Board of Supervisors — 2020-08-25

Thank you.

I will call to order the August 25th, 2020 meeting of the Santa Barbara County Board of Supervisors. Would the clerk please call the roll?

Ms. Hartman? Here. Mr. Adam?

Here.

Mr Lavinino?

Here!

Mr. Williams? Here Chair Hart?

The next item of business is approval of the minutes of August 18th. Is there any discussion? Is there a motion?

Move

approval.

Motion has been made and seconded. Would the clerk please call the roll?

Ms. Hartman? Aye. Mr. Adams?

Aye

Mr. Williams?

Aye.

Chair Hart?

Aye.

Motion passes unanimously.

CEO Miyasato, is there a CEO report today?

Chair Hart, there's no report this morning.

Thank you and Madam Clerk are there any announcements or changes to our agenda today?

Chair Hart and members of the board I just have a couple quick announcements this morning. I would like to remind members of the public who are participating in our board meeting today there are alternative methods of public participation And if you would like to provide public comment on any item on today's agenda or general public comment, you can provide that by phone. If you would like to make a comment by phone please call 805-568-2240 and if you state your name, your phone number and which item you would like to speak on the clerk will call you at the appropriate time. I would also like to remind the public, please make every effort to be available and mute all streaming devices once it is your turn to speak. And momentarily we will be having that phone number scrolling atop your screen.

Additionally my final announcement this morning is that we received a request from the department to trail administrative item 16 from community services till after departmental item number six as they are related and that is to consider recommendations regarding an agreement for operations of a countywide library system. So if we can just add that to the balance of the administrative agenda when we get there, that would be great. Thank you.

Thank you very much for those announcements.

public comment that was provided in writing concerning open session agenda item 828. And that item involves, in fact maybe the clerk of the board could just read that item

Yes, Chair Hart and members of the board. Administrative item number 28 is from Public Works Board of Directors Water Agency. It is to consider recommendations regarding amendments the Kachuma project master contract and member unit contracts and there is a fourth this vote required on this item.

And Chair and Supervisors, this item includes recommended actions about extending the Kachuma Project master contract and member unit contracts for no more than three years. We worked closely with the County Water Agency on this item and from that workup we understand two things. Water Agency expects that Bureau of Reclamation would use this period of up to three years in order to address yield study information towards a new long-term contract.

And second, that the value of executing these extensions now is it helps to provide confidence in a secure water supply. County Council attorneys and water agency managers have received correspondence from local attorney Mr. Dorwin concerning his client who has a parcel in that area or parcels in that area, and those communications included in-person meetings At County Council, we recommended to Mr. Dorwin that to resolve his client's issues which were addressed in the public comment that he contact the Ocean View Homeowners Association which would need to be part of any voluntary termination of an easement and also the Bureau of Reclamation which has the ownership of the property at issue.

The underlying facts of this case include a portion of private Ortega Ridge Road that was acquired by the Bureau of Reclamation in 1955, about 65 years ago. A county easement that was acquired in 1989 more than 30 years ago. And also in 1989, the counties transfer that easement to the Ocean View Homeowners Association. All of this sounds at least familiar or similar to facts and issues that the Ninth Circuit held in 2019 did not state a claim that would support a vehicle access easement over what sounds like the same land owned by the Bureau of Reclamation. That case is Payne versus U.S. Bureau of Reclamation.

in 2019. After looking at the easement dispute that runs back to around 1955, I have three legal recommendations to you today as the Board of Directors. First we believe at County Council that the assertions in the objection really involve a real property or quiet title dispute that seems most likely was time barred more than a decade ago. Second, the assertions concerning the easement that were made by Mr. Dorwan.

Mr. Dorwan's assertions do not involve any rights that would prevent the Board of Directors from properly exercising its discretion today to approve or not approve the recommended actions for A-28. And the Board of Supervisors nonetheless could consider Mr. Dorwan's assertions downstream in a closed session for threatened litigation, and we plan to agendize that. But in conclusion, my legal opinion is that the board may properly act today concerning the recommended actions at A28.

Thank you, Mr. Guzzone, for that clarification. I think at this point, Madam Clerk, could you please read item A29 into the record?

Chair Hart, members of the board. Administrative item number 29 is from Public Works Board of Directors Water Agency. It is to consider recommendations regarding the Santa Barbara County 2020 Groundwater Basin Summary Report.

And Supervisor Adam did you want to recuse yourself on this one?

Yeah I do. I have various business interests and some of them are in litigation on these matters and so I should just recuse

Thank you will take care of this and then have you back for the rest of the administrative agenda agenda. So is there any discussion of this item or a motion.

Move item a 29. I

mean that I I was under

I don't think that was Mr. Guzzone's point, he said there could be a potential future closed session item.

So I think we're talking about two separate items. I was commenting about 828 which was the Kachuma issue and this is 829, the groundwater.

That's right, that's right. Okay then I'll second it. Motion has been made and seconded, any discussion? Roll call please.

Ms. Hartman. Aye. Mr. Lavinino.

Aye.

Mr Williams. Aye Chair Hart. Motion passes 4 to 1, the supervisor Adam recused.

Thank you which brings us to the balance of the administrative agenda is there did you say there were any public members that wanted to pull an item?

Chair Hart and members of the board we had no further requests on the administrative agenda.

Move approval of the administrative the balance of the administrative agenda except for a 16 which will trail

Okay, thank you very much for the motion. Is there a second? Second. Okay, motion's been made and seconded. Any discussion? Roll call please.

Ms. Hartman? Aye. Mr. Adam?

Aye

Mr. Lavinino?

Aye

Mr. Williams?

Aye

Chair Hart?

Aye

Motion passes unanimously

Thank you Now is the time for members of the public to speak on items that are not on the board's agenda today. Madam Clerk, are there any requests to speak on items that are not on today's agenda?

Chair Hart and Members of the Board, we have one request to speak on general public comment today and that is Renee O'Neill.

Good morning Supervisors. I'm calling to express my displeasure and frustration with the escalating issues in Tempe State with cannabis since the cannabis ban growers are not only ignoring the new ordinance they're actually expanding and disregarding their laws as usual We have been pleading with your support for six years. I believe we have been more than patient waiting for enforcement our health safety and sense of well-being is being compromised and jeopardized daily because Santa Barbara County has failed to uphold and enforce the regulations set forth by this state and this county.

As a result, I've had to turn to other agencies to get support. I have been forced to take this to the level of the state attorney general at this point. I have written to the California Department of Food and Ag, I've spoken to their attorneys, they have read the civil grand jury report that came out last June and have strongly urged me and others in our community and county to take Matters up with the Attorney General.

I have been trying to resolve this problem for six years in our community, the county of Santa Barbara has failed to support us. Last in the last two years my husband was diagnosed with asthma and this is a result of the traffic that is going through our property on an ongoing basis we had 251 Different cannabis related vehicles going through our property in the last 13 days. That's two hundred and fifty one and they are on Tepeskaya Road also the growers have used and taken from our community without permits for wells 151,400 gallons of our water in just 13 days This water is being trafficked through my property 20 in and now multiple water tanker trucks this morning at 6.30 the caravan of workers that typically comes in to start the next harvest process came in at 6 30 this morning this means they'll be an additional 30 Or more vehicles on our driveway every single day.

I'd like to know what the county plans to do about this? Are there any questions or comments?

Thank you, Miss O'Neill.

I just have a question for County Council in a reminder of when these operations have to close down because of the ban that was passed by the board

and if I might piggyback when did their provisional licenses come up

Chair and Supervisors, let me first start with the effective date of the prohibition of cultivation of cannabis in inland EDRNs. Existing developed rural neighborhoods, the board took action on that in July. It became effective August 13th. And the county issued notices to all those growing in inland EDRNs discussing the prohibition, discussing the phase out and abatement deadline of December 15th.

And then coordinating among the various departments to baseline what cultivation was occurring on those parcels so we'd be in position for enforcement on or after December 15th unless there are any different violations occurring between now and then. So that's the first part of this. I think Supervisor Hartman's question involves a three-part regulation scheme where a local land use authorization is one part, a local business license is another part and the state's transition from temporary to provisional licenses is the next part I don't have the grid in front of me for the expiration dates, parcel by parcel.

But those are no longer than one year and are not supposed to be renewed. The state licensing portion has been challenging in that as you remember the state has extended and changed those several times along the way but the current iteration of that our provisional licenses they cannot run but for more than one year and are not supposed

Thank you for that additional information. With that, we are concluded with public comment which brings us to the next item, Department Item Number 1. Would the clerk please read that item into the record?

Chair Hart and members of the board, departmental item number one is from the County Executive Office. It is a hearing to consider recommendations regarding a presentation from REACH and Vandenberg Air Force Base on economic opportunities.

Ms. Anderson welcome.

Good morning, Mr. Chairman and members of the board. This item is an opportunity for REACH to provide an update on Central Coast projects and how the county can continue to be a partner in these efforts. We are fortunate also to have Colonel Masteler of the Vandenberg Air Force Base to present one of those projects related to the latest U.S. Space Force plans to enhance the domestic commercial space enterprise.

As a bit of background, in 2018 REACH, formerly the Hourglass Project was formed as a coalition of business and civic leaders who came together to develop region-wide economic actions To create high quality jobs throughout the Central Coast region focusing on San Luis Obispo County and northern counties, Santa Barbara County. The organization was created as a catalyst for fostering a prosperous economy and regional collaboration County representatives participated in the organization's strategy lab workshops to develop the 2030 regional plan as well as on-site discussions regarding the Vandenberg Air Force Base initiative.

More recently, the county successfully partnered with REACH during the COVID-19 pandemic response to develop the county's reopening and safe environment or RISE guide Work with REACH helped to facilitate more than 30 roundtable discussions with over 350 industry sector leaders to help businesses navigate the reopening process. The partnership effectively facilitated collaboration of various stakeholders and local government in a coordinated effort.

The recommended action today is to receive presentations on the Vandenberg Air Force Base Initiative and REACH 2030 Regional Action Plan, direct staff to continue participation in REACH efforts to promote economic vitality in Central Coast region and determine that the above actions are not a project under CEQA. Mr. Chairman I would like to now introduce our first speaker he is Colonel Anthony Mastelier of the 30th Space Wing at Vandenberg Air Force Base who will make a presentation on the Master Plan Initiative

Welcome Colonel Mastelier, pleasure to have you here with us today. Good morning Chair

Hart can you hear me okay? Yes

we can

thank you very much All right, great. Thank you so much and members of the board supervisors thank you for this opportunity and I use the word opportunity not just because it's a delight to speak with you all today but because the theme of this presentation is really about opportunities specifically where commercial space is concerned. I do have some charts if we're able to present those charts okay I see them we could go ahead and advance to the next one So specifically, what is my purpose?

To really it's twofold. One is to describe for the board that the unique situation that we're in right now as we transition to the United States Space Force As you all know, the Commander-in-Chief signed into legislation the National Defense Authorization Act for 2020. That occurred on December 20th of last year which gave rise to the sixth service of the armed forces, the United States Space Force.

One of the points of this presentation is to stress upon the members of the board, the fact that the U.S. Space Force absolutely believes it is in our nation's best interest to further develop and facilitate the industrial base which supports both national security space and more specifically domestic commercial space and space launch We're going to be looking at new forms of partnership At the federal, state and local levels of government and also partnering with industry and other non-federal entities such as REACH.

This is going to be critical to facilitating a robust commercial space enterprise for our nation and specifically here in the Central Coast. I'm often asked when senior leaders come out to visit the base, what is one takeaway that I would give that senior leader? And the one takeaway is that there is potential here, untapped potential here at Vandenberg Air Force Base.

And that's really what that second bullet, when you think about this as an opportunity rich environment combined with the fact that we have significant potential not just on the base but within the local area with respect to the local governments and the universities. It is absolutely the right time to capitalize on this particular situation. If we could go to the next slide So this is a build slide and the first part of this slide shows you these are the these are the customers that most recently Vandenberg has been working with. to facilitate National Security Space Launch. And you will recognize ULA, United Launch Alliance and of course SpaceX both of those launch providers have served customers throughout the national security enterprise and launched both out of the east coast and here out of the west coast And we continue to have great relationships and great partnerships with SpaceX and ULA.

In fact, just recently it was announced that for the future of national security space launch what we call Phase 2 competition was recently within the last two weeks announced that both SpaceX and ULA won contracts for phase two, so they will continue to be the nation's launch providers when it comes to national security space. But let's go ahead and build this slide because Vandenberg has been working with a number of other launch providers and if we could advance to fill in the second piece of this slide what you're going What you're going to see here is new rockets, new frames, new motors, new engines and a whole variety of commercial enterprises, commercial endeavors to bring different options to the commercial market where space lift is concerned.

And I can tell you, I've met with the CEOs of these companies. I've met with their boards and their technology directors and each one of these companies has exciting innovative new developments that they want to bring to the market. And it's fascinating because each one is a little different, targets at different niche part of the market. Perhaps different strategies in terms of how to launch where to launch different strategies in terms of how those spacecraft eventually get to their final orbits. Different strategies on how they're going to build the rocket, how they're going to fuel the rocket So more so than ever, we are seeing and this slide represents a lot of innovation that's pouring into the commercial industry right now where space launches concern.

Okay if we could advance to the next slide. So why Vandenberg? Why do I say that we have untapped potential? Well, first of all as many of you might suspect it is very important when you choose a launch site that you consider geography. And that's why here in the United States we primarily launch from the coast. Because depending on the orbit that you want to achieve, you really don't want to fly a rocket over a populated area. One of my primary responsibilities as the wing commander and the installation commander here at Vandenberg Is to make sure that we never blow up a rocket over the places where you live. We do not, public safety is my number one priority to ensure that whatever we however we conduct operations public safety is absolutely a premium So what does that mean?

It means geography is important. And when you're on the West Coast, where we are situated here at Vandenberg We have a straight shot to the south. And that's important because as you see in that first note, in that first bullet we are the nation's primary polar orbit launch site. So when you think about achieving an orbit where the satellite is going around the earth crossing over the poles, the North Pole and the South Pole To achieve that orbit, you have to launch due south. And it just so happens that at our little nook here in the Central Coast we have a shot directly south where we do not overfly land until we reach Antarctica. It's a very clean corridor, a very safe corridor and that's why we are premier site when it comes to achieving those polar orbits.

Additionally, as some of you know we have the nation's primary from a defense perspective, the nation's primary space control center. So we have here at Vandenberg Air Force Base what we call the CSFOC, the Combined Space Operations Center which is one of the premier nodes for all of the command and control that needs to occur across the Department of Defense enterprise when it comes to space And additionally, the U.S. Space Force utilizes a satellite control network and one of those major nodes is right here at Vandenberg called the Vandenberg Tracking Station. So Vandenberg is already a center of gravity when it comes to national security spaceflights When you look at what we have to offer, many acres of pre-disturbed land and we all can appreciate the importance of having pre-disturbed land.

As many of you know, we weren't always Vandenberg Air Force Base. We were once Camp Cook where our two artillery units trained prior to heading into war for World War II So we have acres and acres of pre-disturbed land, which is very ideal when you're talking about new development here in the Central Coast. Additionally, we have communication networks here that are more robust today than ever before and continually upgraded with new dark fiber available investments that we are making here on the base to be able to switch dark fiber through our own networks basically reach any point on the installation. And this is going to be key when we talk about bringing in commercial providers, commercial communication providers that would support a commercial space launch industry.

They're not going to want to run over the government's networks and we certainly don't need them over our government networks so establishing a commercial communication network is key and we're primed right now to do that. Of course, we have good access through major county state roads and highways. Access to rail the Union Pacific Railroad runs right through Vandenberg with a number of spurs potentially to support commercial space lift. And of course, we have a harbor where we have a boat dock and some of you know that one of our customers United Launch Alliance just recently Brought over major components of the Delta IV Heavy Booster, which is scheduled to launch later this year and that arrived right at our boat dock at the harbor here at Vandenberg.

And of course two major universities within one hour of commute and great relationships already that Vandenberg has with Cal Poly and UC Santa Barbara, and really the promise to just continually strengthen those relationships. There's a lot of potential here at Vandenberg Air Force Base. All right, let's advance to the next slide. So I talk about the perfect storm. And what I mean by that is, I'm often asked, you know, Carol Mastalia, why now? What's different? Some folks have told me, hey, I've been here for a long time. I've heard this before.

I heard about how space is going to bring in all this economic development. I was here when NASA was prominent and then folded up shop and abandoned us here in the Central Coast. So they tell me, I've heard this story before, what's different now? And I can tell you while it's not possible to predict the future, there are a number of very interesting points that we ought to consider.

One is that never before have we seen such an emphasis at the national level in policy, in doctrine, that really specifically identifies the need to embrace the commercial market We have learned and you all know that competition drives down price. If you have a competitive market, you're going to have providers that want to enter that market and they are going to want to provide services and products to beat out the competition. So when we look at the price point and we consider how much does it cost per pound to achieve orbit?

That commercial space industry is plays a decided factor in helping drive down that price for the American taxpayers. Second point on this slide, The United States Air Force and the United States Space Force is willing and able to grant extended use leases. And we have a history of doing that for our commercial providers, and for our national security space lift providers.

And we have the ability to grant those leases for an extended period of time. And we are willing to exercise that authority that we have here at Vandenberg to explore this potential. It just so happens that with General Jay Raymond, who is the Chief of Space Operations. Having having been now the CSO, the chief of space operations since December 20th and was most recently dual hatted as the commander of US Space Command, although he last week removed that hat and turned it over to the new U.S. Space Command Commander.

General Raymond maintains his role as the Chief of Space Operations, which is the four star in charge of the U.S. Space Force. His plan to build the range of the future has been launched and is in execution right now here at Vandenberg and at the Eastern Range at Patrick Air Force Base in Cape Canaveral. Building that range of the future is about modernizing the ranges and the facilities and the commodities and the infrastructure that we have available here. So, that work is already in progress. At the same time, we are exploring for this nation what does the spaceport of the future look like?

And that is a discussion that we're still early in the phases of that. Understanding exactly how a national spaceport, what does that governance structure look like? How should this nation organize for a national spaceport that would be open to all launch providers, commercial or otherwise. So these plans are in work at the same time if you look at that fourth bullet we're seeing significant venture capitalists private investment in the commercial space industry And that includes commercial space.

You'll recall the slide I showed with all of those new companies. Some of those companies are on Series A, Series B, Series C funding and the reason they're getting this funding is because they have these innovative ideas and investors are primed to capitalize on these innovations and try to bring them to market. So there's substantial private investment right now that we have not always seen before.

Then the next bullet talks about the substantial commercial space networks that are being deployed. And let me be clear on this, because what I want to convey to you is that whether you're looking at private industry, commercial industry or national security architectures What we're seeing is a shift toward what I call massively proliferated constellations of satellites.

Heretofore, we in the DoD and in the Intel community typically build very robust, very large, very complex satellites The new architectures are really leading us down a path where we're building smaller, cheaper more modular spacecraft but in huge quantities. So instead of a constellation of a dozen satellites you're seeing constellations of 200 300 500 satellites and in some of these markets and some of the commercial ventures You are seeing constellations of two, three thousand satellites. Now satellites need to get to orbit somehow. Which means that you're going to have an increase for launch demand. The increase in the demand for space lift is expected to climb and if for no other reason that these architectures, these constellations of hundreds or thousands of satellites to build these networks in space are gonna need a ride to orbit So we are bracing and I should say embracing that opportunity in preparing for the increase and launch.

And of course, we already have significant architecture here on Vandenberg over the years billions of dollars invested by the US government so we're not starting with a clean slate. We have significant infrastructure in place today And finally, we're seeing that with organizations like REACH, with organizations like GO-Biz out of the state of California who have expressed an interest in the economic development opportunities at Vandenberg. This is an opportunity, like I said a perfect storm to develop the partnerships that are necessary for commercial space.

Okay if we could go forward So what are some things specifically that we're currently working on here at Vandenberg? You can you can see in the cutout, some of our facilities. The SLCC is a space launch complex and this is on South Vandenberg and what you're seeing Opportunities that we have identified, areas on the base where based on the geography because geography is king here.

Based on the geography we feel would make an ideal location for a commercial provider and again you know predisturbed land is a key component. Geography is a key component and then existing infrastructure is a key component Another component is the environmental impacts. And as you know, we have a robust environmental team here at Vandenberg Air Force Base works very closely with the California Coastal Commission works very closely with US Fish and Wildlife and a number of other regulatory agencies.

And our team here is building an environmental assessment which will be an umbrella EA that would cover a family of small launch vehicles. So when you think about the environmental process and how you have to, if you are a new launch provider trying to make a mark for yourself in the commercial market And trying to bring those innovative ideas to the market, which the market desperately needs. Being able to have an organization like Vandenberg Air Force Base help you through that environmental process is critical.

We have years of experience doing this. We have the absolute best on our team who understand how we can launch satellites into space, how we can test missiles and still protect the environment. And we're putting our years of expertise to this particular effort so that we can better facilitate some of these smaller companies and help them navigate through the environmental requirements here in the Central Coast.

And then like I mentioned earlier, the second major bullet on this slide. We're continuing to make the investments here at Vandenberg that are necessary whether it's upgrading our communication networks, modifying our base access points and continuing to drive those infrastructure changes. The last bullet on this chart talks about SLCC-8 Space Launch Complex 8 This is a special project. Slickgate, you can see on the map, is just north of the boathouse, northwest of our boathouse here.

And Slickgate is under refurbishment. We laid new concrete pad. We're doing a number of other things to Slickgate. We own SlickGate. It's not currently leased to any commercial entity. And we believe that SLC-8 could be a potential incubator for new commercial companies that want to test out their new concepts. If you build a new rocket body or you're trying a new engine, or you have a different type of fuel and you want that very first launch Right where you have very little reliability data and you're not exactly sure what's going to happen.

And in some cases, some innovators will tell you let's fail fail fast and fail early so we can learn from those mistakes. Slick 8 is our perfect place For new companies to fail early and then learn from that and build that back into their production and build that information in that data back into their designs so that they can very quickly turn those new products and get to market with a reliable booster.

So we're really excited about the work that's ongoing at Slickgate and preparing that here as kind of an incubator of sorts for future companies. All right, let's go ahead and advance to the next slide. I mentioned a little bit about range of the future. And some of you might be asking, well what is range of the future? Quite frankly it's a way to increase capacity of the range.

We are preparing right now for what the future holds which we believe is a launch band unlike one that we have seen before. So if the launch schedule is going to grow, if we're going to have multiple users on our range, we need to increase the ops tempo. We need to be able to increase throughput increased capacity A big part of this is what we call autonomous flight safety system.

This is the idea that a booster is gonna have a black box, for lack of better analogy. A black box aboard with the algorithm that helps the booster understand where it is relative to the populated areas and critical infrastructure. And if necessary would autonomously self-destruct to prevent any damage to property or loss of life. So making our boosters safer, more autonomous is a big part of range of the future. But also developing an infrastructure where you have plug and play, where there's high speed internet, high definition optics, remote control operations, where companies that have different requirements Instead of trying to reconfigure the existing infrastructure to meet a proprietary waveform that a company may try to bring to the market, we would just provide the infrastructure where they could plug and play and utilize the high-speed communications to route their data wherever they need to.

So that's a really exciting part about range of the future. And it's really, if you think about going from point to point configuration and analog configuration to one that is more network centric this is kind of what we're trying to build here on the range. All right, if we go ahead to the next So all of the things that I've been talking about kind of manifest and culminate in this idea of a commercial space zone.

And this is where I think it becomes extremely germane to the members of the board and to anybody who is interested in potentially building a commercial center of gravity, a commercial hub here in the Central Coast for commercial space. And like I talked about, we have an abundance of land, a pre-disturbed land and we have identified one or two areas which would be perfect for a commercial space zone. So what would we build in the commercial space zone? Well, we, the government wouldn't build anything We would provide the land and the idea would be that private or state investor, at the State of California, private investors, VCs, others, private companies.

There'd be an opportunity where you could build potentially a commercial zone which would include anything from administrative offices The idea would be that we would have The area where whatever the requirements that commercial providers have, and remember what we've heard is that commercial providers really want to drive their investment toward the innovation that they're bringing to the market. So this is another opportunity to kind of alleviate some of those overhead costs. If you're a new launch provider and you need some admin spaces here in the local area, it's probably something that you might want to consider leasing before you build your own as you try to bring those innovations to the market and prove yourself.

So there's a lot of different opportunities here to build a commercial space zone. I would propose that we have it on Vandenberg, but it wouldn't necessarily have to be on Vandenberg. It could be in the local area. If it were on Vandenberg, I'd be willing to move our security fence lines and what we call the controlled perimeter in a way that the commercial zone would be easily accessible to those companies and they wouldn't actually have to process through the security requirements on Vandenberg. And then of course, when you talk about new construction, you're talking about the potential for all of the utilities and the services, the demand for utilities and services that are going to come with that and a lot of exciting potential there for economic development Okay, let's go to the next slide.

And at this point I would say if I were asked how does the county help us out in this? Really I wanted you just to be aware of kind of where the Space Force is headed I wanted you to be aware of the opportunities here and aware that we have a vested interest in doing what we can within the guidelines that were allowed to facilitate a commercial market. And I think we have Melissa James is also scheduled to speak with you today.

The effort that she and REACH have launched, we're proud to be part of that so I would say continue to support Melissa and then continue to engage with the commercial space industry One of the keys to this, if this is going to be successful it'll be actually answering the needs of these new companies. Understanding what their requirements are and what their obstacles are, what the hurdles are and then finding a way to mitigate those. If you want to attract new business to Vandenberg into the Central Coast we have to make it as easy as possible for those new enterprises to be successful So with that, I will cede my time back to you Chair Hart. I greatly appreciate this opportunity and look forward to working with all of you. Over.

Well thank you very much Colonel Masler. That was really an impressive presentation. You covered a lot of territory and explained a dynamic industry in all of the ways that It's going to evolve with your leadership and our encouragement. And I really appreciate you taking time to be with us today. I know you're very busy, but this is an incredibly exciting opportunity for both Annenberg Air Force Base and the County of Santa Barbara and our local residents and economy. So thank you very much for being here today.

Are there questions for Colonel Masteler? Mr. Chair? Yes, Supervisor Lavinino?

I just want to tell you that, you know, I've been on the board 10 years and you're right. We have in the Santa Maria area we've kind of heard this before but the difference this time is we've never heard it From Vandenberg Air Force Base. It's always been a private company that has come to tell us that things are different, or it's a private consultant that's telling something is different. So to hear it actually from the horse's mouth, it's the breath of fresh air. I'm really excited and maybe this is a question from Melissa, I'm not sure but maybe you can just touch on this if you could just kind of touch for a minute on who are we competing against?

You know, what are they doing different than what we're doing? How far behind are we if you could just kind of give a lay of the land or the competition involved.

Sure I will comment from my perspective. One of the, there's a number of ranges that we're competing with. Again, I go back to my point that geography is important So when you talk about polar launches, of course Alaska has launch capacity and Vandenberg. And then when you're looking at what we call equatorial launches or companies that are interested in launching to the east, Wallops Island has a range there So one of the things that's interesting is we have already seen examples where because of the launch manifest, because of the demand On getting a slot on the range schedule at Patrick is pretty intense.

We have seen launch providers that have opted to pull out and come to Vandenberg if they can achieve their orbit from Vandenberg simply because they are able to launch when they want to, as opposed to getting squeezed out from the East Coast. You know, one of the challenges that my colleagues at Patrick Air Force Base have is weather. There are more launches that are canceled due to weather out at the east coast in Florida than there are here.

So we have good weather, we have good orbitology when it comes to specific orbits, good geography. What we don't have is a lot of investment. Florida, the state of Florida has invested hundreds of millions into the launch infrastructure at Cape Canaveral. And we have not seen that kind of investment before, which is why I am so excited to be a partner with the state of California and GO-Biz because those kinds of relationships are going to be important as we try to jumpstart some of this commercial space lift industry here on the West Coast.

And we continue to compete with some of those competitors that do have money pouring in from the state. But I am not as concerned, quite frankly about the competition where ranges are concerned because I think there's gonna be enough launch demand that all of the ranges are gonna have plenty of business. That would be my guess But I will defer to Melissa and others if there's more to add.