Board of Supervisors — 2023-01-24

Good morning. I'll call the order the January 24th, 2023 meeting of the Santa Barbara County Board of Supervisors. Madam Clerk please call the roll.

CEO report. Good morning, Chair Williams and board members. Today I have a couple of different reports. The first is a bit of good news. I'm pleased to announce the appointment of two new directors who are here today and the first is Jose Chang our new Agricultural Commissioner Director of Weights & Measures so Jose if you could come over here. Mr. Chang has worked in ag weights and measures since 2006 for the County of Napa, and most recently for the County of Monterey. He comes from an agricultural family and is passionate about agriculture. He studied Ag at UC Davis and spent his career working to protect and promote agriculture in the California Agricultural Commission system.

As many of you know, to become the Ag Commissioner is a very arduous process. You have to pass many state licenses and there are very few in the state, so we're so happy to welcome Jose Chang.

Good morning everybody. I'm Chair Williams, board members and county administrator. I just want to thank you for the opportunity to serve Santa Barbara County. It's a great honor to be here and I look forward to working with you all in the community so thank you for the opportunity. Thank you.

Thank you Mr. Chang and my second announcement is the appointment of our Director of the Department of Public Health and that is Mohamed Hammami. As some of you know, Mr. Hammami has more than 20 years of experience in public government and administration healthcare and received an MD from the University of Aleppo in Syria. During the COVID pandemic he served as a chief health strategist for Wayne County, Michigan. There he assembled the COVID Command Center and a team to address the county's pandemic preparedness efforts, expanding testing, and established and implemented a successful vaccination plan. He is deeply committed to public health, public service, and collaboration, and we are thrilled to be welcoming him to the County of Santa Barbara.

Thank you. Thank you very much Mr. Chair, Supervisors I'm glad to be here it's an honor and may I say that on my second day that drive coming here really cemented why I moved here so thank you for the opportunity thank you

And board members, this morning I wanted to just give you a quick status report. We as you know we declared emergency for storms. We were part of the Federal Disaster Declaration and the State Emergency Declaration and I have on Zoom this morning our Director of the Office of Emergency Management Kelly Hubbard and she's going to just give a brief status report. Kelly?

Good morning, Chair and Board of Supervisors. Just a couple of items here I want to focus on. Could you hold on? We're having

we can't hear you one second.

Kelly, why don't you go ahead and try one more time? Sure test 123.

Perfect we can hear you loud and clear OK great so I just wanted to provide Chair Williams and the board some updates on some of the assistance that were bringing to the county in the community wanted to focus on some of that assistance that's available. So just to give an update our public assistance damages those are damages to public or government infrastructure is estimated at 150 million in total. That includes an estimated 83 million of debris removal alone, so a good portion of that is debris removal.

On the agricultural side we are still working to collect numbers but the current estimate of impacts is estimated at 35 million Couple updates on where and what resources are available to the community. We have had, the county has hosted a couple local assistance center sites about 6 of those that have served about 300 households so far to date. Our goal is to set up a disaster recovery center and local assistance center, so that is a joint federal state and local assistance center. We're looking to have one in the North County and one in the South County, and we hope to have an announcement on that by the end of this week.

Again, that facility would have all of the resources and two one-stop shops that can point residents to all of the resources available including concepts like rebuilding, permitting, SBA loans, FEMA assistance, state assistance. All of those various programs that have been approved so we're hoping to have announcement on that later this week. We do have disaster survivor assistance teams out in the field knocking on doors. These are FEMA representatives or staff who are knocking on residential doors that we know may have had damage and helping them to register for the FEMA assistance.

I just wanted to make sure the community was aware of them. We are making sure that they're doing that with our local cultural brokers and our cultural community brokers at our community trust, and they do speak English and Spanish, and we have connected them with Mesteco if need be. We have SBA loans have been added for our county and so we have that information up on ReadySBC. Those loans are available to residents, businesses and the agricultural community so I wanted to make sure they're aware of those. They're low interest loans and we just got that information that is all being updated on ReadySBC.org We want to encourage residents to register with FEMA if you had any type of damages. I know there's some concern or questions about, oh my structure wasn't impacted or I didn't have significant damages.

If you had damages to your property don't exclude yourself apply let us help you figure out if you qualify for any of these programs so if you have slope failures or road impacts on private roads houses structures agriculture You can go to ReadySBC.org or you can go direct to the FEMA website at DisasterAssistance.gov and register for that FEMA assistance, and then they help to figure out what you qualify for and what support might be available.

And again, that applies to individual business and agricultural portions of our community. We know there's a lot more impacts than what have registered so far, so we want to encourage The last update I have is that our call center is planning to close tomorrow. It is open today and tomorrow, 9am-5pm. That number is 833-688-5551 And after that, individuals are encouraged to call 2-1-1 for additional information or support. And then again hoping to have that local assistance center disaster resource center open by soon hopefully announcement later this week.

That's what I have.

Thank you Kelly we also have Mr. McLaughlin our Director of Public Works if there's any questions or if Mr. McGaughlin wants to say anything.

Sure thank you good morning Mr. Chair and board members been pretty busy over the last two weeks, the public works crews and the local contracting community has certainly risen to the occasion since we've had this historic rainfall event. We have approximately $8 million of storm response work either completed in progress or in contract right now so that's quite significant looking across the board. We have about $90 million worth of damage we believe To our public infrastructure in the county of Santa Barbara. And on the FEMA side, that's approximately $50 million in debris removal about $22 billion and category C work which is also called permanent restoration. And then on our federal aid route somewhere in the neighborhood of about $10 million so that event was pretty significant.

On the transportation side we've been focusing certainly on getting all the roads open to the community two lanes in each direction but More importantly, getting at least emergency access and resident access to some of the communities that we serve. Some of the major roads that were impacted by this event were Union Valley Parkway, Refugio Road, Gibraltar Road, East Mount Road, Tepiscay Canyon, Halama Road and Miguelito Canyon. So in some form or fashion, we're getting the service, the typical service restored now to those communities On the flood control side, we have about a third of our projects are active projects complete. For the most part all basins below burn scars were completely full with the exception of Santa Monica Basin. We did celebrate the completion of the Randall Road debris basin yesterday.

The National Guard came in, Cal OES dispatched them to help us out there and they worked 24-7 for a couple weeks to get that basin clean. That was a big deal for us Here certainly in public works and as your board knows, Lake Kachuma the silver lining if you will came up approximately 53 feet during that event. So that was a big deal so we look forward to working with all parties here certainly throughout the county. We've been working with fire on some of the limited access roads so we can ensure that fire can get in there and have emergency response To residents and as we transition now from time and material contracts to bidding contracts.

So, we're in accordance with all of the FEMA emergency regulations will put a big push on here now to capitalize on 100% reimbursement through FEMA over the next 60 days so end of report CEO Miyasato thank you.

Thank you Mr. McGulpin that concludes our report chair and board members.

Can I just ask one question or ask if the board members have any questions for Ms. Hubbard or Mr. McGulpin? Any questions?

Okay, thank you Chair Williams. I just wanted to make sure I got publicly thanked our elected leaders Congressman Carbajal and Senator Limon and Assemblyman Hart who have been out in my district and yours as well to make sure that we got the proper attention to our area. We actually had the District 9 Director Robert Finn from FEMA available and has been out in our communities And we're getting them a lot of attention. A lot of us in the North County that have suffered damage, were used to being resilient people and taking care of this ourselves but I just want to encourage people to make sure that they are filing the forms necessary to potentially get reimbursement and help because a lot of people are out there just fixing things and that's good you should fix things but you should also document that and then go on the FEMA's website or visit ReadySBC or call 2-1-1 our helpline to make sure that you get the proper reimbursement for those expenses This does include not only personal damage to your property and your belongings, but also to potentially access to your property.

And that's a big deal especially in the eastern Santa Maria Valley and Tepeskaya Canyon who are heavily hit by the storms. So I just want to make sure I got that out there. Thank you Chair.

Very germane. Thank you. After that I'd be remiss if I didn't also compliment the leadership in the City of Guadalupe. I mean I'm new to Guadalupe. I know Supervisor Hartman has seen this in the past but The mayor was out there in way steep water with the police chief themselves in the middle of the night, moving folks out of their yellow tagged homes. And that's exactly right. They're so used to doing things themselves and taking care of it themselves that we had to kind of prod them to ask for help. So a lot of work being done there but I just want to give a big shout out to Mayor Julian all the city council members Chief Cash they've done an outstanding job up there

And I just wanted to echo those sentiments. If we did not have the federal reimbursement, we would be in deep financial crisis and so the efforts of our state legislative delegation and Congressman Carball have been instrumental. I did have one question that's come up from constituents which is if you think you might have insurance, in some cases that's a might because question relationship with a previous fire.

Should you be wrangling with your insurance company first and then going and applying for aid or should you be doing them simultaneously? So if Ms. Hubbard could answer that question, that would be great.

Absolutely Chair Williams. So I would say simultaneously, some people we know there's limited insurance coverage for many of our residents. You would probably would have needed to have blood specific insurance and so encourage them to register and pursue their insurance options but also register with FEMA come to the local assistance centers that disaster recovery center and register with these other resources And I wanted to add to something that Supervisor Nelson said is really the importance of documentation. So as you're starting to do those repairs and that cleanup, to really make sure you're taking a lot of photos, that you have that evidence both for your insurance and for FEMA, that you're keeping track of all your receipts, all of those concepts because even if you started the process and you're only registering now, you still have that eligibility and can as long as you have that documentation Go back and look for that fiscal assistance after the fact.

And so really wanted to encourage that component of what the supervisor mentioned about documentation

as well.

Thank you, Madam Clerk. Are there any announcements or changes to the agenda today?

Williams and members of the board, I do have a few quick announcements this morning. A memo was received requesting that administrative item 24 be continued to the February 28th hearing. Also a memo was received January 24th requesting that the administrative item number 32 be continued to the February 14th agenda. This request can be added to the balance of the administrative agenda We posted an addendum to today's agenda on Friday, January 20th amending the administrative agenda. The administrative agenda was amended to include the addition of item 36 from the County Executive Office regarding a modification to the Board of Supervisors 2023 committee appointments and item 37 from the Public Works Department regarding emergency response action and impacts of flooding and storms For the Board of Supervisors methods of public participation and to provide public comment on general public comment or an item on the board's agenda, please see page two of the agenda.

Individuals that would like to provide verbal public comment virtually may do so via Zoom by registering in advance via the link available on page 2. If you are using a touchtone phone, you may need to press star 6 to unmute yourself. If you have any questions please contact the Clerk of the Board's Office at 805-568-2240. That concludes my announcements for this morning.

And so you don't need a motion on the addendum, but you would need a motion on the request to continue that two other items.

So we can wrap that motion into the balance of the administrative agenda motion if you

like. Only one clarification for 832. We say 214 or whenever the next Santa Maria meeting is.

I believe that works

great.

Okay, yeah Chair Williams I was the request for the extension there to have Mr. Lucas available in person for that resolution so if the meeting on the 14th doesn't work out then whenever we're back in Santa Maria would be perfect thank you.

Great and now's the time that we pull items from the administrative agenda. I have requests for A25, A27, A31, A34 and A35 is there any others that I am missing?

Yes Chair Williams I pulled A2

please. So can we get first a motion for well actually let's do A2 unless you

have one other one to pull? A2.

Chair Williams

and members of the Board, Administrative Item 2 is from the Behavioral Wellness Department. It is to consider recommendations regarding a student support agreement with the Regents of University of California for fiscal years 2022 through 2027.

Thank you, Chair Williams. I pulled this item because it is of particular importance the behavioral wellness field has seen a lot of challenges lately especially the needs of young people and so when it caught my eye that we were partnering with UCSB to Get more students who are just entering that field as we need them to out into the world. I wanted to ask Director Navarro, and thank you for being here, to elaborate on where in fact were those students be working alongside other licensed practitioners?

Okay, good morning Chair Williams, Supervisors and Supervisor Capps and County Staff. Supervisor Capps so this these psychology interns work in a variety of programs so we have psychologists in our Justice Services Department, we have psychologists in our as well as our adult and child clinics and so wherever there is a need and we try and match the students also with their Passion and their interests. So wherever we can, we do that and when not possible They are very amenable to taking any training opportunities in the county And so we're really glad to be bringing back this student services agreement We had a pause for a year as we worked out some Agreements in this final contract and so we're very excited to have them coming back and Once executed, we'll be reaching out to the department and seeing what the availability is for next year.

And we usually have anywhere from one to three interns per year.

Excellent. Well I'm grateful for the students' interest. I'm grateful for the practitioners that will be mentoring them and the people that will benefit from the services. Thank you. Thank you.

And you don't have a request for a separate vote on this item do you?

No, that's fine thanks.

Okay please read A-25 in the direction

Chair Williams and members of the board, Administrative Item 25 is from the Public Works Department Board of Directors Flood Control and Water Conservation District. It is to consider recommendations regarding Village Square subdivision track number 14608. This project is located within the 4th district.

And this was pulled by Mr. Nelson.

Yes, thank you Chair Williams. I believe we also have some public comment on this item. I'm comfortable going forward with that before I go ahead and enter my discussion on that item in potential motion.

We are going to, is your intention to pull this item?

Yeah my intention is to pull this item. This is an item that has a bit of controversy in my district and something that needs probably a little bit more attention so actually what I was hoping for was to ask for a continuance on this item to give me a couple additional weeks to study up on this. I understand the importance of this as a condition of the project but I don't fully understand the relationship that it has on the overall approval of the project And this has been a busy week in the 4th District and hasn't got a chance to have the appropriate attention on the item.

So I will be making that motion to continue this item, but I do know that there are speakers here that like to speak to the project and I want them the opportunity to have that either now or during public comment later.

And is there staff available to talk about the timing of this and its relationship with the project? Yes,

we have Walter Rubalcaba here. And so, Walter could you come up and just respond to the chair's question but is there any issue with continuing the item for

Mr. Rubalcaba I know you have had a busy week emptying debris basins. So do you have any objection to hearing this at the next board meeting or Is there some timing relationship that is at stake?

Yes, Chair Williams. We'd be okay waiting a week or two for more questions to be answered.

So this would be the seventh. And I will allow public comment, but if on 825 what would be at stake is the continuance. So that members of the public could only speak to the continuance if they want to speak to the project themselves, they would wait till general public comment and this is just a parliamentary issue because now The motion that will be made is for a continuance of this item. So what I would take is any of the speakers that are at 825, I will take during public comment unless they Come up now.

But if they come up now, they can only speak to the continuance of the item instead of the item themselves. If they want to speak to the item itself, they would wait for general public comment which is coming up hopefully in 40 minutes or less. Is that okay? You want to speak to the continuance? Okay. Please identify yourself so we can take you out of the speaker list. Sure,

my name is Brian Ross Adams I'm a resident of Los Alamos it's good to see you all. I represent today there will be speaking during general comment about 40 to 50 residents have come down to express their opposition to the project it's hard to believe that has been since 2005 That the residents of Los Alamos have been able to provide input. So I think it's really important that the project is slowed down in regards to continuance, which I appreciate as we find out more information, I would also ask the board to consider asking their construction group to not begin construction and tearing down more trees until this item can be properly discussed and approved. Thank you.

Okay.

Chair Williams, we do have one person that's logged in on Zoom for this item. I just wanted to give him a chance to speak if he did want to speak regarding the continuance. Seth Steiner?

Mr. Steiner good to have you here would you like to speak on the project or on the continuence?

On the project please.

Then we'll put you in the queue for public comment hopefully sooner than 40 minutes from now but it'll be coming up soon. Looks like we have one other speaker on the continuance please.

Good morning Chair Williams, Supervisors, staff members of the public my name is Frances Romero and I am the agent for the Legacy Homes Project now known as Village Square I understand the reasoning for the continuance and we'll make ourselves available to assist in any way to provide any information necessary. However, I would like to state that we need to start...the public needs to start playing fair with facts and no trees were torn down. Trees were trimmed. We did not remove trays We are having a meeting tomorrow night with our neighbors in an attempt to show them exactly how much community input has been received on behalf of this project over a three-year approval process and the fact that this project is part of the Los Alamos Community Plan, and it has had environmental review literally every five years since 2005.

So thank you so much.

Thank you, Ms. Romero and I just wanted to remind the audience that the rules of quorum are that we express support or opposition silently. If you're expressing support since you're going to be here for public comment, you can feel free to go like that and we don't have a version of that for opposition. You just suck it up. Okay. Madam Clerk please read 27 into the record.

Chair Williams and members of the board, Administrative Item 27 is to consider recommendations regarding the removal of Susan Keller from the Montecito Planning Commission.

And is there any public comment on this?

We do. We have two requests to speak. Let's begin on Zoom with Paula

Lopez Ochoa.

Please proceed, Paula.

Good morning, Supervisors. My name is Paula Lopez-Ochoa and I speak today as a resident of the 1st District in Santa Barbara County in support of Susan Keller and against her proposed removal from the Montecito Planning Commission. I've known Ms. Keller for more than 25 years from our work on the KEYT Unity Telethon, as well as being a board member and performer on the Santa Barbara Rebels, the nonprofit she founded.

Susan graduated from Stanford University cum laude and then from UCLA Law School. In the years since she moved to Santa Barbara County, she has been involved with and served on numerous boards and commissions and was even honored by the Montecito Rotary Club as Citizen of the Year. I have known her to be a caring woman invested in the improvement of our community.

I've seen Miss Keller in action working beside her producing and appearing in shows and also through our fundraising work on The Rebels Board. I was quite dismayed to hear she was being asked to suddenly resign from the Montecito Planning Commission with just one year left on her term. I'm baffled as to why Supervisor Williams would ask her to step down and after her refusal to take the steps, to ask the full board to remove her especially since he reappointed her just a year ago And even offered her a position on another commission just a few months ago.

It seems as if Supervisor Williams had a problem with her service, he would have not taken these steps and these actions. At the very least, the request to suddenly have her removed without any cause? A mature woman, one of only two women on the Commission with years of service in this county does not have the right optics. I respectfully ask that you deny Supervisor Williams' request and allow Ms. Keller to serve out the remainder of her term.

Thank you for listening to me this morning.

Chair Williams and members of the Board, we also have Susan Keller here in person.

Good morning, Supervisors. I am greatly disturbed by the manner in which this unprecedented not justified action for my removal from the MPC has developed and by the message it sends to both potential and serving commissioners when two commissioners conspire and threaten to resign unless another commissioner is forced to resign. This undermines the credibility and viability of the Commission Such behavior, if condoned and supported by this board creates an atmosphere of intimidation and constitutes a chilling effect on the free and open discussion. The expression of positions and opinions and the effective resolution of disagreement that is essential to a well-functioning commission.

Removal of a commissioner is so unusual in this board's history that there should be egregious behavior to support it. However, this action seems to be based on purely personal reasons. As the targeted commissioner I refused to resign midterm absent a valid presentation of my failure to comply with my responsibilities. On Naomi Schwartz's first district task force in 2002, I helped develop the ordinance language that created the MPC so I know my responsibilities.

The MPC was established as an independent, apolitical decision-making body. It is not a rubber stamp for recommendations of the Montecito Board of Architectural Review. Commissioners should not accept county staff recommendations without question, amendment or possible disagreement and they may develop positions that are not necessarily those of their supervisor Given the possibility of conflicting constituent concerns or political pressures that might be contrary to the Montecito community's best interests.

Three years ago on the MPC, these same two commissioners and their male colleague tried to block the female vice chair from her expected move to the chair position I oppose their action as being unfair. While that attempt ultimately failed, this current attack on the other female commissioner creates a perception of sexist behavior that this board cannot allow.

Otherwise mature articulate women on commissions would start guarding and censoring their opinions and words for fear of offending some male colleagues And well-qualified younger women would hesitate to enter into commissioned service and face possible reprisal. Supervisor Williams reappointed me to the MPC a year ago and offered me a position on another commission less than a month ago. Previously, he has given me no warning nor indication of any criticism or failure regarding my work with the MPC.

It is reasonable to assume that he would support my plan to complete my term if these two Commissioners had not said they would resign. I am willing to endure this formal and very public process of removal because they believe so strongly that commissioners trying to coerce another's resignation by threats sets a dangerous precedent. I do not believe this is the result you want for Santa Barbara County.

I call on you to oppose this action from my removal, and I'm available for questions. Thank you.

Any questions from board? I'll just say for my part, Ms. Keller, I have no questions for you.

Thank

you. That there have been some personal and I suppose disagreements over the function of the Montecito Planning Commission for some time? Ms. Keller has expressed some of the previous events and in that previous event, of course I supported my Planning Commissioner Donna Senauer and Ms. Keller's position but there have been Thank you, Mr. Chair and members of the board. I want to start by saying that we have had tit-for-tat attempts to remove commissioners including one just a year ago where Ms. Keller tried to remove a commissioner.

So it is an unfortunate dynamic. It has affected the function As alluded to, I attempted to solve the problem by attempting to find a countywide appointment that would be suitable to Ms. Keller because previous to this issue, I have had a good relationship with her and supported her and appreciate her work in the community. But I think this is really about the functioning of the institution.

And I have requested advice both from, you know, the planning commissioners themselves and from the staff that staff the Planning Commission. And i believe that this is going to ultimately be the best way to move forward. To me it largely boils down to a math game. You know it's Do I keep two commissioners or do I keep one? And the one that was planning on only serving one more year.

And so I want a Montecito Planning Commission that functions for the long term, functions with alacrity for the many applicants whose livelihood and lives depend on its function.

Okay.

Mr. Lavagnino, thank you. So my first board meeting this actually happened to me I removed a slate of individuals and they came to public comment and publicly chastised me and Supervisor Farr stood up for me and she said that Appointees serve at the will of the supervisor regardless if it's personal, political whatever the reason is. Supervisor Williams has the ability and the right and the duty actually to have people that he appoints that he's comfortable with him for whatever reason this happened you know it's his call and I will be supporting him on this but I guess what kind of disturbs me a little bit is trying to couch it in a kind of anti that somehow Supervisor Williams has some sort of anti.

Feminine bias when I, he has such a long history of supporting women in this community. You know that argument for me falls apart pretty quickly so I feel bad for Ms. Keller and I know Supervisor Williams would rather be any place in the world right now than having to do this but That's part of this job and we have a long list of appointments. We have to fill sometimes things just don't work out and it puts you in a really bad situation and that's kind of where we're at right now, but It's your call and I know it was a tough one and I'll support you.

Yes, thank you chair Williams. You know, I'm not a Huge fan of committees that are exclusively appointed by a single supervisor. You know, I got my Los Alamos friends here today and they've talked to me for the last year about law pack. And one of my concerns about it all along has been that I would be the person appointing every member of this committee And so I don't, one of the reasons why I find that somewhat dysfunctional is because at the end of the day, the responsibility lies on the elected official. We're accountable to for you, the community of Montecito in the first district and so these appointments are yours.

I would like the same type of respect from my colleagues and I'm sure I would hope that we receive that. So with that Supervisor Williams, I respect your decision making. The people of the first district put you in that place to make these tough decisions and so I'll be supporting any motion that you brought forward.

Yes, great. Supervisor Caps.

Chair Williams, I hear the argument that this is your appointment and I certainly don't have any intel on what's actually at stake here nor should I as not representing this area. But I do want to just speak to the broader issue that's been raised of women on commissions. Not again, not specific to this situation, not at all insinuating at all that this is what's been a play but when I was chair of the Women's Commission it is still a factor that the commissions that carry more Juice more weight like planning commissions are predominantly held by men and it's something that we continue to work on Miss Ochoa who just spoke is President of the Santa Barbara Women's Political Committee. They helped get the word out We all need to be doing our best and I just wanted to take that opportunity while deferring to your judgment here on this particular item Thank you

Thank you. And I think that's a point well taken and should be always in our minds both the diversity of gender and age on our commissions, I think are incredibly important and class but but I think genders sometimes the most one that you go it's no brainer. It should be close to 50-50 so is there any request to vote separately on this item? Seeing none, A31.

Supervisor Williams and members of the board administrative item 31 34 and 35 are resolutions to be presented at today's hearing if you don't have any issue maybe we can take those public comments once those resolutions are presented

so I will take a motion on the consent calendar under the consent calendars all those in favor please say aye And just for clarity, that includes the request to continue A-22 and A-24. Great. Okay. Then we have three resolutions for presentation.

A-31.

Chair Williams and members of the board, Administrative Item 30 is sponsored by Supervisor Williams. It is to adopt a resolution of commendation honoring Brian Swanson upon his retirement from the Probation Department after 28 years of faithful and distinguished service to the citizens of Santa Barbara County. Joining us here in person we have Brian Swanson.

If you will please join us at the podium I will now read the resolution into the record Whereas Brian graduated high school in Santa Cruz, then served four years in the U.S. Air Force working in medical administration and personnel and was honorably discharged at the rank of sergeant following by two years in Fresno working as a counselor with heroin addicts And whereas, Brian graduated from the California State University Fresno with a Bachelor's of Science and Master's of Science degrees in Criminology. He then relocated to the Central Coast and became a Juvenile Services Officer with San Luis Obispo County Probation at Juvenile Hall, and then moved to Adult Supervision where he supervised felony probation cases for eight years as an armed officer.

And whereas, Brian was promoted to Supervising Deputy Probation Officer and served in a variety of assignments including the Juvenile Supervision over Placement Intake Investigations and Court Hearing Officer. And specialized assignments including Personnel Investigations, Requests for Proposal Development, Legislation Analysis and Program Reviews And whereas Brian served 14 and a half years with San Luis Obispo County before accepting a manager position with the Santa Barbara County in 2008, where he worked a variety of assignments including Juvenile Division Manager for North County Operations, Superintendent of Juvenile Justice Center and Juvenile Division Operations countywide.

Where he oversaw the development and implementation of many initiatives related to youth in foster care. The expansion of the division and the use of risk assessment, and the implementation of evidence based practices is concluding his 14 years of service to Santa Barbara County as a probation manager with the adult division overseeing pretrial assessment and probation report and resource centers and court services.

And whereas, after over 28 years of public service on the Central Coast, Brian plans to spend his retirement with his family in Arroyo Grande where he will relearn Spanish, read up on California history, explore and travel the country and see if he has what it takes to be a premier coffee bean roaster. Now therefore be it ordered and resolved that this Board of Supervisors recognizes and congratulates Brian Swanson upon his retirement from service to the County of Santa Barbara Probation Department, passed and adopted today.

Chair Williams and Supervisors, Holly Benton, Deputy Chief Probation Officer here today on behalf of Chief Heitman. Brian was one of the first probation managers I met when I began work with this department in 2018 and right away I was taken with his wry sense of humor and his quick wit. Over the next few years as we worked with our team and juvenile services to transform our work, Brian displayed daily many of the talents he possessed as a manager. A calm steadiness in the face of change an ability to explain and help to steer each new policy or task and most importantly a willingness to offer his honest opinions about the process and an openness to moving in a new direction. We were fortunate to have had Brian's managerial wisdom and leadership to rely on during that wave of change When I moved to Adult, I worked with Brian again there and it was a rare division meeting where our team did not find ourselves laughing together as we went about our work.

Sometimes at Brian's quick jokes he has been referred to you as the Team Dad and as a caring mentor to his staff and those things are both true but i see him as a key part of each division team I've been a part of since I joined Santa Barbara County. There is no doubt his contributions will be missed While I'm happy for him to pursue his passions in retirement, I personally will miss his daily presence in our workspace very much.

On behalf of Chief Heitman and the exec team, Brian congratulations on your retirement.

Well thank you to the board And to the county for providing this opportunity or these opportunities to recognize and highlight people's accomplishments and to recognize an important milestone. It's been an honor for me to have spent the majority of my professional life in the field of probation. It's a unique and honorable profession where you sometimes see people at their worst and most desperate, but we often see people at their best. And it's there that the Probation Department performed by some of the people you see here today does their best and most important work helping people achieve Become better people, be the people they want to be, overcome barriers and challenges and move on with their lives in a different and more positive direction.