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Roll call — called by Kelly Long
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Once again, we have an opportunity to highlight an amazing organization that exists here in Ventura County.
We've called them for years moments of inspiration. I call them sometimes moments of perspiration because it's such hard work in the community to do such great things. Today we're honored to recognize and ask to come to the podium if I may Betsy Connolly and Carol Shelton both representing Adelante Comunidad Conejo I'd like to give you an opportunity, if I may, to introduce a video we're about to see and just share with us a few comments, if you would, about Adelante. Thank you both for being here.
Thank you. We appreciate the opportunity to highlight some of the work of Adelante Comunidad Conejo. We started in 2018 focused on concerns that the Latino community had about public education in the Conejo Valley, Then we had a pandemic and food insecurity became a high priority. And from that, we learned a lot about community building, about cross-cultural intergenerational community building And I coordinate along with others the Food Recovery and Distribution Program for Adelante that continues today. And with me is Carol Shelton, the Vice President of Adelante.
Hi thank you for recognizing us here today on behalf of our dedicated volunteers and Board of Directors.
And we'll just let the video, which Crystal took a couple of weeks ago at one of our food preparation events hopefully speak for itself.
Thanks. Thank you both very much for being here.
Adelante means a cross-cultural, multi-generational community building opportunity for everyone.
Adelante is almost my fourth year now. I started back in 21 as um, I would go with my mom just get some extra essential stuff back in uh right after COVID started and yeah I love it here and it's just an amazing opportunity to help people in need
And anybody that needs food, they can just come with no judgment. No red tape. No anything. We know that maybe people can afford food but maybe by us giving them food they can pay for their rent or they can pay for new shoes for their kids or school supplies or something like that. So it's not necessarily that people can't afford to pay for their food, it's just that they have other needs that they can't find support for so by supporting them in the food then we support them and the rest
Community building has never been more important than it is today. Too many of us don't know our neighbors, we don't understand each other's problems and where we want to help but we don't know how. And Adelante is participating in that space turning concern into action
Can everyone join me in a round of applause for Adelante please. Betsy and Carol, thank you for coming to the Hall of Administration and joining us this morning and celebrating all the great things Adelante does in the community. And for being our moment of inspiration. Thank you very much. You're
welcome I'm going to go pick up some food.
Made me hungry too look. Thank you very much. Now I'd like to pivot to a gender review and Levine Act disclosures. I'd like to ask my colleagues on the Board of Supervisors if anyone has any declarations related to the Levine Act? None. Okay, thank you very much now if I could ask CEO Dr. Savette Johnson to lead us through the next item.
Thank you Mr. Chair, good morning Board of Supervisors staff and all present today the agenda review for today February 10th 2026 is as follows item 8 general public comment three public comment letters have been submitted. Item 9 auditor controller receive and file the semi-annual report of employee fraud hotline activity one public comment letter has been submitted Item 11, Board of Supervisors. Recommendation of Supervisor Garrell to appoint Debra Feneros to the Somos Municipal Advisory Council. Request to remove this item from the agenda.
Item 33, District Attorney's Office. Approval of a memorandum of agreement and a lease agreement with the Coalition for Family Harmony for the operation of a domestic violence shelter at the Ventura County Family Justice Center. A PowerPoint presentation has been submitted. Item 35, County Executive Office. Public hearing regarding adoption of amendments to memorandums of agreement to let Cesar Chavez Day as a paid assigned county holiday. One public comment letter has been submitted. Item 37, Healthcare Agency. Receive and file the presentation following an internal evaluation of consolidated health service capacity, facility utilization, and sustainable future service provision in the Santa Clara Valley. A PowerPoint presentation and one public comment letter have been submitted.
Items 44 through 46, Public Works Agency. Receive and file reports on emergency action taken by the public works agency director for the Fraser Street low water crossing, Reeves Road and Old Telegraph road bridge emergency repair projects. A PowerPoint presentation has been submitted. And finally item 51 closed session threat to public services or facilities a revised agenda has been posted to add this item to the agenda.
That concludes agenda review thank you Mr. Chair
Thank you Madam CEO.
Agenda Discussionitems moved / continued / pulled — click to expand
I'd like to ask for a motion to approve the agenda as described and modified by the CEO.
Yes on my end
that passes unanimously thank you
Thank you. Moving on to agenda item number six, that's a consent agenda includes items 9 through 30 approved items but item 11 has been removed so the motion is to approve items nine through ten and twelve through thirty
Chair, if I can. Don't need to pull an item but just had wanted to make a comment if I can before we take action. Just wanted to bring attention to item number 16 this is the funding from the Clean Power Alliance to support the continuation of a multi-craft core curriculum pre-apprenticeship training program. Just wanted to highlight this since I do sit on the Clean Power Alliance Board And I wanted to thank the staff and the Workforce Development Board, Norman, Andrea, and Estelle for helping to move this along and ensure that we continue the pre-apprenticeship program. And build the local workforce so just wanted to highlight and thank the staff for that. So with that, thank
you. Yeah, thank you for that comment. Are there any
Roll-call vote Moved by Janice S. Parvin · Seconded by Kelly Long approve as modified has been
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public comments on agenda item 16 consent agenda?
As general there are no requests to speak for our content items. Thank you.
Okay, thank you With that there's a motion in a second
Roll-call vote Passed Moved by Vianey Lopez · Seconded by Guerrero approve items 9 and 10 and 12 through 30 has been
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All right We've got minutes of the previous meeting in the County Board of Supervisors special districts covered by the board held on January 27th Seeking a motion and a second on the approval of the minutes.
0:27 – 0:4115 turns
All right, item number seven has been moved by Supervisor Lopez, seconded by Supervisor Guerrero. Please vote. That passes unanimously thank you.
All
right
moving right along all right we've got general public comments that's agenda item number eight general public comments Madam Clerk are there any comments public comments registered for this morning?
We currently have eight speakers in our queue, so I'll just remind members of the public who wish to address the board today with a public comment on any agenda item please visit VenturaCounty.gov forward slash BOS comment for participation information and instructions For in-person public comment, please check in with the deputy clerk at the entrance of the boardroom. If you wish to make comments on an agenda item, you must be in the board room or if you're participating remotely, you must be connected to the meeting via Zoom or telephone before the close of the public comment period for that agenda item. Request to make public comment on an agenda item will be accepted until the public comment period for each agenda item is complete. For remote participants, please accept a prompt to be promoted and unmute your mic when it's your turn to speak and for all public comments The in-person speakers present in the boardroom will be called upon first, followed by remote participants.
At the discretion of the chair general public comment regarding county related matters that are not listed on the agenda but are within the subject matter jurisdiction of the board may be moved to the end of the meeting and we're going to start with our in person speakers today. We're going to start with Pamela Briscoe followed by Madison Reeshan and Mitchell Brand.
Pamela please proceed to the podium and you have three minutes to give your comment. Do we have a Pamela Briscoe? Not seeing Pamela Briscoe. We'll move on to Madison Richson, Madison. Looks like we don't have Madison either so we'll go on to Mitchell Brand. Mitchell Brand.
Thank you. Hi, my name is Mitchell Brand. I'm a nurse practitioner, family nurse practitioner who works at Los Isos Family Medical Group in Oxnard, one of the county ambulatory care clinics. I am here today to talk about how for the past one and a half years the primary care NPs and PAs have been seeing more patients than the physicians in the county ambulatory care clinics. Unfortunately, the county has repeatedly refused to negotiate how many patients per day we see as well as changes to our daily schedules and the last contract negotiations. We repeatedly tried to bargain for this and this was disregarded by the County in 2024 that UAPD appealed to the Public Employee Relations Board who ruled that any changes Physicians daily schedules are mandatory subject to bargaining.
However, the county did not apply this ruling to the CNA who represents the NPs and PAs at the County Ambulatory Care Clinics. As a result, the county has been requiring NPs and PAs to see 21 patients per day compared to the physicians who have been seeing 20 patients per day since 2024. In regards to the scope of practice and responsibilities of primary care NPs and PAs at the county clinics, there is no difference in the complexity or acuity of patients we see compared to our physician colleagues. Any patient who comes to one of our clinics is assigned at random to any available provider whether that is a physician NP or PA regardless of complexity or acuity.
I implore you to rectify this inequity by ordering the county to bargain with the CNA over these issues. If not, we will go to the Public Employee Relations Board and get the same parallel ruling as the UAPD did in 2024. We are fed up with the county engaging in this unfair bargaining practice every day. We work side-by-side with physicians doing the same work and it is absurd. We are seeing more patients than them. I can tell you that cramming 21 or 20 patients In a day is a frenetic pace which is resulting in provider burnout and disillusionment with the county who's abusing their power to make us see an unreasonable amount of patients. This is sacrificing the quality of care we are able to provide, and many MPs and PAs will leave the county system due to burnout and unreasonable working conditions.
Thank
you. Thank you for your comment. Our next speaker is going to be Robin Quinn We have a Robin Quinn, not seeing any. How about you're Robin Quinn? Yeah.
OK, please proceed.
Thank
you. Hi, I'm Robin Quinn. I'm also a family nurse practitioner. for County of Ventura at West Ventura Clinic and we would like to present this petition to you all. Thank you for hearing us today, and this is in regards to the advanced practice providers and as Mitch spoke please needing a fair workload to provide care for our community. This is all about providing care for the patients right so taking care of us as providers can help us serve this community better Dear distinguished Ventura County Board of Supervisors, Ventura County's primary care clinics are a vital resource providing health care to our most vulnerable community members.
The vital healthcare is delivered with compassionate empathy by our nurse practitioners and physician assistants or APPs, advanced practice providers. Since the county assumed control of the PCCs, the demand to see more and more patients on a daily basis has increased With APPs seeing more than 20 patients per day, this leaves limited time and resources for our APPs to provide the attention and care that our community needs.
Our community deserves attention and care, and our APPs deserve a fair workload equal with the physicians whom we work alongside. We demand that the County of Ventura's ambulatory care implement equity between physicians and APPs Thank you so much. Just in closing, again thank you for hearing us out and I we have a medical physician, a medical doctor out on leave currently and just to reemphasize this is we a lot of the nurse practitioners and our physician assistant. We are caring for all of his patients while he is out as a team effort. However, we are not recognized for that effort and we are not compensated for it These are high acuity patients who have chronic conditions for 30 years.
So we would love to continue to provide care for them and be recognized and continue to help our community. Thank you.
Thank you for your comment.
Mr. Chair, if I may for a quick comment just for your board's awareness and to thank you for your comment my understanding is that a meeting confer is being currently scheduled and Debbie Pacheco the union rep is in the room and is in contact with our labor leads who are in the room as well. Thank you.
Yeah, thank you very much. Thank you for the comments and for your care for our constituents. Thank you
Okay, so I just want to go back and visit our in-person public speakers before we transition into Zoom. Pamela Briscoe and Madison Richon who had both signed up to speak in person. Okay, so we're going to transition over to Zoom. We're going to hear from Jessica Hahn followed by Bruce McVicker and Daniel Blum. So I'm gonna ask IT to promote Miss Jessica Hahn. Hi Jessica if you unmute your mic you'll have six minutes to give a comment thank you.
Hi there can you hear me? Yes we can hear you please proceed. Okay.
Good morning, Supervisors. My name is Jessica Marie Hahn. I am a resident of Ventura County, born and raised. I'm here today not just as a resident but as a woman with severe medical condition, a brain aneurysm who was treated with absolute cruelty by the employees of this county. On June 22nd 2025, I sought help at the Ventura County Medical Center, BCMC. As I walked up, I saw the massive sign that said proclaiming it a stroke and aneurysm hospital For me, that sign promised safety. But inside it meant nothing. Instead of medical care I was met with violence, brutality and discrimination.
I hold an Associate's Degree in Holistic Chemistry at Ventura College and am currently pursuing my Bachelor's Degrees in Dance Studies at CSU Channel Islands. I am a student, a scholar and the daughter of a war-fighting woman who has never been to jail in her life. Yet on that day your officers treated me like a dangerous criminal. I was waiting peacefully outside the ER I was dressed in a loose summer dress without a bra, in the jail.
I was visibly vulnerable. I was clearly unarmed and not a threat to anyone. Despite this, VCOC staff chose to weaponize the police against me. They falsified my medical record, fabricating a lie that I had accused a doctor of sexual harassment, a statement she never made. They used this lie to escalate a non-medical situation into a violent arrest. The Ventura Police arrived based on these reports They did not ask me to leave. They did not check my medical status. Instead, they grabbed me, a woman with a known brain aneurysm and forcibly threw me into the back of a patrol car like a football.
When they grabbed me, they asked a series of questions. Why am I under arrest? The officer refused to tell me. Instead he claimed I was refusing arrest simply because I asked for a reason. I was never told my charges I only learned what I was accused of because I had to climb over the cage in the back of a patrol car to read the officer's computer screen. That is how I found out that I was a criminal by reading it through a cage. Forcing me to do this was not just unnecessary, it was permanently damaging. I was coughed so aggressively that I suffered permanent physical damage to my arm. I now live with a lifelong physical impairment and staff refuse to follow basic discharge protocols but the physical pain was only half of the They also stripped me of my dignity, stripped my medical condition.
I have no harm. The arresting officer took my hat, my only covering and refused to give it back. He left me exposed and humiliated when I felt injured in custody. This was not law enforcement. This was community. To add insult to injury the officer then tried to use my disability against me. He threatened that because I have an aneurysm he would get my driving license revoked. But here is the proof that exposes his bias I had already gone through a full DMV medical review. My doctor had explicitly cleared me to drive. The officer's respect was baseless. He was ignoring the law and using my medical history simply to terrorize me. Supervisor, this is not an isolated incident. This is a systemic pattern of neglect.
This was my first time at VCMC but I have come before this board in the past to report being denied stroke and aneurysm care at other emergency rooms in your county system. You ignored those complaints He allowed this culture of neglect to perpetuate. And now, at VCMC, that neglect has escalated into physical assault on a disabled woman. When I tried to report this misconduct, I was met with a wall of retaliation.
First, the 911 dispatcher was insufficient and escalated my call when I tried to use non-emergency channels. Second, when I called the police department and found a complaint about brutality, the captain in charge refused to take my statement and hung up the phone for me. Third, I attempted to contact the manager Bill Ayub. His office refuses to engage. The executive assistant acts as a hostile gatekeeper, blocking my pleas for help and treating any claims of total disdain. And finally, the most egregious act of retaliation came from VCMC itself.
When I called the hospital's grievance department to report the falsified records, the coordinator refused to do their job They hung up on me, and then, in clear evidence of witness intimidation, they called the police to my home for a false identity check. They used law enforcement as a weapon for the submulance of patient complaints. I have filed a petition for factual innocence because I committed no crime but I am here today to demand accountability from you.
You oversee this hospital system. You are responsible for a staff that lies about patients. You are responsible for police who murder and abuse vulnerable women or mock their disabilities. I am demanding three things today. One, an immediate investigation into the falsification of my medical records by VPMC staff. Two, a review of the palliative safety test by your grievance department.
Three, acknowledgement that the permanent injury caused by this count is negligence. Finally, I want to say that I'm thankful for your time today. God knows I don't have time for this or was asked for this. I have so many other things in my life Thank you. Thank you
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for your comment. We're going to hear from Bruce McVicker followed by Daniel Blum and Sidra Murata. Bruce McVicker, I see that you've been promoted please proceed with your comment.
Good morning can you hear me?
Yes we can
Okay, thank you. Everybody, Democrats and Republicans distrust computerized voting machines now. The evidence that the vote tallies are electronically manipulated illegally is overwhelming and continues to pile up. The voice in the will of the people are being suppressed and discarded. All voters are being disenfranchised by a corrupt system. Our God given rights as sovereign people to choose representation is being stolen. Save the Republic, hand count paper ballots at the precinct level. Counties across the country are switching to hand counting election ballots instead of using electronic tabulation machines over concerns about the accuracy and security of the devices. An executive order declaring an elections national emergency and banning electronic voting systems is imminent.
The BOS, ROV and BCEAC need to prepare for the transition to hand counting There are many procedural, logistical and financial issues that need to be resolved when switching from machine to citizen county. Of course the procedures will change maybe they will leverage previously documented Ventura County hand count procedures with technological enhancements to increase transparency for the public.
Logistically the number of voting locations will need to be analyzed for some elections different precincts may have different ballots. So the number of ballot types will need to be sorted before counting. The largest precincts in the county have about 2,000 registered voters and many smaller ones are less than 100. A vote center processing one precinct ballot type could be expected to process 2000 ballots in a day with the proper manpower and counting team size allocation. Most vote centers may need to process multiple precincts and ballot types. So depending on the number of ballot types, expectations will be less than 2000 ballots in a day.
It's obvious that the transition to hand counting will be complicated. Calculating the financial impacts is also a complex problem. Some estimates claim that hand counting will cost more money and more time than using computers. Others estimate that it will cost less and take a similar amount of time. In Ventura County, the cost estimates should include contract recovery costs related to the failure of the currently used Dominion systems to meet security standards. Changing the labels on the machines to Liberty Vote won't fix the security problems inherent in the equipment.
There's also equipment at the vote centers that won't be needed for hand counting. A thorough accounting of all the process changes and going from machine to hand counting should be performed to provide an accurate cost estimate. Hand counting, hand count training and experimental demonstrations can help refine these estimates. A notable noticeable omission in all of the cost estimates I've seen Is that none of them factor in the cost of denying the citizens their right to an honest and transparent election?
Thank you for your comment, Mr. Speaker. You've used your three minutes. Thank you. Our next speaker we're going to hear from is Daniel Blum followed by Sidroth Murata. Daniel. Hi I see that you've been promoted if you unmute your mic you'll have three minutes to give your comment.
Thank you so much can you hear me yes we can hear you please proceed Thank you so much. My name is Danielle Bloom I'm a Thousand Oaks resident. I want to thank you for recognizing Adelante Comunidad for supporting the community's needs. I hope that everyone who saw the presentation will volunteer at an Adelante event so you can see the amazing work, community building and support being provided.
It is important to keep in mind that you, our elected officials and leaders are the ones tasked with supporting the community. We look to you to step up and address these issues. The additional support provided by organizations Volunteers such as Adelante are alleviating needs in our community that really should be addressed by you, our elected officials. As a side note, our elections have been demonstrated and proven to be safe. And I hope we will continue with the safe elections we are all watching as our upcoming election this year.
I'd like to mention that our community is in need of a great deal of support. Since January of 2025 over 840 people have been kidnapped in Ventura County and we need you our elected leaders to step up and support these kidnappings by federal officials. There's a lot of good work being done. You as our leaders we look to you to step up in this election year. Thank you.
Thank you for your comment. Our next speaker is going to be Sedgwith Morata
0:46 – 0:579 turns
But having said that, permit me to repeat what Miss Bloom just said. 800 people have been kidnapped, subjected to torture and imprisonment in some cases murder. And I cannot say worse. What I can say is For the past 25 years, we in the US have been subject to a gradual military occupation all in the name of protecting an imaginary national security from equally imaginary threats.
I have no doubt the question of election voting apparatus is related to that also. Meanwhile, the real threats to our security go unheeded That is to say, pollution, privatization and above all paranoia. Treatment like that Ms. Hahn suffered is meted out every day to innocent people for no fault of their own. And when we question it, we are punished for that questioning.
This we have said and with this we have seen for the past year at least, and for many more years before that. And once again we call on you to do the simplest most basic thing in all this activity to remove Immigration and Customs Enforcement from this county Release the prisoners and make reparations to them all. That is the very simplest, bare minimum of what we in this county can do.
And therefore I call on us all to do it. That will be all. Thank you.
Thank you for your comment and then one more time just checking for Pamela or Madison who are joining us today here in person. Okay. Chair Gorrell, I believe that concludes a public comment for this item. Thank you.
Thank you very much and thank you for all the comments. I think we're going to pivot now and I just want to apologize for those that are waiting for the regular agenda which will resume shortly but we're going to pivot to the 9am calendar. We have a presentation that our own Supervisor Lopez is going to lead us on Item 31. Thank you.
Thank you, Chair. I'm very pleased today to bring a proclamation forward for our Board of Supervisors to recognize and proclaim February 2026 as Black History Month. It is a time for us to recognize our communities are black and African-American community here in Ventura County And highlight the work that is being done by a few organizations today. I want to highlight two of those and with no specific order with, I wanna start with 99 3 FM which is an independently black owned radio station here in Ventura County dedicated to addressing the needs of historically underserved audiences Through empowerment content that fosters cultural awareness and civic engagement, serving as a vital community development platform and cultural heartbeat. And today we have Dr.
Vincent Stewart to share a little bit more about what 99.3 FM is doing and to accept the proclamation. So I want to invite him up first and then we'll invite the next organization.
Good morning and thank you so much for the proclamation. I just want to talk about 99.3 FM is a radio station is actually owned by the Community Advocacy Coalition, and so we are a group that is trying to in the community reach out and handle advocacy issues related to education, related to health, related to legal. And things that in the community like in the past we've done empowerment to our young people those that are in positions elected positions mentoring and helping those that are interested in becoming elected And so that's one of the things that we've done in the past. And so we are, we've had a few educational leadership sessions and so we are always looking for things that we can do with the emphasis on the community and empowering the community as well as helping our young people.
You know, we're not going to be around here for too long. And so we want to ensure that the legacy is passed on to our young people and our young people have the opportunity. So we have a radio station on the campus of Oxnard College 99.3 FM and that station we are trying to bring on our students. We have our EOPS program on that campus And that station is offered to them so that they can do their podcasts and do live broadcasts. With 99.3 we have the ability to broadcast over the air on that frequency as well as we stream, so anywhere in the world you can hear what we have.
And right now we are open and we have been taking a variety of different types of broadcast, musical as well as those that are educational and empowerment. And we are open to that kind of broadcasting now. Matter of fact I see the ladies of Delta Sigma Theta and they are looking at having a program in the very near future on our station so we are community station. We want to be local. We want to be involved in the community And so that's what we're about.
Can we get your name for the record again, please?
Yes. Vincent Vincent Stewart.
Thank you. Thank you, Dr. Stewart and we will come down at the end of the presentations with the proclamation but just want to thank you for everything that you do and the very many hats that you wear in advocating for our community and making sure that we are giving proper attention to everyone so thank you for your work through the radio station all right so next yes And next, I want to call up the ladies of Delta Sigma Theta, the Ventura County Alumni Chapter. And again another organization that is doing great work in our community and while they were founded in 1913, the chapter here in Ventura County has been around since 1980s so I want to hand it over to Ms. Lakeisha White and Shante Morgan-Carter to share about the great work that you're doing in our county.
Oh, thank you so much for having us here today. We actually have been serving this county and this community for over 45 years. We'd like to express our sincere gratitude for this proclamation recognizing Black History Month and this moment actually carries a very deep historical weight for our particular chapter over 10 years ago under the visionary leadership of our then president Shante Morgan Carter We stood before this board to secure a commitment that the black community's contributions would be formally recognized and today we continue in that legacy.
So for over 45 years, our chapter has been dedicated to sisterhood scholarship and service within the Ventura County. This recognition is not only an honor of our members but a tribute to the history and the ongoing contributions of the black community in this region, in this area. As this proclamation states, Black History is an indispensable chapter of our story and it's a time to spotlight and celebrate the triumphs that have shaped this county and our identity.
We have served this community with the servant's heart and it's a mandate that's founded in Galatians 513 by love serve one another. We don't do this work in a vacuum and we pour into this county alongside other partners like 99 3 FM and other civic organizations such as the NAACP, The Youth Pine Institute The 20th Century Onyx Club, the Channel Islands chapter of the Lynx just to name a few. But collectively we strive to maintain the community's stability togetherness and equity and make sure that it's a lived reality for all of our residents So, we stand here as a part of the National Pan-Hellenic Council. We're commonly known as The Divine Nine and our collective history serves as a bedrock for black progress. We have several notable names that you might recognize were the daughters of Dorothy Hite, Mary McLeod Bethune, Aretha Franklin, the brothers of Dr.
Martin Luther King, Thurgood Marshall More sisters Kamala Harris, our Tony Morrison, Arthur Ashe, Langston Hughes, John Lewis, Zora Neale Hurston. I can name so many more even including MC Light. So the charge for you today is not to let our recognition And when the calendar turns to March, that we embrace diversity as a catalyst and we seek out the voices often silenced and protect history often erased. And we let our continued partnership build the future of this county and our country ultimately. So I'm going to close with a couple of words from Maya Angelou And it should be something familiar to you, says you may shoot me with your words. You may cut me with your eyes. You may kill me with your hatefulness but still like air I rise out of the huts of the history shame I rise up from a past that's rooted in pain I rise I'm a black ocean, leaping and wide.
Welling and swelling, I bear the tide. Leaving behind nights of terror and fear, I rise into a daybreak that's wondrously clear. I rise bringing the gifts that my ancestors gave. I am a dream and the hope of the slave. I rise, I rise, I rised. Thank you.
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Thank you all for being here today, not just to accept the proclamations but for the wonderful words and reminders of our work and our shared commitment. And while this month of February we promote it is a time for us to promote and preserve it is also a time for us to respect And recognize the black history and culture year round. So with that, Chair, if there's no additional comments or public speakers, we have the two proclamations for the two groups.
Yeah, that sounds great. Thank you. Let's go down and do that now. All right. Fantastic. Thank you to Supervisor Lopez for leading us in that. The greatest part about this month and reflections are the integration of the youth. And the radio station being on the campus of Oxnard College I think is critical. We saw for the Martin Luther King ceremony last month, we saw debutantes, we saw scholarships, the speakers it was really integrated with the youth because it's...I brought my 11 year old, I think your niece was there, just the young people really are have to carry the banner on remembering and the history and the reflection. So thank you for doing that we're going to move to item 32 receive and file presentation, we are amongst leaders today very excited about this I'm gonna invite up to the podium Betsy Swanson Hollinger to lead us in the LEAP program the fifth element graduation.
Good morning Chair Gorel, members of the Board, CEO Dr. Johnson. My name is Betsy Swanson-Hollinger I'm the Manager of Learning and Organizational Development here with the County Executive Office in Human Resources and today it gives me great pleasure to recognize Fifth Element who is Fifth graduating cohort of our Leadership Excellence and Action Program for Managers. LEAP for Managers is our county's in-house customized leadership development program, and it was developed with your support so thank you and we're grateful for your continued support as well as the support of our County Executive Office.
This is the content of the program and I'm not going to walk through each section of the content. But I did want to say at the end of the program that the participants write an essay, and they write an essay reflecting on how they've expanded their leadership capacity based on what they've learned in the program. And this also serves for us as the program implementers a qualitative evaluation of the program. And there's a couple of areas that stand out time and time again when we read through these essays. One is the ability to go through the assessment process where you gain tremendous insights in your own self-awareness, and then what things you want to change about yourself, what you want to continue doing are very profound.
The second point that I want to bring that we see throughout all of these essays over the last 10 years of the program is that real peer connections that develop across agencies, across the disciplines and across departments. There's peer learning at tabletops for every session and these end up being real friendships that get established through this program. It gives a sense of community and belonging for our leaders And impacts and drives their engagement in their own departments and for our county as a mission.
So I want to just show who are graduating classes right here, and at this point I would like to invite them all down to take a photo moment with you all. So fifth element come on down and I'm going to have you kind of line up right here at the base of the dais so come on down don't be shy. We're going to do a photo moment. We're very excited for you so fun all around And Diana or Natalie can give us the parameters if we're going too wide. She'll have a scrinch and board members do you mind standing up for us please so we can,
we can... So some in the front? Some in the front yeah there you go you said it sure thank you and then put your nice certificate right in front of center And so just let folks right here, just cover this podium. It's much nicer.
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Congratulations everyone, fantastic LEAP program. We're all very proud of our LEAP graduates, the finest, county's finest and you too Nick Odenath. All right, fantastic. I think we are on to number 38. Okay all right. We were just briefly gonna if my colleagues would indulge me we're briefly going to go back to agenda item 8 which is general public comment. We have someone who was signed up wasn't here is now back and I would now hand this off to the clerk to lead us in one more public comment if we could.
Agenda item eight.
Thank you, Chair Garrell. I was just informed that we do have Pamela Briscoe who is here in the building and would like to give public comment. Unfortunately she was not here when the item was open but thank you for accommodating her so if we do have Pamela Briscoe please proceed to the podium and you'll be able to give your comment. Pamela Briscoe. Hi, Pamela.
Is the speaker on? It's on, yes. OK. I'm here today not because I want to but because I feel like have to and there are defining moments in our lives professionally and personally. And February 3rd kind of told me that something is wrong when somebody on this campus can be thrown down by ICE agents. And where is our sheriff? Where is the presence of our sheriff And it was done by people dressed in battle gear, and that woman was thrown down. So who stood up? People in the surrounding area stood up and got pepper sprayed.
That's a problem for me. And so when the sheriff takes an oath, he takes an oath to serve and protect. He honors the California and US Constitution and the laws that govern us. And I have no faith in this sheriff when he chooses not to intervene and that's what I have to say thank you.
Thank you for your comment. We are now going to pivot to regular agenda item 38 director Esteban Rodriguez is with us Mr. Rodriguez please join us at the podium for this agenda item number 38
Good morning. Can you hear me OK?
Yeah,
OK. Good morning Mr Chair Gorel Board of Supervisors Dr Johnson County Council thank you for the opportunity for being here with this significant donation from our foundation one point three million and three hundred fifty thousand dollars and we're here seeking approval For us to be able to bring on additional staff, it's a staffing request. It's also going to be the opportunity to enhance our Pets for Life program adoptions support and trap and neuter.
We're also seeking your approval for us to enter into third amendment with the humane world for additional funding and the opportunity to have six fixed term positions for this ask. How do I move the screen forward? There is. Okay. And before I go on, this ask is significant because it builds on everything that we've been doing in the last 16 months that I've been here.
I was looking back and it's amazing to me that I've been here in front of you four times in 16 months to accept different things in the lens of how we're going to connect with the community in the work that we're doing in animal services for Ventura County Animal Services. As I mentioned, Pets for Life program adoption support and TNR are all wrapped into this board letter that we're seeking approval for.
So I will move to the next slide. We did our first vaccine clinic in January. It was in Oxnard. We serviced 168 pets, we microchipped 128 so what that means is 128 pets that received a microchip if they end up lost we're going to be able to return them as quickly as possible but this just goes to show how involved the community is How big of a need there is for vaccines, microchipping everything that we provided that day. Everything was done for free through our Pets4Life program and in order for us to continue doing that work this is part of the board letter that we submitted for approval today.
Our mobile medical unit, many of you went to the unveiling back in October. You gave us the approval in April of 2025 to move forward and accept the vehicle plus a $1.7 million grant from our same foundation to staff that vehicle. Here's the vehicle and the next picture here is we've already put it into use. We're operating it right now out of the shelter because we're getting our feet wet, we're making sure everybody understands what their role is how to navigate in a smaller space that they're not used to right? They're used to operating out of the clinic which is a lot bigger but so far in the last couple of weeks we've done 54 spay and neuters This is going to be a targeted approach. We have through our Pets for Life program about 180 people that are identified that need spay and neutering done in the community, and then we're gonna continue to do TNR.
Adoption support. I talked a little bit about it in the beginning last year we took an 8200 animals that went through our system, we were able to adopt out 4800 that we moved into their permanent host and into their permanent housing and the additional adoption support is going to give us the ability to expand our hours, give a better customer service experience and also have people that are very knowledgeable about the pets that are going home with somebody so that we can do the best counseling possible.
That is why we're asking for this portion of adoption support TNR, this is the first time that Ventura County will be engaged in having a dedicated person for trap neuter release. This is for community cats. There's an estimation of about 120,000 community cats in Ventura County. They're procreating every day. There are a lot of people that are doing work in this space, but we see the county being able to take a step forward and actually building a coalition of partners building a coalition of trappers and being able to make a significant impact in public spay for TNR.
That's the whole reason we started doing everything that we've done and why I've been in front of you four times is to really put all the pieces of the puzzle in play so that we can have a great opportunity of working with our community, building that bridge between community and organization. And to hopefully minimize the amount of animals that are out there that are being procreated and that are ending up at the shelter or anywhere else Lastly, I want to present this is our board. It's made up of eight volunteers that this board helps move the funding we talk they're in line with everything that Ventura County Animal Services is doing their professionals in their own respect And most of these people donate their time also to the shelter.
Not only are they volunteers of the board, they donate their times to the shelter and help us be successful in what we're doing for the community, what we're doing for the animals and essentially what we' re doing for Ventura County. So thank you all For being with me and supporting me through this journey. It's it feels like I've been here a long time and I really haven't, but we've done so much together.
So I just want to say thank you to all of you for seeing also the vision that I've talked about and making it come to fruition. These are the pieces of the puzzle that we need as a government organization to be able to provide the services that our community needs, to help them be lifelong pet owners and help us minimize the population of animals that come to the shelter. So thank you and if you have any questions please
feel free. Yeah thank you for the presentation Mr. Rodriguez and congratulations on all your great work. Any comments?
Yes, I just want to say thank you so much for just working with our volunteers in our cities to understand the needs of our community Lately, it seems like you either have kids or you have animals. Dogs, cats and they're our lives. And so it's so sad to see them out on the street and not taken care of when there are so many that should be left. So I hope maybe Valentine's Day, there is a big push instead of going to pet store go to our animal shelters and pick up a cat or a rabbit or I mean, I think you even have chickens
We have a little bit of everything, yes.
You have a little bit of everything so if anyone's ready to pick up an animal I just really would hope that they do because they need love as well. So thank you so much.
Supervisor Parvin and then Supervisor Laguna.
Yeah, I just wanted to take a moment and thank you for all the work you're doing on social media. You just had your photo with your bunny promoting bunny adoptions too. Yes, but I mean you're keeping everyone current on the need for adoption and then I also want to congratulate your foundation for being amazing and all the work that you're doing and I look forward to working continuing to work with you and you're so inspiring as far as being in a job that's really could be somewhat challenging.
But you take it on and you do it with a smile, and I hope we can keep up with getting those pets adopted. We need to do that. And I love the work we're doing. And thank you to the foundation as well.
Thank you. Thank you. Thank you, Chair. Director Rodriguez has been doing an exceptional job these last 16 months. I was going to say it's two or three years, but in so many ways you've been exceptional. But one of the things that stood out to me is the relationship you've built with the foundation And before your tenure, there was a fracture in that relationship. And I don't know why but since you've come on board, you've been able to rebuild that relationship and through that we have the mobile clinic, we have these three programs. That relationship is bearing fruits and so I wanted to congratulate you and acknowledge you for that among the many things you're doing exceptionally well. So congratulations to you and your entire team. You have an amazing team as well.
Thank you. And before I go, yeah, I just want to say there's no way that we could do it without the foundation without our volunteers and most importantly are dedicated staff there. We work seven days a week every day from six in the morning till 12 midnight And we're always operating. Adoptions are available at our shelter, the QR code is up there on that screen if you want to donate to the shelter so I was hoping we had a few of our volunteers that were here that do trap and neuter. I don't think they're here.
They were gonna probably come a little later. They didn't know what time we were going on also the foundation, but I'll let them know what you expressed For their service to the shelter But also for what they do out in the community one of them took me for a ride along to kind of see 13 different feeding stations for TNR and that kinda was the final deciding factor for us to move forward with a TN our program and Because there's a lot of cats out there that are just community cats and people are feeding them, but they also need to be spayed neutered vaccinated. So I can't wait till we get started. Thank you so
much. Director Rodriguez, I'll just add to my colleagues comments, our gratitude for everything that you do. We welcome you to Ventura County with mountain fire and it's been uphill ever since. But whether it's the staff of VCAST, the volunteers, the foundation, the team led by you to approve that item. Yeah, please thank you.
1:19 – 1:3410 turns
That passes unanimously, thank you.
Thank you all. Thanks again I think it's appropriate to invite up Danielle Keyes, Ms. Keyes to make a presentation on item 39
Good morning. Morning, Chair Guerrero members of the board CEO Dr. Johnson I'm Danielle Keys your County Human Resources Director and I'm here on behalf of your board to present a resolution to add Cesar Chavez day as a paid holiday to the county calendar this change reflects recently negotiated union agreements and amendments for management and unrepresented employees Upon your approval, the holiday will be observed beginning in calendar year 2026 and county offices will be closed for business on this day.
This resolution aligns with your board's previously approved agreements and ensures consistency across all employee groups. This concludes my presentation. I'm available for any questions you may have.
Any comments from the
public? Chair Gerald there are no requests to speak for this item. Thank you. All
right, thank you looking for a motion second.
Roll-call vote Passed Moved by Kelly Long · Seconded by Vianey Lopez adopt the resolution
Show transcript
All right, thank you very much for the presentation. Moving on to agenda item 40 it's receiving file presentation led by our CEO Dr. Johnson.
Thank you Mr. Chair coming before us we will have the presentations on the internal service fund rates for fiscal year 2026-27 Now, this serves as the baseline for the budgets for each agency. So it's critically important to start here as we approach our budget season. So first, we'll have our General Services Agency Director Thomas Hunt come followed by our Information Technology Services Director Terry Theobald and then finally, we'll have CEO Risk Management Catherine Laveau come and present the rates in that order. Thank you.
All right, good morning Chair Garrell County Supervisors and CEO Dr. Johnson my name is Tom Hunt I'm your GSA director based on last year's presentation to your board it was given by my predecessor. I know you're already very aware of a lot of our great accomplishments and services that we provide in GSA so my intent today is Speed that up a little bit and we are going to focus on our presentation of the ISF rates and the factors that influence them.
So I do have some slides as well that will pertain to our accomplishments, but their number have been reduced and I will be... The ones that remain I'm gonna go through quickly. The first one I'd like to start with is our strategic plan and because of its impact on our rates. Last year, we briefed your board on a GSA strategic plan that had been in development in the year 2024.
So in 2025, we moved into implementation of that plan. And as a result, we now have united focus on our goals that serve the county even better than before. What you see here in this slide are pictures from our kickoff event last May. You can see the enthusiasm was evident on day one. I'm happy to say that's continued ever since. Our strategic plan is simple, in fact that's the beauty of it and why it's working.
And it is this we will work together as a team to support our customers and sustain county resources. There are three goals and each goal is aligned to a focus area which I've highlighted in green. The six action items and nine objectives are all in support of meeting those three goals, and they have measures associated with them that are keeping us focused and on track.
And although we're only in the first year of a five-year plan, we're already experiencing better teamwork and cross collaboration across our agency. And this is leading to identifying efficiencies and cost savings which are already improving our rates. I do have one slide here to cover the services that we provide at the county. Our core operational services are everything from facilities maintenance and projects, to landscaping and housekeeping, utilities management, security services, and procurement and business support.
By the way GSA also manages parks. We do an incredible job with them. They're only not mentioned here because I'm focused on our ISF services and parks is run via an enterprise model. Our vision is to be a trusted strategic partner known for our dedicated service, innovation and expertise. And by centralizing these county functions in GSA other agencies and departments can stay focused on serving the public while we manage the infrastructure behind the scenes.
All right, we're almost to our rates. This slide and the next one do list out some of our many accomplishments and I'd like to just highlight a few of them that I've highlighted in green font here. You've each seen that we're developing a 5.8 megawatt solar power purchase agreement project currently being built here at the Government Center. I know Supervisor Long last year had a question about when it would be implemented or completed. And I'm glad to tell you that we will wrap up construction in the last lot which is Lot A by the end of this month And then following all the electrical tie-in work and commissioning, we will start self generating 100% renewable power this summer.
And as part of that project 148 trees did have to be removed but we've planted 220 new trees in response to mitigate for that. I'd like to highlight a couple of items and the first is the master agreement renewals. Last year our procurement team, while they were understaffed and in a leadership transition with no permanent chief procurement officer, they worked hard to accelerate the master agreement renewals so they were all ready by July 1st and they did so while continuing to deliver great savings to agencies and departments through competitive solicitations And to help facilitate better coordination and provide real-time communication on our master remit statuses, they developed a Power BI dashboard for all of our county customers to use.
I mentioned earlier that we had nine objectives and six action items on our strategic plan. One of those objectives is employee enrichment, and one of the action items is to improve our GSA onboarding process. The biggest indicator of success for those is in our vacancy rate reduction. I wanted to point out this metric because we have made a lot of concerted effort toward it, and we have cut our vacancy rate in half last year.
This has reduced overtime expenditures and made our teams more efficient and effective because we're adding more experienced and capable members to our ranks that infuse new energy into everything we do. And this rate reduction is the result of very deliberate and strategic effort by our entire GSA HR team as well as the hiring managers who are involved in each division.
All right, next slide is going to be our rates. But I just wanted to provide this one first because you're going to see that it's a 2.2% increase comparing our current year's budget to next year's but this slide gives you a little context by seeing how this rate increase compares to the last four years of rate increases and with that here is our rate slide This shows our comparison of next year with the current year.
We have taken into account market-based analysis, negotiated general salary increases and SB 525 and yet we have an overall increase of only 2.2%. And knowing that these salary increases amount to a much higher percentage increase you're likely wondering how this is possible? If you look at where our expenses are heavily based on salaries, which is in maintenance housekeeping grounds and couriers. You'll see increases that are reflective of those required salary bumps.
So how was this low increase made possible? The largest offset to those increases is in our utilities budget projection, which is the top line It has been reduced based on knowing that last year's projection was conservatively estimated, as well as knowing how much we'll be saving this upcoming year with the 5.8 megawatt solar system coming online just in time for this fiscal year.
We were also able to dial back some of our budget projections for security services for the upcoming year without any loss of requested service. And I'd also like to clarify that we reduce services to our customers only when they ask for it. Therefore, we have built into our rates sufficient budget to be able to pay all salaries and continue providing the services that are currently being requested.
Overall this again is a manageable 2.2% budget increase year over year and one other thing I want to mention there's a bullet here at the bottom we have in order to provide more cost-efficient service and value to the county agencies as well as the CEO funded capital renewal program, we have reduced our overhead rate to manage projects from 10.9 percent to 9.9 percent beginning next year All right, now that you're aware of how our strategic plan and accomplishments are contributing to a more accurate and more efficient rates. I'd like to cover a few areas we anticipate needing to focus on and be ready to adjust course for in the future because they are anticipated to possibly affect our rates.
This slide is to inform your board of the progress the county through GSA has made with respect to developing renewable solar power generation projects and becoming more and more sustainable. As a new 5.8 megawatt solar project comes online this summer, we are projecting a huge increase in the amount of self-generated solar power being supplied to county facilities and it's key to note that renewable power is always preferred due to the beneficial impact on the environment but when it's self generated, it adds the additional benefit of saving money and insulating against future inflationary increases In this chart, the blue bars represent purchased energy going back 10 years.
Per your board's direction in 2019 we began purchasing energy via the Clean Power Alliance's 100% renewable option for all county sites where we're able to do so. So almost all of our energy is consumed at county facilities that are already 100% renewable And the key takeaway that I'd like you to get from this is that we are about to be able to meet more than half of our electrical consumption needs through self-generated solar projects.
This slide here, in light of moving to over 50% of our county electrical consumption being self-generated mainly from this new project that's coming online. I wanted you to provide your board with this information and the basic story to convey for your awareness is as we self generate more and more 100% renewable power at a cost savings there is less and less of a need to purchase 100% renewable energy at a premium that was generated elsewhere.
I just want to touch briefly on our fleet rates. If you recall from the rate slide, the fleet budget is only going up 2% next year and that's because we've been very effective in controlling costs and finding ways to save whenever possible. One of the ways we've done this is to provide fleet utilization reports to agencies and help them to determine the most effective way they can reduce their fleet expenditures.
And this slide shows that vehicle costs are increasing but estimated fuel costs have come down. Fuel costs are almost entirely a pass-through cost, and we have very little control of future costs. So my concern here is that if fuel costs were to rise significantly it would have a negative impact on our future budget rate projections. We also need to remain vigilant on the cost of EV implementation and CARB compliance mandates. I do have another slide regarding that that I will be passing through.
So I just highlighted some of your utility rates and fleet rates as two areas where we need to stay vigilant and prepared for whether it's likely going to be budgetary impacts in the future. This slide highlights some other areas that we were remaining focused on and aware of, and I now have a few slides to advance through that I'm gonna save us time by briefly going.
This one here is on CARB compliance and our EV infrastructure issues This slide provides some of the ways we are building community and teamwork in GSA, which is one of our strategic plan goals. This slide explains how we're intentional about recognizing great work in GSA, which also is a key component to our strategic plan. And finally this one is I watched the presentation last year. I saw Supervisor Long had a question about some of our palms so I provided an answer to you here.
And this one is a self-explanatory slide, but I kept it in the presentation because it's germane to our discussion of ISF rates. And finally, I'd like to close out this presentation with a photo of our GSA fiscal team that developed our rates and thank them publicly for all the work they continue to do for GSA in the county every day. I'd like to thank your board for the opportunity to present our GSA ISF rates for the upcoming fiscal year and I'm available to answer any questions you have.
Thank You Director Hunt. Any questions by the board?
1:34 – 1:509 turns
I'm more just a thank you. Appreciate the consideration of our questions and the thoughtful presentation. I think it's really impactful how much we're going to be saving with solar. I know there was a large price increase when we went 100%. clean energy and so to be able to modify and to put solar on our campuses. I know for our employees, it might have been a little bit of issue just with parking and stuff but thank you for enduring that so that we can really ensure the safety and just thoughtfulness of having solar here. So appreciate that and I do appreciate the palm trees those do get scary especially in our winds and how they're toppling in stuff Maybe you don't have to replace them with palm trees.
I don't care, it's your job not mine but I really do appreciate all the thoughtfulness thank you.
Yeah, thank you during these inflationary times for working hard to be innovative really appreciate that. And our next presentation CEO.
Thank you. Thank you director hunt I know that when you came on you heard a lot of information and took in a lot of concerns and I'm just very grateful that the rates look like they do this year In spite of everything and thank you for your leadership working with your team to make that happen. Thank you Next we'll have director Theobald There's a great deal going on with information technology services He is handling a lot of projects many that our office is very involved in so Thank you for being here and sharing a little bit about the rates and some of the projects that you're working on
Thank you Dr. Johnson, good morning Chair Gorrell members of the board CEO Dr. Johnson Terry Theobald County Chief Information Officer. You know I wish I had great pictures like my predecessor here pictures of palm trees which I actually have at my own house I guess it could have taken pictures of those or my fabulous Christmas light show which no one has ever seen but you know a lot of what IT does is invisible the network is invisible The servers that drive the applications that you use are over in a data center in this building or in other data centers throughout the county.
And the other thing is every day that you work with the county, you interact with us. You either interact with our technology or you interact with my staff and that's a big responsibility to make sure that your communication ability to function is handled day in and day out. And it's not always easy as I know working with some of the supervisors and some of the other directors but with that I'll go ahead and get started here So a couple of things as I'm talking about this slide.
The strategic plan that IT services has is really just as simple as what we just heard technology is changing faster than it's ever changed in my lifetime and I started with punched cards back in the 70s. The technology is changing so fast that it's hard to keep up and so our strategic plan is simple. We need to learn about new technologies as they come out into our space as quickly as possible, we need to find them, learn them, adapt to them and adopt them. If we don't do that, then you'll be behind from a technology point of view. So that's our primary goal in life is to stay on top of the technology. We use innovation to do that. Our culture is driven off of this idea of becoming more leaders and technology focusing on innovation and probably most importantly, we're not just focused on providing innovation to the county and delivering technology to the county, but it has to be technology that makes a difference to your constituents.
So they're the public facing parts of this are important. So some of those things that we're working on or up here on this slide, the regional radio project you've heard a lot about I'll talk about that some more here in the end but artificial intelligence obviously is a big one. There are, we're starting already to do some prompt-a-thons within our organization. Some of you asked if you could be invited to some of the trainings or other things that we will be working on and will happily do that.
We also have identity and privilege management. So basically as artificial intelligence gets better, as technology evolves, we also need to be more secure. We need to protect our data. We need to protect our systems and there's a lot of effort going in it, going on in that the county Wi-Fi project we are Wi-fi is aging. We need to replace that again from a security point of view. That's very important and then we also want to make sure keep our costs down. That's why I'm standing here today is to provide you the ISF rates for IT services and I have some great news in that regard So this is our budget. You can see the last three years in the current or last year's in the current budget we're beginning at we start at seventy one million dollars.
Our new business is a million dollars most of that's coming from the radio project Oxnard has finally joined us Ventura is right on the edge of joining us and CME is supposed to be with us in a few months But you'll notice the cost has gone down by three point three million dollars. And really a lot of that came from recognition and some direction about where we are going with the budget. And so we reduced didn't fill staff positions to the tune of approximately three million dollars. So our final budget is lower than what we originally thought it would be. And as a result of that, we are able to decrease our rates by 3 percent Now I've been presenting, I think this is my sixth year presenting in front of the board. I've always been presenting 3%, 5% going up.
This first time we're going down so that's kind of a big deal and it really helps the departments and their budgets. I think one of my friends in the CEO's office on the budget side said you really saved us by reducing your costs and reducing your rates. I think that was just for my ego but I kinda like to believe it's somewhat true So this includes the negotiator wage increases that we all have heard about and we've seen presented in front of the board.
We have our own internal cost-saving initiatives, of course we're already using EVA AI for our help desk and that's helping us there. We also are improving our financial posture infrastructure wise going forward and we are once again budgeted to break even Our technology investments I signed sort of already mentioned these artificial intelligence, cybersecurity but there's critical systems that need to be upgraded and you've heard about several of these in the past. We've upgraded our financial management system we've upgraded our solar land management system. Of course we've upgraded property tax and there are more legacy systems that need to be modernized going forward criminal justice system is another one And then of course we have these public-facing technologies I was mentioning before.
A big area there that I haven't talked a lot about is the internet of things also known as IoT and that's really providing technology at the edge of the network and allowing it to collect data, sensor data bringing it back to the brain which is back here at the government center and then determining what we're going to do next and things like that are controlling traffic signals water sewer lighting and electricity.
Still one of my favorite favorites is these some cities have started looking into putting drones in strategic places and then when some action occurs the drones can be immediately launched to go find out what's going on whether it's a fire, it's a shooting, it's traffic accident or something else I think there's a big opportunity here for us and a little story here from among my own organization. I was talking to one of my staff members who's actually manages one of the servers and we're talking about Christmas lights that's one of my favorite subjects, and he happens to mention and I mentioned a thing called a Raspberry Pi. A Raspberry Pi is a small microcomputer and he says oh I just use one of those to upgrade my pool equipment And I said really and he showed he said yeah let me show you some pictures.
He shows me basically this this square box and entity has relays in the sensors and he has his little Raspberry Pi. He doesn't know how to program but he learned how to program this Raspberry Pi. And what he did is he built a pool automation system that he can run on his iPhone took him probably a couple hundred hours and it probably took him I think he said two to three weeks and under $300. And I said that's amazing, I paid $3,000 to have a professional come in install my pool automation system. I wish I had talked to you first but what he did was an Internet of Things project. And if I was going to start on an Internet of Things project within my own organization, he would be the first person I would get on that project because it's already done on his own time and on his own money.
Here's where we're investing our technology. You'll see at the top of course is the regional radio system are continuing to work on the build out of that, the justice system were working on the build out of that and then we have other things the county network infrastructure enhancements security and artificial intelligence all fit in that list. So again here's achievements. I think all of us get up and talk a little bit about our achievements we have some awards on there, we have some systems we've implemented. I've talked through most of these already so I won't dwell here We have our strategic objectives which includes leverage of artificial intelligence, county operations support. Disaster recovery is something we're working on now which is relatively- we have it but we're significantly upgrading it and we're using the internet and the cloud to help us that way when we store our data securely we're not storing it here, we're not storing in a mountain 10 miles away.
We're storing at some place where we can get to whenever and wherever we need to get to it from Our fiscal team and I should acknowledge them now. So so Carla Mariana is here with me today. She's our fiscal director her she and her team put a lot of energy into putting this presentation for me and walking me through it so I can present it halfway coherently.
So we have 4.3 million dollars in unrestricted net position that we are positive, that is our number and therefore we can use that number for other things that will be doing. We have a five-year plan that we're putting together on how we're going to grow the UMP and what we're gonna spend it on and that includes replacing technology that needs to be replaced upgrading our security systems infrastructure projects and it's not only but continuing to expand on AI We serve a lot of people.
This this is in here and the next slide is in here because there are most of us serve our own our own internal 2028 I think it is is agencies and departments we have this lot more than that because we support all the law enforcement offices in the county and and a number of other facilities transportation is up there So now I'm going to go through the project updates. I have three for you today on the regional radio, I would say all is going very well with regional radio. The new radios that we have that the deputies are using and now Oxnard is using our amazing devices. They're expensive but they are crystal clear. They work everywhere those that have bought the ones at the sheriff has the radios will work all the way down into LA because they not only have radio connectivity but they also have cellular connectivity.
The latest feature I saw that was pretty nice is they also have a screen on there it looks like a little cell phone screen and when a deputy gets out of their car and starts running after somebody the cell is keeping, the radios keeping track to where they are and their partners when they arrive now don't just find a patrol car going where did the deputy go? They can see the deputies dot moving on their screen of their handheld They also now have upgraded the radios in their vehicles.
The unit radios are amazingly clear as well better range, better clarity it's a night and day difference and as each one of our law enforcement partners come online they'll start to see that as well we're on budget in terms of moving forward with that The criminal justice modernization. So this was originally 44 million dollars, but it's dropped to 38 million because the state court system has decided they no longer wish to participate in the project and these result of what that's going to look like remains to be seen.
And I guess I'll leave that at that And then on broadband. So broadband is something I present many times to you. I was pushing really hard on this and a number of us were pushing really hard on this. And unfortunately, what happened is the CPUC had about two billion dollars to hand out. They weren't they didn't wind up getting all two billion dollars. They only got one billion dollars from the federal government by the time it came time to award to a lot of the counties and we were one of them. They had no more funding to give out.
We met with the CPUC. They told us it looked like maybe 27, 28 timeframe is when we might see some additional funding. It really depends on what happens in Washington at that point unfortunately the California Department of Technology said hey we need to move forward with our middle mile and so we're just going to build ourselves. So they're there in the process of building the middle mile down the 126 route instead of using the VCT right away which we originally had proposed And so that project's really on hold and until we get some more money, and then we'll have to pivot find out which way we're going to go.
Oops, is that the end of it? Oh, okay. That's the
end of it. Thank you any questions. Thank You Mr. Theobald I have a question the state court system if they're not gonna If they're not gonna adopt an updated version of besieges are they going to just continue to use the antiquated one that I used 20 years ago. Are they going in another direction? They are
likely going to have to use the antiquated one until the new system they've already contracted for comes online we estimate that will be approximately two years from now.
Okay. Any questions from the board?
Yes, I just wanted overall and I'm sure it's probably in the weeds but cybersecurity is a hot item. Just ensuring that we are addressing that and making sure that our data and our findings are being up to date as much possible.
Yes. So the question is, what are we doing with related cyber security? So one of the so we spend a lot of money on cybersecurity. We have two main vendors right now that we use. One of them is Microsoft. Microsoft has updated cybersecurity technology, some of which we've adopted more of which will be coming at some cost. The other one is we use checkpoint. Checkpoint is one of the leaders in the area of cybersecurity at the firewall level, so we are using that technology. We also have data loss prevention which is a technology that basically says if data's flowing through any of the firewalls it says wait a second that looks like an employee number or that looks like a social security number and so it will stop that but there's a large number on that presentation I showed on identity management And what that really means is two-factor authentication, eventually getting away from passwords and you might have seen that when you're interacting with some of the vendors you deal with now.
They don't want your password anymore they want to send you a text verification code and so you don't use passwords anymore. So there's a significant investment in that technology over the next couple of years and we'll see between that And the other things I mentioned and one other thing and that is artificial intelligence. Yes, so there is a term we would use in our business is SOC or security operations center that basically takes all of the different feeds from all of our systems and scrutinizes them but it does it automatically electronically and it can see a million records in an hour whereas we couldn't see a million records in a month And all that's AI becoming AI enabled. And so we're looking at that now as our latest thing, we would add to our list.
1:50 – 2:0914 turns
I really appreciate that because it's so important to keep our data private and making sure that we're up-to-date on that is really important. So thank you so much.
Supervisor LeVere. Thank you Chair and Mr. Theobald, just wanted to make sure I understood you correctly. We had planned to kind of lead the efforts to build that middle mile on the VCTC right away, but that funding got delayed. So now you said the state is going to instead build that middle mile on the 126? In
the state's original project several years ago they had called out a state middle mile project What we did is we essentially intercepted the California Department of Technology on that and said, We could do it for you with you for less money because we own this right-of-way. And rather than you trench, we would be able to plow. And I had once upon a time at a presentation here where I showed plowing applying machine which was probably cut their cost in half. Unfortunately, because we didn't get the $20 million grant funding that we were going after.
The CDC basically said well if you're not gonna be able to participate with your partner then we have to proceed with the original state plan which is to build down the 126.
And when's that going to happen?
It's already started
And so if we get this money in two years, what would we put that towards? If they're already doing the middle miles
connections. We will be focusing mostly on final mile basis. So what we could do is we could build our own which would save us money and it potentially would have given us revenue because other people would have leased from us which is a plus. If we decide to move forward when the money shows up, we should then what we would do is we would lease the network off of the state's middle mile to do that transport. And then what we would do is we would take it from there and then we will take it into communities.
Great. OK, thank you. Thank you,
Jeff. Any other questions? Yes, Supervisor Parvin.
Yeah, I have where I'm on your committee for IT, which I really enjoy. It's as I said in my last meeting that we talked about cybersecurity. We spent a lot of time on it and AI and how to use it productively at the county level. Yesterday, I actually heard something. It was a voice from one of our leaders in the Sheriff's Department and it was a phony A.I., and part of it sounded familiar like the person but the other part didn't.
But you could identify that it wasn't really him. But at the same time, it's very frightening That you can do that and have people call a number and actually with provide credit card information. But nevertheless, I've also wanted you to know that even though you mentioned that you are invisible at the county until something but you aren't invisible because if something doesn't go right, you know about it and you and your team are out there very quickly refixing it such as some tax software, things like that. So they do the work that your team does is so critically important to us here at the county and I just want to take a moment to tell you how much we appreciate the work you do and all your staff because they're way ahead even though you don't feel like we're keeping up with the pace.
We're doing the best we can. And I think I'm very proud of the work that we're doing and I don't know about the rest of you but we did have that technology train this month, the 10 minute technology training Check.
Thank you. Could I respond to that? Two, you made two comments today quickly addressed first one is in my master's program we did a study on Otis elevator and one of the primary focuses of Otis elevator was to be invisible no one wants to think about an elevator they just want to get into it and go the only time you think about it is when it gets stuck or doesn't show up and that's always stuck with me and so that's my view as we want to be invisible we want you to just do your work and not even think about us And then the other point you made, you mentioned about the deep fakes in the ITC. We also talked about one of the elements I think is very important.
We think about technology and we think about it requires senior people to do that because it's complicated and it's hard to program not anymore. You probably have seen the news now where there's kids in grade school that have learned how to deep fake their friends in a negative manner on social media. And so it's the fact that it becomes that easy for people that young in our society to do it is one of the things I lose sleep over. Thank you.
Thank you for the great work, thank you for holding the line on rate increases. Thank you for everything Mr. Theobald back to Dr. Johnson. Thank
you so much and I think that's a great point you made Supervisor Parvin not only is IT 24-7 but also GSA. You know we have elevators here and they are actually visible And I can tell you that when one gets stuck, whatever time it is they're responding. They're sending notices out same as passwords. I can lose my password or forget it at 2 or 3 or 4 a.m., and someone resets it for me and I don't have to wait until 7, 8 o'clock. So really thank you for that 24-7 always available work. It's appreciated.
Now to round out our presentation, we'll have Catherine Laveau from CEO Risk. She's going to come and talk about our liability and insurance program as well as our workers' compensation program. She's got some accomplishments to talk about and also some good news with rates so thank you Ms. Laveau.
Thank you. Good morning Chair Gorrell, Supervisors, Dr. Johnson, Catherine Laveau, Senior Deputy Executive Officer Risk Management. As Dr. Johnson noted, I think I'm here with good news for you today. We're looking at a net decrease of 9% across our two risk management ISFs and I just want to start by saying good news is only possible with excellent work done by the Risk Management Team. Most of our staff have decades of specialized experience and training specific to the unique aspects of risk management work that they perform And based on the nature of the work that the team does, we're often behind the scenes. Nonetheless, the work is complex technical and significant and has a lot of exposure potential for the county. In fact this past year County Risk Management oversaw more than $60 million in claim benefit and insurance premium costs so I just want to say before I get started just a big thank you to our small but mighty team So just as a quick reminder of what is the structure of the risk management department and how did the ISF work?
So we have five different divisions within our risk management team. We have disability management division, which oversees leave and accommodation issues countywide. This past year we also folded into the Risk Management Department, the Healthcare Agency Leave of Absence and Return to Work Team which is part of CEO HR. To give them additional support and resource and they handle almost 50% of the county's leave in accommodation cases. And then beyond that we have our Liability Division, our Risk Control and Insurance Division, and our Workers' Compensation Division. The first two divisions are funded through the General Fund and the final three are through the ISF which I'm here to talk to you about today.
So moving on to the first of the two ISFs is our liability ISF. So the liability ISF for today, we're asking for a rate increase of 6%. And this increase is actually consistent with recent years and although it is an increase The increase is below what is market standard for other entities who have procured the same types of coverages within the general market. So we believe that this consistency in beating the market is really a reflection of the proactive work that our liability claims team performs year over year.
And to give you just an idea of some of the characteristics of the liability program, the ISF for workers compensation and liability are actually separate in large part because the characteristics of the losses that they cover are very different. Liability claims are more unpredictable but they tend to resolve more quickly so as noted most are resolved within five years.
Our team receives about 700 new claims per year And other than medical malpractice, they are handled in-house start to finish. Other than those particular cases that includes all payments invoices etc. So how do we calculate the rates for the liability ISF? Essentially, it's a five-year weighted measurement. It looks at 70% of what an agency has paid in claims over the past five years and then the other 30% is based on the number of FTEs that are associated with that given agency.
So how do we compare to others? I'm very happy to tell you that this benchmark graph compares our team to other like public entities and we compare very, very well. The Ventura County box there is the one far left, the bright blue box. And as you can see, the team is achieving rates that are more than 50% below what other public entities are doing in liability arena.
It's an outstanding effort by the team and those are the kinds of results that allow us to have the good rate news that we have for you today. And, we continue to have a liability team that is outperforming actuarial estimates year over year. Another piece of the program is just how many lawsuits are we seeing and although lawsuits are unpredictable and there isn't a certainty in any given year, it's important to note over the past five years. We've had a very consistent number of lawsuits we've received and that consistency is also helpful in mitigating our liability rates.
What else is covered under this ISF is our division of risk control and insurance. So these are the individuals that we task with actually providing and procuring insurance for all county entities. And so this past year, we're looking at almost 18 million dollars in insurance premiums that is Allowing us to coverage more than 2 billion dollars in physical assets and then also looks at other things just to be topical to Mister Theobald's presentation. Things like cyber insurance, our pollution medical malpractice so it's a very big insurance program and again is funded through this particular ISF The team obviously has had a lot of great accomplishments this year that have allowed us to continue to keep these rates the way that they are.
As you can see, we've had 29% pending closure in the total number of cases that we have open. As noted, we have 19% lower rates than other comparative entities. So all of the accomplishments of the team are really central to how we're able to do as well as we're doing within this category. So just really to overview at the rate rationale here for why we believe 6% increase on average in the liability ISF is that we believe the proposed rate reasonably reflects the uncertainty of potential severity a future liability claims. I think your board is aware of cases such as the AB 218 types of litigation that can be very uncertain and unknown.
It also allows us to address the challenging property market which has been difficult due to recent catastrophic large-scale natural disasters, and yet it's also balancing the excellent work of our liability risk control and insurance teams in proactively handling claims and procuring premiums that are beating marketplace values. And just to give you some reassurance, this is a table that shows you the funding and as you can see the current funding for the liability insurance internal services fund is a fully funded ISF.
So moving on now to workers compensation and disability retirement. This is also where we have lots of good news. Our proposed average rate decrease for workers compensation is 15%. It's a big reduction, but we believe it's appropriate based on the fiscal strength of the ISF. We have $222 million in liability fully funded, which includes a $19 million catastrophic fund.
And again as a reflection of the proactive and innovative efforts of our Risk Management Workers' Compensation Division they are constantly looking for opportunities to expedite treatment for our employees and opportunities for employees to return to work so they can continue their important work on behalf of the citizens of this county. How is our workers' compensation different a little bit than the liability ISF? The liability program uses different forms of insurance outside of certain self-insured retentions or deductibles to cover losses. As it relates to our workers' compensation ISF, we have no outside insurance so this ISF covers all of our work comp costs In other words, it's 100 cents on the dollar that we're paying in workers' compensation is coming directly from this ISF.
And what's different about workers' compensation as it relates to liability? One of the biggest distinctions is just the length of time that it takes for us to pay benefits in workers' compensation. As noted in the initial slide, most liability claims are paid within five years In workers' compensation, if an individual suffers a serious injury it is possible that they could have lifetime medical treatment that we're paying for. As you can see on this slide we currently have 100 open work comp claims under this ISF where the injury or illness occurred 20 years ago so that means rates that we collected 20 plus years ago are still helping to pay for those claims that are lifelong claims.
Over the past five years, we've averaged $27 million in payments per year out of this ISF. Great calculation somewhat similar in that it's still a five-year look your one we did most heavily year 5 the least 70% of that is based on claims activity at 25% is based on the nature of the work and employee does so obviously someone who is an office administration has a lower premium rate than somebody who might be out in the public driving a vehicle those types of things. And then 5% is on projected payroll So there are parts of the work comp program that we cannot control, meaning pay and other things are going to mean the benefits will increase year over year because they have a tie to those particular components.
So as it relates to our workers compensation team and some of the accomplishments of the team. I mean, I think it's really important to see we had a $9.4 million reduction in reserves over this past year. We've had $25 million reduction in our managed cost. We've recovered $150,000 in monies for individuals who were responsible for causing the injuries to our employees. So I think it's been a very successful and significant year for the team.
So getting back to benchmarking, so in this particular category again, Camp Ventura County is far left in the bright blue. And I'm really proud of these numbers as well. I think it's a very important distinction to make for your board that it is extremely rare that a public entity work comp program covers fire, sheriff and hospitals and within sheriff inclusive of jails. We are one of the very few entities that do that having those significant exposures And just to give you a sense of where we are in terms of sort of what is the cost drivers for us. You can see here and this just reaffirms that our our fire department, our sheriff's office and our health care agency or most frequent claims and of course that makes sense based on the size And then you can also see then within it that our fire and sheriff department really drive a lot of the cost that associates with the program.
And that's because they're entitled to certain benefits under workers comp, presumptive injuries like cancer or PTSD heart trouble that other workers are not based on the risk of the work that they take on And they're additionally entitled to 4850, which is tax-free salary for up to a year if their injury prevents them from returning to work. So those differentials are a big part of the cost driver for those agencies and as a response to that we've worked very very closely with both departments to try to create innovations and improvements that are available to them that speak to these costs they have Their most common form of injury is orthopedic. We've created an enhanced work comp unit that has helped to really expedite people's treatment access to orthopedic care and in turn, the fire department's been in the program since 2020, sheriff since 2023.
It's had a significant impact on reducing their 4850 exposures and also really getting their people back to doing meaningful work in a more expedited manner. Our work calm claims have been a fairly consistent number through the years over the past five years, a little bit of the up that you see in the early years is COVID related because it was presumptive for some of our workers but that is no longer an issue. So we're pretty steady in our numbers and then this just gets us back to where we are on funding so as you can see again, we have an actuarial liability of 216 million and we are more than fully funded for that liability So again, the rationale here just for the 15% average rate decrease across the agencies is just how strong our investment income has been.
We are in a place right now where the health of the ISF along with the innovations put us in a very strong place and we think it's a great opportunity to be able to make the reduction at this point especially in terms of where agencies are facing other budgetary stretches. So that's all of the information I'm happy to take any questions if you have any.
2:09 – 2:1616 turns
Thank you for the presentation so vote any questions from the board.
Just a quick question since I'm on the Sarah board. So for workman comp claims, you said there's over 2000 how long is that duration usually last for finalizing the case or claims?
So it can be really varied some go super quickly. It could be within a couple weeks if it's a simple situation as it relates to getting it to a settlement. It would vary depending of course I just want to make a couple of points. The first one is that we do not have a window on the nature and the severity of the injury. We only have 90 days on average to accept or deny claim under California labor code and with presumptive only 75 days so we at least make Moving the case forward, most all of our claims find themselves in some accepted status usually within that window of time and then we resolve the case. If an individual resolves their claim with an entitlement to lifetime future medical then again it could be open for decades but they do already have a settlement and resolution that is in place
Well, I think that is extremely important for our board to understand how quickly these items have to be taken care of. It's not two three four years down the line that we're actually doing this and I think that's a benefit for employees as well just to make sure that we're taking care of them mentally and physically as well so thank you so much for that and I really do appreciate the decrease. I think that shows a sign of good work being done. So thank you.
Thank you.
I'd like to reiterate or echo that these tight internal fiscal controls and the limitation on fee increases that we just heard all translate into more greater services for the constituents that we represent. So it's just fantastic, all the internal controls and the efforts to be innovative, they've kept us focused on constituents which is fantastic. So thank you for that presentation Dr. Johnson any final comments for presentation?
No, I know it took some time but I want to thank you all for the time for staff to come and present so that you're aware of how we're building the budget. And that is truly our foundation. I know all the agencies think GSA IT services risk management. So thank you for all your work to get us to this point. Thank you
Thank you very much. A motion to receive a file?
Can I ask one more question for Dr. Johnson, so just so that people are aware we just did the ISF approvals. So what is the budget process from then just to touch on it?
I think that's our next item actually. Okay well Mr. Brian Friedman.
Roll-call vote Passed Moved by Kelly Long · Seconded by Verveer receive on files but
Show transcript
Mr. Friedman item agenda item 41 if you would thank you sir
good morning chair corral members of the board CEO Dr. Johnson my name is Brian Freeman and what the budget and finance division today I'm presenting the fiscal year 2027 budget development manual for your approval so this serves off as the kickoff to our budget process This manual is a compilation of resources for departmental budget development, including guiding principles background on the County Budget Act salary and benefit rates internal service fund allocations and estimates as well as the timeline culminating in our June budget hearings. So the recommendations before your board are the approval of the 27 budget development manual, the internal rates and the charges embedded as well as the budgetary calendar And the authorization for the county executive officer to make any modifications as necessary.
And I'm available for any questions.
Thank you for the presentation, any questions from the board? Supervisor Lopez
Yes, thank you Chair. A question for Dr. Johnson with the timeline that we have the calendar recall my first year full for first full year on this board we had presentations from I think all the departments coming to the board before the actual consideration and adoption of the budget. So my question is, are we expecting similar presentations? I know we've adjusted the process in the last couple of years but just wondering if that's something that can be requested.
Thank you for the question, Supervisor Lopez. For this year what we had planned but we are happy to do whatever the board prefers. We have presentations lined up from the health care agency, the human services agency and Ventura County Animal Services with the rationale of they are health care agency and Human Services Agency Are significantly impacted because of HR one and so we want to make sure we brought that information to you.
Animal services is significantly impacted by SB 525 health care minimum wage, so we wanted to draw that attention to your board and make sure That information is publicly shared as we have agreements with the cities and there's also an animal shelter capital project that is being discussed. And so, we want to bring awareness to some of the other challenges that exist. With that being said, we are happy to present any or all other departments and agencies that you would like to hear from for budget presentations totally at the pleasure of your board.
So I mean, yes, I'll turn it back to our board then. I think it is important. I know so as we have gone through the budget process in the last two years, we have the budget come all at once and it's a lot of information. So just wondering if that's something that we can request to have the individual departments or agencies come And just share what's going on. Even though the big focus, as Dr. Johnson mentioned is around HR 1 impacts but if we're making decisions that could impact other departments because of HR 1 then I think that's something that we should take into consideration.
2:16 – 2:2414 turns
I'd support that. I think that sounds logical and we can direct the CEO to develop a calendar that makes sense
Thank you. For clarity, just want to make sure are we talking about all the agencies or there certain agencies? We're happy to do whatever I just want to make sure I'm understanding the directive.
I personally think having all the agencies come forward, I imagine that some would be longer but even if it's a brief presentation to give an overview of what is happening in each department
I don't think they need to be long presentations, just a few slides on kind of where they are and as we get closer to budget cycle makes sense.
I have one more logistical question for your consideration. Would you like to do this during your regularly scheduled meetings or would you like to have a special meeting to have these? We could do it like three special sessions or would you like it incorporated into the regularly scheduled meetings that are already on our calendar?
So in the past we have done it to our regular meetings. I would ask that as a directive we have 25 different departments and so even from there, I'm looking at the budget process. We've got mid-February to March which is what my initial question was is to looking at our budget time frame and then understanding what departments we need to see. I'm not sure I need to see every single one present of 25 different departments, but I do think if there's a majority of change, if there's a percent change on budgets or something I'm just looking towards our CEO for advisement on which ones would be changing more versus just a different change.
I'm also in connection with that because I want to think about this, just saying we want all departments. I just want to double check on that. We have a May revise with our governors. That's going to be coming up. That's going to be taking up a lot of time We're also having budgets from our federal side and wanted to understand. Just so our community understands how does that relate Preliminary budget and budget hearings. So I'm just, I understand there's a lot of time frames and a lot of things that are going on so the question of when departments present and what they're presenting and how accurate they are to the end is also questions too.
If I may suggest we have bi-monthly meetings with you Madam CEO perhaps the board members have some opportunity to think about The scope and provide some input for you and then at a future board meeting within the next 2 or 3 meetings, you can provide some feedback to the board on kind of what you think is the right way forward based on your feedback from us individually.
I'm happy to do that.
I have
some suggestions that I'll share and we can find a landing spot.
Okay. Thank you. Thank you. Is there now a motion? And a second.
Item number 41 motion to approve move by Supervisor Long, seconded by Supervisor Parvin please vote that passes unanimously thank you
okay I think we're gonna we're gonna deviate just briefly from the regular agenda because I see our district attorney has joined us and I would like to pivot to agenda item 33 if I may Mr. Nazarenko Joined by Mr. Nybecker, good to see you again. Good morning.
Chair Carrell, members of the Board of Supervisors, Dr. Johnson I wasn't sure this day would arrive but it finally has. I'm very pleased to share with you the completion of a short-term domestic violence shelter behind the existing Ventura based Family Justice Center. I am joined here with two very important people our Chief Deputy over Victim Assistance Services Brent Nybecker As well as Caroline Pujitel-Sutton, the Executive Director of the Coalition for Family Harmony. You know them both well. I respectfully come before this board today to ask for your authorization to enter into a memorandum of understanding with the Coalition for Family Harmony which includes an appropriation of $601,000 for operating expenses March of this year to February of 2028 and also to enter into a lease agreement between the county and the Coalition for Family Harmony since this, of course is County property.
I have just a few slides to share with you. I'm very delighted to do so The first is the 1500 square feet that MTM and GSA have been able to create at the Ventura-based Family Justice Center. This includes six shelter beds, there are also two separate restroom facilities as you may recall this was formerly the home of physicians and doctors who used it for short term housing during the COVID-19 pandemic Just to take a peek inside, you see some of the furnished shelter rooms as well as that bathroom facility. We were able to acquire from the Ventura County Medical Center the furniture that you see in these pictures here.
And then a big thanks and a big shout out to the Ventura County Community Foundation. They were the genesis, really the seed that sparked this endeavor in 2021 they decided to appropriate Vanessa Bechtel her board and others 440 thousand for tiny pallet shelter homes on this site. That increases capacity from the six beds that you saw in the former medical suite complex to four outside, there's also a detached restroom facility and this will expand housing to those who have pets who have special needs and accommodations and we're very grateful to the Ventura County Community Foundation for making this possible I also want to acknowledge and thank Congressmember Salud Carbajal. He appropriated $1.6 million for this undertaking. The first $1 million was for construction and renovation, the additional $600,000 will go towards the operating expenses, the two-year lease that we're entering into with the coalition so you have the Ventura County Community Foundation, a member of Congress all of you We have come together to create a 15 to 20 day shelter opportunity for domestic violence survivors.
You can imagine they go to the Family Justice Center, they undergo services, they obtain a restraining order but they need somewhere to be physically housed. They can now literally go across the parking lot into Pallet Shelter Homes and the former medical suites, and find dignity. Find some level of case management and really a environment that helps them heal recover and get back on the journey of hope. I'm very pleased to yield this podium to Caroline Prigitel-Sutton. She will be the operator of the short term domestic violence shelter. Caroline?
2:24 – 2:3520 turns
Thank you very much, District Attorney. Good morning to the Board of Supervisors and Chair Gorrell. We're extremely excited to be here today and finally have our shelter open to our community. Approximately 10 years ago give or take in partnership with the District Attorney's Office we started our journey to form and shape the Family Justice Center of Ventura County This involved creating bylaws and work groups, but also touring various Family Justice Center shelters around the country.
The dream was big to have a shelter as a potential at a family justice center in Ventura County and today this dream is hopefully coming to fruition we're very excited. We're honored and thrilled to be a part of this journey and to manage the Family Justice Center For 50 years, we have devoted our time and our resources to the safety of survivors of domestic violence and sexual assault.
And what started as one shelter in Ventura back in the 80s has now become multiple forms of housing including an indigenous shelter and transitional housing to meet the ever-changing needs of survivors. And now we look forward to another shelter a unique housing option to offer victims. This shelter will run 24-7, which is how we run all of our other shelters and housing opportunities and has the advantage of literally being a hop skip and a jump from the main Family Justice Center building.
Safety and healing are within immediate reach. We thank our district attorney's office for their tremendous support and your support as well, and trust in our services. Our staff and our board of directors at Coalition for Family Harmony look forward to welcoming survivors very soon.
Thank you. We'd be happy to answer any questions and I want to give a special acknowledgement thank you to Chief Deputy Brent Nybecker, he came into this position and he steered this to the finish line and Brent on behalf of our office and the survivors we will soon serve thank you.
Yeah thank you thank all of you frankly members of the board any questions for those?
No questions, it's just amazing what happens when the DA and congressman and nonprofits get together and put their minds to meeting the needs of what you see in your daily work. And we knew this was a need people were getting the services but they needed housing as well. And so this is going to meet that need and it's just incredible partnership. Congratulations and thank you
I was just thinking to myself who would have thunk when we were all in law school that you'd also need a degree in finance, a degree in construction management and all the other tools you'd have to build out such an amazing partnership and story and family justice center network here in Ventura County. So thank the three of you and the folks that you represent for all the hard work here This is nothing but good news, so I'm delighted. Anyone want to? Are there any comments, public comments?
Madam Clerk?
Chair Gorrell, there are no requests to speak for this item. Thank you.
Okay thanks just seeking
a motion to approve. Chair Grill, before you make that motion I left out the most important part. The grand opening which you are all invited to is April the 6th at the Family Justice Center. I hope you can all attend and if I'm not mistaken Caroline and Brent operations at the facility will begin the following day.
That's fantastic news thank you all very much for everything you do. Congratulations
Roll-call vote Passed Moved by Janice S. Parvin · Seconded by Kelly Long approve has been
Show transcript
All right I am seeking to pivot back to the regular calendar I think we have some quick items there or any recommendations on On 41, let's see. I'm going... I think we have a... Let's move to item 42 if we can. I know it's a little bit of whiplash for everybody because I do see we have Jennifer Butler and Tracy McCauley with us. Please join us for item 42 if you would.
Thank you.
Good morning chair members of the board CEO Johnson, my name is Jennifer Butler. I'm a management analyst at the community development division and the county executive office here with me today is Tracy McCauley and Kimberly Albers for your consideration today. This is a series of actions including adopting a resolution accepting an allocation of funding of approximately 5.3 million dollars from the State Department of Housing and Community Development or HCD for their development block grant disaster recovery owner occupied mitigation program.
So this grant award is a response to the Federal Emergency Management Agency's major disaster declaration concerning flood damage that occurred throughout the state of California between December 2022 and April 2023. Up to $100,000 per household will be made available to mitigate future fire, flood hazard impacts for low income households throughout the county.
Staff is estimating that approximately 45 households will be assisted. Some of the eligibility requirements for funding under the Owner-Occupied Mitigation Program are listed here. Properties must be located in Ventura County, priority will be given to households earning 80% area median income or below and if funding still remains after that eligible households up to 120% average median income will be considered And advocates must currently occupy the property as their primary residence, and they must demonstrate that they had ownership and occupied the house during the disaster which was between December 2022 in April 2023.
So once eligibility is established properties will be assessed for mitigation activities and funding will be allocated to activities that are considered the highest level of importance which is level one and then to lower levels level two and three in order. In order until either there are no more mitigation items or the maximum award is achieved which is $100,000.
There are dozens of mitigation actions for each level that this but the slide show some of the examples of the mitigation items in each. Level. Staff has also consulted with the county fire marshal to review the level of importance of activities that was proposed by hcd So today your board is asked to adopt a resolution accepting the allocation of funding, authorize a deputy executive officer of the County Executive Office Community Development Division to accept the grant funds, to sign any grant agreements, to execute subcontractor agreements and any other documents necessary to implement the program. And thank you for your consideration I'm here to answer any questions.
Thank you for the presentation. Any questions from the board?
Thank you. And I guess I do I think this is fabulous and really do appreciate the funding for those that had a really big issues. I'm just curious how we can utilize this kind That have major flood issues that would happen if the land is taken away even more. So, if someone could follow up with my office on that I'd greatly appreciate it. Sure we can follow-up
Supervisor Long. The action mitigation action items are pretty prescribed by HCD but we can see depending on what the application for funding will be. Fabulous thank you.
Supervisor Parvin?
Yes. Are we aware of how many properties might qualify for this funding? Well, we
haven't done an initial assessment on the number of eligible properties but one of the slides shows the eligibility requirements and we plan on targeting based on census demographic information where those properties will be located.
Yeah that's really important I think also I wouldn't imagine. I mean it mentions this in the board letter, but I wouldn't imagine that there would be any You're able to probably assist 45 homes But I wouldn't imagine that there would be anything left for somebody that that reaches the 120% of the area median income Based on the amount
yeah, it will all depend on how many people apply to the program and And if we get enough people at 80% average median income or below.
Okay. If I can chime in for a moment, I think the nuance and the challenge of the grant is that in order to be effective there have to be concentrated groups of homes and so it does sort of you know it's a day and age where you're depending on your neighbors right? you can't say I want to do it and everyone around you doesn't, that's not really going to be effective. You really need a concentrated pool of people who are engaged and who are going to be a part of this so that's why she can't really answer those questions because they're gonna have to see what the response is and where those concentrations pop up of eagerness to engage in this.
2:35 – 2:5231 turns
I understand, but those are definitely questions after reading the report. Also, I would imagine that even our public works department would know be able to help identify a particular area what whether they qualify or not. That's not relevant to that, but there may be an area that they can make suggestions about. Thank
you. And if I could add to that, that's a great question Supervisor Parvin and how do we do the outreach? Because who lives on the property might be not the same as who property is owned and so forth. So I'm just curious how we're doing the outreach to make sure that people know that this grant is available because some reason I'm thinking they're not listening to the board meeting right now.
Yeah, absolutely. Part of the request for proposals that we're planning on launching will include marketing activities and yeah.
Okay.
Thank you.
All right. Thank you madam clerk with any comments public comments for this item?
Thank You, Chair Garrett there are no requests to speak for this item
Okay seeking a motion.
Roll-call vote Passed Moved by Janice S. Parvin · Seconded by Revere approve staff recommendations
Show transcript
Great thank you again whiplashing we are going to item 34 I'd like to invite forward Joan Rahu from Public Works Agency item 30 forwards regarding franchise for SoCal gas
Good morning Supervisor Gorel, Chair Gorel. I'm so sorry Supervisors Dr. Johnson. I am Jonah Rojo with the Public Works Agency. I bring before you this item for a franchise agreement with Southern California Gas. I brought this on January 13th. This item does require two hearings It is for two 15-year agreements with SoCal Gas for the franchise, for their pipelines under our roads. I don't plan on bringing the renewal in 30 years. Somebody else gets to do that. James Importante was key to this agreement. He is with the CEO's office. He's here for any questions as are members from SoCal gas.
I want to make official and open up the public hearing on item 34. Thank you for that. Please continue, I'm sorry.
That's it?
If there are any
questions, any of us are
available. A lot of information in the board packet. Any questions from the board? Okay. Madam Clerk, are there any public comments on this
item? Chair Gerald, there are no requests to speak for this item. Thank you.
I'm going to, well no other questions from the board. I'm going to close the public hearing and we'll proceed any deliberations or comments from the board. Okay now we're just I think seeking a motion.
Roll-call vote Passed Moved by Kelly Long · Seconded by Revere approve staff recommendations
Show transcript
you.
Easy day thank you very much for all your work 35, moving along. Public hearing. The chair opens the public hearing and invites Robert Abello. Sorry I always mispronounce your name. Good
morning Robert. Good morning. Good morning, Chair Gorel. Members of the Board, CEO Dr. Johnson. For the record my name is Robert Avelo with Labor Relations Division of the County Executive Office. I'm here before you to request that your board commence a public hearing on the adoption of the list of amendments before you to the MOAs between the county of Ventura and the listed unions And to adopt the amendments at the conclusion of today's hearing. These amendments reflect recently negotiated union agreements and the management resolution changes where Cesar Chavez Day was added as a county holiday.
These amendments align with your board's previous approved agreements to ensure consistently across all employee organizations. If approved by your board, the holiday will be observed countywide beginning calendar year 2026. This concludes my comments and I'm available for any questions.
Thank you very much for the presentation. Madam Clerk are there any public comments on this agenda item?
Chair, there are no requests to speak for this item. Thank you.
Any questions by board? Comments? All right. Closing the public hearing motion and a second.
Roll-call vote Passed Moved by Matt LaVere · Seconded by Vianey Lopez adopt the amendments
Show transcript
All right don't go too far item number 36. Again it's another public hearing of the chair will open the public hearing on item number 36 and police travel.
Good morning again check around members of board CEO doctor Johnson again my name is Robert Apple with the labor relations division. I'm here before you to request that your board commence a public hearing on the adoption of an amendment to the memorandum of agreement between the county and the Service Employees International Union, Local 721 or SCIU. And to adopt the amendment at the end of this hearing.
On December 16th, 2025 your board adopted a successor agreement between the county and SEIU which provided for new benefits in language. During the implementation of that agreement minor modifications were identified due to typographic errors and some oversight. The amendment proposed before you includes the following Article 6 section 601, a change in the effective date from December 20th to December 21st for bilingual pay.
Article 6 section 602, to delete a sentence that reads there will be no stacking of a minimum two hour pay period for standby pay. Revisions to various sections of the MOA to address the classification title change from a RAD specialist to an imaging specialist series And to update the exhibit for SB 525, to include the senior food services assistant and apply retroactive rate to that classification as it was negotiated and bargained for during those discussions.
Accordingly if approved by your board, the proposed amendment would provide the proper language in timeframes for which these benefits have been bargained. This concludes my presentation I'm happy to answer any questions.
Thank you any questions from the board? Just another opportunity to say congratulations. I was really impressed with that All the negotiations and the effort to deliver that contract, so thank you for everything Thank You Are there any public comments on this matter?
Check or other no request to speak for this item. Thank you
all right No questions or comments. I'm going to close a public hearing and ask for a motion
Roll-call vote Passed Moved by Janice S. Parvin · Seconded by Vianey Lopez adopt the amendment
Show transcript
Thank you item 37 I'm gonna call that it's a receiving file with us are Dr. Finkhauser and John Friedman may ask please come on up for item number 37 if you would
Thank you Supervisor, as they come up just a quick intro. This item is a product of the last meeting we had in November. I believe Supervisor Long you asked for us to come back in February to talk about the demographics of Santa Paula and Santa Clara Valley. To really lay the framework for your board and for all about who is served, what facilities are there. How are they utilized?
And then that will set the stage for the summer meeting of this year where we will talk about facility types The acuity level that can be served and the cost associated with that to get direction from your board on how to move forward with a path for services, medical services in the Santa Clara Valley. So as Chair Garrell mentioned this is a receive and file There is no vote or decision being made today. This presentation has been provided to the Blue Ribbon Committee, as well as the Hospital Oversight Committee on January 30th and we're now coming to your board to provide this same presentation will be led by Mister John Friedman and doctor Finkhauser. And we thank you for the time.
Thank
you. Thank you. Doctor Johnson, Mister chair members of the board. I'm John Friedman. I with health management associates on a consultant to the county on health matters. Doctor Johnson. I think this is the covered the background. I'm going to cover some at a very high level, the health characteristics of the Santa Clara Valley, the healthcare and access landscape, the Ventura County Medical Services hospital profile.
Dr. Fankhauser is going to speak about emergency care in that region And then I'll touch on, there were some questions around health authority and a health district as well. It's not gonna be as long as I've suggested by that. So just as a framing here you're familiar with the geography of Santa Clara River Valley it's roughly 55,000 people in three communities that you can see on the lower Uh, right hand side of Santa Paula Fillmore in Peru. You can see the age profiles which are on the bar charts at the bottom here. The dark orange on there is the countywide statistic and the three bar charts to the To the left of that dark orange are the characteristics of Santa Paula, Fillmore and Piru. The most important takeaway from the demographics of this community is that it tends to be a youthful population.
It is much more youthful than the rest of the county there and then you can see the demographic and there's predominantly Hispanic Latino community compared to the rest The county and has slightly larger household composition than the rest of the county. Here, this is the socioeconomic profiles. These three communities compared to the rest of the county you can see that there is a higher proportion of low-income persons in Santa Paula, Fillmore and less so in Piru although be careful with Piru because it's a very small population only about 2,000 so when you look at the percentages those numbers can move I'm not sure if you can see it on the screen. There's a lot of information around here, but you can see that Santa Paula has a much larger proportion of its population at lower income levels and you can see that characterize on the bottom chart here which is residents living below the poverty line roughly 9 and a half percent County wide there in its 14 roughly 14 and a half This is a brief slide that looks at some health conditions of this geography and the population in this geography referenced against the rest of the county.
You can see that in the light blue bars, those are county-wide statistics The purple are the Santa Clara River Valley statistics. You can see there's higher proportion of diabetes, lower proportion of cancer, lower portion heart disease, high blood pressure, slightly higher asthma rates, roughly the same coronary artery disease. That's also reflective, some of this is not a surprise because the age shift that's in this population as well. Certain diseases don't show up until later in life although diabetes is a risk factor among Latinos.
On the far right you can see access to preventive screenings. Here adults who've had a routine checkup, mammogram, colon cancer screening, cervical cancer screening and cholesterol test history here you can see that the preventive screening rates however are lower in this among the residents of this population relative to the rest of the population here This is another look at the population somewhat ties back to the socioeconomics. This is health coverage of the residents in the Santa Clara River Valley again, the far orange bar is the countywide statistic you can see that the County enjoys a high proportion of the population covered by employer sponsored health insurance here. You can see that Fillmore has exceeds that But then you can see in the middle Medi-Cal, which is a reflection of economic status.
You can see that Medi-Cal plays a large role of health coverage for the residents of this of Santa Paula and of course at the bottom here. You can see the uninsurance rate across the county is roughly 8% but higher in Santa Paula there and again to caution PIRU statistic there because it's only based on 2000. So that number could be moving around so there's a higher proportion of uninsured in Santa Paula relative to the rest of the county and a higher reliance on the Medi-Cal population there and a higher proportion of employee sponsored health care coverage kind of the ends of the spectrum there if you have a question I'm happy to take a question along the way This is survey information of residents in Santa Clara River Valley about where they get health services and you can see again the far right bar is the countywide proportion.
You can see the Santa Paula, Fillmore and Piru roughly paralleling the usage of emergency room care, cardiac care Urgent care is lower than the rest of the county. I think appreciably you can see that's roughly 5%, 7% lower. Pediatric service is higher, that falls in line with the youthful population and of course maternity care as well. This is survey information of residents so this is where they're saying they're getting health services.
Now, this is information from the health care system in Ventura County and what it lays out is of all of the hospital care that the residents of the Santa Clara River Valley generate. So all of the bed days that people who reside in that area have spent time in a hospital, 23% of those inpatient volume is served by Santa Paula Hospital and 77% of that volume is accomplished by other facilities.
There, we didn't put this on here but VCMC would be another 25% compared to that 23%. So VCMC actually plays a large role in the health provider in that area. Also other providers which we've listed on the third bullet there CMH, St. John's, Henry Mayo of course there are specialties involved here special children's care that might be needed at Children's Hospital Los Angeles or UCLA. There is a skill match it's not all services are available everywhere this gives you a perspective of where care is occurring
2:52 – 2:5818 turns
Supervisor. Mr. Freeman, if I could just ask so just to clarify for those that live in the Santa Clara Valley 23% are utilizing the Santa Paula Hospital you said 27 is utilizing the VCMC 25 and then the rest are within the county or a
mixture
or out of County
It would be predominantly be within the county, the amount of out-of-county care is very small.
Okay thank
you I
appreciate
that yeah
because um the reason why is I did get questions on if there's a hospital outside of Piru on the other side if there's any patient care in that end so thank
you. There is some care that migrates to Henry Mayo and other Los Angeles County facilities here So as you're addressing this issue of the county service portfolio, it's important to look at what do we mean by healthcare access. And healthcare access is not measured in a singular way. It is measured in the existence of coverage which enables people to have the resources to seek and obtain medical care.
It has to do with the availability of the actual service there and having a usual source of care for your runny noses and bumps and bruises and chronic conditions as well as serious and adverse events that we can experience. Access also relates to the timeliness of care when care is available to you. Of course, we're in a midst of a lot of innovation in changes and care practices that we all experience actually during the pandemic with virtual care and telemedicine plays a role here. And of course the workforce having a competent and available workforce skill match cultural language mixture all plays a role in access here.
In terms of health care access, this is we've plotted here on the map. This does not include Piru because the map would have been too small but this provides you with the safety net clinics that are deployed within the Santa Clara River Valley, the mental health and public clinics urgent care there by CMH and also the hospital there. So you can see the array of health resources in this corridor, and here we've broken out the Ventura County Health Agency service footprint in the number of patients that are served in the ambulatory program on the far left almost 12 000 patients around 40 3,000 visits in 2025. The mental health service portfolio in the second column.
The hospital portfolio in the third column and the public health portfolio and particularly the WIC program just as a caution when you look at 1300 families that's many more people there inside that 1300 number here
And John with
that list
is you have the urgent care as a CMH.
I don't have a service volume for that
there we go so are we do not have a service line for urgent
care? We don't have correct correct VCMS doesn't have an urgent care capability
okay thank you for the clarification
yeah This is a side-by-side of the hospital characteristics, the differences between the county's hospital VCMC and Santa Paula Hospital. The two facilities there and you can see that VCMC is a much more robust and built out facility. Of course to be a trauma center you have to have those capabilities and Santa Paula Hospital is a relatively narrow scope limited scope facility And then this is a trend line and I'm going to walk you through a little more slowly. This chart, this is the emergency room volume Emergency Department volume at Santa Paula Hospital over time from 2020 2013 to 2025 those are the Purple bars there and there have been service changes along the way. So, the service mix is different at the hospital there and then the line on top is of the people that are in the bar how many of them got admitted to that facility which is an indication of the severity of the condition of the people that are in the emergency room there.
And of course you can see in kind of the middle right there, that's the pandemic. There where we had acute respiratory syndrome but I wanna call your attention to the last three bars there. You actually see an increasing service volume in the ED but a declining trend at admissions here which suggests that there is less acuity in that service population. And of course, Dr. Fankhauser will speak to the differences of where higher acuity patients flow within our system.
2:58 – 3:066 turns
But let me just ask a question. On admissions, isn't it usually that people are not staying in hospitals as long medical care has changed so that they're like for example operations or they come in for appendicitis or they come into the emergency room that they're actually able to get them into the operating room and then be able to have them go home sooner? Just wondering why you know bed Why beds aren't being used as frequently?
Well, there's a judgment to be made about whether the person warrants admission or not. Does that person warrant observation? Does it require an immediate surgery or observation or intensive care etc.? And that's the triage function that's going on in the emergency room. You're correct that lengths of stay in hospitals are shortening, are getting smaller and there's lots of services 15, 20 years ago used to be provided in hospitals that are no longer provided in hospitals or provided in other settings there. So there is a trend line and underlying change that's going on here. Thank you
Thanks, Chair Gorel and Supervisors and Dr. Johnson for the record I'm John Fankhauser the CEO of the hospitals in interim Healthcare Agency Director. I just wanted to share the next three slides which really are directed towards responding to some of the concerns that we heard Specifically about severe accident victims on the 126 losing access to Santa Paula Hospital and some of the kind of questions related to how Santa Paula fits into the care of this severely ill patients particularly as it relates to ambulances. And whether that ambulance response time in this area is really adequate so the next three slides really address that.
First, just to share with you that indeed EMS is using Santa Paula Hospital. We see that four out of five transports were made up of urgent or less urgent cases but nevertheless we do see in future slides at about 70% of those EMS transports do end up at Santa Paula Hospital so it is being used. What you see in this slide is a severity index, the ESI score that EMS uses in the field to identify how ill those patients are.
In the most severe cases, they call that ESI one. That makes up somewhere between five and 10% of all of the transports that EMS carries to a hospital. And in this slide you don't see that red bar because for Santa Paula Hospital that constitutes less than half a percent of the EMS runs to Santa Paula Hospital. We know that trauma goes to the nearest trauma center. That trauma not only bypasses Santa Paula Hospital, but it bypasses Ojai Hospital. It bypasses CMH. It bypasses St. John's Hospital. Data is very clear that the safest thing for trauma victims is to get them to the nearest trauma hospital And it's because it doesn't matter only how quickly you can arrive at emergency rooms, but also how quickly you can arrive at a place that has emergency specialists and trauma specialists on call in-house and ready to give definitive care.
What we do see is that those runs that come to Santa Paula tend to be made up of less urgent and some emergent cases What I also wanted to represent was that EMS is doing an incredible job of responding to people in Fillmore and Santa Paula and in Piru. And if you look at the top table, this demonstrates the arrival time of EMS through fire and then ambulance to locations in Philmore, Piru and Santa Paula. And really the arrival times parallel actually equal and in some cases better than what you see for the Ventura County average.
But as mentioned that we do see a substantial number of those patients carried to Santa Paula Hospital As Mr. Friedman mentioned, others go to VCMC, CMH, some Henry Male, very small portion go to St. John's. St. John's has some stroke capabilities, interventional neurosurgery which is really unique in our area. So some of that is triaged in the field and those patients although it's a very small number 2% end up going to Santa Paula Hospital because of the definitive care there.
Dr. Finkhauser, could you touch base on there was a concern at the Santa Paula Blue Ribbon Committee about what happens on the transfer of EMS to the hospital and there is a comment made in regards to what they actually do at the site once EMS shows up so the most critical is to get them there and then they're taking care of their said that transport isn't as I think
it lends itself to two kind of descriptions one is you know what happens at the base station which sits in the trauma center at BCMC. In the base station they direct based on the severity of illness and the type of illness, they direct the ambulance to certain facilities. So for example, a heart attack will go to CMH where they have an interventional cardiology department and they can take patients directly to cath lab trauma of course goes to VCMC as I mentioned stroke. The other thing that happens in the field is that we heard from a paramedic at the Blue Ribbon that there is kind of a move toward doing more care In the field on site to stabilize the patient that the term scoop and run where patients were just based loaded in the ambulance as quick as they could get.
To the nearest emergency room outcomes were not as good as patients who are stabilized in the field and the paramedics spent some time caring for them and so you see in that right hand column of the upper table the patient care time and that really represents the time from when the first responder arrives to when that patient ends up in the emergency room. And what we do know is that BCMC is 10 minutes further than Santa Paula Hospital for most of these patients so you know they are getting care at the site and in the rig while they're being transported.
And what we do know is that the lower acuity patients tend to have less time sensitive conditions, so that additional 10% of transport time is less important. But I do want to acknowledge that we are talking about about a ten minute longer transport time for the majority of those patients I'm going
to bring that up just because we're talking about a hospital system in my district, but it also affects all of our districts. The fact that we have really focused on EMS getting I think that's really a strength of Ventura County and I want to make sure we highlight that. Thank you.
3:06 – 3:1310 turns
So I just, I am grateful for the coordination of EMS when you look at the way they design where the rigs are located. The procedure for kind of replacing a rig in that region when that rig needs to be transporting patients outside of Fillmore. They're very coordinated and very committed to keeping these response times low. And I think what we see in the Santa Clara Valley is that it parallels that excellent response time throughout Ventura County. And then this last slide is just to again acknowledge, the scale's 100%. So what we see is some of those 1% or 2% of all patients they show up in big tables or big columns but But what we do see is that those patients who do get cared for at Santa Paula Emergency Room tend to be of the lower acuity side in the yellow or golden rod is the high acuity cases and at VCMC and St.
John's, much higher percentage of those cases are severely ill. I'm going to pause just because I don't want to forget to just recognize that Santa Paula Hospital Emergency Room is a great place to get care. You talk to the docs, talk to my colleagues people go to Santa Paula Hospital Emergency Room and wait times are shorter The nurses are specially trained, you know ER nurses very solid group of care providers. The docs are the same team that provide the care at our trauma center, provide the care at Santa Paula Hospital so messaging that Santa Paula Hospital takes care of a lower acuity than BCMC is very different than messaging about quality I just want to emphasize Santa Paula Hospital is a very safe very good place to get emergency room care for those who are looking to find an emergency room.
And I think that although the acuities tend to be lower than they might have to be at some of the larger hospitals, the team there is ready to give the community good emergency room care and I don't want anyone to feel at all Uncertain about the quality of care they would receive at Santa Paula Hospital. So thank you and with that I'm going to go ahead.
Can I just add to that? We do have a very large volume at the emergency room at Santa Paula Hospital, and I would say patient care is extremely highly rated If we're going to say patient care is, you know, how did it go from one to five? We are very highly ranked. And I think that is because of our doctors, our nurses, our staff, everyone being hands-on and taking care of our community. So I want to say thank you to all of them.
Thank you.
Supervisors, next I'd like to touch on. I think you had some questions at your prior board meeting about differences between a health authority and a healthcare district and there's voluminous amounts of information we try to boil it down to just this one slide to explain the differences between these two governance concepts. There are a handful of counties that have placed their county hospital systems under special governance models Some have commissions that are appointed by the Board of Supervisors and that do more day-to-day oversight. That's even more extensive than your Oversight Committee, that would be Monterey County. And then there's two counties that actually have moved their public hospital system outside of county government into a special authority And that's what the county health authority is.
Those are created by special legislation. Kern County has done that, Alameda County has done that. The governance is under that special authority. Each one has a designed governing board in the legislation The county in those models no longer holds the financial or tort liability of that. The rationale for that is to either limit county exposure and or provide nimbleness to the health facility, to be able to move more adroitly within a competitive marketplace there. Not every county has embraced that idea because there's about 10 counties that still operate county hospital systems. On the far right, there is a different model which is a health care district and that is a provisions within state law they're quite old roughly 80 years old that allows local communities to solve gaps in healthcare supply these used to be called healthcare hospital districts They're now called healthcare districts because the range of things that a district can do is more than a hospital care.
It could be mental health care, it could be memory care, it could be supportive services etc. There is a process for that there in state law. It involves your local agency formation committee defining a boundary, a vote etc. That becomes like other special districts as a separate governing body and they can create and hold the responsibility of the health care facility Many of them are contracted to management companies that operate that.
And there's often a tax levy that's associated with a health care district. You have one of these in your county, Camarillo Health Care District. So I just wanted to lay that out. Happy to answer any questions you have on on that concept.
Could you also touch base on the two counties that had taxed Oh
yeah.
Not saying that I want to do it at all, but I'm just wanting to make sure people understand the
differences. There's another way to address supply which is a funding stream and there have been two counties that have established special taxes for emergency and trauma care both in the public system and in the private system, and that's Los Angeles which has a special property tax for emergency and trauma care. And Alameda County has a special emergency and trauma care sales tax. And there are counties contemplating sales taxes in light of HR 1 to address funding challenges.
And there's Santa Clara as
well. Santa Clara just recently passed a measure although it is a general tax measure, it doesn't have specific uses are not designed in that tax measure and Los Angeles County is actually today at their board meeting they're contemplating a temporary sales tax.
Thank you
3:14 – 3:228 turns
And so just to our next steps here that Dr. Fankhauser was highlighting that the hospital, Santa Paula Hospital is open for all patients there are approach here I think Dr. Johnson had shares to come back to you in the summer with a deeper analysis of the service array options for the health care agency, the costs and the recommended next steps. And then we're going to continue to look at the health needs and the financial sustainability and the funding challenges in the healthcare safety net here. Happy to take any questions.
Before we go to public comments are there any questions from the board members? Madam Clerk, any public comments? I think we have a few.
I do have some questions but i'm going to hold it after the public comments. I do want to say first of all thank you to our leaders, our staff, our nurses, our finance team, our community members here, our city council members All advocates for our health care system for Santa Paula or Fillmore Piru the Santa Clara River Valley. I just want to make sure we this is being really thoughtfully done and I want to say thank you so much because it really matters the health of our community and I just I just want to envelope that because I that's where we all begin. So, thank
you. Thank you madam clerk.
Thank you, Chair Guerrero. We currently have four speakers all joining us today in person. Our first speaker will be Marianne Krauss followed by Dr. Gabino Aguirre.
Good morning, Chair Goral and members of the board. I'm Marianne Krause. I am the chair of Santa Clara Valley Together, and I'm also a member of Santa Paula Hospital Blue Ribbon Committee. Back in the early 2000s, I was on the Santa Paula City Council when the previous hospital, Santa Paula Memorial Hospital ran into difficulty and announced that they were going to close. I chaired a valley wide committee at that time which looked into the reasons that the hospital was closing and what options might be available at that time. We interviewed partners that might work with the hospital or take over the hospital, so I've been involved with this hospital for a very long time.
I wanted to just first ask the people in the audience who maybe are not going to speak. But who are here for this item just to raise their hand so that you know that there are people here who don't really want to and I don't have a lot of comments, I want to make it emphasize actually that we do have unique geography in the valley. There aren't a lot of roads Highway 126 becomes very impacted at times and that's basically our road to and from medical care, so that's one issue that's very important another one is when you look The demographic information for the valley on Santa Paula is much more low income at this point. Piru and Fillmore were like that in the past, but because of the number of new homes and people moving in, who are basically commuting out to L.A.
County with higher incomes, it has skewed the income levels in those communities. The poor people a lot of them most of them are still there they're just not as obvious because the new people with higher incomes are kind of masking the impact of those poor people in the communities My final point is really where we want to make sure that the community is involved and engaged in this process so that the solutions that come out of this process are ones that the community will embrace.
So, particularly concerned when we look at potentially a health care district which might have attacks involved with it. Santa Paula already has to sales taxes just to keep local government operating so we need to be careful that what solutions we choose thank you for your time.
Thank you for your comment Miss Crossy our next speaker is going to be Dr. Gabino Aguirre followed by Logan Hardison and Katie Rocca.
Good morning members of the board, Chair Guerrero-Cevette. Yes I'm of course speaking here on behalf of the Santa Paula Hospital. The clock is ticking. Not sure how the construction plans are going to go as far as replacing or enhancing the medical services that are available. But the essential question for us in the Santa Paula area and Santa Clara Valley area is, will there be a health care service? Will healthcare services be available on the day that Santa Paula Hospital is closed?
The clock is ticking. Time is running out and it's doubtful if you'll have anything in place. You've showed us before, you showed us some plans. We were very excited about that and somehow those plans didn't work out. Don't know exactly what happened but we're still at zero. So the resulting lack of access of medical services puts our valley in precarious circumstances. The impacts include reduced access to primary care and emergency services, Which will lead to poorer health outcomes, chronic conditions in the valley that have been outlined previously here today will go untreated.
There will be increased health disparities. The gap in health equity is going to widen. Mental health consequences will interfere such as anxiety and stress for its residents, particularly in emergency situations. And increased public health risk include outbreaks of communicable diseases, reduced access to maternal and child health. One of the stated reasons for not building a hospital, not replacing what is existing right now is the county's projected cost and impacts from HR1. So we're skeptical of these estimates and we would like to work with you to explore alternative construction models and partnership opportunities as well as other financial models for sustainability.
So we are a valley at risk of moving from triage to emergency conditions. We ask you to hear our voice, and we want to work with you to address this critical issue. Part of the reason that we're here from Santa Paula and the Santa Clara Valley is because we live there. And if you lived there, you would be on this side of the mic Addressing county government, it's as simple as that.
All of you I would say enjoy good health care, nice roads, et cetera, et cetera. So for us we are lacking in that and as a county government we ask you to do the right thing. Thank you very much.
3:22 – 3:3715 turns
Our next speaker is going to be Logan Hardison followed by Katie Brokaw.
Good morning, Mr. Chair, supervisors and Dr. Johnson. We appreciate the studies that you have brought forth in the time you've spent actually getting to a position where we can do some evaluation and look forward I'd like to give you some of our personal experiences. My wife and I live and farm between Santa Paula and Fillmore. Both of us have enjoyed the EMS ride to Santa Paula Hospital. Hers was due to an auto accident, she was treated there examined and scanned and then released I was held there for a few hours and then transported to Venter, VCMC.
That saved us considerable time and you might say anxiety in waiting as frequently people are at the emergency room and VCMC. So that was a great savings to us and we had excellent care. Another experience is I had a chest x-ray and my doctor said, can't you send it to Santa Paula? He said no they don't get back for a couple of days and I want to find out what this is so if I need to treat it I can do it. So I went to Ventura and did it Not a great cost to me, but to our employees and to the others in the county who can least afford the time away from work and the cost of transportation. It's a significant burden. So you can see the population demographics then there is a matter of promotion Community hospital continually places ads. They have other displays, they have other communications.
Ventura and Santa Paula Hospital totally silent, invisible. So how do people learn about it? How do they get there? At the time, the discussion of pregnancy came about. One woman came all the way from Selmas over. She said I had a wonderful experience so I came again. Another said I was treated by UCLA student who then went into practice and I still go to him.
So we need a service module and looking at the total picture, not just the cost slice by slice but how are we going to serve the community? Is that cost of Santa Paula Hospital really going to be saved if those costs are then absorbed over at VCMC. That's a thorough question that needs to be analyzed and we trust Consultants and staff will present a comprehensive proposal to the board and in time for community involvement.
Thank
you
Mr. Hardison, you've used your three minutes time.
So they don't just lay an egg on your desk the night before the meeting we'd like the public involved thank you.
Okay our next speaker is going to be Katie Brokaw
Good morning or maybe it's good afternoon now. I'm Katie Broca, I'm a 22-year resident of Santa Paula like Logan I live on 126 directly so I guess I'm not in the city proper but we consider it our home that's where we've raised our three children, it's where we farm, it' swhere we watch the car accidents pile up on 126 on a regular basis At least five people have been killed along my property line in the time that we've lived there. It's not a very, it's very unsafe road. That's another issue but it's an issue that impacts the hospital issue directly and with increase in population along all of the communities, Santa Paula, Fillmore and Piru We're just seeing more and more traffic. The traffic now backs up I live a mile beyond Yamaguchi's so it's a mile beyond the intersection to Hallock we now regularly see in the morning backups to our house where it's bumper-to-bumper.
I cannot imagine trying to get an emergency vehicle through there coming from Fillmore, and to say that you know a 60 minute ambulance ride is acceptable to me just doesn't make sense. I may be old school and thinking, you know, Dr. Frank has ever said you know there are other options for treating people in an ambulance but I think you know to leave our communities out there without anything other than an overwhelmed urgent care which is not even operational on the weekends or in the evenings. It's not 24-7 care, there is nothing out there.
So, there was a list of facilities put up there but they were not really speaking to the emergency needs of our area. So I hope that when you look at this issue overall and you look more deeply into it, I understand the financial implications of leaving a full service hospital there. I really, really think that we need to look at the provision for emergency care 24-7 and something beyond that would be nice as well. You know, we're a growing community and thank you for taking my comments.
Thank you for your comment. Chair Grell, that concludes public comment for this item. Thank you.
Thank you. Comments? Members? Supervisor Long.
I always have comments on this item. Again, I really appreciate everyone's thoughtfulness and consideration through my service here as the board for district three in Santa Clara River Valley since day one we were talking about healthcare and what is the needs of our community no matter who they are No matter where they live, how are they getting the best service that we possibly can have? And so I really appreciate this slide of the health care and access landscape. It really holds true to the town halls we've been talking about or that we had in the past in which everyone in the valley is really agreeing on a centralized location.
And that's why we're looking at this location for the medical center And the new hospital based on the seismic. So we have done a lot with our plans and I have to stand up for our staff in regards to the 2.5, I think billion of million not billion. For plans in a thoughtful process of a medical center and a hospital by Halleck. I know that there are some issues that have come up with two ways each way on a turn And some other stuff that we're working with the city and Lee Manera on. And so I'm hopeful that we're going to bring that back in the summer for that.
And I know with AB 1882, we have a new that new seismic losses as we have to mandate it by 2030 And the prior meeting if you were here, we heard about how many millions of dollars it would cause to retrofit that building up on the hospital on the hill for about 15 million I believe. Am I correct on that? Yes?
Okay.
Thank you so I'm hopeful for when we come back. We're going to talk dollars and locations and really look at what our facilities are regionally It was mentioned at the Blue Ribbon Committee about one location may be providing long term or urgent care, which mean staying up late open up later at night. But I really do agree with Katie in regards to the hours of operation and on weekends. What do we do? I do think that it's important as our community grows. We know that's going to be a growth And we need, I particularly not a professional on this statement but think that an urgent care is really an important one for us. I'm really concerned on what our population's going to do if they fall out of Medi-Cal.
We have a high population of Medi-Cal in this region What happens if they can't prove their 80 hours of volunteer or there are 6 months of working for for themselves or someone else and they drop out of insurance how are they going to get the medical need that they can in a costly what. a non-high cost because my understanding is that an urgent care versus an emergency room, those costs are a lot different.
And so if you're then in indigent care I have no insurance and I can only pay cash. How am I going to do that? And where can I best go get the best service I can and that I can afford? Because what I don't want is people to have to go get healthcare and they can't feed their children They can't house themselves. How is it that we work with our community to meet them at the level that they are at? So I appreciate this whole approach as we look at incomes, lower incomes, disadvantaged communities. They might only all have one car.
For the whole five, six people in the household. What do we do? I think that it's that's why we took over this hospital in 2005 was a commitment to this valley to ensure the safety net is there And I really appreciate the boards that has been there before us to do this same thoughtfulness, to think how do we provide those services. I had people at our Santa Paula Rotary yesterday say well we have Amgen and we have bio companies in Thousand Oaks and all over let's build regional of a bit money and help this hospital. So I mean, you just think I say that because I think there's out of the box things that we can do hopefully. And unfortunately we have H.R. one so I don't I can't promise a lot of money to our community but we do have to be thoughtful in what we do.
So I just want to put express that to you all. I think we're all under some stress with which is coming from the federal and state and I don' think we'll agree on it I do think that our hospital could be considered rural, but they don't. And I'm really, I'm really worried about our state and the amount of hospitals that are being closed. very sensitively and our Santa Paula Hospital is amazing. And our clinics are fabulous, I just have to say that you know our nurses or practitioners or doctors they're doing great things we teach regional if you come to an oversight committee which I would welcome all of you, you would learn about how amazing our doctors are and the resident programs and the awards were getting for all sorts of things that we are doing and then what is mandated I would love to just have an emergency room.
We can't have just an emergency room. There's all these things that hoops and stuff we have to jump over for laws that are up there that don't quite make sense, especially when they could do things in different states but you can't do them here. So it just I just want to put that tone out there that there's misunderstanding. You could easily cut a line item But what does that really mean, cause and effect? And so I think that in this county level we do a better job managing our budget than maybe state or federal. I'm going to say that but I really appreciate it. So thank you.
Thank you Supervisor Lopez.
Yes, thank you Chair and thank you Mr. Friedman and Dr. Finkhauser for the presentation. I recognize that I think a lot of these conversations have been happening more closely in the community as they should especially through the Blue Ribbon Committee but one of the things that as we look at the next steps with more information maybe refined details coming in the summer And even hearing the comments from some of the speakers, the importance of having the community engagement through this process. And I think taking it outside of and beyond the Blue Ribbon Committee to ensure that the residents in the Santa Clara Valley understand the options, understand the reality what we're going to have to take into consideration in the future. And so I just want to encourage and reiterate the importance of that community engagement piece and taking it beyond the Blue Ribbon Committee to ensure that the entire community understands what is happening, and that when it does come back to the board There's relatable information for the community to understand what the options mean.
Whether it's the comments are related to the urgent care, what that means because I as the presentation mentioned the emergency severity index I mean, that's unless you understand the these medical terms. What does that mean? I think there were some examples shared from one of the speakers of situations that he and his wife had. And so how does that translate? How does how does those situations translate to the care that someone is looking for? So again, just really hitting on the community engagement to make sure that before it comes to any decision at the board.
It's very clear that whether it's embraced or just understood by by the residents in that area, thank you.
3:37 – 3:4719 turns
Thank you supervisor Lavera.
Thank you Chair and thank you Dr. Finkhauser, Mr. Friedman. We received this presentation at Oversight last week and it was great to get it again to really kind of let the information sink in because this is exactly the type of information we need moving forward whether its socio-economic or demographic data The acuity levels and service needs, how people get their health care. All of that's really going to be important as we look to the summer and figuring out that really fine balance of meeting the needs of the Santa Clara Valley.
along with the financial realities that we're facing here in the county. So I absolutely think there's an answer somewhere in this equation and I'm looking forward to staff doing that, really digging in, doing more community outreach and getting us a plan and hopefully we can look at it this summer. That really marries those two important items so thank you.
Thank you as we seek a motion and a second for that, I'd like to just add We all, the five of us recognize that a core responsibility of county government is to provide health care safety net. In fact we all voted to make the top priority of our strategic plan and make it healthy safe and resilient communities number one above our five top priorities in the county.
So I know that we're all committed to doing what we can to ensure that all of our communities including the Santa Clara Valley are healthy resilient communities so with that I have a first and second thank you.
Roll-call vote Passed Moved by Kelly Long · Seconded by Lueber receive and file the presentation has been
Show transcript
Thank you everybody for coming and for your comments shifting back to the regular agenda I think we'll continue to move through item 43 Anna Ford Almost good afternoon.
I was just checking the clock. Good morning Chair Garrell and members of the Board, CEO Dr. Johnson. I'm Anna Ford with the Classification and Compensation and Labor Relations Unit and I'm before you today to present the following. The Ventura County Employees Retirement Association, VASERA will be adding one new position allocation of an Office Assistant 3 Confidential for the VASERA Disability Unit. This was approved by the VASERA board on December 15th 2025.
This position will provide administrative support and will assist in ensuring efficiencies in the disability retirement application process. Our next item is the recommendation to establish one GSA classification, Park Services Ranger 3. This classification will be involved in advanced responsibilities in park management including law enforcement, visitor services and natural resource protection.
We'll also have oversight and direction for the lower level Park Services Rangers, seasonal workers, volunteers and student workers. Additionally the classification will be responsible for managing specialty patrols. This new classification was recently approved by the Ventura County Professional Peace Officers Association BCPPOA on January 2nd 2026 We're also establishing three county clerk recorder classifications, Elections Worker 1, 2 and 3.
This classification series will be responsible for providing assistance during local state and federal elections. This new election worker classification series will provide office support, warehouse support and vote center support on a temporary basis. Depending upon assignment these classifications will assist with processing ballots filing setting up and assist at voter centers in coordinating the use of maintenance of voting equipment this new classification series was recently approved by SEIU on January 12th 2026 We are recommending the deletion of eight classifications.
Following a recent review of the county's classification, it has been determined that the listed classifications have not been utilized for many years therefore it is appropriate to recommend their deletion. There are no budgeted positions nor incumbents in this classifications, therefore there will be no fiscal impact. Specialized Peace Officer Association of Ventura County SPOBAC approved the deletion of the Welfare Investigator 1, 2 and 3 and the Supervising Welfare Fraud Investigator on January 6th 2026 SEIU approved the deletion of the Child Support Services Management Assistant 1, 2 and 3 on January 8th 2026.
An approval was received to delete the unrepresented classification of Director Harbor Planning and Redevelopment. Our second recommendation is the adoption to amend Exhibit 1 of the Management Resolution. Deletion of the Director of Harbor Planning and Redevelopment requires updating Exhibit 1 to the Management Resolution, to ensure this classification has been deleted from all provisions thereof.
Copies of the proposed amended Exhibit 1 to the Management Resolution are attached. All the items presented before you today align with the county's strategic priority to attract, hire, develop and retain a diverse workforce empowered to meet the needs of your customers. This concludes our comments and I'm open to any questions you may have regarding our recommendations.
Thank you for the presentation. Any questions from the board? Okay, um, I don't see any public comments can
you... That is correct, Chair Gorrell there are no public comments for this item.
Let's get a motion in a second
Roll-call vote Passed Moved by Matt LaVere · Seconded by Vianey Lopez adopt the resolution and the amendment management resolution
Show transcript
you fantastic we're gonna now address 44 45 and 46 together but all presented by Anitha Balen good afternoon
I was just going to say good morning.
I think he's almost right there, thank you. Good
afternoon Chair Gorrell, members of the Board, CEO Dr. Johnson for the record my name is Anita Balin and I serve as Director for Roads and Transportation with the Public Works Agency and thank you for grouping items 44-46 that makes it a lot easier because it all pertains to updating you on The emergency work that was done on Reeves Road, Frazier Street and on Old Telegraph Road Bridge.
So the emergency work on Reeves Road is complete so we're informing you that there is no need to extend the emergency action So, as you can see before and after one of the lanes was washed away and we have restored it back to where it was. Hopefully a little bit more resilient than it was before. Fresher Street crossing is an emergency temporary repair that was done to make access for the residents on the other side of the low water crossing to have access.
We still have to evaluate on what the permanent fix for this crossing is Item number 46, which is Old Telegraph Road bridge. We still need to continue the emergency action for that we have finalized the design for the emergency repairs it includes placing 2 piles and extending the pier cap, and also putting two-ton and four-ton rocks to stabilize. Granite construction has just recently completed the temporary work on the old Telegraph Road bridge. We were waiting for them to finish to get our project started. Now with the rains that are coming up next week we may need to delay this for another week.
So what we're right there and we're hoping to award a time and material contract to granite And if we cannot finish the project before the end of the next board meeting, we will be back here to continue the action. With that I take any questions.
Can I ask a question on that? Thank you. So the old telegraph road is still closed one way even though there's a temporary hold on it. It's only to ensure the bridge is safe that won't fall down but it doesn't mean that access both ways for traffic.
It has its one lane access but it's a stop in No, I'm sorry. It is a one-lane access eastbound and it has a three ton load restriction with the improvements that we are proposing. It will remove the weight restrictions from the bridge and it'll be fully open but
you can only do that once it's done. Yes. So there might be a delay for the storm coming This week and next
week?
Yes.
It may take another couple of weeks for it to complete the
work. I'm watching the storms, I'm like oh my gosh there's so much more water coming it's fabulous but at the same time not so fabulous. So you could be on both sides thank you very much.
3:47 – 3:5413 turns
Thank you, Chair. And I just want to thank you, Anita and the entire roads team with both the Reeves Road and the Frazier Street crossing. You just jumped right into action. You engaged the neighboring properties and you got these repairs completed. Just want to acknowledge how hard you worked in also the work of the contractor. Thank you.
Thank
you.
If there are no other.
I do have one more thing if anyone driven on Balcombe Canyon, I know that this is part of your authority so I want to bring it up how impressive I wrote drove it yesterday and it's open. So I just want to say thank you so much that is one thing of commute. I know it's not shown on maps yet but I'm sure it will be that that's a safe route now to go through that will help with commute times for our community. So thank you so much. Thank you and it was a
beautiful picture of the road and the scenery behind it.
Yeah, thank you very much for everything if we take this together 44 45 and 46 to four-fifths vote required Waiting for a motion We might be it
might be jammed
up.
I know yeah looks like it's jammed ups if someone would like to make the motion Thank you items 44, 45 and 46 motion to approve move by Supervisor LaVere second by Supervisor Long. All in favor please say aye. Aye. Any opposed or abstentions? Hearing none that passes unanimously
thank you. I noticed there was a little glitch going on so Not surprised we had a IT challenge. So now we're going to move to item 47, CEO comments.
Thank you Mr. Chair. So on January 28th 2020 since our Ventura County continuum of care homeless point in time count took place I'd really like to thank our community development team for that heavy heavy lift of organizing and planning that out Also thank you to all the hundreds of volunteers, the service providers, our community partners who helped make this year's point in time count a success.
Your participation helps us to be able to count and it makes possible funding program development and really long term strategies to address homelessness across our county so thank you to everyone involved On January 28 also, the Area Agency on Aging had the transition stakeholder forum. I want to thank you to all the stakeholders that came our human service agency leaders were there and presented information that they hadn't took questions There will be another forum in East County on February 23rd from 10 to 12 at the Ventura County Fire Department headquarters that's at 2400 Conejo Spectrum.
You do need to RSVP, so please if you could just put VC AAA in your search engine it'll pop up and you can RSV there. We want to make sure we're prepared for the people that are coming and have accommodations to fit everyone On January 29th, I and my assistant CEOs Mike Pettit and Daniel Keys visited the Medical Examiner's Office to recognize them for medical legal death investigators during the National MDI Week.
Every time we go there we learn something new and it is always really interesting but Thank you to the staff who do really, really hard work supporting folks during probably the worst time of their lives when their loved one has passed on. And just thank you to them for the work they do. They're very passionate, they're very educated and they're very technical about the work that they have to do so appreciate them.
Just this last Saturday, the Boys and Girls Club of Santa Clara Valley had their auction and dinner in Somis. Really want to say thank you to the Boys and Girls Club they're doing phenomenal work it was really highlighted Pearl Galvan is leaning them and she's doing an amazing job supporting her team that supports the community and the future with the youth Again, February marks Black History Month. A really significant time to recognize and honor the profound contributions of black Americans have made in our nation, our state and our local communities right here.
It's also an opportunity to reflect on history celebrate culture and achievement and reaffirm our shared commitment to equity inclusion and belonging year round. February also marks the Lunar New Year, a significant cultural celebration observed by many Asian communities. So best wishes for a safe healthy and prosperous year ahead. Also in February, there's going to be free admission to the Museum of Ventura County. Thanks to Ventura County Credit Union.
All admission is free for the month and we invite families and residents to enjoy local arts and history. Their hours are Thursday through Sundays 11 to 5pm and go see and check out what the museum has to offer There are some events going coming up, Ventura County Behavioral Health will hold community planning meetings. One is today at one step all of as in Fillmore next week on February 17th at rad show see me recreation park district and Simi Valley.
And on February 26 at the Ventura County Behavioral Health Office in Oxnard and March 3rd via Zoom, Spanish interpretation services will be available. And for more info you can visit www.wellnesseveryday.org backslash bhsa for information and to register Just a reminder that Monday, February 16th is President's Day and county businesses will be closed in honor of that holiday.
Of course all the emergency services and hospitals will be open. And then February 19th, What's Your Happy? The Ventura County Arts Council 23rd Annual Ventura County Employee Retiree and Family Member Art Exhibit. The opening reception will be from five to seven and this exhibition will run from February 12th to March 24th. That concludes my comments. Thank you Mr. Chair.
Thank you Dr. Johnson. Supervisor Lopez
3:54 – 4:007 turns
Thank you, Chair. I wanted to start off by sharing a bit of an update. I think some of you were contacted by some members of the community regarding the medically tailored meals which is a program under the Gold Coast Health Plan So I just wanted to share about this. This program provides nutritionally appropriate meals for eligible Medi-Cal members through Gold Coast Health Plan and just want to share that we do have, I've been engaged in conversation with the Gold Coast Health Plan staff as well as some of the members who contacted you so we do expect an update or discussion to come to the next commission meeting on February 23rd. Just wanted to share that with all of you Thank you for passing on those contacts.
Next, I thank you to Dr. Johnson who shared about the point in time count. My office was joined by Oxnard Mayor Pro Tem Gabe Teran. We were out in the Oxnard College area and just appreciate everyone who was out there that the entire day and the continuum of care staff Kept going the following days after January 28th to ensure that everyone was counted. I also attended the Housing Opportunities Made Easier event they held a gathering talking about housing for the year and was able to share some information about what the county is doing so appreciate the input from our staff to share some updates On January 30th, I attended a Food Shares Reveal which was their unveiling of the plan to construct an 85,000 square foot facility. Their new facility in Oxnard and it was just very exciting to see the plans and see the images.
The rest of the district offices, the supervisor offices were present as well And, you know, recognizing the county being an early supporter of this project with some funding from the ARPA funds that we had. So it was just really exciting to be there I also attended the funeral service for Oxnard Police Commander Scott Aaron, and it was a very touching ceremony hearing from his family and also his colleagues about the work and impact that Commander Aaron had in our community especially as it relates to the child social services here in Ventura County. So it was a tremendous loss I also attended the Ventura County Office of Education Civic Engagement Initiative, which was bringing students from throughout the county. They've been taking them throughout the entire county learning more about what is happening here through cities, through the county engaging with elected officials and leaders so I had the opportunity to meet with them and share a little bit about what the Board of Supervisors does.
This morning before coming to our board meeting, I attended the first health care coalition meeting which I announced at our last board meeting. Which is a coalition formed under the Gold Coast Health Plan and I left just in time to come to our board meeting here but there was participation from throughout the county including Dr. Finkhauser who presented on some of the HR1 impacts And other speakers were going to share from the Human Services Agency about what is going on. So there was a good representation of health care and community representatives coming together, and the next meeting is expected to take place on April 9th.
So we look forward to hearing more about that discussion after today. And last I have asked for a video to be shared and I do want to, you know, share that this was a very sensitive situation. This video was shared with our board was shared by a community member Julie Henzey. And wanted to share it because I want to make sure that we all see it. I'm not sure if everyone has had a chance to see this video, but this was an incident that took place on the nearby our building here just on the other side of the property and this incident is very concerning as I mentioned before. We have seen an increased level of engaged engagement, violence and interactions between ICE officials, federal agents and community members. And I show this because I want to ensure that we're bringing attention to what is happening here locally and my concern over the careless activities and actions of agents who are Placing our community in danger and regardless of what the justification was for this interaction, it is very concerning of what happened.
So if I can ask for that video to be played. And we had a member of the public come to the board meeting earlier who referenced this incident. So I just wanted to make sure that this was played and it be clear of what she was referring to and with that chair, I have submitted a list of members of the community. I request we adjourn in memory of thank you. All
right. Can I just make is I believe that that's being investigated? No
Well.
I just, I just want to someone's played a video and I wanted to make sure there was information provided for that.
So my understanding is that there is a formal investigation regarding that incident? Yes.
Thank you. I didn't want that put out that it wasn't being investigated. I think that's very critical issue that we're looking at so wanted to make sure people understood that.
Thank you. Supervisor Parvin, would you like to go next?
4:00 – 4:1511 turns
Sure. I participate in the Ventura County Agency on Aging stakeholder meeting on January 28th. Many of you were there. I participated in the quarterly film Simi Valley meeting where we shared the status of the upcoming film ordinance that I look forward to seeing in the very near future here. We also talked about micro dramas, look that one up it's really interesting and EDC's Film Permit Palooza which is scheduled for February 26th.
Also attended the Department of Energy's update on cleanup activities at the Santa Susana Field Lab And participated in the monthly Simi Valley Chamber Legislative Forum, where we shared county updates. And the guest speaker was Assemblymember Jackie Irwin. Met with the Simi School Board member Dr. Petralongo but we call him Dr. P. It's much easier than pronouncing his name.
Where we discussed activities at the school district and activities within District 4. We attended the quarterly economic vitality strategic plan meeting, where we heard success stories such as the collaboration that the port has with Mexico and regarding the importing and exporting. And we also were briefed on the potential economic development opportunities as a result of the upcoming LA 28 and World Cup.
We participated in the quarterly Knolls HOA meeting where engineers from the City of Simi spoke about our new 1 million gallon water tank that we have been waiting for, for quite some time. Also participated in the EDC Executive Committee meeting where we discussed the services model, developing and investing in industrial clusters specialization and capacity. Participated in the Moorpark Chamber of Government Relations meeting where the different government agencies shared updates such as the Moorpark State of the City that's going to be held on April 7th.
Met with the Ventura County Taxpayers Association, like all of you. I think I was last to meet with them. I participated in the VCTC meeting where we discussed intercity rail services to Santa Barbara. I can't wait. I'm very excited and cooperative agreement and approved the agreement for the freeway service patrol tow contractor service. Very exciting stuff there at VCTC.
And my next blood drive is called The Battle Of The Badges and it's coming up on February 26th. I wonder if the Sheriff's Department will win again or will fire come through at the end. Visit my website for details on how to register and we also participated in a ribbon cutting for Erringer Dental celebrating 30 years, and we had a groundbreaking ceremony for the new Moorpark Library And I know we are all the whole town is excited about this project.
Met with representatives from Caltrans, City of Moorpark County officials regarding the buffer zone between the city of Moorpark and the unincorporated area of Ventura County specifically where there when we have a 118 closure which happens a few times a year unfortunately and when it does it really impacts everyone so we went through a whole protocol meeting and we're going to have a community meeting follow up Lastly, I'd like to join this meeting in the memory of the individuals. I provided the clerk at the board but I do want to call out a special attention to the passing of Steve Frank in 1980 he was a member of the California's electoral college that same year. He was elected president of the California Republican Assembly.
He's a Vietnam veteran of the US Army with the first inventory division and he also spent years working full-time on POW MIA He helped organize advocacy efforts and help raise national awareness. Mr. Frank served the 4th District as an advisory member to the Air Pollution Control District, and as a Board of Trustee of the El Rancho Simi Cemetery District. I want to take a moment to thank him for his work. It was very sad that we lost him.
Thank you. Supervisor Long?
Thank you very much. First of all, I really want to say thank you to the Ventura County Area Agency on Aging and VCAAA Transition Stakeholder Forum. I thought that was very helpful for our stakeholders to get an understanding in here from the source as to what's going on. I really appreciate Roger Robinson, the whole team talking about transitions RFPs And I want to make sure that people know that it is on their website, VCAAA.VenturaCounty.gov for the updated information. I know all of us have probably gotten contacted one way or another for many different projects and so I want to make sure that people know that's there on the website And they've been keeping that very up to date and I'm happy to hear that we're having an East County one as well.
To make sure that we're very clear on what's the responsibilities of the state and the county also I was honored to deliver the opening remarks for our I am a state of the business summit and provide the state of the county report. Appreciate our businesses here in Ventura County and their investment in our community and our constituents, and appreciate all that they do to stay here in Ventura County and urge you to continue to stay here.
Also attended the California State Association of Counties Executive Committee Forum. Very good discussions in regards to what is going on, on the federal side and the state side. Every day is a different tone and every hour is a different tone. We're hearing information in the morning And then that information changes by four o'clock in the afternoon. And so was told to make sure we just are always keeping track because that's, that's the tone that's happening right now. So you could just yeah. So more to come. We have our board of directors meeting for CSAC in Sacramento on Thursday.
And I'll be there advocating for Ventura County as well. Also really fun, Boys and Girls Club of Santa Clara Valley we had our annual dinner and the way our community shows up just speaks volumes of Ventura County appreciate everyone who made large donations to such a great cause that takes care of our children and educates them and just mentoring It's really important, so thank you. I wanted to say thank you to Michael DeRozo and my team who participated in the annual point-in-time homeless count that was very well done and really interesting to meet people where they are. I think that's important.
Also, we had our West Ventura County Business Alliance's annual meeting. Congratulations to Natalie Yanez for our chair of the board and interesting enough so the WVCBA formed which is Camarillo and Oxnard and now they will be partnering with Port Hueneme businesses. So having a regional approach it's very advantageous And I really appreciated the lesson from Elena Brokoff as she shared this story, a history of Oxnard and Camarillo. How it started from the ranchos and into the cities in Port Hueneme. I think that's an important historical knowledge everyone should have for Ventura County is how did these names come? The counties and the families When we see street names, those are families. The Brokhoff's, the McGrath's, Borchardt's, just the Camarillo.
So many different families and where we came from I think is really important. Also presented at the Santa Paula Rotary Club meeting just this week A lot of conversations on the branch line, on trails, on the 126. Also the spirit of Santa Paula with regional homeless approach. So appreciate the dialogue there. And then yes, with VCMC I just want to make sure people understand that the Santa Barbara Airbus has now added up a new pickup and drop off location. So in Oxnard at the Holiday Inn which is called Holiday Inn Oxnard Ventura on S Blade Drive. The shuttle runs to LAX and provides a pickup drop off in Camarillo as well on Amtrak station on Lewis Road And it's a great way to economically get to LAX and wanted to make sure that people know that we are looking at different ways of getting community moving in an economic way.
With that, I'd like to adjourn in memory of those on my list and just take a moment for Geraldine Moody. She was she's just was such a great Camarillo resident who passed away on January 28th and for 28 years she led the Angels Tag Program at the Padre Serra Parish. Helping collect more than 33,000 Christmas gifts for those in need. She will be deeply missed by family and community who serves with such a generosity and care and that parish has served so many of our residents and the needs of our community and just want to say thank you.
With that I'm done.
Thank You Supervisor LaVere
Thank you, Chair. And these weeks where we don't have board meetings it really gives all of us the chance to get out in the community and I was able to speak to the Rotary Club East Ventura and the Ojai Rotary Club and we had Mac meetings and I was able to participate in the homeless council. A lot of fun community stuff but one that was really exciting for me was actually a new partnership that FoodShare has with EP Foster Elementary School on Ventura's west side and Daniel Flores who runs the Ocean Afterschool Program at EP Foster Created this partnership with FoodShare aimed at providing a food pantry to all of the students and their families at EP Foster Elementary School. And I was able to go to the kickoff event where, and they had their first pantry and it's just so exciting To see that partnership between the school district and FoodShare, and a huge kudos to Mr.
Flores and the entire VUSD team for giving this resource to those residents on Ventura's west side. And then I would just ask that we adjourn in honor of the list. I provided to the clerk with one special call out, and that being the Honorable Alan Steele who served Ventura County as a Superior Court Judge for 16 years. He retired in 1998 but he was an incredibly respected jurist both among the judges and the entire legal community and he was a real presence had a great sense of humor And so we're thinking about the steel
family
chair.
Yeah, thank you just a few items I'm going to cut through most of these but I represent the county in this board on the Santa Monica Mountains Conservancy and I'm proud to announce that we've been able to pull in to the Ventura County Fire Department $650,000 in additional East County fuel mitigation projects for fire resilience and fire preparedness. Skipping down, I am just going to go right to the second page. I want to announce that on May 7th, I'm holding the second annual Second District Supervisorial Leadership and Excellence Awards and it'll take place at Amgen once again and we'll recognize key leaders in the community in different areas and all proceeds every one of them Every proceeds going to go to the Gold Coast Veterans Foundation to support their mobile veteran services that they do in the community.
Great organization. We're proud to team up with Amgen and Gold Coast Veterans Foundation to bring this to the county once again, and that's on May 7th. I want to ask my colleagues to adjourn in memory of the names listed and given to the clerk. There are a few that I would like to highlight. Mary Ann McClintock passed, that's the mother of Congressman Tom McClintock who represented this area.
She passed her services were last weekend also on my staff is somebody that you've all met Blake Davis he lost his grandmother and his grandfather all within a week They passed all really within just a couple of days of one another. And her name was Marianne Staley and his name, the grandfather was Robert William Staley both the grandmother and grandfather of Blake.
Robert was a Purple Heart recipient and Vietnam veteran. He was with 101st Airborne and a true American hero Sad and sorry to hear that they've passed. With that, I think that concludes today's agenda unless anyone sees that I'm missing something. So we want to make an announcement on closed session please?
If we're prepared to do that yes we will go into closed session on agenda items 49 through 51 there may be a reportable announcement so if there is we'll just come and do that before your APCD meeting thank you
Does that require us to adjourn with a caveat or how should we go about that?
If there is no announcement, we'll adjourn out of closed session. If there is an announcement, we'll come back and do that.
All right perfect thank you County Council.
5:31 – 5:336 turns
Okay, so Brandon it's okay?
Yes we're recording for the Board of Supervisors meeting. Thank you. Great
thank you back into the Board of Supervisors meeting we have an announcement out of closed session so we're going to go ahead and give that announcement before the APCD meeting takes place just a transparency closed session for the Board of Supervisor is not done so we will be going back into closed session after the APCD meeting But with regard to the announcement, the Board of Supervisors having met in closed session today. There is no reportable action except as related to agenda item 49 in which the board has by unanimous vote authorized the filing of a cross complaint once the cross complaint is filed a copy of the cross complaint will be made available to any person upon inquiry. Thank you
So with that, the Board of Supervisors meeting is in recess and we'll turn it over to Chair Parvin for Air Pollution Control Board.
Thank you. I will call to order the Ventura County Air Pollution Control Board for February 10th, 2026. Will the clerk call the roll?
Roll call — called by Kelly Long
Show transcript
and will you join me in the Pledge of Allegiance? Ready begin Thank you. Our next item is agenda review where I consider and approve by majority vote minor revisions the board items and or attachments and any item added to or removed continued