 All right Mr. Chair, I think we're ready to begin. Good morning. I'm to Santa Cruz County Supervisor Bruce McPherson. I'd like to call to order the Santa Cruz County Board of Supervisors meeting of May 18th 2021 at the hour of 9 a.m. Clerk please call the roll. Thank you. Supervisor Koenig. Here. Friend. Here. Coonerty. Here. Caput. Here. McPherson. Thank you. Chair, you have a quorum. Very well. Okay. At number two, we'll have a moment of silence and a pledge of allegiance. And I understand that Supervisor Friend would like to mention someone. Thank you, Mr. Chair. I'd like to acknowledge the passing of a great second district resident, Al Aramburu. Many of you probably know Al from his work here in the Planning Commission for multiple terms, but many also know him from his work across the state. He served on the Marin County Board of Supervisors for multiple terms. The Tipperine City Council before that even served in the U.S. Army. I'd like to also note that due to his conservation work in San Francisco Bay, there's an island named after Al actually in Richardson Bay in Marin County. Al just really was a great person, served a lot. His entire life was dedicated to public service and I appreciate the opportunity to have this board recognize him in a moment of silence. Thank you, Mr. Chair. Thank you. Any other board member? Okay. We will now have the Pledge of Allegiance. I pledge allegiance to the flag of the United States of America and to the republic for which is stand one nation under God indivisible with liberty and justice for all. Item number three, we'll have consideration of late additions to the agenda, additions, and deletions of the consent and regular agendas. Mr. Blasius. Yes, Chair McPherson and members of the board, we have a couple of changes to the agenda. On the consent agenda, item number 23, there's additional materials. There's an attachment D, public correspondence. On item number 40 on the consent agenda, there's additional materials. There's a bid summary 2021 attachment D. That concludes the corrections to the agenda. Fine. We have any announcement by the board members of items to be removed from the consent to the regular agenda? Seeing none, we will move to item number five for public comment. This is a moment for any person to address the board once during public comment, not exceeding two minutes. Comments must be directed to items on the today's consent or closed session agendas yet to be heard items on the regular agenda or on a topic not on today's agenda, but within the jurisdiction of the board supervisors. We'll take public comments now for up to 30 minutes. If necessary, additional time will be made for public comments after the last item on today's regular agenda. Mr. Berger, do we have any public comments? Yes. And I also noticed that Supervisor Caput's hand is raised. Oh, excuse me. I didn't see that. I'm sorry. I'll make the comment after. Okay. Thank you very much. Thank you. And we have Matt Machado, the Director of Public Works and Deputy CAO. You will be the first speaker. Okay. Good morning. Can you hear me? Yes. Great. Good morning, Chairman, Supervisors, CAO Palacios, Councilor Heath. I want to thank the board for declaring the week of May 16th through the 22nd as Public Works Week in Santa Cruz County. Public Works is the combination of physical assets, management practices, policies and personnel necessary for government to provide and sustain structures and services essential to the welfare and quality of life for its citizens. In Santa Cruz County, that includes water, wastewater, recycling and solid waste, flood control, stormwater management and roads. It takes a lot of hard work and dedication by our staff to make this happen day in and day out. I want to thank you and the community for your continued support. Under the leadership of Carlos Palacios and your policy and guidance, we are making great strides forward to a stronger and more resilient system of public works for the betterment of our community. Thank you for this opportunity to share. Very good. I just want to say Public Works, a phenomenal job that you've done. We've had storm after storm since 2016. Phenomenal work to credit to your Public Works Department. They've done an outstanding job with the resources we've had and to be commended and thank all of your Public Works Department. Carol, your microphone is unmuted. Good morning. What legal authority does Dr. Ferris Sabah, the Superintendent of the County Office of Education and the 13 district leaders have to require our sons and daughters in school in Santa Cruz County to wear face coverings? Despite a recent change in CDC guidelines on face coverings and despite the removal of the local face covering guidance by our local health officer, Dr. Ferris Sabah and the district leaders have unilaterally decided that they have the authority to continue requiring face coverings for our sons and daughters attending schools in Santa Cruz County. I submit to you that they have no legal authority for this whatsoever. I want to point to your attention and email I sent to you all except for Supervisor Koenig because he was not in office at that time. This email is back from June of 2020, June 29, 2020. It's a whole list of scientific authorities that conclude that face coverings do not prevent the spread of disease and that they are harmful to the wearer. Specifically, there was a great article by Dr. Russell Blalock that says face masks pose serious risks to the healthy. Further, I also submitted a study to you that was done in Wuhan, China. It was published at nature.com. The study was about 10 million Chinese people and they decided and they concluded in that study there is no asymptomatic transmission of the coronavirus. So with all of this in mind, I would like to strongly encourage all of you today to send a letter to Dr. Sabah and these 13 leaders. Please strongly rebuke their gross overreach of authority to require face coverings for our sons and daughters in Santa Cruz schools and please demand that they remove this guidance immediately so our children can breathe freely. Caller 2915, your microphone is unmuted. Good morning. This is Becky Steinbruner. Can you hear me? Yes. Thank you. Good morning supervisors. I want to again ask that there be some place that is available for members of the public like me who cannot participate via video on your board meetings during the budget hearings so that we can see the screen presentation that staff gives to you so that we can participate and be knowledgeable of how our county is operating financially. It could be simple. It could be in the county building, but there needs to be some alternative for members of the public who participate only via telephone to be able to be informed of these budget hearings. I would also like to really question Consent Item 17. Why the county would put an item like this spending $43 million with 11 resolutions doing so on the consent agenda? It is incredible. This item should be publicly discussed. I have looked at some of the resolutions. They're very vague. $1 million to the CAO's office for sick pay. I would like to understand that better and this type of allocation of enormous public money merits public discussion and staff reports publicly. Finally, I would like to say that there is a new report out on the highly contaminated area at 1500 Capitola Road. That's the 57 affordable housing units, low cost medical and dental. The report is out. All groundwater samples are contaminated. Most of the samples in the soil were above the residential and commercial MCLs, maximum contaminant levels. This site must be remediated and I urge you to stop the development. Colin, user one, your microphone is available. This is Marilyn Garrett. Thanks to the two previous speakers. It's so rude to cut people off in mid sentence. Santa Cruz County and globally, 5G satellites and their base stations on earth are proliferating with no informed consent of we, the people. Here are just a few of the consequences. In an article entitled the contagion fairy tale, Dr. Thomas Cowan states that the authors postulate that the illness can be very serious and that the likely cause is radiation poisoning, probably from the worldwide deployment of 5G starting in Wuhan, China and followed by major cities throughout the world. In another article entitled 5G and the military marriage made in hell, Bruce Gagnon, who is with the coordinator of the global network against weapons and nuclear power in space, states it is no surprise that the corporate media is pushing 5G so widely and the eagerly without the slightest bit of critical thought. The Pentagon knows that the faster speeds from 5G will enable greater space surveillance targeting and offensive military operations as a result. Here's another quote on 5G and killer drones con-halanam. In just the first year of his administration, Trump killed more people including 200. Caller 5959, your microphone is available. Good morning. I don't know if this is the exact time to speak since I've never done this before, but this is in regards to the assessments which are on the agenda at Place des Maires in La Selva Beach. My name is Ellen Simon Fox and I own 165 Holiday Drive in La Selva Beach. Is this an okay time to talk about this? Well, you can. It's on the agenda. You'll be able to start your two minutes in a minute moment, but we have a public hearing on that right after we can conclude this opening remarks on the agenda. You can wait till then. Of course, I'm happy to. I'll do that. Okay. Very well. Thank you. Thank you, Chair. That concludes all the public speakers for public comment. Okay. Mr. Caput, did you, Supervisor Caput, did you have a comment to make? Maybe it was on item number four, I'm not sure. Yeah. Yes. Item number 24, I just wanted to welcome Sam Budman. Excuse me for just a minute then. You just want to comment on the agenda. Okay. Then we'll go to item number six, action on the Consent Agenda. Mr. Caput, go ahead. You can start. Yeah. Item number 24, I want to welcome Sam Budman to the Pajaro Valley Public Cemetery District Board of Trustees and his longtime resident, and he served on that board before, and he's going to be a great asset to the county. Thank you. Okay. That's the only comment you had on the Consent Agenda then. Is that correct? I guess. Yeah. Okay. Supervisor Koenig? Yes. Thank you, Chair. On item 17, accepting the funds related to the American Rescue Plan, it's looking forward to continuing to define plans for how we're using the board-directed funds on this, in particular, and relate to the broadband funds, a thorough study of where the needs are in the county and where we're going to get the most bang for our buck in terms of extending broadband service. Then, as far as the apprenticeship programs, I also look forward to learning more about the MC3 program that the Workforce Development Board suggested, and some of its current enrollment rates, and whether that is the best way to proceed. If new classes provided would actually be filled, and, of course, then, as far as supporting women and minority-owned businesses, I look forward to seeing more of a defined strategy going forward for that as well. On item 20, I want to thank Emily Hansen for volunteering to serve on the Human Services Commission. She'll bring depth of knowledge, both as currently working for GreenWaste and some of the job-related programs she's run, as well as having lived experience with her father suffering from homelessness. She's very passionate about this issue area, and I think that she'll be a fantastic public servant. On item 23, I want to thank my colleagues for bringing forward the support at the End of Life Act, even in discussing it from the First District Office. We have a number of folks who have experienced this issue firsthand, and it's great to see the Board supporting us. On item 28, Metro electrification for non-revenue vehicles. You know, this is really going to help move Metro towards larger electrification of the fleet in general, and having more support services available for electric vehicles. So, thank you, Chairman Pearson, for bringing that forward. I think item 34 was perhaps one of the most interesting items on the Consent Agenda. I learned a lot about the Mental Health Services Act and the way our county allocates funds for mental health, and I was excited to note that there is funds specifically for innovation in there, and I also noted that this is not specifically, it doesn't represent a permanent contract with any of the suggested services, and I look forward to working with the Director of Health Services to continue to improve the way we provide mental health services in our county. And then finally, I just want to thank Public Works for the completion of work on Redwood Lodge Road, item 38, and Vine Hill Road with item 39. That's it. Thank you. Thank you very much. Supervisor Friend. Thank you, Mr. Chair. Also on item 17, I appreciate the work of the County Administrative Office, the American Rescue Plan Recovery Act funding, and I agree with Supervisor Koenig just about, in regards to the RFP on broadband, I think that some of the metrics to consider would be a number of households served disadvantaged community status, whether or not the expansion of that middle mile would also in the future allow us to expand to other homes. So for example, if it serves, say, 70 homes, but the line could then be extended on at a much cheaper rate for future homes, that that would also be something in the consideration. And since it is COVID-related funding areas that were disproportionately hit by COVID would be something that we should consider in the RFP. All recognizing, though, that $500,000 is really just a baseline investment in something that needs a much broader investment. I do know that the state in their May revise is proposing the potential for additional funding. We have no real idea of how much will actually be allocated in that funding. I also don't know if that money would come to local governments, if it would come just to service providers, if it would be a public-based network funded by the state or whether we'd even need local funding as a match should there be a local requirement. So I think that it makes sense to continue this locked in this $500,000 investment even in the face of what could come down from the state. I think that if we do in RFP by the time such a thing were to be awarded, we'd have greater understanding of any sort of state or federal funds that would be coming in and whether this is duplicative or additive or what it may be. And there can be flexibility built into the decision making of the board at that time. But I think that this need was evidenced during the COVID, during the pandemic, especially for our local students and some of the households trying to do telehealth and remote work. We really have a long way to go to build out this infrastructure. And this is an important baseline investment. But I agree with Supervisor Koenig that we need to get as many homes as we can set up in this situation. I look forward to seeing what the RFP says. In regards to item 23, I'd just like to appreciate the work of my colleague, Supervisor Coonerty, who brought this forward to my attention. This California End of Life Option Act, which is passed in 2016, a lot of work was done by at that time, State Senator Bill Monning on this. And this is something that we need to extend and make permanent. I think it's an important component. I thank you, Mr. Chair. Thank you, Supervisor Coonerty. Thank you, Mr. Chair. Everyone said everything that I was going to say about all the items. So I appreciate the work of staff and my colleagues. And I don't have anything to add. Thank you. Supervisor Caput has already spoken. I do too want to just mention something on item 17 in a call with the California State Association of Counties or CSAC in Governor Newsom's May revise. He has $7 billion proposed for broadband and how that relates to our budget and what we can do in the matching criteria. If there is some, we'll find out. But that's going to be a very important item. And it is on the state level too. The letter number 28, the letter to U.S. Senator Alex Padilla to Metro, I want to really compliment all of our public agencies in Santa Cruz County that have worked diligently to submit proposals for congressionally directed funding, especially the county departments. The funding opportunity for Metro, of which I said, as long with Supervisor Coonerty, we'll backfill the funding necessary to continue replacing the fleet with electric buses. I really want to compliment Metro for being aggressive and being out front on this issue. If we have more electric buses, a lot of people ride those. We hope that more people will when the pandemic is literally over. And just thank Metro for its foresight and the necessity that we have to move toward electric buses in the future. It's been on the agenda of Metro for many years, and it's really a compliment to them that we'd be aggressive in getting these electric buses. So with that, I will move to hear a motion on the, to approve the consent agenda. So moved. Coonerty. Second. Koenig. County. Big brother roll. Supervisor Koenig. Aye. Friend. Aye. Coonerty. Aye. Caput. McPherson. Aye. Thank you. Motion passes unanimously. Okay, now we will go to item number seven. This is the one that our residents wanted to speak on. It's a public hearing. Item number seven is a public hearing to consider formation of the assessment of district 21-01. Place the mayor, continue the item to allow for tabulation and certification of the assessment ballots. Return the item to announce results of the balloting, except a certain certification of the vote results. Adopt a resolution adopting the engineer's report confirming the assessment, ordering work and acquisitions. Adopt a resolution authorizing issuance of bonds, approving and directing the execution of a fiscal agreement. Bond purchase agreement and official statements. Authorize the deputy CAO director of public works to award and sign contract and direct public works to return on or before August 24th, 2021 for ratification of the contract award and take related actions as outlined in the memorandum of the deputy CAO director of public works. And below that, we have items A through H about the resolutions and fiscal agent engineer's report. We will now have a presentation on the public hearing from the staff. Good morning, chair and board members. I'm Kent Edler, assistant director with the Department of Public Works. I'll be giving a brief presentation on the county service area two or CSA two place to mirror septic system project and assessment district formation. Let me share my screen here. Okay, so as shown on the picture, CSA two is located just south of Manresa State Beach in the location circled in red. It was established in 1963 and includes numerous services. However, the most substantial service is the operation and maintenance of the community sewer slash septic system. The CSA is comprised of 93 parcels, however only 78 of which are actually connected to the community septic system. 15 parcels in what we refer to as zone H shown in light blue have individual septic systems. Briefly, the system takes wastewater from the parcels along the ocean along ocean view drive where where it's pumped to a series of septic tanks where the solids settle out from the tanks wastewater effluent is pumped to a series of leach pits where the effluent drains into the soil parcels adjacent to the leach pit also have their wastewater directed to the septic to the septic tanks and leach pits. These leach pits were installed in 1964. So they're 57 years old and beyond their useful life. Back in 1964, a common type of pipe used was called Orangeburg, which was used in this location. It is essentially layered wood pulp that is pressed together. Many of these pipes have collapsed. Additionally, there is bio mat buildup which also prevents the effluent from draining into the soil. There are also some concrete septic tanks that have corroded due to 57 years of sewer gases. Since the effluent no longer seeps into the ground, our sanitation operation staff have been pumping out the septic tanks and hauling the wastewater about twice a week for the last few years. This is not a viable long-term solution. In 2019, Public Works contracted with biosphere consulting to look into the problem and design effects. Public Works staff also held a community meeting to let the residents know of the issue on November 13th, 2019, and let them know of potential costs. Our team worked extensively with the Water Board on a design that would meet the Water Board's requirements for treatment. Once we finalized the design of the septic system with the Water Board, we developed a cost estimate consulted with the county debt committee on the best financing options and subsequently enlisted a team to work on an assessment district which includes bonds to pay for the project. This team includes an assessment engineer which is Japanese from Bowman and Williams, bond counsel Scott Ferguson from Jones Hall, and a municipal advisor Suzanne Harrell from Harrell & Associates. The total project cost estimate is $2,870,000 which includes construction, design, administration, inspection, assessment district costs, bond issuance costs, and also the construction. So what this means for residents is that the per parcel assessment costs to pay for the project would be as shown as on the current slide. The property owners would be able to opt for a lump sum payment or have an annual assessment over 30 years. Public Works held a subsequent community meeting on January 27th to go over the proposed assessments and the next steps. There are numerous steps involved to form an assessment district and we're in the highlighted step. Previously the board has approved the engineer's report and intention to form an assessment district which happened on March 23rd of this year. That same date the board approved Public Works to advertise for bidders for the construction. Ballots were mailed out to the residents on March 30th. We also opened bids for the construction on April 28th. At today's meeting the steps are to open the public meeting to hear objections and protests, then close the public testimony and then continue the item to later in today's meeting which will allow for tabulation and certification of the assessment ballots which are required to be returned by the close of today's public hearing on the item. Once the ballots are tabulated and certified the board would return to the item to announce the results of the balloting and then close the public hearing. If the assessment balloting passes the bond closing is scheduled for July 20th and we expect to start construction around August 2nd. I also want to point out that the votes are weighted so a parcel with a higher assessment will have their vote be weighted more than a parcel with a lower assessment. We only count the votes received and in order for the assessment to pass the results of the ballots received must show that there is not a majority protest to the formation of the assessment district. I'll read the recommended actions for the board which spells out everything in a little bit more detail. So recommended action number one is to open the public hearing and hear objections and protests if any to the proposed county of Santa Cruz County service area number two assessment district number 21-01 play steamer septic system project or assessment district close the public testimony portion of the public hearing and then continue the item to allow for tabulation and certification of the ballots. Once that's done the board would return to the item to announce the results of the balloting and that'll be done by our deputy CIO director of public works Matt Machado then the close the public hearing and then final and then next would be to accept the certification of the vote results and direct the deputy CIO director of public works to retain the ballots for at least six months prior to following the certification and finally recommend action number seven and this is kind of a long one if the results of the balloting shows no majority protest to the formation of assessment district number 21-01 the recommendation is to adopt a resolution adopting the engineer's report confirming the assessment ordering work and acquisitions and directing actions and with respect there to direct the clerk of the board to publish an assessment notice once a week for two weeks beginning on May 29th 2021 in a newspaper of general circulation direct public works to mail an assessment notice to the property owners within the assessment district and record an assessment notice with the county recorder adopt a resolution authorizing issuance of bonds approving and directing the execution of a fiscal agent agreement bond purchase agreement and official statement and approving related documents and actions authorize the deputy CIO director of public works to award and sign the contract with the qualified low bidder direct public works to return on or before August 24th 2021 for ratification of the contract award and finally authorize the CAO assistant CAO and auditor controller tax collector to take all actions required to issue the bonds also want to point out that while we're opening the ballots we will have a live zoom link which is separate from this meeting if any member of the community wants us to wants to watch the opening of the ballots so that is that link is shown on the department of public works website which is www.dpw.co.santa-cruise.ca.us and that link is located on the bottom left portion of the the website so that's the end of my presentation we also have I'm available for questions we also have bond council staff and our staff from our sanitation group is allowed to answer any questions as well as some of our other consultants thank you for your thorough presentation I appreciate it I will go to open the public hearing to hear objections or protests if any to the proposed county of Santa Cruz service area number two assessment district number 2101 place the more septic system project assessment district do we have any comment no we have one comment coming in do we have any comments coming in from the public yes I have the previous caller at 5959 your microphone is available thank you for your patience to caller 5959 you are unmuted we can go to caller 2 915 hello this is Becky Steinbruner can you hear me yes thank you I am not in this assessment district boundary but I do have two questions that I would like staff to answer this morning during the public hearing for the public's benefit please confirm who it is which agency it is that is or has already tabulated the the ballot and I appreciate having the the live stream video I I cannot participate in that but I appreciate that that is available so please confirm who it is that has the the ballots and will be the custodian of the ballot for six months normally it's two years but the second question I have is what is the anticipated cost per parcel these are weighted ballots so the benefit will assumingly be greater for those parcels that receive more benefit what will be the cost to these property owners thank you that concludes my comment thank you I would like the question can we answer those questions Mr. Edler sure so the Department of Public Works will be tabulating the ballots and will be also holding on to those ballots and then the annual the the total assessment rates those there's three different assessments so there's the condos which is 29 309 dollars 56 cents then there's the homes the single family dwellings in the park area which is that assessment would be 49 399 15 cents and then the townhouses which are along the beach will be 31 520 and 52 cents and so the and then going through the annual costs for those the condos would be 1612 53 cents the single family dwellings their annual costs would be 2667 dollars 32 cents and the town homes would be would have an annual assessment of 1734 dollars 16 cents thank you for having that criteria readily available thank you I know that do we have another caller the one that wanted to get in earlier yes I have caller two also available and then I will give instructions to caller 5959 when they're up again user to your microphone is available this is Marilyn Garrett it would be helpful when staff is doing their report and I am on a landline that you say where the area is just specifically the geographical area and I don't it seems like sometimes these boats are questionable of the townings I have a friend in the San Lorenzo water district who's built on way up and I anyway I just have have questions about that and it's also interesting how at least people can vote on this increased taxes but we can't vote on things like broadband radiation being forced upon us no informed consent there those are my comments thank you caller 5959 your microphone is available please press star six to unmute your phone share the caller is not responding I believe they've decided not to speak okay that that's it is there anybody there are no other speakers to this item okay if that person should try to come on again let that have more to close the public hearing otherwise and return it to the board are there any comments from board members a friend thank you mr chair thank you mr edler and and I do know that we have received some outreach from some constituents just concerned about it but I do appreciate the work of public works providing explanation about the condition and what's necessary here obviously it is an expensive investment that's needed and I do have a question that's sort of a more macro question just based on the overall sphere of what's possible within the sanitation district recognizing that sewer service does extend to seascape at least what would be the long-term possibility of a sewer extension at least down into this region would such a thing be possible for us to do I definitely think it's possible it's it would be something that would be more probably financially doable for the for the residents the more you have so we could you bring in a larger area like the the larger the south of each area so that way the the the costs of such a system would be spread out and would be less to have a to pipe everything from 73 residents to connect into the larger sanitation district would be the cost would be extremely high my estimate would probably be around 13 to 15 million dollars and that's that's a lot of money you probably need about four pump stations to to get it there and about two miles of pipe right and I was I was thinking about it more broadly than that including the communities that are unserved along the way I recognize historically that that previous boards have made decisions about lack of sewer extension I just think that as these systems both not just in my district but I know definitely in the San Lorenzo Valley and Supervisor Koenig's district as well are continuing to fail there needs to be I think a broader discussion about the extension of sewer services into these areas where feasible this is an important transition process that's being proposed right here because there's there's a very serious situation that's being faced right in that area right now and this will help stabilize it but I think that for a future board 20 years from now or so it'd be nice to think about an infrastructure extension into some of these areas especially when we know the conditions of some of these you know some of these these septic systems throughout throughout the county and so just something I think that that is somebody also serves on the sanitation district with you and I appreciate that that and with Supervisor Koenig I think that it's something I think we should have a maybe a broader study session look at about how capital investments can help alleviate these moving forward I mean I know that if our resident and I had to pay for an investment I'd rather pay for an investment that has a long-term solution a very long-term solution than maybe something that that doesn't those are my my only questions thank you Mr. Chair. Thank you any other comments from the board even though I close the public hearing I want to make sure that initial caller did not try to get back in is that correct? We have another speaker that possibly may be there's another user that has raised their hand to speak. Yeah I'll let that happen under the circumstance I'm not sure who it is even though I close the public hearing I'll reopen it for this one caller. Thank you Marie Garcia your microphone is available. Hello can you hear me? Yes. Yes. Okay this is Ellen Simon's box again I um I don't know if I this we're having trouble okay we can hear you we can hear you okay my name is Ellen Simon's box I own 165 holiday drive in the Selva Beach my family purchased our home in 1976 before the home was built and we have lived there since 1977 our second and third generations are now enjoying 165 holiday we are having a family with a light footprint on our home and our septic system and our water use I understand the system must be upgraded and replaced we have paid $1,233 a year for 44 years short-term rentals have abused and overused the septic system the short-term rentals have changed our repellent neighborhood this incredibly engineered new septic system I feel is unjustly burdening those of us who have had a light footprint on our property for decades and is being built to accommodate those owners who are abusing our septic systems and neighborhoods why not assess us on our water usage the Soquel water district has all of our records a $49,000 lien assessment for an over engineered system to accommodate short-term landlords who are abusing their properties is horrific I urge you to readjust your assessments and redid your costs thank you thank you and that that closes the public hearing we will there's no further comments from the board we'll wait to bring back the vote from item number seven we will delay action on this item until we have found out what the results of the vote were and that'll come after item number nine on today's agenda we only have two more items to go before we have a closed session so we will we've closed the public hearing we'll direct staff to tabulate the results and return to us as we close item number nine hopefully so we vote in item number eight at this point Mr. Chair just as a point of clarification before Mr. Adler Lee's counsel does that require us to take an action to continue this item to that point do you need an actual action no thank you thank you Mr. Chair thank you very good thank you very good we're going to item number eight public hearing to consider resolution confirming proposed fiscal year 2021-22 benefit assessment rate and service charge reports for the county service areas 60 or excuse me 53 53n 53s for mosquito abatement and disease control is outlined in the memorandum of the agricultural commissioner we have the rates attachment for a csa 53 53s and 53n resolution 2021 csa 53 assessment rate reports so mr. Hidalgo going to be presenting this yes good morning chair members of the board members of the public quantitative agricultural commissioner joining me today is our our new mosquito and vector control division manager Amanda Paulson who started in that role last October Amanda has a bachelor's degree in environmental science and management and she also has a master's degree in ecology with an emphasis on vector form diseases from UC Davis and she also brings her experience as a vector ecologist from Santa Clara and Santa Cruz County our previous manager Paul binding retired last September after more than 25 years providing services to our community in our county so I'm pleased to have Amanda join our team and Amanda will go ahead and introduce the item today thank you thank you for the warm welcome and good morning everyone I'm Amanda Paulson the assistant manager for a mosquito and vector control division of the agriculture committee agricultural commissioner's office the county service area csa 53 was established in 1993 and then expanded in 2004 and 2005 for south and north county respectively to provide mosquito control and public health services to the entire Santa Cruz County these services are funded by a benefit assessment and rates are adjusted each year to account for inflation on April 13th 2021 the board set today may 18th as the public hearing date on proposed benefit assessment rate reports that will provide operational funding for mosquito and vector control in 2022 the csa rates presented have previously been approved by the board and outlined any rates attachment and either remain at the same level as in 2020 to 2021 or have rates in a consumer price index increase of 2% these rates have been posted in the local newspapers and available to the public and at the click of the board and the mosquito and vector control website prior to today's hearing if approved rate reports will be forwarded to the odder controller on August 10 to be included in the 2021 to 2022 property tax assessment role we recommend the board open the public hearing to hear objections or protests to the proposed three assessment rates for csa 53 which is north and south of the original and then please close the hearing and consider adoption of the resolution confirming benefit assessment rate reports for the 2021 to 2020 fiscal year thank you for your support thank you thank you very much we will open the public hearing is there anyone that would like to address us about item number eight yes chair there are members of the public that would like to address the board calling user to your microphone is available and as a reminder it is star six to mute or unmute if you're calling in from a phone it was difficult to understand Amanda for some reason the voice was echoey on I could hear the agricultural commissioner but my worries with abatement is that almost always it's use of toxic pesticides that get into the environment and affect more than the targeted insect I don't know how much of this is ecological but there's an enormous number of pesticides that cause cancer neurological problems the list goes on and on and I'm very much opposed to increasing poisons like that in the environment again I request when you're discussing an area with all the numbers that you state you know is this Aptos is the entire county what what area is it on the last item I didn't hear let's help up each area until the discussion later on so just for clarification that's my request thank you there are no other speakers to this item chair okay I will close the public hearing is there any Mr. Hidalgo or Ms. Pones can you generally tell us the area you're talking about geographically the agricultural area in general or is it whatever yes chair so the mosquito and vector control division operates countywide so the rates applied to both south and north county our work is performed in all locations of the county and depending on the location there are some minor differentiations in the rate but it's a survey that service that is provided countywide thank you mr chair I just like to make a brief comment first I'd like to welcome Ms. Paulson we're very fortunate to have you mr by name was wonderful but it sounds like you're exceptionally qualified also these costs are really de minimis compared to what value we receive out of them we're one of the reasons why we maybe don't value it that much is because of the great work that that team does on mr. Hidalgo's team across the country and across the world mosquitoes cause a significant amount of health related issues and we are in a community that really does not have those issues as a result of the work that this team does so I have to just say that I consider it to be not just a bargain but also an essential public health investment that this board makes it's a very small ask of our local residents to make that public health investment so I'd like to I appreciate her in the work of mr. Hidalgo and will be absolutely and would actually like to move other recommended actions on this item okay motion to me second second from Coonerty Coonerty thank you sorry and I think mr I think somebody has a comment yeah I'll make a quick comment oh excuse me all right mr that's okay how you doing one hanging in there okay I want to thank you and your staff thank you Amanda for your report also I'm amazed at how much work comes out of your office and small staff really and how much you benefit South County you stand up for the agriculture workers and look out for the general public with all these health issues just want to thank you and your staff for all the hard work you do thank you very much okay any other comments from the board we have motion to second please call the roll Supervisor Koenig hi friend hi Coonerty hi Caput hi McPherson hi thank you motion passes unanimously thank you we will go to item number nine to consider authorizing the auto controller treasure or tax collector to proceed with necessary actions to secure the 2021-22 tax and revenue anticipation notes those are referred to as trans you might hear that term tax and revenue revenue anticipation notes in an amount not to exceed $48,500,000 adopt a resolution authorizing the issuance of and sale of the 2021-22 tax and revenue anticipation notes approve the execution and delivery of a continuing disclosure certificate approving the form of the official statement and no purchase agreement approving the distribution of a preliminary official statement and an official statement and take related actions as outlined in the memorandum of the auditor controller treasure or tax collector we have a draft of the Santa Cruz County 2021-22 trans of POS May 10th 2021 resolution authorizing the issuance of those and NPA the county of Santa Cruz 2021-22 trans who will be presenting on this I will be Edith Trisco yes I'm Edith here our auditor controller tax collector treasure and everything else that makes the county run on money so excellent well thank you for that introduction good morning chair McPherson and members of the board as mentioned Edith Trisco auditor controller treasure tax collector also joining us this morning is Suzanne Harold the municipal financial advisor for the county on this bond issue the item before your board today is a request to authorize myself the county auditor controller to proceed with the necessary actions to secure the 21-22 tax and revenue anticipation note also referred to as a tran in the amount not to exceed 48 million 48.5 million dollars a tran is a short-term financing tool to assist the county with its cash flow management throughout the upcoming year the funds from the bond sale are received early in the year and we pay them back at the end of the year at set intervals revenues are set aside to allow the bond to be paid back in a one-time lump sum amount at the end of the fiscal year the county has issued trans for many years in the past as a management tool for cash management in past years I have explained that the tran is very helpful to respond to inconsistencies between when property taxes are paid and received and when the county needs to begin paying its expenditures property taxes are primarily funding source and they are primarily not received until December December and again in April the county of course begins paying budgeted expenditures as early as July 1 this situation is still true for the upcoming year however this year the tran will be even more important as the county waits to receive various FEMA payments that have an RB being filed by fiscal staff related to the extraordinary expenditures and the extraordinary cash outflow related to the CZU fire and the COVID pandemic specifically when sizing the amount of this year's tran the timing of the FEMA claims was taken into consideration and it was determined to increase the tran from the amount of last year which was 46.5 million to 48.5 million this determination was made after the county's fiscal team performed extensive analysis of the expected cash flow for the rest of the fiscal year as well as the upcoming year regarding the method of sale for this year's tran the county's finance team is once again recommending selling the tran through a negotiated sale this will mirror how the tran was sold in the previous fiscal year when we were also experiencing the effects of COVID on the county's cash flow as well as the recent effects of the CZU fire the tran last year was not issued until September although normally traditionally we issue it in June this year our concerns specifically are focused on the timing of FEMA reimbursements and the very very narrow cash margins the county is experiencing next fiscal year again this year we recommend using a negotiated sale with one underwriter who can best communicate to the investors on this sale Raymond James was selected this year as well as last year to be able to explain our situation to in its best light in addition to borrowing the cash flow the tran will also include an amount necessary for a portion of the 2021 delinquencies under the teeter plan this is consistent with past practices under the teeter plan the county distributes property tax revenues to the cities and agencies based upon the total amount billed on the property tax bills as opposed to the actual amount received therefore we allow these entities to have a guaranteed even cash flow an expected revenue source in exchange the county receives the penalties and interest on any delinquent taxes when they are finally collected in recent years the county has received the highest rating for our short-term debt from both standard and pours and moodies county's fiscal team will again make presentations to both of these agencies in the next few days at this time we do not anticipate any rating changes however both of these agencies we do expect to review our preliminary budget for the 21-22 fiscal year extensively as reflected in the board item before you I request that you approve the recommended actions authorizing me to proceed with the necessary steps to secure the 21-22 tax and revenue anticipation notes in the amount not to exceed 48.5 million dollars and that you adopt the resolution authorizing the issuance and sale of the trend approve the execution and delivery of the continuing disclosure certificate approve the form of the official statement and note purchase agreement approve the distribution of the preliminary official statement and an official statement and authorize necessary actions on the execution of the documents in connection with this issuance this concludes my presentation both myself and Suzanne Harrell our financial advisor are available for any questions Suzanne is also on this call thank you thank you and you make you made that as understandable as can be so thank you it's not easy but we are working with others to make this happen are there any comments from the board yeah if I may yes sir thank you yeah hi uh how you doing adith excellent thank you good how's your son doing in college excellent good glad to hear that i want to thank you for your report and i trust your math skills and everything and it's very difficult to uh to move all these numbers so thank you very much you're welcome supervisor friend did you have a comment no anybody have a comment from the board any comments from the public yes i currently have one caller call in user two your microphone is available hello i was listening to idiot driscoll's comments and about extraordinary expenditures for all this under the rubric of covid and here's a little insight into why this is happening and santa cruz county is not the only one so i'm reading here um from an introduction by robert f kennedy jr you referred to covid this is called the truth about covid 19 exposing the great reset lockdowns vaccine passports and the new normal by dr joseph mccollough i highly recommend this in america quarantine predictably shattered the nation's one spooning economic engine putting 58 million americans out of work and permanently bankrupting over a hundred thousand small businesses including 41 000 black owned businesses some of which took three generations of investment to build these policies have also set into motion the inevitable dismantling up the social safety net that nurtured america's envied middle class government officials have already begun liquidating the hundred years legacy of the new deal new frontier the great society in obama care to pay the accumulated quarantine debts say goodbye to school lunches health care with medicaid medicare university scholarships and war while obliterating the american middle class and dropping an additional eight percent of americans below the poverty line the 2020 covid any other comments from the public there are no other speakers to this item chair okay i'm trying to turn the board for action mr chair i'll move the recommended actions with appreciation for mriscoll's work second conic conic please call the roll super riser conic hi friend all right coonerty hi cappitz mcpherson hi thank you motion passes unanimously that completes our regular agenda do we have results of counting the balance on item number seven just a moment here i'm promoting mr adler back to a panelist okay he is joined again as a panelist do you have access to your microphone kent there we go yes i do sorry i was running back from the conference room so i believe um matt michado can he be elevated as well i think he was going to give the the results okay so just for clarification chair for the public we're returning to item seven at this point to continue the public hearing on the formation of the assessment district correct yes now the public hearing has been closed the public testimony portion of the public hearing has been closed but the public hearing is continuing just accept the results and to take further board action very good yes thank you thank you chairman if i may you ready yes all right thank you for your patience chair and supervisors uh matt michado deputy ceo and director public works uh public work staff have tabulated and certified the assessment ballots for the proposed county of santa cruz service area number two assessment district number two one dash zero one place to mer septic system project i certified that the results of the ballots are 69 in favor of the assessment district formation and 31 in protest or not in favor of the assessment district formation we did receive 37 ballots uh so at this point the recommended actions are to close the public hearing to accept the certification of the vote results and direct the deputy ceo director public works to retain the ballots for at least six months following the certification and the long item recommended number seven to adopt a resolution adopting the engineers report confirming the assessment ordering work and acquisitions and directing actions with respect thereto direct the clerk of the board to publish an assessment notice once a week for two weeks beginning may 29th 2021 in a newspaper of general circulation direct public works to mail an assessment notice to the property owners within assessment district and record an assessment notice with counter recorder adopt resolution authorizing issuance of bonds approving and directing the execution of a fiscal agent agreement bond purchase agreement and official statement and approving related documents and actions authorize the deputy ceo director of public works to award and sign the contract with the qualified low bidder direct public works to return honor before august 24th 2021 for ratification of the contract award and to authorize the ceo assistant ceo and and auditor controller treasurer tax collector to take all re all actions required to issue the bonds and we can answer any questions you may have before we ask for a vote or a motion any questions from the board uh entertain a motion to follow the direction uh just outlined by uh deputy ceo director public works ma'am shadow uh entertain a motion yes mr chair um i'd like to appreciate the work of the public works as well as the community out there who have spoken pretty significantly in favor of the creation of this assessment district i'd like to move all the recommended actions okay i didn't hear that mr cappett made the second i believe i'll make it uh i'll make it a second okay very well please call the roll thank you for clarification the mover is supervisor friend and seconder supervisor cappett supervisor conig hi friend hi coonerty hi cappett hi mcpherson hi thank you motion passes unanimously okay that that concludes our regular agenda we will now move into uh executive closed session there are four items on the uh closed session agenda is there anything reportable uh mr council there's nothing reportable today thank you okay then we will uh we will move into closed session uh the hour is uh just after 10 o'clock six uh 10 15 we will reconvene in closed session the regular meeting is adjourned