 All right. Good morning, everyone. Welcome to the March 12, 2024 Board of Supervisors meeting. I'd like to open up the meeting and ask the clerk to please call the roll. Supervisor Koenig. Here. Supervisor Friend. Here. Cummings. Here. Hernandez. McPherson. All right. I'd like to move on to the next item on our agenda, which is a moment of silence and pledge of allegiance. Is there any member of the board who would like to dedicate today's moment of silence? Seeing none, we'll just take a moment, just have a general moment of silence. Do you all join me in the pledge of allegiance? The next item on the agenda is consideration of late additions to the agenda, additions and deletions to consent and regular agendas. I'd like to ask the county CAO if there's any additions or deletions on today's agenda. Yes, Chair Cummings, members of the board, there is an item on the consent agenda that is revised. This is item 27. There's additional materials. The revised memo packet page 400 is revised to say recommended action number three, reads direct the county clerk of the board to advertise and provide notice of the surplus property sale in conformance with government code 252528 and 6063 to be published on March 18, 2024. Publication of notice pursuant to this section shall be once a week for three successive weeks. Three publications in a newspaper regularly published once a week or oftener with at least five days intervening between the respective publication dates, not counting such publication dates are sufficient. Recommended action number four was added and reads real property staff will post notice and surplus resolution in three public places in the county, not less than 15 days before the date of the meeting. That concludes the corrections to the agenda. Thank you very much. And I'd like to ask if there's any board members who would like to remove an item from the consent agenda to the regular agenda today. Seeing none, we will open up the meeting for oral communications. This is an opportunity for members of the public to speak to us on items that are not on the agenda items on our consent agenda. And if you are unable to stay for a regular agenda, you're also able to make comments on regular agenda items at this time. Just know that if you speak to a regular agenda item, you will not be able to have a second opportunity for comment when that item is heard. And we'll open up the oral communications period. Good morning. Good morning. My name is Michelle Averill. I'm the CEO of the Central Coast chapter of the American Red Cross. And it's an honor to be with you this morning and accept this special proclamation declaring Red Cross Month in March. So I just wanted to thank you for your many years of support and for all that you do to support our community. I also wanted to recognize our volunteers and the incredible work that they do because we would not be able to do the work that we do in serving our community on their darkest days without them. So I actually met somebody here today who's been a long time blood donor and those blood donations are very important to saving lives and making sure that our community has the blood that is needed on those days as well. So thank you for this special proclamation. We support you and we appreciate your support. Thank you. Good morning. My name is James Ewing Whitman. I'm addressing the County of Santa Cruz Board of Supervisors and their executive staff and I'm really happy that the current Sheriff Jim Hart is here. So I thank the person before me because, you know, I give blood as often as I can to the Red Cross. I certainly hope that I never need blood from the Red Cross because I think that it's very damaged and tainted, but I'm not going to go into that. So yesterday, marking the first night of Ramadan, Al-Dazir put up the names of more than 13,000 Palestinian children murdered by Israel, murdered by Israel since October 7th. That kind of sucks. I'm going to read some quotes and I would love to be able to validate this. America is a golden calf and we will suck it dry, chop it up and sell it off piece by piece until there is nothing left but the world's biggest welfare state that we will create and control. This is what we do to our countries that we hate. We destroy them slowly and that's from 1990, Benjamin Netanyahu. Wow, that's pretty daunting. I let Mr. Hart read that this morning. So we had a recent election, seems like Team Democide won again. You know, I think there's a fundamental difference between a constitutional Republic Sheriff. It happens. It's probably the guy that runs the cable TV, the Santa Cruz 25. He censored me before. Pause for a second. We can see if we can get your mic. That's okay. I didn't touch it. The guy from the channel 25 has censored me before. I don't think the mic's working still. So should I raise my voice? I don't really want to. We can pause your time. We'll give you an extra minute. Absolutely. Can I be? Whoa. So where to go from there? I don't think it's test. Okay. Hello. Yeah. There we go. Hey, this is unusually unusual. So I'm holding a citizen's guidebook right here and I spent some time going through it because there's three US constitutions. I believe the first was 1789, 1790 and 1791, all of which just helped create the frauds that are going on right now. Now, on page three, God created man, man, that's us and man and woman, created the Constitution. Constitution created government, government created corporations, etc. So what I was trying to explain is this nation was founded as a constitutional Republic in 1776. I think that only lasted 13 years. Some people say it only lasted seven years. So I did use the word democide wins because and I would love public debate and comment. I don't mean to put anybody on the spot, but there's a big difference between a constitutional Republic sheriff and a constitutional corporate democratic democide sheriff. Thank you, Mr. Whitman. That's enough. That's enough. Thank you. All right, next speaker. Welcome up. All right, everybody. My name is Sean Daller. Thank you for hearing from me. I'm a longtime Santa Cruz resident born and raised. I live in Pleasure Point and very recently this MPA proposal came into my awareness and I was truly shocked. As a surfer fisherman in that ocean, it's my greatest joy and I am really lucky and privileged to have grown up in Pleasure Point. And to find out that possibly we would never be able to take another fish or really enjoy the fruits of what nature has given us in our own backyard broke my heart and it really kind of made me reach out to my friends and family and let them know what was going on. And of course they were shocked too. So I mean, I have a very limited amount of time, but I think the most important point for you to realize within just in coming's agenda item, which I do support, this MPA really needs to be addressed by our local scientists, which it has not been. It's kind of pieced together by outside groups. And at the end of the day, like fathers like me won't be able to fish with our children in these kelp beds. I don't know the boat. I don't have the means. I have friends, but I don't really have the means to get out there whenever I want or get outside the mile, move outside this area. I leave from my house and paddle out on a surfboard or swim out and freedive. And I'm getting to teach my children this love of the ocean and harvest a fish. And it is honestly one of the greatest privileges as a father I've ever been able to have. So I really, really appreciate you guys addressing this item and making a stand with us. So thank you and have a great day. Thank you. Thank you, Chair Cummings, Board of Supervisors. I'd like to agree with everything that Sean just said on agenda item 20 this morning about the MPA proposal. I've been involved with Monterey Bay National Marine Sanctuary for a number of years, and that sanctuary has established something called the iconic kelp project where science is being looked at for long-term health and resilience of our kelp forests. So this effort is ongoing. It'll involve stakeholders, will involve the fishing community, will involve the research community. So I think this MPA proposal is premature. I would support the notion by Supervisor Cummings to put a pause on the MPA proposal and to communicate that to the state. So I thank you for your attention and thank you for all you do. Thank you. Good morning, everyone. Thanks for being here. My name is Seth Nowlin. I grew up in Watsonville. My family is Italian immigrants that have been in Santa Cruz for 100 years, fishermen, fisherwomen, beachgoers. We love the kelp beds. It's been a joy of mine to spend my whole lifetime out there. Just echoing what folks have said before me, please take a long hard look at the science that's going into these MPAs and consider it as best for people. In my opinion, preventing human access to natural resources is not the best way to protect those natural resources. And that's all I have to say this morning. Thank you. Thank you. Before the next speaker goes, is there anyone else in the audience who'd like to speak to us at this time? If so, just ask, please get in line. Otherwise, you'll be the last speaker here in public and we'll move on to the online speakers. Thank you. Thank you. My name is Julie Wiest and I am a member of TREKT 450 neighborhood association. And that's a subset of the Fallen Leaf neighborhood in Boulder Creek. And I think it was about 28 homes out of 30 were burned in the CZU fire, as well as our sewer system and water system damaged. You have consent item number 35 to authorize the creation of a second zone in the county service area seven for Boulder Creek. And we would just support you supporting this consent item because it's very important to the small neighborhood to have a sewer system. Otherwise, we won't have a neighborhood. So thank you for your support. And thanks for all your work, Bruce, on this topic. And thank you. Thank you. Welcome. Hello. Thank you, supervisors. My name is Gus Potter. I'm a fourth year politics major at UC Santa Cruz. I'm also a volunteer with a CalPIRC student organization on campus. We have here to talk about item 20. I support the Environment CA and Azul petition to strengthen and expand the marine protected areas near Santa Cruz and urge you to not oppose that today. I do care specifically about this issue because my mother used to be a screwdriver and my siblings studied marine biology. So when do you have a sort of family connection to the ocean? CalPIRC needs to be protected and dozens of top marine scientists have reviewed the petition and supported. It's climate change, oil to oil spills and plastic pollution. The ocean and especially our space CalPIRC threatened one of the most effective ways to allow nature to recover is with marine protected areas. That's it. Thank you. All right. We'll go online and see if there's any members of the public that would like to speak during oral communications online. Yes, sure. We have callers. Laura, your microphone is now available. Thank you so much, supervisors. My name is Laura DeHen. I am the state director. Oh, are you able to hear me? We can hear you. Okay. We're a statewide environmental group and we're also calling on item 20 on the agenda. I really want to urge you to actually consider supporting our petition to protect more of the ocean around Santa Cruz and at least not opposing it today. California's ocean and coastline and the wildlife around our state are really threatened. And we're seeing more of those threats manifest, especially as climate change is getting worse and the pollution from plastic pollution to sewage runoff or hurting ocean life. One of the best and most effective solutions that we've found to restore ocean life is to create more of these marine protected areas that serve as a buffer from threats. That's why the governor and the state legislature have committed to more than doubling the protected areas off our coast to get to that 30 by 30 goal. This is part of a global initiative to protect nature before it's too late. And so that's why for the first time our state invited petitions for changes to our existing marine protected areas back in September. They were due in December, so we didn't have much time. We spoke to dozens of the top marine scientists and one of the threats that kept coming up as the most urgent in addressing was the decimation of the kelp forests off of the California coasts. As I'm sure many of you know kelp forests are like the sequoias of the sea. They also are incredible carbon sinks. But in the last 10 years, 90% of the bull kelp was lost. And so it's critical that we take action to protect the kelp. We're proposing that we protect the remaining thriving patches of kelp just like we did with the giant sequoias over 100 years ago in California. We completely understand that there are concerns and we welcome more public engagement and discussion on the best way to address this. But I'm sure you all agree the Santa Cruz coastal environment is one of the most incredible. And so it's crucial we take action to protect it. So I trust you to be defenders and stewards of this area for the future. Thank you so much. Thank you. Jean and Michael, your microphone is now available. And just a reminder, it is star six to mute or unmute yourself. Yes. Am I unmuted now? Yes, we can hear you. Okay, this is Jean Brockelbank. I'm addressing agenda item 20 also. The board should not be sending a blanket statement of opposition to the addition or expansion of these marine protected areas until there has been broad public engagement right here in Santa Cruz. We've all just heard about this important environmental protection matter in the last two or three days. So how can your board send a letter of absolute opposition to something before engaging the residents of Santa Cruz? I find it ironic that the Cummins memo makes a point of lack of local public engagement and then suggests doing likewise with the reservation before you. I note also that the March 19th Fish and Game Commission meeting is for the purpose only of discussing its approach to evaluating petitions for program expansion such as this. So right now is not the time to be sending an opposition to the Fish and Game Commission because they are just going to discuss their approach to evaluating petitions. Lastly, I'd like to say that the coastline of Santa Cruz County is 29 miles. Let's call it 30. Our county goes out three miles into the Monterey Bay along that 30 miles. So we're looking at about 90 square miles of near coast fishing or recreational opportunities for human beings. I think we can afford to save what six or seven of those square miles of those 90 miles for wildlife for the other beings who live in the ocean. Thank you. Thank you. Hannah, your microphone is now available. Hello. Can you guys hear me? Yes, we can hear you. Hello. Thank you for letting me participate in this public comment period and thanks for your previous statement, Jean. I wholeheartedly agree with you that this is not the forum for opposing marine protected areas. So my name is Hannah Nevins. I have a master's degree in marine science. I was born and raised in Santa Cruz. I grew up in Pleasure Point. I was one of the first women out there surfing the waters with some of the speakers that came before you. I was one of the scientists that recently documented the large-scale impacts of the marine heat wave that affected not only California but Oregon and Washington and British Columbia. My specialty is marine birds. And I've been studying the Sooty Shear Waters which migrate into this area for the last probably 17 years along with indigenous stakeholders in New Zealand. So I have a pretty deep knowledge of the area that is proposed. I'm very much in support of expanding marine protected areas. And I don't think it's the point of this body, county commissioners, that really have the responsibility, although I do think that given your scientific expertise, Justin and Monu's experience with the local stakeholders, that we do need to pay attention to these proposals as they come through. And in fact, I don't think it's an adequate protection. Three square miles is not enough. And when I first saw this proposal, I suggested it should be much larger to include the Shark Park area out towards Sea Cliff Beach as well. So I've written a statement of support and that's included in the package. And I would urge you guys to take a look at that letter. And I would also offer my expertise in terms of doing more socialization about this topic with others in my community. So thank you. Well, user one, your microphone is now available. The main challenge is the structural domination of the corporate state. Incorporations pollute everything. We just heard examples. There's never been more corporate power than in our society today. They strategically plan everything. They control land, public airways. They strategically plan our foreign policy. They control the language we use, saying private instead of corporate. The green and the ravages are extraordinary. This is a kind of paraphrase from Ralph Nader Tom. And I want to address the plan of corporate AT&T to remove land lines, which you heard testimony about last meeting and refer to the Kate Turner, who's the attorney for the Public Advocates Office. They have called for dismissal of AT&T's application to remove land lines. And people can call in to a virtual meeting on March 19th. Here's part of the conclusion. AT&T has an obligation to serve all customers in its service territory. AT&T's amended application frustrates the commission's framework that guarantees universal access to service and provides no equivalent pathway to universal service. Thank you. Tracy, your microphone is now available. Good morning. Can you hear me? Yes. Yes, we can hear you. Good morning, everybody. Thank you for taking the time. I am Tracy Weiss, I'm the executive director with the O'Neill Sea Odyssey, and I appreciate the opportunity to address you all today. I am calling in specifically to address agenda item number 20 around the marine protected areas. On behalf of the O'Neill Sea Odyssey, our core mission is to ensure access for everyone to be able to enjoy and participate in all that the ocean has to offer. And we have concern around the current structure of this proposal and want to support that the board endorses the supervisor Cummings proposal here to do further research into these MPAs before allowing the Fish and Game Commission to move forward as they're currently structured. Additionally, I wanted to encourage the board of supervisors to consider taking action on a current proposal from the US Coast Guard for the removal of the mild buoy. There has been a lot of conversation. The Coast Guard has brought up a number of times and while this is not currently on the agenda, I'm hoping that it could be in the future. There is conversation around removing the mild buoy, which is not only an iconic presence of our community, but provides a number of sailors, kayakers, stand up paddle boarders and educate a youth with the Sea Odyssey as they're out enjoying the ocean ecosystem. The mild buoy is an important navigation tool and serves as an important marker of our community. And I would encourage the board to take action and submit a letter by April 3rd to the US Coast Guard to help protect it in the future. Thank you so much for your time. Thank you. Sven, your microphone is now available. Good morning. Thank you for taking the time to speak with me. My name is Sven Whetmore. I live in Santa Cruz and I'm jumping in here to oppose petition 20233, which I guess is item agenda number 20 on your agenda today, which is creating an MPA around Pleasure Point. I'm a 40-year diver. I've been diving up and down the northern coast up until the years that they allowed us to abalone dive from Mendocino all the way down to Catalina. I've seen the decimation of the kelp beds up and down the coast and it has nothing to do with people entering the water fishing off the beach or off their kayaks or their stand-up boards or on their boats. It's based upon the big, large, giant starfish that have died off for some reason, which has allowed the purple sea urchins to proliferate up and down the coast. The areas around Mendocino, which relied upon the divers for a lot of their financial security, did a lot of studies and those purple sea urchins have wiped out the kelp forests. So I'm not a scientist, but I've been diving this area from, like I said, from Pleasure Point up to Mendocino for 40 years. I would like the board to consider opposing this. If you want to do some more marine protection agencies, I agree that we need to protect areas, but Pleasure Point is an area that is highly dense with people going out there to surf, to fish, there's families. Push a little bit further north. Go a little bit north on the coast, put some more protected areas in up there, but keep this local area local. So I really appreciate you taking the time to consider this and I hope you oppose this particular MPA. Thanks very much and have a great day. We have no further speakers. Thank you very much. I'd like to bring it back to the board to see if there's any board members that would like to have any questions or comments on consent. I'll start with Supervisor Konig. Thank you, Chair Cummings. Well, on item 20, directing the chair to send a letter expressing opposition to the current proposal to expand State Marine Reserve at Natural Bridges and establish the State Marine Reserve at Pleasure Point. Of course, we've already heard a number of comments from the public about this and I want to thank Supervisor Cummings for quick work putting this agenda item before us today, as well as for everyone to come out to speak about it. Clearly, it is a very important item to a lot of people in our community. This petition's rationale is to dramatically expand the MPAs to provide protections for resilient kelp forests in the face of climate change. I couldn't agree more with that notion and that purpose. Certainly, we do know that our kelp forests are very much the rainforest of the sea and incredibly important in our adaptation to climate change and as an incredible carbon sink. However, we have one of the healthiest kelp forests on our entire California coastline right here in the Pleasure Point and Natural Bridges area. So far, we have little evidence that fishing is negatively impacting our local kelp forests. I am concerned that the proposal or the folks making the proposal did not initially consult with the Monterey Bay National Marine Sanctuary. We had Mr. Dan Haefle here speak to this and as well as the iconic kelp project, which is, of course, closely studying the health of our local kelp forests. And I would hope that in the consideration of any action on this topic going forward, that there would be that collaboration between local experts and the folks who are seeking to create these expanded marine protected areas. I think what I've heard again and again in the comments is that people protect what they love and they love what they know. More than anything, I've heard about the value of intergenerational fishing experiences, people taking their kids out. Probably not to take a ton of fish, but just that opportunity to be connected with the ocean, with our marine environment truly builds a love and understanding that leads to advocates in the future that are going to carry forward the important work of protecting our oceans. I myself have learned to spearfish and the opportunity just to be down there in the kelp forest is unparalleled. It was noted that we've taken dramatic actions to protect our redwoods on land and should do something similar in the ocean. But of course, we have state and national parks that allow millions of visitors to visit those redwoods. And so I think before we take any action to prevent people from experiencing the kelp forest, we really need to consider this more closely. I think also one of the most impactful, this is a public communication that we received was from the New Brighton Middle School Sustainable Fishing Club, signed by 25 students. I think this just again really drives home the fact that if we want our next generation to love and appreciate the ocean, then we should absolutely let them take the occasional fish life. This item, and I appreciate that the way supervisor Cummings drafted this does not close the door completely. It does say that we're open to as long as there are significant revisions to the process and expanded public outreach in the future. I do think that it's important to take this step now before significant consideration is given to the process for how these MPAs will be expanded. I know I for one would not support any proposal that would prevent fishing in our local area. Thanks. Thank you, Chair. And thank you for those comments. Suvezer Konig, I'm in agreement on item 20. The Marine Sanctuary is one of the most the true treasures of our country, but it's also already one of the most protected. And I think that allowing for continued access by our community, both intergenerationally, I mean, it's inextricably linked to think about the fishing community, the surfing community access to the sanctuary, which was one of the reasons why it was protected decades ago in a in a in a model national action, which is which was not just to protect the ecosystem, but also to protect the ecosystem's relationship with access. And so this to me, this letter that that supervisor Cummings is or excuse me chair Cummings is presented allows for a local conversation to occur, which hasn't currently occurred and encourages various voices to be at the table and part of this discussion, which I think is very important for that, which is why I'm very supportive. I appreciate the way that you worded it. And I appreciate the balance you brought to it. That'll be my only comments on consent. Thank you, Chair. Thank you. Suvezer McPherson. Thank you. I would ditto what was said about item number 20. And thank you, Chair Cummings for bringing that to us. I'd like to comment on item number 34, the the CSA 7 expansion of the big basin wastewater. I'm very pleased that this is coming to the board this morning. It represents a great deal of work at my office and a multiple county departments to prepare the proposal to assume management and operations of the big basin wastewater treatment plant. The court appointed receiver, and this has been a complicated process, one like I've never been through before, but the court appointed receiver for big basin water, which is now managing the company, as well as the Central Coast Regional Water Board staff are very supportive and appreciative of the county's efforts to bring this to bring the plant into the county service area seven. I specifically want to thank our CDI director, Matt Machado, as well as the following people from his staff, Beatrice Barranco, Tiffany Martinez, and Ashley Truil. They've been fantastic in working this through. It's been a long process, but I think we're coming to an end. I also want to thank Dave Reed, our R3 director, and Sarah Ryan, our Water Resources Manager. This has been a tremendously collaborative effort, and it's it's my very much needed. We look forward to hearing back from the residents no later than the end of April, and hopefully with a strong voice of support for this plan, it's very much needed in that area. Thank you. I have a couple of comments. I'm going to save my comments on item number 20 for last. I want to thank item number 29, the work of the Integrated Waste Management Task Force for submitting their annual report. I've been on that board now for a year, and it's been just really interesting to see how we're having conversations here locally about how we're addressing waste and managing waste, and it's in particular importance just to the fact that we've been getting hit with multiple disasters, and as people need to, whether it's houses that were lost and having to dispose of that material or floods, it's really important that we're thinking about how we're going to manage our waste moving forward, and so it's been a real pleasure being on that task force. I just want to thank the other Task Force members and staff for all their hard work to address waste management in our community. Item number 28, approve agreement with B-Cycle LLC for the Santa Cruz County Regional Bike Share Program and take related actions. I just want to thank staff so much on being able to finally move forward with that. It'll expand the bike share program through Live Oak and into Capitola, and back in 2020, when I was a member of the Santa Cruz City Council and Mayor of Santa Cruz, I know that a lot of folks in the community prior to the pandemic really wanted to see how we could have more bike share options in the county as a whole and to help people get out of their cars and get on bikes. And this is one step to us being able to make that happen. So I just want to appreciate the finally being able to bring that forward. Item number 22, accept and file a women's commission report for calendar year 2022 and 2023. I just want to thank our commissioners on that board and with the hopes that we can start moving forward. Some of those priorities and some of the priorities of our other commissions has been recommended in their annual reports. And finally on item number 20, I just want to thank members of the community who brought this marine protected area issue to my attention. As a biologist, I think that it's really important that we're ensuring that we're trying to protect open space and we're trying to protect ecosystems for future generations. And as has been mentioned here already, we've done a lot of that here locally in our region with creating the National, the Monterey Bay National Marine Sanctuary and other MPAs that are actually close to Santa Cruz and a lot of regulation around how we fish. And I think that as we're thinking about how we're managing our resources, there really needs to be objective data that suggests that certain activities are what are having an impact. And through reading through some of the other statewide reports on kelp forest management, there's nothing that suggests that the intensity of fishing that's currently taking place in these areas is having a significant negative impact on our kelp forest. And personally, as someone whose district has the National Bridges area, I was never consulted. I've reached out to Dan Haifley and many others who work in this field. They were never consulted. And so it seems like while this is well-intentioned by a group out of Southern California who wants to help protect kelp forest habitats, it's really critical that they're in conversation with people who live locally and who manage these resources already. Because I think personally that we've been doing a good job of managing our fisheries and especially this low intensity fishing and to move forward with what is the strictest marine protection, which is the creation of state marine reserves, which means there can be no take of any wildlife at all whatsoever. Unless you have a permit from the Department of Fish and Wildlife, I think that's a little extreme. And what would be better is that we're having a conversation about how we're impacting our ecosystems, what are the potentials for multiple use, because there are types of marine protected areas where people can take. And I think that it's important that we have those conversations before the state makes regulations that would strictly prohibit people's access. And we've never seen a marine protected area go from being closed to reopening for some of these activities. So before we take that big leap, I think it's important that we communicate our concerns and our openness to having further dialogue on this issue. And so that's why I think it's important that we early in the process make it known that we welcome a conversation on this issue. But if they want to move forward, as it's currently written, that we are not supportive of that. And so with that, I'll end my comments and bring it back to the board for action on this item. Move approval of consent? I'll second. So the motion by Supervisor Koenig, seconded by Supervisor Friend to move the consent agenda. And I'll ask for a roll call vote. Sir. Supervisor Koenig? Aye. Friend? Aye. McPherson? Incomings? Aye. That passes unanimously. All right. So that moves us on from our consent agenda, and we will now move on to the regular agenda. The first item on our regular agenda is presentation of the 2023 Employee Recognition Awards by the County Administrative Office. And with that, I will turn it over to CAO Carlos Palacios. Thank you very much. Thank you, Chair Cummings and members of the board. Thank you. And congratulations to all of our employees that are here today. This program is a special effort by the Board of Supervisors to recognize and show appreciation to our employees for their outstanding accomplishments during the past year. And so we really do congratulate you and in reading the various applications that came through, I'm greatly appreciative of all your work that you've done on behalf of the county as is the Board of Supervisors. The way that it'll work today is that each board member will present an award in one of the five categories of government. Board members will come down and stand at the microphone. As employees hear their name or the name of their team announced, they should come up to the front and join the supervisor. At the conclusion of the awards event, there's a reception that will be held in the hall adjacent to the board chambers. Everyone is invited to stay through the entirety of the presentation of awards and join us for the reception afterwards. With that, Supervisor Cummings, Chair Cummings will be presenting our first awards in the category of general government. As the first recipient of the Employee Recognition Award in the category of general government, Cory, Asfor, and Ellen, so I'd like to invite you all up here this time. There we go. So, Ellen and Cory are IT Business Systems Analysts in the Information Services Department. They've been key in the success of many county-owned programs that not only serve to help our county departments, the county residents as well. This team has provided project management and guidance to such major projects as a county's artificial intelligence, appropriate use policy, and related projects. The humble blockchain project, the development of an RFP for the next-gen radio, and the master broadband fan plan for the county. Both Cory and Ellen have brought high-level professionalism, openness, and customer finesse to every project that they have taken on. From innovative technology, RFP review, contract review, or business analysis, and workflows, and use of county-wide applications like DocuSign, Laser Feesh, and Expanded Microsoft Suite. Success of these projects and initiatives owe much to the diligence, expertise, and commitment of the ISD Business Analysts Office team. We thank Ellen and Cory for the dedication, process, improvement, and innovation. Appreciate it. Hey, Supervisor Koenig will be presenting the awards in the category for Health Services. One second. I got to do that. All right, there we go. But wait, there's more. The second category of general government is being given to Judy Nagamina. So Judy, if you're here. So Judy began working for the county of Santa Cruz in October 2021 as an internal auditor assigned to emergency operations and response. Joining the county in the midst of the COVID-19 disaster, Judy jumped into our new role and became the primary administrator of the county's FEMA grants related to COVID. Over time, her role expanded to administration of FEMA grants related to the CZU fires and assisting in the development and refinement of the county's Emergency Operations Center finance process. In January 2023, the county experienced a devastating atmospheric river storm, and Judy had an integral role as the assistant chief of finance for the EOC during that event, as well as the subsequent March 2023 storm. During those storm events, Judy displayed the ability to bring a sense of order amid chaos. And after the storms cleared, Judy showed great initiative in taking every available opportunity to learn about the damage suffered by the county during the storms. Judy's foresight to do this better informed the county's FEMA grant applications for these events, allowed Judy to develop important relationships with representatives from Cal OES and FEMA, and also made her aware of an opportunity to apply for Cal Disaster Assistance Act grants funding. Judy set her mind to obtaining the funding and her diligence resulted in a 9 million CDA advance from Cal OES. And over the course of 2023, Judy's work has resulted in obligated or received grant funding totally more than 11 million dollars. Judy's work serving the county's EOC and administering disaster grants has been for the benefit of the entire county government and community, and she is deserving of our recognition and gratitude. The final employee recognition award in the category of general government is being presented to Ramon Gomez. So Ramon, if you're here with us today, Ramon began working as county supervisors analysts for the 4th district in 2016. And since that time he has been invested in projects that improve the day-to-day lives of our community members. Ramon has been instrumental in organizing monthly and sometimes bimonthly cleanups in the 4th district that have not only transformed the appearance of our neighborhoods but have also fostered a sense of pride and community engagement. One of the key aspects of Ramon's efforts is prioritizing identifying areas within the city boundaries and in incorporated regions of the 4th district that are in need of community cleanup. And it is this proactive approach that ensures that no corner of our community is neglected contributing to a cleaner and healthier environment for everyone. Ramon has collaborated on cleanup projects with partners from various organizations including County Public Works, Watsonville Works, the City of Watsonville, and the Monterey Bay Salmon and Trout Project. And it's Ramon's ability to bring together these diverse entities that demonstrates his effective leadership and his understanding of cooperation and achieving common goals. And beyond the physical transmission of our neighborhoods, Ramon's cleanups have had a profound impact on community morale, giving residents a renewed sense of connection and pride in their surroundings and fostering a positive atmosphere that extends beyond the cleanup events. Ramon's selfless efforts have not only enhanced the aesthetics of the 4th district, but also inspired others to take an active role in maintaining the beauty of our community. So with that let's thank Ramon Gomez. And now I'll turn it over to Supervisor Koenig. All right, our next category will be health services. And the first recipient of the Employee Recognition Award in the category of health services is Jessica Silva Sabinik. Jessica, are you here? Come on up. Come on, Ramon. I've got a lot of nice things to say about you. Jessica is a senior mental health client specialist with the Human Services Department and she is known for being a therapist of impressive skill and integrity. Through her clinical work, Jessica partners with youth and their families who are coping with moderate to severe mental health challenges, bringing them hope, healing, and wellness. Jessica regularly seeks out new information and tools to develop her capacity to treat trauma and also thinks about how to help county behavioral health services become a healing, equitable, and safe place for both staff and clients. Jessica routinely takes on large systems improvement projects and as a member of the Clinical Growth Committee, she has supported the development of training and tools to improve the clinical outcomes of clients served by behavioral health. Jessica is a founding member of the Staff of Color Gathering, a project of Behavioral Health's Trauma-Informed Systems Initiative, and she has been instrumental in building a brave space for staff of color to heal from institutional race-based trauma, prevent burnout, build a supportive community, and think critically about how to make positive changes in agency culture and provide culturally competent care to our clients and their families. Jessica is also a founding member and ongoing contributor to the Joys and Losses Committee, which has helped behavioral health engage in culturally appropriate creative ways to collectively grieve the losses of COVID, fires, storms, and other stressors that have devastated our community in recent years. Jessica is committed to fighting mental health stigma and creating a welcoming culture that encourages community members to seek county behavioral health services when needed, and her work has advanced an agency culture of mutual support, connection, and celebration. Thank you, Jessica, for all you do for mental health services in our community. Would you like to say a few words? I didn't know why I was getting this award, so I'm really surprised. It's a lot of things, but I just really appreciate all the support that I've gotten. My supervisor, Joanna Moody, has been so instrumental in allowing me to be able to be well in my job and to care of myself in order to serve others, to serve our staff, to serve the youth and families that we work with, and I'd like to thank my husband who's helping me at home, and there's always a deliciously cooked meal ready for me when I get home, so I couldn't have done it without the two of them. Okay, next up we have quite a team here, the Santa Cruz County Children's Behavioral Health School Treatment Team. All right, if you're part of this team, please come up. I'm going to read your names. We have Licensed Marriage and Family Therapists, Rocky Alamondi, Rayne Evans, Donna Jensen-Lewis, Mariela Moreno-Acevedo, Gilbert Ramirez, Della Wright, and Licensed Clinical Social Workers, Maria Heredia, and Gabriela Paris-Chica. All right, welcome you guys. For decades, the Children's Behavioral Health School Treatment Team has been solving the extraordinary and continuously challenging issue of providing behavioral health treatment to students in local K-12 schools with various local school districts in Santa Cruz County. The post-pandemic return of behavioral health services at county schools, and specifically within Pajaro Valley Unified School District, Santa Cruz County Office of Education and Children's Behavioral Health Staff, embedded classrooms, has revealed exponentially complex presentations of student struggles at every level. The Santa Cruz County School Treatment Team has been able to provide immediate risk assessment, safety planning, and interventions at school sites, as well as offer therapy for students, counseling for parents, and hold restorative circles to teach students resilience and the capacity to return to their community and build on successes while learning from mistakes in a non-shaming and non-punitive manner. Despite extreme post-pandemic challenges, the school treatment team shows up each day with grace, compassion, positivity, and professionalism, and demonstrates their commitment to supporting students and families in our Santa Cruz County schools. Thank you all for everything you have done for the youth of our community. Would any of you like to say a few words? My name's Marietta, and I'm the supervisor for the School Treatment Team at Children's Behavioral Health, and I wanted to just appreciate the team. They've gone above and beyond in their roles. I'm really excited that they're being recognized today, and I'm really proud. Thank you so much. That's it? Unless anyone else wants to speak? No? Okay. Congratulations. Okay, the final award in the category of health services is being given to the Homeless Persons Health Project, Nurses and Code Blue Response Team. Do you have anyone from the team here? All right, I'm going to go ahead and read your names. Cassie Cheddar, Marie Del Rosario, Adrienne Keane, Yasmin Merozik, Karina Perez-Leone, Suzanne Sampson, Andy Voss, Victor Yanez. That's everyone. We have Jennifer Herrera to accept the award here. In 2023, the HP HP Nurses Code Blue Response Team administered life-saving measures for victims of accidental fentanyl overdoses and saved over 30 people from certain deaths. When Code Blue is called at the HP HP Health Center, this group of dedicated nurses drop what they are doing, grab the life-saving gear, rush out the door, and literally save lives. Impressively, every single Code Blue that was called in 2023 resulted in a successful resuscitation, and the patient being saved and the patient being saved, all thanks to the efforts of this dedicated team. It takes brave and quick intervention to bring people back from overdoses, and with a number of overdose deaths increasing in our county, we are grateful for this team of hard-working frontline nurses who provide this life-saving care. Thank you all for your dedication to safeguarding the lives of our community members, and I'm sure they're not here because they're busy. Oh, Cassie, well, Cassie, come on up. I was going to say, I'm sure many in your team are busy doing the difficult work right now. So Cassie, would you like to say a few words? Wonderful. All right, we had a little trouble parking. Then we ran into a patient. All right, thank you. Thank you very much. Oh, a microphone. I prepared a little something to say to the board. Hello, Board of Supervisors. I'm honored to accept this award on behalf of my team at the Homeless Person Health Project. We deeply appreciate being acknowledged for our challenging work, saving lives during these twin public health crises of homelessness and fentanyl overdose. However, respectfully, I must use this moment to call attention to our unacceptable working environment. We're located inside a homeless shelter, and our clinic space is inadequate in size and function. We do not have HVAC, and I've worked with our windows open year-round since COVID began. We're in danger of losing key personnel due to how cold it gets inside the clinic, and our patients are often cold and wet waiting in the lobby. Our plumbing is volatile, our clinic manager is often seen downstairs plunging toilets. Dirty water sometimes leaks from the ceiling. The shelter has turned off our hot water so many times I've developed a routine for boiling water in the staff break room to provide sanitary wound care. It feels a little bit civil war. Our parking situation is dangerous for our staff and for our patients with no crosswalks on a very busy street. Other county employees refer to Coral Street as the gauntlet, not so lovingly. Our clinic is so small, we often have to see patients outdoors because we don't have enough space to provide them with the privacy they deserve for their medical needs. We were nominated for this award because in the last 15 months, we've responded to 40 overdoses on and around Coral Street. I have attended about half of those, so I've attended fully 20 of these incidents. When we catch wind of an overdose, we're sprinting out of a clinic we barely fit in onto uneven streets with Costco drivers speeding by to provide CPR to some of the most vulnerable patients in our community. Other county clinics have been upgraded, but we're just been left behind like our patients are always left behind. We deserve better and our patients deserve better. We need a safe and fair environment to provide them care. Thank you so much for honoring us and thank Thank you, Cassie for making us aware of those issues. Next up, I want to invite Supervisor McPherson down here to present the awards for human services. Thank you. This is one of the fun days to be a county supervisor. I'll tell you, this is great. We have tremendous employees, and one of the best is Mona Shams. Mona Shams is a public health nurse too at the human services department where she serves the units of adult protective services, in-home support services, and long-term care management. Mona is steadfast in her commitment to providing care to some of the county's most vulnerable, and she has participated directly in preventing countless individuals from becoming homeless and or hospitalized. A perfect example of Mona's impact on a client happened recently when an elderly LGBTQ plus a couple living alone had become able unable to care for themselves and each other, leading one of them to become hospitalized and then receiving permanent placement in a skilled nursing facility. The submark conditions of the skilled nursing facility resulted in the individual rapidly declining, and upon learning this, Mona tirelessly advocated with management for better care. When Mona's direct advocacy with the facility was unsuccessful, she submitted a complaint to the state and she worked directly with the hospice to ensure this client had the best care possible. After the state performed an investigation, the facility changed direction and the client approved with better care. But unfortunately, at the same time, his partner was hospitalized and it could not return home. Mona advocated for the partner to be placed in the same facility as his husband, and this was his greatest wish. And through Mona's dedication, support, and advocacy, this couple was able to be together again at the end of the life. Mona has halted client decline and disease progression through advocacy and healthcare coordination. And for the county's most vulnerable and invisible, she has been literally a lifesaver. Thank you, Mona for all that you do for our community. I am extremely honored to receive this award. My job is not a job. I love what I do and I love all my coworkers. I can't thank them enough from our director at adult and long term care and all my wonderful teammates at adult protective services, IHSS. And as I said, I just love what we do and without their support, I would not be here. I would not be able to do my job well. I really thank you all from the bottom of my heart. Thank you so much. Thank you. And next for Supervisor Friend, we'll be presenting the awards for the category of justice and public safety. Excuse me, but back, I've got a little more to go. Yeah, right. The second award, the second award in the category of human services is being given to Gabriel Moore and Gabriel. Gabriel is an in-home support services quality assurance specialist at the human services department. And it's his job to assess and improve the quality and efficiency of IHSS. Gabriel has always gone above and beyond in providing resources or lending a hand to the IHSS services as well as coaching and supporting staff and improving efforts. Recently, he went the extra mile for IHSS recipient and was able to resolve a critical need for her. As part of the normal course of his work, Gabriel learned that the recipient had been able to get her electric wheelchair fixed for a few months, which resulted in her not being able to leave the house. Gabriel could have simply passed the information to the program staff, but knowing how a staff short they were, he took it upon himself to contact the agencies responsible for repairing the chair. And as a result, the recipient was back in her chair within a couple of weeks. Gabriel's compassion and devotion to help the populations that IHSS serves is commendable, and he is genuinely making the difference in the lives of our community members. Thank you, Gabriel, and congratulations. I was surprised. I'm still trying to figure out who nominated me, but I do work with a good team of people and I want to say this is capping a 22 year career because I'm retiring in June. So come back and give us some advice though. The final award in this category of health services is being of human services being the business analytics unit of the human services department comprised of senior human services analysts Casey Conaway and IT application development and support analysts to Andy Young at the human services department, the in-home support services or IHSS and adult protective services APS programs are required to contact their clients in times of emergency to determine if the clients need assistance. During the CZU fires IHSS and APS found that identifying clients that lived in evacuation areas was difficult as well as time consuming and the business analytics unit stepped up to find a solution to this problem. Andy and Casey worked with the IHSS and APS staff to understand these challenges and collaborated with IT GIS staff to help develop mapping which they use to create an automated map in power B1 this is above my pay grade. That takes client addresses and vulnerability information as well as zone haven data and combines them into a report that staff can assess at any time to identify clients that need contacting. These essential reports allow staff to filter clients by vulnerability, location and other variables to create an exportable list for contacting clients which was extremely useful during the winter storms of 2023 and allowed staff to more efficiently prioritize which clients to contact and assist. Andy and Casey's innovative and diligent efforts have resulted in the development of a tool that will help to safeguard and protect some of our most vulnerable community members and we are grateful for this contribution for our emergency services responses. Thank you both for all your hard work on this important projects and try to explain what you just did. I don't know. Congratulations. Thank you very much. We have we get wonderful support from our supervisor George Malikowski and the rest of our team really we work as a team we really shouldn't just be the two of us it feels like and also the social workers and all the supervisors and managers who direct all the outreach and direct services in those emergencies really seem like the people that ought to get an award every year for what they do. Thank you. It was supplies and I'm so happy and I want to thank you all my team and we've tell them health. I cannot stand in here. Thank you. Now and now Supervisor Friend. All right. I'm going to be presenting the awards and the justice and public safety category in the first recipient of the Employee Recognition Award in this category is Michelle Lippert. All right. Michelle is a career public defender who has served our community for nearly two decades defending adults and children accused of crimes or facing involuntary commitment who could not afford to hire an attorney when the public defender's office opened its doors in 2022. Michelle joined the leadership team as the collateral consequences and reentry unit supervisor and under her leadership this unit has served hundreds of clients with courage compassion and in a true spirit of community in 2023 her team filed over 900 motions for record clearance relief in our clean slate program which removes barriers to success by clearing up criminal records. She also leads the Truth Project which advises clients regarding the true consequences of criminal convictions including immigration consequences and impacts on housing professional licenses and benefits. Last year alone Michelle and her team helped hundreds of clients make informed decisions regarding their options enhancing the defense team's ability to provide client-centered representation and ensuring our clients get individualized expert advocacy. She also leads Project RISE a growing program designed to help clients transition back into their communities after incarceration and leads two workshops a month to assist clients with record clearance one in Santa Cruz and one in Watsonville and she and her team regularly staff resource fairs at local farms at local farmers markets to make sure working people know that her team can help remove obstacles and advancement. Do you ever go home? No. It's okay she does not. Okay there are weekends let's you know Michelle's respected by everyone in the legal community including defenders judges prosecutors and most significantly her clients and she truly embodies what it means to be a public servant less acknowledge her right now. I don't really like public speaking which is odd for a public defender but I just want to say that this is always what I wanted to do this has been my life long career I would not change it and I love everybody that I work with even our clients you know sometimes that that's a struggle but our clients deserve everything that we can give them and it I think that makes our community better what I do in this later part of my career. Thank you. All right and the second award in the category of justice and public safety has been given to the probation incentive-based case management team so probation supervisor Samuel Palomaris and probation officers Denise Sanchez Kevin Burns and Matthew Diaz if you could step forward congratulations. In 2018 Arnold Ventures a philanthropic organization focused on tackling the most pressing problems in America announced a major initiative seeking to transform probation and among its efforts was the launch of the reducing revocations challenger RRC which is Santa Cruz County probation department was chosen to participate in drug testing is one of the main reasons clients with substance use issues do not show up to their meetings with probation officers because they fear of being placed in jail if they test positive which results in bench war and subsequent jail litigation over these violations to address this issue probation initiated the incentive-based case management pilot for individuals with substance use terms that focuses on reducing formal violations for this population and promoting positive outcomes such as increased reporting and engagement and treatment services in this pilot program regular drug testing for clients is not mandatory and the program functions as an extension of a harm reduction model with an understanding of substance use rehabilitation as an ongoing process not penalizing relapse while incentivizing progress and engagement with probation the officers co-developed individualized success plans with clients clients that include individualized three six twelve and eighteen month milestones for which clients receive an agreed upon incentive upon achievement and as of November 2023 48 people have enrolled in the pilot removing mandatory drug testing and incentivizing engagement even when clients are struggling with relapse has removed their fear of probation and allowed clients to develop trust with their probation officers which has resulted in pilot participants reporting to probation even when they're struggling with substance use to achieve goals identified in their success plan thank you all and congratulations I feel honored to receive this award I will I will continue with my dedication and serve in the community and we have an awesome team here we did awesome work and we'll just you know continue to be serving the community um and we're proud to to receive this award thank you sami up on mars good morning everyone um I just wanted to thank the board of supervisors and the selection committee for this award and behalf of the probation department we're honored to receive this award I also want to thank our chief probation officer Fernando Giraldo thank you for everything you've done our amazing division director Sarah Fletcher Artavan Daravan and Scott McDonald for assisting with the program yes I'd like to again thank the board of director for allowing us to be here today and a wonderful leadership team starting with our fearless leader Fernando Giraldo Sarah Fletcher and all of our leaders that it's made it pretty easy for us to kind of follow in their footsteps that's what we're doing today we're coaching for successful outcomes because we are seeing successful outcomes thank you I just want to follow up with that and uh little with everything that they had uh said um thank you to Fernando and our awesome probation department for allowing us to incorporate this into the county policy all right the final award and the justice and public safety of the category is being given to the sheriff's office active shooter training team so feel free to go ahead and come on up because you guys got dressed up for the occasion anyway okay we got Lieutenant Baldridge personally actually doesn't even knew all right so the entire department's getting an award today good job Jim Lieutenant Baldridge Lieutenant Baldwin uh Sergeant Solano Sergeant Hop Sergeant Mattson Detective Patsky senior administrative manager as I like to say the person does all the work there Kathy Sands senior departmental administrative analyst Monica Rocha and senior account technician Marcel Robles this is a pretty important thing that all of you have done so I'm going to read it through here in the current intricate never-changing landscape of our society the importance of active shooter training cannot be overstated previously the University of California law enforcement branch led the local active shooter training program but retirements led to its dissolution and recognizing the need for this specialized training Sheriff Jim Hart volunteered the sheriff's office to undertake the demanding task of organizing this training assigned to this task Lieutenant Baldridge reviewed the county's existing active shooter response protocols and developed a new curriculum to bolster preparedness and coordination during active shooter incidents which involves realistic scenarios allowing the responders to refine their skills in a controlled environment mirroring real life challenges Lieutenant Baldridge identified a more standardized protocol that strengthens partnership with local schools and ensures seamless coordination during crises along with the implementation of the new standardized training Lieutenant Baldridge facilitated the standard command response for schools a significant advancement in our collective ability to respond to active shooter instances and the feedbacks were very positive the success of this training was made possible through the collaboration of the entire active shooter training team staff as well as the sheriff's office community policing team central fire assistant chief Chad Aiken and over 60 volunteers this comprehensive training underscores the sheriff's office commitment to proactive measures continuous improvement and collaborative efforts to ensure a secure learning environment for all you all should be commended for your work congratulations I want to thank the board and the CAO's CAO's office for this recognition as well as opportunity from the sheriff's office to take on this project this really is a thing that I hope we train a lot of our first responders on that never have to use it in our entire career but it's something that we have to be prepared for I do want to recognize the sheriff and the sheriff and his entire administrative staff for allowing us to take this on to standardize across the board with all of our first responder agencies and to really show the dedication and prioritization of our students and our schools in this community because that's really uh is a priority to us thank you congratulations round us out this next awards are given the category of land use and regulatory the first recipient of the employee recognition award in the category of land use and regulatory is Sarah Shay so Sarah if you're here I'll just give this award to Sarah even though she wasn't able to may not be able to make it today she's coming so Sarah's been a park superintendent since April of 2023 and in that short time she quickly became a part of the county parks family their quick wit intellect understanding patients and yearning to ensure that all staff and members of the public felt supported and included one of the biggest impacts that Sarah has made as superintendent came from a grant that she applied for with san and driss regional center secure funds for the parks department to use towards providing more inclusive recreation and aquatics programming and to also aid in providing staff training on how to work more inclusively in our community and sarah's efforts were successful and the parks department was awarded over 130 000 which has brought more free swim days to the simpkins swim center for the underserved providing training to park staff from the national inclusion project about working with youth that are members of special populations and provided materials to make our parks and aquatic center more accessible to members of those special populations sarah also helped to navigate a complicated contract with palo valley unified school district to help provide out of school time programming throughout the year at two different school sites sarah was able to find additional facilities and staffing so these programs could accommodate hundreds of children each year and not only did this benefit the youth in our community but the contract more than doubled the amount of revenue previously brought into these programs bringing almost half a million dollars in just one year in her role as superintendent sarah has made significant improvements to the parks department and her efforts have made a huge impact on our community thank you sarah for all you have done for the parks department and for our community the second award in the category of land use and regulatory is given to steven driscoll so steven if you're here please come on up steve driscoll is a vector control specialist for the mosquito and vector control division of the agricultural commissioner's office and over the last year steve has gone above and beyond the in the detection zone an invasive mosquito found in washington in october 2022 this invasive mosquito is in is native to tropical and sub tropical regions of the world where it is known to transmit diseases like zika dengue in chikungunya and due to the danger of this mosquito the california department of public health mandates continued surveillance and control in an area of detection for a minimum of two years this mosquito is different from our native species in that it specializes in taking advantage of people's homes and yards ongoing inspections and trapping of this mosquito therefore requires frequent entering properties and approaching very personal boundaries for members of the public that live within the detection zone the steve's personable and empathetic approach and demeanor through sarah and through steve's personal personable and empathetic approach and demeanor he has built trust with members of the small community even residents who are initially hard to reach steve has demonstrated immense tact patience and and persistence when working with all the residents in the detection zone community without this rapport our defense against this mosquito would not be as strong or successful steve continued to work hard in the detection neighborhood even when the season for native mosquitoes picked up and his attention was needed in many places at once and through steve's leadership and the team surveillance and control efforts vector control has thankfully not found a single sample of this mosquito for over a year steve thank you for your hard work in protecting our community and we're happy to present you with this award today well thank you again definitely just want to say thank you to my staff oh where is everyone and uh i really really appreciate this but i really didn't know it was above and beyond so thank you all right so the final award in the category of land use and regulatory is being given to the 2023 housing element team so the housing element team is here please come on up at this time this team is comprised of meeting development and infrastructure planning department staff matthew sund susan ice david carlson shilla mcdaniel natasha williams willens tracy cunningham kala lopez and for sila wilson like most jurisdictions in california santa cruz county is facing a housing crisis both supply and affordability the housing element of the county's general plan addresses both housing programs including affordable housing and homelessness and sites available for the future development of housing based with the daunting task of accommodating up to 4,634 housing unit in the next eight years approximately one half of which must be affordable the 2023 housing element team created a new housing a new housing element that provides the policy blueprint for needed programs and homes to address this crisis working with consultants supporting community involvement the project included extensive public outreach and meetings which provide a valuable input from community housing partners stakeholder groups and county citizens of diverse backgrounds needs and experiences the team worked on a tight deadline imposed by the state and in just 10 months they were able to draft a housing element that met both account that both the community's needs and detailed state requirements because of the thoroughness and hard work of this team the housing element was unanimously adopted by the board of supervisors on november 14 2023 providing our county with a guide for future of addressing our housing needs thank you all for your hard work on this important project thank you chair Cummings we really appreciate this recognition from the board from the county organization as a whole I want to also thank our assistant director Stephanie Hansen she was the leader of our team and really helped us be successful in this effort and I want to really thank everyone on our team and mention that there's actually more people that were on the team than could be here today and I just want to note that you know we had folks on our team who have worked with the county for many many years as well as brand new people and I felt like we worked really well together and it was really enjoyable to be a part of this team and to get this very challenging project over the finish line so congratulations everybody and thank you thank you you can help me identify books thank you very much all right so with that that concludes our award ceremony for today there's going to be a reception outside for those of you are interested we are going to continue moving on with our meeting and um and so we will yeah we'll continue with the regular agenda right so the next item on our agenda as the board of the Santa Cruz county capital financing authority considered resolution authorizing the issuance sale and delivery of a series of revenue bonds with the Santa Cruz county sanitation district and approving the execution and delivery of a trust indenture and installment purchase agreement official notice of sale and preliminary official statement and this item is coming from Matt Machado deputy CAO and director of cdi Peter Detlef's principal administrative analyst and Suzanne Harnell county financial advisor and i'll turn it over to staff at this point in time all right thank you chair and supervisors good morning to you all um the item before you is our sanitation district series 2024 revenue bonds and uh the first slide that's why i gave it to peter i knew i couldn't handle it thank you peter this first slide will provide a quick summary of the item before you today uh Santa Cruz county sanitation district requested assistance with financing approximately 29 million for capital projects um our Santa Cruz county capital finance authority was created to assist the county uh with this type of financial needs so very thankful for that um last week our sanitation district approved uh making installment payments from our net sewer revenue and today we are asking for the authority to issue revenue bonds um which would be secured by those installment payments that were approved last week next slide so what's driving this need today is uh is 11 projects and so here's a list of those projects that are anticipated to be constructed by the end of 2026 should this bond go through there's 11 projects here totaling a value of about 53 million they make up mostly rehab projects but also some sewer capacity projects and i'll highlight one of those uh it's to lift the sewer moratorium for the upper rodeo trunk line this bond today will fund the vast majority of this total cost in addition we have uh some revenues from the 22 bond sales and also fund balance to make up the difference next slide please the terms of this bond today uh are uh they will it will be sold at a competitive sale uh it will have the green bond designation it will have a 30-year term uh we've provided range of of interest rates that we are expecting there anywhere from 3.8 to 3.9 but those rates will be locked in as of April 2nd a little bit about the green bond designation in 2022 the sanitation district sold a bond with green bond designation but we use a third party to create that designation uh this year we uh actually you approved today on the consent calendar our um debt policy amendment that included green bond policies so we may now self-designate green bonds uh the the beauty of green bonds we believe is that it will attract additional interest uh and improve um competitive edge for the sale of our green bond so going forward we will be able to self-designate with our own debt policy amendment uh to designate bonds as green bonds next slide this slide just shows uh the range of interest rates in the past um handful of months you can see uh they peaked out around the uh the end of last year uh we feel like we're in a pretty good spot today with uh rates in that uh three and a half percent range you can see short-term rates are even better uh but these seem to be uh very viable competitive rates for today we just want to show you the history of that and then uh today the resolution that we have before you includes all of these documents and approves all of these documents and so uh that's the item before you the act the recommended action today is to adopt the attached resolution authorizing the issuance sale and delivery of a series of revenue bonds for the santa cruz county sanitation district and approving the execution and delivery of a trust indenture and installment purchase agreement official notice of sale and a preliminary official statement uh peter and i can hopefully answer any questions you have and susanne harrell is on uh the call today she is our bond advisor and clearly our expert so if we get into that level of detail we will refer to her also on the call today is ashley trugia she is our senior civil engineer in charge of all design for sanitation so if you have questions about project details uh she's available to answer those questions but we're here to answer your questions as you wish thank you for that presentation are there any board members that questions for staff at this point in time the rest of the week no questions i just want to say it's a quite impressive list of projects i mean if you look at all the important areas in the first district east cliff you know ronnie gulch seventh avenue rodeo gulch so kell village that they're all on there and so this just points to the extensive work that needs to be done to update our sewer system and make sure that it keeps working for the next generation so i i it's um obviously enthusiastically support the recommended actions today that's much needed and i guess the one question is uh after we bond how soon do we uh project that will put these projects out to bid and actually get to work on them right that's a great question so we are packaging up the designs now and we plan to start putting them out to bid this summer so we'll start this summer and then as i said we'll hope to wrap them all up by december of 26 great thank you all right so you know for the questions from board members we'll open it up for public comments if there's anybody in the audience today who would like to comment on this item seeing none we'll see if there's anyone online who'd like to comment on this item we have no callers online speak okay so i'll bring it back to the board for action with the recommended actions second okay so motion by supervisor conic second by supervisor friend i'll ask for a roll call vote to support the staff recommendation supervisor conic friend mcpherson incoming the pass is unanimously thank you all for your hard work on this and we look forward to seeing these projects um come forward in our community thank you the last item on our regularly scheduled agenda is item number nine consider a report on opioid settlement funds approved memorandum of understanding with the city of santa cruz scott's valley capitol and wantonville approved agreement with community foundation of santa cruz county and the amount of 900 000 program program development and tick related actions with that i'll turn it over to micah morales director of health services agency tiffany cantrell warn director of behavioral health division health services agency kasey swank senior behavioral health manager and health services agency and so welcome um good morning board thank you so much for having us here today i will just really quickly provide a quick update tiffany unfortunately is not feeling well today so we have karen kern joining us our deputy director of world behavioral health division i think we have a little feedback on that mic let's try this again perfect i think it's a little better now so um want to just share an opportunity with you guys to provide you an update on what we know is a severe epidemic in our community right now which is the opioid epidemic we have um robust programming happening in county behavioral health services however as we're all aware of the need is really dire and so today we want to present to you a little bit of what we're doing in the program just a snapshot um and really focus on uh the opportunity the opioid settlement dollars will provide for county behavioral health specifically our substance use and addiction program so you have the outline here um and i'll just quickly move through some of these slides because we really want to focus on your questions you know the data that we've been following both locally in um you know statewide really highlights the uh dire need for us to conserve programming just alone in the past three years between 2019 and 2021 we saw a spike of 121 in california of opioid deaths that's devastating for our communities we know that our families are really struggling santa cruz ranks 13th in the state for opioid over deaths with fentanyl in the past couple years really being the corporate so we know that the data speaking volumes and the impact that our communities are facing are also devastating this data alone highlights and this is data that we collect in partnership with the sheriff's office the coroner's office just shows the decade of data and the trend just really picking up we see that um incidents really we know our drivers of opioid overdoses we have plenty of data to share with you which is because of timing don't didn't include it but please reach out and we can provide more of the details in terms of the cases um in our county behavioral health system they are also increasing this is again it's just a quick snapshot but you can tell that the trend is going up um we know that if we had more capacity specifically in our treatment uh facilities these data would actually be larger from um fiscal year 1920 we saw a thousand and 61 cases and now we're seeing in fiscal year 22-23 about a thousand 100 cases in our programs primarily our population of clients tend to be white um 58 percent to be exact identify as white and 24 percent identify as mexican or latino in terms of the drug of choice we've seen as we mentioned opioids really being at the center of this with 44 percent of the drug of choice from the clients that we're serving followed by alcohol at 29 percent i'll pass it now to casey to really highlight what's happening in our treatment the capacity that we have in uh we're blessed to be working with very strong community-based organizations in this effort um in passing out to casey to highlight a little bit more of our beds all right good morning thank you for having us today so this slide here it shows an overview of our residential treatment provider for substance use disorder services and in our community through one of the um mandates of our behavioral health division is to administer the drug medical plan so it essentially guarantees a wide range of substance use disorder treatment services for medical beneficiaries and we have the range it's um dictated by the asan which is the american society of addiction medicine so it's a medical based model that outlines a whole range of treatment services depending on the severity of somebody's substance use um and so it ranges the whole continuum ranges from 0.5 to 4.0 our county has all of the requirements by the state of california we range we have early intervention at 0.5 all the way to um residential treatment 3.5 level of care and within that continuum there's outpatient intensive outpatient recovery supportive services and tp um so that just highlights a little bit of an overview and then this slide in particular shows how many residential treatment beds these are indicative of um the treatment for the most severe in our continuum um and it shows here we we do have you know i'm sure you're hearing a lot about needs around std in our community and this to show we have 96 residential treatment beds which is which is pretty robust um we compare well to our neighboring counties in terms of capacity and the um this range we have you can see here we have some of the beds are allocated to withdrawal management which is detox some of them are perinatal other ones are adult residential and youth residential as well and like i said we have 96 beds for our adults and then we have a contract with the camp that provides youth withdrawal management and residential treatment to our youth as well and we have those we reserve essentially um we found that we need one to two beds a month and we have this as as needed we we've had those when we needed we've never had any capacity issues at this point with this um and to highlight also as well is that we we want to demonstrate that every year we've recognized the need for residential beds and we've continually increased our residential capacity in this community and the demand is growing so we want to highlight that for you the demand is growing and so it's an area that we're continuing to focus on and wanted to show you what what we currently have and those slides represent um okay okay this one goes so um residential treatment that that slide kind of wraps up our overview of the substance use disorder services in our community and then we're going to transition to talk a little bit more about the opioid settlement fund which is all our part of this board memo and i want to start by thanking supervisor friend and supervisor McPherson you two are on the board when you approved this lawsuit in 2018 so without that approval we wouldn't be in this position today with those funds and so super appreciate that and a little bit of background information about these settlements in 2018 county filed a lawsuit with or against opioid distributors manufacturers and retailers for their role in the opioid crisis and in 2021 and 2022 the national or nationwide settlements were reached um to resolve the lawsuits and resulted in funds being distributed across the nation and the calculations about quantities etc are complicated but what we know for Santa Cruz county at this point we're set to receive approximately 26 million over the next 18 years um and it equates at this point to roughly a little over a million dollars each year and then it's going to titrate slowly over time and it's all based on these very complicated calculations right maybe it's working now and this slide here it's that it highlights the mandated uses for these settlements so there's two essentially um there's there's two ways in which or not two ways but there's two documents that outline how these funds can be used but it is specified in both the national settlements and the state of california so the national settlements created this exhibit which is a pretty robust document that outlines a whole lot of different ways where we can use these funds all related to substance use and or opioid use specifically and then the state of california also put on their mandates and they outlined these six high impact abatement areas are called and what's important about these areas is that the state has required that 50 percent of the funds at minimum are used for these six areas and the state is the one that's tracking the expenditures and the state is the one that we're reporting to around the expenditures of these funds so all really great areas all in line with things we're doing and want to be doing and expanding but want to highlight that important piece that 50 percent at least have to be spent on these six areas you can do it thank you um and when these funds started being distributed to our community it was really important to us that we engage the community and our partners in a variety of ways so one of the first things we did is we developed a survey for the community and for our treatment providers and we wanted to hear from them about their priorities around these opioid settlement dollars and so we designed the survey to align with california's high impact areas as well as the national settlements so they would be seen exactly where the funds would go and could speak to those these surveys were launched from july the august last summer and the total number of participants we received were 419 we did offer an incentive to complete the survey to try to get as much participation as we could so people were given a ten dollar gift card to to complete their survey and then additionally we hosted two town halls we did one in english and one in spanish both at the end of summer and early fall last last year and the community town halls we did a presentation and provided a lot of this feedback and also was another opportunity for people to engage with us and communicate their priorities and we worked with a uh data company out of the bay area called research development associates that analyzed both the survey for us and the community findings and then put a summary into a report that we included in this memo so that it outlines all of the community engagement findings so in addition to the the survey and the community town halls where we engage different people we also engaged with our city partners as well as other county partners and in internal partners and we talked to them about their priorities and we did some affinity analysis of all the different ways that we engage the community and our partners and we synthesized into these top priorities so across the board these are the ones that that stood out as priorities for everybody these are not in any particular order so for instance the said wellness center isn't number one they're all pretty equal in terms of priorities but these are the areas that the that the community and and our subject matter experts in the field have identified so one of them is a said wellness center the other is a medication assisted treatment expansion in jails youth prevention restorative supportive recovery housing is a is a really substantial one and it came across kind of to the top of all areas so making sure we have stage secure housing for people to enter when they complete treatment or you know as they're continuing on their recovery wellness journey youth residential treatment in our county as well as expanding our said treatment continuum so out of those you know looking at those top priorities it was really important to us that we developed a spending plan that balanced the fact that we know there's a very real crisis in our community people you know the overdose deaths are rising and we want to be responsive to those needs as quickly as we can and also plan for future goals and really be as strategic as we can with these funds and kind of balancing all of those elements we we design this initial spending plan that is allocated as such so we have 33 percent for community-based organizations 25 to public health to continue focusing on their prevention activities 25 percent for capital projects 8 percent for administrative activities there's a lot that goes into our grant management and so it's really important that we have that infrastructure and 8 percent for our epidemiology for growing that team because again data collection program evaluation and monitoring is really critical we want to make sure that what we're doing is effective and being able to track outcomes around this crisis and then we also have a little bit dedicated to communication so that we can communicate to the community and and then all of our leaders about what we are doing so this slide highlights part of the 33 percent that we allocated to community-based organizations is if approved we would like to execute a grant program for community organizations that would allow for any of our community organizations to apply for funds to either continue services that we know are effective or be able to do some innovative programming that could address the opioid crisis this grant program has a lot of elements that we were you know we think are going to be really beneficial to our community they would allow us to distribute the funds quickly it would be an initial investment of 900 000 from these opioid settlement dollars we would do an RFP so it would be a competitive process for many providers in our community and again it would allow us really to either scale existing work or allow for some innovative programming and some of the treatment expansion priorities again this is part of the 33 percent that was allocated to get to the community is some of the areas we wanted to target right away is we increased access to narcotic treatment programming which is essentially methadone we only have one provider in the community that offers narcotic treatment programming as Janice and they offer it in both north and south county and we wanted to support funding to allow access increase access to treatment such that it would allow them to have more intake days per week so that more people had the option of getting into treatment as quickly as possible we also as you saw the priority to support youth residential youth residential treatment for SUD is very rare in the state of california we're very fortunate to have the camp in scott's valley that provides us a little bit there and so we were able to guarantee with these funds that youth have access and we're also able to expand our contract to include co-occurring services with the understanding that many of our youth entering SUD treatment have co-occurring disorders and this allows for them to be treated for those as well as our SUD and then the final one is our recovery residences which is a really neat unique program outlined by DHCS that combines drug treatment with housing so that people have both of those things to support their recovery and we have one provider in our community they able to offer those right now and so we wanted to support the ongoing facilities of those next slide please um so yeah that concludes kind of the opioid settlement funds overview and I'll pass it back to director Morales to do our last two slides and thank you we wanted to highlight a little bit of the prevention activities that we really want to highlight and really take advantage with these dollars um we currently lack a lot of funding and prevention I presented to you in the past of um most of the dollars that come from the state really focus on the treatment side which is really important but you have heard me also highlight the importance of prevention if we want to change the curve in this epidemic we need to focus on our youth and we really need to highlight prevention specifically for us is thinking about ways that promote protective factors for youth thinking about reducing self-medication and really discouraging or preventing the misuse of opioids so those are our key priorities over the past year and a half we've been working in partnership with the county office of education our managed care plan the alliance and our efforts in county behavioral health to really expand the the work that we're doing our collaboration prioritizing for example MOUs data reporting and collection and sharing and this is an effort that we will continue to do specifically for example for future activities we want to promote and this is an area that we have the least current capacity is the education to parents and caregivers we've seen some of that take place in the schools but we really need to elevate it community wide also some of the prevention education in schools is needed thinking about curriculum how do we get more of that information that's actually embedded in what the students are learning in the schools school peer education models we know that peer to peer models work they're actually more effective for youth hearing from their peers versus adults and targeting faith-based organizations that is a missing link for us that we can do better we know that the reach the adult or caregiver population in a better way than sometimes county folks do so a lot of our efforts right now is just to really promote wellness we know that some of the models that the state is also pushing for and that we've seen as promising practices involve youth wellness centers so on the prevention side is really supporting those efforts working with organizations to who can build them in our cities but also thinking about the promising practices that should be embedded in the wellness centers and finally our communication plan we have heard from community that more communication is needed we've heard it from you so we really want to enhance our media presence both trying to find social media influencers trying to also get more information through radio for the Spanish speaking community for example an indigenous community speakers there's a lot of effort also to engage our community ambassadors and really scale the efforts and communication messages to youth individuals who themselves are using or in the process and recovery or in their journey to recovery and then building community ambassadors so in a snapshot you're you're seeing a little bit of what the plans are for us on the communication and on the prevention side with that we'll conclude the presentation and are here to answer any questions or take any feedback from you thank you so much for that presentation so I'll open up to the board to see if there's any questions right now for county staff no questions thank you for the great presentation so 26 million dollars over 18 years is it's a chunk of change but it's probably really not enough given the size and persistence of this problem and just the huge cost of treating people once they are addicted to opiates so my main concern is just that where as efficient as possible with the money I really like the idea of working with the community foundation they certainly know how to get a lot of money out to places of need and where it's going to be efficient quickly but you know I noticed a little bit of a discrepancy between the report and the presentation today so in the report on our board item it said that 17% would be needed for administrative activities of the total funding and the presentation it said 8% you know which is it let me break it down we wanted to demonstrate what we meant by administrative activities so on the PowerPoint what you see is the breakdown if you go back to slide 12 what you'll see is we broke it out because it really we wanted to be truly transparent with you some of the administration includes epi support some of it also includes for us the communication plan that we had so we broke it down for you so it's more transparent on actually what does that mean administration I'm always asking my my team what do you mean by administration so this is how we broke it down for you okay and does that include then for example the administrative costs of working with the community foundation I know they're allowed to maintain you know up to 81 thousand dollars for their own kind of management costs does that included in the 8% here or would that be outside of the direct spending I'll refer to Casey for that I'm assuming it's the 8% but Casey you can correct me yeah so we how is we built it into the 900 thousand that would be allocated to the community foundation so they get us and they so they have a certain percentage built in for their administrative costs so it would come out that so it would be the 81 thousand that's how it's designed at this point right but with the 900 thousand for example all counted within say the top here 33% and then are we taking an additional you know 9% out of that that's my one concern is if we are taking a share for administrative costs and then the community foundation takes a share for administrative costs and we're giving it to nonprofits who are actually administering the services so also need a share for administrative costs you know are we diluting which is what is ultimately not enough funds down to the point of you know just not being as efficient and not getting into the hands of the people that need it the most part of it for us is that currently we didn't have the infrastructure to get the dollars out we're in the process and we'll be coming to you to actually add positions for this project the dollars just landed last year we're trying to build now a method to the past year has been getting information from the community on their priorities all has been done with the current staff that are not embedded as actual will be a sediment coordinators so our goal is get the dollars out as soon as possible for this one time and moving forward trying to be more efficient with the dollars we did not want to wait every year to hire you've heard us discuss how hard it is to hire to get the money out so you're absolutely right we'll have to pay a little bit more now but in the future once we have the staff capacity it will our goal is to have it internally okay yeah okay thank you I look forward to hearing more once these dollars start getting to their intended uses and we can hear about some of their impacts thanks the supervisor's question supervisor friend thank you and again thanks for the presentation I think that we need to look at this as I know you do and your team does in a context of a broader state and federal shifts that are occurring on the funding mechanisms and to supervisor Konig's point this is a pretty de minimis amount of money on the overall need and there are a significant number of other responsibilities being shifted on to your team that don't have full funding outlined by the state or federal government and potentially with a proposition maybe passing maybe not passing will be an additional cut on top of that so I think that from an expectation you were talking about communication side I think also understanding from an expectation side about to some degree it would be nice to me in well not to some degree it would be nice to be investing in new emerging needs programs or infrastructure as these needs change but that also assumes that a baseline has continued to be met which is not the case and so I think that one of the real challenges it's going to be facing future boards aside from 80 plus million being bonded for roads that are collapsing and FEMA lack of reimbursements will be you know functionally half of what this county does are health and human service requirements from sort of a simplification but it's not too far off about half of what we do is about health and human service requirements from federal government and state government they don't even pay for a significant portion of it and as these new funding plans come in with requirements on how they're going to be spent like prescriptive requirements there's going to be additional challenges for future boards to figure out then how to backfill things that were also required to do I think that we can't say today that we're meeting the need and I don't think that we're going to be able to say tomorrow that we're meeting the need and I'm not optimistic with the state and federal cuts are proposed that we're going to be able to meet this emerging these continued emerging needs that are that our county has and you know I feel like I look at your employees and when I talked I mean they're so devoted to this I mean they're working so many hours to this and dedicating their lives to this and our non-profit partners the same thing and I don't see how we're going to break out of that cycle 900,000 isn't going to do it and you know that it was interesting because you had a slide and we kind of went through it quickly about deaths right I mean each one of those somebody's kid somebody's family member and those numbers are really high I mean if those numbers were in any other context you know that we'd be talking about this in the crisis level it serves in some respects I think it gets passed over because it's it's an epidemic across the country that people can't really get their minds around but I recognize I'm not really landing on anywhere but I'm what I just want to say that I think that this is a legitimate issue that's going to require additional advocacy from the state and federal side to ensure that we can stem the tide of the cuts and responsibilities that currently have in order to invest in the needs that are going to continue to be met because right now what's being proposed by the state doesn't do that right now it's being proposed by the federal government doesn't do that and this amount of money coming in on the on the settlements including tobacco and other things are coming down the road are not going to do that but I want to just acknowledge I want to know that I feel that personally I mean I hear and see the work that you do and it's really impressive and it's and there are there are people here just like with COVID there are people that are here today that wouldn't have been here today but for your team's work I mean that's a very powerful statement that people are alive community members are alive people have children parents grandparents alive because of the work that you do and and so I just wish that that was valued in a way at the state level where they continued to invest in it um but thank you for what you are doing I think the future boards are going to be are going to have some very tough choices to make on these triage decisions about what to do here thank you yeah yeah I I did mr our supervisor friends comments are well taken and as sad as it may seem I really am thankful we're getting on to this and I I think Sheriff Hart told me that there we have more deaths from fentanyl than we do for suicide auto accidents and some other category put together and that's how serious that we're facing with this that one situation but I thank you for the outreach that you had I I think the the response is what 490 or something that that was I that was encouraging and I just want to thank janice and compass and community foundation this is a collaborative effort and it's going to if we do it right with what we have and we will it's going to save lives literally so I appreciate we're are getting on to this and I look forward to some very positive impacts that come in the future uh if we reach out maybe we can help not maybe we will help a lot of people and prevent a lot of deaths in this county thank you thank you for those comments and I just want to thank you all for your hard work and thank supervisor McPherson supervisor friend for joining that initial lawsuit that's at least helped us get you know even though it's we know it's not enough it's it's better than nothing given the concern that we have in the the crisis that we have in our community I'll just say it I know that when I've had interactions with folks in the community one of the things that came up was you know the need for more treatment beds and so it's great that you know that's kind of captured and what was suggested and so to the extent that we can you know better understand I think moving forward how these different pools of money are being used each year it'd be really helpful for us to just see you know kind of what opportunities are before us and can these funds be used to help supplement some gaps in funding for the various you know proposals of programs and infrastructure that we want to create I also think it might be good because I know a couple years ago for example you know harm reduction coalition was included in some of the core funding and there may be other organizations that are proposing activities in core that could get this funding as well and so just thinking about how can we leverage different types of funds for the different programs that we have in our community I think is worth taking into consideration because if we can free up funds in one area to support more organizations and utilize incoming new funds to fund some existing services I think that might be a way for us to leverage all the different funding sources that we have to maximize their use and so I don't have any other questions or comments at this point in time but thank you all for your hard work on this very important issue and so with that I'll open up to the to the public to see if there's any member of the public would like to comment on this item and if so please approach the podium and we'll start with people who are here in person and then we'll move on to online participants. Welcome. Thank you. Good morning Chair Cummings and members of the board. My name is Monica Martinez and I'm the CEO of Encompass Community Services. First I want to express my sincere appreciation for the recommended use of the opioid settlement funds and your commitment to addressing the pressing issues surrounding the opioid epidemic in our community. We're particularly grateful for the recommendation to set aside 25 percent for capital projects and we recognize this as an opportunity to enhance our capacity to serve those in need in our community. Encompass is just months away from breaking ground on our new CESA Puede Behavioral Health Center in Watsonville which will significantly expand our program capacity to serve more than 1,300 community members. The project is planned for completion in summer of 2025 and we've raised 90% of the funds necessary from public and private sources. The remaining gap to fully fund this project presents a perfect fit for the priorities of the opioid settlement funds including matching funds for SUD facilities, creating newer expanded SUD treatment infrastructure, addressing the needs of communities of color and vulnerable populations and diverting those with SUD disorder from the justice system. Additionally the project aligns with the county's strategic plan goals of health equity and to increase access to integrated mental health and SUD services particularly among youth and in the new center seven treatment beds will be dedicated to TAE youth the first in our county and the expanded capacity was highlighted in the 2023 grand jury report on behavioral health. However in the board packet we noticed the SUD residential treatment wasn't explicitly noted as a possible use for the capital investment funds therefore we request that these funds prioritize the expansion at SUD residential treatment programs and that a transparent application process is made available so community-based projects like CESA Puede can quickly access these funds. Thank you again for your commitment to address the opioid epidemic in this community. Thanks. All right is there any other member of the public who'd like to speak to us on this item? Seeing none here in person is there any members of the public online who'd like to address us on this item? Yes sure we have callers. Serge your microphone's now available. Good morning board of supervisors and county staff. This is Serge Cagno recovery cafe and stepping up Santa Cruz. Very much appreciate all the staff's hard work to get this available for our county and surveys and the presentations to the community. I had just one question not sure if it's answerable. I saw that the 25 percent for capital projects is seems like a separate line than the RFPs. I was wondering if there's the possibility that somebody could speak to whether that's actually going to be an RFP process or that's actually county used funds. Thank you again. Thank you for the question. Would you like me to answer that? Maybe let's see if there's anyone. Sure. Let's come on. Made it by Collective your microphone's now available. Yeah good morning Buenos Dias board chair and supervisors. You know my comment here is as a recovering addict myself right I understand the need for services and support but the most critical component that allowed me to move on in my journey towards health right was like the actual like infrastructure you know being a having a bed open you know like a what is it the sober living environments right those type of that type of infrastructure that the wellness center you know the recovery center you know so I think it's important for this work to that's being done right with the current organizations that have been doing great work you know for years on Android and I believe the county needs to support the settlement by finding ways to create county infrastructure county land county paid you know infrastructure as well this is a it's yeah it's it's life threatening but it's also life saving when you have the built-in infrastructure to mitigate the impacts of substance abuse and so yeah just thank you for the presentation and you my time thank you. Yeah we have no further speakers chair. Hey thank you very much we'll bring it back to the board let's see if staff had any comments on some of the questions that were asked during public comment and some of the comments that were made as well. Thank you board we are separating the 25 percent for our capital projects and part of it for us right now is as I mentioned earlier we really want to assess the current efforts that are taking place on treatment beds but we're actually serving what do we see in terms of what the data is yielding for future use and also one of the things we are also assessing for is some of the impacts that we have with co-use right for example a co-occurrences so for example some of the individuals that might be facing a substance use and addiction as well as a mental health addiction and thinking about expanding that capacity because right now in the state we I'm sorry in the county we don't have that it's very minimal so we're stepping back we're going to do right now a preliminary gap assessment we're going to then identify the priorities and yes put this out for an RFP process that's the intent to have a transparent for me and you know fair process for folks to be able to leverage the dollars. Thank you then one of the questions was one of the comments that was made by the representative from encompass I'm just wondering you can speak to how to whether or not nonprofits might be eligible for some of these kinds of funds to go towards you know the residential treatment program as they were mentioning before because it does seem like you know if there's some gaps in funding that some of our local partners can apply for they could help them bring projects to fruition that would seem like a good use of these funds and so I'm wondering what opportunities are built in currently to allow for that to happen. Well most of the work we do is through our community health excuse me through our community-based organizations so absolutely we fully support that model we know that's the model that we need and as I mentioned once we get a sense of what exactly we need to excal in our community we know that it's going to involve one of our providers or one of our current contractors for example. Any other questions or comments from board members saying none then someone would be going to move the item. I'll move the recommended actions. Okay so a motion by supervisor friend second by supervisor McPherson to move the recommended actions by staff with that we'll do a roll call vote. Supervisor Koenig friend. All right McPherson and Cummings. All right that passes unanimously so thank you all for your hard work on this we look forward to having an update and we look forward to working with our community partners to to make this funding go as far as it can thank you. All right with that that ends our regular agenda the next item on our agenda is closed session so I'd like to ask county council if there's any expectation that we'll be reporting out on closed session today. No thank you very much with that that concludes our regular meeting and thank you all for joining us today.