Board of Supervisors — 2026-08-25

All right, good morning everybody. I will call to order the August 25th 2026 regular meeting in the Santa Barbara County Board of Supervisors. Madam Clerk can you please call the roll?

Hartmann moves approval. I'll second.

Okay a motion for Hartman, second from Kapps all in favor signify by saying aye. Aye. Opposed? Motion passes unanimously. All right before we move to the CEO report I want to take a moment to officially welcome Jenna Peterson to her first board meeting as Santa Barbara County's new CEO Jana comes to us after nearly three decades of public service in Boulder County, Colorado including the last six years as county administrator. She has led through many of the same challenges we have that we know well here, natural disasters, major infrastructure needs, organizational change and the day-to-day work of delivering good local government. Throughout our nationwide search, the board was impressed not only by Jana's experience but her collaborative leadership style, her commitment to public service and her belief in strong accountable local government.

Jana, we are very pleased to have you here and we look forward to working with you. With that I now turn it over for the first time for your CEO report.

Thank you, Jacqueline for appointing me to the equipment here. I appreciate it. I am just delighted to be here. I wanted to take a minute to introduce myself to everyone and I'll start off by sharing that my career in public service began a few decades ago as a temporary employee So I started in a role where local government was an opportunity to get a paycheck and over the course of my decades in public service it's become not only my career, it's also my calling.

And I am really grateful to the Board of Supervisors for giving me the opportunity to continue my service here in Santa Barbara County I am exceptionally grateful to Mona Miyasato for her leadership of this organization. I feel very lucky to be following in her footsteps and continuing what she has built around a legacy of collaboration, fiscal stewardship, business acumen and delivering really excellent services to the community.

I am excited also to bring my skill set and background, my focus on relationship building, communications, technical acumen and strategy to this organization. The bold vision of one county, one future really resonates for me. It speaks to the spirit of collaboration. It speaks to services that work for everyone who lives works or visits Santa Barbara County and it speaks to the important role that local government plays in improving quality of life.

I am committed to leading through the lens of the county values as they are stated. Accountability, customer focus, equity inclusion, innovation and trust and ethics are the way that I want to show up at work every single day and what you all can expect from me. I've been able to watch from afar how this team rallies to address big challenges in the organization, how this team succeeds in delivering results for this community and how this board sets a vision to make sure that everyone who lives here has the opportunity to be safe healthy and prosperous. That really generates enthusiasm in me for coming into this role I think it's important for me to acknowledge that it's a tough time to be working in government right now.

The fiscal challenges are present every single day, the community demands are significant and real and the challenge of delivering public service effectively is constant. It's also an incredible time to work in local government. I feel that so strongly because we can see every single day the results of our efforts, even though the work is hard, we can also see when it impacts the lives of a family, when it impacts the safety of the community, when it impacts the ability to make a difference In the infrastructure and how services are delivered here.

Local government is the place to do that and to be able to experience the joy of changing lives for the better, even in the darkest most challenging times. That's when local government is needed the most and that's what I see from this team and the excitement that I bring for joining this effort I will just also wrap up by encouraging particularly county employees to reach out to me, to share your experiences, to help get my feet under me in running this organization.

And acknowledging that you live and work and enjoy this community as well. And so your perspectives really matter to me, so for county staff please when you see me around when we connect during meetings please introduce yourself and I'm looking forward to working with you. I am also very excited that I get to share some great news about the county team this week.

So, the County of Santa Barbara received the Distinguished Budget Presentation Award from the Government Finance Officers Association, GFOA for the fiscal year 2026-27 recommended budget book This is the highest recognition in governmental budgeting and reflects the county's commitment to transparency, sound financial planning and clear communication. The county has earned this award for more than 20 consecutive years.

This year's recognition is particularly notable given the implementation of new budget software and the OpenGov interactive digital budget book. The county also received special recognition for performance measures with all three reviewers awarding the highest marks possible. The recognition highlights the collaborative efforts of departments countywide to produce a budget that serves as a clear policy, financial and operational guide for the public and decision makers.

I'm also delighted to share the Community Services Department's Pro-Housing Award. The County of Santa Barbara has been awarded the State of California's pro housing designation and 1.25 million dollars in pro housing incentive program funding, recognizing the county's efforts to expand housing opportunities, streamline development and support affordable housing.

The designation and funding will help the county build on these efforts and provide greater access to state funding opportunities for housing and infrastructure. And

that

concludes my report.

Thank you very much. Well done, glad to have you. All right

Good morning, everyone. Thank you for joining us and members of the board to do have a couple quick announcements this morning an addendum was posted on Friday August 21st 2026 amending today's closed session agenda adding an item under conference with legal counsel existing litigation paragraph one of subdivision D of government code section 5 4 9 5 6 0.9 2, 0, 6, 8 and Valley Crest farms LLC the county of Santa Barbara office administrative hearings case number 2, 2, 6 or 800 to 9. Additionally under conference with legal counsel anticipated litigation paragraph 4 of subdivision D of government code section 5 for 9, 5, 6 point 9 deciding whether to initiate civil litigation 2 cases. The addition included in this And lastly, for information on the Board of Supervisors methods of public participation and instructions on how to provide public comment on items listed on today's agenda or during general public comment.

Please refer to page 2 of the agenda. Individuals who wish to provide verbal public comment may do so via Zoom by registering in advance using the link provided on page 2. Please note that Zoom is available solely for the purpose of providing verbal public comment and is not intended for viewing the meeting. Alternative viewing options are listed on page 2 of the agenda. If you have any questions, please contact the Clerk of the Board's Office at 805-568-2240 or by email at sbcobcountyofsb.org and that concludes my announcements for today.

5, 6.9 regarding Suncoast bloom LLC fee County of Santa Barbara office of administrative hearings case number 2 0 to 6 0 8

All right thank you Madam Clerk. Items to be pulled from today's administrative agenda? Do we have any items being pulled from the public?

Chair Nelson and members of the board, we have one item pulled from the public and that's A1 our resolution to be presented.

All right any items being pulled by any my colleagues? I'm going to briefly just have a question about our A4 so we'll pull that item. And with that can I get a motion to approve the balance of the administrative agenda? Second. Motion by Hartman, second by Lee. Any further discussion? Seeing none all in favor signify by saying aye. Aye. Opposed? Motion passes unanimously.

All right let's go ahead and move on to a department or sorry administrative item number one the first resolution Madam Clerk will you please read that into the record

Chair Nelson and members of the board, administrative item number one is sponsored by Supervisor Capps and Supervisor Hartman. It is to adopt a resolution proclaiming August 26th, 2026 as Women's Equality Day in Santa Barbara County. And joining us in person today we have Commissioner Tracy Baird and Yolanda Vasquez. And if you can please make your way to the podium.

Anyone else who would like to join with you as well? And I'll go ahead and read the resolution, please. Whereas on August 26 1920 the 19th Amendment to the United States Constitution was certified granting women the constitutional right to vote after decades of activism and advocacy led by courageous and determined women. And whereas Women's Equality Day is recognized annually on August 26 to commemorate this historic achievement and to celebrate the continued pursuit of full equality and opportunity for all women in American society And whereas the Santa Barbara County Board of Supervisors recognizes the invaluable social, political, cultural, educational and economic contributions of women throughout history and today. And reaffirms its commitment to advancing equity, justice and opportunity for all women and girls in Santa Barbara County.

And whereas while significant progress has been made, women particularly women of color, LGBTQ plus women, immigrant women, indigenous women and women with disabilities continue to experience systemic barriers to equal opportunity, representation, economic security, health care access and personal safety. And whereas the County of Santa Barbara values diversity, inclusion and equity opportunity. It remains committed to addressing gender based disparities supporting women in leadership fostering inclusive communities and protecting the rights of all women to live free from discrimination violence and bias recognizing that Women's Equality Day serves both as a celebration of past achievements and as a reminder of the ongoing work necessary to achieve full equality Now therefore be it hereby ordered and resolved that this Board of Supervisors of the County of Santa Barbara does hereby proclaim August 26, 2026 as Women's Equality Day and encourages all residents to honor the achievements and contributions of women recognize the work that remains to achieve gender equity and reaffirm their commitment to advancing justice and opportunity for all women and girls throughout Santa Barbara County passed and adopted today.

Mister Beard would you like to.

I'm going to let our new chair start

please.

Good morning and thank you for giving me the opportunity to be here today. My name is Yolanda Vasquez and I am honored to serve as the Chair of the Santa Barbara County Commissions for Women representing the 5th District. I am here today to ask for your support in recognizing August 26th as Women's Equality Day in our community. August 26 commemorates the certification of the 19th Amendment in 1920 which recognized women's right to vote in the United States. But this day represents much more than a moment in history. It reminds us of the generation of women who fought to have a voice, to participate in our democracy and to create opportunities for the women and girls who came after them.

Here in Santa Barbara County, women are business owners, educators, healthcare workers, mothers, community leaders, public servants and so much more. They contribute every single day to the strength and success of our communities. As Chair of the Commission for Women Representing the 5th District I believe it is important that we not only recognize how far women have come but also continue creating opportunities for women to lead. I respectfully ask for your support in formally recognizing August 26 as Women's Equality Day.

So good morning everyone. It's truly an honor to be here today as Women Commissioner for 3rd District and to stand in support of

this important proclamation recognizing

women's equality day. Women's Equality Day is more than just a date on the calendar. It's a reminder of the women who came before us, who fought to have a voice, a seat at the table and the same opportunities as everyone else. Because of their courage, women today have the opportunities that once were denied to us. Equality is not something that we should ever take for granted. We have a responsibility to continue opening doors, lifting one another up and making sure the next generation of women know that their voices matter and that they belong at every table where decisions are being made.

So today I want to thank everyone who stood behind this proclamation and helped make it happen. Your work matters, this recognition matters and the message we are sending to women and girls in our community matters. As women we do not have to wait for someone to give us a voice. We must continue to use the voices we have to make our community stronger for those that come after us. Thank you for allowing me to be here today. Thank you.

Thank you all for the opportunity for Equal Day, for Equality Day. For all women we know our work is still ahead of us and this year within the Commission we are going to work on Women's Financial Literacy with Alan Hancock for the North Districts. We are also going to work on immigration. We have some things ahead of us working with our Thank you, Mr. Chair and members of the board. I want to thank our 5th district supervisor as he's moving on in that but we've always given our 100% and we want to thank you for making sure that women have housing, they have food security and that we are working for a more healthier community We've gotten ourselves out there. We know what our supervisors need we've listened to with their we try to be your eyes and ears, and we will continue to do that and I thank you very much for having Equality Day today for all women because we know as we've just heard from everyone We still have a lot of work ahead of us and thank all five of you for participating And working for your women and your children Thank You

Go ahead, sorry Supervisor Caps.

Sure thank you Chair Nelson and thank you to our Commission for Women for all the work we certainly as you said Tracy Beard that we do have work ahead of us and I know that Supervisor Hartman and I probably didn't plan this that your first resolution of the morning that we welcome Jana Peterson as our CEO is this fitting one but I will take note that although this is not the reason why we hired you, it's a wonderful bonus that we get to continue having a female serve in this role.

It is important. This is a massive job and the fact that it's run by a woman is significant and it does send an important signal. A quick look on the internet tells me We do have a long way to go in our 58 counties. Just 38% of them are headed up by women and it's even less on the city level for some reason, 27%. So it is still not the norm and we welcome you in this important role both for the work that you do and also for the signal that is being sent. Thanks.

Thank you Supervisor Caps. Supervisor Hartman?

Yes, well I wanted to thank the Women's Commission. We aren't supposed to have favorites but I would say the Women's Commission is one of our most active and engaged and that really matters and Tracy Baird with 15 years you're now bringing along the new people and I think that that's terrific Good morning, everyone. My name is Barbara County Board of Supervisors. Um you know Women's Equality Day was really about suffrage and today we're hearing people talk about whether women should have the vote on the fringe. There's ideas of household voting and a lot of effort to restrict voting layer on requirements so I think your message that this a really important one and one that resonates with me. So I'm glad I've got such good partners on the Women's Commission, and of course our new CEO we're extremely excited about so thank you.

Right Thank You Supervisor Hartmann and our public commenter was one of the women in our presentation so with that actually need to have a motion to approve A1. Supervisor Hartman? So moved. Supervisor Caps is that your second? All right. All in favor signify by saying aye. Aye. Opposed? Motion passes unanimously. All right and then our last administrative item, Item A4.

It's an item that I pulled

Thank you. Thank you. Thank you chair Nelson and members of the board administrative item number 4 is from the behavioral Wellness Department it is to consider recommendations regarding a services agreement with Meraki management California LLC DBA lightfully behavioral health for day rehabilitation

All right, I just pulled this to highlight it and ask a couple of questions. We have Director Navarro with us today. Director Navarro, I was just curious about this contract is a little bit different than normal and I think it's a program that you're excited about getting started here in Santa Barbara County this opportunity. One of the questions I had off the bat was it's a South County, it's available in South County but for telehealth all throughout the county and just wanted Good morning Chair Nelson, members of the board and welcome Janet Peterson.

Thank you so much for the opportunity to talk on this item. So the day treatment intensive, day treatment rehab services are required services to be within your system of care under the Department of Health Care Services contract that we have with them. Unfortunately, we have not had one for over a decade because despite repeated requests or proposals there has not been an operator that was able to operate in our county. So we've been sending those who need this level service to out-of-county providers via telehealth We had two adults that access that system last year and 12 youth.

This year we did another RFP and we were able to find two operators, one for the adult services which is what's before you today and one for the south for the adolescents as well. Lightfully just happens to have a location in Santa Barbara they are the operator that was chosen that met all the requirements for this contract here in county They will provide on-site as well as full telehealth countywide. And I do want to say that given that they are set times and dates for this service, it's multiple days, multiple hours, CENCAL Health as Medi-Cal providers, the managed care plan does provide transportation and should there be North County or West County residents that want to attend the South County session then we can help them to arrange and receive that transportation free through their Medi-Cal benefit.

Excellent, well that's great news. That was kind of what I was concerned about making sure these services were provided countywide they definitely are needed. I'm glad to see that we're having these in county now so

and we'll of course continue to monitor the need and as it is sometimes once you build it they come and we may have a greater need and um as a result will continue to monitor the need for additional contract RFPs uh to to further supply on-site in the west and north county

Do you anticipate to see if now that we have it, if we use it more often that there'll be other potentially vendors that might be interested in our county? I mean has that been driving the conversation previously?

Actually it's been driving the conversation statewide. There are many many counties over half that would not have this type of service in their county for the same reason. So this is now new for all of us, most of us now have them in our counties or accessible so it's to be seen but definitely something that we will be keeping an eye on and we can report back out on at the end of the year.

From your experience and knowledge of your other neighboring counties are those that have these services in county are they utilizing them more often than counties that do not? Does that seem to be a difference maker?

You know I haven't specifically to be honest and not specifically talk to Ventura County or slow about the utilization if there's been an uptick again since we've had such a focus on the intensive adult need. But I do think that having one that's more accessible and more. That is in person and allows person opportunity engage in community may result in in more folks agreeing to participate in this level of care despite it being multi days and multi hours

Thank you, Director Navarro. I appreciate it.

All right. Thanks.

All right. See any other lights on? Madam Clerk do we have any public comment on this item? Chair

Nelson and members of the board we have no request to speak from the public on this item.

All right with that I'll take a motion to approve this item.

Move staff recommendation.

Second. A motion from Hartman second from Lee. Any further discussion? Seeing none all in favor signify by saying aye. Aye. Motion passed unanimously. All right, this time we will it's 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 Nelson and members of the board, we do have two requests to speak from the public on general public comment today. We're going to remain here in Santa Maria and begin with Claire Sheebe to be followed by Brandon Vasquez.

Good morning my name is Claire Sheehy and I've been a volunteer with Care for Paws for about five years. My focus of service has been down in the riverbed with pets and their people. I'd like to reference one animal cruelty confiscation case however there are many more, I'm limited for time that I believe Santa Barbara County Animal Services has managed poorly.

A woman who's severely mentally ill, schizophrenic, has been known for abusing and actually killing animals and dragging them around town some of which we have been able to get out of the riverbed and into safekeeping. Mid-July she had a young puppy and two other stolen animals She went into a 72 hour hold. From there, she immediately returned to county where she got the puppy back. This was a highly adoptable young animal that was not sterilized before it left.

Regardless that animal has perished, there are other animals that have suffered the same consequences. In addition to a distorted return policy set forth by the county, there's no requirement for an individual to possess and address to adopt an animal. As a result we're seeing more animals living in the riverbed cars and on the streets. Not all but many of these animals are from county. They might be sterilized, but still contributing to the overall dysfunction of the population. It's a direct reflection of mental health. County Animal Services is encouraging and adding to the overall community problem at large. In addition an animal person can get an animal out from Foster Road without it being sterilized however in Lompoc it must be sterilize.

Animal politics distinguishes shelter performance from community performance. Shelter performance measures what happens after an animal enters the system. Community performance measures and asks whether a community is becoming more or less dependent on the shelter itself as well as its services, both matter. But they answer very different questions. A shelter can improve its outcome while a community becomes more dependent on the shelter and its services. So better shelter outcome does not necessarily mean better community outcome, all a manipulation of numbers and selected intake. Remember that selected intake?

I have been told directly by the manager out here on Foster Road, do not bring any animals in from the riverbed. While I understand the riverbed is approximately 95 percent San Luis County territory, the majority of its inhabitants are from Santa Maria, Santa Barbara County Both counties need to be working together towards change as our community is on a very rapid decline. Again, selected intake and this is what's being seen out at county. I just witnessed Good Samaritan bring in a kitten covered with oil. They wouldn't take it and that individual ended up going down to Santa Barbara with that animal.

Thank you

all for your service. You've got a big job and thank you for coming on board

Could I just, um, I would like to talk to you more about these issues so I hope you'll contact me in my office.

Thank you.

All right thank you.

We will now go to our final speaker Brandon Vasquez. Brandon?

Good morning Board of Supervisors. My name is Brandon Vasquez and I serve as the Senior Organizer for Future Leaders of America. I also am a proud supporter of the Youth Impact Coalition. Today, I come to thank you all for your allocation of $250,000 for the creation of a youth fund within the Santa Barbara County. Unfortunately most of the members weren't able to be here as they are in high school but I did want to come on their parts to thank you all. With that we still recognize that there's a lot of work to be done and we do wish to let you know that we are hoping to meet with you and that is pretty much it. We really, although we've met with some of you, we still wish to meet with all of you. With that thank you guys so much.

Thank

you.

And that concludes general public comment for today.

Moving right along, right to our departmental items. Madam Clerk will you please read departmental item number one to the record?

Chair Nelson and members of the board, departmental item number one is from the Treasurer Tax Collector Public Administrator. It is a hearing to consider recommendations regarding the Jeremy and Megan Raff appeal of the Treasurer Tax Collectors transient occupancy tax final audit determination.

All right Treasurer Hagan and Ms. Haggerty? Good morning. Before you get started, we'll go ahead and do ex parte on this. I know that we previously had ex parte prior to the last meeting so I guess I think it'd be appropriate to report out on any new discussions that happened since the last ex partes disclosures. Am I correct County Council on that?

Mr. Chair yes that's correct.

If there's been any new ex parte discussions, this would be appropriate to be discussed. Supervisor Lee?

I'll go first. I read the News Hawk article on August 24th about the Hick Camp and the RAFs were quoted in there.

Okay. Supervisor Labadino?

I received an email from I believe Megan Raff requesting if I had any other questions to reach out. I did not respond but it is in my email. Supervisor Hartman?

My Chief of Staff spoke with Jeremy Raff after the last meeting and then she emailed to Megan Raff about the date of this hearing.

All right, thank you Supervisor Irwin. Supervisor Caps?

Yeah I also

read the NewsHawk article about this Hip Camp app about short-term rentals here in Santa Barbara and I don't know if it should be submitted to the record but I'm happy to do so. Thank you.

County Council?

Mr. Chair, members of the board yes that's appropriate to submit it's okay

we'll do that to the clerk and I've had no communication since the last hearing from the RAFs or any other related parties in regards to this item so with that Ms. Rafferty please take it away

good morning this is the Jeremy and Megan Raff appeal of the treasure tax collectors transient occupancy tax audit its final determination Oops, went too far. This item was continued from the July 7th meeting. At that hearing, the board provided direction to staff to gather information regarding the community benefits of Dare to Dream's program and prepare findings related to the requested reduction of TOT penalties and interest and also work with the Department of Social Services and County Health Department to identify potential public benefit funding opportunities And future grant resources for dare to dream farms.

The responding information is as follows the alternate findings of the county of Santa Barbara. Board of Supervisors included in the memorandum to the board delineate various community benefits of the Dare to Dream Farms program. If your board decides to reduce the amount of TOT penalties and or interest determined to be owed, the alternate findings are for your boards consideration and the board would determine the amount owed to be included in the findings.

The county executive office discussed potential public benefit funding opportunities and future grant resources for Dare to Dream Farms with the county's Department of Social Services and County Health Department. Neither department could find public benefit funding opportunities for Dare to Dream Farms under their food programs. The Workforce Development Board staff was able to determine that Dare to Dream Farms could be a suitable potential work site for its youth program.

Dare to Dream Farms has agreed to continue the conversation and connect with program operators to begin identifying participants. The tax collector's proposed findings are as follows. The amount due from Jeremy and Megan Raff is $65,840.11 consisting of $50,664.25 in transient occupancy tax and $15,175.86 in penalties and interest. And this amount is assessed against Jeremy and Megan Raff and it's due immediately and payable to the County of Santa Barbara Treasurer Tax Collector upon the service of notice by the Clerk of the Board.

Alternate findings for this appeal have been provided in the memorandum to the board. The amount determined by the board will be assessed against Jeremy and Megan Raff, and it's will be due immediately and payable to the Board County Board County of Santa Barbara Treasure Tax Collector upon the service of notice by the clerk of the board. Here are the staff-recommended board actions, which are the same as the July 7th recommended actions.

And that concludes my presentation.

All right. Thank you, Ms. Haggerty. Any questions for staff before we have a presentation by the Raff family? Supervisor Lee.

If the appeal is denied, can we break that payment into different payments, say three or four payments instead of just one lump sum?

So Supervisor Lee through the chair, are you talking like a payment plan? Correct. So we don't have, the ordinance doesn't provide any kind of ability for us to have a payment plan. We'd have to change the ordinance but as I testified at the last hearing, I'm in the business of collecting money not refusing to accept money right so if they gave us a partial payment we would apply it to the outstanding amount and then bill them the rest.

But I think we start going down the road, we probably want to have more of a formal policy and change the ordinance to allow that in the future so that others could access it also. But that gets into a bigger discussion because if we're going to have payment plans then we're probably talking about staffing needs also within our office. So it's a little bit bigger discussion than what's on the table today just to be honest with you.

And I'll piggyback on Supervisor Lee's question with interest. What does interest look like if somebody is in a payment plan? So I guess they would the balance then therefore be accruing interest. That is correct Chair

Nelson, right? The balance would be accruing interest

and what's the interest rate that the county

charges? Yeah yeah half percent per month so six percent

five percent six percent

six percent per month

annualized yes okay not so

it's only a percent of us not the penalties in interest right it's not compounding on that so not compounding It's on the base tax only. Yes

and if they made

payments would go against the penalties in interest first.

Late payments would go to, the first payment would go towards the

balance? Penalties and interest first. I gotta pay down that first. Once that's satisfied we'll say then we'd start applying against the principal, the corpus. Understood thank you.

All right thank you for that clarification appreciate that yeah absolutely at this time uh we'll have a presentation by Jeremy and Megan Raff And welcome back and welcome into Santa Maria.

Thank you very much. Thank you for inviting us back today, thank you so much for all the hard work that you guys have done in searching for a way to move Dare to Dream Farms forward and continue its programs. We have prepared nothing because we have nothing more as we were waiting to see what the findings were from your time in searching but we do appreciate the efforts of staff and the deliberations of the Board of Supervisors. So

thank you Megan. All right before you guys leave, we may have some questions. So why don't you guys hold? And so and by my calculations about 30 seconds. So if they need more time there's plenty of it available for them. So you had 10 minutes if you needed it. Questions from the board let's start with Supervisor Hartman.

Yeah what will this mean if your appeal is denied to your business going forward?

If the appeal is denied, there's really not a way for us to pay back this amount. I know that it becomes a lien on the property which is Something that we could pay over time but obviously does accrue interest. As you've seen from the financials that we presented at the last board meeting, there really isn't much for us to pay over time even. We would need significant amounts this would probably result in what's already a small workforce being reduced even more and if we're unable to continue doing what we do because of the small workforce if we have to We have a There's we detailed all of the different programs that we have that really aren't making us a lot of money but do provide benefit to the city of Lompoc and anyone who passes through.

And a lot of those things if they're not if they are not creating a real benefit for us would have to be shut down if we have to start funneling whatever finances that we have into paying off this transient occupancy tax bill

And could you just remind me, you had some federal money that you got that is no longer available and what that is?

That was the LFPA Farms Together program. It was so each state was given money through the federal government to Do direct purchasing from farms and then provide to local communities. So in Lompoc we worked with Shelby through the Route 1 mobile truck so we, and we've known Shelby forever I was originally on the board with Route 1 when it first started she would purchase directly from us and we would deliver to the Dick DeWeeste Center for the senior classes and then through whatever other charity events she had during the government shutdown. She was out on the base quite a bit distributing produce and a lot of that came from us but that ended, that funding ended in the last week of June.

How much was

that? What our allocation was anywhere between like $1500 to $3000 a week just depending on what she could purchase and what we had available. So yeah, that was and we had purchased a tractor and hired another employee and everything so the employees already moved on but now we have the tractor that we are making payments on. The state did vote with their state funding to implement it again as a one-time deal but the funding is much much less than what they were asking in what the federal government was providing. And there's still I think the first meeting is next week on how that's going to work on the state level.

A long ways out from figuring out even who's going to get the money and how it's going to be distributed.

And how many farmers markets in the Lompoc region provide EBT SNAP benefits or accept that?

I think only one, I think Route 1 is the only one that does it.

Route 1 Farmers Market is the only farmers market available for EBT, for accepting SNAP EBT. We do accept SNAP and EBT online through we were able to get a grant to create an online website and allow people to get their EBT, SNAP EBT groceries purchased through that website and then we deliver for free in Lompoc so that they don't have to experience any difficulty with transportation and pickups and everything.