Board of Supervisors — 2021-01-26

Wrong like a call to order. I will call to order the January 26th, 2021 meeting of the Santa Barbara County Board of Supervisors. Will the clerk please call the roll?

Motion passes unanimously.

CEO Miyasato is there a CEO's report today?

Chair there's no CEO's report today.

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

Chair Nelson and members of the board. There are no changes to today's agenda but I would like to announce to members of the public who are participating in today's meeting of our alternative method of public comment if you can please turn to page two of our agenda today You could see at the bottom of the page to participate in general public comment or on an item on today's agenda. You can do so by zoom webinar individuals wishing to provide public comment during the Board of Supervisors meeting can do so, by registering with a zoom link available on page 2 of our agenda.

Please do not call or join until the item you want to speak on is being discussed. For all administrative and general public comment requests, you can log in now. Once the chair has announced the item you want to comment on, please join the meeting with the information provided in this registration confirmation email. You will be placed on mute until it is your turn to speak.

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After you unmuted, please state your name before beginning your comments. Each person may address the board for up to three minutes or at the discretion of the chair. If you have any questions regarding this process, please do not hesitate to call the clerk of the board at area code 805-568-2240. Thank you very much.

Mr. Chair I have a brief announcement. This is Supervisor Hart. Yes, Supervisor Hart. Please proceed. Yeah, I just want to explain that the reason I am participating in the meeting on Zoom is that one of my staff members potentially came in contact with a COVID positive person in their household. I've been tested as well as all of my staff members and we're awaiting the results so I'm quarantining in the meantime out of conformancy with public health recommendations and to keep everybody as safe as possible.

Thank you, Supervisor Hart. We appreciate it. And our thoughts are with your staff and you. Thank you.

Mr. Chair, I would pull A7.

How about Santa Maria? How are we doing up there Steve?

On A5, just a question if we have our state representative, not representative. What am I talking about? Lobbyist available because I have a question about there's some new developments as I guess it would pertain to A26. So-

Supervisor Lavinio, I'll check here with the staff one moment.

Okay thank you.

Chair Nelson and Supervisor Lavagnino, they are not. They gave their oral report to us in December when the board approved the legislative program for the year for the platform. This is just a follow-up written report but if you have questions we can get back to them.

So if I understand you do not need to pull that item?

Nope.

Okay thank you Supervisor Lavagnino. Any others?

Well, I'm very grateful that Supervisor Hart pulled this item and it does offer a tremendous opportunity for us to see how particularly in North County we can develop in a way that's supportive of the on-base commercial space launches. And this has been in the works for some time, Santa Barbara County with our CEO leading and our Congressman Carbajal have been actively engaged. And originally this was a north county effort but now it's a county wide effort I think that's really important because there are a lot of assets, particularly at UCSB that can be brought to North County and brought to this effort. So I'm really enthusiastic it's an unusual model reaches a lean and mean very sophisticated small team they work with Deloitte a major international consulting firm And so it's a different model of economic development that's very highly focused, and I think it's got a lot of possibility.

And so we're going to try it out.

Thank you Supervisor Hartman. Supervisor Lavinino?

Thank you, and I do want to address there have been some that have had a more cynical look at this. And said we've been down this road before and just to respond to that notion that I know some folks out there have. We've never been in a position before where the base commander, Colonel Masteler. No one's ever come to our board of supervisors to encourage us to get involved like they have this time and I believe that his quote was it's a perfect storm of opportunity for us to get involved and so you know I think opportunities ripe and we're better to spend Actually some of the cannabis money, which I think over half of the money is coming from the cannabis tax. Then to invest it in the possibility of restarting the economic engine of Vandenberg Air Force Base.

There was a time working in Santa Maria relied heavily on that as As it as the engine that drove. The economy up here that is kind of waned and it would be nice to get get that back with a move into commercial space so I'm enthusiastically supporting.

Thank you see whether Lebanon, you know. Madam clerk we have a comment.

Chair Nelson and members of the board yes, we have one request to speak on this item and we are going to Andy Caldwell.

Chair Nelson, members of the board, Andy Caldwell representing CoLab. We want Vanderburg to be developed. We do agree that it is a phenomenal sector of high-paying jobs but I've honest... To be honest and I don't mean to be offensive but I only have three minutes and sometimes that's one of the reasons I'm so blunt this proposal that you have in front of you is laughable The line, we have developed a series of insights to determine where and how to play in order to develop the more robust space agency.

This was before any of your time on the board but there was this thing called the California Space Authority. They spent $16 million. They were authorized as an agency by the state of California They had on their board companies like Lockheed, Martin, Marietta and a bunch of other companies. It was a bipartisan support they had to deal with both what the state laws were, state taxes, the competition among other states and nations, and then plus the federal government.

And for you to throw $200,000 towards reach which has absolutely no experience We're not trouncing the goal. The goal is good, but These guys have no experience, they don't even have a plan other than we know where and how to play. Where and how to play? Is that a business plan? You should bring in Andrea Seastrand and the people that worked with her. They spent almost $20 million in their effort To bring commercial space demanded where they were a little bit ahead of their time, but they were a legitimate player with every major contractor and in commercial space on their board of directors.

So again we want commercial development that reach has no depth in this field at all know experience. No connections and a $200,000 contribution from you is going to go nowhere. You would be better off assigning Nancy Anderson or somebody else to work with Vandenberg directly than having a nonprofit do this that's got no game. Thank you.

Thank you Mr. Caldwell. Can I get a motion to approve this item? Second. Madam Clerk, can I have a roll call?

Motion passes unanimously.

Madam Clerk please read item A-10 into the record

Chair Nelson and members of the board, administrative item number 10 is from Public Health. It is to consider recommendations regarding an amendment for the Animal Services City Agreement with the city of Santa Barbara for fiscal year 2020 through 2021.

Thank you. I asked to pull this item. This is the animal services contract between the city of Santa Barbara in the county One of our policies or goals in REACH 22, or RENEW 22 is to get full cost recovery. And my request to public health on this contract came back that we are actually not getting cost recovery on this contract. I understand that things happen, you know there's COVID, there's other things that are out there that need to be considered in these various contracts but I see one of my roles on this board is to be a watchdog and so you know I would like to see us have Cost recovery as our policy or amend our policy for with exceptions like this. So at this point, I'm inclined to vote against the item. I do believe that Paige Batson is also here from public health that could speak to the specific contract and again, I want to make sure I let animal services in the city of Santa Barbara know that this isn't something about their program but it's more my concern about Our county's policy when it comes to cost recovery.

Miss Batson?

Yes, Supervisor Nelson. So we are committed to assuring full cost recovery and we hope to do that by doing a couple things now that we have hired a new animal services director. We are looking forward to structural and operational programmatic changes that will hopefully reduce costs to cities and help us achieve Yes, the cities were hit pretty hard with COVID and fortunately we were able to cover that $25,000 that we had to cover through one-time funds of SB 90.

Again hopefully coming out of the pandemic we hope to be able to move in the direction that you're describing of full cost recovery.

Thank You Ms. Bettson

I have a question, Mr. Chair?

Yes, Supervisor Lavinino.

Okay so are they getting a discount because of COVID is that, I'm trying to figure out exactly what if Paige could clear that up a little bit. So we're not requiring them or we're kicking in some or how's this, how are we get into the full amount here?

Yes, that decision was in consultation with the CEO's office. And due to that financial impact it was decided that we would only charge the 2.5% equal to the COLAs to the city for this one time. So and yes, that was covered through SB 90 one-time funds, that is

correct. Okay, are all the other ones that we contract with getting the same discount at this point?

5% was charged across the board.

All right, thank you Supervisor Lavinio. Supervisor Hartman?

I would just like to say that we have a new animal services director. She is tremendous, out of this world wonderful and I'm so glad that she has taken this position and she's not been on the job but a few months. I think we wanted to give her a chance there's a number of different issues that they're facing Including the Lompoc shelter and how to do that. We've learned a lot, as I understand it in animal services during COVID and how to get more people to be temporary caretakers for animals so we've it's been a tremendous time to learn and I have a lot of confidence that they're going to come back with a program taking all of this into account that does lead to cost recovery but you can't do it all in just a few months

Mr. Chair? Yes, Supervisor Lavinio? Actually, Supervisor Hart. Oh I'm sorry, Supervisor Hart, please.

I know I spoke recently with Animal Services Director Ms. Yates, she has already scheduled a meeting with the City Administrator Mr. Paul Casey in Santa Barbara to discuss new ways to collaborate and reduce costs and potentially different service models that might be employed in the city of Santa Barbara that could save The city of Santa Barbara money and increased services and potentially revenue to the county of Santa Barbara. So she's on job and doing this work already, and moving forward in really expeditious way.

Thank you. Thank you Supervisor Hartley. I have a question for Miss Batson. Yes, Miss Batson. This discussion has been happening with my colleagues up here has been helpful to me. I was reminded that I think I had heard that during this time of the pandemic the revenues have fallen short and is that feeding into this deficit that we're looking at for this contract?

Yes definitely revenues have fallen short And so this, yes that has a lot to do with why we needed to move in this direction. But again as was already mentioned, we are looking at a lot of structural and operational changes that we anticipate to be able to implement even after COVID. COVID while it's been very detrimental to the community at large, to the state nationally there have been some silver linings that we've been able to see out of this especially in animal services with more fostering and other activities that are going to help in the long run to reduce costs.

Okay, you know I think this has been helpful for me and that's why I wanted to pull this item and have this discussion. I was inclined not to support it but I think hearing the information that you provided Ms. Batson and hearing from my colleagues, I believe I can support it as well. Can I, Madam Clerk, can I get a roll call on this item? Or can I get, sorry I apologize, can I get

Move approval.

Second, Madam Clerk, will you please call the roll?

motion passes unanimously

thank you and I think that leaves us we've got two more here so

Chair Nelson and members of the board. Administrative item number 26 is sponsored by Supervisor Hart and Supervisor Hartman. It is to consider recommendations regarding a statement of commitment to equity and inclusion in the community and workplace.

Thank you, I asked to pull this item. I'm inclined to support this item but I was not serving on the board when it was initially discussed and developed had I been on the board at that time. I believe would have had some constructive input and someone take the opportunity provide some of that. One of the requests I believe is worth considering is adding socio-economically disadvantaged to the groups in a sentence that reads, to eliminate barriers are Black, Latinx, Indigenous and Asian community members as well as people of other diverse racial and ethnic backgrounds.

The reason why I think this is important is because a commitment to equity and inclusion is incomplete without a recognition of the effects and barriers caused by poverty. So I was hoping that the authors might consider that as a positive addition to the statement. Sorry, Supervisor Hartman?

I would. I'm eager to hear from Supervisor Hart but I think yes

And I would add my voice of support as well. Thank you, Supervisor Nelson for making that addition. I think that helps make the statement that much more powerful and appreciate everybody who spent a lot of time and effort and energy making this on an important statement of values that the county Santa Barbara can endorse And embrace Wendy Sims Motum was very helpful in drafting this language as well as Maria Elena de Guevara, our HR director. Supervisor Hartman and others really did a lot of work behind the scenes to put together a very high quality product and your additions only make it better so thank you.

Thank you, Supervisor Hart. So I'm going to go ahead and reread that sentence just with the additions to it if you can just bear with me for a second. I believe it's in the... because I don't have it in front of me. It's-I do have an excerpt but it's the portion there where it says to eliminate the barriers are black Latinx indigenous and then I was gonna have comma Asian and socio-economically disadvantaged community members Comma as well as people of other diverse racial and ethnic backgrounds.

Is that acceptable to my colleagues? Or to the

do we have any public comment if not I would move approval,

OK?

Turn Nelson and members of the board. We have no request to speak on this item

all second.

Alright thank you. I do have some additional information or a statement that I like to make about this issue. If my colleagues would bear with me again, fact that I wasn't part of the two previous meetings gives me an opportunity to catch up to all of you. So if you guys would consider that. I have something I'd like to read. I disavow white supremacy and I disavow racism and racist behavior.

Unfortunately because of the national narrative, I need to state that as a conservative Two terms that are used in this preamble I want to address because I believe they are an important part of the discussion about race and policy, and those would be systemic racism and structural racism. I am comfortable with them because I know they're relative and undefined.

I personally can point to disparate outcomes with a racial component and make that claim about a lot of things but that does not make those things inherently racist. I can support the statement of commitment with those terms in place because I understand the intent and I support the goal. But I do think terms can be counterproductive. Nobody wants to be a racist, and when we assign racism to systems and structures, I believe it shuts down open discussion.

As a teacher, I learned it was important how we ask questions. For example, I believe that we have a very different discussion in our community if What structural barriers can we attribute to race in our criminal justice system? Versus what barriers exist because of the structural racism of our criminal justice system. It may be subtle, but in a time when we are trying to unite as a country I believe we need to challenge ourselves to find ways to better communicate with our neighbors and recognize that language matters.

Finally, I do want to say I personally do not subscribe to the narrative that our institutions are structurally beyond repair. I believe our country or Constitution Our economic and criminal justice systems are not racist. I do recognize though that our institutions do not exist without people, and with people comes ignorance, prejudice, and yes racism. One thing I'm most proud about our nation's past is that we have shown the ability over and over again to reflect, fix, unite, and heal our wounds.

I am committed to ongoing reflection And work to bring about unification rather than segregation in our county. Thank you. All right, Madam Clerk can I have a roll call?

Supervisor- I have one question. Yep. By the way, I think you did a great job there. I'm just curious, I know the term gets used a lot, Latinx. I just want folks to understand that there is confusion in the community, especially in the Hispanic or Latinx community. I just saw a poll that 87% of people that speak Spanish as their primary language in their home do not know what the term means and so I know it's something There's a movement to try to get folks to start using this term.

It would probably be better off if it was from the bottom up than the top down, and I don't know. I understand why folks want to use the term but if the people that you're trying to talk to don't use the term, don't understand the term, I'm not sure how much we're helping.

we had a discussion about this very topic yesterday at first five and we essentially decided to take out the term because you know it. And this is maybe to Bob's point that sometimes you have well-intentioned terms that are created in an academic setting and I know among activists it's well-intentioned, and the repetition of those terms is an attempt to shift maybe consciousness.

But the other way to look at it, and the way I ultimately look at That Latino individuals have had successive waves of terms thrust upon them by academics, Hispanic, Chicano and then Latino. And it's like come on let's make up our mind because you can't make up a new term every generation and have it stick. The majority of people are, I think in finally embracing.

You know the term Latino Latina and just as the majority are embracing it then we come up with a new one and I totally get the intention behind it but Most highly educated, active Latinos that I know in this community still use the term Latino Latina and not Latinx and do not identify with it.

Thank you Supervisor Williams. Supervisor Hartman?

Wow. Well, I go back to Ms., and for me that was extremely important not to be identified by my marital status. And it took a while for that until there was a box and until that term came into being. I suppose it didn't hurt that it had Ms. Magazine and sort of an elite cadre of feminists leading it but I am supportive of the word. Sometimes they take hold, sometimes they don't.

Our vocabulary and our syntax changes. We now use they instead of him or he and him. And we're using the plural for the third person. So language takes a while and so I'm, I don't know if it's going to stick or not but I'm eager to find a language that's less sexist quite frankly.

Thank you Mr. Chair Supervisor Hartman, Supervisor Lavanino and then we do have some public comment that

right? And then I well I would I would suggest then that we at some point hear from the community. Not, I mean, I'm not talking about today a public comment but it you know whether that's through first five I don't know what the vehicle would be but you know I definitely don't want to offend anybody But the Spanish language is, by definition every word whether you're talking about the beach or the chair or whatever you're talking about is male or female. So it's not like we are being sexist by using the language. The language by definition uses male and female so I definitely don't want to offend anybody but I also want us to realize That what we're trying to do is provide information to a community. And if we're using language that they don't use, that we would like them to use, it's just not helpful.

So I'm good with whatever word we're using. I just want people to realize that terminology has to correlate to the language that people actually use.

Thank you, Supervisor Lavinino.

Chair Nelson, just as a reminder to the board. We did fund some community outreach through Community Services Department so we could ask them to when they have those discussions and engage the community discuss the use of language and those phrases I think that would be helpful and more helpful as Supervisor Lavinino said to directly hear from the community rather than us trying to figure that out today

Thank you So we have public comment Madam Clerk

Yes, thank you chair Nelson and members of the board. We have one request to speak on this item and that is Thomas Becker

Hi, can you hear me?

Yes,

we

can please proceed

Thank You first off when I submit comments concerning the Hispanic community I use the term that the county staff uses which is Hispanic And they capitalize that word. So when I submit comments like I submitted, I'll be talking about in a minute, I use the term Hispanic capitalized. Hispanic basically means someone who is part of the Spanish speaking world and includes people in Spain. Latino would include people from Central and South America Mexico which would also include people who speak Portuguese So, but I use Hispanic.

When I was a kid the term was Chicano and Chicano was a term of respect it was certainly not something that was abusive it was created by the people who I grew up with in Los Angeles who I respect and that is the Chicano community they use that term themselves but anyway um I like to speak you're talking about inclusiveness fairness At SBK they're putting together right now the EIR and the document for the Connect 2050 Regional Transportation Plan. And in that document there's a section on environmental justice, and I've submitted comments and requested the EIR study certain aspects of your projects in the RTP and other projects Specifically how it affects the Hispanic community.

One of the things I see in your government from you people specifically is that you are targeting the Hispanic community to be the people who are living in the high density developments that you have either built or you approve on that you're planning. Let me just say something If you are an Hispanic person, any person but let's just talk about Hispanics. If you have a skilled trade or good education, you're going to be making enough money yet you wouldn't want to live in that high density slum type development that the fifth district and well every districts building. You're going to want to live in a detached single family home especially if you have children because you want that type of environment for your children to grow up in My comments were submitted to Mike Becker at SBK and I'm going to be meeting with him to make sure that my comments are formatted and worded properly so they are analyzed in the EIR, especially how Hispanics are targeted by you people to live in high density housing.

You're targeting them So they don't have the ability to live in low-density, clean communities and other diseases aren't being spread. Again

Mr. Chair, I have a comment I'd like

to make. Yes, Supervisor Hart please.

Thank you. I just want to thank everybody for their comments, I thought the discussion was really valuable but really wanted also to remind everyone who's listening that this is a powerful statement in solidarity and support of the community members who have come to many of our meetings calling for the County Santa Barbara to make a strong commitment to racial equity and reforming our justice system. And I think it's very important to recognize this statement is in response to the community coming to us and demanding solidarity with that mission

Thank you, Supervisor Hart and thank you my fellow board members for allowing me to participate in this process as well. So Madam Clerk, can I? Oh sorry real quick, Supervisor Hartman

I just wanted to add on to what Supervisor Hart said, and that is it doesn't end with this statement. It starts with this statement. We have a process for county leadership that will permeate the rest of the county focused on this issue and we have a listen-and-learn session going out that we funded in grants so this is the beginning.

Thank you Supervisor Hartman. Madam Clerk?

motion passes unanimously.

Madam Clerk I think we have one more item that was pulled by the public I believe that's Item A-29 would you please read it into the record?