Board of Supervisors — 2021-05-11

Good morning. I'll call the order of the May 11th, 2021 meeting of the Santa Barbara County Board of Supervisors. Madam Clerk, please call the roll.

Supervisor Hart?

Here.

Chair Nelson and members of the board we have no request to speak on our closed session agenda today.

Okay thank you. County Council will you please read the items for consideration today?

Chair and Supervisors today the Board has agendized in closed session for two separate matters. First is public employee appointment for County Council. The second is conference with labor negotiators concerning County Council candidate

Thank you, Mr. Gazzone. We will return from closed session at approximately 11 AM. Thank

you. of 2021. Will County Council please

report out from closed session?

Chair and Supervisors, today in closed session the board considered one matter of public employee appointment concerning County Council and one matter of conference with labor negotiations concerning county council candidate there are no reportable actions.

Thank you. Next item of business is approval of the minutes from the April 29th 2021 special meeting and the May 4th 2021 regular meeting Is there any discussion? I'll entertain a motion.

Move approval.

Second.

Any further discussion? All in favor, signify by saying aye. Aye. Opposed? Passes unanimously. That's fine. Alright Madam Clerk are there any announcements or changes to our agenda today?

Chair Nelson and members of the board. Yes, thank you I have a couple announcements this morning. I would like to remind the public that the Board of Supervisors meetings are now being interpreted and broadcast live in Spanish. We are broadcasting our meetings in Spanish both for Cox Cable subscribers in South County as well as Comcast cable subscribers in North County. Members of the public can view our meetings in Spanish by turning on the secondary audio programming also known as SAP or SAP under their language settings I would also like to remind the public who are participating in our meeting today of the board's alternative methods of public participation. For alternative methods of public participation and to provide public comment on general public comment or an item on the board's agenda today, please see page 2 of our agenda.

Individuals that would like to provide verbal public comment you may do so via Zoom by registering in advance via the link available on page two. After registering, you will receive a confirmation email containing information about joining the Zoom meeting. Once the chair has announced the item you want to comment on please join the meeting with information provided in the registration.

The clerk will call you by name or the last four digits of your phone number when removed from mute you will hear a notification that your line has been unmuted if you are using a touchtone phone You may need to press star 6 to unmute yourself. Again, if you're using a touch tone phone, you may need to press star 6 to unmute yourself. Each person may address the board for up to 3 minutes and this is at the discretion of the chair. If you have any questions please feel free to contact the clerk of the board. At area code 805-568-2240 again that's 805-568-2240 and I have two quick announcements regarding our agenda today.

We did post an addendum to the agenda on Friday adding administrative item number 20 to the administrative agenda this is sponsored by Community Services and General Services It is to consider recommendations regarding the reallocation of Homeless Emergency Assistance Program HEAP funds for reallocation of the Pallet Shelter Project to the county-owned Bridge House Shelter in the 4th District from the current Isla Vista Parks and Rec Department site in Isla Vista, and a third amendment to the license agreement with Good Samaritan Shelter Inc. for modified continued use of the Bridge House Emergency Shelter site.

And this was posted and available to the public online as well. My last announcement today is a continuation request in regards to departmental item number four on our agenda today. The Department requests a continuation to June 22nd, 2021. Departmental Item Number Four is from the Sheriff. It is a hearing to consider recommendations regarding the Annual Truth Act Report and Community Forum.

Again, this was a hearing to consider recommendations regarding the annual Truth Act report and community forum. And there is a request to continue this to our June 22nd 2021 meeting. And Chair Nelson and members of the board I would like to note for the record we had no requests to speak on the continuance itself on that item. So with that if the board would like to take action on the continuation request for departmental item number four now is the time. Thank you Mr..

Chair, I'll make a motion to move on departmental item number four to the June 22nd meeting

second All right any further discussion Supervisor Hartman

Well, I just am disappointed that we are continuing this. I gather it is because it has to be an afternoon presentation but we've had several Truth Act presentations in the past and we said we wanted to do it late in the day and so I'm just People get mobilized, they work with their people who are interested in this issue and then at the last minute they learn oh we got to demobilize and then do it all over again. And so I think that's...I would hope that this never happens again.

Thank you, Mr. Hartman and I will assure the public this was a scheduling issue between the sheriff and our desire to have it in the afternoon. Ms. Chairman, I've made a commitment to see if we can't accommodate the public with this item when it comes back on June 22nd so we're actively working with the sheriff as well as various board offices to see if we can't find a time when the most amount of public is available to participate So with that, I have a motion and a second. And just to confirm Madam Clerk there's no public comment on the issue to continue this item?

Chair Nelson and members of the board that is correct we had no request to speak on the continuance of this item.

All right thank you so with that all in favor signify by saying aye. Aye. Opposed? Motion carries.

No report this morning, Chair.

Thank you. Our next item is the approval of the administrative agenda. Do any board members request to pull any items on the administrative agenda today?

I'd like to pull A6

please. Any others? I'm pulling A20. Madam Clerk, is there any items that need to be pulled by the public?

Chair Nelson and members of the board. We have one request to speak on administrative agenda and that is administrative item number six as well

OK. Alright can I get a motion to approve the balance of the agenda so

moved

second alright any further discussion? All in favor say aye. Aye. Opposed? Motion carries to accept or approve the administrative agenda with the exception of item number 6 and 20. I also believe we have item number 19 that will be read into the record, we'll do that after the conclusion of items 6 and 20. So with that Madam Clerk will you please read item A6 into the record?

Chair Nelson and members of the board administrative item number 6 is from the County Executive Office. It is to consider recommendations regarding the adoption of fiscal year 2021 through 2022 employer and member contribution rates.

All right, Sue Rezlaff you pulled this but do you like to have the public comment first?

And we have one request to speak on this item and we will go to Andy Caldwell

all right Mr. Caldwell when

Chair Nielsen, members of the board. Whereas I'm grateful that Supervisor Lavinino pulled this from the A calendar. It's pretty disappointing. I call the admin calendar for people that are unfamiliar with county government that nothing to see here calendar because of course you're not expected to discuss it, pull it or deliberate on it And yet, this year your unfunded actuarial liability exceeded $1 billion.

The taxpayers are on the hook for over $1 billion for retirement. Moreover, your entire system is based on what's called a 7% assumption return on investment every year. On page 11 of your report, It says this scenario is highly unlikely, even if the plan does achieve an average return of 7%. And in fact, if you go to page 29. Page 29 it shows you've only hit that 7% or more a handful of times over the last 20 years that your average return over that 20 years is 5%.

I've had national experts on pension liabilities on the show. And one of the dark, deep secrets of pension funds is the 7% rate is an assumption based on 100% funding. So the less funded the pension fund is, the higher the rate of return must be. So this last year when you hit 0.78 instead of 7.00, That means some year you're gonna have to hit 14% just to break even with what you lost last year.

The whole thing is untenable, and yet it becomes business as usual to stick this report on the admin calendar. We need a better plan than this. We need better leadership than this. We know that some of these things are technically beyond your control because of the California rule. But when was the last time cities and counties Lobby the state government to change the California rule.

I've never seen it on a legislative agenda for your lobbyists. I've never heard you ask Senators, people like Jackson or Lamone to change the California rule because overall it's estimated that California governments as a whole are in the hole $1 trillion. Trillion dollars. Thank you.

Thank you, Mr. Caldwell. Supervisor Levinito?

Thank you, Mr Chair and I think this is an important issue too and that's the reason why I pulled it but this doesn't mean that we don't have regular updates from Mr. Levin and the SB CSRS Board so I know those are scheduled but what we have to realize also is This information is a year old. So this was from the previous year, so it was a 0.1% return for fiscal year 2020 just to give you an update though as Mr. Caldwell said you have to have that year where you hit 14.

The good news is this year right now we're sitting almost at a 20% return So, you know when when people ask me is the so that that billion dollars is going to come down substantially. I think the thing you really have to look at and what I have really come to appreciate sitting on the SBCS board is. You cannot look at this through a year-to-year time frame, which is really difficult for us as board members as the sponsors of the plan because we budget in a year-to year time frame. This is a 30-year macro look at a performance So when I'm asked by people in the community, is the county's pension fund sustainable? The easy answer is if you receive a 7% return per year it is sustainable. If you don't receive that then it becomes unsustainable and so I guess the number you really just need to look at is since inception what has been the return and there have been good years.

The highest year that I can see is 22% in fiscal year 2011 and we've had some zeros But since inception, if you even that out. Since it started, it is an 8.32% return. So you know some people may agree with a pension program for public employees. Some may not. Some may feel there should be a hybrid. I'm not going to argue those right now what my job is as the SBCS person is to try to make sure that we hit that 7%.

And do the best that we can to make sure I'm very confident with the folks that we have on board now 1, 2, 3. So this is 4 out of the last 5 years been in excess of the 7%. And I believe 7 out of the last 11 so like I said it's a long-term plan. We have some very highly qualified individuals working on this your SBCSRS Board has gone out and got the best from the brightest to look at this as a long-range plan. So I'm looking forward to the next time that Mr. Levin can come before the board and discuss this with us, as well. But yeah, next year it may be a lot more difficult to hit the 20% mark we have set a pretty high bar this year but you know over the long range like I said it has returned 8.3%.

Thank you, Supervisor Lavenino. I will now entertain a motion on Item 86.

I'll make a motion to accept A6.

Is there a second? Second. Is there any further discussion? All those in favor say aye. Aye. Any opposed? Motion passes unanimously. Alright, Madam Clerk will you read item A20 into the record?

Yes, Cheryl Nelson and members of the board. Administrative item number 20 is from Community Services and General Services. It is to consider recommendations regarding the reallocation of Homeless Emergency Assistance Program HEAP funds for reallocation of the Pallet Shelter Project to the county-owned Bridge House Shelter 4th District from the current Isla Vista Parks and Recreation Department site in Isla Vista and a third amendment to the license agreement with Good Samaritan Shelter Inc for modified continued use of the Bridge House Emergency Shelter site.

All right, thank you. I'm actually just pulling this just to get a few things out there for the public. I don't necessarily need to have any questions answered by staff but I appreciate staff being available if there's any other questions from my colleagues but when I became aware that the pallet shelters that are currently located in Isla Vista were going to be located to Lompoc, I did have some concerns and HCD and Good Samaritan have worked really hard over the last week to alleviate some of the concerns that I had Just for the record so that people don't you know start to imagine things That these shelters themselves are going to be transported to Lompoc not necessarily the population that are currently housing them Those are assets that the county has And was searching out another location.

Initially, I was concerned about adding additional capacity to the bridge house without taking a bigger look at what our unsheltered plan is in the Lompoc Valley. Things about like transportation to and from the bridge house. The bridge house is not accessible really by foot without crossing a very dangerous bridge. Also was concerned about the potential mixing of populations with the families that already exist at Bridge House, with those coming into the pallet shelters.

As well as how do these factor into a comprehensive Lompoc Valley San Ynez River bed cleanup project or effort? Not all my concerns have been addressed, but it's sufficiently enough for me to be accepting of this at this time. I have a commitment from HCD and Good Sam and the City of Lompoc to work together to address some of these issues. This evening I'll be Showing up at a safe parking meeting in Lompoc as we're trying to get our arms around the issues of homelessness in the Lompoc Valley. I'm really excited about some of the partnerships that we have in place and hopeful that the Lompac Valley might be a model for the entire county moving forward, as we tackle these really difficult issues. So I just wanted to make that statement for the public.

I would like to make the motion to approve this item. And can I get a second?

Second, and if I may say the pallet shelter in IV has we've learned a great deal from that. And Good Sam has been really a model in pioneering new ways of getting arms around people, stabilizing them and being able to offer services that does get them long term housing. So I think you're going to be very grateful that you have that available in Lompoc.

Thank you Supervisor Hartman. Any other further discussion? So let me make sure I read my script right, okay so all those in favor say aye. Aye. Any opposed? Motion passes unanimously. So that concludes our administrative agenda or I'm sorry we have a one item to be presented it's been previously approved but Madam Clerk will you read 819 into the record

Chair Nelson and members of the board, yes thank you. Administrative item number 19 is sponsored by Supervisor Lavinino. It is to adopt a resolution honoring Allan Hancock College for 100 years of dedication to providing quality higher education and commitment to changing the odds for students in our community And joining us today via Zoom, we have Kevin Walters, Greg Pensa, John Hooten and Suzanne Levy. Thank you everyone for joining us and I will go ahead and read the resolution into the record.

Whereas, Allan Hancock College has served as a critical contributor of accessible higher education to the community since its establishment at Santa Maria Junior College in 1920. And whereas, Allan Hancock College has dedicated itself to opening doors to students from northern Santa Barbara County and beyond who otherwise might not have the opportunity to attend college. And whereas, Allan Hancock College is committed to providing equitable access to programs activities services and employment opportunities to all without regard to national origin ethnicity ability sexual orientation gender identity or religion And whereas, Allan Hancock College established the Hancock Promise Program in 2018 ensuring every high school graduate in the district receives their first year of college tuition-free regardless of background.

And whereas since its inaugural cohort in 2018, the Hancock Promise has served more than 4,000 students who will join the ranks of Hancock alumni who have launched successful careers, become valuable community leaders and embodied the college slogan of start here go anywhere. And whereas on May 22nd 2021 Allen Hancock College will celebrate 100 years of serving the community and its significance for individuals and families local businesses and regional industries that rely on the quality and affordable education that has been offered since 1920 Therefore, be it hereby ordered and resolved that this Santa Barbara County Board of Supervisors does hereby offer congratulations to Allan Hancock College the premier college of northern Santa Barbara County for a hundred years of dedication to providing quality higher education and commitment to changing the odds for students in our community past and adopted today.

Great thank you. Supervisor Lavinio?

Well, thank you for allowing us to have this presentation. Both my mom and my dad both attended Allen Hancock College is where all three of my kids and the testament for go here start here. Go anywhere one went on too long Beach State one went onto Loma Linda when went to UCLA the beauty of having that college there is that they. Educated a pharmacist and ultrasound technician, a CHP officer all who are able to come back and live in Santa Maria with rewarding careers so that Hancock promise has been a game changer for many in our community. There's a little sane first year free at AHC.

And the future is very bright with Alan Hancock as well. There's actually talks talk about moving on to four-year degrees, so it is a jewel of Santa Maria and the North County and I think we have President Kevin Walters present as well.

Thank you Supervisor Labadino our internet we're trying We're grateful for this recognition and just want to mention that we talk about changing the odds. It's we have a lot of great stories about students that overcome the odds, but our goal now working with The goal of the community is to remove the barriers for students so that for most of us who didn't have a lot of barriers overcome or had minimal barriers, we can change the odds for those students in our community.

We are seeing great returns. We're seeing great excitement about the fall and we hope that everybody will join us on May 22nd at hancockcollege.edu slash 100 if you'll go there you can get free tickets With a very, very handsome and smart host. So thank you

all

for For this recognition and we look forward to another 100 years of serving. We might have lost you there but it was a great speech.

We picked up on it. Supervisor Hartman

Yes, I wanted to add a couple of things and I'm proud that in Lompoc we have the satellite Allan Hancock College. But it's a cultural center in North County with the art, the music and especially the plays. It really adds amenities and value to all of our lives not just the students but I was a college teacher and there's the concept in the academic world, value added.

If you have a good student going to a good college, what did the college really add? A little bit of value but if you take students who are coming from homes where they may not have books and magazines and parents who went to school or even understand all that application process and you bring them to Allan Hancock College And they go from there to anywhere. The value added is enormous, it can't be overstated and I always say we need in North County a four-year college that is a public institution. It would be the biggest economic driver for North County.

We have many Latino families where Students are not eager to go away from their family. They have to help in one way or another, or they just have a sense that they want to stay close to home and there aren't any options for them and the CSU is too far away. UCSB may or may not be an appropriate fit so I'm very hopeful that we can get a four-year college and more four year degrees because I think it would continue on this tradition of being the premier institution in North County And congratulations on 100 years. It's a fabulous place.

Thank you, Supervisor Harmon. I want to acknowledge Trustee Levy is on the line. Do you want to make some comments?

I just want to tell everyone thank you very much for the proclamation having been in Santa Maria and Santa Barbara for over 40 years. I know how much Hancock has contributed our community and to the Lompoc community And it's really is a jewel as Supervisor Lopinino said, and I just appreciate you acknowledging it. Thank you.

Thank you Trustee Levy. I just wanted to pile on with the compliments My children, I have three high schoolers. They're taking concurrent enrollment so they've actually been able to get college units while they're in high school and that actually makes them now third generation Hancock students. So my in-laws attended Hancock and played sports there, my wife did as well, and I took a few classes on my way to my degree. So it's been a big part of our lives. And the reputation of Hancock has improved greatly in my adulthood. At one time that was looked down upon As a consolation prize, it no longer is the commitment of the taxpayers of the northern Santa Barbara County with I believe measure L. I think they have that one right for the infrastructure improvements that were that took place on the Hancock campus and the public safety campus there in game changers and I also wanted to take this opportunity to congratulate former trustee Larry Lair after over 20 years as a trustee of the Hancock College that he's recently moved on from that but under his leadership and definitely under President Walter's leadership it is the premier institution everybody is talking about.

Again, congratulations. All right, I don't think we need a motion on that one. We approved that with the entire agenda so thank you. Hancock leadership for being here today. Alright at this time. Is the time of for the members of public to speak on items that are not on the agenda? Madam Clerk, are there any requests to speak on items not on

Chair Nelson and members of the board, we have one request to speak on general public comment today. And that is Kathleen Rosenthal.

Ms. Rosenthal when you're ready.

Good morning Board, Mr. Chair. I'm Kathleen Rosenthal of the Santa Ynez Valley Riders. I'm here with an update on the Live Oak Trail project this week. We are still wrestling with data collection for the Live Oak Trail project, which was an integral component of the project description and the reason for the project according to park staff and approved by the Board Bureau of Reclamation.

Data collection is not being done accurately and doesn't count all of our trail users. The Iron Ranger captures the day users that are mostly hikers We've received a number of responses to this solution. One is from our supervisor, Joan Hartman, which I appreciate her working with us to get a response where parks said they cannot revert to the old way of collecting fees and use the gate code for entry I saw this happen once, the May 1st weekend. However last weekend on Mother's Day weekend I drove out to see for myself and even though you could you would think this would be a popular weekend for Kachuma at one o'clock p.m in the afternoon there was no such backup.

The second response was from park staff that says we should have enough data on the equestrian uses which the nine months or so of data collected from the front gate and then this was done last year And we, parks are collecting some pretty good data from the hikers because most of them are not annual pass holders and that is being done this year. I want to reiterate that the data collection for all trail users must be done concurrently to be valid. This splitting up the times and that kind of thing is dependent upon how many days the trail can be used weather all that and we really must insist that the data collection for I also want to let you know last night, the County Riding and Hiking Trails Advisory Committee agreed to hold a special meeting for Live Oak Trail.

And we are hopeful that this will result in a live oak trail working group where we can discuss issues with the live oak trail. We appreciate all the support we've received from Supervisor Hartman and from all the CRATAC board members. And thank you very much for allowing me to speak today

Thank you, Mrs. Rosenthal. We also got a public comment letter from Yanna Zimmer and had some potential legal implications. Mr. Gazzone did you want to comment on those?

Chair and Supervisor, although I'll be the one making short comments. These occur after coordination with our Planning Director Lisa Plowman and from CEO's office Brittany Heaton. So we looked at the public comment email and rather than line by line it, I have really two themes. Theme 1 is that In the Santa Claus Lane area, any cannabis storefront retail does require a coastal development permit with a hearing generally abbreviated CDH.

That's part of our Coastal Zoning Ordinance and has been passed on by the Coastal Commission. The second part of the public comment addressed Public Records Act responses. So we went back and looked at that and believe that the county is timely with its series of ongoing responses from two separate Public Records Act requests, so we've looked at it I know that this is an area with a lot of public interest But I believe the county is on the right foot on both of these issues

Thank You, Mr. Cassoni With that that concludes public comment

Chair Nelson and members of the board, departmental item number one is from the County Executive Office. It is a hearing to consider recommendations regarding an update on the coronavirus disease 2019 COVID-19.

Dr. De Reynoso when you're ready.

Yes, thank you. Good morning Chair Nelson and members of the board. My briefings topics this morning include the blueprint metrics and our vaccination efforts next. We anticipate that at noon, the state will announce that Santa Barbara County has a 3.5 adjusted case rate for the tier assignment and we were adjusted from the 4.1 New cases per day per 100,000.

Our testing positivity rate is at 1.4 with the testing positivity rate in the health equity metric areas at one point nine. So with these metrics, Santa Barbara County will remain in the orange tier this week. Our case rate needs to be below two cases her 100,000 for two weeks before we can be moved to the yellow tier. I do wanna share with your board that we have good data trends for our county except for four locations. We are seeing a decrease in new cases across the county active cases are decreasing as well.

No ICU patients due to COVID-19 as of yesterday And we have not been here during the whole pandemic. This is the first time that we have zero COVID-19 ICU patients since we started tracking last April 2020. So, the other last time it was this low was when we had one patient at the end of October 2020. So this is indeed really good news encouraging news that Perhaps we are turning the corner.

For current daily updates on our data, please visit our community dashboard at publichealthsbc.org next. With regards to vaccination efforts, we have 62.1% of the eligible population 16 above having received their first or single dose and of that we consider 48.6 percent of the eligible Santa Barbara County to be fully vaccinated. So another way to look at this is if we were to look at all of Santa Barbara County population, the percent of the county vaccinated with first, at least with a first or single dose is forty nine point five percent And percent of total Santa Barbara County fully vaccinated stands at 38.7%. Next, with regards to the number of vaccines in Santa Barbara County for this week, We have a total of 6,650 doses going to network providers as well as the public health community vaccination clinics.

We do have 15,730 doses in reserve. So what this means is that in our health care system we have 15,730 doses that were not used that we are planning to use so we did not order any more because of what we have currently in the reserve. Next This is a snapshot of our mobile vaccination program. We are in week four, during week four we had 20 clinics giving a total of 1,564 shots to community members at their convenience and at locations where they found comfortable and amenable Next.

This is a depiction of the percent of our mobile clinics by sector. So during week four, so that is since last Tuesday through Sunday we had eight clinics in our community various community sites such as open markets swap meets even at UCSB. We had eight clinics in act based sites which includes H2A housing and grower sites. I'd like to remind your board that we are making a commitment with weekly vaccination clinics at our H2a housing locations.

We have three clinics in the homeless shelters, and one clinic in the faith-based location. Next. We do have a new vaccination site coming on board, and that will be at the Santa Maria Fair Park Pavilion. And it will start Sunday May 16th. The hours are from Sunday through Thursday. Sunday through Wednesday will be from 10am to 7pm with Thursdays being 11am to 8pm.

The appointments can be made using my turn, or we are also allowing for walk up so that means no appointments necessary. You can just show up and you can get vaccinated next. The next eligible group that we are planning for is the 12 plus. As your board may have heard yesterday, the FDA did grant emergency use authorization for Pfizer for the 12 plus Following the FDA announcement, the CDC Independent Advisory Committee on Immunization Practices or ACIP will be meeting tomorrow. With a vote anticipated by noon, CDC and our state California Department of Public Health will be providing further updates on and guidance following the ACIP vote. We meanwhile in anticipation We have been planning for school-based clinics, and we are ready to implement them as soon as next week.

We are also in planning stages with our pharmacies and other healthcare providers who are providing the Pfizer vaccine. And in addition to that, our public health vaccination team will be going on Next. With that, I end my briefing and am open for questions.

Back to the board. Thank you Mr. Chair. I'm still struggling with on the percent of eligible. Okay, so that's 16 and older. So if we add in the 12 to 16 now I'm trying to figure out what the difference between that 62% and the 49% on the other side. So is the 49 percent counting everybody? Everybody even infants? That's correct.

That is correct.

I'm not really sure why we're tracking that number, I mean if the person can't get vaccinated anyway what I mean so so we're really focusing on that 62% I'm assuming

that is correct

okay so then I want to get By the way, since Alan Hancock got there, one in three North County vaccines were administered at Alan Hancock College. So I want to thank Kevin Walters, the president of Alan Hancock for coming up with that stat. I want to talk about masks for a moment and you know when I was watching this is one of the first meetings that I've been to with everybody in the same room here And one of the things I enjoyed a little bit about being remote is that I didn't always have to wear a mask.

And in researching, you know like California Department of Public Health their guidance is that masking indoors is not required if you're fully vaccinated with other fully vaccinated people. So when somebody's watching this, if you could just explain Or maybe Mr. Gazzone explain why we are still wearing masks at this point?

I can start. Dr. DeBorah Nelson, maybe Mr. Gazzone can start since it's regarding a state regulatory rule.

Chair and Supervisors, thank you for that question. As you know from our briefings we live in a rope of many strands of regulation. CDPH is one of them. Cal occupational safety and health is another. And the requirement that you're speaking of right now really comes directly from Cal occupational safety and health. And I'll also comment that we have draft change regulations out from Cal OSHA that will address both distancing and face coverings for vaccinated and unvaccinated people.

And the starting point on this is that the county is many things but it's also an employer and these regulations apply to all employers. And in all locations except for things like working from home or, or some other that don't apply to the board hearing room. And as we're looking at this right now and looking at the future, there may be a change to the draft Cal OSHA regulations. But moving forward it would still require the county to have its employers wearing face coverings indoors when less than six feet from other people. So there's a light change on distancing meets masking but I think face coverings would still On the table from Cal OSHA unless there's a change to those draft regulations Which Cal OSHAs one of their bodies will be hearing on the 20th in which we have a county working group proposing?

Clarifications or corrections on some of those and in fact, we've had some of those discussions already

Okay. Well I would I mean just my two cents and if we have any ability to shape this is that We're now in the area where we're trying to encourage vaccine hesitant people to jump in the waters and get vaccinated. And if we don't show them any different behavior, you gotta have some sort of reward. And so if you can show a return to normal, I mean six cases nobody in the ICU.

Now I know there's a time where you don't wanna announce victory too soon and We have to live with this virus for the rest of our lives and I think it's incumbent upon us as leadership to kind of show that we were the first ones to start wearing a mask. It was real quick to implement the ordinances, we need to be just as swift in removing them when they don't make sense anymore.

I think it's a great segue because I wanted to note the fact that we had achieved this 62% vaccination rate for at least one shot. That is really significant and I wasn't sure that it was going to happen this quickly, but it really is a testament to all the work that Public Health Department's doing and you know just regular folks stepping up to get take their turn and get vaccinated. And I was thinking about this ways to tell the story that Supervisor Lavanino was speaking to you know what's the reason to do this at this point? And I reached out to Kurt Ransohoff, who's the CEO and the Chief Medical Officer at Sansum Clinic. And asked him does your staff have some stories that we could share with the public about reasons to get vaccinated?

You know personal motivational stories. And he was kind enough to send me three that I thought were really good. One of them was about one of their doctors who noted that because she and her mother are both vaccinated for the first time in a year, they were able to get together at a nursing home outside on Mother's Day. And I think that's a really significant achievement. We all had that moment on Mother's Day if we had the opportunity to be with our parents and having both parties vaccinated is key to making that successful. Another story that one of the internists shared was that one of their patients got the vaccine very early on, traveled back east with a large family gathering. There were only two of the people that were vaccinated in this 20-person group and everybody else got COVID except the folks that were vaccinated.

The consequence to that was significant financially because those folks had to be quarantined. They weren't able to work for 2 weeks That represented a serious financial hardship, but the folks who were vaccinated were safe and fine and back at work. And you know that's just a concrete example of the benefits of being vaccinated. And then the last one I thought was really sweet on it and it fits with what's about to occur with graduations just about to happen. An 80 year old patient was hesitant to get the vaccine And the doctor was talking with her about her grandson's college graduation and the fact that she was going to miss it.

And he said, well why don't you go? Why don't you get vaccinated and go? And she thought about a little bit harder and said yeah it's a really important family celebration I want to be part of that. So she got the vaccine and was pleased to tell the doctor that she's gonna got a plane So there are real concrete specific benefits for people to take their turn and get vaccinated. It's easy, it's free, you don't have to wait now. We've got the mobile clinics and the pharmacies that are able to do it on a walk-up basis so just want to continue to encourage people to be vaccinated safe. It is a piece of cake and helps all of us.