and read the resolution Whereas Santa Barbara County is home to approximately 22,270 veterans constituting about 5% of the county's population as a whole. And whereas those who have given the ultimate service to this nation by serving in its armed forces are deserving of endless recognition and gratitude by all Americans. And whereas the chair of the Santa Barbara County Board of Supervisors Steve Lavinino has dedicated time at the last board hearing of every month to recognize one veteran As a symbol of our appreciation of all veterans.
And whereas, February is Black History Month, a time when we celebrate the contributions of African Americans to our nation including through service in the armed forces. And whereas second district supervisor Greg Hart has chosen Samuel McKinley Vickers to be the recipient of the Santa Barbara County Board of Supervisors Veteran of the Month Resolution for February 2019. And whereas Mr. Vickers was born on April 6th 1924 in North Carolina Mr. Vickers served in the United States Army during World War II, at which he was deployed to the Philippines.
And whereas Mr. Vickers has lived in Santa Barbara County for more than five decades, Mr. Vickers had a successful career of service as a respiratory therapist at Goleta Valley Community Hospital. In his retirement, Mr Vickers is active in the community serving on the board of the St Paul African Methodist Episcopal Church and now therefore be it hereby ordered and resolved that this board honors Samuel McKinley Vickers as our February 2019 Veteran of the Month, passed and adopted today.
What I would like to say is as I go down to these Of these different hospitals and I see all these people that are in really bad shape, I think about those. And I think about the homeless people. It's one thing we could do to help them and to make it easier for those people. But I did want to say to you people, thank you for appreciating me. That's about it.
My name is Thomas Wayne Sudin. Dad's oldest son. And I flew in from Atlanta, Georgia and my wife and I we usually come in April. And the reason we come in April is because that's his birthday. On the 6th of April dad will turn 95 years young.
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Enjoy your stay in Santa Barbara.
Mr. Chair? Yes, if I could just add a little bit too. I just want to say that to his friends and loved ones, Mr. Vickers is also known as Mack and I think in our community we know him as that as well. Serving during his time following there is time in the Army Mack entered civilian life by working for the Department of Veteran Affairs so he's really He's done a career of public service. He worked as respiratory technician in the Durham, North Carolina area and then moved to Santa Barbara with his family in 1968 and has been working ever since in community affairs serving the healthcare needs of our community and the religious community on the board of his church.
He's been a proud veteran of the United States of America. We are proud to have him as a member of our community and it is especially Proud to have his veteran son here from Atlanta along to celebrate this day as well. So, this is our way of saying thank you to the veterans that serve our community and we're really proud to thank Mac for his service.
All right. We might just skip A3, I don't know. I guess we'll go ahead and read it in, Jacqueline. We don't want to but we will.
Chair Lavinino, members of the Board, Item A3 is sponsored by Supervisor Williams. It is to adopt a resolution of commendation honoring Mark Schleich upon his retirement from the Public Works Department after over 35 years of service to the County of Santa Barbara. And if I can have Mark Schleich and anyone you'd like to join you?
Supervisor Abboud.
Yeah I'm just thinking that now you've got this resource recovery deal just ready to fire up, now you're gonna run away? So does that mean you're
staying? You want to read the resolution go ahead
Whereas Mark Schleich retired as the Deputy Director of the Resource Recovery and Waste Management Division of the Public Works Department in January 2019, having served the citizens of Santa Barbara County for 35 years. Mark grew up in Goleta and started his career with the county public works department as a civil engineer one, and progressed to civil engineer two, three, four, section manager, and ultimately deputy director of transportation before being appointed to deputy director of resource recovery and waste management.
And whereas, both North and South County benefited from Mark's efforts while serving as the Transportation Engineer Manager during the construction of both the Bettoravia and Stork Glen Annie Interchanges. And whereas since 1998 Mark has been directly involved in solid waste projects in the Resource Recovery and Waste Management Division. Mark oversaw three recycling and transfer stations as well as regional landfill that in total employ over 90 people. During Mark's tenure, the county has increased its recycling rate from 30 to over 70% and has received numerous awards for innovative solid waste management including four from the Solid Waste Association of North America. Under Mark's leadership, the division successfully expanded the Dahigas Landfill in 2003 and began construction on the Dahigas Resource Recovery Project in December 2018.
And whereas each person that worked with Mark searched for the meaning in the analogies and tangential stories that he provided during stressful times, and was empowered to create innovative solutions. And whereas we anticipate Mark is looking forward to enjoying quality time playing golf, fly fishing, bicycling, and volunteering in the community he loves. And now therefore be it hereby ordered and resolved that this Board of Supervisors honors and commends Mark Schleich upon his retirement from the County of Santa Barbara passed and adopted today.
Mr. Chair and board members, thank you so much for recognizing Mark's nearly 35 years of public service. I'm hoping we hear a few analogies this morning but I think not. We'll see. I think there is a theme this morning that really is no higher calling than public service and military service certainly in our country. And Mark has certainly left his legacy through the various projects that he's completed in all the communities that we serve in the county. But I think his most important legacy will be the team that he has developed at Resource Recovery and Waste Management to take us into the future, and most of them are here today as well. So on behalf of myself, my executive leadership team here, and the Department of Public Works, we wish Mark just the absolute best in his retirement, and don't be a stranger.
Thank you so much.
0:25 – 0:284 turns
Thank you board. I have a few comments very brief First thank you for hiring me some 34 years ago and more importantly, thank you for keeping me around because without being around I wouldn't be here today accepting this resolution Most importantly thank you for letting me serve this community it's Nothing is more rewarding than making a difference in the community and the leadership that you guys gave this community And being able to carry out the vision of this community Thank you for keeping it interesting and challenging throughout.
It allowed me to be creative and innovative, which is kind of my sweet spot in life. I like to think a little outside the box. It also gave me the opportunity to raise my family here. Again that's very important and my kids are doing really well and very proud of them and the fact that they were here. You know, the other part is I'd like to thank Scott and the Public Works team.
It's been my family for the last 34 1⁄2 years and it's been a true honor and blessing to work with each and every one of them and I just want to say that thank you for that as well. Thank you again for this resolution and wish you guys the best!
It's hard to lose somebody with 35 years. That's a lot of institutional knowledge heading out the door, but we know where to find you so- We will come looking. All right. Does the board have any items they wish to pull from the administrative agenda? Nope, doesn't look like any. 30 what? 3-0. Item 3-0830. Okay. And does the public have any items they wish to pull?
Chair Lavinino and members of the board, we have requests to speak on A14 and A38.
A14 and 38. Okay can I get a motion on the balance of the A agenda then?
0:28 – 0:317 turns
So moved.
Moved and seconded. All those in favor? Aye. None opposed? Alright passes unanimously. Let's go to the first one which is A14.
Chair Lavinino and members of the board, item A14 is from Community Services. It is to consider recommendations regarding the execution of loan documents for a $1,400,000 loan in federal home and inclusionary housing ordinance in lieu funds to Sierra Madre Cottages LP for Sierra Madre Cottages in Santa Maria, and this is in the 5th district. And we are going to stay in Santa Barbara with Maury Ruano.
Good morning, members of the board. My name is Maury Ruano and I'm the Deputy Director of Multifamily Housing at People's Self-Housing. And thank you for the opportunities to bring us here and provide the right information this time. I know that last time it was said that Sierra Madre Cottages was costing $600,000 per unit which was incorrect information. We're sorry we were not able to provide the correct information at the time But we're here now to provide the correct information. The fact is that the total development cost per unit is only $349,000 and not 600,000 as was stated last time. And the actual construction costs is actually $220,000 per unit. And also you have to take into account That those costs are a little bit higher than if we were to provide the financing through conventional sources.
But as you know, in order to be able to provide affordable housing, we had to raise funds from the local sources, the state and the federal sources. And in order to do that We have some requirements from all those funders. So one of them, for example, is a 20% increase in labor costs for Davis-Bacon. Another one is the energy efficiency for Title 24 which is an additional 15%.
And then in addition to that we also provide amenities that other developers would probably not provide so all these cost add up. So although our cost per unit is $349,000 it would be less if we did not have all those requirements.
Okay I appreciate the clarification. I figured it out like halfway through the meeting and then it clicked but I appreciate you coming back and clarifying
that. And again we apologize that we did not correct at the time when we should've. Very
good thank you very much. Anybody going to need a roll call on A14? Are we going to be good there? Okay. So let's move to A30.
0:31 – 0:3610 turns
Tara Lavinino, members of the board. Item A30 is from Public Works Board of Directors Flood Control and Water Conservation District Board of Directors and Laguna County Sanitation District Board of Directors Water Agency. It is to consider recommendations regarding the integrated regional water management plan update and memorandum of understanding.
Supervisor I just want a roll call vote so I can abstain one of my attorneys There's no apparent conflict, but he's Concerned
okay. Can I get a motion to move 830 please? So moved second moved in second it all those in favor aye Any opposed and you're saying any abstentions supervisor Adam abstaining okay? Let's move to a 38 a
Chair Lavinino, members of the board. Item A38 is a hearing request to set a hearing to consider recommendations regarding the Planning Commission recommended ordinance amending the county land use and development code case number 17 ORD 5 section 35 1 of chapter 35 zoning of the Santa Barbara County Code to address permitting requirements for hoop structures and shade structures. And this is to set a hearing for March 12th 2019 And we have a request to speak here in Santa Barbara from Andy Caldwell.
Chair Lavinino, members of the board, Andy Caldwell representing Colab. I know this is a set hearing item but I'm going to ask that you set a hearing with specific information in your staff report. As you know, you graciously issued a directive that you want to bury hoops under 20 feet to be exempt. Well, it's coming back to you a little bit more convoluted than that.
We need them to be exempt. We think it's ridiculous not to consider them exempt since people have been using them for 10 to 20 years without any permits. Your previous planning director said no permit was needed and nonetheless, it has gotten convoluted. Chip Wolbrant who has been a prominent land use attorney in this county for decades Came before the Planning Commission and gave an absolute complete total no-brainer explanation of the land use code proving that they are exempt by your own code.
And the planning commission asked county council, what do you think about Mr. Wolbrant's interpretation? And they said that Mr. Wolbrant interpretation is acceptable I'm asking you to direct your staff that when you come back, you have that as one of your options. That it's not buried in a letter to the planning commissioner or buried in an appendix but that you have the option to consider this interpretation and definition of your existing land use code to say these things are categorically exempt because they do not meet the definition of development And again he talked about the agriculture it's an agricultural improvement.
It's not development so we're just asking you to because this is a it's an exit door from the convoluted mess that we've got right now thank you.
Thank you very much Supervisor Williams
I do think that Mr. Gazzone hopefully will be providing us with a BLO at the very least for us to understand our options completely. Okay, Mr. Gazzone? If not I would request one.
Chair and supervisors so as is our practice we'll be coordinating closely with planning and make sure you're aware of all of the options that are out there. And you should have fairly broad discretion in terms of the options that were studied below by the Planning Commission.
Very good. Supervisor Adam? Yeah, I know we can't talk about it right now but that's exactly what I would be asking you for if we were going to talk about it.
Okay yeah okay we do have that item scheduled for three hours by the way which I think is the longest we ever put anything on the agenda for so that'll be look forward to that one Yeah, okay. Can I get a motion to pass items A14 and A38 please? So moved. Second. Moved and seconded all those in favor? Aye. Any opposed? All right very good that concludes our administrative agenda that takes us to public comment.
Madam Clerk how many speakers do we have today?
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Chair Lavinino, members of the board. We have five requests to speak on general public comment today and we are first going to Santa Maria for Renee O'Neill and then coming back here in Santa Barbara for Ed Kolaski.
Okay let's go to our first.
Good morning, Supervisors. Renee O'Neill from Tepeskay Community here. I wish I had a portion of Andy Caldwell's brain because I'm sure he's wonderful at navigating the county website. I on the other hand am technologically challenged so when I am given notifications regarding revisions to the ordinances and such I simply don't know how to find it. I've tried using the search bar and putting in words like hoop house changes or whatever, and I would like it if the county could make it a little bit more User friendly to people like me that we could put in a search word and it would bring us right to the page. In the ordinance that is addressing that specific topic so I don't know if that can be done or if I just don't know what I'm doing but I struggle with it.
So if there's anything you can do in that regard I'd appreciate it. The other thing I wanted to speak to was my concern over the staff turnover in our The people that we've been working with for so many years over this whole cannabis crisis. Jessica Metzger, Mindy Fogg, now Diane Black is gone. People that know us and know the history of the issues. All of a sudden they disappear. So we are very pleased with Melanie Jackson, our new staff person in the planning department and my heart goes out to Melanie who must be overwhelmed by trying to come on board with all of this stuff and I would just like to encourage our county to keep some consistency with the folks that have historical uh...
idea you know what I mean anyways and last but not least here I am today for the agenda items that I want to speak to it would really be appreciated if we could get a ballpark of whether these agenda items are going to come before the board before lunch or after lunch. That's all I have to say Okay now I
would say everything's going to happen before lunch today. They're
awesome. Thank you, Steve. I appreciate that. You're welcome. Thank you very much already. Bye-bye
And and I just want to add that like 30 35 years is a long time for somebody to work here and all of those people that you're talking about Have been here for that long and so there I don't think we can make them stay At this point, so, you know, you have to get used to somebody new every three years or so So
Come on, Jessica. Let's go Mindy fog Diane black those kids aren't even hardly 35 years old
I
just for my part also want to say that turnover in P&D is one of the primary questions that we asked our applicants for P&E director it's a It's a very big concern to us as well, Renee. And just so that you don't have to necessarily hang in there for the whole hearing, the number of positions that we've hired is exactly the number of positions that was budgeted. It's not six, it's 21 and a half positions hired in cannabis and I'm sure we'll go over that in the second item. Yep.
Okay. Thank you. All right. Next speaker?
Chair Lavinino, members of the board we're going to come back here in Santa Barbara with Ed Kolaski to be followed by Cecilia Ochoa.
Good morning I have a short list here of items that I had questions about for the last five years I've been trying to remodel our house So in the short list, I also have a few remarks from President Lincoln at the Gettysburg Address. I call this what a dirty filthy local government we have. It's been five years I've been trying to remodel this. They ruled that our second story is solely over the garage when clearly it's not. You ask a architect and after he stops laughing, he'll tell you of course it's not solely over the garage but that doesn't interfere with the ruling here with Alex Peugeot.
So another question I had We added 300 square feet to the project, a 400-square foot project. They ruled that there were no changes made and that we failed to make changes. We're unwilling to make changes. We had a five to two vote in our favor. There are seven voting members. We were told that not everybody was present, five to two, seven voting members. Who was missing?
Nonsense, just total nonsense. Why did I have to pay the county to come into the fifth meeting only to be told to leave? We couldn't even present our project. It's sitting there, Marketex holding in its hand. We paid for that. He kicked us out. Alex Bouchot kicked us out of the meeting. Why is it when I sat in the audience once, the guard came up to me and said you have to leave.
I said why? Somebody doesn't want you here. This isn't democracy. And then he starts to take out his nightstick like he's going to bash me over the head even horrified the members down there. Why was the description of our project in our 15 seconds of being there And the big paragraph on it, not include what happened during the meeting. It's totally false. So why is Alex Peugeot still here?
And why is our dictatorial supervisor prior to in the second district or previous one allowed to leave without prosecution This is leadership after five years and no one can even tell me how that's solely over the garage? Abraham Lincoln during the Gettysburg Address, he talks about the devotion of all those people who died in the war. And there were many, many people who died. And then he sums it up by saying that we created a new government under God, a government Of the people by the people and for the people and it shall not perish from the earth. It is long gone here.
And if you noticed at a Royal Grandi, one of the members of the Council stepped down because she was disgusted with the corruption up there. Thank you. Thank you.
Chair Lavinino, Members of the Board we had a few requests to speak leave and so our final speaker is Cecilia Ochoa.
0:44 – 0:474 turns
Chair Lavinino, members of the Board of Supervisors. Good morning. My name is Cecilio Cho and I am the Oral Health Manager for Health Linkages with the Santa Barbara County Education Office. And I'm here today during this month of National Children's Dental Health to bring awareness to the importance of oral health in the lives of children and the preventive work that has been taking place in our community.
Oral health as you know is critical to overall health and well-being Dental decay, tooth pain in children affects their learning, sleeping, eating and playing patterns which harms their physical, mental and emotional health. Research has found clear associations between oral infections and development of other systemic illnesses such as diabetes and heart disease.
Unfortunately, tooth decay is the most common chronic condition experienced by children. And the Surgeon General called it a silent epidemic And one that is preventable. In California alone, 54% of kindergartners have experienced dental caries and nearly one-third of children have untreated tooth decay. And here in Santa Barbara County the fight against tooth decay is well underway in our own communities and Health Linkages has worked together with partners to prevent disease in children. By identifying and tracking current needs and improving access to care.
One of these key activities is the coordination of fluoride varnish applications which are strongly recommended by the American Dental Association, and have been shown to reduce dental decay by 43%. And Health Linkages and its partners provide this service twice, two times a year for various local preschools, state preschools, children's centers. State readiness and head start programs where a majority are low income patients. And this county wide preventative measure provides 4,000 children in Santa Barbara County with two fluoride varnish applications per year. And for the last ten years this evidence based program Has shown decrease and untreated decay in California programs with 40% in 2007, and 30% in 2016.
I just want to say that Health Linkages has filled the gap where their service has not been provided in many dental office and medical offices. And we continue to train partnering organizations to provide varnish to children as soon as they get their first teeth up to the age of six. And our community truly does depend on this preventative care and it is our hope to continue to strengthen the oral health of our children. Thank you for giving me this opportunity to talk today, and thank you for allowing us to continue to varnish our children. Thank you again.
Thank you for being here. Important message.
Chair Lavnino and members of the board that is all our requests to speak on general public comment today.
Okay, that closes the public comment period. It'll take us to our departmental agenda items. Let's go to departmental agenda item number one.
0:47 – 0:4913 turns
Chair Lavinino and members of the board, departmental item number one is from the County Executive Office. It is a hearing to approve the appointment of one member of the Board of Supervisors to serve as a regular member on the Local Agency Formation Commission for a term from March 1st 2019 through March 1st 2023.
And I have on my notes here the presentation is going to be given by Jacqueline Alexander.
Yes, Chair Lavinino members of the board this item comes to the board as a request from LAFCO Executive Officer Paul Hood and as you recall at our January 8th 2019 Board of Supervisors meeting Supervisor Williams was appointed to complete The unexpired term of alternate county member Hartman. At the same time, Supervisor Hartman was appointed to the unexpired term of regular county member Janet Wolfe with a term ending date of March 1st 2019. So today the board is being asked to appoint one member of the board to serve as the regular member term ending March 1st 2023.
Supervisor Hartman? I would just like to say I'd very much like to serve that term
OK, so it looks like what it would be is I would be a regular member. You'd be a regular member and Supervisor Williams would be the alternate member
that is correct. Chair Lavinino members of the board supervisor Williams and Supervisor Lavinino's term end March 1st 2022
perfect. OK, can I get a motion to? Indicate that I'll be the regular member supervisor Hartman, a regular Williams is an alternate member filling those terms.
I don't believe you have a fixed term, so you're
already in.
So I would move that I fill.
So we'll go with staff recommendation then. I don't want to extend my term beyond 2022. I think I'm going to be elected at that point, so we can't go too far out there. OK, so move staff recommendation seconded by Supervisor Hart. All those in favor? Anybody opposed? Okay, passes unanimously. Very good.
Thank
you. That takes us to departmental item number two. Madam Clerk.
0:49 – 1:042 turns
Chair Lavagnino and members of the board, departmental item number two is from the county executive office. It is a hearing to consider recommendations regarding budget priorities.
Mr. Frapwell. Mr Chairman, members of the board, good morning. Today we want to go over a few items in preparation for workshops, which are scheduled for April. As you can imagine our staff and CEO's office is working fast and furious going through departments budget submittals to evaluate those both on the revenues that they're projecting as well as expenses they see that they will likely incur next year So as we work through those priorities We want to seek your board's direction today on a few items for clarification as we prepare again for the workshops in April.
So today, seeking direction prior to April workshops reflect the following things allocation of cannabis tax revenues preliminary direction on priorities for evaluation guidance on top projects for federal and state advocacy requested by your legislative committee To set the background though, let me go back to the forecast that we presented to your board in November.
You'll recall that the forecast had three primary kind of conclusions to that. One is that the potential general fund surplus about $3.5 million for this upcoming fiscal year. I'm pleased to tell you that revenues are trending even a little stronger and so we're hoping that number continues to move north of that number. The forecast assumed no expansion of staff or services in the upcoming fiscal year.
And it did foreshadow a potential recession in the future fiscal years in the five-year forecast window that we were looking at. So, we'd assumed as you recall, we assumed some softening of some of our discretionary revenues and then made projections based on that softening of what the gap potentially could be This was the chart out of the forecast. You'll see here that you can see in the out years, fiscal years 2021 and beyond through 23-24, that the potential for a funding gap continued to grow.
Now these are cumulative numbers here on the chart just as a reminder. Obviously we do balance the budget each year and so each of these would be closed but for this with the assumption on the forecast was all else being equal As far as the continuation of services, this is what potentially could happen if we experience a financial slowdown in the out years.
So you can see here in the chart, in the 19-20, we had predicted the general fund at $3.5 million of positive fund balance. Or positive gap or net financial available funds. Mental health services, we were predicting a slight decrease or negative gap of $600,000 social services at that time was predicting one and a half quarter activities about 300,000 all other funds about 100,000 so you had about a 1 point in total $1.2 million surplus.
And you can see as you go out in the out years this these trends become less favorable. Also as part of that November report we highlighted for your board some financial issues that continue to be, we think important to keep on our radar screen that will need to be addressed into the future. And these largely are fiscal issues that are identified by departments or by your board with respect to Things that must be addressed, things that we have to be mindful of. Now we will be in developing next fiscal year's budget keeping these items in the forefront of our mind to see what we can find funding for. Obviously not all these will be funded next year but this is the list on the top part of this chart, the list that was presented to your board and in that board report in November we went through and discussed each one of these so I won't Take your time today to go through one through eight, but I do want to highlight two additional items that we identified that will be considering in the development of next year's budget.
And there are numbers nine and 10 here on the chart. Let me talk a little bit about those. Obviously, the report goes into much more detail about these, but pretty much these are the two items that we'll be focusing on in addition to the fiscal issues identified in November. One is the creation of a technology replacement investment fund. Roughly about $2 million. And this is a continuing theme we've seen throughout over the last year, about the need to invest in the county's infrastructure technology infrastructure so that we can position ourselves taking advantage of current technology and future technology as we continue to improve the quality of services we provide to our constituents. And so this was a clear message we're receiving both through the Renew 22 process, as well as surveying departments on what they feel Is an impediment to moving the county forward in a positive fashion.
So we know that we're going to have to make some investment, much like we know we have to make investment and infrastructure. We have to make an investment in our technology infrastructure as well. As the idea here is to create a fund. Which eventually will be a self-sustaining revolving fund, but in the first few years it'll take an infusion of money before those funds start getting paid back. And it's largely to address multi-departmental initiatives to create common platforms for technology, for implementation of new technology. So that's kind of that item and the second item here is the establishment or really the transition The way we communicate with the public about our services from a legacy kind of infrastructure that we use right now to one that is cloud-based.
And the reason is simply when our public needs our information the most, it's when everybody needs it especially during disasters and what happens is when you have a major influx or draw on trying to get services from or information from the county is when our system is very vulnerable And what we experienced in the past disasters is a slowdown of information going out and some system issues. So, the idea here is really to move this infrastructure to current technology in a cloud-based infrastructure. So that's the half million dollars. So those two items will be considering as we develop the recommended budget for next year.
Your board recall In May, General Services brought to you a list of potential projects that would be eligible for COP financing, sort of debt financing. And General Services will return it to your board at the end of next month to refine this list and develop some strategies and seek your board's direction on projects that you want us to continue to consider and refine even further for debt financing. And you'll recall, the main jail continues to be in the forefront of our minds and needs for renovation once Northern Branch Jail opens.
Our public safety radio system, you'll recall that in the current year we funded phase two of investment in additional towers and repeater sites to address undercovered areas of our county. And so this item number two is kind of that third phase it is, and we talk more about it when Our back in May or March, I'm sorry. The Cali Real water system replacement loop systems a major infrastructure through that center part of the county's Cali Real campus.
The replacement of the roof next door at the courthouse investment in some renewable energy and energy efficiency upgrades. Some infrastructure upgrades and replacement at Lake Kachuma. As well as we'll discuss the need for revise our new probation department headquarters, that'd be a new construction. We'll discuss in March also the emergency operations center expansion and why that might be necessary and helpful.
And then your board heard a few weeks ago the report from general services on the need to invest in replacement of our public safety radio system and It's just under $50 million. So these are the things that we'll be considering and bringing back to your board next month, and we'll have some strategies as it relates to that. Moving to cannabis tax revenue, you recall that in the current fiscal year, we assumed revenue from cannabis tax of roughly five-and-a-half million dollars, 5.45 million dollars.
And as of January, about 3.1 of that's been received. So we're on track. The good news is that we're on track to receive that which we budgeted. That's a positive. Your board committed at that time during hearings that the first $1.7 million of this was to fund enforcement activities. That continues and is happening. But there continues to be some uncertainty about the amount of ongoing tax revenues. And that's something we continue to be a little conservative about because I think it's important that until we have a good track record On that revenue, that we try to be cautious about how much we budget it.
We do believe that will continue to go up. In fact in our forecast November, we assumed a 3% growth in the upcoming fiscal year. That may be too conservative. We're working now with the auto controller and developing kind of our best estimate for next fiscal year so you'll see more of that as we move into workshops in April But nonetheless, what we're recommending is that with respect to next year's cannabis tax revenues. The first amount will go toward enforcement and we think that number will probably grow from the 1.7 in the current fiscal year to over two next year as we continue to these departments roll out kind of the needs and identify the criteria and the efforts required to enforce the county's ordinances.
And the remaining funds after the enforcement costs are covered would be allocated to one-time needs. Consistent obviously with Measure T that the voters approved, which specifically as we quote here is for general government purposes such as law enforcement, healthcare, parks, roads and other needs. So our recommendation with respect to cannabis is that we put that toward one time needs.
So as we look and seek your board's priorities, obviously any input today would be helpful as we continue to formulate the budget. But also will bring back much more robust information during workshops as we do each year. We'll have a conversation by each county department as well as the overarching issues that we see and recommend funding for next year. We obviously will continue to respect your board's funding priorities, which of course are the four that we have. Northern Branch Shale Operations Fund, the 18% maintenance plan, the fire tax shift and the street reserve policies. We highlighted those in December as we brought the budget development guidelines to your board, you'll recall.
And in fiscal year 19-20, we'll also see available revenue allocated per your board priorities And those will still be determined in seeking any input your board might have for us today. So revenues above, after meeting those board priorities in bullet point number three can be used for one-time uses to address fiscal issues. We talked about the fiscal issues list a moment ago.
We can expand services and priority areas although we want to remind the board that if we really do see some recessionary pressures in the out year We would be very cautious about expanding any ongoing services. We can save any additional revenues to be in reserves, to address future year deficits in case of recession and obviously we'll have and will discuss during the workshops department request expansions that will seek your board's direction in April about so those are all presented and the nice thing about the workshops is that it's kind Condense dedicated time to focus on everything budget as opposed to kind of piecemeal throughout time. So it sets the context and you'll be able to consider the department request for expansions.
One thing other things has come up recently is in your, in the legislative committee met last or this month I guess still And the request from the committee is your board's guidance on the top county projects to potentially seek or advocate state or federal funding. And the board priorities in this regard can fall into the following three categories, either program-specific funding requests, specific project-based funding requests, requests for categorical or formula based funding enhancements due to unique circumstances for the county.
The latter case is really kind of a reflection We're seeing in the governor's initial January budget, there are some concerns that we have. Although generally very favorable to the county, there are a couple areas of concern that we are watching and our legislative advocates are helping us understand what the governor was contemplating in the budget. And so we're working with the statewide groups to address that but that would be an example of bullet point number three.
So today, our recommended actions are as follows. To receive and file the update on the development and the context for fiscal year 19-20 recommended budget. To provide staff and direct staff to allocate available current year and fiscal year 19 20 cannabis revenues first to enforcement costs and one time needs as part of the budget development process. C, to provide staff with any preliminary direction on your board priorities.
And D, provide guidance to staff regarding top projects to advocate for federal or state funding And obviously E as homage to our county council is determined that the actions above do not constitute a project under CEQA. So with that, did I get that all right Mr. Gazzani? Yes. With that
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we're happy to answer any questions. All right Supervisor Williams.
Well I just wanted to add that the Uncertainty because of legislative action is significant. The state budget could cost public health $2 million alone just in that department, not to mention a significant issue in behavioral wellness as well that I don't know the exact price tag on but it's an issue and there are bills Being proposed to eliminate fee revenue that could cost probation well more than $2 million.
And so there is some need for legislative engagement, which I'll try to do on your behalf and of course Cliff will as well. But that there is some reason for some caution as we move into the budget. That being said, I will say that the enforcement team needs to be continued to be a high priority. I do think that our rules are meaningless unless we have adequate enforcement and There's not an incentive to move to the legal market from the black market or the gray market unless we have strong enforcement. So, strong enforcement and revenue I think in the long run are tied and I want to just thank our enforcement team.
Dennis, P&D and the sheriffs. They've been doing a great job. I don't know if all of you have met Frank. He's back over there in the beard. He blends in so well that when I organized a meeting of growers and neighborhood advocates, all the neighborhood advocates thought he was a marijuana grower If they had looked closely, they would have seen his haircut was way too straight and betrayed him as a law enforcement officer. So you're going to have to mess up your hair if you go undercover Frank but they're doing great work out there and we've seen significant number of raids both in Carpinteria and in North County.
Supervisor Hartman?
Thank you. Accolades to Frank from Me Too, he came to a meeting in San Ynez Valley and did a terrific job. Much appreciated. I wanted to talk first about the Ledge Program. I only recently joined the Legislative Committee and we have quite a large book of legislative priorities And in talking to Cliff, who's our lobbyist in Sacramento as well as to our state delegation. They suggested that if we could narrow our priorities it would be helpful to them in working on our behalf. So the first thing you already anticipated Supervisor Williams, that is what is in the governor's proposed budget that we find harmful to our county and behavioral wellness and probation funding I think is really important to focus on. But then the question is, what else can we be looking to our state delegation to try to secure funding for?
And it seems to me that it's most obviously our fiscal issues with one-time funding needs. And perhaps we could have our, I know that our CEO Miyasato and Mr. Bozanich may be meeting with our state delegation and Maybe we could ask about these, particularly public safety communication system replacement or maybe the EOC expansion that was on the other slide. I think partly it depends on what their interest is but if we can identify what our top priorities are for our county We can all really try to pull our resources together and go up and talk to legislators on those committees. And we're fortunate to have Supervisor Williams who knows all of this well, so I think it might be helpful to get some direction from the board to our CEO about moving forward with our priorities with our state delegation.
Well, member requests. I mean when I was a staffer this was very common and everybody got some and it's not a particularly good way to legislate in my view. And officially they're dead though in my time in the legislature after I was staffer it was very difficult to get member request unless it had direct nexus to an imminent emergency. So a couple of the examples that I got in conjunction with Senator Jackson was things like the Kachuma pump and some help for Port Hueneme to make sure their main road didn't wash away during a set of storms.
Things like that are easier argument to make, that have a strong nexus with an emergency. And since we've had so many emergencies it may be possible for staff to identify one with a clear nexus.
Okay. Before we get into comments and everything I know we have public
comment
I
believe. You know sometimes in cleanup because the other one was the Becker well For the cleanup in summer one, right?
Okay. Let's go to public comment first and then we can go to board discussion.
Chair Lavinino and members of the board, we have three requests to speak on this item. We're going to first go to Santa Maria for Renee O'Neill and then back here in Santa Barbara for Andy Caldwell.
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Good morning again, and I didn't mean to eliminate David Villalobos and Ms. Miyasato and Dennis Bazanich. What would I do without you guys? I meant to add that to my public comment earlier not to overlook the staff on our team that is just awesome in supporting us and putting up with people like me. As my letter in public comment stated, I didn't see it here.
There it is, yes it is. Sorry just found it. I do want to support staff's recommendations to put as much of the cannabis revenue into enforcement. Supervisor Williams you mentioned there were 21 people on this that you'd hired. Being clear that when I spoke to the sheriffs, there's still just six on their enforcement team. Five detectives and one, I believe Lieutenant Detective Supervisor of the team. So when I refer to the six, that's what I'm talking about and I would strongly encourage under the circumstances in this county right now that we hire more enforcement staff.
And I want to applaud the enforcement team for the work they've done thus far. It's incredible to see what they have been able to do with what I consider one hand tied behind their back. So, I just think it's essential for the board to allocate tax revenue to hire I mean, to hire more than six people. I can't imagine these guys overseeing all the enforcement in the entire county.
I still find on the county website in the project objectives EIR the language that seems to be Apparently supported by the cannabis lobbyists. As I said in my letter, which I didn't know was going into the public comment. There are ten objectives and the state has their priority objective as protecting public health safety welfare and our county has project objectives that The last three items on the list is protecting Protecting the environment, protecting our children.
Whereas our first priorities are developing a robust cannabis industry. I think that makes a huge statement and I would like to see that changed. Thank you.
Our next speaker is Andy Caldwell back here in Santa Barbara to be followed by Sharon Byrne.
Chair Labine, members of the board, Andy Caldwell representing Colab. Your staff does a phenomenal job in this area. But I always do wish that there was also included a snapshot of pensions every time you meet, especially with the downturn in the stock market in December. As you know most people's funds kinda go up and down but because yours always has money going out when it goes down you gotta go way higher to catch back And that's just the simple truth of the matter. So you should always be getting a snapshot of pensions Because that is your biggest obligation neck or a biggest debt next to infrastructure and with regard to infrastructure Supervisor Adams is the king on this subject and I'll defer to him but what he has explained it
eventually
what he has explained to this board for eight solid years is Is it's not just a funding need. It's literally a whole that the longer you neglect it, the more the debt increases and I think you should always have a snapshot of that when you're talking about budgetary issues ie how far how much more will the roads deteriorate till the point they need to be replaced in the because they can no longer be repaired That kind of stuff, you should always be in the forefront of your decisions because everything else literally is peanuts compared to those two items.
Literally it's over a billion dollars. The other issue is revenue enhancement. Mike Brown was CEO a long, long time ago and his budget book he put a list Of all the different things the board could do to bring in revenue. You look at the Miramar for instance, how much money is going to come in through the Miramar? Why is the Gaviota Coast completely off limits to development? It's okay for a waste disposal site and a trash digester but by golly we don't want anybody having a hotel on that same coast it would ruin it.
You know, you have the area right at the Gaviota Pass which there's a lot and I've spoken on this for years. That is a perfect place for a tourist serving venue that could bring in literally millions of dollars to the county every year and enhance tourism which is consistent with the Coastal Act And then there's the issue of oil. The North County, what we keep begging you is respect the North County as a resource-based economy. Mining, oil, farming and ranching.
What can you do to streamline P&D and development to enhance revenue that's coming in from the resource based North County economy? Thank you.
Chair Lavinino, members of the board our final speaker is Sharon Byrne.
Good morning. As serving as the chair of the Behavioral Wellness Commission, I just wanted to talk to you a little bit this morning. Last week in our meeting we had a presentation on behavioral wellness budget from the past year and kind of looking forward a little bit. I want to thank you for the support that you give the Behavioral Wellness Department. I've chided you before that you could give more money than you do and that other counties do and I'd love to see us at least get on par with say San Luis Obispo I also want to point out that you approved, well not some of you weren't here at the time but you approved an assisted outpatient treatment program that went live January of 2017. We are in the starting the third and final year of the pilot program that you approved And we are waiting to see independent evaluator data to show the effectiveness of the program.
Probably won't have that in hand until January of next year, which I don't think is convenient for the way that your budget cycle works. So I just wanted to kind of make you aware of that. You gave general fund monies for that program. It's not something that we normally get through our regular funding channels. And I just wanted to say also thank you very much for the way that the behavioral wellness department put together such a clean and Concise and very digestible budget presentation so it was clear to the commissioners What they were looking at and sort of where the challenges are during the budget hearings. I hope this year For the first time in a very long time, you will have some really good news on that front But I'll wait and see how the presentation goes.
Thank you.
Thank you Is that all of our public comment? Okay let's bring it back to the board Supervisor Adam.
Well you know if we look at that slide 6, that deferred maintenance number is just shocking I don't think it actually represents the total because I got the breakdown yesterday and the parks is supposed to be 50 million general services down for 73 million. And The roads are down for 315 million with public works and That represents about a 70% increase from when I got here on on the public work side and a 20% increase or so from the hundred million of the Jorgensen report and That doesn't, I don't think that accurately reflects the level of damage that our buildings have sustained.
Because every time we cut into a job that the Jorgensen report talked about there three to four times It's not as big as the walk around estimate which is all they could do without being invasive. And so that makes sense you know every everybody knows when they get in a car wreck and they go get their body fixed. They usually ends up more expensive than it first look because they start pulling the parts off and then there's some more stuff bent So, you know, I just wonder when it is. You know what will that number be when we finally take an action? You know the 18% I objected to the 18% back in the day although that's a nice gesture. I objected because it would never catch up with this number and this number will never stop growing And I just wonder what it's going to take for us to, you know, take a meaningful action that results in that number actually going down instead of continuing to go up.
And, you know, you look down that list. I mean there are so many things here. You know this public safety communication system absolutely mandatory I mean that's what we do. And we have experience recently with maybe not having the best public communication system and maybe some things I'm not disparaging anybody's performance. I'm just saying that's a primary concern that we should have and we should continue to update all of the equipment as time goes on, and we know that that equipment that we're using at this point is obsolete so You know this main jail renovation. I'm gonna talk about that we all everybody up here knows what that is You know solar projects, I mean, I know that that's a priority for some of us but you know, I don't know how you How you?
Spend four and a half million bucks on that when you got all these other things that are going on I You know all the jail stuff. It's clear that we have to increase our revenue. I mean, we just don't have enough money and we got another item here which I said a laugh when I saw that because of course we're setting this thing up says we don't have enough money and then we're going to ask him for more money And it's a lot because we haven't sought out the revenue over time and It's also a lot because we don't control our expenditures very well so I'm A lot frustrated With this Set of circumstances we find ourselves in and My hope is dim that we're going to remove ourselves from or take real meaningful action to move ourselves away from it.
Supervisor Hart?
Well, I think the staff's approach to the budget update is really prudent. Looking ahead anticipating a potential recession is very smart and prudent budgeting and it does frame how challenging looking at this year surplus is when you consider future years of deficit and revenues. It does tee up the conversation that's on the next agenda item about what are we going to do about our revenue I look forward to that conversation. I think that is clearly connected in looking at this reality, looking at the deferred maintenance that Supervisor Adams spoke so eloquently to, looking at the projects for the certificates of participation and the debt obligation that's going to represent.
All of these things are speaking the needs of the departments, the additional budget enhancements. Ms. Burns speaking about behavior wellness. There are many, many projects up here that we're interested in advancing and improving and our constituents are interested as well and it's going to take funding to make those things happen. And I think that is directly connected to the rest of our conversation on the board items today.
Supervisor Williams?
Well, I do think it is time to take an action on deferred maintenance and on other infrastructure needs. I mean, I think the disaster shows us that there can be a decent amount of unenvisioned expenses along these lines and so it's not only deferred maintenance but it's that we know about but it's the deferred maintenance we don't know about because it will, it can come upon us suddenly I would just ask, you know my colleagues that We while we can and we have done work to control the costs And I would say one of the biggest of course is both a kudos and it continues to need improvement for the Sheriff's Department the number of The personnel awaiting trial in our jail system is a large driver of cost.
And it's not just the Sheriff's Department, but it's the courts, it's the public defender, it' the DA, it''s a team and Work in trying to reduce that has been successful, it's gone from I think the 70s percentages into the 60s. That's an improvement but I still think when you tell a member of the public that large of a percentage of people in jail are awaiting trial and they kind of are shocked because they know that's expensive so We can try to address costs, and I think that is being addressed.
Progress doesn't happen overnight. There probably will never be enough money to tackle this deferred maintenance and infrastructure thing unless we do go out for a tax. And so I hope that... But what it is, is it's protecting the taxpayer's investment in the long run And waiting for things to break down before you fix them is not a prudent financial move. So I hope that we will stay open to this concept of, we know we need to have it done. Somehow we need to come together on how we do it and maybe let's be willing to step Into our realms of uncomfortableness to be able to address it. So, the other thing I wanted to address is the questions about the cannabis positions and maybe if I'm wrong on this Dennis you or Jeff could get me right.
It is not just six positions that with sheriff's department that's In enforcement there's also 3 positions in permitting and some and 2 of those my understanding is part of the permitting it. There's a gray area between those 2 things right because only one of those positions is a civilian in permitting to those are sworn officers we do do it some enforcement with permitted operations through permitting right So even though those two sworn officers explain this situation because I want to be able to. Mr.
1:29 – 1:3411 turns
Frapp, I think Mr. Bosanich has the information.
Supervisor Williams to the chair so at this point if you'll recall last year the board approved a series of staff positions that were actually enhancements to the existing staff that existed in each of these departments It was roughly 12, well it was 12 and a half positions for compliance. Checks for both licenses and permits as well as the licensing and permitting staff themselves. All of that funded by the industry themselves that were seeking permits and licenses through fees.
On the enforcement side, there were a total of nine and a half positions approved in the original budget for 19-20. Amongst those were a position in county council, a deputy district attorney, a legal office professional in the DA. We had three and a half sheriff's deputies in that enforcement team. That went with another three positions over on the compliance teams. So that's where you get to the six and a half in sheriff, number of folks in ag commissioners as well as some more staff in planning and more County Council staff time in the enforcement team so a total of nine and a half positions were in the budget.
Your board, in December, added a DA investigator to relieve sheriff's deputies from having to do that follow-up work for a number of their enforcement cases. So currently your board is authorized ten and a half positions in the enforcement team. And again I'll just reiterate, a total of twelve and For the permitting, licensing and compliance team. All of those positions today are filled.
And so I had counted 21 and a half positions in total on cannabis additions but you just said 22 and a half is that the
case? Chair and Supervisor Williams actually would be with the addition of the position in the DA for the DA investigator it'd be a total 23.
Okay, and more than about 11 of those are law enforcement.
Chair, Supervisor Williams. I would say that yes so three plus another three and a half that's six and a half if you include then the DA staff that's another two and a half positions right? And then depending on how you perceive County Council also officers of the courts including those because they provide actually really key function for us in terms of making sure that we stay compliant
And then in addition, my understanding is there's been some OT in addition to those positions. Is that true or not? Meaning that when they roll out and do a raid they need more than just their team so there has been some OT incurred. Is that the case?
Supervisor
Williams
to the chair yes that is the case. So we are currently working with all departments to look at the actual cost of incurred over this last nine months in this regard And that'll be the basis for our recommendation of augmenting enforcement personnel and costs going forward. But as Mr. Buzanich mentioned, the additional staff that your board added to the sheriff is really to augment their existing narcotics team. And so I think what you've seen is the team working together focused on this effort and they just have great success as you've mentioned.
And my only request would be, I want us to give the enforcement team all that they need. I guess my request would be that we continue to push for enough hires in patrol that we wouldn't have to be using OT. You'd have to credit us for some cannabis enforcement at normal pay rate instead of OT Our preference to be able to maximize our resources and be able to hold people accountable.
But I do think that there's Obviously some important needs. I do want to defend the solar infrastructure. This is about not only doing the right thing, but also reducing our ongoing costs. That is just one more way to hedge our bets against future downturns in revenue. It is important infrastructure. I don't want to rank it in importance necessary with all the deferred maintenance, but we need to figure out some ways to do more of it.
1:34 – 1:559 turns
Supervisor out. Well, I'm just to respond to that solar deal You know if you want to do that finds four and a half million bucks, but it's a 17 year payback You don't make investments especially when? You've got other things that are costing you more It's gonna cost you more if you don't spend four and a half million bucks on on certain roads That will deteriorate and go from a point where you can do something cheaply to preserve them.
To the point where they need to be removed and replaced. You know, there's a very steep part of the curve there that we have lots and lots of roads that are on. And so if you go spend four and a half million bucks on that and it takes 17 years to pay back then you're just going to make that number go up dramatically. Second thing is the cannabis All of the money can go to enforcement as far as I'm concerned until that's been satisfied. And then whatever is left over beyond that, I think you should stuff into your top couple priorities. I was
wondering where you were going to go with that? What do you mean? When you said you could stuff that. You needed to finish that sentence
a little quicker. Well, I'm glad you got worried.
Yeah that pause leaves too much for the
imagination. It was a brain issue to when I say control spending. I mean these automatic raises that we engage in in budgeting and we put 3% in at the beginning and I really think that you need Be very mindful of inflation and also I know nobody likes my chart But and unfortunately, I don't have it we should probably Anticipated having to put that up but we've moved beyond the private sector significantly in both non safety and safety over the years and I think that bears another look at And and you know, maybe we need to slow that down and and freeze it Until it catches up with what the private sector is making And then You know another way to augment your revenue at this point is by revisiting the issues of the emergency permit for Exxon to truck oil and we could invite PCEC to come back.
PCEC was, I just know that one was two million bucks net to us every year and you know people said well it's only 1% of the budget or something And it's the third. It's the first two million bucks you don't have So that's that's pretty important 2 million bucks because it's It's the one you could had we had it in our hand and then it slipped away and now maybe we could get them to come back in and Talk about that, and then there's there's other projects out there but those two Could be pretty low-hanging fruit if we wanted to go after it and It's more revenue and because that's the answer you can't keep saying no to everything. I mean we just continually say no to everything.
And expect some more money to come out of a tree which is where we're going to go in item 3 is we're going to try and shake shake the tree again. And I really think that's wrong to reveal where I'm heading on item three. Just keep going back to the same well, it's the wrong thing to do. Supervisor Williams?
Well, I mean, I think that handling deferred maintenance and building solar both has the same objective. It's a short-term cost to avoid a long term expense that's larger And that it is responsible for us to have a large time horizon in doing so. I actually think the same reason why you're so passionate about deferred maintenance, is the same reason why I'm so passionate about solar because both of them we could close our eyes and say okay someday we'll have the money to handle this stuff or we could try to make an investment in the future and that's what infrastructure I think is all about You know, obviously some of us have our preferences of where we get revenue from. And I do think that all of us need to maybe...
Us in the South need to be more Yimbies than Nimbies and realize that there is a role in raising revenue. My preference would be that it's not from counting on oil projects, but there are other things out there that you cited. But I think all of us need to be willing to be a little bit more open to revenue enhancements in order for us to handle this overarching and imperative issue.
Okay, Supervisor Hartman?
Thank you Mr. Chair, as I understand it today we've got three things we're supposed to do one is give some direction on legislative priorities and from my perspective I think partly what our state delegation thinks we can get but I think also What I indicated, and I think there are others who said number two the public safety communication system may if we can give some priority that would certainly be one.
The second thing is evaluation activities or reports that we'd like to see in the budget workshops I think Supervisor Williams mentioned the waiting to stand trial, and we've seen some improvements there. I'm also particularly interested in diversion from the jail for mental health and the programs that we're working on in that regard. And also eager about the homeless and particularly the efforts, especially D4 working so hard in the Santa Ynez River and what happened there as well as our public defender and social services across the board. So those are things that I'd like to know more about when we look at performance evaluation criteria for the different departments coming back in the budget workshops Then the third thing we're supposed to do, as I understand it, is give some feedback on the budget both for the budget priorities for the next fiscal year and then for this fiscal year.
So for next fiscal year all I would say is that I think that the policies that we have about the fire tax shift, about maintenance, And about the rainy day fund, I think those are priorities that the board has adopted for many years and we want to keep that going forward from my perspective. In terms of the current year budget, cannabis enforcement, I think there's broad agreement up here. I also would like to mention something else and Uh, community services has some salary savings and I would like board direction to ask that those be directed to come back with a board letter that would outline a Santa Barbara County Recreation Plan. That would be something to deal with the $50 million in Maintenance costs that we have at our facilities in parks.
We need to set ourselves up to get our share or more of the 4.1 billion Prop 68 monies. To be able to do that, we need to look...we need to be able to pull together what our needs are and both in terms of what we have, what we need and what we would like. I believe that in what we would like, we could use our assets to generate revenues. We already see that at Halama and Kachuma, we generate revenues for parks. I think there's a lot more we can do not only with concessions but with private-public partnerships so this would be an opportunity to do that Prop 68 is in fact slated mainly for underserved communities and I think we could secure a lot in working with other jurisdictions, particularly Santa Maria and Lompoc.
to include their data in a recreation plan, a tool that would help them be able to apply for more monies as well. So this could all be outlined in the board letter but I would like to ask for CSD to put that together and bring it back to the board to redirect, I think it's about $200,000 in salary savings.
Okay very good, I support that idea by the way I'm going to be all over the place, because I kind of waited a little bit here and I didn't get to jump in on some of these conversations. So when we talk about what the legislative outlook is, I find it really hard to believe that we have a new governor coming in that's made a lot of promises about what he's going to do for the disadvantaged. And to hear that with record taxes being collected, that we're going to having cutbacks in public health and behavioral wellness.
The pressure's got to be put on because, and I'm not really in a position to do that. But I think you're in a perfect position to do that and our alleged committee. You know, I just find that very difficult to stomach so I don't have first hand knowledge of exactly what all those cuts are but That would be very difficult for him to do in his first term. The reality is, there's never enough money when you're sitting up here.
I don't think Supervisor Tunnel, Supervisor Presker, Supervisor Miyoshi going all the way back, they never had enough money. You're never ever, ever, ever gonna have enough money. We could raise all the taxes you want. There's always something else that we could be doing and so I don''t look at this as trying I don't try to raise enough revenue to meet all the needs that we have because there's going to be another list of another 25 needs. And you can't expect people to just continue to reach into their pocket, the community and support our next 20 projects.
Having said that on the cannabis tax, yeah, I think we were really aggressive Putting together an enforcement team of now 22, 23 people. I would have liked to have seen and I don't know, I don't see the sheriff here but I would like to have seen what was the narcotics team prior to cannabis? Or what was the gang team? Yeah, I think you got a group that's probably one of the largest groups inside the Sheriff's departments now.
So maybe it's the fact that we have never really Brought them all to a meeting in public and said, maybe because some of them are undercover. But hey here's the cannabis enforcement team. You could have some fill ins. You probably know some people that kind of look like they might be cops not cops but I think it's important for people to actually see the physical nature of the team.
And all you gotta do is read the newspaper to see how effective they are. It's every week they're eradicating millions of dollars Marijuana and that's one of the reports that I would like to see in the upcoming budget is You know, let's look at eradication and confiscation this year compared to the last five years because reality was there was a ton Of illegal marijuana being grown in Santa Barbara County before we started talking about cannabis up here.
And the reality is, we did very, very little enforcement. No reflection on the Sheriff's Department, it's just the money wasn't there for them to go do it. So I think that's an important thing to take a look at. We also when we talk about cannabis and we're forecasting a 3% or 5% bump, we haven't even got into retail yet. These dollars are just coming in from the first cultivators that have stepped forward and said they want to be part of a legitimate system.
I don't know exactly what the timeline is for retail, but it's got to be part of the next fiscal year moving forward. So I think that's going to be a robust bump in revenue as well. Obviously for me, I think it's always interesting when we get to budget time and we say well the board really doesn't get to weigh in too much. There's just not enough discretionary revenue out there for the board to make any decisions. The reality is we have made some decisions maybe not the people that are on the dais right now but those were tough decisions to make and they were grown up adult decisions that said you know what? We need to address The Northern Branch Jail, which sucks up a huge amount of revenue. I mean of general fund. We need to fully fund our fire department and we need to really take a look at maintenance.
And so those items take up, I don't know close to $30 million a year of our general fund discretionary that we now just say that's part of the budget but They weren't five years ago or six years ago, and so people had a lot more money to play around with. But I think we spent, I don't think those dollars were spent as wisely as they are now where we say okay these are our board priorities and we're going to go ahead and fulfill those and fully fund our strategic reserve. As far as the public safety communication system replacement, to me that's something that price tag is so huge that has to be something, Our number one priority of going out and trying to tackle state and federal funds in some sort of grant program. We're never gonna be able to tackle something that big.
I do appreciate what Supervisor Hartman talked about with where we go with an overarching plan for parks, cuz I do see them as a revenue source. Mr. Chapgian's done at Lake Kachuma and Halama, is exactly what I've always pushed for. It's a great natural resource. People want to use it. They're willing to pay to use it. And I think I'm always more supportive of a user type fee where the people that want to go to Kachuma will pay to go to Kachuma. Those that don't wanna go to Kachuma they don't have to pay and I think that's important to me.
One of the things also I want to talk about with cannabis dollars is, I'd rather see the money get spent on, of course, enforcements number one. But I really think that instead of coming up with some of the things that we've talked about where it's increased technology or going into a cloud-based system and things that are very important. With the cannabis dollars, I really think that we have to start doing something that are one time items that the public can actually see, feel, touch. Where they're like okay this was generated by Cannabis dollars, it's a benefit to the community.
We see how it does benefit the community instead of us spending it on a technology upgrade for us. Well, it would benefit the community in the long run but it's very difficult for them to put their arms around and so I think that's important. Lastly, I'd just say, you know, I don't think it's any surprise, I'm going to echo Supervisor Adam on. It's really difficult to come in and talk about well, You know, we don't have enough money and I don't see the room full of all the people that are always here telling us not to move forward with projects. And the correlation, the disconnect for that always just fascinates me of they don't want a project but then at the same time they're surprised that we don't have enough money for services for things that we absolutely feel are critical.
And that always bothers me, that disconnect. And I understand some people say well I don't want to monetize land use and I don't want to do this and I don' t want to do that. That's the reality you end up with. Lastly, and I'm glad to see Ms. Gibbs here is that I do want to make sure we talk about when we get to budget workshops is what does AOT look like going forward? That will be a priority for me to continue to fund that.
And I've got another little pet project that I want to make sure gets funded, and that's Growing Grounds for Transitions Mental Health. I really see the value in that. And I hope others get educated on that between now and budget time. But I think I've said enough. Oh, one last thing. We talk about another revenue producer That we kind of just eliminated was short-term rentals.
And with a stroke of a pen, we wiped out probably $1 million or more of revenue. And I would venture to say that a vast majority of those people that used to be paying TOT and renting their house out are now renting their house out and not paying the TOT. So I know it's still viable in the coastal zone because the Coastal Commission has told us that that's a requirement.
And it would seem like, you know, the Coastal Commission thinks it's important in the coastal zone that we should think it's important in the inland zone. So I know I've thrown a lot out there but this budget is going to be very interesting. I also want to say that if you look back and I went back and looked at our budget forecasts five-year forecasts are very difficult. I'm sure Mr. Frapp well agree with that because when you go back and look we painted and this time we even built in a recession and the numbers aren't I know for probably Supervisor Hart, the first time he's looking at it he's like whoa this looks scary because you know it's $20 million under in four years. We had numbers drastically higher than that slated for this year. This board will make the decisions necessary to make sure that we don't get in that position and while we do carry a long term debt on pension and on maintenance, I feel the year-to-year operations are dealt with in a responsible manner here at the board We had forecast showing us this year that we were going to be considerably underwater.
And now we have a, you know, three and a half maybe more million dollar surplus. So I know it's a difficult thing to forecast because it's based on what we decide to do up here. Um, and with that, I will go to supervisor Adam and then supervisor Williams.
1:55 – 2:0116 turns
Yeah. And I just want to
mention
two projects that aren't in being and one of them never will be Las Vargas Ranch You know, they wanted to put nine houses out there. I mean really? Nine houses and they'd be very expensive houses. Almost no maintenance money for us. No cost just net high net. And then you got Rancho Laguna which isn't...I don't know where that is at the moment but it's out there in limbo and You know, these are things that you've got to say yes to.
If you don't say yes to them, you never get any more money and then the costs continue to go up but the revenue just doesn't seem to keep up. Okay,
let's go to Supervisor Williams. Wrap-up? Well in the spirit of trying to push myself into the realms of uncomfortableness I mean, I guess to be responsive to both of your points that we really should prioritize and beg and push for the preparation of the Farmstay Ordinance because a part of this that we as a board agreed on is that we would with some conditions allow farm stays. They do pay TOT but right now As I understand it nobody can do a farmstay because we haven't done an ordinance.
It wasn't exactly what I thought was going to happen. I mean, I thought you know the spirit of what we were doing was if we allowed somebody on site it would be a homestay but now Nobody that was doing a farmstay can still do a farm stay even if they have someone living on site. And so I do think this, if that's a potential revenue source maybe we need to push that into the realm of uncomfortableness and say that's gotta be something we deal with. Okay,
Supervisor
Hartman?
I'm glad you brought that up because I am eager to get the Farmstay Ordinance on a fast track. I've been talking with CEO Miyasato and perhaps you might just tell what we're exploring if you feel comfortable, how it's wound up in a bigger set of issues and can it be pulled out and looked at separately is the question and move more quickly?
Supervisors as you recall the farmstay issue was part of the ag tearing project that's in plannings Long-range planning projects list so I spoke to director black and we're looking at if we pulled that out What would that cost be? Staffing etc. And what would it mean for the other projects, so we're getting information together. We can bring that back to the board
oh And two other brief things one is I do think that AOT and other programs are an example of how we can get proactive on mental health so that we don't have as many long-term costs. But remember, the primary driver why being proactive has been difficult is the rise of conservative individuals in IMD beds that we're paying for. And so I just want to put this out there To Lynn, that if our advocacy on proactive programs are going to be successful. That maybe we shouldn't jump on the bandwagon and yet make it easier to do 5150s. There's a lot of bills in the legislature to make it easier to do 5150s.
If people with less expertise are able to do 5150s, that will mean that there will be more people occupying IMD beds. And maybe that's the right thing to do in the long run, but it's a ticking fiscal time bomb for us and will definitely prevent us from doing as many proactive moves in behavioral wellness that we could. And then the last specter since I guess I brought up a lot of bad news today is collectively our libraries and all the zones are facing a $500,000 deficit.
Not because of new stuff, it's because they've been essentially spending down reserves for a while and now they're at the end of the line. And so this is something that's going to take some soul searching, some money, some difficulty. The good news is that Carpentry have passed their sales tax Library Wars Hopefully we're gonna work Jonah and I are trying very hard to resolve it without wars this time around But it is that's a significant number and And we will need to address that in one form or another.
All right, can I get a motion for?
What do we got here?
Well, I guess we were providing board direction So the first one's receiving file. Did staff get enough information about how to allocate the cannabis tax revenue? Yes, okay. We gave preliminary direction on board priorities. I think we talked about staff getting top projects to advocate for. Ms. Miyasato do you feel you have enough direction from the board?
I believe we do and just to reiterate for the federal and state funding, we're talking about the public safety radio system and other emergency needs that our delegation may be interested in.
Very good. Okay so, and parks yes and the parks deal. We got a shake of the head okay. So can I get a motion to move A through E of item 2?
So moved.
Moved and seconded all those in favor? Aye. Any opposed? Okay, let's get about a five or seven minute break and try to get back so we can get the third item done.
2:04 – 2:121 turns
♪ you Good morning. Good morning. Hello. The Hello. . . Yeah.
2:13 – 2:235 turns
All right I'd like to ask my board members to return to the hearing room so we can move on with, there we go. I think we're ready to move. Asking you shall receive. Yes thank you and let's go to our clerk for item three.
Chair Lavinino and members of the board, departmental item number three is from the county executive office. It is a hearing to consider recommendations regarding the renewed 22 initiative and transaction in use tax measure.
Chair Lavagnino and board members, I'm gonna actually introduce this item then hand it off to Mr. Bozanich to go through the PowerPoint and as you see in your board letter we're giving you an update to Renew 22 and a specific issue about sales tax measure but I wanted to step back a little bit because i do want to give credence to this whole Renew22 update and that is so in 2017 we started this whole process and it was really a recognition at the time as you remember we were Dealing with pension cost increases because of the economy and also changes to our assumed rate of return.
And so we did this initiative first as a budget rebalancing exercise, but it soon migrated once we looked at all the needs of the county. There's recognition that we need to do something different and that we need to change how we operate and how we think about operating. To address these issues and I and we'll talk about how we've made progress, but I want to just remind the board that when we started this in 2017 And we gave you an update in January of 2018. So almost a year ago it was to develop sustainable revenue strategies evaluate and make strategic changes to our operations and Deliver services more efficiently, refocus our organization on quality customer service and preparing our next generation of leaders in retaining our high-performing employees.
I want to give the board credit because when we started this and if you see in the report, we don't go into a lot of detail in the PowerPoint but you've done a lot. And since we began, we instituted pension cost sharing with our employees Which was huge, which we hadn't been able to do that prior to last year and closing all our employee agreements getting pension cost sharing for employees.
You obviously know we've been talking about the cannabis operations implementing the ordinances and going to ballot with a tax measure. We started management and operational reviews. The board gave us money to start doing management audits, management reviews of departments and we're in the process of final selection of consultants to begin that. And then HR was able to do a voluntary separation incentive program to generate savings and there's other things we've done so I don't want it to get lost that we haven't done anything the organization has and your board has helped in making these changes. So with that, I'm going to hand it over to Mr. Buzanich.
Thank you CEO Miyasato, members of the board. I think just to continue to build the context that CEO Miyasato just started with it really was this multi-year effort to really think about how do we change and improve the capacity of this organization? To be innovative and to develop a real culture of continuous improvement was really gonna be the most significant form Transforming the organization to be more agile, to be more resilient going forward. And so we looked at these five core areas of revisioning the organization. What is it that we're heading toward? What is that destination on the horizon that this organization is seeking? How do we rebalance the programming that we do with the available resources?
How do we redesign the way we do the work in this organization so that we can better utilize, more fully utilize the resources both human and financial resources in order to accomplish the things that the residents want? How do we respond to those residents and the customers of our services, those who use our services? To provide the highest quality services possible within our means, and then how do we retain those high performing employees? And so that they are really then part of the process of preparing the next generation of leaders.
So here is the progress update that your board has asked for and that we have done on a regular basis. So the first huge update, it's important to mention, is that folks are working on measuring progress and creating accountability for For the renew initiatives, and this is absolutely essential in order for us to be able to manage the large number of projects. We've got to be able to show how we're making progress So we've implemented a quarterly reporting system with all of our departments to track those initiatives They are all being consolidated using a common format so that they are identifying who the lead staff is what the status of that particular initiative and And what if any barriers exist to implementation. And then we're working at the beginning of a implementation using a program called Cascade, to really do a strategic planning and tracking software to create dashboards so that both you as a board member, employees, as well as eventually the public will be able to track these kinds of initiatives online and show them in graphical terms How we're doing and the status of these particular projects.
That's a huge leap forward for us, both technologically as well as from a performance management systems perspective. The integration into the county operations, so recall that during the budget development for 19-20. The departments will be reporting on goals and strategies that have been completed or are already underway. So you as members of the board as well as members of the public will be able to see how departments are doing and how we're working on the county wide initiatives as well.
They're going to identify and highlight their renewed 22 goals and strategies, and what they intend to do for 19-20. So not only progress in the past but going forward. And the requests for budgetary expansions will align with the department renewed 22 plans and point to evidence based findings about why those priority ought to be given priority consideration.
Also, it's a constant process of looking at new ideas and strategies. How is it that as we all venture around going to different meetings, as we begin to be challenged with new circumstances in our operating environment? How is it that we're continuing to respond to that with new ideas, new strategies once it's never enough just to set a course without making course corrections?
This process of using ideas and innovation and new strategies in order to respond in new circumstances is an ongoing effort in this organization. And then really another key part for those of us leading the renew efforts, is really how do we continue to engage and empower our employees at all levels of the organization? We'll talk a little bit more about that in a moment.
So in terms of that, there were two significant efforts this year. One was to assemble what are referred to as Renew 22 ambassadors and liaisons. And these were employees that were selected with the help of departmental leadership to really be more or less evangelists or communicators of our message around Renew about what its importance is, how it can make a difference for employees in their workplace. And how they can participate actively in the Renew efforts.
And it really is part of a larger effort to kind of improve where we communicate information about the successes of Renew into different parts of departments, so that it's not just a top down process or not solely a bottom up process but hits at various levels of the organization. So that we're more, we feel a little higher confidence that things are being communicated well. And they're a resource to other employees when they hear about Renew, maybe new employees. What are we doing? How does that affect the work that they are doing and the customers and the residents that they serve?
The other big employee engagement effort was a series of off-site sessions that were held, were hosted by the ambassador teams, and that had a variety of feedback and kind of TED Talk type presentations By members of our staff, there were four of these 325 employees attended those different half day sessions that were titled Decide Change Grow. And after that the surveys that we did at the end of that and the evaluations identified that 70% of the employees who participated had a much better understanding 22 after attending the decide change grow events than they did before and that more than half expressed their desire to share that message with their coworkers in a meaningful way going forward.
So here are some initiative highlights So there's 100 initiatives and strategies have been implemented to date. 65% are progressing as planned, or have been completed, or are ongoing kind of efforts. Many involve the redesign of interdepartmental and cross-departmental processes that will help break down silos and will improve efficiency, reduce costs, and optimize service delivery.
Dennis, just a second. Supervisor Adam?
Does anyone know how much we netted by those 65% of the initiatives?
2:23 – 2:387 turns
Chair and Supervisor Adam, we're working on that. And part of that cascade software is really meant to kind of capture some of those costs. But oftentimes as you know is it cost savings versus cost avoidance and some other elements? So we really want to find actually metrics that will measure the financial benefits of those. And we're working really hard to be able to identify those. How do we
say- Perfect I look forward to hearing how much
that number is. Very good. That's one of our goals too, we'd like to quantify all this in some significant way. So some of the highlights. So if we look at under revisioning and really focusing in on the core organizational values, emphasizing those, the General Services Department has really embarked on a wonderful internal strategic planning process. If you think about the general services department it's one of those departments that's got the most disparate kinds of things from facilities to motor pool to radio systems and communication and IT And so when you think about that, having a solid internal strategic plan becomes absolutely essential in terms of governance of such a wide variety of tasks. So that they stay on mission.
Under rebalancing these were ideas of services to increase revenue or increase the savings, reduce costs in other words, to Supervisor Adams' point. Really and CEO Miyasato mentioned these we really were able to implement through all the contracts the pension cost sharing Components of those contracts, we had long discussions already about how we were successful at having the voters approve a cannabis tax for those that are licensed in the county.
We are working and as CEO Minasato again mentioned that we are doing the final selection on a vendor to conduct the management and operational reviews of each of the departments over the next five years. We did implement that voluntary early separation program, as well as have begun to implement the payment kiosks in child support services. Under redesign, let me catch up with my notes here.
Under redesign we're working to improve the paperless workflow for our board letters as you can imagine the documents that you get in that nice red binder go through several iterative processes going from departments to county council to CEOs sometimes back and forth and so creating a paperless workflow at least for our review process Still creating a red binder at the end to not panic anybody.
And that we would be able to save significant resources and time in terms of that. Working on redesigning the IT governance structure program, and how that works, and that's already well underway. But under the Department of Social Services, there's a telephonic signature feature that often with monthly reports that are required by folks receiving benefits in Department of Social Services. There's the ability to telephonically sign forms on a regular basis rather than having them come in and sit in the lobby and wait.
Under their additional efforts in the drug Medi-Cal organized delivery system that your boards receive staff reports about really meant to better serve our customers in the community. Digital document management, and this was To share documents between our fire department and the planning and development department for permitting. So we had a much cleaner, and a common record for properties that involved fire inspections as well as planning and developments permitting processes.
There's a effort underway to automate the Public Records Act request response system so that we can more timely respond to public records requests, more accurately respond to that be able to do sufficient reviews to make sure that the record request is being fulfilled. Electronic filing of child support court documents is underway, and then also the consolidation and relocation of office space by a Child Support Department.
Under Respond, General Services Building Maintenance has built a call center so employees that identify needs within any of our facilities have a common call center for looking for building maintenance or any other general services needs. And the Department of Social Services has implemented this Octopus online portal. I think it must involve eight arms and many tentacles that allows for staff messaging by clients and those that are being served by the social services departments to be able to reach out to their staff, the people working on their cases much more efficiently than in the past outside of that online portal.
Under retention and retain we're moving forward with the pilot of the leadership certificate program. The participants have been selected, their mentors have been selected and that program is kicking off in the next Several next three or four weeks and then we're also working now on Improving and bringing to the county some additional training around Lean six for those of you not familiar with that is a process improvement process Gotta use the word twice.
But used oftentimes in service industries, but most prominently in manufacturing industries that identify and really strip out a lot of extraneous repetitive processes. So we're gonna get some training for our supervisors and managers about how do we implement that here in the county? Also change management, project management, and then improving our new higher orientation program as well.
So a little bit about the funding that your board is allocated. It was a total of $815,000 in the current budget to support the implementation of these countywide and departmental initiatives. The largest component of that was approximately $600,000 for the department review component. Another 60,000 for the analysis of what would happen with the consolidation of HR functions. Across the county.
$45,000 for that leadership certificate program I mentioned on the previous slide about $30,000 for the public records act request software and another $9,000 were used for the employee engagement event that learn change grow process. The majority has been targeted to be utilized for those departmental operational reviews, as I just mentioned. And currently we spend about $779,000 on those initiatives including those areas listed below the operational reviews, paperless technology for contracts and board letters, leadership certificate and the managing public records act request software.
So looking at some of re-exploring initiatives so Thinking one of the proposals that was brought forward was just to think about a sales tax measure. It was originally proposed for the unincorporated area for the November 2018 election during the 18-19 workshops that happened just a little more than a year ago. It was estimated that that tax If it went up by a quarter percent would raise about 1.9 million dollars for every quarter It was increased in our existing tax rate is at seven and three quarters percent currently Currently countywide from those sales taxes we the existing 7.75 percent rate we receive about seven point three million dollars in revenue as part of our one percent And then if you look at the chart below here, we kind of identify what the additional revenue impacts would be.
So that at a quarter percent at 25 basis points addition to the 7.75, we'd raise an additional 1.82 in revenue all the way up to increase of a full 1% to 8.75. That would raise an additional seven and a quarter million dollars. Important to note for context, both Carpinteria and Santa Maria had sales tax measures on the November ballot that were approved in both cases. In Carpinteria the sales tax increased by 1.25% to 9%. And Santa Maria renewed and then enhanced at the same time a 1% sales tax to 8.75%, Those are becoming effective on April 1st.
The voters in the city of Santa Barbara approved a similar measure back in November of 2017 that raised the sales tax by one percent to eight and three quarters percent So this chart kind of shows the progression of those tax changes for each of the jurisdiction, including ourselves. And I think one of the key takeaways is that this chart now shows us as being toward the bottom or the floor of what other jurisdictions within the county are charging for sales tax.
And going forward, we'll continue to be near the bottom of the tax rate as we think about the implementation of those taxes in both Carpinteria and Santa Maria coming up in April. So a couple of sales tax options here one if it's a general tax must be approved by a simple majority of voters for special tax. It must be approved by two-thirds of the voters and we've listed some ways in which you might want to think about potential uses for that In either case, as a result of a law change back in January 1st of 2015. It would require a three-quarter vote of your board to even place the item on the ballot coming up in either November or March of 2020 or November of 2020.
So some of the. Can you
review that one part so so either option takes three fourths?
Yes two thirds, two thirds yes I'm sorry. For us would be four votes for you it'd be four votes yes. So just to be clear for members of the public or others that they the board in order for the board to choose to place that on the ballot it would require a two-thirds vote of your board which is effectively four fifths For either tax measure and that was a law change in January of 2015. The other thing to you may want to consider as well on that same law change allowed the the tax measure to take effect countywide or allow the effect to take place just in the unincorporated area depending on where the services are were intended to be provided This is the basic process for that tax process. First step that we're looking for today would be to receive conceptual direction to proceed, then the staff would work behind the scenes to develop the tax proposal, seek further board direction on the proposed tax.
There would be a desirable element of conducting public opinion polling about Make any kind of refinements to the tax proposal and draft ordinance as a result of that polling. Leading to an introduction of the sales tax ordinance, and the adoption of the sales tax ordinance. And then providing the public information in education both through the voter pamphlet as well as through other forms that the board may choose. And then there would be the election.
So as we look at the deadlines for adoption of the ordinance, so if we go back to this chart that would be the second box on the bottom row there adopting the sales tax ordinance. That if you were seeking for the March 2020 primary election date, remember this is we're now moving early in the cycle of primary elections during presidential election years. And so it'll be held in March and so the deadline for your board to act would be the November 5th 2019 board meeting if you wanted to adopt an ordinance.
And that would be after a set hearing and a first reading. This would be actually the second reading, the adoption. So actually we would begin that process in October. And then if you were thinking about the November 3rd general election in 2020, that deadline would be July 14th. Again, that would require a set hearing and two readings in order for the adoption to occur prior to that deadline of July 14th and these deadlines are set by the elections official so that there can be timely.
So with that, I'll just recommended actions were to receive the update providing a conceptual direction to staff on transaction and use or sales tax. That might be implemented in the unincorporated direct staff to return with polling data results and options for ballot measures and then make the CEQA determinations. And with that, I'm available to answer any questions.
Okay, I think Mr. Gazzone would like to weigh in.
Chair and supervisors, we'd coordinated with CEOs office after receiving a few questions and had added another slide that can go up and will help compare and contrast for the board the Taxes that you're used to most of the time as opposed to this particular transaction and use tax That's being discussed. The taxes you're used to most of the time there's in a flip or an inverse between the The percentage of the board required to vote and the percentage of the voters.
And on this particular transaction and use tax, it's two-thirds of the vote whether it's a general purpose tax or special purpose tax.
2:38 – 2:4813 turns
Okay do we have requests to speak from the public?
Chair Lavinino members of the board we have two requests to speak on this item and we're going to go to Santa Maria first for Renee O'Neill to be followed by Andy Caldwell back here in Santa Barbara.
Thank you, Supervisors. At this time I don't have anything really to add. I just want to express my appreciation to staff and everyone for, I don't know how you guys do this? I'm ready to just- I have no idea how you keep up with all of this stuff but I thank you for that and just supporting anything we can do with the cannabis tax on enforcement. Okie doke! Great.
Thanks.
And our final speaker on this item is back here in Santa Barbara, Andy Caldwell.
Chair Lavinino, members of the board, Andy Caldwell representing Colab. You know I think everything they're doing needs to be done but we still look at it as rearranging the chairs on the Titanic because the thing that is sinking government at all levels is pensions. Can you imagine if you had another $150 million a year in your budget? You wouldn't have a wish list.
And PEPRA ain't gonna solve that problem, it's too little too late. We have been begging the board for over 20 years to put one word back into their vocabulary and that is privatization. Until they change the California rule, that is your exit out of this sinking ship and it is sinking. Another $150 million. Think about what you could do with that. And here's the deal, I'm not arguing that you pay your employees less. I'm not even arguing that you lessen their retirement benefits but you just do it a different way and what I suggested last year and I never got a response out of this Is the what place this makes the most sense is in behavioral wellness, social services, public health and child support services. Those people aren't really county employees.
They're state and federal employees that pay 90 to 95% of their wages is coming from the state and the feds. They pay the upfront pension costs, but they don't pay your pension losses. Why should the county assume the debt of pension losses for state and federal employees that are mandated and you have no control over them? It's 1,700 employees and $400 million dollars of your budget.
Those four departments are state and federal functions. 1,700 employees, $400 million a year. And they get Social Security besides the county pension. Put them off into a public, private, non-profit, not for profit corporation. Contract with them. Give them a raise. You can give them a 10 to 20% raise because they're your worst paid employees. You can give them a 401k which may do better than the returns that they're getting right now and they get social security and you just cut your pension losses in the future I would support, if you did that, I'd support a COP pension bond to pay off what you owe on those because you cut it off going forward and get yourself out of this hole.
That is outside the box thinking. Finally with regard to a tax, Supervisor Williams remember SB 1? State taxpayers have put $50 Billion dollars into infrastructure in the next in a 10-year period 50 billion don't keep asking us for more Thank you Do
we have any other speakers
That was our final speaker.
Okay supervisor Hart, you
know, I think that last statement from mr. Caldwell Puts it this issue in perspective I think really well because what this is an opportunity to ask the public do they want to do this. This isn't voting on a tax increase, this isn't imposing a tax increase, this is simply asking the voters themselves if they would like to pay more to address these issues. And clearly, we've spent the last two hours or so looking at the fiscal condition of the county and looking at the daunting needs that the public benefits from increased investment from and if you look around at the voters in the cities where this question has been asked of them those voters have said yes Simply easily without close elections in every parts of the county. So we are not breaking new ground, we're not doing anything innovative.
We're simply just giving the taxpayers an opportunity to say they would like to increase investment in certain areas and county government. And I think that is given the scale and magnitude of the challenges that we have to address on the deferred maintenance items, other investments in programs that the public want to see. All we need to do is ask them if they wanna do this and I think they would. I think that the evidence is clear. The voters in Guadalupe and Santa Maria and Santa Barbara and Carpinteria have all stepped forward and said this is a no brainer. This is something we understand government has to be paid for it takes money to do these things. We want these services, we want this increased investment in infrastructure and we're willing to pay for it.
And I think we should get out of the way of that decision and give voters the opportunity. And if nothing else, we should go forward with a poll to find out if it's a possibility to do and what the public thinks about it. In terms of the cost of doing that, that has got to be the most cost effective return on investment idea that has been talked about today. The idea that we're gonna spend $50,000 to find out whether the public wants to pay more to generate potentially $7 million a year annually in additional revenue to provide services to the public that they want?
I think that is a great business investment.
Supervisor Adam.
Well, you know historically the problem has been that we keep telling people we're going to fix the roads and give them more sheriff's and all this stuff when in fact what we do is we just give everybody another raise. Is 5.2 million dollars? And you know, we're just not even talking about that much money here and I think You know, it's just like a moral hazard problem. You know, we keep spending the money on other things and We keep telling everybody we're gonna tackle this Maintenance deal but we just don't do it in a meaningful way and that's how you accumulate four hundred and thirty eight million dollars worth of deferred maintenance So, you know until I see some seriousness and some other way other than this 18% thing which I always didn't support because it wasn't gonna net out enough money to move the needle.
I'm not gonna support this we're just enabling ourselves to continue to kick the can down the road and not really solve the problem While we tell everybody what we're really solving the problem. Supervisor Williams.
You know, I just feel like it's that's just going to be part of the cycle of never getting things and getting it done. I mean if we go out to the public and Would you pay for deferred maintenance with this tax money? We might actually be able to handle a chunk of the problem. Ultimately, the voter and the taxpayer has sovereignty in this case. I just don't understand why if our goal is to figure out what they want, why we would stand in the way of voters Wanting to tax themselves to pay for solutions.
Let's just see what happens, what comes back from the poll? And it may be that they don't. I mean, it may be that they think there's tons in the bank of unicorns and rainbows but it may be that voters are more awake and more ready for solutions than we know. That's where people are at right now and it's a good sign. They want solutions, they're being sort of more realistic and constructive about how to get there and maybe that helps When they actually see the results of it, and we do all the time on the 101 project. I mean that is a real concrete result of the investments that local voters made on their local self-help tax and on the statewide.
And it's gonna pay off with, I used to think that it would be another generation before the 101 expansion is completed. And it's gonna happen when my girls are still pretty little so that's a real improvement and we could really move this forward, see where voters are at before we pronounce judgment and see what they want.
2:48 – 2:586 turns
Okay. First off, I do want to say that I do really appreciate the forward thinking of our CEO. Coming up with Renew 22, a totally different way to look at what we are doing. I don't think it's rearranging the deck. And I think the most important part of it is going to our employees and I've seen our CEO in those training sessions connecting with our employees. The only way you fix the way that you actually do the day to day is by going to the people that do the day-to-day. Sitting up here, it's very difficult to figure out how to change what a line employee is doing when they have in their own head man why are we always doing it this way? We could do it differently and I think just talking about those easy things like the kiosk change which improved, we saw 38% change in one month We would have never thought of that.
That's something that comes from the ground up, and so I really applaud your office Mona and all of our employees. I went to one of the trainings and people were throwing out ideas. How come we're doing it this way? Why don't we do it this way? Which is great, and that's what we have to do is empower and get our employees accepting of the fact that we have to do things different.
So let's get Idea of the of the sales tax measure. And I think I have some credibility on this because I I stuck my neck out a couple of times, I'm just not up here saying no we're not going to raise taxes when you know me yeah that's your job. I got a different job. I got your back. Yeah, you gotta So I was the one twice went out for the TOT, first time it got crushed.
And I'm the one that brought it to the Board of Supervisors. You know? I was the one that pushed it and I had the Taxpayers Association right here calling me a tax and spend liberal and there was a bunch of things written but I thought it was the right thing to do. That tax had not been raised in almost 20 years. We were not competitive with the surrounding areas And it's a tax that's going to be levied against people that are visiting the community. So I supported that. I also was out in front of the cannabis tax, so it's not like I'm just no to every tax.
But in this situation, this is my issue. First off, I got burned last time seriously in that I supported the TOT increase and once that went through, not this board but a board Decided that well, let's just eliminate short-term rentals which was almost roughly It was almost exactly the same amount of revenue that the TOT new TOT generated was taken away By a vote of this board in the short term rental. So here I went out and sold to people hey you should vote for this because we really do need this revenue and then turned around and got kicked in the rear by Eliminating the same amount of revenue coming in People are like, what are you doing? It doesn't make any sense.
So I know George Bush butchered this, but I think the saying is fold once shame on you, fold me twice shame on me. And why am I going to when we say get out of our comfort zones, I've been out of my comfort zone. I've stuck my neck out, I haven't seen that on the other side when it comes time for projects. I just don't see it, so I have a very difficult time in fact I can't support putting this on the ballot or you know and the question then is well why don't we just go out and ask the people how they feel about it?
We got elected to make the tough decisions And so if we're going to ask them, hey would you rather do you mind if you pay more in sales tax? Why aren't we asking them about the projects that we deny. You know why don't we put that on the ballot and say hey would you like Would you rather have an energy project that makes you $2 million a year or would you rather increase your sales tax that you're going to pay and you pick up the difference So I just, I can't move forward on it.
I think my vote today is a direct reflection of what's happened in the past on this board that I've dealt with and so I can't support it. You gotta remember too that I know it's not a lot of money when you sit there and say well it's just one more percent on top of the sales tax. I get that. It's pennies out of people's pockets, it's nickels, it dimes. But after the gas tax, and we continue to tax folks.
There's people going to the pump now that are putting in their, I see them when I go fill up and it reminded me of the days I saw somebody put in $10 the other day. And actually had a question on my staff and I said do you guys ever go when you go to the pump? Have you ever remembered when you had to just put in $10? I remember those days, you know when you can't fill up. You can't afford to fill up and so you're just putting in and getting by. And there's a lot of people, especially people I represent that have to make those decisions. They can't fill their tank up or they're only putting in ten bucks or they're only getting groceries for the next three or four days waiting for their next paycheck. All these little things are just that straw, that straw, that straw.
It's just a little bit more, a little bit more, a little bit more. And like I said earlier, I just don't think there's ever going to be enough money. We just have to spend what we have wiser and so I can't support going out for a sales tax measure but I do want to say to me this is no reflection on Renew 22. I think Renew 22 is an outstanding program of going in really looking at how we do things differently.
To me this is kind of more the same let's just go out and reach into that pocket again And eventually that pocket is going to be empty. So we've got to figure out a different way to do things. Mr. Caldwell's point about, I don't know what the legalities of that is. I'm sure it was fraught with a bunch of illegal landmines, I'm sure. But it does raise an interesting point about a lot of the question that is there in my mind is that I've now finally caught on to what you're saying While the federal government does pay for their entire salary and they backfill the pension part of it, they don't pay for when we do lose and we backfill that.
And so I just want to clarify that if that's, well, I guess that's something for a future when we get around to budget time it would be nice to know what that is and what those costs are associated with that So let's go to Supervisor Adam, then we'll go to Supervisor Williams.
Okay well speaking of taxes you know the national price of gas is $240 and I don't know if anybody's gotten gas at 240 lately for anywhere in California no I don' think so it's closer to four bucks and that's all tax. So, you know we it's not like people in California. We're worth it I think we're the highest taxed state and I in the Union and if we're not New York would be in and And you know, we're up there so You know in a way I Would love to throw it out for people But I agree with you that, we got put here to represent people. And so we're gonna vote the way we vote and so probably gonna prevent this thing from going on which is fine. It's kind of a fun exercise to go out and tell people do you wanna pay us more tax?
And then if they tell us no, then what do we do? Cuz the next question is Do we just run people out of services and that's what we tend to do in this environment. And then the other thing I want to say is, I wanted to offer an opportunity for Supervisor Williams to maybe communicate with me offline a little bit You know this is kind of where the Brown Act prevents us from doing creative things because we can't talk about it outside of, you know especially as a group. So back in the old days before Brown Act and even today in the legislature They can talk about things offline and it's more conducive to making that type of a deal. And as it is now, we have to kind of all show up here with whatever position we've developed and I don't think anybody's really prepared to make a substantive change when we're up here since the top.
What are you proposing? Well, I'm just going to offer to see if we can come up with something offline that maybe he and I as bookends of the spectrum might think was a good idea. And pardon me?
Which spectrum? I think he
meant political. I
would say, yeah. Political and not like, you know. Yeah. Yeah, I get it.
I was not insulted by that. So if you're willing to do it, I'd talk to you offline and see if we can bring something back.
2:58 – 3:0412 turns
I would love- Supervisor Williams. I would love to do that but I already brown acted with the chair on sales tax questions. And so maybe someone else would brown act with you or we could talk about it right here. I mean, I think we at least Supervisor Hart and myself here have alluded to the idea that we would be open to the idea of using the sales tax to address infrastructure and deferred maintenance You know Is that what you want? I mean, why why why wouldn't we at least see if the voters are into that
well? I'm prepared to suggest some things that will make you initially recoil.
Oh gosh
In exchange because see there's a there's an exchange see and so if I go throw this out for you right now You're gonna recoil and then you've got yourself in a position where you can't I would ask for another volunteer.
Include the first district's interests and set to some degree
well, and I would say this is probably not to Make unreasonable expectations. I would say it's it's an unlikely set of circumstances But or a low probability that we could probably come up with something but I'm willing to try and and talk about it and see if we can think about it and and Macerate it and see if there's some way we can Super Bowl support
something supervisor Hart. Well, I'm always open to talk about anything and Welcome the opportunity for us to chat about this You know, I don't know where that would go either and I don't know what you know you have in mind But I do think that there is agreement that we need additional investment in Infrastructure just start there. And
so we're
officially
Brown acted I think so here
And
the way Mr. Gazzone's interpretation of the Brown Act is, it's kind of for life so anytime you're talking about sales tax you're pretty much there. As part of this discussion, another need. But first I understand the board members to the right of me politically not literally your frustrations. I would only say that none of the three other of us were here when those deals were made and I think we stand by our deals This is the least NIMBY board in many, many a year. And so you're not giving us much credit here. We do want to do things differently I think and one of those has been to adequately respond to our flood control infrastructure needs in the South Coast.
That includes what we've been pursuing, the idea of a new debris basin. But that also includes old projects like the never-ending Mission Creek flood control project and other potential needs like a yard, other things. And just cleaning out the existing basins after storms The reason why we have this money in this account is because Mr. Fairam and the voters both had the wisdom to raise the assessment in the late 90's.
I really think, if notwithstanding the possibility for peace breaking out in the Middle East over a sales tax that we need to talk about doing polling at least on an increase of the flood control assessment for the South Coast. Because we have far more needs that Mr. Farrum and Public Works have identified than we have resources for, and maybe FEMA will rescue us but I think we need a plan B.
And looking at the assessment would be part of a plan B and so As part of this effort that we give conceptual approval to the CEO's office, to at least pull that very necessary question. To see where support is geographically for an increase in the flood control district. It will be tricky it now requires two-thirds of the voters but I feel We would not be taking care of the possibility of saving lives in the future if we didn't at least look at this question.
3:04 – 3:1010 turns
We're talking about sales tax. I don't know if that's something we need to bring back or are we okay with just giving direction?
I think you're providing general direction to staff at this point it would come back to the board and as far as the polling concept, we could take advantage of Some direction from the Attorney General in 2005 and 2010. We would work with CEO's office to stay inside the correct box of what you can use polling for, which is to assess the potential support in opposition and public awareness but not to develop a strategy to implement. So there's some pretty crisp lines on there and we'd work with the CEO's office on that. Very good. Supervisor Hartman?
Well, let's see. I'll start by saying I really support what Supervisor Williams just said once again in emptying the debris basins We've got a we don't have a site on the south coast so once again in Buellton the trucks are lined up and we're having to deposit it on the beaches and And we're destroying
our roads in the process
I'm glad you brought that up. And her staff to drive this forward. It's government, I've spent much of my career working for government agencies and what I found is that it just kind of an accretion of stuff and finally you just sort of can't even move so every now and then to figure out how to do it more effectively and efficiently, leaner and meaner. And so I'm very supportive. I had an opportunity as well to speak at one of the events and it was really reinforcing and I think any opportunity to use the board to support the Renew 2022 is something I'd like to be asked to do more of.
I also would like to make a suggestion. When you present some of the initiatives, it can seem kind of dry. It can seem...I don't fully understand all of it. I did have an opportunity to go to the Sheriff's Office Ivy Citizens Academy last Saturday and had an opportunity to hear Great stuff about forensics and search-and-seizure but but in particular an innovative program about the co response team and working together behavioral wellness and sheriff's deputies so when there is a A 9-1-1 call that likely involves a mental health issue. The deputies may go, but soon enough James McCarroll and his assistant is there, they're trained, the deputies can go off. They can calm the situation, they can call Dr. Lee who's working with them and Deescalate and if it takes 2 hours if it takes 3 hours, it's worth it because they aren't having to go to the jail there.
They're being dealt with in an appropriate way. So this is an example I think of a renewed 2022 pilot project And what I would like to see, if the board would support this is to have presentations before the board about some of these pilot projects that are underway so that we have an opportunity and the public has an opportunity really to learn more about them.
And showcase what we're doing and get a better feel for it. So that would be my strong recommendation because It's really reinforcing and exciting to see that we're innovating in such a way. And I think it would further the culture of innovation for others to see how collaboration is working across departments, to really serve our constituents better. Thank you.
Very good. It looks like we have no more lights on so would somebody like to make a motion with item three?
I'll move staff recommendation with the caveat that we hold off on the sales tax poll until the Camp David Accords can be worked out and that we would give conceptual approval to staff to move forward with polling on the South Coast Flood Control Assessment.
Very good. I'll second it, okay. So all those in favor? Aye. Any opposed? Very good that wraps up item number three which finishes our departmental agenda and this will take us to closed session eight minutes later than what I had anticipated but pretty dang close I gotta say.
And your good mood managed to keep up with your loss of blood sugar.
It's alright I'm okay Mr. Gazzone?
3:10 – 3:134 turns
Chair and supervisors, today in closed session the board was agendized for three items. Murray versus County of Santa Barbara which is a litigation brought by Disability Rights California. Second, County of Santa Barbara versus Plains Pipeline and you were also noticed for third item conference with labor negotiators but human resources has informed me that they will not need that item today so there'll be just two litigation items. And my estimate is about 45 minutes to an hour.
Okay,
very
good. So we'll recess to closed session. Thank you. Thank you. You.
3:16 – 4:371 turns
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4:38 – 4:402 turns
Thank you. Good morning, everyone. Okay, let's get a report out of closed session. Mr. Gazzone?
Chair and supervisors today in closed session the board considered two matters first was Murray versus County of Santa Barbara existing litigation The second was also existing litigation County of Santa Barbara versus Plains pipeline there are no reportable actions
4:40 – 4:401 turns
Okay very good we will adjourn this meeting on the Board of Supervisors to Tuesday March 5th 2019 in Santa Barbara