Board of Supervisors — 2024-02-27

Very good example for our students who are here with us today of quietly starting. I'm pleased to call to order this meeting of February 27th, 2024, of the Santa Barbara County Board of Supervisors. As you can tell, I am not Chair Lavagnino. He is on official business in Washington D.C., with the Santa Barbara County Association of Governments so I will be acting chair today as vice-chair. With that, Madam Clerk, will you please call the

today.

Thank you.

So moved.

Good morning Madam Chair and Board Members. This morning I'm pleased to share with you another video of our series Your County, Your Heroes as you know it features unsung heroes throughout the county who embody the spirit of selflessness and dedication. The videos in this series are played on channel 20 throughout the week are highlighted in our monthly county newsletter on CSB TV's YouTube page on our social media Channels in both English and Spanish. This morning we're proud to feature a 28-year employee, Scott Perkins of the Weights & Measures Inspector from the Ag Commissioner's Office. So if we could dim the lights please and show the video.

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 us all Your county, your heroes.

I'm Scott Perkins and i work for Santa Barbara County Ag Commissioner's Office and I'm a Weights & Measures Inspector. I inspect devices that things are weighed off of or things are measured off of. Weights and measures is important because we're the impartial observer in the middle between a financial transaction so we're making sure that the consumer is not being shorted or that the business is not I'm wanting to make sure that when it says five gallons, that I have five gallons on my prover. And I'm making sure that that corresponds with the 5.079 that they're

selling the fuel at. Scott's an unsung hero because he cares about his community. It's important that things are done in a fair and equitable way, and then also from business-to-business that there's a level playing field. So everybody's held to the same standard and then also that consumers have confidence when they're shopping in the marketplace. He's just a perfect fit for our division.

One of my favorite things to do is doing the livestock scales and the vineyard scales. We get to go out onto our beautiful cattle ranches here in Santa Barbara County, and we get to work hand-in-hand with the cattle rancher to make sure that his scale that he sells his livestock off of is accurate Their whole livelihood is based off of those scale indications, so accuracy of that. And most of our wineries and vineyards they have a two to 5000 pound scale that we certify and make sure it's accurate because there's a large monetary value to the product that goes over these scales. We are going to check the net contents of packages. We do what's called a package inspection So even something just like this product here, we're going to weigh it and we're going to make sure that the net quantity statement on the package is accurate.

We're gonna go ahead and we're gonna test a register scale here. We'll put the lightest weight and then we'll work our way up and as we're doing it we're checking to make sure that the scale's maintaining its accuracy. Now I'm at my five pounds. Go to 10, checking for accuracy. That's where we'll then put our seal onto the scale. We place those seals on devices that we have tested that meet the specifications and tolerances and that seal is put on there Consumer know that, that device has been tested and found to be correct at the time of inspection. Everything that we do has to be done precisely. We're providing a service to the community. We're making sure that there's price accuracy so for when that young mother goes into the grocery store to buy her baby formula, we're making sure that it's priced correctly.

I consider it very important work, and it's very rewarding to be able to see an impact of your work and to see that there is a difference made.

Scott, if you could stand up and be recognized. Thank you everyone. You don't have to come to the podium but thank you. That concludes the CEO's report.

And thank you to our CEO and your office for these videos I always learn important information, I'm inspired and thank you Mr. Perkins for your diligent work. Okay

Chair Capps and members of the board, I have a couple quick announcements this morning. We posted an addendum to the agenda on Friday February 23rd to add administrative item number 19 to the agenda. Administrative item number 19 is from the County Executive Office. It is to consider recommendations regarding an update from the Public Health Department on the Goleta Beach closure due to sewage spill. This addendum has been posted and made available to the Board and the public and can be added to the balance of the administrative agenda 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 2.

If you have any questions please contact the clerk at the board's office at area code 805-568-2240 again that number is 805 5 6 8 2 2 4 0 and that concludes my announcements for today.

Thank you so now we will dive into that administrative agenda would any board members like to pull any items from the admin agenda?

A3 and A19.

Excellent, Madam Clerk do any members of the public request to pull any items on the administrative agenda?

Chair Kaps and members of the board we have one request to speak from the public on A19

A3, A9 and A19. I will now entertain a motion to approve the balance of administrative agenda except for A3 ,A9 and A19

So moved.

Second. Next item of business are the resolutions to be presented

Do we need to get a vote on

that?

Chair Capson, members of the board yes. If we could just get a verbal vote on that.

All those in favor please say aye. Aye.

Great thank you.

Thank you. Okay resolution to be presented administrative item number one.

Chair Katz and members of the board, Administrative Item number one is sponsored by Supervisor Williams. It is to adopt a resolution in support of the struggle of Amara people of Ethiopia and joining us in person today we have Circadus Gobezi, Zadanesh Taghi, Sian Ashmama, Yengas Yigza, Yodit Wabshet, Bethy Mulugeta, Al-Miu And if you can please join us at the podium.

And anyone I might have missed can also join you and I will go ahead and read the resolution into the record. Whereas the war in Ethiopia's Amara region is claiming countless lives, endangering civilians and challenging peace, pluralism and human rights. And whereas the Amara people are indigenous to Ethiopia, are one of the largest ethnic groups in the country and have a rich culture and history that is intertwined into the fabric of Ethiopia.

And whereas a large number of Amara civilians many of whom were unarmed women, children and elderly people Were killed or injured through the use of drone strikes, heavy artillery shelling and other weapons of war by government security forces since April 2023. And whereas government security forces and other violent armed groups have perpetrated acts of sexual and gender based violence on Amara women and girls.

And whereas the Lemkin Institute for Genocide Prevention and the UN Special Advisor on the Prevention of Genocide have issued an active genocide alert for Ethiopia's Amara region due to ongoing killings of Amara civilians by federal forces, the Aroma Liberation Army and Omiya region security forces. And whereas the European Center for Law and Justice, ECLJ also reported that the human rights violations range from forced displacement and mass arrests to systemic massacres and ethnic cleansings. The Economist reported that abductions and killings are rampant across the nation. And whereas the United Nation World Food Program affirmed the use of starvation as a weapon and that chronic food insecurity is prevalent in the Amara region in recent years.

And whereas since spring of 2022, Ethiopia's ruling Oromo Prosperity Party has arrested thousands of Amara civilians including parliamentarians, opposition figures, journalists, civil society leaders and other citizens who have faced torture, arbitrary detainment And whereas the county of Santa Barbara encourages continued efforts of the Biden administration to respond to ethnic violence and tensions in Ethiopia, including declining To reinstate Ethiopia's participation as a beneficiary in the AGOA until progress is made towards a peaceful settlement of the conflict and conditions allow for the smooth flow of humanitarian aid. Now, therefore it is hereby ordered and resolved that this Board of Supervisors affirms its support for the Amara people passed and adopted today.

Limit Sana Barbara. My hummingbird nest, my enigma, my home away from home, my sublime. For the last 50 years I felt my silence enable oppression, discrimination, racism and violence against the Amara people of Ethiopia. We as Amara people are still too slow in speaking out against oppression, discrimination, racism and violence against us even today. Our silence allowed the cycle of oppression, discrimination, racism, violence to continue.

Although our silence did not directly cause the death of the Amara people over the last 50 years, our silence did nothing to stop our death either. It is overdue for us, for our silence to end. It is overdue for us to speak out. It is overdue for us to raise our voice. I want to end our silence and raise our voice and say what is happening to the Amara people in Ethiopia is unacceptable.

I am ending my silence and raising my voice. And say, I will not allow oppression, discrimination, racism and violence to continue. I am asking the good citizens of Santa Barbara County to join me in saying we will end the silence and raise our voice and say no one is free when others are encountering racism. No one is free when others are encountering oppression. No one is free when others are encountering discrimination. And definitely no one is free when others are encountering violence.

Let's end the silence together and raise our voice and say we are truly friends of all who are victimized and oppressed. And that we will stand together to make a right. In the words of Martin Luther King, in the end, we will not remember the words of our enemies but the silence of our friends. I want to thank you all for setting the cornerstone to speak on behalf of Santa Barbara County What's happening to my people and me is no longer a matter of being kept secret.

Thank you, County Supervisor Das William for giving me the opportunity to stop my silence and to be the voice for the voiceless. Thank you. Thank you all.

Good morning. Forgive us, we're a bit emotional. It's very difficult to stand in front of you and see what we're about to say. First I want to say thank you. Thank you Supervisor Williams. Thank you Chair. Thank you Board of Members of the board for bringing this crucial resolution. We members of the Amara community in Santa Barbara and Amara Association of Los Angeles greatly appreciate and want to express our deepest gratitude for your resolution in support of the Amara people in Ethiopia against an existential threat.

Since the establishment of an ethnic apartheid system of government over three decades ago, a war has been waged on the Amara people in Ethiopia openly designated as Naftanya Enemies of the other Ethiopian ethnic groups, the Amaras have been denied the right to protect themselves, selectively disarmed and made vulnerable to attack. Amaras have been mass sterilized, forcefully displaced, their property destroyed, massacred, buried in mass graves.

They've been thrown over cliffs, burned alive and even subject to cannibalism. University students, mostly girls, they were kidnapped by the terrorist or homo extremist groups and to this date no one knows where they're abouts. The ethnic cleansing and genocide has especially been intensified since Abiy Ahmed took office five years ago. Millions displaced, thousands killed.

Mass arrests is prevalent and recent leaked pictures show the horrific situation of Amara youth in concentration camps. Excuse me. Since April 2023, a state of emergency has been declared in the Amara region and large number of Amara civilians Many of whom were unarmed women, children and elderly people killed or injured through the use of drones, heavy artillery shelling and other weapons of war by government security forces.

These forces and other Oromo extremist armed groups, the Oromo Special Forces, OLF or LA armed groups have perpetrated ethnically motivated targeted and organized gruesome mass killings looting burning of victim homes. Acts of sexual and gender-based violence, gang rapes on Amara women and girls are used as a strategic systematic calculated tool for ethnic cleansing and genocide.

For many years now the war on Amara largely ignored by international community is claiming countless lives, endangering civilians, destroying basic infrastructure like hospitals and schools in the Amara region. Challenging peace human rights in the Horn of Africa. Therefore today April 27 2024 is historic day for us the Amara people The resolution in support of the struggle of the Amhara people in Ethiopia, issued by the County of Santa Barbara has changed the course or history of this ancient people.

A message is sent by the County of Santa Barbara loud and clear. The Amhara people are not forgotten and we matter. Thank you for sharing. Thank you for supporting us Thank you for standing against Samara genocide. Thank you for your support to end ethnic violence, thank you very much.

Supervisor Das William. Chair and esteemed member of the board, I want to extend my sincere appreciation for the opportunity to address you today. And thank God for being here today. Your support and resolution in favor of Yamara people mean more to us than words can express. Today as we stand here alive and well, we carry the heavy burden of uncertainty about the fate of our relatives in the Amara region.

The experience my sister shared here today paint a harrowing pictures of the atrocity occurring here. It is a relief to finally have a chance to be heard and to bring attention to the flight of our loved ones We come before you, not just as speakers but the voice of those who cannot be here. Those who may be clinging to the hope of survival or tragically those who may no longer be with us.

The Amhara people are facing unimaginable challenges and our hearts ache for the countless lives hanging in the balance. It is not just a distance crisis It's really happening. The reality has torn apart families and left us grappling with the unknown. For many of us, the situation hits home. The school we helped establish is now a military base camp under Abiy regime.

And the tragic loss of Avata Masfuna Barra Brother of one of our directors who was tragically among the hundreds killed in Marawi, leaving behind five children. Let our collective plea be a catalyst for tangible action whether it be a form of humanitarian aid, a diplomatic intervention or any means available to end the suffering of the Amara people. We are here not only witness to tragedy, but as advocates to change. And we humbly request your unwavering support in this dire time.

Thank you for the opportunity.

Good morning. Please allow me to say the resolution in Amharic. I'm Good news. I would like to thank all of you for your hard work. You have helped millions of Amharic people in many ways. We are very grateful for your support. I would like to thank all the members of the Board of Supervisors, members of parliamentarians and members of the media for their participation in this meeting. I would also like to thank all the participants who participated in this meeting.

Yalem has The board of Supervisors meeting will be held at 5 p.m. to discuss issues related to the U.S. and other countries. you. Thank you.

Thank you very much to all of you. Supervisor Williams.

Thank you so much for being here, for having the courage to come forward and request the resolution. And I think it's just important that we though we have no informal power that we encourage our federal government to take constructive actions and to provide our own residents with an opportunity to awaken the conscience of the world. Thank you so much.

Thank you and our clerk has an announcement.

Thank you Chair Caps and members of the board for members of the public who are joining us via zoom today unfortunately we are having a few technical difficulties and when you are registering that you are missing a couple fields requesting which items you would like to speak on today so The Office of the Clerk of the Board is reaching out to you via email, asking which items you would like to speak on. I see we did receive a few but if any member that is watching via Zoom now and you haven't reached out to my office to let us know which item you would like to speak on, if you can please call our office and let them know. That is number area code 805-568-2240 again that number is 805 5682240 and my apologies for that technical glitch. It should be repaired as of now, but any previous registration was missing a couple fields.

Thank you.

Thank you. Now we will take up the three administrative items that were pulled and we'll do so in numerical order. So Madam Clerk, please read administrative item number 3 into the record.

Chair Caps and members of the board, we have one more resolution to be presented

this morning. Oh I skipped over the one I was super excited about! Excuse me. Okay that would be administrative item number 2. Thank you.

Great, Chair Caps and members of the board administrative item number two is sponsored by Supervisor Caps it is to adopt a resolution recognizing February 2024 as National Children's Dental Health Month in Santa Barbara County and we have joining us here in person today from the Santa Barbara Neighborhood Clinics Dr. Mandi Ashrafian the CEO of Santa Barbara Neighborhood Clinics and Dr. Queen Nguyen Chief Dental Director of Santa Barbara Neighborhood Clinics From Santa Barbara Unified School District we have Dr. Hilda Maldonado, Santa Barbara Unified Superintendent Ed Zucchelli, Comms Veronica Binkley Harding Principal and Karen Reyes Harding Family Engagement Liaison and we do have a few students joining us today from the Santa Barbara Unified School District Emiliana Ortega Paulina Tarablanca and Yaseline Pantoja and I will go ahead and read the resolution Whereas the well-being of our nation's children is of paramount importance, and whereas oral health significantly contributes to the overall health and development of children influencing their capacity to thrive and realize their full potential.

And whereas tooth decay continues to be a prevalent chronic ailment among children impacting their eating speaking and concentration in school thereby impeding academic and social success. And whereas disparities in access to dental care persists disproportionately affecting vulnerable and underserved populations, compounding the challenges faced by children and achieving optimal oral health. And whereas in 2023, the Santa Barbara Neighborhood Clinics SBNC introduced a groundbreaking enhancement To its Pediatric Dental Services, a mobile dental clinic made possible by $100,000 grant from the Women's Fund of Santa Barbara. The clinic now serves 200 to 400 children weekly and whereas children at all schools in the Santa Barbara Unified School District and the Carpinteria Children's Project are eligible for free screenings and oral health education from SBNC.

And now therefore be it hereby ordered and resolved that Santa Barbara County recognizes and celebrates as National Children's Dental Health Month and encourages schools, healthcare providers, families and community organizations to participate in activities and events that promote oral health education and awareness for children passed and adopted today.

Thank you very much, good morning everyone. I am the proud superintendent of Santa Barbara Unified School District, Hilda Maldonado accompanied here by our wonderful principal, our family liaison Karen Reyes and of course our wonderful students. I want to thank Supervisor Capps and the supervisors for this recognition, of course my partner Dr. Madi Ashrafian and Dr. Nguyen who's been helping us with this project in this endeavor all around I do want the Board of Supervisors to know how important this issue is to me. As a child immigrant myself, I did not have access to dental care until I went to middle school and that was because my parents had factory jobs and hourly pay and in order for them to take us six children to get dental care they needed to take two buses across town and that takes a lot of time plus waiting in the dental office and all of the time that that takes It wasn't until our neighbor's daughter got a job at a dental office that they learned about the access to free dental care, that we could actually go and begin to get that care.

So this is both personal and professionally important issue to me. I know it is to you as well. I know that our county has large poverty rate when it comes to students and families. And so it's really important for when we started to think about this partnership, it was an obvious choice to say yes to the Santa Barbara Neighborhood Clinics We have the children six hours a day if they stay after school, maybe even eight hours a day. So why not partner and have them come to us instead? So I'm very excited about this partnership. I'm very honored and proud to be working with the Santa Barbara Neighborhood Clinics As was said in the resolution, healthy living includes having a healthy mouth and often that is the first time you can also detect other illnesses.

We want our students to be healthy when they come to school we want them to thrive and learn. The mobile clinic moves around our schools it is currently serving between 2-400 children a week in our community As you know, we serve 12,000 students just in the South County alone. Through this work we've had students get screenings received seals and a few have even had to get additional work done in Oxnard because of very bad tooth decay.

And again, this would not be possible without this partnership. Of course as a superintendent that gets to speak in front of you I'm going to have an ask and I would like to have us think about galvanizing our resources and think about a vision van next. Getting vision vans to our schools will also help with eye care but that's for another day. Anyway healthy bodies equals healthy learners. I'd now like to bring up Principal Veronica Binkley from Harding Elementary School.

Thank you for that nice introduction. Hello everyone. Harding University Partnership School began a pilot with the Santa Barbara Neighborhood Clinics three years ago. They have provided oral health education, dental disease identification and treatment services to all of our students. They act, they connect families also with a range of treatment services. I want to talk about something that happened even before that several years ago a Harding student had severe severe tooth decay so much so that she wasn't sleeping she couldn't concentrate she was missing a lot of school Working with her family, I was able to take them to the Eastside Neighborhood Clinic where they determined that her tooth decay required a pediatric specialist.

The Eastside Neighborhood Clinic provided a grant. They recommended a wonderful pediatric dentist in Goleta and she was treated and was able to continue her learning journey so you can imagine how relieved and how important this was to us to get this partnership going It has been nothing short of amazing. With a consistently energetic team of dental specialists who annually screen over 350 students, they provide varnish to those in need and in some extreme cases refer out to more comprehensive treatment centers.

They have been professional, organized, adaptive and resourceful. They are bilingual, interactive and very kid-friendly. They make the trip to the dentist seem not so scary. I have some lovely students here, we have Paulina Tierra Blanca from 6th grade, Yaseline Pantoja from 4th grade and Emiliano Ortega if anybody would like to ask them questions about their experience?

They're willing to be brave and speak.

So maybe you can, does anyone want to tell us if it's still scary to go to the dentist or is it OK that there's a mobile van coming to your school for help? If you want to speak, you don't have to.

I'm not scared to go to the dentist anymore.

Smile real big. Look at that smile. Thank you. Anyone want to say anything? Yeah, go. Emiliano say what you thought. You can just say it was fun.

Going to the going to the dentist is fun.

Wonderful.

Going to the dentist not scared.

Good job. Well thank you so much. It takes a strong community to help our children thrive and learn, and we clearly have that. I love the neighborhood clinics. Did you want to say something?

So hello everyone before everything I would like to use this opportunity to thank all the supervisors for clinic for supporting neighborhood clinics and in particular supervisor caps for inviting a recognizing SPNC for what we do for this community. This whole idea of school based mobile clinic It came from the realization that many of our students are missing out on critical care because they cannot make it to our clinics for various reasons.

It could be that their parents are busy with work Like all of us and as Hilda just mentioned, or they might have very important school assignments that they will be missing out if they leave the school. But these students are our future generation and we need to invest into our future to keep them healthy. So we decided to remove the barriers and take care directly to them.

I want to express my sincere gratitude to Santa Barbara Unified School District and particularly Hilda Maldonado for her support. She and her team made it possible for us to work together, to make our students healthier. In fact we have actually expanded this collaboration to include medical mobile unit and medical care as well and we are very proud of that.

We could not have accomplished this without her support. We are hoping to be able to have similar arrangements and collaborations with other school districts such as Goleta, Hope and Carpinteria. Finally I would like to recognize the great work that our Dental Officer Dr. Wen And at this point I would like to pass the torch to Dr. Ren.

I would like to echo my CEO Dr. Shafian to thank Supervisor Laura Capps and the Board of Supervisors for this honor, and also I'd like to thank Dr. Hilda Madden Mother Hondo, and also Principal Veronica Bingley. You have started with us on this journey and actually you, Harding School was the seed of where this whole thing blossomed so thank you for having the vision and foresight and also putting up with us in the beginning with all our problems, technical problems Anyway, I would like to also just let you know that since the start of this school year we have visited 15 schools and we have screened 1,477 students so far and will continue.

I just want to also share a quick story with you of a child I met last week. When I saw her, you know, I've seen a lot in my 36 years of being a dentist but I was still taken aback She was looking into her mouth. And then so I told my manager of the outreach program, Martine, to make sure that we see her immediately. So she was scheduled and at the very first appointment after the screening, we sat down and again, I looked in her mouth and I thought to myself you know, I don't think she even So I was you know trying to figure out a way to approach her because right away. I saw her defense mechanism, you know going up and And she's only, she was only 10 but she already have a teenager attitude.

She started rolling her eyes and she knew what was coming so and despite all the training I had about Interviewing, I just said to me the best approach is the direct approach. So I told her what I saw and what was going on and we spent a good half an hour with her showing her how to brush and floss, how to take care of her teeth. And then we asked her to Show us how she would do it herself to make sure she understand.

And she and she did, and she dry brush and she sat in brush and brush and brush and afterwards in the meantime I shared with her my own experience growing up and I ate candy like there was no tomorrow. And so she knows where I was coming from. I'm no different than her. So she wasn't scared of me anymore. Afterwards I gave her a mirror And she looked in her mouth afterwards and I saw that brilliant smile. And she saw that brilliant smile, and I knew that sealed it for me, you know, that our work matters and it mattered to that child. So thank you. Thank you for the recognition.

Thank you, thank you to our I love our neighborhood clinics. I love our schools Harding School when we do right by our children we do right by all of us. I think you can tell that this partnership is doing right and doing good and making kids smile so thanks to everyone for being here okay with that we will now move on to the rest of the three items that were pulled the administrative vendor thank you everyone

Chair Capps and members of the board, administrative item number three is sponsored by Supervisor Hartman and Supervisor Williams. It is an honorary resolution to celebrate the completion of the Straus Wind Project, a landmark coastal wind project. And I will go ahead and read that into the record now. Whereas the Straus Wind Project, a pioneering initiative stands as the first utility scale wind project on the California coast that can generate enough clean renewable energy to power approximately 36,000 homes. And whereas this groundbreaking project 3.5 miles southwest of the city of Lompoc in the county of Santa Barbara showcases our county and state's commitment to innovative and sustainability in the renewable energy sector.

And whereas the realization of the Straus Wind Project aligns with the county's commitment to diversify its renewable energy generation profile and meet its renewable energy goals, contributing to a cleaner and more sustainable future for our state. And whereas the Straus Wind Project was proud to employ skilled union labor and contractors for its construction and is a significant contributor to the tax base in Santa Barbara County. And whereas the approval of utility scale renewable energy projects is critical Climate change and wind energy in particular in a sustainable resource that generates no pollution or hazardous waste, does not deplete freshwater resources and requires no mining transportation or refining of fuel to deliver energy.

Now therefore be it hereby ordered and resolved that this Board of Supervisors celebrates the historic significance as the first wind project on the California coast And it's substantial economic, environmental and community benefits. We celebrate this project as a shining example of our commitment to a sustainable and prosperous future passed and adopted today.

And we do have one request to speak on this item from the public. And we are going to Zoom for Dave Everett.

Oh, there you go. I think I was on mute there for a moment. Can you guys hear me?

We can hear you. Yes, please proceed.

Excellent. I'm calling with the Western Electrical Contractors Association and I'm calling because this wind project, the resolution makes it sound like it's some sort of environmental accomplishment but they failed to mention some of the CEQA abuse that was part of the process I wanted to point out that the California Unions for Reliable Energy, they abused the CEQA process during this review. And as soon as their project labor was a project labor agreement was signed all these environmental concerns went away. And so I think you can make the observation that it's even written in the resolution that the Strauss Project is proud to employ skilled union labor and contractors for its construction but They themselves filed, I think it's five six different California Environmental Equality Act objections.

October 3rd 2008 Adams Broadwell Josephine Cardoza submitted one on December 2nd 2019 to December 12th 2019 December 23rd 2019 January 20th 2020 And all of those concerns seem to go away the second they signed their union labor agreement, which of course increases the price of the project. But when you talk about this being some kind of environmental accomplishment, if the county wants to brag about some pretend commitment to the environment then follow the California Environmental Quality Act.

Giving the construction work to your political donors does not make environmental concerns go away or magically disappear. So I want to make that point as they pass this proclamation. Thanks so much.

And that concludes public comment on administrative item number three.

Supervisor Hartman?

Thank you Madam Chair. On Thursday, Supervisor Williams and I will be out on the site to celebrate the start of this that was a two decade long process to bring this to fruition. There have been environmental and cultural issues along the way. been pretty well addressed. I had the opportunity to be on site and see a 360 degree camera that tracks birds and learns about different kinds of birds and flocks and can actually slow the turbines down depending on the kind of birds and bird blocks that are approaching. So I think we're learning a great deal, and I think wind energy is far superior to oil so I'm very excited about this.

Thank you, I'll be joining you there as well on Thursday for the celebration. Madam Clerk, I believe on this one we need a vote since it was pulled. Supervisor Williams?

Well I just wanted to, like the speaker I wish it was easier to produce renewable energy along the coast. But you know it is difficult being the first and for a long time the regulatory structures of coastal counties have made it Fairly prohibitive to do utility scale renewable energy and navigating that. Colleague Supervisor Hartman did this as well. What our role really was often trying to be peacemakers, to make this project happen and in the end the different parties largely reached accord and moved forward and that is to be commended Hopefully it sends the signal that coastal California can be part of the solution because it's really clear that we can't sit this one out and expect inland counties to do all the renewable energy to save our climate and our planet.

We need to be a part of the solution.

Move approval. Thank you for that. Do I have a second? Okay, we can just have a voice vote on this one. Sounds good. All in favor? Aye. Motion passes. Okay now Madam Clerk please read an administrative item number nine into the record

Chair caps and members of the board administrative item number nine is from the county executive office. It is to consider recommendations regarding the fiscal year 2023 through 2024 second quarter budget status report

Supervisor Nielsen I believe you pulled this, would you like to speak? I did

yes. Okay thank you Chair Caps. I'm only pulling it just to make some comments and then hopefully move along. The point of interest that I wanted the public to pay attention to was attachment c which is funded vacancies in the county. I want to make sure I dispelled some of the narratives out there and inaccuracies about county employment There's some recent op-eds that were talking about the county's largesse and the growth of government services and pay throughout our community.

I think this is evidence that despite having many positions that are funded through tax dollars because we deliver a lot of programs from state and federal government, that we actually have quite a hard time filling these positions. Right now in the county we have 600 open Funded but unfilled positions out of 4,600 employees. That's a significant percentage of our organization and I want to be clear these are these are positions that are already paid for by taxpayer dollars and frankly these services are not being rendered to the taxpayers because we are not able to fill those positions So I want the public to be able to think about that, draw their own conclusions based on that information. I do think it is alarming.

I think as a board we need to be thinking about in the future how do we get more efficient? We definitely have a place that's very expensive to live and many of the jobs in county government are becoming much more technical Look at, for example our IT department is the positions that need to be filled. It's hard to attract competitive labor in the market that we have for those skill sets so um for those that pay attention to county government and want to kind of get involved in understanding how what we do up here works this is a great sheet for you guys to kind of draw some conclusions on about what's going on with the decisions we have to make as a board That was the first reason I wanted to point this out. The second is you know if any of you have family or friends who are looking for jobs and employment, again 600 positions open countywide at this point so it's significant.

One of the other points I want to point out here is we talk about funding public safety And that's one of the highest priorities of any politician out there, not just during election time. But we have 107 open positions in our Sheriff's Department. I know not all those are law enforcement positions some of those are clerical and administrative but that's a significant challenge in delivering public safety to our community something that I hope to see more traction on from one quarter to the next. We actually only improved that by two and a half positions so it's quite alarming. There are some concerns out there as an organization as we move forward into these coming years And I think and I want to appreciate, or I want to thank the CEO's office for including this attachment in this quarter update because I think it is a you know it's something that we should all be aware of as a public and as a board and as organization as we pursue into future years.

So I'm happy to make a motion to approve this item. I just wanted to make sure I made some comments about

it. Supervisor Hartman? say thank you for pulling that and you can go to our county website and see all the positions that are available. I was promoting that in a talk with students last night, uh, and I noticed that we have a difference in our agenda for the A items. We actually list the attachments in the board letter and that's really helpful. I like that. Thank you.

Thank you. Are there any members of public on this one? Chair Caps and members of the board, we have no request to speak from the public on administrative item number nine

Okay, well we have a motion on the table by Supervisor Nelson. We need a second. Seconded by Hartman. Voice vote here all those in favor? Aye. Aye. Motion passes. Resolution passed. Administrative item passes excuse me. Okay Madam Clerk this is an item that I asked for on the agenda. Administrative Item number 19 may you please read it into the record

Chair Capps and members of the board. Administrative item number 19 is from the County Executive Office, it is to consider recommendations regarding an update from the Public Health Department on the Goleta Beach closure due to sewage spill. And please note in addition to the board members who have pulled this item we do have three requests to speak from the public on this item.

Thank you and like I this spill happened in my district and I was able to be out there at the Sanitation Department and have many conversations over the last couple days with Our director of public health and I wanted to make sure that the public and my colleagues heard this information. So thank you, Director Hamami for providing an update and we'll have questions for you. Thank you.