Board of Supervisors — 2023-02-14

Good morning. I will call to order the February 14th, 2023 meeting of the Santa Barbara County Board of Supervisors. Madam Clerk, please call the roll.

The next item of business is the approval of

minutes from the February 7th, 2023

meeting.

Do I have a motion or approval? Is there a second?

I second.

All those in favor please say aye. Aye. Opposed? We'll go on to the CEO's report.

Good morning Chair Williams and Board Members. I just have a short announcement that comes from the Public Health Department, and that is there's an update on COVID-19 from the Public Health Department as of February 2nd. COVID- 19 testing and treatment is no longer available at the Santa Maria Fair Park and direct relief sites. Antigen testing remains available at the Santa Barbara Lompoc Santa Maria health care centers through June 30th As of February 1st, the FDA no longer requires a positive COVID-19 test prior to treatment with Paxilivid or Legio. Patients with a current diagnosis of mild to moderate COVID symptoms based on exposure history and clinical factors may be treated with either drug and free at home COVID- 19 tests remain available all this information along with additional details is posted on the Santa Barbara County Public Health Department website thank you

Are there any

questions from

that?

Supervisor Caps?

Oh no, I'm sorry.

Madam

Clerk is there any announcement or changes to our agenda?

Chair Williams and members of the board I do have a few quick announcements this morning. Administrative item 15, the resolution of commendation for Kathy Fisher will now be an honorary resolution and will not be presented. This can be added to the balance of the administrative agenda. 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 touch-tone 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 today.

Would any board members like to pull any items from the administrative agenda? We just have A7. I pulled it mainly to give Walters a chance to do some informational. Is Walter here or someone from flood control? Okay.

Chair Williams and members of the board, Administrative Item 7 is from the Public Works Department Board of Directors Flood Control and Water Conservation District. It is a request to consider recommendations regarding Montecito Flood Control Master Plan Phase 1. This project is located within the First District.

Mr. Ruvalcaba I just wanted to sort of ask you the question as What does this tee up for the future? Does this mean that there are projects that if we could secure funding, we could improve public safety vis-a-vis our flood control capacity?

Right. Chair Williams, members of the board, good morning. Yes, so this first phase is for primarily data collection outreach and modeling but to answer your question yes it will help us Scoping to find the projects similar to the Buena Vista Debris Basin, which will be coming to your board on February 28th looking for project approval. It'll also help us better define the feasibility and solutions for other projects similar to.

For example, San Ysidro Creek which overtopped in this last event. It will help us determine should we focus on San Ysidro Creek downstream of the 101 or upstream of the 101 first so it'll help us kind of define priorities It will look at the feasibility of these different projects, so I think it's just going to help us with an overall master plan. It's also going to help us with succession planning. It'll take the ideas that Tom Faram and John Fry had what our current staff has and try to develop a roadmap for our staff into the future. That's primarily the goal.

Thank you, Walter. Any questions from board members? Supervisor Nelson?

Yes, thank you Chair Williams. Our office looked at this I wasn't going to pull it but it brings up the issue we recently had some flooding up here in Santa Maria Valley. You know it seems that Montecito's has its master plan and I don't want to compare the flooding that we had here this year with what happened five years ago but at the same time It does seem appropriate to have more comprehensive look at the South Santa Maria Valley as you know that continues to get more developed and we start to see some of these impacts that may be underdeveloped structures. And so it, where are we at with flood control moving forward there? I know it's not the urgency that is in Montecito at this point but you know where are we looking at that regionally as well?

Yeah, Supervisor Nelson through the chair. It's a great question so what we're doing on the North County is Josh Signorelli who's one of our employees is going to probably be a future leader he's been tasked with doing a standard operating procedures for everything kind of north of the tunnel It's going to look at Lompoc, it's going to look at San Eze Valley. It's gonna look at Santa Maria and it's gonna expand our annual plan to look at our basins up in the north so we look at these things on a yearly basis. We go out do they need vegetation clearing? Are the gates clear?

And we're going to try and develop a plan that is updated every year, but again it's the standard operating procedures. We are going to start that. It's already kicked off so that's our plan for the North County and then again we're looking at the Los Alamos regional storm drain to help in the Los Alamos area as well.

And so even part of the existing, you know post natural disaster issues here we're going to be looking some mitigation projects potentially to look at as well. Is that I mean because what you're talking about is more of a long-term project of putting together a study and a work plan but you know talk to me about what's kind of acutely going on and what we might be able to anticipate over the next six months to a year?

Yeah, so in the short term we're going to be looking at what if any of the debris basins up here in the Santa Maria area for example need to be desilted right? There was quite a bit of silt that those filters they're still pretty wet right now and saturated but we're looking at that short-term. We're also looking at any improvements that can be done so for example Basin at Union Valley Parkway at Bradley now has a spillway out at the inlet. It just got completed the other day to just look to see if there's any improvements, maybe taking out the slats out of the chain link fence so if we do have it's not going to help from an aesthetic standpoint but from a flood control standpoint that could significantly help. So we're looking at what can we do right now to try and help if another event were to occur.

All right thank you Mr. Rucaba.

Supervisor Hartman. Any public comment?

Chair Williams and members of the board, we have no request to speak on this item.

Can I get a motion on the consent calendar? So moved.

Second.

All those in favor please say aye. Aye. Opposed? It's unanimous so we have some of those items for presentation now and we'll start with A12

Chair Williams and members of the Board, Administrative Item 12 is sponsored by Supervisor Nelson. It is to adopt a resolution of commendation honoring Coleman Lucas for his service to the Santa Maria Cemetery District and community. Joining us here in person we have Coleman Lucas if you will join us at the podium I will read the resolution into the record Cole Lucas, board member and co-chair of Santa Maria Cemetery District retired in September 2022 after completing outstanding service to the cemetery district since 2008.

And whereas Mr. Lucas studied engineering and geology at the University of Texas Tech. Whereas Mr. Lucas served his country in both World War II and the Korean War, worked as a security manager of the Naval Petroleum Reserve operated by the Department of Defense. And whereas Mr. Lucas spent his professional life serving his community as commander of the local California Highway Patrol office. And whereas Mr. Lucas served three terms on the Santa Barbara Civil Grand Jury two of those years as treasurer.

Whereas Mr. Lucas has been a licensed real estate agent in Santa Maria Valley since 1985 and whereas Mr. Lucas served his community on many boards including Central Coast Commission for Senior Citizens, Secretary for the Orchid Kiwanis Club, Lieutenant Governor of Division 29 of the Kiwanus International, President of Big Ram and President of the Bradley Square Homeowners Association And now therefore be it hereby ordered and resolved that this Board of Supervisors of the County of Santa Barbara does hereby recognize Cole Lucas for his calming, steady and knowledgeable leadership during a turbulent time in Santa Maria Cemetery Board of Directors. Passed and adopted today.

Chair Williams, Supervisor Nelson. Yes before Cole gets a chance to say anything I started my local public service actually on the Santa Maria Cemetery Board where Cole was our president at the time and I got a chance to serve with Cole and got to see firsthand what running the board looked like. I mean a lot of reason why i'm up here today is because of Cole so I'm really honored to sponsor this resolution What he's done over the last 15 years on this cemetery board has really brought that cemetery along to a place that was, you know it was a nice cemetery but now it is really a jewel. The amount of deferred maintenance addressed and dealing with some of the community issues that can come about on a cemetery are often contentious and Cole has had a steady hand in leadership and not just as a cemetery board.

Cole if you look at any minutes Either, you know one of the members or the board members are in attendance. He's been a big part of our community success and I really want to thank you Cole for your leadership not on the cemetery board but in our community for these many many years and for what you've done for me so I wanted to publicly express that appreciation to you. Thank you.

I certainly appreciate your thoughts. I appreciate your remarks I appreciate Supervisor Labadino for appointing me to the Secretary Board and allowing me to stay and not kicking me off after a couple of years. I came to Santa Maria Valley in 1971, I was transferred here by the CHP. I didn't want to come but Chief says you're going there so I said yes sir I got here and I said, you know, I'm going to stay here. I'm not leaving!

And they tried to kick me out several times but I refused. I said no, this is my home. I love the people in Santa Maria. I love the people in Santa Barbara County. I respect this board. I don't always agree with your decisions but I respect them and I certainly appreciate the recognition you've given me today. Thank you very much.

A13.

Chair Williams and members of the Board, Administrative Item 13 is sponsored by Supervisor Lavinino. It is to adopt a resolution of commendation honoring Custody Lieutenant Bill Wolfe upon his retirement from the Sheriff's Office for over 27 years of faithful and distinguished service to the citizens of Santa Barbara County. Joining us here in person we have Bill Wolfe if you will please join us at the podium I will read the resolution into the record Whereas Bill started his career with Santa Barbara County on October 23, 1995 as a corrections officer in the main jail. During his 27 plus years of service he has worked in various capacities which include the main jail transportation classification, Santa Maria Branch Jail and as a custody supervisor assigned to oversee the construction of the Northern Branch Jail for which he was awarded the Sheriff's Meritorious Service Medal.

And whereas Bill throughout his career provided the employees of the Sheriff's Office positive leadership and professionalism, allowing him to rise steadily through the organization attaining the rank of custody lieutenant. And whereas Bill provided the citizens of Santa Barbara County extraordinary professionalism and sensitive law enforcement service while dedicating his life to the pursuit of justice.

And whereas Bill's knowledge, skills and experience contributed greatly to the overall professionalism and the goals of Santa Barbara County Sheriff's Office as well as the objectives of the county. And whereas William Bill Wolfe will be retiring from county service on Sunday February 5th 2023 having faithfully served the citizens of Santa Barbara County for over 27 years which will now allow him more time to pursue his drumming career as he aspires to follow the footsteps of Neil Perr of Rush Now, therefore be it hereby ordered and resolved that this Board of Supervisors commends William Bill Wolf for his faithful and distinguished service to the citizens of Santa Barbara County, congratulates him upon his retirement.

And wishes him and his wife Betty continued good health and many years of happiness passed in adopted today.

Good morning Chair Williams,

members of the board. It's my pleasure to be here to join in celebrating with you the illustrious career of Lieutenant Bill Wolfe. He has done a marvelous job. You've heard In the resolution some of the particulars I will say in particular however that he is just one of those employees that you hate to see leave. He is an upbeat positive can do task oriented person that really has been responsible for helping us achieve much in our custody branch and in particular The northern branch jail has the latter part of his career. He was spent on the planning and transition team, and he is heavily invested in that facility. And you may have seen him yourself as a tour guide.

He's an A number one tour guide, and he tours that facility as though it's his facility. So that's the kind of ownership that he has in making sure that that facility was built the right way and that it's operated the right way. He is, as I said somebody that is just always a joy to work with. He lifts people up. Some other things that a lot of people don't know about him he does a really mean YMCA if you're ever at a party with him He can get it going and I would like to do just one more thing here. You heard in the resolution that he was awarded our Meritorious Service Medal. When we went to give him the Meritorious Service Medal, we didn't have a medal in stock at the time so he got a citation but he didn't get the medal but I thought this would be a great opportunity for me to present it to him in front of you So thank you Bill for the meritorious work that you did in particular in the transition and opening of our Northern Branch GL that earned you this award.

Congratulations.

Good morning I didn't need these 24 years ago And this beard used to be a beautiful red, 28 years ago. So good morning thank you so much for this recognition. It means a lot. It does go by faster than you think so if some of you are wondering about retirement it really does fly by. This has been such a marvelous career for me. Of course, I couldn't do it without my wife Betty and her unwavering support through all the years.

This is a difficult profession. You see some of the folks that are coming in not having the best times but I can say without question that in the nearly 28 years that I've had In my experiences with inmates, they've mostly been positive especially when those inmates are released and I see them out and about the community. And they want to tell me how good they're doing. And I for one tell them, I don't want to see you back here. With the 70% recidivism that we see throughout the United States in corrections our goal especially in this county is to reduce that recidivism The reason jails are so busy is because they're so overcrowded. And I just, I'm so grateful with the sheriff and other members of the department for selecting me to be part of that five and a half years ago even with all the experience that I had when a new idea came around, I wasn't folding my arms and saying let's try it especially with that recidivism mark trying to get that down Also with my children, three of whom are present right now.

I've got four children, three of them are in the United States Air Force. So unfortunately my daughter Leanne is in Georgia right now she just got done with leadership school but I have my daughter Kelly, my youngest son Billy and my son Kevin just got married yesterday. So he's been busy with that. Again, I am so proud of being a part of this sheriff's office and with the leadership of Sheriff Brown and his mentorship, his vision that I think this can be the pinnacle and beacon that other correctional facilities throughout California in the United States can come and try to emulate of what we try to do.

Again, we've come a long ways away from just the incarceration part of relying on the walls of a facility to manage. Right now, we are doing inmate behavioral management with the direct and indirect supervision that we have with the Northern Branch Jail. It has really taken the buy-in of not only the staff but now the inmates. They're understanding what we're doing. If you haven't toured lately please do so You would be amazed with the programming part that we have, our partnership with Allan Hancock College. And you can see it with the inmates trying to reduce that recidivism through rehabilitation vocational tools. So thank you again I am going to be working some extra help.

I will tell the sheriff that my YMCA days are also retired So I won't be doing that, but just a selfish plug for my band Unfinished Business. If you see us out and about hopefully we'll get a lot more gigs now that I have a little bit more free time and just thank you again and I look forward to seeing you. Thank you.

Well, I would

be lax in my duties as chair to not say that having an example Like yourself, for not only your own children but all the children of our county is so important because you too out there could be a bill wolf and have concern for the legacy of what you leave behind. And so we hope you will continue your YMCA and anything else it takes to show people what kind of person, what kind of example comes out of our Sheriff's Department.

Okay, thank you.

We will go to A14.

Chair Williams and members of the Board, Administrative Item 14 is sponsored by Supervisor Williams. It's to adopt a Resolution of Commendation honoring Chelsea Lindsey as County Executive Office as February 2023's Employee of the Month of Santa Barbara County. Joining us here in person we have Chelsea. If you'll please join us at the podium I will read the resolution into the record.

Whereas Chelsea began her career with the county in 2002, and from that time until 2011 worked in various departments including County Council General Services and Public Health. And whereas Chelsea was hired by the county executive office in December 2011 and has been with the clerk of the board since that time expertly meeting the needs of the Board of Supervisors, county departments and the community.

And whereas due to her organizational acumen and whatever it takes approach to customer service, she was promoted to agenda coordinator position in 2012. And has led the effort to ensure that the Board of Supervisors agenda consistently meets their needs and the informational needs of the community at large often staying late into the evening to make sure that everything is just right. And whereas Chelsea is respected, appreciated and lauded by all of the departments for her exemplary customer service and consistent ability to work collaboratively to solve problems. Achieve countywide goals and model organizational values.

And whereas Chelsea and her laser focus on getting the job done coupled with her quick wit and charm has been known to mollify even those who approach the counter with a late docket on a Friday at 4 59 PM with their compassionate smile. And whereas Chelsea takes on new projects at the drop of a hat with her, yep I can do that not a problem approach which is appreciated by all especially the county executive office and the clerk of the board team.

And whereas raised in San Ynez, Chelsea has a deep love and appreciation for all things San Ynez Valley while also enjoying crafting blending amazing essential oils that waft through the fourth floor offices reading true crime novels and long walks on the beach Whereas Chelsea is the absolute best Auntie Shishi and loves to share adorable stories of her nieces and nephews accomplishments that fill the office with so much joy and laughter.

And whereas no resolution about Chelsea would be complete without a heartfelt thank you to her husband of 10 years, Tony. And a shout out to the fourth floor mascot, her dog Chase who has endeared herself to all with her innate ability to bark at ACEO Jeff Brackwell yet display a friendly wag when Mona Nancy and Terry stop by. And now therefore be it hereby ordered resolve that this Board of Supervisors recognizes Chelsea Lindsay as an employee of the month for February 2023 passed and adopted today

Good morning, Chair Williams and Supervisors. As you can tell we are thrilled in the County Executive Office on behalf of the whole county to recognize Chelsea Lindsey as the Employee of the Month. The resolution says it all but for the community people may not know who Chelsea is she unless you call the Clerk of the Board's office but she is one of our unsung heroes as you just heard and if it weren't for her you wouldn't be having this meeting today. She is the lead coordinator for the board's agenda Handling everything big and small, late requests. The quote in the reso about having a friendly smile when departments come late.

I saw Supervisor Nelson smile a little bit because as a staff member he certainly probably was involved in one of those instances. Chelsea exemplifies our county values, which are ACE it. Accountability, customer focus, equity inclusion, innovation and trust but for Chelsea the E is probably embarrassment. So she is the last person to want to be in the limelight but the first person to deserve it. And so on behalf of the County Executive Office and the Board and the County, Chelsea we just want to say thank you to you so much. You've been doing a great job heroic job and thank you to all the members of the Clerk of the Board's office Leah, Brianda and Sheila who've been working while our Chief Deputy has been on maternity leave. And for you and your leadership and your whole staff we really have a heartfelt thank-you and want to recognize you today.

Thank You Chelsea.

As Mona mentioned this is difficult for me I'm gonna try to get through it Good morning, I would first like to thank your board and the County Executive Office for this recognition. I'd especially like to thank my team at the Clerk of the Board's office. They motivate me to work hard every day and we still manage to have fun and I'm very proud to be a part of that team.

Thank you to all the staff I've had the pleasure of working with during my career at the county. It's this family of people I work with every day that inspires me to always do my best. It does feel a bit surreal to stand here today. For 10 years I've had the honor of assisting with the preparation of hundreds of board meetings, yet this is my first time addressing your board in person.

Admittedly because I excel at actively dodging any type of spotlight. So today while attempting to put my introversion aside and humbled and truly honored to acknowledge this acknowledgement that allowed me to pop my head out from behind the scenes and accept this resolution. Thank you.

And both because this is a resolution as my name on it, but because of the board chairmanship this year. I just want to tell you that the clerk's office we don't always have the opportunity to thank you as vehemently or as intensely as is reflected on how much easier you make our lives And we don't know whether it's always seems organized to you, but it does to us.

And that the role, the diligent, the pushing on departments to get their items in all that helps this institution move smoother, get things done and helps we as board members Thank you, Chelsea. We want to thank your whole team because it makes a big difference for the county and us and all of its people.

Williams and members of the board departmental item number 1 is from the human resources department. It is a hearing to consider recommendations regarding the difficult to fill position employee referral program policy.

Hello, good morning Chair Williams and members of the board. My name is Yvonne Torres and I'm the Assistant HR Director. Here with me today is Maria Elena Deguevara, HR Director and in Santa Barbara Joe Pisano, Employee Relations Manager here to answer questions. We are here today requesting your approval for the difficult-to-fill employee referral program policy The initial rollout of the program will be piloted specifically for the custody deputy classification. And if the program proves successful, it could be used for other job classifications are designated as difficult to fill by the HR director.

The Sheriff's office has had difficulties filling their vacant custody deputy positions for reasons such as decrease of applicants and those applicants dropping out through the process because of failed backgrounds or failed psychological evaluations. Looking back five years, in 2018 the department ran two recruitments resulting in 115 applicants. And just last year in 2022 the department ran three recruitments resulting in a total of 78 applicants.

This decrease in applicants is impacting the sheriff's office greatly. At the same time let's see There we go at the same time in from 2018 to 2000. if you look at 2022, um, we had a positive, you know, the number of what happened to it? There you go. The number of hires and the number of terminations was doable, they were able to work with that even though it was a high number but just last year we've lost 27 compared to 18 and this is due to retirements, terminations and any kind of exiting the organization even promotions to other jobs so actually exiting custody deputy So law enforcement agencies across the state are having the same difficulties as we are in Santa Barbara County, filling their vacant positions. Some counties have established sign-on bonuses in an effort to attract qualified applicants and others have established employee referral programs in addition to the sign-on bonuses which is what we are proposing today.

I don't want to dismiss the efforts already in progress that the Sheriff's Office has been working on The Sheriff's Office has increased their recruitment efforts to increase interest in working for law enforcement by revamping their advertising efforts, recently contracting with a marketing agency to implement online recruitment campaign, increased their community outreach efforts and hosted their first responder career fair.

These are all great efforts but of course, the more we can do to increase our applicant pool, the better which brings me to the benefits of the referral program. So, it is known as statistics and we got this from a very reliable source zip. And it's these are current numbers the isn't referral increases retentions by 40% referrals. Increase hires if referrals reduces company turnover, referrals stay longer than.

Jobs that are just posted for performance statistics employers rate employees referrals as the best return on investment. Referrals employees are more profitable and businesses agree that referrals have the best culture fit for the organization. So, referrals get a firsthand account of organizational culture from their friends and are better aware of the expectations. And it helps them in fitting and adapting to the new organization better. It's almost like a buddy system. You have someone you could talk to, someone you can ahead of time know what you're going into.

The program policy is a pilot for the custody deputy classification, and it's to enhance recruitment efforts to attract qualified candidates. County HR will monitor the success of the program within the 1st year and if successful we'll roll out for other hard to fill positions within the organization. This policy will be specific for difficult to fill positions, which such as emergency responders nurses doctors and other specialized technical professional positions.

The funding for the program will come out of the departmentals budget. Next steps, staff is requesting the board approval of the policy on attachment a for difficult to feel position employee referral program policy to be as. Effective as soon as practical

questions.

Supervisor Hartman.

Well, thank you. First of all I we really were eager to try this program. I didn't know that referrals actually did make better matches and people stay longer so that's really good to hear. I guess at the risk of trying to move the goalposts though what tools do we have to give people I see that the sheriff will be having a marketing program, and I think that's terrific. I keep envisioning when we see people retiring like Lieutenant Wolf who've had an amazing careers some kind of testimonial in film about why this job has been so satisfying? Why did they stick with it?

But I wonder if there are other materials that we could provide about the benefits or, um. I think it's worth a discussion anyway so that we put a little bit more organizational heft behind this effort.

Right, um. Supervisor Hartman through the chair so the sheriff's office is launching a program that they're going to be having videos of their staff out in the field. They're gonna be showing them at the gas stations and movie theaters and they're gonna launch and try to show them into as many places. And Sheriff Brown is here and who can add more if I'm missing something?

Please, I think I'd like to know and then what else could be done to put in the hands of people who might refer.

Supervisor Harbin, through the chair thank you for those comments and you're absolutely right. It is the kind of remarks that you just heard from Lieutenant Wolfe that really are inspiring and can really plant a seed with people who may not have considered a career as a custody deputy. And we're trying to take as much advantage of that as possible through our new advertising campaign. If you've been to the movies recently, you may have seen really some powerful ads I think with our people telling the public what their job is like and why they like it.

Excuse me but if we don't go to the movies where can we see them?

You can see them at many gas stations across the

community.

You can link to them through YouTube and our website. They are not just custody deputies, we have them in a variety of different I want to start by saying thank you to all of the people who have been working with us. And know people who are out in the community that would be a great fit for us. And this program, we hope will be just a little incentive for them to really carry through with that and be rewarded for being that recruiter for our agency. And so we're excited to try this and to see how it works.

If I may make a request, maybe as part of the CEO's report in the future you could just show us if you had a board meeting.

That would be great. We wish that thought of that before and we're going to show them today but we will do that.

Supervisor Nelson and then supervisor caps

yes thank you chair Williams my first question is for Yvonne where did we come up with $1200 number in this case? And what was the range that we saw out there?

Okay, so we surveyed the counties across California and with the most that sent back. The median was a thousand but the industry in California across all industries was 1000 to 5000 with 3000 as the median and then one of the counties was an outlier was San Joaquin County who gave 3,000. They gave it upon hire after field training and then upon probation so that was a higher number but so we came in with 1,200 as an average for us because of cost of living and how difficult it would be to get someone to come to Santa Barbara

So I guess my next question is, um. I think it was on the slide, but how is it going to get paid for? It's not. It's gonna come out of the salary savings likely for the Sheriff's Department or any other future department that can have this. Yes, it will. So they're already budgeted for somebody be working that shift and because there's no way we work in that shift, we may take that money yes and reinvest it back into hiring. Is absolutely understanding that

is the

understanding OK and my next questions for the sheriff on how we utilize

So we're at Nelson through the chair. I'm not sure that we have actually utilized it yet, we have worked through it in terms of being available to someone who is out of the area moving expenses, that type of thing and I'm not sure that we've had a candidate yet that has met criteria for that.

But we could be more liberal with that?

Conceivably yes.

And then I guess,

but I do think it's important to recognize chair Williams and members of the board that. In and of itself these stipends really are not the answer we have many examples of other agencies that use them or have tried them and are having just as much trouble as we are attracting people. To the profession, and so I think they're a good tool but they're not the silver bullet. They're not the magic answer

right? And I guess what the last question for the sheriff is how much money are we anticipating in overtime this fiscal year at this point across the whole department not just custody deputies

yeah for well I can't give you that answer right off the top of my head, but it is. It's going to be somewhat higher than last year because of the large number of vacancies. So

yeah, so I think we were looking at $13 million at the last update that we received. Yeah, so OK, those answer my question. I'll have some definitely some comments before we're finished up. Thank you supervisor caps.

Thank you, Ms. have a hard time entering the civilian workforce. And there's organizations trying to bridge that gap and help translate their resume, actually help them create a resume that would translate to these types of jobs. I'm just curious if you're pursuing those kind of organizations and if you could speak about that please?

Supervisor Capsley, the chair. Yes we are. We have a very robust program to try to target military people who are getting ready to discharge from the services. We have obviously Vandenberg Space Force Base and that we have in its prior configuration as the Air Force base. We've been engaged with them in job fairs and reaching out to people Who are about to leave the service who've come to live here, who love this area and would like to stay here. So they're very good candidates for several reasons. The dependability that they have as military personnel as well as their desire to stay here and they know how great this area is but we're also we've expanded a little bit in our looking now at the naval bases down in Ventura County and other areas I'm happy to hear that thank you chairman.

There any public comment on this item.

Yeah, so this is something I'm fairly excited about. I know none of these things are silver bullets but they are bullets and we need to make sure that we're utilizing our bullets and so I've been a big fan of this as just trying to add another maybe won't use bullets will use tools As a tool see tools, but we got to use these tools and we've got to make sure that we're maximizing. And whenever possible make these not just a hand tools, but maybe power tools and I know we can't compel you necessarily to be more aggressive on the utilization of the.

The hiring bonus, but I do think we could be beefing up this referral bonus. To me it feels like a band-aid when I think we need something a lot more aggressive. I personally think that we should get the top in at closer to $5,000 for referral bonus. We have 13 million dollars that we're looking at of overtime this year and this is a drop in the bucket. It's a lot of money to me but in the scheme of things it's budget dust And we should be doing as much as we can to potentially incentivizing people to do this right now I did the math and the 1200 hours is equivalent to about 20 hours for an accounting employee on average.

You know, this something a little bit more robust, I think would be something that would be more utilized. I think this might get some people's attention, but I think $5,000 is really potentially life-changing for some people in our county. And I'm the last person that wants to spend more taxpayer dollars, but I think we need some results here and I don't think $1,200 is frankly going to get there. So personally, I like to see us beef it up to the top end.

And I know this is a pilot program that we're waiting for a year, but it's not only the Sheriff's Department that's suffering here and across all departments are having problems. So I like to see us maybe even shorten that time frame to six months so that we can potentially utilize this for other departments. Other things, patrol deputies were hurting there.