Hey everybody, welcome back to Magic Orthodoxy. My name is David and this is a deck review. Hey, today we're going to look at the Dynasty playing cards from Brendan Hong and the expert playing card company. All right, so what are the Dynasty cards? Dynasty was originally a Kickstarter project. Okay, it was successfully funded and there were two decks in this, there was the green and then there was the red. And what this is, is it is a unique playing card series that's inspired by Brendan's Chinese culture, his heritage, and it's designed and illustrated by him completely. And if you remember, Brendan used to work for Kingswild, Kingswild project with Jackson Robinson. He created the Hive decks, okay? And so what he's done is he's taken the Chinese elements, he's combined it with the traditional style of playing cards, okay? So Suicide King, When I Jax, all that, okay? He's taken that and then this deck is now a fusion of both worlds. So he's making something completely unique. He's infusing, you know, what you can, you and I consider traditional playing cards with Brendan's very unique style of illustration. So like I said earlier, there's two decks in this series. There's the Jade Green, which was an unlimited run. He made enough for everyone who backed and then a little extra. And then the red deck, the red deck was a limited run. There was only a thousand of those printed. Both decks have their own unique elements. And I think they appeal to regular playing card users, flourishers, magicians, collectors, you name it. Both these decks were printed from the expert playing cards with their classic finish. And it is a wonderful embossed finish and stock and it feels great straight out of the box. The cards have a nice spring, they flex well, they feel good, even when they're broken in. All right, so in this deck review, we're going to look at the red foil deck. Now this deck has a little bit of a flat black paper, but then it's just riddled all over with this beautiful red foil. The front just simply says dynasty. And then you have that triangle symbol that you'll see throughout the rest of the deck. This side says dynasty playing cards. This side says designed by Brendan Hong. Top has an original tux seal that indicates it's numeric out of a thousand. As you can see, this band actually comes down over the bottom and it actually goes over the ad copy there for Brendan. And then it continues through the back. That's kind of cool. The tongue flap is really thick. This is a really thick sturdy tux case. I like it. It's got foil work even on the flap there. And then when you open it up, you can see all that red foil on the inside of the tux case. That is pretty much it for the tux case. Let's take a look at these cards. These cards come from the expert playing card company and they do come on their classic finish. A lot of people always ask how they feel, how these cards handle. I can't really tell you how they handle because that's a subjective opinion. But I can't tell you how thick they are. These are right on the edge of being a casino grade stock. They're just coming over the edge of being casino grade. They're about the same thickness as the white lions. Same thickness as the early split spades or some of the smoke and mirrors decks. The back design has a nice thick white border, although it is broken by the illustration that kind of pushes to the edges. It creates a solution that the design is actually bigger than it really is. But you'll also see that the illustration breaks all the way to the edge on the top and bottom. And this creates a cigar band look. So you have that when you spread it from left to right, and also when you spread it from top to bottom. It's a really cool look and it looks great in fans. And then you can see the back design just has a very simple Chinese illustration. The cards in the red deck have more borders and more ornamentation. You're also going to get two original jokers with this deck. And you can see the ornamentation, the frame work there illustrated in these jokers. So one of these jokers is red and one of these jokers is blue. So the red joker is a Chinese man and the green joker is a Chinese woman. And they are both in formal dress. With this deck all four aces are exploded. They're big, they're encased in circles, and they have a frame. The ace there in the center has that same illustration that you see in the back design. And then underneath it, it says 010916. So that was the date that they were created. And Dynasty playing cards designed by Brendan Hong. The pips and indices all have a very familiar layout, but all of them have been redesigned and redrawn by Brandon. So you're going to have that just his unique illustration, you know, his unique look. He's actually gone through and redone every single design for the four suits. And it has his own original font in the corners. The courts in this deck are something that I think is really the pinnacle of the illustrations in this. They're really the thing that stands out the most. The illustrations in this are very beautiful. And you'll notice that each little grouping, each little suit, they kind of go together. And so they kind of all have the same colorings and they all either come from the same clan or the same family. I really, really love Brendan Hong's illustration. The work on he did on this is amazing. All right, so that is my review for the red Dynasty playing cards from Brendan Hong. As always, we ask that you like this video just so other people can find it faster. We also recommend that you subscribe to this channel just to stay up to date on the latest in cards and card magic. If you want to follow me on social media, you can. I'm at facebook.com slash magic orthodoxy twitter.com slash magic orthodoxy instagram.com slash magic underscore orthodoxy. And if you need more content, you can always find it at magic orthodoxy.com. Thanks. Bye.


I don't know where you're at but we're having a heat wave here today and I'll tell you who doesn't love a nice quick meal for dinner that you can just put together in about say 10 minutes and it's you're good to go right and you don't have to heat up the kitchen.  I'm rockin robin and I'm going to show you how to do it right after my chef joke. Okay so here we go with chef joke number one and number two will be a little bit later. All right so why did the cantaloupe jump into the pool because he wanted to become a watermelon. All right watermelon arugula salad means we got to have some watermelon so here we go we got ourselves a nice ripe one and I'm going to cut it up and probably you know depending on how much salad you're making that's what's going to determine how much watermelon you put in there so you know I'm going to use out of this just you know probably a little more than a half of this watermelon. So I'm going to cut this up into bite-sized chunks and then they're going into the salad bowl so next I'm going to add my greens and I'm using a combination of spring mix and arugula so I'm going to toss in a handful of mixed greens and then a handful of arugula. Now keep in mind that when you add the greens it seems kind of fluffy and very full but once you add the dressing it is going to shrink down. Next I'm going to add some very thinly sliced red onion. I like it nice and thin so it's just kind of delicate in there and it and you'd add some really great flavor. So sprinkle in as much of the red onion as you like. I probably did here maybe a half a cup. I'm going to give that a little toss and then we're going to work on our dressing. So for our dressing I'm going to start off here with a little bit of olive oil let's say three tablespoons and then to that I'm going to be adding a really nice balsamic vinegar about two tablespoons. I'm going to whisk that and then add a little bit of salt and pepper and then give that a very nice whisk. Now before I add that dressing we're going to add a couple more things to our salad some fresh basil fresh out of my garden I might add and some fresh mint. Now the mint goes really well with the watermelon so don't leave it out. Now you're going to use a small handful of both the basil and the mint and I like to chop both of these up pretty fine and now we're ready to add some dressing. I'm going to give that dressing one more whisk before we add it so everything's nicely combined. Give that a toss and then we'll add our final ingredient. You want to make sure that everything is well coated. Okay so our last ingredient is some feta crumbles. Now you could also use goat cheese crumbles if you prefer. I'm adding a bit more because well it's good. Now doesn't that look amazing I can't wait to dig in. Okay I've decided it must be time for chef joke number two here we go. What do you call young avocados? Avocados. Okay it's time to serve up this beautiful salad. This salad tastes so yummy it has got that nice sweetness from the watermelon and the little peppery from the arugula and the creaminess from the cheese it's delicious. If you love salads you're going to want to try my cucumber tomato salad with a slightly sweet and tangy french dressing. Click the link on the screen and it'll take you right to it. I hope you enjoyed today's video if you did let me know by smashing the like button and if you'd like to leave me a comment I'd love to hear from you down in the comments so leave it there and I will try and get back to you. All right we'll see you back here next week for another rock and recipe.


Alright, it is time yet again to announce the 100 frame animation contest. As always, this is my one week in advance warning, heads up, whatever you want to call it, that the contest is about to start. So next week, Thursday, May 14th, I will post here on the channel the theme of the contest. Then you have one week to do your awesome animation and then submit it via email by the end of the day of May 21st. Now, what is this contest that I'm talking about? Well, it's basically you have a theme and you have to animate 100 frames, anything you want to do that matches that theme. This can be 3D animation, 2D stop motion, sand animation, puppet show, whatever you want to do, anything that's somewhat animated that matches that theme. 100 frames max, you can add music or not, you can add sound effects or not. Just keep it to 100 frames, format's going to be around 1080p for the resolution, but I have all of that in the description. You can see the whole list of what to do and you will email me using the contest at Spongel.com email. But for now, all I want you to think about is to get ready. So next week, Thursday, probably around 9am San Francisco time, I will post the theme of the contest. So get ready, warm up your fingers and then in a week, let's do it. And then you have one week to submit. Now, why would you do this? Well, you get $100. That's the prize. You get either $100 or which most people have done lately, which I've noticed. Instead of the $100, you can transfer those $100 into three critiques from my workshops. Basically, the workshops are 16 reviews for 500 bucks. But if you win 100 bucks, that equals three critiques. So you can get three review reviews whenever you want to use them. This can be right after you win. This can be for the clip you submitted. This can be for new work. This can be in a year or two or three. It's totally up to you. So there you have it. 100 frames, 100 bucks, topic announcement next week. So keep your eyes peeled on this channel. Let's do this.


This is an initiative which tries to connect ICT for emergency communications with ICT for development and it is an initiative that by doing this in fact tries to contribute to the implementation of the global objective of the international community which is to give access to the 3 billion people which are not yet connected and through that contribute to the implementation of the global agenda for development which was adopted by our heads of states and which is known as the SDGs. I think that the name says everything. It's an advisory board to the director of stability. We provide advice, we identify, we share experiences and through that we are able to propose actions and the framework which can then take home and try to implement. The objective of this phase in fact is to identify specific actions, identify a specific framework which will enable the implementation and the availability of systems that can be used by anyone in case of a disaster or other emergency occur. That's our objective. We just conclude the first meeting of the board during this second phase. We have identified three main areas of interest. We have organized our work. One of the areas deals with the establishment of an emergency fund for the emergency fund. The second deals with the availability of a group of volunteers. We have so many people which are hitteries, which have experience in the sector and whose experience could be used in case of emergency occurs. And the third area deals with the establishment of two kids that will enable and facilitate the availability of equipment when an emergency occurs.


What's going on everyone? Sam here with late in sports car drippin one box of 2022 Panini certified football hobby for Andrew H. Good luck here Andrew. Let's pull some fire out of this man Kenneth Walker K9 To 299 for the Seahawks new generation dark horses Trevor Lawrence base there What's up James? Pink Z Kelly it's a 199 for the Cowboys James That is filler card Malik Willis rookie Amon Ra Hunter Renfrow Colal Colaldridge one 20. I like the Marie Spates one two Nice Kenneth Walker. That's eight out of fifty one off Jersey number Congrats on that. There you go. Um Andrew nice K9 auto very solid Derek Stingley to 275 And Ked reporter. Yeah for us pulled the curry time. Let's do the thing was nasty Nasty Lamar gold team base Yes, is it Kenneth Walker box? Nothing wrong with that though. Justin Fields at 275 Kyler certified stars Base Needs his head checked Got Garrett Wilson Jersey cart 10 out of 249 for the Jets. Oh That's right. I forgot I'm applying to be a kid reporter 94 out of 149 that they're gonna take one look at me and be like, what's what's wrong with you exactly?  Yeah, Skylar Thompson to 149 should be the starter for the Dolphins Best quarterback on that roster George Pickens to 325 That's true. If you don't try, you'll never win. That's a good point If Richard Lane want to pay me to come in and put in kid reporters for an entire day I'll do it and we've got Tony Pollard. Nice mirror signatures 13 out of 25 nice one there for the Cowboys Boy, here we go and base that'll do it for the break or for your break Andrew Thanks again for the sport. We'll get them right out to you, buddy


Hello, how are you doing today? So I have some news for you guys and that is that from next week onwards I'm starting a new show on this channel called back to basics and Getting started with the next back to basics will touch upon some of the basics It's advanced level basic not the very very basic but it's more or less like you know for the user like me how to get most of your system and There I'll cover all three platforms macOS windows analytics and the second series that I'm starting is called Getting started with Linux where I'll go all the way from the beginning What Linux is all about which distributions you should use and how to install it on the system and how to use them and I'll cover you know a variety of distributions depending on which one I choose and So that's going to be next week today I want to talk about one of my favorite distributions that I run on one of my systems. I also maintain Always updated Tutorial about this distribution and if you may have guessed it right is artlinux and as I said, you know while I run, you know Macbook pro 2018 that I just got this is here miss magbook pro 2018 the new one I also have service book 2 and I need these laptops for my film editing needs because Linux as you all know Is not ready in that domain But I also run Linux on my desktop for writing and web browsing Artinic is one of the two distributions that I run all the time and And and you know what by using these two platforms. I also feel that I am very well informed I'm neutral. I'm unbiased and when I share my opinion It's based on actual experience and comparison with our distribution and not somebody who lives under the rock and somebody who has only Used one distribution throughout his life. So that gives me kind of as it makes me a better journey It's as well. But the bigger question here is that why did I choose? artlinux over other distributions what What does artlinux have to offer that others don't have and that's what we're going to talk about today The number one point is it's by the community for the community One of the strengths of artlinux is that it's a pure community-driven project It doesn't play dirty games to generate revenues for its creators and the cost of what's good for its users I'm not even aware of any organizational structure of artlinux. The arch page clearly says that Art survives because of the tireless effort of many people in the community and the core development cycle None of us are paid for our work and we don't have the personal funds to sustain server costs ourselves that Clearly shows that it's a purely Community-driven work and the success of artlinux shows that it has a very successful community behind it But there is a little bit of organizational structure there where they have Release managers and maintainers of the core components such as Pac-Man and main repositories But beyond that It's all for the people by the people and this has been working quite well for a very long time So that's that's one pro why I prefer artlinux actually most of distribution that I choose are the ones that are driven by community The second point that I love our Linux for is that it's kind of pure OS No, I'm not talking about purism OS. I'm when I say pure OS. I means that artlinux doesn't patch much They literally don't patch at all. I mean they do Do some basic patchings, but that is not their core policy They discourage patching as much as possible So what happens is that with artlinux you get more or less like the Android, you know It's talk and draw experience where where you knew use everything from the upstream So when you use a package that is not tweaked it flows down right from the glacier You know you get what the authors of the project intended without any Unnecessary patching by the artlinux community and that's what I want I want to use the experience that the actual author of that project wanted me to have you know Not some middleman is meddling with it The third point that I love I will I will not be doing numbering because there are so many points So when I say third, I'm just saying it But the another point is that artlinux has one of the biggest software repositories there I've been using artlinux since 2011 and I have yet to find a package That is available for some some other distribution, but not for artlinux. Well minus, you know Very distro specific packages But everything is there for artlinux and the credit goes to the kind of mega bank of software packages called AUR or arch user repository. It's more or less like a User-maintained repository that enables users to compile and install packages from source itself So these are not pre-compiled packages, but there is a set of instructions That help you in compiling those packages But the beauty is that you don't have to be linear store worlds to compile these packages It just takes two commands and it's done to make life a bit easier There are actually our helper tools that simplify the process. I used to love Your word or that's what they said, but that has been discontinued But if you go to our helper's page, you'll find there are so many different packages that you can use to very easily compile and Install packages super easy. No problem at all Another thing is that users can vote on these are packages Which actually helps users in knowing because there can be more than one or package because anyone can you know create a package build And it can one can create, you know set of instructions how to install it But voting helps you in identifying which are packages to use because the more votes that package has means is the better package It also helps developers because if there are some packages it becomes super popular Then they may actually be adopted by the artist community and they may actually Enter the official repository, which means you don't have to recompile them yourself the arts community will maintain them At the same time from the box part of view if there are any boxer problems with our packages You will see comments because anyone can add comments there So you can read the comments and fix the problem then in there while you are compiling them one of the packages that gives me some trouble is Blacksmithia server, but every time you run our package You will see users commenting that you know use this this this and it will fix and install it. So there's no problem At the same time artlinux is also one of the distributions one of the in I think some in some cases It actually competes with open suzay tumbleweed But in some cases artlinux is the first distribution where the latest latest packages land first If you are like me and want to test out the latest version of any given software Then artlinux is for you though as I said in some cases tumbleweed may be competing with it, but I think it stays ahead and I'll give you a reason why The another point that I want to highlight is that artlinux has the best and the most comprehensive wiki in the Linux world There used to be time when Ubuntu documentation used to be the best documentation It's not anymore now. It's artlinux and And Because it's all maintained by users and since the users of artlinux are so advanced That they know the problem and they can easily solve the problem instead of asking questions very basic questions So so they go ahead and they keep the documentation updated all the time So you get the best wiki in the world when it comes to Linux world and the another beauty is that these Wikis are not specific to artlinux You can apply the same idea and same concept in your own distribution So for example, if you are worried about how to fix f-stab entry For Ubuntu, you can just go and read artlinux wikipedia Not wikipedia but artlinux documentation or artlinux wiki. I'll put the links below and it will help you Another point is Availability of almost all major desktop environments at your disposal I Feel that you know many Linux distributions are Desktop environment is specific Ubuntu for example uses known, you know Linux Mint Which is a derivative of Ubuntu uses cinnamon and I feel distributions like these who are like derivatives of a derivative should not even exist in the first place Distribution like Linux Mint are better off as a desktop environment than a full-blown distribution They are doing so much unnecessary work. Anyway But that is not the case with artlinux where you don't have to have different flavors to be able to use that particular desktop environment It's desktop agnostic. You can install any supported DE on artlinux at the same time without worrying about breaking anything I Mean just try to install kd plasma on Linux Mint and tell me what happened. So on my Linux Artlinux machine, I have known plasma cinnamon made an LSD install and our works You know without any problem I just log out and log into a different desktop environment So I can use different desktop environment on the same system without having to reconfigure everything all the time So I get a fresh experience every time and I also keep myself updated with us going on there And that leads to the second point which is total user control in Artlinux the user is in control. There is no middleman collecting taxes and tolls There is no business agenda or goals behind the project since you assemble everything Picking and choosing the parts that you want and the configuration that you need for your system It's a system that is designed to serve you as the master and not the makers of the OS So they can generate revenues from it Which is important, you know, that's one of the reasons why I use Linux I don't mind commercialization of Linux, but I also want to have a balance and I find a good balance in our Linux Open Suze Fedora and Ubuntu other distribution. They tend to play some dirty games like Linux Mint One of the most important parts or one of the most important features of our Linux that I love is that It's a rolling release distribution. So once it starts rolling, it never stops I mean, I'm a huge fan of rolling release distribution. That is why I use tumbleweed and I think that Artinix is one of the champions of rolling releases Once you install Artinix, you don't have to worry about Updating it every six months. You're always running the latest packages Whether it's the kernel or the desktop environment or applications And I'm kind of obsessed with updates even my Mac and Windows systems I don't update Once a day to make sure that first of all, I don't have any bugs which can compromise my system Second thing, if developers are working on something new, I want to use it You know the very first day Why should I wait and use a package that was written two years? So new packages Offered so many new features. So I really despise those distribution that discourage people from upgrading their distributions Why? What's the point? Anyway But when you do run a rolling release distribution like Artinix, you are living at the edge But when you're living But when you're using a distribution like Artinix, you're living at the edge You can you can play with packages that are being developed by their creators and developers You don't have to wait for them to be released There are Unstable and testing repositories in Artinix that allow you to test and try packages before they are Actually released and that's what I do most of the time. I must confess that on my system I have unstable repose enabled And that's how I you know rule you know that I keep up myself With the latest packages and nothing breaks to be honest with you And if something breaks you can very easily fix it because you know the internals of the system You don't have to go and google for stuff And that leads to a caveat there which is that Since it's a rolling release distribution where things are you know coming all the time Without much testing by Artinix developers unlike open suzette tumbleweed where everything gets tested So there are chances that things might break if you're playing playing with too many new packages using unstable and testing repositories But the thing is you don't have to worry about broken system because If you're using art, you know that that's part of your life.  That's You should know that once you taste pure Unblooded fully customized system. You won't like distribution that makes decision for you instead of Giving the power to you to make all those decisions. That said Artinix is not for everyone. It does take a lot of efforts And a user's desire to learn and try things out to make it work You need to know stuff or you need to have friends that know stuff I have a lot of friends in the artinix community. Josh is one of my friends there and he's very helpful Whenever I get a problem, I chat with him on google hangout and he helps me in fixing the problems And that's why I love the community because it's very helpful community But you need to be willing to invest time in doing your homework and learning stuff Then they will come and help you So this is a distribution for those, you know, who are willing to to learn and invest time But if you're not willing to learn then it's not for you So the whole point is that if you use Linux, why do you use Linux? What's the point, you know, do you use for privacy? Do you use for control? Do you use for just To show off that? Hey, you know what you guys are using windows, you know use Linux So you that's that really depends on why you use Linux Actually, you know what I should do a video next time Why Why you should use Linux or why you should care about, you know, and what kind of people should not touch Linux at all So that that could be an interesting idea for a video. I can share my thoughts, you know Because over a year I have converted so many users to Linux that I do know where it makes sense Where it doesn't make sense and where a lot of people actually get wrong They use Linux, but they use it more or less like windows XP. What's the point of using Linux? Anyway So the the point with our Linux is that If you want to use our Linux you have to be willing to learn to put efforts and To take control of your computer one thing that is quite clear is when you do all of that You also learn a lot about Linux itself Why because while our Linux is not something where you do everything from scratch, but you do assemble pieces So you do learn about the core components Of a Linux based operating system you get comfortable with it You get familiarized with that during the installation process You know what is f-stab, you know Or how to set time or how to partition a hard drive. So when something breaks You can use that experience knowledge at least you know where the problem is unlike a lot of other Fisher price like distribution Where you have no clue what's going wrong and you simply run to a forum and ask well things like that So so you have to be willing to in this time and the sources in learning about our Linux, but once you do that You also master Linux and I'm telling you from my own experience. I used to run my servers on You know using c panels, you know host gate and everything and once I start using our Linux I now manage my own servers On digital ocean and limit, you know, all I need is ssh and I'm done So so our Linux has taught me a lot about how to actually use the next and I I'm not a sys admin. I'm just a self-learned self-made guy So it taught me a lot. So if you're looking for Looking at a distribution that will also teach you about Linux then our Linux is the right distribution for you So those are my reasons if you happen to be an archaic user, please tell me why do you use Arch Linux and of course welcome, you know, welcome to a club Welcome fellow archers. And if you don't use arch Linux, please also share, you know, what kind of problems you face And why you don't want to use it or which distribution use and why use it That may also help me in my next video where I'm going to focus on Why you should use Linux or you should not use Linux. Anyway, thanks for watching See you in the next video I'll be posting an interview also So what I am doing is I am posting an interview because I travel a lot and I meet a lot of people who are doing open source work Especially companies who are building open source solutions. So I interview them So I'm trying to maintain a balance between the community and the enterprise word on this channel So the next video I'll be posting with a company who does a lot of work in the big data space using open source technologies And I will continue these videos for the community as well And as usual, if you love my work, please don't forget to subscribe to this channel And if you want to support my and if you want to support my work because it's really important because this Work is being funded by you. So please consider becoming a patron. I will post the link to the patron up there I don't know. It's up this side. I don't know whichever you can just look up I'll post the link and also the link will be in the description below Please consider becoming patron so I can continue doing all these great videos for you guys Thanks for watching and please don't forget to let me know what kind of content you want to see here See you next time. Bye for now


This is Zach Friend. I just wanted to start the zone seven meeting. Are we all set within the chambers? We're all set. Are you ready for me to call roll? Yes, I just wanted to confirm that you guys were all set. I'll do a quick introduction here and then we can call roll. So I'd like to call to order the zone seven flood control and water conservation district board of directors for the October 20th, 2020 meeting. If we could have a roll call, please. Director Leopold? Here. Coonerty? Here. Caput? Here. McPherson? Can't see you, but can you hear me? We can hear you, thank you. Director McPherson? Here. Director Billichick? Here. Director Bannister? Non-voting member Violet Lucas? Non-voting member Ponce? Non-voting member Surrey? Non-voting member Gonzales? Thank you. Oh, sorry. And chair friend? And I'm here and we do have a quorum. Mr. Strudley, do we have any additions or deletions to the agenda tonight? No, chair friend, we do not. Great, we're going to move on to oral communications. This is an opportunity for members of the community to address us on items that are not on today's agenda, but within the purview of the Zone 7 board meeting or to speak on any item on our consent agenda or if you're unable to stay for the program manager's report on that item as well. I also also an opportunity for members, any directors that have anything that they'd like to comment on. I do believe Director Billich had something she wanted to comment on and then I would like to open it up for general oral communications. Director Billich, please. Well, it's my honor and privilege to announce to you our latest non-voting Zone 7 board member, Violet Lucas. And I understand she was trying to get on. I don't know if she's on yet, but she's a lifetime resident of Watsonville and always has resided in the flood zone. And she's not new to public service since 1984. She's been the treasurer of the recreation advocates. She previously served on the Parkland Recreation Commission for nine years in the city of Watsonville. Also the Personnel Commission. And she's currently a trustee of the Power Valley Public Cemetery District Board. So I'd like us to welcome Violet Lucas to the Zone 7 board. Thank you for that introduction, Director Billich and welcome. And we do appreciate all of our members, even the non-voting members for all of your contributions. We'll now open it up to the community. Clerk, is there anybody in the chambers that's there to participate for oral communications? Chair, the chambers is closed, is open, but there is nobody present. And we have no web comments for public comment. Oh, thank you very much. Are there any directors that wanted to make a comment during oral communications? All right, seeing none, we'll move on to the first item of the agenda, which is approval of the Zone 7 board meeting minutes from June 22nd. Are there any comments on the minutes from any member or any director? Seeing none, since I assume that there's still nobody there, are there no web comments associated with this? There are no comments. Great. Is there a motion to approve all the minutes? Director Leopold. Second. We have a motion from Director Leopold, a second from Director Coonerty. We'll do a roll call, please. Director Leopold, Coonerty, Caput. Aye. McPherson. Aye. Billisick. Aye. Bannister. And Chair Friend. Great, that is the approval of the minutes. We'll now move on to the consent agenda, which are items seven through 10 on the agenda. Are there any members of the board of directors that are interested in pulling an item from consent? If not, are there any directors that would like to make a comment on a consent item? This would be your opportunity. Seeing none, there was no community members that submitted any comments via the web, I assume, still. Madam Court. You are correct. Okay, then it now would be an appropriate time for a motion for the consent agenda. I'd like to make a motion to approve the consent agenda. Second. All right, there's a motion from Director Billisick and a second from Director Leopold who would have a roll call vote, please. Director Leopold. Coonerty. Aye. Caput. Aye. McPherson. Aye. Billisick. Aye. Bannister. And Chair Friend. Aye, welcome, Director Bannister. All right, we're gonna get onto the exciting part here, which is item number six, which is the board of directors of the Santa Cruz County Flood Control and Water Conservation District Zone Seven to consider a status report on the Pajaro River Flood Risk Management Project as outlined in the memo of the district engineer. Mr. Strudley, please. Thank you, Chair Friend, members of the board. We continue to work very hard for the community and for the board of directors in pursuing our long-waited flood risk reduction project on the Pajaro River. We are still moving along with the Army Corps and expect to and hope to sign a design agreement with them to start the pre-construction engineering and design phase of the project with them by December 31st. The program, excuse me, the project manager from the Army Corps has set that as a milestone goal for himself and I am going to try to hold him to that. I think we have a very good chance of hitting that mark. And that's not to say we have been sitting idly or the Corps has been sitting idly in the meantime before that agreement is signed. We have been funneling updated hydraulic modeling to the Army Corps for their approval. This is something that the Army Corps would have to do on their own had we not done it ourselves. And so we're trying to get ahead of the design process by sending to them updated hydraulic modeling that they can adopt and then use as their own for the design process. We're getting indications finally that they are moving towards approval and they will be submitting an MFR, a memorandum for record that relays the results from that modeling and recommends its adoption for usage. In the meantime, we also are required to close out our existing agreements, our existing feasibility cost share agreement and our existing 2007 design agreement in order to sign a new policy compliant design agreement with the Army Corps. It was a few months ago that we submitted a cost share balance request to them which is seeking credit for years and years of our own hard work at the staff level on this project to be credited towards an eventual project partnership agreement when we enter the construction phase. Right now there's about $149,000 worth of consultant costs that are not going to be accepted but it pales in comparison to over $3 million worth of creditable work in kind staff contributions to this project that will be credited to the project upon approval of their office of council. This will ultimately pay us dividends when we do step into the construction phase with them and we are getting indications from the district level as well as the division level above the district that these costs will be credited and in my mind there is a lot of grief to be had if we wanted to fight them on that $149,000, $150,000 worth of consultant costs that they are telling us are ineligible. To me, with the history of delays with this project it's much more valuable to see those $3 million worth of credit. I want to see the whole let me flooding. So that is good news and we have also proposed to work with the Army Corps from the upstream end and moving downstream. And so with this proposal, that will be fed into a project management plan which will form a component of the design agreement. So that is in process as well. And those are the reasons and activities that we're involved with that are leading up to the signing of a new design agreement hopefully by December 31st. At that point, the project management plan from that design agreement can be funneled into our state subventions authorization agreement. And again, that agreement leverages roughly $100 million worth of state funds that will be available to the project initially for the design phase but it will extend much farther beyond that. There's not much more to say about the subventions agreement because it can't be signed until we get that project management plan from the Army Corps. And again, we expect to have that by the end of the calendar year. The most important item on our plates right now is the governance and finance aspects of this project. I'd like to thank the governance and finance committee. A number of you are members to that committee and Chair Friend also chairs that committee for us. We've had a number of very fruitful discussions through that committee over the past few months about financing the project and local finance requirements aside from the federal and state participation in funding this project. We're continuing to refine those numbers and we hope to have some relatively finalized numbers over the next month or two so that we can start engaging in our public outreach and education for this project that will eventually lead to finance measures through a Prop 218 ballot proceedings. It was originally anticipated that with COVID we would not be going out for a Prop 218 compliant ballot measure until at least next spring. I don't think I'm better than any of you at reading the tea leaves, but my read of them is that we may not be going out even this spring, but the future remains highly unpredictable given a number of things in politics as well as budgetary issues associated with COVID across the county, state, and federal government levels. So it remains to be seen when we will be able to go out and seek some additional funding from local ratepayers. And we are, again, trying to whittle away that amount of local financing that would be required down as much as possible. And I wanted to provide the most important avenue of whittling away that local finance need and that is our Subventions Agreement. And I think it was our last board meeting that I had explained to the board that our Subventions Agreement only allows a 70% cost share of the non-federal funds required for this project. And even if we seek other grant funds through other state bond measures or other avenues of funding, that that will be funneled and incorporated into that 70% cost share. And so we ultimately can't rise above 70% cost share participation from the state. It is our belief at the staff level that that is inconsistent with the various bond measures that are being used to fund the Subventions Account as well as the bond measures that are being used to fund other grant opportunities. And so we are in discussions both with our own County Council, which I hope to start up very soon as well as our state level advocacy consultants on how we can rectify this problem. And I anticipate asking for the chair and the board's help in the coming months in advocating for a higher level of cost share from the state under the Subventions Program. And there will be more to fall on that later when the time is right to seek your assistance. But that is a big way you can help this project out in the meantime on the Subventions Front. We, as I said, we are gearing up for some public outreach for finance. And again, we will have information for this board as well as other participants who will be engaged in that outreach campaign. And again, one of the other biggest things you can do for this project is to champion this project with the public once you have the right information in your hands and that you're confident in championing this project to the public. Kent, I didn't know if you wanted to provide an update on the governance aspects with the JPA. Sure, I can do that. Good evening, Chair Friend and Directors. So the meetings regarding the formation of the JPA have been delayed much like some of the other financing aspects due to COVID-19 and the wildfires. However, we're hoping to restart these meetings soon and we'll be coming back to the member agencies with updated general overhead and administrative costs soon related to the new governing body. And that's it for my report. Thanks for filling those details in Kent for the program manager's report. I wanted to add one last item on grant funding. We have submitted a notice of interest to both the Prop 68 OPC grant program as well as the FEMA BRIC grant program. This is part of their hazard mitigation program with FEMA and it's funneled through Cal OES as an applicant. Our notice of intent has been accepted by the FEMA BRIC program. Although we've been funneled over into the hazard mitigation grant program, which is a slight nuanced difference to the FEMA BRIC program, but it will allow us to pursue the request there. We have yet to resolve some discussions with OPC under their Prop 68 offering. They have initially told us that our project was ineligible. I have asked for reasons as to why that is and haven't heard back from them, but I hope to have some discussions with them. And hopefully we can edge our way back into that program. We are busy right now developing application for Department of Water Resources Coastal Watershed Flood Risk Reduction Grant program. Thank you to your board. You had authorized the signing of an authorization letter and resolution at our March board meeting and that will be funneled into that application as well. That application will be due by November 20th to the state. We don't expect to hear the results of our application until sometime next year, probably spring or summer of next year. And just so you're reminded of what we're applying for there, we're applying for assistance from the state to cover the non-federal cost share match for the initial phase of PED with the Army Corps, the design phase. So hopefully there will be, if we are awarded that there will be very little to know out of pocket costs to either zone seven or our other non-federal sponsor with this project, Modernity County Water Resources Agency. We are also entertaining another Prop 68 offering with Department of Water Resources this time, not DWR. They have a technical assistance grant program with about $25 million available in this initial round. 22 and a half million dollars will be available for implementation projects and two and a half million dollars will be available for scientific investigations and feasibility work. And so we will be tossing our hat in that ring as well. And again, this is our attempt to whittle away as much as those rate payer proposed financing requirements of this project as much as possible so that we can get this funded by state and federal sources. And with that, I would ask the board to accept and file the status report on the Power River Flood Risk Management Project and I'm happy to answer any questions. Thank you, Mr. Strudley. Thanks for your leadership on this and continued project management. I know that there are some directors with questions. I see Director Caput has a question we'll begin with him. Director Caput, please. You'll need to unmute yourself. There we go. Hey, thanks a lot. Good to see you, Mark. How you doing? Likewise, Director Caput. Great to see you as well. Okay. Yeah, I was looking through this. It does say something about an advantageous cost share terms of up to 100% for multi-benefit projects that serve disadvantaged and severely disadvantaged communities. Is that a part of that or the cost share and instead of being 70%, they might go 100%? Well, that is the hope. In order to strike an agreement with Department of Water Resources for Subventions, part of that process includes submitting a non-federal cost share report where you propose using their calculations what the level of cost share should be. It has a baseline cost share at 50% and then if you want to rise up to that maximum level of 70%, you have to demonstrate based on multi-benefit protection to disadvantaged communities and state facilities that you can meet that 70% cost share. In our calculations in that report using the recommended procedure from Department of Water Resources, our cost share actually rose to over 100%. If it actually is possible, given the way they recommend the calculations are done, it actually rose to 104%. So I think we are in as good of standing as any project in the state in meeting the multi-benefit objectives that are important to the state, that are important to the Department of Water Resources, that are important to the governor of California and all the executive orders and other initiatives that he has championed. The Pottero River Project checks all the boxes. So it is a glowing example. We hope that they, I do know that DWR staff recognized that. My hope is that they recognize it to such an extent to allow a solution to the 70% cap for subventions. Okay. Actually, that's pretty good. What we had before was we were always falling behind in the benefit cost ratio because our homes are not worth as much as, let's say a home in Malibu or something like that for flood protection. So in this case, because the low cost of the housing in that area and the low cost of salaries and everything that people live in that area, that will be a benefit. So it's kind of like one thing hurts us and another thing helps us, is that right? That is correct. The aspects of our benefit cost ratio that hurt us with federal participation and investment are in turn the aspects of this project that help us with the state. The state is very interested. The state is probably the most interested in providing assistance to disadvantaged communities and severely disadvantaged communities. They're interested in all sorts of multi-benefit type aspects, but the one that seems to be at the top of their list is providing assistance to those types of communities. Yeah, and then the other real quick, you don't have to go into depth, but there's the 2.9 million that we're hoping to get, but because of the pandemic and a delay, but then we still have 1.8 million that we haven't used from before, is that correct? We do have a $1.8 million work plan funding allocation that came from the Army Corps of Engineers. Very little of that has been used to date. They've been allowed to tap into roughly $100,000 of it to get through what they're doing with us now, which includes the development of the agreements, the adoption of our existing hydraulic models and other conversations that we're having with them. I don't think they've used close to all of it at all, that $100,000. The remainder will be used once we sign a design agreement and enter into the design phase of the project. Sure, okay, and then lastly, with the joint powers, of course, and everything as we're going forward, and then we had a projected amount for home assessments for the homes in the area, how much they would have to pay. Because we're delaying it, I totally understand that, because with the pandemic and people losing their jobs and there's a tendency, I think we're gonna see in the election a lot of no votes on propositions. That's my gut feeling, November 3rd. But the other thing I worry about is that, let's say we delay another year, a year and a half, before we actually put it on the ballot, do we really have a moving target where the price is gonna go up and the assessment's gonna go up? If it goes up a little, I think we can handle it. But if we're talking about a big jump, we're in trouble. Go ahead. Well, the Army Corps doesn't reassess their project costs every year. So that works in our favor unless we're kicking the cam down the road for I think it's a five year period where they start reassessing the benefit cost ratio and particularly the cost of the project. Even though the Army Corps may not be reevaluating the project in the near term, every year prices escalate. So the longer we delay implementing the project, the more expensive it will get. And we're gonna have to balance that with the fact that we're hoping that the state will come around on their Subventions Program and allow a higher cost share. So it's a balancing act. I think that if we have strong indications through a variety of means that the time is right to go out for a prop 218 compliant vote, we would need to strike while the iron is lost, so to speak. And so that's why it's important for us to start engaging on public outreach and to have a unified voice under a new governing body set up so that we can do that public outreach. But again, if I were a betting man, reading the tea leaves, I don't see this happening anytime soon, but we do need to be ready. And that's why we need to keep moving on this as if we were doing it next month, even though- I agree, I think it's a very good idea. I saw that Vi Lukas joined us. So that's great. Thanks a lot, Mark. Hey, Mark. Thank you, Director Caput. Are there any other directors that have questions? A Director Billusich, and then Director McPherson after that. Director Billusich, please. Nancy, you're on mute still. Great. I just want to make a statement that, you know, we've been on this for quite a while now and we started with the 100 million and now we're up to 400 million. So we know that we need to get it going sooner than later, but I want to thank you, Mark, because when we were talking as the finance group, those fees seemed hard, high. And I don't know, we may still be there, but your persistence is just to be commended because you're looking at every resource with the grant funding, with Prop 68, with the FEMA brick, with the state and there's 70%, all of these different things, you're pursuing that and that's on our behalf. And I mean, no matter what happens in the outcome, we can't thank you enough for what you're trying to do for our community.  So thank you so much. I appreciate that, Director Billusich. And like I said before, we could not do this without you. We've had some tremendous conversations lately with city of Watsonville folks, both through the governance and finance committee, as well as a one-off conversations independent of that, on these financing issues. It's because I know these financing numbers, you know, if I can whittle this project cost down to zero for everyone, that would be a dream come true. I don't know if we'll get there. I am hopeful and I'm going to keep working hard. Our staff is going to keep working hard to do just that, to keep engaging with the state and engage their full participation in this. And again, thanks to the whole board for all your support with this. This is, like I said before, this is a group effort. It takes all of us working on this and again, thank you. Thank you, Director Billusich for those kind words. Director McPherson, I believe you had a question. Yeah, I just was curious, how much does the general public or the movers and shakers in the Pajaro region know about the hits and misses that you've been going through and the uncertainties that you're facing? I mean, I think that can be even to our advantage if they know how hard that you've been working and how you're trying to deal with this, the best of your ability, I think in the end it could help us. But did very many people in the community know, it's changing so much that it's probably you don't want to have them know too much because nothing's ever final until it's final. But what's the sense, do you have any sense of how the community is, how are they reacting right now? Are they anxious or what's going on? There's a number of people on this board that can answer this question as well, if not better than I can, such as Director Billusich and Director Banister and Director Lucas and others from Watsonville, Director Caput. My sense is that the relative absence of public participation in our board meetings probably has a historical reason behind it. The history of this project has been a very long bumpy road and we've had numerous starts and stops. The Army Corps has given out on us several times and up until somewhat recently that picture with the Army Corps wasn't very rosy. I don't think that there's a lot of members of the public that know a lot of details about what is going on, but it highlights the importance of our upcoming public outreach and engagement. We have had good participation through our legislative conference and through other milestones that we've reached. For example, the completion of the feasibility study and the signing of the director's report, we have had some media outreach on that, but it's been a little episodic and it's been probably a bit lost because it's not a constant stream of information to the public about this project. But I am hoping that as we ramp up this outreach, as we ramp up towards any need, however, miniscule to request funding from the local community to support the remaining balance of this project, which by the way is a 90% cost share coming from the feds and the states and only 10% right now even at the maximum coming from the rate payers. That's a huge return on investment. So I'm just hoping that a lot of things that we're gonna start going through are gonna really reengage the public. And again, this is really where we can ask for your assistance on the board, particularly those of you who reside in South County in the Pajaro Valley to get the word out about our recent successes, about the general feeling that I think a lot of us may now have that this project actually looks like it could be a reality where in the past, I don't think we thought that. I'm convinced it is a reality. And so the more we can get that word out that we can have people sleep at night when it rains living on the Pajaro, that's a very good thing to advertise. Thank you. Thank you, Director McPherson. Is there anybody else that had a question? Director Bilsich again? I believe you're on mute one more time. I just wanted to say that when we get near the point, you know, we're going to go to the public. I'm sure we're going to have a bulleted sheet with these points to remind the public and remind us. And I don't know if that's coming from this group or the finance group, but I think if we are all together with the same points, things we can distribute and how we can talk, we'll know what we're talking about, that'll be great, Mark.  I can't believe that you've worked the magic because I mean, the last meeting we had, it just seemed, yes, we're here, but how are we going to get the people to get behind the money? And maybe we still have that challenge, but your work of trying to make this happen is to be commended. I appreciate that, Dr. Bilsich. And I think that we will have a full suite of materials, including bulleted talking points that will be developed through our consultant team and our staff level working on this project, stemming from the governance and finance process. And so we will provide that uniform ammunition, so to speak, for all members of this board, the Power River Watershed Flood Prevention Authority, City Council at Watsonville County Board of Supervisors, all the people that we can get to drumups for support, they will get the same level of information to bolster your talking points and your outreach. At this point, is it possible to make a motion to accept this report from Mr. Stradley? Let me confirm that there's no other director that would like to comment on the item. All right, and seeing none, I would just want to confirm with Madam Clerk that there's nobody in the chambers or there are no comments that were submitted on this item. There's nobody in the chambers and there's no web comments. Thank you, Chair. Thank you. All right, Director Bilsich, I'll hand it back to you for a motion, please. I'd like to make a motion to accept the program manager's report for zone seven. And I'll make a second, Director Caput. We have a motion from Director Bilsich and a second from Director Caput. I'd just like to add one quick item onto here. Director Caput had noted on our disadvantaged community status and how that had impacted us at the federal level for financing. I'd like to say that our federal advocacy, though, on this process to change the underlying way that the federal government funds these projects reached a pretty remarkable accomplishment within the last year, where we were able to obtain language nearly verbatim what we had been seeking in Warta that will actually change the way that this has done moving forward. This may or may not impact our federal funding component moving forward. If it impacts us, it'll only be for the better, but other disadvantaged communities coming after us moving forward should have a fundamentally different shot for federal fund protection and funding and opportunity than they did before we got involved in this process. And I think that's something to be proud of for the work that we did at the federal level. So we do have a motion and a second if we could have a roll call, please. Director Leopold. Aye. Coonerty. Aye. Caput. Aye. Kirkverson. Aye. Villasich. Aye. Bannister. And chair friend. Aye. And that item passes unanimously and that is the last item on today's agenda. Thank you, Mr. Strudley, Mr. Edler for all of your work and for everybody for coming out tonight to attend the meeting. We truly do appreciate it. Thank you very much. Good night. Good night.