Board of Supervisors — 2020-02-25

Background music playing.

I'll call to order the February 25, 2020 meeting of the Santa Barbara County Supervisors. Will the clerk please call the roll?

Mr. Williams? Here. Ms. Hartman? Here. Mr. Adam? Here! Mr. Lavinino? Here Chair Hart?

The next item of business is approval of the minutes of the February 11th 2020 meeting. Is there any discussion? Can I get a motion?

Move approval.

Motion's been made. Is there a second? Second. And seconded. All those in favor please say aye. Aye. Opposed and abstain. Matter carries unanimously. CEO Miyasato, is there a CEO report today?

No report this morning, Chair.

Thank you. At this time I'd now like to invite Abe Powell, Executive Director of the Santa Barbara Bucket Brigade to make a brief presentation on disaster preparedness and response. This is the second in a year-long series highlighting community stakeholders, nonprofit agencies And others in the community who are devoted to emergency preparedness and response.

I invited Abe up to the San Marcos Foothills Preserve last week to show some of the burn area created by the cave fire, we had a great conversation about that. The things that I took away from seeing this scar area was how quickly the area is recovering And the second was how lucky we were. The fire came very close to the neighborhoods in that part of the community, and we've been through a lot as a community, as all of us know, and we all know this can happen again so being prepared for emergencies is a theme that I'd like to highlight during the chairmanship this year on the board. This is why I invited Abe to present to the board and our community today to learn more about the Santa Barbara Bucket Brigade's origination and the aftermath of the Thomas Fire and the 1-9 debris flow And to understand more about how the Bucket Brigade is working to protect our community from natural disasters and community crisis through training, coordination and deployment.

Abe thanks again for coming today.

Chair Hart, members of the board thank you so much for having me. I really appreciate this opportunity to talk about our resilience work here in Santa Barbara County. To begin with want to talk about you know this beautiful county they say it's sunny and 70 in Santa Barbara until it's not and when it's not it can get pretty interesting and we've seen that but so we have a long history of challenges with natural disaster in Santa Barbara County but the last four decades We've seen something a little bit new and different than what we've seen in the past. If you look at here, we see Santa Barbara County wildfires over the last four decades. You can see in terms of acres burned and structures damaged, a pretty big shift there.

And it turns out that this issue here is statewide. When we look at federally declared disasters in California over the last four decades, we're starting to see a little bit of a trend here in challenges that we're facing. And as it turns out across the United States, we've been seeing a similar phenomena and we've seen a billion-dollar disaster event doubling and doubling again over four decades in frequency and that's CPI adjusted dollars. So a significant issue, a challenge that we are facing here.

This is a trend we're facing. So if this is a trend, where's it going? We're seeing disasters happen more often and causing more damage here and around the country and around the globe. So honestly the question isn't you know if we're gonna have another disaster but when there will be another challenge and how bad will it be? That's what we're up against. You know, we experience disasters in a pattern and it repeats these things.

Those of us who have lived here over time have seen this over and over again and in Santa Barbara County that pattern looks like Fire and debris flow. This is something we've seen repeatedly whether we're talking about the Thomas fire and debris flow 2017-18, we're talking about the Sherpa fire and debris flow 2016, we're talking about the Coyote fire and debris flow 1964 subsequent debris laden flood 69 there are challenges that we face that are not unique in their repetitive in nature and there are lessons to be learned from the experience of living through these things And this pattern is important. We see a disaster pattern and we see the same needs and gaps in services show up every time we have one of these disasters. It starts with an event, the fire, the flood.

The first responders move in and they do a great job historically here in Santa Barbara. We have incredible first response system. Then we have short term long term recovery. That leads to an assessment usually at the end of the first year and then we start planning, rebuilding that takes us into prevention. And then what we think is one of the most important parts what we call the great forgetting. Somehow we all forget what happened to us and that creates vulnerability and exposes us to when that disaster comes back around and happens again.

The needs and gaps we see every time for immediate relief, for rebuilding to become more resilient and for remembering preventing and preparing disasters before they happen again. These are consistent gaps in our services in areas of opportunity for all of us to work together to address these gaps. When these needs aren't addressed, communities cannot be resilient. And so this is a really important thing to consider if we're going to build resilience. We need to address these gaps fundamentally and across all areas whether we're talking about the county where they're talking about neighborhoods were talking about individual families. All of us need to step up and be involved.

Unmet needs in disasters lead to repeated disaster and can slowly damage a community and that is the opposite of resilience. You see trauma go unaddressed, inadequate insurance, inadequate recovery of areas. Poor people tend to get hit the hardest and have the most challenges and become more vulnerable over time and when this pattern repeats that's a challenge for us.

So bottom line This is after the debris flow, Kevin Smith came out and said look we're failing as a nation to create a culture of preparedness. That was really significant statement he made in it and we took it really seriously in the bucket brigade How can we do a better job meeting these needs? How can we as citizens, how can we as community members do a better job and we can learn from a recent UN assessment on disaster risk reduction which tells us what we already know. The impacts of disaster are most intensely felt at the local level when it hits your neighborhood like the debris flow hit my neighborhood You feel it very intensely.

But also the most effective tools to reduce exposure and vulnerability are executed at the local level. So localization is a clue. How can we meet these needs? David Fukutomi, who many of you know came up here to help us with the recovery says local response capacity is the foundation of disaster relief. Local What does local response capacity look like? It can look like our first responders. It can look like our county public works doing such a great job and swift recovery in Montecito after the debris flow. It can look like neighbors helping neighbors recover on private property where the county can't necessarily come in and solve people's problems, and that we have to solve them ourselves. Neighbors helping neighbors. Neighbors cleaning up open spaces.

Helping their friends and people they don't even know. It looks like businesses coming together to help people respond and recover in partnership with neighborhoods. The county partnering with neighbors to help people recover in areas, in open spaces on public roads, in parks but resilience is more than just digging out. We saw that disaster cycle. There's four phases of disaster, there's prevention preparedness response and recovery and to become truly resilient you need to be capable on all four levels and so the bucket brigade was created to build capacity in those four areas not just respond but prevent prepare respond and also recover And we see tremendous opportunity in partnership with the county and with neighborhoods throughout Santa Barbara County to build on our success and our lessons from the Thomas fire and debris flow.

Our mission, to prepare for and respond to natural disasters through training coordination and deployment at the local level. We come from the WUI. Our wisdom comes from the WUI and we've lived here for generations and our elders have taught us a lot, and we've learned a lot in our experience. And our wisdom comes from the elders, from Mountain Drive, from Painted Cave, Mission Canyon, Eucalyptus Hill, the Riviera, Gaviota, East West Side. All of us who have lived through these various challenges have learned things and we are collecting that wisdom and now sharing it with everyone.

Our community wisdom tells us a caring cooperative organized community is the fundamental building block of resilience. Local knowledge empowers all resilience efforts making them more effective and efficient Swift, collaborative and just as importantly sustained action is required for recovery and resilience. So what can organized neighbors do to help each other?

Well we saw 3,500 people come out and help dig Montecito out after the debris flow but when we look at this and we look at the disaster cycle this is the opportunities short-term housing psychological support Long-term housing support, cleanup, insurance claims assistance, rebuilding for resilience education, CERT, listos prevention preparedness. There are so many opportunities out there it's almost overwhelming but if you just start with any of those You are on a path towards building resilience and that's where we've started. We're ready to start with neighborhoods, whatever their jam is, whatever they feel is most important to their neighborhood you can start building resilience around that by building your community learning how to cooperate with each other.

To turn the disaster cycle into a resilient cycle where we build community, we build confidence in each other and we learn how to rely on each other and trust each other Whatever challenges may come in the future. Our vision is that the community gets better for everyone no matter what comes next we don't know what's coming but our plan is to get ready to help each other and stick together and if that sounds like a good thing we ask any neighborhood, anyone, any community member Who's interested in joining us and building resilience in their neighborhood with the people around them or in their business to contact us. We're here to help you build that resilience and build community around you to make Santa Barbara better place. A lot of people talk about, you know, you want to change the world and what we like to say is if you want to change the world Change your neighborhood.

And if you've made your neighborhood a more resilient and better place, that will have changed your town. If you've changed your town, you've made your county a better place. If your county is a better place, California's a better place. And if California, the 10th largest economy in the world, is a better place then the world's a better place. So we want to make these changes that we want to see in the world. We start in our neighborhood. There's so much opportunity and we're ready to start right now.

Thank you. Thank you, Abe. The Becca Brigade is such a brilliantly simple idea. Your neighbor's pitching in to help neighbors and it has become much more complicated and you're doing all kinds of new things. Could you talk briefly about the neighborhood resiliency effort that you're doing working directly with folks to prepare them better for the next future disaster?

Sure, for example we've partnered with Aware and Prepare in the city of Santa Barbara. Tonight we're doing a community disaster awareness training. Everyone's welcome it's a family friendly event you can come learn about the fundamentals of preparedness for disaster. We also have a neighborhood program where we will come and meet with neighbors and help them evaluate their neighborhood Build a small neighborhood resilience team and work together to create a safer environment for themselves and the people around them.

A really important example of that we've learned in some of these fires is evacuation. and neighbors can do so much even if we can just get people to help each other in an evacuation, we can radically change Santa Barbara County. And when you think about it people with access and functional needs are living throughout this community and sometimes in a rapid evacuation People that would normally come to help them can't get to them. But their neighbors can help them, can help them get out and should we think get involved and we see that as a huge opportunity if neighborhoods get to know each other you'll find out who might need help in a disaster and you might find out a way that you could help them.

And if you just did that it's transformative. In the T fire I'll tell one quick story. The first house is burned like less than 20 minutes after the start of the fire Some people panicked, but the neighborhood pulled together. They'd been planning this for years and they started calling each other and they started working together and one neighbor who was in one of the first houses that burned came running out of his house looked across the street saw an elderly woman's car in the driveway and he knew there was a problem And he said, she's still there. She's not getting out. He ran and knocked on the door. No answer. He opened the door. He called to her. She said help, help, help! He ran in. She was in her bathtub. She had panicked and she was there completely didn't know what to do.

Had frozen up. He scooped her up took her out put her in the car drove out ten minutes later her house was gone. You know, what can neighbors do for each other? We have no idea but we've seen what can happen and it is significant. And to know that we'll come for each other in a time of need is one of the single best ways to build community.

Thank you. Are there any board members who have questions for Abe? Director Williams or Supervisor Williams?

Mainly just wanted to thank the Bucket Brigade. Please extend to your co-founders and to Jessica and Hazel and your board members the thanks from the county for the partnerships on debris removal, pedestrian improvements, and looking forward to the prevention work that you are already doing with other neighborhoods that I've already heard good feedback from so

really appreciate that work. Well thank you and I'd say right back at you, as a community member who's experienced repeated disaster challenges and been very involved in recovery. I can say that Santa Barbara County whether we're talking about the T fire or the Thomas fire has been so incredibly responsive and collaborative You know, there are things the county can do and the things the county can't do. But when the community steps up to partner with the county we find we can fill the gaps in ways that we never imagined and do things that we didn't even think was possible. And I think That you can thank the people here from Public Works, Flood Control. I think after the Thomas Fire we saw one of the best organized most successful recoveries to the most complicated natural disaster cleanup we've ever seen and a lot of people from FEMA have ever seen so I mean we have a lot to be proud of here in Santa Barbara County.

Thank You Supervisor Hartman

Yes I had a couple of points I'd like to make. First, thank you to you Chair Hart because this really frames and focuses our attention on a critical issue that is how we are prepared going forward and gives us different ideas and I can't think of a better way to frame the overall context than The PowerPoint you gave today, Abe, I hope you'll make it available to everyone.

The second thing I'd like to say is that I serve with Abe on the Fire Safe Council Board. That is a non-profit organization that is designed to work with communities and the fire department and others on preparedness for making our communities more fire safe, particularly community wildfire protection plans. The second thing I'd like, or third thing I'd like to mention is that you're not just South County. The Bucket Brigade and Abe have come up to the San Ynez Valley and is working with a community there to make us more, to build social capacity. We're starting with a small project to reclaim rights of way so that people can get in and But it takes a lot of skill to build the kind of social capacity that you're helping and leading us in the Valley to do.

And I'm really appreciative of that. You've often talked about how emergency preparedness is not catch-and-release, but it's catch-and-keep. It's building relationships with each other And that really is the silver lining to all of this because you get to know your neighbors in a different way and you feel responsible for them in a different way. And I think that goes to something to the heart of what we are as people so I thank you for all your work because you've broadened this, it's not just a technical thing it's really building our communities from a social as well as a technical aspect. So thank you so much. Thank you, I really appreciate it.

Thank you again for coming today. We learned a lot and appreciate helping you fill in the gaps about all the different community organizations that are working together collaboratively to protect our community, so thanks for coming.

Thank you so much and thank you, the board, and your administration here in Santa Barbara County for doing such an exemplary job and being such a wonderful partner over the years and we really look forward to working with you in the future. Thanks Mr. Pro.

Madam Clerk are there any announcements or changes to our agenda today? Yeah thank you.

Yes, Chair Hart and members of the board. I have three announcements this morning We post in an addendum on Friday amending our closed session first with conference with legal council anticipation litigation paragraph 2 of subdivision D of government code section 549 56.9 Significant exposure to civil litigation from one case to two cases And we add in an additional a closed session agenda item conference with legal counsel existing litigation Paragraph 1 of subdivision D of government code section 54956.9 in the matter of the grievance concerning Mary Jornelis, Engineering Technician Specialist Department of Public Works in the County of Santa Barbara California State Mediation and Conciliation Service case number ARB 18-0159 this addendum was posted online distributed to the board and was also posted on our bulletin boards and is available in the back of the room My second announcement this morning, we received a request to change the order of our presented resolutions and we will be taking administrative item number two first followed by administrative item number one and then number three.

And my last announcement this morning is we received a memorandum from the department regarding Administrative item number 34 from planning and development. This is a set hearing to consider recommendations regarding the appeal, case number 19 APL 36 filed by Scott Rudolph of the County Planning Commission December 4th 2019 denial of the Santa Barbara West Coast Farms Cannabis Cultivation Project case number 19 LUP 64 In the third district and the department is requesting to change the date of the hearing that is previously set for March 10th, 2020 to March 24th, 2020. And this memo was also distributed at the board posted online and it's available in the back of the room.

Thank you Madam Clerk. We'll now go to our resolutions to be presented. Can I get a motion to approve items A1 through A3? So moved, motion has been made and seconded. All those in favor say aye. Aye. That occurs unanimously and we'll start with item A2. Will the clerk please read item A 2 into the record?

Chair Hart and members of the board, Administrative Item number two is sponsored by Supervisor Lavinino. It is to adopt a resolution of accommodation honoring supervising Deputy District Attorney Brandon Jebbins for his outstanding and distinguished service to the citizens of Santa Barbara County. And if I can have our district attorney Joyce Dudley, Adriana Jebbins, Brandon's wife, and Brandon's daughters Nova and Alaska Jebbins to the podium?

And I'll go ahead and read the resolution. Whereas, Brandon Jebbins joined the County of Santa Barbara District Attorney's Office as a Deputy District Attorney in 2006. Prosecuting the most serious felonies and eventually being promoted to Supervising Deputy District Attorney. And whereas Brandon's co-workers remember him as a strong individual who was humble yet extremely organized and thorough in his review of cases. And a caring mentor for new attorneys and a trusted partner and advisor to law enforcement throughout the county. And whereas Brandon exhibited moral courage and decency in all his duties and personal interactions, and demonstrated an uncanny ability to handle adversity with grace and care for others more than himself.

And whereas Brandon brilliantly, passionately sought justice for the most vulnerable victims in our community. And his strong belief in fundamental fairness in our criminal justice system exhibited itself in his high ethical character and professionalism, while his kind heart helped him connect with victims suffering in their darkest hours. And whereas Brandon will forever be in our hearts and he will be foundly missed by his wife Adriana and his daughters Alaska and Nova. And his extended family, friends, colleagues and community. Now therefore it is hereby ordered and resolved that this Board of Supervisors posthumously recognizes Brandon Jebbins for his outstanding distinguished service to the citizens of Santa Barbara County passed and adopted today.

District Attorney Dudley, welcome and thank you for being here with the Jevons family as well.

Chair Hart, Supervisors and members of the Santa Barbara County District Attorney's Office in Santa Barbara, Santa Maria and Lompoc. Let me start off by asking the members of our office both former and present be it here or Santa Maria or Lompoc or even at your desks if you're live streaming to please stand up because we are in this together. Thank you. There's no question about it, Brandon was a winner.

He won the most difficult prosecutions. He won over our most vulnerable distrusting victims by gently knowingly speaking to them in both Spanish and English. and his biggest win of all, he won the heart of Adriana which brought him endless joy and these two amazing daughters Alaska and Nova. Because of his winning spirit, his absolute love for his family, his devotion to our office and the people of this county, Brandon lived and worked harder and happier than any of his Stanford doctors could ever have imagined.

From the moment Brandon was diagnosed, his home family and his work family began to merge because we were in this together. Be it resources, gifts, transportation or even decorating his home for the holidays. The line between work and home blurred and then it disappeared because we were all in this fight together and together we won because we had Brandon very engaged in our lives longer And we brought more smiles upon his very handsome face.

This honor is about Brandon, but it's for Adriana. Adriana is a remarkable, remarkable woman who even found the will and the courage to reach out to all of us when she was hurting the most. A few weeks ago, the DSA had a barbecue and Adriana showed up to help. She is still very much a part of our public safety and justice family. That is who she is. On a personal note, Brandon was a friend. He was my friend.

And when my husband and he were both going through cancer treatments we formed an everlasting bond. I'll never forget him showing up and hiking at John's service Even as he had his medical equipment attached to him, he hiked up the hill. When I thanked him for coming, he said he hadn't even considered not showing up. That's just who Brandon was. He was a winner who never even considered not showing up for his families and his community.

And so today, I thank all of you for standing up and showing up for him and his amazing remarkable families. And now another close friend and former colleague of Brandon's family, Mai True came down from Sacramento to say a few words.

Good morning, Chair Hart and Board. Thank you all for recognizing Brandon and his family in this resolution today. I just wanted to say that as someone who knew Brandon both in a personal way As well as a prosecutor, many people in this county know him as a great prosecutor who prosecuted some of the hardest and most important cases our county has had. But more so it's his impact as a human being on this county both as colleagues, as victims of crime that he has protected and as people who know him in the community.

Brandon is the type of person you would define as a good human being, as kind-hearted. The job was hard and the job was important but he lived his life beyond the job. He lived his life for his family, for those he loved, for those he cared for and he found that balance that so many of us seek to find in our lives. And the thing I will always remember most about Brandon and for those of you who know him and hope that you can remember is it was important to him to live his life to the best of your abilities every each and every day. To challenge yourself, to be a good person, to be strong, to

Good morning Chair and the Board. I just want to thank you for such an honor for my husband, this is a testament to my kids of how what a good person he was. He was a gift in my life and I think he was a gift for the community and I want them to know and continue his legacy to work for the community I, this is not going to stop here. I am part of this beautiful family and I am ready to serve and to help in any way that they need me.

Thank you very much for all your support and your generosity. Thank you.

Thank

you.

I know you feel the support and love from the county family. We appreciate your husband's service to our community and thank you for being here today.

I also want to thank our District Attorney for the organization today as well and the coordination of efforts. In this time of a tragedy, I can't think of a leader better equipped to deal with what's happening in your department than Joyce. And even though I didn't know Brandon personally, I mean, I knew of him, I didn't interact with him but I was very honored to attend his funeral.

There were a couple things that were so moving was one, I think everybody that left there realized you need to go home and hug your family a little closer because you never know. Young man that was so dedicated to fitness and taken from his family at such a young age. But I was also very impressed by commitment to his profession, and I gained a deeper appreciation for county employees that His job wasn't nine to five, Monday through Friday. He lived it.

It was part of his life. His co-workers were his family as well and I just hope you understand that you are a part of the family of this county and that you have our support and our commitment that if there's ever anything you need, you come to us. Thank you.

Thank you very much. Thank you again. Will the clerk please read item A1 into the record?

Chair Hart and members of the board, administrative item number one is sponsored by Supervisor Williams. It is to adopt a resolution of accommodation honoring Deborah Beach upon her retirement from the Human Resources Department after over 36 years of faithful and distinguished service to the citizens of Santa Barbara County. And if I can have Deborah Beach to the podium.

And anyone else like to join with you? I'll go ahead and read the resolution. Whereas, Deborah A Beach also known as Deb was first hired as a clerk typist 2 beginning on October 24th 1983 and has recently announced her retirement from county service effective March 21st 2020 after over 36 years of dedicated civil service. And whereas Deb has exemplified integrity dedication innovation Organization, creativity, kindness, good humor and optimism throughout her many years of honorable service. And whereas Deb has been involved in a wide variety of technology and process innovations and was instrumental in transitioning human resources from manual to automated processes Including making County of Santa Barbara the first of California's 58 counties to implement an online application process in December of 1999.

And whereas Deb kept a fish tank at work and recruited her children to help clean it on the weekends, and is now looking forward to recruiting her grandchildren to help care for her pets at home. And whereas, Deb has been a kind and generous colleague and friend to countless fellow county employees who will miss her dearly when she leaves county service. Now therefore it is hereby ordered and resolved that this Board of Supervisors commend Senior Innovation Analyst Deborah A Beach for her faithful and distinguished service to the County of Santa Barbara, congratulates her on her retirement, and wishes her many happy years to come passed and adopted today.

Chair Hart and Board of Supervisors, I want to thank you for the honor that you're bestowing this morning to our very own Deb. So we've given her 36 yellow roses here. I thought

that was a lot.

It is a lot. One rose to represent every year that she has formed friendships, as you know or might know the yellow roses symbolizes friendship and I thought that was appropriate because in those 36 years Deb has formed many long lasting friendships Of course, one of the big things that is in the resolution which we had to document is she helped put Santa Barbara County on the map by being one of the first county with online applications.

And then she continues to leave her legacy because our webpages are the new webpages and it was all of her hard work work in getting us there to where we currently are and I know she still has visions for how it should be better because that's who she is. She also, I thought I would let you know that she is a hard worker for us and for all the county departments but Deb is much more than that. She is a loving mother. One of her sons is here She's also a doting and I'm sure spoiling grandmother, but she's also a dutiful daughter and has cared for her mother in these last several years while she continues to dedicate herself to us. And that just speaks to her big heart. She's also adorned several county employees because She also loves making jewelry and beauty, and she's a fine artisan.

And many of us have purchased her works. And I know that you'll continue to do that. So we, I want to thank you Deb. I'm glad I got to know you. So this last year we've worked closely together and you've helped shape the vision that I've had so thank you so very much. And I know you have a few words.

Just a few. Thank you so much. Actually, it's amazing 36 years how fast it's gone. It really has for me. It's not been slow motion at all and one of the things that really changed is technology. When I started thinking about 36 years ago when it first came, we just had a wang and that was it. And then all of the sudden here comes the computers and process improvements. So it's real joy to actually learn about myself and what I can do to contribute to the county and our first online application system It was a team, it wasn't just me. There were other members that were part of that as well and then being the department and going through changes so it was wonderful.

During part of my career being in the technology world I want to give credit to the ICT staff because they were, they helped, they inspired. Some of them are still around some have moved to other departments some have gone on to other things or retired but I certainly feel that they are a great resource for me and I really appreciate it. During the last 13 years, I was a recruiter.

So I worked with every department, did almost not all 800 different job classes but I actually learned a lot about different positions and you really get to know what people go through as they're actually doing the job. All our county employees are dedicated, they work hard. Some have to put their families second and Their jobs first, some work 24 hours on call. So I want to actually take this opportunity to thank all the employees that we have in the county and all their hard work that they do. Sometimes they're not seen or heard but they're behind and they're making things happen. So I do want to appreciate them.

I also want to thank Maria Elena for giving me the opportunity to come back and do some of the stuff I used to do and at least get us going, that vision and whoever takes over will continue to make it even better so I certainly appreciate that. So just a couple quotes about retirement that were kind of fun and neat and I wanted to share with you. So there's a whole new kind of life ahead full of experiences just waiting to happen. Some call it retirement, I call it bliss.

Retirement is just not about finding ourselves or losing ourselves in electronic distraction, but about creating a new life of ourselves and those around us. My formula for a treasured retirement is simple plan design and enjoy so the resolution that they presented are beads around there so because I do make jewelry and one of the reasons why did that is my son was doing missionary work and so what I would do is I would sell my jewelry and give like 60 Sometimes more percent to the mission. So some of our local like Teen Challenge, the Women See Pregnancy Center so I hope to continue to do some of that and give back to the community. So I will continue care for my mom work on my house. I have lots of hobbies and do some traveling and certainly enjoy my grandchildren and the ones to come.

So thank you so much

We have a celebration for Deb upstairs if anyone wants to join us afterwards. Thank you.

Thank you Maria Lynn and thank you Ms. Beach for your amazing career, your story describes transformation through technology but your commitment shines through regardless of the tools used and enjoy your new life. Will the clerk please read item A3 into the record?

Chair Hart, members of the board. Administrative item number three is sponsored by Supervisor Lavinino. It is to adopt a resolution proclaiming March 7th 2020 as Arbor Day in Santa Barbara County and if I can have Udi Loza from Public Works and Lloyd Henning from Parks and anyone else you'd like to join with you? I'll go ahead and read the resolution Whereas Santa Barbara County has a long and prosperous agricultural history of growing annual and perennial plants.

Just a second, Madam Clerk. Could the folks please be a little quieter as you exit? Thank you. Here we go. Let's start again.

Whereas, Santa Barbara County has a long and prosperous agricultural history of growing annual and perennial plants for products as well as landscape benefits. And whereas the residents of Santa Barbara County treasure the valuable landscape trees provided on both public and private lands and consider them to be essential living features that contribute to their quality-of-life experience. And whereas the natural beauty of our urban forests and county landscapes, as well as the enhanced beauty of the planted and developed landscape environments add to the many qualities that draw visitors and new residents to one of California's most beautiful counties. And whereas four of the largest incorporated cities in Santa Barbara County have for many years been proud and active participants in the Tree City USA program sponsored by the National Arbor Day Foundation.

And whereas, as governing stewards responsible for the planting and care of all trees growing on county public lands. As well as promoting and encouraging conservation of valuable trees growing on private lands. Now therefore be it hereby ordered and resolved that this Board of Supervisors of the County of Santa Barbara together with the Public Works and Community Services Departments proclaim Saturday March 7, 2020 as Arbor Day throughout the county and encourage all citizens to recognize the multitude of benefits our community derives from the conscious acts of planting and properly maintaining landscape trees. I request that all institutions of primary and secondary education throughout the county seek ways to observe this important day and to teach students the value of trees in our lives passed and adopted today.

Chair Hart, members of the board. I want to thank you for this resolution. I would just like to add that the level of professionalism and quality of service whether it's a county street tree or trees in our parks throughout the county from District 1 through District 5 has just been awesome. I couldn't be more proud of the quality of work and the dedication and commitment of our in-house crews and the private contractors that work with us throughout our communities.

Just as important, what I'm really proud of watching the trends on our claims through risk management over the last few years continue to go down Thank you Mr. Loza. Trees look good.

Next item is approval of the administrative agenda. Do any board members request to pull any items on the agenda? I know we had a request for A17 and I'd also add A6 as well. And are there any members of the public who requests to pull any items?

Chair Hart, Members of the Board, I have one request on Administrative Item Number 6 and one request on Administrative Item Number 17.

Okay will the clerk please read Item 6 into the record.

Chair Hart and members of the board, administrative item number six is from behavioral wellness. It is to consider recommendations regarding the adoption of a resolution in support of a state waiver from the Institutions of Mental Disease IMD exclusion. And our request is here in Santa Barbara and that is Jan Winter.

Welcome Ms. Winter and thank you for your service on the Behavioral Wellness Commission.

Thank you Supervisor Hart and Supervisors, I am Jan Winter and I'm a member of the Behavioral Wellness Commission and also NAMI who all unanimously support this resolution. The commission expressed their support in an earlier letter to you. Gaining Medi-Cal reimbursement for treatment in IMD facilities, which is currently denied. Which would bring urgently needed revenue for the treatment of folks who need inpatient care for their acute mental illness. Currently our county is supporting 159 individuals in state facilities at upwards of $1,000 a day in county funds.

The relief would be particularly significant now. Our 16-bed PUF has the physical capacity to expand to 24 beds immediately, and very importantly two new facilities I am so happy to know about in the county are now on the works. The Lompoc Valley Medical Center is planning to open a medical health rehabilitation center at the Champion Center site And a donation in Santa Maria of the former Valley Community Hospital will also lead to the establishment thereof an acute mental health treatment option.

Clearly, access to Medi-Cal funding for treatment Will allow us to allow these facilities to operate in a much more cost effective way. And the bonus is that we can bring these individuals who are at state facilities back to the county where their families can help in their recovery and help aid faster recovery. So, we ask you to vote in support of this resolution.

Thank you very much.

Thank you Ms. Winter and thank you to the Commission for urging us to adopt this resolution. Any other comments on this item?

Supervisor Williams. I just want to thank Jan and NAMI for their advocacy and just say that as a backup for why this would be of use My understanding is we did go over the 16 at the Puff in the aftermath of the fire and it went well. It was not over capacity, it provided better treatment closer to home for these individuals and it saved the county money As well so you know this is something that would be very valuable both from the patient care perspective and from the fiscal bottom line perspective.

And I you know of course we have many challenges in mental health this year both legislatively and in terms of on the street. So we appreciate the partnership that NAMI provides

I agree. I think it's very important that the state seeks this waiver from the federal government and the federal government grant it, but we need to add our voice to that effort and this is an important step in doing so. So thank you for being here today.