UnGovr Transcript
iHow this transcript is madeUnGovr transcribes the official recording with automated speech-to-text, separates speakers by voice, and matches voices to the seated roster. Names and attributions are AI estimates and may contain errors.Verify any quote yourself: click anywhere in the transcript and the official video jumps to that exact moment, so you can check any quote against the recording.0:03 – 0:077 turns
We are we're we've got quite a few folks here so we are going to have people throughout that there's a program today, so there's going to be kids coming in a band all kinds of things so for those of those for those of you who are in the back standing. We encourage you to try to find some seats if you can't we do have a conference room to the side here has full sound and video and you can enjoy it just as well Yeah, we do have.
Chairs here up in front. We got fire guys in the back that can enforce the fire code and the access in I'd like to welcome you to the installation of officials elected in 2024 and the convening of the 2025 County Board of Supervisors. Every two years, we meet to install members of the Board of Supervisors who have been elected or reelected to represent the residents of Santa Barbara County.
This is a special day for Santa Barbara County an important moment for us to celebrate democracy at work in our local community The incoming chair has the privilege of designing the program and selecting special guests for the installation ceremony. This year, Supervisor Laura Capps our incoming chair has had the honor of planning today's event. Now I'd like to invite the clerk to introduce our color guard.
Present arms. I pledge allegiance to the flag of the United States of America and
to the republic
for
which it stands, one nation under God, indivisible with liberty and justice
for all. Order arms. About face.
Thank you.
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Before we proceed, I'd like to take a moment to honor President James Earl Carter Jr., a true statesman and humanitarian whose legacy of service and compassion has inspired countless lives. Please join me in a moment of silence in his memory. Thank you. We'll now begin this morning's program with an invocation delivered by Anthony Rodriguez from Our Lady of Guadalupe Church. Madam Clerk?
And you may all take your seats, thank you. I have the privilege of introducing Anthony Rodriguez, an Operations and Disaster Services Specialist with the Santa Barbara County Food Bank and dedicated advocate community leader and survivor. Anthony serves as the chair of the Safeguard the Children Community at Our Lady Guadalupe Church. Anthony works tirelessly to ensure the protection of children through educational programs that teach children and their parents how to safeguard themselves from sexual abuse. Passionate about advocacy, Anthony shares his personal story as a survivor to inspire change and provide hope to teens and families. Recognized for his resilience and dedication, Anthony was honored as an SB Local Hero in 2013. Anthony's story has been featured in national and local media including the Santa Barbara News Press article A Second Chance.
Furthermore, his powerful experiences are highlighted in two impactful films, Surviving Suicide and Ebb & Flow. Beyond advocacy, Anthony treasures life with his wife Bianca with whom they have shared 24 years of marriage. Their life is further enriched by being godparents to 71 godchildren. Through each role he takes on, Anthony continues to inspire educate and lead with courage and compassion leaving a lasting impact on the community. Please join me in welcoming Anthony Rodriguez
Good morning, everyone. First I would like you to join me also for a moment of silence to honor and remember the 23 lives that were lost on 197 years ago. Thank you. So today for some it's just another day at work. Just a regular day. Just attending another meeting. But for me, it's a huge deal. It's an honor. Never in my life did I ever think that I would be standing here in front of you all today.
In 1999, I came to meet a girl who I was talking to and meeting her for the first time. When I arrived at the store, I came out and there was a really nice looking little lady and she very sweetly asked if she can ask me a question. And I said yes. And she said are you from LA? And I said yes. And she said get the hell out of here. You don't belong here. People like you don't deserve to be here.
Go back to where you came from And I was so stunned because I wasn't expecting that. I was expecting maybe she needed some help with some groceries, but that wasn't the case. I was kind of used to hearing that, you know? Growing up being told that you weren't good enough or that you weren't going to be anything or that your baby better off dead and also people said that people like me don't change.
I didn't want to come back to Santa Barbara to be honest with you But I realized that I was doing the exact same thing that I hated. I was being judgmental, and I wasn't going to do that. How can I expect people to change if I'm not going to change myself? So to those who said I couldn't, well guess what I did. Having somebody believe in you makes a difference.
Everybody deserves a second chance. So I want to say thank you to the Food Bank of Santa Barbara County for being such a good employer, supporting their employees and doing whatever they can to make us better. And to Supervisor Capps. Thank you for believing in me and thank you for the invitation to be here with you guys all today. Now with that, I would like to read my invocation.
Heavenly Father, as we gather here today to install the Sistine Board of Supervisors I ask that you bless each individual present here today. May each supervisor lead with courage serve with humility and act with unwavering compassion. I especially ask that you bless Supervisor Capps as she begins her new endeavor as chair May she feel your protection and guidance every day as she faces the challenges ahead.
Help her to see through not a gentle lens, open her ears and hear every voice with respect and fairness. We pray that our supervisors and community leaders make just and compassionate decisions. May they lead with humility and listen to open hearts Provide clarity and unity, and address the needs of those who rely on their service and protection. The vulnerable, the unheard, and those seeking to live without fear.
May this board be a beacon of inclusivity, championing the rights and dignity of all residents, especially those who fear rejection or exclusion such as our LGBTQ community Because no matter who you love, at least it's love and not hate. Help us see beyond our differences and celebrate many ways diversity enriches our lives. We ask your blessings upon this meeting that it allows us to fulfill our responsibilities with grace and accountability.
And may we learn from our experiences. May it lead to solutions that uplift and honor the dignity of all. Keeping us 805 strong, amen. Thank you.
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I'd now like to turn this over to Mona Miyasato our County Executive Officer to introduce the members of the Santa Barbara County Board of Supervisors elected in 2024.
Good morning everybody. It's my honor to introduce the members of the Santa Barbara County Board of Supervisors that were elected or reelected in 2024. So supervisors as I read your name if you could please stand as I introduce you. First off from the first district, Supervisor Roy Lee. As you know, Supervisor Lee served on the Carpinteria City Council from 2018 to 2024 where he worked tirelessly to address community needs. Born in Taipei, Taiwan his family relocated to the US in 1986 settling in Goleta. It was there that he laid his foundation in the community and began his journey. He attended DP High School, Santa Barbara City College and UCSB laying the foundation for his academic and personal growth.
In 2006, Supervisor Lee married his wife Tina and together they have three children. Tyson, Madison and Ellie. And could you guys just wave so people can see who you are? And his parents are here today too. So please go ahead and wave that's fine. Thank you. He is best known for his family's restaurant Uncle Chen, a carpenteria stable since its establishment in 1991 fostering strong ties within the community. Supervisor Lee's journey from Taipei to Carpinteria reflects the best of the American dream and exemplifies hard work determination and a deep commitment to serving the first district. Please join me once again in congratulating supervisor Roy Lee as he begins his first term in office Thank you.
Second, from the 3rd District Supervisor Joan Hartman. Supervisor Hartman, who has a JD and a PhD, has represented Santa Barbara County's 3rd District since 2017 following three years of the 3rd District Planning Commissioner. Her priorities include renewable energy transition, community wellness through parks and trails, emergency resilience in addressing the needs of children, seniors, and the unhoused. She values government transparency and responsiveness. Her career spans academia, federal agencies and environmental advocacy. She directed the public policy program at Claremont Graduate School, taught environmental studies in government at Oberlin College in USC and worked with several federal agencies including the Congressional Research Service, the U.S.
Department of the Interior and the EPA She co-founded the Southern California Wetlands Recovery Project and led initiatives to protect open spaces in Bulton and Goleta. She served for six years as a court appointed special advocate for children in foster care. She also served on the Wilding Museum's Board of Directors, the Fund for Santa Barbara's Grant Making Committee, and the Santa Barbara Foundation's LEAF Advisory Committee. She is married to Jim Powell who is here today. Jim?
Has one adult daughter, three adult stepchildren and a three-year-old grandson grandchild. Please join me in congratulating Supervisor Joan Hartman as she begins her third term in office. And finally from the 4th District Supervisor Bob Nelson Supervisor Nelson is a lifelong Orkut resident and his wife Jamie, he has been married for over 25 years and raised three children Andrew, Avery and Zeke in their hometown. So Jamie why don't you give it away as well as your children?
A Regetti High School graduate, Bob earned a Business Administration degree from Vanguard University and a teaching credential from Chapman University. He began his career as a business educator and coach earning the 2003 Teacher of the Year award from the Santa Maria Sun. Bob and Jamie are also small business owners navigating the challenges of entrepreneurship while raising their family. In 2013, Supervisor Nelson became Chief of Staff to former Supervisor Peter Adam advocating for fiscal responsibility and infrastructure funding. Elected supervisor in 2020, Supervisor Nelson has spearheaded initiatives including a successful temporary housing project for the homeless, the Santa Maria Riverbed cleanup, the Northern Branch Jail opening and upgrades to public safety infrastructure like the EMS Dispatch Center and Public Safety Radio System.
He has held leadership roles such as Chair of the Board in 2021, Second Vice-Chair of Rural County Representatives of California and Vice-Chair of the California Vanpool Authority. And was honored with a 2024 Community Angel Award for supporting resource families. Committed to public safety, agriculture and community development, Supervisor Nelson continues to advocate for Santa Barbara County residents. Please join me in congratulating Supervisor Bob Nelson as he begins his second term of office.
Now will all the supervisors elected in 2024 please stand and raise your right hand. Do you solemnly swear that you will support and defend the Constitution of the United States and the Constitution of the State of California against all enemies foreign and domestic, that you will bear true faith and allegiance to the Constitution of the United States and the Constitution of the State of California, that you take this obligation freely without any mental reservation or purpose of evasion, and that you will well and faithfully discharge the duties upon which you are about to enter? If so please say I do.
Thank you And congratulations to each of you. Would members, would supervisors please take your seats on the dais? It's my pleasure to now introduce the 2025 Santa Barbara County Board of Supervisors. From the 1st District, Supervisor Roy Lee. From the 2nd District, Supervisor Laura Capps. From the 3rd District, Supervisor Joan Hartman. From the 4th District, Supervisor Bob Nelson and from the 5th District Supervisor Steve Lavinino. Please join me in congratulating them and recognizing their service.
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Well, now it is my honor to call to order the 2025 Santa Barbara County Board of Supervisors. This marks the 175th convening of Santa Barbara County's highest legislative body. I will now open the floor for nominations for positions of chair and vice-chair for 2025 on the county board of supervisors who also serve as the board of directors of the Water Agency, the Flood Control and Water Conservation District The Santa Barbara County Fire Protection District, Laguna County Sanitation District, the Santa Barbara Fund for Public and Educational Access, and other special districts.
May I get a motion for chair? Supervisor Nelson.
Yes thank you Chair Labadino it is my great honor and privilege to nominate the 2025 Chairman of the Board of Supervisors Laura Capps.
Second.
We haven't voted, we haven't voted. Hold on. We have a motion and a second. May I get a roll call please?
Roll-call vote Passed 5–0 motion and a second. May I get a roll call
Show transcript
Motion passes unanimously.
Congratulations Now we need a motion for vice chair. Supervisor Capps?
Chair Lavagnino, it is my honor to nominate my colleague Supervisor Bob Nelson as Vice-Chair of the Board of Supervisors in 2025.
And I will second.
Roll call please.
Roll-call vote Passed 5–0 motion for vice chair. Supervisor Capps? Chair Lavagnino, it is my honor to nominate my colleague Supervisor Bob Nelson as Vice-Chair of the
Show transcript
Motion passes unanimously.
Congratulations! So this is the time now for the presentation of gavels. And as the outgoing chair, I'm supposed to give some remarks but you know this board is all about looking forward not looking in the rear view mirror so mine are...I'm not going to have any outgoing remarks. I'm out. Yeah, congratulations! Saved y'all. I do want to take this opportunity though to thank all the people behind the scenes that make these board meetings happen. We think about it, it's you know this is broadcast on YouTube it's basically a TV production last 6 to 8 hours every Tuesday.
We have multiple locations until it's a logistical nightmare And so, first I want to thank CEO's office under the direction of our very capable CEO Mona and also overseeing the clerk's office Brittany. In the clerk's office our Chief Deputy Jacqueline Alexander her team of Chelsea, Sheila, Leah, Catherine and Sarah doing amazing job. And then in our IT department IT and for some reason we, you know this is what it is. It's 2025. We've got Zoom. We've got multiple locations. We've got all kinds of technical things going on. I want to thank Lester, Caleb, Jason, Carlos and Bill Brown.
Not that Bill Brown. One item that you're not in control of is production. is IT. So and then in production we also have Jeff, Jasmine, Randy, Martin and Robert. I want to thank our County Council Rachel VanMullen and her team and Amy that gets us all the information out. Our security which does an amazing job Gary Thompson and his crew making sure that we're all safe in here Kelsey, butita gherkins for all the pictures and all the great stuff that you do for our meetings.
And also very proud that in Santa Barbara County all of our meetings are bilingual so I want to give a big shout out to our translators Carlos Cercedo Fernanda and Natalia and those are the folks that never get any love up here but they are the ones that make it happen so big shout-out to all of them And with that, we are ready to pass the gavel. So Supervisor Capps come and get it.
I don't plan on using this much but if I do it'll be in the spirit of those who have paved the way for a woman like me to hold this office and the generation of women who never had the opportunity to serve Oh, thank you very much. Okay. All right, well I think the first order of business should be to hear from our newly elected supervisors those who are serving their second and third terms and our supervisor who has just been elected to his first. So my first order of business will to be invite Supervisor Nelson to make some remarks upon the beginning of his second term.
Thank you Chairwoman Capps.
It's
got a good nice sound to it, doesn't it everybody? As I'm starting in a new term, you know, I just feel a huge amount of thankfulness and I just want to go through and thank many people for this opportunity. First, I want to start off by thanking my creator and his son Jesus Christ. I'm not someone who necessarily wear his faith on his sleeve but it really is the foundation of who I am and I wouldn't be here today without that relationship I wanna thank the residents of Fourth District and the voters for entrusting me on another term to serve as their representative.
Getting to serve the people in the community that grew up in is my life's greatest honor, besides being a parent and a husband. To be able to stand in the gap and represent my neighbors and my friends in county governance is a huge responsibility that I take seriously with quite a bit of pride. I'd like to thank my staff, my appointees and the volunteers in the 4th District.
It's not about me it's about the entire team that gets things done. Aaron, Lee, Liz, Hunter, Donna, Roy, Steve, Brett and many others that volunteer their time and their talents to serve the constituents of Santa Barbara County in the 4th District. Lastly, I want to thank my family. I come from a long line of people who serve, from the military, those in education, medicine, public safety.
I'm a son of a minister and my mother spent her entire career in Santa Barbara County in the Sheriff's Department and then serving with Supervisor Labanino. It's that example that has led me to where I am today. Also want to further thank my family My wife, Jamie. We've been married for 25 years. She's my partner, she's my rock, she's my best friend. I can only serve because of the way that she is able to support me.
And lastly, I want to thank my children Andrew, Avery and Zeke who are here today. Thank you for being the daily motivation to make our community in a world better place. You make me unbelievably proud. When I took office four years ago this room looked very different. My family who drove down here together, I think we're the only ones in the room. And they were still asked to sit six feet apart to start.
You know and so it was very different experience and you know looking back the last four years see how far we've come. You know I looked at my comments that I made four years ago and the areas of focus that I had coming into office were fiscal responsibility, infrastructure Public safety and homelessness. And I'm really proud of the work that we've done as a board, and as an office over the last four years to get there.
Despite what you might read in the newspaper or on online blogs our county has never been in better fiscal shape than it is today. Thank you to Paul Clement and Mona Misato and the entire budget team. Our five year forecast that we'll talk about today looks nothing like what it did five or 10 years ago. We are in great financial health. Over the last four years, we've spent more money on public infrastructure than I ever think we have in San Barbara County history maybe combined. We have made significant investments in public radio systems. We opened the North Branch Jail. We are doing many things in this county to be proud of.
I'm also excited about what we've done in homelessness. You know that if you've looked at any of the polling has continued to be one of the top issues among all the people, all voters and I really think that our board took that seriously coming out of the COVID crisis and made significant investments. And I don't think you have to look much further than the Santa Maria Valley to see the work that can be done Hope Village, a 94-unit interim housing project. The largest in the state if you talk about per capita for a community as well as the work that we've done in the Santa Maria Riverbed where we brought people in our community that are at their worst out of a horrific place and put them into a path to success As I go into my next four years, you know really it's just continue the good work that we're already doing.
There are some places that I like to continue to work on. It takes too much time, costs too much and is uncertain for people to build a home or start a business in our community. We really need to tackle that as a board. We also just finished up our housing element and we focus a significant amount of time on affordable housing. And while that's a really important thing, we have a lot of families that need the opportunities that might come from those housing units. I'm also concerned about my kids coming back to our community and having opportunity to buy a home. In our county it is nearly impossible, it might even be illegal for us to build affordable housing for sale.
I really want to tackle that as a board as we look at the next generation future leaders of our community that serves so those are a couple those priorities I have as well as work on the weekly work that we do as a board. So I want to thank everybody here, I want to thank my colleagues for this opportunity and I look forward to getting to work. Thank you
0:33 – 0:412 turns
Thank you Supervisor Nelson. Now Supervisor Hartman, we'd love to hear from you.
Well thank you and I really appreciate everyone who's made time to be here today and join us in this celebration of democracy. And I want to particularly thank my staff Gina Fisher Chief of Staff Alma Hernandez Slava Megan who couldn't be here today And most especially my family, my husband Jim, Joanna, David. This job requires a lot of families because you're not there on weekends. You're not there many evenings and so I really appreciate the families of all the board members because you know what it takes from you But what I'd like to talk about today is why we do it. What makes it worth some of the tradeoffs we have to make?
One of the reasons, probably the biggest reason for me, is to be part of a first-rate organization dedicated to serving our residents Every day in county government, we touch the lives of people. At the state and federal level they're setting frameworks but we're actually affecting people's everyday lives. County government deals with real people on the ground and often when they contact us they've been trying to get help in different places and sometimes they're a little cranky.
But very often Almost weekly I'm getting emails from people and I'd just like to share a few of those. A resident emailed me recently saying, I just called your office yesterday in the pothole in front of my house today it's already fixed. Another resident praised a planner she said that planner who helped me with my project she was absolutely first-rate And a parent shared a powerful story with me about a co-response team saying, when they were called to my house during my son's mental health crisis, they were pros.
They calmed everyone down and got us focused on next steps. In the past these situations escalated to felony charges in jail. Your team prevented that downward spiral. They really know how to handle these tough cases. A formerly homeless man shared his journey. After over a decade on the streets, I got housing through the county first in a tiny home then at Hedges House of Hope and now in my own apartment. I'm working at Good Sam and at Hedges helping others who've been in my situation come in from the cold Or a message from a Lompoc organization, C4 saying that the self-healing communities project supported by our social services department and based on the idea that communities like people can suffer trauma and together can heal from it.
This program is creating change at a very deep and profound level in our community So when you get emails like that, when you're part of a team, a county team and family that delivers. I can't tell you how gratifying it is to be part of that. A second reason is that we really pull together in emergencies. Our CEO has been here since 2014 and has declared I think over 40 emergencies. And today we have windstorms predicted so we don't know what's going to happen.
So we're constantly living in the turmoil of threats from outside. Every Santa Barbara County worker is designated by statute as an emergency worker, so in times of disaster, we have to set aside our regular job descriptions, put community needs above even our own families and pitch in wherever doing whatever for as long as we're needed Time and again, our team has excelled under the fog and fury of disaster. And that builds confidence and trust in government. So I'm very proud to be a part of that kind of effort.
A third reason is that we up here get to guide the ship. Being a board member offers an opportunity Not just keep it afloat, but to steer the direction with meaningful initiatives. Think of Supervisor Lavinino's veteran stand down, Supervisor Capps' rent eviction ordinance or Supervisor Nelson's urgency ordinance to protect senior mobile home park residents. Or my efforts on the upcoming recreation master plan. These board initiatives make a real difference in people's lives and they're tremendously gratifying part of the job.
Finally, I have to say I feel like I'm part of the golden age of Santa Barbara County leadership. I feel honored to serve during this period. We have the best county executive officer in 15 counties in the state. We have a superb county council. We're lucky to have her, we hope we can hold her. We have a superb county council and a positive board culture that fosters collaboration.
When I first joined budget preparation felt like gladiatorial combat armor on and spears at the ready one member's gain seemed like another's loss it was most unpleasant Now we approach the budget with a shared understanding. We each represent different geographical areas and different political philosophies, and every resident in our county should be able to identify with one or the other of us so together we reflect the diverse interests of our entire county.
So I think we've built a board culture where we work to ensure that each board member achieves some kind of win What they need for their constituents. This spirit of collaboration was evident in our last meeting where we had a big, we've been working on this agricultural enterprise ordinance for many years. It could have fallen apart. We've had that happen in the past but it won unanimous board support due in part to Chair Loponeno's deaf leadership and the board members willingness to compromise along with heroic staff work from planning and development.
Everyone got a bit until we could get to that 5-0 vote. This stands in stark contrast, stark contrast to what do we see at other levels of government in this country where it's more like fights to the death and so I'm really really proud to be part of a team that were looking out for each other I'm sure with Supervisor Lee that's going to continue. This board really embraces the idea that all of us together is smarter than any one of us alone and we developed the procedures to make that happen so as I took the oath today, I want to express my deep gratitude for the opportunity to serve and now you understand why I enjoy it so much, and I also want to recognize the first-rate job Supervisor Lavinino has done as chair.
During his very first meeting my office had brought forward what turned out to be a very controversial ordinance, roosters. He handled it with his trademark levity helping diffuse tension and move the conversation forward. I think that was the only time he had to use his gavel Thank you, Supervisor Lavinino for your leadership. And with that I'm pleased and delighted to welcome Supervisor Capps as our new chair and welcome Supervisor Lee to the board. Here's to another year of serving our county together.
0:41 – 0:564 turns
Beautiful thank you. And now Supervisor Lee
Thank you, Chair Caps. First I want to say thank you to my mom and dad for being my best friends and always being great parents. To my wife Tina and my kids, thank you for always supporting me even though I may not. Just thank you. I'll keep it at that. Thank you to all my friends and supporters for being here today. I'm incredibly honored and humbled to have your trust and confidence in me to be in this position and to be working with you in the community.
Stepping this role, I pledge to serve all residents in our county with transparency, dedication, honesty and integrity. I'll emphasize the importance of listening and value diverse perspectives. My key priorities for my term this year, these four years is cannabis policy reform, creating real affordable housing solutions for our local workforce and develop our local economy to provide our workers with higher paying careers And focus on our quality of life and how can we make Santa Barbara County a better place to live.
I look forward to working with my fellow supervisors and our local leaders, and the community to achieve our shared goals so thank you everybody and I look forward to be working hard in serving you. Thank you.
And now I have a few remarks as the incoming chair. I want to first thank my colleagues for the honor of serving as the chair, I truly believe that what Anthony Rodriguez prayed for so eloquently you embody already and that is that you serve with compassion and you serve to lift up everybody regardless of where we come from who we are and it really means so much to me I also want to thank our elected officials and former elected officials for being here. Acknowledging former Supervisors Susan Rose and Mike Stoker who are in the house here back at their old hunts. From Goleta we have City Manager Robert Nesbitt and City Council Member James Curiaco Thanks for being here and being such good partners. In our education field, we have former school board member Kate Ford and we have Santa Barbara City College trustee Jonathan Abood.
Thank you for being here. Yeah, and we have Dr. Hilda Maldonado. I was going to get to her later but thank you for that. I appreciate it. And again, I want to echo the thanks to our outgoing Chair Lavagnino. If I can run these meetings with half the ease and the humor and the way in which you make people feel comfortable, I will be doing something right. And to Supervisors Nelson and Hartman, I'm so glad you're serving a second and third term respectively You bring such expertise, perspective. You come incredibly prepared to the meetings. You make me do my homework so thank you for that and to Supervisor Roy Lee, my friend, you radiate goodness. It's wonderful to have your family here and to experience the warmth of the restaurant that you built with your family shows me that you're going to bring the compassion, the warmth, the genuine spirit to this boardroom as well.
Welcome. And I want to thank our staff, CEO Miyasato, the hardworking staff of the clerk. Every single department chair head who is here, the staff works you really make this county run and last but not least actually second-to-last but not least are is my team. I have a stellar team I think the word is out about that. Chief of Staff Chris Henson, Daniella Aguirre Eleanor Gartner and our intern Chase Franklin, who I met because he was evicted in Isla Vista and the recipient of the work that we did here hopefully. So thank you for the team. We're ready for another year. And my family's here in the house as I should have acknowledged with the elected officials, my mom Lois Capps, my partner My wonderfully supportive partner, Dana Lewin.
And in a few minutes, I'll embarrass my son who will be playing the mean jazz keyboard there with the La Colina Jazz Band. Okay so to know me is to know that I love Santa Barbara. I was born in Goleta and I literally was raised on Santa Barbara Street. Went to Santa Barbara Junior High, went to Santa Barbara High School. I boast about Santa Barbara, I love Santa Barbara and now after being part of the fabric of this local government. I know how the sausage is made, I am even more proud of Santa Barbara County.
Everyone in this county plays such a critical role from our social service workers who literally are on the phone with folks to make sure that they get CalFresh and so the kids don't go hungry at night for our firefighters who keep us safe with those crazy winds last night. I was thinking of you Chief Hartwig. To our election workers we just got through another peaceful I want to make sure that this not always acknowledged work is acknowledged.
As I've often said, you know, I came from the school board. Children are my North Star. When I'm making a decision, I do think through the lens what's best for the children and that always guides what's best for the county. And so to build on what Supervisor Nelson said, affordable housing is probably one of the hardest Impacts that children face right now, because families can't afford to live where they work. And what that means for kids is that they're disconnected from their parents during the day and that provides extra chaos of the commute that those moms and dads and other caretakers have So affordable housing is the issue with the greatest impact I believe on all of our lives. Even if you're set in your house like my parents were so fortunate to do in 1974, it impacts everything.
Our businesses, we have Kristen Miller here from the chamber. Our businesses have a hard time hiring and retaining. Our schools have a hard time hiring and retaining Child care is scarce, poverty rates are climbing and congestion is worse and worse on our freeways because people again can't afford to live where they work. The solution that I'm the most excited about I'm going to list one priority here today and that is workforce housing.
I always think when I tackle an issue, what's government's role first? Are we leading by example? Are we doing the thing that we're asking others to participate in? And in our government, we can do a lot more with underutilized parking lots. There's one right outside here. To turn that into housing, I'm thrilled that Supervisor Hartman and I were able to get in that housing plan 320 units for employee housing. I believe that's just the tip of the iceberg and that every government agency we have some state representatives here Should be thinking, how can underutilized government land be turned into housings? Desperately needed workforce housing because again the biggest nut to crack when it comes to housing in California is the cost of land.
So if we already start out with that as Ron Wirth has done so brilliantly with Cottage Hospital at Santa Barbara Unified under the leadership of Dr. Maldonado is beginning to explore And secondly, I just want to speak to the approach by which If there's one lesson from the recent national election that I've taken to heart is that we must work every day tirelessly to show our constituents that government can work for them. Trust in government begins at the local level, it begins with us. I feel the weight of that sacred bond every day That bond is strengthened or weakened with every interaction I have with my constituents.
It is strengthened or weakened with every engagement that our county staff have, with every website, with every application, with every permit, with every payment that they make. That's where the trust begins and as much as I believe our government, our county government is good and full of well-intentioned people I know that we can do better when it comes to good governance. And good governance means our system delivers the intended results.
It means that delivering to the people what we promised, we said we were going to do. It means being responsive, humble and flexible enough to change the rules if they are no longer serving that intended purpose. Former Mayor of Chicago Rahm Emanuel recently said in an interview, and I'm paraphrasing. He said when the government falls short at doing basic things we end up defending the rules rather than the results.
And if the government is the problem or the rules and regulations have the right purpose but are no longer serving that purpose, we need to change them. We need to be for results. And I wholeheartedly agree. As chair in 2025, I will focus on ensuring that our rules are fair, transparent and effective and I work to change them if they need to be changed. I will look for the opportunities every single board item, every single decision to be a champion of good governance. And I'll just give you two quick examples. We have Jack Lorenz here from Dignity Moves, an amazingly effective innovative housing project for those who are most vulnerable or homeless.
But one of the reasons why it works and the results have been so good is because it kind of hacks our own California and county building permit system by having temporary buildings that can bypass a lot of the things that weigh down homeless shelters in other parts, other communities. So if it's almost ironic that the reason why Dignity Moves is providing Housing for our homeless is because it's hacking our own system and that's the kind of thing I want to solve. We know that permitting is expensive, costly. It's a goal that our planning and development department wholeheartedly shares but I see it in the context of a housing crisis, that if we can streamline that permitting, if we can bring down the cost, we will actually be doing a better job of serving the people that desperately need those houses.
And another example, second example that I have is cannabis. It's time to flip the script on a governance system that has placed too much burden on neighbors to tackle issues like odor. We actually know what works. We have a solution. And it's right before us, and I'm excited that Supervisor Nelson and I will be bringing that forward at our next hearing. Finally, I just want to thank the community for being here. It's one of the bright spots of being a supervisor is I get to sit up here on Tuesdays and look out at the folks who come earnestly to plead their case, to advocate for whatever issue that they care about. And it's very heartening. So I say to our staff We have people right in our midst who are experiencing the rules that we set and the regulations.
We have parents who advocate for their children, who are part of a criminal justice system that always needs fixing. We have tech leaders. We have great minds at Santa Barbara City College, at UCSB, at Allan Hancock, who are experiencing our rules and regulations in a fresh way that we might not have insight into because we're not applying for that program or going through that system. So the help is right here, and I encourage us as we move forward to let more people in to help us solve these problems and potentially change these rules. So 2025 it's a fresh start. It's a chance, I believe, to prioritize results over rules, results over process And again, as I mentioned despite these tight budgets and a very polarized political system nationally we do good work here.
I'm very proud of the work that we do and I know that we always keep our kids front and center and focus on the results for those kids in Santa Barbara County. Thank you. Okay Well speaking of kids, we now have a fun part of the program is about to begin. No offense to my fellow speakers up here but I am so honored that we have some participants in this program. Let me just find where I am in my new script here.
We have a poetry reading. It is my honor to introduce McKenna Heil who will be reciting a poem as part of this morning's program. McKenna, you can come to the podium wherever you are.
Yeah sure.
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Good morning everybody. My name
is McKenna and I will be- McKenna could you wait one second? One quick second sorry we're just doing a chair change here.
The former chair wants his old chair back. Just one second, McKenna. I'll introduce you. So McKenna Heil was the winner of the very first Santa Barbara Unified Poetry Contest last spring when she was a sixth grader at Monroe Elementary in the Second District. She's now a seventh grader at La Colina Junior High School, which is also in the second district. The contest was for all elementary students in Santa Barbara Unified and there was over 220 submissions. The theme of the contest was identity.
Students were judged on originality and creativity. McKenna will read her winning poem called
How Cool Are You? Take it away, McKenna.
As she
said,
my poem is called How Cool Are You and this is how it goes. I am cool but maybe not as cool as a gold bull. I have good friends but we don't do TikTok's silly trends We'd rather hang out, have fun. Things like watching movies tons. Things like using our imagination because in this nation I feel like kids forget that they are kids a lot. They pretend they are adults even though they're not.
They think they're better than all of us and like us But you know what, they're not. They're just not using the skills that they were taught. So I guess the lesson is don't grow up when you're 12 but don't live on the highest shelf. Stay a kid a little longer it'll make you a little stronger
Awesome, thank you McKenna. Next in our program I'm pleased to present a musical performance or two by the La Colina Junior High School Band under the direction of Stephen Hughes. Our local public schools as we know very well offer a robust selection of performing arts classes including theater, choir, orchestra and jazz band. The jazz band as the pride of La Colina Junior High School. They play in concerts and festivals around town and neighboring regions.
They have a lot of fun, I can attest to that. And they also learn basic jazz theory, harmony, ear training, jazz improvisation and performance. They are picking the songs that they're choosing. I have no idea what they are but I'm sure it's gonna be good so please join me in welcoming Mr. Steven Hughes and the La Colina Jazz Band.
Hi. Hi. Hi.
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♪ Thank you so much. We're so honored to be here and to get to witness through the back this incredible ceremony. Thank you so much for inviting us to be here and for hearing us play. I just want to quickly say that These kids are improvising these solos, they're making them up more or less on the spot. They have a plan generally but they're learning and creating melodies with their instruments that they don't even quite know what's going to come out right? So it's kind of incredible.
The first song... Jazz has a weird tradition of weird names and this one was called The Lady Knows Her Cheese So make of that what you will. The next one is called Lucky Seven, and this will be our final one but thank you so much for having us here.
Hi.
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Thank you, Mr. Hughes and the La Colina Lions! That was awesome. All right. I know they're really good. They're headed back to class everybody. Okay, well our last order of business for this ceremony is something I've been really looking forward to. Our keynote speaker. Gwen Lurie began her career as a journalist for ABC News in New York. She worked as a screenwriter for two decades and in 2019 raised capital through local investors to purchase the Montecito Journal and founded the Montecito Journal Media Group for which she currently serves as CEO and executive editor.
Gwen co-founded the Giving List Santa Barbara, Los Angeles and Bay Area. And most recently the Giving List Women, an international endeavor. Please join me in welcoming our keynote speaker, Gwen Lurie.
Thank you Laura and congratulations for your nomination as chair. Well deserved. I feel a little funny that my back is to the people I'm speaking to. So, I hope I look good from that angle. Good morning. I want to say it's a true honor to be here. I still believe that public service when done right is one of the loftier things a human being can do and I have the utmost respect for what all of you here have chosen To take on I will not turn around.
None of you are getting rich off of this at least that's the plan it feels slightly poetic for me to be standing here today It's a matter of public record that I was, and the Montecito Journal was an early adopter of Laura Capps. And also we, the Montecito Journal were the first to endorse candidate now Supervisor Roy Lee. So Roy congratulations on being seated here today and congratulations to the MJ for its prescience.
And of course, congratulations to all of the supervisors but particularly today to Supervisor Hartman, Supervisor Nelson and Supervisor Lee for being sworn in as new and returning members of this very important body. Many people don't know what supervisors do but much of what you do impacts the quality of our daily lives every day which depends on the very important work of this board.
I agreed to speak today and am honored to have been asked because this swearing in somehow feels more important than any normal swearing in. We're at a moment when our governance, if not our republic has never felt more precarious, at least not in my 40 short years on this earth. Did I say 40? Thereabouts. Consider the bizarre context in which this swearing-in is taking place.
Let's look at the mere one week that's passed since the dumpster fire that was 24 gave way to the dumpster fire of the first 24 hours of 2025. As Jerry Roberts said, quoting John McCain who apparently oddly was quoting Chairman Mao It's always darkest before it's pitch black. Suffice it to say, these are trying times and as Betty Davis said in All About Eve, fasten your seatbelt we're in for a bumpy ride but I'm not here today to talk about bumpy rides.
I'm here to talk about why local politics matters has never been more important And why many of the things that affect us most in our daily lives are under the purview of this board. I don't think it's an overstatement to say that we've never needed courageous leadership more than we do at this moment, and so the swearing-in of three supervisors seems like the perfect forum to discuss what good leadership can and should look like.
and has been stated here today by Anthony Rodriguez so beautifully, and other members of the board. When we think of good leadership, we think of compassion, thinking outside the box, walking out of your algorithms, listening, valuing diverse perspectives. But for me it involves some other key ingredients that I'd like to talk about today. First and foremost I think good leadership provides hope.
In fact, in the political arena, I think hope is tantamount to oxygen. It's no coincidence that three of our last five presidents made a hope—presidents of the United States—made hope a cornerstone of their campaigns. President Clinton famously campaigned as a man from hope. Barack Obama campaigned almost exclusively on hope. I think we all remember those famous Shepard Fairey posters, but even the wording of MAGA contains a hopeful promise that America will once more be great. MAGA promises a bright future albeit one that is steeped in the past.
If there's anything the American electorate has repeatedly made clear, it's that hope is an essential ingredient of the American pie. Hope allows people to believe that there are better things to look forward to That their participation and their existence matters. That there's something to hold on to and for, that the sun will come out tomorrow as Annie likes to sing.
People want to feel inspired and engaged, and most importantly seen. They want to believe that you are their advocates, that you are offering them a future worth investing in. There are plenty of human wrecking balls on the American political landscape. The counterbalance is hope so I think it's a great place to start. Another ingredient I think is important and so undervalued, is what I think of as the lost art of compromise.
Where did that go? How is it that we've somehow come to believe that we all have to agree on everything in order to work together? Or as linguist Deborah Tannen asked, when did the word compromise get compromised? When did the negative connotations of he was caught in a compromising position replace the positive connotations of they reached a compromise? After all, the U.S. Constitution was born out of one of the greatest exercises in political compromise ever on display Amidst our current winner-take-all political landscape, I decided to look into when compromise became such a dirty word because it certainly has not aged well.
The word has been around for eons. It comes from Latin and French and originally was a combination of com meaning we and promise which meant promised to arbitrate Quite literally, compromise was a mutual promise that each party agreed to give up something in order to create or achieve a greater good. At least that's what the word meant for centuries. The lauded statesman Henry Clay known as the Great Compromiser back when that was a compliment, was revered for his ability to broker compromise.
Clay said all legislation, all government, all society is formed upon the principle of a mutual concession, politeness and courtesy. Upon these everything is based. That's a pretty long haul from where we are today. The cultural anthropologist Margaret Mead said of compromise that we are a society which must be committed to a two-party system More, excuse me. We must be more committed to a two-party system than to either party.
One must fight to death not for your party to win but for the right of the other party to be there too. I sometimes think about modern marriage which of course is another institution that depends on compromise in similar ways. In our comb you could say we have a two party system that mostly works My husband and I have been married for 21 years. And not to air too much dirty laundry, but unlike the rest of you I'm sure there have been days in our marriage rarely though they are when one or the other of us has not felt shall we say 100% in love.
On the other hand both of us are every day committed to the marriage In the Margaret Mead way, we may sometimes disagree profoundly even profanely but we are equally committed to making a more perfect union and as the compromising framers of the Constitution once said. Foundational to compromise is of course debate Which is essential to working through problems. Debate even helps us understand our own positions better, especially when it's built on respectful disputation.
If in our world there could be more verbal sparring not to win but to arrive at greater truths and understanding imagine the bridges we could build. I think it's important today to give credit here to this Board of Supervisors, which has already done a great job of modeling a commitment to talking through difficult issues. We've heard about some of them already today.
The debate over taxation of cannabis is a fine example of a multi-hour respectable deliberation on the contentious issue that happened You've done the same repeatedly on housing and recently, as you said just moments ago, you did so recently on the Agricultural Enterprise Ordinance. I point this out because this is not true of many local governments where elected simply announce their opinions and then vote with scant if any deliberations. So thank you for modeling for us the value of vigorous debate and for your commitment to compromise.
Because extremes play a role in our society, in framing issues but compromise is where most of us in the vast middle can see ourselves reflected. The final ingredient of good leadership that I'd like to talk about today is what I call the unexpected value of inexperience When Roy Lee announced he was running for the first district supervisor seat, many questioned whether he was a seasoned enough politician to do the job. Whether he knew the ins and outs of the county and had the necessary political chops to win and to serve as supervisor.
I submit to you that it was precisely because Mr. Lee was not seen as a seasoned career politician that he is here today being sworn in and yesterday, in fact. In many ways, I see this election as a rebuke of politics as usual. I think this moment calls for us all to try to get out of bed on a different side. To think outside the box, to question some of the things we've long taken for granted.
I ask you, I urge you to embrace what I call Supervisor Lee's invaluable inexperience. To which I particularly feel a kinship because when I took over the helm at the Montecito Journal, I had never run a local newspaper before and you could say I was not qualified. But in many ways, I came to see my inexperience as a great advantage. In fact, I attribute some of our important successes at least in part to what I didn't know we couldn't do.
Les could you come up for a moment? To underline this point, I've brought a prop. We want to hold it up, honey, for the audience to see. Thank you. Prominently hung in our home is an iconic MAD Magazine cover which depicts Alfred E. Newman holding the branch of a tree with one hand while he blissfully swings from a swing that hangs off the very branch that he himself is holding.
Which, of course, is a physical impossibility There's no caption to the illustration, but I always thought the caption should be he doesn't know it can't be done. Therefore it can. We constantly hear how government is not very nimble, how hard certain kinds of bills are to get through Congress. It's easy to give in to cynicism and momentum and the forces of political gravity but I think Royley will bring fresh air and ideas to the Board of Supervisors and I hope everyone recognizes that as an asset And just as I hope and trust that each of the previously sitting supervisors will thoughtfully and lovingly take him under your wing as he learns the well-tangled ropes of this vaunted institution, I hope too that you will allow him to take you under his.
And I hope you will all occasionally embrace the spirit and the power of not knowing what can't be done. I challenge you to reach high, to know that you are only limited by the boundaries of your imagination and to understand that to truly win sometimes we have to risk losing. Santa Barbara's natural and human bounty is unparalleled. Thank you for working to make sure that this community we all love so much can be the beacon that can help lead us out of what sometimes feels like a very dark moment.
We've got a great team to get us there, all we need is some imagination, some courage and a spirit of compromise. Remember it's not a dirty word. I think it's useful to remember the words of The Rolling Stones. You can't always get what you want But if you try sometimes, you just might find that you get what you need. Good luck. I thank you for your service and for the privilege of speaking here today.
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Excuse me, I want to thank Anthony McKenna the jazz band and the wonderful Gwynn Lurie for inspiring us. For giving us the words that we need to set off on our meeting but first I invite all of you because this really is a family here in Santa Barbara County to join us for a reception in the conference room everyone is welcome and I hope to see you there and after that we'll get down to business thanks everybody I like the flowers.
Okay, it's still morning and I am actually calling to order the January 7th 2025 meeting of the Santa Barbara County Board of Supervisors. Madam Clerk please call the roll.
Roll call, called by Jacquelyne Alexander · 1 under review
Show transcript
okay
next item of business is the approval of the minutes from our last meeting which was December 17th way last year in 2024 may get a motion.
Move approval. Oh I'll second
and we have a second all those in favor say aye and I believe supervisor Lee abstains. Aye. Okay our CEO it's time for your report
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Good morning, there is no CEO report this morning.
Sounds good, we had quite the start. Okay Madam Clerk are there any announcements or changes to today's agenda?
Chair Kaps and members of the board, I just have a couple quick announcements this morning. We received your request from the department to withdraw administrative item number 10 from today's agenda. Administrative item number 10 is from the district attorney's office it is to consider recommendations regarding allocation of a paralegal position within the Office of the District Attorney with no requests to speak that withdrawal of this item can be added to the balance of the administrative agenda And 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 2 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
Excellent so now you move to the administrative agenda. Would any board members like to pull any items? Do we, we don't have one no okay that makes it easy. We will I'll ask the clerk if we have any members of the public who wish to speak on our admin
agenda. Chair Kaps and members of the board we do have a request to speak on administrative item number 1 and administrative item number 13
Do those or no we can. Would you like to do? Okay. All right, so then we'll listen to our speakers in a moment but first entertain a motion to approve the balance of, to approve the administrative agenda.
I'll make a motion to approve the balanced agenda that's all items except item 113 and the item that was removed by the staff recommendation which was item- And
that was administrative item number 10?
And that was IA10.
Second.
Great, we have a motion and second. All those in favor say aye.
Aye.
Okay so now that moves us to I believe we'll do the resolutions is that right or we go to the back to the okay excellent thanks. So that moves us to administrative item number
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one. Chair Kaps and members of the board, administrative item number one is sponsored by Supervisor Kaps and Supervisor Lee. It is to adopt a resolution in support of the LGBTQ plus community in Santa Barbara County. And joining us in person today we have Alice Fulmer from the Santa Barbara Transgender Advocacy Network, Luis Reyes-Martin from the Planned Parenthood of California Central Coast, Tony Navarro From our Department of Behavioral Wellness and John Savernot from our District Attorney's Office, as well as Julio Ramon from the Pacific Pride Foundation. If you can please join us at the podium.
And I will turn it over to Chair Capps and Supervisor Lee who will be reading the resolution into the record.
Okay, whereas Santa Barbara County is proudly home to a diverse and vibrant lesbian gay bisexual transgender and queer plus community. Santa Barbara County believes that the physical safety and emotional well-being of all residents is critical to providing for and protecting our quality of life and
Whereas the county acknowledges that recent and potential threats to the rights and protections of the LGBTQ plus individuals demand unequivocal and proactive reaffirmation of our values, and inclusively equity and justice for all.
Whereas hateful, discriminatory and divisive language especially when perpetuated by political leaders or individuals in positions of influence must be condemned as silence only enables harm and marginalization.
Thank you very much. Through targeted outreach and programs alongside providers like Casa Pacifica's Suicide Prevention for Students, PEI program. The Youth Advisory Board and Regional Wellness Centers end.
Whereas the county is committed to fostering partnerships with local organization advocates and allies to advance policies and programs that promote the health safety and well-being of LGBTQ plus individuals including the Pacific Pride Foundation House of Pride and Equity Santa Barbara Transgender Advocacy Network, PFLAG Santa Barbara, Planned Parenthood of California Central Coast, the UCSB Resource Center for Sexual and Gender Diversity and the Santa Barbara City College PRIDES Virtual Center.
Whereas as the county government, we reaffirm our unwavering support for the LGBTQ community and continue work to create a positive culture where every person is respected and valued. And as a board, we invite the public and those committed to supporting our community and work collaboratively for more cohesive and compassionate Santa Barbara County.
Now, therefore be it and it is hereby resolved that as a county we will continue to serve and respect people of all orientations. And we will model a culture of compassion for all.
Passed and adopted by this Board of Supervisors of the County of Santa Barbara
I'm going to be the first person to say chair caps and members of the board. I received the invitation to be here for this resolution, and I could not be more proud in 1990. As my brother lay dying there were members friends and I look in my beloved brother's eyes, emaciated to the point beyond recognition and committed to love and inclusion and support. Nobody should face oppression.
Nobody should face derision And nobody will face violence as a result of who they are and who they love. And the district attorney's office remains committed when an act of violence occurs, when a crime occurs based upon somebody's gender identity, somebody's sexual orientation we will respond. So thank you for allowing me to be a part of this.
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Thank you esteemed Chairwoman Laura Capps and members of the Santa Barbara Board of Supervisors. Congratulations to Roy Lee as his first part of business, he met with PPF yesterday on behalf of the board of directors staff and the Pacific Pride community we want to thank you for your efforts in creating safe spaces for our LGBT community here in Santa Barbara Thank you for continuing to support our mental health programming and the organization as a whole, as we aim to create safe spaces in 2025. Nationally, our LGBT community young folks 40% are seriously considering suicide. And so here in Santa Barbara, we have found that a lot of our young people as well are seeking those mental health services and those counseling services Thank you for continuing to be that partner as you partner with other community members and champion what it means to be inclusive, what it means to deliver equitable services and what it means to really empower folks who are marginalized.
To have the voices that they need to sit at the table to affect policy and to really be a part of the decision-making process that involves what representation means to them and what care and support means to them So thank you each of you for being that first line of our defense here at Santa Barbara County as we move into 2025. Thank you for your allyship.
Thank you, good morning Chair Caps and Supervisors. My name is Luz Reyes-Martin I'm here on behalf of Planned Parenthood California Central Coast. Thank you for having us at Planned Parenthood we are so proud to provide sexual and reproductive health care and education to communities all across the central coast and right here in Santa Barbara County We believe that everyone should have the freedom and access to healthcare to make decisions about their own bodies and futures, and live an authentic life. We honor and celebrate the diversity, strength, and humanity of the LGBTQ plus community in Santa Barbara County.
As a trusted healthcare provider for queer communities we're proud to provide compassionate care to transgender, intersex, non-binary, and gender nonconforming patients. We're committed to improving the way trans people receive health care in our community, including eliminating barriers to that care. We know how important it is for people of all sexual orientations and gender identities to feel safe, supported and cared for.
We thank you for this resolution and welcome ongoing dialogue and collaboration among all of our groups to serve Santa Barbara County residents. Thank you.
Good morning everyone, Board of Supervisors and everyone else who is here. Thank you so much. My name is Alice Fulmer and I am a board member of the Santa Barbara Transgender Advocacy Network known as SPTAN. The Board of Supervisors resolution today is not just one step in the right direction on the path ahead but it's also proof that change starts locally.
This resolution written in collaboration with various nonprofits associated with our community like Pacific Pride and SB10 is an example for how local governing bodies nationwide can support some of their most marginalized community members. In this time of relative peril for our community, immigrant communities and their diaspora ongoing genocides across the globe. This resolution sets a framework that has already been brought into action on the merit of the conversations that began it in the words of transgender pioneer and Saint Marsha B Johnson no pride for some of us without liberation for all of us thank you so much
I just wanted to say briefly everything's been stated in the resolution and by our advocates, but it was very intentional for me as chair to have this be the first order of business. As chairperson back in November we passed a resolution in support of immigrant and migrants in the face of new hateful threats, et cetera. And so I just want to thank Supervisor Lee for joining me in on this resolution as his first action and literally his first meeting yesterday was with our advocates to listen and learn and be together and uphold. We just had a beautiful ceremony where compassion and unity and grace was discussed and I just appreciate that this is then putting that into practice.
So with that,
we'll move on to the next resolution. A2.
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Chair Caps and members of the board, Administrative Item number two is sponsored by Supervisor Caps. It is to adopt a resolution of commendation honoring Kelsey Gerkens-Petita as the January 2025 Employee of the Month for Santa Barbara County. And I will go ahead and read the resolution. Whereas Kelsey Gherkins-Bedita exemplifies the county's organizational values of accountability, customer focus, equity and inclusion, innovation, trust, and ethics. And whereas Kelsey models the transformative behaviors of collaborative problem solving alignment with the county's vision risk taking data driven decision making and strategic thinking And whereas Kelsey joined the county as the communications manager and public information officer in 2022, she quickly improved county communications through innovative projects such as our County Our Heroes series.
Simplifying board reports for social media and creating countless videos and media pieces to explain what county government does. And whereas within the county, Kelsey has empowered staff to be better communicators by leading the public information team. Relaunching county branding to emphasize our one county, one future motto and has become a trusted advisor to departments and the board staff on all things communications. And whereas Kelsey is an outstanding employee who approaches her job with creativity, genuine willingness to help get it done attitude and eagerness to increase trust between the public and county government All the while balancing her professional responsibilities with her family life, which includes her husband Joey and their three young boys.
Now therefore be it hereby ordered and resolved that this Board of Supervisors recognizes Kelsey Gerkins-Petita as the Employee of the Month for January 2025 passed and adopted today.
Well, I'm Mona Miyasato the County Executive Officer and I have the privilege of honoring Kelsey as our Employee of the Month. And the whole CEO staff is here to join me. Everyone knows Kelsey she's not just the employee of the month for the county executive office but really for the whole county that all her work is really countywide and there's three things I just want to say about Kelsey that's already been said in the reso but one as she is super fast. I mean you ask her to do something it's done. She's a get-it-done kind of person number two Excellent work. We all knew that when Kelsey joined us from KEYT in 2022, from the quality of her work as a journalist that she would do wonderful work for us. She has done that creativity, imagination brought us to a whole new level and communications.
But the third thing is that Kelsey really has a public servant's heart And every day she approaches her job with passion and eagerness to increase the trust between the public and county government. And she does that with, like I said, eagerness and passion as much passion as she did when she won The Amazing Race some years ago. So with that, I just want to say congratulations Kelsey we really honored that you're here with us in the county in the CEO's office
All right, well. First off, thank you all so much for this honor. Chair Capps, members of the board it is a privilege to serve you and to work in the County Executive Office under me in Minnesota. So thank you Mona I really appreciate all the kind words that you just said and it really is a privilege and an honor to serve the county and to spread public information to all the members of this community which I truly care about and I love my job. I love what I do And I love that I have the ability to use the skills that I have and that creativity to really spread the county's message.
I have to say as a working woman with three young children, it takes a village so I have to thank my husband who also works full time but supports my career and is always a full-time parent catching all the balls so they stay in the air, and also our extended family. So my mother, my dad, my mother-in-law, they make it possible for me to really be devoted and put so much into the work that I love to do every day. So thank you all so much and I really appreciate this honor.
I did forget to add that when we announced in our office that Kelsey was our employee of the month, she was absolutely mortified.
Well, it's nice to just see some light being shown on Kelsey. One of many things you do and by the way I'm not surprised you're fast because you're a journalist and you have to be fast but the way that you do these are our heroes series. I encourage anyone if you're having a bad day, a little down the dumps, depressed just watch the YouTube channel of our county and the videos that Kelsey puts together highlighting the unsung heroes of this county are truly extraordinary so thank you for that work.
Okay, now we'll move to the administrative items pulled by the public.
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And Chair Caps, members of the board, we will return to administrative item number one that was previously read into the record but as a reminder this is sponsored by Supervisor Caps and Supervisor Lee. This is to adopt a resolution in support of the LGBTQ plus community in Santa Barbara County if we have one request to speak from the public on this item and we are going to Karen Hauenstein here in Santa Barbara.
Thank you, Chair Caps and all of our esteemed representatives. Thank you for receiving me today. I wholeheartedly support your resolution. Every single person in our county should feel supported and no one should be oppressed but we have had a situation created for us By state laws, which actually target our children in elementary school. And that is a problem for conservative parents.
That's what I'm speaking about today. I am speaking about the fact that no adult at all should be having a conversation with my children under the age of 18 about their sexual orientation. That is grooming. I do not believe that any school psychologists who are educated in liberal organizations should be having private conversations with any children in school who are under the age of 18.
So right here on the issues that are brought up with the segment of community, we have to be very, very careful that we are not normalizing bestiality and moving our community away from moral behaviors We also have to be very careful that we're not allowing our County Education Office to establish a method by which children under the age of 18 can be targeted and culled out of our population to become Future eunuchs.
You cannot change gender, because gender is defined by functional working testes and functional ovaries inside of a person. So when we're discussing these things and we're saying that there's unlimited genders, that is a lie And we do not want to promote lies to our children. I am going on the record, Karen Marie Hallenstein, no adult in this county or outside of this county is allowed to speak to my children about their sexual orientation ever.
Thank you.
Okay, Madam Clerk help me out here. I think I know that Supervisor Hartman wanted to pull item A-21 not for a separate vote so are we able to address that at this point or do we have other ones in the queue?
Chair Caps and members of the board absolutely administrative item number 21 was approved with a balance but we can certainly pull it to highlight great and before we go there we will take up administrative item number 13 that was pulled by the public
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Okay. Can you please read Administrative Item 13?
Chair Kaps and members of the Board, Administrative Item Number 13 is from the Fire Department. It is to consider recommendations regarding the Fiscal Year 2024 Homeland Security Grant Program HSGP authorization and there is a four-fifths vote required on this item. And we have one request to speak from the public here in Santa Barbara and that's Katie Mickey on behalf of Julian Gressler.
To Katie Lee, oh great thank you.
Hello I'm speaking on behalf of Julian Gresser co-founder of the Broadband International Legal Action Network and legal counsel to Safe Technology for Santa Barbara. First, we applaud the Board of Supervisors' vigilance over wildfire protection and its successful efforts to secure federal and state funding. We can all agree that Santa Barbara as demonstrated by the recent August 2024 Lake Fire is extremely vulnerable to wildfires. The Board of Supervisors Planning Commission, the fire departments and various community task force are to be commended for producing the Santa Barbara climate change Act plan and the community wildfire plan and other precautionary fire planning measures.
But there's a potentially fatal flaw which our comments today will address the significant risks of wildfires ignited by wireless small cell and macro cell towers as well as electrically caused wildfire dangers from the 70 mile Goleta load pocket power line are being entirely ignored There's special fire hazards of small cell and macrocell towers. Electrically caused fire poses unique risks including toxic smoke, hazardous firefighting conditions and complex evacuation challenges. The Los Angeles Woolsey fire alone cost $6 billion. Fire expert Susan Foster, co-founder of the California Fires and Firefighters well documents these risks in her white paper, How Risks from Telecommunications Equipment, Climate Challenges and a Dangerous Shift Away from Environmental Review Threaten Los Angeles Future.
We commend this article and be belongs May 20th, 2024 national webinar to the planning commission in the Board of Supervisors as a useful way to become rapidly informed on these important issues. Despite these risks Santa Barbara's current wildfire protection plan entirely ignores electrically caused fires from proliferating and densifying wireless small cell and macrocell towers leaving the region dangerously unprepared Violations of the National Electric Code by at least one telecom provider further increase the likelihood of fire disaster.
Local officials have failed to address these dangers. And so voting to approve funding for emergency preparation and management of wildfires in Santa Barbara is on the surface uncontroversial and a beneficial action, but there's legal deficiencies that stem from the piecemeal uncoordinated planning. And so they include consistency between the different plans you've approved, Santa Barbara Climate Action Plan, Community Wildfire Action Plan and CEQA exemption, NEPA.
And we are requesting that you meet with our, with Safe Technology for Santa Barbara and our legal counsel so that you can become well informed on how to prevent these fire risks. Thank you.
Our next items and that concludes public comment on that item. We will now go to administrative item number 21 Administrative item number 21 is sponsored by the sheriff coroner's office It is to consider recommendations to accept donations totaling fifty five thousand six hundred and sixty eight from the sheriff's boat been Beloved excuse me Bova lit posse, and there's a for fist vote required on this item. I
1:56 – 2:0210 turns
Good morning Chair Kaps and members of the Board of Supervisors and members of the public. I appreciate the opportunity to share with you some exciting news from the Sheriff's Office, and that is the acquisition of two remarkable additions to our team, and that's our two new Santa Barbara County Sheriff's canine teams. The first one is Canine Obi and his handler Oscar Covarrubias And canine Draco and his handler, James Caravana. Would you please welcome them?
I'm pleased to report to you that these two highly trained German Shepherd dogs were very generously donated to the Sheriff's Office via the Santa Barbara Sheriff's Benevolent Posse through the generosity of one particular family. That's Christine and Reese Duca. The Ducas have been longtime supporters of public safety, and with this donation they have now contributed six canines to the Sheriff's Office.
Their unwavering dedication is a true testament to their commitment to safety and to the well-being of our community. Obie and Draco are not just dogs, they're partners canine partners who play a vital role in protecting and serving the people of our community They're trained in patrol, urban tracking and specialized detection. In Obi's case it's narcotics detection and he can find a variety of narcotics including fentanyl.
And in Draco's case he is an explosives detector dog so he looks for and finds explosives. The skills that they have enable them to assist us in high risk scenarios such as locating suspects, tracking missing persons and recovering critical evidence. They also provide essential support for our special enforcement teams during active operations. With the addition of Obi and Draco, our canine unit now consists of five dogs. Three are in patrol, two are narcotic detector dogs in our jail.
They ensure 24-7 coverage throughout the county and their important roles And I just want to take a moment to again acknowledge and thank the Sheriff's Benevolent Posse and their Project Deputy Dog Initiative, which has been just instrumental in getting us the canines and the equipment and the training that we need for them in our county. The Posse is a nonprofit organization. It's been instrumental in bridging the gap between the growing needs of our agency and the constraints of public funding. And thanks to their efforts, we've not only acquired OB and Draco but we've also obtained critical other protective equipment such as vests, night vision goggles and dive team tools to name just a few.
The dedication of the Ducas, the Posse's leadership and its many supporters are shining examples of what can be accomplished when the community comes together to support public safety. And I want to just invite up Richard Klein, who is the chair of the Santa Barbara County Sheriff's Benevolent Posse and have him come up and just say a few words about that organization.
Thank you Bill. As Chair of the Posse, I'm here with my fellow board member Katie Bowers to thank you for allowing us to work with you. The Benevolent Posse as Bill had alluded is here to help assist the Sheriff's Office with their performance morale and effectiveness and one of the biggest things in our mission is to raise funds to help them acquire materials and dogs that aren't funded by the constrained county budget So thank you so much for allowing us to be here.
As we welcome Obie and Draco to the Sheriff's Office, I want to emphasize the ongoing need for support as we grow and sustain our canine program. They truly are providing an incredible public service and public safety assistance. Maintaining these highly trained dogs along with their equipment in continuous training requires significant resources So I encourage anyone inspired by the Duke's generosity to learn more about how they can support our canine program through the Sheriff's Benevolent Posse. And I just want to take a moment to apologize in advance for what the media may say about the first meeting of the Board of Supervisors of the year going to the dogs, but thank you.
Thank you Richard and again on behalf of the Sheriff's Office and the people that we serve, I extend my heartfelt gratitude to Christine and Reese Duca, to the Posse and to everyone who continues to support our mission And I just want to emphasize that OB and Draco are not just an investment in our department. They're an investment in the safety and the security of all residents of Santa Barbara County, and these dogs as you know become members of these handlers families. So I just want to say a thank-you and a shout out to them and to their families for the support that they provide 24 7 for these canine partners And they get very close, they bond incredibly well and they're incredibly as you can see well behaved. So we appreciate that and I was going to close with the quote sometimes attributed to WC Fields that you never want to follow children or dogs but in this case I think it's well worth it so thank you.
Thank you, Sheriff. Supervisor Hartman?
I just wanted to thank you for not bringing them in earlier. You would have upstaged our big event.
Yeah, it's going to add we had a beautiful ceremony with music and kids and poetry but it was a little bit incomplete until now. We have the canine so thanks so much. It's wonderful.
Thank you all very much for your continued support and thank you again to our donors.
Wonderful, thank you
alright
okay Okay, Madam Clerk I believe we now need a motion on A1 and A13. Are those together or
2:02 – 2:079 turns
separate? Chair Kapsen, members of the board we could take that motion together to approve A1 and A13
Salute A1, A13. We
have a second? Seconded by Supervisor Lee. All in favor on those two items that were pulled? Aye. Both motions carry. Okay now is the time for members of the public to speak on items that are not on the agenda. Madam Clerk are there any requests to speak on general public comment?
Chair caps and members of the board yes, we have 14 requests to speak from the public on general public comment. We're going to begin on zoom with Ronald Buckley to be followed by the yen and 10 Ronald's. And Ronald we have unmuted you on our oh you're here in person excuse me.
Board members, my name is Ron Buckley. I've been in the county since 1971. I'd like to draw your attention to things that go together for example coffee and donut paper and pencil bread and butter And now I'd like to draw your attention to an agenda item for next two weeks from now, which is the Senate Bill 9 and the telecommunication ordinance. They are joined as one.
Therefore you have to vote on them as one. Let's say this is the Senate Bill 9 and this is the telecommunication ordinance This was put together by a lot of good people in the planning department. It has a few holes in it that I'll talk about in two weeks, but they have nothing to do with each other. That's my point there is nothing in the Senate Bill 9 that talks about telecommunications. There's nothing and telecommunications that talks about Senate Bill nine yet you have to vote on them as if they're one item so my message here is to encourage you to find a way to separate these. I don't know how you do that. You've got a lot of smart people. I'm sure they can figure it out But it's to your advantage that you can vote on them as separate items.
Instead of just two items, you have four ways of choosing and that's my encouragement to you to do. Thank you very much.
All righty now we will return to Zoom with Leigh Yenanton to be followed by Leslie Weinstock. Leigh?
Hi good morning. Thank you. Can you hear
me? Yes, we can please proceed.
Okay, I'm speaking with concern for public health and for our children's right to a healthy future in a healthy democracy which is now under threat by privatized space industry and military industry which seeks to expand on the Central Coast. And Santa Barbara has already contributed $250,000 on a partnership with this organization called REACH Which is part of, you know, it's private space companies and private military companies for private profit wanting to use Vandenberg and to expand throughout the Central Coast. So I'm asking the City of Santa Barbara and the Chamber of Commerce to withdraw from the MOU And.
The further commercialization of space comes with a price of ozone depletion, of greenhouse gases, disruption of wildlife. I love the wildlife in the Santa Barbara Channel. We know this is a whale heritage area that is very vital with a diverse ecosystem and this expansion Billionaires for space profit capitalizing off the war industry is a shameful enterprise that must be rejected by all people of conscience.
There's an ongoing genocide and a climate catastrophe, and we must rethink our plans for the future to invest in Our children's health and regenerative agriculture in innovative housing, preventative healthcare and progressive people centered urban planning. Please withdraw from this MOU and just think there's the memorandum of understanding the board signed in 2021 to partner with the space command and reach which is a San Luis Obispo strategy group.
I was...
2:08 – 2:138 turns
I'm sorry, Leigh, it sounds like we just lost you on the microphone. Alrighty, we will now go to Leslie Weinstock to be followed by Anne O'Deal Thomas. Leslie?
Hello, my name is Leslie Weinstock. I'm a physician assistant though not on today's agenda. I have important information for a soon to come agenda item related to fire risks and property values. On December 4th the County Planning Commission voted for a proposed wireless ordinance with amendments in crossouts Together with SB 9, this will be on your agenda February 4th.
In this ordinance our opportunity to be notified, attend hearings, oppose and appeal small wireless facilities were taken away. Also there are zero setbacks and exemptions for CEQA and coastal permit hearings. There is no attention to 20% Decreased property values, no fire protections or emergency shutoffs. No monitoring of radiation, no inspections, no insurance for harm or death, no disability allowance, no environmental health or safety protection etc.
In addition, with unregulated ministerial aka rubber stamped wireless facility applications and permits the proliferation of cell towers will cause a huge increase of greenhouse gases and the digital waste stream which defeats the goal of your 2030 Climate Action Plan. Safe Technology for Santa Barbara County has 500 members Our core team and experts look forward to meeting with each one of you well before February 4th, to discuss topics including decoupling the Santa Barbara SB9 as Ron said from wireless ordinance amendments and vote on these two unrelated items separately.
Vote no on the wireless ordinance amendments Or abstain if you're not sure. There are urgent fire, public health and safety risks including electrical fires that could cost the county billions of dollars. Do not exempt wireless facilities from environmental protection laws. Please do not rush this through your hands are not tied Other California local governments have created protective ordinances that follow federal regulations and protect public safety.
Please meet with us and direct the Board of Supervisors and County Planning staff to do collaborative workshops with community experts. Thank you, Leslie.
That
is your time with the wireless industry. Thank you.
We will now go to Anne Odile Thomas to be followed by Thomas Becker. Anne?
Yes, good morning can you hear me?
Yes we can please proceed.
All right good morning dear supervisors first of all happy new year and I am a 30-year resident of Santa Barbara County with two teens and i'm talking on the same topic that Katie Mickey Ronald Buckley and Leslie just spoke about And basically on February 4 2025, which is coming up next month. You will be called to vote on an amendments on amendments to the county wireless ordinance and these amendments were prematurely approved by the planning commission on December for 2024.
I urge you to pause on voting on this ordinance or to vote no, on it. This ordinance is not protective for the residents of Santa Barbara County and is very industry friendly. The ordinance does not offer the opportunity for residents to adequately get notified of a coming wireless tower facilities being installed in the vicinity of their residence nor the option to properly oppose such installation and to discuss alternative locations.
It is time to sit down with the residents of the county and have a thorough detailed review of the current ordinance, and update it to turn it into a protective ordinance for the residents while adhering to federal and state laws. Other California cities have been successful at doing so And the county can draw on that expertise to come up with the best protective ordinance for its residents. This would still offer the wireless industry, the chance to install wireless facilities but would do so with a protective parameters stated in the ordinance.
I urge you to pause on the vote on February 4 and to open up the long needed discussion with the county residents. Thank you so much.
2:13 – 2:209 turns
We will now go to Thomas Becker, then we will return here in Santa Barbara with Marcy Winograd. Thomas?
Hi thank you can you hear me?
Yes we
can please proceed. Thank you. It's illegal to allow county housing units to be used for human trafficking. This includes the smuggling of illegal aliens and sex trafficking. Surprising that anybody would have to inform you of that, doesn't seem like you seem to understand that. The county district attorney has identified Santa Barbara County as a hotspot for child sex trafficking, apparently predominantly because of all the hotels that are here in this area where the sex traffickers will rent out or lease out entire floors of hotels.
And then as a tourist attraction bring people in from other countries to have sex with underage children who had been sex trafficked into this country Please do not obstruct federal law enforcement when they come to investigate county housing for violations of federal law. In fact, don't obstruct them, don't obstruct the Feds when they come in to look at any of your programs that receive federal funding.
Do not threaten any county employee who wishes to cooperate with federal law enforcement. Do not instruct employees to destroy documents or other evidence of violations of federal law. In fact, you should be advising your employees to preserve all their records for the coming audits that will be happening on and after January 20th. Stop instructing the sheriff to protect illegal alien sex traffickers from being turned over to the feds Which is what you just did last month when some of you people instructed the county sheriff to protect illegal alien criminals from being turned over to the feds, including sex traffickers.
What are you insane? It is a federal crime for an illegal alien to reenter the United States after being deported. And this is something that was brought up last week, I want to make this very clear. If an illegal alien is living in this country without being deported or having returned after being deported, that's a civil matter. But if they've been deported or they left the country under a deportation order and then come back, that's a felony. And I want to make that very clear.
I want to make it very clear to everybody there in government, including County Council. Don't obstruct federal law enforcement. Do not encourage your county employees to lie or to commit federal crimes or to cover up. Don't do that on January 28th. Thank you,
Thomas. That is your time. We will now return to Santa Barbara with Marcy Winograd to be followed by Martha Hasenplug. Marcy?
Yes, thank you so much. Good morning Supervisors. I'm Marcy Winograd, Chair of the Central Coast Anti-War Coalition, a chapter of Code Pink, a national antiwar organization feminist led Welcome Supervisor Lee and congratulations Supervisors Hartman and Nelson on your re-election. It's great to be here with you today. On January 26, 2021 Santa Barbara County supervisors signed a non-binding MOU budgeting about $200,000 to partner with the Space Command at Vandenberg and other entities.
The MOU supports the commercialization and militarization of space So, and it says in the memorandum so the U.S can be have a superior capability in other words dominate space as a war fighting domain which arguably is a violation in the spirit of the UN Space Treaty that our country ratified in 1967 to declare space a domain for peaceful purposes. In continuing this partnership we are committing the county to supporting an increase in SpaceX rocket launches 100 or more a year in 2025.
Each launch triggers a sonic boom. I'm sure we've all heard them, felt them. Is that an earthquake? Is that a bomb? What is that? Two a week to install more Starlink satellites for internet connectivity including battlefield surveillance and U.S. intelligence. Now each rocket that is launched carries with it 20 to 50 Starlink satellites that last anywhere from two to five years and when they burn out, they release toxic chemicals including aluminum oxide. Scientists say this release threatens our ozone layer, punches holes in the ozone that protects us from cancer-causing rays In continuing with this MOU, in some sense we are participating in an escalation of the arms race and in concentration of power in the hands of primarily one oligarch.
One billionaire Elon Musk CEO of SpaceX whose net worth I checked this morning according to Forbes magazine is 425 billion dollars So I ask you humbly to withdraw from this MOU, which came with a promise for economic prosperity. It's understandable we would want to agree to that. We want prosperity of course. The question is prosperity for whom? Billionaires, oligarchs, engineers who already earn over $100,000 a year. The 1% of the 1% who can afford to pay $500,000 for a four minute ride into space. That's what it costs.
I would argue this MOU will not uplift public sector workers in Santa Barbara or farm workers in Santa Maria. The county's 2024 budget was almost 1.6 billion dollars, 79% of the discretionary revenue from property taxes. Vandenberg pays zero in property taxes.
Thank you Marcy that is-
Thank you! We
will now go to Martha Hasenplug to be followed by Jim Yavarro. Martha?
2:20 – 2:276 turns
My name is Martha Hasenplug. I live in Rancho Santa Barbara, Mobile Home Park. Congratulations to Supervisor Roy Lee on joining the Board of Supervisors. We wish you every great success. We wish a good year for Chairperson Laura Capps. It's going to be a very busy year with much to do. I want to thank the supervisors for their prompt response to the request for moratorium on conversion of senior mobile home parks to all-age parks.
There were two unexpected results. The immediate and welcome release Release of tension and fear from senior residents of the 11 parks involved. We all breathed a deep sigh of relief, and were able to enjoy the holiday season knowing that our concerns were heard and dealt with by our Board of Supervisors The fear of an abrupt change in senior housing is terrifying at our age.
The second result is our family and the people who care about us noticed a lessening of our stress. We don't like to burden our family with our physical fears and financial problems, but they can tell when we're happy and when we're not. They can tell when we are stressed and when we are not. As you all know, when the teenagers and the old people in your family are happy, the family is happy.
Obviously housing is the most important part of everyone's life. I hope your holiday season was as great as mine. The residents at Senior Mobile Home Parks look forward to working with you in this coming year. Thank you.
We will now go to Jim Yarbrough, to be followed by Jacqueline Indah.
I also advise the board to withdraw from any MOU partnership with Vandenberg Space Forest Base and REACH, a policy group. There are better economic development plans that do not cater to special interests like SpaceX and which emphasize good health, renewable energy like rooftop solar and local self-reliance The SpaceX Space Force REACH proposal relies on the unhealthy paradigm that what is good for the military industrial surveillance complex and billionaires, is good for the people of Santa Barbara County.
If you want more sonic booms, pollution, accelerated climate change, more surveillance and less privacy, and a greater trance of global military conflict and nuclear war, REACH will get you there. But if you want a healthy future for your children, then please abandon reach and come up with a better economic development plan. Thank you.
We will now go to Jacqueline Indah to be followed by Miguel Avila. Is Jacqueline still here? We will now go to Miguel Avila. Carol Kernaghan To be followed by Karen Howenstein. Carol?
Thank you, my name is Carol Kernaghan and I'm a resident of Carpinteria. Congratulations to Roy Lee. I'm really glad to see you up there. You did a great job with the City Council and I'm looking forward to two years, right? When we'll get to vote for you again! I am here because we're really interested... There's a group of people in Carpinteria that are really interested in making Santa Barbara a sanctuary county I think for me what that means is that we're really careful about how the Santa Barbara Sheriff's Department interacts with the federal government.
I think there are certain protections through our state, but I know that the federal government is a last word on what happens to people who are either undocumented or considered to be not residents of the United States of America. I'm especially worried about the children There was a lot of talk about children during the ceremony this morning, but the children I would like to talk about are the children of deported parents.
What happens to those children? I know what happened to them in 2017 they were kept in cages Some of those children have never been reunited with their parents. There were no records taken of who belonged to who or who went where, and it was very disruptive not just to the people who are deported but to their children, their extended families, where they worked, their friends. These are citizens of Santa Barbara.
These aren't just foreigners. who don't belong here. These are the people that harvest our crops, that take care of our landscape, that clean our houses. These are people who have a place here and I know that up the line there are people who are criminals who do go against the law but I think we need to be very careful on who gets sent up to the federal government.
Mr. Komen is now the deportation czar who works for the federal government, who was the czar in 2017. This time he's promised to deport whole families. Well I know what he did in 2017 because he was a czar then. He did not deport families. He tore families apart and the fear that is now going on Hispanic community is just, it's ferocious. And Carpinteria has a lot of people who speak Spanish but they also speak English and they not only support the labor force that no one else will do but they support the community and they perform services for the community. And I love Carpinteria because it's such a diverse community and I want to keep it that way. Thank you
We will now go to Karen Hauenstein, to be followed by Miriam Lindbeck. Karen? Did Karen leave? Looks so. We will now go to Miriam Lindbeck, to be followed by Sarita Vasquez. Miriam?
2:27 – 2:313 turns
Good afternoon, Supervisors and Planning Commission. I thank you for this honor today. I am going to read this into the record. You've been made aware today of a number of concerns regarding these suggested amendments to the existing county wireless ordinance. I will give one brush stroke to energy consumption and fire and bring it down to a more local concern here.
Bloomberg just recently published an article on the use of the power grid and AI. And it says here that AI data centers are multiplying across the United States, and sucking up huge amounts of power. New evidence shows they may also be distorting the normal flow of electricity for millions of Americans. And they provided a map that shows about 770,000 home sensors With the red zones were the areas with the most power distortion.
The term for the issue of distortion is called bad harmonics and it may seem a bit esoteric but you can think of it like static that can be found when a speaker volume is jacked up higher than it can handle So this analysis says that three quarters of highly distorted power readings across the country are within 50 miles of significant data center activity. And this holds true in rural areas as well.
The problem is threatening billions in damage to home appliances and aging power equipment, especially in areas like Chicago and Data Center Alley in Northern Virginia where distorted power readings are above recommended levels. Distorted waves are just one measure of broader power quality. When homes experience good or stable power quality, it means that the flow of electricity for lights and appliances is being delivered at an even and predictable pace. The worse power quality gets, the more the risk increases. Sudden surges or sags in electrical supplies can lead to sparks and even home fires.
Left unaddressed, one problem can morph into another. That means the bad harmonics of today can be a sign of potential disaster down the road. So what we are looking at here my dear commissioners I'm asking you as leaders to take the time that this serious wireless ordinance deserves and calculate its overall impact on multiple systems and on the environment We do not need to rush. We need to move mindfully with a deeper awareness of how the local decisions will impact the bigger picture, and what the power and fire and environmental limits just may be from saturating every square inch of our lives and our environment with frequencies that are totally opposite of our present infrastructure and nature. So we are asking To perhaps pause this vote, vote no or abstain.
We have a lot at stake and we at Safe Tech SBC would love to assist you in educating more on the cell tower hazards that we have. Thank you so much.
And our next and final speaker is Sarita Vasquez. Is there a Sarita? All right that concludes general public comment for today.
Thank you to the members of the public for speaking today. Now, I'd ask Madam Clerk if we move to our first departmental item and for my colleagues it looks as though given the hour will take two before breaking for closed session.
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Chair Caps and members of the board departmental item number one is from the county executive office it is a hearing to consider recommendations regarding the Board of Supervisors 2025 appointments to boards commissions and committees And as the board will call each January, the Board of Supervisors consider appointments to boards, commissions and committees on which a member or members of the Board of Supervisors serve. We have two attachments to the board letter associated with this item. Attachment one reflects the 2024 Board of Supervisors appointments to boards, commissions and committees organized by board commission or committee alphabetically. And attachment two reflects the 2024 Board of Supervisors appointments organized by supervisor.
As the board will see on the screen momentarily, we will be displaying the 2024 appointments and will be tracking any and all changes as we go through the list of boards, commissions, and committees. I recommend that we utilize attachment one of today's staff report as our guide, and if the board members would like a closer look at the Excel spreadsheet as we are going through it, please switch your display panel to the video screen. And with that, I'm going to turn it over to Chair Kaps and the board for further discussion.
All right, committee assignments. This is a time where it's really a discussion here. We can go through, I guess the best way to do this is to go through each one and talk about who's currently on and see if we just want to keep status quo or switch it up. And I'll just give fair warning to Supervisor Lee that when I did this two years ago as the new person, I got the vast majority of the new assignments so let's see how they treat you.
Okay
let's start with the Adult and Aging Network. The current members was Supervisor Williams and Hartman.
I very much want to continue we've got a master plan on aging, I've invested a lot in it. It would be nice to get a supervisor who really attends because we could use that in addition to me so
Anyone, any takers? Would you like to? I would be
honored to take it.
Okay there we go off to a good start. Okay the second one is Area Agency on Aging and Steve Lavagnino is on that are you sticking with it?
Well I would willingly be willing to trade but if there's something coming up for now but if there's somebody that wants to trade something later on then I'd be interested in that.
Okay maybe we'll just, we'll table that one in a sense. Okay beacon I serve on that uh it's anyone want to join that? I'm happy to keep it
oh yes
great Supervisor Lee are we everyone good with that sounds good
and I think the alternate positions I've never been called upon to attend I think it's mostly a South County thing but I'm also interested in it but um I'm happy to stay on as an alternate and in that form
okay And Supervisor Hartman, I guess you're the alternate as well. I believe there's two for this one?
Yeah, I've never been called either.
You're welcome to. Okay and they meet in Carpinteria so it makes a lot of sense, Supervisor Lee that you're on. Great okay Jacqueline you need to tell Madam Clerk you tell me if I'm going too quickly here. Looks like you got it. Okay behavioral wellness, I'm pleased to continue my service on that commission That's great with everybody. Are you on the, are you an alternate with that one?
No I'm sorry it was.
Oh got it okay all right so now California State Association. Could you
sorry let Jacqueline she I think she's
oh yeah there's a
having issues.
Tech issue here just one second. Chair Kapsen members of the board my apologies this worked when I practiced but I can't add two names to the alternate but I do know that it is Supervisor Hartman and Supervisor Nelson
Okay, status quo was last year with the addition of Supervisor Lee. And for the public I know we're kind of moving through these quickly it would take too long to explain what each of them does so just forgive us as we sort of do some inside housekeeping here. Okay California State Association of Counties, I'm the alternate to that does anyone would anyone like to take that one on?
I'm spending a lot of time in Sacramento right now with RCRC. It's not an incompatible office, and you know it's a chance for any supervisor to get a chance to know what's going on more statewide so since I'm up there already I'm happy to do it to combine those services but at the same time if there's another supervisor that's interested in being a little bit more involved its statewide county issues I don't need to have that I just I'm just willing
It sounds good to me. I'm happy to stay as alternate and if you'd like to take over that assignment, that sounds good? Looking like we're copacetic there. Okay then we have SenCal Health. Supervisor Hartman are you good to stay?
Yes please.
Okay thank you for doing that.
Central Coast Community Energy. Chair Kaps, members of the board my apologies who was the regular member for CSAC? Supervisor Nelson
2:36 – 2:5093 turns
Okay. And for 3CE, Central Coast Community Energy, Supervisor Hartman would you like to move to the first slide? I would. Okay and I would put in my name for the alternate if that's okay with everybody. Look at this, look at this compromise just happening right before our eyes. Okay we are moving right along to the Child Care Planning Council it's myself and Supervisor Nelson as the alternate anyone wish to Enter that commission. I'm happy to keep it, but I'm also happy to allow someone else.
I am okay staying the alternate there.
Okay we will keep it as status quo. Sounds good. Steve this one has been all your debt advisory committee would you like to stay on?
Stay.
Perfect. I'm going to go back to my apologies I'd be happy to if it's the meetings are in Solvang a little tricky for me to get to in the evening sometimes. If someone would like to join the Communified Board, it's a wonderful organization obviously we have Supervisor Lavagnino as our alternate. Okay, excellent. Supervisor Lee is joining the Communify Board in the first meetings tomorrow but we'll give you a little more heads up.
There's a report you need to make. No I'm just
kidding. I'll
stay on as the
alternate. The food is delicious. Yeah they do have great events. Yes they serve a nice dinner. Okay let's see. I'm sorry that I got out of order. Yeah Community Corrections Partnership I have the advantage of the microphone. I would love to serve on that one. I've been on the JJCC, which is a partner group geared towards juveniles but I'd love to graduate up to the CCP.
Okay, I'm just seeing nods. Thank you so much! Now to the Debt Advisory Committee we already established that. Supervisor Lavagnino and Nelson are we good to stay put?
I would appreciate that as well, yeah. I enjoy serving on that as an alternate. Excellent. I only had to do it a couple of times for Supervisors Labenino but it's a great committee.
Okay we did, I believe we did homeless solutions. Do we need to just affirm that? Are we good?
I would like to continue. Okay.
I'm currently been the either the co-chair or the other Kiss County member I'm okay sharing that or I'm okay staying on if there's somebody who has any other special interest in homelessness. It's a good presentation of a lot of stuff that we're doing here, the work really kind of informing a lot of the cities and getting some feedback. Again, I'll stay if nobody else wants it but I don't mind if somebody would like to jump on
that. I think we'll stay with status quo there. Thank yous. Now to the first five. Awesome organization. I've been the alternate, does anyone want to take over that first thought?
I can take it.
Supervisor Lee, that'd be great. We good there? Okay. Golden State Connect Authority we have Supervisors Nelson and Lavagnino as the alternate
Yeah, it's part of the responsibilities through the RCRC. There are some counties that split up the Golden State Connect Authority and Golden State Finance Authority and RCRC. Our county since we've been involved has had one member serve on all three of those especially since we have to travel. The meetings are in Sacramento so it's kind of and they're out at the same time so it's more efficient for us as a county to have one person serve so I'd be happy to continue to do that.
Excellent. Thanks for making those long drives to Sacramento.
You're going to be spending a lot of time in Sacramento.
Okay, back to the one I just referenced which is Juvenile Justice Coordinating Council. I've really enjoyed my service there. I don't know if anyone would like to take that over? I guess I didn't realize Supervisor Nelson that you're the first slot on that.
I'm the North County. Oh, got it. It does allow for the board to appoint somebody in their stead so sometimes they'll be one of our staff members or whatnot and that's an option as well but I'm continuing to have these to stay as North County one unless Supervisor Lavender wanted to jump at that so I'll stay there.
South County do we have Supervisor Lee were you interested in that one? No. Okay continue that work then. Although I am on the criminal justice, it's the CCP so maybe it makes sense to spread it out? Okay I'll keep it together
and again you can as a I don't know if you've got a chance to do that but yeah previously when I was Supervisor Adams I was actually his representative as the Chief of Staff sure so that might be an option as well to spread that out a little bit
okay All right, we're making our way through the Kids Policy Network Policy Council. It's Supervisor Hartman and myself.
I'm willing to continue but happy to offer it up if somebody else like new supervisor Lee would like to do it.
Well is this one you want to trade? I mean what is so...I've never been on the Kids Network Policy Council. The other one that I'm willing to trade is Area Agency on Aging but I know you're on the Adult Aging Network. I don't know if those two tie together
Yeah, I don't know what you do and I guess you don't know what I do.
Well, I'm getting older so I'm more interested in what's going on now but...
The Kids Network does a report on children's well-being in our county it's really fabulous network of organizations that deal with children that meet quarterly and then there's a steering committee.
Like I said, I would like to...I'll take that on but then Want to trade it for something if you don't want to take area agency on aging that's okay But I mean, I don't want to do both of them. Yeah
So the area agency on aging when does that what? I'm trying to figure out my schedule so that like it doesn't
that's a problem It doesn't fit yeah, and I'm not I'm not a good representative on that honestly So let me find out for you real quick because it conflicts with something else on my schedule. Oh But we can go to another one, right? Yeah.
We'll come back to Kids Network and we'll go to The law library board of trustees, which Supervisor Labadino has been serving on.
That is the chair takes that. You don't really...
Or appoints.
It's not really... I never got called on in the whole year.
Okay. I did serve and they have regular meetings but what you can do is appoint an attorney which is what Supervisor Nelson did in the community so... Oh
good to know.
But it's important how our community members have access to legal resources.
Excellent, okay happy to step in there so that next we have the Legislative Program Committee Supervisor Hartman do you want to stay? I
would very much like to continue
and I'll throw my name in for that if that's fine with others to join excellent Okay LAFCO, this one's a big one. We have Hartman. I'm sorry I need to bring the screen closer to myself so I can see better okay Library Advisory Committee, also another big one. So I thought Supervisor Harmon you were on that but no.
There was a library ad hoc committee and I served on that but not the library committee and it's a really important committee but I don't have, it conflicts with some things and I just can't take it on.
Sure.
Okay, Supervisor Lee thanks for stepping up on libraries Okay now move to LAFCO. It looks as though three of you have been serving different terms, so we have an opening. Well let's just first start with those who have been serving Hartman and Nelson would you like to continue?
Chair Caps, I'd like to continue but I would like to move up to an actual full membership position. I've been currently been the alternate when I originally was going to step in for Supervisor Labanino kind of as it had been traditionally a North County representative. I was asked to take the junior spot as alternate. I would like to be able to have that restored and have me as one of the regular members potentially open up that alternate position for somebody else.
And if I might add, that's been the tradition. If you serve your time as alternate then you get on which is what I did and Bob did.
Congratulations Supervisor Nelson. I think you've graduated and anyone want to join then in the other positions?
Yeah we need an alternate.
Excuse me, Chair Kaps. Can we go back to JACC? I would like to be on there. Would that be okay?
Absolutely.
Thank you.
Thank you.
Yeah.
I know we're moving fast and we're not really giving these much context so and also too We do need to check our schedules because sometimes they literally are conflicts and if we need to adjust those once we see when the actual meetings are will be able to do that
So Chair Kaps, members of the board just for clarification going back to P for Juvenile Justice Coordination Council that's Supervisor Nelson and Supervisor Lee.
Yes okay then back on LAFCO so we have a Supervisor Nelson in that first spot, Supervisor Hartman continuing to serve do and I guess we do need another alternate Supervisor Lee, were you interested in LAFCO?
Would anybody else be interested?
I'm good. So if you're interested...
Then that'll be the... I've served on it for quite a while. Yeah. Okay. Excellent.
Sounds good. Okay then we are at the multi-jurisdictional solid waste task force That's been Supervisor Hartman and myself. It's
very, very demanding right?
Right doesn't mean very much so happy to stay on. Okay National Association of Counties. Supervisor Lavagnino are you interested in staying on that?
Yes I am.
Well with the vacancy in the alternate I would throw my name in for that if that's cool great. If you ever can't go to D.C., just let me know.
Oh,
yeah. OK, and I don't want to be going too fast here, but I think we're good. Are we good? Adam Clark. OK. Then we are at the Puff Psychiatric Health Facility, which I know Supervisor Lavagnino and I've been the alternate. Want to stay?
It actually really works well because Retirement Board and Psychiatric Health Facility meet on the same day in Santa Barbara, so those two kind of work out for me. So yeah I can do both of those still.
Great and I like being as an alternate particularly given the be-well position, so thanks. We'll stay with that and okay then SB Surge speaking of you're good staying on that thank you so much. Rural County Representative California
Very much like to be on that position, ongoing.
Okay then I think this last one before we go back is the Workforce Innovation Opportunity Act Board.
Supervisor
Nelson are you good?
It doesn't take, I'm pretty involved in it whether I'm the board member or not. I don't know Joan did you...
I had an interest but
Yeah, I'm happy to give that to you. It's only meets twice a year so and I probably will still attend the meetings just because I'm interested in the work that they're doing. So if you'd like to be the regular board member, I think that's appropriate.
Well thank you, I would.
Why don't you take it? That's very gracious. And then on that yeah is there an alternate? There is no alternate on that. That's RCRC.
I think we're designating as alternate.
It says RCRC oh you're talking about workforce.
Yeah okay
shoot I'm sorry. I don't
want RCRC.
No I'm not giving up. Okay.
Okay, I think we're good then and then we go back to the potential swap.
Yeah so the Area Agency on Aging meets this second Friday of every month which I checked on your calendar is open so no I'm just kidding I don't know
yeah no that would work
okay so then I'm gonna take your kids network yeah okay cool
kids for aging
kids were okay six grandkids I gotta know what's going on right good
See Supervisor Lee this is how we just work everything out. Okay I'm just checking to make sure
we've done
our assignments
2:51 – 2:5615 turns
Supervisors, I was just speaking to the clerk on the Workforce Development Board. I know it only meets a couple of times a year. It says if Supervisor Nelson is going to go we just want to ensure there's never quorum with the board so if the board would like to designate him as an official alternate that'd be helpful so that other board members don't go in. That would be great
actually.
Even if they don't require it at least that it's understood among the board.
Thank you. We need a vote on this?
We do.
I can give it a try.
Go for it.
Okay, thank you Chair Caps. I would make a motion that we adopt the appointments A through AA that are presented on the screen today in this item. I'll
second.
Okay we've got a motion and a second all in favor? Aye. Motion carries good work everyone. We got our assignments And that brings us to departmental item two. We will move to closed session after this item. Madam Clerk, will you please read departmental item number two into the record?
Chair Caps and members of the board, departmental item number two is from the Planning and Development Department. It is a hearing to consider recommendations regarding the Historic Landmarks Advisory Commission's designation of Cold Spring Canyon Bridge as a county historic landmark, and this is in the third district.
Good afternoon, Madam Chair and board members. Today we have a presentation on the nomination of the Cold Spring Canyon Bridge for a county landmark. Today I have Travis Sewards, Nicole Liu who I've known for many years and David Billesbach. And I'm going to turn it over to Mr. Billesbach for the presentation.
Yeah, great. Thank you. Hello Supervisors. My name is David Billis Bach. I'm here today with planning and development to present the Historic Landmarks Advisory Commission's designation of Cold Spring Canyon Bridge as a county historic landmark On October 14th, 2024 the Historic Landmarks Advisory Commission HLAC initiated and adopted a resolution conferring landmark status on Cold Spring Canyon Bridge.
HLAC found that Cold Spring Canyon Bridge meets the eligibility requirements for a county historic landmark as described in County Code Chapter 18A and is worthy of protection. Additionally, the Commission finds that Cold Spring Canyon Bridge is historically significant because it was completed in 1964 and was designated by California Division of Highways Bridge Department which is renowned for exceptional bridge designs.
It has a location with unique physical characteristics, with the view representing an established familiar feature of the County of Santa Barbara. It embodies elements of architectural design detail materials and craftsmanship that represents significant structural or architectural achievement or innovation. Potential board actions are as follows. Approve the designation by and confirm the action of the Historic Landmarks Advisory Commission and the conditions to be imposed, and adopt a resolution with conditions designating Cold Spring Canyon Bridge as a county historic landmark and determine the action exempt from CEQA Or modify the designation and adopt the modified resolution designating Cold Spring Canyon Bridge as a county historic landmark, and determine the action exempt from CEQA.
Or disapprove the designation of the Historic Landmarks Advisory Commission and determine the action exempt from CEQA Staff recommends that your board vote to support the HLAC nomination with a modification to the board resolution to note California Department of Transportation instead of Caltrans and to note landmark 56 instead of 57. We also wanted to note that the property owner, CalTrans is not opposed to the nomination has coordinated with HLAC through this process and has signed the HLAC landmark designation. This concludes staff's presentation and we are available for questions.
Thank you Madam
Clerk. Are there any requests to speak on this item? Chair Kaps and members of the board, we have two requests to speak from the public on this item And we will remain here in Santa Barbara with Tommy Garwood to be followed by Keith Goffman Gray.
2:56 – 3:0215 turns
Thanks for allowing me to speak. I received a letter that the bridge was to be nominated for landmark status and I'm the director of Santa Barbara Christian Camp since 1956. Santa Barbara Christian Camp has been had a mission to help people see an unexperienced God and we are 155 acres that abuts the bridge. And when I received the letter that said hey if you've got a problem with this speak at the meeting or you won't be able to speak at all. And I said I don't have any idea if there's a need to speak So I came with a question of, does landmark status mean anything as a neighboring property? Would it impact me at all? And so that was my question. Was are there any impacts to a neighboring property? We love the bridge and we love the work that's been done on it and we have a beautiful view of it from much of the camp.
That's the question.
We
will now go to our final speaker, Keith Kaufman Gray.
Hi, good afternoon Chair Kaps and Supervisors. My name is Keith Kaufman Gray and I am chair of the Santa Barbara County Historic Landmarks Advisory Commission. Today I am speaking on my own behalf. The Cold Springs Canyon Bridge was an integral part of the California Division of Highways project to upgrade, relocate, and align a seven-mile segment of Highway 154 in the early 1960s.
Those through San Marcos Pass. It is the largest steel arch bridge in California and it was one of the first major arch structures in the US comprised of all welded steel components. It is significant for its engineering and architectural design. The bridge is eligible for listing on the National Register of Historic Places at the state level under Criterion C. The Cold Springs Bridge is also eligible as a county landmark under Criterions D, F and G.
The HLAC Subcommittee on Potential Santa Barbara County Historic Landmarks decided to reach out to Caltrans District 5 in April of 2024, to initiate if the State of California would have any objections to a county landmark designation. Caltrans replied that they did not have any objections. They provided a detailed report created November 1994 that states that Cold Springs Canyon Bridge does meet Criterion C.
HLAC had an Initial discussion of Cold Springs Canyon Bridge at our May 13th HLAC meeting and at the time decided to move forward with creating a nomination. We had a discussion of the nomination at our September 9th meeting followed by the final approval of the designation as was told you today on October 14th. I want to thank Caltrans District 5 for being very helpful during the past eight months in making this nomination a reality we worked together on the final wording of the resolution I also want to thank all of the volunteer HLAC commissioners for their work in making this county landmark a reality. Thank you very much.
And that concludes public comment on this item.
Thank you to the members of the public. Now questions from the board. Supervisor Harmon?
Yes, I had a question about deliberations by HLAC and I'm of course willing eager to support but I just wondered about the discussion what happens when a landmark is Modified as the bridge has been. The picture we saw isn't the bridge today and I just wonder how you account for that or How that played into your discussions?
Well, we did look at if you're talking about the railing that was added to the bridge We looked into that and the railing technically is temporary so it did not really affect the integrity of the of the land being a landmark if It ever wants to be removed, it can be removed. So that's what we looked at that it is a removable fence that's up there so it was permanent. It probably would have had a difference on what we decided on for that but since Caltrans made it as a temporary fencing that is able to be removed without hurting the overall design of the bridge.
Thank you for explaining.
Sure.
Supervisor Nelson?
Yes, thank you. First of all that's really helpful to understand that a little bit more about the suicide fence that's there and how would this, I guess it's a question for staff, how would this potentially impact Caltrans wanting to do additional work on that bridge in the future? They're typically exempt from our permitting process so I'm just kind of curious on if they will have any impact.
Chair and Supervisor Nelson. Yes, so the way that this particular resolution is written is that Caltrans would come and present their proposal to the Historic Landmarks Commission and receive comments from the Historic Landmarks Commission There's not a requirement for a specific approval as there isn't some resolutions So essentially Caltrans would need to present their proposal and consider the comments from the HLAC
Thank you that sounds fair. My next question is Mr. Garwoods, have you guys evaluated what the properties that are underneath the bridge such as his or the one at least he represents how that would be impacted by a historical designation?
Chair and Supervisor Nelson, the bridge already holds a state-level designation and already holds historic significance. It being also identified as a county landmark would not have a specific effect on the adjacent property owners it would only affect the nominated structure or bridge as it were
3:02 – 3:0717 turns
My last question is about the nomination process. There seems to be an ongoing controversy right now with HVAC and the work that they are doing on nominating projects, and then also being charged fees from planning because we're obviously a cost recovery department. And I think, I know that's not what's agendized here but I think it's a question about that's good for this board to at least have that conversation. My understanding of the charter of HLAC is we're asking them to go out there and nominate things and at the same time we're not funding them to handle county staff to man that so I think at some point in the future we either need to restrict What we asked you to do, or we need to fund them to do what we've asked them to do. You know I think we should have systems that work and right now I think we're kind of starting to run into each other our cost recovery model Direction to HLAC to a mission that we're not fully funding.
And so I think we have some conflict here that I think offline at some point, we should resolve one way or the other because I think it puts our HLAC commissioners in really awkward position. Puts you as staff and cost recovery an awkward position. And I think that chaos needs to be resolved somewhere in the future. So I'm just going to say that as part of this item is that that's something that needs Resolved either we need to make sure that they're funded appropriately to do their mission or we need to reduce their mission so that it matches our funding. I really, it seems like those are the really only policy calls that we have to make as a board in the future. So just wanted to add that to it. I'm supportive of this as we move forward but I wanted to you know take this opportunity to make that point as well.
Thank you. So in response to Supervisor Nelson, I thought we gave direction maybe we just discussed it last time but I agree HLAC deserves a little focused attention on what we expect people to do. I think we've granted more authority than we're actually willing to seed, and then we aren't giving the resources. So I think we can expect people to volunteer their time and these are people with a lot of expertise so I don't know how you can bring it back to us but I think we need to be clearer about what we expect and what we're willing to invest
Yeah, thank you to both my colleagues. I had the same feeling after previous discussion but and so I support that kind of direction to go back to extrapolate on Supervisor Hartman's question. I just want to make sure because I mean obviously this is a incredibly beautiful bridge with a view to match but and the suicide barrier is extremely important. So I just want to confirm I understand that it's temporary and thank you for that or that it can be removed Thank you for that clarification on what you reviewed. But what if repairs need to be made, not removal of the suicide barrier but repairs to it? Would that have an impact on this designation's purview?
Supervisor Chair Caps, no we worked very closely with Caltrans in facilitating to make sure The designation would not inhibit emergency repairs and stuff like that.
Okay,
yeah
so there's okay so no implications for the suicide barrier just
want to
be very clear about that
yes again I've seen that was important for us too to make sure that that was separated out from their review authority. Yeah
okay wonderful though that answers my questions any other comments or questions from the board?
Just a general question would it be applied installed at the bridge saying that this is a historic site I mean designated That is
something HLAC funds out of their budget
and so it depends if we have the money to be able to fund a plaque.
Definitely, as you know, there was All Saints that was just done recently. There's another one coming hopefully next month. We will probably, when we get our new budget for 2025-26 that's probably when we'll try to put the funds aside to do a plaque. You know because we find that the plaques are great advertisement for the County of Santa Barbara I just went by Coral Casino this weekend and they put up the plaque that we just made so it's right at the front entrance and it looks wonderful Also Rocky Nook Park has a plaque now too. So, I mean it advertises to the public that these are historic landmarks and we definitely you know will be making plaques for these. And of course we work with Caltrans to find out where they'd want it.
Thank you.
Thank you. Okay, I believe this takes us to our recommended actions A, B and C.
So moved.
Roll-call vote Passed Moved by Bob Nelson · Seconded by Roy Lee
Show transcript
3:08 – 3:108 turns
Thank you Madam Chair, members of the Board. In closed session today the board has two items of existing litigation to consider American Medical Response West versus the county and Peterson versus the county they're both Santa Barbara Superior Court cases and the time estimate is an hour and 20 minutes that includes my understanding that includes some time for group photos and lunch
We should be returning at 1.20.
Thank you madam chair members of the board. The board was scheduled to meet in closed session on two items of existing litigation American Medical Response West versus the county and Peterson versus the county. The board needs to continue the discussion for closed session until the end of today and so prior to breaking again I'll reread the items and then I'll report out at the end of the day.
Sounds good. Madam Clerk please read departmental item number four. Oh, I'm sorry we need to clarify a motion That I bungled a little bit on D2. So we need a new motion for that, which is to approve B or D2, which was the option of modifying the landmark number from 57 to 56.
Yes, thank you chair caps and members of the board and just for a refresher for the members of the public department item number two is from the planning development department. It is a hearing to consider recommendations regarding the historic landmarks Advisory Commission stagnation designation of Cold Spring Canyon Bridge as a county historic landmark. And yes my apologies I should have caught that as well if we can get a revised motion on that item to approve what I believe was the boards direction was recommendation B I
will move to approve that.
Second.
All those in favor? Aye. Motion carries. Okay, so now please a departmental item number four we have two more today. Oh three. It's just skipping around here. Departmental Item Number Three Madam Clerk.
3:10 – 3:205 turns
Chair Kaps and members of the board, departmental item number three is from the Behavioral Wellness Department. It is a hearing to consider recommendations regarding the Santa Barbara County Behavioral Wellness Crisis Stabilization Services CSS unit and Sobering Center CRED 047 admissions report.
Okay. Good afternoon Chair Kaps and Supervisors, CEO Miyasato and County staff. Tony Navarro here the Director of Behavioral Wellness joined with me today is John Winkler he is a branch chief over specialized clinical programs in B-Well which includes crisis services and justice involved services programs We're here today to give you an update on the utilization at the crisis stabilization unit and sobering center located here in South County, both on the Kyrie L campus.
Both of these programs are funded by be well. and have been contracted out to local agencies for their operations and program service delivery. When I began as a director of Be Well three years ago, one of my first actions was to meet with all manner of Be Well stakeholders including community members, local agencies, our contractor provider agencies, as well as Our county partners. I asked for their perspective on what be well was doing well, what we were challenged with and they'd like to see us do different or better and any particular wish list items that they had. And while each group had its own perspective based on where they interact with clients and the community There was a common thread across all groups, and that was their desire for more locked beds capacity in order to better meet the county's 5150 needs locally.
And in there ask that the crisis stabilization unit at that time of voluntary site with capacity for only four beds become more operationally efficient and somehow be adapted to more appropriately serve the communities as well as their own needs and expectations. At the same time while be well was engaged in. At the same time when I was engaging in these conversations, B-Well was working in the north with Marion to help them set up their locked CSU to accept both voluntary and involuntary admissions.
And at the same time, the ongoing impact of COVID and a depleted workforce was resulting in frequent closures of our South County CSU. So together these events intersected and resulted in the decision to take the opportunity to temporarily shutter In this meeting, the Board of Supervisors met to discuss and refurbish the South County crisis stabilization unit to prepare it to become flexible as a locked unit and double the client capacity to 8 bits.
Additionally, In the fall of 2024, your board asked to receive an update sometime in the coming months on the utilization of the CSU since it's reopening the end of May 2024 as well as to receive a update on the utilization data for the South County Sobering Center. So now I'm going to turn it over to John for his report.
Thank you Director Navarro. We'll start with the next slide. There we go. So, we're going to start off with our Crisis Stabilization Unit overview and then we'll move on to the Sobering Center overview. Our Crisis Stabilization Unit is operated by Crestwood Behavioral Health Incorporated. They operate several other CSUs in the state, one in Napa and one in Fairfield, and they refer to their CSUs as crisis stabilization services Crestwood, as an organization is very client-centered and they just believe that the term services is a more client centered language than unit. So they refer to it as the CSS so that's why you'll see in parentheses the CSS up there.
As Director Navarro mentioned we reopened in May of 2024 as a locked facility capable of admitting folks both voluntarily and involuntarily It's an eight-bed unit, 24-7 services. And services include stabilization, rehabilitation, counseling, case management, medication services and discharge planning. Rehabilitation services includes things like helping clients access services in the community, activities of daily living, how to balance a checkbook, how to access housing, things like that. We offer medication services so we have a prescriber available that can initiate medication If someone enters the CSU and needs emergent medication or adjusts to their medication. And it's focused on a length of stay of less than 24 hours, although individuals can stay longer than 24 hours if there's a need for that but there is no funding past 24 hours.
The way the state reimburses crisis stabilization units is they only reimburse for up to 24 hours so when we have clients stay past that, there's no funding for that. We're just kind of eating the cost of that Sometimes it's required for good client care. So the next slide shows our admissions by referring agency, and as you'll see Santa Barbara Cottage Hospital is by far our largest referring agency at 81% of all referrals.
Next up would be walk-ins and then referrals from our Credo 47 Stabilization Center And then a small percentage of some other agencies and organizations. Credo 47 is one of the referring agencies because it works, it's a great symbiotic relationship both facilities are on the same campus so someone can maybe start out at the crisis stabilization center And get the initial SUD stabilization, but then there's a need for ongoing mental health stabilization. They can easily be walked right over to our CSU and referred there so that's why you'll see referrals coming from the Crisis Stabilization Center and other slides will kind of show vice versa.
Which is also called
the Sobering Center or the Credo 47 Stabilization Center. This slide just shows our monthly admissions since we opened in May. And as you'll see, there's been a steady increase in admissions since May up to 46 in November. So we are fully hoping and expect to see that trend continue as we move through the next months. We've had a total of 200 admissions since the facility opened in May This next one is discharge location. So this is where individuals at the Crisis Stabilization Unit are discharged to.
Forty-three percent of the discharges are back into the community, which would be their home, family members, things like that. The average length of stay at the Crisis Stabilization Unit is a little over 22 hours. And you'll see discharges in addition to the community, the hospital emergency. I'm sorry crisis residential treatment center folks are familiar with our CRTs we have three of those in the county one in South County two and North County so oftentimes individuals will be referred to the CSU They'll need ongoing stabilization past that 24-hour period. The CSU is able to complete CRT referral packets and facilitate a transfer into the CRTs, and at the CRTs they can stay up to 90 days so it's a great option for folks that need that additional stabilization.
Average length of stay at the CRT is about three weeks though but they are able to stay up to 90 days. Next slide, please. So as we mentioned, we are working on efforts to continue to increase utilization at the CSS or CSU. We started initially with voluntary referrals from Cottage Hospital and then we kind of focused on 5150 referrals from Cottage and then walk-ins and now we're going to be really focusing on law enforcement referrals. We've been open to all referrals since the beginning but just focusing on those As it's a new unit, new staffing, new provider we wanted to give them an opportunity to get familiar with the unit. The flow, the referral process, the discharge process become referral become familiar with all the different referral sources in the community since some of those folks were new to Santa Barbara County so it's a little bit of a gradual start but moving forward we're going to continue to partner closely with law enforcement our crisis services manager Connor Pierce has already had one meeting with both Sheriff and Santa Barbara PD to get them familiar with the unit and the referral process, and kind of work through the kinks of the referral process.
And then moving forward we're going to be attending some of the law enforcement briefings. We did that when we opened up the Crisis Stabilization Center so we're gonna do another round of that and schedule some on-site visits for law enforcement, and then regular monthly meetings to just kind of work through any kinks that the law enforcement agencies may be having in getting folks to the unit and onto the facility.
And we've seen an increase in community walk-ins already due to some of the community outreach that we've been doing.
3:20 – 3:3016 turns
I think I just wanted to What I wanted to add about the crisis stabilization services or unit is that that is a service that, again, is 24 hours or less. And it is also meant for persons... The reason it exists in the system of care under Medicaid and Medi-Cal reimbursement is that the research shows that two out of three persons who are put on a 5150 hold given the right intensive care and attention and wraparound including that rehab and discharge planning can resolve that crisis within a 24 hour period and B step down then to ongoing care. And so that's what makes it, that's why it exists in the system of care.
All right moving on we'll now focus on our sobering center this chart shows sobering center oh do you want to go back to the overview of the sobering center?
So we'll
focus on the Sobering Center, also known as the Credo 47 Stabilization Center. CREDO stands for Crisis Recovery Engagement Diversion and Outreach. The center is operated by Good Samaritan, and they provide short-term sobering services and also serve as a temporary transition space for individuals stepping down from jail into the community. So there are times when folks...
Oh, sorry. Yeah Yes I did so credo 47 is also funded by prop 47 grant funds So as you folks are familiar with prop 47 It's a diversion grant and the credo 47 stabilization center is one of the larger Portions of that grant that grant is scheduled to end in December of 2025 So we are already starting to look at options to sustain the sobering Center past that date our CRETA 47 manager Serena Sears has been working closely with Good Sam and some other agencies to try to come up with some ways to continue funding because that funding will end in, as I mentioned, December of 2025. Yeah. So individuals, so as I was mentioning step-downs from the jail. So there are times when folks that are at the jail they're ready to discharge, they need to go into residential SUD treatment Instead of discharging to the community where they're at risk of relapse before they get into the residential bed, they can go to the sobering center and stay for up to several days until their residential beds available for them.
So that's just it helps to prevent relapse and also helps to prevent recidivism back into the jail for folks that are struggling with substance use disorders. Individuals can typically remain at the center for up to 72 hours, so anywhere from 24 to 72 hours. And the center offers case management, alcohol drug counseling, transition support and medical care. The transition support is really important. A lot of the individuals that transition out of the Sobering Center go into some type of SUD treatment whether that's outpatient or residential.
They're also transitioned to mental health treatment, if that's something that they need and are interested in also. And that I'll show in the discharge data that we're going to show in a little bit. The Sobering Center also provides a lot of transportation so if someone is discharging from the jail, the Sobering Center can go up the hill pick them up and bring them back. They also help with transportation post-discharge and they'll help the person get to their residential treatment center or their recovery residence wherever it is that they're needing to go upon discharge.
We also have step-down housing associated with the Sobering Center. So that's 15 male beds and five female beds, so if folks are interested in ongoing services within the Credo 47 funding they can move into the step down housing if that's something that they choose. Okay. We'll move on to admissions by referral agency for the CSU, or excuse me, for the Sobering Center. So fiscal year 23-24 most of the referrals came from the hospitals similar to our crisis stabilization unit.
However in 24-25 we've seen a larger increase in referrals from the community. And we attribute that to folks coming back to the center maybe they were referred initially by law enforcement They had a good experience. They went back home, maybe they relapsed and now they're self-referring. So that's why there's been an increase in referrals from the community.
And then you'll see referrals from law enforcement. So
another reason that we, another reason that we and you'll see in the graph on the next page there was a change in how they led the operations and management at the sobering center last January I think it was. And as a result there's been a lot more community engagement and again that community outreach and we see the community more actively seeking that service for their loved ones and themselves Okay,
law
enforcement referrals.
Right, you'll see 18% admission from law enforcement in 23-24.
All right we got I'm sorry. 13% so far. You wrote this good. So referrals from law enforcement represented about 18% of admissions of course in 23- 24 and we've seen a bit of a dip so far this year but overall the number of referrals to the sobering center is really promising as you see we said 820 in the full fiscal year 23- 24 and just five months in This is just a graph to show you in a different way similar to the crisis stabilization unit that the projected upward trend we are seeing. Of course there are some months where there are fewer, but we do see a steady growing Request for that from partners and the community.
All right, so these were discharge locations for the Sobering Center. So in both 23-24 and to date as of November 30th it's about 60% of folks from the sobering center go back to the community or home meaning back to if they were in congregate living or their recovery residence or if they were at home with family The average length of stay in 23-24 was 40 hours and 20 minutes. We've seen a slight upward tick of 44 hours and 39 minutes this year.
Again, we also have seen a higher utilization so again that limited number of beds with more people seeking them It tends to sometimes expand the average length of stay. But again, this is a service that goes up to 72 hours and can even go beyond if needed if someone is waiting for placement and really desires to be there to avoid relapse. You'll see here that some of the discharges, the predominant number of them after a community and home are to substance use disorder treatment centers. And so again they work very actively to help folks find the right level of care at the right time and support that including Transportation, which is really excellent. We do have some folks being discharged to the hospital who during their stay as they come down off of whatever drug or alcohol they've been under the influence it is evident that they need some ongoing medical care so they are transported to the hospital for further care and Some of them directly to their treatment teams
And this is discharge location, so where the SUD treatment is usually residential. If they're discharged to the community or home, they're still referred to outpatient services.
Thank you for that clarification, yes. So in similar to the CSU, we wanted to provide you with information as to what we're doing to increase effective utilization at the sobering center ongoing. So we're looking at focusing this process to be really expedited for law enforcement to drop folks off and they were created a workspace there at the site to allow officers to minimize your downtime and have a place to get reports done and things like that.
Dr. Serena Sear, who is our manager of this grant and program attends law enforcement briefings with field officers and deputies. She works closely at the site as well with the staff there in helping with clinical assessment and operations as needed. We also schedule on-site visits to the Sobering Center with all law enforcement, including sheriffs. So those are in process now with our crisis manager and Credo 47 manager to get those done for both the Sobering Center and the CSU.
I know that when, I know one of John's talking points that he was going to share with you all is when the Sobering Center did open they had a big open house and they had law enforcement partners come walking through and that really helped for them to get to know the staff To see where things are located and help to facilitate referrals and access in utilization.
And similar to the Crisis Stabilization Unit, there will be regular monthly meetings to address barriers to law enforcement drop-offs with Sheriff and SBPD. That concludes our update on the utilization of those two programs here in South County. The action is for you just to receive the presentation, but are there any questions for us?
Thank you so much for that presentation. I'm going to check first with the clerk to see if we have a request to speak.
Chair Kaps and members of the board, we do have one request to speak and is Lynn Gibbs still here or online? Unfortunately, we have no further requests to speak on this item.
Okay then I turn turn to my colleagues on the board if there's any questions or comments Supervisor Levin?
Yeah, I'm just curious on staffing so I know previously that we'd kind of bounced people back and forth from the puffed CSU how the rate and now that we see this big increase How are we handling that and what are we looking at there?
So the CSU is now contracted to Crestwood Behavioral Health, and so they fully staff it. And they have from day one been fully staffed to capacity for eight beds.
3:31 – 3:3711 turns
Supervisor Lee? Thank you Chair Kapsch. Is this specific to Suffolk County or does it include you working with Lombok PD, Selma PD too?
Yes, we work with Santa Barbara Police Department. I don't know and I'm going to toss that to Connor to see if we've engaged with Lompoc PD. I know that Lompoc Medical Center does utilize our crisis stabilization unit but...
We have with the Sobering Center. We do get some referrals from Lompok for the sobering center We have not specifically reached out to Lompoc yet, law enforcement wise for the Crisis Stabilization Center. But that's something that we're going to be doing with our outreach that we're doing in the open house they'll have invites will also be going to Lompoc and visiting their shift changes to kind of get them familiar if they're able to bring someone down from Lompok it's such a short stay that sometimes that's a little bit of a challenge but if they're willing to do that we're more than happy to accept folks from Lompc.
Their automatic is to go north. They frequently utilize the Marion Hospital Crisis Stabilization Unit there, and there is a sobering center that will be opening soon in Lompoc.
Well
I just wonder, will we then be at capacity? How do we match the need or demand with what we're able to provide. Do we think we're going to be in a steady state over the next couple years with this outreach and being more fully utilized? We didn't have enough utilization now we're trying to get redesign it, make it more user-friendly and exactly what people need. And now we're starting to see more people come and use it.
What's our max? Do we need to be thinking down the road we need more or will this seem to do it?
So if you go back to last, I think it was last month we presented to you and went over the application for the round one bond behavioral health infrastructure program. And that was a look down the road if you will. That permanent sobering center site which we've applied for to put in the new building is that we'll have capacity for 14 beds instead of 10 so that's increasing capacity for the sobering center and then of course it has an expansion of our psychiatric health facility with eight more locked beds in addition to these eight beds at the CSU and the current 16 in the psychiatric health facility.
So I think that this next year will tell. And I really appreciate the gearing up that the team is doing with all of the outreach and setting up the regular meetings with law enforcement across the county, and particularly focusing on South County as we head towards Senate Bill 43 implementation in the summer, and now that we have CARE Act. So I think that and hope that we'll be seeing higher utilization in the CSU. As you see, we're on trend to really get there so within five months we've doubled.
So we're basically building out our system, so we've got places up and down to send people and incrementally and will adjust as we go because there's no set formula like how many parks per 10,000 people there's nothing like that.
There are estimates based on Research that says in any given population of this size, there are X percentage of folks who will have a crisis. That doesn't mean that that will happen or it will be to that level. It could be less and it could be more depending on what's happening in the environment as well as the society that that county is experiencing so I think that we're in a place right now where we've got some extra space. We're incrementally doing that, but again as always noted, we're also looking at other parts of our system, the clinical outpatient, these step down parts of our system to ensure that we are fortifying them at the same time so that we have, we'r creating flow and we're trying to minimize that water balloon effect where you squeeze here and it all bubbles up over here.
Thank you for this presentation it's good to see the efforts being made to again help people and also keep them out of jail when really what they need is addiction treatment. And so I just was curious if you could speak to, you have it in the presentation about the meetings monthly meetings with law enforcement but how How, what can you elaborate on the communication? Is it more of a lack of awareness that the referrals are so seemingly low or is it are there barriers? Can you just elaborate on sort of whatever the obstacles there.
Yeah, I think when we operated the CSU previously B-Well did it was much more of a medical model and it was a voluntary unit. And we did have issues with law enforcement coming trying to drop folks off maybe they weren't medically appropriate for the facility and as soon as law enforcement gets a little bit of bad taste in their mouth It's hard to kind of undo that and so that's why we were very purposeful when we started this CSU under Crestwood that we had a very different model and a very different philosophy and they're very very welcoming We haven't had any issues with them turning somebody away.
And so we're really hopeful that as law enforcement starts to use that and get familiar with it, they'll be using it more. What we hear from law enforcement is that if I can take him to the jail and book him in 10 minutes and it takes me 20 minutes to take him to the Sobering Center or the CSS and I have to wait there 20 minutes, I'm going to take him to jail because that's a shorter route. So we have to compete with that and that's something that Dr. Sear has done at the Sobering Center They designed a referral form specifically for law enforcement with law enforcement input. Law enforcement can fill it out, drop the individual off with the referral form. They can intake someone within about five minutes on average and then law enforcement can be on their way back to doing what you know they're important work of policing the streets and I know you can't put a number on it necessarily but the fact that 18% of the referrals come from law enforcement, what would be a number that you aspire to?
3:37 – 3:4218 turns
Are we moving towards doubling that? Maybe it's, I don't mean to pin you down on a number but are there other examples of other jurisdictions or counties where most of the referrals are coming from law enforcement.
Yeah, there are yeah we definitely would like to double that. Yeah. Okay at least I've been to a couple presentations I think Dr Sear has two about the sobering center in Santa Cruz which has a really really unique model. It's funded partly by the sheriff partly general funds partly some other things but it's Santa Cruz County of the Sheriff explicitly said Don't bring anybody to my jail if it's public intoxication, first time DUI. It's an automatic diversion to the Sobering Center. He won't even book them into his jail and he's made that clear with all of the law enforcement agencies in Santa Cruz County so it's an automatic drop off at the Sobering Center for any of those types of charges and then the sobering center kind of handles that individual and they see a lot more referrals than we do right now So we definitely think we can increase that.
We're not going to get to that model probably here, but something similar where we can really encourage law enforcement that this is a much better place for someone to sober up than in jail. If they're not dangerous and they're not a risk to the community, they don't need to sit in a jail to sober up. They can come to the sobering center and do that. That saves the jail a ton of time and booking. It saves on manpower and person hours.
And it's just a much better humane way of treating the community I think too. So that's something that we're definitely focusing on.
Wow Santa Cruz interesting. So I know you can't share demographic information, I'm just curious representing City College as well as UCSB what percentage of people are young people? And you can define that however you would like.
She's the manager of the Credo 47 Sobering Center.
I know the majority is, we do separate demographics. It's fairly small like a college population. It is? It is it's not hugely utilized. We have been more recently working with IVPD to identify that population and have had some Communication that was actually the police department that we used to develop the form.
Okay,
and that we worked with but it has not its Probably under like 15%. Okay? Yeah, the majority is like a big great 60
Thank you for that reminder. That's a great place for us to focus future.
I mean does that mean that they're They're ending up in jail. Do you have answers do you know who do you know that probably? My last question just has to
do is I was intrigued by the walk-in number and you explained it a little bit about community awareness and partners but it just made me curious like
how would someone know to walk in
to a sobering unit, maybe they've been there before or can you elaborate on this please?
That's definitely the majority. So the community referrals are almost entirely people who had been there before and so we had prior referrals from the hospital treatment providers from sobering centers and recognized that they had had a positive experience and then self-refer that's either by themselves their family or friends that will come and bring them in recognizing that they need that opportunity to receive sobering and then they're brought in
Well, thank you all for the work that you do. I can't imagine how hard it is. Thank you for running these centers and for giving us this update and seeing how the referrals are expanding and the more cooperation is being made with law enforcement. It's good to hear.
Thank
you.
I think that might be it for questions or comments from the board. So that Supervisor Hartman, I believe you asked for this motion or asked for this item Yeah, let's see. I can help you out there. I believe it's A B and I think it's just A and B. Yes. Okay. I'll second. Okay. Seconded by Supervisor Lee all in favor please say aye. Aye. Thank you. Motion carries thanks so much appreciate
it.
3:42 – 3:515 turns
Okay, Madam Clerk we can
move on to the next item. I've lost track of my numbers already. I think it's four there
we go. Chair Kaps and members of the board departmental item number four is from the county executive office. It is a hearing to consider recommendations regarding the 2024 annual report and accomplishments from federal and state legislative advocates in the 2025 legislative platform adoption.
Good afternoon chair caps and supervisors. It's my pleasure to present this item today along with Don Gilchrist of Thomas Walters and Associates. He is our federal advocate, and our state advocates Gene Hurst and Josh Goger of Hurst Brooks Espinoza who are here to highlight federal and state activities over the past year as well as cover some items to watch in the year to come.
In addition I will be presenting the proposed 2025 legislative platform for your consideration And at this time I will invite Mr. Gilchrist up to the podium to cover the federal portion of our presentation.
Thank you, Chair Kapsa and members of the board. Don Gilchrist with Thomas Walters & Associates and appreciate the chance to talk with you about your federal platform today. Thank you. It's always good to be in the county in person and I'm not just saying that because there's 10 inches of snow in my driveway back home but it doesn't hurt right? So glad to be with you today.
Wanted to talk a little bit about what happened last year and also what we can look forward to this year In terms of federal issues, last year we had another year of divided government and that means partisan conflict. And I had a tendency to interrupt the legislative process a little bit. I want to say that Congressman Carbajal and his staff were extremely helpful to us in navigating that environment. They're so supportive of everything that the county is doing And they know you and they love you, I can't say enough about how important they are for our federal advocacy program.
But it was an interesting year with some delays and we especially saw this in the area of the federal budget. We ended the year with a continuing resolution That extended funding through this March, and that means a lot of the funding issues are carrying over into this year. It's sort of become a habit with Congress the previous year. The 24 bills weren't finalized until last March. That's five months after the fiscal year starts.
So that's a lot of delays and it's basically because they disagree on overall funding with especially in the House, Republicans wanting to see some cuts in non-defense programs. There were times when these conflicts came close to shutting down the federal government but each time A bipartisan path forward was found to extend funding and keep the government open. I think that's a little bit of a bright spot, and as we look forward to the future, we're hoping to see some more of that type of bipartisanship. We'll see if we can advance to the next slide this lists areas not in the appropriations section just to show you that we had some of the same dysfunction and delays areas outside of the federal budget, but we still saw some of your priorities enacted into law.
We saw a Water Resources Development Act enacted that's Army Corps projects and policies that was helpful. That'll be helpful for the county at $100 billion of disaster relief enacted in December, which was a major focus of our advocacy at that time. And we also had a child welfare reauthorization for Title IV-B programs, which is important and there were a number of extensions for current programs which were important to keep them going while Congress hopefully works on longer term legislation that will authorize additional resources.
We don't want these programs to lapse just because Congress can't agree on what they're doing. However, a lot of our lobbying is going to carry over into this year. We are continuing to work on a farm bill reauthorization which is important for nutrition programs And we need to enact an authorization for federally qualified health centers. Also temporary assistance for needy families program, a national flood insurance program and a number of other programs along these lines need multi-year bills that will provide the resources needed for these programs. And so we're gonna continue to work on those here in 2025. If we advance the next slide, 2025 is upon us Well underway and we know that the Trump administration and the Republican majority in the House and the Senate are going to have a very aggressive agenda.
We can see where this is going, to some extent their emphasis is going to be on tax cuts, spending reductions, supporting oil and gas production Generally, a big emphasis on immigration enforcement and generally trying to unwind as much of the accomplishments from the Biden administration as possible. So we're heading into an interesting year. We know that on January 20th, as soon as President Trump is inaugurated he will be very busy issuing executive orders to try to implement as much of this agenda as possible administratively.
Republicans are also going to be looking for a legislative path forward through budget reconciliation. You'll recall that's the expedited procedure that Congress can use to enact certain budget and tax provisions. That will probably include an increase in the debt limit, and that's always a tricky one so there's a lot of ways that this could go get hung up And we'll be watching that and lobbying on that really aggressively. This is gonna happen in the first hundred days of the year, I think. We'll see at least one budget reconciliation law enacted but we have to also do the appropriations. We can't forget the 12 annual appropriations bills. We have to finalize FY 25 by March And we're going to be working to oppose any reduction in programs that are on your priority list.
And we're also going to be supporting two important county projects that are pending in the Appropriations Bill, the Oasis Senior Center and the Lompoc Animal Shelter. Can't really tell you what's gonna happen on projects but I'm hoping and optimistic that Congress will continue their support for these projects as we move into March. And then there is also on the horizon for the later part of the year, a reauthorization of the service transportation legislation that sets policy and funding levels for transportation programs. And I think this will be an opportunity for maybe little more bipartisan approach to legislating I'm certainly going to be working hard to look for any opportunities to support your infrastructure priorities and your transportation priorities as we move into that.
So it's going to be a challenging year, you're going to be adopting a federal platform today. Your goals are are staying the same. We're going to be in an environment where things are changing very quickly, but there's a lot of continuity in what you're trying to accomplish with your federal platform and I think that's reflected in the document that you'll be looking at today.
But I'm looking forward to working with you throughout this year and your staffs to implement the platform that you adopt. And I'll pause there and see if you have any questions or comments for me.
3:51 – 4:0315 turns
Supervisor Hartman.
So on slide three with the Oasis and the Lompoc Animal Shelter, those are still up in the air?
Very much we don't know the outcome as you know one of the biggest hurdles to get over in funding projects is being included in the initial legislation that's drafted by either the House or the Senate Now we're talking about project earmarks, which are more properly referred to as House Community Project Funding or Senate Congressionally Directed Spending. This is an area that I think Congress has a lot of bipartisan support for this process.
This has been going on for a couple years, and the earmarking program that they've done the last couple of years is widely seen as a success. So I am optimistic that this will continue in the future. If it does, I think our projects have a good chance of surviving. One thing I'm paying very close attention to though is any statements that come out of the White House about the process of earmarking projects.
And I
just had some excellent news that the Chumash tribe along with the county and others were awarded 1.4 million dollars for planning for our Santa Ynez River Connector project. Will that money be clawed back?
I'm not sure which agency that is.
It's Department of Transportation,
Federal
Highway Administration.
I don't think projects that are awarded grant funding in the closing days of the Biden administration will be in danger of being clawed back. I think regulatory and administrative procedures are much more likely to be targeted.
Okay thank you.
Any other questions? We're
good. Thank you so much. Thank you, Mr. Gilchrist. I now invite Ms. Hurst to the podium and Mr. Goger.
Thanks so much. Brittany would you mind advancing the slide? Thanks so much. It's good to see you all here on such a celebratory day, so we appreciate the opportunity to present to you a little bit about the 2024 state highlights if you will as well as looking towards 2025 I'm Jean Hurst with Hurstburg Suspenoso and my partner Josh Goger from HPE as well Just wanted to go really quickly through 2024 I think You know, we definitely had a challenging year given the size of the state's budget shortfall. That budget shortfall as you recall was fairly significant in terms of what this governor has had to deal with over his period of time in office.
Eventually what was resolved in that final budget was sort of smoothing that budget shortfall over a multi-year period And so there were a number of proposals that were adopted that sort of shifted things around from a time perspective, moved funding sources and did some pauses and deferrals of planned spending. So that 47 budget shortfall was essentially resolved over a three-year period into 26.
We did advocate on the county's behalf for avoidance of a number of proposed reductions that the administration had proposed in January and in May. In the areas of public safety, on the Public Defense Pilot Program, the Middle Mile Broadband Initiative reduction that I know is very important to the county to ensure that commitment was continued. And then of course partial restoration of the future of public health funding which was again a priority.
There were a number of proposed reductions in the Health and Human Services area that were also spared. And so I think when the governor received and finalized the budget last year, we you know really sort of breathed a sigh of relief in terms of the scope of the potential reductions that were in front of us. With that I'll kick it over to Josh to talk about the bills that we worked on.
Yes, so in 2024 we engaged on numerous pieces of legislation on behalf of the county work closely with legislative staff. Maybe just to highlight a few of those major legislative events that we have in the presentation here. First, we advocated on behalf of the county in partnership with large coalitions in opposition to two measures that sought to reduce or recast county authority in the context of 2011 public safety realignment.
One of those measures would have Kind of reorganized or refocused juvenile justice standing committees locally in a makeup that would have been unworkable and potentially put local funding at risk. Another would have somewhat similarly kind of recast the structure of the community corrections partnership locally And kind of refocus some reporting requirements that were duplicative and kind of inconsistent with the original intent or structure of 2011 public safety realignment. Both of those measures were ultimately held in the second House Appropriations Committee, so did not move forward The other just wanted to mention real quick was engaging again on a statewide coalition on the county's behalf in support of AB 817.
This measure would have allowed non-decision making local bodies to meet remotely. This measure ultimately did not make it to the finish line, but we advocated on the county's behalf and it's our understanding there could be additional efforts in the year to come, so we'll certainly actively participate in those efforts as we move forward as well. Next slide. Yeah, so also just quickly kind of looking at 2025 and what's on the horizon. I guess a long month and a half ago or so the Legislative Analyst Office released their annual report on these 2025 state budget outlook That kind of kicks off, if you will, the budget season in a way where you get the first glimpse into how revenues are looking and what the state budget picture could look like for the upcoming year.
The Legislative Analyst's Office acknowledged increases in revenues compared to May revision estimates from the time of building the 2024-25 state budget but found basically that the budget coming into next year is quote unquote roughly balanced In the upcoming year and but likely to have kind of minor deficits in the out years. So that was good news, bad news. That's somewhat a result of last year in often you know unfamiliar manner the legislature and the administration made a concerted effort to try to balance the budget over a two-year period rather than just looking at 2024 25 in the budget year saw Right up front, there was going to be a multi-year major deficit issue. So tried to close both years' budget gaps at the same time and that's why as we move into this year's budget building, there's not this major deficit on the horizon.
That was kind of the news coming out of the Legislative Analyst Office going back to November. Also, just yesterday the governor did kind of a top line budget release. The full governor's budget will be released this coming Friday but he kind of highlighted the top lines of the budget and I want to start by acknowledging that the budget is not too far off from the legislative analyst. The administration is pointing to a minor surplus and highlighting We are looking at a project that was projected last year, so maybe a minor surplus but likely that surplus or those additional revenues will go towards health and human services programs and the Prop 98 education kind of guaranteed level funding for schools. So not really looking like there's major new funding at the state level to invest in new programs is kind The governor had called a special session to make adjustments to the current year state budget, to try to prepare the state budget in case any response is necessary or any state actions are necessary in response to the changing federal administration.
There has not yet been action by the legislature on those spending bills. Each house of the legislature does have budget bills in print, they are at this time still differing in their approach so the governor did mention yesterday in his press conference that it's still his expectation that that gap will be closed and that there will be movement by January 20th to try to get something moving.
So yeah full budget release coming this Friday though so much more news to come
We also wanted to spend a little bit of time talking to you about the new legislature that we're dealing with in Sacramento. We had considerable turnover in the 2024 election, as you know our assembly and senators are term limited to 12 years. We also had some retirements and some moving on to other offices. And so we have an extensive number of new members of the legislature at this point we can't even keep all their names straight. So Regrettably, there's only one with direct county experience who was an elected county supervisor. So from our perspective we have a lot of work to do to educate these new members about what counties do and our relationship with state government and how much we rely on their partnership to ensure that we're providing services to the folks who are responsible for at the local level.
We also wanted to mention there is a new bill limit in both the Senate and Assembly. I think folks realized last year that perhaps the number of bills needed to be reduced in order to ensure that bills get appropriate vetting and amending and testimony And so we have a bill limit at 35 in both the Senate and Assembly, and that's over a two-year session. So authors are now limited to how many bills that they can introduce.
You know, that's a good thing from a sort of broad volume perspective but also it is going to make members take a little more time to think about what they're deciding to author when they come into this new legislative session. We did get new committee chairs and memberships in both houses so we do have a lot of work to do particularly to educate folks who are now working In local government space or public safety or health and human services. So we'll be spending a lot of time in meet-and-greets with members, learning their staffers and making those relationships in addition to our regular advocacy work this year.
With that, we're happy to answer any questions you all know how to reach us and we appreciate the opportunity to continue to work closely with your staff as we move forward into 2025. Sorry!
4:03 – 4:129 turns
Thank you. Any questions or comments from the board? I just had a couple of questions, I know last year when we were some of the safety net programs were like CalWORKs were threatened a bit and I'm just wondering if you have any thoughts on where we see that going this year
The governor yesterday I think was pretty clear that he did not anticipate significant reductions being proposed as of Jan 10. I think he was very careful to caveat that with potential concerns about what the federal government will do to those health and human services programs in terms of reduced federal funding, and so I think the Jan 10 budget will probably be okay. I think it's the rest of you know kind of the duration of the time after Jan 20.
Yeah, I think the legislature certainly provided a lot of pushback last year. I think some of those cuts to human services programs came out of the governor's budget in January last year and then also the May revision in the legislature was pretty swift in their rejection of some of those proposals and really prioritized state funding to restore some of those programs To Ms. Hirsch's point, I think the Governor is highlighting at least in January optimism that will not be required this year but definitely cautious in the messaging of it is only January and there's a lot of revenue information to be collected as they move into the May revision which really fully finalizes the budget picture for next year.
That's good. And I just had my other question and the special session that the governor called 25 million for sort of legal services, do you know? And I can, let me put you on the spot but how that might be dispersed to counties or how that $25 million gets
distributed? Yeah, the $25 million is for the Department of Justice for the Attorney General to file litigation. Okay so it's not- The Senate version Bill has $10 million for city and city attorneys and county councils to engage with their own legislation. I don't know how yet that those funds will be proposed to come out, however that is a point of disagreement between the Senate and Assembly and the administration did not propose that additional resource as well. The Senate package I think also has funds for legal aid so we'll see what happens but that's going to be negotiated between the houses in the administration.
Well thanks for you both being here as well as Mr. Gilchrist, it's nice to have you in person I know that means travel for you all three so thank you for doing that.
If I might add um Jean if you could just say the breadth because we didn't have a big description of your firm because we've used you in the past who your clients are? You have a great way of describing who your clients are.
Okay our firm or two other partners Kelly and Liz in addition to Josh and me Our sort of a county focused lobbying firm, we are almost 100% public sector. We do have some non-profit clients but we sort of live in county land. We represent a number of the statewide associations as well as a number of individual counties and sort of county affiliated organizations. So we are So as you heard, our advocates represent the county in Washington DC and Sacramento.
and ensure that advocacy and efforts advance the county's legislative principles whenever possible. The Legislative Platform is the document that guides much of that advocacy, and the document you have in your board packet is the proposed guide for 2025 that was reviewed and approved by the Legislative Program Committee or LPC. The LPC is an advisory committee that consists of two board members. In 2024 our LPC representatives were Supervisors Hartman and Williams They meet monthly in public meetings to keep apprised of pending legislation of interest to the county and review and recommend the draft legislative platform to the full board. We welcome Chair Caps to the LPC in 2025, and for the 2025 ledge platform, the County Executive Office worked with the LPC and departments to redesign and reorganize to create a more streamlined document.
You will notice that proposed platform is much shorter and more succinct this year. As I mentioned, the Ledge platform is driven by the county's legislative principles. These principles serve as a guide for the county in developing positions on forthcoming federal and state legislation. While there was no additions to the legislative principles what was once named the Community Sustainability and Environmental Protection Principle from 2024 was renamed to Climate Sustainability Resilience and Adaptation.
The other seven principles are as follows. Job growth and economic vitality, local control, efficient service delivery and operations, health and human services, fiscal stability, interagency collaboration, and diversity equity and inclusion. Each principle then lists several issues of interest to the county with requested legislative actions. These issues were previously referred to as planks The document as approved by LPC on December 2nd with all the principles and issues is included as attachment D in your packet.
This slide walks you through the development process. So we started, staff started with the LPC in October and through the October and November time frame We also worked with departments to review and update all of these principles and issues for consideration. At the November 4th LPC meeting, the committee reviewed and provided feedback on the first draft of the 2025 legislative platform. And then on December 2nd, the committee reviewed the final draft and then directed staff to open a public comment period.
We did receive some minor comments that I will go over in a moment. So just to summarize some of the highlights of the platform. We did redesign and reorganize, as I mentioned, to make this more streamlined and user-friendly. We made some minor changes by departments in the LPC to some of the legislative principles including that name change that I mentioned to the sustainability principle.
Our lengthy planks which were once known as planks were replaced by issues with requested legislative action And the recommendations from the LPC included approving climate principle, which shifted focus to sustainability resilience and adaptation. And also we added a new issue focused on electric vehicle ownership and battery storage It's highlighted under new issues, climate action, electric vehicles and grid reliability. That's included in the proposed platform.
And then during our public feedback period we did receive two items for board consideration and they are shown in attachment C. There is a red line document under the housing issue The two issues are first to define workforce housing more broadly, to include low-income households that are also working family households. And the second was to include a statement of opposition to any reductions in inclusionary affordable housing required in market rate development projects.
Staff also received additional language from the Office of Emergency Management with two new issues shown in red line version, also included as attachment C. Those were the Community Disaster Recovery Reform issue and Disaster Recovery Stafford Act revisions. And Kelly Hubbard and Stacey Silver are here from the Office of Emerging Management if you have any questions related to those.
So with that we are looking for, we were making a recommendation to receive and update the annual report from our state and federal advocates. Adopt our 2025 legislative platform as approved by the LPC or with the changes as proposed in the red line and then find that the proposed actions do not constitute a project within the meaning of CEQA. And with that I can take any questions.
4:12 – 4:1819 turns
Any questions from the board? I actually yeah, I had one then if yeah might as well go just it was pretty alarmed to read about the FEMA's National Risk Index and thank you to Director Hubbard for being here that we have the highest expected annual agricultural loss due to natural hazards in this county. And so I understand that there's been Efforts to streamline aid and recovery processes. Can you speak to that? And it sounds as though the state and federal, but I'm just curious what leverage if any we have since we are on that list is the highest for helping out our agricultural sector.
Yeah, so Chair Kaps and board members. So a couple of concepts that are occurring here at the county level we're working on refining how we collect damage information from our community. So whether that's business members, the residential members or agricultural community So OEM has been working with the Agricultural Commissioner's Office, the State Office of Emergency Management and the Farm Services Agency which is kind of your local chapter of USDA who typically is the one who gives grant monies or funding to the agricultural partners post-disaster.
So we've been working with them to refine how we ask the questions that we need. And this is just how we get the information we need to ask the state and federal government for support for the agricultural community. That process alone, the information that the state and federal government needs is extensive and sometimes confusing even for our agricultural partners. And so we're trying to get those clarifications now. We experienced that in the last couple of years And so we're trying to get those clarifications so we can ask the questions better, inform our agricultural partners better and then hopefully continue. We've been actually quite successful in getting agricultural support post-disaster but continue to be successful because we have better information and collection of that information.
So that's just one example of some of the things we're doing locally. We still are working on the state and federal level on some of these considerations and concerns and hope to continue to work through our legislative advocates on some of those concerns as well.
And this is outside your lane potentially, but does our Ag Commission are they when you're trying to get kind of the questions ahead of time and make sure people are conditioned To know that if there is a disaster and they need recovery that they better Have XYZ ready. Is that the role? Is the Agricultural Commission being used for that? Do you
know? So I think what's kind of interesting and fun, maybe not the right word but it's my profession so I kind of look at it that way. But our agricultural community is actually really well informed on the potential risk, the resources available and then our Agricultural Commission is involved in those conversations, but it is really nice to see that a lot of the partners within this arena are very aware of the programming available and actually even helped me and my staff because last couple years was the first time we really had to dive into some of that.
Whether agencies are eligible and eligibility requirements, and they were helping even myself understand some of those nuances. And so it's nice to see that they're really well informed in our local FSA, I'm sorry Farm Services Agency, and then we have a couple of associations that are really helping to inform our agricultural community.
Well, that's good. I mean it's daunting to again to be considered you know the having the highest losses due to natural hazards but... Chair if
I can address that? It's not that we have the highest losses is that we have the highest anticipated so based on historical events they look at us as having a high risk for potential future I see. And it's, I think it's a little skewed the numbers. It is based on specific types of events and specific concepts that FEMA looks at but it is a consideration and concern.
Yeah and a reason to get prepared which sounds like it's happening so thank you for answering that and being here today.
Absolutely.
Okay all right Deputy CEO Oderman, are we concluded with this presentation?
We are.
Thank you. Okay I know it's three parts so I will entertain a motion. I believe it's just a oh public comment thank you for chair caps and
members of the board I did just want to note for the record we had no requests to speak on this item. No
requests to speak is this just a receiving file?
We have under recommended action B, we have either adopt as redlined or adopt as approved by the
LPC.
I was going to say that I think the redline version is superior and we should adopt that one. So I would make the motion for A, B, 1 and C in today's staff report.
Excellent is there a second?
I'll second.
Thank you okay all those in favor please say aye. Aye. Motion carries we are now to our last departmental item number five Madam Clerk and thanks to our legislative team
4:18 – 4:443 turns
Chair Kaps and members of the board, departmental item number five is from the county executive office. It is a hearing to consider recommendations regarding the five-year forecast and budget development policies.
Just time end of the day end of a meeting to talk about the budget. Yeah
I was gonna apologize right away that you have to sit through the budget at the end of your long day Thank you. Well, good afternoon Chair Kaps and members of the board I'm your budget director Paul Clemente with me as my principal analyst on the Budget and Research Team Katrina Fernandez In today's report, I'll briefly go over our budget development timeline and then I'll move to our general fund five-year forecast for revenues and expenditures.
I'll then touch on some of our other fiscal issues in both the general fund and special revenue funds that remain on our radar although they're not quantified and included in the forecast at this time. Finally, I' ll discuss a couple new proposed budget development policies and funding priorities. Before getting into the details of the forecast, the big picture you'll be hearing is that your board has shown prudence in prior budgets setting aside ongoing excess revenues to assist with future deficits rather than allocating it all to program expansions each year.
This has allowed for the continuity of services and stability for employees working to achieve the Board's goals as revenues have slowed. $6 million of these ongoing set-asides were already tapped into to balance the current 2425 adopted budget because costs in the current year grew more than available revenues did. Our forecast projects the remaining reserves may only last another year or two.
In later years, we see some of the largest deficits we've seen in our forecast in many years. We are not unique in this situation as other jurisdictions in our area, including San Luis Obispo County and the City of Santa Maria are grappling with similar issues right now that we see in the coming years. We are planning a status quo budget for next year with ongoing reserves which ongoing reserves should help balance but are already asking departments to be thinking today about more efficiencies and cost reductions in future budgets.
We prepare a forecast to provide a broader context as we work to balance short and long-term goals during the development of our upcoming 2526 budget. The forecast identifies potential demands on county resources in the coming years, as well as key areas that will need attention while preparing next year's budget. We forecast major budgetary components including discretionary revenue and labor costs with a primary focus on the general fund although as I mentioned we will touch on some fiscal issues in other major county funds.
Our budget development timeline has us here today in January presenting the forecast and policies to your board, while departments are right now preparing their 2526 requested budgets. The CEO's office works with all departments through the coming months to review and refine their budgets culminating in workshop review meetings with each of them in March ahead of budget workshops scheduled this year on April 14th 16th and 18th Each department at that time will present their preliminary budget to your board.
Following workshops, we work to finalize and release the recommended budget by the end of May and plan to hold final adoption hearings on June 17th with June 18th held if a second day is needed. On the next few slides I'll discuss projections for the major components of our general funds discretionary revenue as well as four different revenue scenarios for the discretionary revenue as a whole.
Property tax makes up almost 80% of the total discretionary revenue. We show five years of actual growth, including our estimated actual receipts for the current year in dark blue and gray followed by five years of forecast numbers in a lighter blue. The key takeaway here is the estimated slowing trend in growth to 3.8% a year compared to the prior years where we saw significant spikes in tax receipts in 21-22 and 22-23 during the COVID real estate boom in our county.
This slowing growth trend is mainly driven by the Auditor Controller's Office's estimate of 4% annual growth in the assessed value roll during the forecast period, which they've based on the decreased number of monthly real estate transactions we see occurring With transient occupancy tax, we saw a jump in fiscal year 21-22 with increased post pandemic travel to the area as well as new hotels coming online but have remained relatively flat since then.
In the gray bar, estimated actual, we see a 10% increase over prior year which is due mainly to the recently approved measure increasing the TOT rate from 12 to 14%, which impacts half of this fiscal year. Similar growth is anticipated next fiscal year as the new rate continues to impact the first six months of that year as well as in 26-27 with the anticipated reopening of a major area hotel before settling into an estimated 5% average increase in the final three years of the forecast.
Sales tax presents a similar story to TOT, with a post-pandemic jump to a new baseline of around $15 million where it has remained relatively flat and is anticipated to remain relatively flat for the next couple of years before moving to a roughly 3% annual growth rate for the majority of the forecast. What we see on this slide is the total discretionary revenue, almost 90% of which is made up of the three revenues I just discussed.
Actual and estimated actual growth are in blue and gray for the past five years, which averaged 6%, but which we see quite a bit lower in the current year than the previous four years. We have then prepared four revenue growth scenarios in the five forecast years that I'll briefly walk through here. This first scenario in yellow is a slowing economy reflecting a significant downward trend in sales and property tax growth in the first couple of years, rebounding to 3.7 percent growth by the fifth year. It reflects a 2.2 percent average annual growth over the period for total of $44 million cumulative increase over the five-year period.
The moderate growth scenario in green is the one we believe is most likely and which was reflected in the projections on the prior slides for property tax, TOT and sales. It assumes moderate tax growth including the recently approved TOT increase. This sees a 3.6% average annual growth over the forecast period for a cumulative $75 million five-year increase.
The optimistic tax growth scenario in blue reflects higher tax growth rates and averages about 4.2% annual growth over the forecast period for an $89 million cumulative growth. And finally, the highly optimistic tax growth scenario in orange has all of the assumptions from the optimistic task tax growth scenario but also assumes a 1 percent sales tax ballot measure is approved in 2026 which we see impact impacting the second and third year of the projections here.
This scenario translates to a 5 percent average annual growth and accumulative 107 million dollars over the period Salary and benefits are the county's largest expense and are forecasted to grow at an average annual rate of 3.8% in the forecast, which is lower than the prior year growth of 5%. This is mostly due to increases either negotiated or assumed in the out years of around 3%, that assumes no increase in staff positions in any of the years. This growth equates to a cumulative $170 million increase over the five-year period.
Next I'll talk about how the anticipated growth in discretionary revenues stacks up against the projected growth and demands on those revenues in our general funds five-year financial forecast. The forecast focuses on the discretionary revenues, so before diving into the table on the next slide I wanted to give a little context of the numbers. The county's current year 24-25 adopted budget has operating revenues of $1.6 billion dollars of which only about one third or 570 million is in the general fund.
Of that $570 million, about two-thirds less than 400 million are the discretionary revenues that we focus on in our forecast. The remaining general fund dollars are mostly state revenue such as Prop 172 and 2011 realignment and charges for services such as a share of city contract revenue which recoup costs of certain services So even these other general fund revenues are somewhat restricted in their allowable uses, which is why we focus our forecast on the discretionary piece.
Projections for all other revenues are being developed by departments over the coming months with the review and input from our office and presented as part of the preliminary budget in April. So this is our five-year forecast table for general fund discretionary revenues and costs. For each year, we compare the revenue growth and available set asides to the new ongoing costs to come up with a bottom line where we see deficits in four of the five fiscal years.
I will walk through this table and touch on some of the significant items here. Further details on each item are found in the board letter. The top line is the incremental growth and discretionary revenue projected for each year of the forecast using the moderate growth scenario I discussed in the revenue slides. Below that is the release of the remaining ongoing revenue set-asides that your board put aside in prior years of significant revenue growth.
We see $6.5 million anticipated to be needed to balance the 25-26 budget from those reserves with the remaining $8.4 million released in 26-27, to help as much as possible with the costs in that year. Below the ongoing revenues, we see the ongoing cost changes. These are the incremental cost increases in various categories that will have competing demands on the discretionary revenue growth above. We've broken these into three broad buckets.
The first bucket includes policy-driven costs such as department assistance with rate increases, funding the strategic reserve and deferred maintenance, as well as the impact of GFC to GFC on salary and benefit growth. Including recently negotiated MOUs and the recent side letter agreement with the Deputy Sheriff's Association. Growth amounts are as high as $16 million in some years including year one, and as low as $10.8 million in year two with pension growth almost flat that year.
The second bucket is for safety net costs. There's a general fund obligation for maintenance of effort in the Home Supportive Services Program and Social Services, which fluctuates year to year but averages almost $1 million a year and could end up higher depending on negotiations. Next, various pandemic-related state and federal one-time grants that fund services like homelessness prevention, encampment cleanup and interim housing will be expiring in the coming years, totaling a cumulative $2.2 million.
While these are not discretionary services and are not required to be funded, these types of services have been Board priorities. Similarly, various one-time grants funding three county co-response teams will be expiring in coming years. This is another discretionary not mandatory service but has been a board priority. If the data shows the program is achieving the desired outcomes and other funding sources can't be identified continuing the program after grants expire would cost an additional $1 million annually from the general fund The third bucket is criminal justice costs, many of which are related to custody.
The AB 1869 backfill was provided by the state for five years to probation and sheriff to back fill the loss of fines and fee revenues that state legislation took away. It expires next year. The funding is shared between probation and sheriff and supports adult supervision program staff and alternative sentencing. It is not mandatory to replace the funding with general fund dollars but would likely mean reduced budgets with no other funding source.
Increasing the existing Northern Branch Jail Operations funding plan by $5.7 million is necessary to establish parity between ongoing revenue and ongoing costs in fiscal year 25-26, bringing the annual ongoing total to about $30 million in that plan. The funding plan which has been in place for over a decade has fallen behind the escalating cost increases and will not catch up to costs before the remaining fund balance is depleted without this increase.
The projected amount to then maintain funding equal to costs averages about $1.9 million a year. Jail health care costs are anticipated to increase significantly with the current contract with the jail medical provider WellPath expiring at the end of March and two eligible bids to the recent RFP currently under review. What we show here is a rough estimate of what cost increases could be in the first year, $5 million over what's currently budgeted for this contract with assumed escalators around 10% a year after that.
There may also be additional staffing requirements yet to be determined necessary to comply with the Disability Rights California remedial plan. The cost shown here are estimates and more will be known after a bidder is selected and negotiations begin. For the public safety answering point in the Sheriff's Office, the 911 dispatch center. There will likely be a gap between their operating revenues and operating costs after the RFCC begins operations.
Numbers and timing are still in flux but we reflect here $1.4 million gap which fire would help cover 800,000 of in the first year necessitating about $660,000 dollars of general fund with fires subsequently ratcheting down their commitment by 200,000 a year for the remaining four years Next, we have a very preliminary estimated cost of debt service to construct additional beds at the Northern Branch Jail as part of the Disability Rights California settlement.
This could be $10 million or more for the 512-bed option and would be lower if the 256 or 384 bed options were selected. Design plans, construction cost estimates and debt service amounts will continue to be refined in coming months before the project returns to your board for final decisions. Relatedly, on the final line we show the costs if the Board wished to address optimal custody staffing by providing additional positions needed for shift relief throughout the custody system in fiscal year 2930 when the new Northern Branch Jail construction should be completed.
This totals $3.5 million ongoing in fiscal year 2930, assumes the 512-bed addition at the Northern Branch Jail and a reduction down to 120 beds at the main jail at that time. If a lower bed option at the Northern Branch Jail were chosen and the main jail was still reduced down to 120 beds, these costs would be lower. But similar to the debt service costs all of these numbers are very preliminary estimates and will be refined in coming months before a final decision comes to your board.
I've spread the cost out evenly at an additional $700,000 a year for this item because I recommend a funding plan similar to the original Northern Branch Jail Funding Plan so that the entire amount doesn't come due in fiscal year 2930. At the bottom of the table, we see the total for these new costs in each year and then how that compares to the revenue growth and set-asides available in each year.
This is where we see the county balancing next fiscal year before starting to see deficits in fiscal year 26-27 with the largest impact in the third year 27-28 at $14 million followed by additional deficits of 3.6 million and 3.9 million in years 4 and 5. The cumulative impact of these deficits over the five-year period is $23 million. This slide visualizes the cumulative costs of status quo budgets plus the additional costs I just went over on the prior slide in gray.
I will then insert, over this, the four discretionary revenue scenarios I discussed earlier which include the available ongoing set asides. In yellow, we see the slowing economy scenario with balance only in next year's budget before quickly falling behind the cost increases. In green, we have the moderate growth scenario which reflects the table on the previous slide. Balance next year about a million dollars short in year two and ultimately growing to over $20 million short cumulatively by the end of the fifth year.
The optimistic tax growth scenario balances the first two years and ends up around $10 million short cumulatively by the fifth year. And finally, the highly optimistic tax growth scenario which includes a 1% sales tax increase in 2026 manages to balance each year of the forecast. These takeaways reiterate what we've covered so far Revenue growth is not keeping up with costs and deficits are only being avoided now by the release of the prudent ongoing revenue set aside, adopted in prior years.
Year three has the largest single year deficit in the forecast which requires planning now. Some of the most significant new costs in our forecast are for jail medical services and expansion of the Northern Branch Jail Facility. Due to this outlook, no department program expansions will be possible and unless the financial picture improves cost cutting will be necessary in the future.
Therefore we're asking departments to begin planning and implementing strategies now to keep costs down Finally, in some situations it may turn out that one-time funds may be needed to bridge some gaps in the out years but that would have to be very carefully and judiciously applied in those rare cases. As I mentioned earlier we also keep other fiscal issues on our radar that may not have quantifiable impacts yet but could have impacts on the general fund or special revenue funds down the line and would end up in future forecasts We're monitoring the following issues in the general fund, including implementation and compliance costs of the DRC settlement.
The loss of federal funding for the DA's Victim Witness Program which the state has passed new funding for but with unclear timelines and amounts and allocation methodologies still to be determined. The continued rising cost of outside council specialists. Housing element implementation costs and planning and development. And potential impacts of Proposition 36 on our criminal justice and behavioral health costs.
We're monitoring a variety of issues in our special revenue funds as well, including decreased revenues in the Inmate Welfare Fund due to recent state legislation. Public Health's reliance on over $5 million a year and one-time fund balance to balance their health care fund which will likely require both increased revenue as well as cost cutting measures from them in the future.
Increased placement costs and institutions for mental disease and behavioral wellness And the potential impact of the recently passed Proposition 1 or Behavioral Health Services Act on behavioral wellness's annual MHSA funding for direct mental health services. Additionally, Child Support Services is holding positions vacant and reducing office space in order to meet recent state funding cuts and faces additional uncertainty in future state allocations.
General Services has discussed in the past the potential impacts of the California Air Resource Board's advanced clean fleet regulations which will require replacing medium- and heavy-duty internal combustion engine vehicles with more costly zero emission vehicles as the vehicles turn over. This is likely to impact the Public Works Department the most in their roads, resource recovery and flood control funds.
Finally, the Fire District will need to closely monitor operating costs and share of call volume among partner agencies as the Regional Fire Communications Center comes online, as revenues will be based on actual call volumes and any shortfalls would need to be covered by the Fire District. I'll now shift gears to briefly talk about a couple of proposed budget development policies for the upcoming fiscal year.
Budget Development Policy 2 has been in place for many years and calls for program-based budgeting within departmental budgets. Our recommended tweak to this policy is to add clarifying language that requires any program that receives general fund contribution to be submitted as a balanced program. This already happens in most but not all cases, and being a requirement will allow me and my team further clarity on which programs within departments are supported by general fund contribution and by how much.
We are also proposing to add new policy language requiring special revenue funds to pay their prorated share for county initiatives such as capital projects, energy efficiency projects and more unless otherwise recommended by the CEO's office. This was discussed in concept at a board hearing a couple months ago and we're incorporating it here into the policies.
Finally, we're recommending a slight refinement to policy 3A which currently says ongoing operations should be funded with ongoing revenues. Language is being added that will require a department director to provide a memo to the CEO when they are proposing to use one-time funds towards ongoing costs like an additional position confirming that they will not request general fund dollars in the future when the one time funding is exhausted. This is to enhance accountability and avoid new demands on general fund dollars as we move into tighter times.
Finally, I will review funding priorities as we head into budget development. These are areas based on existing obligations, board priorities and emerging issues. We currently estimate at least $10 million of unallocated one-time general fund balance carried over from the prior fiscal year available to allocate in the 2025-2026 Right now we are recommending 8 to $10 million of that go towards capital improvement plan projects. Further refinement to numbers will be made in the coming months.
Set-asides and other funding sources exist for some of the other priorities I'll be walking through on the following slides, but not all. These priorities will be considered first when the CEO makes allocation recommendations should additional funding become available. Our first priority area is to provide coordinated community service delivery and strengthen the safety net.
This includes future homelessness services funding gaps, interim and permanent supportive housing, increasing affordable housing via housing element update programs, workforce housing options, growing IMD placement costs I discussed on a prior slide Improved access to inpatient mental health care treatment, countywide recreation master plan implementation and set-asides for allocation to district area special projects.
The next area is advancing improvements in the criminal justice system with specifics on northern branch jail design and construction, main jail accessibility and well-being improvements. And funding the cost of the jail medical services. One of our priority areas is to foster financial and organizational excellence including addressing the forecasted deficits we've discussed and fully funding the strategic reserve We seek to promote sustainability and climate resiliency, specifically disaster funding, disaster recovery projects.
Electric vehicle replacement programs and Climate Action Plan implementation. And finally, strategically investing in facilities and infrastructure which includes new capital projects Further work on the Chi-Rio master plan, continued funding for deferred maintenance. Implementation of the enterprise resource planning system as well as the county wide information technology strategic plan.
Finally, we did hear remarks from the board this morning reflecting a focused priority on housing and streamlining permitting and processes specific to housing. Approving this as a focused priority area today will help departments incorporate that into their work plans for the coming year and help the CEO in prioritizing funding recommendations should funds become available.
So these are recommended actions A through D, which includes receiving and filing the five-year forecast. Adopting the 2526 budget development policies. Reviewing the funding priorities and providing staff additional direction as appropriate. This could include adopting the focus priority area I discussed on this slide. And the CEQA determination that this is not a project.
Thank you.
4:44 – 4:5011 turns
Thank you to our budget team. Let's see before we move to the board I just want to make sure there aren't any, are there any public comments? Chair Kaps and members of the board no requests to speak on this item. Okay that was a lot to take in. Any questions first? Supervisor Hartman.
This is very sobering, I think we need to take this to heart that we have lots of desires but they really need now to be shaped by reality. My first question is the projection does this include the increased jail health costs and the expansions
Supervisor Hartman through the chair. Yes, it does let me go back to that table if I can get there Yes, it does so the Jail healthcare new costs and annual increases, the $5 million we've seen in the first year and then roughly 2 million a year after that. That is anticipated in the ballpark of what the anticipated new costs would be so those are impacting the bottom line. And then the Northern Branch Jail 512 bed construction debt service, that would be the anticipated cost. We see that as $10 million if, and that's all estimates too could be as high as $13 million for that debt service
So have you made an assumption about how big the North Branch, okay?
So this assumption assumes the 512 bed. The two pod option there are discussions around a one pod and a one-and-a-half pod with less beds. The construction costs would be lower, the debt service would be lower on that Those are all the numbers being worked on by our team with multiple departments and your board will be presented with that information in the coming months.
And then I just had wondered if you would explain a little more to me about refining policy 3A, not using one-time money in a way that would create obligations on the general fund ongoing. And as I understood this we might try to use one time money to kind of fill in. I guess what you're saying is nothing new and I just, I wasn't quite sure. Like I think of co-response we did that.
I think we just kind of pulled it together for as long as we could and so CEO Miyasato.
Supervisors the purpose of policy 3A that's what you're asking for. We already have a policy of not using one time funding ongoing operations to really prohibit that unless we have an absolute need to This is really, if you look at this it's requiring department directors to commit that they understand that because what happens sometimes is a department will go ahead and do that and in two years they'll forget and they'll say it's an ongoing obligation of the general fund. So it's my way quite frankly of making sure there's commitment by the department director to understand That when they are asking for one-time funding, they are understanding it's one time funding and they're not committing that it becomes part of a request or an assumption by them or the board that this is an ongoing request especially in tight times.
Okay so it's not a prohibition on the board to make us different kind of decision? I mean if there's really important program that we want to just get through a gap, we might use one time funding
Yeah, that would be a board discussion at budget. But this is just for some of these one-time funding things and the policy isn't as it says it's at CEO's recommendation or its It has some discretion in it
Good. So there's no big pot of gold at the end of the rainbow when we get even on our pension costs or I mean, we're kind of in a pickle.
Supervisors Beyond the five-year forecast, we know that there will be some reductions in our ongoing pension costs and it could be sizable. We're still working on that and it'll depend with policies of SPSRS at that time and what happens with assumed rate of return and investment returns because they are all tied together as Supervisor Labadino knows. So that will help us. But in this five-year time period, as Mr. Clemente said, we show a sizable cost increase that happens in the third year of the forecast.
So I wouldn't want us to depend on what's going to happen in year six or seven because we don't know when we get there if those costs, if those savings are going to materialize And I suspect that at that time your board may have other plans for those cost savings, for some other big projects that we've had on the books that I know you'll want to get to. And so I'm trying to as we do every year we have to balance our budget and be fiscal responsible and the board has shown incredible restraint but also to save that for the other big things that this board or future boards may want to do.
4:50 – 4:568 turns
Well, I'm sort of scratching my head exactly what does this mean and I guess it's going to unfold but this is a different situation than we've been on any other year. I've been on the board after my first year and And so I think it requires on all of us some new kind of thinking about this. We've been really proud to say we haven't had any service level reductions in many years now. Do you anticipate that this is going to require that?
Supervisor through the chair, We try to, you know we try to avoid that. It has been six at least six years of budgets without service level reductions but we're trying to be clear to departments and everyone now that with deficits like that and additional new costs like that coming out the revenues aren't keeping up so it in a picture like that in a year or two that would require service level reductions in departments to fund these other costs to find the general fund dollars to be able to shift around to fund those new things
Okay, thank you.
I don't have a question are we ready to I mean if there's no other questions?
Just along that with the question this sort of foreboding question of service level reductions. We've talked in the past about positions that are unfilled year after year was that a I know we just are looking at some policies Was that a previous policy that we actually adopted, that we're now adding different policies to as well?
Yeah Chair Kapp so we adopted that last year. The first thing will look at vacant over two years those remain in the policies these ones we've talked about are additional policies but but the full policies is attachment B includes that policy that we adopted last year that's still in there
And then I know we've already showed the slide a few times about the criminal justice cost, but I'm just going to ask an overarching question of the primary reasons for this significant increase in criminal justice related expenses. So I can kind of hear it again in an overview way please.
And I can do that. Okay. I think first of all, all counties are facing the same issues on their criminal justice costs and as you see on Mr. Clemente's slide, jail medical is a huge increase. We show a $5 million, potential $5 million increase for this next year which grows by 2 million every year so it's 5 million then 7 million then 9 million 11 million etc.
And all counties are facing a very similar Similar circumstance that we've talked to and it's just the costs have risen significantly. Litigation costs, just providing services, the population etc so that's a significant cost that we're facing and in previous forecasts we didn't assume that level of cost increase but as we're getting closer we we've been able to do more accurate projections So you see that. The other thing is that we've been talking about, you see existing Northern Branch Jail operations and funding plan so to build the existing Northern Branch Jail not expanding by pods the existing Northern Branch Jail We had a funding plan that started before my time I think Supervisor Lavanina was on the board It was a good funding plan because we had to create money to fund the operations of the jail without any new revenue And so we carved out money from the general fund over a long period of time with a very solid plan.
But what we're seeing is even with that plan, our costs are rising like everything else faster than the plan had put aside revenue. So again as Mr. Clemente shows, the existing Northern Branch Jail Ops Plan It's an additional $5.7 million we believe next year, and then growing at 1.6 plus two plus two et cetera in future years. That's just to make us even so that the costs, the money that we're putting towards it equals covers the cost. So those are big things regardless of increasing the pods that we see next year.
And then you go further out in the forecast What he shows is we just were trying to be conservative in our budgeting and so he put in if we did two full pods, just rough estimates of debt service. So that's $10 million a year annually. So 5 million the next year, 5 million and then we would assume the debt service would increase but it's 10 million. The last one is just as part of the staffing of the jails, the sheriff has consistently requested more custody We would need that until all the jails are completely built.
One thing if you look at county government, 80% of our general discretionary revenues is from property taxes. Mortgage rates are still high. We're not seeing the types of turnovers and transfers in properties and so all counties are facing a similar situation of sort of moderated growth in their discretionary revenue.
4:56 – 5:0111 turns
Thank you. So thank you for adding this five-year forecast and keeping us Keeping this on the radar is daunting as it is, but always helpful as we head into budget season in April to give us this taste of what's to come. So OK, well, I think Supervisor Newell, excuse me, you wanted to give?
Yeah, I just wanted to give a little context too for I was just looking back on the day I got sworn in. My speech, on the day I got sworn in we were facing between a 60 and 90 million dollar budget deficit. Okay so, and let's go back five years. I just went back and looked at the forecast from 2020 it said we're gonna have 27 million dollar deficit cumulative by 2026.
So when you look out it's very hard to project out what's gonna happen What I take away from this is if we didn't have the people that are here on the board and the staff that we do, I'd be very, very worried. But working with these individuals and decision makers and the people that are gonna spend the money, I'm very confident. This year, next year, we basically have a balanced budget. We're $1 million short on a huge budget. It's budget dust at that point so my next two years are fine Third year out, yes. I look at it more as a yellow light, a warning sign. It's hey let's make sure we know what we're doing. Let's spend things on things we have to spend money on not things we'd like to spend money on but I also don't want to freak out all of our employees that hey we're talking about layoffs this is the third year out in an area that's very very difficult to forecast in and so You know, I don't want to be overly optimistic.
I'm glad that we budget very conservatively but if you look at whose hand is on the wheel guiding this, we've got a great budget team. We've got a great leadership in our CEO's team and I trust the five of us to make the right decisions that's going to get us through this. I am not overly concerned. I don't want people to panic But it's obviously a cause for concern.
I also would look at how many full-time equivalent positions we have now compared to what we did 5, 10 years ago. We have quite a few more than we used to. We do a lot more things than we used to do. Not all of those are mandated and we want to keep doing those things because it improves the community but You know, I appreciate the time and energy that goes into a five-year forecast but I also want to warn that it's not exactly science. A lot of it is a lot of guesswork so that's my input.
Thank you for that perspective. I think that rounds us out. The recommended actions are A through D, receive and file the five-year forecast, adopt the 2025-2026 budget developments, review funding priorities. Oh and on that point on C, I just want to thank the CO for adding the housing permitting streamline
So if you could please just say that you intend to, Mr. Clemente pulled out that as part of your recommended actions to adopt that as the next one is the focus priority area for 2025 and appreciate it thank you.
And so we would vote on all of the priorities exactly? Is that what you're saying?
No just the recommended actions shown but to add you would be adopting this focused priority area for 2025 which is stated above
I'll make a motion and move to approve the staff recommendation ABCD and the focus priority area for 2025.
Second
we got a first in a second all those in favor please say aye Motion carries, that's our last departmental item of the day of an incredibly inspiring day. Thanks to everybody. Oh no we are... I forgot! We are not done. We have to return to closed session County Council.
Thank you Madam Chair, members of the board. We're going to return to closed session on two items of existing litigation American Medical Response West versus the county and Peterson versus the county both Santa Barbara County Superior Court cases and my time estimate is 20 minutes
okay so just for anyone watching we'll come back to adjourn but there won't be any action when we come All right everyone we're back from our second closed session. County Council please read us out.
5:01 – 5:012 turns
Thank you Madam Chair, members of the board. The board met in closed session on two items of existing litigation American Medical Response West versus the county and Peterson versus the county and the board took no reportable action.
Okay with that Supervisor Lee has finished his first official meeting and this meeting is adjourned.