Board of Supervisors — June 23, 2026

All right ladies and gentlemen, good morning. We are going to call to order this meeting of the Ventura County Board of Supervisors for June 23rd 2026. I'd ask the clerk to please call the roll.

passage. That sounds great thank you so much. You know I was thinking as I was driving down here okay what to say 600 kids a day 600 kids a day All volunteer-led, keeping them out of gangs. 27 programs every week with 93 babies that we take care of every week living in the neighborhoods of the working poor. We're keeping kids out of gangs. So what do you talk about? That would take me a day and I think the video is gonna really show it but I wanna mention just briefly some of the success stories. I was talking to few of the folks before, I'm like oh well what are you doing this summer?

August 3rd, I have one of our kids who have matriculated out just graduated with a physics and chemistry degree at Cal State Channel Island. And he starts officer candidate school with the United States Navy to go into nuclear submarines as a nuclear engineer on August 3rd. That's a safe passage kid. We have three right now in the Navy, in avionics technicians. We have one at Boston College. We have one of our kids going through right now the whole corporate track with enterprise car rentals going all the way to the top raised on a couch in a neighborhood watching his first drive-by shooting at five years old. I could go on and on but I think what I want to finish before the movie is As you see these community based programs, why does safe passage work?

We don't have any paid staff. It works because we leverage 43 nonprofits across the county. They leverage us. We leverage them. We all leverage youth accounting to get things done. So when you see a nonprofit that works in a silo It's only using 10% of its abilities if it works with another nonprofit. So with that, I'd like to queue it up and see how all these nonprofits work together to make it happen.

Do I stand here? Yeah.

Keep it short and strong. Only a little time, but the heart is lifelong. It's about a place where the young belong. Where they're lifted up and they stand so strong. Safe passage youth, where the love runs deep Thank you for joining us. Safe and full of laughter. Futures everywhere. Safe passage you. Making streets feel bright. Turning fear to trust, turning dark to light. Making communities feel brave and kind. Taking down the walls in a worry-free world.

Kids can stand. Futures everywhere. Hi, everyone. Where the kids are. Future's

You know, I always forget like who to thank but our partnership on a daily basis with the district attorney's office with the sheriff's office County probation. Public Health does training for us almost bi-weekly and the list just goes on and on about the county agencies that support us and it's our turn also to support them.

Thank you, Mr. Eagle and the and the some of these crews with at risk youth are out working all the time and they get paid pretty well. You want to talk about that?

Yeah, they do. So we have a really powerful youth employment program. We have 44 kids every week. They do projects all throughout the county. They get $20 an hour. Paid we pick them up in vans from their different high schools. We have High-risk youth groups, which are current active gang members 14 to 19 years old We pay them 20 bucks an hour to actually do community projects. It's amazing

Yeah and a great relationship with food bank Food share because I know that you connect with them every week and do amazing work. I'm gonna have you come when Well, I want to ask everyone to give it up for Tim Hagelin.

Can I add something? Tim, you inspire so many and I want to say thank you so much for your time and dedication. He's retired! And he never stopped. He had a couple jobs even when he was working with us and truly just your heart for the community is amazing and you just get so many volunteers to be...I gotta be like Tim So, I just want to say thank you. It's a very special moment and thank you Supervisor Gorrell for bringing this too. They do great jobs. Thank

you. Thank you Cheers With that we're gonna

Thank you, Mr. Chair. Good morning Supervisors, staff and all in attendance today. The agenda review for June 23rd 2026 is as follows. Item 8 General Public Comment 3 public comment letters have been submitted. Item 9 Agricultural Weights and Measures Receive and file the Ventura County Annual Crop and Livestock Report for 2025. The 2025 crop and livestock report and a PowerPoint presentation have been submitted. Item 41, health care agency. Approval of an agreement for medical director and attending physician surgery services with Ventura County Surgical Associates revised board letter has been submitted. Item 69 general services agency public hearing regarding adoption of a resolution amending the county parks department written fee schedule for 2026.

A PowerPoint presentation has been submitted And lastly item 70 resource management agency planning public hearing to consider adoption of a resolution to acknowledge receipt of accept and agree to the California coastal commissions suggested modifications to the county's amendments to local coastal program primarily addressing coastal hazards in sea level rise. A power point presentation has been submitted thank you Mister chair this concludes agenda review.

Thank you board members if there are no questions about the agenda I'd ask for motion to adopt the agenda as modified.

And were there any additional changes to the agenda from the board members? No.

Chair, I'd like to pull an item for discussion when we get to the consent. Same here chair.

Yeah it's my understanding that a couple of consent items will get pulled and then moved regular agenda and that's fine but we can do that in a minute. Thank you. Is there a motion? Now would be the appropriate time, Mr. Clerk.

and thank you check her out currently there are no Nobody signed up to speak for any consent items. Thank you

Okay, that was my understanding but I just wanted to make sure that nothing had changed moving on to number seven That's the minutes of the previous meeting and of the meeting held on the 15th

Item number seven motion to approve move by Supervisor Parvin seconded by Supervisor Lopez please vote. One more vote is it there yeah that passes unanimously thank you

all right thank you now I'd like to take general I think understand there's about 11 public comments I'd like to take those agenda item number eight general public comments before we move on to the regular agenda Madam Clerk can you read through those please?

Of course, thank you. Chair Garrell and as a reminder to members of the public who wish to address the board today with 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 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 comments on an agenda item will be accepted until the public comment period for each agenda item is complete. And for our remote participants, please accept the prompt to be promoted and unmute your mic when it's your turn to speak and for all public comments.

The in-person speaker present in the boardroom will be called upon first followed by the 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 I will call your name in three. We are going to start with our in-person. Our first speaker is going to be Martha Shapiro followed by James Greenfield and Mary Gallegos.

Martha Shapiro please proceed to the podium you'll have three minutes to give your comment

Good morning chair and supervisors. My name is Martha Shapiro, and I'm speaking on behalf of the Ventura County Aging Services Coalition a network of organizations professionals advocates and community leaders dedicated to supporting older adults people with disabilities and family caregivers throughout Ventura County Since the board voted to pause the transition of the Area Agency on Aging, we believe it's important to provide regular updates to support transparency and ensure this pause results in meaningful progress.

To help keep everyone informed, we will provide monthly updates through written reports and public comment. The first update was emailed last week but I also brought printed copies today. We appreciate that the county has offered a seat to an advisory council member on the review committee for the consultant who will conduct the Area Agency on Aging Service Model Review.

This is an important step towards stakeholder engagement and transparency. We are also very happy to share that Monique Nolan has let us know that the HSA has been recommended to move forward with adopting the proposed VCAAA Advisory Council bylaws. This is another big step in supporting the advisory council that we really appreciate. We also continue to emphasize the need for regular reporting on program performance, service unit data and funding utilization.

Timely reporting will help the Advisory Council fulfill its responsibilities and advocate effectively for older adults and caregivers. In addition we request greater clarity regarding how services will be maintained following recent staffing reductions with the Area Agency on Aging Finally, with Ventura County projected to experience a funding reduction under the proposed state funding formula strong oversight transparency and planning will be increasingly important. We respectfully ask the board to support meaningful Advisory Council participation in the service model review process regular performance and funding reports and a staffing and service continuity plan Thank you for your time and your continued commitment to Ventura County's aging population and family caregivers.

Thank you.

Thank you for your comment, our next speaker is going to be James Greenfield followed by Mary Gallegos and Brenda Mendoza.

Good morning chair board members congratulations on your elections So here we are closing out another election and not too much has changed. Most interestingly, California is in the national and international spotlight for election fraud. How fitting! Who would have thought? Here in Ventura the same questionable practices and worse continue. No signature verification for in-person voting so basically anyone can say they're you or I and go in and vote no questions asked and that's the process here So if you have any concerns, he called the elections hotline. They're too busy to take your call or leave a message or just send an email which they never get back to you.

The cost of elections in eight years has doubled. Can we compare the national inflation rate to that of the elections office? Who is auditing their practices and approving their funding. The Voters Choice Act is grossly expensive and has yielded little more vote voter participation while opening numerous vectors for fraud and manipulation that you have heard at nauseam here.

Democrats it used to be in the precinct model that we had Democrats and Republicans working side by side overseeing elections tabulation Well, I know of no Republicans that have applied to be paid election workers that were hired and there may be systematic hiring discrimination taking place in the elections office by one political party. And this requires an audit we have the right to know There are interesting anomalies that take place in some races. There's a typical spread across the county between results of countywide offices and the amount of registered Republicans and Democrats.

So why does one race in the last two elections far fall so far outside that spread? That would be the ROVs race. When does this statistical anomaly or impossibilities raise a red flag? This body's been asked to improve an independent election fraud hotline and inspector's office. The need and reasons are many, including the lack of transparency with elections and observation questionable practices deception kicking observers out of voting centers and election office not following state and federal regulations a public ledger of election complaints and outcomes is needed and should not be disputed by anyone.

Election observers should not be discouraged they shouldn't be made to stand in tiny boxes far away without being able to have drinking water this is America and we're not going to make another 250 years on this track free and fair elections are the bedrock of our republic And I've asked this board to be courageous over the past few years and the people await. Happy 250th anniversary to America. Thank you, Mr.

Gamefield for your comment.

Have a great 4th of July and reset.

Our next speaker is going to be Mary Gallegos followed by Brenda Mendoza and Claudia Utes.

Good morning. So, I follow what James just talked about. I was involved in all of that participation during the election. I got all the reports of people being mistreated. What James says, I can back up everything James has said about what happened during this election especially our people being kicked out at 2 o'clock in the morning because they wanted to see a process proceed to completion 2 of our people were told to leave while this was happening and they were escorted out by the deputy.

And that was the most most flagrant one and the fact that people have not been that you can go into vote and you don't they blatantly said no we don't check signatures in person signatures, the answer was the question was asked and the answer I'm here to talk about what happened at the Elections Advisory Committee on at the June meeting. They debated the Voters Choice Act, the discussion centered on how effective the voters choice act has been it was alleged that voter participation has greatly increased voters were enthusiastic about the long voting period the convenience that the drop boxes and voting centers provided and as such many more participated Well, I looked up the voter turnout numbers published by the Secretary of State with data provided by the counties themselves.

Statistics for this report tell a very different story. Vote Cal data for the 2024 general election turnout and other past elections show no such enthusiasm. Totals for California for the 2024 general election, non-VCA counties 70.39%, VCA counties 71.70%. This is essentially no difference barely an improvement of 1% for the voters choice act counties And has the Voters Act saved Ventura County money? No.

The Voter's Choice Act has doubled the cost of an election in the six years it has been in place. The Elections Advisory Committee will recommend you continue with the Voter's Choice Acts past 2027. They like that elections are now all voting centers with government center control and no precinct level participation. The problem is they have no substantial argument for why it should continue You should you should not be persuaded. You represent the people of Ventura that people want precinct level control get rid of the voting centers, the drop boxes and the vote by mail vote at the precinct one day in person with counting at the Precincts.

Thank you.

Thank you for your comment. Our next speaker is going to be Brenda Mendoza followed by Claudia Weitz and Ida Sotero

Good morning. My name is Brenda Mendoza and I'm a Client Benefits Specialist Supervisor for the County of Ventura. Good morning, everyone. My name is Marlene and I've worked here for the past 26 years and I'm also a member of the seiu 7 to one bargaining team every day. I supervise a team of 6 client benefits specialists who work tirelessly to connect the residents to resources and benefits. I am here today to show how inequities caused by The wage increase for clerical staff who have now outpaced those of the client benefits specialist. This has created a situation where new clerical staff make more than experienced client benefits specialists.

This has caused major issues with morale in our agency, we are asking you board to direct the CEO to negotiate a fix to issue I'm sorry to negotiate a fix to issue so that our members skills and experience are value we are properly valued sorry. Thank you. That's it.

Thank you for your comment Brenda. Our next speaker is going to be Claudia Weitz followed by Ida Sotero and Joe Hathon.

Good morning. My name is Claudia Weeks, I work for behavioral health as an intensive service coordinator. I work in every one of your districts to help reduce the homelessness mental health and we're intensive service coordinators we work with Ventura PD, Oxnard, Santa Paula. We're at Backpack Medicines. We do one stops everything for the homeless to reduce the homelessness in each one of the cities that you guys live in and represent so we are also our wages have been we were community service coordinators and our role was We were reclassified as intensive service coordinators.

The word says it all, intensive. We do hard work for each one of the cities to be clean for you guys to be safe and we have not given our raise. We were given the SB 525 two years ago and this year we were not give been our race So I'm here to represent our Intensive Service Coordinator to continue helping increase our wages for our morale and everything else be so we can continue service each one of the cities and keeping it safe.

Thank you.

Thank you for your comment. Our next speaker is going to be Aida Sotero followed by John Hathon and Grace Sepulveda

Good morning. Members of the Board of Supervisors, hi my name is Aida Soltero and I'm here speaking on behalf of the referral coordinators. I'm also a proud member of the SEIU Local 721. When the referral coordinator classification was created two years ago, most employees were medical office assistants. Management then asked staff to apply for the referral coordinator position and we were told that it was going to be a promotion. The job description for referral coordinator itself It lists more complex responsibilities and a higher level of knowledge and experience requirement compared to a medical office assistant. I want to ask to please consider how this delay in voting yes on an updated and fair agreement is impacting us in our workplace, the shift on our office dynamics, and quite frankly, on our morale.

When you have classifications of supervise or help overlook other classifications, for example the referral coordinators that on a daily basis we have medical office assistants at our worksite coming to us for help and management holding us to a higher standard asking us to help keep track of the registration errors from MOAs even at remote work sites. Referral coordinators being that higher level of support But now with this SB 525 impact it seems that we are now considered a lower classification and yet with management still holding us to a higher standard and asking us to continue to help overlook and provide that higher level of support to the medical office assistants. There's just an imbalance to the dynamics and now with almost seven months of feeling like we got involuntary demotions, it's taking a toll on morale and that's why I'm here I urge you to please address this issue, to help fix the imbalance and to show that you value all employees.

Thank you.

Thank you for your comment. Our next speaker is going to be John Hathlin followed by Grace Sepulveda and then Bruce McVicker

Good morning, members of the Board of Supervisors. My name is Jo Hathan and I work for HCAA as a referral coordinator and I've worked for the county for 32 years. I'm also a proud member of SEIU Local 721. In the last contract, I was happy to see the medical office assistants received significant wage increases. Unfortunately those increases have outpaced those for referral coordinators As an MOA three, two years ago I was asked to apply for the promotion.

I didn't get the first round but one year ago I got the RC position and it was a promotion. And now the MOAs wage increases are outpacing those of referral coordinators. There's no more incentive to promote, this has caused major issues in my department. I love my job and serving this county and residents. I just want this county to value my knowledge and experience and reestablish a promotional structure that makes sense.

We're asking for your board to direct the CEO to negotiate a fix to this issue so our members' skill and experience are properly valued Thank you.

Thank you for your comment. Our next speaker is going to be Grace Svoboda followed by Ursula Orozco and then Bruce McVicker

Good morning, board members. Good morning, V&A Lopez, every single Jeff and Janice, Matt, and Kelly Long. Thank you for giving us the opportunity to discuss some issues this morning. My name is Grace Apulveda. I'm a Client Benefit Specialist III. I worked for the County of Ventura for the past 26 years. I am also a proud member and Executive Board Member of SEIU Local 721.

In the last, I was also involved in the negotiations. We were proud to win a strong contract for the wage increase across the county however there remains outstanding internal pay inequities that the county needs to fix as a client benefit specialist Our county's most vulnerable residents vital public services doing Medi-Cal, CalFresh benefits. You have to do budgets and you have to look at a lot of it takes a lot to process that case.

Needless to say We have the most vulnerable residents with public service and it takes some highly skilled technical work. The internal pay inequities existing within the county value my work less than a clerical worker for the county. We're asking your board to direct to the CEO, to negotiate or fix this issue that our members skills and experience properly valued. Thank you.

Thank you for your comment. Our next speaker is going to be Ursula Orozco and then we're gonna transition to Zoom and hear from Bruce McVicker, James Frye and Lana Colvin. Ursula?

Good morning. Bear with me I'm a little nervous it's my first time here. My name is Ursula Orozco I'm a clerical supervisor for the Human Service Agency and I worked for Ventura County for the past 13 years. Four years have been in a supervisor role. I'm also a proud member of the SEIU Local 721. To speak on behalf of all the clerical supervisors case states and eligibility workers affected by the unfair wages.

The last contract included significant wage increase for office assistance in my office why I'm while I'm very happy these staff receive increases These unfair wages have impacted the office morale bringing friction animosity and has created a hostile work environment. I'm sorry excuse me. More than the unfair wages, the actions taken by the county appear not to reflect its core values.

The county's operations are guided by service excellence accountability and equity. None of these values seem to have been considered when the clerical supervisors and other positions within the Human Service Agency pay was adjusted. Beyond fairness in compensation our staff maintain I urge the board to focus on this issue and implement a correct measure for staff who have been committed to the community.

6 months have passed it's time to resolve these inequities and support those who contribute most

Thank

you. We're going to transition over to Zoom where we're going to hear from Bruce McVicker, James Fry and Lana Colvin. So Bruce McVicker I see that you've been promoted if you unmute your mic you have three minutes to give your comment.

Good morning can you hear me?

Yes we can please proceed.

After the 2020 presidential election many citizens became skeptical of the honesty of election systems. The Los Angeles mayoral race from the recent June 2nd election is a national joke Another suspicious California election where the trailing party always pulls out miracle wins during counting month after Election Day. Ventura County has also been criticized on national news broadcasts for slow counting the vote. The date of this meeting is three weeks past Election Day, are the results final yet?

More days more ways is a tagline of the Voters Choice Act. It provides mass mail ballots to everyone on the poorly maintained voter roll Dead or alive, citizen or not, county resident or not. Unmonitored drop boxes for ballot stuffing. Ballot harvesting for more ballot stuffing. Same day registration for vote center hopping. A month to cast early ballots, a month to count ballots using centralized computers that cost millions of dollars.

The easy and convenient VCA process is wide open for fraud, and the entire process cannot be audited. County supervisors need to opt out of this VCA kabuki theater. The voting computers have been proven to contain Chinese components in connections to outside networks even international making them easy marks for undetectable manipulation. The voting computer software source code has been protected from inspection since 2000 by Smartmatic proprietary claims.

This proprietary software has propagated through the long chain of corporate mergers or acquisitions onto almost all voting computers since, including Liberty used in Ventura County. Ventura 2026 AB 1821 Californians can be charged up to $88 an hour For each government employee that compiles information requested by the public. For the crime of requesting public information, citizens can even be sued in court by the state incurring significant expense to defend themselves.

This is similar to the recent Stop Nick Shirley Act authored by the wife of corrupt California AG Rob Bonta. It criminalizes exposing fraud in California with fines up to $10,000 and jail. May 2026 SB 73 restricts law enforcement access to voter rolls, voter lists ballots or certified voting technology without a court order tied to specific investigations of California election law violations.

April 2026 Ventura County citizens submitted written requests to the ROV seeking specific electronic election records from the November 2024 general and the November 2025 Prop 50 elections. These record requests were either completely denied or severely restricted by delivery format and cost, essentially a denial even though the electronic records were readily available for free.

Thank you Mr. McVicker for your comment. You've used your time we're going to go on to our next speaker. We're going to hear from James Fry followed by Lana Colvin. James Fry I see that you are ready to give your comment please proceed.

Good morning, thank you Chair and Supervisors. At my last appearance I discussed the stop work notice, the permit that followed, the second stop work action and the severity hold placed on this project by the county. Today I would like to focus on the zoning clearance for 8513 North Ventura Avenue According to the zoning clearance, the purpose of the project was to restore the second floor storage area only and non-habitable space.

The clearance further describes the project as demolition only. However, county records already documented work beyond demolition. The severity hold identified new roof framing, roof sheeting, structural framing and other work that exceeded the scope of the original permit. The zoning clearance also states that the proposed project would not result in removal of more than 50% of the roof or floor area of a non-conforming structure.

My question is simple. What evidence was used to make that determination? The county's own records describe substantial roof and structural work, yet the zoning clearance concluded that the 50% threshold was not exceeded. The zoning clearance also contains setback and separation measurements that do not appear consistent with the actual conditions on the property.

The clearance represents that there is more than 10 feet of separation between habitual structures. It also despicts and appears inconsistent with the structural's actual location of the building. If those measurements were incorrect, then the findings based on those measurements should be reviewed. The zoning clearance also contains expiration provisions requiring a written extension request and payment of fees before the expiration.

Most importantly, the zoning clearance states that it will be nullified if it was issued erroneously or if the information provided was not full, true and correct. Today I have identified questions regarding the project's description, the roof floor area findings, the setbacks and the separation measurements and the expiration provisions. Given those questions why was this zoning clearance never reviewed for possible nullification under its own terms?

I'm simply asking the board to review its own records. The severity hold identifies structural framing, roof framing, roof sheeting, the zoning clearance describes demolition only. These records raise serious questions. Thank

you Mr. Frye for your comment. You've used your three minutes we're going to have to go into our next speaker thank you Okay, our next speaker is going to be Lana Colvin who's joining us today on Zoom. Lana I see you're promoted if you unmute your mic you'll have three minutes to give your comment.

All right can you hear me? Yes we can please proceed okay great Good morning, everyone. Recently the Department of National Intelligence announced the disclosure of thousands of documents proving that the COVID virus was developed and funded by the U.S. government through the offices of Dr. Anthony Fauci partnering with the Chinese government in Wuhan China. I bring this up not because it probably is one of the greatest crimes in world history But because the COVID pandemic was used as the catalyst for radically changing the election process in America, and it has stayed in place remarkably for six years.

Despite massive exposure of how it is being used to destroy fair elections. The closing of neighborhood precincts, the mask mailing of ballots, the ballot harvesting allowing ballots to be received long past the voting deadline. Homeless being registered which has been exposed now using someone else's name. The electronic tabulating machines that can flip votes by inserting a code it's that simple It's become obvious to most people why the pandemic was so strategic.

Ventura County has the ability to stop this crime right now And really to be heroes with all Americans and I call on the Board of Supervisors to step up to the plate on that. Restore the neighborhood precincts, stop the mass mailing, clean up the voter rolls, hand count ballots, one day voting with absentee ballot options which was always in place and was very easy to use.

Only valid citizens able to vote and have to prove their citizenship. And please restore the future of our country for generations to come in America and stop this crime. Thank you.

Thank you for your comment. And with that, Chair Girl, that concludes the public comment for this item. Thank you.

Thank you Madam Clerk. That concludes that agenda item number eight we're going to now

Good morning, chair Garrell members of the board. CEO Johnson Mister Berg miss North. My name is OK, so every year we have a theme and this year's theme is making sense of agricultural production. And yes it is a pun because for years we have been talking about this big gross revenue number but that's only half of the story. We haven't been talking about what it actually costs to grow and farm in Ventura County And so this idea was born about eight years ago when the Strawberry Commission had published a graphic that showed where the dollar goes.

And at the time it was about four cents was going to the grower. When we looked into where the data came from, it was a study published by UC Davis and our own UC Cooperative Extension Oleg Dogovich was responsible for providing the local information. I asked Oleg you know could we do this for say a vegetable crop for comparison purposes? And then after years and years of the ag community saying, we're only talking about revenue. We're not talking about costs. We decided to do this study ourselves. So we took UC Davis's methodology and used our local information and plugged it in. And that's how we came up with this analysis. And I wanna just mention obviously this is not a peer reviewed economic analysis. This is our compilation based on the knowledge we have of our Ventura County agriculture So for each of the top 10 commodities, we've broken them down into the dollar spent and where each of those go.

There are six buckets where each of the costs go so labor is by far the biggest in every category. Other buckets land inputs Plant care which would be using pesticides, using fertilizers. Services that would include like transportation anything that you know it's post-harvest to get it to market and then compliance would be say regulatory requirements. So in 2025 we did have an increase in our gross revenue so we are at 2.4 billion dollars And we also had a decrease of, a slight decrease in our irrigated farmland. So we're now at 98,470 acres So our number one crop for 2025, not surprisingly is strawberries.

So strawberries did have a 14% increase however as you can see from the dollar and the costs increased and did not even cover the revenue so it actually cost one cent more to grow strawberries in Ventura County. So no revenue to our growers in strawberries in 2025. Avocados were number two and keep in mind these are alternate bearing, so we were actually surprised they stayed at number two because this was their off year.

And they decreased by 29 percent but there was a small profit of five cents per dollar for every avocado sold. Nursery stock remained at number three. It increased by 21%. This crop often goes with our weather, so if we have nice grain nursery stock does well. So it wasn't surprising to see a nice increase and then there was a seven cent profit. Raspberries increased by 36% They moved up to number four, they're at $220 million and there was a six cent profit.

Lemons, this one is a little surprising. It did increase which you know everyone who's paying attention to lemons would expect a decrease. A lot of acres have been pulled out and you've all seen that however there was a huge production year and as you can see it cost $1.12 to grow a lemon so they actually lost 12 cents for every lemon sold Celery increased by 10% and they you know moved down to number six.

And you know celery is kind of our stable vegetable and our growers profited 0.21 hundredths of a cent. Blackberries had a nice bump of 19%. They moved up to number seven with Nine cent profits. Peppers decreased by 30%. Bear in mind, there was a record high year in 2024 so this one isn't super surprising. If you look the cost of the services which would be say cost of shipping that was pretty high this year and so that was part of the reason why it decreased by 30% Blueberries increased by 31%. This was largely due to the value of the organic market in this crop and it had a nice profit of five cents.

Cilantro, our precarious number 10 spot. So cilantro moved up to number 10 but went down by 5% and there was a four cent profit. So other items in our crop report is we always celebrate our farmer's markets. As you know, our data that we provide is always a year behind right? It's 2025 data but these number, these farmers' markets are alive it's our current markets and then the picture there is we had a little art contest last year to celebrate Farmer's Market Week and so those were our winners that we promised would be published in our crop report.

Other program highlights, we celebrate the work we do in our various programs and departments. And this slide is just to remind us that we do feed the world. Ventura County does... We're the number five exporter in the world. And so this page just shows us where our shipments are going. Lastly, I just would like to thank our staff and they put a tremendous amount of work into this project. Melanie Morgan, our graphic designer, our photographer, our number cruncher, Sarah Snow who assists with data collection and then Ryan Harrison did the economic analysis so just would like to thank them and of course the agricultural industry because without them we couldn't do this report.

Be happy to entertain any questions.

Thank you Commissioner Bell, it's very fascinating. I know that members probably have questions. Supervisor Walden?

Yes thank you. I think this is extremely important a 2.4 billion dollar industry and yet we're only making pennies off the dollar and i think that people need to understand that if we don't grow here we're growing somewhere else where we don''t have the controls of pesticides and so forth, and that's very concerning. I mean especially people are living longer but there are also demand for the health and well-being of communities and the food they eat is so key.

Appreciate you talking about this but in also the climate where we're going. I am very concerned in my district at the HLB pesticide in the quarantine areas. And I'm trying to understand the future of lemons in this area based on that, especially when you said there's a 12 cent loss and what does that happen on fowl land or trees that are left on property because they're not doing it?

The transition to a different crop? How do our farmers deal with this type of situation?

Well, as far as the lemons go a lot of them are replacing them with avocados. And they're and the good news about avocados is there's not a whole lot of places in the world you can grow avocados whereas you can grow lemons in a lot of different places so um you know there has been concern that we'll oversaturate our market with avocados with all of the the lemons coming out and then replacing them with the avocadas but you know the optimists say maybe not because we can't grow them everywhere Obviously, this report is on 2025. 2026 is a little spooky. I mean, I have never seen so much fallow land out there or empty fields everywhere. So I don't know what's necessarily going on yet.