trategic plans some of the strategic plans are data-based and some of the strategic plans are opinion-based And we feel very strongly that while there is a room for opinion Collective impact is about ejected data and that going forward strategic plans that want to be included Need to step up their data game and that this is something none of us can afford this kind of data on our own So we really need to work together to be strategic about how do we measure? What we're moving together both picking the indicators also talking about Realistically how that maps to the investment because for some of the indicators what we might are an appropriate goal might be In the next three years. We just want to hold the line on this So we have a lot of work to do together. We are really excited to be as the human care Alliance to be part of the Steering committee we're grateful for this opportunity, but we have a big job ahead of us It is just begin the real work is just beginning We're past the process and into really trying to figure out how do we measure the work that we're doing and we are going to be a Partner in that. Thank you Morning and welcome back Good morning again, my name is Monica Martinez CEO of encompass community services Thank you Karen for those comments and I want to spend a moment to thank HSD for your efforts I've long been a supporter of this reform To really adopt the core Initiative and I just really applaud your efforts to be inclusive To be responsive to feedback To be data-driven and committed to collective impact But I also want to remind the board that the issues that we are collectively trying to solve are incredibly complex Issues related to housing to Behavioral health substance use and mental health disorders as you heard earlier today Investment in children and trying to create a generational impact on the quality of life on our county Those are incredibly complicated and those results don't happen quickly So I'm here to ask that you continue to be courageous and be bold in these investments That you look at where you can increase the pot to continue to invest in in the those of us who are providing these incredible and important services in our community and that you continue to be Disciplined and and not be distracted by headlines or or things that sort of bubble up that may cause us to want to go one Direction or the other but to really continue to invest in these just generational changes that I think that we're capable of seeing So thank you for your efforts and your investment to date. Thank you to your department and we look forward to being a partner in the future Thank you Morning welcome Hi sherry storm with D&T's community dental I'm also here to echo support for this whole process we at D&T's really focus on quality metrics and the Focus on evidence-based practices as it was a I won't I won't Be shy about saying was a challenge to kind of come up with evidence-based practices that were valid for this process But going through that and using the technical assistance has made all my proposals as a development professional better and to a wider variety of Applicant, excuse me grantors. So thank you. I also wanted to say that When it comes to the strategic plan that you're going to be looking at and the participation in the steering committee as Part of oral health access steering committee in that strategic plan. We look forward to being involved in that So, thank you very much Thank you. Thanks for those comments Morning welcome Hi, Clay Kemp executive director of the seniors council, which runs the area agency on aging of Santa Cruz and San Benino counties so we have a couple suggestions about how some of the flaws of this process could be improved and You know first of all I want to admit or commit that everybody involved in this is trying to make our community better and Improve local services, but there were some serious errors that could be corrected Regarding the funding process for senior programs And I think the first one is overall that the priority of whose funded should weigh more importantly the quality of service Or the quality of the application more than the amount of funds that were applied for and that can be seen in that the highest Scored application in this entire process received the funding cut and other critical senior services that had Very high scores like meals on wheels took a hundred and twenty thousand dollar hit So I think one of the ways things like that can be improved as you look if you look at the role our agency plays We're probably the most familiar organization with community-based services for seniors We've been funding them at one point six million per year for the entire time that I've been there Which is 20 years and probably 20 years before that Unfortunately, even though we're a funder we're not included in the funder group for discussion about how this rolls forward So that would be one recommendation to include all major local funders of community-based organizations in that discussion We are a strategic plan owner But unfortunately, we're also an applicant for funds and we're unique in that most triple a's are county-based But we're one of the few that's non-profit based So we can do a lot more things more flexibly than a county-based organization can and We're also more cost-effective at doing that So I think everybody has agreed that that's a great model But unfortunately when we shift to core that excludes us from being part of the review and feedback group Even though it's our strategic plan that's being funded So we think an approach that you could take would be to take the triple a out of the core funding process Establish us as a set alone. We're a mandated program so you know if we don't do it you guys have to do it and That would allow our expertise to be at the table when proposals are coming forth to do things like cut senior network services Which is the kind of starting point for all senior services At a time when the senior population has grown 43 percent over six years It makes no sense to you know take money away from the triage organization And I really think those flaws could be corrected by merely shifting what our role or our relationship with the county is We also don't compare well in terms of the outcomes and what strategic plan do we align with you know We write a strategic plan. So are we you know going to somehow fit into our own plan? It's more a matter of whether we are the triple a or one exists or the county takes us over So we hope you consider that I'll just add also There's some great recommendations in the focus groups that I hope are seriously considered to thank you very much morning Welcome. Good morning. My name is Sarah emert. I'm the director of community organizing with United Way I'm here to communicate United Way support with this funding model and to show our support with the county and also really recognize HSD's commitment for quality improvement I also wanted to share that United Way is currently in the process of shifting our funding and grant making model And we're in communication with HSD to ensure the integration of critical elements from the RFP from the county That are integrated into ours. So for example the evidence-based practice tiered model some of the outcomes and measurements are just some of the examples With our new funding model We are also holding the all-in strategic plan to in homelessness as well as the youth violence prevention task force strategic plan But we're going to be diving a little deeper to focus specifically on youth success But we will ensure that there is overlap between the results that we put out in our RFP and what's under core investments as well Additionally, we recognize the power in leveraging Outcomes and resources both financial and human through collective impact So I wanted to communicate our commitment with partnering with the county and others to continue the conversations around collective impact And especially to increase community capacity around collective impact. Thank you. Thank you Morning welcome back Good morning. My name is Angela the novella from PVPS. I am the director of agency programs And yes, I'm here to support also this this model We appreciate the fact that we together can can build community and and we support each other and Collaborating and moving forward with evidence-based practice models I also want to say thank you for providing the technical assistance support for South County agencies That was very valuable even though we were there and You guys were available to to answer questions and help us with the application and the reporting process So I appreciate that that you came down to South County and and yes, I want to say thank you overall and and hoping that we can continue working together and And overall emphasizing on on the importance of outcomes and and and outputs as you were mentioning before That we together can build together. Thank you. Thank you. Is there anybody else from the community you'd like to address us? See none. We'll bring it back to the board reaction Supervisor Coonerty sure First I want to thank you for the work and it's really good to have this continuous improvement in this feedback loop So that on the micro level can build trust get more efficient get better data get more information and do it I'm really glad That we're putting this effort you put this effort in and and are reaching out in this way and will improve And then I just wanted to remind us that I think you know It's always good to keep in mind where we really want to end up With this because you can get caught in the weeds a little bit And I think this pot of money as was mentioned will not solve Virtually any of the very complex problems that we have but When we look at the data and we know how many homeless vets there are and we know how many seniors are going out food We know how many kids don't have dental care and we know what third-grade reading levels are we know all that in our community and and when we should be holding an annual hearing as part of our budget with the Central Coast Alliance for Health with the Community Foundation with the United Way with all the different folks that are playing a role in this and saying You know is our crime rate going up and down as our recidivism rate? How's our third-grade reading level how's how many seniors have access to food and Really try to work on those numbers and to Karen's point maybe on some cases just try to hold the line in the face of bigger trends that are bigger than us or forces that are bigger than us and compare us to other Comparable counties and say are we doing are we in the middle? Are we at the top? Are we at the bottom? And so to not to not just get stuck in this one funding stream and these one set of As it relates to strategic plans, but overall when we're talking about hundreds of millions of dollars being spent. How are we? Making those investments and are we using all the different funding streams correctly to leverage real change? And so it's a long process and it's a big goal, but I think though I Want to recognize that effort and keep in mind of sort of where we where I hope we will end up going And with that I'll move the I think it's except to accept the staff report and the recommended actions second Emotion from supervisor Kennedy a second supervisor MacPherson supervisor MacPherson. Yeah I appreciate the ongoing effort because this was a change in our process of what we're doing and That word trust I think is being developed as we go along because we're continuing to see how we can improve and make it fit better especially want to Just think that we we want to address our concerns about how does the this program that was Dressed by a mr. Kempf about how does the seniors program fit and how how do we measure that in better? How can we make it fit better into this process? That's that's a concern to me. I'm being a member of that area on the aging but That's especially one that I'd like to see addressed and I know it will be but I do appreciate the ongoing effort and the the continuous input from the agencies that were That provide these services to those in need in Santa Cruz County Was you know, thank you and again like I said, it's turning out Better than I thought and I and I appreciate that But I still am disappointed on the second harvest food bank not getting funding that helps especially South County Where a lot of people are really struggling and also meals on wheels, which is really a Countywide and affecting a lot of people and actually some of us in this room will be signing up for it When we get older so and we got to be mindful of that and the other of course is the small one the Watsonville senior center But thank you. Thank you. We have a motion and second all those in favor. Hi opposed it passes unanimously Thank you for that report Appreciate probation and others waiting for item 54. We're gonna now move to item 54 Which is to consider report and presentation on the P. MacArthur results first initiative? Juvenile cost-benefit model and direct the probation department return in March of a 2018 for authorization released in RFP for evidence-based Juvenile programming is outlined in a member of our chief probation officer We also have the Santa Cruz results first two-page summary final report And I believe our probation officer in the second here. We'll be introducing This item Thank you again for waiting for your item to come back Good morning morning. Welcome. Thank you Good morning chair and board supervisors this morning. It's still this morning. Yes, I'm gonna continue on the theme of Results and evidence-based practices, and I have a brief presentation about our work with the results first initiative And the development of our juvenile results first model, which I believe it's the first of its kind With me today all the way from Washington DC right next to me is Ben Fulton senior associate from the pew MacArthur results first initiative, and I also have Amelia Mejia From CISAC. She's a program coordinator for results first, and I hope that You might have questions for them both from a national perspective of results first and of course statewide in California And I really wanted to thank the results first team that I have here with their for their technical assistance Since 2013 since we started our work as a county with them I'm gonna make this a power point here Well, I just want to say thank you chief eraldo for the introduction and as he mentioned My name is Ben Fulton. I'm a senior associate with the pew MacArthur results first initiative and before The chief gets into a breakdown of the results from their Their juvenile justice effort related to our project. I thought I'd give a little bit of an overview of what results first is And talk a little bit about the work that's happening in California and across the country And so as many folks in this room know results first is a joint initiative of the pew charitable trust And the John D and Catherine team MacArthur foundation And what we are is a national initiative that partners with select states and counties across the country to help them engage In evidence-based policymaking and we do that in a capacity building model that really folks focuses on partnering with those Those real leaders in states and counties to help them develop their own capacity and expertise for engaging in evidence-based policymaking And so that is a is a really kind of big term there evidence-based policymaking and for us it really means Using the best research and evidence out there about what works to inform decision-making processes around policy and budget We do that in a number of different policy areas adult and juvenile justice Child welfare mental health substance abuse, and we're rolling out new kind of areas all the time In terms of health. I think is the newest area. We partnered with 38 jurisdictions now Including Santa Cruz County 28 states as well as As 10 counties as well eight of which are here in California. We're really all of our county work began So every one of those jurisdictions Kind of goes through a similar process in building the results first approach but they all do it in their own kind of unique and prioritized way based on the the community's needs and and priorities so that approach really focuses on One building a program inventory of programs in a particular area and learning more information about how those programs operate in a particular jurisdiction Then taking those programs and comparing them to the results first clearing house database, which is really a Central hub for a lot of information from research clearing houses about program effectiveness and then taking those programs or there's really strong rigorous evidence and Running them through a Santa Cruz specific benefit cost analysis model To try to get a sense for what is the potential return on investment for programs where we have a really strong evidence base for them And so what that does is compare the cost of providing a particular program Against the benefits of that that program produces that's been shown in the research literature So that would give you a sense for if we put $1 in this evidence-based program What kind of return can we expect over the long term based on their best kind of research? We have and so in Santa Cruz we've been really focused on Adult and recently juvenile justice And so we're going to continue to kind of walk through kind of how this results first work plays out here in Santa Cruz But I wanted to give you a little bit of a background on the on the project as a whole I want to talk about the juvenile model goals, but I really like this illustration because if you go all the way to the end the end result is recidivism reduction and that's public safety and that's My department's role in the community among others and so if you stop backwards though We want to show you what we want to do is take a deliberate path where we are good stores of the tax dollars It's very important by making the best use of public resources and being deliberate in our intentions to provide the juveniles and families to serve With the best Service is possible that will give them the likelihood of success in life and for youth Particularly transitioning into adulthood and this is really why we use evidence-based practices So from a from a big picture perspective the reason why The Santa Cruz probation department and all of our partners go through this really lengthy and technical intensive effort to build out a very specific Santa Cruz Benefit cost analysis model is because leaders Like the chief here at the agency level as well as leaders in the CAO's office and it and board of supervisors level and when We're in the states and legislature and governor's office All these folks are really interested in trying to use evidence to make strategic budget choices and have that information be at the Table it's not a situation where you're gonna look at a chart and say we just fund the top program on that chart Or that the evidence is the only thing that you will consider But we think it's an important It can provide a kind of important contribution to that decision-making process when you consider all the other factors into why you'd Want to fund a program and so unfortunately Many leaders do not have access to that kind of evidence-based policymaking resources And so that's why results first partners with these jurisdictions and tries to help them Kind of gather useful information and present it in a way that will be useful and so We started in a very small number of states. We started in four counties in California Santa Cruz being one of the first and We're now continuing to expand that approach because we've been finding that leaders across the country are really interested in this work And can benefit from it. So I've actually liked to turn it over to Amalia just for a second Before we get a little deeper because in partnership with the California State Association of Counties We've actually been able to expand our footprint in California and work with new partners So I wanted to give you an opportunity to talk a little bit about that Sure. So as you guys know after realignment There was a new level of responsibilities for counties and from CSES perspective We wanted to make sure that county leaders had the tools necessary to address these changes So with the healthcare foundation new funding, we were able to expand to two additional counties So currently we are in up as the first original like Ben mentioned Santa Cruz Santa Barbara Kern and Fresno And since then we since a partnership we expanded to Ventura, Santa Clara, Solano and Nevada And we will be hopefully expanding to two more additional counties by the end of the year depending on the engagement of interest But counties are definitely Being able to use this information as county leaders and we're open to any Suggestions of how you guys might want to be how this could be useful for board as board of supervisors Thanks so much Malia and and I think that really comes down to the reason why We've we've think there's a lot of value in this work and that is because the the benefits of doing this kind of cost-benefit analysis approach really focuses on Decreasing recidivism so improving outcomes in order to to generate positive returns in terms of avoided victimization and Kind of negative aspects that happens when when crime happens in the community as well as reducing the burden on public services When someone recidivates they go back through the criminal justice system and there's a cost to every stage of that system and so I think the really valuable piece here at the juvenile level is that you are You're hitting kids at a very early level and so the ceiling the potential benefits are even higher because you know as opposed to Intervening with someone at an adult level they're further downstream and it may be more difficult to make improvements but at the juvenile level there really is an opportunity for first for investment to make a real difference in kids lives and And the county as a whole so so just briefly I want to talk a little bit about our work in Santa Cruz County We you kick this initiative off five years ago in 2013 and we started with our Adult criminal justice programs our services and interventions and really we had a unique opportunity Through realignment in 2011 where there was an infusion of new dollars coming through the state So we really thought it was important that we Use those while ease wisely and results first really aligned with our county plan our community corrections partnership plan was to use cost-effective Treatment and supervision services that were evidence-based For better results. So this clearly fit with what the county wanted to do So we use the results first cost-benefit model and program inventory first to help inform us in the design of an RFP For interventions and services for the AB 109 Population that was released in 2015 And as we began new contracting for adult services, we included new requirements that included prioritizing evidence-based practices And we knew that after we were doing that the next step was to introduce results first and to the juvenile model many of the providers Provide our network and AB 109 also provide juvenile services So they are familiar with the steps that that that we're taking in the direction We're going and clearly many of them are also part of the core funding model These are the key findings In our as we develop our juvenile model juvenile recidivism is expensive The average cost of a conviction is over a hundred thousand dollars This includes cost of victims the cost of lost earnings Disruption and educational pathways the cost of arrest Prosecution incarceration, etc. So this is why it's important that we invest in interventions that have the highest likelihood of Reducing recidivism earlier in intervention evidence-based programs can reduce these recidivism costs for every dollar locally According to our model. We know that the return is anywhere from $2.31 to $32 that we have that we can invest our juvenile alternative to detention program is is seen There is a highly cost-effective program with excellent public safety outcomes This is why we continue to invest in these type of beneficial programs This slide shows an excerpt of what we call our results first one page inventory that Took about a year to develop that but it was well worth it This is hot off the press and we plan to use it to guide decisions around the types of programs that we are currently using and Or plan to use in the future We selected aggression replacement therapies an example to highlight to show her how our program inventory works in terms of cost-benefit analysis Return on investment and recidivism reduction. It took me a little while to figure this out, but I think I have it ART is an evidence-based cognitive behavioral intervention that my staff are trained in And it's inexpensive at $600 per youth But the cost avoidance is just over 8,000 again that cost avoidance is and realize cost of victims Community arrest again, etc. We can see from this that for every dollar we spend on ART We get a $14 return on on investment. So this this example here We've already used it helped us determine that we needed to increase ART and expand the available Availability to our youth because we are only serving about wealthy 15 participants. So we've expanded that This this is again another part of our results first inventory The local programs are in green are our local programs And we match these to the highest rated programs in the Washington State Institute for Public Policy Inventory and that had the highest return on investment and show a significant likelihood of reducing recidivism in some cases by up to 10% Included in these highest rated section are is vocational training ART aggression replacement therapy a restorative justice programs and cognitive behavioral programming through the forte model So in Santa Cruz we have four four of our local agencies already delivering these types of services So the models already and helped us inform the scope of work as we Go from year to year with new contracts So I'm going to wrap up our presentation really with recommendations. It's clearly evident to us that programs and services That are rated highest and effective to reduce recidivism is something that we should Use our juvenile justice dollars just like we do with our adult dollars. We'd like to maintain and expand existing programs like ART Want to recruit new services and programs that are out there or work with our partners perhaps to redesign some of Their current programs to meet the emerging needs and trends much of the the way we are spending our dollars in juvenile justice is Remained relatively unchanged over the last 15 years And we really feel it's time to make a significant shift because there are Just different emerging needs that we've discovered new evidence-based practices and and our partners have been there with us and has been willing to adjust what they're doing So we Want to talk about what we're recommending to the board we would like to through an RFP process Really align services to risk and needs and make program improvements and prioritize our funding to evidence-based practices to achieve outcomes So we would like to recommend that we return to your board in March with a draft of Our request for proposals that we plan to put out Much as we've similar to what we've done of course for a realignment dollars And similar to the core and taking a consideration what we've learned from in the experiences in core and realignment I know there's always concern about the amount of work that our providers would have to do with applications But we want to keep it as simple as possible And I am confident many of the same providers will continue to to be able to serve our youth So with that that wraps up my presentation and I was wondering if there are any questions Are there any brief questions from supervisors before we open it up? Supervisor Leopold. Thank you chair Thank you for the presentation though the ongoing work that we're doing with results first I think is is is critical work again. Let's us Show the value of the investments that we make I'm really glad to see CSEC as involved Because I think this should be a standard in California So I'm glad that we were Early adopters of this I wonder if you could say something about the recidivism rate sure The numbers here I I I don't have any I don't I know the adult numbers slightly better So I can't tell what these are State average better than the state average what what does this tell us this is and this is the first time We've done that we did a six-year analysis of a cohort and looked at their recidivism rate for a period of six years And we know so we determined that 33 percent reoffend They have an adjudicated offense within the first year and that's that's about normal and and are working with our Technical assistance team, but what this does is establish as a baseline for us, which we just haven't had And I could say that of those that recidivate within the first year 70 about 70 percent are misdemeanor offenses and 30 percent are felony So that's while they're misdemeanor still obviously a crime I'm happy to report. They're not felonies. You know our person-to-person crimes So but we'll we're gonna be able to compare ourselves as we move forward And we have the the tool in the inventory to determine this how it compares to the adult system is The lat it was about 32 percent is very similar within the first year But we want to clearly what we want to do with this tool is is reduce that I mean it would be remark obviously the goal the gold standard would be zero Recidivism, but we know even reducing it by 10 percent is very significant and there's a good return to the community So that's what we're shooting for yeah when we look at recidivism rates of adults Don't we usually look at it a three-year period instead of a six-year period. Yes. Why are we looking at it? This is the yeah, yeah, so in terms of the way the model works It does our definition of recidivism And our kind of term is is a little bit different than maybe the way a lot of states and counties generally look at recidivism rates generally in kind of a three-year section and the reason for that is that the the model wants to Realize the benefits that occur over the long term And so the longer the recidivism period that you look at the longer the model is is able to estimate the benefits of that program So the longer there are some states that have that have looked at 10 in Washington State I think there are over 20 years now of looking at that same cohort over 20 years to see Again what the benefits of these programs are as they accrue over time And so the other the other thing I would note is that when it comes to juvenile versus adult recidivism cost is that You are looking at kids as they move from the juvenile to the adult system So some of the benefits that accrue for those programs will be in the juvenile system because you will be avoiding some juvenile crime But you're also looking at the benefits of avoiding some adult crime as well. And so that longer Kind of period that you look at it means that you can kind of estimate the value of avoiding some of those things later down in the years Yeah, and and as I've looked I think the cap report looked at Youth crime and we've seen a downward trend over the past 15 years or something But this recidivism rate is this Do we have this number for other jurisdictions? 63% a good number of an average number So what I was gonna say is that actually Santa Cruz is the first results first County to be able to complete the juvenile justice work there is The other counties that we're working with have all been focused on adult criminal justice and After working with Santa Cruz and seeing them do such an incredible job on the adult side We thought that this would be a great County to move forward and look at the juvenile side So I think we'll have more information about how this fits within Other counties in the state kind of as other counties start to take on the juvenile component The the the number of the cohort number is relatively small Just in January we had I think might have been our record lowest average daily population in juvenile hall was a nine 9.5 you so these these are these are smaller numbers And the individuals that we're serving we divert about 65% of the youth that come into contact with their system And that's some of the local police departments have their own diversion programs. That's a good thing. We're responding differently We're responding, but differently so that but the individuals we are getting now and supervising tend to have a really combination of high high Criminogenic needs and just high needs and areas of you know substance use And mental health so and they risk according our risk level about moderate to high risk to recidivate So we're smalling serving smaller numbers, but they are Coming to us with more chronic issues, but that's how you know, you should reserve your I totally agree with that. I just think it's it's hard. It was hard for me taking a look at this number Because of our low incarceration rate, which has been a almost 20 year effort successful effort I would argue that that those who end up in our juvenile justice, you know in juvenile hall or the people who are supposed to be there for the most part and As you say they might have higher criminogenic Needs or behaviors and so that this might skew that number and I'm just that's what I'm trying to get some sense about it And the risk, you know when you do this level of analysis when no one else has done it is you're the first out there Showing this this data and but the importance of that. I think is that we have a baseline We can look to achievable to achieve a reduction in that so That's sort of that the caution and so and we want to make sure that when we compare ourselves to other counties that we We're comparing apples to apples to that tends to happen a lot How do we look and then we determine that they were using a different method ology? But at least with the results first core whole core cohort that will have similar method ologies Yeah, the last thing I'll say is that when I look at this cost of recidivism My memory of from the adult this is almost three times as much as As the cost of recidivism adult and so we'd be wise to continue to putting our resources there because that's not only the best opportunity for us to To help correct behavior or get support, but it's obviously gonna cost us a lot more at the long run Yeah, the adult recidivism cost up was 42,000 dollars from the model So my memory so bad as I thought but And another sure there's a brief question from supervisor Caput then we'll open it up to the community on this item Yeah, thank you for all you're doing a quick question on gang Intervention with youth and all that about how much time is spent on that and maybe a quick description of how a great Question I really I was earlier. I was talking to our team about you know when I when I you know As a parent do provide supports for my my children They're very similar to what youth that are involved in gangs are those those connections to adult role models consistency and The support educational support and so on so all the programs that we utilize are have components They don't necessarily call it gang intervention program because I'll tell you most kids aren't gonna show up if they had a sign That said gang program, but what appeals to them are the pro-social activities the connections with adults So a lot of time is spent Inactivities and interventions that are gonna address the root causes of whether it's gang behavior or other types of delinquency It's very similar. It's really you know our young people falling through the cracks falling and at school Not having you know connections to adults the supervision You know socioeconomic conditions can contribute to that So I would say that most of our programs have components while they don't say this is gang intervention Just because it would probably not be attractive to kids. They're doing that If let's say somebody has a record and there some of it started when they were younger and then it maybe went over a Little bit when they were an adult They can do things to clean up their record And do you do you ever do recommendations like they want to join the military for example? But the military has their You know standards also Is there help for those that want to clean up the record and then go to absolutely for juveniles There's been a sweeping reforms particularly in the last couple of years Led by a assembly member mark stone Around record sealing so there's now that means your records are sealed closed And so before there was a process within youth would have to petition the court now There's a lot of automatic record sealing it's for those those reasons because we know This can haunt you for the rest of your life having a record having a felony amistamina and of course We also had prop 47 which provided relief for certain crimes that could be reduced from felonies To misdemeanors for a lot of individuals so those types of reforms are helping people Move beyond the label of and stigma attached to that and so that's that's helping but we could do a lot more I know that I thank you. Thanks again. Thank you Is there anybody from the community that like to address us on this item? Seeing then we'll bring it back to the board for action. Well, I would move the recommended actions and We have a motion from Supervisor Leopold a second from Supervisor Caput all those in favor I Oppose the passes unanimously. Thank you both very much for that. We'll move on to the two pulled items from earlier today We had item 14 which became 55 Point one item 14 is to accept and file the whistleblower hotline activity for 2017 is recommended By the auditor controller treasurer tax collector miss Steinbrenner you pulled this item Yes, I did. Thank you. Becky Steinbrenner resident of Aptos. I have Reservations about the effectiveness of this program and I would like a discussion of its history What what actions have come out of it? I was interested to find out that all? whistleblower Repoint reports submitted our first reviewed by Mr.. School's office, and so I would like to know and and I'm asking for what criteria That office uses to determine whether whistleblower report is Further investigated or or how is the best way to handle it? I am concerned that if and and I I read the report that a number of things that were whistleblower reports were Referred then to the department for which the problem exists And I don't think that we can really expect a thorough investigation maybe not even any investigation at all and So I would like to ask how that has worked in the past. Is this a new program? What have been the results what changes have come about what courses of action were changed or to address these? whistleblower reports of waste fraud and Problems And what sort of a follow-up report does mr. School's office give to you in terms of action taken on? On the reports whistleblower reports that worse have been submitted by the public I will tell you that as a member of the public Many people think the grand jury is you know the way to go but they are such they have so much and To do and really limited resources that I'm grateful that there is another Avenue, but I really question its effectiveness and I would like some discussion about that and what I've asked here Thank you. Is there anybody else I'd like to address this on this item all right see none I'll bring it back to the board council that a question that was asked that I don't know The extent of the appropriateness of answering it so I just wanted to ask you from a process Component what would be appropriate to Convey on this process so this is agendized as an annual report And I think these questions go far beyond the scope of what's been agendized and perhaps mr. Steinbruner could have a conversation with mr. School Okay There's a motion and a second from supervisor country and from supervisor Leopold Mr.. School you'll commit to a conversation I'm happy to provide a Little history if that's beneficial, okay All those in favor I Oppose the passes unanimously move on to item 55.2, which was pulled item 17. This is approved plans and specifications For the Davenport communications tower installation project direct the GSD to advertise for bids at the bid opening for 3 p.m On March 6th and then GSD and take other related actions as Recommended by the interim director of general services and director of information services. Mr. Murray. Thank you That gets time Bruner raptas I'm interested in supporting Good public safety communication on the north coast I'm a ham radio operator and I know that that area is problematic and The ham radio community which provides emergency communication for the county and agencies has solved that Problem for us by having the Mount Toro Machine and using them the bay as a ground plane and I didn't know until yesterday and I talked with miss To be McCain that that's also what this is. So it's a tower at like an 85 foot tower and There will be a microwave dish on it Aimed over at Mount Toro what I what I take exception with is a citizen is that in the agendas as the plans and Specifications were available to the public at general information services I did go there because I'm a radio operator and I'm interested in finding out what's there and they were not available I was sent to information technology and then that person sent me to the radio shop and that person sent me back to the Information technology to talk with miss McCann and she was very helpful. I really want to thank her for that My concerns and I'm going to relay a couple for you from Marilyn Garrett because she wanted to speak But it had already been pulled and you would not allow her to speak and she had to leave her My my concern and hers also is that this tower could be come a co-location for cell phone and Miss Garrett's understanding of the law and she studied this pretty well is that if the Cell phone companies come to the county and say we want a place on that tower by law You will not be able to refuse them and so that opens up kind of a can of worms But I'll tell also that the hazards of a microwave technology if it if it's been tested if the area around there The people have been notified, but what a big question I want to bring up here is that? Both supervisor friend and Coonerty you are Stockholders in a company called Predpole predatory Predictive policing that will benefit by this Technology and supervisor friend you sit on a board and take money for doing so with yard arm technology, which relies on this kind of Communication cell phone in particular and I think the two of you Need to recuse yourself from voting on this issue and any other issues regarding law enforcement Communication or cell phone tower installations in the county because that all supports what you are being Economically benefited by in your positions, and I would like it some discussion from you about that and also from county council whether Co-location is any opportunity at all in the future. Is there anybody else would like to address this on this item? If not, we'll bring back to the board and chair no Chair of heart Good afternoon board Jim Hart County Sheriff this real quickly This this radio tower is going to provide some much needed radio infrastructure on the north coast that we lack right now And sometimes we're not don't have the ability to communicate at all my office which is the primary user of this Tower does not have a contact contract with Predpole or yard arm. So there's no conflict From the sheriff's office point of view in this at all and it's really about getting radio communication to better serve the north coast Thank you Supervisor Leopold Thank You chair You know the issue of public trust in elected officials is a serious one and and we should take it very seriously but to make accusations against elected officials based on the flimsiest chance that an Antenna might be used for something involving law enforcement, and there's somebody who has it a business relationship with law enforcement is is a wildly misinterpretation of conflict of interest and We have a responsibility to listen to issues fairly and we take concern seriously, but to Carelessly and callously accuse elected officials of Not operating in the public interest and somehow having a conflict of interest on his flimsy a connection is this here. I think is wrong and and I Trust that we we all fill out 700 forms so people know what our Investments are But you just you just cannot just casually throw out that someone has a conflict of interest I just think that that's inappropriate. I would move the recommended action There's a motion from supervisor Leopold second from supervisor Coonerty all those in favor Opposed it passes unanimously. We're going to move into closed session. Will anything be reportable out of closed session? No, and that will then conclude the meeting as we move into closed session


One of the critical things that we do in the Gathering of Eagles is capture these great stories, both teaching and form folks, but also be used to inspire folks. Once you hear their story, it's like, hey, they're just regular folks like us, and they were putting X, Y, and Z scenario, and here's what they did to kind of get through it and what they had to rely on. General Frank Klotz, he's Lieutenant General Retired. He was the first operational commander of Global Strike. We went out, spent some time in his home, and no one really fully owned that distinct mission set. They said, hey, we need to get back to it so someone's an advocate for it. Have the opportunity to sit with somebody like that and hear from them is a good experience. And I think his leadership abilities and leadership philosophy transcends any specific thing he does. I think we're having a good leader that's being recognized for the leadership. I think the Global Strike was their situation, but it could have been any situation that he was given. I think he would have taken the right approaches to handle it. And he had some really good insights talking about his experience when he thought he was doing a good job standing up Global Strike. And he thought he was doing all these great things, and he certainly was. But then on a climate assessment survey that he got, and there was a particular non-commission officer from a maintenance unit that was complaining about how the bathroom didn't work in their hangar. And they had to walk out into the snow a mile or whatever it was to find a port-a-potty. It really struck home for him in the saying that, hey, I might be doing these amazing things, but if it doesn't reach somebody's daily environment, it's for not really. And the reason why that struck home is at Lake and Heath, there's lots of construction projects. And we lose sight of that airman that is dealing with a doorknob that's broken off or a roof that leaks. His retelling or recounting of that experience, really, that's something that I want to make sure that I do or think about when I get back out into the field.


I'd like to acknowledge the presence of the Honorable Moses Jebaptis, who is the Minister for Health, Wellness, and Elderly Affairs of St. Lucia, Ms. Jenny Daniel, Commandant Secretary in the Ministry of Health, Wellness, and Elderly Affairs of St. Lucia, Chief Medical Officer Dr. Sharon Belma George, the Chief Medical Officer in the Ministry of Health, Wellness, and Elderly Affairs, our financial analyst, Mr. Anthony Fuljans. Chief Health Planner, Mrs. Lauren James Blanchard, the Chief Executive Officer of St. Jude Hospital, Ms. Lydia Atkins, along with the St. Jude Hospital Management Team and present with us from our team, we have today Dr. Sibyl Nitram, Marvin James, who is Dr. Nitram is our Medical Director, Marvin James is our Financial Manager, Marvin Joseph, our Finance Manager, and we have our Nursing Director, Mrs. Cherry and St. Mary Philip. I also acknowledge the presence of Lucas Polio, Mr. Lucas Polio, Biomedical Engineer in the Ministry of Health, our OR representatives. We have with us this morning Dr. So and Dr. Prakash. We also have our Acting Chargeness in the OR, Ms. Sayana Dormant, and I welcome our communications team from the Ministry of Health. My name is Feborena Renata-Jeriff and I'm privileged to take you through this ceremony, the hand-in-over of the anesthesia machine by the Ministry of Health to St. Jude Hospital. And so on that note, I would like to invite Dr. Sibyl Nitram, the Medical Director of St. Jude Hospital, and she will deliver now the opening remarks. On behalf of the Board and Management and staff of St. Jude Hospital, I would like to thank the Ministry of Health for the donation of a brand new, modern, I must emphasize, anesthesia machine, our AM6000+. The anesthesia machine will be housed in our operating room where it will be used for emergency and elective surgery on our patients. An anesthesia machine is a key piece of equipment used every day in the operating room. It delivers inhaled anesthesia and oxygen to patients while monitoring their blood pressure, pulse, and temperature. An anesthesia machine can also be converted quickly into a ventilator for patients undergoing surgeries who may need to be given ventilatory support. I am certain that our operating room staff and our surgeons are elated and welcome the use of this new machine. As a service provider to the public, we embrace this anesthesia machine with pride, knowing that it will improve on the quality of care we offer our patients. I thank the Ministry of Health for its continued generosity and response to our needs here at St. Jude Hospital and work together with them to improve the health care of our nation. Thank you very much. This morning, I don't think you understand what the donation of this brand new machine means, and I really want for it to be a reflection of the commitment that my office and the Ministry of Health has to the One Health approach. On the evening of January 26th, when I got the call that the anesthesia machine at St. Jude Hospital was not working, I think that night I barely slept because it was one of the most miserable nights for me knowing what it meant for health care in the South. And I think from my late messages to the PS, where if you know PS well, she likes documentation, my late messages, my emails, my to indicate the urgency with which we need to provide a level of support. For me, especially as it relates to St. Jude, Dr. Natrom, I work very closely with all of the clinical directors because I believe in and the Ministry does the One Health System approach. We have to ensure access, equity, and quality care for the entire island, whether it be a statutory organization or not, we have to ensure that support is given. Most persons don't know the level of which I work with Dr. Natrom, where it comes to resolving a lot of the issues and ensuring a level of clinical support and standards to St. Jude. And having Ms. Atkins join the team, where I think everybody who knows Ms. Atkins and her determination to getting things done and making sure it's done properly, definitely adds to it coming through a lot faster for St. Jude. And the situation that came through, the situation that came about, about the anesthesia machine not working, it further compounded the situation why we needed to look a little closer at the situation with St. Jude. I also got the opportunity to meet with the various levels of staff over the last year and the feeling the need to ensure a certain standard of care. You know, I got the opportunity to have firsthand from the staff what they wanted, what they needed. And I have to also commend the staff, the job that they do, given the conditions of the stadium. So it was with great joy when I heard that the brand new one, I mean, it's a little over a month was ready. And for me, St. Jude needed to get the brand new one. And even if they were given one in the interim, it was extremely important for them to get the brand new one, knowing what an anesthesia machine does for the health institution. So I just wanted to be very clear on the level of commitment that we have. Dr. Natrium knows St. Jude is always included with everything that we do, with every opportunity that we get, whether it be equipment, whether it be training, we ensure all of our health facilities are included to benefit from whatever resources are available. So I want for that to be a further signal and sign of the level of commitment that we have with working with St. Jude to ensure that we are able to provide the quality of care at all of our healthcare facilities. Thank you. This morning, of course, heralds a new day in the operations at St. Jude Hospital, as we now have access here to a new anesthetic machine, anesthesia machine, sorry, which has been provided by the Ministry of Health during an emergency period when the machines available at the hospital will not function in. Of course, Dr. Belma would have indicated the stressfulness of that period and the stressfulness of that night. Ms. Atkins, I think we were in that battle together and without being biased towards it, we both are from the south of St. Lucia along with Honorable Minister who was also in that battle that night as well. And I think very much so that we were extremely concerned and of course, very happy to be able to procure finance and to today present this machine to St. Jude Hospital. I want to acknowledge and of course thank the usual cooperation and a great effort being made by our biomedical engineer, Mr. Lucas Polio, who of course, and on emergency points, given that he had relationships with the suppliers was able to secure and procure this machine for us. And of course, the supportiveness of our financial analysts and the finance unit of the Ministry of Health for providing the support to allow us to have this machine here today. Of course, the ministry will continue to support St. Jude as it endeavors to improve the service provided to persons within the south. And of course, once the onset of the transition to the new premises comes up, we will also continue to provide that level of support in the reconstruction, in the transitioning as is required by us at the Ministry of Health. We continue, however, in the premises to recognize some of the shortcomings and shortfalls in terms of biomedical equipment, in terms of staffing, the need for training, the need for augmentation of staff as well. And we will continue to provide that support to strengthen the provision of health services in St. Jude. We recognize that St. Jude is a major partner in the implementation of universal health coverage. And as we embark on this continued journey as in the next financial year, we will continue to seek the support of the St. Jude Hospital and to strengthen their capacity to help us to implement this much needed program. So I will not be very long here. I just want to thank all those who have been involved in providing this machine here today and of course to present officially the machine to the St. Jude Hospital and to request that they do take care of it, that they request for our assistance, our biomedical engineer is available in the event that there's any issue with it and to provide a commitment to you that we will continue to provide support as is necessary. I'm very pleased to be here this morning to continue the expression of our commitment as a government to quality service and quality healthcare at the St. Jude Hospital. I want to thank on behalf of the Prime Minister, I want to thank all of the health professionals, the ancillary staff, whether it be security, sanitation professionals and all those who continue to support the St. Jude Hospital in this difficult time. The staff at the St. Jude Hospital continue to endure despite the conditions and despite the difficulties. But when we came into government, we promised that we would return the St. Jude Hospital to the original site and that while we are doing this, while we are transitioning, while we are preparing the site, we will do all in our power to ensure that the service at the St. Jude Hospital continues an upward trend, so to speak. The quality of service continues to be improved and that would give the St. Jude Hospital as much assistance as we could. An anesthesia machine is undoubtedly one of the most important machines in a hospital as it helps doctors sedate their patients before surgery and keeps them asleep while breathing throughout the procedure. It primarily functions to help reduce pain during a medical operation. I'm sure you can just imagine going on the surgery wide awake and feeling every single procedure being performed on you. I don't think you want to imagine that. The advanced 6000 plus anesthesia machine will greatly assist the St. Jude Hospital in the surgical care area. A while ago, you heard Dr. Natrum and she indicated that this is an up-to-date advanced machine. The St. Jude Hospital recently experienced a shortfall in the availability of such machines which required some adjustments to the surgical schedules for a brief period. In response to this, the Ministry of Health, Wellness and Elderly Affairs interceded and has provided assistance to the hospital in the form of this machine here which is being donated today. The Government of St. Lucia is acutely aware of the need for strengthening the capacity at the St. Jude Hospital, particularly given the current circumstances surrounding the hospital environment. The anesthesia machine is donated at a cost of approximately 72,000 Eastern Caribbean dollars and it is a major addition to the biomedical resources of the hospital. This machine supplies a mixture of oxygen, gas and anesthetic agent to a patient, allowing them to remain unconscious but breathing during surgery. It is a very versatile machine which includes the following features, a ventilator which is essentially a set of external lungs. It breathes for the patients while maintaining the patient's regular respiratory rates and blood chemistry. Breathing circuits which deliver the essential gases to the patient and subsequently eliminate the carbon dioxide exhale. Scavenging system which collects and expels anesthetic gases from the operating room. The anesthesia machine also monitors the vital signs of the patient. The Ministry continues to provide vital support to the St. Jude Hospital in consideration of its contribution to the wider health sector and in aid of health sector reforms in St. Lucia. Again, the government of St. Lucia is committed to completing the St. Jude Hospital at the original site at OJ. I can tell you as we speak here today, work continues on the fencing to secure the premises and work has also started on some of the internal structures. I'm very happy to say to you that I am at a... You can reach me at any time. I have had discussions with Dr. Neutrum sometimes on planned discussions and she has always been willing to speak with me and always been willing to express her concerns. So I thank her for all of the discussions. As soon as I became Minister, she expressed to me all the concerns of the hospital and the need for updated machines was one of the very topical issues she always raised. I also wish to thank Dr. Joseph. He's not here today, but Dr. Joseph, every time he sees me, he speaks about the anesthesia machine. Every single time, I can guarantee you. So I wish to thank him for the awareness. The CMO, the Permanent Secretary and the Permanent Secretary said that maybe it's a little biased but she shouldn't be ashamed to say that. It is biased. We are very sensitive to the needs of the St. Jude Hospital. We are from the south and we want to ensure that things go well. She says to me all the time, Minister, I'm from the south and if we don't put things at St. Jude right, I may not be able to drive through my community. And I share the same view and I'm sure the CEO and look now we have Mr. Marvin and all of us, we are very, very concerned. And I thank the CMO and the others, the whole staff of the ministry who seem to be also very concerned about the St. Jude Hospital. I wish at this time to thank all those who assisted that fateful night when the phone calls were flying here and there, when we had some challenges with the anesthesia machine at the St. Jude Hospital. And I want to thank the CMO, all those who participated, the PS in particular because some people may think that the PS is extra concerned and speaks in a kind of way. I usually say we should have no apologies for those kinds of emotions because we know we are talking about life and death and we're talking about situations where we believe everyone should be very sensitive to issues like this. And if you are in a position to do something to assist and your emotions cause you to get the job done, then bravo. I can be very emotional sometimes too. But when you think of the patients and you think of the conditions here at the stadium and you know that something can be done to improve it, you have to get emotional. So I thank the PS for her tremendous support and I thank all the staff of the ministry and the team at St. Jude. You have a wonderful team. Miss Lydia Adkins, welcome to the... Well, you are always part of the team, the health team, but welcome to the St. Jude Hospital. I think this is the first formal function where we are speaking to you as CEO. So I wish you all the strength and you have our support, you have my support. Dr. Nitram, you have my support. The staff at St. Jude, Mr. Joseph, you have my support. And I know you have the support of Mr. Polio and especially our FA, you have his support. I know you're troubling for money, but... LAUGHTER He's trying his very best. So thank you, Mrs. Jeref, and thanks to you too for your role. And I look forward. Oxygen is different. Bagaia is different. The wind is different. It has a dormitory. With... Chow is always fighting. It has an aspiration. But it's a living machine. A machine that keeps fighting. And it's a doctor because it can do the operation. We at St. Jude Hospital are always in trouble with these machines. So now that we are in a difficult situation with a lot of machines, we have a lot of hospitals to take care of St. Jude. So the minister decided that we will take a machine made by St. Jude with a machine that will advance when it comes to the top of the line. Because today we came to St. Jude to take a machine made by the hospital with a machine made by the hospital in the best possible location to buy these machines that will come to the hospital in the best possible location. I want to thank everyone who works with us to bring these machines here. Mr. Polion, who works with St. Jude. Dr. Nitrom, Mr. Lydia King, who is the director of the hospital. Mr. Joseph, who has done all the work at the hospital. We are here today with the director of the medical department with our permanent secretary. And all these doctors who work will be placed in the hospital to do the operation. I want to thank Mrs. Lauren Blanchard with Chargina Starr with all of them, Mrs. Jariff, with all of them who work at the hospital. We know the situation at the hospital is difficult. The condition at the hospital is difficult. But the government is working to take the hospital here to take care of St. Jude. What we are talking about today is the work that St. Jude has done at the hospital. We have put security at the hospital with the work that St. Jude has done in the building and at the hospital today. Today, we're talking about it. We know that they have taken St. Jude here with our work to do that. But we know that we have to keep the situation that St. Jude has done with the work to do the primary work. And today, that's what we've done. I want to thank everyone and all the doctors with North St. Jude, and BASIC conditions are not too sweet. Thank you very much, thank you very much. Thank you. So it is a great honor today for us to be hosting what marks the handing over ceremony of this newest piece of equipment to St Jude Hospital brought by the Ministry of Health, Wellness and Elderly Affairs. Today's donation shows the commitment of the Ministry of Health to Health Care in the South and the ministry's rapid response to what was an urgent cry for assistance on the evening of January 26, 2023. And while we say thank you to the Ministry of Health for today's donation, we want to ensure that we also give recognition and thanks and appreciation to the respiratory hospital for its donation on the 27th of January, responding to the urgent the urgent need for an anesthesia machine and providing much needed support through a donated piece of equipment that is now replaced today with this brand new machine. So it is my opinion that doctors plus medicines plus equipment and the assistance from the Ministry of Health forms a holistic package. Distinguished ladies and gentlemen, nations have their borders but humanitarianism has no boundaries. Countries may have people who maybe reach or poor but each person's right to basic health services should be equally guaranteed. Being a developing country in itself and being a facility in a developing country, St Jude Hospital fully understands the challenges and difficulties that countries face in providing health services to their people. Today's donation by the Ministry of Health shows the Ministry's continued commitment to ensuring that there is equity in the delivery of health care services irrespective of where persons of St Lucia choose to or may be required to access services. I'm often reminded the Minister would have mentioned it in his presentation and his delivery this morning and sometimes I reflect on the novel by Charles Dickens, A Tale of Two Cities and it is a novel that focuses or deals with a concept of resurrection and oftentimes I speak to A Tale of Two St Jude and so Minister would have referenced the reconstruction at the original site in Oje and given again the Ministry's and the Government of St Lucia's commitment to ensuring the completion of that facility to facilitate the transition from the George Ordnam Stadium to St Jude's original home in Oje and give and demonstrated again continued commitment to the other city of St Jude or the other tale of Two Cities of St Jude which is commitment to the operations at the George Ordnam Stadium but operations or medical operations and clinical operations continues to be performed in terms of providing services and medical services to a health care service to the persons of the south and today's donation is again a continued commitment to supporting the both or the two St Jude's. St Jude at the George Ordnam Stadium and St Jude at the Oje site. And so when it is that I conclude my remarks today I reaffirm St Jude's commitment to providing excellent care to the people of the south but as well recognize the continued commitment of our partner in the Ministry of Health to providing excellent quality service to the people of St Lucia irrespective of whether those services are provided in community whether those services are provided in the public sector whether those services are provided in at the Millennium Heights medical complex or whether those services are provided at St Jude Hospital as well as whether those services are provided in a private sector and it is that commitment that we applaud today at St Jude and we recognize in today's ceremony and so again thank you to the Ministry of Health for its continued partnership and continued support to St Jude Hospital and invariably to the people of the south and so PS we recognize that it is true that we are from the south and maybe for the very first time the health sector has in a minister who is from the south a PS who's from the south and for one of our facilities in the south a chief executive officer who is also of the south and I am thankful to be part of this esteemed team and continue to express the endurance commitment to the Ministry of Health in its rollout of healthcare service and healthcare delivery to all of St Lucia and more specifically to the persons of the southern southern end of the island thank you


Feel the subdivisions. Divide by 2 by 3 Divide by 4. Have a drum groove always with you. Use the metronome but don't be too dependent on it. Start with a fast speed but then play the same song and take it all the way down to a point which is not so comfortable. Transcribing your favorite music, chord progressions, licks, melodies, rhythms, grooves, bass lines are very very important. Rhythm patterns that you use very often or are very important should be banked. We call these as rhythmic devices and they can be built in a very binary fashion. And last but not least, it's very important to jam and perform with your fellow bandmates, friends and whoever you get a chance to deal with. Have a blast. Cheers!


top secret. Give you a couple minutes to get over there and put your questions in while you're doing that. We're going to show this off. So first up, we got the clue working on working with this little bot. So here it is so far. All right, Lady. What is this? Hey, I'm testing out the clue in this micro bit compatible bot, the cute bot. This is adorable. It's got neopixels, little wheels, battery and sonar. And I've got it working with it a fruit, blue fruit control, which is our app so I can make it go. Ready? There you go. This cute little bot works great. So if you like that quick board that we just showed off with the LSM 60 socks and the List 3 MDL, we're going to come up with a 9 Duff IMU feather wing based on the same sensor set. So it'll be really great. You can plug it into any of our feather boards because you use the only I squared C and then get 9 degree of freedom orientation data out. This is kind of an interesting chip that I saw. It's an ST 25 DV. It's a E prom that has both I squared C and NFC interfaces. So you can write the E prom over I squared C and then read it over NFC. So it's kind of like a rewritable E prom with NFC connectivity. So you just like, you know, I just drew a little antenna on it and I don't know if it's going to work out, but it looks kind of neat, right? It does. I'm going to stop secret for this week. Get back in the vault. Back in the vault with you. So secret. Okay.


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Hi everyone, my name is Nicolas Bord, and this talk will be about a joint work with Pierre Carpemann called Fast Verification of Masking Schemes in Characteristic 2. So first a little bit of context. So we want to make crypto implementations on observable devices, and more specifically we want to do secure finite field notification in presence of flickage. So such operations are often used in non-linear components in symmetric crypto, for example in S-boxes. And in such components the inputs and outputs are usually secret. And so we want to protect the implementation against an attacker that can observe the device and leak information during the computation, that are so-called side channel attacks. To do so, one possible contermeasure is to use masking, which is to split A, B and C into shares using a secret string scheme. For example, we can use an additive one. Here we have the original value X, that will be split into D plus 1 shares, the Xi, such that the first D shares are taken uniformly at random, and the last one, XD, is computed such that the sum of all the shares is equal to X. Again, we want to compute the operation, so the multiplication, over the shared operands to obtain a shared result, and we want to do so while ensuring that no information can be gained on either A, B or C during the computation. So here is the first attempt at doing so for the multiplication. So we define CK as the sum of all the AKBJ for all J. Here is the corresponding circuit for D equal 1. The problem here is that any single CK is actually revealing information about B. For example, if C1 here is non-zero, then we are sure that B itself is non-zero. So intuitively, this strategy is not secure, and now we will see how to formalize this into the probing security model. So first some quick definitions. So what we call a gadget for a given function F is in fact a circuit that is working not on the input of F directly, but on a sharing of the inputs. And this circuit is also outputting a shared version of the result. The circuit itself is described as arithmetic gates and also some special gates providing additional uniform random values during the computation. Here this equality is just stating that the circuit is actually computing the right function F on the shared variance. Again, on such a gadget, we can have some probes that are just mappings that maps a given wire to the value it takes during the execution of the gadget. And so in 2003, Ishai, Sai, and Wagner introduced the concept of deep privacy. Deep private is a property of a gadget. So a gadget is said to be deep private when every set of less than D probes on this gadget is independent, the distribution of these probes are independent from the unmasked values on which the gadget is evaluated. So in the same paper in 2003, they designed deep private masking schemes for any D, which has quadratic complexity in the order of the masking. This complexity is both in terms of the number of sums, the number of products used, but also in the number of additional random masks used during the computation to make sure that the gadget is secure. Here is an example of such a gadget, multiplication gadget, at order D equal to 1. So first we have the sharing of A and the sharing of B. We make the tensor project between these two to obtain all the A, I, B, J. And here we see that R0 is an additional random value that is used to ensure that the circuit is deep private. As output, we have C0, C1, which is a valid sharing of the product of A and B. Here is another multiplication gadget, but this time secure at order D equal 3. So it's three privates from Bart et al in 2017. And as before, we are doing the first tensor project. And then we use additional random masks. Here there are four random masks, R0 to R3, to secure the gadget. We see that the complexity of such circuit is increasing quadratically in the number of, in terms of D, the order of the masking. The main problem about D privacy is that it is not composable, which means that if we have a two D private circuit, then their composition is not necessarily D private. So we can't chain the gadgets. So in 2016, Bart et al introduced new composable models that are called non-interference and strong non-interference, and that are based on the similarity property. So simulatability is a property of a given set of probes here, P. And so this set of probes is said to be T-simulatable. If for a fixed input sharing of the X, the distribution induced on this set of probes by the additional random masks can be simulated perfectly with the knowledge of less than T shares, less than T shares for each input, OK? So from this simulatability property, we have the non-interference and the strong non-interference. So we say that a gadget is D and I, if and only if. Any set of utmost D probes is D-simulatable. For the strong non-interference, it's a little bit different because we are regrouping the probes into two sets, one that are on the input, on the internal wires of the circuit, and some probes that are on the output wires only of the circuit. So we say that a gadget is D and I, if and only if any set of D probes where we have D1 probes on the internal wires and D2 probes on the output wires and D set of probes must be D1-simulatable. What is useful with these security models is that first, they imply deep privacy. And also, most importantly, under some independent hypothesis, the composition of a D and I gadget with a D and I one is itself D and I. So thanks to this property, this composition, we can compose different small gadgets in order to create a bigger, secure circuit. But now we need to check the security of a given gadget in this model. For example, if we go back to this circuit, this gadget, we are set to you that it is D-private. In fact, it is also D and I. But to prove that this gadget is D and I in absence of a generic proof, we need to check that for every set of less than D probes, this probably similar to the problem is that the number of sets of probes is growing exponentially in the number of wire. So to check a given gadget, a given masking schemes, when we don't have a generic proof, we want, first, an easy to check condition for the similarity of a given set of probes. And also, if we want to have gadget over F2, we want this easy to check condition to be valid over F2. And then, once we have a condition that is easily checked, we want to efficiently enumerate over all the subset of probes. And for this to be efficient, also, we want the set of probes to be as small as possible to mitigate the exponential growth of the number of sets of probes. Also, here, I will talk about D and I, but we also want to check the DS and I property. And also, we can think of extending the verification in a more adware-oriented model called the RobiSpring model, but we will not show here this here, but it is written in our article. So, yeah, so for the easy to check condition first. So in 2017, Belated R produced this condition, which applies to billionaire probes. So billionaire probes are just probes that can be expressed as the sum of some AIBJ, some AI, some BJ, some additional random masks called RI, plus eventually a constant. In general, in the masking schemes, we are going to look at all the probes are billionaire. So everything is good. So a set of probes is set to satisfy this condition, if and only if it exists a linear combination of those probes that can be expressed only as some AIBJ, some AI, some BJ, plus some constants. And so no additional random masks are appears in this expression. Additionally, we want that all the rows of this block matrix are non-zero or all the columns of this block matrix are non-zero. Why we want that? We want that because this means that if there is no zero row in this block matrix, it means that the linear combination functionally depends on all the d plus 1 shares of A. Here, if we don't have any zero column, it means that the linear combination functionally depends on d plus 1 shares of B. So from this condition, we can state a theorem which states that if a set of probes satisfies the condition, then it is not dissimulatable. So if it is not dissimulatable, then it is an attack against the DNA property. And the converse is true with the constraint because if the set of probes is not dissimulatable and the size of the finite field is strictly greater than d plus 1, then we are sure that it satisfies the condition. As a corollary, if the finite field is sufficiently big, then if no set of less than d probes and c satisfies the condition, then we are sure that it is dNi. So from this corollary, we can have a direct algorithm to check the dNi property of a given gadget. The problem here is that if we want to check the gadgets that work on F2, then this constraint is not met. And then we can use this theorem in corollary. So we are going to state a slightly different condition that is the same as the previous one. But instead of saying that all the rows must be non-zero here, at least L plus 1 rows must be non-zero or L plus 1 columns, where L is the number of probes on our set. So we take a set of L probes. And if we can find a linear combination such that this linear combination does not depend on any additional random value R and it functionally depends on more share than the number of probes in the set, then it's set to satisfy condition 12. As before, we can define a theorem and a corollary that state that if we have a set of probes of L probes that satisfy the condition, then it is not L-simulatable. And if the set of probes is not d-simulatable, then there exists a smaller set included in the first one that satisfies the condition. And as a corollary, if no set of less than d-probes and c satisfies the condition, then it is a dni. So thanks to this corollary, we can design an algorithm that will go over every set of less than d-probes. Check if it satisfies condition 12. And at the end, if no set of probes satisfies the condition, then we have proven the dni property of the gadget. That's what we are going to do. And to do so efficiently, we'll rewrite the condition in terms of weight of indicator matrices, the matrices that indicate the functional dependence on the AIBJ, the AIBJ, the additional random RI, et cetera. And so we will use a vectorized instruction during the implementation to compute the matrices and the weights very efficiently. And also, we will use combination gray codes to efficiently enumerate over all the subset of probes. So to go from one subset of probes to the other with the least computation possible. At pit performance on a single thread at 2.6 gigahertz, we are able to check around 200 million subsets by second. And because we use combination gray codes, we can easily parallelize the computation by enumerating the space of all the subsets of less than deep probes in a parallelized way. So as a result of our contributions, we have a new condition for the dni and also the dsni security over small fields. We are not constrained by the size of the field. We also have a new algorithm to check the dni and dsni property that is valid over F2. This is correct over F2. And this algorithm is implemented as a publicly available tool to check the security of gadgets. And this tool improved the verification performance by three orders of magnitude. So for example, for a dsni verification with the state of the art tool, it took 13 days on four threads. And with our tool, it took less than 10 minutes on a single thread. With our tool, we were able to verify the ni and sni property of concrete masking schemes up to order d equal 11, where it was previously verified only to order 7 and lower. We were also able to disprove a contractor by Bart et al on the security of generic transformation of ni gadgets into sni gadgets. In fact, this conjecture is, well, the generic transformation is correct until a given order, above which it is no longer correct. And then we also used our tool to design new masking schemes and to verify them straight away. And thanks to that, we are able to have a masking schemes at order g equals 7, which take 17% less additional random masks. So if you want to read more about it, you can read our article, which full version is available on Eprint. This version has additional examples and figures. And the implementation of our tool is publicly available on my GitHub. So you can check this out, too. Thanks for listening.


Too small, too big. Today is our back to school caravan. Denver Police Department, Crunky Sports and Alpine Bank. One little. They're providing about 2,400 backpacks to Denver Public Schools and their families. Can I have a one little and one big? One little, one big, okay. It's very important because we know there's a lot of students, a lot of families out here that are in a dire situation, especially with COVID going on right now. Here we go, thank you. Money's tight. And so it's just an awesome opportunity for us to be able to reach back out to the communities and provide our little ones, backpacks and school supplies to take that stress off of the families. It hurts a lot. Very helpful for families. We don't know if school is gonna start in person or not. So it's good to be prepared with the materials. Not all parents can really afford it, especially with this pandemic thing going on. So we really appreciate the good work that you guys are doing. Four big and one little. Four big, one little, okay. It's good that everybody knows that the police department is still out here every day. The community, our partners, we're still partners and they're still out here every day. And just go ahead and pull forward and they'll get the backpacks for you. Thank you. Thank you. It's a powerful partnership. We love the community. We love everybody. A lot of us are geared towards providing for our kids. Our kids are our future. So it's very important for police officers to make sure that we're out here building those relationships with the families and the children just providing whatever we can, so that they know that they can trust us. We love them and we just want to build that partnership. You're very welcome. Thank you for coming. I think it's good for everybody to understand that we are still all working together. Thank you for coming.


All right guys, what's up 13 days out? I am now about to get up and work out at Duke Chess with Johan. We decided to go a little bit earlier because I have a client call right at like 11 then I have posing practice and then I'm gonna come home and grind because I have a amazing idea and I cannot wait to show you guys and get you guys updated so I'm very excited about that but like I said I finished my video yesterday which was great and now it's time to eat some quinoa so just like that done it's about 8 30 should be done by like 9 30 I'm gonna go do the client call and then posing a lot of stuff today guys a lot of stuff that's why I'm starting early starting early is crap today let's do it let's do it that's all good I still got the work out in empty gym the chest that a lot of all you that's about it we're gonna head out I said I meet my client and we're gonna be good to go so see y'all in a little bit around seven ounces of grilled chicken seven ounces of white rice with teriyaki sauce or soy sauce on it and then about a half a cup of corn so now I'm about to put in some work and just grind for like the rest of the day hopefully this vlog will have something cool in it I got these you know the cuties right little what is it I just call them cuties but I know they're like clementines yeah all right guys so the indie guys ever feel like you're like unproductive I probably spent like the last hour and a half just like looking up like inspirational YouTube videos and like I feel like I spend some times I feel like I spend more time being like trying to be inspired rather than just doing so the key of the day is just do I just know how these are so key today is just do you can watch all the inspiration all the motivational videos you can listen whatever you want to listen to you're not doing anything it doesn't even matter you know like I just spent a whole hour and a half like watching these cool Gary Vaynerchuk videos looking at like other fitness youtubers and all this stuff and it's great for you know inspiration and supporting them but at the end of the day when am I gonna get done you know so I'm about to just put these on and get done alright guys so it's been about about two or three hours and I'm making the I guess this would be like what my third meal of the day which is gonna be ground chicken right here corn and rice very basic but you know I want to try to keep it as clean as possible if I'm keeping my calories at the same level I want to make sure that everything is the same and nothing we're not everything the same but make sure everything is as healthy as it possibly can be so so yeah so I'm gonna put this together microwave it you already know my soy sauce and then get back to the grind guys game the Celtics Cavs games at 8 30 so I'm gonna take another break to watch that but until then what is up guys I have to go to food aquarium get eggs get yogurt and I think that's really it just eggs and yogurt fruit yeah need to grab it for tomorrow morning cuz I don't think I have anything so I'm gonna take y'all with me grocery store in New York and all the things are in there and everybody was mute it was like a crazy horror story that I never really knew about so I was kind of like what's going on like I was like literally like nobody was talking the cashier wasn't talking there was like a few people shopping who weren't talking I was like alright I need to get out of here man like for real alright so I made some quesadillas just to have something to kind of eat and kind of a little bit hungry but I want anything too heavy so these are quesadillas turn the game on work on this week's like I guess marketing and stuff and yeah that should pretty much end it yeah so pretty excited day two until the competition prep now we have 13 days out thank you get for watching and you already know embrace the