Board of Supervisors — 2020-09-22

you I will call to order the September 22nd, 2020 meeting of the Santa Barbara County Board of Supervisors. Would the clerk please call the roll?

Mr. Adam

Here.

Mr. Lavinino

Here.

Mr. Williams

here.

Ms. Hartman here. Chair Hart

At this time, Supervisor Lavinino has a brief announcement.

Thank you Mr. Chair. I just wanted to let folks know that the reason why I am Zooming today is I did have a positive coronavirus test among one of my staff members and even though I tested negative yesterday and I want to give a shout out to Dr. Reynoso for setting that up

So moved

second

motion's been made and seconded any other comments or questions. But the clerk, please call the roll.

Mr. Adam.

Hi,

Mr. Lavagnino. All

right,

Mr. Williams.

I

miss Hartman. I chair heart.

I

motion passes unanimously

CEO me as Otto is their CEO report today?

Yes, there is chair heart Just a couple of items. One is, as a reminder all residents we have only seven days remaining to respond to the U.S. Census before the deadline of September 30th. It's important for everyone to be counted and residents can go online to mycensus.gov, my2020census.gov, my2020census.gov or call in for English call 844-330-2020 in Spanish.

Residents may call 844 The second thing I want to bring attention to today is national voter registration day and we've been talking about what the county is doing to prepare for election day. And we have Joe Holland, our election officials official on zoom who wanted to give the board an update.

Welcome Mr Holland.

Good morning Chair Hart and members of the board. Pleasure to be here. Just FYI, my internet at the office here just went down a few minutes ago. So hopefully this will work. But yes today is National Voter Registration Day and want to encourage of course everybody that's not registered to vote please register and vote. Also it's important that if you've changed your address Or you changed your name, but you go online and update your registration. It's very easy to do at sbcvote.com.

And so we will be working with Gina DePinto to issue a press release. Well actually I think we issued it yesterday too. So hopefully the media will be picking up on this and encouraging everybody to register to vote or update their voter registration. Also, this election has already begun. We sent out over 2,000 ballots last week to overseas voters and military voters overseas and we've already received back a handful of ballots so This election is already underway.

One of the other things that we're doing, that's very significant to try and make it easy for people to vote is this week we are installing 32 vote by mail drop boxes across the county. And actually if you wanna see one of them at the County Administration Office where you are now on the Anacapa Street entrance have installed a drop box there. These drop boxes are very secure, they weigh over 600 pounds each and then make it very easy to vote so these 32 locations will be listed in your voter information guide and those voter information guides are actually going out next week What's nice about these drop boxes is that if you put your vote by mail ballot in one of these drop boxes, it's like delivering your ballot directly to the County Elections Office.

We are going to be having teams of county elections officials driving by these drop boxes on a daily basis, beginning October 5th. So we're trying to make it as easy as possible for you to deliver your ballot directly to your County Elections Commission. The other thing I want to mention is that next Monday September 28, we are actually getting a delivery. We're going to have a semi truck coming from our ballot vendor or ballot printing vendor delivering 227,000 ballots vote by mail ballots to this county and voters should expect that over the next week after that next week to 10 days they will be getting their ballot in the mail.

And the one thing I want to do is encourage all those to vote your ballot early, you can drop it off in one of these drop boxes. You know, of course study the issues, study the candidates but there's been a lot of criticism that if you wait until election day to Vote your vote by mail ballot and you drop it off on election day, we cannot count those ballots until after election.

But if you get it to us earlier, we are allowed to process those tabulate those ballots and those election results will go up at eight o'clock on election night. So if you're interested in seeing the results of your vote, please vote early, vote safe by mail, But it's important for everybody to vote early. And so that's the update for now, but I'm happy to take any questions that you may have.

Thank you Mr. Holland for your diligence in preparing for the election and encouraging folks to vote. That's primary fundamental foundation of our democracy. Are there questions for Mr. Holland? OK thank you again for joining us. CEO Miyasato are there other announcements. No report. Thank you Supervisor Williams

I just wanted to the CEO give a very easy softball question. I mean the census is so crucial for us to receive what kind of what kinds of funding. I mean I think the thing that comes to mind me is this most recent CARES Act funding which Was determined how it would allocate partially by population. Would we have potentially more money to deal with emergencies and crises if more people answer the census questions?

Thank you, Supervisor Williams to the chair absolutely That's why it's so critical for everyone to be counted. The federal government will use these numbers to develop the formula for federal funding, which includes emergency assistance and includes our CDBG, our home monies. And I want to remind folks that it's not just the county, it's our cities as well, that we all received money through CDBG, for example, for CARES funding for COVID-19 that had a large impact on the county and our cities. So yes, it has a significant impact Please, there's only a few more days. So if you know anyone who hasn't filled out their census form, a neighbor, a relative, a friend, please urge them to do so.

Thank you for that. 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'd like to remind members of the public who are participating in today's meeting of our alternative method of public participation. If you would like to make a comment by phone On any items on today's agenda or general public comment on items not on today's agenda, please call 805-568-2240 and state your name, your phone number and which item you'd like to speak on. And the clerk will call you at the appropriate time as you will see that number is also scrolling at the top of your screen.

Please make every effort to be available and mute all streaming devices once it is your turn to speak. Additionally I have a couple changes to the agenda today We would like to continue administrative item number two. This is sponsored by Supervisor Hart and Supervisor Hartman. It is to adopt a resolution of accommodation honoring Susan Epstein for her 16 years of faithful and distinguished service to the Goleta

so it may be legacy issues too At 55%. So 1920 was 56%. Of course, more recently 75% has been through local vendors. So we don't know how much of that is due to COVID or due to the fact that the policy works. I'm just saying that it's not really a catastrophic change. It's an incremental one and I think it's probably fair to say that we can't really tell what the results of the policy are yet except that it wasn't as bad as I've

maybe feared. Thank you for that. Next item is a 15. Would you please read that item into the record?

Chair Hart, members of the board, Administrative Item Number 15 is from General Services. It is to consider recommendations regarding an award contract for countywide security services to Triumph Protection Group and we have one request to speak on this item and that's Andy Caldwell.

Supervisor Hart, members of the board. I actually think this item should be a D-item and this has to do with the latest paradigm to address the homeless is that throw a house at them and most of the problems are going to go away. And I agree that people that don't have a bunch of problems in their life, they're just simply a victim of circumstance For instance, somebody that had cancer that lost their job and lost their house. I think Housing First will work for them. However most of the people as you well know have multiple diagnosis besides homelessness mental illness alcohol drug abuse and the like.

And so this item I think is actually an embarrassment to the policy that of housing first policy You have actually a perfect little paradigm here to prove your policy and your theory works. You've got a bunch of people housed in local motels and hotels at taxpayer expense. You know exactly where they're at, and they have a house. So what we're reading here is you're having to spend over $2 million a year at just two locations Not for social services, alcohol, drug and mental health services but for security guards.

Now why is that? Is that because they may be running a prostitution ring there? Is it because of fights? Is it because of lawlessness? Is it because of destruction of the property? Is if because they're doing drugs there or selling drugs there? Are they housing stolen things there? You're going to just throw two million dollars at this problem while you're throwing tens of millions of dollars at the larger problem of homelessness in this county.

Where are the metrics that you can move these people from homelessness through a home at this motel into being back healthy productive citizens in our community? This really should be a pilot project versus an 815 itemized two million plus dollar expenditure because these people are unruly and or present a threat to one another, the community and the property.

Thank you.

Thank you Mr. Caldwell. Next item is Item A18 Could the clerk please read that item as the record?

Chair Hart and members of the board, Administrative Item number 18 is from Human Resources. It is to consider recommendations regarding a 2021 Employee Benefit Insurance Program renewal. And we have one request to speak on this item and that is Renee O'Neill.

Good morning Supervisors. It's always hard for me to start my day this early and have my brain firing on all cylinders, but whenever we have an item on the Sheriff's coming up I always like to give them recognition for the job they are doing and to let them know that I will continue to advocate For them to be funded more have. Hire more enforcement teams for cannabis specifically and to just let them know what a great job they're doing so I'm happy to see that there's a grant for $78,000 for them. I know that doesn't begin to fund an entire enforcement team Or even- Ms.

O'Neill, this item doesn't have anything to do with that. I'm sorry. This is a human resources item. Let's just go on to A20. Okay. Her comments have been made and noted for 823 if that's sufficient.

Chair Hart, members of the board yes Renee had made those comments on 823 I would just like to take a moment to read that item into the record That is from the Sheriff's Office. It is to consider recommendations regarding a 78,000 grant for selective traffic enforcement program step from the California Office of Traffic Safety OTS National Highway Traffic Safety Association for the period from October 1st 2020 through September 30th 2021 thank you.

Thank you brings us to item A20

Yes, Chair Hart, members of the board. Administrative item number 20 is from Public Health. It is to consider recommendations regarding an agreement with Family Service Agency FSA for the Housing for the Harvest and Latinx and Migrant COVID-19 Task Force and Language Justice Project. And there's a four fist vote required on this item and we have five requests to speak.

We will begin with Andy Caldwell to be followed by Dr. Melissa Smith.

Chair Hart, members of the board. Andy Caldwell representing CoLab. We understand that the farmers in our region especially through the H2A project have been isolating and taking care of people that tested positive for COVID. And we understand that not all employees are H2a obviously Having said that, we don't have a problem with reaching out to workers that are non-H2A. In fact, we think that is legitimate bona fide expense of the CARES Act and all that. However, the farmers I've talked to nobody knows who was on the Harvest and Latinx and Migrant COVID-19 Task Force And I've talked to several farmers in the region, including some of the largest growers and those that have actually have harvest contracting businesses that employ thousands of non-H2A employees.

So we would like to know who was on Harvard Latinx Migrant COVID-19 Task Force, including whether there's any growers on that And secondly, we don't understand what is the language justice project and what does that have to do with COVID? And again this is something that's come up before it's not been clear to us. I've made inquiries and I just had one of the largest strawberry growers in the region who actually was the president of their statewide association email me back says I'm not heard of it. I don't know what they're doing And the question is, if they're not working with the growers how are they finding the farm workers?

So we'd sure like to have an answer to that question and get a list of who's on it and how it was formed. Thank you.

Thank You Mr. Caldwell

We will now go to Dr. Melissa Smith to be followed by Lee Heller

Mister chair when we get done I like to follow up on that please.

Yes, Sir.

Thank you very much. Good morning Chair Hart and members of the board thank you so much for your important leadership during the pandemic. I am doctor Melissa Smith Interim Coordinator of the Latinx and Indigenous Migrant COVID-19 Response Task Force. I'm also Director of Health Equity Initiatives at UC Santa Barbara, and have worked as a part time family medicine physician in the health department clinic in Santa Maria. I recently served as the Chair of the Expert Healthcare Panel for the RISE

Act.

I believe it is critically important that these resources be allocated to support the work of the task force and its related language justice services, as well as for housing for the harvest. These efforts complement those of the Santa Barbara County Department of Public Health, as well as growers who seek to protect the health and wellbeing of farmworkers who are essential workers and who are uniquely vulnerable to the COVID-19 pandemic.

Farmworkers live in densely populated multifamily housing and face many barriers to protecting themselves and their families from COVID-19, including language barriers, barriers to accessing healthcare services, limited access to public health education, materials such as face coverings and hand sanitizer, and food and resources for supported isolation and self quarantine if they or their family members become infected.

The task force includes over 96 participating organizational cross sectoral partners Including community-based organizations, health service providers, elected officials and the county departments of Health and Behavioral Wellness among others. Our efforts are focused on critically needed multilingual and culturally appropriate health education and outreach efforts in marginalized communities in our county as well as with growers.

We are also strengthening coordination among service providers to address gaps and to ensure that community members receive life-saving supplies and other case management resources. We are providing mental health support services and resources in multiple languages for youth and adults throughout the county. These funds are an investment in the health and well being of our entire county, as well as an investment in our economy and

our workforce.

All of our lives In particular, those who are most vulnerable to COVID-19 depend on this critically needed public support. Thank you.

Thank you Dr Smith perhaps you could call Mr Caldwell will get you that number and you could explain to him how the your work on the Latinx an indigenous migrant tax task force connects with farm workers and growers in San Maria Valley.

We will now go to Lee Heller, to be followed by Hazel Davalos.

Good morning, Chair Hart and members of the Board. I want to thank the Public Health Department and the CEO's office for its early and proactive efforts to address the problem of COVID-19 as it affects agricultural workers. I'm sure we all remember the numbers from not too long ago when farm workers represented a disproportionately high number of COVID-19 cases.

There has been a concerted effort from the beginning of the pandemic to develop strategies and resources to address this population made vulnerable by living conditions, stress and oftentimes comorbidities. Dr. Dovay-Noso recognized early the need for a coordinated and strategic approach and reached out to the people and organizations that now constitute the Latinx and Indigent Migrant COVID-19 Response Task Force. And I couldn't hear Dr. Smith speak, but I'm assuming she answered Andy's question.

Their work has led to this agenda item, an allocation of resources to experienced and highly competent nonprofit service providers, specifically the Family Service Agency and Community Health Centers of the Central Coast, to provide the extra assistance that farmworkers and their families often need. We will all benefit by support of and reduction of cases amongst farm workers. When their numbers go down, the county's numbers go down and when the county numbers go down we can shift to a lower tier and reopen businesses that currently remain shuttered. Again my thanks to Public Health and the CEO and the non-profit agencies that have been collaborating to develop this approach. Thank you.

Thank You Dr. Heller

And we will now go to Hazel Davalos, who is our final speaker.

Hello, good morning board. I'd just like to speak in favor of the Housing for Harvest program My name is Hazel Davalos with CAWS, based in Santa Maria. We were so glad to hear that Public Health was proactively figuring out how to provide more support for our county's farm workers who often live in crowded housing conditions. I just quickly want to share a conversation that I had with a farm worker who was being isolated in a hotel about two months ago prior to the program beginning.

Like many farm workers in Santa Maria he was a single man living here alone Without a family, he was prescribed some medication to deal with coronavirus but didn't have anyone to go get the medication for him. This is one facet of the vulnerability of farm workers aside from being immigrants having linguistic barriers disproportionate rates of diabetes high blood pressure and other core comorbidities sometimes they're just frankly here alone without a strong support system And that is what is so important about the Housing for Harvest program and the fact that it allows the county to contract with Family Services Agency to conduct wellness visits.

This means you have a culturally competent staff and volunteers visiting farm workers in the hotel rooms, building trust so that these folks feel forthcoming about sharing their symptoms and are able to ask questions about how to navigate the medical system and more. I appreciate your support for this program Thank you for your time.

Thank you, Miss Davalos

and Chair Hart members of the board. We did have one additional request on this item and that is Lorinda Marshall.

Good morning chair and members of the board. My name is Lorinda Marshall I'm a retired public health nurse and I've made home visits to many immigrants and farm workers in countywide North and South County. I want to thank you for proactively addressing the spread of COVID-19 in concert with the Public Health Department I want to speak in favor of Housing for Harvest program because it addresses farm workers who are vulnerable.

They're vulnerable because they live in crowded conditions, many times several families in one house. They work in close proximity to each other and they need a place to safely quarantine to keep the workforce safe And stop the spread of covid in our county. I hope you will consider all of these factors as you make your decisions, thank you.

Thank you Miss Marshall

and that was our final speaker

which brings us to item number 821. And

oh

excuse me that's right supervisor Adam.

Thank you. I would like to have a report from public health on exactly what they know about housing for the harvest and the language justice project, please. And I don't need to unless they want to come back with I don't have a D item on this, but offline is okay with me. And the questions are exactly who these two organizations are composed of? Who's on the board? Who are the executive directors? What is their mission and what outreach to growers has been engaged of that public health is aware of?

Thank you, Supervisor Adam. I think we'll be able to accommodate that at our future conversation with you or even at a COVID-19 update in the future. Thanks for giving us that advance request. Next item is...

Yeah well if if I could have that produced as soon as possible. I don't know that waiting till in two weeks but our next meeting is going to be adequate.

Thank you. Next item is A21. Excuse me, Supervisor Hartman?

Thank you. I do know a little bit about this program and I think public health is to be commended for this. It's path-breaking. It tries to deal with the issues that were identified by the community and how best to address this in Santa Maria where the numbers were rising. Being able to be culturally competent and trusted is absolutely critical. The Family Service Agency is, I think exactly the right organization to do this. So I just wanted to, I'm eager to have you come and talk because I think it is a stellar program and I want everybody to know about it but at this moment just my personal thanks for this.

And I agree with Supervisor Hartman. I think this is a wonderful story to tell and look forward Telling it again and again. So

Chair Hart, members of the Board, Administrative Item Number 21 is from Public Health. It is to consider recommendations regarding a First Amendment to the Housing Authority of the County of Santa Barbara Agreement. And we have one request to speak on this item and that is Andy Caldwell.

Chair Hart, members of the board, Andy Caldwell. If you'll indulge me I just want to follow up on 820 when I asked the Board of Supervisors for an answer which is similar to Supervisor Peter Adams' questions. I'm not asking for the vendor to call me, I'm asking for the Public Health Department that oversees this contract and this program to fill in the details I don't know what Dr. Smith at UCSB has to do with the Family Service Agency or Hazel Dalvalos for that matter.

With respect to item A21, this is related to item A7. There's a list, a huge list of properties and when these properties are funded they go through some sort of public hearing, public notice process Of who's going to be living there with the occupancy of life, et cetera, et cetera. And I just want to get back and combine item a 15 item a 7 in item 8 21. You hope you are housing the homeless and these motels on a 15 and you're going to have to spend over 2 million dollars on security now we know that.

We know that in Santa Barbara's got a police department. Why doesn't somebody just call the police? My point here is, if you convert the buildings in Wampoag and or others in Santa Maria are you going to hire security guards for those properties? Because why would you hire security guards for A15 but not A7 Nor have any plans to hire security guards for all the properties listed on 821.

And again, we think this deserves a full-blown hearing. I think your staff needs to go shop this to the City Council in each of these communities and tell them what your plans are. Thank you very much.

Thank You Mr. Caldwell which brings us to item A25

Chair Hart and members of the board, Administrative Item number 25 is from Human Resources. It is to set a hearing to consider recommendations regarding an amendment to the ordinance setting compensation and benefits for members of the Santa Barbara County Board of Supervisors. And this is a set hearing for our October 6th 2020 meeting.

Supervisor Adam?

Yes, I need a roll call vote.

Okay. Let's have a roll call vote on a 25 to set the hearing So move

second

Motion has been made in second with the clerk. Please call the roll

mr.. Adam No Mr.. Lavagnino

I

Mister Williams

I

miss Hartman

I

chair heart.

I

motion passes 4 to 1

and then could we have a motion for the balance of the administrative agenda so

moved. And I believe a 2 we need to continue that October 20th in a 12 will withdraw for now

thank you for those tweaks motions been raised and seconded at that clarification second on a discussion. Now could you please call the roll

Mister Adam. Mister Lavagnino. Mr Williams

I

miss Hartman chair heart motion passes unanimously

now is the time for members of the public to speak on items that are not on today's agenda and are there any requests to speak on items not on today's agenda.

Chair Hart and members of the board we have 8 requests to speak on general public comment this morning you're going to begin with Renee O'Neill be followed by an Odell Thomas

First of all, supervisors and clerks. I want to apologize for my confusion over this morning's agenda items and I think we got that straightened out. So in regard to general public comment as a result of the passing of Supreme Court Justice Ruth Bader Ginsburg, highly esteemed litigator and leader of women's rights I felt it was important to speak in honor of her this morning.

Justice Ginsburg was nominated to the nation's highest bench in 1993 by President Bill Clinton. In her Rose Garden nomination ceremony, President Clinton praised Justice Ginsburg for standing with the outsider in society telling them that they have a place in our legal system Giving them a sense that the Constitution and the laws protect all American people, not simply the powerful.

Those words have profound meaning for all American citizens. I believe our system of justice and our justices should reflect a balanced representation of our country's population. I'm not sure how to resolve that. Maybe we need to increase the number of justices from 9 to 11 or 13. Maybe we need to limit their terms for 15 or 20 years instead of a lifetime.

It's a dilemma that bears serious consideration, in my opinion. Ruth Bader Ginsburg was Jewish. She died on the eve of Rosh Hashanah, the Jewish New Year which is quite significant And although I'm not Jewish, I was part of a Jewish family for 15 years and I have very dear friends who are Jewish. I respect and honor most faiths and have learned a little bit about Judaism.

Rosh Hashanah is one of the two highest holy days of Judaism and it begins a 10-day period of penitence culminating on Yom Kippur Day of Atonement. This is a time to reflect and repent of injustices It also represents a new beginning, a fresh start. Jewish tradition says that the most righteous die on the eve of Rosh Hashanah, that they have been granted the fullest number of days in a year as possible.

People who die on that day are called Tzadiks, a person of great righteousness or people with human frailties that have almost superhuman abilities to make the world a better place. Justice Ginsburg certainly fit that description. There's also a Jewish teaching that says those who die before the Jewish New Year are the ones that God held back until the last moment because they were needed most and were the most righteous.

Rosh Hashanah is not the only point of significance

Thank you, Ms. O'Neill for your comments about Ruth Bader Ginsburg.

Our next speaker is Anne Odile Thomas to be followed by Katie Mickey.

Good morning, Chairman and members of the Board. My name is Anne Odile Thomas And I'm making this comment on behalf of safe technology for Santa Barbara County. I live in Santa Barbara County and I have young children, and I care about air quality and fire safety. I would like to address fire hazards related to small wireless facilities in beautiful Santa Barbara County.

Residential, recreational, and farming areas are very vulnerable to fires. Many of our trees, plants, groundhogs, and floods are extremely flammable. In 2007, it was determined that the Malibu fire was caused by pole overload from wireless equipment. Southern California Edison and PG&E poles that may include cell antennas have caused some of the worst fires in recent history.

The Santa Barbara County Fire Department said in 2019 that they saw a 50% increase in power lines and utility pole-caused fires. Small wireless facilities present a significant fire hazard. We strongly urge you to require involvement of our Fire Department in existing and future wireless regulatory ordinances as follows. One, Oversight Authority. Designate the Fire Prevention Department Fire Chief or Fire Specialist to determine and oversee fire safety protocols and examine approved or disapproved Any small wireless facility applications and permits and their location to continue monitoring the fire chief will continue to monitor the safety of wireless facilities in the county.

Three investigations, the fire chief shall receive and investigate any credible fire safety complaint made by a resident or the county regarding a wireless facility. Permittees and wireless companies Thank you Ms. Odell-Thomas.

Chair Hart, members of the board we are going to come back to Katie Mickey later. We are now going to Michael Gurka to be followed by Kimmy Van Dyke.

Good morning and thank you all for the opportunity to address the subject of 5G cell towers in Santa Barbara County. My name is Michael Gurka, and I have one simple request to all of us to please completely examine and deliberate on the risks and rewards of this 5G technology specifically on the issue of fire safety. In the 40 years since moving here from New York City my work has been divided between natural healing and organic farming My pastimes have been ocean free diving, beach walking and hiking the local mountains while homesteading in the hills above Santa Barbara and Montecito.