Board of Supervisors — 2021-06-15

Yeah.

Good morning, I will call to order the June 15th 2021 meeting of the Santa Barbara County Board of Supervisors. Madam Clerk please call the roll.

Move approval.

Second. All right. Got a motion from Hartman and second from Hart. All in favor signify by saying aye. Aye. Motion passes unanimously. Madam Clerk are there any announcements or changes to our agenda today?

Chair Nelson and members of the board, just a couple quick announcements this morning. First I'd like to announce that we did receive a request to trail administrative item number 67 to after departmental item number 10 as those two are related. Administrative item number 67 is sponsored by Supervisor Williams and Supervisor Hart. It is to adopt a resolution proclaiming June 19th 2021 as Juneteenth in Santa Barbara County and commemorating the freeing of enslaved people in the United States And we will be trailing that till after departmental item number 10 from community services, which is our hearing on the Juneteenth celebration and community report today.

Additionally 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 now view our meetings in Spanish by turning on the secondary audio programming, also known as SAP or SAP under their language settings.

Lastly, I would 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 please see page 2 of our agenda today. Individuals that would like to provide verbal public comment you may do so via Zoom by registering in advance via the link 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 the information provided and the registration confirmation email. The clerk will call you by name when removed from mute you will hear a notification that your line has been unmuted If you're using a touch-tone 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 contact the Clerk of the Board's Office at 805-568-2240 again that's 805 568 2240 and that concludes my announcements for today.

Thank You Madam Clerk

A couple items. One is just brief and then another one a little bit longer but will still be brief. The first one is just to announce that as you know today the state's blueprint for safer economy restrictions were ended but Cal OSHA workplace safety guidelines remain in effect which require masking and safe distancing. We expect these guidelines will be changing in the coming days but for now those still remain in effect For masking and safe distancing for our employees and members of the public. We'll give a board update as those changes, we expect them to change in the next couple of days The second is that I have online today our chief fire department, Chief Hartwig and our OEM director Kelly Hubbard. And as you know, we're in red flag warning.

There's high fire possibility. And so I asked them to just give you a brief update about our preparedness upstaffing and the public safety power shutdown that we are potentially under. So what can start with Chief Hartwig?

Good morning members of the board, Ms. CEO and I'm happy to give you a quick report on where we are this morning specifically on our conditions but maybe more importantly on our staffing and our preparedness. We're following the National Weather Service Eric Bolt does a phenomenal job down at the Oxnard LA office of keeping us updated on the most recent changes on the weather We expect the highest temperatures to be today and in fact, the warnings are through tomorrow morning at 6am.

We we expect that temperatures over 100 above the tunnels or up in the valleys and then we expect them to be in the 90s here today. We have those accompanied with very low humidities, and unfortunately our live fuel moistures as I've mentioned before are very low. We're about two months ahead of schedule, our normal schedule drying on our live fuel moistures and of course that means that our live vegetation is going to carry fire during these conditions.

We're going to have some things staffed up. We had our Ops Chief, Woody Enos said asked that we staff up in preparation for this and then at the same time apply to the state for some funding to cover those costs. It's more kind of accounting but We do have two forms of, or two mechanisms to apply for funding for our pre-positioning. One through the state OES office and then one through CAL FIRE in our protection, for our protection of state lands. So we do have one full strike team patrolling you'll see yesterday were out and then today will be out as well That's a multi-agency strike team and that'll be about the 154 and south and east. And then we'll have a county fire task force, a group of fire equipment that's patrolling between the 154 overlapping a little bit and up all the way to the tunnels in Gaviota.

Yesterday very quickly we had a small spot in Gaviota. It was held to a small spot and we attribute that to the quick work of the task force that was out patrolling, and today they'll be in a very similar area patrolling as well today. That's all I have miss CEO and available for any questions or comments of course.

As CEO Miyasato referred to, we do have a public safety power shutoff potential during this time. That period of concern is with the Southern California Edison area and it started this morning and then goes through or ends tonight at midnight. If there was to be a shut off it is important to note that even though the period of concern, and this evening that that shut off could continue past the midnight hour this evening because then Southern California Edison does still need to go out and do inspections of those lines are in those areas before they do turn the power back on.

SCE has opened community resource centers, they are open today and tomorrow. One is at the Independent Living Resource Center in Santa Barbara City and the other one is at The Residence in Goleta. They do have Spanish speaking staff available for those who may need Spanish speaking staff For residents preparing for if you are in a public safety power shut off zone or area recommend you charge your devices, check any flashlights or lanterns.

If you need help with medical devices please reach out to SCE or the Independent Living Resource Center they both have resources to help our residents who may be dependent on medical devices or need additional assistance and power outage. As always, recommend and encourage everyone to register for alerts and notifications from the county in our community partners via ReadySVC.org And as the Chief indicated, there is our excessive heat warning that is impacting largely the Santa Ynez Valley and Santa Maria-Lompoc area. But it will also be hot in the South Coast. And so just a reminder to everyone to stay hydrated, avoid outdoor activities during that hottest time And use our cool shady spaces. Thankfully with the reopening, we will have more options than last summer where people can go and use some of those public venues like going to the mall shopping centers, those types of things.

So again, excessive heat and public power shut off is potential through this evening around midnight. Thank you.

That concludes our presentation or report to the board.

Thank you CEO Misato, Chief Hartwig and Ms. Hubbard. Any questions from the board? Supervisor

Hartman?

Just a quick one are we expecting high winds as well?

We do expect some winds this evening are projected so we're prepared for that they appear as if they will probably be in the western portion of the coast here towards Caviota

Thank you Chief Hartwig. Any other questions? Again, thank you all for joining us and stay vigilant out there.

Yes, Chair Nelson. That is correct and just for clarification on administrative item number 26 it is not pulled for public comment but we do have a member of the public available for questions if the board has any questions so that could be approved with our administrative agenda if they do not

okay. So I'd like to get a motion to approve items eight or sorry the administrative agenda with the exception of items A21, A33, A36 and A37

So moved.

Second. All right, all in favor signify by saying aye. Aye. Opposed? Motion passes unanimously before we go to public comment I believe Supervisor Hartman had a couple things to say about item 828

Yes, a 28 is a lease purchase agreement for El Calejo property in Isla Vista and it would house up to 50 unsheltered residents. And this was nothing less than heroic by our county staff how quickly they moved and how thoroughly They studied this and particularly general services, our community services department, our CEO's office and county council. It really was an extraordinary effort and couldn't let it go by without remarking on that.

Thank you Supervisor Hart. So our first item up is Item 821 Madam Clerk?

Chair Nelson and members of the board. Administrative item number 21 is from Community Services it is to consider recommendations regarding the project room key COVID-19 homeless task force response request to ratify execution of contract with Paradise Hotels, Inc and professional services contract with Kingdom Causes Inc DBA City net city net. And we have one request to speak on this item from the public and that is Jeffrey Schwartz.

Mr Schwartz when you're ready

And unfortunately, Chair Nelson and members of the board it appears that Jeffrey is not logged into the Zoom meeting. So perhaps we can go to the next item and return to A21. Okay

let's go ahead and move on to Mr. Schwartz if you're listening please go ahead and log in and be available for public comment. We'll come back to that item in a moment. The next one up I believe is A33.

Yes, Chair Nelson and members of the board. Administrative item number 33 is from FIRE. It is to consider recommendations regarding the acceptance of a cash donation greater than $10,000 for the Fire Protection District Scoresky HH60L Firehawk slash Copter 964. And I believe Supervisor Hart pulled this item.

Thank you, Madam Clerk. Supervisor Hart? Yeah I just wanted to pull this item to highlight it and to thank Direct Relief for their very generous donation of $52,350 to help us retrofit our Firehawk helicopter which is coming online. It's going to be a significantly improved firefighting asset for the County of Santa Barbara and Direct Relief took the initiative to host an online event for their private donors and raised this tremendous Thank you, Supervisor Hart. Supervisor Williams?

And I just want to note that I'm satisfied with that explanation but I do think it should be always an explanation and kind of like something we don't do unless there's a really good reason to do it.

Supervisor Lavanino.

Thank you, Mr Chair and I just like to weigh into that. I think both sides have always said the same thing that this is a transition and you know we didn't go out immediately. Replace the entire fleet of our vehicles with electric vehicles right off the bat. This is a going to be a slow transition and I think everybody that I've heard even from oil companies are promoting You know, this country needs to move to a cleaner, more efficient fuel system and energy sources.

And like I've said many times we are going to rely on the fossil fuel industry for the foreseeable future. So this is, I think, a perfect example of that. Doing what we need to do, relying on the existing technology that's out there right now as a backup and moving forward. So I think this is really where I've seen a lot of these things going and I think it's a good project.

Thank you, Supervisor Lavinio. Can I get a motion to approve this item?

So moved.

Second. All those in favor signify by saying aye. Aye. Opposed? Motion passes unanimously. Alright, let's go back to 821 did we ever get our speaker?

Chair Nelson and members of the board unfortunately our public comment for 821 has not joined our meeting today so that concludes public comment.

Okay so I believe we still need a motion though on 821?

Correct.

Can I get a motion on item 821.

So moved.

Second. All in favor signify by saying aye. Aye.

And Chair Nelson, members of the board my apologies but just to read that into the record again it was administrative item number 21 from community services to consider recommendations regarding the project room key COVID-19 homeless task force response. Thank you

and we actually had a unanimous vote there All right, so that concludes our administrative agenda for the public. Item A67 has been trailed to the end of the meeting to be heard with our final D item of the day. All right now is the time for members of the public to speak on items that are not on the agenda today. Madam Clerk are there any requests to speak on general public comment?

Chair Nelson and members of the board, we have no request to speak on general public comment.

All right? Thank you. We will now proceed to the departmental agenda. Just for agenda management purposes, we have a limited ability for the commander from Vandenberg Space Force Base with us so we're going to go ahead and skip the COVID briefing and go right to item D2. Madam Clerk, will you please read that item into the record?

Chair Nelson and members of the board, departmental item number two is from the County Executive Office. It is a hearing to consider recommendations regarding the Vandenberg Space Force Base also known as VSFB master plan phase one report.

Good morning.

Good morning. Good morning Mr. McGinty please proceed.

Thank you. Good morning, Chair Nelson and members of the Board. Today we are going to have a presentation from Vandenberg Space Force Base as well as REACH and our partnership on the Master Plan Phase 1 report. So I will start by introducing Colonel Long. Colonel Long has served in the Air Force and now the Space Force for 24 years during which he has had a variety of assignments across space operations launch, and acquisition career fields. He came to Vandenberg most recently following an assignment in the Pentagon where he was a senior military assistant to the Undersecretary of Defense for Research and Engineering. So with that I will hand it over to Colonel Long. All

right well good morning can I do make sure you guys can hear me first?

You can Colonel Long thank you for joining us

Yeah, thank you Chairman Nelson and the board for letting me speak today. I'm just going to hit a couple quick topics here on a couple slides that I have and first Jasmine thanks for that introduction to kind of go a little bit further into my background. This is actually my third time at Vandenberg Space Force Base and if you looked across my career this is my home base. I've been here more than I have anywhere else so it's a special place to meet my family And especially in the launch mission that we have here and the range operations mission that we have here. That's where my background is, I've spent a lot of time doing that both here at Vandenberg and on the East Coast at Cape Canaveral. So it's wonderful to be back. It's something I'm passionate about personally.

And I'm looking forward to getting in obviously, I just took over last Friday so I'm still a little bit new in this seat but I'm looking forward to working with the county and REACH in general on this effort that we've got going forward A couple things I wanted to point out this morning. We've already mentioned it a couple of times, but we are now Vandenberg Space Force Base as you know that was a recent change about a month ago and that's all part of the United States Space Force standing up and likewise we as part of that we changed from the 30th space wing to space launch Delta 30 But really, what that means is it's largely just name changes. We haven't really changed too much else in what we're doing and what we plan to do in the future.

So if you go to the next slide real quick please. And that's kind of what I was alluding to our mission has not changed. We still command the Western Range and the Spaceport here at Vandenberg Space Force Base. That's not going to change anytime in the future And in fact, we're still going to be launching satellites testing missiles and then operating everything from an infrastructure standpoint here at the base for many years to come.

We don't see that change. In fact, we see that increasing and being more important as we continue into the future. And I'm looking forward to working with the county as a signatory on the REACH MOU. I think it's a wonderful opportunity for everybody get together. It's one of the things I've always thought was is the next necessary next step in making Vandenberg even more useful not only to the Department of Defense, but to the nation as a whole. So I'm looking forward to growing our relationship and I will stick around to answer any questions either now or later on. Thank you.

Thank you Colonel Long.

Great thank you Colonel Long so before I introduce Mr. Huckelman with REACH just a quick overview of what we're presenting today It is going to be on the Vandenberg Space Force Base Master Plan Phase 1 report. Back in January, Santa Barbara County signed on the partnership to be partners in the MOU and this part of the process was to develop phase one which includes an ecosystem stakeholder industry assessment.

And with that there's also an economic impact analysis but I will let Andrew Hackleman give you the details of the phase one report master plan project so Thank you very much, Jasmine and chair Nelson and members of the board. It's great to be back with you again today.

You know, join the rest of the community and welcoming back Colonel Rob Long to Vandenberg Space Force Base. And despite the name changes, you know still tons of great professionals there that we really enjoy working with. So with that, we have a few slides to go through and thanks Jasmine for setting that up. We have a couple things that we'll talk about and I think it'll be pretty brief But above all, I think there's a great opportunity after this presentation for anyone keenly interested to really dig into a couple of documents that are the source of this presentation which are the impact analysis and the space master plan phase one.

So our overview for today on the next slide, we're going to go over just kind of who we are as the MOU group. I know all of you are familiar with that but just a quick recap just a few seconds on a slide there and then kind of the timeline where we've been and where we're going And then we'll dive right into the economic impact analysis and the commercial space master plan. And then talk a little bit about some next steps, because we have some exciting things to move forward on things that were already doing because we do have a great team that's assembled working steadily and now we have some goals and objectives to focus our efforts. But I do want to talk to you about that as well. So here on the next slide, we are the MOU partnership. One of our greatest events was Santa Barbara County signing on here somewhat recently and moving forward with the master plan.

And it is to create, you know, central coast space ecosystem and economic prosperity for the Central Coast region. And of course this has wide ranging positive impacts on the state of California and the space industry. So where have we been? On this next slide here, there's a timeline that kind of shows when the MOU started and we produced kind of an initial vision document with our team which included Santa Barbara County representation even at that time.

And that is what kind of helped us build what is now the first iteration of the master plan. I mean, of course with Santa Barbara County joining In 2021 there, and we conducted an impact analysis that was completed about a month ago. And now before you is the phase one master plan at two separate documents but they're related and complimentary. So moving into the impact analysis.

We've talked to your board and the rest of our partners, and the last impact analysis that was conducted on the positive economic benefits of Vandenberg Space Force Base was done back when it was an Air Force base quite a long time ago 2006 if memory serves. And so kind of getting a refresh in a new look at that was important because a lot has changed in that decade and a half. And so this impact analysis, we're really happy to report.

We were able to go a step further. So of course, we did the analysis of current state impacts but we were also able to model a couple of future state scenarios that look at likely growth of both the DOD Space Force mission and commercial space enterprise. And so we'll be able to show you both of that and we delivered both those products within the same impact analysis. So it's a baseline impact analysis like one might expect to see for any given type of activity that's being analyzed, but we also were able to forecast some likely growth and we'll talk a little bit about that So, on the next slide here. This is just a cartoonish looking graphic to kind of show how impact analysis works and I know that your board has deals with these types of analyses all the time we were able to use a software.

a modeling program that was a bit more sophisticated, that allowed for that future look. That didn't just do inputs and outputs but it incorporated some econometric tools and regression analysis to allow for kind of a long-term over time look at what would be happening within the region relative to the activities that are currently going on and that might go on at Vandenberg Space Force Base So the next slide here shows the current state. And this is, I mean we all know that Vandenberg Space Force Base has a tremendous impact on our community.

Members of our community live and work around the base and have done so for decades. So it's no surprise that there are a lot of jobs and a lot of economic output So direct, indirect and induced impacts for employment at Vandenberg. You can see there in the county of Santa Barbara is just about 13 and a half thousand jobs with 4,000 being the direct jobs that are employed directly on the base and about $4.7 billion in impact. And we wanted to model for the entire state as well because it's important Because the state is a key partner in the activities that we have going on. So you can see that at the state impacts are also very significant and these are cumulative impact so over 18,000 jobs statewide generated by Annenberg activities and 6.3 billion dollars so the future look that we have in the next slide.

And again these are These are likely growth scenarios. So, in this future state on the next slide you can see that There is a significant increase, although the already significant numbers don't probably give it the same kick that it might if it was only a few thousand jobs being produced in the first place. But we see that there's a likely increase of a couple thousand good paying jobs on the Central Coast For a couple of a couple of key growth activities that will be going on. So, one of them is the ground based strategic deterrent so a lot of Northrop Grumman jobs to be coming in with that activity, but there are also private sector space companies that will be growing And we'll talk a little bit about those but they include. So for example, relativity that had a recent announcement, but they don't include things that we think are likely to occur in the coming years like blue origin when it finally wins a launch service provider contract with us government.

It also doesn't include the possibility for the Space Force Training Command to be located at Vandenberg. And that is something that Congressman Salute Carbajal, along with both of our senators Padilla and Feinstein have been advocating for along with a group of local community leaders including Santa Barbara other elected officials and of course Reach. And so based on this forecast, we can see a significant increase in jobs just in those likely scenarios.

And we are optimistic that there can be significantly more. So with this in mind I'd like to transition into talking about the Space Master Plan deliverable that we have produced as a team And this has been a lot of effort over a relatively short period of time. And on this slide, you can see that we are focused on the deliverable for goals and objectives that will help us move into implementation and action and seeing growth. So on the next slide here, over the past six months You know, our MOU partners of course including Santa Barbara County we've worked together to create this plan.

We sought lots of feedback and guidance from many stakeholders in the private sector education government and community. And the result is a plan to build a thriving space enterprise on the central coast of California It will take the next couple of minutes to just kind of explore some of the contents at a high level. The plan establishes where we're at with respect to our assets, the community and the market.

It articulates what we believe is a clear vision for the future that we're wanting to achieve and the goals and objectives that will help us get there and achieve that future state. But just setting the stage for this, the space industry it's currently a $4 billion global enterprise. And it's forecasted to grow tremendously just in this next decade to about a trillion dollars. So combined with who we are as a community and the group of leaders that we have assembled with the MOU, and by the way that group should grow as well appropriate to the different goals and objectives that we're going to be seeking to implement.

The Western Range is in our backyard just as you heard Colonel Long talk about and it's the perfect place in the United States And frankly the world to innovate, create prosperity for residents on the Central Coast and industry that represents the future. And we'll talk a little bit more about that. The next couple of slides I'm going to go through pretty quickly so the next slide just reinforces here This is a large and growing industry, and this is focused here on just space launch. And as you would expect we're seeing kind of as a leading indicator here lots of investment going into space launch, and that is happening in the central coast of California's included in that investment. The next slide is focused on Space companies, space technology companies and shows additional investment that's occurring.

And as we'd expect from a strong and growing launch market the space technology companies are seeing massive investment as well. So satellites, space domain awareness, space traffic management etc. And these are companies on the cutting edge of innovation, solving real problems and creating real value. Not just for the things you think about like communications but collecting data that's essential for climate science and monitoring.

And there's no better state frankly for this type of investment to continue and for California to lead. And it's our region on the Central Coast that provides that anchor and tremendous opportunity for that growth. The next slide here, we start to talk about the assets that we have. And of course, we mentioned the Western Range. It is a really key geographic asset that will enable the growth of this industry here on the Central Coast. Vandenberg is over 100,000 acres.

It has the potential for a mission development zone that we'll talk about that could be done in concert with the local community One of the largest runways in the world that was created for the Space Shuttle, that has potential for horizontal space launch applications. And a number of both operational and potentially future operational sites for launch that provide opportunity to expand capacity that we know based on forecast will be Very much needed. And the key thing to remember here is that Vandenberg is the world's premier site for polar orbit launch and that launch is forecasted to increase significantly over the coming years.

This next slide I'm really excited to talk about because it focuses on, you know, some of where some of these things could occur in Vandenberg and leaders of Space Force are focused on partnering in a strategic way with commercial enterprise and expanding the opportunity for We have a number of projects that we're looking at. Um launch complexes, commercial zone development that includes you know, light industrial potentially office space etcetera. Um they're the base is looking to move its fence potentially in the future to allow for this type of expansion and this can be done in uh in a complimentary way with with activities The unincorporated area of Santa Barbara County and in Santa Maria. So the takeaway here though, is that the Space Force and Space Launch Delta 30 are eager to collaborate with the community as it expands an already significant partnership with the private sector.

And there's a need for this so it's not being done just because it's interesting but there's a demand for this. There's a national security demand but there's also commercial demand The next slide here, we're going to transition into talking about why we're such a great place for this type of activity and focusing on kind of who we are unique identity is on the Central Coast in Santa Barbara County.

So, we know all of these things are true and it's something that we need to work to strengthen our brand around what What we want to represent to the United States and the world when it comes to our place in the space industry. And attracting the right types of talent, retaining the right types of talent and it's our strong sense of stewardship for the environment. This is a world-class place to work and live because we have all of these open spaces and opportunities for recreation and we have a legacy and current strong agricultural community And we have lots of innovation. We have premier universities, UC Santa Barbara, some amazing community colleges and we have the ability to both retain and produce many more for this space industry STEM field jobs in engineering software but also many other things including marketing and manufacturing and construction to create the infrastructure that will be necessary to do these things.

So combined with who we are The Western Range is in our backyard here on the Central Coast, so it is the perfect place in the United States and the world to innovate and create prosperity for residents. In an industry that really does represent our future. In addition, the many high-tech jobs that we'll provide for the Central Coast and California residents. The space industry provides the key tools that are essential for climate science data collection and monitoring as well as connectivity to the world's most underserved underprivileged areas as well. So it truly is a democratizer as well of many different things that are important for our world.

On the next slide here you can see that in terms of our current ecosystem of businesses, there are many businesses that are associated and support the industry. But in terms of launch providers just in the past decade there have been many more launch provider activities on Vandenberg Space Forest Basin and of course here on the Central Coast. And that number is expected to increase over the coming years but there are also companies that are popping up Companies who have been here for many years already here on the central coast and in Santa Barbara County. And so this is just a snapshot to show you that our local ecosystem exists already, and it's a strong foundation upon which to build and grow commercial space on the Central Coast. The next slide kind of started where, you know the need for a master plan which we're going to kind of dive immediately into the vision and the goals here just in a second.