 Good morning, everyone, and welcome to our forum. It's great to see so many people out here on a Saturday morning. I never doubt the commitment to good government and community in Davis and in Yolo County. This is a educational forum in which we have invited the three declared candidates for our assembly district, fourth district seat. The candidates, and I will introduce them all later, are Bill Dodd, Joe Cravosa, and Dan Wolk. But I'd like to begin by introducing the Board of Directors of the Yolo Healthy Aging Alliance, a sponsor of this event. I'm the chair of the Aging Alliance. The vice chair is Peggy Goldstein. And feel free to stand up. Alyssa Meyer, secretary. This is Peggy. Don Myers-Perkey, Fran Smith, Joan Beasley, Davis Campbell, Connie Caldwell, Alyssa Sykes, and Sheila Allen, the executive director. Thank you very much for your role in setting up this forum. And I would also like to represent the chair of our co-sponsor, Francis Grace Child, who's chair of the In-Home Supportive Services Advisory Committee. There's Francis. By way of brief introduction, in 2010, we held an aging summit. And the reason we did that is we looked at some very interesting numbers that Assemblywoman Yamada, our current assembly member, referred to as the tsunami of seniors. Because the numbers, as the baby boomers age, that will be going into what we have referred to as senior citizen status, which is a fluid age group now, because 60 is the new 50s, and I'm not sure exactly when it starts. But there's a lot of us. And in fact, the projection of a 300% increase between 2000 and 2040 of the age, 60 and older population, a 500% increase in the population 85 above and a 1,500% increase in people over 100 years of age. So that, I think, demonstrates a need for some planning. Now it's a good thing for people in my generation approaching 60, because it means we're gonna live longer. That's good news. But the possible crisis is that it's gonna strain all of our services. When Social Security was first adopted, age 65 was life expectancy. Now we're going to have increasing numbers of people living into their 80s and 90s. So we have to make sure that the services are there, that the housing's there, that the nutrition's there, and that whatever people's benefits are for retirement last through those years. So that's why we formed the, we did the aging summit and we looked at various gaps in services, needs for planning in our community, in the areas of transportation, in the areas of nutrition, housing, and need for advocacy in terms of those services. And one of the things we did was form the Healthy Aging Alliance, which is a nonprofit. But it is a combination of government officials. It will be headed permanently by whoever the fourth district supervisor is to maintain that connection to county government. And it includes members of various social service agencies on the county level, but also the nonprofits coming together regularly to collaborate, to recognize a need for advocacy, and to plan for the services as we move ahead in the 21st century. I would like to introduce our executive director, Sheila Allen, who is going to do a brief slide presentation on what we determined to be some of the needs in the communities, and then we will move on to the forum in about 10 minutes. Sheila? Good morning, everyone. Thank you for being here this morning. It's always great when you have a party and people show up. So I'm really happy to see all your faces out there. A couple of things before I begin, I want to thank Dawn Myers-Perkey and her wonderful Sac State, and UC Davis interns who are helping us this morning, so if we could thank them. And then as a reminder, we do have some really lovely food over there, and it was sponsored by Palm Gardens Senior Living in Woodland, so we do appreciate their support on that. So with that being said, I'll launch into my PowerPoint. Our tagline is that we are the unified voice for older adults in Yolo County. So next slide, please. So I push it again. Here they come, that's what Jim was talking about, the Silver Tsunami. So as a reminder, so by 2013, there's going to be 72.1 million older Americans in the United States. Next slide. So the Silver Tsunami, and this is just a graphical presentation of what Jim was talking about. And if you can't see those numbers, so carefully, the blue line on the top is the numbers of those over 60. The red line is those over 65, and the bottom line is those over 85. And the key thing to see is that good for us that we're living longer, but there's many, many more people that are gonna be thinking about healthy aging issues. Next slide. So in Yolo County, in 2010 right now, our population is around 200,000, and about 10% of those people are over 65, but by the year 2050, about 22% of the people are going to be 65. So not only a larger number, but also a larger percentage of the population. Next slide. And as Jim said, when we decided to have the first summit, it was a combination of the Silver Tsunami and the concern about what was happening with programs because of the Great Recession. Next. So we had the summit that he talked about already, and so the one thing that I wanna say about it is that I was hired to run the program and I did some background work and found that Yolo County, first of all, is really great about providing senior services. There are many pockets of different nonprofits, for-profits, community-based organizations, and government entities that provide services. So there's been an interest in senior issues for a long time, and when I did the research on it, I found that 10 years before 2010, there was a task force that looked at senior issues and came up with some recommendations. And 10 years before that, there was a task force that looked into it, and there's somebody who's on it, that looked into it. But the problem was they identified the problems, but nothing was done. But what happened differently this time is that we identified what the problems were, and there was so much enthusiasm that day that we said it's not gonna stop here, it's not going on the shelf, so the Yolo Healthy Aging Alliance was born to help to move these issues forward. Next. So this is our mission statement. The Yolo Healthy Aging Alliance promotes the well-being of older adults through education, collaboration, and advocacy. And we have our original funding from the SCAN Foundation, and that's really a great fit for us because their tagline, or the thing that they're concerned about is making sure that everyone can age with dignity, choice, and independence. And because of this grant, we not only are able to fund our local efforts, but now we're connected to other aging lines throughout the state of California. So our two main committees are the Advocacy Committee, and we have a whole process that we go through to identify what will be our area of focus for the fiscal year. And so our areas of focus for this fiscal year are first, the effects of sequestration cuts on local services. And just as an example, you may have been reading in the paper, and there was recently a fundraiser for our countywide, it's called elderly nutrition program, EMP here, but that's our local Meals on Wheels. So there have been real cuts to real programs that affect real people. So as a local advocacy committee, we are trying to make sure that elected officials understand what effect that has on the ground here. Another area of interest for us, and this might be where our candidates might be taking notes, is that we're really interested in looking at what our mental health issues for services for seniors, because there are really some gaps in services there. And next is the in-home supportive services cuts. So for those of you who don't know, in-home supportive services is a Medi-Cal program, and that provides in-home care for older persons and persons with disabilities. They're evaluated and they're given a certain number of hours for some helps. They're able to stay independently in their home. And finally is to make sure that we are ahead of the curve on the rollout of the dual-eligibles. And some of you may have been at the Yolo Health Aging Alliance had a forum on the duals, and for those of you who don't know what a dual is, is people who have both Medi-Cal and Medicare. So there is a movement statewide to have people who have both Medi-Cal and Medicare to go it to have managed care. And there are 10 pilot counties and Yolo County's not one of them. So if you have, it's not happening right here now, but there is a pilot and it is currently the intent of the state to have that roll into all the counties. So those 10, we wish them luck because it's been really an interesting road for them. But they're the pilot ones and we are really trying to do all the planning ahead of time so that when it does come to Yolo County, we are already set. We'll learn from their issues and we'll have made all those connections ahead of time. Next. Our other committee is the Collaboration Committee and this is really an exciting group. Well, the other is exciting too. But what's really exciting about the Collaboration Committee is that it started with seven providers of senior services in 2010. We're now up to 46 organizations, both public, private, non-private, faith community, government providers, all who provide services for seniors. And we meet once a month and as the name says, that's what we do. It's all about collaboration. So we have an annual cross-training where we go around the room and each of the organizations say, here are the services we provide. Here's how you do the referrals to us. And the other thing that we did is we created an adult referral form so that it can more easily be able to refer between these organizations. So as we was found in the previous evaluations and at the summit, that we were finding that some of the gaps in services were really much more gaps in information so that either the individuals or other organizations didn't know about Meals on Wheels or In-Home Sporting Services or the Davis Community Church and the kind of things that they do. So it's really getting what are, the phrase that I'm really grasping onto I think is great is that our goal is to get the right service to the people at the right time. Next. So this is our website. This is another great thing that has come out of the Yolo Healthy Aging Alliance. And this is just a screenshot of one part of it, but the great thing for both providers and for people in the community that I really like about it is the resource tab over on the right. That's the one that's highlighted. And so I had a UC Davis intern that went around and made sure that we had as many resources as possible. And then you can see the sample here of food resources. And this is the elderly nutrition program. There's a brief description of what it is, their phone number, and then a live link to their website. So it's a listing of the resources for transportation, food, mental health, in-home care and support services, and information and referral services. Next. So that's www.yolohealthyaging.org or Google us. So here's the gaps and services. So the UC Davis student also went out and did interviews with many of the providers and some community members to find out what are the current gaps and services. This is the part also where you might be taking notes. So here's some of the gaps and services that have been identified. And we've already made some strides in trying to address these. So there are currently five million services that are five million seniors, excuse me, who are experiencing food insecurity. And there's also very low CalFresh, that's the local term for the food stamp program, very low participation by seniors, California-wide, but in particular, Yolo County's one of the lowest. So we're trying to address that. And how that, so those are the gaps and then the additional areas of gaps are the sequestration cuts that I already talked about, that we have a very diverse county, we have sort of urban areas, we have farm communities, and we do have a long stretch of rural areas that need to have the access to services. And that we need more volunteers in order to try to get these food services out to people. Next is transportation services. And this here, the statistic that my intern found is that people outlive their ability to safely drive by eight years. So it's important to do the assessment about when it's time to give up the keys. And if you give up the keys, how are you gonna get from where you are to where you wanna be. So we have to make sure those are in place. And about one third of seniors experience transportation deficiency. So kind of teasing out, what does that mean for transportation? It's about the availability of the service. It's about the travel time, because it's not just like hopping in your car and going somewhere you have to call and make the appointment. You have to wait for them to pick you up. You have to wait for them to pick you back up again. If you're taking the bus, it's the time waiting at the bus stop. So travel time, and then fear or lack of knowledge of public transportation. Next, mental health gaps. This is something that we were particularly working on this year. We had a forum on this in December also. And just as statistic that the number of Americans age 65 or older who have mental health or substance abuse orders currently, this is nationwide, not in Yolo County, is 5.6 to 8 million people. And in 2013, it'll be projected 10.1 to 14.4. And when we're thinking about mental health issues, there's another people who come into the aging experience with existing mental health issues. There are some developmental health issues and then there are some dementia related issues also all layered on top of there. So areas of gaps in services related to mental health are budget cuts. There's under representation of minorities that are receiving care. There's reductions in staff and programs. I don't know if people know about this, but there's really an epidemic and elderly suicide that particularly older men are more likely to be successful when they attempt suicide. So we do have a program that I can talk about another time, a friendship line to try to help that. But an important issue that a lot of people don't know about. There is no geriatric psychiatrist in Yolo County, but that's something that we're also trying to address soon. And that there's limited providers that take insurance because the reimbursement is still very low. Next. So elder abuse and fraud, one in 10 adult will experience abuse of some sort and only one in 14 elder abuse cases are ever reported. So and also in 2010, seniors lost, this is nationwide, $2.9 billion in financial from financial abuse. And often the victim knows the perpetrator. So some additional issues around elder abuse and senior fraud is that there's the number, the sheer volume of that needs to be addressed for this at the adult protective services. That's kind of the correlate of those child protective services, adult protective services has the need as much greater than the number of people we have to be able to address it. The issue of ER and hospital revolving door. So somebody goes into the hospital has an issue and all the community resources aren't put together so that they end up going back into the hospital again. And that's not just related to senior fraud and abuse but other areas also. And this is an interesting one that I had thought about before my student went out and talked to the providers for adult protective services is the early release program for prisoners that they come home and they're looking for someplace to live or they're looking for some money and they're looking to relatives or people that they don't know and there's financial and other kinds of abuse associated with that. There's insufficient legal services for seniors and again many cases of abuse fraud go unreported. So conclusions, well here by the way anyone who thinks that they're not aging here we're all aging. That's why we call ourselves the YOLO Healthy Aging Alliance where it's not just for seniors it's about the whole aging process and I don't think there's anybody in here no matter what your age who would argue against the need for healthy aging. And just to remember about that really the focus of our organization and hopefully the community is making sure that people get the right service at the right time and that doesn't always mean spending more money it's often about just getting the information to people. And that many of these gaps can be addressed by just working together. Next slide, oh there's one more slide there. There we are, so this is just an upcoming event so we haven't set the date yet but we will be having a follow up summit since it's been three years since we had our last slide almost four and a half. So watch for the date for that Congressman Garamendi had said that he'll be our lunchtime speaker so we are checking with his scheduling people but it will be sometime this spring. And then if you're interested in the work of the YOLO Healthy Aging Alliance or you'd just like to be in our email list when you came in if you provided your email then I'll check in with you about that. So that's the end of it then. All right. Thanks, so now I just wanna tell you about the cars and when you came in there was a card on your seat so if you would like to ask a question of the candidates you can write the question on the card and raise your hand and we have runners who will come pick them up and we'll also have a live mic if you prefer to be somebody who is able to articulate your own question. So now we'll throw it back to Jim. Thank you, Sheila. I'll invite the candidates to come up to the table. I did wanna thank our three candidates for actually taking up the task of running for a state assembly having just run for a county supervisor. I know how very difficult it is and I'm not sure how many people know it but this district is huge. It covers several counties. It's almost a full-time occupation just getting around in the district. So I really appreciate all three candidates for being willing to run and offer to serve us. I think we're very fortunate to have such great individuals running for office. We're going to begin. I'm going to introduce each candidate and get them five minutes to introduce themselves. Three to five minutes. They don't have to talk for the whole five but our timekeeper will get very upset if they go over the five minutes. Then after that I'm going to ask a general question to get the question started and then we will follow by asking questions from the cards where if I see someone at the microphone I'll also call on the person at the microphone to ask a question. We did a drawing, a lottery to determine first through third speaker and we will reverse that order at the end for concluding remarks which will again be three to five minutes. Our first candidate who won the lottery is Dan Wolk. Dan has served on the Davis City Council since 2011. The voters returned him to the council in 2012 with more votes than any other candidate in Davis's history. As a city council member he's led efforts to adopt the surface water project. He's pushed for greater investments in the city's roads and bike paths and he's explored sustainable energy initiatives. Dan is deputy county council for Solano County handling public finance, public contracting and water issues. He's also the co-founder of the legal clinic of Yolo County, a legal services provider for low income families. Dan grew up in Davis and attended Davis public schools. He earned his undergraduate degree from Stanford University and attended UC Davis King Hall School of Law. He lives in Davis with his wife. I'm sorry, Berkeley. I'm sorry to go to UC Davis. It's us, yeah. I was trying to do part of it from memory and then I slipped into Joe's. So, but the Bolt Hook School of Law, oh, yes, an aging thing, yeah, definitely. He lives in Davis with his wife and children and I'm very happy to have him here as a candidate for the State Assembly, Dan. Thank you, Dan. And King Hall's a wonderful place to go to school. His father teaches though at King Hall, that's it. And you're a graduate, that's it. But thank you to Yolo, a healthy aging alliance for hosting this. It's wonderful and it's nice to see a lot of familiar faces in the audience, including my father-in-law, well, I believe he's probably hating the fact that I'm announcing him, but I don't know. But thanks for going into my bio, Jim. And just to elaborate a little bit because I work a lot in the issues that we're talking about today, a lot of these elderly issues. First with respect to the clinic and I'd just like to know Lisa Meyer who's back here with the board and also Lane Roberts-Musser were also very influential with that clinic and helpful. We set it up actually in the West Sacramento Senior Center and actually it lives on essentially there. And so a lot of the issues that we dealt with were senior issues, were elder abuse issues and I'll get into those later. Also as a deputy county council for the county of Solano, a lot of what Sheila talked about, those are county issues. That's really where the rubber hits the road in terms of services to be provided and the disinvestment that we've seen. And so I work a lot in the area of IHSS. I work a lot in the area of APS, do a lot of help with the DA in terms of elder abuse issues. So I'm very familiar with these issues and work often in these issues and I'll get into that in a little bit. As a council member, I've also been a strong advocate for these issues. And part of that's personal in that my grandmother was no longer with us. Unfortunately she did come to Davis from Florida to live here and we dealt with the assisted living facility situation which I hope we get into. She was low income and we dealt with the difficulty that many of you I'm sure have faced with your loved ones with dealing with that system and I hope to get into that. And but also in terms of my record on the council, there's a number of issues I'll just tease out. Two of them first is that I, along with two of my colleagues, council member Swanson and council member Frax, approve the Canary Project, really led the effort on the Canary Project. And that project is the most advanced universally designed project in this nation. It has the eschaton seal of approval, which is wonderful. And thanks to the help of the good folks at CHOT has an even greater amount of single story units which is very critical. So I'm very, very proud of that project. Second of all is I help with council member Swanson in developing a program utilizing federal home funds to develop a program to essentially help homeowners rehab their, well into Asian place, rehab their existing structures to provide for those things that universal design and Canary will provide, but we don't have that in our existing houses. Anyway, there's a number of things I hope to get to them that we need to do in terms of elderly issues. And a lot of those are touched upon. First, we need to incorporate universal design into our building code. Second is that there has been an immense amount of disinvestment and that's the essence of why I'm running. There's been an immense amount of disinvestment in our state and at the federal level and state level. And for years California, the state government has been such a strong investor in terms of our people and our institutions. But just years of disinvestment predating even the Great Recession has really put people in peril. And you really see that in these issues with respect to seniors. And a lot of those were touched upon, but I see it as a county level. I see it at the city level, see it at the personal level. You see IHSS getting cut. You see the district attorneys. You see the attorney general. You see legal service in Northern California. Other legal entities not having the resources to go after elder abuse. So that's the essence of why I'm running because we really need to disinvest. Third is that we need a greater regulation of our assisted living facilities. I think that's critical. I witnessed that personally. And we need to build more of those facilities to, you know, because as has been said, we have this silver synonymous. It's the fastest growing cohort, certainly in Davis and in the state. We need to also, at the federal level, restore these cuts that have taken place to cow fresh, to food stamps, and the sequestration. And you can really see that in meals on wheels in that it's so difficult to provide services to rural seniors. And those sequestration cuts have really hit that. And that's the type of reinvestment that we need. So I hope to get into a lot more of these as the discussion goes on. I'm happy to be here, but that's the essence of who I am and that's the essence of why I'm running. And I would love your support. Thanks. Thank you, Dan. And our next candidate is Mayor Joe Corvosa. Joe was elected to the Davis City Council in 2010 and has served as mayor of Davis since 2011. Joe has worked to develop relationships between the city of Davis, local business communities, and UC Davis to boost economic development and help create jobs, including key early support to Davis Rooth, non-profit startup, business accelerator. Joe was a lifelong environmentalist. He led the Putah Creek Council for seven years where he worked to restore the creek's historic salmon. For these efforts, Joe received Davis's Environmental Recognition Award in 2001. Joe's a strong advocate for open space and wildlife protection. And he's also an avid utility bicycle advocate. Joe grew up in Pasadena and received his undergraduate degree from Occidental College. In 1991, Joe and his wife Janet moved to Davis and Joe attended law school at UC Davis. He's worked as an environmental lawyer specializing in water law before joining UC Davis in 1996 to start the UCD Institute of Transportation Study and its Energy Efficiency Senate. Joe and Janet raised two daughters who attended Davis public schools. Joe? Very good. Thank you, Jim. And also, of course, thank you for the, thank you to the Yolo Healthy Aging Alliance. And it's great to be here today. We're all getting after these forms. This is wonderful to meet so many people. I guess I'd echo a little bit of Jim's comments at the beginning just about the amazing process of meeting the people that would like to serve you and certainly I'd like to continue my service for all of you. So as Jim mentioned, Janet and I and Janet's here. I wanted to introduce Janet. Janet, thank you for showing up and coming out. It's my wife. We raised our two daughters here in Davis. Now one of the daughters is often Nashville as a teacher and the other one is a junior in college down in Southern California. But I've been your mayor here since early 2011. It's been my pleasure to really roll up my sleeves and work on kind of big issue after big issue after big issue that we've had in the city. And so from the water project to the cannery development to getting our budget in order, I'm figuring out how we take care of all our employee long-term liabilities. It's been my pleasure to kind of take my experience in life and extend it forward into this community. I've been very proud to make incredibly strong alliances between UC Davis and the city. I think we've had a renaissance in that, both in planning and in shared services that speak to how we do government with a little bit less and a little more creativity. One of the strengths that I'll bring to the assembly is the fantastic resources of the University of California. The University of California is the research arm of the state of California. And my day job is all about taking the energy and environmental lessons of UC Davis and extending them out into society. And I've done that at the city and I certainly look forward to doing that as I go into the legislature, but not just in the area of energy and transportation, but really in the great work of aging and gerontology and so on that's also going on at UC Davis and certainly agriculture is another experience there. I do wanna note that one of the episodes of this campaign has been very profound on me was in June after I announced in early May. Janet's parents began struggling tremendously with how they juggled between their in-home support services down in the Bay Area and moving up to Davis and moving into an assisted living facility. And that tells us that these issues of seniors, they're all gonna affect all of us, but they also affect our families and they affect caregivers. So we really have this triumvirate of people involved in this that we have to take great care of. One of the other options and they actually moved up to Davis, they moved into assisted living and they found that it didn't work for them and they moved back down to the Bay Area, back down into their home so they could age in place. So dealing with all the finances and all the trials of that is something I understand for a very, very profoundly and very firsthand. I also wanna recognize that as mayor, I have not necessarily been dealing with the statewide issues. I've studied them quite a bit and we'll get to them in the Q and A. But I have been dealing with senior issues right here on the ground in the community and we're sitting here in the Davis Senior Center and that's a fantastic example of how a community can create a space that brings everybody together and that can be part of the backbone of how we serve our seniors. And so here in this very building we've had our transit workshops that I've been part of always speaking at them to make sure that seniors know what their transit options are within the community. We've created this Connections Cafe to bring seniors together to share their different challenges and issues. And so here we have the Scan Foundation putting up the funds to help the Yolo Health, the Asian Alliance move forward and that kinda tells me that a little bit of private money with a strong mission that brings us all together and puts the information down that we're all gonna need to manage seniors in the future can be tremendously powerful. So I look forward to taking my experience as your mayor in a broad, broad set of areas, the connections to campus and all the things that we've worked on forward and to serving all of you. So I'd like to look forward to your support and look forward to learning from all of you. Thank you, Joe. That must be Assembly Member Yamada. Go ahead. Our next candidate is Bill Dodd. Now Bill comes to us from the Napa County Board of Supervisors where he has served since March 2000. He continues to serve as a supervisor and he represents the cities and the County of Napa on the Metropolitan Transportation Commission and recently served a two year term as a chair of that commission. He's been a member of the Justin Sienna High School Board of Trustees and he has also served as chair of the Local Agency Formation Commission of Napa County, the Napa County League of Governments, the Napa County Transportation Planning Agency and the Napa County Flood Control and Water Conservation District. Bill graduated from Justin Sienna High School and from the California State University at Chico. He went on to own and operate a Culligan water operation and during this time, Bill also served in the community as president of National and State Trade Associations, the Water Quality Association and the Pacific Water Quality Association. Bill was honored in 2014 by the Napa Chamber of Commerce as its citizen of the year. Bill? Thank you very much, Jim. Thank you to the Yolo County Healthy Aging Alliance. I appreciate the opportunity to be here today. During this campaign so far, we've talked a lot about labor, we've talked a lot about democratic issues, we've talked about ag, we've talked about the environment, but we really haven't given the focused attention and time to senior issues, to elder issues and as the senior citizen in this group of candidates, I think it's high time that we do that. We're doing that right here in Yolo County and I appreciate the opportunity to be here to do that. I do have a passion for this. It was interesting that the statistic on the slide said that in Yolo County, the 10% or 65, I assume that was 65 and older, but yet the number statewide is much higher. It's over 20% and over the next 20 years, that is gonna more than double. So the problems that my colleagues on this panel accurately pointed out about senior issues moving forward are gonna be more critical as we move on and waiting until that happens. I think it is disastrous that we need to get action out. We need to start restoring these cuts and get the help to our seniors that they need, want and deserve. In Napa County as chairman of the board in 2006 of the board of supervisors, we instituted a new policy which put one supervisor in every commission on aging meeting every single month. This gave me the opportunity for our board members to be in a commission on aging meeting a minimum of two times and in some cases three times a year. In addition to that, we started seeing that some of these issues were coming up and we waiting for an annual report from our commission on aging seemed a little bit, it wasn't enough. And so we've asked them and they have done it twice a year, twice annually we will have a report from our commission on aging to our board supervisors. And we really have found that that has kept us really clearly more in touch with our seniors than the issues that they face on a daily basis. One of the things that we've been able to do as a county board is we are the only county out of 58 counties in the state of California that has a licensed program with background checks for caregivers of anybody that offers care to senior citizens. I'm very proud of that because when we first came to the board of supervisors, we turned it down. I think it was probably around 2006 and the reason why we turned it down was quite simple. This is a state program, none of the other counties were doing it. For heaven's sakes, why should this fall on the county board supervisors? Well, let me tell you, my appointee to the commission on aging was not impressed, was not happy one single bit, and she just happens to be my ex-mother-in-law. They just said, let me tell you, we had some conversations and we came back out of a different way. And they asked for two members of the board of supervisors to come and sit on the committee that had just spent maybe 26 weeks or so, half a year, on formulating this recommendation to the board of supervisors that we turned down. So myself and supervisor Dylan sat on that committee and all of a sudden, things began to make a little bit more sense. When you start hearing it, it's easy to have the statistics on a board, but when you're sitting there and you're talking to the DA and the DA is telling you about cases that we have in our own community and some of the details that he has that nobody else had or they didn't want to put up on the board during the board supervisors meetings, all of a sudden we understood the issue. And my colleague, Diane Dilla and I worked tirelessly and we brought within, I think was another three months back to the board of supervisors, a proposal that we passed 5.0 to provide licensing and background checks for anybody that works with senior citizens in our community. And I'm telling you, it's a model and apparently, it's my understanding that the assembly member in Yamada is doing a fantastic job in this area and she's taking that as a model to the state which it needs to be. I mean, it shouldn't be just people from Napa County that have those type of protections, every senior needs and should have those protections. But moving along, I kind of met in preparation for this, we've had with some seniors that I've become very, very familiar with over the years and worked with tirelessly. And just what are the things that are important to seniors and what are the things that we really can do as a government to make sure that we're moving the ball in the right direction so to speak. And clearly what happened is that we came up with a California should have the capacity to serve our seniors with fluid access to a variety of services necessary to maintain independence and live in the least restrictive environment. The question that becomes, what does a healthy community look like with regard to senior citizens? And I think when you get to this, it kind of spells out where we need to be and why these cuts that have been made need to be fixed immediately. So a healthy community looks like this is when seniors are valued and afforded every opportunity for choice in living conditions. Where care and housing that offers dignity and least restricted living, I've mentioned that. Where all caregivers are licensed and we're gonna get there. And all facilities have meaningful oversight, appropriate services and caregivers. And finally, where seniors know and understand their rights and then have an expectation that those rights are gonna be enforced. And that is not happening today and we need to make sure that that enforcement is an integral part of whatever program that is put in place for our seniors. So in closing, I do really appreciate the opportunity to be here. I believe Tyrell is after this for seniors in Napa County. And I feel like I am the, certainly, as I said on the top of the talk that I am the senior citizen. But I'm also the most experienced and I've got 14 years in government with significant accomplishments that my colleagues and I have performed over those years. And then finally, I think that my 25 years of business experience also adds to that whole experience level to go to Sacramento, roll up my sleeves and get things done for the people in the state of California. So I appreciate your time and look forward to your questions. Thank you, Bill. We're gonna go into the questions now but we're gonna start with a general question. I'm gonna go a little bit out of order to give everybody a chance to go for a second and third. The first question is, what would you do as an assembly member to assure that the needs of seniors are met in the state of California and in our community? I'll start with Joe. Well, I think that, what's the time? Two minutes? It's two minutes. So there are four areas that I see where we wanna focus our attention for seniors. First is, first is housing. The second is healthcare. The third is long-term care. And the fourth is transportation and independence. So to give you some of the ideas that I've been talking to people about in the area of housing, as was mentioned, we approve universal design for Canary. I do wanna say that I held out on the Canary vote at the end because of a safety issue. And I didn't feel that the developer was adequately addressing safety in the project. But I was certainly fully supportive of the universal design, senior citizen commission recommending that unanimously. I think we need tax credits and deductions for home modifications to help people be able to age in place. Absolutely universal design should be more universally accepted. We should have more options for middle-income seniors. Wealthy seniors are doing fine. Those seniors that are on MediCal and Medicare are fine. But we need to look at more options for middle-income seniors. And I also think we need more support for more flexible, transit-oriented developments that help seniors live closer to where they're gonna shop and have their different interactions with the community. In terms of long-term care, we really have a major piece of legislation moving forward, a major act moving forward as a legislature now. This is this residential care facilities for elderly reform. This is exactly the kind of serious regulation that we need in the area of senior long-term care to make sure people are protected. Moving into healthcare, I'm a very strong advocate for single-payer, but I also wanna recognize that seniors in Medicare have a single-payer system. And that is a system we should learn from and expand. I like the idea of integrating MediCal with Medicare so we can provide more services more efficiently in a less confusing way for seniors. That's not in YOLO. It needs to be in YOLO. I absolutely understand that. So more to come. Thank you. Thank you, Joe. And I'll have the next question answered by Bill. Great, thank you very much. During this time of economic crisis, services to seniors, as we've talked about here today, already have been slashed and cut to the bone. And economies of scale have also been reduced. Where we know that it's more efficient for some of us staying in their own home, yet IHS services are being cut. And it really, the cuts, when you take a look at what they are in comparison to the other cuts or the other things that have been reinstated are really insignificant in comparison when you really look at the human element of what this really means when somebody is forced to be removed from their home into an assisted living facility or from an assisted living facility into a skilled nursing facility. So this is something that I think is very, very important that we work really hard and get these cuts restored. To provide effective care oversight, must be restored. And I talked about that in my opening comments. There's this reverse mortgage situation that's going on right now. And 10% mortgage default is the number of today. And you know if there's tenant defaults, how many do you really think that there are, that are in crisis? And the people are going through the worry and the state of mind for people is a critical problem. And I have some ideas on that on how usually the state omnis, omnis, then program perhaps to review these things so that these people that are preying on these seniors stop. And then finally, as I said before, we need to have licensing and background checks. Thank you very much. Thanks Bill, Dan. Thanks, there's a number of things we can do. Number one, reverse the disinvestment that's been occurring. I talked about this before, I've seen it firsthand as a council member I talked about this before, I've seen it firsthand as a deputy county council with the county of Solano, that means IHSS. We've got to commit IHSS workers to get over time. I think that's key. Mental health, certainly CalFresh, meals on wheels, these, got to reverse the disinvestment. That's absolutely critical. Second of all is we need to incorporate universal design into our building code, okay? It's not part of our building code right now in the state. We're forward looking in terms of our environmental sustainability, we need to be very forward looking in terms of our universal design. The cannery, which I champion in large part because of its universal design principles should not be the exception, that should be the rule. Third, we need greater regulation of assisted living facilities and we need the creation of more assisted living facilities so that folks can age in place and age with dignity and that's key. And certainly that's not happening now. Fourth is that we need to provide more grant loan programs like the one that I set up in Davis to allow folks to renovate their houses to stay in place. I think that's critical. Another thing we need to do is we need stricter enforcement of our existing. We have a strong elder abuse laws in California, next in large part to some of our Merrimata Center or Wolf, others. Problem is we don't have the resources to strictly enforce them. I mean, Alisa at Liznick is seeing that. I'm seeing that at the county in terms of our VA's resources. We need to have the resources to enforce those. And lastly, and this is more of a federal issue, but there is a role for the state is that we have to preserve Medicare and Social Security, I think that's key. So those are just a number of things that I would do regarding seniors. Thanks. Thank you, Dan. And please write your questions down on the cards. Just hold them up and someone will come by and get the card or feel free to approach the microphone. I do have one request for a question that relates to nursing homes. That's really a two part question. What can we do to avoid a placement of seniors in nursing homes? Those that don't necessarily have to be there. And then part two would be what can we do to make sure that seniors are safe in nursing homes? Start with you. Well, clearly, obviously it's much better to stay in an assisted living facility than it is to go to that nursing home. And what's really interesting is how the funding and the incentives for the funding kind of pointed more towards nursing homes. And I think that there's an incentive often where somebody ends up in a nursing home because of the cuts, everything that had happened that won't allow them to stay in assisted living. The other thing in terms of assisted living isn't the panacea that, first of all, it's better if I'm talking, I'm going to enforcement. That's one of the things that was just shocking to me while the state of California has rules and regulations and goes in and checks out nursing homes and we all kind of saw some really significant issues about that in that nursing home in Walnut Creek. But when it comes to oversight of assisted living, it's amazing. And this was brought to us by our commissioner, D.J., where somebody, because due to negligence of somebody in an assisted living facility dies and they come in and the state comes in and the maximum fine is $10,000. Well, I can tell you, I'm a hunter and I know that there are rules and regulations with the California Department of Fish and Game that if you shoot the wrong animal, you get fines way more significant than $10,000. And I think this enforcement and rules and regulations and fines at all levels need to be bolstered to protect our seniors all throughout the state of California. Thank you, Dan. This is a great question. The overarching idea, of course, and Sheila spoke to this before, is to ensure that seniors age with dignity and independence and that's really, this question really gets at that. I think the key is in home supportive services, IHSS. That has been decimated by the state. It's been terrible what's happened on IHSS. I've seen it at the county level, it goes beyond just issues like not allowing providers to get over time, which I'm hoping the governor comes around on that one and something gets worked out at the legislature. But it goes beyond that, it goes to the overarching issue of providing those in-home services to a senior who's living at home and needs help. But we don't, doesn't wanna go to the assisted living silly, which of course is much more expensive than that senior but of course for an integrated societal context. So the key to me is in-home supportive services and that gets to the heart of what I was saying before about this disinvestment and why it's really incumbent on our leaders to reinvest. And certainly when it comes to then the assisted living facilities and nursing homes is it has to be much greater regulation of those. I've seen it firsthand with my grandmother in terms of what we try to do with Davis and you see it throughout California. These problems that existed those assisted living so those are good ones, but we still have those issues. So the key is to have seniors be able to age in place and to get healthcare in their homes and that's why IHSS is so crucial and of course other things including rehabilitation programs and of course buildings, home-designed in the first place. All that feeds into that independent living and that aging with dignity, that's so critical. Thank you, Dan. And our next question is, we do have people with the microphone, I'm gonna read one and then we'll go to the microphone. I'm sorry, did I miss you, Joe? Yeah. I didn't mean to leave you out. Go ahead. Yeah, the first point I wanna make and I think we probably all agree up here is that we have had a tremendous, tremendous champion in Rico Yamada over the her six year tenure in the California State Assembly. So whoever comes into the seat needs to carry up for her legacy. She's now the chair of the Assembly Committee on Aging and Long-Term Care. Her bill, AB 1816 is one of these bills to kind of tighten up the regulatory oversight of homes. Let's talk about nursing homes a little bit. In-home supportive services, absolutely critical. Since 2011, in-home supportive services cut 8%, that's significant. One of my concerns about this governor's budget is that we didn't go back and look at all the things that over the last three or four years we've been not able to fund or we've cut back like IHSS and bring them back in. So one of the things that I would do in the assembly is make sure we're looking back at those things that have suffered, not just forgetting them completely. I'll tell you from my own personal experience in talking to friends that there seems to be this kind of growing industry where people are able to provide senior care in their home. They can become an IHSS worker. They can unionize through SEIU. They can get paid. They can get, they can take care of their loved one, but maybe two or three others. And that provides a job for them. It uses our existing housing stock to provide services. It keeps seniors connected with other seniors and with somebody who could be there liaison out into the community. So I really like to explore how we could create more flexibility. I think we might be getting a little walked into long-term care facilities and assisted living care facilities and nursing facilities. And let's provide seniors with as much choice as possible. And certainly adult and predictive services are key. Janet's parents have been victims of elder abuse by somebody who knew them with us in close contact with them, but it still happened and there was a tremendous theft from their assets right under their nose and so on. So I have had experience in elder abuse firsthand without any questions. So those are a few thoughts of mine on this very important question. Thanks, Jim. Thanks, Joe. And I'm gonna read a question as we'll go first to Dan and to Joe then to Bill. The question is middle income families often fall through the cracks because of their inability to pay privately for many senior services. I think one example of this would be in-home supportive services where there is an income qualification. Do you have any ideas to address this disparity? Dan? Yes, it is true that if you're on the hiring and of the income spectrum, obviously you're doing a lot better and you're able to get these services and to age with a lot more resources than others at the low end, I would disagree with something that Joe did say earlier. I wouldn't say that folks, seniors on Medi-Cal are doing fine. They're certainly struggling and it's not as if they're not falling through the cracks as we've seen with these cuts, whether it's the CalFresh program or the Mental Health program or IHSS. So you've got certainly saying that. But yes, there is also in the middle income there, folks who maybe are exempted from some of these programs but are really getting squeezed in terms of their ability to pay for these. And you see it not just in seniors, you see it in other areas and just this general squeeze that the middle class is under, inequality in California is really growing and you see that in terms of seniors as well, in terms of those services. So I think it's really incumbent on us as policymakers to do what we can to address those. I mean, obviously, I have to focus on, again, those at the bottom of that spectrum, but certainly not neglect those sort of in the middle that are getting squeezed and then do what you can on that one. Okay, thank you. Joe. Yeah, I raised this earlier, just kind of making sure that we don't forget about the middle income seniors. A few things that I would kind of add to this. I mean, I think that tax credits so that middle income folks can take a deduction to modify their homes to make sure they can age in place in their existing homes is something we could move forward with right away. There's no question about that. I think more subsidies for senior affordable housing that gets a little bit higher up in the income classifications. And again, provides a housing stock that serves middle income seniors is important to think about. I also think the general movement, which I've been part of as a director of our second area council of governments are providing more housing options, more transit oriented development, greater density. With the Canary subdivision, we certainly had the kind of the senior elements that were requested by the senior citizen commission and others. But we also created kind of a diverse housing pool within it. There was more, it wasn't a lot of these larger homes that we built, for example, in Lake Alhambra but we did a lot of things that are more kind of in the middle and those would sort of exactly these types of seniors as well. I also wanna call out transit again, right? And helping seniors have transportation is very important for their mobility. The average cost of a car in California is $9,000 a year, right? And so one of the things we pioneered here in Davis was Zipcar to make sure that people, for $8, $9 an hour can at least get a car when they need it. And I've had people say, we created a Zipcar budget of $200 a month. We never use that. And we shed a car. Well, that's $9,000. So I think anything we can do to just help people in our community save money is a good thing. Thank you, Joe. Bill? Well, I was hoping I'd get a few better ideas on the panel here in terms of, so maybe I could add to that. Actually, tax credit if Joe was, I think a good idea. Oftentimes though, at this, that income level, it's fabulous in terms of how many of them are making that much, earning that much money and what that can do. This hits close home to me because, and I'm in my concluding remarks, tell a little story about it. But my mom was hit with that same middle class problem where she was kind of forced out of a hospital because Medicare wouldn't pay any more. You go into that another time, but really I think that what we've gotta do is we've got to evaluate what the income limits really are and maybe even index to the cost of living that amount. My guess is is the income amounts are set and they've been set what, 1985 or so? And so everything else should, a lot of these other factors where you have in government spending and everything are related to the consumer price index or the income index, that would go a long way perhaps in bringing that coverage up for middle income, middle income people that have been squeezed out of those benefits. Thank you. We are going to go to our speakers who have been patiently waiting to ask questions. And this will be a question addressed to all three. We'll start, go back to the order of Dan Joanville answering the question, thank you. My name is Joan Beesley and I'm with the Oval County Alcohol Drug and Mental Health Coordinated for the Mental Health Services Act. So as you might guess, here's a Mental Health Services Act question. In 2004, California voters passed the Mental Health Services Act, which imposes a 1% tax on individuals with incomes over a million dollars. The act has identified older adults as an underserved population, but there is a lot of competition for these dollars. Currently, Yolo County receives about between six and $7 million a year in revenue from the Mental Health Services Act. Share with us your approach to the MHSA and specifically its programs for seniors. Dan? I'm glad you mentioned MHSA and I would just say that Senator Steinberg, who championed it, is a supporter of mine, someone I've had long conversations with about mental health. Mental health is really gets back to that disinvestment that I was speaking of before. It's really a key reason why I'm running. That's really where you've seen that disinvestment occurring. And it's not just in terms of seniors, but you certainly see it there and it was called out or is called out in the MHSA. But you see it in all parts, in all demographics and it reverberates in all aspects of our society. I mean it's hard to find an issue, certainly an issue today that doesn't at some point touch upon mental health. So the MHSA was wonderful. I thought it was great. I think there are a couple things about it. First is that it's limited in terms of what it can fund and it sort of focuses on new programs instead of existing programs. I think that's a limitation that I find concerning about it. And second of all is it's good in terms of its funding, but we need a lot more of it. So I have, I'm certainly supported the MHSA. I think it's been good and I know Yolo County has gotten millions and we've seen it in Solano as well. And those have gone to some very good programs. But we need to be doing more in Sacramento in terms of assuring that programs that can't get funding from the MHSA get that funding, whether because of rules the MHSA itself or in terms of just a general lack of funding. And it's key to have champions for mental health like Senator Steinberg in Sacramento. There aren't enough of them. And I would absolutely be a champion. I can't stress that enough. I've seen it firsthand that personally I've seen it at the county. It's just, it's so critical mental health services to our society, seniors a lot of us, I'd say. Thank you. Joe. First of all, I'd observe that Yolo County has really a tremendous legacy and even a leadership position, if you will, in mental health issues. And so I was very pleased to see in Sheila's opening presentation, kind of making sure that we're linking the existing resources of the county in mental health with senior issues. And so to try to think about as much as possible, kind of breaking down the different silos between programs and making sure that we're all learning from each other exactly kind of what this big grant is doing here, what brings us all together into this room. I would look to advance that theme overall. There's no question, as I've done my reading, that depression and suicide is going up. And Sheila mentioned that as well. Again, that's good. Give the mainstream mental health services and over into the seniors as well. I understand this issue of no geriatric psychiatrists in Yolo County. I'd heard that it was low. Sheila said that it's no. That's something where we've obviously got to spend some time and attention. And then there's lots of been cuts overall to county mental health facilities. And there again, we have to make sure we're taking care of the existing programs and that there's no proper 63 budget cuts. We're part of that. We need to be continually looking kind of back at the things that we've cut and make sure we're learning from the good of what we did cut and making sure that this funding becomes available. We get those things back in. So that would be some of my experience and some of my thoughts that I bring to the question. So thank you very much. Great. Don't have a lot more to add to that, except for, I really do think that we need to expand these two existing programs. Perhaps the requirement that it would be just to fund new programs is maybe, wasn't the way to move forward in the first place. What we did, we got cut from the State of California in Napa County. And I'll just go back to my experience and what we've done. We've had a policy, just like we had a policy that we didn't want to handle caregiver licensing and add that expense to the county government because that's really not a county responsibility. When times get tough, we have to take care of people. And so we really believe, and look, I'm an optimist. I think it's gonna take people in Sacramento that have experience, that have the ability to roll up their sleeves and think creatively and find new solutions to these problems. But until that happens, what we've done, we've had a no overmatch policy in the county of Napa. That's why fiscally, we've been so good over the years. But look, we saw these programs go by the wayside and faced with cutting these things. I mean, look, if they have had cuts, but we have not had the cuts and services that other counties have had due because our board has found the money and we've overmatched. Overmatch just means normally you have a match with the State of California on whatever the local share is. Or if there is no share at all when they're cutting the program or the county puts in the money. And that's what we've done to sustain our programs in Napa County. Thank you. Our next question is from the cards. And we'll start with Joe, go to Bill and Dan. This question is a little bit different, but the concern expressed is the prices that seniors will have to pay for food and the impacts on seniors of loss of revenue in our community as a result of the drought and a lack of availability of water for farmers. The question is, what do we do about our water issue? We'll start again with Joe. Very good. Look, this is whether it's Yolo County or Napa, we're agricultural economies out here and it's absolutely wonderful. 80% of our water in the city of California is spent on agriculture. And so the question is spot on that we have to be thinking about the connection between the water availability and our agricultural economy. Certainly, we need to make sure that in Northern California and this district, we're protecting the water rights that we have so that we can make sure that the crops are viable. I'm very proud of my role in the Woodland Davis Clean Water Agency project and the chair of the Woodland Agency Clean Water Project, a huge project. But concurrent with that, we adopted new water rates in the city of Davis and those water rates are arguably the most conservation oriented water rates in certainly Northern California and maybe even beyond. Part of what they mean for seniors, quite frankly, is low water users will have much less of an increase than those who use a lot of water. And so I've viewed those rates as both supportive of low income folks in our community and seniors in our community. But we also have a great obligation here again, I think the link to many of the great projects going on the county with regard to food and health between our farmer's market, getting more seniors to our farmer's market, we've got direct access to markets, we've got direct access to fresh food. The more our community can kind of eliminate the cost of food distribution and the cost of the middle person in the food chain, the more we can bring lower cost, healthier foods and you know, directly in. So whether it's here at the senior citizen or center or to some of our senior facilities, whether it's Roosevelt, third now, Chavez Plaza and so on, we have the opportunity to make sure we bring healthy food to our seniors at a lower cost and I look forward to doing those things. Thank you, Bill. Yeah, you know, I'm not, I'm not encouraged, at least for this year, what, you know, obviously again, being the internal office, I'm very hopeful that we started getting some significant amount of rains because I just don't think that the government has the ability to do things, you know, that quickly that it's gonna help the pricing schedules of things that are gonna come out this summer. I mean, you've got cities like Davis that's done a great job with their water. I think the city of Napa's done the same thing. We put in water reclamation plants, we're already doing that. So that the lower rains that people have that conserve water that are already in place are really gonna have to, you know, do most of the job, but the economic realities to this of a drought today and the pricing on food, you know, in the near future, within the next six months, just realistically, Dan addressed the question, I'm not hopeful, I'm more hopeful that we can get some rain in here so that the farmers can alleviate the significant problems and wait for them in the future. If we don't get the rain, you know, just, I think Joe's answer in terms of lowering the other costs of food in terms of delivering everything was spot on, that seems to me to be, you know, again, another long-term solution. But the other thing is we gotta go back and look back at the regulations that this state has put on our farmers and the contribution to the cost of our food. Look at I, we can't ignore the middle class any longer. We can't talk about the divide between the rich and the poor and not want to increase the minimum wage, but we've gotta be realistic in terms of, and I think the plan that the legislature has right now for that is very, very appropriate, but we've gotta be careful of what we do that's gonna increase the cost of our food to our citizens, thank you, sorry. Thank you. Our next question will come from the microphone. I know right, so yeah. Oh, I'm sorry, yeah. Yeah. And I want to answer the water question. I, among other things at the county, besides dealing with a lot of these issues, senior related issues, mental health, I deal with water. I'm the county's water attorney essentially and focused on the delta. Food prices certainly were rising before the drought and the drought is just exacerbating it. It's frustrating to see food prices rising while you see land going fallow because of a lack of water. It's terrible and it conjures up images of the grapes of wrath, you know, that kind of that type of situation is terrible. A couple things I'd like to say, it's hard to answer a question about water in two minutes. First of all, is we need greater conservation. Even in agriculture, we can do even more conservation. There's more we can do in terms of, in terms of looking at different technologies and in terms of ensuring that our water is used most wisely, more we can do on that front. And this, of course, raises the biggest water issue in certainly this district, but the state, and that is the Bay Delta Conservation Plans Tunnels plant by the governor. And I am unequivocally opposed to the BDCP Tunnels plant. That's clear. And no legislator from this district should be at all in favor of that or any component of that. I stand with something, you know, when Congressman Garamendi about on that, I stand with Senator Wolk, Senator Ramada, Supervisor Bovez has been very strong on that. And the key, the biggest issue with the B, there are a number of issues, but certainly is the threat to our water supply here in the North and also is the effect it's gonna have on the Delta and the real elimination of a lot of our agricultural land without true mitigation. And that's a real big concern of mine. So those are a couple of things that I would say about the drought and food prices, but it's arguably the biggest concern right now in this district in terms of our water. Thank you, Dan. We'll go next to our questioner at the microphone and the order of the answers will be Bill, Dan and Joe. Thank you. You wanna move it down a little? Shorty. My name is Elaine Roberts-Musser and I'm part of the advocacy group on the Yellow Healthy Aging Alliance. This is gonna be a tough question. In the Yellow Healthy Aging Alliance, we've noticed that so many of the cuts are foolish. They're penny-wise and pound-foolish. We've seen cuts in IHSS, older adult program, those sorts of cuts that end up robbing seniors of their independence and then putting them in nursing homes, which is more expensive even to the state. That makes no sense. So my question is, how are you going to get the legislature as a potential legislator? How are you gonna get the legislator to take a harder look at the decisions they're making so that they aren't penny-wise and pound-foolish? And I know on another issue, I was testifying before the Law Revision Commission of the legislature and I was amazed that there were lobbyists who had gotten in there and had convinced the committee to gut consumer protections. And I had a list of them and it was just, it was glaring and I said, what are you doing? And they essentially put back all of those. But it took a citizen coming forward to say anything. If I hadn't said anything, you would have your consumer protections gutted. So as legislators, what are you going to do to make sure that our consumer protections stay in place and that we don't make foolish decisions that are penny-wise and pound-foolish? Terrible done, though. Well, I brought that up in my earlier points that the economies of scale have been absolutely lost with the state of California on these proposals, these cuts where you've got Medicare or even Medi-Cal, in some cases, they're paying for some things that could be used a lot more efficiently elsewhere. But two, the question really is what would I do as a legislature? I would do the same thing that Betty Rhodes did to me. Look, I would sit down and this is what I think has been lost in many parts of the legislature is the camaraderie and people getting together. I am a census. There is just absolutely no doubt about that. And the thing is, I don't really believe that senior issues know partisan concerns. And we, and everybody that's up there in that legislature has a mother, a father, a grandmother, a grandfather, a brother or sister or somebody that has gone through these issues. And I just think it's, I don't know, it defies common sense, the funding we have right now without these economies of scale. And frankly, I think that the legislature currently today ought to be re-addressing this because, but then there are these issues that's a, there are federal guidelines and obviously funding sources and state, but I think it's just a matter of regrouping and rolling up the sleeves and getting it done. The money is there, the savings are there, and it makes sense to do it. Yeah. Elaine, that's a wonderful question. It really, I've talked about it before today and elsewhere. It gets to the heart of really wanting to learn there's been this, this investment. And these programs, yes, whether it's mental health, whether it's IHSS, yes, they cost a bit of money, but they're great investments, both in terms of the short term in terms of what's happening, in terms of the dollars that are going out then, but it's preventing sort of these larger issues. And IHSS is a perfect example of that. I mean, if someone doesn't get IHSS services, they end up in assisted living or nursing homes or if the IHSS provider isn't getting over time, you have to think about hiring another or it's more expensive. I think this raises it and I disagree with Bill respectfully about it has in many ways become partisan. It has, there is a sense among a number of folks in Sacramento that government doesn't have this role to play in terms of investing. And in the past, our government has played this strong role. And it's not just in senior issues, you see it in education and infrastructure. And we have to have leaders who are willing to reinvest. And I believe the people of this state are willing to do that. Certainly it's district, the conversations I've had, they all agree, these ideas that I talk about certainly in places like Lake County, which has the highest poverty rate of any county in the state. They understand that we have these challenges and that it takes a concerted effort by our leaders to reinvest and to address these issues, both in the short and long-term. And that's exactly why I'm running. So your question really gets at the heart of why I'm running and why it's so critical right now to have leaders in the legislature who understand that. Joe. That's a great question. First of all, Elaine, thank you for your service as Chair of the Senior Citizen Commission and Chair of the Water Advisory Commission in your role in Yolo County. We've talked about IHSS and we've talked about how we all know that those are better investments than putting people in bigger institutional facilities with higher overhead costs and to some extent more isolation for our seniors in less livable situations. Where my thinking goes on this is an article that was in the Atlantic about nine months ago. It was a piece by Peter Orzog who was the Budget Director for Obama at the beginning of the administration and he pointed out how little money we put into the analysis of government programs after we put enormous amounts of money into funding them. And what does that result in? It results in kind of lockstep, kind of doing the same thing we did or getting into these more partisan battles of are you pro or are you con? So my decision to run for this Assembly seat was highly influenced by the fact that we have a new term limit rule in California where whoever gets this seat is gonna be able to serve for 12 years and I look forward to serving in the Assembly for 12 years. And what that means really gets to a little bit of what Bill alluded to which is I think we're gonna have a new culture in the legislature, whether it is Democrat or Republican we're gonna have a body that gets to know each other for a number of years and we're gonna have a great opportunity to really analyze these programs, decide what works, what doesn't work, how we mesh these programs with our counties and the federal funding formulas that are gonna come through, the Affordable Care Act, going to single payer, there's gonna be all these things. So I look forward to being a bit postpartisan, certainly not a shrill in my tongue and working with everybody and doing kind of the analysis and coming together as a legislature to create kind of coherent programs that build over time and make sure we put our money where it's gonna have the greatest impact and that holds true for seniors but all kinds of areas of government need this kind of greater analysis of what we're doing and where we should go. Thank you. Bill. Hi, this is Alex. Thank you. Um. But I hope as long as you didn't do that, okay. We only have a two thirds majority of us Democrats that are there so the reality is it is a problem because where we are right now, our legislators aren't fully funding these things that are letting these economic issues become a problem. I've tried to vary the order as a result. I'm gonna use myself so I don't have time to talk. But the, we're not gonna have time to answer all the questions. So we're gonna take two more from the mic and then I'll try to take another from the cards that I got and we'll need to go on to concluding statements so we can finish by 1150 as promised. And then however, I think the candidates, if they can, don't have someplace else they have to rush off to, can stay behind and answer other questions. I received a couple that were more political than relating to senior issues and we should ask those individually because this is a educational event and we're saving for the Democratic Club or the Republican Club or whatever else, other forum is more of a political one. So I'll go to the microphone and we'll go with Joe, Bill and Dan on this one. My name is Judy Reynolds and I have a question because I have a 98 year old aunt who's presently in her home only because of assistance. She has hired a person to help her 24 hours a day. And Dan, you mentioned just briefly in passing the issue of overtime pay for workers who are doing in-home care. And I personally, because I'm a union file, I love unions and so I think it's a good idea for people to get overtime pay but when you're talking about 24 hour workers that gets a little difficult for anybody to afford help at that point. So I guess my question is, is there a way to compromise, not compromise but deal with both the issues of the need for in-care workers to get decent pay and those who are having 24 hour care, somehow a compromise on that issue where you could get people paid decently and get people who are in my aunt's position to be able to afford home care so they don't have to go into. I assisted living in the rest of the room. Judy, excellent question. Actually, this has come up in a couple other forms in different contexts over each of us. It's gonna have a little bit of time to think about this and learn about it. But the big picture here that everybody should know is in-home supportive services, the federal government has laid down the law and said there's not gonna be overtime paid. So that creates this problem where you get to 40 hours a week and after that, the federal say we're not gonna pay overtime. And then, well, the fed said we won't pay overtime and then Jerry Brown said no overtime, right? How's it? Yeah, so you kind of got this difference between the state and the feds. It goes back to, I think a little bit of what I was talking about where you're gonna have to roll up your sleeves as a legislature. I don't think there's any senior in this room who wants to have the system so expensive that other seniors are gonna be denied service. And this is a zero sum game at some level, right? We can invest as much as we want, but at some point we're gonna have to make sure we make the best use of the dollars that we've got. So I would look forward to being a member of legislature that kind of plays between this argument that's going on over overtime. I think in general, the IHSS workers would like the ability to at least work a little bit more even if it's without overtime because they wanna care about their patient, right? And you have this terrible problem. Somebody works 40 hours and then they have to stop working because there won't be the pay. Then you've gotta pick up another worker to go beyond that 40. So this is an area where the states and the feds have to be locked in a room and they have to figure out how they're gonna do it and they're gonna do it in a fair way that's affordable. And it's a terrible problem right now. Everybody's gonna put themselves in their corners and that's the kind of thing I wouldn't stand for. So one of the kind of examples of a problem as mayor where we're sitting down trying to figure out how we balance competing interests and find a solution. So it's gonna be tough. And I don't know that I'd be satisfied with the answer that I've given but two big powerful sides have laid down and said they disagree and it's gonna be a challenge. Bill? Yeah, I mean it even goes further because the cuts are less than 40 hours a week. So the quality of care and the gaps in care are even more critical. And so, this has been a real connection for us in Napa County because I sit on the IHSS authority. You know, we've actually gone to the point where we try, I guess it's a small county but we're four highest paying IHSS workers in the state of California. And we wanted to give a raise because we were concerned about them not getting over time and we have a, you know, just a problem. We look at these people are just doing incredible work. They're dedicated and what they're getting paid I think is really a slap in the face compared to the role that they are providing not only for our communities, our state but for the families that they are and the patients that they're serving. So we went and tried to give them 50 cents an hour raise which is, you know, not the B all in the end, all but up to $12 an hour now. And the state of California came back to us and said, looking, if you do that because the state's gonna take this program over we don't know exactly when this is but I think in the next year or two, perhaps. And the state of California says if you raise their rates 50 cents an hour when we're take over this program you have the responsibility for the maintenance of effort which means we would be paying 50 cents an hour for the rest of the time even though we'd be out of the program. And so it's really, you know, one of those things that, you know, is I think again, penny wise and pound foolish I know the state obviously has to watch their costs as they go into the program. Once they take it over, you can't have counties that are so high and others are so low and they would have to balance them by God's eye. Thank you. Thank you. Thank you. Dan? Great. Thanks for that question, Judy. Who happens to be my club scout pack leader when I was a kid? Nice to see you, Judy. But yeah, I would just urge Joe and others to talk to those IHS workers. They want that overtime pay. They deserve that overtime pay. I can't think of honestly a stronger advocacy issue for IHS workers than that overtime issue. It's a really big issue right now. And it's, you know, a value judgment of mine. I believe they deserve overtime and we've got to make that happen. It's just, you know, that's how I come down on that issue they deserve overtime just like other workers. And like Bill, I work in Solano County, you know, and I'm familiar with this issue and have seen up front those challenges. And Judy certainly presents a, you know, really it's a good point about how yes, it is more expensive to provide that overtime. It is true, but you know, it's just something that I believe is something that those workers deserve. And again, just getting back to the entire issue of IHSS, which you've been talking a lot about is it gets back to that this investment that you've seen in IHSS, which I think, you know, not only hurts in the short term, but certainly in the long term as Elaine Roberts-Musser's question went to in terms of folks not having access to IHSS. So, yeah, this is just one of those where it's just a value judgment of mine. I believe those workers deserve overtime. And we need to, as a state, fund it, thanks. Yeah. I think I went, but I would say, you know, the issue is that the federal government has said you must pay overtime, and the state has said you might not earn overtime. So that just creates this conundrum that we're in now. Have a question, one more from the cards, and then go to the microphone for one more, and then we'll go to the closing statements. The question from the cards is that expresses a concern that low-income seniors are having very difficult time with housing, that the waiting lists are very long, and that there's an age gap. You have to be 62, but there are seniors between 55 and 62 that this questioner believes are left out, and also those who are 55 and disabled. So the question is, what would you do to address the gaps in low-income housing for seniors? And we will start with going on that. You saved the toughest one for that side. That is a conundrum. You know, I listened to Dan talk about the overtime and adding that cost, and I've heard and taught before about adding universal preschool, which is I totally agree with too. But you know, at some point in time, I don't know. There's $3.5 billion in universal preschool. What's the cost of going? I don't know what we're gonna do, you know, frankly, because we're looking at a state budget that, you know, well, I think it's better than it's been in recent memory, but the reality is in three years, you've got the tax that's coming off at 30, and that's gonna have to be addressed. You know, I know that the housing authorities have long-waiting lists. I know that we do and that, but I think that's a real big concern, and there's got to be some sort of incentive for the state, perhaps, that will allow some housing opportunities. But you know, I don't have the magic answer, perhaps, you know, my colleagues will. Yep. Me or Dan? Jeff. Sure. Fine. You know, we've talked about this a little bit. You know, the affordability is critical exactly where these gaps are. I would look forward to learning. I think I won't go long on this and speculate. I think more diverse housing choices within communities are a solution for all generations. I think we've locked ourselves too much into the kind of standard single family home on a big lot. I think more people want to live more compactly, closer in, closer to transit, and that works for seniors, and hopefully that works for at least some of this class of seniors that are a part of this question. I think that the theme I brought up earlier, which is kind of helping more people use their existing home to provide care for seniors where we might have three or four or five in a house, is a very strong economic model that can make sure people don't fall through the cracks, can stay more connected to others, can share experiences, can share transit, can share car costs, can share Davis Community Transit ideas, things like that. So those are some of my thoughts. I agree with Bill, these are tough challenges. And we have to think tremendously about how we communicate the trust we need the public to give us. I mean, we need to instill in the public's mind that the elected officials are making the best possible use of your dollars. And I want to do that. I want to be able to tell people this is the most economically viable solution that we've got to provide the greatest good for the greatest number of people. And if we don't do that, the revenue side, which we desperately need, is going to fall apart because people aren't going to trust that the government is spending their money wisely. I'm actually very proud of the longer things we've done in Davis to try to show that we're spending the public dollar wisely. And I think that holds true in this context as well. And Dan, how would you address that gap in seeing your housing? First of all, I appreciate Bill bringing up a few of my platforms. You can see more of those at www.dan.org. But including the Universal Pretty School, I appreciate that Bill. So yes, there's a couple things to be said about this issue. I think it's really critical. First is it's worth looking at the current laws as they relate to senior-only housing developments or senior-qualified housing. I think it's worth taking a look at those, seeing if there makes sense with our changing society. Second of all is, again, it gets back to this disinvestment that you've seen in too many areas that hit really on this. And Bill mentioned it before or touched upon it with Section 8 housing, which comes from the federal government funding. That's been cut. That allows a lot of folks to be able to afford housing. Certainly there are huge waiting lists for that. There were huge waiting lists for that when I worked on it as a law student clinic in Berkeley and it's even grown now. Another one is the demise of redevelopment in California, which provided, at least in the city of Davis, for example, 95% of our affordable housing was funded through redevelopment. That's gone away. And I understand why it went away. I'm not disagreeing with that. I think that though we have to find ways of funding the good that went away with the development, one of those mainly is affordable housing. There's a lot of folks in the legislature working on that. I think it's something that we need to focus on. But the long-term goal of this is our projects like the Canary Projects is to ensure that we both provide housing in the first place and to provide senior friendly housing, multi-generational housing that's close to transit, that's close to services in the Canary, it epitomizes that. I'm not saying it's beyond and all of that, but it's, you know, we have to have that kind of development. If the first of all looked to create more development, that is senior friendly. And then, you know, again, it gets back to universal design principles and my time's up. But there's a lot to be said for this, it's a new question. Thank you, Dan. And we're gonna go to a final question, but before I do that, again, thank you everyone for submitting the questions. And I know there's a number that we didn't get to, but again, feel free to come up and ask the candidates after we finish the forum. Our last question. Hi, thank you Phelps. I work with family caregivers under the National Caregiver Support Program. And I just wanted to share with you in this forum, kind of, maybe it's a summary a little bit of some of the needs that you've addressed. Sounds like all three of you are aware of many of the issues. I want to point out a couple of other things. Of course, the in-home caregiving is a major issue. I think it's, you need to be careful. You keep talking about IHSS. That is for low income people. And when we're talking about in-home caregiving, the big, big gap is those who don't qualify for IHSS services as well as they are on a fixed income. They may be able to care for the person at home for a while. But if you're caring for somebody with dementia, it becomes a 24-7 job. Many, it's mainly women, need to quit their job, stay home and care for that person. They can't afford to place them in assisted living where they would get three, eight hour shifts of 24-hour care instead of that one person providing that 24-hour care. So we really, there's a lack of availability of trained caregivers. We have no licensing requirements in the state for caregivers, no training requirements. Anybody can say, I'll come and take care of your mom or your spouse for $10 an hour. You pay them cash under the table and we have the whole labor issue is another thing. And partly because now, since January 1st, the new labor law that's come into effect has raised the cost of agency caregivers to almost to the point where you can't afford to hire somebody from an agency because of the overtime and the insurance requirements. So all I'm doing is pointing this out. I don't know what the answers are. I just know we really need to look at the caregiving industry. And because we need trained caregivers, maybe there needs to be something in the job training programs through RLP, through community colleges, for some certificate kind of programs to train caregivers so that and some ways, some easier ways to do background checks. We need a private registry for caregivers similar to the public authority that does the IHSS registry for caregivers. And many of the people who want to work independently as caregivers maybe need some business training on how to be a self-employed independent contractor type of caregiver, which we really don't have right now. There's a big insurance gap. People think when they go on Medicare that that's going to take care of their health insurance needs. Then they go to a hospital, a acute hospital, are there for two days, need to go to a skilled nursing and find out that Medicare does not continue to pay for the skilled nursing because they were not in the hospital three days. And so we have a big gap in the Medicare insurance piece there. And I'm glad to see under the new Affordable Health Care app that people can supplement their Medicare with MediCal possibly that helps. But it's a big gap in the insurance. And we can make a change in California. We've kind of set our own parameters with the cover of California. And so I think you have an influence there in that area. Could we then narrow it to one question? I really don't have a question. I just want to repeat what you just said. Maybe I can help you. You did raise. One more minute, okay. Affordable housing is not necessarily affordable for low-income people. So when you're talking low-income and affordable, you're talking two different things. And so that's another area that really needs to be addressed. Budget-wise in the state, as you know that we've had a lot of cuts, we've talked about how to enforce some of the regulations. We maybe have enough regulations, but we need the Ombudsman program was cut. The Caregiver Resource Center program staffing was cut. These are ways that can help monitor and help caregivers access services. So those are just some of the things I wanted to add to what you're, I know you're already aware of. Thank you very much. Thank you. You raised a number of very good points and very good background for, but since there isn't a specific question, I think we'll go directly to the closing statements. And I'll ask the candidates are free to address any of the issues raised throughout the forum today or any new issues. And please feel free to discuss whatever you want. Don't have to limit it to senior issues. This is your chance to give some concluding remarks and sell yourself to our audience. We're going to go in reverse order for the closing statements, starting with Supervisor Bill Dodd. We're gonna do up to three to five minutes. You can do three or if you wanna go five, that's fine. All right, first of all, thanks again. This is a great opportunity to talk about elder issues. I really respect and appreciate my fellow candidates up here. We're obviously the decorum. And also, I think some really good potential solutions. I told you that I was gonna talk a little bit about something personally on my closing remarks. Something that really, what happened to me and what happened that's making me a tireless advocate, I really believe, certainly not in the level of Mariko Yamano, but I haven't gotten there yet. But let me just tell ya, in how senior issues can affect people overnight without even knowing it's gonna happen. My mom was a 79-year-old woman that was living in not assisted living, but just in a senior citizen center, if you will. And she was in great health, had been out. She drove to her car, drove her car, went out to lunch there the day before, came down, we know now with the bladder infection, the next day. And through an error from the place that she stayed, an error from the doctor, an error from the laboratory, they failed to recognize it was a bladder infection. In fact, there was no sample. The bottom line was for three days she sat in the hospital with a bladder infection without treatment that caused a heart problem, moving on and on and on. So they finally figured out the problem and basically took care of her eye medications and everything and then she got C-diff. And I don't know if you understand what C-diff is. It's colon bacteria that you can get in hospitals that's resistant to bacteria. And I'm telling you what, they have to be part of a family that went through, I think the dignity issues that she had to deal with and lots of dignity. And then when three weeks later she'd been in the hospital, still go better, saying I'm sorry, you know what? Your insurance is no longer a healthcare social worker had came in and you know this woman was just doing her job. But I'm sorry, your mom's insurance doesn't cover this any longer. You're gonna have to take her to a skilled nursing facility. And you know, I knew what that meant. I really knew what that meant. And my wife and I took my mom home. We decided we were gonna do it that way. But you know what? My wife, we almost brought her back and just the ugly facts about C-diff is it's just so hard to get rid of and on day eight she got it. But this is something that I thought about. You know, I am an honorary trustee of the Queen and Valley Hospital Board in Napa County. I'm a county supervisor with access to and supposedly all this knowledge and contacts with, you know, getting things done. And here I couldn't do it for my mom. I really look at that. I could not do what she needed for her. It's all sudden it brought to me, look at all the people in our community that don't have any resources at all. They don't have the money. They don't have the contacts. They don't know. They don't have the transportation. And what are they doing? And so you know, we don't have her anymore. She lived a great life. But the reality is is I am committed. This is something that is worthy of doing. I've seen what a loss of dignity had done to somebody that I love very, very much. And I wouldn't wish that on my worst enemy. And so I just pledged to you. I, you know, I almost hate to do this after talking about, you know, my mom. But you know, I've got 130, you know, endorsements from local elected officials, not just in Napa County, people that live in the district all throughout the six counties that we serve. You know, I've got the funds. I've borne really hard since July 8th when I got the raise to earn enough money, to raise enough money, to run a competitive campaign. I've got a work ethic that I believe is second to none. And I've got a passion to help people. And I hope that my experience and often experience is underrated, but I've got overrated. I've got experience with accomplishments. And I'm not going to go into them. You've got them down there. But I just really appreciate the opportunity to be here today and to be able to address you and let you know a little bit more about me. And thank you very much again to the Yolo County Aging Alliance. Thank you for putting this on. I appreciate your time. Thank you. Next is Mayor Joe Corvosa. Well, delighted to be here today. Thank you again very much to the organizers. And boy, you know, two hours goes by awfully fast when you're enmeshed in such tremendous issues. And really great thinking going on from the audience and up here with my colleagues as well. I may add just a couple of points actually to maybe add to some of the things that Peggy said at the very end that I haven't touched upon yet. One of my most profound experiences was being a pretty bored junior high school student who was also then honored for being the most outstanding student in the school. And I thought, well, that's kind of a little bit of a dichotomy, right? And I had cousins who were attending a vocational education school run by the Silesian brothers in Rosemey, California. And I thought, you know, they're really getting empowered. They're really digging in. They're really excited about high school. And so I went off to Don Bosco Tech and I studied electronics. But I saw the power of vocational education. And I think I bring a lot of education to this race from being a community college trustee and serving in the California Student Aid Commission and working at University of California. But this area of senior care is absolutely an area that lends itself to a much, much more robust vocational education system in the state of California. We have to train the workers. And so we all know the demographics. We've talked about it. We know that we're heading to a 2050 situation with 20 to 25% of our population being 65 or older. And that means that this industry of caring for our seniors is exploding. And that means we're gonna have to train the workers, whether we're talking about IHSS or smaller in-home care situations. And I would bring that experience as well. I'm very impressed here with the ideas about enforcement, right? Laws that are hollow get us nowhere. And, you know, as a trained attorney, I would arrive at the legislature really thinking about how we protect those, especially with the laws that we have. But if we need more laws, which we certainly do in this area, then we would move forward in that area as well. We're also in this incredible time of greater information sharing, right? Part of the consortium that you put together here in YOLO only happens because we can create web pages. We can communicate more freely. And we need to make sure that the state of California is that independent arbiter of great information that we can all use to make the transportation, long-term care, healthcare and housing situation decisions they're gonna carry all of us forward. I am running for this seat because I have been able to make a difference on so many large issues that have taken tough decision-making in the city of Davis. I've been the mayor for over three years now and whether it's budget, whether it's labor, whether it's housing, whether it's transportation, it's just whether it's water, it's been one big thing after another where I've had to sit there with staff, with my colleague and figure out how to make the tough decisions. I look forward to taking that kind of ability to bring people together, to make public and private decisions come together for the betterment of the community. I wanna bring that forward. The second thing I wanna say about why I'm running is I love this district and I know my colleagues do as well but this is a really fantastic assembly district. This is ag and open space and my environmental values that I think many of you know about match that. This is a great county in Yolo and in Napa that really roll up their sleeves on social services. We support the rural, supporting the urban and the urban supporting the rural. That's very unique to have this great play that is built between our farmers markets and our access to food and all of these things. I know I match that way. And I work at UC. This district includes Sonoma State and four community colleges who have been a community college trustee. The educational assets of this district and the ability to link them to everything we do is something that just makes me smile. When I wake up, it would make me happy to go to work in the legislature and I know I could do a great job integrating that great educational infrastructure from all it brings from the UC and the Sac State students that are volunteering for Yolo Adult Day Health and here and so on. My campaign has over 600 individual donors. Over half of our donors have given $100 or less. Our dollar figure as well is somewhere between Mr. Wilkes and Mr. Dodds. We're a little closer to one side than the other. But I think I've had tremendous support. My list of supporters are the people that I've had an association with, the people on my overall list or people that one person at a time, I've built that list. I've served all of you. I'd like to ask for your vote for assembly and I look forward to serving you in the future and the legislature as a great, great representative continuing the work of Mariko Yamada. Thank you all very much. Thank you, Dr. Joe. And last but not least, Mayor Pro Tem Dan Wolff. Thank you, Jim. And thank you to everybody, certainly for all you do. But coming out here and asking such a great question has been a great conversation. I appreciate my colleagues as well. And thank you specifically to the YOLA Healthy Aging Alliance and then certainly Jim for moderating and Sheila Allen. So I think as you've seen here today, I think I'd present a bold vision as to what we need in our state. And a lot of these issues really get at that. That real need to reinvest and that great amount of disinvestment that's occurred predating even the Great Recession. And it's really critical for our policy members to initiate that reinvestment and to be willing to make those type of decisions too. And that's the vision that I present. And it goes all the way from childhood, from universal preschool, all the way up to these issues that we've talked about today, including our long-term care. So basically there are three reasons why I think I would love your support. First is that vision that I present. Second is my experience, which has come through today. I mean, I talked about the legal clinic that I found and I should know if you meant to boost them out this year and I didn't see her before, but she was also very active in the clinic's formation. But certainly on that level, as a private attorney and certainly on the city council where I've been since 2011 and have done a number of, have been a real leader on a number of these issues, including water, of course the cannery that we've talked about. And then lastly is my experience as a county council for the last number of years at Solano County where I've really focused, certainly on the issues presented here tonight, but on a whole host of other issues, whether it's realignment or the Delta or others. So vision, experience, and lastly is my clear ability to work with others. And that's really critical in the legislature. I think that the ones who are successful, the ones who are able to work with others. And I think, I have a number of endorsements from throughout the district, coming from folks who I know very, very well, but also folks who I only met in the last few months. School board members out of Rona Park, for example, or the city council members in Lake County who I've met with, talked about their issues and they like what they're hearing and they endorse me. No other connections, but really that, me going out there for a weekend or multiple days and talking about it. And so a lot of these, the folks who are supporting me are supporting me for the vision I present and for the experience that I have and my ability to work with others. And I think my ability to work with others is really key here in the Ola County. And you'll see that all five members of our school board have endorsed me. The other three members of the city council have endorsed me. Our two supervisors, including supervisor, supervisor, and supervisor, have endorsed me. And it's clear that I have that ability to work with others. And that is a key part of the legislation. Bill is right when he talks about the importance of working with others. And that's the key to making legislation happen, not only with having that vision, not only having that experience, but having that ability to work with others. So we're getting a lot of support and what's key here, and this is the last thing I know is much enough on time here, but the key here is we've had a strong advocate for these issues in the state capital with the semi-memory model. She's been excellent on these issues. She's been excellent on progressive issues in general, on democratic issues in general, and she has been strong. And we need a leader from this district who shares those, who is strong like her on these views. And that's what I present. And we're getting a lot of supporters to see that. And yeah, I would just really like your support. Thank you very much. I would like to thank all three candidates for coming today and for running for office. We have a tradition of excellence with our members of the legislature, and that tradition will be continued with any of the three of these candidates. We're very fortunate to have such good people running for office. I would like to thank a few people. Again, the Yellow Healthy Aging Alliance Board of Directors, the In-Home Supportive Services Board of Directors for sponsoring the event. Palm Gardens for providing the food, and there's plenty left. Feel free to take some before you leave. And also Davis Media Access, they're going to be providing cable and website access to this event. So if you want to see it again or tell somebody who wasn't here, it's going to be available. There's candidate literature in the back. You can get more information. And also an opportunity to meet Congressman Garamendi on Monday at noon, one, one o'clock. Right here at the Davis Senior Center, he's coming to meet people, so feel free to show up, and I'm sure he'll be happy to talk to you. But again, thank you very much to the candidates for coming and presenting their views today.