We're gonna call to order the August 8th meeting of the Board of Supervisors. We can begin with a roll call, please Supervisor Koenig here Cummings here Hernandez present McPherson here and friend here We're gonna begin with a moment of silence. Are there any board members who'd like to dedicate to this moment of silence? Okay, we're gonna have a moment of silence followed by the Pudge of Allegiance We just join us in a brief moment of silence, please we stand for the Pudge of Allegiance Allegiance to the flag of the United States of America and into the Republic for the richest man nation Morning mr. Plosas are there any changes to today's agenda? Yes chair random members of the board On the regular agenda item 9. There's additional materials. There's a revised memo packet page 20 is replaced and reads recommended action Accept and file presentation and update on the consent agenda item number 43. There's additional materials There's a revised attachment packet pages 578 through 590 replaced contract document We're replacing our contract document. Thank you that that concludes the changes. Thank you Are there any items that any board member would like to pull from the consent to the regular agenda? Okay, seeing none, we're going to move on to Public comment, which is an opportunity for members of the community to address those items that are not on today's agenda Within the purview of the board of supervisors or on the consent on the consent or regular agenda if you can't stay also understand Do we have members from the safety net clinic coalition here to on our national health center week too? So looking forward to hearing from them, but you will have two minutes Please feel free to step forward. Good morning. Welcome. Thank you for being here Good morning. Good morning members of the board. My name is Esmeralda Robalcava and this is my son Nicolás Lomali I am here to thank the board for this year's proclamation in support of breastfeeding awareness month I am a breastfeeding peer counselor at community bridges week program When I had both of my sons, I was able to bring them to work So that I could continue to breastfeed them county support of lactation accommodation policies is so important to helping moms Like me to be able to provide for our families and also to continue to breastfeed Thank you for your support Of county laws and policies that support working mothers. Thank you for sharing your story Good morning. Welcome. Good morning Um, good morning members of the board. My name is as Wilson up on yawa. I am here also to thank you For the year's proclamation of support of breastfeeding awareness month I am also a lactation educator and a site manager for county community bridges week I was fortunate of being able to pump and my work plays due to the breastfeeding Accommodation policies and I was able to maintain my milk supply And my children could continue to maintain receive my breast milk benefits. Thank you for your support Thank you for your work. Thank you. Good morning. Welcome. Hi. Good morning. Thank you My name is Erica Costanzo and I'm the community bridges regional breastfeeding liaison for Santa Cruz county And I'm also the chair of the Santa Cruz county breastfeeding coalition And I'm very happy to be here this morning And I would like to thank the board of supervisors for today's presentation of the proclamation of for chest and breastfeeding awareness month Each year in august in more than 170 countries Breastfeeding awareness is celebrated with world breastfeeding week and breastfeeding awareness month to encourage breastfeeding And to improve the health of babies around the world We are here today to help bring awareness to the importance of breastfeeding as a first step to lifelong health Breastfeeding laser foundation for better health outcomes for moms and babies both in the short and long term Including the reduction in the occurrence of many illnesses and chronic conditions The theme for world breastfeeding week 2023 is enabling breastfeeding making a difference for working families A big part of the work that we do in supporting lactation and breastfeeding families is to help create and sustain lactation Accommodations in workplaces in schools and anywhere else in the community that they're needed So that families can continue to breastfeed when mothers return to work or school It means a lot to the coalition and to wick That the board is recognizing august with this proclamation And our work does continue throughout the year To help support lactation and educate community on the importance of breastfeeding for both mothers and babies our community And businesses can also help by supporting and investing in women and their decision to breastfeed in this important effort to improve the health Of all of our moms babies and families And i'm also grateful to be joined today by several other members of the wick program and the county's department of public health All of whom are actively involved in the work of the santa christ county breastfeeding coalition. Thank you Thank you. Thank you for your work. Good morning. Welcome back. Good morning. Thank you very much Members of the board my name is dania wagner. I am the director of community bridges wick program And i'm here to thank you the board of services for this year's 2023 proclamation to support breastfeeding awareness month And to invite you each of you to join wick for our annual breastfeeding walk this friday at the watsonville city plaza This is the 16th year that the board has approved a proclamation for breastfeeding awareness month It is the 16th year of the community bridges wick breastfeeding walk And i'm thrilled to be here celebrating 16 years of breastfeeding support in our community with you Our community organizations have done so much over the last few years to develop policies and practices that promote and support Breastfeeding to improve the health of our citizens We have much to celebrate and there's always more room To support the our new mothers and babies So please show you continued support and leadership by joining us this friday august 11th at our annual event three o'clock at the watsonville city plaza On behalf of community bridges wick. I thank you very much for the proclamation and for your time. Thank you. Thank you for your work Good morning. Welcome back Good morning board of supervisors. Thank you for holding the space for us. My name is primavera hernandez I am the health services manager for the children and family health unit We are part of the county's public health division And we uphold the vision of better health every day for everyone So today or this month is breastfeeding awareness month breastfeeding and chestfeeding awareness month And myself and my team would like to read the proclamation which you so generously signed Whereas Breastfeeding chestfeeding is one of the best public health measures providing health benefits for mothers and birthing parents Infants families and societies keeping mothers in birthing parents healthier throughout their lives And saving the lives of infants And whereas breastfeeding chestfeeding provides protective factors for both mother Slash birthing parent and child and is recognized to help prevent obesity And whereas human milk is superior to any artificial milk substitute providing children optimal brain development And an ideal foundation for early readiness And I will pass the rest of the time to my colleagues. Thank you Good morning board of supervisors. Thank you so much for having us Thank you My name is Ashley myelin and i'm a public health nurse for santa cruse county in the field nursing Program also an international board certified lactation consultant and I will continue the proclamation Whereas the american academy of pediatrics recommends that infants be exclusively breastfed chestfed for six months Before being introduced to complementary foods and to continue to breastfeed chestfeed for at least two years And whereas Watsonville community hospital Sutter maternity and surgery center Dominican hospital santa cruse fluid parlehente And the community bridges women infants and children program maintain certified lactation consultants on staff To support new mothers and birthing parents And I will pass it on to my colleague My name is candy modaida i'm a public health nurse for um the children and family health unit And I will continue the proclamation Whereas all three of our local hospitals Dominican hospitals sutter maternity and surgery center and Watsonville community hospital How qualified for the prestigious baby friendly hospital distinction From the national accrediting body baby friendly usa ink and Whereas the santa cruse county Breastfeeding coalition seeks ways to promote exclusive breastfeeding chestfeeding for six months or more Increased community awareness of breastfeeding chestfeeding importance Create support for lactation accommodation in public and educate families and professionals about sources of lactation support Good morning. I'm rachel van cott. I'm a public health nurse with santa cruse county here And I'm the perinatal services coordinator as well as the cis program coordinator Um Whereas the santa cruse county exclusive breastfeeding chestfeeding rate is higher at 87 point two percent Compared to the state exclusive breastfeeding chestfeeding rate of 69.4 percent And whereas the theme for this year's world breastfeeding week is enabling breastfeeding Calling on community collaboration to support breastfeeding And now therefore you sack friend Chair of santa cruse county board of supervisors Hereby proclaimed the month of august 2023 as breastfeeding chestfeeding awareness month in santa cruse county Thank you so much for your support. Thank you. Thank you for your great work all of you They're done Have a letter from the mental health advisory board Good morning. Welcome. Good morning. My name is laura chatham and i'm a member of the santa cruse county mental health advisory board And I would like to bring to your attention That the mental health advisory board sent you a letter which is the very last item on the agenda today And i've hinted at a copy so that you could find it I would like to talk to you about issues Of sweeping the homeless community It is clear from research and we all know that the sweeps are cruel Inhumane And they don't work The folks swept from the poganip like in the last few weeks are now camping in other places around the town I would like to tell you about the traumatizing misery and suffering That I witnessed during the sweeps of the benchlands last fall, but there isn't time in two minutes Um, but there is time to to say that we have to stop pretending that we don't know that the sweeps won't work sweeps further impoverished people Who already hardly have anything and it makes it even harder for them to dig out their way out of poverty We need to stop pretending. We don't know how to solve the problem It is finally time to garner the political will To become the heroes who will solve the problem Please start by doing the right thing and make enough Safe camps for the unhoused folks Probably the open lot in back of ross might do or any similar space Um, and that will help work move us toward a a true and workable solution Folks who are unhoused are americans like you and me as americans We were taught to value our freedom above all This includes both the freedom to live And the freedom to walk in the park without fearing for our safety Please stop the sweeps Also, please make a plan for how we will take care of our homeless people when the winter storms hit again Please make a plan to open temporary shelters just Just just please finish up tell us Please tell us in advance where our unhoused neighbors can go Many of them are veterans who lost everything fighting for our country Please tell us where they can stay and ask the police and sheriffs to stop moving folks out from under the awnings into the rain It's a terrible thing for our young police officers to have to forward. Thank you, ma'am Thank you That's okay. Good morning. Welcome Good morning. Hello. I'm laura wishart program manager with the health improvement partnership of santa cruz county or hip I am here today with members of the safety net clinic coalition to thank the board of supervisors For proclaiming this week august 6 through 12 as national health center week Our safety net clinic coalition or snick is a comprehensive system of high quality affordable care Providing an easily accessible medical and dental home as well as wraparound full-person care for all low-income residents Snick member organizations are one and three members of our community National health center week honors the dedication and talents of community health center employees Celebrating and increasing the mission resilience and accomplishments of community health centers locally and across the nation Community health centers serve as the beacon of strength service and care in their communities In moments of pain and loss they offer support and love in moments of triumph. They offer hope and a vision for the future These organizations are thriving and expanding because of many factors dedicated staff exceptional leadership access to coverage with the affordable care act and medical expansion And advocacy and support from local leaders such as yourselves So thank you again for recognizing national health center week with us and you will now hear from some of our health center leaders Thank you. Thank you for your work morning. Welcome. Good morning. Thank you My name is lucy silvan with santa cruz community health I'm the health information technology manager and i'm also the justice equity diversity and inclusion chair at our organization We are driven by a 49 year commitment to health care as a human right Our mission is to improve the health of our patients and the community and advocate the feminist goals of social political and economic equality Since 1974 the center cruz women's health center has played a key role in local health care safety net What started as a women's health collective founded by a group of ucse students Um has been over four decades evolved to keep pace with the rapidly changing health care landscape expanding in size Scope each year to meet the growing community needs At the same time our clinic has developed a reputation of demonstrably high care a prior priority excuse me prioritizing care That is rooted in both scientific evidence and genuine human empathy Our approach is driven by the goal of advancing health equity for all individuals We continue to expand our most recent recently having opened a live oak health center a beautiful 20 000 square foot facility with the anthocemid pen We serve over 12 000 patients Primarily low income black indigenous people of color and about 10 percent of our patients are unhoused We are our people they're everything We owe a huge debt to the thanks of the people who do this work with such Determination and so well our talented dedicated staff persevered during the pandemic fires the recent storms flooding Despite these challenges we move forward together knowing that our work has never been more crucial. Thank you Thank you. Thank you for your work. Good morning. Welcome back Hello, my name is sherry storm, and i'm the chief strategy officer for the entes community dental i'm pleased to be here to mark national health center week 2023 A week that is about celebrating the work done by amazing people who advance the health of our community for those most disadvantaged In santa cruz county only one in three of our low-income neighbors neighbors on medi cal Can access the dentists the need for more access to care is critical As a largest dental provider in santa cruz canny dientes is working hard to address this issue By opening two new clinics in the past seven months one In harvey west at 100 pioneers street and one in live oak at 1500 capitol road This year. We're expecting to serve 16 000 patients a 30 growth over last year We could not achieve this goal without dientes compassionate and dedicated staff Yet staffing is the biggest constraint to adding capacity to serve more people That is why dientes has heavily prioritized workforce investment Including establishing a dental residency program with nyu lingon providing scholarships for staff to pursue programs for hygiene assisting and extended functions posting interns from programs like cabrio hygiene and more And next year starting in a registered apprenticeship program in partnership with the county office of education adult ed The anti's workforce investment program has created paths so that a high school graduate Can come in as an intern and work their way up to becoming a manager or a provider We're very proud of the diverse work group. We promoted over the years and this is evidenced by the 92 staff satisfaction Rate that we received in our 2023 um survey conducted by asr We're growing and collectively this the safety net clinic coalition has exciting and fulfilling jobs Ones where you can make a real difference for national health center week. We're here to say public health is a great career path Please join us your community needs you. Thank you. Thanks for your work Good morning. Welcome back Good morning chair and members of the board My name is monica martinis and i'm ceo of encompass community services And i'm honored today to be here on behalf of national health care center week And encompass we believe that every person deserves an opportunity to live a healthy life We're the largest health and human services nonprofit in santa cruz county And we offer culturally responsive evidence-based services across the county And i'm proud that this year encompass is celebrating its 50th anniversary We operate 40 different programs across the county in areas of integrated behavioral health health and housing and early childhood development And we serve over 4 000 people every year One of our most exciting projects right now is that we're moving to expand our integrated behavioral health services in wattenville We're developing a new state-of-the-art clinic at the sisa poede location and we'll be serving 1300 individuals After we open the center we'll be breaking ground in the next few months At encompass we have more than 400 employees and this is truly the heartbeat of our organization Many of our employees are from this community. Many of them have worked for us for over 20 years And we believe in the training and development of these individuals to help strengthen the overall health care workforce here in santa cruz county For national health care center week. We are celebrating our workforce We're going to be recognizing them throughout the week and we have selected nine of our outstanding employees to recognize on our website in social media And we'll be sharing these staff stories across the county in all of our mediums So we hope that you'll check that out and you'll learn more about the work happening at encompass community services And by the rest of my colleagues here from the national health care center week coalition. Thank you Thank you. Thank you for your work Morning. Welcome back. Good morning. Thank you chair friend and board of supervisors I'm amy peeler. I'm your chief of health center services for the county health department And our mission is to promote and protect the health and well-being of our community through providing affordable accessible comprehensive health and integrated Here in our community in our four health center sites. We serve over 15,000 individuals and over 100,000 visits per year And we employ over 200 individuals in the county just in our division alone In our fourth health in our we work closely with all of these members of the safety net Anyone who has entered our health care community in our county knows that we collaborate In addition to primary care, we provide a variety of other services including acupuncture Orthopedics and street medicine where we truly meet people where they are We work to keep people out of the hospital We have expanded our substance use disorder services to preserve lives and offer recovery during this horrific opioid epidemic Hardly a week passes when our homeless persons health project is an actively saving a life from an overdose As you're all aware in addition to serving and taking care of our own patients We are the county's health Sorry disaster service workers. I'm so tired of the word disaster And our integral to the medical workforce when needed as we were twice earlier this year in disasters Thank you for your support and for this opportunity to highlight our role as county run community health centers and happy national health center week. Thank you Thank you. Good morning. Welcome Good morning chair friend and members of the santa cruz board of supervisors My name is donna young and i'm the new chief executive officer of salud padola hente Our mission is to provide high quality comprehensive and cost effective health care That is responsive to the needs of the communities we serve In or in short, we ensure that our community has a doctor when it needs one Our work is centered on equity. We are committed to serving everyone no matter where they come from The color of their skin the language they speak their immigration insurance status or income level who they love Or their sexual orientation or identity National health care center week is an opportunity to celebrate the impact and accomplishments of health care centers across the county We also want to thank staff for their dedication and encouragement of others into health care careers Salud has 13 sites including three mobile sites And we have over 450 staff providing bilingual comprehensive primary care that includes medical dental behavioral health vision chiropractics Social driver screening referrals health education and insurance enrollment and we serve nearly 28 000 patients We strive to tackle social factors before they affect health We believe that everyone should have the opportunity to live a healthy life Our highly qualified health care professionals are deeply committed to community health Many of our staff were born and raised in Watsonville and some have chosen to come back and make salud their work home We have many local hometown heroes who have deep ties within the community and understand the needs of the Pajaro Valley our behavior a behavioral health case management and Director Esmeralda Aguierra started working at salud right after high school and now years later She has returned to be part of our leadership team Thank you for our time and for our health care partners that are here today Salud looks forward to celebrating national health care week and highlighting frontline staff that inspire and are the backbone of our health centers Thank you Morning chair and board Amber Williams Janice's chief executive officer and a community member in santa cruz county my entire life Today, if you haven't noticed, we are here in support of national health centers week We know that a third of our community members are medical beneficiaries And and the safety net clinics that are represented here encompassed county health services santa cruz county community health clinic salud Dientes and janice are the catchment and collaborator to aid our community members to meet their medical dental and behavioral health needs To support wellness in our community Janice as a local nonprofit serving 2,500 members and members medical beneficiaries annually Since 1978 has served our community with the mission to provide supportive hope inspiring and successful substance use disorder treatment services in a professional and compassionate environment While assisting individuals and families on their journey toward wellness and recovery Janice will start off national health center week by having those in our mentored internship program which are paid internships handing out self-care kits to our patients providing appreciation for our stakeholders such as yourselves And honoring our health care staff this friday We hope you will join us this week in celebrating our collective accomplishments to have a vast array of safety net services available a few janice updates We're excited to announce janice has been selected by the department of health care services to serve as the state center of excellence To mentor other treatment facilities and delivering quality medical services that includes standing up medication assisted treatments across the state We were named santa cruz county's narcan distribution center and have narcan available at all janice locations to assist our community In combating the opioid crisis and fentanyl poisoning that is so rampant locally and nationally Janice will continue to strive to meet the demands of our community and appreciate your support In our valuable work together to have a healthier thriving community. Thank you. Thank you for your work. Good morning. Welcome back Good morning board of supervisors. My name is emily chung. I'm the public health division director and county of santa cruz health services agency Our public health vision is for a better health every day for everyone And I am very privileged and honored to be here to Summarize basically the amazing work that our health centers have been doing for the last year and beyond as well as our partners from the earlier Comments around breastfeeding chestfeeding week. We have impactful and powerful programs being provided by our stakeholders in the community that improve community wellness for our entire county The importance of and value of our health centers goes beyond Individual lives save but also for our general population health and wellness Part of what our mission includes is to ensure services around an effective system for equitable access to individual services and care As well as building as diverse and supported health and workforce Our health centers provide these services. They are an extension of the work as part of our mission and we're proud to support them Our health centers drive health equity by providing services in languages for those that need the services like mystical and using community health workers and prometores Our health centers also have supported us during numerous emergencies over the last few years like this winters Atmospheric rivers by meeting patients where they're at and supporting the most vulnerable health centers have also play a pivotal role in fighting coven 19 and Ensuring access to prevention and treatment of infectious diseases During the coven 19 pandemic our local health centers administered over 30 of the coven doses in our county Next week another example of where our health centers really can shine and help us improve our overall health Is a special event that dientes and the oral health access committee is helping co-host at dientes community dental care plaza On tuesday august 15th from two to three We'll learn about the state of oral health for our whole county So thank you to our health centers and to our entire health center workforce. Thank you Good morning. Welcome. Good morning. Um, my name is rachel sodos. I live on the west side. I'm a recovering academic I would also Like to celebrate Community health I think I might come at it with a little more critical viewpoint than some of our esteemed leaders that have just uh celebrated before us and I I'd like to um Suggest that there's actually a crisis in our Confidence in public institutions and public health institutions. We might not recognize this in santa cruz But even over over the hill in san josea santa claire palo alto menlo park people are talking about this and meeting about it I'd like to take off from something that deputy county public health officer David gillard duch gillard archie said and quoted in the sentinel on the third and he said that the county public health experts do not agree with the state request or demand to recount the cova deaths and apparently There there's been a change in the way san a cruise county cova deaths have been recorded 44 have been added and that's simply because all underlying and contributing possible causes have been added to The causes of death and I think that it invites us to Take this opportunity to think about what happened in the last two years Perhaps we might have a truth and reconciliation commission and all of you commissioners could Give a full account of all of your activities and meetings and the hierarchy and Demand structure for all decisions that have made and there's there's many questions that could be asked I would like to know about the pcr tests. I would like to know About the when the when racial injustice was declared a public health emergency and whether or not we need to revisit that And what kind of changes have been made? Oh, what's the status of all the women who breastfed who were vaccinated? Thank you Thank you. Good morning. Welcome morning I'm Mark Darius Warner um Good morning supervisors I'm here to speak my mind about the illegal Sweeps that the Santa Cruz PD is doing Illegal meaning it's against The bill of rights of the us to Against civil liberties or what the police are bulldozing people's livelihood instead of holding them for 90 days the city has a bulldozer that picks up the People's camps and put put them in a dumpster instead of holding them for 90 days Which is against california law against us law and if it continues There's going to be a hefty lawsuit against the city of Santa Cruz I've my my family's been here since 1820 when it was spanish territory A lot of my relatives died Here in Santa Cruz because of aggression against the indigenous people they were hung off The water street bridge The police are doing the same thing to the unhoused By taking their livelihood and putting it in a dumpster It's appalling and it's evil If they have any Christian values, they could stop Thank you, sir And welcome back Good morning. My name is Martha Mattson. I'm architect with Mattson Britain architects And I'm here on behalf of a client at 86 Alta drive in Rio de Mar and I'm commenting on The accessory structures and habitable brochure that was available online for years Which states And I've yellowed it out. It's on the second page. It'll be passed to you If outside urban services line a thousand square foot maximum size accessories structure is allowed to be To be designed and submitted We have a project for Angelina Ronell Who's an artist we submitted it We received back plan check corrections that the code has changed There now is a rural services line and therefore a thousand square feet is no longer permit permitted We pointed this out to planning staff Have been in conversation with lasam jeffs Who very graciously apologized and removed it from the website? Yes last week However, the fact remains we have a project that has been submitted We provided a compromise which actually has been permitted by Past planning directors as well as a project that's under construction with this solution That's it's under construction right now that we worked with a net Olson another planner on this Solution what we're finding is a brick wall No compromise We were told that that we were able to crawl through a loophole And that was what the last planning director had allowed us to do as well as the planner as well as other Past planning directors We believe that there should be a spirit of compromise between staff and applicants And we just don't see it and we come up against this all the time It's very frustrating as an architect and as applicants We want to work with planning staff, but we're not given that opportunity Often we're met with a brick wall. Anyway, thank you for your time. Thank you Good morning. Welcome back. Good morning co-britain mattes and britain architects Um, approximately two months ago. We were here To have a pin pier retaining wall approved This is a thousand cubic yards that well may kill the people below This board. I thought clearly directed the za to approve this project The alternative analysis that had been submitted has been accepted and it is agreed that this is the only alternative The za said I wish I could approve this but it doesn't meet code Ignoring the board's direction it's an absurd and untruthful comment This is the general plan local coastal program This is not the header for coastal bluffs and beaches Require property owners and public agencies to control landslide conditions Which threaten structures or roads? That should guide every single interpretation of what We're trying to do here and to turn around and after these type of structures have been built in recently And say no our code doesn't allow that. We know it can save people's life, but Somehow they've come up with some absurd Completely misplaced interpretation and ignored this board's Direction I have to say The rains are coming supervisor Hernandez and it is likely this dirt will come down and hit clients of mine below And I'm like this is ludicrous.  Thank you Thank you Morning, welcome back gary richard-arnold chairman The provisors um That article that I just uh distributed it is on western states news service dot com and it says It's not about mickey anymore. It goes into roger eiger who is involved with All kinds of pedophilia There are at least three pages of disney being involved in that We've recently had the democratic chairman. Uh, whose name is erica bowman The democratic state party Issued eight hundred thousand dollars in legal cost For his sexual misconduct Also, I agree very much With the speaker before me This board abolished that's in like state constitution The local appeals board and you appointed yourselves the local appeals board So if you're approving something don't run over people like this the lady that was talking about covid Also, you took no responsibility. It was paid for by secret money coming from the Community foundation that has a social action plan dedicated after a hardcore marxist That gave military information both through red china and the soviet union Presently, I don't know where the uh pta The democratic and republican central committees are we've got the 30 year lowest amount of educational responses From our children Also while a sheriff is here I think it's important to mention that zack friend along with another member of the board of supervisors Threatened both the persons and property of two granges in this particular county The sheriff didn't act on any part of the planeta machine which you all endorse each other There's so much more in here ed buck The guy that had the third male prostitute run out of his house with a needle in it two other people were killed Ed buck I mean both. Thank you Uh, this is your attorney and the 49th reddit people joined. Thank you. So you know this Thank you Good morning and welcome back Hey, uh Everyone um roose uh, congratulations on your impending escape about 70 90 weeks left. Um So, uh, I wanted to talk a little bit about the county's economy I wanted to talk a little bit about how um, I feel like um, the impulse to just uh, You know have everybody squeezed out into the margins, um Yeah, and or you know given a choice between, uh Fentanyl and and uh, antipsychotics and medic medical marijuana instead of, you know, giving them a real occupation a real job Mrs Thank you So, uh, one thing I've noticed is that, um Uh, like we've lost a lot of big companies, uh Used to look online and and it and it was considered to be part of silicon valley scott's valley, but no no longer really warlin's gone, um ti's gone from sand crews seagate's gone from, uh scott's valley watkins johnson's gone from scott's valley Plantronics has gone. Um uh Yeah, joe b. Uh, you know, hey may may fly someday. I don't know, you know, uh, I don't really see that as like a You know, there's we've had all kinds of booms in california without, you know, gold, um film, um oil Uh defense, I mean we've had all kinds of booms in california. I just don't know if the the air taxi thing which is a week week third to uh academics and tourism in terms of our economy and And I just don't think it's gonna go anywhere. I really don't and um I don't know. I'm thinking about throwing my hat in the ring for the fifth, uh uh fifth district, uh Uh, you know, I just I don't know, you know, sand irons of valley is a very unique place It's about 15 of the county's population Uh, but it does include scott's valley, which I think uh economically can be contributing a lot more to the county Thank you Good morning. Welcome back Good morning and welcome back My name's Becky Steinbrunner. I live in rural Aptos Hills I want to first uh command staff on the nice change to the agenda Um segmenting the written correspondence listings. That's very helpful for the public and really gives attention To the the documents as they are class. So thank you I want to um Talk about the county's response to the county grand juries report about cyber attack and that this county does not have in place a very robust uh plan for Dealing with that and and a response plan It it troubles me that the the only response is yes, we agree with you that we're um vulnerable and we're working on it I would like to see some very specific um Timeline information because this is a real threat and we are Thanks to supervisor friend moving very quickly toward a digital wallet for the county and your board has also approved a consultant to investigate vaccine hesitancy of residents throughout The county that would be shared on a national website. I'm concerned about that And I ask you to stop that all right now until we have a good cyber security response plan and prevention I also um want to say this is coming up on the anniversary of the cz u fire I know you're having a report soon uh from chief armstrong But I am like you supervisor McPherson very disappointed with the slow and very low rates of rebuild And I want you to move forward to get the planning commission and the planning department on board with why and to streamline Permitting why are there so many permits issued and waiting? My last point and I'll finish up quickly. Thank you is uh, the state water board has just uh Completed public hearings for reducing the maximum contaminant level of chromium 6 I would like you to write a letter of support for that reduction We need to address our water contamination in the second district and fourth district. Thank you Good morning. Welcome back Yeah, good morning. My name is james ewing widman. I do not think that emily chang or lisa hernandez are still in the room I didn't see gail newell. It's quite interesting the commentary about this being some kind of fertility week You know, I'm not really quite sure where to begin. I put these plastic straws In my hand because that's one of the things you guys have accomplished. I think you've outlawed plastic straws But how many tens of tons of plastic during this scandemic lockdown were just put into landfill? You know, these things may last about 250 years Which is about what 99 of the construction over the last 250 years will only last This is actually a really exciting time to be a human on planet earth for seven reasons that I don't have time to go into detail But the bible certainly does So I have a friend that you know, we're kind of reading some stuff about socrates and other supposed great thinkers You know about what was going on between what is godly and ungodly I think your guys jobs are dramatically easier Because over the last 120 years about seven generations human beings have been greatly weakened So your your jobs as lawyers and county and city managers and supervisors and city council members are much easier But you know 45 years ago There were a lot of peace officers now They're just law officers in the home. And so it's a really beguiling situation When you stand outside any building and there's a us and american flag without the corporate pirate friends showing it So you guys are operating under a dual structure and it's very frustrating and the only people being thrown into the bus More than law enforcement and emergency responders are children and youth And that's not really something to be proud of so I mean I could be more direct. I was probably direct enough but Really is tiring saying mistake because does not become an error unless you refuse to correct it. So thank you Thank you. Is there anybody else in chambers? Madam clerk is everybody online. I'd like to address us. Yes chair. We have one speaker Call in user one your microphone is now available Here in the conversations about health care for everyone every day and everyone should have the opportunity to lead a healthy life definitely and what needs to be incorporated in that is the unhealthy assault on our health by wireless microwave technology And I'd like to read a statement from safe tech international dogs or global The 5g satellite the internet of things and this is the way our county is moving A data AI juggernaut entails the manufacture use and disposal Of thousands of satellites in space millions of new transmitters on the earth and trillions of iog gadgets devices appliances and things that together pose one of the greatest threats of all corporation Health and environmental assaults They're being sold to the public as a way to address climate change The gargantuan global technology footprint is itself a major contributor to environmental devastation On top of it the 5g infrastructure on earth and in space will escape and in escape will create an inescapable Digital microwave radiation surveillance grid Which will constitute a use set to personal freedom and autonomy 5g and satellites play an integral role in the weaponization and commercialization of space As well as the oceans and are being used to increase the lethality of war War thank you miss carrot Madam clerk is there anybody else online? Yes, we have one more speaker Bernie Gomez your microphone is now available Okay, thank you Chair and board of supervisors will be as good morning Bernie you can now speak All right, sorry about that. Good morning chair and board of supervisors. Just a quick comment on the civil grand jury's recent report on Continuing to kick the can right? Round jails and I just I would like to say that um You know we there is this uh This narrative right that uh, if you construct better facility If you have a state of the art Jail or prison, you know that people will be rehabilitated Um, and that in the south will create or not in the south but that but new facility will create Uh a sense of public safety, right? And I believe that's a very false narrative because You know the punishment is not In when you get locked up right when you're in there It's like the real challenge punishment is actually when you're released and when you're Trying to figure out life and uh, you know dealing with the traumas and struggles and all those things, right? post post incarceration So um regarding, you know, even thinking about constructing something new um I really think that if that's the case you also need to think about constructing the alternative Right to help reduce the the state of incarceration that uh That we find ourselves in you know, uh jail shouldn't be a de facto mental health Uh facility, right? It shouldn't be a substance. Uh, uh juice disorder facility um And I can go on and on on and on so you know also the last thing I will say is that the shortest shorted shorted uh staffing um that we're seeing is not It's it's not um Something unique to sancron tapping all across the nation the the state um And money is not gonna, you know, get get us out of the state of we any the state that we're in, right? So just looking for the alternative and uh looking forward to seeing where this goes. Thank you Thank you. Is there anybody else by the court? No more speakers chair. All right, we'll close public comment and bring it back to the board for consideration of the consent agenda and comments on the consent agenda I'll begin with supervisor Hernandez. Do you have any comments on the consent agenda? I do and also, um I I wanted to acknowledge and thank everyone who's here for uh national health center's week and for national, uh breastfeeding month and I plan to be there on friday at the plaza as well Um, I I do have uh items 30 31 32 33 I wanted to thank my new commissioners uh for taking on this endeavor and I really think that it is the first step to being a public servant as well and um, so I want to thank my efficient wildlife advisory commissioner, uh, Daniela Suarez My other efficient wildlife advisory commissioner brooks samson and my housing advisory commissioner, uh, Bianca alvarez And my mental health advisory. I have Celeste Gutierrez Thank you supervisor Hernandez supervisor comics Thank you chair and thank you for everyone who came uh to speak to us this morning. Um, I had a couple comments. Um item number 20. I saw was the, uh status on american rescue plan act recovery plan Um, and this is kind of tangentially related, but I think it'll be good for us to also get an update um in the near future about of the status of the female reimbursements. I know that um, you know, we're still hoping to see those funds come into the county and um help us as we recover from the various disasters that we've had and so Be really good if we could get an update on that and see how we can um, you know What role we can play in terms of reaching out to our better elected representatives If it's continuing to move very slowly because these funds are really critical for us to um maintain the county's operations um On item number 23 um My apologies for not being able to reach out sooner Um, but I would like to see if and this item is the approval of the contract for the one stop uh permit Uh center here at the county and I think it would be good for the board to receive the plans for What that project's going to be I mean this project's it's two million dollars for creating this one stop shop for um For cdi and I think that as part of the packet it would be good for us to just See what those plans are so we can understand Where these costs are coming in at um since it's going to be a two million dollar project um In addition to that my last comment is on item number 24 Disposal of surplus property and request and I would just like to ask um This is going back to some conversations. We had previously when I was on the city council, but um The downtown outreach um program that the city has Many of those workers don't have vehicles And they would be more than happy to help transport people who are having mental behavioral health issues to um the hospital or to um, you know if they need to go to the homeless shelter And one option that came up is that if there were at any point in time surplus vehicles They could be donated to encompass so that they those workers could have vehicles to provide those services That they would be open to having those conversations And so if there's any vehicle that may be utilized in that capacity that can be donated to Encompass for their downtown outreach worker program I think would be really helpful for being able to help transport people who are having mental behavioral health issues to The appropriate services and so that's all the comments I have and unfortunately I'm leaving after this meeting to go to the coastal commission meeting in oxnard So I won't be able to join on friday, but I hope everybody has a wonderful event in watsonville. Thank you Thank you. Suvaz are coming. Suvaz are calling Thank you chair For item 21 the Accepting and replying to the three grand jury reports. I want to take the opportunity to thank the members of the grand jury who Really largely volunteer for this effectively and dig into various issues throughout our county And the reports that we've got here today, um, of course three out of the total eight that were completed this year Um, you know in some cases they praise the county's process like on our core process to distribute grant funds to various non-profits In others they find opportunities for improvement. Um, like the jail report and The cyber security report. I think regardless of the details reports always provide a great opportunity for dialogue both within Among county staff and with the public and having lots of interesting conversations around these reports And so just really value the work that the civil grand jury does On item 23 the architecture agreement for the one stop permit center that as supervisor Cummings mentioned Um, I think that we've had plans associated with attached to previous items that we could certainly Find and um to take a look at. I'm really excited to see this project move forward Of course, we've done a lot of work internally, uh on the organization to streamline permitting And you know, I think all having a physical space to help operationalize that is really going to be beneficial Um, we're just glad to see that the design of the space has involved meetings with over 100 participants Who are directly involved in the permitting process so that ultimately it's going to reflect the people Reflect the needs of the people who use it every day Uh, and finally, I also want to thank everyone who came out today For breastfeeding awareness month as well as the chair for issuing the proclamation We do have a three month old at home who is Breastfeeding quite frequently and of course my wife going back to work. I can understand, um, you know, really what a Huge commitment and sacrifice so many women make uh to really bring all of us into the world And I hope that every child has the opportunity to be closer to their mother that way and I know that The closer they are with their mother and both their parents are the stronger and more loving we all become. Thank you Thank you supervisor conan supervisor mcpherson. Yeah, thank you, mr. Chair I just want to say thank you to each and every one of the volunteers and uh, your staff members who came here to recognize national health centers week Those are hundreds of people that are serving thousands of our counties thousands of our county residents And they're they're making a better life for many many people and they're to be congratulated and I thank you Thank each and every one of them for their service I too would like to um Respond a little to the grand jury Uh responses that we received uh an item number 21 I want to thank the county departments who played a role in drafting these responses and uh for the county and the And the community members who serve on the grand jury is hundreds of hours for them to do that It's very critical issues and in particular on the core report that It was it really a validation of the county's transition to a competitive word process for the core That allowed us to consider new programs with value to the community Um, I have felt for some time that the county Has been unduly criticized regarding the core process and I'd like to quote just a little from what the grand jury said about that Quote this investigation was to determine if there were any inefficiencies waste or abuse in the process And it is the jury's belief that the core process is being administered with integrity transparency And to create equity of opportunity for all applicants And there were 128 applicants for 15 million dollars plus and we had five million dollars to allocate The jury found that significant time and resources were spent to communicate With and to support all potential applicants in quote I couldn't agree more having gone through the development of the core process and when it went against uh once again I want to thank the county's uh human services department staff for its work and um to ensure that a competitive core process Works so well and with transparency Uh, it has also been mentioned about our county jails We all know that it's clear that we need to address physical improvements for the main jail in the coming years And i'm glad we've made some steps steps to address that it's going to take some time to to get that done As far as cyber security, which has also been mentioned a huge new topic and I really appreciate especially a chair friends In involvement in this It's become more serious by the day as cyber criminals become more and more sophisticated I'm glad we're working on the comprehensive plan and that's that's the issue We're directing some attention to it And I hope we can get to a plan and a resolution of what we should be doing To address this issue in the near future Thank you, mr. Chair. Thank you. Is there a motion for consent from one of my colleagues? I'll move the consent agenda second. All right, we have a motion from supervisor. Hernandez a second from supervisor conig If we could have a roll call, please Supervisor conig. Hi Cummings. Hi Hernandez. Hi McPherson. Hi and friend. All right, and that passes unanimously We'll move on to the first item of the regular agenda Which is a presentation by the graduates of the 2023 young supervisors academy has outlined in the memo Supervisor Hernandez and we do have the board member. I'll kick it to supervisor Hernandez for the introduction of this item Supervisor Hernandez Do we have a different order? Do you are you guys going to go first and then I go? Okay. Yeah, can you just introduce? First of all, I want to thank all the all the all the families all the parents of the 2023 young super young supervisors academy And I want to thank all my staff for being flexible and accommodating and I want to thank Celeste and Jennifer Hernandez, Celeste Kicheras That'll lead the presentation Hello, good morning everyone Thank you all for being here to it's a little bit. Um, I don't know what the word would be It's almost like deja vu the last time we were here. We had our mock supervisors Our young supervisors mock graduation and this was all filled by students like every single position including cao county council the board of the clerk So it's a little bit surreal being here today. Um, thank you all for being here and I just want to share that the young supervisors academy was really started to be able to give To be able to um help young people in district forward develop their leadership skills and their team skills And also learn how local government Agriculture business and the community are interconnected and also as a long-term investment in young people When young people are able to see themselves in these different positions right now when they're still in high school Or they're about to start college It gives them this vision of what their future can hold And what we learned and you'll hear from some of the participants is that often When you are exposed to certain ideas or possibilities the likelihood of you actually pursuing that increases exponentially And what we learned when we went to different departments Or visited with different business owners is that oftentimes people Ended up pursuing careers that their parents had or they were I won't mention any names They were writing when they were in college Like i'm going to be the director of public works in tannicus when they were 18 19 years old and now they work in public works So I share all this because really we wanted the participants to step into their leadership But also to start thinking about you know What what can I do to go off to college learn Explore new ideas and then bring it back and invest into my own community in the future And we visited many different places They students actually met with some of the people that are in the room here today and it wasn't just county Departments, they also visited the Watson water treatment plant, which was a field trip in and of itself They learned about how all the different waterways are interconnected visited the O'Neill sea odyssey The art how the arts are interconnected with this as well and different farms as you all know district 4 has a lot of farms And some of the feedback that we we have participants that will share their feedback today But some of the feedback that we got from not everyone is able to come today Is that it made them feel a lot more aware of their own local community? And that they might consider getting involved in local government as we all have heard Plenty of times from various departments of how hard it is to hire people Because of how expensive it is to live in tannicus county by actually hiring people That live here that helps solve some of those problems And this is a picture. We were actually here in chambers of the first class and i'm going to pass it over to jennifer Good morning board members I am jennifer Hernandez and i am privileged to introduce myself as an intern under the guidance of supervisor Hernandez while also playing a vital role in the young board of supervisors academy It fills me with great pride to recount the experience of educating young minds about the significance of local governments Our program catered to a diverse group Of high school and early college students and it was immensely rewarding to witness Their journey of enlightenment throughout the duration of the academy One of my responsibilities involved curating and analyzing survey feedback from the participants A prevailing theme that emerged from the responses was their profound appreciation of the field trips to the different departments Which provided them with a connection to the workings of local government One where they learned the importance of networking and it was a discovery of previously unknown career paths Which brought into their horizons and fueled their aspirations We initiate initiated discussions with different departments to witness the current government status And explore how our voices can make a difference in bringing about change It is with enthusiasm and gratitude that i present this report The impact we've made on these young minds serves as a testament to the power of Education exposure and active engagement I look forward to continuing our shared mission of nurturing informed And empower future leaders as i am one and one that will encourage others I sincerely urge the board to contemplate the possibility of organizing similar academies in the future Having personally witnessed the tremendous benefits from Exposing young individuals to the inner workings of local government And facilitating the discovery of their passions. I am convinced of the lasting impact such initiatives can have. Thank you Thank you Now we'll actually hear from some of my mic Again, okay, and now we'll actually hear from some of the participants from the young supervisors academy Good morning board of supervisors. My name is Selena Salvador from Santa Cruz county district 4 I am a first-generation incoming freshman at San Jose state university where my focus is social work I will briefly talk about my experience at the young supervisor academy As a resident of the city of watsonville the opportunity to meet with the different departments I feel has helped me learn more about my town as a whole and even obtain a possible internship job That will help me succeed in my profession I was only able to obtain this opportunity as we connected with people so close Working in my city being exposed. I am excited to hopefully be working and serving my community From day one, we were exposed to knowledge knowledge that made our brains hurt, but in a good way Like how and why we should support our watsonville stores and also understanding the importance for us the youth to come back and serve in our community I want to encourage you all to offer this opportunity to your district youth as having experienced it myself when students have the opportunity to To exposure it brings opportunity like us visiting departments that can offer jobs as young as 60 It will also help them learn about the different jobs available as they meet and connect where they discover They don't have to move our way in order to do what they love It also helps build their resume, but just the experience and connections built benefit them as they practice their leadership skills communication And taking opportunity for themselves Thank you Good morning board of supervisors. My name is Isabel Lovato Vicencio and I was a part of mr. Anandas' Young supervisors academy this summer. I would like to share some of the experiences I had while being a part of this program I thoroughly enjoyed going to the various field trips across santa cruz county Which included the public defender's office the sheriff's office and the beach boardwalk I was able to learn more about the different legislative and community serving jobs district four and santa cruz county has to offer I hope that this academy will will continue to inspire and encourage more students to learn more about their community and how they can serve them Thank you Good morning board of supervisors. My name is Mariana Lovato Vicencio and I'm about to start my senior year at watsville high school When I first heard about the young supervisors academy. I instantly knew that would be a great program to join Throughout the program we were able to visit various places and people who are part of our community and learn more about what they do I was able to learn more about local government and about my community through this program I was also able to meet new people who made this experience so much fun All in all is a great experience and I hope that more students in the future are able to enjoy this experience. Thank you Uh, good morning board of supervisors. I am Fatima Nava one of the students from young supervisors academy The four weeks of this program. I've learned a lot about our community county and the jobs that help build on it With the topic about our community. I am more aware of the issues and how our youth can help create a better future for our town This opportunity has also inspired me to not give up with pursuing in law after high school Thank you to Athena and aljala from our community's public defenders team When you're choosing to hold this program for your district um For your district you're helping your youth and their future if the young supervisors academy has inspired me to become Involved in the future of santa cruz county for district four. It can also inspire your teens to become future board leaders Thank you. Good morning board of supervisors. I am elisa magana And i'm one of the students that participated in this supervisors academy This program has been an eye-opening experience that has inspired me to become a leader in my community Without this academy, I would have never known about the opportunities that are out in the world Especially in my community making connections and gaining insight of how our county works has been beneficial for my peers and I It would be incredibly beneficial for other districts by making this opportunity Open for the youth You're investing in the future of our county Thank you Good morning, everyone. Um, I am johnna rosas Um, I was a student participant in the young supervisors academy. Um, I'm very glad this academy was brought um to district four as it did give us the opportunity to learn more um Opportunity to learn more about how our city county works and the opportunities we have in our community And i'm hoping that with the young supervisors academy being brought to district four. It helps motivate other districts as well Um to bring this program Into their districts as it is a great way to expose and inspire the youth on how to be more involved in their communities It was honestly such a great experience and i'm honored to be part of the first um class and I strongly encourage for youth and district four to sign up for next year's um Academy and I want to thank, um Felipe celeste jennifer and ramon who is in here with us today But it was honestly a really great idea to bring this um To to our community and thank you Thank you So I I really want to thank staff that put this together with promone celeste jennifer But especially celeste that really spearheaded this endeavor And put it all and put it all together. Uh, and for always being there for the students as well um, I have to say that I was immensely proud of all the students and all that you know, it was proud of the outstanding young adults that we have here today who who um, you know comprised this first inaugural class Of the young supervisors academy. It brought me, you know, a lot of joy to witness these bright young minds um, you know, dedicating their their summer and delving into the intricate workings of of our local and county governments Their decision to invest their time their energy Into this and into this endeavor reflected their exceptional character And their sincere commitment to making positive impact in our community You know, the this program of the young supervisors was started in 2012 by Monterey county supervisor, uh, louisa lejo and it's the first of its kind of program um To introduce young leaders to local government politics Uh public policy and leadership When I was elected into office, I wanted to bring it to san cruz county specifically to district four um, as you know in in district four of south county district four specifically Has over 30 percent, uh young people under under the age of 18 uh As you know, the city of scott's valley has that's over 15 000 people that are under the age of of of 18 in district four imagine All of scott's valley being under 18. That's what we have in watsonville. Um 15 000 people that are under 18 This program was also created because when I was young and my family We didn't know any politicians council members supervisors congress members or senators So this academy was created To be that family connection to public servants And to support young people and all that they do even after the academy is over The young supervisors academy is really um equity in action And I want to express my heartfelt gratitude to all the departments All the department heads and that participated in this enriching experience for the young supervisors From the public defendant defender's office the district attorney's office the sheriff's office Human health services public works elections department Uh, the santa cruz county arts council land trust Roaring camp or the boardwalk meted by You know a couple of farms that participated In your collab collaboration and dedication Um, it was integral to the success of this program Um, I want to give special I would like to give a special recognition to the young people from watsonville Who's unwavering dedication truly stood out Your willingness to be the driving force of change in our community Is commendable beyond words your enthusiasm and determination To be the difference you wish to see Serves an inspiration to all of us As they as they engage in these various departments I knew that this experience would equip them with invaluable insights and skills leadership and a renewed sense of purpose They emerged from this program not only with a deeper understanding of local government But with a strong commitment to fostering positive change in our community We all know they couldn't have done it alone. So I would also like to commend All the parents of the young supervisors who took part in making this program successful And facilitating the journey for the kids To be the best that they can be Congratulations to the first inaugural class of the young supervisors academy Your actions have set a remarkable example for others to follow. So thank you very much Thank you. This is not an action item But it's an opportunity for members of the community to address this on this item because it is an agendized item on Or the agenda Good morning. Welcome back Hey, yes, thank you. My name is james you and Whitman. It was actually a pleasure To witness this it is just amazing The opportunities that youth have and this is an amazing opportunity So I just so happened to have several copies of the citizen's rulebook It's got some errors in it, but I won't talk about the errors On page four it describes how a juror has more power Than the president or the supreme court because you can actually question what's going on Now I don't invite anybody to actually believe a word. I say they should do their own research But with this it briefly describes the three us constitutions. We were a constitutional republic For less than 13 years. So it is really a dog and pony show So I would think that any mentor or teacher could be like a parent or a grandparent And you're going to take the good and and maybe ignore the bad But um on page 26 of this Which I gave to those individuals including some extras. It has our declaration of independence It clearly described why the folks in the us broke away from the east india trading company Which is great britain But the situation is going on right now or a thousand times worse with our uh Operations, you know, you guys use interesting language like stockholders.  I don't consider myself a useless eater or any of the individuals You know, I've spoke about how difficult it is for peace officers who are now law enforcement Who walk this delicate line to enforce? Situation is that you guys have created that may be legal But I mean who knows how logical or holy or in holy they are So it's just great to witness you guys trying to do something and it was great to be able to give them a A gift I don't expect anybody to believe a word. I say but you should certainly do your own research So thank you gentlemen Thank you Good morning and welcome back Good morning Becky Steinbrunner Supervisor Hernandez. Thank you This is marvelous and it is so heartening to see these young people here And to know that they spend a lot of their summer learning about government and are excited to understand it better Maybe one day they'll be all up there That's the goal, isn't it? So thank you and I challenge the other supervisors to open up programs like this in all districts It should encompass all districts of the county And I would like to ask that your board establish a young supervisors place at the table two places where each Meeting would have two young supervisor graduates or aspiring young supervisors here Watching you listening to the public And to establish a young commission a young supervisors commission That would meet regularly all of them together Share their information share their ideas share their enthusiasm For being a public servant as you all are And participating in local government and making our communities all better And that commission would come to you with their recommendations I challenge you to do this in the next six months Let's feed on the beautiful work that supervisor Hernandez has begun and expanded. Thank you Anybody else like to address us in chambers? Madam clerk, is there anybody online? Yes, we have two speakers online. Sure Colin user one your microphone is now available Air link error and I was a teacher in Watsonville and A major concern is a problem. I should say is the toxicity of the pesticides that Everyone is exposed to and We had a group farm without harm That's what we should have ecological and organic agriculture And I would I commend you young people I want to see you have a healthy future without a polluted environment And encourage you to advocate for banning pesticides and Requiring organic and ecological agriculture as well as The wireless microwave technology Which is damaging everybody's health? I want to give you some references to look up because students study Cell phone task force.org is an excellent source of information Citizens for responsible technology Children's health defense dot org What's more important than defending children's health including yours? And It's like the elephant in the room and I talked to the young person who sat the high school student on power of valley school district Board She's gone off to college now And I spoke to her before the meeting about the dangers of microwave radiation Causing cancer etc And she said to me Well, I don't think it would be approved if it weren't safe And in a decent thank you. Ms. Karen. Is there there's another speaker? Thank you. Yes, sir Bernie your microphone is now available Once again, good morning chair for the supervisors, uh, bernie gomez with milpa This first and foremost, I just want to say, uh A man district for supervisor anand is celestial with tears And ramon and all involved right in creating this and making this Happen It was a very honor And privilege to be able to meet these young Leaders this next generation of leaders And I don't know if they're still In the room or not, but I just want to say, uh, thank you for Uh, taking that leap of faith, you know, and uh, taking that initiative to wanting to learn to, uh, wind it just, uh, experience Uh, explore right what it is to be in, uh in government To learn about how government works. Um, and I just, uh, I just say, uh, to you to continue to stand firm in your values in your cultura um to Listen to your experience, right?    Thank you Thank you. Is there anybody else online? There are no further speakers chair. All right. Um Are there any comments from board members, please supervisor conan. Thank you chair I just wanted to take a quick moment to thank supervisor conan as and staff for bringing this program to our county I mean, it's clearly really inspired a lot of our local youth. Um, it's great to hear from them a little bit earlier and You know, we need our government to be transparent and accessible, especially the young people And one of the biggest challenges our county has is hiring and so I think that as we uh continue to invest in this program and expand it It'll ultimately be in the county's own best interest because we'll be inspiring people to careers in public service And ensuring the future of our local workforce so i'm Very interested in reviewing the curriculum a little bit more and i've got all kinds of great ideas For how we can improve it and expand it. I I like the uh suggestion By miss steinberner to form a commission that sort of perpetuates this group moving forward after the academy itself And if I look uh looking forward for ways to bring it to the first district Supervisor Cummings I just want to thank um Supervisor Hernandez for his leadership on this effort. Um as someone who for four years, um Ran a nonprofit that was really focused on increasing diversity and leadership in the field of environmental conservation I know how important these kinds of programs are to inspire youth and get them engaged And especially with local government and you know how we're seeing Fewer people applying for jobs for local government and the challenges with finding even people Good who are we going to run for local government? I think this is an opportunity for us to really educate young people in our community on the possibilities of Working and being engaged and involved in their local government And so my hope is that you know, we can continue having conversations around how we can expand this and have this Be inclusive of all the districts. Um, and also, um, I think it's a great opportunity for us to engage with the local school boards and County Office of Education to see how we might be able to scale this and invite them and his partners as well I know that for For the staff and supervisor Hernandez's office end of supervisor Hernandez as well but a lot of time into Kind of rolling this program out and any expansion of this kind of an effort would definitely need more Hands on deck and so look forward to Reading the report and hearing more about how the experience was for the young the young people who are involved and Hope we can continue to think about how we can expand this further in the county. Thank you Thank you All right, we're going to move on to the next item which is item eight A presentation of the 2023 california fire season by fire chief nape armstrong is outlined in the memo the director of general services We are the agenda board memo and we have our chief armstrong here. Welcome back Good to see you for the presentation Thank you very much. Good morning chair friend supervisors. Mr. Palacios. Thank you for having me here this morning say to nape armstrong and the unit chief of the cal fire San Mateo Santa Cruz unit and also by contract the fire chief of your Santa Cruz county fire department Again, it kind of dance both sides of the line here a little bit this morning and give just a brief update on the county fire department and then Dip into a little bit of what to expect out of the coming months from the cal fire side All right, um, so just a brief review of the Santa Cruz county fire department This is actually the 75th year of a cooperative agreement between uh, Santa Cruz county and cal fire to provide the services to Santa Cruz county A brief snapshot of that is that we provide a year-round fire marshal And training services as well as dispatch services through cal fire staff to the Santa Cruz county fire department We also administer The five volunteer companies spread throughout the county and those companies are The areas of los cumbres bonny dune loma prieta Davenport and corelitos We have we seem to struggle we hover around 60 to 70 volunteers would spend a long time hope to get that number up However, uh, just with today's times it seems like those numbers continue to wane and and today as we sit we're at about 65 volunteers countywide for Santa Cruz county fire and then in the uh In the I call it the non peak fire season month. So at what most would call winter, uh We uh, Santa Cruz county funds to keep several fire engines cal fire engines staffed Throughout the county to continue providing those services the cal fire provides in the fire season and then uh, just a brief note on the most recent contract renewal with cal fire This board recently approved a one-year contract renewal and a couple of changes to that Renewal this year a major step forward added some full-time staffing positions and that will allow uh cal fire to be able to maintain that amador staffing in the winter And also kind of redirected a couple of positions To create a position that will be focused on uh planning and implementing fuel reduction projects in the county fire area A little bit on mobile equipment replacement. This is all been made possible from the 2020 uh ballot measure by csa 48 Um, one of the major initiatives of that was to replace the aging fleet So outlined a couple of those uh recent advancements here that have happened since this last fall Uh, we got a two new type one engines Which most people think of is like the city fire engines and those went to the communities of coralitos in davinport as well as uh, the sister engine to those, uh identical went to the paul road dunes community, which is technically part of county fire was self-funded under csa 4 We uh received and put into service two new rescue vehicles for the communities of coralitos in davinport Those are basically a heavy-duty truck with a lot of compartments and rescue equipment They require a lower level license and so a lot of more of our volunteers are able to respond those to the non-fire calls such as medical aids Uh vehicle accidents and so forth We do have a new water tender That is here in santa cruz county We're just waiting for a little bit of warranty work from the manufacturer on that And then that'll be going into place in bonny dune and then a couple of new staff vehicles for our fire marshal and our training captain A couple more vehicles that are already on order. We've had uh three new uh type three engines, which are the wildland Kind of style engines the most people think of Those have been on order two of them since 2021 and another one since last year We're looking at about three year delivery times on new fire engines right now. So really having to to plan ahead Uh, and then a couple more staff vehicles as well as one new type one engine budgeted for this year Uh, like I say, this was all made possible by that ballot measure in 2020 This year putting seven new vehicles into service. We are able to surplus a total of 12 Um aged vehicles that had an average uh age of 25 years old So kind of a big step forward in modernizing the fleet Moving into the master plan.  It is uh, the primary responsible of the fire department advisory commission to Write and update that plan that plan was last updated in 2012 and was a three-year plan. So, uh, this past year in 2022 Cal fire and general services staff started working with a couple of members of that fdac To try to update that plan And it just seemed like a bigger lift Than a couple of internal folks could do We were looking for a more robust and more involved plans. So we uh, we contracted with a firm by the name of ap triton They have been doing a very in-depth analysis of everything from training standards to staffing standards response time standards, etc And that we'll be getting a very objective A third party report. I put a late summer early fall But realistically we're hoping for that within a couple of weeks. We would really hope To be moving forward and that'll kind of help us as a roadmap Um for future planning for the county fire A quick update on the fire marshal's office Uh, as a result of the tragic uh, go ship fire of 2016 and all the the loss of life there There was a state legislation that mandates certain occupancies be uh inspected annually by the fire department having jurisdiction Part of that legislation mandates that it be reported to uh, the governing board So, uh for 2022 county fire area csa 48 has 22 of those types of occupancies and csa 4 Or pauper o dunes has three and those types of occupancies are are high volume occupancies like jails uh care facilities hotels Uh multi multi residential type facilities and we did inspect 100 of those occupancies in 2022 and will again in 2023 Uh, aside from those types of inspections We do have standard business type inspections that are uh our engine companies go out and perform Our goal is to do half of those every year in the jurisdiction So on a two-year cycle we'll complete 100 and in 2022 we did complete 67 of 79 of those A rate of 84 percent. So we're a little overzealous there, but we'll we'll hit that mark again this year Uh, we continue to work our fire marshal's office continues to be very busy working on rebuilds in the 2020 uh, czu august lightning complex footprint, uh much thanks to uh community community development infrastructure as well as this board for continuing that contract with the vendor For uh more streamlining of that of that process it decreases our a lot of the workload on the individual offices and then uh, like I mentioned in uh, the contract we were able to eliminate a couple of Two positions in the fire marshal's office this year that happened just through attrition from retirements And what we'll be able to do is increase efficiency by contracting some of those plan check services out to a third party vendor And that'll allow us to hire um that fuel reduction uh position, which we're working on hiring right now Segway into a little bit of county fire a little bit of cal fire. This is a great a great example of cooperative fire protection And uh, the photo you're seeing is attract chipper The acquisition of that chipper with cal fire funds was recently approved by this board We haven't received it yet. It's still on order But what that'll do is allow us to Move that chipper back into wooded areas where we would normally have to drag a lot of material out to the roads to chip Or leave it in place and then we do this dance every spring of trying to burn all these piles before it gets too hot and everything So that's just another tool in the tool chest that'll allow us To meet fuel reduction needs in the community Moving more on to the cal fire side Um, this is just a look at historical Uh fire ignitions within the county and I'll also talk about it on the statewide level So cal fires major operational objective is to keep 95 percent of fires to 10 acres or less and by and large We do a really great job of that Uh in 2022 There were 112 vegetation fires and this is Um This is solely in the state responsibility area. We also the cal fire also responds outside into local jurisdictions like the state of Watsonville or Santa Cruz city where they have primary Uh jurisdiction for wildland fires, but this is solely for a state responsibility area So we had 112 vegetation fires in the two counties For a total of 92.8 acres Uh that brings that average obviously way down 97 percent of the fires that we responded to Were kept to that 10 acres or less and the largest fire that we happened to have in 2022 was In the county of san Mateo on a 100 degree day in june and that was at 29 acres Uh year to date so far. Sorry as of yesterday morning in Santa Cruz county We have had 16 vegetation fires for a whopping total of 1.68 acres. So so far this year Obviously meeting that uh meeting that objective, although things are starting to get warmer and activities starting to pick up So looking back at some prior years. I won't delve uh really deep into this, but this is just a look at the past Seven or eight years like I just went over the 2022 stats And you can see that by and large, uh, we do get a fair amount of vegetation fires in the county Uh, most people just don't usually notice them because they aren't the very large scale very notice Well, you can see the average fire size as the years go along that bottom row there Um typically about in the one but usually less than than uh five acres as an average And then we had a couple of anomaly years there between 2017 and 2020 Where that average obviously comes away up by uh one large devastating fire uh either way, um Either way you look at it. Um, we're still uh generally meeting that 95 Goal of 10 acres or less and keep them pretty small in the county On a state and region wide, uh look, uh, this is just the last couple of years as well as a look at the five year average Uh state and region wide or sorry statewide for the five year average Again, uh, this is representative of kind of the the long wet winter that we all had We didn't it wasn't just santa cruz county. It was obviously statewide And so you're starting to see a very slow Transition into the peak fire year here. Um as we come into august I put a asterisk next to that, uh 95,000 acres so far in 2023 Uh, that was a result of last week when these stats were pulled there was a 75,000 acre fire in federal protection area In the desert of california along the nevada border not near populated area or anything So aside from that fire, which we include in the total If hadn't been for that you'd see that we'd only be at about 20 or 30 thousand acres right now statewide Which is pretty impressive for the beginning of august and again representative of that wet winter and the real slow build up um, but again, um similar to the local pattern for seeing fewer fires generally for fewer acres, uh region wide and across the state Uh, that is starting to pick up quite a bit. We saw things start to heat up this last week. Um across large areas We're starting to see the grass crops really starting to cure out in the areas that have a lot of grass like current county The front country of fresno county and so forth You're really starting to see a lot more ignitions and a little more difficulty in containing those fires, but So far yet to have any truly major incidents in the state Uh looking at uh cal fires aviation assets. Everybody's always wants to know about aircraft So uh cal fire does have the largest civil firefighting air force in the world um, and that's been a long stance on federal excess uh equipment so from our fixed wing aircraft the the air attacks and the uh The old sub hunter planes that we use as air tankers to the to the vietnam era Bell helicopters that we've been utilizing forever. Uh, we're starting to transition those into a little bit more of a modern fleet So this daily staffing across the state as far as aircraft goes in the in the peak fire year is 11 helicopters 13 air attacks and 22 air tankers uh, both of these photos on the on the presentation were taken During the last year's uh, daylight vega fire. We had one of each of the types of helicopters on that So in the upper left there, you see that bell helicopter those Hell of anywhere from 250 to 300 gallons of water There's only one or two of those left front line in the state Those should be transitioning to the newer aircraft Which you see in the lower right this year And that's the uh Sikorsky s70i which most people in the military world known as a blackhawk. We call it a firehawk Um, so those are holding up to a thousand gallons of water. It's a lot faster can carry a heavier a larger crew and um the local uh Helicopter that services this area over next to lexington reservoir is in one of those newer aircraft already Uh, so like I say, we should continue that transition this year with the last two helicopters And the other thing that we're working on is transitioning seven federal excess uh c 130 aircraft into uh retard and dropping tankers for cal fire that's been a About a three or four year, uh Project at this point, but hopefully moving forward a little quicker, uh soon another uh piece on aircraft, um, that's been Utilized by cal fire for a couple of years now and seems to be bolstering a little bit Each year is the use of exclusive use aircraft and what that is is cal fire contracts with these uh private contractors Um and have them basically on retainers so that they can't be used Can't contract out and go to other fires throughout the nation and so forth. So they're We dispatch them just like cal fire aircraft. They're always available to us in the in that period that they're contracted It's a pretty significant investment. Um, and we've seen a lot of success with this aircraft So, uh for 2023, there's 18, uh water dropping helicopters statewide Um 13 of the 18 of those carry 2000 plus gallons of water So a whole lot of water uh being delivered to the fire The closest ones to uh, san jacuzzi county are out of uh small airports in napa and sonoma county But that doesn't mean they can't get here real quick The photo on the slide here was taken on that lard that 29 acre fire in san mateo that I mentioned last year and All told everybody said that the the use of both those aircraft played a huge role in stopping that from damaging any structures Um, I am saddened to report, uh that Two days ago in the riverside unit Of cal fire, uh two of these exclusive use aircraft fighting a small vegetation fire did have a mid-air collision and That collision ended in the loss of life of two cal fire personnel as one as as well as the one contract helicopter pilots so Tragic loss of those three individuals, uh of their families and um to the firefighting community in general um, so like I said everybody always wants to know about aircraft and um, we appreciate the aircraft. They're absolutely great at um Keeping fires small, but uh, I've never seen a fire completely put out with aircraft It all comes down to the folks on the ground And there's no more unsung heroes. I don't think that our hand crews Uh, they do the least glamorous work And we've been challenged since 2020 to keep our hand crew numbers what they need to be Uh, historically through our relationship with the california department of corrections. We had 196 hand crews funded statewide Due to different changes throughout the uh, covid pandemic and so forth They've struggled to keep those numbers up. So many of those or several of the camps were defunded Um and repurposed So we now have a 152 of those cd str hand crews Funded statewide, but still struggling to keep those numbers up. So as of today Uh, 72 of the 152 crews are staffed statewide And only 61 of those have enough folks on them to actually respond to a fire because we have a minimum for safety What that's done is forced um an adaptation that seems to change a little bit every year as uh, we roll with the punches Um, and that's been bolstering other programs within cal fire. So partnerships with the california conservation corps Uh, we now have 32 of those crews funded statewide Um, 29 of them as of today are staffed. Some of them are just, uh, uh transitioning because they're losing some of their folks to cal fire and so forth So it's it's an interesting dynamic, but uh the photo on the slide here is of the Is of our own 3c crew out of the watsonville work center monoray bay crew one And I truly believe and we've been told by a lot of external folks That is probably the absolute best 3c hand crew in the state They're done an absolute phenomenal job and a lot of it has to do with our local captain out of the city of watsonville there Cal fire employee captain rich switzer. So he's building a fantastic crew They're doing a great job for the community. We also now have, uh, 35 Crews staffed with just cal fire personnel Cal fire firefighters, which has been a change And then 14 crews that we have in partnership with The california military department also Many folks probably knows the national guard So continuing to adapt to those needs And we're hoping always that those numbers start to come up a little bit And then moving into uh, as we come to an end here Other things that cal fire has happened and do is a lot of investments in technology right now A whole lot that aren't public yet or Maybe not for um need further development But a couple of things that are already out there Is this um continuing investment in the alert california system. This was previously known as alert wildfire now It's alert california Um over the last four years cal fire has put close to 20 million dollars into this system Have hundreds of cameras statewide helping to detect fires early And uh investing another about three and a half million dollars this year Piloting artificial intelligence so that um The computers can detect without uh human eye so Working on that this year as well as continuing the partnership with um calo yes For the fireis program and what that is there's a snapshot of one of the products there on the screen It's a couple of aircraft that fly at a very high altitude They're available all year long statewide and they respond to fires with Super high definition cameras infrared capabilities and so forth as well as some um Fire modeling software. So we're getting real time data whether it be video or projections Like the one you see here straight to our cell phones Was we're responding to vegetation fires that they happen to be over So exciting things happening with technology And then as far as fire prevention goes We have a lot of different grant programs one of the major ones that happens is these cal fire prevention grants There seems to be multiple Kind of rollouts a year the most recent one awarded 96 projects statewide for 113 million dollars Um seven of those 96 projects happen to be right here in san montao and santa cruz counties I think five of them were in santa cruz for a total of 3.5 million dollars and a big reason for that is We don't have all the people to do all of the fire prevention projects year round It's just fire prevention needs are outpacing our operations folks the folks on the fire engines of hand crews And so this has been a major push over the last few years is to inject that money into the local communities Into the rcds the sorry the resource conservation districts fire safe councils to fire wise communities all of them And locally we've done a we've had a really great opportunity with a lot of our local partners To make those projects happen All right, so as far as local conditions go, uh, like I said, we're we're very similar to the rest of the state Everybody got ahead of very wet winter a couple of things that we saw out of that huge grass crop And santa cruz county, I know there's we do have areas that are grassy But not like these huge swaths of the grass like in the central valley and so forth We are starting to see an uptick in the grass fires that we're getting like particularly in south county We've been responding quite a bit more this last week as As those grasses cure out But the pictures here are uh representative of what a result of the winter And what that means to us on a fire protection side is a lot of blocked roads We're out there trying to clear them. Um, the folks, um Our county roads folks are doing a great job prioritizing those and um helping get us to areas that we need to be able to get to within the county Uh, we're out repairing fire roads and so forth That middle picture is what worries me for future years. Um, that is What we are seeing all over the woods and the streams and everything else throughout the county is a ton of dead and down materials A result of the winter storms Uh, I don't think personally that it'll we'll see a huge impact from it this year As most that material is going to take at least a season to cure and really dry But this next fire season we could be looking at a large amount of accumulated dead mass on the forest floors and Looking at a large fire problem with that So, uh as a whole I believe we're looking we already are looking at a little bit later of a peak to the fire year Which has been a good, um rest and able to work through some of these access type issues I do expect to see kind of what we would have seen in years past like a 2017 18 In those years where we don't start to see a whole lot of fires within santa cruz county until those fall months Of september maybe early october and so forth and kind of More representative of what a lot of folks got pretty used to for a long time in the county and then finally, uh, sorry to end on a somber note But uh, just need to spend just a moment to recognize the loss of daniel lamoth on uh, february 19th uh, daniel lamoth who was a very popular young man in santa cruz county uh Was wanting to become a volunteer firefighter to serve the community that he grew up in Uh, and potentially move on to a full-time career as a firefighter uh was participating in his initial training to be a santa cruz county volunteer uh had a medical emergency while participating in that training and we were unable to Revive daniel. So he's to come to his injuries at or sorry his medical condition at the young age of 38 and it's just a a stark reminder of the folks that Take the leap to serve their community and and trained to be ready for those For those emergencies and just the sacrifices made so again, sorry to end on a somber note But just want to remember daniel lamoth and available for any questions you may have Thank you chief for the presentation. Thank you for taking the time to honor Your fallen colleagues in southern california as well as daniel. We appreciate Uh, fat. I'm going to open it up for questions from my colleagues suvra's mcverson yeah, thank you Chief armstrong and Our general services director michael beaten for your work And cal fire for funding the resource conservation districts Shaded fuel break that's going to be Do a lot to protect scott's valley and the santa runes of valley And thank you also to the rcds the regional conservation districts neighborhood shipping program I have a question. Maybe it's for Mr. Beaton When do you anticipate that labco? um It's study will conclude On the annexation potential of county fire service areas Thank you sir. Why is our microwave and doctor general services? We are currently meeting with labco on a almost a bi-weekly basis trying to go through And understand when we're having the consultant who's also the same consultant that we're using for our county fire master plan AP triton, uh, we did have a discussion with ap triton very recently that they're really close on the labco study And making a recommendation or at least having the results and findings So i'm hoping that within the next month or so we should have something fairly Um for us to look at uh from ap triton on both the county fire master plan side as well as the labco study But my guess would be about a month About And when it's available the board We can expect to see it then a month later than that or is it going to be months later than that I would have to defer over to labco. I'm not exactly positive on their their side I know they probably go to the labco commission first And then from there depending on what the results are would ultimately come to the board here Thank you Survisor conan Thank you chair. Thank you for the presentation chief armstrong um well, of course, uh It's some of the the new and exciting toys that uh are are cool to learn about like the track chipper and the fire hawks As you pointed out the real core part of our fire response comes down to the people And uh in particular I continue to be concerned about the um lack of hand crews that are available to respond uh two fires um first question is Our own ben loman conservation camp which houses fire crews. Are they one of the fire ready groups? Yeah, sorry. Thank you for the question Supervisor conan. Uh, so our ben loman camp is a good example Like I said, we're we're down statewide that ben loman camp is funded for five crews And we're running two crews out of there right now The promising piece of that is as of this morning those crews are completely full And so if we get an influx of a couple more Inmate firefighters, we should be able to switch to grand those crews be smaller But we would be able to field three of them and we kind of go back and forth based on the numbers that we have between two and three crews so They are still there just not a full capacity and haven't been since 2020 got it And I know the conservation camp program is a collaboration, of course with the department of corrections and I think You know, one of the big reasons we're seeing so many Fewer folks in those programs is of course because we have I think 20 000 vacant prison beds in the state, which As a result of realignment. Um, so there's just less people that are eligible to enter the programs Is there any discussion within cal fire of I mean changing the Eligibility for some of the programs. I mean so that you know, maybe even just some specific camps are Um, you know for people that have necessarily You know coming straight from the prisons, but um, you know, maybe we're just referred As part of a you know potential substance use Um program. I mean if these these camps do offer a range of rehabilitative services I'm just looking at the ben loman conservation camp page now they talk about You know the fact that they offer educational services substance abuse programs religious programs hobby craft and g ed in college courses So it seems like um, there is a good fit there and then of course There's a lot of great things about the programs that really do help People rehabilitate. I just that the sense of purpose and serving their community I've heard, you know first-hand testimonials from people who have been through these programs that said, you know I basically went from a zero a minister society to a hero Saving small towns from fire So it just seems like we've got to find a way to to make Bring these programs back and serve more people and just wondering what the state of the conversation is within cal fire Sure. And thank you again for the question to answer the question shortly. Yes. Those conversations are being had To be a lot longer All of it's in partnership with california department of corrections and rehabilitation. So any of those changes Are driven by both There are other opportunities there. One example is the ventura Facility that was created a few years ago And that is exactly what you're talking about. It's basically like a step down Not being an inmate incarcerated Camp but for folks that were recently paroled and want to rehabilitate and do a more fruitful career And so that is a good example of exactly what you're asking for and I I can't tell you if that's in the the tealies to continue or not But uh, would hope to see anything that can bolster our numbers Was that program driven by the specific conservation camp or was sort of a Pilot for the program as a whole. I honestly couldn't tell you but I'll definitely find out. All right. Thanks. Good to know. Thank you See those are in mandus You mentioned there's a slide too you mentioned that there was debris from the winter storms Uh, do we still have significant amounts of debris of like wood? And the wood chips that we have is that enough to bring down the and start applying for that too to That's the kind of a million dollar question and that goes back to partnering with a lot of the local agencies Like I said, we we don't have the the person power to go out and take care of all of that material and we tend to focus more around Um populated communities and so forth. Although all of it's obviously an issue uh, so Pardon the pun, but we'll start to chip away at it. Um, and We're gonna we're gonna do everything we can through different alternative programs and so forth The hard part is constantly for us that the same folks that are on the fire engines fighting the fires and everything and doing Defensible space inspections around homes and everything are the same bodies that we have to do the fire prevention projects So that's why it's so important to involve the communities and try to get those Those other partners involved in the in the fuel reduction Sounds like a burning issue. Yes. Thank you for matching my pun Um, two other comments, please Well, I just wanted to start by thanking you for that presentation um and I think you touched on a couple Topics that I'd like to bring up right now, but um, you know Identifying the fact that you know the end make crews are declining and just given the Impacts of the community faced after the 2020 fires I know that there's a lot of interest in folks who live for example in bonny doing Potentially within supervisor mccristen's district who really want to volunteer and get involved But it seems like the criteria for volunteering is pretty high And so i'm just wondering if there's any discussions at cowfire around reducing those criteria for participating in as well as your firefighter To encourage more people to apply and get more people get more, you know bodies out there who can help in these efforts Great. Thank you very much for the question In short, yes, the the difficult part of We're asked all the time to decrease the training standards and decrease the training standards or training requirements And we have we have brought those down to the minimum that are acceptable from I would say a liability perspective of keeping people safe it's an extremely hazardous job And yeah, we have to have a minimum some of the things that we've brought forward is to have people do a one weekend training Kind of submit seminar thing and never never again and not a single one of us would be comfortable Putting those people in an emergency situation one thing that we've been uh looking at Is partnering with the volunteer center here with uh santa cruz county and looking at non-emergency response type volunteer positions so Don't want to jump too far ahead in it But one of the things that we've looked at is is there a possibility there for folks to volunteer in like a fuel reduction capacity um The one thing I constantly go back to is it's hard work and it's hard getting people to volunteer to do that hard work Well, we're we're going to give it our best effort and see if we can't uh, if there's not a place there to Get some extra labor if you will and extra effort out doing that fuel reduction work Right. Yeah, and that's kind of what I was thinking too as well You know there's fire fighting, but then there's also vegetation reduction and hand crews maybe a different skill set that if um People have the opportunity to participate in one of those different capacities and not have to be trained to the standards of a firefighter then I think a lot of people will be interested in participating. Um Just as a comment, I think it would be great for future presentations if there's any way we can quantify or Get information on uh vegetation management. I think we just Really good great to include that because um seeing the fires are down is Encouraging, but then we also know that living in a landscape that's Adapted to fire that it is a necessary thing that we need to have in our ecosystem And so either we have prescribed burns or fires that are occurring or we're trying to mitigate the biomass that accumulates So that we don't have um too much biomass accumulating that leads to really intense fires So I think it'd be helpful to have some info on that in future presentations. Um, and then I just Just for out of personal curiosity. I'm just wondering um kind of where Cal Fire is at in terms of expanding the use of the application of drones to help in firefighting efforts And that is definitely one of the pieces of technology. Sorry for not going deeper into it. Uh, we have A group of folks throughout the state. We have a handful that are trained I think we have approximately 20 that are trained to fly drones on fires with other aircraft Which is a big step forward We're using those mostly right now for reconnaissance, especially during the evening hours when there's less if any aircraft flying But we've also uh begun to utilize those in a couple of instances Uh on partner fires for uh fire or prescribed fire or firing operations on emergency on actual incidents So, uh, the use is out there. I would say the uh study is being or Studies are being expanded for a lot wider use Um, which one of the things that we're embracing great, and then just a Final comment or an ask is that if there's any funding opportunities Please keep us um in mind and let us know. I know we were just at the california state association of counties conference And there was a a county and I can't remember the name off the top ahead, but they Had created a similar Office to our or three And had coordinated with the the different fire safe councils throughout Their county and the different volunteer firefighting organizations that we're able to receive I think it was like 24 million dollar grant to go towards Vegetation management And so if there's opportunities for us to be able to create those same kind of collaborations and and organize around on how we can Strategically move together on this effort to be able to Apply and qualify for funding. I think it'd be great for us to be aware of those opportunities. Definitely. Thank you. Thank you Thank you. Um our community as you know chief went from historic drought and unprecedented fires to biblical floods in a matter of months and it's not a question of If we're going to have another one of these natural disasters, but when I think that the master plan and study and looking at the state of All the fire agencies within santa cruz county is an important step in seeing whether or not we're best prepared to respond Uh in our current structure. I think that realistically the answer to that is that it's unlikely, you know, but I think that It'll be important to see what comes to lafko and then comes back to this board for consideration I think that you and your team are doing Uh remarkable work with with very little both within the region and and across the state And you tend to go into some of the most challenging environments first So I just wanted to acknowledge you and your team as evidenced by what just happened down in southern california is a reminder that when you are It's different on the wild land versus the urban response And the dangers aren't the same The rural residents across our state. They'll rely on you for life and property safety in ways that That are essential And so I wanted to make sure that that you also know that the board So many of us represents so much of the rural areas really do appreciate your work And I think that we have a responsibility and I'm just looking from a structural standpoint as to whether or not The current structure in our county is the best way to respond to rural residents and all residents I'm looking forward to that study, but thank you for your presentation in this work Um, this is a non-action item, but we'll open it up to the community because it is an item that the board Received a presentation on if anybody would like to make any comments Good morning. Welcome back. Yeah. Hello. My name is James. You and Whitman, Nate Armstrong That was an excellent presentation with a lot of information and brevity You People should hear what you said. You said a lot of important stuff Although I could make many comments I will say that I didn't have the time to look through any of 10 notebooks like this My favorite storage media. I recently lost access to over 9 000 presentations Were 316 of those presentations of at least 10 each were leo and youth The reason I'm bringing it up and it wasn't brought up is Public safety is really important. There were several presentations about patented Fire prevention devices that were actually acoustical tools Rather than acoustical weapons, you know from memory These things weren't much bigger than a five gallon bucket and they contained a 10 inch woofer My memory was about 58 hertz one frequency and the other one was about 160 hertz They were putting out fires within 10 feet of them and from hundreds of feet away With very little electrical energy So I'm inviting anyone to look at that research. I know I could probably find it on someone else's Computer, but um, I guess that's a thank you for being uh At the top of some lists. Once again, mr. Armstrong. That was a good presentation. Thank you Thank you dame. They also like to address us in chambers Good morning. Becky Steinbrenner. I'm going to address the board of The Santa Cruz county fire department. You are the directors of the board for this fire department and I I wish you would Note that on your agendas that you are accepting these reports considering the budgets as the board of directors of the Santa Cruz county fire department I'm I'm pleased to see this information I wondered why the county fire budget was on the consent agenda during budget times Don't do that again It is should be elevated to any other public safety Issue just as you did all law enforcement on a regular agenda on the budget I also want to bring to your attention what was not mentioned that The resource resource conservation district recently released an updated version of living with fire in Santa Cruz county for residents. That's excellent And for the first time talks about the use of good fire It's an excellent publication um I also would like to ask that your Board of directors look into the use of komodo fire prevention material It is non-toxic. It does not contain PFAS, which is a huge concern in our watersheds now. It is a carcinogen and the answer Deaths in our firefighters is abnormally high Possibly linked to PFAS so Komodo fire prevention Is uh plant-based and has been registered with the EPA Please look into our county using it instead of PFAS may have one more minute, please Just please finish up Thank you. I have a few things um Recently county fire hired full-time battalion chief for training who came from cow fire ranks It that person could have come from the volunteer Fire captain ranks and should have in my opinion I also um want to say that they are the uh Fuel reduction planner should be working with the county fire safe council Who is in direct contact with the rcd and the fire wise communities in our county? And we could be putting in place to bolster fuel reduction work Something that scott's valley has done The the brush brigade that goes out with high school seniors that need volunteer hours and they help senior citizens And disabled people Create the the required and very important fire defensible space around their homes We need to be doing that countywide Um the track chipper that uh chief armstrong mentioned was a grant that was given to county fire department Thank you, miss. But it should be Thank you miss timebrenner Thank you. Thank you miss timebrenner Miss timebrenner you requested miss timebrenner. You requested an additional minute. You were given an additional minute Can you just let me just show the respect for what you asked for and you were honored it? Okay, so just respect the body in the same way the body is respecting you miss timebrenner, please Thank you miss timebrenner Thank you miss timebrenner Is there anybody else in chambers i'd like to address us? Is there anybody online? Yes, we have speakers online. Thank you Call in user one your microphone is now available And gary as i sympathize with the courage and the difficult extreme obstacles firefighters are facing And we need you to be in top health. I also appreciate becky steinbrunner's research I just learned something about this komodo fire prevention non-toxic method That should definitely be looked into What are some of the causal factors? and these just really You know extreme Weather fluctuations. I want to refer people to geoengineeringwatch.org with dane wiggington and a few quotes That climate engineering. He said has derailed the hydraulic cycle The nanoparticles in climate engineering are desiccants Ocean temperatures are like hot tubs levels Oxygen levels are plummeting More power plants are going into a meltdown mode Uh, these are dying of massive aluminum exposure from the nanoparticles So These fires are related to these kind of aberrations Additionally, we need you firefighters to be in top health conditions To be able to perform your responsibility And I refer you to Susan posture And i'll put this in the mail to you She organized a brain study of firefighters Manuhug are considered of course to be the strongest of the strong In california in 2000 There are no further speakers Okay, this is an on-action item. Thank you chief for the presentation. We do appreciate it We'll move on to the next item of the regular agenda, which is item Nine to consider a presentation an update on county of santa Cruz membership in the american association retired persons network of age friendly States and communities as outlined in the memo the director Of human services. We have the agenda board memo item the presentation as well as a strike on an underline element of the membership acceptance Um My understanding is that mr. Morse is available, but he's available Uh, virtually correct Is he kicking it off? Or mrs. Morales, are you kicking it off? All right, I think your mic is off I push How's that? perfect Good morning chair friend and members of the board. I am alicia morales I'm the director of the adult and long-term care division in the human services department And today I am joined I'm clay camp and i'm here as executive director of the seniors council and in the capacity being The on that organization being the area agency on aging for santa Cruz and san bonito counties Mr. Kemp and I are very happy to be here today to provide an update to your board from the may 26 2023 meeting Where your board approved the request for the county to apply and join the aarp network of age friendly communities Thank you Today we will give a brief overview of the aarp network of age friendly states and communities And the california master plan on aging to highlight how these two initiatives complement each other We will also cover some factors that pose unique challenges in our community That underscores the need for us to create an age friendly santa Cruz county We will then briefly update Your board on the work that we are doing and then we'll have an opportunity for To answer questions and collect feedback Oh So just to give a brief background in 2010 the world health organization established the global network of age friendly cities and communities To connect communities worldwide with the common vision of maximizing the contribution of older people in communities And improving the quality of life for all people as they age in 2012 the american association of retired persons or aarp Established I'm sorry Became the only independent affiliate in the us under the world health organization age friendly initiative Membership into aarp's age friendly states and communities means the community Including elected officials Has made a commitment to actively work towards making the community a great place to live for people of all ages In june 2019 your board directed the county in collaboration with seniors council to apply to aarp This effort was delayed due to covid Then on may 26 2023 your board authorized applying to the age friendly network We have since applied and been formally accepted. Yay We joined a network that includes 12 states including california which joined in 2021 And over 771 communities nationwide Representing 100 million people This also includes the city of watsonville which joined in 2022 And the city of santa cruz which is in the process of applying aarp's Age friendly communities framework is centered around eight domains of livability that influence the quality of life of older adults Age friendly communities are inclusive and considerate of the perspectives of all residents Communities also have the option to add additional domains based upon their local needs We intend to add emergency preparedness and elder justice to our domains to create 10 for santa cruz county To create an age friendly community requires commitment from all sectors Public and private and goes well beyond health and human services So before I jump to master plan for aging I just really want to thank the board for endorsing age friendly And I especially want to call out supervisors McPherson and friend who are early champions of this way back in 2018 I think before it long before it became Came to the board and at that same time Supervisor Hernandez was a champion in the city of watsonville So thank all of you for your leadership and i'll just add That Supervisor coming staff In the city of santa cruz was a huge champion and really significant in getting us where we are So the master the master plan for aging plays nicely into age friendly communities And the background on master plan for aging is Aging leaders around the state particularly led by the scan foundation Challenge the gubernatorial candidates in the last election the one that uh governor Newsom eventually won To come up with some plan to address aging In california given the population changes that we're seeing So both candidates endorsed that and the result was this creation actually of an extensive work group Which I was honored to be a member of to put together What the master plan for aging for the state was you can see on the slides that was broken down into five Old goals, but those goals were the result of something like 800 individual Outcomes that were suggested So it was a really a large plan that we put forward and those still exist and these are the categories They fit nicely into I think one of the things that I love about this plan and this was something that all the stakeholders were very committed in Is making this a dynamic plan that lives not a plan that sits on a shelf I mean that's the last thing we need is another pretty plan that gathers dust We wanted something that could be implemented and would wouldn't become reality So the whole plan is designed is that it has these guidelines of what we do, but I think the most Um engaging piece of it is that there's an expectation and a whole guideline on how to create a local playbook Or establishing these five bold goals and that's what we're indulging in next the other part of it And there were a handful of us the champion this is that if we achieve the goals of age-friendly communities We get a very long way towards addressing all five of these master plan For aging goals along with the number of the objectives And the plan is playing out in a number of ways It has elevated the discussion about older adults around the state Which makes it easy for advocates or easier. I don't want to say it's easy But much easier for advocates to get traction in terms of getting state dollars allocated to the growing population And that's something that we've tried to do in leadership roles in sacramento in the past couple years Is when we're targeting funding Editions tying them in directly with some of the objectives in master plan And it's fascinating that now when I go and make those tests the testimonies The panelists and the committee members actually know what i'm talking about as to seeing that glazed look in the audience When you're up there, so the efforts and multi-year efforts and I think that's what this plan is and it's achieving those sorts of goals So a couple other things that we really tried to focus on was having practical solutions Things that we could do in reality not just in writing and in theory We also made sure that we're acknowledging All populations in the community making sure that equity and diversity were a key part of it And also recognizing that services in a rural community versus suburban community versus an urban community are dramatically different And representing santa cruz in san bedido counties. I was especially invested in seeing that happen. So I'm proud that we're there Before we jump to the next slide in here and you know, we're going to talk a little bit about the data and growth of the population But I think one of the things that we want to emphasize and I'll probably say this at the end too Is that this isn't a plan where any one entity can can come up with the solutions Government can't do this Private industry can't do this alone Non-profits can't do it alone But hopefully by bringing the entire community together in the partnership that we're doing right now with age friendly Will make a lot of progress towards getting there So next slide I guess I can do that Yeah, thanks So as clay mentioned the goal of these two complementary initiatives is to create a community that prevents that promotes healthy aging for all It is an ambitious countywide effort and could not be just a government initiative We we are looking at transforming systems and services based upon the needs of our local community and santa cruz in particular Is facing some unique challenges If you look at the slide in front of you the orange line represents those ages 60 Plus and the blue line represents those aged 0 to 17 years old In the state of calif in in the state of california. We are looking at One in four people being over the age of 60 by the year 2030 In santa cruz. We are looking at one in three that is 30 percent of our population here Over the age of 60 We also have The 11th highest income disparity in california with a ratio of 24 to 1 Combine this with the fact that santa cruz county is now considered the most expensive rental market in the nation And also the central coast region About 20 of the doctors are age 65 or older, which means that when they retire Our doctor shortage will be sooner than the rest of the state With our fast growing senior population needing greate