Santa Cruz Board of Supervisors 05/30/2023

- Good morning. I'd like to call to order the May 30th, 2023 Board of Supervisors budget hearings for State budget hearings. If we could begin with a roll call, please? - Certainly. Supervisor Koenig. - Here. - Cummings? - Here. - Hernandez? - Here. - McPherson? - Here. - And Friend? - Here. Um, we'll just begin actually with a Pledge of Allegiance, if we could. I pledge allegiance to the flag of the United States of America and to the republic for which it stands, one nation under God, indi

visible, with liberty and justice for all. Good morning, Mr. Palacios, are there any changes to today's agenda? - We have no corrections to the agenda. - Thank you. Good morning, Mr. Pimentel. We're gonna begin today with the budget manager's overview. So if we could begin with you. Thank you. - Thank you, Chair Friend and Board of Supervisors. I'm your County Budget Manager, Marcus Pimentel and I'm pleased to present to you, uh, welcome you to our second-day budget hearings for the 2023-24 pro

posed budget. Today's hearings, we'll continue our hearings that started on April 27th, or excuse me, May 9th, uh, following the release of our budget on April 27th. Over these next few days, departments will prov- be providing you presentations and you will receive overviews on the content agenda and departments as a whole, by myself this morning and tomorrow morning. We ask that we hold questions for my presentation till the end and departments will also have opportunities for you to present

questions at the end of their presentations. Members of the public will have an opportunity to offer input into the board of items during public comment, following the consent agenda items and after each department's presentation. The proposed budget and departmental general reports now include the supplemental budget, which reflects adjustments since the publication of the proposed budget, the unified fee schedule updates, and proposed continuing agreements list. Much of this content is also av

ailable on our award-winning website on the budget site in our document library. As a reminder, included within our award-winning budget, our segments on the CAOs budget message outlook, our economic outlook and financial budgetary outlooks, information about county services, how tax dollars are allocated across the county, demographic information, our 23-25 proposed operational plan, and certainly, details to be integrated within our budget and within the board reports contained today and tomo

rrow's hearings. [Thuds] [Pause] Today's hearings will focus on the general government departments that are included in your consent agenda, health and human service departments, and conclude with the first half for our public safety and justice departments. These hearings will continue until tomorrow, May 31st, to conclude the public safety justice departments and discuss the land use in community service departments with capital projects. The hearings will then continue to conclude on June 13t

h, 2023, with the last-day reports and concluding actions. These next six slides are essentially rep-, repeats from our May 9th presentation with slight updates so I'll move through them quickly. But it is important to remind our board and our community that we are a-a-a county that is systematically underfunded and challenged by that underfunding status. We are a unique county across the state of California. We serve a greater percent of our pop-, population than most counties, and we received

far less funding than most of our peers and, and counties across the state. We have, like many counties that we're, uh def-, deferred capital investment for our aging infrastructure and aging facilities. We've provided many updates. We are still struggling with the cost of disaster response and recovery of those claims, now dating three years from the COVID, and the CZU fires of 2020, and the new 2023's dual disaster of storm events that we've had to respond to. We're struggling but moving towar

ds fulfilling gaps in our behavioral health investments and looking outward, we have challenges with financing public safety emergency communications improvements that will improve our entire county systems. Included within our 1.1 billion budget is a balance of $738 million general fund, with 67 million still outstanding from our COVID and CZU fire claims and over 300 million in non-funded capital investments. Our new forecast model that we rebuilt this fall, this past fall, projects smaller b

ut more credible deficits in out-years between 8 and 10 million, and we've both shown illustrations in these slides, what it would take to bring our reserves up to 15%. The reason why we're targeting a 15% reserve is, at our 10% reserve level, we are restrained from spending and investing in our communities, especially in the places of healthcare investments. Much of our current reserves are, are... include health care funding, that, uh, to meet our 10% we must hold those reserves and not alloca

te those towards projects or expanding services. When we back out those health-funded reserves, our reserves dropped to 4% or about 1.3... 1.8 payroll cycles. As a really important reminder our... Within our general fund, this budget proposes to fund 223.4 million of our discretionary general fund revenue. This revenue is based on 210 million in credible revenue coming in. So that creates a delta of just under 13 million dollars that we're projecting to solve through budgetary savings, and some

planned administrative management during the year. So, we're overprescribing our general fund departments, and these investments of 223 million includes substantial investments to retain and sustain our workforce, well over 12 million dollars coming into this year. [Pause] The proposed increases in the entire budget countywide, all funds includes 36.45 positions, or just over 1%, and total expenditures increase of 38.6 million or 3.6%. This is an austere budget, and we've managed and worked with

all of our departments who've done a phenomenal job in, in keeping our, our budget balanced and solvent as we look in the out-years. This chart represents the increases in our major categories, proposing to add 14.7 positions in our Health and Human Services, Six positions in Public Safety and Justice, 11.8 positions in land use and community development, and four positions across general government. Those details will be discussed in Department Budget Hearings and I'll cover them a little bit

in a few minutes. As just a recap, our, we're approaching the end of our budget cycle that stat-, started November. We are on May 30th, so we're on the second day of budget hearings. Tomorrow will be day three and we'll conclude our budget hearings on June 13th where the board will take action to approve the 23-24 budget. [Pause] Including our consent agenda items are all the general fund government- general government, excuse me, general governmental departments, uh, I'll provide just a brief r

ecap. There are more details in the agenda packet and the individual board reports by each department. Within this category of our general government, there's a 123.9 million in expenditures proposed, of that 78- 78.7 million is our other funds. So when we back that up, our general fund portion of this category is only 45.2 million. The biggest departments and service categories are Personnel Risk Management, Information Services, and General Services. [Pause] Within these departments, they all.

.. some of them rely on general fund contributions to balance their operations. Many of these departments are not revenue-generating so they depe-, they depend on subsidies. County Admin Office and Personnel and Risk Management, and County Clerk Elections are some of the bigger departments with funding needs to keep their balances whole. [Pause] Across these departments, there are very few increases. Personnel Risk Management are more about setting aside available fund balances and other funds f

or claim reserves. So those are not necessarily expenditures. Backing those up, there're very modest increases across the entire general government department. Two positions for County Council, one position for the Assessor-Recorder, and one position in Information Services. Again, these are described in detail in the individual department budget reports in the consent agenda items. Another section on consent is our county financing. This is the section that includes the budget for our general f

und debt service, our general fund contingency at 1% of our general fund costs, and our general county revenue. The proposed budget- plans to encumber 41.5 million in expenditures, 20 million largely in county financing for debt service, and 20.6 million in our capital projects. Capital projects will be discussed in more detail tomorrow at the end of tomorrow's hearings. Within these segments, there are no positions in these departments but the delta and the changes for each of these areas are e

xpenditures in general county revenue. They have some expenditures related to some transfers out. Uh, there-, they went down 2.5 million. Debt service went up 1.6 million largely attributed to the south county government service center. Contingencies are down and capital projects have gone up, and again, those will be discussed in detail tomorrow and they're included in the bo-, in the board packets. Health and Human Services, the two biggest departments in our county, will- will provide detaile

d presentations when I'm done. That will be covered by the Health Services Agency and the Human Services Department, and on consent are our other departments Child Support Services and core investments. These funds totals 45-, 451.5 million in expenditures for the entire county, county-wide, of that- the bulk of that is general fund, 447.2 million with a small amount, about 10%, 4.3 million, and other funds for our environmental health, uh, funds. You can see the Human and Health Service departm

ents are some of our biggest departments and some of our biggest service providers in our community. Health and Human Services relies on general fund contributions, [Inaudible] of 23.1 million for human services, 14.8 for health services, and the core investments is fully funded by our General Fund contributions, 4.9 million. The changes in these departments are largely attributed to the 9.7 positions in health services and five positions being added to human services. Both these departments, a

s you'll hear following my presentation, rely on a lot of federal and state funding. So, they'll have swings in revenues and expenditures that are matches. They'll receive a grant and that'll be funded by expenditures. So, the increases in costs are offset by increases in revenue. Our Public Safety and Justice Departments, the three that we'll present today, Office of Recovery, Response, Resilience, our Public Defender Office and Probation Department and then tomorrow, these hearings will contin

ue with the District Attorney, Public Administrator, and the Sheriff-Coroner, and tomorrow's consent agenda item will include the Public Safety Departments. As a whole, they account to 200 million dollars. The largest departments are Sheriff-Coroner, Probation and District attorney, and Public Defender, and of them, about 16.8 million are other funds, largely county fire with some funding for Sheriff- Sheriff Special, Special District funds. In total, there's 183 million in general fund financin

g within these departments proposed in the budget. They rely on a total of 114 million. So, about half of their expenditures are covered by the general fund. The biggest, uh, support going to the Sheriff-Coroner at 66.1 million of general fund revenue going to support the Sheriff-Coroner's, uh, department, 16 million for the public defender, 17 million for the district attorney, and 9.5 million going to support the public probation. [Pause] The changes in these departments are largely with the S

heriff-Coroner, 5 million dollars attributed as you'll hear in their presentations tomorrow, mandated cost increases to provide, uh, increased health care and mental health services to our, uh, detainees in our sheriff detention centers. As also in our- replicated in the probation department, their costs have gone up for health care and mental health costs. The positions are modest across all these departments with three being added to the Sheriff-Coroner, two with the Public Defender, and one f

or the District Attorney. That concludes my overview. More importantly, it- it- I wanna hand the floor off to the departments who will be coming in behind me and providing a lot more details to their operations but I'm available for questions now before we go into consent. - Are there questions from any of my colleagues up here? - Thanks for the presentation. I wonder if you can go back to the previous slide. I'm just curious 'cause I know there's been a number of slides that popped up. We have

the orange bars and the blue bars next to each other. I'm just wondering what the relationship is between those. - The orange bars are position increases, and for the departments, the blue bars represent their expenditure cost increases. So in this case, the District Attorney is adding one position. Their costs have gone up 700, about 710,000 dollars over, uh. - Great. Thank you. - Yep. Thank you for the question. - Supervisor McPherson. - Yeah. I just wanted to make some general comments and th

ank you for, uh, all the coun- county staff for developing this budget and presenting it. I think you've had... It allows for more public access than I can remember in my 10 years here as a county supervisor, and when I look at the budget as a whole, department by department, what I see is a thoughtful strategic plan, [clicks tongue] that addresses how our county is going to operate in this next fiscal year, uh, and how our economy is situated, uh, with the larger statewide and national picture

as well. Um, I'm glad we've been cautious in our budgeting process and approach in partnering with their workforce. I can't say enough about them, our employees, while ensuring our county remains in good fiscal health. As our operation plan shows, we have done a great deal of limited resources, and, uh, thanks to the ded- dedication of all the employees and county government, it's been- these last few years, it's been, has been remarkable, what they have done, gone the extra mile, and I'm glad

this budget allows us to meet our obligations when it comes to negotiating compensation with our employees. That is really great in maintaining our reserves, which you said we just can't... That's a target all the time. Hey, they're there, let's spend them. No, uh, we have to do it wisely, and I thank you for your explanation on that, and it seems more difficult than ever to remain competitive in our recruitment and retention efforts under the circumstances we have with our housing shortage and

comparable housing costs that we have here in Santa Cruz County, the transportation needs. The fact that other jurisdictions in our region offer higher, umm, wages, thanks to receiving a greater sha- share of the local tax base, and as you stated, we're, we're in a position that we can't get out of, uh, not because- well, we just can't make that move to get more property tax revenue, for instance and so forth. But while we add- work to address these areas, um, I- one point I cannot mention enoug

h is that we have to see greater reimbursement from the state and federal government. Um, with COVID and the CZU fires, and the atmospheric reser- river events that we've had this past couple of years, it's just over the top. Uh, we hit one time, two times, three times, and that said, I want to say thank you to our own state and federal representatives that we have. John Laird, State Senator John Laird and Robert Rivas, who is going to become speaker next month of the assembly um, and uh, and th

en an issue who is now not our congresswoman. She was drawn out of our county in the new reapportionment but Jimmy Panetta has been here for, uh, often and they get it. They know what we are facing uh, and have had the- the strength to pull the President of the United States here to see what, what challenges we face in Santa Cruz County. So, I'm really pleased with their efforts but, uh, we need to, uh, flip the switch somewhere, uh, in FEMA in particular, to get the uh, well, it's probably clos

e total to about 100 million dollars now. - We're going to be north of... yeah, north of 100 million with 50 to 70 million from this year alone - Okay. So and the last three years, as I said, have been really challenging and what has been, uh, most, uh, frustrating is that uh, some of the things we want to do and especially in my district, where it has completely septic tanks, uh, that's overseen and regulated much by the state, and how quickly we can, we can really respond to that. Fire access

is the second point. The fire departments of the CAL FIRE and how.. what is needed now that wasn't needed before, and have to be part of the rebuilding process, um, and then the geological standards that we have here and some of the limitations we have, especially in my fifth district. I'm not trying to make excuses, this is just the fact. We would all like to move faster than we have but, uh, we do have to work with state and federal regulations to rebuild this county, from those three disaste

rs that I've mentioned. So I just want to say I- I'm really, overall, um, really proud and encouraged by the actions that has been taken by our whole county workforce. They've worked above and beyond the call of duty, many extra hours as many people have seen. I look forward to hearing from the departments and, to bring the proposed budgets, uh, we have a lot of uncertainty a- ahead of us but, I think that the projections that you have made, the re- the realities that you've expressed, that comb

ination of e- uh, events, we just have to keep working on it, and I really want to appreciate, uh, again, the full core of the county employees that we have and what they have done these last three years. It's really remarkable. Thank you. - Thank you, Supervisor McPherson. Alright, we want to give the community an opportunity to, um, come speak to us on items regarding the consent agenda today. So if there's any member of the community that would like to address this on any of the items that ar

e on consent before the board and makes comments on consent, and also considers it. Is there anybody in the community that would like to address this to stay on the consent agenda, or if you're unable to stay for the regular agenda items also for that. Please feel free to step forward. [throat clearing] All right, I'm seeing none in chambers that would like to speak to us on the Consent Agenda. Is there anybody online, Madam Clerk? - I'm not seeing any speakers online, Chair. - Okay. I'll bring

it back to the board. Are there any comments on the consent agenda from board members? - Well, I'd... - Please - It just needs to be mentioned item number 15, our County Administrative Officer, uh, Carlos Palacios and his team, once again for, uh, their terrific leadership in the past several years. There's been a tremendous amount of adjustments that we've had to make and to look forward as best we can without the funding resources that we need from the state and federal agencies that we- that

I mentioned earlier. We were able to increase the compensation, uh, while also making investments in disaster response, um, climate ad- adaptation, public health, housing the homeless, and other critical areas, without the steady and ni- nimble leadership of Car- Carlos Palacios and his whole team, we would really be in a severe, uh, financial hole much more than we have now. I think they have a great foresight, and it's much appreciated by this board supervi- this supervisor and I'm sure the w

hole Board of Supervisors, and likewise, the County Council under County Council, Jason Heath, uh, we've had a lot of issues that we've had to face that, uh, we couldn't have foreseen and he's- he and his team have really responded so, so well, for us, for, to adjust to what is reality and what's different, and uh, to- through no fault of anybody else, um, just the natural COVID, fires, storms, whatever, we've had to make some real adjustments and so, I'm really appreciative of that. Also in the

consent agenda, the General Services Department, to call upon to address a host of needs throughout the numerous county facilities and the vehicle fleet that we have. The workplace has changed a great deal as a result of COVID, and, uh, your hard work to maintain, uh, the physical spaces and plan for the future facility needs is really highly appreciated, and then on information services, number 19. This is another department whose efforts have really touched so many aspects of, uh, the county

and that we are more reliant on than ever, the technology that we get and as quickly as we can get it and make it as public as- as quickly as possible, uh, and this budget is an example of that itself. I think the information serve- serves the team, does this work while also protecting against the threats of our cybersecurity, and, uh, that's- that's an issue that's gonna be- become more pronounced as the- the weeks and months and years go by now, uh, it seems like new things are happening, uh,

that we have to keep up with and protect our citizens at the same time. So, uh, those- those few on the, uh, general services, uh, or the, uh, the consent agenda, I should say. I just want to point out what a fantastic job that they have done, uh, through these last three years. Thank you. - Thank you. All right, we're gonna reopen public comment. Mr. Whitman, you know, we did make three calls for public comments, so I'm gonna- I am gonna reopen it up for public comment and give you an opportuni

ty 'cause it's important that people are heard, but just when we make the calls, it'd be helpful if you could step forward. - You know, I was trying to respect what you had established, which was to just make comments on the consent agenda items. So I had a lot more to say than just commenting on item number 24, and number 25, which are both about $5.9 billion of a budget. That's, uh, $1.1 billion. Um, so, yeah, there's a lot of things I would actually like to say, but I guess so long. I- I real

ly just kind of question the authority of all of you, men, and, uh, I guess the whole county's very fortunate that, um, you guys are men because the only thing more evil than men are women, so you guys are easier to address. So I will, uh, leave it at that, and but I don't know why we don't have three minutes to comment on the consent agenda items, or public comments or any items that come up. You know, at least in the City of Santa Cruz, you can comment for three minutes, except for public comm

ents on any items in that, and a citizen can pull an item off the consent agenda, but that room is mostly full of women, so it's very different than dealing with you gentlemen. - Morning. Welcome back. - Good morning. My apologies. I didn't realize that item number 24 was on the consent agenda but thank you for reopening that up. First of all, I'm a little curious why this is still here, I know one of our community members has raised this issue, so maybe you guys can explain that. My concern abo

ut item 24, which is the Department of Child Support Services, is that there are 4,000 children a day that are currently being family court kidnapped under color of law, and there are thousands, if not, tens of thousands of cases of child support services, using title four funding to remove children from their parents. I happen to know many of these parents, I'm networked with multiple, multiple parent groups, so I am not in support of any of this funding. I don't understand why we are mandated

by Title Four to give money to the government who then uses it against us, kidnaps our children, and as we're seeing by some of the other, um, entities being put the place in Santa Cruz, now you wanna house these court kidnapped children and expand that. So, I'm not in support of that, I want to make my, um, objections known to you, and we do not consent to any of this. - Is there anybody else in the chambers that would like to address us? We'll do one more check online. - Yes, we do have a spe

aker online. - Thank you. - Olivia, your microphone is now available. - Oh good morning. Can you hear me? - Yes. - Hi, my name is Olivia Martinez, I'm the, um, region 2 director for SINU Local 521. Um, as you know, we represent the majority of other [inaudible] and I'm here to comment on agenda item number five which is the human, um, HS budget. So, one of the concerns I have is the way they are being conceived. I believe [inaudible] protective services, you have 17 vacancies which create the he

alth and safety concerns for the community. If the county was responsible to oversee the safety of children, this high vacancy you will have problems with workload and, um, your staff being able to oversee, and keep children safe in the community. The other issue that we have is the number of legibility workers and the vacancy, you have a high number of vacancies there which they provide [inaudible] MediCal and programs to support also low-income family, and so we want you to review those staff

removals, and we want you to urge that the county work with us. We are in the process of fighting different, and unfair related practices because they're not only to sit down with us, and we didn't [Inaudible] over the working conditions that these workers are working under. So, thank you very much. I appreciate you listening to us right now. [Pause] - Board again, uh, supervisor Cummings. - Thank you, chair. I do have a question related to the core funding. The first one is that, um, looking at

the budget online, and I've actually brought this up previously, but there's no information about, um, how much the various non-government agencies are receiving. If you go online, you will see that, um, encompass is the only agency that, where it lists the actual funding of what they're supposed to be getting, what they've received previously and what they're receiving in the future, and the rest of the agencies all have zeros listed. So I'm not really comfortable with us taking action on that

. I'd like to continue it to have that transparent, but as you can see, like these- all these agencies have zeros next to how much they're supposed to be getting allocated, and we know that obviously there's funding that's supposed to be ongoing, going towards those agencies. I brought this up with HSD to have that be published and be transparent, it hasn't been changed, and I think in terms of transparency, that that item should be continued so that the public can see how much money is going to

ward each of those agencies. Unless someone can correct me, and I'm seeing something that- that is an error. - Uh, I can offer some clarity on that. - Thank you. - On the department homepage, there's a link to the- the schedule that has a detail of all the individual agencies that are funded. What you're seeing in the transparency portal are a change in accounting where previously, individual agencies were listed as different line item details, and now they're- they're no longer for accounting p

urposes, no longer classified that way, so there is a supplementary schedule that's- there's a link right on the department homepage for core on the core investment, there's a button that opens up the schedule, and there's also the same schedule that's in our department document library online that has the detail on all those departments, or excuse me, the detail on all the agencies that are funded by core. - It's- it's a little confusing 'cause when I did click on, and I don't know which button

s are which, but the one that I did click on for core that I can show you right now has everything listed as zeros. So, in terms of transparency, it's just hard for me to know where I'm looking to understand how much these agencies are receiving. and so, it's hard- it's- it's challenging for me to know what I'm voting on right now. If I click on something that's on the county's website and I see nothing but zeros versus one, just one. - They're supposed- they're supposed to be. - Sure there's a,

um, I-, we can either work on it offline or I can turn around my laptop and show you the schedule that's available. There's a button that says core investments on the department page for core uh, 2023/24 core investment schedule, and that link will open up a pdf that lists all the agencies that are funded. That same schedule was emailed to all the board and their staff, couple of weeks back, when- when we noticed that change. - And then the other question I have is, I'd like to understand how m

uch, now we've asked this question as well previously, and I don't think we've received an answer but trying to get a- a number on how much we're spending on consultants for the core process. So, it would be good if we could get that number as well, and however we can, you know, make sure that we can clarify, or clean up so that, you know, for the public that we don't have individual funding for organizations on one side, and then when we click on links that are in core we see zeros, I think tha

t needs to be, um, cleaned up so that we are being transparent with how we're spending our money. - Are there any other questions or comments on consent? I'll make some- No? Alright, I'll make some brief comments just because you know, some of these- one of the things about a consent calendar is we don't get to appreciate some of these departments the way that they should be appreciated and appreciate Supervisor McPherson making some of the statements, but in particular, I'd like to call just a

couple of these departments that are on consent, in particular our county council's office that, you know, hasn't grown well until this budget potentially hasn't grown in staff, at least in the entire time that Supervisor McPherson and I have been here with the complexity and work of what they've been having to do has grown exponentially, uh, from helping, uh, lead during COVID, and the CZU fires as well as the amount of work that they're doing on all the recovery. There's so much that County co

uncil does to help, not just keep us compliant with the ever-changing state and federal regulations and laws, but just also keep, our county in the best, uh, financial position possible with some of the challenges. So, Mr. Heath, you have an outstanding team, I appreciate that some of them are here today. You've done a lot with, not very with- without much, and so I appreciate you on that. On the information services department, Tammy's you know, you're- you're really modernizing the entire team

and- and leading this effort for broadband expansion, there's many people in our community, uh, that, that struggle without access to high-quality internet, which really is an essential utility for the future. For some reason, it's viewed differently as standard infrastructure, but realistically, uh, it's equally as important as- as all the other elements of infrastructure that we have and so the work that you're doing and your team is doing to- to help bridge us into, uh, the future is very, v

ery important. I second supervisor McPherson's comments on the general services department. Another department that, um, I mean, you can tell this by looking at this building, is dealing with aging infrastructure and buildings but is still doing everything that it can to make sure that, that our fleets are modernized, that we've moved towards solar, that we've moved toward a, um, zero-emission based fleet, and they do everything they can to, with very limited resources to keep all these building

s moving forward, and last but not least, uh, there's a budget for our auditor-controller, treasurer, tax collector. This is one of those departments that it's good that you, uh, aren't hearing much about them, there aren't many counties across the country that don't have that same level of quality, and- and ethics that your department brings. Edith, you- you really do keep us. I don't think their community realizes that the work that they do behind the scenes ensures that our bond ratings are w

hat they are and that- that our finances are as clean as they are, really sets us apart from every community across this country that don't have that same level of professionalism. So I'd like to acknowledge, uh, you and your team, we could clearly go on, but I just wanted to make sure that people know what the County government is doing, you're very fortunate in Santa Cruz County to have the- the high quality, uh, that we have here. All right, so we'll bring it, uh, for the potential for a moti

on on the consent agenda. Is there a motion? Supervisor Koenig? - Move of approval of consent. - Second. - We have a motion and a second. Supervisor Cummings? - I'd just like to add- I would just like to add, um, as a friendly amendment that the core investment budget details reflect what's in the accompanied pdf for the 2021/22 actuals, 2023 adopted budget. The estimates for 2023, 22-23 and then the budgets for 23-24. - We have a motion and a second [Inaudible]. Mr. Pimentel. - We'll work with

the [Inaudible] controller's office and see if we can make that happen. - Thank you. - I mean the numbers are there, I think he's just trying to get the transparency portal lined up. That's all it is, for the open. Alright, so we have a motion and second. If we can we get a roll call, please. - Supervisor, Koenig - I. - Cummings? - I. - Hernandez? - I. - McPherson? - I. - And Friend? - I. That passes unanimously. Thank you all for your work. We'll move on to the first item of the regular agenda

, which is under Health and Human Services, which is item five, approval of the 2023-24 proposed budget for the health services agency, including any supplemental materials and take related actions as outlined in the reference budget documents and recommended by the county administrative officer. We have the board memo, the proposed budget, the supplemental budget, the fixed assets, the continuing agreements list, the unified, uh, fee schedule, and presenting today, we have our director of- of H

ealth Services, Monica Morales and we have Jen Herrera, assistant director of HSA as well. Good morning, Director Morales and Assistant Director Herrera. - Good morning. Good morning, Board. Thank you so much, uh, for allowing us today to present to you. You know, I really wanna start off by thanking all of our team. It takes literally hundreds of hours across our multiple divisions for us to produce a product to you, and so I'm very grateful, uh, for all the operations teams, budgets teams and

special shout out for me to, um, Jessica, uh, Randolph and Christine Willens for all of the work that it takes for them to be following up with all the programs that we have to make sure that, you know, we have a comprehensive budget in front of you. With that, I wanna just really remind you that we'll focus a little bit of background on the department just to kind of level set, but most of our conversation to DA will be on our budget and a reflection of what our investments, uh, we have and sp

ecifically for obviously fiscal year 23 and 24. Wanna remind you that our core vision at Health Services agency is to ensure that our county is a healthy, safe, and thriving community for everyone, and we really take that to heart. We know that we serve some of the most vulnerable populations in our county, we are the last resort, and as a result, we have to lead through values such as equity and quality, um, with the- a sense of collective impact and so forth. Uh, we are one of the largest depa

rtments and we're very proud of that, and obviously, it does get a little complicated because we're also very diverse. So we can be talking about the quality of water in one meeting and quickly shift, for example, to what's happening in infectious diseases. So we have approximately about 25, or more programs in our department, um, with about 700 plus, uh, staff, and you'll see more detail, um, in the coming slide. So you see, for me, the diversity, the impact of the work that we're doing, um, in

our department. I'm very grateful to all the staff that just remained committed to the community, and improving the lives of our community members. What you'll see in our budget is, uh, really kind of focuses around these five goals for us. So, continuing to increase access to health. For example, you guys are very aware of all the issues, and need that we have around behavioral health specifically for youth, so you'll see reflections of those investments in our budget, um, in addition, we know

that with Cal Aim, we're very much taking advantage of the medical, um, policy changes by embracing Cal Aim, uh, our ECM programs, and our MAP programs. So you'll see more discussion of those a little bit further out. Uh, we really can't do this without our partnerships, our contractors, our community-based organizations, they are key to ensuring that we succeed and that our communities are actually thriving with a strong sense of equity, we are really trying to nail down that, uh, we don't wan

na just speak about equity, but we want a program, um, and move policy around equity. One of the key projects we're trying to work on right now is understanding where are our investments? Are they equitable? So that'll be something we'll be coming back to the board to and present a little, uh, further out throughout, um, the year. And I can't emphasize our goals around the workforce. We're tired. Um, I think you've heard us talk about that. We've had a pandemic for three years, multiple disaster

s, an increase of, uh, need in our community, and everyone just continues to show up tirelessly to work, and I really wanna emphasize the work that we're doing to try to build engagement, um, in our workforce, and recruit as quickly as possible. The more research I'm doing around this is the faster we can actually get to recruitment, the more likely we are to actually also bring in, um, top candidates, and finally, the budget reflects our infrastructure. Um, we know, and we've presented to you o

n some of those investments. You'll remember our, um, children's crisis, civilization and residential, um, infrastructure opportunities that we're investing in as well as our freedom campus. - Aligned with our budget goals and agency mission, we plan to provide many community benefits in this coming fiscal year. After a successful pilot, our Watsonville Health Center plans to expand clinic hours to Saturdays, adding an additional 100 days of service per year. Pictured here on this slide is our

Watsonville Health Center staff and our newly remodeled reception at the Freedom Campus. We also plan to improve our continuum of behavioral health crisis services, which benefits all residents in our county. By leveraging MHSA, or Mental Health Services Act funding, and utilizing the Evidence-based Crisis Now model, our behavioral health division will collaborate with partners to develop a system that includes 24/7 crisis response and dedicated dispatch and receiving resources. In addition to b

olstering our direct services, we continue to invest in prevention activities that support overall community health. Through our public health division, we administer many health collaboratives, including the Oral Health Access Steering Committee. This multi-sector collaborative has supported, improved dental utilization rates among children on Medi-Cal. This next fiscal year, Oral Health Access will focus on increasing dental rates among teens on Medi-Cal and seniors, and work to build a dental

referral system for those newly diagnosed with diabetes. And lastly, our environmental health division will leverage grant funds to implement the drought response and outreach plan, or DROP, a key component of the county's climate action and adaptation plan. The DROP was adopted by the board in December of 2022, meeting our state mandate to support drought and water shortage planning for state small water systems, and domestic wells in our county. Implementation efforts will include outreach to

residents with these water systems, and a variety of environmental health services to support residents impacted by drought. This includes well water level checks, water hauling for dry wells, water quality testing, and point-of-use treatment. Our operational plan objectives highlight additional programming that will benefit the community, as well as internal investments that align with our budget goals to support our workforce and infrastructure. This includes cultural humility and health equi

ty trainings, and redesigning our website to be more accessible for the public. This next year, we also plan to invest in major capital improvements, including the development of a children's crisis residential facility at 5,300 SoCal, and the revamp of our South County campus with a 1430 Freedom Campus Master plan. [Pause] - What we're highlighting for you is really an investment not only in ,um, the infrastructure projects that we have to ensure that we're serving our community, and the high d

emand of needs that we see in our community around behavioral health, clinical care, as well as, public health services. So our budget for 23/24 reflects, um, you know, there's two things going on here for me. One is, the demand of services, the increase in revenue that we're generating, but also the staffing needs that we actually need to make sure that we are there for our community. So what you'll see in this budget request is, uh, our staffing, uh, excuse me, a request of 13.70 full-time equ

ivalent staff. Uh, just a friendly reminder that you actually have approved already the 7.25 FTEs through the mid-year process, so we really are just asking for an additional 6.45 FTEs for this budget. We're not requesting additional net County costs through general funds, and I'll be a little bit more, uh, transparent in this slide here. Um, a couple of things to note in this slide that I wanna highlight for you. You'll see that our expenses or our budget is at about $246 million. However, you

see the offset of the revenue for about $231 million that we're projecting for our 23, um, 24 proposed budget for you. So that will leave us with the request of, uh, net County costs or General Fund for about $14.8 million. A couple of things to highlight for you, um, over time, uh, what we're noticing is that we do, or we are increasing our revenue. What that means is our staff are writing grants, they're, uh, taking advantage of Medi-Cal reimbursement, and as a result, we're generating more se

rvices for our community. What this also tells you is that if we're generating more dollars, we're also providing more services. So you see our expenses also increasing over time. However, um, our request for general funds tends to be stable or actually decreasing, and I'm really proud of that. I wanna thank our staff members for all of the work that it takes to actually get our department, um, to be self-sustained. [Pause] Obviously with, uh, fiscal sustainability, there's a lot that we're moni

toring now, the positive is that we're taking advantage in combination of our Cal-Aim, our enhanced care management, the Medi-Cal administrative activities combined. Together, they offer for us an opportunity to serve more individuals, provide more services, and actually be able to reimburse for a workforce that we couldn't before, like community health workers, or doulas and so forth. So we'll be able to meet the demands, ideally of, um, our community, and the various requests that we're gettin

g right now, specifically around clinical care, and behavioral health. With that, as you know, with new reform comes challenges, and those challenges for us are a combination of, you know, one-time, um, implementation dollars that come our way for like Cal-Aim and behavioral health, but also the timelines have really been difficult for us to keep up with. Um, in combination with the high vacancy rates that we have, um, and our staff being pretty burned out, it's- it's becoming a little difficult

for us. However, we're very hopeful because we know that this is definitely, uh, for us, a sustainable model as we move forward. It's just gonna take us some time to make sure how we maximize the reimbursement with the new, um, provisions, uh, that Medi-Cal is bringing our way. [Pause] I wanna highlight a couple of areas that we are monitoring in the state budget, obviously realignment growth is gonna be slowing down, uh, director Marcus Pimentel covered that already. But in addition, we are mo

nitoring the behavioral health bridge, uh, housing program that, uh, for us is a great and exciting opportunity, it's $10 million that will be coming to our county. We're working in partnership with, uh, HSD to leverage and put in place, ideally 34 beds, focusing on the homeless, um, and mental health population, so we're monitoring that. Very excited that those allocations actually remain in the governor's budget. In addition, our MHSA proposed funding changes that the governor we're monitoring

that as you recall, it's $1 billion that they're gonna be redirecting, um, to, uh, homeless housing opportunities. Um, this, this is a double-edged sword. For us, obviously, we need housing and we know that, however, it does put at risk, we're estimating about $5 million of our prevention education and training dollars that we use in the county, mainly going to community-based organizations. So this is something that we're monitoring, and we'll be working very closely with you to ensure that we

have the data for you that you might need, or any, uh, specific information in terms of the impact. Um, hospital funding, as you know, we've made a lot of investments in Watson Community Hospital, it remains a key staple in our community, and so we are working with their leadership there to remind them of, uh, the funding opportunity that the governor just announced, it's $150 million. We're working with them to see if they need any technical support, it is to our benefit, as you know, to ensur

e that this hospital is in place. So I wanna highlight that for you as something that our, um, um, you know, leadership is monitoring and working with Watsonville Community Hospital on, and then finally, we are very grateful that the public health infrastructure dollars remained, this was $3 million, uh, for public health funding. We will be obtaining about $1.4 for Santa Cruz ongoing, very exciting, our, uh, public health dollars to focus on epidemiology work, on clinical support services, uh,

such as our deputy direct- um, health officers, and administrative support for our behavioral, um, excuse me, for our public health, uh, division. And finally, something that'll come to the board later in August to give you guys, uh, more details on our opioid settlement dollars. So, we are monitoring this very closely, um, in Santa Cruz, we've seen, uh, two allocations, uh, one that took place in November, and one just in February, we're quickly trying to wrap that up, obviously, we had no staf

fing for this. Um, but what we do have in plan, is we're right now looking at conducting, uh, community survey, there are specific requirements so that dollars are connected to in terms of treatment support, medication support, education prevention support, um, um and so what we're trying to do is get a sense from the community, what should the priorities be in our county. We're gonna conduct a survey, um, in June, we're gonna have a town hall in Spanish and in English in July to share and hear

from our community members and then move through, uh, the allocations. We do have five years to spend the dollars, um, and so right now we have so far about $2.2 million that we've just received, and so we'll be going through the process of distribution in the next coming year. [Pause] So, uh, our proposal here really is requesting the approval of our 23-24, uh, budget based on the information we just shared with you, and approving the additional, uh, 6.45 full-time equivalent staff, uh, as new

positions. So with that, we're here to answer any of your questions. - Thank you, Director Morales. Are there questions from supervisors? Supervisor Koenig. - Thank you for the presentation, Director Morales, and it's, uh, in particular, incredible that the discretionary general fund contribution to the department continues to decline, thanks to increased revenues from providing increased services. So, um, obviously in the perfect world, we'd provide more, and more services, um, and provide a be

tter outcome for the community with- with less local money. Um, however, as you mentioned, one of the biggest challenges is, uh, recruitment and staffing. Um, you mentioned we were doing some things to address that issue. Could you go into a little bit more detail? - Certainly. So in partnership with the director of personnel, um, and our CEO, we've been doing, uh, you know, exploring and comparing some of those hard-to-fill positions, how do we actually, uh, look in terms of pay? And so we're a

ssessing if we have a hard time recruiting, how do we compare it to other counties, can we be competitive? So there's, there has been some salary increases in some of those hard-to-fill positions, in addition, internally to the department, we're trying to move quicker. Um, we've hired five new positions in the last, um, got five months, and that's actually for us, I've heard record-breaking, so we're trying to move quickly. Um, we're also trying to get better at selling the great work that we're

doing in Santa Cruz, um, and highlighting the impact that we have. Uh, sometimes pay is very important so we can make sure that our staff can live here, but we also know that folks feeling like this is a work environment that's, um, welcoming, inclusive, um, and also innovative, I've noticed it actually also helps. Um, and finally we're doing a lot of work to just, um, increase our staff engagement. It's been very difficult with COVID, people feeling isolated, at the same time, offering the fle

xibility of telework, but also having engagement opportunities with their staff, face-to-face. So we're convening now more trying to do, um, trainings face-to-face, trying to do, um, you know, um, more of the staff engagement through public, for example, internally, and also some of our, uh, supervisor managers meetings, trying to do those internally, uh, face-to-face as well. So a lot of different strategies, um, and finally, I would highlight, uh, that we're also trying to provide more support

for our staff through counseling services. Um, and that we're gonna be monitoring, also presenting to you some of those results of folks making sure that if they're burned out, they have someone to talk to, in addition to their coworkers. Multiple strategies, we're hoping that all of these will work, um, to just increase our ability to recruit folks -T hank you. And then, uh, one follow-up question. I mean, so obviously a lot of these positions are funded by state and federal grants, as you men

tioned. Um, and you know, in the ideal world, we'd fill every single one of them. Is there ever- I mean, what are the parameters of those grants, I mean, could we, you know, if we're not filling those positions, could we shift, I mean, increase in the salaries, and then, but have less total positions, uh, if we're still not filling them, you know, could we look at moving any of those funds to, you know, support better health outcomes in a different way other than a position just because we know

we're not filling it? Um, and is there ever a chance that we would actually lose the grant funding because we haven't filled the position? - Great questions. Um, so it depends on the funding source. Um, most of what we wanna do is push everything to reimbursement, right? So with that, um, what we generate in reimbursement typically is dictated by DHCS, they give us a certain allocation, and now that it's shifting to who the, uh, reimbursing for the provider type, um, we're actually, you know, tr

ying to navigate what does that mean for us. Um, clinicians, for example, will get reimbursed at higher rates than a community health worker, so we'll have to kind of navigate that a little bit more. There are grants, many grants, specifically now, reimbursement from state and federal allocations that do require specific staff, and so if we don't have those in place, we do, uh, risk the possibility of losing them. I've seen that a lot around some of our prevention and behavioral health, uh, prev

ention funding, some of our public health funding, so it is important for us to ensure that we have the capacity to address, um, the, the grant. There's also a lot of innovation happening, and we don't have existing positions for those. Um, you'll see that, for example, on the public health dollars that we're getting, um, you will see that too in some of the prevention dollars that we're getting for behavioral health. So, um, and in the clinic for some of our substance use, and addiction treatme

nt. So all of those positions do require, um, us to generate new classifications, unfortunately. But where we can, our goal is always to shift dollars around, um, and try to, we don't wanna go through the hiring process, to be honest with you guys, right? It takes a year sometimes, it takes six months sometimes, depending on the, on the classification. So if we can avoid that, that's to our advantage as much obviously as, um, the county. So we don't kind of have existing positions just floating.

- Thank you. - Supervisor Cummings. [Pause] - First, I just want to start by appreciating the work that you do, and that your department does around public health because it's so critical to ensure that we're having- that we have a healthy community and, um, that the, um, most vulnerable have access to healthcare as well. Um, I was just wanting to ask about, I know you mentioned the vacancy rates, and I was just wondering if you could, uh, maybe expand on what our vacancy rates looking like wit

hin the department currently? - So in some of our divisions, um, we're averaging about 15 to 20%, um, our behavioral health is most impacted, um, between 25 to 30%. The team has done an outstanding job trying to recruit, we make- you know, people calling all the time, we attend association meetings and promote, um, some of our vacancies such as check and the Behavioral Health Association as well, and even our environmental health team. So, um, we're definitely higher than we wanna be, um, and yo

u guys or pretty much have heard the reasons for that, housing expenses, now inflation, now, uh, interest rates, that does not help us [laughs]. So we're- we're trying to kind of, you know, be creative, but we do anticipate. I anticipate this is gonna be an ongoing issue for us for the next 24 months, um, until we see our economy try to stabilize until we see if there's drops in inflation and cost of living in our county. I think until then we'll continue to struggle, um, with the vacancies, but

, um, yeah, it, it's not unique to us as, you know, you've, you've heard me talk about that already. - Well, to the extent that we can help support any kind of programs related to whether it's housing assistance, or internships, or what have you, um, so that we can help close these gaps, um, we'll be very supportive of those kinds of efforts. And so thank you for your presentation today. - Thank you. Supervisor McPherson. - Yeah. Thank you, um, the health services for, uh, navigating a hugely co

mplicated budget that, uh, is due for- that really is dependent on state and federal grants. I, I mean, it's 80- 80 or 90% of your budget is state and federal resources, financial resources. Is that correct? - Yes. - About that? - Yes. More than like 95% or 90%. - 95% wow. Okay. - I didn't, yeah. - Um, so it's, uh- it's really, uh, to your credit, uh, that you've been able to provide these, uh-uh, new programs that are mandated, um, this ever-changing, uh, system that we have. Uh, the array of

behavioral health, and public health, and Child care, and specialty care managed by the county, uh, it's really kind of staggering I think. Um, and how you were able to get your arms around all of that at the same time, uh, when there's changing, there's, uh, requirements coming from the state, um, you know, this takes care- uh, takes place, uh, just as Health care changes, uh, day to day, uh, with Cal-Aim, care courts, and other major programs that we're gonna have to implement, uh, to a stron

ger degree, I think in the- in the near future, and I'm glad to see a deeper investments in, uh, we are making through this budget and staff safety too. I think that's very important. Um, the increase in staff, uh, provided, uh, to provide the medically assisted, um, treatment related to substance abuse is also critical Um, unfortunately, the behavioral health needs, uh, of this community and, uh, every community throughout California, and for that matter, United States have grown and changed su

bstantially in the last years, um, as untreated mental health, uh, and substance use have reached crisis levels. So I- I really can't say enough, uh, give you enough credit for you, uh, Ms. Morales and Ms. Herrera for leading this charge to address these issues that are before us, unlike we've never experienced before, and I also think it- it needs to be said that, uh, the outgoing public health services director, Gail Noel, Dr. Noel, did a phenomenal job in the COVID crisis. I think that we had

the highest, uh, percentage of vaccination rates in the State, and I think the lowest COVID deaths or close to it in the state. Uh, she was phenomenal in that, um, in overseeing that crisis, and, uh, I want to thank her, and, thank you for just following her first footsteps, and doing an equally effective job. So thank you. - Thank you. Um, I'm sure there'll be additional comments before the motion is made, but if- we'd like to open up for the community. Are there members of community who would

like to address us on the Health Services Agency budget, now would be an opportunity for you to do it. Good morning and welcome back. - Yeah, good morning. My name is James Ewing Whitman. Um, you know, I took some notes, it's clearly quite interesting. Well, what is this budget now? It's $268 million. Um, I'm actually gonna quote some stuff that Bruce McPherson said, you know, programs have to be mitigated, Healthcare changes, talking about the Care Act, address these issues before us, and then

in particular the highest vaccination rates in the- in the state in this county. Well, you know, I'm not really sure what to say with this bureaucracy. Uh, you know, there's 25 different programs here, you know what, what's actually in our water? You know, what's, it seems like we may not have a drought, but, uh, in 2019 the state legislators drained trillions of gallons out of the reservoirs who knows what's gonna happen? You know, one of infrastructure things, you guys are putting up this cou

nty, or the State, whoever's paying for it, they got a 16-inch pipe that's pumping the sewage into, uh, mid-County for the water system. You know, it's great that the vaccine rates are what they are you know, what about all the damage of everything combined with the frequency weapons that's not being talked about. This board talks about health, you know, I will say that I was really happy that about a month ago, Gail Noel came up and said, you know, I really, I was talking about the syringes and

uh, I believe a lot more of what you were saying than you probably think. So I think there's some kind of redemption there. I think if people change, there's a lot of things possible. Um, it's really kind of sad when we have men that are virtue signaling in this room, like you, Zach Friend, wearing a mask because that's really not a high sign of intelligence, but just slavery 'cause, um, masks were actually had a lot of purposes during the 1918 Spanish flu. Thank you. - Thank you for your comme

nts. Good morning, welcome back. - Thank you. It is written, "my people are destroyed for lack of knowledge." Um, there seems to be an engineered mental health crisis all around this country, and I am concerned about the weaponization of mental health services, which is factually not scientific, and is easily manipulated to cause severe harm. As I look at this Children's Crisis Center, which is a residential facility, I'm very concerned about state-owned children, and I will, um, share with you

that Gina Ramirez in this county is the mental health worker who made the unconscionable decision to lock my traumatized child up on a 5150 hold after she had experienced violence by her father in front of multiple witnesses, and this Gina Ramirez, I would like to know, meet her, um, decided that because my daughter refused to go home with her violent dad, and was screaming for her mother, that somehow locking her up for three days was in her best interest, and was safe. It's not. So, I don't ha

ve any trust in the mental health services provided here in Santa Cruz County. And while I do acknowledge there are many well-meaning people, and many of the departments in the county, I would really like to root out the ones who are not well-meaning. I'm not in favor of continuing to push an agenda that deprives parents of the right to make all medical, dental, and emotional well-being decisions for their children, and I just see this as an agenda to do that. I object, I do not consent, and I r

eject it all. Thank you. Thank you. Is there anybody else in the chambers that would like to address this? Good morning. Welcome. - Good morning. Becky Stein Bruner. I, first of all want to, uh, let you know that none of the information on today's agenda was available on the board supervisor's website calendar. The calendar was frozen. Usually, that's how I go in, in advance, and review materials but it was frozen, and the materials were not available. I did write your board, I did write IT. It,

as of this morning, it was still broken. So I- I apologize I arrived late, but I did hear some of the presentation. I'm worried that, uh, this budget is $14.8 million dollar deficit. That's, uh, if- if I read that slide correctly, that worries me. I think it follows in a pattern of what, um, our county, what our state, what our country's doing, which is spending more than we have. That never works for our own personal budgets, does it? So why are we expecting it to work for our local government

, or our federal government for that matter? So, um, I want you to think about that and, uh, over the course of these next couple of days, but with this budget included, human and health services is very important. But again, we have to live within our means and uh, provide what we can to those who most need it. I really feel that, uh, COVID and our county's reaction to it did a huge disservice to our local economy, and we have seen in our budget that it is a lack of reimbursement that is causin

g us great financial economic difficulty now. So I urge you not to go out and spend more, and, um, I- I really am opposed to the vaccine, uh, hesitancy data gathering that you have approved. I do not think it's ethical, and I do not think it's necessary, and can be used against the citizens. Thank you. Thank you. Is there anybody else in chambers? Madam clerk, is there anybody online? - Yes, chair. Olivia, your microphone is now available. - Uh, good morning has- I'll introduce myself. My name i

s Olivia Martinez, I'm the Region 2 Director for SEIU. So I have requested information, I think among [Inaudible] about the [Inaudible] system and for the health department, I think there was approximately a 150 vacant space which is 33% of their total staff. So that is concerning as to the, sorry, echo, so it's hard for me to speak. Um, so it is concerning in terms of the services that they're providing, we're also concerned with our members that work at HPHP, and how long it's been taken, um,

to address their issues under working conditions. I don't know if you know, but since January they've had to resuscitate 15 of their clients, they have been working on horrible working conditions, [Inaudible] they didn't have an AC, um, it's overcrowded, they don't have the space, their van is not allowed to park in that area. Um, it's taken a long time for this, uh, department to address those issues. The other concern is with the vacancies, is that I think the county is not attracting people b

ecause of a lot of different issues, and the reputation the county is getting. Um, regarding the budget, I've been working with SEIU 14 years now, Carlos has changed this budget to be very complicated to read, in comparison to what Susan Mauriello had before, which was very easy to read, um, and now it is very convoluted, it's difficult to find stuff. I really recommend this board to go back to easy way to read this budget. Thank you very much. - Thank you. Is there anybody else online? - No fur

ther speakers, chair. All right. We'll bring it back to the board, for action, let's make some brief comments. I, the, the issue, I- I can't imagine a department or I- I- I don't see a department with more, uh, pressures on it in an in an evolving state and federal landscape than your department with, I mean, with an entire presentation on Cal-Aim previously, Care Court, uh, innumerable number of new state mandates generally with, um, one time funding as opposed to longitudinal funding. Uh, the

pressures on, on your department, and the importance of your department, which was highlighted even more so in the last few years can't be, uh, overstated, and so I appreciate the work and I- and I completely understand the sense, uh, within your department of employees that- that feel overtaxed, and feel like they have uh, been through a lot, and by the way they've also been, in some respects, there- there hasn't been full support from the community. I mean, people step forward and say totally

inappropriate things about your team, who are just out here doing, quite frankly, God's work. I mean, defending the most vulnerable within our community, uh, people protesting outside your houses is totally inappropriate and uncalled for, and a real unfortunate reflection on our community Um, so I understand why it can be hard in that context to recruit people to do this work, especially when you could make even more money in other sectors. We're not alone as, um, the director knows, I- I have t

he privilege of chairing CSAC's HS committee statewide, and all 58 counties are having recruitment issues. It's more acute on the coastal counties because of some of the issues that were mentioned by the director in regard to housing, but we're not- we're not alone. I mean, the, the behavioral health vacancy rates, psychologists and psychiatrists across the state, some have 50% vacancy rates, uh, 25% is completely, uh, is a huge challenge, but it's not unique. But I think that just as a general

community comment, we have to do a better job of actually, by caring for those that care for the most vulnerable and- and showing that support. I mean, the support would go a long way toward recruitment, uh, even more so in some respects than pay. I don't think the people that choose this life's work, uh, are doing it exclusively for the money. So I want you to know that- that I appreciate you. I think this board appreciates, I know this board appreciates your work, and we've seen it from behind

the scenes, and also there are a lot of people that are alive in this community because of your work over the last few years that wouldn't- wouldn't be here otherwise. So we appreciate that. So bringing it back to the board for a motion. Supervisor Cummings? - I'll move- I'll move the Health Services Agency budget. - Thank you. - Second. - We have a motion from Supervisor Cummings. - A second from Supervisor Hernandez. If we could have a roll call, please. Oh, I'm sorry and a comment. - Just on

e last question. You mentioned briefly the 24/7 crisis response around the Crisis Continuum Initiative. I'm wondering if you could explain a little bit more, cause I heard that and I got excited, and just wanted to see if you could speak a little bit more about that. I- I'll definitely give you a high level, and I also welcome, um Karen Kern, our interim director, if she wants to say a few comments. This is a model that we've been exploring, um, to really enhance the work that we're doing. It re

ally compliments the existing work that we're doing. For example, when we have, um, a hotline for folks to call, a mobile service for folks in their community that might need more than just a phone call to try to help stabilize, and then obviously the crisis, um, uh, residential programming that we're wanting to put in place in stabilization programming. But if, um, Karen can highlight a few, uh, updates on that model, that'll be great. - Thank you. Uh, good morning, board. Yes. We are looking a

t implementing the Crisis Now model, which focuses on mobile crisis response, receiving centers, the 988-call center, and the use of evidence-based practices. Um, we'll be coming before this board hopefully at the end of June to present our, uh, MHSA innovations plan, for which we are participating with Calaveras County in a- a multi-county project, um, and you'll have a lot more information then. But the goal for this, uh, mobile crisis team is to pair a clinician with a peer or an EMT, um, to

be available to the community 24 hours a day, 7 days a week. Um, we'll likely phase that in over time, so it won't be an immediate 24/7, but that's the goal for the mobile crisis team. We've received a lot of, um, community feedback as well as stakeholder feedback around the need for that type of, um, response that also sort of delinks the response from law enforcement, Uh, so that is the model that we are looking to adopt. - Great. Thank you for that words. - Mr. Chair, I just have, um, could y

ou give me a little, um, describe more about the, um, local impact of the increased Medi-Cal, um, eligibility starting next year. Um, is there- what do you- what- how do you see that fiscal impact on Santa Cruz County? - That's a great question and I- we right now we're, um, assessing for that. So we know that it's now gonna be, uh, paying us for the provider type. So a psychiatrist, uh, licensed, uh, therapist, for example, will get a higher payment than a community health worker or behavioral

health liaison. So we are right now looking at the new rates that they provided us, we'll come to your board in around August, and I think we're scheduled actually in December too, to give you an update on what those impacts are. Um, right now we're a little concerned, just because the way that we're, um, generating some of the predictions, it looks like it's gonna take us a few years, um, to actually start generating revenue, and that's why we're assuming the state is providing one time funding

allocations to help you with implementation changes, um, so more to come on that, um, I've shared with you guys that we were estimating potentially a loss anywhere between 2 to 5 million dollars. Again, I, please don't quote me on that because it's still projections, but more to come on that. However, It does look, I- I'm, I am hopeful that what the state put in place, it will provide more services to individuals that we haven't been able to serve before, like the justice involved in, uh, commu

nity or more of, um, you know, the homeless community in different ways that we haven't been able- pay for housing, for example, vouchers, pay for rent for a period of time, I think it's like 30 to 60 days. So those are all great opportunities that we think will offset some additional kind of expenses that we have that we weren't able to reimburse before, but we just need a little more time to do that, and I'm not sure if either, um, Jen wants to add anything else to that. Okay. Sounds good. - A

lright, we have a motion and a second. If we got a roll call, please. Supervisor Koenig? I. Cummings? - I. Hernandez? - I. McPherson? - I. And Friend? I. And that passes unanimously. Thank you for the presentation, and for your work. We'll move on to item 6 to consider approval of the 2023-24 proposed budget for the Human Services Department, including any supplemental materials, and take related actions as outlined in the reference budget documents and recommended by the CAO. We have the budge

t hearings item board memo, the proposed budget line item with budget detail, the supplemental budget, the fixed assets, continuing agreements list, and additional documents, uh, for this. I know we've got director Morris remotely, we can see you, director Morris. Thank you for being here. We have assistant director Kimberly Peterson, and we have Trish Daniels, the Director of Admin Services. Director Morris, are you gonna kick this off for us? - Okay. I am and I'm just doing a sound check. Am I

coming through? - Yes, you are. Thank you. - Okay. Uh, thank you for the accommodation. Unfortunately, due to COVID protocols, I'm remote today, but as you said, Chair Friend, good morning to you and board members, and thank you to Deputy Peterson and I'm getting an echo, Clerk of the Board, is that coming- Is the echo coming through in chambers as well? Thank you. I'll- I'll continue. Um, so I also wanna take a minute to recognize having Trish Daniels here, who is our Director of Admin Service

s, and the reason she is here is she oversees our budget office, and as my colleague, Monica Morales recognized the hundreds of hours our staff and our budget teams go through to build up this budget. I wanna thank Trish and her team, our fiscal officer, Rick Harron in particular, as well as Marcus and our CAO Analyst Finn, who worked so hard over the last, uh, many weeks to get this budget in front of you today. I also wanna recognize that a pre-COVID tradition, uh, human services has our depa

rtment leadership team in the chambers today, and they are available, uh, to answer any questions from the board during question and answer, but also I want to thank them for the work we did together in putting this budget together. And finally, there's been a lot of comments, um, throughout the board hearing this morning about our workforce. We are a department of 580 employees, and what we do is regulated by federal and state law, and we are prohibited from contracting out most of our programs

and our services, so our success is based on our workforce, and our workforce has gone through a lot these last three years. It's been a very difficult time with deployment to disasters, COVID, and large vacancy rates. So I just wanna end my shout outs by saying thank you to the workforce. I like all the leadership teams started as a direct service employee in county human services. So our success is based on all you do. So thank you. So if we could move to the next slide, or maybe queue up the

slides if they haven't been shown yet. - Just one second. [whispering] I don't know how to do this. Okay. It should be good to go. - Okay. Thank you, Clerk of the Board. If you can go to the next slide. [whispering] - Okay. Here we go. - So on the right is a list of the agenda items, which I will not read, but I mostly just wanna focus on the motto of the Human Services Department, which is dedicated to making a difference, and I just wanna key off my prior comments of our workforce, our leader

ship team, and even up to, and including our budget office, whose dedication to make a difference in the community as a parent every day, and I'm honored and very proud to be the department's director. We could go to the next slide. [Pause] And this is a listing of our mission and our values for what we do to strengthen our community, to protect the most vulnerable through the values that we embrace of excellent service, compassion, integrity, partnerships, and effective practice. And if we can

go to the next slide. So the work we do is delivered through four direct service divisions, and I'm just gonna take a minute to comment on them because you'll hear more about them in the presentation. The first is the Public Child Welfare Division, which we call Family and Children Services. The second is Adult and Long-Term Care, which is where our in-home supportive services program resides, as well as adult protective services, veteran services office, and our public guardian and public conse

rvator. The next is the Housing for Health Division, the newest division in our department, which we'll say more about in the presentation. And finally, by far the largest division we managed, Employment and Benefit Services where one-third of community residents get service from this division, predominant through our Medi-Cal program, but this is also where CalFresh, CalWorks, General Assistance and Employment Progress, including our Workforce Development Board. And finally, listed at the botto

m is the word entitlement. This is actually a budget phrase that you'll see, and the budget presentation is the second largest item in our budget. The word entitlement is tied to federal policy, that when the federal and state government mandate that we deliver a service when somebody is entitled to receive it, uh, many times that manifests in the form of a cash payment, so in child welfare, when resource families, adoption families, kin caregivers, treatment programs are paid to care for our fo

ster youth, that's an entitlement in the ALTC division. The providers of care to our in-home supportive service and clients receive a hourly wage and benefits if they work over a certain amount per month, and in the Employments and Benefits Division, the CalWORKS cash grants are all referred to as entitlements. I just wanted to provide that reference point as you see in the presentation. So that ends my overview, and I'm gonna turn it over to Kimberly, who's gonna share some about the operationa

l plan, and its nexus with how we built our budget. - Thank you, Randy. So we currently have nine operational goals, which can be seen on the Vision Santa Cruz County website. What you see here is the sampling of those goals, representing the different divisions that Randy just mentioned. First, I want to highlight the centering of equity. We have a great team dedicated to pulling, analyzing, and sharing data that will utilize in everything we do, daily operations to long-term planning and evalu

ation. As a part of ongoing continuous improvement efforts, we were more intentionally focus on including equity data as a part of our practice. and implementation of all our goals. Second, Medi-Cal, one in every three county residents are on Medi-Cal. One requirement of Medi-Cal is that individual recipients must comply with an annual renewal. Over the past four years, that requirement has been waived due to the pandemic. That waiver is now expiring, and Medi-Cal recipients must again comply wi

th the renewal process, or risk losing their Medi-Cal. This happens to be occurring at the same time that the computer system that can be used by the public to apply for and renew benefits, and the system used by the staff to process that information is changing to a statewide system. Ensuring that the community is aware of the requirement to renew Medi-Cal, and also follows the steps necessary to successfully renew is a high priority for our Employment and Benefit Services Division. [clearing t

hroat] The master plan on aging, seniors are the fastest growing demographic in the county, and by 2030, over 30% of Santa Cruz residents will be over age 60. The trend is not unique to Santa Cruz, and governor Luis [Pause] master plan for aging, um, including, um, that will aid communities in preparing for, um, the demographic change. As Santa Cruz develops its local master plan, including the diverse aging voices of those we are trying to serve will be critical to identify the community's evol

ving needs, and we intend as HSD to get input from at least a thousand county residents as a part of that effort. Resource families. Our Family and Children's Services Division plans to reduce by 17% the number of times kids in foster care change homes. A primary way to do that is by recruiting, training, and better supporting our local resource families who care for kids out of their homes. Housing. One of the housing for health goals is to increase the number of supportive housing units by 150

, and have those units occupied by June of 2025. [Pause] So our primary budget goals. Some of the drivers behind our budget are strengthen- strengthening and stabilizing our workforce. As you've heard earlier today, we are not alone in experiencing high vacancy rates, and in partnership with personnel and partner organizations, we are focusing on recruitment and retention efforts. Somewhat related, is that as direct service programs grow, the need to support the administrative infrastructure, fi

nance, contracts, analysis, and reporting behind those direct service programs is sometimes overlooked, yet it's critically important. Later in the presentation, Randy will talk to you more about the need for stable housing for health funding, and then just a moment ago, you heard me speak of equity, and our intentional centering of equity in all of our goals including our budget planning. Thoughtful innovation. What we mean by that is that acknowledging the realities of limited resources and at

times increasing need, we must continuously look to see how we can operate in new ways within our department and in partnership with appropriate stakeholders to achieve our long-term community goals and maintain our basic mandated services. CalAim, which you also heard um, [inaudible] speak of earlier, is an opportunity with this approach. Then lastly, on mass care and shelter. We're also applying thoughtful innovation to mass care and shelter efforts in coordination with um, OR3 and other depa

rtments and community organizations. The Human Services Department by state statute is primarily responsible for mass care and shelter during emergencies, but there is no funding tied to that responsibility. So each emergency is a draw from existing resources. We will continue to advocate at the state level for funding to support this effort, but short of that, we are looking at organizing ourselves in a way that allows us to respond effectively and efficiently in emergencies without jeopardizin

g our ongoing operations. And now I'm going to turn it to Trish for more detail on our budget. [Pause] - Thank you, Kimberly. For fiscal year 2023-2024, HSD is requesting approval of $188.6 million budget. I'll start with our revenue sources, which are shown on the left. 87% of the budget is federal and state funding, which is provided to carry out the various services that were described earlier. These federal and state programs mandate that counties provide a match to their funding. The Genera

l Fund contribution of $23 million, or only 12% of our overall budget is used as that match. You will also see a couple of slices labeled as realignment. In both 1991 and 2011, the state changed the methodology for funding certain programs, resulting what is now known as realignment. This funding, made-up of sales tax and vehicle license fees, covers various programs, including Protective Services for both children and adults, in-home supportive services, Cal works, foster care, etcetera. All of

our revenue is then spread across our various divisions as shown on the right. As you can see, social services, which includes not only our employees in the various direct service divisions of ALTC, um, employment and benefits, family and children, and administration. It also includes our community partner contracts and entitlement costs that, uh, Randy alluded to earlier. These costs are the bulk of the budget at 87% Housing for health is an additional 10% and our remaining programs are the fi

nal 3% of the budget. We are requesting 7 new positions, including supplemental requests which are funded from increased allocations and do not require an additional general fund contribution beyond what was included in our base budget. 4 social worker positions are proposed in response to our aging community, 3 for the in-home supportive services program, 1 for adult Protective Services, and 1 position to provide standardized training for adult services staff, similar to what our family and chi

ldren's and employment and benefit services employees receive. We are also adding an analyst to the Workforce Development- Workforce Development Board Program to provide more focus on our underserved community, including outreach to the monolingual population. Lastly, the facilities manager position was previously on our books, but the vacant position was eliminated at the beginning of the pandemic when the county did a second round of budget cuts. Ever-increasing deferred maintenance issues at

our various buildings has prompted us to request funding for this position once again. [Pause] And then next, I'm going to just share a few items about fiscal sustainability for our department. So there are many positive things about our budget. The funding is relatively stable and predictable, with the small general fund match to draw down large allocations. The realignment funding that I spoke to previously can be economy dependent as it is mainly sales tax. For the last several years, 2011 re

alignment exceeded what was budgeted, which allowed for a reduced general fund contribution. Now that the economy is in a bit of a slowdown mode, realignment funding is still projected to grow but at a much slower rate, less than 2% for fiscal year 2023-24. We are also fortunate to receive support from organizations such as CWDA, the California Welfare Directors Association, and CSAC, the California State Association of- State Association of Counties, both of whom have put forth proposals relate

d to mass care and shelter funding, homeless funding, as well as advocating for fiscal support from other- for other social service programs. On the challenges side, our biggest challenge is our high vacancy rate. We've, um, spoken a lot about that this morning. This is not unique to HSD, or even the county of Santa Cruz as a whole. This is a statewide issue, and not only does it impact the services we provide to our county residents, high vacancy rates also impact our ability to draw down those

state and federal funds. Not to mention, creates additional stress and burden on our existing staff. Another challenge is an area of the budget that we don't have control over and that is entitlements or the cash payments that we administered of the- of the various programs that Randy described. These payments are largely covered by the federal and state government, but they do require a county match. So every time those payments are increased, the required general fund match also increases. Ho

using for health administrative challenges from the multi-multitude of one-time grants, as well as a lack of ongoing funding is an additional challenge. Randy will provide more information on this in a few minutes. Lastly, mass care and shelter, Kimberly spoke to this earlier, and I won't repeat those words, but it does remain an ongoing challenge from a fiscal staffing and administrative perspective, and with that, I'm going to pass it back to Randy. - Thank you, Trish and Kimberly. So this sli

de is a snapshot of the housing for health division and can I just confirm I'm coming through? - Yes, Randy, we can hear you. - Thank you. It's great, the echo went away. Uhm, so this is a snapshot of the housing for health division. Housing for health is clearly a county-wide initiative that is administered in the Human Services Department. So we wanted to give it special recognition, particularly given the humanitarian crisis that persists and some would argue is worsening. Three big takeaways

from this picture. First is, it is to show that we have almost a 6-time increase in the amount of money we've been able to pull from federal and state sources, to support our efforts going pre-COVID to the largest chart there when you look at current fiscal year. Second and a big highlight, which I'll share a few times, is that these are all one-time grants compared to the Human Services Department budget wide, which is almost 95% predictable in stable allocations, the housing for Health Divisi

on is the opposite 95% one-time grants, which makes it very difficult to administer safety net system when you have no predictability of what's on the horizon in terms of a budget. And then finally is the color coding, just to give you an idea of source which I'll now walk through. So this sort of orange brown color is a combination of federal and state one-time grants in the amount of $18 million. The blue is the continued general fund contribution, which is the only relatively stable source of

funding we have. But then I want to lift up the green and the yellow. The green is project home key and if you recall project room key was the name of the federal and state-funded COVID intervention to stop the spread of COVID for those who are unsheltered or needed to isolate or quarantine otherwise, and then the state and [inaudible] came out with project home key to help purchase um, local affordable housing such as hotels that have been used for COVID sheltering, and we were successful in o

btaining $19 million of home key awards that are in the process of being built. And then the yellow is a one-time earmark from the state that was specific to our local community-based organization partner housing matters for some construction-related work on their campus but it was required to go through local government, so that is going to be coming through Human Services. So those are the color codes and I do want to end with highlighting over on the right under home key. Your board has autho

rized already the application for the third round of home key awards and if we are successful in those applications, we could have as much as 40 additional million dollars of home key grants to help build more affordable housing in our community. But all of that is at a cost and that is the unprecedented workload that we're all still working on managing given the complexity of these funding streams, the reporting requirements and Doctor Ratner, the division lead and I have shared that with your

board prior, but I just want to recognize what comes with this volume of new money, unprecedented volume is a volume of work we're still managing. So, next slide. [Pause] Confirming next slide. - The slides have been updated, Randy. Go ahead. - Okay, thank you. It just showed up on my screen. So now this is a quick summary of the opportunities and the challenges in the housing for health division. First is the housing element. This is under ReHNA or the Regional Housing Needs Assessment, which i

s every 8 years, there's an opportunity for the community to come together to identify how to build more affordable housing for very low-income and all-income strata. Next opportunity is, it was mentioned by Trish that there's a strong advocacy in our state associations and uh, Chair Friend mentioned he's the Chair of Health and Human Services at the California State Association of Counties where there's a lot of discussion about the need to get cleaner governance and organization around managin

g housing and homelessness in local community between cities, counties, and the state, and most particularly to identify guaranteed funding rather than living on one-time grants. Third is CalAIM. I won't repeat what has been mentioned earlier and we had a chance to give a presentation with health last month, and finally the vendor pool, this is an item we will be bringing to your board next month which if adopted by your board will help us manage the volume of grants more expeditiously. And then

to the challenges, as I said, the one-time grant funding continues to be an issue that we hope in time the feds and state will invest in stable funding for local government to manage uh, the safety net we run. The next is the lack of affordable housing, as your board is aware, but worth repeating, we are the most expensive rental market in California when you adjust for median income and housing cost to purchase are going up. This is not only a challenge for helping those with with low income a

nd unsheltered, but also workforce. Next is construction cost arising, which means there's less money available to build affordable housing even when we get these grants. And then finally, I want to mention the issue of disaster response, as the unsheltered crisis is growing in communities, particularly where cost of living is high, like the coast. During disasters of which we have many, the conflation of what communities are to do to help those who are unsheltered and those who are otherwise sh

eltered but displaced is getting very confusing, who funds it, who's responsible, and it's an issue that's playing out statewide and the challenge that we're invested in working through. So, next slide. So I will end the presentation with a quick summary of some of the highlights of the proposed state budget. The reason this is listed as proposed is the state budget cycle is in January. The governor releases a budget mid-May, it's revised which just came out a few weeks ago, and then we wait for

the state legislature and governor to adopt the budget by July 1st. You've already heard about realignment, which is positive that it's still growing, but we have less discretion as it's slowing down. I've already mentioned the one-time funding, it does continue, which given the cooling economy, want to express appreciation for the governor and our Secretary of Health and Human Services for continuing that funding, but balance that with the statement that we need it to be more sustainable than

the one-time grants. Second to last item in the state budget worth highlighting is Medi-Cal, our single largest program in Human Services. Over 90,000 Santa Cruz residents, it was mentioned earlier that everybody who is on Medi-Cal in California did not have to go through a yearly redetermination until the public health emergency was lifted. This next fiscal year, everybody will have to, and so the state has funded us to be able to have increased capacity to manage those redeterminations, and la

st under Medi-Cal, we appreciate the State of California that as of this next fiscal year, makes everyone who is otherwise eligible to their income and assets, eligible for Medi-Cal regardless of immigration status by closing the final cohort of 26 to 49-year-olds. And this leads to the last item which is in the in-home supportive services program. This is a program that serves 3000 Santa Cruz County residents who are on Medi-Cal, are deemed age blind and disabled and without in-home care would

otherwise be placed out of home and institutional care. We had increased allocations both for the projected caseload growth because of the growing aging population, but also because those who are undocumented are now eligible for Medi-Cal. This directly links to why we have in front of you additional budgets to add some staffing in the in-home supportive services program because of this increased revenue. And then finally, I want to recognize the state and the feds adopted in COVID a wage supple

ment for in-home care providers because of the number of providers who are contracting COVID and couldn't provide in-home care. But the state has decided to make this wage supplement system, uh, permanent and has given us an increased allocation to manage uh, the implementation of that provider backup system which then leads to the final slide. Which is to just simply request your board to approve our proposed 2023-24 budget. Including the 7 new positions, the 5 that were listed, and the 2 in th

e supplemental, and to end, just a thank you and appreciation for the opportunity for us to serve Santa Cruz County community. Thank you. - Thank you, Director Morris. Uh, are there any questions or comments from board members? Uh, Supervisor McPherson? - Yeah. I want to thank Director Morris and the whole, uh, team of- of Human Services for their innovation and flexibility under the circumstances that we have, and likewise your partners with uh, the Health Services Agency, uhm, you're always ju

ggling an ever-changing landscape from what the federal and state governments are demanding of us or providing us. Uhm, and you- you do provide an extraordinary amount of services to our seniors and our families with children, folks with disabilities and those experiencing homelessness. So um, it's really the target area of what we need to do uh, to serve our people of Santa Cruz County. Uhm, and you were in the center of the COVID response and the CZU fires, uh, when it came to sheltering the m

ost vulnerable. I can't thank you enough for what you did for that, and that said, um, we won't be able to provide it seems the same level of service as we are now during future disasters without, uh, greater sustained support as was mentioned by Director Morris. Uh, but um, all this it comes as the eligibility expansion of Medi-Cal takes place, and I have a question like it did for the health services, would you describe a little more about the local impact of increased Medi-Cal, uh, eligibilit

y starting next year? Do you, do you have a- a- a general thought of what you're going to have, what we're going to have to do to meet that? [Pause] - I was... - Kimberly. Why don't you go ahead, Kimberly, and clarify Supervisor McPhersons question. There's a couple different angles on that. - Budgetarily or program-wise for impact on the community? - Well, budgetarily, at this point, yeah. - And then I'll... [Pause] - Um, as Randy mentioned, we did get increased allocations to assist with those

Medi-Cal redeterminations. Um, due to our high vacancy rates, we are severely challenged in the employment and Benefit Services Division. Currently, there is a shortage of benefit representatives that are able to process those redeterminations. So we have, um, scheduled the additional allocation to be spent via overtime for our current staff. - Okay. And in the program wise, um, I guess that would be for you Kimberly, I don't know. Yeah. - Sure. So, um, program wise that means that um, pretty m

uch anybody in the community who, um, who is lower income and can apply for Medi-Cal and be eligible for full-scope. What we call full scope Medi-Cal, sorry for the lingo. Basically um, in the past, somebody who was undocumented, but and who qualified for Medi-Cal would only be eligible for, um, emergency services. Meaning if somebody was pregnant, um, they could take advantage of Medi-Cal services, or if it was really, truly like a life or death, loss of limb situation, would they be covered fo

r Medi-Cal. So that will change and they will be able um, eligible for Medi-Cal as a normal health care coverage. - Okay. Thank you. - Supervisor McPherson, I want to also piggyback on Kimberly statements to recognize some important work in partnership with our community partners. One of the primary reasons people drop off of Medi-Cal during annual renewal is because we do not have their correct address. The reason we don't have their correct address is people often move. They could be unshelter

ed, etcetera and especially when nobody had to do a renewal for almost 3 years. I want to recognize the partnership we have with many community-based organizations, particularly the Health Improvement Partnership that has been working closely with us to reach out to everybody in the health safety net, anytime somebody comes in to get care in the health safety net, to help encourage them, provide us with updated address information. So in the year ahead, we will find out if how successful that is

. But due to that partnership, I think fewer people are going to lose their Medi-Cal because we have been able to connect our systems and reach out to them um, and get the information to them so they can renew. [Pause] - Supervisor Koenig? - Thank you, Chair. Thank you, HSD team. Uhm, my question is about the mass care and shelter. How much did we end up spending in 2022-23 on mass care and shelter? I didn't see like the item reflected in the budget and then does that just get stacked on to our

FEMA claims? [Pause] - I'll- I'll start and then I may turn to, um, Trish for assistance. Uhm, in terms of- in terms of how much we spend, I know that if it, um, if what we spent is eligible for FEMA, it gets stacked on. Uhm, typically though in the midst of the emergency, we actually charge it to the emergency operations, um, versus within our HSD budget. Does that help answer the question? - I don't have the budget numbers in front of me currently, but I'm- I'm going to assume that it's somewh

ere in the neighborhood of um, $7 million to $10 million is my guess. I'm looking to Marcus to help confirm that for me, but um, that, that's sort of what my assumption is between staffing time and then the cost of actually running the shelters, particularly with our partnership with Monterey County, sheltering the residents from the Pajaro flood. - Okay. Thank you that ballpark figure is helpful. Any idea of what percentage of that is FEMA eligible? [Pause] Uhm, generally, with FEMA reimburseme

nt, um, they do try to do eligible costs only, and once they determine which costs are actually eligible, FEMA will cover 75% of those eligible costs, and Cal-OES will generally pick up, um, 75% of the remaining 25% that's eligible. So it's, it... [clears throat] ...ends up being a very small county match eventually. But as Marcus spoke to earlier, we are still dealing with outstanding FEMA funds from three years ago, and so, it's, it's- it can be a little bit of a challenge. - And, and I can ju

st clarify, Marcus Pimentel, County Budget Manager, that although the storms occurred in, in January, uh, most of, most of the month of January, um, those claims have just been now compiled and are being submitted to FEMA. So we can provide the board with an update, uh, at one of the coming meetings on the projections for those first storm costs. We're still compiling all the costs for the second event. I think, uh, Trish's estimate is probably correct. Um, we're probably in the seven to $10 mil

lion response range, uh, between the two events and looking at 60-ish million in capital and other, uh, recovery costs and damages. - Yeah, I mean, it seems like also, in general where the capital cost reimbursement structure is a little bit more solid. It, it seems like, as far as providing mass care and shelter. Uh, I mean, as, as far as I understand, we're still, uh, you know, negotiating, debating with, with FEMA what percentage of that is eligible in terms of, uh, some of the COVID shelter

we provided. So, uh, you know, nowhere near is, is certain that we would get the reimbursement for this, you know, 75% of the 7 to 10 million here. - Oh, I think that's very astute. Uh, former [Inaudible] Koenig, what we've found with FEMA in regard to COVID is they're going through their- the third revision of care sheltering and EOC response and revising policies. They're doing that active now, at a retroactive to 2022 or 2020, excuse me. So we'll find, we expect to find that more of our claim

s that we submitted per the guidance in 2020 and 2021 are now gonna be ineligible, and that's a frustrating effort we're working with. Um, so I, I would expect the 2023 storms when it's 2026, and we're starting to get into those details of responses back from FEMA. We're gonna have some similar struggles, unfortunately. - Right. I mean, at some point, we're gonna have to budget for mass care and shelter, whether it's, you know, knowing that we're gonna get a certain amount from the state or that

it's gonna have to come out of local revenue. So, um, it sounds like it's still pretty up in the air, though, in terms of understanding what are, you know, what, what will be covered, and, and, and as they mentioned, this particular event is, uh, the January event was in, and the February and March events compiled together are particular challenging and that we had multi-county responses combined in one effort. So, some of it may be maintenance of effort, payments we received from Monterey Coun

ty, and others might be claims we submit to FEMA in, in lieu of Monterey County. So we, we've got a lot of work to do and we appreciate that partnership with Monterey County. - Okay, thank you. - Supervisor Cummings. - Thank you, Chair, and thank you for the presentation. Um, [coughs] I had a couple questions. One, um, the first was, I know you mentioned the challenges with vacancy rates, which we're seeing throughout the entire county. I'm just wondering what those numbers are exactly or if the

re's a ballpark. [clears throat] - Uh, for '21, '22, we had an 11.3% vacancy rate, but so far this year, um, halfway through '22, '23 are almost through. We are averaging around a 9% vacancy rate. So, we're making some progress. Um, it, it has ranged anywhere from 6.84% and 18, 19 up to the, um, current rate that we have today. - Great. Thanks. And I just wanna, um, express my appreciation, um, for the work that our County Administrative Officer, Carlos Palacios, and that- the action of this boa

rd has taken on, um, really trying to, you know, fund and support homeless services in the county. Um, oftentimes, we'll hear people saying that the county is not doing anything, the county's not doing anything, but the reality is that the county's working really hard to try to, you know, get funding and provide services that are helping to support people experiencing homelessness, and so, I just wanted to, uh, express my appreciation of all the work that's been going, that's been happening with

the creation of the housing for health and for the funding that everybody's working really hard to, um, to bring into the county to address those needs. Um, I'm wondering, um, if there's an opportunity to see how those funds are, are being used in terms of number of people that are being served and what kinds of services are being provided. Um, that's, that's kind of a comment, but it's a, a little bit of a question as well. - I, I, I can actually share that, Supervisor Cummings, at the six-mon

th report, and Dr. Rattner and I gave, you actually had issued additional direction for us to return at our next six-month report to answer that very question. Um, and so that is something we are planning to bring in a little more detail in our materials and in our presentation about outcome specificity, about all those different grants. I know the time we were in front of you last, we showed that maze just to highlight where those 40-plus funding streams go, but you had asked for more detail, w

hich is in queue for the next presentation in August. - It's really, um, important that we're celebrating the achievements that we're making with these funds and, and the, the work that the county's doing. So thank you very much. - Supervisor Hernandez. - I also want to thank you guys on your presentation. Um, you know, there seems to be a recurring theme with recruitment, uh, with human services as, as well as the previous one with health services, and, and I imagine, well, I know that for sure

with public safety as well. Um, is there a way that we can, um, I, I guess this is more a comment to, uh, our, our CEO's office, if we can collaborate with personnel or the CEO's office to, uh, make sure that we create a plan, recruitment plan for these critical positions, um, at least for the critical positions that will ensure that we do not let people fall through the cracks and keep people above the safety net as well as positions that, that are not funded, but, you know, uh, self-funded th

at, you know, that can get reimbursements from, from the position or that save us money in terms of, um, less overtime. So, thank you. - I could also make a comment about some of the off- efforts that we're making within HSD. Um, we actually are working with personnel, um, on a, a couple different, uh, recruitment and retention efforts, and then, um, in partnership with the California Court, um, CWTA that was mentioned earlier, there's actually, um, a recruitment work group, um, on which we have

a number of our divisions represented, um, where they're putting, um, sharing, um, best practices on, um, how to, uh, recruit and retain employees, um, and then just an example of, um, some of what we're doing, we've been a lot more active at job fairs, local job fairs, and creating internship opportunities, um, paid internship opportunities within our department whenever possible. And then, um, lastly, on a couple of the job classifications, in particular, the benefit representative job classi

fication, I just wanna speak to that, um, since it's come up a couple times. Um, there are currently 32 vacancies in that, um, job class. Um, however, um, we're actively, um, hiring a 29, um, people who will, um, start in August. Um, so that will make a big dent in that, um, group's vacancy. Thanks. - Thank you. Uh, I'm also still getting messages that the audio is off for the Zoom viewers. - Turning it on for Zoom right now. - Okay. We'll open it up for the community. Is there any member of the

community that like to address on some of the Human Services Department budget. [Pause] - Thank you. Becky Stein Bruner. Um, I wanna thank you for the presentations. I have great respect for, for Director Morris. I've, I've watched his work, and I really wanna thank him for his good work, um, regarding the, the challenge for mass shelter, one of those challenges is the recent problems at the 14th DAA Santa Cruz County fairgrounds with a replacement and a replacement, again, of the, uh, CEO, but

I want to urge, um, your leadership in your department to contact, um, CDFA, Deputy Flores, Michael Flores. He has been attending those, uh, fair board meetings in person and has, uh, guaranteed funding for different projects there. I am aware that the MOU between the county and the 14th DAA is old and really does need to be updated, and I hope that the county staff will do that. Um, there is a lot of chaos at the 14th DAA. I'm sure you've read about it. Supervisor Hernandez, you know all about

what I'm talking about, but I'm confident that, um, a new CEO will be soon, uh, selected and will move forward. But the county does need to hammer out some things. Um, one thing I saw at the CZU fire that I really questioned was that the kitchens, the mass-feeding kitchens, were not used at all. Uh, compartmentalized packaged meals were brought in, and that doesn't need to happen. Um, housing for Health Matters, I really still question why the 12 brand new trailers that the county received from

the state for COVID isolation were not used for housing after the COVID emergency was over. They were given to the parks department for potential offices. Um... Thank- ...I think that [Microphone is turned off] property be h- [Microphone is turned off] - Thank you, Ms. Stein Bruner. Are there any other members of the public who would like to speak to this item that's on our agenda today? In public or online? - We have no speakers online. All right. I guess we'll bring 'em back to the board for

, uh, action deliberation. - My mic is not working so that will do. - Is the board member- - I move approval of the Human Services Department. - Second. - It's a motion by Supervisor Koenig, and second by, um, Supervisor Hernandez. I would, um, maybe as a, as a consideration or friendly amendment, um, one of the things that, um, was brought up was just, you know, the, the impacts that we're having as it relates to homelessness on our community, and, um, there's a lot that we're doing around gett

ing people, um, off the street, but I, I, I, I think that one area where we could use some more support is towards ten- tenant assistance, earlier this year, for example, um, there was a member of the community who reached out who had received 180% rent increase, where her rent went from $1,000 per month to $2,800 a month, and oftentimes, when tenants are in those situations, they're- the burdens on them to go find an attorney. And so, having more legal assistance, I think, is something that, um

, would really benefit a lot of folks who are renting in our community. So, um, as a, an amendment or what maybe could come back, um, during the, the final budget determinations, whether we could allocate 90,000 towards, um, tenant sanctuary for tenant legal assistance. Um, I know that tenant sanctuary, I've been in contact with them, and they've found an attorney who's willing to work at a, a lower rate than most, uh, to help provide this. But in the long term, I think that it'll be good for th

e county to consider, uh, tenant legal assistance, um, given that, um, we're, as was mentioned earlier, the second most expensive county in the country, actually, in terms of rental- our rental housing market, and this type of assistance would go a long way to help keep people housed within our community. - Uh, just a question. Is there any proposal on where the money would come from specifically that would be cut? - Uh, HSD if they could work on finding that, and I, I know that, you know, we al

l get allocations and I'm proposing to allocate 50,000 of my budget towards that, um, to help cover those costs as well. - Okay. Thanks for the clarification. - All right. So we do have a motion and a second, and, um, working microphone with an additional, uh, direction if we could have a roll call, please. - Yes. And thank you for your patience during the technical difficulties. Supervisor Koenig. I. - Cummings. I. Hernandez. - I. McPherson. - I. And Friend. I. And that passes unanimously. Uh,

what's the will of the board? Would you like a 10-minute break, or would you like to continue going forward? Continue? Okay. All right. We'll move on to item seven, which is, uh, the first item in the public safety and justice category, which is to consider approval of the 2023-24 proposed budget for the Office of Response, Recovery and Resilience, including any supplemental materials, intake related actions outlined in the budget documents and recommended by the CAO. We have the budget hearings

, item board memo, the proposed budget in detail, the supplemental budget continuing agreements list, and we have Mr. Reed and Ms. Sereno for the presentation of- Mr- Director Reed, welcome. - Thank you, board. Um, good morning. I want to just start by recognizing that I'm here representing, um, our small but mighty office. Um, so working in OR3, um, as you all know, is Tatiana Brennan, Annie Puckett, Patty Ciesla, um, and without their hard work, um, much of what we are trying to accomplish, uh

, every day would not get done. So I want to just appreciate their work and also the work of Deputy CAO, Melody Sereno, next to me here, um, in supporting, uh, the budget preparations during two disasters. [clicks tongue] So the main, um, structure of our OR3 services is shifting this year. Um, so I wanted to highlight that we're adding, and I know that there's been some conversation with the tr- prior two budgets. We're adding the disaster response and recovery element to our budget. So there a

re essentially three divisions, or three services, within our OR3 budget for your consideration today. Um, that standard OR3 administration, which covers our resilience elements, um, grant administration and kind of post-disaster long-term recovery integration with our community partners and our planning department. Then obviously, our EOC administration, so that's during disaster as well as preparedness and trainings, um and working with our, our jurisdictional partners, and then the third and

new service area, um, is really to address some of the comments that were made already around how do we prepare for, um, future disasters, how do we budget? And so, with the support of, um, our budget manager, um, Marcus Pimentel and, and Melody, we've, we've created this third division so that we're better positioned and prepared to address the immediate costs of response, um, in, in disaster. Next slide. Uh, here. There we go. Sorry. Um, so I wanted to just take a moment and highlight, um, yo

u know, the disasters that we've experienced. Um, this is a screen grab of a, of a new live web application, are telling the story of those two disasters, um, in the context of the severe weather, and then how does our county and our community respond, recover, and build resilience to these disasters to try and, again, articulate kind of how we showed up as a community, as a County, as OR3. So this will be live on our website. I'll share it with your offices in the community through our standard

media channels, but it's, uh an amazing product that our ISD-GIS team put together to really tell the story broadly about the two disasters, and so, more specifically, I know that we've had some conversation, [clicks tongue] um, this morning already about the disasters and costs associated with them. So at a high level, I wanted to provide a- the latest update, and some of these numbers actually are outdated, um, and so I wanted to highlight that. Um, we have over 4,300 of our county residents

who have signed up for FEMA individual assistance between the two disasters. The first disaster, over 3,100 and over 10 million dollars in FEMA individual household, um, support has been approved. That's the highest number in the state. Over 2.2 million dollars and over 1200 residents have signed up for FEMA assistance in the second disaster, um, as well. So significant, um, need by our community in the aftermath of the disaster for financial support and recovery. As, um, Mr. Pimentel articulate

d that public infrastructure damages are substantial, our agricultural damages have been substantial, um, but really, what I wanna highlight is that in these two disasters, recovery journeys are unique, um, and each impacted resident has a constellation of factors that influence their recovery journey. And so, for many folks, this damage is different than our CZU when folks lost their whole home, but, um, no less impactful to their day-to-day lives. Um, and so we will see a different scale and,

and timeline of recovery in the disaster. Um, but what we also see is that folks are systematically underinsured, that they have insurance insecurity. So they're fearful of signing up for FEMA assistance because they're worried that their insurance will get dropped. Um, the FEMA assistance available is not enough. Um, and so equity in response and recovery is a critical element that we want to track and support our community as they face recovery from these latest two disasters. The other thing

that came up in prior presentations that I just want to highlight is that the- regards to kind of immediate costs. Um, Supervisor Koenig, in the prior conversation, in the prior me- uh, presentation, um, we are working closely with Cal-OES in collaboration with CDI, the CEO's office, and our auditor-controller staff to secure CDAA, California Disaster Assistance Act, advanced funding to support our category A and category B expenses from these disasters. We hope to come back to your board in Jun

e with more information but in, but, but what I wanna highlight is that instead of having to wait for this traditional FEMA reimbursement process, we're trying to get an advance on some of those eligible costs so that, that helps our kind of cash flow and, and bottom line, and we're not in this situation as what was articulated before where we're sitting with, uh, tens or close to a hundred million in FEMA claim costs outstanding. So that's a big, um, big improvement hopefully to get that advanc

e moving forward soon. So just to highlight some of our operational area, um, and operational plan highlights, um, you know, we've been working, the last two items on here have been completed. Um, we're working on the first item there. We have an RFP out, um, and we've received responses to update our emergency operations plan, which will be informed by our after-action, um, analysis from these two disasters, and we're continuing to work on hazardous fuel reduction efforts. We've submitted over

30 million dollars in grants to the federal government and are hoping to get, um, word on those soon to continue to address our most pressing climate crisis, which is wildfire. Um, during a prior presentation, I know Supervisor Cummings asked that budgets to get a report back update on the evacuation grant, um, so just to highlight, um, as I said, we're using some of that evacuation grant funding to fund our update to our emergency operations plan. The County Chipper, which was part of that gra

nt, has been purchased, um, but we're waiting on fall delivery. We're still working, um, and expanding and, uh, our work on the Lompico evacuation route, and then our GIS team has been doing some really innovative GIS analysis on evacuation works. [tongue clicks] So at a high level, um, from a budgetary goal standpoint, I just wanted to highlight, you know, there are three Rs in our name but there's a lot of work that we wanna do. Um, and so, really, we're- we're thinking about readiness, respon

se, equity, operational excell- excellence in training and exercise in our budget goals, um, this year and- and into the future, and, really, our near-term initiatives, um, the top three in bold are drawn directly out of our January storm after-action report. We had a consultant that spoke with most of you and [inhales] many of our county staff and jurisdictional partners, and what we heard clearly, um, from our c- from our county staff and- and others is that we need to elevate, um, the work o

f our training and exercises to- to better prepare folks. We had a great roster built. You know, one of the learnings from CZU is we built a roster of who's gonna show up and when and when what's [inaudible] in the emergency operation center, and how are we gonna serve community and care and shelter with our DSW3 staff. But with turnover and changes, training is a k- key component to that, so we need to elevate our training and exercise work, um, at the direction of Supervisor Friend or implemen

ting the crews where, um, alert morning platform. Um, that information will be going out this week to community. Um, and we'll begin initial outreach and testing of that system with community next week. Um, and then really, what we saw, um, in these disasters was an amazing rise of our community partners, um, and the jurisdictional relationships we- we continue to grow and foster with the city of Watsonville and the county of Monterey, and we do need to work on- on codifying or- or- or building

more formal relationships with- with all of those partners, um, so they were better positioned in disaster. and then, there's some grant opportunities and, obviously, the big one [inhales], and we'll be coming back in June as disc- to discuss the implementation of our climate action and adaptation plan. So the main changes and requested changes in this budget are really around adding that third service area, um, so that- that's a significant change, and then, we are converting the wildfire and h

azard resilience analyst position, which was grant-funded to a permanent position. Um, and the budget does reflect, um, a- a reduction based on the net county cost base and allow. Um, I just wanted to show this slide because, um, it actually represents the three years, right? This- this office has only existed for three full-budget cycles, so this is the third. So this plot actually reflects every budget, um, that has been [coughing] created for this office, and starting with- with Trish Daniel'

s, um, and Ryan Frederick, and Melody, we've tried to refine and improve this budget as we've, um, learned how this office will exist in community and county. Um, and so this next iteration, um, is I- I feel like an improvement over those two others as we've learned and grown as a-- as a-- as a small office in the CAO. [Door slams] In addition to this, um- to those- those high-level changes, I just wanted to highlight that we have put into the budget, um, some technology funding to improve our e

mergency operation center functionality, um, our shelter and disaster recovery center functionality with technology, as well as the new alert and warning platform. [tongue clicks] And we've a- added, um, and we have funding in there to supplement our staff strategically on consultant support, whether that be for grant writing or other- other needs that we have. So, really, um, in terms of the long-term challenges and opportunities, I wanna highlight, um, obviously that we continue to look at wa

ys to upgrade our emergency operation systems to better deliver response, um, and recovery services to the community, um, with our staff countywide, um, as you heard from the health and human services side, the current shelter is a big part of that. Um, we need to continue to outreach and educate our community in preparedness and resilience, and we need to build our disaster service worker bench beyond, um, our DSW staff that we have now, to potentially additional staff, that live outside the co

unty employment family but are maybe available during disaster to serve. Um, some of the challenges, obviously, is training, um, and getting folks trained and- and prepared to respond. And then we're obviously working on some major resiliency efforts, not only the implementation of the cap [inhales] but also, um, the Bolder Creek water quality and recovery project, um, which is- has some initial funding that hopefully will come in this coming fiscal year from [coughs] the federal government in a

grant. And then obviously, as we've all experienced, the increase in frequency of disasters. [tongue clicks] [coughing] Before I wrap up, uh, and- and take questions, [coughing] I just wanted to highlight, um, that OR3 represents a much broader team, um, an integrated, uh, group, so I just wanna highlight how this team, this county family we used together the service we provide during and after a disaster. And so, our health and human services and our housing for health partners, as you know,

um, stand up our care and shelter, mass care and shelter, as what's discussed previously. Our General Services Department is the backbone of our logistics section in the emergency operation center, getting sand, sandbags, getting resources from the state or federal government as we need. Um, our CDI community, um, and team, as you know, was out there for ti- tireless hours, um, keeping roads open, opening roads in 24 hours where roads were washed out. Our sheriff and fire, um, are really managi

ng the evacuation, um, during disaster [clearing throat] and then our county parks and animal services, support shelter and, um, animal service evacuations throughout. So the EOC, while managed under OR3, is really a blending and a weaving of too many staff to name individually, but I wanted to at least give you all a sense of how they all weave together to provide services to our county and our community. Without the support of all these offices and departments and individual staff, um, we woul

dn't be able to serve the community as effectively as we have in these first two disasters, and there's always, always room for improvement, for sure. So I'll end the presentation with our- our request, um, to approve the OR3 budget, and I'm available for questions. - Thank you, Director Reid. Are there questions from board members? Uh, Supervisor Cummings. [Tongue clicks] - I don't have any questions. I just have a comment. I just wanted to express appreciation for, um, this office being establ

ished within the county and [clears throat] all the amazing work that y'all been doing over the past few years of, uh- as we've been dealing with the fires and recovering from that, and then the subsequent, um, storms, which I don't think any of us pr- thought that we'd be prepared to take on three months worth of storms this year. And it was just, um, really great to see how many people stood up and- and were able to be available and respond to this disaster. And we know that we may experience

these- these more in the future, and so, my hope is that we can continue over time expanding the department, knowing that- how critical it's gonna be [inhales], um, especially because, you know, that's one thing to respond, you know, as- as we are seeing. You know, recovering from these storms can- and from these disasters can take a lot longer than anticipated, and so, being able to provide you all with the support you need, to be successful, is something I think that we should be investing in

. And so, I just wanted to, um, express my appreciation for all your work. - Thank you. - Supervisor McPherson. [tongue clicks] - Yeah. I, too, want to thank you, uh, Director Reid, and, uh, their whole small but mighty staff, as you call them. Uh, you've, uh, really come [inhales] come upfront to, uh, readdress some the, uh, uh, the disaster responses, the multiple ones that we've had, and then overseeing our climate adaptation planning as well Um, it's all gonna be continuing and, uh, it's - i

t's reasonable to say that you need- [inhales] you're gonna need more in the future. Uh, and it's been a non-stop praise, as we know, for two, uh- against the clock to help our community rebound from the fire and the storms that we've had. Um, and I appreciate the- the modest investment that we've made in this budget. Uh, and it makes the setting the size-specific disaster response budget [inhales] but, um, I- I expect- suspect the board is going to need a lot more than what you're asking for to

day in the near future, um, to make a much larger cross-departmental investment in, uh, [inhales] the seria- for the-- in the future reas-- uh, in the future years, given the recent storm events that we've had, so I do appreciate [inhales] the- the mul- multi-faceted response that you have had in so many areas and to all the departments that have coordinated their efforts. Uh, it's been really, uh, an impressive way we've responded. I know that people [inhales]- I hear all the time, Why don't yo

u get things done faster so we can do it?" We have to work with so many different avenues and systems that are, uh, related to state, you know, ase-aseptic requirements that we have, and that's- that's all there is up in the San Lorenzo Valley in my district and the fire ac-access, which is up to the CAL-fire and their local fire departments. [inhales] Uh, they oversee those and remake requirements for those, and, um, it just, um- it's frustrating that we can't do everything right away. But, uh,

we have to depend on, uh, others to help us get to where we wanna be and to respond to those people who want to rebuild s- uh, uh, more quickly, and, uh, we have special circumstances here and we're dependent on a lot of other agencies to make that happen as quickly as possible, but thank you for being there. I don't know what we- we would do if we wouldn't have established this office, uh, in 2020. Uh, so thank you for everything. - Thank you. I think the board would be interested in seeing th

e after-action that was done, uh, as we'd all participated, and I appreciated the opportunity to do so. Um, I- wo- I do appreciate, for how small your team is and to Supervisor Cummings' point, it was just recently, uh, created. It has, uh, quite a large lift, and, um, I know you were working, uh, an unprecedented number of hours during, not just CZU but also then, during the- the storms. I want to appreciate you and your team for the amount of time that you've put in to respond, uh, to all of o

ur constituents. You've basically been tasked with, uh, addressing, preventing, and mitigating all climate change-related disasters in our community, which is already a disaster-prone area by topography [inhales], uh, and location, and so that's- that's not a small issue when we- I just want you to know that the board recognizes that, Mr. Reid, um, you- you're doing a lot of work, and what I've appreciated about your approach is your willingness to, once we're out of the heat of the moment, to b

e able to, uh, allow for an analysis of things that went well and things that didn't go well, so that we could be more prepared for the next one, and I feel that- that we're moving on a course of exactly that with some of our communications outreach changes and some of the other work that we're doing, but, um, I know that we can keep getting better. Uh, people are relying on us to be- to- to get this right the first time, not just in an after-action, so anything that we can do to be supportive o

f that, I appreciate. Um, we'll open it up for the communities and after for the members of the community to address us on the OR3 budget, if there's any member in chamber. Welcome back. - Thank you. Thank you. Becky Stein Burner. I do not want to disparage OR3. But I remember in 2020 when, as a budget cut, the CAO did cut the Office of Emergency Response. Rosemary Anderson was doing a phenomenal job with a very small staff, with a much smaller budget, and it was cut as a fund re- as cost-saving

measure. So I think it's important to look at that and look at what we have now that is much larger, much more complicated. Um, [inhales] but doing a pretty good job, thank you. I just want to recognize Rosemary Anderson for her- her great work. She did a lot of good. So, uh, here we are. State Farm Insurance is no longer riding new policies in our county, in our state, and, um, that's of concern to many. I- I would like to see, um, roadside mowing throughout the county for- for fire protectio

n, especially our evacuation corridors. I would like to see our evacuation corridors paved. Eureka Canyon Road, San Andreas Road, are in really bad shape and, um, it's- uh, we need to be installing turnouts, which is part of the new, uh, state fire code anyway, so that when evacuations do happen, there's a place where, uh, the engines can get through and are not hampered by outgoing residents. [Inhales] [tongue clicks] Umm, I'm happy to hear there was an after-action review for the floods. There

never has been one with county fire for the CZU fire. And I've mentioned this a lot, and it hasn't happened, we've got to do that. We've got to involve County Fire Department for an after-action review of the 2020 CZU fire. [gasps] I also, um... - Thank you, Miss Stein Burner. - Wha- [sighs]. - Is there anybody else in chambers? Madam Clerk, is there anybody online? - We have no speakers online, Chair. Okay, we'll close public comment, bring it back to the board for a motion. Is there a motion?

[chattering]. We have a motion from Supervisor McPherson on the recommended actions, and the second from Supervisor Hernandez. - I just want to make a quick comment, in response to Miss Stein Burner's, um, recommendations around the, um, after actions for CZU fire. I just wanted to say that I have been in conversation with the county administrative officer in seeing if we could, at some point, have some kind of review because, um, I think from the perspective of not just to response, but the re

covery, that there is, um, um, real interest in figuring out, you know, what went well, where are the areas for improvement, and how we can do better in the future. So I just want to let you know that, um, you've been heard and- we're- we've been having those conversations. - Thank you very much. I appreciate it. - We have a motion and a second. If we could get a roll call, please. - Supervisor Koenig? I. - Cumming? I. - Hernandez? I. - McPherson? I. - And Friend? I. And that passes unanimously.

Thank you, Mr. Reid and Ms. Sereno for that the item. We'll move on to item 8, which is to consider approval of the 23/24 proposed budgets for the public defender, including any supplemental materials, and take related actions as outlined into the reference budget documents and recommended by the CAO. Related budget hearings out of memo and the proposed budget [inaudible] detail, the [inaudible] agreements list and the transfer of appropriations. And with us today we have, uh, Ms. Rogers, our p

ublic defender, and Mr. Jones, the IT business systems analyst. Welcome to you both. Thank you for waiting. Thank you. - Thank you so much. We're very happy to be here. - Press the grey button on the base. Thank you. - Fantastic. Good Morning. So, first, I wanna introduce my administrative services manager, Dylan Jones, who's worked tirelessly on this budget [inhales] along with, um, as usual, the County Administrative Office team, Specifically Assistant CAO, Nicole Cobern, and Principal Analyst

, Finn Stafford, whose support of our agency has been immeasurable and consistent. So 60 years ago, an unhoused drifter named Clarence Earl Gideon was accused of stealing $55 dollars soda and beer from a pool haul. When he asked the judge for a lawyer to defend him at his jury trial, the court said no, so he defended himself. He questioned the prosecutor's witnesses, he challenged the state's evidence, and he argued his innocence. And when he lost that trial and was sentenced to five years in pr

ison, he didn't give up. Sitting in a prison cell, convicted of something he didn't do, Mr. Gideon kept on fighting. He picked up a pencil and five pieces of paper. He petitioned the Supreme Court to reconsider his case. And then one of the great social justice moments of all time, nine justices agreed. In Gideon versus Wayne Ride, decided on March 18th, 1963, the Supreme Court held the constitution requires the state to provide dec-- defense council for an accused person who can't afford a lawy

er. And with the public defender by his side, Mr. Gideon won his trial in less than an hour and was freed. Six decades later, we stand here in Mr. Gideon's debt. His courage, his tenacity, his belief that the constitution is more than parchment, breathe to life into the sixth amendment. It revolutionized the criminal legal system, and it gave us public defenders. Mr. Gideon's decision to fight for right in the face of unimaginable odds made our system fair for everyone. In almost a year ago, wit

h your leadership, Santa Cruz County opened its first County Office of the Public Defender. You answered Gideon's call for justice, and you took an important step toward fulfilling Gideon's promise. Together as a community, we are fighting for what is right. We are demanding equal justice for all, and we are elevating public defense one client at a time. [Pause] When we opened our doors last summer, we knew this first year would help us clarify what we needed to provide constitutionally-effectiv

e defense for the people of Santa Cruz County. We rolled up our sleeves to serve a community that was reeling from COVID, forest fires, and flooding, a community whose most vulnerable members are struggling with mental illness and substance use disorders, a community facing job and housing and security, economic disparity, and trauma. This year has given us a better idea of what we need to do this work. Our proposed budget shores up our staffing to get us closer to meeting the national workload

standards for public defense, an achieving budget and staffing parity with the prosecutor's office. Our proposed budget provides the additional expert funds that we need to advocate for mental health diversion, to defend against increasingly more sophisticated prosecutions, and to partner with AmeriCorps volunteers to shore up our re-entry programming and improve our data collection. Our proposed budget gives us what we need to provide zealous community-based whole-person defense to Santa Cruz C

ounty. The budget increases our expert fund and it gives us a net total of two staff positions by subtracting one position and adding three. Our new staff will include an attorney, a legal assistant, and a discovery clerk. [Pause] Effective public defense is not optional. The constitution requires the state to fund public defense at a level that safeguards the fifth and sixth amendment rights to do process of fair trial and effective assistance of council. The public defender is constitutionally

and statutorily mandated to defend people accused of crimes or facing involuntary commitment in Santa Cruz County. This can get tricky because, unlike other law firms, we can't turn anyone away. Prosecutors, including the DA's office, county council, and the city attorney's, determine our workload based on how many cases they prosecute and file. We defend about 85 to 90 percent of all prosecutions in Santa Cruz County. In our first year of operations, we answered Gideon's call by accepting rep

resentation for 100% of eligible clients who requested public defense. For a total of over 5,205 cases to date, including felonies, misdemeanors, juvenile matters, mental health, and probate cases, record clearance cases, and post-conviction relief matters. Additionally, we took over 3,100 cases from the private firm that previously handled public defense, providing consistent representation through the transition. We staffed the collaborative courts, including behavioral health, veteran court,

and parole reentry court. We provided post-conviction relief and response to sentencing reform, youthful offender parole advocacy, record clearance representation, and immigration advice. We provided early representation to over 240 clients in custody, getting defenders to clients as soon after arrest as possible to improve outcomes, and we provided holistic support to over 570 clients within matched legal and social needs including benefits, housing and employment advocacy and assistance gettin

g supportive services like substance use and mental health treatment. We offer 24-hour emergency legal service for youth detained for serious crimes and for incarcerated adults requesting emergency assistance. We developed a comprehensive new attorney training program, we offered continuing education to all professional staff, and we brought a grant-funded 3-day Public Defender Training to Santa Cruz County. We secured 2 additional grant-funded opportunities, totaling about $700,000 to fund post

-conviction relief and pre-trial social service support for our clients. We've engaged in extensive community outreach, developing relationships that strengthen our connection to the communities we serve, and we did all this while building a new department and transitioning public defense from a private firm model to a county agency. These successes highlight the strengths of our team. We are committed, we are resilient and we are driven to achieve our mission. [Pause] Our mission is to courageo

usly defend the accused, to demand equal justice for all, and to empower our clients with inspired advocacy in the courtroom and the community. We're on a mission to elevate public defense one client at a time. Our vision is to lead the charge in transforming public defense, to empower those we serve by honoring their experiences, amplifying their voices, and offering real solutions to the root causes of system involvement and our values we share with you and this community. We're client-focused

, collaborative, courageous, creative, culturally responsive, and compassionate. As public servants, we focus on upstream interventions to avoid downstream consequences, and we are committed to promoting Santa Cruz County, Santa Cruz County's vision of creating a healthier and safer community that is culturally diverse and economically inclusive. [Pause] Our commitment to diversity, equity, and inclusion goes hand in hand with our mission, vision, and values. We stand for racial equality, social

change, and equal justice for all. Our executive team includes a director of Training Equity and Development who helps us embed equity in all that we do and we are extremely proud to provide services throughout this county, including a robust, active, lively office in Watsonville, where we have a team of defenders there to serve our community every day. We look critically at our policies and procedures to make sure that we are doing our part to combat systemic inequities and to promote DEI. [P

ause] Our Community-Based Whole Person Defense model centers equity by acknowledging and addressing the historic inequities that have led to the mass incarceration of people of color, people living in poverty and people suffering from mental illness and substance use disorders. We designed this model to meet the unique needs of Santa Cruz County. Understanding that we can't litigate our way out of homelessness, substance use and mental health disorders, and hopelessness. Instead, we combine zeal

ous advocacy with holistic representation and community engagement to assess and address our clients in meshed legal and social needs. We staff our courtrooms with defense teams that include a client advocate, attorney, investigator, and legal assistant. We represent our clients as early in the process as possible with pilot projects in the jail and Watsonville that give clients access to defenders soon after arrest. Our clients get vertical representation, that means they have the same defense

team from their first day in court until the end. For clients leaving custody or completing a sentence, we offer re-entry support, post-conviction relief, and record clearance advocacy. [Pause] Our operational plan objectives provide measurable equity-based goals for us to strive for us defenders including more robust whole-person defense and intake process that allows us to effectively address and mesh social and legal needs, increased early representation, increased post-conviction relief advo

cacy, and community-based re-entry planning and equitable recruitment. Our objectives are designed to capitalize on our successes. For example, in our juvenile unit, community-based whole-person defense led to our working closely with the child with an intellectual disability. Our team worked with his family and educators to ensure that he was getting the services he needed to address the root causes of his system involvement. Our social worker collaborated with the school psychologist and an IE

P team to address the learning disability and to help this child find a summer job by assisting with job applications and transportation to interviews. With our support, the child's case was dismissed and the child and his family have renewed hope for their future. In our adult unit, our holistic teams work every day to identify root causes and offer supportive services to address them. Multiple cases have been diverted or dismissed based on these efforts, including the case of the senior citize

n client with physical disabilities whose case was dismissed after we were able to work with the housing for health team to get his living situation stabilized. Our operational plan moves us toward realizing more of these results that improve public safety, while lifting our clients up and out of the criminal legal system. [Pause] Our budget reflects our goals of having caseloads that meet national standards. Interdisciplinary defense teams that can assess and address, and mesh legal and social

needs, supervision, training and mentorship for our defenders, modern technology, and analytics to measure results and improve outcomes, early and holistic representation and the ability to pursue equity, create strategic partnerships, and pursue grants. This slide reflects our agency's budget with the overall public defense budget of $16,754,199, includes 2 levels of conflict council, the conflict firm of [inaudible] and a conflict panel overseen by County Council. Our proposed budget, both th

e overall budget and our agency's budget, moves us as a community closer to where we want to be to reach our goals of providing public defense that reduces recidivism, reduces incarceration, and offers real solutions to the root causes of system involvement. We've requested the staff that we need to provide effective public defense while gradually working toward meeting national standards for public defense. Currently, there are two primary measures for assessing public defender workloads. The A

BA's National Workload Standard is 1 benchmark and the other benchmark is to work towards parity with prosecution offices, such as the DA's office. Both measures are designed to safeguard the 6th Amendment Guarantee of effective public defense, and we're working toward both measures. We're not there yet, but we're getting there. [Pause] As you consider our proposed budget, I hope that you'll keep in mind the following: The new ABA guidelines to be released within the next few months will require

lower caseloads than we currently have. We're falling behind here and our request will help us to catch up. Increases in the prosecution budget must be matched with increases in public defense to correct systemic inequities. Emerging mandates to address the state's mental health incarceration crisis such as care court, requires stabilization of our core services, so we're prepared to pivot to meet new demands for public defense. Prosecutions become more technical and more sophisticated each yea

r. Evidence becomes more complex to review and process, as data, technology, audio, video, and forensics become more prevalent. Public defenders are increasingly at the forefront of policy issues and solutions related to mental health and substance use disorders. Investing in public defense does more than put defenders in the courtrooms. It allows us, as a community, to confront the root issues that drive system involvement. New mandates such as mental health diversion and care court require ade

quate funding for training an experts. The consequences of providing ineffective public defense are costly and can result in lawsuits, and we are confident that upstream solutions forged through community-based whole-person defense will lead to downstream savings and improved outcomes for this community. [Pause] Over a decade after Mr. Gideon was buried in an unmarked grave, the ACLU placed a headstone on his resting place with a quote from a letter he wrote to his lawyer, "I believe that each e

ra finds an improvement in law for the benefit of mankind." 60 years later, the US is a world leader in incarceration with 2 million people in prison. California imprisons over 850,000 people a year, more than any other state, and has the second-highest pre-trial detention rate in the country. The burden of incarceration falls heaviest on people of color with black Americans incarcerated at nearly 5 times the rate of white Americans and Latino Americans imprisoned at 1.3 times that rate. Over 40

% of people in jails and prisons are diagnosed with mental illness. So on the 60th anniversary of Gideon, we are at a reckoning, another moment in history when it's time to rethink what is fair, just, and possible to end mass incarceration, to address the root causes of system involvement, and to heal our communities. Our Office of the Public Defender is leading the charge to transform public defense to reach better outcomes, and our proposed budget gives us what we need to continue to lead this

work. I ask you to please take the recommended actions laid out in the board memo, including approving our proposed budget. Thank you and I'm available for questions. - Thank you, Ms. Rogers. Are there any questions from board members? Supervisor McPherson? - I want to just say, uh, how tremendously I'm impressed with your first year of the establishment of our Public Defender Office, Ms. Rogers and your whole staff. You're one- it's really been a phenomenal, um, start and the proposed budget r

eally demonstrates that, um, well, a few adjustments are being made with regards to how personnel are assigned. The office is operating well. Uh, there's more to be done and has been noted uh, with a, the Hu- Uh, Health and Human Services budget. Um, addressing the state-mandated programs, especially the care court that's going to hit us really next year. Uh, we have a tough job, you have a tough job ahead of us, and there's going to be more to do than what you've asked for today, which I'm tota

lly in support of. So uh, [stutters] that the Office of Public Defender is a critical partner. In the collective responsibility, we have to maintain that wellness in our community and I thank you for working with- with so many people and expanding your efforts. I know that you have put more than 8 hours a day in this as well as your whole staff, so I thank you for doing so much with what you have, and we're going to need more in the future, I know that. I think we all should be recognized that w

hen the Care Court mandate comes to Santa Cruz County next year. So, thank you again for everything you've done. I appreciate your service. - It's our pleasure. Thank you. - Thank you. Supervisor Koenig. - Thank you, Chair. Thank you, Public Defender Rogers and Mr. Jones. Uhm, you know, and I think everyone I've interacted with that has worked with your department has been really impressed with your whole-person care approach, uh, and just the level of service that you provide all your clients a

nd that the example that you shared of getting the uh, child, young man a job uh, and ultimately resolving his case that way, it was, it just, demonstrates the- the lengths that you will go to help, turn people's lives around. Um, I know you had a huge number of cases, you said 3100. Uh, what is the number today? I noticed that you mentioned to actually get that down. Um, and then, um, you know, how many are you resolving through you know, whole-person care methods versus uh, in the courtrooms?

- That's a great question and one that I can answer for you partially. I may need to follow up on some of it. So we took over 3180 active cases from the law firm and we got those basically overnight. On July 1st, we woke up and took representation of those cases. We were lucky to have a lot of the team from the firm with us to provide consistent representation to those clients. Since then, we have um, been appointed to our accepted representation in about 5205 cases. Uh, we're expecting to acce

pt representation in between 6000-6500 before the year's end. Typically, the public defender represents between 6500 and 10,000, depending on the year. Uh, in COVID, our numbers went way down and what we see is they're-they're ramping back up as prosecutions are filed more and more. In terms of the amount that we represent today, um, Mr. Jones is showing me some numbers. This doesn't include record clearance or post-conviction, but right now we have um, [background conversation]. - Yeah, that's

the number. That's cases assigned in... - Cases assigned and open right now are 6257. Um, in terms of what we're resolving through courtroom litigation versus whole-person defense, I think those really go hand in hand, and so the way this typically works, unless we can get to the case before it's filed, which we are doing through early representation. But otherwise, the way this works is the case is filed, and then our team wraps around the client to make a plan, um, for supportive services and

to figure out root causes in cases where we can identify those and provide services, we go to the DA's office with mitigation packages and plans. They've been very receptive to our efforts and often those cases are resolved for reduced charges or get dismissed or diverted. I don't have an exact number for you on that, but I'm- I'm happy to look more into it and report back. - Okay. Thank you. [background conversation] - Thank you, Chair, and thank you for the presentation. I just want to again,

express my appreciation for um, the County Administrative Officer and this board for, um, incorporating the Public Defenders office into the county and for helping to expand those efforts, and I'm fully supportive of what you're asking for today and my hope is that we can actually, um, under our operations plan, prioritize the expansion of the Public Defenders Office. I mean, it's clear, just based on what you've, um, told us today about the number of cases that you all have, um, that there's a

high need for the service in our county um, and representation is extremely important, um, if not critical in our criminal justice system. So I just want to, um, congratulate you all on and, you know, stepping up this year and the expansion of this program, and, and, you know, whatever we can do to help um, increase these services and support you all moving forward, please don't hesitate to let us know. - Thank you so much, Supervisor. - Thank you, Supervisor Cummings. Supervisor Hernandez? Just

briefly, you know I want to echo, uh, Supervisor Cummings comments and you know, I think that for the uh, expanded services, uh, you know you mentioned South County uh, that you know, I would like to see that happen in the future as well. Uh, and I think that what you said before too is probably something that we're going to have to prioritize and that's parity with the DA's office. Uhm, you know I think that with the -the caseload uh, and services that are expanded in South County, I think it

is something that we are going to have to address. So, thank you for all the work that you're doing as well. Thank you for your support. Alright. We'll open it up to the community. Is there any member of the community in chambers that would like to address this on the Public Defenders budget? [Pause] - Thank you, Becky Stein Brunner. Thank you for the good report. [laugh] You have done a tremendous amount of work in this first year and thank you. Uhm, what I didn't see and maybe I just missed it

, was what are the number of attorneys that you have on staff now. I saw that you want to add some, but um, that-that caseload is huge, 6257 active cases. Um, how many- how many attorneys are available to handle this caseload? Because we want to give people good representation, and when one attorney has too much to do, you can't prepare properly. We also have to really look at the, um, shortage of judges in our county right now that I'm sure is affecting the quick processing of these things. I w

ould like to know how many of these cases were COVID-related misdemeanors that were filed by the local law enforcement during COVID. I know many people that got tickets for being on the beach during the- the certain times. We weren't supposed to be there during COVID. Are those, are those part of it? I witnessed one man represent himself related to that. Um, [clicks tongue]. I also wonder how much gang activity is influencing our youth. I- I know it's substantial in the, in the county and neighb

oring counties, and I worry about our youth, uh, falling prey to the gangs and, uh, being urged to- to steal, to get funding for drug sales. So how do we address that and how much of your caseload Is that? Um, how much, as- as a board, you have the ability to allocate prop 172 money to help this more. They do get some, but you have the ability to change that formula and I hope you will consider that. Thank you. - Thank you. Is there anybody else in the chambers who would like to address us? Seei

ng none, we'll close the chamber. Clerk, is there anybody online? - Yes. Bernie, your microphone is now available. - Yeah, uhm, Bernie Gomez. I just- I'm in full support of this public, new public defender's office department, its staff, uh, much gratitude to Heather Rogers and her leadership. Um, and just agreeing with, the, with the board as your commitment to continue to support this, the- uh, evolution of this department, right? Um, and I just think that this is the first, you know, um, for

Santa Cruz County, which is considered like a progressive site, you know, and this is what... I guess, uh, progress looks like, right? Having a different type of outlook, engagement, um, too old, uh, historical- deficits that our community are facing, right? Uh, so yeah, I just, uh, I urge you to continue to support but also think about going above and beyond. Um, in supporting, uh, this vision, this new, uh, this new process, I guess, uh, for Santa Cruz County, 'cause the, uh, intended impact

of this would be, uh, we'll see a drop of, uh, decreased, uh, recidivism, right? Um, you know, when we talk about root causes, really thinking about the root cause. Why is this happening? Not what we've seen, uh, in recent years, or at least in my, uh, lifetime as a former incarcerated individual, right? Where it was just more around punishment, right? Of course, there's accountability, of course, there's uh, um, you know, growth. But yeah, I just wanna thank the, uh, the board for- for doing th

is, for, um, just showing commitment to it and yeah. Thank you. - Thank you. Are there any additional speakers online? - We have no further speakers, chair. - All right. We'll close public comment and bring it back to the board for a motion on this action. Is there a motion? Supervisor Cummings? - I'll move the, um, public defender's budget. - Second. - A motion from supervisor... Do you have more? - I was just gonna... - Okay, go ahead. No, go ahead. - Yeah, and just, uh, quick comments to Mr.

Gomez's point. I think it'll be good to get an update on outcomes, um, maybe that can come during the budget session next year, but just, you know, continuing to- to get updated on the success of the department and-and what they're achieving, um, I think will be really helpful for folks in the community to understand the work that you all do. - Absolutely. - Thank you. - Thank you. - A motion from Supervisor Cummings and second from Supervisor Hernandez. Can we get a roll call, please? - Absolut

ely. Supervisor Koenig? I. - Cummings? I. - Hernandez? I. - McPherson? I. - And Chair Friend. I. Passes unanimously. Thank you for your work. - Thank you so much. - All right. We'll move on to item 9. Um, our final budget item of the day, and then we'll have closed session, and then we have a 1 o'clock scheduled item with the.. Item 9 is to consider approval of the 2023-24 proposed budget for the probation department, including any supplemental materials, and take related actions as outlined in

the reference budget documents and recommended by the CAO. We had the budget hearing memo, the- the detail, the supplemental budget, the continuing agreements list, and, uh, Mr. [Inaudible], I believe you're gonna kick it off. Is that correct? - Yes. [background noise] Good morning. Still morning, yes. And chair and supervisors. Um, I will be presenting our 2023-24 requested budget and uh, as- as others have already shared just how important it is to have a great fiscal staff. Uh, I have my admi

nistrative services manager here, Melissa Allen right behind me. I want to thank her, my administrative services manager officer, excuse me, Justin Nunez who's- they both did an amazing job. Also, special thanks to the CAO office, uh, Nicole Coburn. Uh, as well as David Brown for all their support and- and and of course, I want to thank my entire probation staff. Um, their dedicated team, uh, continues to really- [coughing in the background] to to really support public safety and support the com

munity in so many ways, which I hope to share with you today. Probation operates as an arm of the court and is responsible service for services required by the adult and juvenile courts including pre-trial assessments, probation supervision, post-trial, alternative custody, and juvenile detention. The department is divided into four divisions: adult, juvenile, pretrial, and juvenile hall. [Pause] Regarded as a national leader, our department promotes public safety and productive liaison at all p

hases of the criminal justice system by focusing on evidence-based practices, custody alternatives, and the humane treatment of young adults and clients, and adult clients. This photo... Oh, I'm sorry. Let's go to the previous photo. Yeah, sorry. Yeah, there you go. Yeah. I just wanted to show this photo because it's- it highlights the uh, family engagement nights in Watsonville's at the Civic Plaza, and this was probably taken earlier this year, uh, in South County. It's um, provided in partner

ship with PUPSA and funded, co-partially funded by the ANEKC Foundation but really shows one of our many roles is to build capacity for families in need so they can succeed, particularly during and post-Covid families are really struggling to connect and find resources. So, these engagement nights were about that offering free activities, food, games. Um, specializing in, uh, community prevention and diversion and just talks, uh, [inaudible] if you will, with families are just about how- how to

really, uh, work, uh, with their children who are really struggling during this time. Uh, probation's budget requests only includes very few changes. These are juvenile hall health enhancements, pre-trial staffing support, and our mobile service center grant award. I'll be speaking a little bit more in detail about these in just a moment. We also made a change for the 2023-24 budget and reorganized the budget to break up adult services, pre-trial services, juvenile services, uh, from our general

probation and juvenile hall budget. So, it just gives us a clear picture of each division does a unique work. Some of it's very similar, but it's unique, but it's- and allows us to enable, to really determine what we need, forecast resources, and uh, and see the impact by budget area. The photo you see here shows our probation staff at the county career fair in Watsonville, recruiting staff for our divisions like pre-trial services, and all other positions across our department. These career fa

irs are really vital to the county as it allow us to continuously build a talent pipeline. So, this was probably two or three weeks ago. It was a really great event. I wanna thank personnel for organizing that. As we've talked about, uh, fortunately, my department doesn't have a high vacancy rate but I know others do, so, these are great. Okay, next slide please. Our mission and vision. I won't go into this in too much detail because as we speak, we are right now, um, developing a new strategic

plan for 2023 to 2028. So, this is based on our most recent strategic plan, and I say I won't go into too much detail because I know it will be modified. Uh, our field is evolving the ne- the needs of our field have involved and- and it will address, continue to address race, equity and inclusion. As we speak, in this month of May, we're actually, um, taking client surveys from both juvenile services and adult services and also, uh, from parents, guardians, and support people. We also reached ou

t to a number of our stakeholders a couple of months ago across, uh, the county just to get feedback on how we're doing, how can we do better. This photo is a photo of Dr. Brian Lovins from the Advancing Probation Practices Event last November at Twin Lakes Church. The purpose of this event was to create a space for authentic partnership and contribution from our partners, particularly with individuals with lived experience to explore different perspectives of what probation's purpose should be

and what policies and practice should be in place to help drive probation success. So, as a department, we continue to be committed to continuous improvement and this event was highly successful in supporting the goals of our strategic plan. Again, this is a snapshot of our four divisions that do so much. Uh- uh, I would spend uh, too- too long going over, uh, detail of what these different divisions uh, do. But as you know, juvenile hall is established, uh, in the Welfare and Institution code a

nd requires a board of supervisors to provide a- and maintain a temporary secure place for youth ages between the uh, 12 and 25 who are under the jurisdiction of the juvenile court who pose a public safety threat. Our juvenile division is responsible for a continuum of services focused on investigation, diversion, pre and post-adjudication services and community servi- supervision, preventative out-of-home place services, out-of-home, um, who are referred to the probation department. Um, we're a

lso now responsible to youth who are being ordered into the secure youth facilities track, uh, due to the DJJ realignment. Our adult division, very similar to the adult division office, office of full spectrum of services supporting fe- felony in specialty courtrooms, conducting investigations, writing pre-sentence reports, providing community-based supervision, and also operating our two, uh, probation success centers. One in South County and one in North County, and Pre-trial, which is our new

est division. We've been operating pre-trial services for years but SB129 last year enabled us to stand up our newest division. Um, and clearly, that's so important, uh, as we know that a number of people are held in pre-trial detention unnecessarily. So, we have really great success with our pre-trial program in terms of folks being released to our monitoring services. Uh, and they have a high rate of success, meaning they make it to court and they don't re-offend while they're waiting for tria

l. So, we've demonstrated great success in that. My assistant chief, sorry, I didn't introduce Valerie Thompson, my assistant chief. Who will now go over a few slides with you. - Thank you. Um, so, this is a snapshot of our operational plan and these reflect our updates. Um, our operational plans are, um, ambitious and we are confident that our staff who are very talented and committed along with our community providers will work very hard to contribute to success in each of our goals. One thing

that we are really proud of as a department is that of 10 of our 11, um, operational plan objectives, all center equity and get at outcomes of well-being and community safety for the community. Um, they range from the implementation of CalAIM, which is important in our department because it now crosses from our juvenile services over to our adult services where we're already piloting the implementation of CalAIM, in partnership with our HSA and HSD partners. Just a couple of highlights from thi

s is that we hope in our juvenile hall that we will, um, really be able to focus on hard handoffs for successful transitions in the community from our young people who are leaving our facility to be directly connected to community services and supports, as a transition home, um, [clicks tongue] in our juvenile supervision, uh, division, we are looking for a 20% increase in diversions, specifically for our Latino youth to not come into our juvenile justice system. Um, as you've already heard, we

have disparities in our justice system and we know that our youth of color are the most impacted, uh, by justice system involvement. So, we're working very hard with our community partners to prevent them from coming into our system. Um, in our adult division, uh, the division is really focused on working with our community partners to increase equitable access to services in non-traditional hours, and this is something we've been able to accomplish on our juvenile side and on the adult side. We

wanna be able to provide services during evenings and weekends, and contract for a minimum of 20% of our services that will provide after-hours, um, non-traditional service hours for, um, to support the folks that we are working with. In our pre-trial division, they are already piloting, as I mentioned, CalAIM, implementation with HSD and HSA support and they are already screening at a rate of over 45 clients a week to assess their appropriateness or eligibility for CalAIM. One important piece

about CalAIM that we should mention on both the juvenile and the adult side is this offers a shift in services that were not available to folks who were incarcerated and our young people who were in custody. So as they come out of placements, as they come out of services or the jail, they will automatically be connected to the supports and services that HSA provides or other service providers provide without interruption. So, it provides a continuum of care, which increases successful re-entry i

n the community. [coughing in the background] And then on our probation administrative side, we are really looking at, um, increasing the capacity of our staff. Our chief has implemented a coaching model that our staff are currently being trained in, to increase engagement and the relationships that we have with everyone that we supervise and the natural supports who work with them. So again, we can create safety nets and positive relationships in order to increase positive outcomes across our d

epartment. [background noise] This is a snapshot of our primary budget goals. I won't read them all to you for the purpose of, um, our time here. I'm gonna focus on how we really work to embed equity in the culture, um, procedures, and practices in our department, um, one thing that's very important to us and to our county medical and behavioral health providers was really focusing on our juvenile hall medical services as an example. Um, we work with a consultant to help us, um, solve issues and

look at ways to utilize best practices with regards to providing medical coverage for a 7-day-a-week, 24/7 facility, and so, increased funding is in our budget where we are looking to increase equitable access to medical services. We will have increased nursing hours, which will also provide services after hours in the evenings. It will include medication distribution. [clicks tongue] We have, um, the ability to provide more assessments for what are the needs of our young people who are coming

into our facilities, especially after hours to be able to ensure that they're immediately connected to the services and the medical treatment that they need, and again, this also addresses like, a realignment between departments to work together to- to actually provide the coverage that we need in our juvenile hall, um, and also be able to meet the guidelines and the regulations of- of the Board of State and Community Corrections in our Title 15 regulations, which govern how we operate our juve

nile facility. Our request to change, although minor will have a major impact on our ability to operate a very important pre-trial program, which is a public safety program. Currently, as you can see from the, uh, [coughing in background] the graph there that, uh, we are supervising close to our monitoring, we call it. Um, close to 300 individuals in the community. So, you can see how that number has really continually increased. The courts are relying on that, the jail is relying that- that's a

- a release valve and it really helps avoid overcrowding, which is, uh, something that we do not want in a- any of our facilities. The Juvenile Hall Medical, uh, medical, uh, improvements are, uh, $800,000 from the general fund. Um, but that's very, very critical as we really need to meet the needs of those youth. Most of the youth in detention are from South County, uh, and many of them have not had access to just basic healthcare. [inaudible] going to doctor's appointments, going to the dentis

t, uh, eye vision, and so on. So we're really excited about this and- and really grateful for our continued partnership with Health Services to make this happen. Um, as you might have been aware, something I'm super excited about is the Board of State Community Corrections awarded us a competitive grant, the Mobile Probation Services grant, which, uh, we received, uh, a little over $400,000 but the intent and we don't have those vans yet, but we are going to purchase a couple of sprinter vans th

at are completely paid for here. Um, they're mobile, they're gonna be like mobile offices. We're gonna call it the 'Mobile Success Centers' and- and then the whole, um, the idea behind this is to really reach the unhoused populations, and also those struggling to meet terms and conditions of probation. I envision partnering with other service providers as we drive these- these different areas of the community so that clients do not have to drive to our offices which are located all over the coun

ty. We'll just give them a time and place, we'll be there. We'll be with our provider, got internet access, we've got a desk and so on. So, super excited about that and I hope to be the first to- to drive that, if that's okay. [chuckles] [paper flips] So this, uh, slide right here really reflects how our department implements, um, strategies with the goal of really achieving measurable outcomes. Two examples of this is we, and we do this by, 'If we do this, this will happen and then what are the

results?' And so we are a very result-centered, um, department. And two examples that we're looking at is if we enhance our juvenile medical, juvenile hall medical procedures, it will benefit the young people in custody, improving their health upon re-entry, which then will result in improved equity and access to, uh, medical services and public safety, and then in our pre-trial unit, if we increase our staffing to ensure that we can provide the supervision that is needed for folks who will be

leaving um, custody, we will increase the direct support services to our pre-trial clients, meaning we will have enough staff to serve the needs and the supervision capacity for those that we will be working with, which in turn will then reduce failures and appearance rates and also reduce new criminal activity. Because we want to be able to provide equitable and comprehensive services and supervision in ways that don't compromise, uh, community safety at all. Um, with regards to our juvenile ho

me medical, our data reflects that 70% of our young people in detention are Latino youth. Many of them come from impoverished and limited, um, medical benefits and even routine exams, we often find have not been provided, and so, those services are provided in the juvenile hall. And then with regards to pre-trial, we find that many of our clients are people of color who are overrepresented in arrest rates. So, additional pre-trial services will align with our ability to be able to provide those

services, reduce the number of folks in the jail, um, but also to safely supervise them in the community. And at all times, we are always focusing on race equity lens and looking at a targeted population benefit, meaning we look at who is the most burden within the- the populations that we work with, target our services and supervision strategies to be able to increase the positive outcomes that they have, there- thereby increasing community safety and contributing to their outcomes of well-bein

g. - This is our Requested 2023-24 Probation Budget Overview. As you can see on the far right, um, we have revenues that amount to 24,500,000. Uh, the county, um, general fund contribution is 9.5 million, so that makes up the gap and helps us meet our expenses, which is $34 million. That's our proposed budget. The county general fund is less than 30% of our entire budget, with more than 70% coming from uh, other revenues. General fund contribution mostly supports our juvenile hall. Adult pre-tri

al, uh, in the juvenile services division is funded 85% inter- intergovernmental revenues. That's mostly state and federal revenues coming into the department. As you recall, um, last year, some of the bigger revenue, uh, sources were the uh, Cohort 3, Prop 47 grant that our county was awarded, uh, where 70% of those dollars actually go to the community-based agencies to provide key services for us, and then again, this budget also includes, uh, the new, uh, mobile services grant, uh, as well.

[paper flip] And also, our- the $800,000 general fund contribution to enhanced medical services. So, that just gives you a little breakdown that, uh, pie chart of where, uh, those dollars go to support each of- each of the division including the administration. [Pause] Again, this is just another, uh, a way to- actually, it looks like a duplicate slide in some ways, really showing just the cost breakdown of inter- inter, uh, governmental revenues, miscellaneous revenues, and the net county cost

is what makes up our budget, but you could see 70% is- are intergovernmental revenues, and so, generally stable, but not- not always, a lot of that re- relies on, uh, vehicle license fees and so on, and the state budget, and as we know, we're forecasting perhaps a little, uh, drop in revenues, and that's just our Net County Cost breakdown which 58% of the 9 million dollars goes to support the Juvenile Hall and 42%, the remainder goes to the other divisions, which is pre-trial adult services and

juvenile services. So we do have, I've been talking for years about the capital projects that we have, and I hope to someday come here with it, and invite you to a grand opening of a gymnasium and a new gym that we have in renovation. So that day, hopefully, is coming soon. We have 2 current projects, which is, see the table, Juvenile Hall Renovation, which we really, really need. Kitchen upgrade, security, accessibility and programming space, and then a multipurpose gymnasium. We're desperately

in need for that, and the photo you see here is, is our gymnasium outdoors. We don't have a covered rack facility, you know, that, this was taken, of course, global warming continues to have significant impacts. It was snowing this particular day up at Felton. Actually many of these youth, if not all, hadn't ever seen snow. So, it was there. They were super excited about that. But the photo also shows the flip side. We just don't have a covered gym. Renovation in gym, they were anticipated to g

o out to bid this fall with construction starting in late spring of '23 and '24. They continually run into some issues and delays with the office of the State Fire Marshal. Basically, what happens is we submit plans, they have a new head of the State Fire Marshal and then they go, "Well, I think we need to do things differently." They send us something back and then 6 months have passed and that's pretty much been the big delay. So if any of you have connections up there, we could use the suppor

t there. So here are some knowns and unknowns. What we do know is probation staff comes out. This photo is the Operation Uplift, which was a few weeks ago in response to the Pajaro flooding, and we had a staff person, Gina Casanova, who coordinated efforts among another, a lot of our partners, including the public defender, the DA's office, to really do an event where we collected prom dresses and suits for these young people in the Pajaro Valley, because this happened right around prom season.

So it was an amazing turnout, we had young folks coming there, trying on the outfits, suits and dresses. We had staff that were hemming and sewing right on the spot. So it was just an amazing- so I'd just like to share that because our role is just so broad. It's not, you know, this is contributing to public safety and giving youth, young people an opportunity to have that, that special night. So I'm very proud of that. So the knowns really are AB109 growth that has declined significantly in the

proposed budget. We don't know exactly what that amount will be, but base allocations remain steady. SB678 and SB129. SB129 is Pre-trial Funding, is consistent. The unknowns is the CalAIM PATH Round Grant 2 Funding that will support us. There are a lot of unknowns about that. We do know what the positive impact will be. Would be our young people and adults who are incarcerated being able to get medical 90 days prior to release, and the other unknown is really the rollout of the Care Act and wha

t impact it will have on us at probation. Future considerations and opportunities. One is to really find a permanent South County Success Center. Right now, one of our partners is leasing a space there. Thank you for many of you who came out to the grand opening of that, but we would like to find a permanent location for that, it's really needed. It's about equity and accessibility. Some opportunities are really continued to expand interdepartmental collaboration. I'm blessed to, to have so far

been chief 9 years and I've seen this collaboration with our partners, Justice Partners, and all our partners are really just grow and I can pick up the phone and we can partner on so many things, including grants. Pre-trial data integration is something that we're working on right now. As you know, we have the Mobile Success Centers, something that really considers the Division of Juvenile Justice, DJJ, that is closing on June 30th. We have 2 youth there who will be returning. They will most li

kely be returning to- going to Sonoma because they have time to complete on their commitment. That's where the one Secure Youth Facility track that we have available to us at the moment. We have expiring grants, which are risks, the possible economic downturn, of course the- our facilities, we're all experiencing the facilities and aging facilities as well. [Pause] So here is our request. We'd like to enhance our Juvenile Hall Medical and Behavioral Health Services, just extra help and overtime

to support pre-trial services and accept the Mobile Success Center, BSCC Grant Funded will be the Mobile Success Center, and that completes my presentation, and I now have time for questions. - Thank you chief for the presentation. Are there supervisors with questions or comments on this item? Supervisor McPherson? - Yeah, I just thank the probation department. It's another part of our critical partner alongside the sheriff and justice related departments who we've heard just from prior to you

and efforts to keep our community safe. I especially want to thank you for this budget's investments that have proven the Juvenile Health facilities has been a long time coming, it's in my district. Our efforts to serve the youth in this area are critical, as we know, and heavily impacting other service departments, and like many other departments, probation has also had to pivot a great deal in the past year due to changes in state law, and I think how we adjust to CalAIM and Care Act is going

to be very interesting, and I know you're looking forward to seeing how we can do that to the best of our ability to serve our clients. How many instances of failure to appear are there now? - Um, with our pre-trial? We're just with our pre-trial program though, that's what we monitor. I think our success rate is about 87%. - And I think that's comparatively very good. - It's very good, yeah. And we have a very low re-offense rate of new arrest which is around 7%, I believe. I'm pretty close, I

think, in terms of those numbers, it could be off by 1 or 2%, but a really great success rate. Even as those numbers increased, I was concerned right with staff capacity having bigger caseloads but SB129 helped us enhance that. So I think public safety has not been compromised with increased numbers. - I want to congratulate you Chief Probation Officer, Giraldo and Valerie for everything that you have done. Really, Santa Cruz County is always at the top of the list of how we should do things in

the probation departments throughout the state of California, and you've continued that as you've gone. I also want to thank the agencies, the community service agencies who help immensely. I don't know how much they put in per year, but it's a lot, and it's really helped our efforts, and to whoever they are, I can't name them all, but I want to thank them too. They make a big difference. - There are many. We couldn't do the work without them. We definitely rely on their support, and why we brin

g in Prop 47 Grant, it's a lot of work to put that grant together but that brought in about $4 million to our community agencies, including 3 advocates at the public defender's office as well. - Thank you, Supervisor McPherson. Supervisor Cummings? - Thank you for that presentation. I want to thank Supervisor McPherson for asking that question, because I had the same question about the failure to appear right and it's great to hear that we're doing well on that front, that people are you know, o

ver, overall they are showing up. I do think it would be helpful in the future that, I appreciate the budget and I'm fully supportive, but I think really again to what I mentioned before with the public defender's office as well, is highlighting what the successes are, right, in future budgets because, what you all are asking for today is reasonable and what we're hoping to see is improved outcomes within our systems, and I think being able to highlight how the funding is going to help support t

hese services and being able to show the community what the positive outcomes are and areas for improvement, I think is always really good so the people understand that we're doing a lot of really good work here in Santa Cruz County and we should be celebrating that when we have our budget reports come before us. And so, that's pretty much all the comments I had. I guess the one last comment would be that, I know that with some of the state DOJ facilities shutting down, there's a really strong d

esire to get kids closer to home and I know right now I think the kids are going to Sonoma. - Those that are committed to the security facility track, that's where they're going. - Yes, and so, I mean, if there's opportunities for us to advocate on behalf of the county to try to get funding for renovations of star facilities so those kids could be closer, do whatever we can do to try to get the kids closer to home, I think that we should continue to make sure that that's a priority. - Understood

. And I will share with you, and I'll send these to you. We do have annual reports to talk about outcomes and our successes. So they're on our website but I can send those to you. We have, uh, each of our divisions does a really comprehensive report. Good reading to maybe put you to sleep if you don't like numbers, but it's a lot of data and outcomes, so I can share that. That's will probably give you a lot of answers to the questions you have. - Thank you. Appreciate it. - Thank you. We'll now

open it up for the community. - Can I ask one more thing? A couple years ago we tried to change that formula, shall we say, of the few clients that we have that were going to Sonoma to try to get them to Santa Clara County, it didn't work. If we have any indication that can work, you let me know. - Yes. - We'll try again. - I was just with all the chiefs a couple weeks ago and I did my rounds with all their Bay Area chiefs and no luck, but there's a reason for that. It's not because they don't l

ike Santa Cruz or our youth, they are all dealing with a youth returning from DJJ and they have to manage their own facilities. So they're not- they're not taking any youth in any of the surrounding counties. So, but I'm gonna keep trying for sure, and as well as also ideally, we envision a facility here someday that was equipped and had the capacity to really hold a young person. Some of them are spending up to 5 to 7 years and so you need a really specialized type of facility that's equipped t

o provide that kind of programming so they can safely re-enter. - One thing we should probably add is that we have received the van that we- from the SBA23 funding, to be able to help our families go and visit. So the van is in our possession. We have policies ready to go, and our Juvenile Hall Superintendent, Sarah Ryan, has reached out to staff to begin to schedule opportunities for families to go and visit, and we will provide the transportation. So that is delivered and we are now able to pr

ovide that service. - I just wanted to give a quick shout out to Ruby. I didn't see you Ruby there. Ruby Marquez is fantastic, has been in our county council for years, an amazing resource and asset to us, so thank you. - I'm afraid to interject, but I'm going to open it up for the community because, you know somebody might jump in. No, we good? All right. I want to get an opportunity for the community to address this on this item. Is there any member of the community that'd like to address this

on the probation budget? [Pause] - Thank you for this report. Becky Stein Burner from Aptos. What I didn't hear was any update on having a farm. I know that there has been funding allocated in past years for a small animal farm that would give therapeutic value to the juveniles. You're looking like you don't know anything about this but I remember Susan Marilo got the funding for our county. So, I'd really like to see something like that up at the Graham Hill place. I think whenever juveniles i

n particular have too much idle time, it is never a good thing, and getting them outdoors, growing things, working with animals is a good thing. I also think that I would like to see the County Juvenile Department partner and maybe the Adult Probation Department partner with Cal Fire and the corrections department. There are prison release crews that in the past have been housed up at Empire Grade. Those numbers have shrunk dramatically and I think that it would be a great service to the people,

to the kids, to the adults on probation that don't have jobs, don't have job skills to partner with Cal Fire and do some vegetation management projects, trail building in our county. Get them active, give them job skills, give them skills to help manage money, pay them, and let's get them back on their feet. I wonder how many of these cases are involving drugs, addiction, mental health things. That's a whole another ball of wax, and finally, I'm running out of time, but I want to make you aware

that the Lions Club International provides free vision and hearing clinic accessibility, surgeries and free eyeglasses if it's needed. So please reach out to the local Lions Clubs. We're here to help, we're here to serve. Thank you. - Is there anybody else in chambers? All right, we'll close the chamber's comment. Is there anybody online? - No speakers, Chair. Okay. We'll bring it back to the board for motion. Is there a motion? - Recommended. - Second. - We have a motion from Supervisor McPher

son and second from Supervisor Koenig. Can we get a roll call, please. - Supervisor Koenig? I. - Cummings? I. - Hernandez? I. - McPherson? I. - And Friend? I. - That passes unanimously. I had mistakenly said we have closed session today. We have a closed session tomorrow. We do have a 1 o'clock scheduled item with the chair of the Monterey, [inaudible] a supervisor, so we'll just do a recess for 30 minutes. [background noise] I would like to call back to order the Board of Supervisors meeting or

the Budget meeting. We have a special presentation, a 1 o'clock presentation. This is a non-action item, but today's is a presentation from the chair of the Monterey County Board of Supervisors, Luis Alejo. Chair Lejo, welcome. - Thank you very much Chair Friend and my esteemed colleagues here on the Santa Cruz County Board of Supervisors. I come from Salinas because I wanted to personally come and pay tribute and thank all the many county of Santa Cruz employees that really came to aid our Mon

terey County residents. The residents of Pajaro in particular during our greatest time of need. Last Tuesday, we passed a resolution thanking all our different partners and agencies, but we made sure to include a recognition for the county of Santa Cruz employees because they really came through for us in a major way. On March 11, when the levee broke, um, hundreds of people were evacuated from Pajaro, almost 3000, at midnight till 3:00 a.m. and immediately the Santa Cruz County fairgrounds was

opened. But it was a weekend and it was difficult to get employees in, but I think those first few days, it was mostly primarily the county of Santa Cruz employees that stepped up and provided a wide range of services, and most people didn't see it, but those employees came at 7:00 a.m. left at 7:00 p.m. If they had the night shift, they were there for the 12 hours from 7:00 p.m. to 7:00 a.m. in the morning. And they were there day after day, even on their weekends, and when I talked to your emp

loyees, they did it with a lot of compassion. They treated our residents with a lot of respect and dignity, and it really helped our residents with a wide range of services. I remember there was a young teenager, a family from Pajaro and her mom pretty stressed out and it was your behavioral health team that really helped them cope with that very stressful situation that they were undergoing. But there's many other examples like that and I wanted just to come and thank your employees and I got a

copy of the resolution that we passed, but I also have this other proclamation. Uhm, and I hope that the county employees will see this because we wanted to really personally thank them, and we call them our Emergency Services Heroes for the 2023 Pajaro Floods, and it says, "On behalf of the Board of Supervisors, we commend this County of Santa Cruz employees for their dedicated service, assisting the people of Pajaro and other storm victims through the most challenging of times. We thank you f

or your heroic actions and service during the devastating March storms. Your selfless efforts and care for the people of Pajaro and other impacted communities is worthy of our highest praise and appreciation." And with that, we want to just present these to you. I don't know, to you chair or to CAO Carlos Palacios and... - Actually, since we're all here, why don't we all just come down and meet with Chair Alejo. Thank you very much. [Pause] - You're going to join us, Carlos? - Thank you very muc

h, appreciate it. - Thank you very much. - Thank you very much. [Pause] - You got a better camera there, Alejo? [laughter] - I'm not going in that debate. [Laughter] Alright. Thank you very much. - Thank you. - I appreciate it. We're working on our budget. [laughter] Thank you. - Yeah. Thank you very much again. Appreciate it. Thank you. Thank you, Carlos. [inaudible] - I guess so. So they'll tell me. - You know, Mr. Chair, before he gets away, you know, I always have something to say. Thank yo

u very much Supervisor Alejo and all your associates too on the County Board of Supervisors and everybody that helped in that too, and there were other agencies too that helped them. I know that you have recognized them too. I'm a member of Metro and they were providing some bus services for alleviate people with their transportation needs. So it's really a pleasure that we can get together for and when the tragedy hits and we appreciate your recognition of that and to all the county employees,

thank you very much for what you did for Monterey County. - Thank you. It's a non-action item. Are there any other comments from board members? Supervisor Cummings? - Yeah. I just wanna thank you for the recognition. I also just want to thank our kind CAO Carlos Palacios and all the staff that were involved with helping, with those efforts around making sure that we were protecting our neighbors in Pajaro and in Monterey County. And I know Supervisor Hernandez was doing a lot of volunteer work d

own there and also in Watsonville, so I just want to also express my appreciation for all the work that we were able to do collaboratively to help people who were in need in our community, and in our neighboring communities. - Thank you. Mr. Palacios? - Yeah on behalf of our employees, we would really like to thank you Supervisor Alejo and our board for your support and recognition. They really did go beyond the call of duty and give their heart and soul to this effort, appreciate the recognitio

n. Thank you very much. - Thank you. It's not a non-action item but would any member of the community who happened [inaudible] county staff, have any interest in stepping forward? - All right, seeing none. Thank you, Chair Alejo. That will adjourn our meeting. We will be back tomorrow for budget, our 2nd day of budget hearing, our 3rd day of budget hearings. Thank you. - Thank you very much. Appreciate it. [Silence] [Silence] [Silence] [END]