 Welcome to the January 12th, 2021 meeting of the Santa Cruz County Board of Supervisors. Clerk, please call the roll. Supervisor Koenig? Here. Friend? Here. Coonerty? Here. Caput? Here. Chairman Person? Here. Go ahead. Okay. Good morning and welcome to the teleconference January 12th, 2021 Santa Cruz County Board of Supervisor meeting. Pursuant to the provisions of the governor's executive order N2920, this meeting is being held virtually. The county welcomes the public to participate in today's meeting using the zoom link provided on our website at www.SantaCruiseCountyCA.IQM2.com. Click on today's date and then the agenda. You will find the zoom link there or you may type it in as you see it here on the screen. If you wish to participate by phone, you may do so by calling 1-669-900-6833. The meeting ID is 821-3884-1103. Again, you may call 1-669-960-833 and enter the meeting ID 821-3884-1103. If you need further help logging into today's meeting, you may call the Clerk of the Board's Office at 831-454-2323 and someone can help you log into the meeting. As always, you may watch the live stream broadcast of today's meeting through www.SantaCruiseCountyCA.IQM2.com. The county Facebook page are through the community TV website. Thank you, Chair. Thank you and thank you. I just want to thank the general public for its patience and understanding of our situation going by Zoom and virtual as is other city in the County of Santa Cruz. Before we have a moment of silence, I'd like to call on Supervisor Ryan Coonerty. Thank you, Mr. Chair. I just briefly want to take a moment and acknowledge the events of last week when we saw a terrorist storm our U.S. Capitol in order to block counting of electoral votes in a pre- and fair election. I want to just take a moment to recognize a couple things. One is a lot of focus has been put on the elected officials who were put in harm's way, but there were staff and then obviously Capitol Police who bear the brunt of the attack both last week but just in general with the denigration of civic life and I want to take a moment and thank all the county staff who interact with constituents all the time and we live in a very at times toxic and scary atmosphere and I just want to appreciate the county staff who continue to serve the public even through what is an extremely difficult environment. The second piece is just to recommit ourselves to democratic norms and laws and that we will do our best to ensure that we rebuild sort of American governance and democracy from the ground up through our commitment here at the local level. Thank you, Mr. Chair. Thank you and well said and I might just add too that I can't think of any time that in my period of public service that we've had more intense political atmosphere just carry you know the COVID and the fires and all in particular in this area you know I'd like to say a suggestion that if you know somebody that's at the different party or for different thoughts that you have go up and say hello let's work this out let's let's get personal about and do it at home and show the rest that we know how to do this it's really easy to really just keep the vent and anger going at one another let's try to reach out and just say you know we're in a new moment now we're gonna have new leadership in this nation and we we need to get together and work it out and be civil about it so I just really urge everybody to make an effort to reach out and say hello to someone maybe and in particular if they disagree with you and just say you know this is what I feel I know you feel this way but we got to do it in a civil and and safe manner so thank you Mr. Vice President Perry I appreciate your comments now we will have a moment of silence before we have the pledge of allegiance okay well I have the pledge I pledge allegiance to the flag of the United States of America for which it stands one nation undergone indivisible with liberty and justice for all and I would like to welcome Supervisor Koenig it's his first regular meeting he was sworn in last week welcome to the county board of supervisors item number three the consideration of late additions to the agenda and or deletions to the consent and regular agenda do we have any Mr. Palosios yes we do chairman person on the regular agenda item number nine we have additional materials a revised attachment a packet pages 26 and 27 on the consent agenda item number 33 there's additional materials there's a revised memo packet page 292 item number 34 there's additional materials revised attachment a packet page 328 and then there's an agenda on the consent agenda number 45.1 approve amendment to agreement with families in transition reducing the total two-year amount to four million zero zero nine two zero five for CalWORK's housing assistance and move-in program services approve the amendment to agreement with Watsonville law center increasing the total two-year amount to 188,180 for legal assistance services approve an amendment to agreement with community action board increasing the total two-year amount to one million seven hundred eighty five thousand one hundred and ninety dollars for CalWORK's emergency payment program services and take related actions as recommended by the director of human services there's a memo printout there's contract item a amendment to families interest transition item b amendment to community action board item c amendment to the Watsonville law center item d amendment to families in transition item e the Watsonville lice law center and item f which is a community action board there's also an agenda 45.2 this is to approve an amendment to agreement with the Santa Cruz county office of education increasing the amount by 15,700 in fiscal year 2021 for a new two-year total of 356,575,575 dollars to provide emergency childcare bridge program services approve the amendment to the agreement with the parent center for the leaps and bounds program to modify services provided to families with the infants and take related actions as recommended by the board by the director of human services there's a board memo printout there's an amendment number two to the Santa Cruz county office of education there's an amendment to parent center agreement and then there's adm 29 and 21 w 450 40 58 and then item d which is adm dash 29 21 w 3909 that concludes the additions to today's agenda. Okay. Thank you, Mr. Palacios. Now we'll go to item number five. This is the time for public comment. Any person may address the board once during the public comment not exceeding two minutes comments must be directed to items on today's consent or closed session agendas yet to be heard items on the regular agenda or a topic not on today's agenda but within the jurisdiction of the board we'll take public comments now for up to 30 minutes if necessary additional time for public comments will be allowed after the last item on today's regular agenda. Clerk do we have any public comments that are coming in? We do chair and if you will give me a minute I will put up how people can join us. Very well. Thank you. Okay. If you wish to comment and are joining us through the zoom link please find the hand icon on the bottom of your screen and click on the icon to raise your hand. This will place you in line to speak. When it's your turn to speak I will call you by name and you will see a pop up on your screen asking if you want to be if you want to accept being unmuted please accept this and start speaking once you start once you start the timer will begin. If you are calling from a phone please dial star nine now. This will virtually raise your hand. I will identify you by your last four digits of your phone when you hear me say the last four digits please dial star six to unmute yourself. Only dial this once if you dial it a second time you will remute yourself. Once you dial star six you may start to speak and the timer will start when you begin. Okay the first speaker has a private number we cannot see you but so if you have called in and your number is private now would be your time to speak. Now is your time to speak speaker. Hi this is Marilyn Garrett. I've been attending board meetings for over 20 years. You just at opening comments Supervisor Coondy spoke about committing ourselves to democratic policies even before this COVID crisis. I saw the board become less and less. Why is the timer so short? Democratic? Are you talking to me? I apologize speaker please continue. I notice this is the first time it says that public comment is limited to two minutes. The public has been more and more excluded from any type of representational government especially now. I'd like to refer people to a let's see it's called Focus on Fauci event. Focus on Fauci and you can watch it the globalresearch.ca that stands for Canada and it's an interview with Sasha Stone, David Martin, Robert F. Kennedy Jr., Rocco Galotti, Dr. Judy Mikovic and just to start this out and then you can check it out David Barton states on January 5th let's make sure we are clear this is not a vaccine. They are using the term vaccine to sneak this thing under public health exceptions. This is not a vaccine. Our next speaker is a call in and your telephone number ends in one nine nine nine. Please go ahead and unmute yourself and begin speaking. Yes hello today is January 12th, 2021. My name is James E. Whitman. Can I be heard? Yes you can. Excellent. Why is telling the truth such a revolutionary act? I have never been so been one shy to not stand beside my work as a general contractor and also as a teacher that asked those I am sharing information with to provide any observations of my agendas back to me allowing these individuals to interpret my words of instructions. Whether on a job site a playing field a mountain cliff or a dance floor these individuals take my concepts and improve them often. But often we are educated and ignorant. Fiduciary trust what does that mean? Fiduciary duty is a legal obligation of the highest degree for one party to act in the best interest of another. The party charged with this obligation is the fiduciary or the one that is entrusted to care of the property money health and safety of others. With that why are unelected members of the community foundation of Santa Cruz County entrusted with such fiduciary power? To understand the role that the tax exempt foundations play today in USA Incorporated the Cox committee and RISC committees investigations by Congress in 1952 to 1955 provide invaluable insight into their workings. My observations if that given opportunities like an exploratory recall committee might expose that the community foundation of Santa Cruz County currently being headed by Margaret Lopez and Susan Tru control every action of this county and of the BOS and are funded by the Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation who follow the dictates of the World Health Organization and the rock child's cartels. So I'm politely asking the elected leaders and chosen leaders this a mistake does not become an error unless you refuse to correct it. Thank you. Speak speaker Mr. Cabanus you have two minutes to speak I am unmuting you please accept the unmute and start speaking the timer will begin when you start. Good morning my name is Shalak Cabanus I love Santa Cruz I currently have the privilege of serving as chair to the mental health advisory board I'd like to bring your attention to written correspondence every year the state puts together a input questions of what's going on locally this year the focus was on telecare as we know the need for behavioral health we have people who've needed support for the first time ever and we have other people who need more acute support telecare takes support or comes in to help support with the more acute needs and you can see that in the report again enriching correspondence I thank the supervisors for their service and I would like to also point out that supervisor cap it comes to every meeting and is a wonderful support as well on a personal note I do like so much how you are supporting the community including showing leadership when it comes to supporting the people who support the community like in the county office of education thank you very much next speaker is Monica McQuire you have two minutes to speak I am unmuting you please accept the unmute and start speaking the timer will start when you begin hi there thank you so much I too want to comment on what all the opening statements were by the supervisors because it's so interesting to hear you saying you want us to speak to people who have political differences we keep asking you to respond to us your employers the public is the employer group if a large family hired someone and found out over time that everyone thought someone else was watching and seeing what they were doing but realized no one was watching and that family wasn't doing what they were supposed to do it would be a big problem that's what the most counties have done and what this county has done clearly your opening comments supervisors about we should speak to someone with political differences we wish you would just speak to us the public who take the time to show up at the meetings and and it was so refreshing last week that Manu responded to us and in fact Mr. McPherson you did except that you and I keep saying Manu because he's so much more person than the rest of you are since you never respond to us when we're there and I'm just inviting you to please start treating us the way you're supposed to where you can respond if you choose and just don't throw off the agenda for the day and you can always put on next week's agenda the really great ideas that the public brings to you and asks you to address you don't have to say that the Brown Act prevents you from addressing us so we apparently are different politically in your minds and my goodness Ryan Coonerty you seem to think that people here are dangerous with the way that you made opening comments which is very strange but what we have is the ability to pull together and act like community and that's what we want you to do and to act like you care about what we say by responding to us appropriately and it's so sad we have to repeat this statement over and over and over but the public doesn't understand that you're not doing your job so we're informing the public of that at the very least. The next speaker is Ms. Carol Bjorn you have two minutes to speak I am unmuting you please accept the unmute and start speaking the timer will begin when you start. Good morning supervisors this is Carol Bjorn and I would like to echo the comments of the previous speakers and I would also again like to grasp what the opening comments by Supervisor Coonerty and Chairman McPherson specifically Chairman McPherson I'm happy to take you up on your offer to sit at the table across from someone who has a different point of view because as Monica clearly said we obviously have different points of view I've been attending the Board of Supervisors meeting since June bringing information and it's been wholly ignored and so I'm happy to sit down with you in a Zoom meeting in person we can do it safely I'm happy to do that and we could even coordinate with Monica and set up a time that works for all of us I'd like to extend that invitation to all the supervisors and to Gail Newell and Carlos Palacios and Jason the County Council and then also I want to speak to the comments by Supervisor Coonerty and McPherson where you spoke about the toxic scary atmosphere and the intense political atmosphere that we're experiencing part of it's because we haven't been communicating number one but two in the communications that we've gotten from the government to us there's been a lot of misinformation to say it lightly we're trying to get the truth out and that's what I try to do when I email you I sent an email yesterday with truth there was a study done in Wuhan China and it was done in November of 2020 there is no asymptomatic transmission of COVID-19 when you realize that you realize that all these governmental policies are not really about slowing the spread of COVID-19 they're about something else and again I'm happy to sit down at the table and talk to you you have my email because I had to give you an email address to log on to this to this meeting thank you for your time Maria Ellen de la Garza you are our next speaker you will have two minutes to speak I am unmuting you please accept the unmute and begin speaking the timer will begin when you start good morning Board of Supervisors this is Marielena the executive director to the Community Action Board of Santa Cruz County and I want to start off and I'm speaking on item 27 on the consent agenda I'd like to thank the Board of Supervisors particularly Supervisor Coonerty and Supervisor Caput who have led us in writing a letter to support farm workers being prioritized in distribution of vaccinations and I want to say that that was important and critical work our governor did indeed roll out vaccinations to support farm workers but there are three items I'd like to stress in moving forward and next steps number one asking the Board of Supervisors to support the creation of a cross sector task force to ensure an equitable implementation plan for the vaccine and build upon efforts that may already exist and do already exist specifically in South County from what we learned from recent pandemic efforts we need an intentional strategy that targets indigenous speaking communities especially in Watsonville number two resource trusted messengers we're here we're here to be of service and I say we collectively and we need resources to help move this education and outreach effort forward and lastly recognizing that people in our community especially in Watsonville are getting sick we need to continue advocating for wage replacement and housing opportunities for those families most impacted by the virus I want to thank our county partners who have taken equity as an important priority in moving this forward but we have more work to do and we're here to be your partners to help us move this forward with cab and our thriving immigrant collaborative partners thank you very much thank you for all you do happy new year our next speaker is Mr Tony Craig sorry Tony Crane you will have two minutes to speak I am unmuting you please accept the unmute and begin speaking the timer will begin when you start hi this is Tony Crane I live in Aptos California I have been attending meetings for about three and a half years starting with an objection to the second story peer respite program crisis mental health facility that was put into our neighborhood without going through proper legal channels and process I agree with everything that supervisor Coonerty said however when it comes to asking us to follow norms and laws that's quite hypocritical because I have brought to you over these this time period irrefutable evidence that county and and compass employees lied to the public and committed fraud in order to put this program in the neighborhood lied about what its real intent was and the emails that I received through the request for public information clearly show that they were telling the public one thing but behind the scenes were were acting and saying the exact opposite um the board of supervisors has been aware of this and just simply refused to do what was right which was simply give the community uh the opportunity to have a public hearing which it should have had from the beginning a mental health facility that was intended to uh house or not house but attend to hundreds of uh guests per year and you didn't do it so the hypocrisy is staggering um and uh just letting you know that uh I'm not going away our next speaker is a telephone call in whose number ends in 2915 you have two minutes to speak I am unmuting you please accept that unmute when you begin speaking the timer will start good morning this is Becky Steinbruner can you hear me yes thank you thank you good morning and happy new year to you all I um attended a county historic resources commission meeting yesterday and um proposed that that commission work with the board of supervisors to really get information out to the constituents about a tax credit for historic preservation properties this is a very it's it's a new piece of legislation with money available to help people who own historic properties to preserve them it's a very uh short window of activity that is possible only five years and the process for application takes some time the commission did not act on my request but I'm hoping that you as the board will reach out to your historic resources commissioners and find out more about this and hold a town hall meeting for those in our county who own historic properties to get this very important and helpful um financial assistance I want to follow up on comments and very good discussion at the special meeting last Tuesday and that was about the CZU fire evacuees being charged 900 to $950 a month to be able to stay at the county fairgrounds I am hoping for a report back from staff very soon I drove by there yesterday and noted there are even more RVs there I don't know that they are all fire evacuees but I would very much as a member of the public like a report about this the county has a contract with the county fairgrounds to provide the emergency shelter as needed there is county owned property in Watsonville behind the Amaline health services that was used for chair I do not see any more hands up for public speakers we are completed with the public comment okay we will continue with the consent agenda will any comments from the board on items on the consent agenda supervisor conic you're on mute yeah thank you chair I just wanted to start by thanking on item 24 thanking Tim Gordon for volunteering to serve as the new first district planning commissioner as the founder of workbench local design and build firm he's created some projects that are really exemplary and I know he'll bring the same standard of review to other projects also want to thank Lisa Sheridan for volunteering to serve as the alternate first district planning commissioner I'm from the her experience with sustainable so Cal as well as a business owner and realtor will enable her to serve as a bridge for our community and help us all grow towards our values on item 31 I'm honored to represent the county on and bag the association of modern bay area governments as we deal with the new housing corners from the state and plan housing for our region on item 35 I just want to note that it's fantastic we're adding 11 new residential treatment beds to address substance use disorder and along with 33 items 33 and 37 significant increase in programs I look forward to the presentation on the regular agenda that will include how it'll be evaluated and finally I just want to point to item 39 the county's contribution of 3.8 million dollars to second harvest food bank demonstrates the extreme need in our community and our commitment to address it that's all thank you thank you supervisor friends second district thank you mr chair and I would like to thank my colleague supervisor Coonerty and supervisor cap it for item 27 but I'd really like to echo the comments that were made by Ray Lena on these on this item now that the state has prioritized ag workers I think that the real challenge is going to be ensuring that we can actually reach this very difficult population in regards to actual vaccination and I know that director Hall and I know that Dr. Newell have been working with the farm bureau and others on exactly this I really would like to thank them as well for that but this is going to be a real challenge it's been clear that even people that have a lot of access to information and are very very much participate generally in processes still don't actually understand vaccine priority or how to obtain access so there's going to be communities that are the most hit currently the most disadvantaged language barriers and others that are going to really need a lot of help not just from the county but other advocacy organizations to do that outreach so I think the second part of item 27 is now that the prioritization has been reached how do we ensure that actually it gets distributed in a real fashion down especially in the south county I'd also just like to thank county planning staff for its continued work on the vacation rental modifications I know that the coastal commission is hearing that as we speak or just did and is going to have some modifications to send back to us but overall the basic framework of what we created appears to be something that coastal is supporting and I think that these changes to vacation rental ordinance really will not just improve neighborhoods but also help on the greater housing stock within our county so I just wanted to thank the work of the planning department on those items thank you Mr. Chair thank you um Roger Coonerty thank you Mr. Chair just a couple items coming on in one additional direction first on item number 20 which is the remote work policy at the county I just want to take a moment and appreciate that the county is using this opportunity to really rethink how we structure work in a way that I think benefits not only the workers but people using county services as well as the taxpayers and I want to appreciate that effort going forward item number 27 I want to thank Supervisor Caput for joining me on this farm worker urging the state to prioritize farm workers in a way in the equitable way that Maria Elena Tagarza outlined and I want to thank the community that's doing really good work out there to make sure that these folks who are providing a vital service are getting the are getting the support they need in a difficult environment and we need to do better and one of the best ways to do it is to make sure that they get the priority for the vaccine that they they've earned as essential workers in this during this this pandemic and then finally on item number 37 which is the hub and spoke program for medicated assisted treatment I think that treatment is probably one of the best is for sure one of the best strategies we have to increase to address the crisis that we have in our community of substance use and the impacts that follow it in support of both this item and the operational plan objective 63 which is to increase mad services by 75 percent to more than 230 unique patients I'd like to add direction that the staff collect data and outcomes on the hub and spoke program or report back to the board during the June 2021 update on the operational plan I'd like to include in this report back on how many clients are served by the program how long they receive mad services and and in addition if that how many people are turned away or if there's a waiting list for this service thank you so much thank you Supervisor Caput yeah thank you I will make a comment concerning the RVs at the fairgrounds as of Saturday this past Saturday the 9th of January there were 13 households from the fire shelter residing at the fairgrounds in RVs three of the households are getting financial assistance for the monthly fee through the county under COVID response and additional households will be covered by January 20 2021 one of the RVs said that they are going to be moving out of state within the next two weeks and one is awaiting a section eight voucher to get housing one is waiting to be allowed back on his property and is getting financial assistance and five households have been able to have been unable to document their addresses that they were within the burn area and they may have been pre-disaster homeless or are living in a very non-conventional arrangement so anyway we're looking into that and we're trying to help all the people out there as best we can and there are people living in RVs at the fairgrounds on a regular basis that come and go they're either traveling or whatever so that accounts for a certain number of RVs that are being seen out of the fairgrounds and that's it thank you thank you thank you Supervisor Caput I'd like to address a few issues on item number 18 the legislative priorities I want to thank the CAO's office for putting this together in coordination with the supervisors offices and the departments and I'd like to highlight three priorities in particular that are just very pressing for us of course the COVID relief fire recover recovery and disaster resilience and homelessness these are the most pressing issues for us right now and they they're way way bigger than we can support with our local financial resources also I'd like to mention that in the governor's budget those three items were mentioned as well as one that's been very much of interest to this county to implement the state's first master plan for aging the governor has proposed allocating millions of dollars for that purpose it's very much needed in this county and throughout the state of California of course this will go through the budgetary process that won't be decided until June in Sacramento I need that I think that we've stretched our staff on the COVID issue to the maximum while initiating furloughs at the same time and tapping reserves that really reduces our reserve that we have on our budget we need support from funding from from our nation's capital expressly for state and local governments on recovery and resilience we need a greater support from vegetation management code enforcement and a stronger oversight of AG&E and lastly I think we can see our community on any given night we need more funding to create lasting solutions to homelessness through prevention diversion housing and mental health and substance abuse treatment and we're working with the city to try to do the best the cities to do the best we can with that I'd also like to comment on item number 20 which was mentioned by Supervisor Coonerty about the remote remote work policy I just have a question that this does not need to be pulled from the consent agenda how how will this policy be amended when we're going through when we are through with the COVID pandemic or at least back at a time when there's a minimal community spread can employees expect to still have the option to work from home or at least some of the time or how are we working on that I just want a general answer if I could on that yes Supervisor McPherson or Chair McPherson rather we do intend to continue to emphasize the ability to work remotely we think there's a lot of advantages both from reducing the amount of commuters reducing our parking issues improving quality of life improving morale there's just there's just a number of pluses to to remote work and so as the COVID crisis subsides we intend to continue to allow remote work according to how each department is managed so we will be revising the remote work policies once the COVID crisis is over and then make it more of a permanent policy in our personnel regulations and rules good I think that can be beneficial in more ways than one for the employees for our environment going down the line so thank you I'm going to come back to item number 30 I also want to get to the number item number 31 commission and committee appointments we just recognize some new ones and we've for the board assignments on committees and commissions we have more than 40 commissions and committees in the county and I just want to say to those who serve on those commissions and committees thank you very much for your service it is just very much appreciated it makes us be prepared for decisions in the long term and I can't overstate how important it is for your service and you don't get congratulated enough but your your service is very much appreciated by this board and I know by the people of Santa Cruz county so thank you all for your services and valuable service that you provide to our community I and in that vein on the committee assignments and all I wanted to amend the list that we have to make some an additional direction to appoint Supervisor Cootity to the community corrections partnership which wasn't included in the original list that we have before us now so I'd like to amend that to have him be on the community corrections partnership the on going back to item number 30 perhaps I hope this is all right to have as an amendment to or an additional direction from on item number 30 that we should verbally state something to this effect that in compliance with the relevant provisions of the government code code I am announcing that the concern the consent agenda today item 30 is an item advancing the county council to the next step on the publicly posted salary schedule I just want to make sure with the county council itself that this is the proper way to do that to amend that would that be sufficient yes us Chair McPherson there's no amendment required to the agenda or anything like that it was just a requirement of the government code that you make an oral announcement of that at the meeting and so you've done that thank you very much okay and then usually we don't go into the correspondence but I just would like to point out that a letter from Cal Fire Director Tom Porter regarding our board's request to enforce Cal Fire as Cal Fire may see fit against PG&E's action at the CZU fire I was glad to read that Cal Fire is continuing to investigate and we use all of the enforcement tools that defines appropriate and I hope the same of the other enforcement agencies contacted by this board so I just want to specifically thank him under the circumstances and the actions that we have previously taken okay so I think we are ready to for a motion on the consent agenda I'll move the recommended action this is Coonerty okay with with the amendments correct with yeah with with the additional direction and amendments thank you so will we call the roll on this please supervisor Koenig hi friend hi Coonerty hi cap it hi chair McPherson hi that passes unanimously we will now go on to item number seven on the on the agenda this is an item that uh so long for a second sorry about that consider a report on the drug medic medical organized delivery system pilot program that provides funding for substance use disorder and break the health services agency to return December 7th 2021 with an annual report including budgetary projections and actuals service position and network expansion and take related actions as outlined in the memorandum of the director of health services thank you I think we have a presentation from health services good morning I'm going to just share my screen here and can you see my presentation yes I can right good morning board I'm Eric Riera I'm the behavioral health director for Santa Cruz County and I'm here this morning to present an annual update on our drug medical organized delivery system for Santa Cruz County the ODS program is a state and federal waiver program between the state of California and the centers for Medicare and Medicaid services to expand the availability of substance use disorders in our community these expanded services are available to any county resident who has Medi-Cal as your insurance and the specific services and level of care an individual is connected to is based on the American Society of Addiction Medicine ASAM criteria we've had to address a number of significant system pivots within our county the big one being the onset of COVID-19 which has had significant impacts on our substance use disorder services both here in Santa Cruz and on a statewide basis some of our residential services had to be halted temporarily as our service providers adjusted their protocols in order to meet the demand for services in a safe manner for both their clients as well as their staff our outpatient service programs rapidly launched a telehealth model with various levels of engagement success for different populations in the community and our cost of care increased due to census limitations and new equipment costs that were connected with the pandemic our current services are delivered under an 1115 waiver which includes the ODS services that we'll be talking about this morning that waiver expired in December 31st of 2020 and has recently been extended for one more year until December 31st 2021 we are also working very closely with the State Department of Healthcare Services on a new innovation program for the Medi-Cal program called CalAIM California advancing and innovating Medi-Cal and that project was also extended for another year to year and a half due to the onset of the pandemic this next slide is an illustration of our different levels of care within the ODS system from lower level of care services on the left to higher levels of care on the right which is determined by the needs of the individuals through the ASAM assessment it's a continuation of a model where residential is considered crisis management services and the objective is to provide treatment in the least restrictive setting possible we've had a number of areas where we've been expanding capacity the first is with the certification of the Popper O Valley prevention and student assistant program for youth we've expanded both outpatient services that we've contracted with them for by over 92,000 units and we've also recently certified the new life center for adult residential services adding an additional 11 beds which will come online this month in January the ODS funding picture is very complicated it is made up of a number of different funding sources and it's very often difficult to predict we have the component of federal financial participation FFP where we use local and state funds to leverage for federal funding funds matched under the Medi-Cal program and we also have a number of other funding sources including federal substance abuse block grant funds state realignment funds family and children services funds and local met county general funds all of which are used to support the cost of providing services in the community we've been dealing with a number of funding challenges since the implementation of the program first the area is around budget predictions and their connection to FFP drawdown is based on a beneficiary mix and anticipated service delivery a very complex set of services that's difficult to predict in FY 18 and 19 we had increased dollars that were provided to the county through realignment however those dollars came with significant limitations in terms of what we could use them for relative to specific services in the community and we also have some significant limitations in terms of how we set our rates and get those rates approved with both the state federal government and there's a process that we go through on an annual basis which we're currently going through right now in order to provide substantiation of those increased costs on a local level so that we can draw down additional federal funds to support the provision of services the next slides I wanted to highlight some of our annual expenditures since the beginning of the program and expansion of services under the ODS waiver in fiscal year 17 and 18 we had a partial year implementation and we provided approximately 4.7 million dollars of services in fiscal year 18 19 we had an initial projected deficit of a million dollars we were able to use an infusion of state realignment funds including $279,000 from our realignment funding in the mental health area to deliver a balanced budget for 18 and 19 and we provided approximately 7.2 million dollars of services that year for FY 19 and 20 we had an initial projected deficit of 1.4 million dollars the onset of COVID-19 in quarter three exacerbated our revenue losses and produced approximately $500,000 left in federal finance participation those federal funds then we originally budgeted and anticipated for and we provided just under eight million dollars of services and that's pending our final reconciliation for the year when the public health emergency was declared this past fiscal year our programs were authorized to increase their rates by the state however the state provided no additional funds to support the increased rates that were authorized so we had to come up with those funds on a local level and for fiscal year 2021 we do have ongoing increases in provider costs which will result in heavier reliance on local county general funds to bridge the gap between anticipated revenues and expenditures and we're looking at that very closely this year all within the context of those service provision mandates that are established by the state and federal government as a managed care provider next section that I wanted to review is around data analysis and our system for looking at both the provision of services as well as the impact that those services have on the residents of our county so under service provision we have a number of service utilization metrics that we look at and under impact we have a number of data points that we examine closely to look at meaningful change within the system the first area is around the provision of services we have a number of metrics that look at treatment episodes that were initiated in each fundality across the drug medicow organized delivery system network and days of service number outpatient treatment days or bed nights provided by the network first area is around admissions for both outpatient services and intensive outpatient services the gold line is the initiation of the ods waiver and the red line is when we first started seeing the effects of the COVID-19 pandemic and as you can see we had a significant drop in admissions when COVID-19 first hit our community the next slide shows data on admissions within residential program some kind of trending with the onset of COVID-19 we had significant reductions in residential capacity over those are again on the upswing and we anticipate that those will eventually return to pre-COVID-19 levels Eric can I interrupt for a second and just ask while you're on the slope it looks as though there was a reduction before COVID-19 in fact prior to the red line there's actually fewer residential admissions than there was before the implementation can you talk about why that there's the decline starting it looks like in Q4 of 2018-19 yeah I think one of the things you can see from the slide is that the pattern tends to go up and down there are peaks and valleys as we rely more on the ASAM assessment to get the specific levels of care right the state has wanted us to rely less on this low-cost free service and build capacity in some of our other option services like outpatient and intensive outpatient services in the community so I expect that trend to continue as we build capacity in those other areas and get better outcomes that will have to rely less on residential programs so I think those are the two factors that that I would mention in terms of that trend that you're seeing okay but over time and on the previous slide slide if you can go back one it's a similar phenomenon but over time sort of net the overall trend should be upwards right yeah overall it will be upward and we have planned some system expansions prior to COVID hitting and I think we're running against the constraints around that and so it'll be interesting to see what happens when we come out of this pandemic what those trends look like but it certainly impacted the numbers of people who are seeking services and and access to those services as we've had capacity reduced at least on a temporary basis yeah and I think I think we all understand the limits that have been placed on us by COVID I guess I'm concerned about for the pre our some of those pre COVID numbers if you look quarter to quarter there's not a it doesn't look as as much of an increase considering the amount of investment yeah we'll definitely be keeping close track on that and continue to provide updates to the board on on what those numbers look like thank you you're welcome one area of interest that's been mentioned before is around our withdrawal management program these are our trend lines on admissions as you can see those have been somewhat less affected by COVID-19 again the red line is is when the pandemic first started hitting our community in a significant way back in March there was an initial drop but the trend line shows that that's continuing to trend upward and we anticipate that that pattern will continue into the future this is days of service for both outpatient and intensive outpatient also happily impacted by COVID-19 and haven't necessarily recovered yet as it's again we have a number of challenges in terms of getting people into these programs which are currently being delivered using a telehealth model which isn't as effective for this population as at some other groups of people in the community and tying into a similar trend that we saw with residential services significant drop in terms of days of service so the number of days that people are are utilizing within those residential programs they have leveled off at this point but there's been significant restrictions on capacity due to the need to quarantine individuals in these programs and reduce the actual census to keep the residents and the staff safe and this is days of service for withdrawal management saw a drop off but it's trending upward and we continue to expect that that trend will continue for the withdrawal management programs next measures are around impact so we're looking at new beneficiaries accessing care so these are community members who engaged in services for the first time during the ODS pilot there are measures around discharge outcomes so what are the results of those treatment episodes for adults and youth and then housing status change for homeless beneficiaries so we serve a percentage of people who are homeless coming into substance use disorder services and we look at the percentage of beneficiaries reporting homelessness and intake and housing status at discharge this graph is for new beneficiaries accessing care we see an actual drop off in adults which again corresponds to the COVID-19 pandemic however we saw an inverse effect with youth and that uptake tech and youth services is a reflection of targeted efforts to engage more youth specifically through the PV PSA expansion of services these are some outcome measures for adults within the ODS system what we see is that we have less people year over year leaving treatment without progress and more people leaving with progress roughly the same amount of people who are completing treatment and about 38% of the beneficiaries or participants represented and these statistics were actually homeless coming into our ODS programs we do not have specific data for that subset of people in terms of whether their outcomes differ from the overall adults who went through the ODS programs but some of the highlights here 28% left with satisfactory progress compared to 14% in the prior year 33% completed treatment compared to 32% in the prior year and 39% left with unsatisfactory progress compared to 54% in the prior year these are some youth discharge outcomes again we have some comparisons year over year 35% of the youth completed treatment compared to the prior year of 15% 25% left with satisfactory progress compared with 35% in the prior year so we have a decrease in that area and 40% left with unsatisfactory progress compared to 50% in 2019 this next graph is a housing status change for homeless individuals who participated in fiscal year 19 and 20 we have about 426 beneficiaries who reported homelessness at the time of admission it's about 38% of our clients admitted to treatment and this graph shows how many of those homeless individuals were housed at the end of their treatment stay and we see a gradual uptick in outcomes in that specific area back in 17 and 18 it was just over 15% in quarter four of 19 and 20 it was just over 30% were housed at the end of their treatment episode and finally this next slide are some of our key priorities for 2021 certainly maintaining as much flexibility as we can as this pandemic evolves the watch of expanded residential beds is another priority both within the county with new life center and we're also exploring residential bed capacity outside of the county should we need that overflow capacity we have a number of contracts that we're looking at implementing this fiscal year next fiscal year to have that overflow capacity if needed strong collaboration with the department healthcare services on the Cal AIM project which will likely change the way we're reimbursed for services in a very significant way and implementing new outcome measures and with that I'm happy to answer any questions I think we'll start with the second district supervisor Zach friend any questions thank you mr chair I do not have any questions thank you for the presentation mr era thank you third district supervisor clarity uh thank you I appreciate this information I also understand this has been an extremely taxing time on HSA to be operating an initiative this size and complexity overall I think we're going in the right direction I think you know and I we understand the limits that have been placed on services uh as a result of COVID I think going forward I'd like to ask that we have this information you know in the staff report before before the presentations so that we can ask more questions and get clarity on some of these new outcome measures and Cal AIM funding um the implications of the Cal AIM funding uh going forward in advance so uh so the next report I look forward hopefully to what a post COVID future looks like but hopefully some information more information in advance because this is such a critical program and a large investment by the county we need to we need to understand how it's how it's going yes and I think the Cal AIM funding issue is probably one of the most significant changes we'll see on both the mental health side as well as the substance use disorder side so that would be critical to have some updates on on where that stands absolutely I did notice the governor put money in the budget uh for it but uh but it would be nice to know what the impacts are locally yeah thank you Stewardizer Caput yeah uh thanks a lot Eric uh I want to thank you for all the work you've done with the mental health advisory board and uh anyway I have no questions right now but thank you very much for everything you're doing thank you Supervisor Koenig yeah thank you so it seems like the uh well I guess first I'd like to echo Supervisor Coonerty's comments that it would be great to receive some of this information ahead of time to properly digest it and give feedback um it seems that we've seen a reduction in the number of folks uh using the service uh as Supervisor Coonerty also pointed out but an increase in cost uh is there um if you charted the cost per per person in order to really get a sense of how much costs are increasing uh and do you have us is that simply due to service providers increasing costs or is it attributable to something else? It's primarily due to the costs for our service provider network increasing year after year and post pandemic um onset as our provider network has served less people um their fixed costs are remaining the same so the per person cost has gone up significantly okay um and then how many you know we were showing the success of of youth compared to adults on the percentage enrollment um can you give us some ideas just in terms of like the total numbers uh how many participants in the program are youth compared to adults? Well I'll have to get that information to you Supervisor I don't have it um immediately available okay thank you be happy to do that great um and what defines completing treatment or satisfactory progress? Well as I mentioned in the presentation we have various levels of care and individuals might enter at one level and successfully complete treatment in that level and then they often move to another level of care so an example would be starting off in our highest level of care residential treatment they'll complete a 30 day stay and then successfully move to a lower level of care and continue treatment there but for some people um success and treatment is is clearly individually defined um so it may mean um not abstinence or stopping the use of alcohol or other drugs it might mean for that particular person a significant reduction so the outcomes are defined both by the person participating as well as as some of our more objective measures using the ASM. Great thanks uh and then you didn't have uh you mentioned there's no success comparison at the moment between um people who are housed and people experiencing homelessness is that correct? We we have the global outcome measures but we didn't break out the homeless population yet to see if those differ for people who are homeless versus who are housed. Now I'd be very interested in seeing that um and then a final question um relating to the number of the 30% of participants who are housed at the end of a treatment episode and you know we saw that graph increasing which is of course very much in the right direction I'm curious if that is is that a change in the program or is that simply a reflection of you know it takes a few years for people participating in the program to ultimately become housed I mean so are we looking essentially at sort of the same group of participants after a few years uh in the program is that or do you attribute the increase in housing outcomes to something else? I think it's a number of factors for the homeless in particular there are additional challenges in terms of successful treatment outcomes and successful treatment completion simply because of the fact that they are unhoused and often homeless on the street um but it's more difficult for them to participate and receive the benefits of a program when they're struggling with some of their more basic life needs so very often for them they're coming in and out of services more frequently than someone who might have staple housing in the community for example and they're also let's go back to an earlier point which I I should have mentioned around residential stays the state currently limits us to two residential stays per calendar year and a residential stay doesn't equate to the full 30 day stay so and this this ties in with our homeless population for example so if we have someone who's been very um difficult to engage in the community and we get them into a residential program if they stay for two days that counts towards one stay and then if we get them back into the program a week later and they leave after three days that counts as their second stay and they are not eligible to receive residential services for the rest of the calendar year and that's something that we've been strongly advocating with the state to change and they're considering in their new waiver program under Cal aim to eliminate that to stay requirement under the waiver because we might be more successful and we anticipate we would be more successful if it was based on a different set of factors such as total bed day utilization during the course of the year and not a residential stay that's the end of my questions thank you okay thank you mr or your presentation do we know of any overlap of odm clients coming through referral um i'm not sure i understand your question chair mcpherson referrals through where well i did well how would how would the referrals that you do get um is there any overlap um from you know other agencies or absolutely in particular the syringe exchange program that we have now yeah we often receive referrals for the odm program through multiple sources and many of our clients in substance use disorder services are connected with many different providers in the community um and for example it's it's really receiving referrals from multiple sources and working with many different agencies that help get them connected with services on a longer term basis so there's definitely a lot of overlap with our community partners including our mental health providers and our human services department do we uh is that for actual treatment then no yeah and sometimes treatment might be lots of outreach and engagement work in the community before we can get them connected to an actual program okay um i think you've answered this somewhat uh how are the uh how are we housing homeless pages when they are discharged from treatment or are we or how are we housing those that are who are homeless one of the options that we frequently look at are what's called sober living environments so it's a shared housing model where people have made a commitment to um live a drug-free alcohol-free life um so we have some treatment funding dollars that we use to support the initial part of a person's stay in a sober living house and often when they get on benefits they will pay the rent themselves for that type of setting and it allows them to be with other people who are also working on their sobriety um but for other people we are working with them um to get their own apartment in the community and access to housing vouchers to help support their rent for those apartments but that's a challenge overall as you know um with the low housing availability that we have in the county um you know the reimbursement change is that going to be better for the county you see um that's coming i think the model that the state was first considering moving us to just two months ago would have been much better for the county um because it would have provided much more flexibility for us um in terms of treatment options and how we build our system of care but the model that they're looking at now um presents a number of challenges for the county um we would no longer get reimbursed for our actual costs um we would shift to a fee for service model so it'd be based on volume of services and if we were hit with another pandemic or a similar um scenario where people had reduced access to services um it would significantly negatively impact our revenues so i am on the work group with that um with the state looking at different payment models so i'll be happy to keep you briefed and the board briefed on this but it clearly presents a number of challenges for us if they shift to the model that they're proposing today yeah and i guess that'll be part of the discussion coming up after this about the budget that we were going to be looking at pretty soon as well um it doesn't look good in that respect anyway yeah unfortunately not and the you i think you might have answered some of this the ongoing support provided to patients who complete the treatment that's um that's changing too is that is that correct the ongoing support or the housing issue is huge i know but yeah the housing issue is huge and um i wouldn't say that the ongoing support changes to folks um again we have a number of options available and we continue to expand those options to make sure that people have what they need to maintain their sobriety if again that's if that's the goal that they've set for themselves um so i don't know that that's changed as much as just having the ongoing challenges particularly for the homeless and getting them access to housing stable housing in the community okay thank you that's um uh do we have any questions from the general public we do have a couple of people that wish to comment okay one second and i will share my screen to bring the timer up okay our first caller is a calling caller i believe it is miss garret you will have two minutes to speak i am unmuting you now please accept the unmute when you begin to speak the timer will start to say that this emergency situation locked down shut down uh had compelled more people into desperation substance abuse um and the i'm gonna read just a little bit from a document on this topic isolation and financial abuse financial loss have led to major increases in depression anxiety suicide family violence and child abuse the fear and isolation drive up suicide violence at home depression and anxiety the journal lancet reported on october 24 2020 that overdose deaths are up globally more than 20 percent due to mental and physical lockdown trauma so the situation you have put people into by this out of control policies are increasing the problems you are addressing here and uh there is another every symptom we're hearing about that people are suffering is blamed on covid 19 which is a respiratory virus closely related to the common cold but there is another very real pandemic that is out of control a pandemic of radiation a pandemic that does cause kidney heart damage strokes in addition to our next speaker is miss monica mcguire you will have two minutes to speak i am unmuting you please accept the unmute and start speaking the timer will begin when you start again it's not it doesn't always show can you hear me now yes thank you okay thank you for saying my full name please say maryland garrett's full name and becky steinbrunner's and everybody else's when you have already heard from them at the very least but you can keep track of their phone numbers and sand um it's so interesting to participate this way um i'm i just want to point out the obvious uh maryland pointed out some a bit and it is that there's this over focus on covid 19 that is impossible to follow in any of those slides thank you so much mr conning for bringing all that up monica nicks questions are excellent i wish the other supervisors had the same ones um mr coonerty i don't understand how you can say gosh next time show us that information ahead of time because why on earth isn't it a norm that the agenda packet has enough information that the members of the public and the supervisors can understand this information ahead of time that makes no sense it makes no sense to me that the slides are so difficult to understand because they're filled with all these references to quarter one two three of double digit years and they aren't long enough to see any real trends you barely begin to address the fact that you can see the negative effects built into some of what was presented but our government has been pushed so long so hard to pretend to be all bureaucratic and boring instead of the most important thing in our life our local government that this is the norm at these meetings that we see these kinds of presentations presented in such a dry and uninspired method that it's impossible for people to understand the basic nuts and bolts that was built in there thank you for pointing out by accident how much damage this whole past year has done to our youth because they are being forced to stay home when we have a virtually zero death rate and we are so far beyond the initial emergency stated we have deeply important things to talk about please converse supervisors thank you Monique for your questions Karen McPherson that is the end of public comment okay this is a report to be received I don't mean I think we need any official action we will now unless there's any closing comments by any supervisor I just had one additional question so I just want to make sure if I understand correctly is it fair to assume that if we increase participation in the program it will be more financially robust yes that's correct all right great thank you guys I think that has implications as we look at providing more housing and maybe making program participation stipulation of some of those housing options okay and Mr. Chair this is an acceptance file so I will actually move the recommended actions oh okay yes sir thank you second here we have second second okay it's been moved second there we accept the report and one more thing Mr. Chair and Supervisor Coonerty did you have additional direction during your commentary you had made some additional requests did you want that as additional direction or are you okay with just an acceptance file as is I'm okay with an accepted file and just I think the will of the board hopefully has been articulated when we get it back post pandemic thank you please call the roll Supervisor Koenig hi friend hi Coonerty hi Caput Supervisor Caput Chair McPherson hi you call on Mr. Caput one more time Supervisor Caput hi I finally uh yeah I got disconnected thank you okay very good thank you it passes unanimously five to zero we will go on now to item number eight to consider an update on the fiscal year 2021-22 budget forecast and direct the county administrative office to return on February 23rd 2021 with further update as outlined in the memorandum of the county administrative officer Mr. Palacios thank you chair McPherson and members of the board uh Carlos Palacios county administrative officer I will say that this has been a very challenging budget year for the county as it has for all local governments but in particular for the county government because we are at the forefront of the response to the health public health pandemic and county services are being taxed to the full we also are at the forefront to the response to fires this summer and then now we are at the forefront of the efforts to distribute the vaccines so this is a very challenging time for county government at a time when we have great needs in the community for our safety net programs and our response to the emergency we also have decreased revenues and what you'll see in today's report is that we are doing slightly better than we had projected but we still have not recovered to pre-pandemic or pre-covid levels so our revenues although slightly better than we had projected still are below what we had received prior to the pandemic and so that continues to be a challenge that we are facing the good news is there's a couple of good news one is that the board's very conservative fiscal stewardship in the past has allowed us to get through this pandemic recession with maintaining our most important public services and so the ability of the board to set aside money in our fiscal reserves allowing us to get through the worst time period in recent county history without major cuts to our our budget I'll also say the good news is that our county employees agreed at the very beginning to take furloughs as a way to save jobs and maintain services and I'd like to thank our county employees and our labor partners for the sacrifices they have made to maintain our public services so the other piece of good news is you'll see that our revenues are progressing in a positive direction and we hope that once the vaccine is widely widely distributed we will be able to make a significant progress towards a full recovery and restoration of our revenues to pre-pandemic or pre-covid levels so with that I'm going to ask Christina Maori our the county budget manager to provide an overview of and more detail on our preliminary budget forecast for fiscal year 2021. Thank you Carlos and good morning chair McPherson and members of the board as Carlos mentioned I'm going to share presentation and highlight for you some of the key information and I will be focusing on the general fund because the general fund is where you have the most discretion and and on the general county revenues and how you allocate those resources to the various departments. So as mentioned we're going to first I'm going to cover a little bit about the impacts that COVID has prior to COVID some current year estimates for 2021 and then I will cover some of the highlights for the 2021-22 preliminary forecast based on the information we have currently and then summarize sort of opportunities and challenges and and where we're at with budget instructions. Christina we still are not seeing your screen. Oh you're not seeing the screen that's interesting okay I clicked share. Okay now we see it okay here we go sorry about that thank you Carlos. Okay so we're going to cover the 2021 update the forecast and then a summary so I just want to remind the board where we were at prior to COVID about a year ago we brought a forecast to your board and we were looking at savings from the current year of about four and a half million dollars that was going to be carried forward as part of the financing for the general fund. We were anticipating general and department revenue growth of more than eight million dollars or five percent and we did believe that would be enough to offset some of our costs our status quo cost of operations for the departments but we were still left with a shortfall of about seven and a half million dollars pre-COVID and we were asking the departments to make reductions of two and a half to 12 and a half percent which was very manageable at the time and we were able at that time to forecast keeping our reserves intact at 57.6 million which is about which is our goal of 10 percent of the total general fund revenues. When COVID hit we updated our projections and we had to revise our budget we had no savings to carry forward from 1920 to 2021 and we actually had a shortfall at the end of last year due to the decline in revenues and that was about 3.4 million dollars that carried over we had general and department revenue declines of up to 23 million dollars or 14 percent anticipated for 2021 and that was offset by department reductions of up to 20 percent which did include some layoffs and we were happy to have county furlough to help offset about a third of those costs anywhere from five to 10 percent. We actually did go in to reduce our reserves to make up another third of the losses of about 13.4 million dollars leaving about 44 million in the reserves or seven percent of our total revenues which is the minimum reserve as part of the policy. So here you'll see the revenue projections pre-COVID compared to the adopted budget the two primary changes in revenues that we anticipated was of course in sales tax and the hotel tax or transient occupancy tax that's where the majority of the revenue losses were anticipated overall excuse me we had about a 10 million dollar loss in revenues from our pre-COVID estimates to the adopted budget or about 6.2 percent. Another large area where we saw a decline in revenue is in our interest earnings because our interest allocation currently is fairly low. So the departments have been updating their estimates for the current year and we've been relying on those estimates and they'll continue to make progress as we go through the year. Here you'll see overall and we've left the pre-COVID comparison there for you but overall when you look at the adopted budget which is the second column there compared to our current year estimates you know we're looking at about a 3.3 million dollar unanticipated growth which is about 2 percent compared to our original estimates and you'll see there the majority of that is made up of from our sales tax growth is a little better than anticipated primarily due to the increase in online sales that's making up some of the difference in the reduction in our local point of sale and the hotel tax is doing a little bit better than anticipated about half as better on making up almost another two million dollars. We did see a little bit of a decline in our property tax as you know the fire did have an impact and our supplemental increases have declined a little bit and that that's offset by some of that growth from sales tax and hotel tax. Then we have some minor changes and cannabis business tax and the D transfer tax. Interest earnings is a little little worse than we originally thought um and then that's offset by a little bit of shift in other revenues and reimbursements. So here you'll see just a summary of how that translates to the general fund financing so overall the the general revenues budget had the 3.3 million dollars anticipated. So our financing the general fund is financed from the carryover fund balance plus the general revenues excuse me which we just looked at. So overall the general fund financing is is is going up by the 3.3 million dollars or about two percent and that's offset and that funds the department net costs and the department net costs are the difference between the department revenues and the department expenses that are general fund funded. So overall even though a couple departments are having some revenue shortfalls this year due to the the impact COVID has had on their operations we have some savings in other areas and we have contingencies as your board knows you've already allocated some of the contingencies this year to help offset some of the increased fire costs which we had not anticipated. So overall we're doing we expect our net cost to be less by about a million dollars thanks to having a sizable amount in contingencies and we'll have about 4.3 million dollars estimated preliminarily that could carry over as part of the financing for next fiscal year. And here you'll see a summary at the total fund level again the fund balance added to the total revenues now these revenues here aren't just the general county revenues these include all the department revenues. So you'll see an increase there of about 11 and a half million dollars we've had some increased revenues and expenditures in within the departments related to the emergency and those increased costs and expenditures have been allocated. So overall the the savings here is the same but you'll see that those those budget estimates compared to the estimates are up about with between 1 and 2% of the original budget. So just to give you some highlights on the 21-22 forecast remember as part of this process we give you normally we do this in December we postponed it until January we have given the department some initial instructions they're going to be we're going to be receiving their budgets their requests by the middle of February at the latest and then we're going to be giving your board another update we call that the mid-year update and that will come to you in February the end of February and you'll get an update of where we're at at that time. So here you'll see sort of the the forecast of the 21-22 general county revenues and you'll see overall that we're expecting about 5.2 million dollars in growth or about 3.4 percent again the same revenues that assisted us in the current year sales tax and TOT we're projecting a similar amount of growth to continue and then of course our other revenues here are similar as well cannabis detransfer tax and interest earnings are still projected to be down the similar amount they're down this year and then the other thing that helps us next year is we are still even though we before COVID we anticipated that our general revenues would decline we still are seeing a sizable amount or modest amount of property tax growth so in the current year we had about five percent we're estimating next year to have some continued growth in our property taxes of about four percent that generates about 2.6 million dollars so combined with the sales tax and the the TOT or hotel tax revenues that unfortunately is offset by some one-time money we received this year from our CRF plan we had some additional funding as a part of the CRF plan to help offset some of our disaster service worker costs and that's shown in this other revenues as part of the general county revenues and so we're seeing a shortfall or a reduction there which was one time for the current year so overall 5.2 million dollars or 3.4 percent now as Carlos mentioned even though we're seeing 5.2 million dollars in growth we're still approximately 5 million dollars away from our pre-COVID estimates so we're only through next fiscal year we're only anticipating to get about halfway there and here you'll see our preliminary estimate of the general fund expenditures one of our primary expenditure increases is of course our salaries and benefits our status quo increases are are estimated at 12.8 million dollars and we have some other costs fixed costs we anticipate some reductions in fixed assets and some of our one-time emergency costs that we saw this year offset by some other fixed increases minor amount and then we have a large amount of contingencies included in this year's budget because we had that additional funding and and then we anticipate next year only having a minimal amount set aside a little we try to set aside about one percent of our expenditures and a general contingency to help us offset any of the unanticipated revenue shortfalls or expenditure increases and then we always have a small amount that's set aside for any mid-year adjustments for the departments so overall we're seeing a reduction there in contingencies which helps offset some of our increases but in total we're expecting about 9.4 million dollars and our status quo increases which is about 1.5 percent of the total expenditures now we'll see these are preliminary we'll see what we receive from the departments and some additional information will be provided to you in February here's a summary of our general fund contingencies you'll see a comparison of the adopted budget our estimate for the current year and then the forecast for next year and you know we have our general contingency as I just mentioned which is we set that aside we hope never to have to use it so far this year we haven't had to use it we've had mid-year adjustments we anticipate some departments are not going to quite be able to stay within their budget adjustments we've already and we anticipate using some of that this year we have obviously the emergency repairs and the response this year we were prudent for the first time in years to set aside some of that in the budget and we've used more than what we've set aside based on what the need was as part of the fire recovery response in the local match needed on the state and federal funding that's been provided for the emergency we have some realignment funding for the trigger cut set aside we don't believe we're going to need that based on realignment revenues doing a little better than expected but we've set aside a small amount and then we have some a little bit of other set aside and we expect to be able to use that so overall the contingencies as I mentioned are expected next year at a minimum to be 6.2 million dollars if the resources allow it would be better if we could increase that a slight amount so that we could cover in case we have continued emergencies here's a summary of our general fund reserves compared to the adopted budget last year where we were at pre-covid the adopted budget this year and the forecast for next year so due to the financial constraints we're not anticipating as we sort of work our way through the recovery of from covid and the fires to not be able to increase our reserves at this time but we do have a small amount and your board may recall that prior to fiscal year 1920 we were still recovering from our previous storm damage emergency and we had some increased local match needed to cover those costs and your board allocated two million dollars out of reserves from the natural disaster reserve and so the reserve policy dictates that we have a plan to restore those reserves so we have a multi-year plan and we're setting aside as part of that plan four hundred thousand dollars a year in order to restore that two million dollar reserve so that's the only thing we'll be contributing or recommending to contribute at this time so because we did go from a 10 percent as mentioned earlier reserve down to a 7.2 percent reserve when we took 13 million dollars out of reserves to help balance our budget for this fiscal year and then here you'll see a summary of the actual general fund you'll see here the the fund balance and the revenues make up the total financing for the general fund and you'll see in the the adopted column that we have a balanced budget in the forecast we talked about the 4.3 million dollars that we're preliminary estimating that we should have in savings from the current year to carry forward but that still leaves us with a 9.1 million dollars in fund balance that isn't available remembering of course that all of this fund balance came from reserves and then in the revenues we anticipate the revenue growth from the general county revenues of 5.2 million and the balance of the revenue there is from the departments so typically we assume that when the departments have increased status quo costs that are state and federally funded they typically in most cases will see an increase in their revenue reimbursements for those costs as long as the the state and federal government government are able to continue those programs so that's why this the revenues here are showing a bit higher but still within about 2% of the original budget from this year and that makes up the total financing so when you take into account that we don't have as much fund balance even though we have some increased revenues our overall financing is only increasing by 5.4 million dollars in this current preliminary estimate and our costs as we described earlier our status quo costs are increasing by 9.4 million dollars at a minimum and we'll see what what other cost increases the departments submit to us as part of their requests so overall we're anticipating in a status quo situation at a minimum we would have a four million dollar shortfall for next fiscal year now we have we do have let's see here sorry about that I got off track okay so I want to mention the furlough because in the status quo version we're assuming continued furlough we know the furlough expires at the end of this fiscal year and we have to bargain with SEIU in order to continue the furlough so we we know there's people would love to get off a furlough we'd love to get off a furlough also the last time we arrived furlough it took us multiple years to have the financial constraints and maintain as many programs and services to the community before we could get off a furlough and we did it in steps um and so we are looking at um if we restored the furlough fully um it costs us an additional 11 to 12 million dollars in order to 100 restore the furlough that's the general fund cost um and if we restored half of it we would have about a 10 million dollar shortfall it's another that's about six million dollars so here I want to show you sort of our forecast if you take all this information into account over the next five years um it's apparent that and typically that our expenditure growth will exceed our revenue growth um in this forecast the expenditure growth and the revenue growth is estimated using a 2 percent historical average growth on revenues and expenditures um which you can see was was pretty consistent with what we are experiencing this year um our financing includes the revenues and an estimated annual budget to actual savings of four million each year to carry forward as part of the financing and in this chart here you can see the financing in the green line estimated to grow um from 622 million to 679 million um the current status quo expenditures shown in the blue line at of 622 million are expected to grow to 684 million leaving about a four to five million dollar gap as it as it grows before we even begin to restore the furlough and the gray line here represents the increased expenditures if 50 of the furlough is restored over the two years beginning next year this increases the gap by 5.8 million dollars for a total shortfall of 9.8 million growing to 17 million by fiscal year 2526 the black line represents the expenditure estimates reflecting the full restoration of the furlough by 2122 increasing the gap from 11 and a half million for a total shortfall of 15 million growing to 17 million so if the revenue growth is less than 2 percent then the gap may be greater and the gap may grow further if expenditures are higher for costs that have yet to be negotiated or implemented in order to balance the future gaps in financing most likely revenue measures and expenditure reductions will be necessary as shared before revenue options could include a 1 increase in the hotel tax which would generate about a million dollars in revenue or and or a quarter cent sales tax measure which generates approximately three and a half million dollars and we are going to continue to look at those options in the future and your board will receive more information so we've discussed our financial constraints um we continue to have challenges but we do have opportunities um our challenges are that our general contingencies are less than one percent of expenditures our general fund reserves um since they were reduced to balance the budget for this year are now at seven percent and the goal is 10 and GFOA recommends even as much as 10 to 15 percent or more our emergency response costs may be higher and FEMA may disallow some of our reimbursements so if we have enough financial wherewithal it would be prudent for us to set aside a reserve or a contingency for FEMA disallowance of reimbursements and we have um we have no funding at this time we have no funding for the balance of our COVID response costs and or deferred maintenance but we are we have an opportunity that it's coming and we believe we will get additional funding for COVID so our property taxes they're on a slight decline the growth won't be known for sure until the assessor finishes the assess value and the role um and but we're currently estimating four percent in our property tax growth um we know that we'll likely have an additional debris flow emergency which will have increased costs and we are preparing for that our actual revenues may not match our estimates we may have some other revenues that may decline um and some of our department costs may continue to go up some of one of the things that departments are struggling with is as we face these emergencies some of their costs are coming in a bit higher the good news is we're very fortunate with the changes in the administration and um we are expecting additional stimulus funding um and congress will hopefully discuss another relief bill the relief bill that they just passed didn't have any funding in it for a direct general funding for local government but there was some funding provided um health should be receiving some funding for testing and tracing and um and vaccine distribution and we did just get word that we are going to be getting some funding for rental assistance and your board will receive a report on that soon our costs will be less than budget once the emergency passes and that we are forecasting that in 2021-22 the costs will stop to start to drop in some areas and we will anticipate some continued support from other grants and our community partners to get through this and we of course have pre more continuous process improvement that will help us create efficiencies and continue to look at how we do things so that we can be um better prepared so as I mentioned we have issued some preliminary instructions to the departments um based on the constraints and based on the fact that we have a shortfall and the fact that we would like to look at what it looks like to restore the furlough we have issued instructions to the departments to have no increase in their general fund contribution or net county cost wherever possible and to provide us with three scenarios one a status quo scenario where we continue furlough uh two a 50 restoration of furlough and three a hundred percent restoration of furlough so the departments will provide those that information during their budget request to us which will be receiving some as early as the end of this month and through the general fund uh departments are due through the middle of February and then we'll bring that information back to your board we believe I should say we believe that it's unlikely that we can restore a hundred percent of the furlough that the impacts will be too great but we are hopeful and believe that it is possibly manageable to restore 50 percent of the furlough and still minimize the impacts on staffing programs and services but more information will tell us soon so the recommendation that's before used to accept and file the report we're happy to answer any questions or hear any additional recommendations for the budget priorities for 2021-22 we will provide more information and a separate report to your board on the CRF funding in any future funding that's provided and that will come hopefully by the next board meeting and then the mid-year report as mentioned will be provided to your board by the end of February and I'm happy to answer any questions well thank you Christina I'll refer to that realistic compact and comparative report I think it we're going to know more when we discuss this I believe the date is going to be February 23rd at our board meeting I'd like to hear any comments from our board members beginning with third district supervisor Ryan Coonerty yeah thanks Christina and again thank you to all the employees who have taken the furlough so we can get through this difficult time I'm hopeful that we can restore 50 percent pending the federal funding and other sources I'm wondering do you have any information about how either our health insurance or our cow purse rates are going to look over the coming years yes we have included in the forecast I didn't go any details on the purse rates and health insurance we usually provide that in the mid-year report but I can tell you we did have a higher increase in health insurance rates this year so that is included in the forecast and as part of that 12.8 million dollars in status quo increases the health rates went up about six percent and the purse rates are continuing to go up um they've increased almost 70 percent in the last five plus years and they're going to continue to go up as we start to recover from the um the cow purses is um trying to recover from some of the losses they've had in previous years so our unfunded liabilities continue to grow and we continue to pay a large portion of that to to fund the pension that's uh I appreciate that that's frustrating news given that how the stock market's doing cow purse still needs to increase rates and then given that many people have are actually not getting medical care uh that you would think our insurance rates would actually go down given that given that they actually haven't many people are putting off procedures and other things um okay and then in terms of not having funds in the emergency contingencies um given the likelihood of debris flows or whatever else uh comes forward shouldn't we shouldn't we at least put a similar amount we did last year into that given given given our realities yes um I we will probably look at that we're we're we have some money set aside this year um that we believe we can probably carry forward to next year for that we don't think we'll spend all of it so that will will um be updated probably in February we're waiting to see how the departments do um a few departments we kind of know where how they'll submit their request there's a few departments that are more complicated you just heard a report from health services on drug Medi-Cal um some of the larger departments we need to wait to see their reports to see how they sort of balance the constraints and and see where funding is needed okay thank you thank you for your work Supervisor Caput yeah uh thank you uh what about the uh future uh pension uh responsibilities that we have uh are those growing as people are retiring and uh this is a crisis that's been coming for a number of years and is it is it are we able to meet all those uh uh costs that we have related to that yes our our pension obligation costs are included in our status quo expenditures and we're a pay-as-you-go county and um the the pension rates and what the required amount to pay each year is calculated by CalPERS based on our demographics and based on their policies and the rates so um we're we're pay-as-you-go and we do have an unfunded liability and it would be nice when we have enough uh financial constraints to sort of um make some progress on that unfunded liability as part of the overall county debt um so we we do take a close look at that every year to see if there's something we can do some counties that have greater resources than us are able to make an additional sizable payment each year to help pay down that debt we've never been in that situation due to some of our constraints to be able to afford to make an additional payment each year we just pay as we go based on the on the funding that's available okay thank you and then uh uh with our reserves uh we we had it up to 56 million that was uh wonderful but uh reserves are supposed to be spent when we have an emergency like we had and uh thankfully uh we did have a reserve so what i'm getting at here is that uh a reserve if you never use it like we had in the crisis right now uh when it really doesn't do anything but we used it we used part of it and we still have quite a bit left so what i'm getting at is uh building the reserve back up at this moment is not a priority uh but in the future it would be good to restore it to something uh that we had in the past that's great it's always it's always good for us to be prepared for that next emergency so it will be important for us to prioritize in the future when our when our revenues recover and we're in a different situation to be able to increase our reserves so that we can be prepared for that next emergency yes right but in the long run rather than right now thank you yes rise according thank you miss mowry for the presentation um i was surprised is that we're expecting a four percent increase in property tax revenues next year uh despite the destruction from the fires um so my understanding correctly that that's simply because uh of property turnovers and new excess values that we expect that to definitely outweigh uh loss from the fires yeah the fires even though it was we we lost quite a few homes during the fires and was definitely um serious devastation that occurred it's a relatively minor number of homes compared to the total roll and the number of homes within the county so it did have an impact but it and it had an the impact to the general fund was uh less than a half a million dollars a year in property tax value in terms of the loss to the general fund now there are losses every special district and the state gets a portion of those funding but we only keep 13 cents on the dollar so the loss to us was relatively minor the loss to the community was much greater and so we um and the we're still seeing growth um our assessor anticipates continued growth and what we're seeing is we have homes that are still turning over and so we're anticipating growth still got it is is there any increased risk um in in that projection because of people who maybe uh are not able to pay their property taxes because of um because of the fires so we're on the teeter plan so what that means is that we the auditor um apportions 100 of the property tax related to the assessed value and the county assumes the risk for that and we have special reserves set aside um as a part of the teeter plan and the auditor will will go through some of that and explain some of that in her mid-year report which i believe she's going to be doing the end of january and we can get you more information if you like okay um so just to clarify what the rebuilt properties will be assessed at their prior rates or new assessed value they i believe they'll go back to their prior rates it depends on the uh the and what they rebuild if it's replaced or not so but i believe it goes back to the original value the assessor is probably best to answer that um and we can get you more information on that okay thank you certainly well thank you i i'm pleased in general um with this journey outlook uh that we're we're forced into but some good news coming from sacramento and washington regarding various future supports related to coveted and homelessness and fire recovery and other needs um i i know we're going to dive deeper into the details on february 23rd but i think it's important to recognize once again as it's been mentioned that we couldn't have gotten this far and it'd been this good a shape under some most trying of circumstances without two critical pieces uh of our employees and the furloughs that they accepted we had small number of layoffs and um our healthy budget reserves i know that reserves will be a target i don't think anybody's suggesting that we reduce them more but you know with debris flow issues or concerns serious at the face we may have to dive deeper into that fund and we don't really want to go below seven percent for sure so uh we need to be careful to uh respect that and thank god we had it at this time um but i just want to say again without the sacrifices of our workforce and our strong reserves going into this crisis said we would be slashing services and making deep uh layoffs and gambling with our future stability and county government so i'm uh i'm very pleased we were in as good a position as we were i'm happy to see that i hopefully we can maintain most of it as we move forward um and uh hope that we don't have any ahead uh heavy rains in the immediate future um i did have some concerns about our questions about the property tax as well but you've answered those so i do appreciate that um do we have any uh questions and remarks from the public yes chair we have two hands up i see if you give me one second i'll share my screen thank you okay our first caller has a blocked caller ID so i can't call you by your last four however if you are on the phone and you have your hand raised please accept the unmute you will have two minutes to speak i am unmuting you now please accept the unmute and start speaking the timer will start when you begin hi this is maryl mangera and i've been watching some videos that shed light onto the context of what's going on globally and one interview i heard was on the children's health defense website with daniel pinchbeck who is with meta biota and they evaluate a pandemic risk for insurance companies and the economics and he said 10 000 kids are dying a month in africa from the lockdown and the cost of the lockdown by december 31st will be 97 trillion dollars that money has been shifted from the middle class to the internet titan indeed we've heard how amazon google the telecom industry is benefiting greatly financially well the rest of us peons aren't and i the other document i have is called the great awakening by common freedom that came out december 25th in which he cites a document on the great recess and states the end game of the covet coup was revealed in july 2020 when the world economic forum published a book called covet 19 the great reset and they state in that book the pandemic represents a rare but narrow window of opportunity to reflect reimagine and reset our world to create a healthier more equitable and more prosperous future rights officer our next caller is monica mcguire i will you will have two minutes to speak i am unmuting you please accept the unmute and start speaking the timer will start when you do so again it's it's impossible to understand why you're limiting us to two minutes when you've only got two people but the most obvious things to point out with what we're watching here is that you're all talking as though there's some sustainable aspect of using up the reserves and moving forward with the hope of getting more state or federal money when we don't have that hope because of everything that this county has chosen to do shutting down our local businesses etc despite our virtual non-existent problem with covet 19 you have successfully kept people afraid that they we might develop a problem but that doesn't change the fact that we still have no problem with covet 19 coronavirus etc and all of the real budget issues pushing that the lowest paid members of the county employment be on furlough while the people making the most money are not on furlough it should be a great topic of conversation of course and to be talking about what can actually be done to shift our attention in this county to better choices for this county since counties can act on their own separate from the state they're just guidelines from the state based on things happening in los angeles an incredibly different demographic and area than the kind that we live in and again without the same focus on health and great access to the environment which is what really heals most people of most things gardening and eating what we grow in our gardens so i wish you would actually have the kinds of fighting about what to really do about the budget at this point instead of just passing anything with the idea that this makes sense since it doesn't make sense in the short run or the long run to go with the kinds of choices that you've already been making please have the conversation and fight that we need to hear you have on behalf of us all and chair that is it for public comment thank you and i i just don't answer these things but you know the implication that the highest paid are not taking a hit on this department heads supervisors and so forth to take it a 10 cut that's been clear from the start so not that we're heroes but i just it's it's incorrect to say that those at the top of the ladder so to speak we're hired what the terminology was are not taking part of the hit here that doesn't mean we're not spending as much time as we ever have on the business of the day but i think that needs to be spelled out are there any other closing comments from the board members before we we file and accept this report yes mr chair i i wasn't quite given an opportunity so i'll speak very briefly no no apologies it's difficult in this this environment but i i just wanted to first i wanted to thank christina for her presentation as always very thorough very helpful very transparent and i did want to express a similar to concern to supervisor coonerties in regards to ensuring that our contingencies and also with supervisor first and said and and supervisor cap it ensuring that our reserves are built back up now recognizing that that we as a board made these decisions under an emergency capacity that to reduce both of those but realistically i think that as funds start to come back in we have a responsibility to build those both back up if nothing else because our bond writing requires it on the reserve side and we just happen to be very fortunate so far at least that we've had a dry winter as other downstream issues in regards to droughts but uh in regards to our need on some of the other contingency funding but there's really no question is somebody who experienced the brunt of the over 120 million dollars in storm damage that occurred just a couple years ago that we need to have funding in these contingencies for these emergency repairs we have very aging infrastructure and it just makes sense the one element of good news and in fact there was even announcement today on this and on friday i'm going to be a part of a national association of county's discussion in regards to this apparently the future now majority leader senator schumer did announce to his caucus that he wants his first order of business to be an additional stimulus package that includes state and local funding so i do there really is no justification considering the house's past a couple versions of this that this new senate and the new administration wouldn't support it just obviously the size and scope will matter hopefully at that point but well before the february update that we get from from miss maury will have a sense of that so we can have some sense of also prioritizing where those funds go because it depending upon the size and scope it could actually really help provide a greater greater clarity of what we can do with reserves contingencies and as well as ensuring that our employees can get back to fully doing the work of the community but i just wanted to appreciate that i will move the recommended actions as well mr chairman second from supervisor coonerty i believe it was um please call the roll supervisor konig hi friend hi coonerty hi cap it hi and chair mcpherson hi you know normally we have a break uh you know 10 30 or 10 45 but i think we're moving along fine and i think we're doing this virtually i i just assume move on uh unless anybody would definitely need to take a break i think it's best that we just move forward okay we'll move on to item number nine to consider the third biannual progress report on the san jose county operational plan for fiscal 2019 to 21 consider themes and provide guidance for the 21 23 operational plan and direct the county administrative office to return in may 2021 with the proposed plan for 21 23 and june 2021 with the final report for 2019 21 as outlined in the memorandum of the county administrative officer uh we have a vision san jose county presentation i believe i don't know spin uh or who is going to make that presentation uh chair mcpherson nicole cobert and it's just beautiful thank you oh it's okay i am joined by spen staffer the principal analyst in our office who's working with me on the operational plan update so good morning border supervisors um we're here today to give you our third update on the current two-year operational plan which covers the fiscal years of 2019 through 2021 um we're going to provide a brief overview and some background and then we'll move into the updates that we're here to present today as well as the development process for coming forward with our new two-year operational plan for fiscal years 2021 through 2023 um and then we'll wrap up with the recommended actions so with that we'll move on thank you spen um so this diagram shows the interconnectedness of our major man management initiatives which we started about three years ago um at the top we have our strategic plan which the board adopted um that was our the first initiative that was underway and then we followed that up with the operational plan um as well as pre-mode process improvement the the two-year operational plan the first of the three that we're bringing to the board was approved in June 30th of 2019 and that really serves as the blueprint for achieving the county's strategic plan and is founded in our vision mission and values that plan contains 55 strategies and 180 objectives for achieving our strategic plan and so i'm going to now turn it over to spen who's going to give you a high-level summary of our updates thanks nicole um so i'm going to do the update through the website so hopefully everyone can see the um the Santa Cruz strategic plan website that i'm sharing um the the dynamic sort of layout to the operational plan is still is still maintained as nicole said we have 180 objectives 64 of those have been completed 60 are in progress 49 have been amended and seven have been withdrawn um so what's new for this update in the in the june update uh 2020 we put a a covid impacted hat on 61 objectives um just to to handle the uncertainty of the moment and how it would impact our work we've gone back and reviewed those 61 objectives and put them back into the their normal categories of either completed in progress and on time and amended and we've also added a last category of withdrawn objectives and so if we start the objectives here by completion status um we can see the the group of seven withdrawn objectives here at the bottom um if you open up one such as the cannabis merger we have a little information box here that provides more detail on why the objective was withdrawn um for most of these it has to do with impacts of covid and the fire um this one in particular is withdrawn due to you know reconsidering whether the merging with the planning department will lead to the program efficiencies we originally thought and this particular objective is going to be reconsidered for the 21-23 plan and so i'd like to um i'd like to take take you through some of the other highlights from the uh the completed plan uh i'm going to start with uh the county administrative office and the 2020 census um the just as a reminder for all completed objectives we're trying to provide verification link your documentation uh so if we open up this link it takes you to the census site where you can see that the county did have a 71.7 self-response rate for the 2020 census um the next objective that i'd like to highlight for everyone is in our human services department an objective on food access so the department set the objective of increasing by 50 the number of low-income seniors and disabled single adults enrolled in CalFresh um getting greater access to people who have an entitlement to those benefits as you can see from the report provided by human services here they actually increased that by well over 50 percent um the the actual number was about 100 158 percent of their of their target with about over 7600 individuals enrolled in that program over the baseline of 2018 the next program i'd like to highlight is from the agricultural commissioner their staff set out a target of reducing their fleet greenhouse gas emissions by 10 percent over a two-year period they were able to do this by over two times that amount the overall reduction as you can see here was about 27 percent or over 42 000 pounds of carbon that didn't get emitted into the atmosphere and the final objective that i'd like to highlight comes from the district attorney and their neighborhood courts program again it's a restorative justice program that has been initiated by the district attorney in partnership with all our criminal justice partners and folks can tour the website and get information on on how to volunteer and participate in that really cool program so that's the update on the current operational plan i am going to bring it back to the slideshow and talk about the upcoming two-year operational plan for fiscal years 2021 to 23 um obviously the covid pandemic and the august complex fires posed extraordinary challenges to our community over the past 12 months and so this this next two-year plan is really viewing the development of new objectives as an opportunity to create a foundation for long-term recovery and transformation and so i'm going to go through a couple of those opportunities in terms of specifically of the fire of covid and then and then the implementation timeline uh so for fire recovery um you know the fire was our worst natural natural disaster since the 89 earthquake recovery is not simply about rebuilding the over 900 houses that were destroyed it includes improvements to public infrastructure and evacuation routes it includes appropriate mental health and community supports for survivors um and it obviously includes planning for resiliency in the face of future fires and impacts from climate change on the slide you can see the six buckets of typical recovery operations um those will obviously be embedded in our new office of recovery and resiliency specific objectives that we'll be looking to develop in terms of in terms of that recovery plan and setting the foundation will be had you know applying for hazard mitigation grants and identifying funding that we can bring into the community um working working more closely with the community um and developing a long a long-term recovery group um really working on our permit performance measures to make sure that um folks who are rebuilt and are able to do so efficiently and then um you know providing counseling and mental health services to make sure that we're taking care of the human aspect of of the recovery as well in terms of uh COVID-19 the pandemic has obviously changed the the nature of our lives and our work um recovery from this will be challenging and especially to ensure that everyone can adapt and that we are creating more resiliency especially for those communities that were disproportionately impacted by the pandemic um for the 2021-23 operational plan we want to build on the work of the county health services agency and their uh save lives Santa Cruz county program um the the acronym of save is uh slow the spread adapt and adjust vaccinate and treat and elevate readiness specific objectives that were will be working on with departments in terms of COVID-19 recovery include um enhancing county remote work policies making sure that people accessing our services are able to do so in a safe way equitable distribution of COVID-19 vaccines and then economic recovery and so uh with that I'll pass it back to Nicole to talk about the implementation timeline and improvements. Thanks Ben. So as we move forward to develop our new two-year operational plan we wanted to give you an idea of where we've been and where we're going as part of that process so last month in December we held a training with departments on measurement um we were trying to get them familiar again with our results-based accountability framework in which we're trying to answer three questions um how much did we do how well did we do and is anyone better off um the objectives that are in the first two-year operational plan um we're working towards achieving the RBA framework um but it was definitely a learning process and um not everyone was as familiar with it so um we've been working on training them to get them back up to speed and that with the goal of having the new objectives in a new plan much more closely aligned with that sort of framework. Today we're here to present our development process for the new two-year operational plan um we've presented some themes and we'd also like to hear from you and gather your guidance on what you would like to see in the in the new two-year operational plan um you had previously requested this opportunity to provide earlier guidance to staff and so um we're we're hoping that this achieves that. Later this month in January we have a training with departments on embedding equity in the new objectives and that will be followed up by some written instructions to departments on how to write their objectives. We have a February workshop uh that will be scheduling or a series of workshops that will be scheduling with departments to bring them together to talk about objectives that might overlap or um to brainstorm and think through what what we might put into the new two-year plan. In March um on March 5th uh objectives will be due from a department and then we will start a process of reviewing editing and aligning those objectives um we do need to work closely with departments to make sure that objectives that are being drafted are um are can be completed that there's capacity and resources as well as um they're relevant to any themes or other key issues that the board might have. We'll be discussing draft objectives with relevant groups whether they be advisory bodies or commissions or others and then in May we plan to present the proposed new two-year operational plan to the board to get the board's feedback and make any revisions that are necessary before we bring the final plan to the board in June for adoption um so just to recap some of the improvements that we want to see in the new two-year operational plan we're hoping one that objectives more closely use measurement and baselines and more closely tied to our RBA framework um we're hoping that objectives also address some of um any disparities that might exist and we'll be working with departments to uh get them to develop at least one objective that addresses a specific disparity that might lead to more equitable results and then we're also hoping that it reflects any board input that we received today um so in conclusion um our recommended actions are to accept and file the third biannual progress report on the current operational plan um we also ask the board to consider themes and provide guidance on developing the new two-year operational plan and then to direct our office to return in May with the proposed plan for the new two-year period and then to return in June with the final report for the current operational plan of fiscal years 2019 through 2021 and so with that Sven and I are happy to answer your questions um and or you know address any other issues thank you thank you for that great presentation and I I think it's um I just want to thank the uh CEO's office and the whole uh county team for working together on this we had employees to take spend hours and hours more than two years ago to establish this plan and if the general public wants to get an idea of where our priorities are our priorities and where we're going this is a great place to start I'll tell you it then it gives us some real good ideas of where we want to go in the immediate future and the long-term future and I think it's very impressive that we have met uh we have two thirds or more of our objectives either have done them or they're in progress so congrats congratulations to them all um we'll get some comments from the board members Supervisor Koenig yeah I just also want to express my thanks for this entire process for the CAO's office really you know helping make sure we have uh you know these these long-term objectives um to guide our work and it's been a great opportunity for me to dive into the specific strategies and goals and objectives um to to you know hear a reflection of the community's values and you know match them up against some of the priorities I heard throughout the campaign um in reviewing some of the objectives I just wanted to make sure um you know some are clear than others as far as you know being sort of discreet and measurable um and I want to make sure that we're not uh with the tasks that are associated with an objective to accomplish that objective you know let's make sure we're not kind of creating objectives within objectives um you know so I can one example I came across was I believe it was number 176 about the syringe services program and it included several uh within the tasks um it included for example a walkthrough of the program um with the I think the California Department of Health um and then when the last task was established a commission for this syringe services program and so in being completed it's unclear well did the last task get completed or did all of the task get completed um so you know and even if even if all of them did get completed I think the more discreet each objective is that the better um I have a number of um proposed additions uh for for new objectives I don't know if now's a good time to uh propose those or if uh we wanted to turn it over to the public first uh and other supervisors for questions I'm open for either Miss Colburn how would how do you think that could be addressed uh under the the way we've been doing it and maybe had can improve on it do would you like him to submit those to you off yeah if Supervisor Koenig has direction for staff we're happy to take that and if you want to incorporate that into emotion um you know as part of this action that would be fine um we will take that input and utilize it as we move forward with developing new objectives with departments okay I'll incorporate that into emotion maybe after public comment okay I don't know if you just in general do you want to just say uh in general a couple points that you you were interested in just for curiosity there might be some uh interest in the public or the other supervisors too uh just very briefly hmm okay um sure well um let's see so so one of the uh inclusions I would like to move to give staff direction to develop an abditional objective uh related to 1d1 so that's comprehensive health and safety behavioral health uh and expediting access to behavioral health services and the specific objective I'd like to propose uh is to contract with a mental health first response unit similar to Eugene at Oregon's cahoots program and available via 911 for crisis involving mental illness homelessness and addiction okay that's a good example thank you just wanted to get a sense of one of those and I um I do think I myself that that to include the the issue of equity uh in this day and age especially this year in age it's very important and I think we've already taken some moves into that direction supervisor friend um thank you chair and I was going to actually make a very similar comment the flexibility of introduction of equity into the metrics was very important and appreciated for mr. Stafford and miss coburn over the last I guess about nine months and when some of these discussions were coming up right in the middle of a pandemic as well so I appreciated that um I I don't have a lot of commentary in general I mean we we spent a lot of time introduce them a lot of time creating this process I will say uh for supervisor conig I am interested in hearing specifically what he's wants to propose because we went through a really significant public outreach process and creation of these objectives and so I would be a little bit concerned just simply adding additional direction on to modify our operation plan without a broader discussion on it I mean for example the cahoots program I've done some reading on it but if it becomes sort of a county policy right here with a quick direction that seems like um that it does a disservice to what we did to create this plan because we had a lot of things that we cut down as you may recollect through the public outreach processes that occurred in each district and through the many many many many public hearings we had as well as staff outreach discussions we had on this so I imagine all of the objectives that are going to be added on might be good ideas but this but I think that it may be a little in my opinion it may be a little I need to hear feedback from our health director as to whether that's feasible I need to hear I mean so maybe these are instead of directions to actually modify this direction to come back with more information about from staff about what these can be incorporated in or not I'm sort of a broader discussion than just the additional direction okay but I but I feel like supervisor conig should have that opportunity because he wasn't on the board at that time and his values and what he his interest should absolutely be incorporated into a future operation plan it just I don't know this seems a little quick to just simply add to modify our plan right now as a result of a lack you know this this quickly okay yeah I think it's yeah understandable uh supervisor conig yeah um well first let me just take a picture and then I want to get to I think the the issue that supervisor conig have raised so the first big picture is let me just say I mean I the way that the county staff has responded during multiple crises this year um and uh not only a pandemic and economic crisis reckoning on racial justice and then fires and then that two thirds of these goals um that we asked them to make these goals you know stretch goals for our county I have never been prouder to be associated with the county and the work that's been done and I think going through this is it's been a it's been a wonderful exercise for mind to solve the breadth and scope and important work that's being done on a daily basis um on a process question that sort of goes to the previous conversation uh you know I think that the board uh needs to play a role in both setting and then amending and or deleting these plans it's it's really difficult to do in this context uh of a meeting uh for the reasons supervisor friend outline um the additional direction that I'd add that I was playing out anyway but I think may solve uh this issue because I think supervisor coding should should be able to weigh in and we all should weigh in is that um to is to direct that staff uh add a direction uh to this item that staff meet with each board office beginning at least one month prior to when the plan is to return in in May in order to work with board members to develop new objectives or to provide guidance on remaining objectives and amended objectives in addition before any operational plan objectives are amended or withdrawn from the plan that staff notify the board by memo outlining the amended and withdrawn objectives with explanations I mean I think the key here is that these are as as supervisor friend mentioned these are we're engaging in tradeoffs um for many of the objectives that I'm interested in it's all about the details um and uh we really need to have that and then the staff needs to hear the objectives up from the departments and hopefully from the all the way from the line level staff line level staff up to the department heads but then needs to try to hear each board members concerns and see what see where there's overlap or where there's conflict and then bring it to the board where we can discuss and evaluate it um but it's hard to do in in this context so um I'd add that direction um as a way to hopefully uh you know um allow us to move forward today but also give us a a way for all board members to engage on this plan going forward that understand some further by the clerk then I guess uh I'm supervisor dampen you about uh I want to thank staff for the report also and uh and uh with um supervisor conics uh suggest uh you know mentioning adding or something to the plan right now uh I think to get the ideas out there and then have public input on it and then more you know staff input would be good but uh to hear his ideas and then try to put it in in the future into the uh into the plan would be a good idea so the other thing is uh we're going through really trying times and I'm very proud of the staff and board of supervisors it's been an honor to serve with you during this uh multiple crisis year I think the the key thing that we've been looking at is we have our budget uh it's not so bad because we did have a reserve uh we did get a lot of federal money we got a lot of state money uh my biggest concern is though we can be in top shape as far as the county but what we have to worry about is the people that have lost their businesses lost their livelihoods uh during the crisis uh maybe they didn't have a reserve maybe they didn't have the help they needed when they needed it the most so uh as good as our county budget might be projected uh it doesn't compare to the hardship and the trials that the people we represent are going through right now so what I'm getting at is we need to help build up all of the people that pay our taxes and and uh all the people in you know that are they're paying for everything that we're doing and that's my number one concern and especially the uh you know the underprivileged the ones that never had much money in the beginning uh we got to make sure that they get more money so that they can pay their rent they can pay for their food and pay for their PG&E costs and everything so um anyway we're we're we're heading in the right direction for the county but I think we need to have more input and uh from the public and concentrate on the people that are really uh facing bankruptcy or they're facing uh financial hardship that they cannot overcome without our help thank you yeah I'd like to make one um you know as it pertains to the future operational objectives um how will we collect public input I mean is there a dateline and would you probably want to get this online or by through the mail or something uh uh Ms Colburn uh is there a dateline you want this by I can't I don't have that chart I mean the dateline but if we want public input uh listen then public this is where we are and this is where we're going so this is your time to be involved and make suggestions so how would how would they best get that done so over the next few months you know we're going to be um working with departments to initially draft the some objectives and then we will be seeking whether we go to commissions like we did with the last plan or come to other public settings you know there will likely be opportunities to provide some input um when we present the proposed plan to the board in May that will coincide with the proposed budget and um subsequent to that either at that meeting or through budget hearings there would be an opportunity for the public to weigh in on everything that's been proposed before we finalize it at the end of June so there will be a series of points during which the public or commissions um or others who are key stakeholders can weigh in on what uh what we've put together for the board and I'll just a point of clarification regarding some of the other questions that came up we're asking for feedback right now for the new two year operational plan we're not suggesting making further amendments to the current operational plan most of what's been amended in the current operational plan has to do with impacts from um COVID-19 and the fire and so we've we've made some adjustments to timelines but we're we're really looking forward and hoping that we've received any guidance from you so that when we start to work with departments we know how to direct their efforts and can help you know work on different objectives that might be of interest to the board very good thank you um clerk is there are there any is there any input from the public any questions chair i do not oh hold on there is one hand up okay we do have one hand up if you give me one second i will share my screen okay caller whose telephone number ends in 2915 you will have two minutes to speak i am unmuting you please accept the unmute and start speaking once you do so the timer will start thank you this is back east time brooner can you hear me yes thank you thank you um i lost uh internet here for a while so i'm i had to leave the meeting but i'm now back and have just kind of come in in the middle of this report i i remember that from earlier reports there was a dashboard that was supposed to be available to the public and i did look at that and it was supposed to show these measurable exact actions that met the vision and i never really saw it functioning so i would like clarification in terms of public input in moving forward how will that dashboard really be made um functional and available to the public um i want to speak about the fire recovery and um operational excellence i have been very concerned that this county um eliminated the emergency services manager position full-time paid position um the supervisors were to come with a plan to possibly fund that position with jurisdictional input and i never have seen that happen what i have seen happen is a completely new department started up the office of resiliency and hiring a new person and today we see that pay could be anywhere from 65 to 87 an hour but no real clarification about what this job would be i also know that um the person that had been the assistant to the the manager was transferred over to the CAO's office and is not one of the three people that is being hired to assist this new person i feel like operationally this is really disconnected it will leave our county in peril for um when we really need to have the relationship to stab and chair i do not see any further hands up so that would be the end of public comment on this item okay um and uh i'd like to have a motion to accept and follow this report i think somebody who wanted to make that motion did yeah i can i can uh mr chair this ryan kunity i can make the motion um and i mean i think supervisor coding as a as a new supervisor should meet with staff to walk through uh any and all proposals as we all should but um i would add the additional direction that staff meet with each board member beginning at least one month prior to when the plan returns in may uh and to develop new objectives and provide guidance on remaining objectives and amended objectives and in addition before any operational plan objectives are amended or withdrawn from the plan the staff notify the board by memo outlining the amended and withdrawn objectives with with an explanation uh i'll uh supervisor cap and i'll second that and uh also if we can get more public input we've got to figure out how to do that virtually and everything we will we're moving that direction because we have to yeah that's our directive right now okay we have a motion and a second um i'm chair i would ask before i call for a role if uh supervisor kunity could please email the clerk of the board your um additional direction that would be great i will do thank you i'll now call roll yes supervisor conic supervisor you're muted sorry i was on mute i'll say i i just wanted to add um that um i will send uh in written form some of the proposals i had uh to miss coburn and for opportunity to review those and i also look forward to working with the public to review the objectives uh specifically in the first district when they come out supervisor friend kunity hi cap it hi chair mcpherson hi motion passes unanimously uh we will go to item number 10 to consider the final appointment of sharyl your ta i hope that's correct i'm sorry if it's not to the commission on justice and gender as an enlarge representative of the black african community american community for a term to expire april first 2024 the nomination was accepted on december 8th 2020 any discussion uh any any comments from the public there is no public comment chair okay uh entertain a motion i'll move to approve second motion second to uh to approve the final appointment uh item number 10 uh please follow the rule supervisor conic hi friend hi kunity hi cap it hi chair mcpherson hi we will move to item number 11 to consider the final reappointment of thomas john batley to the commission of the community action board as an enlarge county representative for a term to expire january 6 2025 this nomination also was accepted on december 8th 2020 any comments from the public i see no public comments and i i don't i don't think i see any coming from uh from the board uh we'll entertain a motion a second i'll move to approve supervisor capit second community community uh capit community please call the rule supervisor conic hi friend hi kunity hi capit hi and chair mcpherson hi the motion is approved unanimously on item number 12 the final item uh regular agenda item of the day consider the final reappointment of larry pegler to the sad cruise metropolitan transit district board of directors and at large general community members representative for a term to expire december 31st 2024 this nomination was accepted on december 8 2020 any any comments from the board members any comments from the public sure no public comments thank you chair i'll entertain a motion and uh second approval for kunity kunity moves you have a second i'll second it because i can do that as chair okay uh move in second please call the roll supervisor conic hi excuse me friend hi kunity capit hi and chair mcpherson hi that motion passes unanimously we are now uh ready to go into uh closed session mr. uh chief county council are there any reportable items there are no reportable items today okay are there any comments from the public on items that are on our closed agenda our closed session agenda i see no public comment okay um it is now just after 12 o'clock we will take a 10 minute break and meet at 12 15 in closed session we will adjourn this public meeting thank you