Board of Supervisors — 2024-01-23

Hi, good morning everybody. I'd like to call to order the January 23rd 2024 meeting of the Santa Barbara County Board of Supervisors. Madam Clerk please call the roll.

Chair Lavagnino and board members I have four announcements and this morning I am pleased to announce the arrival of our new Community Services Director. Jesus Armas comes to the county with extensive leadership experience spanning over 30 years in the public and private sectors, including 15 years as a city manager for the City of Hayward. In his role he developed and managed an operating budget of $181 million and was successful in developing and managing dozens of initiatives and projects ranging from sustainability work, library and recreation services, affordable housing and community development for lower and middle income households. So please welcome Jesus to the county.

One I'm eager to really get my hands wrapped around so many critical issues in this community and I look forward to working with each of you and other members of the county staff and department staff to make sure we continue the good work of this county. Thank you so much.

I have two other announcements this morning. One is regarding the Earthquake Brace and Bolt Program. The Earthquake Brace and Bolt Program is providing eligible homeowners up to $3,000 in seismic retrofit grants to help strengthen their homes against earthquake damage. Eligibility requirements include owning a home built before 1980, having a house with a raised foundation or crawlspace under it, and living in an eligible zip code.

Many county homeowners will be eligible to receive funds and so to see if you can qualify, information is at ReadySBC.org and applications are due February 21st. The next announcement is regarding SBA disaster loans for the December 2023 storm and flooding. The U.S. Small Business Administration announced that low-interest federal disaster loans are available to Santa Barbara County businesses and residents affected by the storm and flooding that occurred last month from December 21st to December 23rd. The deadline to apply for property damage is March 11th, and for economic injury is October 10th. And more information again can be found at our website ReadySBC.org And lastly, as a treat this morning we have another from Kelsey Boutida who is our communications manager and PIO.

The final item this video features are unsung heroes throughout the county who embody the spirit of selflessness and dedication. And as you know the videos in this series are played on channel 20 throughout the week and are highlighted in our monthly county newsletter are shown on CSB TV YouTube page and our social media. So this morning we are pleased to honor the all-volunteer Santa Barbara County Search and Rescue Team, and many are in the audience today, and in particular Nelson Trickler a dedicated volunteer since 1981 so let's show the film.

Welcome to Santa Barbara County, where extraordinary individuals shine bright. Join us as we celebrate the unsung heroes who embody the spirit of selflessness and dedication from tireless volunteers to dedicated public servants these remarkable individuals who inspire your county your heroes

My name is Nelson Fritschler. I'm with the Santa Barbara County Search and Rescue Team. I've been with the team since 1982, so over 40 years now. Still getting out on the trails as much as I can trying to help provide search and rescue services to the county. During our coverage, we encounter many types of incidents that we have to respond to. A typical one might be someone who's hiking and they have some type of medical emergency up on the trails.

We will respond and access that person try to stabilize them and then work on transportation count. And we often work with the other first responder agencies in order to Get the patient treated and then back to the ambulance or heal it out if it's necessary. About a 40% of our calls are for missing people. The Thomas fire and the debris flow are couple major incidents that stand out in the years I've been doing with evacuations and responses, but it's obviously expanded West and now into the city.

We did dozens of rescues of people out of their houses. We did multiple searches for people that were reported missing and we participated in some of the body recoveries.

As I joined the team just over five years ago, Nelson was one of the figureheads, the features, the characters that I met when I joined. You know what Nelson brings to the table is just a ton of professional and personal experience He's one of our swift water rescue technician training instructors. Nelson has a calm confidence when we get out into the real world in chaos and dynamic environments and change, you know having someone like Nelson who is just able to quickly analyze situations support team members in decision making and keep an overall calm so that we can perform more highly. It's been an amazing

experience. The County Search and Rescue team is 100% volunteers, there's thousands of thousands of hours a year that goes into making this team

Roughly 50 team members. You know, we work like a family as one cohesive unit.

If we do the job right it's an awesome feeling. Very very proud of our team over the years and the type of people who join, type of people commit to giving their time and their service and their abilities to care for others who find themselves in unfortunate not planned circumstances We're professional volunteers in search and rescue, and our reward is just being able to help people.

So thank you to the whole Search & Rescue team and Nelson. Nelson if you would please stand so we can recognize you.

Could you please stand so we can recognize you?

That concludes my report, Chair.

Chair Lavinino, members of the board. Administrative item number one is sponsored by Supervisor Hartman is to adopt a resolution celebrating the Lompoc Teen Center's grand reopening and joining us in person today we have Victor Alejandro Cortez and Alexandra Magna if you can please come to the podium I'll go ahead and read the resolution whereas the Lompoc Teen Center provides a safe space for at-risk teens 7th through 12th grade To achieve academic success and college readiness, and helps to broaden the horizons of Lompoc youth through programs and excursion activities. And whereas the center was inaugurated in June 2022 under the leadership of Director Mitch Torina and founder Cliff Lambert alongside board members Charles Rogers, Jake Brown, Kent Rojkowski, Alexander Magana, and Carla Miller, and has become a pivotal institution for Lompoc youth.

And whereas that yes I can say se puedo After school tutorial program at the center successfully bridges learning gaps and has served more than 150 students and counting. And whereas the center provides skill building programming beyond academic tutoring like peer to peer leadership cultivation And whereas the Center has awarded more than $42,000 in scholarships to students participating in its Leadership Fellows Program. And whereas the Center's success is attributed to collaborative partnerships with organizations like the Endowment for Youth Community, True Vine Bible Fellowship, Lompoc Unified School District, Ken Slott From Investec, the Santa Barbara Foundation, the Mosier Foundation, the G.A. Fowler Family Foundation and the Ann Jackson Family Foundation.

And whereas the recent grand reopening of the center in the heart of Lompoc will undoubtedly have a profoundly positive impact on the lives of Lompoc youth. Now therefore be it hereby ordered and resolved that this Board of Supervisors of Santa Barbara County recognizes and expresses gratitude to individuals, organizations, and foundations supporting the Lompoc Teen Center, recognizing its transformative impact on local teenagers, and significant contributions to the community providing a safe haven academic support and leadership development opportunities. And significant contributions to the community passed and adopted today.

So good morning everyone. I am Alexandra Magana and it is both a privilege to stand here, it's an honor and a privilege to stand here before you as the Lompoc Teen Center President. We are humbled at this opportunity to connect with a more profound purpose to support the Lompoc Teen Center, to support the impact that the Lompoc Teen Center has made on our community in such a short time and the impact it will have in the future with your support.

A heartfelt thank you to you all, but especially to John Hartman and Alma Hernandez for your continued support. Thank you so much.

I just want to reiterate that a huge thank you to Joan Hartman and Alma Hernandez. Thank you.

Supervisor Hartman?

Thank you, Mr. Chair. I had an opportunity to go to a fundraiser this weekend for the Teen Center and it was an extraordinary event because you had people from all walks of life stepping up in a packed event to support the youth of Lompoc. I would like Young people have a place to go after school that's really a great place to hang out. They've got tutoring and when they're, they've got snacks and then they've got all kinds of music and film and games and there's an incentive built into this so that as they do their homeworking and progress then they earn points and they go to great places like Magic Mountain. So and they've got vans and they can transport So it really is a way to incentivize young people, allow them to socialize together and really be in a safe place.

They even have activities on Friday night till eight, a place to keep kids active and so it's really been a long time. This has been years in people's imagination and you've really made it happen and you brought it close to the high school, close to the center where students are We all want to support you in any way we can. Thank you. Thank you.

All right, that takes us to our second resolution. Administrative item number two. Madam Clerk, can you please read item two into the record?

Chair Lavinino, members of the board. Administrative item number two is sponsored by Supervisor Hartman. It is to adopt a resolution celebrating the launching of the California Nature Art Museum and joining us in person today we have Stacey Odey-Demangate, the Executive Director of the Wildling Museum and Joni Kelly. If you could join us at the podium and I'll go ahead and read the resolution.

Whereas the Wildling Museum in Solvang, California was created in 1997 by founder and Santa Barbara artist Patti Giacomain whose vision was to use art exhibitions as a way to bring attention to the importance of conservation of natural lands. And whereas the mission of the museum is to inspire stewardship of the natural world by inspiring a love of nature through art exhibition Exhibitions excuse me, education and programs. And whereas over the past 23 years the museum has curated over 100 exhibitions to creatively explore and promote this mission along with offering hundreds of programs classes hikes movie screenings and more. And whereas the museum has served more than 150,000 visitors since its inception Both locals and people from all over the world.

And whereas the museum has grown and expanded its original facility, and now owns its building helping to secure its financial future. And whereas in January 2024, the Wielding Museum is relaunching as the California Nature Art Museum in order to widen its scope to the amazing natural wonders of the Golden State most especially our beautiful Central Coast. Now therefore be it hereby ordered and resolved that this Board of Supervisors of Santa Barbara County recognizes the importance, artistic and cultural contributions in the museum and celebrates its next chapter and relaunching as the California Nature Art Museum passed and adopted today.

Thank you Supervisor Hartman and all of you for this recognition as we're in this process of renaming and rebranding. It's been my honor to be at the helm of The Wildling, now the California Nature Art Museum for 14 years and I've been a part of a lot of change and growth there. We were thrilled with our decision to move to Solvang in 2013 and then buying the building in 2017 was kind of a leap of faith Paid off because then we paid off that mortgage just five years later and to be debt free as a small institution is really a wonderful accomplishment. And after those big things happened our leadership felt ready to tackle our name, because we have lived with the confusion that Wilding or Wielding or Wilding It's been a long time coming. And I know that the pandemic has brought to people who are not well acquainted to and a lot of people have assumptions with that name and they thought there was a Mister Wilding usually Mister and he must Didn't happen.

And it just was a word that people didn't understand our founder chose it because it's a word that means plant or animal out in the wilderness, which is a great word and a great name and so we're continuing to use that word. Our first floor gallery is now the Wildling Gallery so we will keep incorporating that word But our main name now is clearly understandable by the general public and we really needed that. And, by the way, we're no longer at the end of the alphabet which is kind of a nice thing. Sounds small but not necessarily.

California is such an incredible state. It's a complicated state as we all know, but maybe the least controversial thing about California is the natural areas that we have. The number of diverse kinds of ecosystems that our state has makes us a literal global biodiversity hotspot and it is our pride, it's our privilege, it is our institution to be able to tell stories about those ecosystems, about those animals That live there and it's so exciting to be part of that kind of an institution. And now with a name that better explains what we do.

We're really busy creating all kinds of new programming with our new assistant director, our calendar is getting very full. Check us out online calnatureartmuseum.org. And we hope to see many of you in our galleries very soon. Thank you again so much for this recognition.

Thank you Mr. Chair, I used to serve on the board of the formerly known Wildling Museum and it's really a treasure in the Santa Ynez Valley and all of Santa Barbara County they have amazing programs art programs for children they have juried art competitions They have a permanent collection and I've had a number of really peak experiences with some of their exhibits. I remember The World at Night, Wildlife on the Edge, the Oak Group that did the Santa Ynez River exhibit and so many more. So if you haven't been there go because it's really a treasure and now it's got a name that you recognize California Nature Art Museum. Thank You

All right, thank you very much. That takes us to Resolution Number 3. Madam Clerk can you please read Administrative Item 3 into the record?

Chair Lavinino and members of the board, administrative item number three is sponsored by Supervisor Hartman and Supervisor Williams. It is to adopt a resolution honoring community trail organizations for providing emergency repairs and ongoing maintenance of Front County Trails. And joining us in person today we have Ashley Mayfield, the president of Montecito Trails Foundation, and anyone else you'd like to join you at the podium?

Whereas the San Inez Mountain Front County Trail System provides a recreation resource of countywide importance essential to the public health and welfare. And these trails were severely damaged during the severe winter of 2022 through 2023. Which required extensive reconstruction and ongoing maintenance. And whereas the community trail organizations performed extraordinary efforts to repair severe damage to the Front County Trail System by funding hundreds of thousands of dollars for trail repairs and organizing volunteer efforts for major trail reconstruction projects and ongoing trail maintenance. And whereas these community trail organizations play an essential role in partnering with government agencies to plan, design, construct, and maintain trails in the San Inez Mountains.

And whereas these community trail organizations led required emergency trail repairs and significant reconstruction of the Front Country Trail System from winter storms and previous natural disasters at a challenging time when government agencies needed to address widespread community damage. And whereas these community trail organizations are essential partners to the county and other government agencies in continuing to provide outdoor recreation opportunities for the public, and whereas the community trail organizations provide these essential public recreational services to the county and other agencies at limited public expense, greatly benefiting the community by providing high quality free outdoor recreational activities. Now therefore be it hereby ordered a resolve that this Board of Supervisors of Santa Barbara does hereby honor the trail supporting organizations and individuals acknowledged in the trail section of the County of Santa Barbara website for their significant contributions to the recreational opportunities available to residents of the county and visitors passed and adopted today.

Good morning and thank you guys for your recognition. I'd like to introduce the gentleman with me today representing Los Padres Forest Association, I have Brian Conant as well as Paul Cronshaw. Little wave thanks guys from Sage Trail Alliance we have Mike Tarpey From the Santa Barbara outdoors, I have Ray Ford. We're missing today a representative from the Multi-Use Trail Coalition as well as the Bucket Brigade. I know you guys can all picture Abe.

His hair's a little longer these days and I'm here representing the Montecito Trails Foundation. Together we have put in an extraordinary amount of work in this last year. You know it was remarkable to see the damage five years from one nine almost as bad in the trail system These folks are not only dedicated to the long-term maintenance of our trail system, but they're also our county's trails first responders. After last January storm on 1-9 it's within reason to say that we suffered more damage to our local trail network than we did after the debris flow Almost immediately, with coordination of these groups we were able to put out scouts all over the front country and local community trails. Capturing photos and videos of the damage, we collaborated together to put together plans of work.

These same volunteers after scouting tirelessly for the first few weeks, particularly in case of Paul Cronshaw here, volunteered to work these same projects. The amount of work done this last year is extraordinary. I know you're all familiar with the Cold Springs Trail System. In that trail system alone, which holds easements from the county city and Forest Service, our organization put in 1500 hours of paid professional crew work as well as 600 more volunteer hours.

Overall in the forest, Los Padres put in 9,900 volunteer hours. 22,724 hours contributed to the forest overall between professional trail crew days as well as volunteer hours. Sage put in 6,000 more hours. I don't have the hours from Santa Barbara Trails Council but I know that they were worked tirelessly at Barone. I think it's safe to say we put in over 20,000 hours with volunteers not to mention paid crew.

So we appreciate your recognition. It's not to mention the backcountry which has also been served well by this community. Thank you so much for recognizing us as community partners

Thank you. I just wanted to say that our parks department more than relies on your work and I've never seen that anywhere across any other departments in the county where volunteers step up and really do the hard work You're mapping trails, you're repairing trails, you're building trails, you're maintaining trails and you're advising people on new trails. And it's back-breaking hard work. I've done a little bit of it but mostly I like to enjoy the efforts of your work so thank you so much.

I would agree and we are able to do that because we can communicate so well with county parks and so we appreciate those relationships as well And I know on a Saturday afternoon, I can get an answer about a trail easement from Georgia Moon or Jeff will call me. And yesterday I was picking up poop bags to restock at the county yard and Lloyd was there. And so we have these relationships and that's what helps us support the county. So thank you guys.

Thank you Ashley. All right. Madam Clerk are any announcements or changes to our agenda today?

Chair Lavagnino, members of the board I do have a few announcements this morning. We posted an addendum to today's agenda on Friday January 19th adding administrative item number 34 to the agenda and yesterday on January 23rd we did receive a withdrawal request from the department on this item and just for the public and to note for the record administrative item number 34 is from the Community Services Department it is to consider recommendations regarding an agreement with Harris & Associates to prepare a countywide Strategic plan for workforce housing development and preservation. Again, the department has submitted a withdrawal request to withdraw this item from today's agenda and this can be added to the balance of the administrative agenda.

Additionally we received a request from the Department to withdraw departmental Item number one. Departmental Item number one is from the Community Services Department. It is a hearing to consider recommendations regarding an ordinance to amend County Code Chapter 46A Inclusionary Housing The department has requested to withdraw this item from today's agenda, and we'll bring it back to the board at a later date that has not been determined at this time.

And may I suggest to the board that we wait to take this item up when we go to the departmental agenda should any request to speak on the withdrawal are received from the public? Lastly 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 may do so via Zoom by registering in advance via the link available on page two. If you have any questions, please contact the clerk of the board's office at area code 805-568-2240. Again, that number is 805-5682240 and that concludes my announcements for today.

Thank you very much.

Yes, thank you Chair Lavagnino I'd like to pull items A-16 and A-17. Okay

any other board members have any items? Seeing none Madam Clerk do any members of the public request to pull any items on administrative agenda?

Chair Lavagnino and members of the board we have requests from the public on administrative item 15 and 17

Okay so we have 15, 16 and 17. I'll now entertain a motion to approve the balance of the administrative agenda items except for 15, 16 and 17.

So moved.

And I second. Okay go ahead.

I will second that.

Yes, that can include the

addition and

then the withdrawal of A34 in the balance of the agenda. That would be great. Cool.

Got it? We good? Okay all those in favor? Aye. Any opposed? Balance is approved we'll now take up the administrative items pulled in numerical order Madam Clerk please read administrative item number 15 into the record

Chair Lavinino and members of the board, administrative item number 15 is from the General Services Department. It is to consider recommendations regarding the vacation of the unused portion of a county road and right-of-way at 365 Main Street Los Alamos. RP file number 004061 and this is in the 4th district. And we have one request to speak from the public on this item and we are going to zoom for Allard Jensen.

Allard, we have unmuted you on our end. If you can please unmute yourself to provide your comments. There you

go. Good morning. My name is Allard Jensen. I'm the property owner and I'm here to answer any questions that you have. That's it.

Great supervisor Nelson yeah go ahead and with that I'll go ahead make a motion to prove it. This is in my district in Los Alamos, it involves the county vacating I believe 30 feet of frontage of the road on or the county right away on Main Street in Los Alamos. I think our right-of-way is currently 80 feet and this is functionally already the front yard of this property so I might talk with general services and I have no objection so with that I'd make a motion approve item 815.

Second

Chair Lavinino, members of the board. Administrative item number 16 is from the Planning and Development Department. It is to consider recommendations regarding the Coastal Resource Mitigation Fund CRMF grant contract with the Lompoc Unified School District for the Cabrillo High School Aquarium and this is in the fourth district.

Supervisor Nielsen.

Yes, thank you Chair Labadino I just wanted to pull this item to highlight this contribution and thank the board for the continued support of the Cabrillo High School Aquarium. It's a very unique program in the state of California or anywhere for a high school to run and operate an aquarium If anybody in the public that hasn't got a chance to visit Lompoc Aquarium, I really encourage you to do that. It's completely student-run with faculty advisors and a school district like Lompoc where there often isn't a lot of the resources we saw with just one of the resolutions about the Lompok Teen Center this is one of those positive things That they're able to do and invest in that often doesn't have a lot of support. There's not a line in the state budget for an aquarium, so it's really important that they receive these funds from the county from these crimp funds that we've it's called now since 2021 we've actually put over $400,000 into this aquarium, I do want to let the public know that their next event, Open House will be on February 21st from 6-8pm at Cabrillo High School.

The theme of this will be Welcome To The Wetlands and so they have these great themed events it's great for all ages especially young kids but it is It's a small unit there at the Lompoc Aquarium, but it rivals aquariums for its size from Long Beach to Monterey. So it's something special that we have on the Central Coast and in the 4th District, and I really encourage the public to take advantage of that. And if they have opportunity to support it financially, that's something I would encourage others to do as well. So with that, I'll make a motion to approve item A16. Second.

Chairman you know members of the board just a friendly reminder if you can use your vote cast systems. Helpful for us to track those. Great thank you very

much there we go all right so I still like announcing it because I don't think everybody can see that. So the motion was by Supervisor Nelson, seconded by Hartman. All those in favor? Aye. Anybody opposed? Passes unanimously takes us to item A-17. Madam Clerk please read 17 into the record.

Chair Lavagnino, members of the board. Administrative item number 17 is from the Public Health Department. It is to consider recommendations regarding an ordinance amending Chapter 7 Animals and Fowl Article 1 and adding Article 9 Roosters to regulate and delimit the number of roosters by parcel size that may be kept on a single premise in Santa Barbara County.

And we currently have eight requests to speak from the public on this item.

All right. We'll grant each speaker three minutes

And we are going to begin on, excuse me, on Zoom with Wayne Purcell. Wayne?

Yes, good morning. Can you hear me okay?

Yes we can please proceed.

Great thank you Chair Lavinino and other supervisors thank you so much for considering this ordinance and Supervisor Hartman thank you for initiating it I want to just address some of the issues that came up at the last hearing on this matter. I represent Animal Wellness Action. I've worked on cockfighting issues and related questions for 30 years And I want to say that Santa Barbara County taking this action puts you in very good company with Ventura County, L.A., Riverside, Orange, San Diego, a number of counties up and down the Central Valley on North Coast counties and interior counties.

This is a mainstream action The problems of cockfighting, noise disturbance and disease transmission from fighting birds are well documented. I want to just underscore there's a bit of a kabuki dance going on here that folks who are cockfighters are pretending to be something else. I want to just underscore that Dr. Tom Poole who was the territorial veterinarian for Guam, who is one of our agricultural veterinarians Know that 12,000 fighting birds were shipped from the states to Guam over the last five years. California was the number two shipper.

Nobody admits that they do this but there is simply no confusing what's going on with large numbers of specific breeds of birds hatches sweaters Kelsos. They're housed differently than other birds. They're typically tethered to aim frame huts or tethered to little blue barrels, and they're trafficked for fights and for sale to other conquerors in what is a global business.

The poultry show industry, which is one of the facades, is not occurring on a scale that warrants this sort of private ownership of fighting birds. We estimate there are 20 million fighting birds in the U.S., many of them trafficked to Mexico, the Philippines, Vietnam and 25 other countries and also destined for fights in the U. S.. What happened in L.A. County is instructive. to what you are facing in Santa Barbara County. When Riverside, San Bernardino, Orange, San Diego stopped people from aggregating large numbers of these fighting birds the cockfighters gathered in Los Angeles County and North LA County they had a cockfighting stable with 7000 birds that were there I just want to say that the stakes are quite high here California has had a number of outbreaks of avian diseases, specifically Newcastle disease that came from smuggled birds from other states and from Mexico.

The last outbreak that started in mid-2018 lasted through 2020 in Southern California resulting in the killing more than 1.2 million birds The expenditure of $100 million. There was a prior outbreak 15 years before, again tied to cockfighting that resulted in the expenditure of $170 million of public funds and 3.2 million birds.

That is your time?

Thank you very much.

We will now go to Paula Kislak. To be followed by Lee Heller, Paula.

Good morning. Thank you, Chairman Lavagnino and members of the Board. My name is Paula Kislak. I'm a local veterinarian. I am the founder and board member of the Humane Society Veterinary Medical Association, a veterinary professional association of more than 8000 members. My work has been published in peer-reviewed journals, medical journals and other publications domestically and internationally. And I've delivered webinars and lectures on a variety of topics including genetics and breeding.

I'm here to address the specific issues that have been brought up recently regarding genetic diversity in breeding of roosters. Opponents claim they need to own and house enough roosters to have genetic diversity, but most farm animal and companion animal breeders, including dog, cat, ferret and equine and bovine and other agricultural animal breeders do not own the full diversity of males they need in their breeding programs. They either send their females out to be covered or bred, or they bring in males temporarily and briefly to breed for diversity I believe that the aspiration of having a high quality breeding program is not why rooster breeders house. And feed dozens, hundreds and sometimes thousands of disruptive birds.

Because it is clearly not considered a financially or logistically reasonable or feasible industry strategy. And that's the point that I wish to make but if anybody has any other questions that I can answer as a veterinarian I'm happy to. Thank you. Thank you.

We will now go to Lee Heller, to be followed by Susan Stevens. Lee?

Chair Labadino and members of the board, I won't take much of your time since this issue was well covered two weeks ago. I just want to reiterate a few things. This ordinance does not affect legitimate commercial poultry operations. So people who are speaking today who have a business practice, a business permit and license are exempt. Hobby breeders of dogs and cats are required to obtain permits and may not have an unlimited number of animals so why should rooster breeders be held to a different standard?

I won't echo what Dr. Kislak just said except to say that in fact very few hobby breeders Own every male they need to have genetic diversity. That would be different in the commercial industry, but the commercial industry again is exempt. And finally I would point out that some of the folks who are complaining about having to have a permit are already in violation of their zoning ordinance and so they would not be eligible and they are already in violation even with this ordinance not to pass. So thank you and I look forward to moving forward with passage today.

We will now go to Susan Stevens and then we will return to Santa Barbara with Marcus Marino. Susan? And Susan, we have unmuted you on our end if you... Oh I'm sorry can you hear me now? Yes we can please proceed. Okay

thank you very much good morning supervisors and staff Obviously, everyone here has knowledge of animal cruelty. However, unfortunately I don't think they know the full extent of this particular cruelty of cockfighting. Sadly me and my family have had to learn this. We do live in Sabata Canyon. Some may think it's natural for roosters to fight for dominance in space which is true but cockfighting is nothing like that whatsoever. It's a true blood sport with the fight to the death There's an abundance of information on PETA's website.

Basically the roosters are born, raised, trained to fight on game farms. Breeders kill the birds they deem inferior keeping only the birds who are game meaning that they're willing to fight. The birds spend most of their lives tethered by one leg near inadequate shelter and the closures are small and close together to encourage aggression. Breeders condition the birds to fight Through physical work, including attaching weights or blades to their legs for practice fights with other roosters.

Breeders hack off the rooster's waddles and or combs which is the flesh at the top of their heads and under their beaks to prevent other roosters from tearing them off in the rain. The rooster spurs a natural bony protrusion on their legs are cutoff so more deadly artificial weapons can be strapped on Law enforcement often find performance-enhancing drugs during raids.

The cockfights are usually held in round or square enclosures called cockpits, or simply pits. One eyewitness described a fight this way. With neck feathers fanned and wings whirring the birds jump and paré at each other. They kick and duel in midair striking at each other with feet and beak. If the fighting wanes, handlers pick up the birds and blow on their backs, yank at their beaks and hold them beak to beak in an attempt to work them back into a frenzy.

The birds are put back in the pits and the fight doesn't end until one rooster is dead or nearly dead. Losing birds are often discarded in a barrel or trash can even if they're still alive. This is a very serious problem and obviously I'm an animal lover. I don't want any animals to suffer, and... I will stay in this fight until whatever needs to happen. And Animal Services, they need an ordinance with verbiage that gives them the ability to access the property Suspected of this animal abuse without having to give advance notice. Without this, it just becomes a game wasting county officers time and wasting taxpayers money. Thank you.

We will now return to Santa Barbara with Marcus Marino to be followed by Eduardo Ramos. Marcus?

Hello good morning to everyone. I'm here this morning not to talk about your personal feelings. I'm here not to talk about your personal views, I'm here to discuss the corruption in front of us and the corruption that we have been witnessing here since January 9th when the Board of Supervisors allowed the private investors to create laws that eventually will benefit your private pockets, okay?

Those guys are no elected officials. They don't have any authority to create ordinances, to create rules or to create laws and you guys gave them the right to do that in front of us. It was recorded, it was in video, it was on the newspaper You guys have violated very, very severe federal laws. One of them you can find it under the Federal Criminal Code Title 18 Section 666.

If you are convicted all of you face 20 years in federal prison because you are taking money directly or indirectly from the citizens under those acts that we witness Now there is too many laws, state laws and federal laws that you guys are violating by trying to impose these ordinances. And we demand that you guys will cancel these ordinances. You guys are here to protect us.

You guys are here to protect our rights and protect the law. And honestly it's a disgrace What you guys are doing, you guys are a disgrace to the flag. You're a disgrace of the Constitution of United States and you are a disgrace to the Hispanic community and you sitting up there pretending that you care for our traditions or cultures on the benefit for Hispanics. Guess what? You don't.

You care about your personal financial gains. And I know that everything is corrupted because you have lot of friends on the high courts But you need to remember one thing, that we gave you the power to be there. And in the same place, we can remove that power from you. Okay? Look at your demographics. Now the Hispanic community, we have up to 64 million registered people in United States If you are willing and thinking on keeping a job in office, you should look at your demographics and do what's right under God and under the Constitution of the United States. Thank you very much.

We will now go to Eduardo Ramos.

Good morning and thank you for letting me speak again. Thank you to everyone and thank you for coming. I want to start off by pointing out that the gal that called, I don't know the reason why she's not here. She was a third call. I also live in Savannah Canyon and I never met her. I don't think she knows who I am but that's fine. Is there any evidence of cockfighting in the canyon?

That's a question that I just want to throw out there because there is a lot of speculations of cockfighting and honestly who has been charged. So, I know you guys are all saying oh there is cock fighting, cock this, cock fighting, that's the only way and the only entrance you guys have To enter this issue, but I want to tell everyone and everyone who watches this video that we're not cockfighting. These people are only pushing these ordinance because that's the humane way of getting to the issue now.

There has been comments here from the Board of Supervisors where they actually said that they have friends in the canyon. And everybody, if they watch the last video, they'll know who they are. I'm sure they're making some donations You know, or maybe they have a friend. How far is that property away from mine? Has anybody done any decibel reader checks what the problem is? What time did you guys go and stop by my property? I invite you guys to go over there.