 Good morning everybody. We'd like to call to order the April 10th meeting of the Board of Supervisors. We could have a roll call Please Supervisor Leopold here Coonerty here Caput here McPherson chair friend here If you could please join us in a moment of silence on the Pledge of Allegiance Pledge of Allegiance to the flag of the United States of America and to the Republic for which it stands, one nation under God, indivisible with liberty and justice for all. Morning Mr. Palazzo. Are there any changes to today's agenda? Yes there are a number of corrections and changes. On the consent agenda item number 15 there's a correction. The item should read Schedule a public hearing on August 7th 2018 beginning at 9 a.m. or thereafter to consider a petition to rescind the sales of tax defaulted property Assessor parcel number 041-091-09 as recommended by the clerk of the board. On item 28 there's an additional materials. There's the bill text for AB 2421. On item 40 there's additional materials. There's revised packet page 265. On item 43 there's additional materials, revised attachment A packet page 284. On item 44 there's additional materials, resolution of intention CSA 23, resolution of intention CSA 28, resolution of intention CSA 36, resolution of intention CSA 59. On item 50 there's a part that's deleted attachment F packet page 459. And then on item 52 there's additional materials, a revised memo packet page 474. And that concludes the corrections to today's agenda. Thank you. We'll now ask any supervisors if you have items you'd like to pull or briefly comment on. Good morning Supervisor Caput. Good morning Supervisor McPherson. No, no problem. All right, good morning Supervisor Coonerty. Good morning. Just a couple of items to comment on. First is to add additional direction on item number 26. This is the parking program in Live Oak. To ask public work staff to explore using a park mobile sort of service so that visitors don't have to go to the kiosk they can access a permit online and report back with their findings. I checked this with Supervisor Leopold and he was supportive of that. The second one is item number 28 which is a support of assembly member stones bills to support butterflies and pollinators and just want to thank him for his efforts to make sure our ecosystems maintain their vibrancy and we protect important species. And finally on item number 48 May 19th will be the Davenport May Festival and just want to invite the community to come up for that great festival. It's food, it's fun and it's all for a great cause May 19th in Davenport. Thank you Supervisor Coonerty. We noted the additional direction. Good morning Supervisor Leopold. Good morning Chair. Just a couple items on item 26 and 52 are two items about the Live Oak parking program. I'm encouraging us to engage the Coastal Commission and re-looking at that program which hasn't really changed since 1981 when it was created and there are some new needs. And I've had some conversation with both staff and the Coastal Commission and I'm confident that we can work on something well and I support the efforts to try to bring us into the 21st century when it comes to parking programs. On item number 37 I want to thank the Parks Department for their grant application for the Soquel Creek Linear Park or the heart of Soquel. This is a great opportunity to make Soquel very walkable and it's a collaboration with the local landowners, the school district and Parks is playing a leadership role and I'm very excited about that. And beyond that, that's it. Thank you Supervisor Leopold. Two brief comments on my part. I'd just like to welcome Ms. Beaton to the Women's Commission as a new appointment from our office. And also on item 54 I'd just like to thank Public Works for the important striping and work that's being done throughout the South County in both the 2nd and 4th district on Casterley, San Andreas, Hulahand, Traukulch and Freedom. These are definitely streets that need attention so we appreciate your work on that. We'll now open it up to the community. If there's any items that people would like to briefly comment on or on consent which are items up to item 55 now would be an opportunity. Good morning and welcome. Good morning Chairman and Supervisors. Yes, on number 26 on the Live Oak Parking. As Leopold mentioned the last time was 1980 that's a third of a century ago. There's been numerous trees falling including knocking out one of your restrooms on that particular parking lot. Last year two trees fell and children were in that parking lot and it missed them by going on both sides. A lady left in her will, I think over $50,000 to replace some of those trees that grow smaller and have a tiny leaf. And I believe that by misfeasence the use of planting those trees is obvious to people that walk along that trail. They're laying sideways and most of them have died since they were planted because of the huge dangerous ones out there. The arborists you have should be fired or in jail. They're still building one of my properties over there that damage occurred last year. It's been 15 months. During the last storm after the storm had gone by two trees standing straight up in the air without any wind whatsoever fell and crossed the lake. And the last time I was here I'd mentioned it to John Leopold. There are dangerous trees. Somebody's going to get hurt and killed and it will because of malfeasance not misfeasance because you know about it. And any arbiter worth his salt would understand that. And that's true of some of the cypress trees there. We've been told that they're 15 years beyond their normal lifetime. Cypress trees normally grow like this but they've been trimmed to a tower. It's dangerous. That path is a guillotine place you have to hope they don't fall on you. It should be taken care of. And you can tell from the people that live in the area the trees tower but over on the parking lot where a man where five trees fell on his house. They're trimmed because he happens to be work for an insurance company and is an attorney. While the citizens just less than 100 feet or 100 yards away suffer the threat. When we have a storm at night tenants want to drive over to 26th Street and not stay in their residence. So it's time to take care of that. Thank you. Is there anybody else I'd like to address specifically on items on consent. Yes line item 32 public and justice safety AB 109 regarding the money it's going to be appropriated to the probation department. I want to be able to say this. This I want to be able to illuminate members of the public because this is very important. These programs are bleeding over not just from Oakland to San Jose to San Francisco but they're bleeding over here. AB 109 is all about the false generosity acclimating the American public for modern day slavery. And in Santa Clara County they have the people that are that are going through the reentry center AB 109. And I literally got thrown out of the county board of supervisors for bringing bringing this political prop which is I brought a blow up dolly inflatable blow up dolly. Right with the gorilla mask with the American flag symbolizing that Santa Clara County they're turning good law biting citizens into public slaves. And they're acclimating them for that modern day slavery program for that slave economy and cleaning their parks their buildings in the streets. I would say is hey we need to be I want members of the public to know that these programs are bleeding over. And it's not cool when we say our fellow Americans in the slave economy just wallowing. I got a sixth court of appeal by my good Jewish brother Jonathan Grossman regarding this abuse. And I want to be able to say this the political machination in Santa Clara County is not going to work whatsoever. And I want to be able to say this when it comes to the AB 109. I'm totally adamantly against that. The money doesn't need to be appropriated. It's just a waste of taxpayer dollars. The American public need to find gainful employment. They need to be able to find living wage jobs that are going to purvey to help them help pull them up out of poverty and not just let them wallow. When people fall in hard times they should be able to look for the public law for salvation. Thank you. Thank you Mr. Alexander. Is there anybody else I'd like to address us during consent. Good morning. Good morning Becky Steinbrenner. If I pull items today would you grant a favor and put them on the regular agenda and discuss them right after consent agenda. Is there a reason why you can't speak to the items during the consent agenda. I have submitted written communication to the department heads and received no communication back. So I just need some discussion and clarification. Which items specifically would you like to pull. I would pull items 25 54 and 55 25 and 55 are related to the Davenport 80 foot tower. And I have concerns. 25 54 55. Is that correct. Yes. 25 54. OK. And 54 regards the striking. I'll pull that. Is there and I'll put them immediately after consent. Thank you. Thank you. I really appreciate 56 1 2 and 3 for the clerk. Thank you. I very much appreciate that. Thank you. Anything else you want to comment on. Yes. Thank you. I would like to protest items 16 the destruction of electronic nonjudicial public records. After two years I think that is not long enough time and I really don't see the need to destroy electronic records because they take up so little space. And this could provide information for future historic things which by county code the historic commission must review everything before it is destroyed. But it could also provide valuable information for future litigation for both sides. So I want to protest approving this destruction of electronic nonjudicial public records. I will also want to protest item number 18 because as I wrote to you I do not I am not confident that the deferred compensation commission has actually met. They are not found on any of the county websites. And I want to make sure that the S.E.U.I. is involved in any decisions regarding the deferred compensation administration in this county. Item 39 I want to protest the Rio del Mar concessions. I was here when the county bought that piece of property adjacent to the sea breeze tavern. And it was stated that it was unbuildable and that's why it was being bought and it was on tax default. There is legal ramification of that in two ways. The owner of former owner of the property still considers himself the owner has filed legal action against the county illegally taking that land from him. It's also a bar and he does well he did lose his ABC license but he does have medical marijuana business there. And the concession would bring children right next door to this. I also want to protest 53 the additional hiring of engineers for 230,000. And number 22 using salaries and benefits from general services to buy equipment. Thank you. Don't go anywhere this time because we're going to hear those items right after we take this vote. Is there anybody else I'd like to address is specifically on consent on an item on consent. Just got off the bus. Yes. Did you want? Okay. Please. All right. Number. Excuse me. Running around. Number 11 affordable housing. I think should not be exempt from California Environmental Quality Act. Nothing should be exempt from that. We have to have a healthy viable environment. That's number 11. That's my brief comment on that. Number 16 I found very troubling about the county destroying non what does it say judicial records after two years. I think the county needs to keep all all records and I think you have all this computer and data collection. That's easy to do. And that's because we can look back at the records and see what you've done what you've voted on is beneficial to the public or not. Or that you acted in ways that benefited money and corporate interests. I think of the film Aaron Brockovich where PG&E contaminated Hinkley California with the chromium six. And it was only because she was able to obtain the records going way back to show that corporate PG&E knew of the harm and work was covering it up. You need to keep these records for the public records. I also think how I have submitted over the years since 2000 about the dangers of cell towers that are being approved represent approval. And you have it on your records but it sounds like you're destroying it. So somebody wants to look it up. And let's see. The last one number twenty eight markstones bill monarch butterfly and pollinator rescue program. Of course we need the pollinators. We need to have an environment where they can survive. And the cell tower radiation is known to destroy pollinators bees especially we can't live without the bees. So it sounds to me like a bandaid measure. I haven't read through the bill but with the proliferation of these cell towers and the corresponding demise of the bee population globally. It's a major major problem. We have to remove the harm and have a healthy viable environment. Otherwise these bandaid measures won't work. Thank you. Thank you. Is there anybody else like to address us on consent? Seeing none we'll bring it back to the board for action. Remember there are three pooled items in additional direction. I would move the consent agenda as amended. Second. A motion from Supervisor Leopold a second from Supervisor Coonerty all those in favor. Aye. Opposed? It passes unanimously. We'll now go on to the regular agenda. The first item Ms. Steinbrenner pulled item 25 which is now 56.1. I'm going to do this first. And it'll be approved plans and specifications online and on file with the General Services Department for the Davenport Communications Tower installation project to direct the General Services Department to re-advertise for bid. Set the bid opening for 3 p.m. on May 8th. In the General Services Department to take related actions recommended by the Director of General Services and Director of Information Services. After we take these three items I will take oral communications. Thank you very much. Again many thanks for your favor. I was at the required contractor walkthrough for the original issuance of this bid and there was one person there and I talked with him. And he had great concerns about the wind effects and strength of the tower. So what this is happening doing now before you is that it's going to remove the requirement that the contractors have some engineering experience and a license. I know that there is often oversight on projects like this but I really have to wonder if the requirement was originally there for engineering license. There must have staff must have felt there was good reason. And it concerns me as a member of the public that when just because there's no one that bids on it because of that requirement that the requirement is removed. So for public safety I want to know what level of oversight. If this if you approve this what level of oversight would county the county provide to make sure that the contractor is following the specifications that it says here have been designed by a licensed engineer. What level of oversight will there be to ensure that the public is properly protected for the construction of this 80 foot tower on the bluffs. Thank you. Thank you. Is there anybody else I want to address this on specifically this polled item. Yeah yeah I just want to be able to let members of the public know that Victoria's Alexander supports Becky Steinburner. It's a leadership thank you. Is there anybody else want to address us on the Davenport communications tower installation project. So this is number 25. Correct. OK. These all these towers cement dangerous microwave radiation and to make it appear that this is a good communications tool or we'll save people is a myth of safety. I think the county should not be engaging in this. And I'm going to submit an article I think I gave you years ago called the radiation poisoning of America by Amy Worthington and it starts out. This isn't real. This isn't relevant to the. Yes it is. If you would listen. It's about the construction. And so what happened is the article starts out misguided describing to fire lookouts who are living in a cell tower. Please don't know Mr. Alexander. Mr. Mr. Alexander Mr. Alexander you're starting to disrupt the meeting Mr. Alexander. Please. I have three minutes. And I've stopped. I've stopped the clock. I want you to be heard. Ms. Garrett. I want you to be heard. Why are you interrupting me. Well if you would let me finish I'd explain why you're being interrupted and why the clock has been stopped. You don't know what I'm going to say. But you have not. You have not been speaking to the plans and specifications. Yes I am. You've been speaking to health effects and things that have nothing to do with the item that's before us. You have to speak to what the items before us. So please just direct your comments specifically to the re-advertising of bids and the plans and specifications. So restart the clock. Okay. It's totally related to the bids. You can't talk about fracking or whatever without talking about health. There are health impacts here. And I don't think the county should be engaged in bids for cell towers at all because you are supposed to protect the public health and well-being. And this is contradictory. I'm going to enter into the record this article the radiation poisoning of America that describes the two. This is that likely look out a fire lookout and it describes the two women living by this cell tower looking for fires and their dire health consequences which occur by cell towers. So I want to enter that for item 25 and say the county should not be building these things. Okay. So anybody else actually wants to address us on this item? Yeah. On the cell towers and the destruction of records after two years it does refer. It's by destroying those records and every one of you did it has to do with that. And also Mr. Ryan Coonerty I've seen him interrupt other people time after time and he's responsible for making oral communications from three minutes to two minutes. It has nothing to do with this item. It does. The towers and the recording and having that information available so that people compare health items that it's valuable for the people you're working against the people. Okay. It's really difficult to efficiently run a meeting when people aren't speaking to the items. Miss Steimer did speak specifically to the item that was appreciated that you kept to that item. I understand there's a lot of passion and concern around this. But these comments are more for all communications are not germane to this item. Is there anybody else that actually like to speak to what this item is? Not what we want the item to be but what the actual item is. All right. Seeing none we'll bring it back to the board. Before we take action on it can ask either GSD or information services just to briefly come up and address one of the concerns that was raised. Morning Mr. Bowling thank you for being here. Morning Kevin Bowling director of information services. First I'd like to say Becky you did not contact me or the general services director. Given that what we did we originally did the bid. We put in a much higher need on a contractor's license for construction of the tower. We got nobody from the first bid that could meet those qualifications in looking at it. We weren't using them to do the design for the tower. We already had an engineering firm design the tower specifically for the wind problems up in Davenport. So the tower design was built to withstand all the conditions up there. So we looked and said do we need that level general contractor for the construction of the tower because the tower is coming. All that needs to be done is assembled from the other engineering firm. And we decided now we didn't need that level of contractor's license. We're still getting a registered contractor. We just dropped it down one level. Thank you. Are there any questions from board members? I move the recommended action. We do have a motion in second supervisor Caput. Yeah I'm sorry. It seems to be related to item 54 or 55 from what I'm looking at. Is that it's in your area. They're totally different. They are related. They are related. And item 55 has been pulled. So we're going to do 55 next. Right. I'm just it's a related project the same tower. Yeah. One's access one. I guess the only concern I have is this was already decided. Public notice was given out long before and people have had an opportunity then to in that area to speak out on this. Is that correct? That's correct. Is that correct? That's correct. There's currently a communications gap. There's an actual communications emergency that is going on on the north coast because a tower used to be on the cooling tower of the cement plant. And we had to take that down because the because CMEX was no longer maintaining that tower and it wasn't safe to access our communications device on top of it. And that's what started this entire process. And we're replacing it. That's correct. And just to be clear, it's not on the bluffs. Okay. We have a motion and a second from Supervisor Coonerty and from the Supervisor Leopold. All those in favor? Aye. Opposed? It passes unanimously. I'll take the next item out of order just so they can be harmonized. So this will be as an item, pulled item 55 as board of directors of the Davenport County Sanitation District to prove the right of entry and access agreement for communication tower project take related actions recommended by district engineer. This is 56.3. But just to keep them. Thank you. That makes a lot of sense. Thank you very much to continue the conversation. I think the reason you have heard and you want to get the clock going is you're welcome kind of focused on detail. It is because according to my understanding of the current federal laws, if a telecommunications company comes to the county and wants to put cell phone apparatus on the tower, that the county would have a very difficult time saying no. And that point needs to be legally clarified and on the public record so that if such a condition comes down the pike later. And that's what I think is concerning these people. And frankly would concern me because it would also add more wind resistance. And while the tower, the 80 foot tower is not on the bluff directly, it is very nearby just on the other side of Highway 1. The other issue that I have with this particular piece of documentation is that the access agreement affects the Warren Ella Road crossing. It's a private at grade crossing that is the safest in grass egress from cement plant road in this area to Highway 1 and Newtown Davenport. And there is a petition signed by 29 Newtown residents opposing the closure of this Warren Ella crossing. I was up there last week. There is no sign posted at the site about this tower. And it is easement. That's what I'm talking about. Access and the projects sign is directly opposite the Warren Ella crossing. So I just want to make it public with this discussion of access right of entry and access agreement that the Warren Ella crossing needs to stay open. And it looks like that's the plan because that's where the sign is for the project. Okay. Thank you. Thank you. I still have one minute. I'm sorry. Please. Thank you. So I want clarification on the issue of future co-location of cell phone or any other apparatus that would add wind resistance. And I would also like clarification on the Warren Ella crossing closure that is associated with the Parade Street crossing agreement of the Aptos Village project. They are related by the CPUC. And there are signs at the site directing CSSI, which is a traffic and railroad construction group from the Warren Ella crossing. That's the entrance that people are being brought in. And those are my questions. Thank you very much. Okay. Before we take additional testimony, I just want to clarify those questions aren't germane to this item though, correct? Not at all. This is an entry and access agreement with the Devonport sanitation district in order to allow access in to actually do the construction for a lending component. I don't see how co-location or this actually is germane at all to this item. The only time this access agreement would ever be used is if we default on the loan that we needed to purchase the steel. This is for the bank that is giving us the money to purchase the steel. We don't intend to default, so it will likely never be used. So is there anybody that would like to address? Could you restate that, please? I didn't quite get it about what you just said, please. The lender that the county is using to purchase the construction materials for the tower, asked for a legal document that they would use to access the tower in the event we defaulted and they wanted to deconstruct the tower and take the steel away. That is highly unlikely, but this was a condition that they placed on us. That's the only reason it's before the board. And so it's a pretty narrow item that's before us. Thank you for clarifying that. So do you have a point specific to the access agreement then? Well, yes. I was a related item, parallel or very similar. I was in this room at the Planning Commission meeting, March 28th. And the issue was access road to a cell tower. And so listen to what the minutes said regarding this application and also an 80-foot tall cell tower. And this one definitely had co-location issues. My understanding is co-location is required by the state law. So here's what the wording is from your own Planning Commission. This is about access roads. It's not. This is an easement. So I'd like to read what you're interested in what your appointees to the Planning Commission voted on unanimously related. It's very short. I deny the application on the basis of the required findings under the county code of a significant gap, you know, in coverage. Sufficient easement lease rights. And the neighbors were here complaining about the small private road being used for telecom interest. And a sufficient alternative analysis cannot be made to direct staff to prepare a written denial on the basis of these findings. And I think we need the same findings here, proof of a significant gap, problems with the easement and lack of proof of an alternative site. Thank you. Those are my comments. I'm going to just state that they again weren't germane to the item. Mr. Alexander, please be specific to what? Yeah, yeah, yeah. This is the whole get down of what's going on right here today. I just want to be able to say this. When members of the public are coming up here according to the Brown Act, they should be able to weigh in on the political issue and offer the public-spirited perspective. It's very disrespectful when county board of supervisors are disrespecting the women that are coming up here and trying to weigh in on the issue and intimidate them. Allow us, as members of the public, to absorb it. That's all we're saying. The Brown Act, Carlos, you got to advise them that the Brown Act is in effect to stop interrupting members of the public. Mr. Alexander. She's leaving a public comment. I just want to be able to say that. And it's got nothing to do with you, Chairman. Thank you. I take, trust me, I take no offense from anything that you say. But I just want to say that in order, the Brown Act also wants meetings to be run in a certain way, right? Or specifically, Sturgis does. We run meetings that give an opportunity for everybody to speak. Nobody could make the argument that we don't give an opportunity for people to speak. But there is a covenant here that you actually speak to the item. That's an unreasonable ask. Oral communications is an opportunity for people to speak on items that aren't on the agenda, but within the purview of the board of supervisors. And that is not, these are narrow things that the board is considering. The board can't pontificate about the validity of the 80-foot cell tower on an easement agreement. But yet, people in the community are asking to do the same thing. It would be inappropriate for us to do that. We're on the same page on that. We've given the opportunity. So is there anybody else? Is there anyone in action? It's making sure there's nobody else who would like to address us on this item. Seeing none, we have a motion from Supervisor Coonerty. Second. Second for Supervisor Leopold. All those in favor? Aye. Opposed? It passes unanimously. The last pulled item is item 54, which became 56.2. Approve the specifications in engineer's estimate for the South County Striping Project. Federal project number HSIPL5936 and authorize the calling for bids. That bid opening for 2.15 on May 10th. Direct public works to return on May 22nd with recommendation for waterfront and take-related actions as recommended by the interim director of public works. Thank you, Becky Steinbruner. And again, thank you for the favor of discussing these items now instead of at the very end of the day. I really appreciate it. The reason I'm bringing this to your attention is because I looked up the specifications of the Striping on Trout Gulch Road and see that it is planned to include the public paid striping using federal grant money from Valencia Street to Apptos or to Valencia School Road. What I wrote to your board and copied the interim public works director about and received no response is that I think that boundary on Trout Gulch in the village area needs to be changed to the other side to the northeastern side of Cathedral Drive rather than starting at Valencia. And the reason for that is because between Valencia and Cathedral Drive, the Apptos Village project developers have severely disrupted and torn up the road in that area. And by law, they are required to restore it to its original condition. They have no encroachment permit, first of all. And that's according to Mr. David Nefuse in County Council. I submitted a Public Records Act request for that document and he said the county does not hold that document. That concerns me a lot about the liability. But aside from that, if the county uses federal grant money to do striping in an area where a contractor is legally responsible to restore the condition of the pavement, it would be considered a gift of public funds. And that is illegal. So I'm asking you to amend the specifications for the striping on Trout Gulch Road to begin on the northeast side of Cathedral Drive and continue to Valencia School Road. Thank you. Thank you, Ms. Steinbruner. Anybody else on this item? I recommend that you take Becky Steinbruner's astute study of this project and the problems so that you remedy them now instead of it getting worse down the road. There seems to be this attitude of members of the public, especially someone like Becky who studied this. You just shrug your shoulders and act like she didn't speak at all. These are serious issues. I live in Aptos and I see the degradation there and the problems on the way. Please respond and take her recommendations and put the brakes on some of this coming danger. Thank you. And the striping project specifically on the Trout Center. Yeah, I was able to peruse the light on the agenda and not in circumspect that. And I want to be able to say that there's no reason to me to reiterate the same thing that other civil society activists who was able to articulate really well poignantly. And I want to be able to support Becky Steinbruner's leadership. Thank you. Thank you. Is there anybody else who would like to address us on this item? Seeing none, we will bring it back to the board. Can we have public works is very briefly address the distance component regarding the federal funding, the ability to whether you could expand or contract or specifically expand on the request this area. Mr. Wiesner, welcome. This is Director Public Works. Good morning, board members. Yeah, so the section that is being referred to is a very, very small fraction of the overall striping effort that's going to be done on Trout Coltrude. This was a grant we won several years ago. The timing is just when this project came up. The striping is critical to be done in that area, but the project can be amended through the change order process. We wouldn't necessarily recommend that because, you know, we're, we'd like to take advantage of the opportunity we have before us with the federal grant to get the striping done in that area done correctly. Thank you. Are there any other questions from board members? Is there a motion? I move approval of the recommended actions. We have a motion from Supervisor Leopold, a second from Supervisor Coonerty. All those in favor? Aye. Opposed? It passes unanimously. Now we'll move on to oral communications. This is an opportunity for members of the community to address us on items that are not on today's agenda but within the purview of our supervisors. Good morning, Ms. Mullen. Good morning, Chairman and members of the board. I'm Jane Nguyen from the Health Services Agency. Thank you for allowing a few minutes for me to have the privilege to introduce our new assistant director for the Health Services Agency, Ms. Mimi Hall. Just briefly, Ms. Mimi Hall has several years of experience in the healthcare industry and in the healthcare field. She's left the Yolo County serving 16 years there in various roles. Actually, at the Plumas County for 16 years, 10 of those years was director of public health. And then she moved to Yolo County within the last year. She was the director of community health for the Health and Health Services Agency there. She has a Bachelor of Arts degree from the University of Illinois at Champaign Urbana and a Master of Degrees in Public Health from the University of Hawaii at Manoa. And in 2016, her work earned Plumas County the California State Association of County Challenge or top honor across all population categories for two to 20,000 lives, a collective impact approach to community health improvement. So she has many achievements and accomplishments throughout her career. So I'm very confident that Ms. Hall will bring her talents, experience, energy and enthusiasm and integrity to the work of a great team at HSA. So please join me to welcome Ms. Hall to the workforce as a county employee of Santa Cruz. Thank you. Welcome. Thank you. Thank you. Good morning and thank you very much. I'm very pleased to be here. I appreciate the opportunity to serve Santa Cruz County and all of its residents and I hope it will be a great addition both to your community and to your county. I also hope that my experience working not only in public health, but also in mental health and alcohol and drug services and working closely with community hospitals and community partners will continue to add to the wonderful things that Santa Cruz County is doing for its citizens. Thank you. Thank you. Welcome to our county. I'm very fortunate to have somebody with your outstanding background. We're looking forward to working with you. Thank you. Welcome. Thank you. Thank you. Is there anybody else that would like to address us during oral communications? Thank you. Becky Steinbruner, resident of Aptos. I want to just really express my sadness about Kim A. Coles passing. He was a great bicycle advocate and a great person. And I had some really amazing working relationships with him in terms of his organizing the triathlon in Tenising Mark State Park. I was the ham radio operator that provided communications in that very difficult place. And he brought a sweatshirt all the way up to my house and I live in the boonies as a symbol of his gratitude for public service and that was just who he was. He's going to be greatly missed by a lot of people and I just really want to publicly recognize him as a great person and we'll miss him. Another great thing I want to bring to your attention is at last Monday's Historic Resources Commission meeting there was a barn, the Silva Barn, put on the NR5 County Historic Registry. That is a great thing. And the beauty of it was that it was an effort and expense of the owner, Ms. Corral Reader. I really want to give her public recognition for her efforts and concerns about historic resources being preserved in our county at a time when I have too often I feel seen things bulldoze such as the oldest house of the Heen subdivision on Valencia Street in the village having been called a partial demolition and there was nothing saved. I really want to commend members of the public who take this action and help preserve the everyday importance of those who have worked to bring the county to where it is now. I also want to bring to your attention the plethora of road markings in the Aptos Village area that I think are leading up to the county's Aptos Village Traffic Improvement Project Phase 2 that will put in another light at Aptos Creek Road in SoCal Drive. I have written to Ms. Berg, the public relations person for Public Works. She says there is no timeline for that, but I want to urge Supervisor Friend that you do hold some public meetings. Contrary to your written correspondence, I have never threatened legal action on this at all. There is legal ramifications coming down the pike possibly from the owners of the Bayview Hotel and Trout Gulch Crossing regarding the inverse condemnation of the planned closure of their private at-grade crossing, but I have never threatened anything, and therefore I urge you to hold some community meetings regarding the Phase 2 of these road projects. Thank you. Does anybody else like to address this during road communications? Oh, I would like to go to those community meetings. Yes, I'd like to address you on a new article that's in the Nation magazine for the 23rd of April, but it's been in the press. Here's the title. How big wireless made us think that cell phones are safe. A special investigation. The disinformation campaign and the massive radiation increase between behind the 5G rollout by Mark Herzgaard and Mark Dowey. And just to excerpt a little of that, and I'm going to leave you with a copy of a 10-minute interview that was done on Democracy Now, April 5th, with the author of the article. And also learned here that cellular industry makes $440 billion a year profit, a little bit more than I made as a school teacher. This is George Carlo. Let's see if I've got the right place here. It was hired to just give you background. He's quoted in the article. And by the way, the article has references to many documents I've given you. One is about the National Toxicology Program study, $25 million peer-reviewed study, finding that cell phone radiation exposure to rats caused one in 12 male rats to have brain tumors or heart tumors. You have that. That's referred to. George Carlo was hired by the industry to basically prove that cell phones were safe because he had worked for, on behalf of like Dow Chemical, when people were injured, he testified on part of Dow Chemical. Well, here's some of the things he found. The studies he referred to raise serious questions about cell phone safety. Carlo told a closed door meeting of the Cellular Telephone Industry Association Board of Directors, whose members included the CEOs or top officials of the industry. He told them that there are serious questions about cell phone safety and that he sent letters to each of the industry chief tents on October 7th, 1999, reiterating the research had found the following. Thank you, Ms. Steinbauer. Okay. I'm going to leave you with that interview. This is a dangerous technology. Another documentation. Thank you. I'm sorry, Ms. Guerrero. Ms. Steinbauer, I know this is the second time I did that. It's an honor. I apologize. Good morning, Santa Cruz County residents and my fellow Americans. I want to be able to show members of the public real quick what it is to be a good flag waving American, because we are good people. And I believe that. So I really, I truly genuinely believe that. But anyways, one of my other activist friends were able to illuminate me that the SoCal Unified Board District, a violation of the Brown Act, right, and missing a mutual respect and shared vision. In the report, it talks about, it has created an environment, misinformed the public, minimizes community input, and discourages citizens' involvement. We want to be able to encourage the public's spirited perspective, people to come in and weigh on the political issues. But to, I want to let members of the public know that I reside in Scotts Valley, Bruce McPherson's district. And I want to be able to say this, Bruce, your district is amazing. The people are just uplifting. They are some of the most happiest people, and I see that in you, and I love that district. But I want to be able to say this, I want to be able to share my latest books that I'm reading real quick as I pivot into my public comment. Political hypocrite, hypocrisy, I do apologize. It's a really good book. It has a plethora of wonderful information, very illuminating. And also what I learned at UC Santa Cruz on bullshit, Henry Frankfurt. Really great book. But I want to be able to share with members of the public that Joe Summiting was able to sneak in through the back roads to Scotts Valley Library. And this is the second time he does this. So I was able to catch him there. But I want to be able to show members of the public Joe Summiting who wrote that. I just want to be able to say this, that Joe Summiting, I know a lot of people like him, but I'm from Santa Clara County. And this is the way I came into the county to support the supervisors. The political machination is real. And they're not going to win. The American public is on my side. And I want to be able to say this. He's talking about Donald Trump, America. And I want to be able to talk to Joe Summiting. And I want to be able to say this, our social relationship with Santa Clara County is that the get down between Santa Clara and Santa Cruz is totally different. We need to keep Joe Summiting over there because he's very anti-democratic. When people are coming in speaking Libre and truth what they want to do is they want to machinate and criminalize political dissent. And I find that very shameful. Joe Summiting is elite politician, seasoned, right? We're divern or income or labor support him. And what he's offering is very disrespectful to our democratic process. I have every right to come in here and offer my public criticism of the system. Whether it's a GA office, whether it's a DA's office, whether it's the sheriff department, the American public is tired of the establishment just protecting its establishment members. We have every right to want a better political system because we are the American public. And this is the way our democratic process works. Thank you. Anybody else like to address us during oral communications? I think you dropped a piece of paper back there too. Good morning. The board of supervisors including specifically the chairman physically has been said to attack Freedom Forum, which is a decade old town hall outfit. I came up at the elevator with Gail from the registrar of voters and she's been there talking. I know some of the supervisors have been invited. But whether this attack is true or perceived, it's certainly perceived by the general public that this board of supervisors is in the lead to attack free speech. And if you don't condemn that attack you deservedly earn the public contempt that will rate you as low as the Santa Cruz press over here that puts a top on virtually all information vital to the community. The Grange was offering facilities to this organization. The Grange is known for protecting both the university and free speech. In fact in 1832 it had formed the People's Independent Party. And it put a petition to the state legislature which got rid of Daniel Coyt-Gilman, who was the head of the university at the time. Daniel Coyt-Gilman was the incorporator of the skull and bones. As a result of the cooperation carried in other people from Yale, I understand that our board of supervisors worked for one of those men from that secret society. Gilman in a letter to his sister said the structure he was trying to build rest on a powder keg. Meaning the Grange was instrumental in getting him out of California and the monopolies of the Ray Roads etc. In addition UCSC in particular, they have a alms budgeman between the campus police and the students. And during the takeover of the building last year, the alms budgeman called for help. They wanted the backup and the campus police stood down as everybody has seen that's happened up in Berkeley. This is under Janet Napolitano, a member of the Council on Foreign Relations. The deep state is running this community and this Board of Supervisors, including California Forward. We hear that both Bruce McPherson and Fred Keely were apparatchics of. Don Lane was on the radio today, they're pushing a bond project. They work for California Forward funded by the huge foundations Packard and Irvine and Haas and Commonwealth, which is a Bohemian Grove. You do not work for the people, you try to stop information, take that repeal, apologize for attacking the Grange and threatening them and Freedom Forum, which is the most patriotic organization in the county. Thank you, is there anybody else like to address us during oral communications? All right, seeing none, we'll close. Oral communications move on to our first item. Well, we already had some items on the regular agenda, but the first item that is noticed here, which is item 57, a public hearing to consider proposed changes to the unified fee schedule related to the affordable housing impact fees. An adoption of a resolution confirming the fee changes is outlined in the memorandum of the planning director. We have a resolution, the unified fee schedule affordable housing and exhibit A, the affordable housing impact fees. Good morning, Ms. Conway, welcome. Good morning, Chair Friend, members of the board. I'm Julie Conway with the Planning Department's Housing Program. On March 20th, your board approved changes to the affordable housing impact fee, what we call the AHIF. It was first adopted by the board in 2015. The proposed changes were the result of additional financial analysis and they make the following changes. New non-residential development would pay $3 per square foot rather than $2 per square foot. Net new residential square footage, including additions of over 500 square feet would be subject to the fee. Typically, the rate would be $2 per square foot because most residential additions encompass 2,000 square feet or less. ADUs will be treated as additions such that new net new square footage up to 500 square feet would be exempt and over 500 square feet would pay the $2 per square foot rate. Deed restricted, affordable ADUs and housing units are exempt from the AHIF. There are no changes to the fee structure for one unit residential developments and for projects with five or more units. A graduated fee structure is proposed for projects with two to four units generally at a higher level than the one unit projects but lower than five plus unit projects. For two to four unit projects, each unit is assessed the fee based on how large each unit is and where it fits within the fee structure. When the AHIF was adopted in 2015, the board requested a review of the program after it had operated for two years and returned to the board with a report and possible program updates. On March 20th, the board took action to schedule a public hearing on this date for the purpose of amending the AHIF fee structure. New fee levels become effective 60 days following adoption by the board. It is therefore recommended that your board open a public hearing on the proposed amendment to the unified fee schedule for the affordable housing impact fee and adopt the resolution. Thank you, this is a discussion that's definitely been before us a few times before. Are there any questions before we open the public hearing? All right, we will now open the public hearing. This is an opportunity for members of the community to address us on items regarding the unified fee schedule related to the affordable housing impact fees and the proposed resolution. Is there anybody who'd like to address us on item 57? When I first heard this, I was kind of surprised. Affordable housing impact fee, I thought the developer was supposed to pay this fee. Affordable housing from what I've read does not seem very affordable. I think I've told you before how I visited the former Soviet Union in 1966, visited my mother's cousin and they paid 5% of their income for rent. That was the old Soviet Union. That was affordable. What we have here is not affordable. And it seems to me this tax is for that the average person or small homeowner is paying more when the developer should pay. And I also think of how so much of taxpayer money is given to big developers, like I've been discussing the bus stop and app costs being moved to taxpayers' expense. I think Becky Steinberg has calculated several million dollars of taxpayer money going to developers. Why should we be taxed more when our money, it seems to me, is going inappropriately to big developers? It sounds good, right? Affordable housing, but is it really? And who's paying for it and does it make a dent? I remember, excuse me, Ryan Cooner, that you gave a figure once. I'm not good at memorizing figures, but about the number of people who need housing in this county who cannot afford it and what the county is doing is a small fraction to try to help the enormity of the problem. I'd like to hear those figures again. So I urge an hope, oh, thank you. Thank you, Ms. Garrett. By the way, these fees are to help construct affordable housing that are paid for disproportionately by developers in larger homes. This is an item we've discussed for two years and the board did exactly, actually even in the introduction, this was just said, but the board disproportionately charges a graduated fee for larger developments. That's the point, so that we incent smaller developments and in fact, some of these can be even be exempt if it's, say, a deed restricted accessory dwelling unit. So I appreciate that you urge an OVO, but that means you're urging us to vote against affordable housing construction, which is sort of an odd thing. Good morning, Ms. Steinbrenner. Welcome back. Good morning. Thank you, Becky Steinbrenner. I really wanna support this fee because although $100,000, the estimated revenue that this will bring in seems like a drop in the bucket. It's something and maybe could be used for some matching funds. My question about this is I did see the exemption for ADUs if they are deed restricted for affordable housing. What level of oversight and verification is the county planning department currently and in the future going to be able to provide to make sure that these ADUs are indeed kept to affordable rates and not market rate or Airbnb? Thank you. Thank you. Is there anybody else like to address this during this public hearing? Seeing none, we'll close the public hearing as part of the ADU changes. We restrict them from being able to be ADUs. A deed restriction on affordable housing is no different from a Measure J restriction. It's a covenant that somebody enters into, so that's an enforceable covenant. Are there any other questions from board members we've closed the public hearing on this item? Is there a motion? I would move the recommended actions. We have a motion from Supervisor Leopold and a second from Supervisor Coonerty. All those in favor? Aye. Opposed? It passes unanimously. No move on item 58, which is a public hearing to consider the 2017 general plan annual report as outlined in the memo of the planning director. We have the general plan 2017 annual report and the housing element 2017 annual progress report. Good morning. Thank you. Excuse me, David Carlson with the planning department. There's two parts to this report addressing the general plan and the housing element. The general plan report addresses general plan amendments that have been processed in 2017, a report on major programs in the general plan such as commercial ag land classification reviews, park site acquisitions, and any changes to the urban services line, and also addresses potential future general plan amendments. And the board did consider one general plan amendment in 2017. It was actually largely processed in 2016. It addressed the ADU, some general plan amendments related to the ADUs. And in 2018, we expect to process for consideration additional general plan amendments to the safety element involving the safety element, several general plan amendments, addressing the sustainability policy and regulatory update. And then there are some proposed general plan amendments as part of the cannabis cultivation regulations. The housing element part of the report addresses several parts regarding our regional housing needs allocation. And in calendar year 2017, the county approved a total of 104 units, all market rate cumulatively for the current 10 year regional housing needs allocation period. Permits have been issued for a total of 342 units or 26% of the 1,314 total allocated units. At the end of 2017, we were 40% of our way through that allocation period, that 10 year period. Cumulatively a total of 69 of those units were affordable for lower income households, and that represents 13% of the 524 allocated units in that category. Finally, as part of the housing element, as part of the report, there is an update on housing element programs listed in attachment to, on March 14th, 2018, the planning commission voted unanimously to forward the report to the Board of Supervisors with no comment. And therefore staff recommends that these Board of Supervisors conduct a public hearing on the 2017 general plan annual report, accept and file this report, and direct the planning director to submit the report to the Office of Planning and Research and the Department of Housing and Community Development, and that concludes the staff presentation. Thank you, Mr. Carlson. Other questions from Board members? Supervisor Leopold. Thank you, Chair. I think it's important that we're in the middle of a process around the property in the corner of 41st and Soquel. As you know, we're working on the environmental impact report. I know you know that well because you're working on it. And I think it's important that we move this anticipated item that is in the category for the 41st and Soquel project to be put in possible because we haven't finished the process. We, it is, it would, it's inaccurate to say it's anticipated. To honor the process and to be thorough about it, we should say it's possible, it may not be, it may not happen. So I just think that needs to be corrected before it gets sent to the state. And we will do that. Thank you for the comment. Thank you for the comment. Are there any questions before we open up to public hearing? Seeing none, we'll now open up to public hearing. It's an opportunity for members of the community to address us on the 2017 General Plan Annual Report and the Housing Element 2017 Annual Progress Report. Is there anybody like to address us during this public hearing? Welcome back, Ms. Steinbrenner. Thank you. Good morning, Becky Steinbrenner, President of Aptos. I do have some comments and they are regarding the water aspect of the Housing Element. And I am happy to see that that issue is addressed here. What I would like to ask is that water agencies be added to the plan check routing for all residential and mixed use development. And the reason for that is, as I've stated before, so-called Creek Water District has a water demand offset program. It's $55,000 an acre foot anticipated and they have a new plan whereby you must pay half of that amount for your water demand and the other is with fixture offset of some type. That I've seen it time and time again because I do attend those water district meetings. It is a huge surprise to people. And given the state of the groundwater overdraft in that area, which has just recently been supported by the Ramble SkyTem helicopter studies, that it's at the beach. And that means that Soquel Creek Water District has two years before it will get to their production wells. So we have to honor that critical state of emergency and we can do that effectively by adding the water agencies in general to the plan check routing for all building permit applications. I would also like to ask if this plan is how it dovetails with the MBag 2040 plan. I read through that document when the EIR draft was out and saw that the population projections that that plan had for area do not match really what this document as I see predicts and plans for. So I'd like some discussion about that. And the third thing I was trying to find it back there. There is a general plan amendment for re-doing. I was trying to find the parcel number and I have part of it but it's the property in Soquel in the 4,000 area that's being changed in use to be from, to be commercial, community commercial. And I would like some explanation of that. Thank you. Does anybody else like to address this in the public hearing? Seeing none, we'll close the public hearing. Yeah, Todd, maybe you could just remind us where that property is. I just forget off the top of my head, looked it up. I would have to get back to you on that. I don't know where that property is. It's not a project that I've been working on. It's a project that I became aware of in preparing this report and getting, and polling planners for this information. So I'd have to get back to you with the specifics on that project. And I've reviewed it, but I just don't remember off the top of my head. Okay. So I don't know if there's anybody else who knows. And I'd be happy to get back to the member of the public on that as well. Is there any other questions or in the public hearing? Supervisor McPherson. Yeah, I just, you know, this is a critical issue. It always has been overbearing for the county for years to come. I think, I just recognize in the report of the general plan report that I think there are 17,000 potential housing units in Santa Cruz County. And then we hear about legitimately the concerns about water and of course traffic you even get into it. But that's the mix and match game we have to play here. What are the needs? There are needs for affordable housing. There are concerns about adequate resources that we have to accommodate that housing. So how we do this and mix and match is not to make a suggestion of any type but there's plenty of potential units out there or acreage out there for housing units, 17,000 of them as I think a speak of all types. But we have some real concerns about the limitations of our national resources to accommodate the new housing that can become. And that's something we're just gonna have to, we are living with, we have lived with for years but something that needs to be realized by the general public. There's more housing that's needed and there's more protection that's needed for our natural resources at the same time. Is there any other comments on this item? Seeing none, is there a motion? I would move the, all the recommended actions with the one change of moving this item on 41st and Soquel to the appropriate location as possible. We have a motion from Supervisor Leopold, second from Supervisor Coonerty. All those in favor? Aye. Opposed? It passes unanimously. We have a 1045 scheduled item. We do have a closed session. We will recess into closed session. First, is anything anticipated to be reportable at a closed session? It's possible depending on the vote of your board. Okay. So we'll recess into closed session. We will reconvene though for a 1045 scheduled item. Which is item 59, which is a presentation recognizing members of the community who have participated in the volunteer initiative program and the sheriff's volunteer program as outlined in a memo. And if we could, have Mr. Palacios, our CIO, introduce this item. Thank you, Chair Friend and members of the board. Today, we will be talking about the volunteer initiative program, which is a partnership between the Volunteer Center of Santa Cruz and the county, matching interested community members with volunteer opportunities throughout county government. The county is extremely fortunate to have such a dedicated group of volunteers supporting our efforts. We are very happy to welcome today Volunteer Center Executive Director Karen Delaney and Sheriff Jim Hart, both of whom will be making brief remarks and presenting certificates of appreciation. Also with us today are Donna Patters, the VIP program coordinator, Claudia Yamas Padilla, the sheriff's office volunteer coordinator, Margaret Ingram, the parks department volunteer coordinator and Erin Conway, the animal services volunteer coordinator. So at this point, I'll turn it over to Karen and to Jim to make their remarks. Thank you. Good morning, welcome. Good morning, supervisors and wonderful volunteers. This is the first event of our annual National Volunteer Week and I am really excited to be here with you. We always say, and I know it to be true, that this is a generous community and our volunteers are the best in the world. Sometimes you get objective proof that we actually know what we're talking about. Tomorrow, myself and a couple of our board members have been invited up to Sacramento, our Volunteer Center on behalf of the work of all our volunteers in our VIP and other programs has been selected to receive the 2018 Outstanding Nonprofit of the Year Award from the governor this year in California. Because of the amazing work of volunteers, the volunteers that you're gonna meet today, the hundreds of other volunteers who are volunteering throughout the VIP program in almost every department, the tens of thousands of volunteers who are out there in our community every day, making our community great. And I'm so pleased that for this partnership and that we're taking the time to recognize them, my hope, because we know that volunteering makes community stronger. We know that volunteering makes people happier. My hope is that you will join with us after you leave today feeling awesome, helping us promote volunteerism every single day. Doesn't cost a dime. And I know you guys are out in the community all the time speaking. Remember, no matter where you are to shout out and say, volunteers in the house, thank you. You know how people on social, there's a lot of ways one can choose to engage in with their community. We live in a time where what we don't want to have happen is the passive thumbs up to be a substitute for the people like these folks who actually choose to put their time and talent, which is the most precious thing each of us have to objectively make the world better. So thank them when you see them in the halls for folks out there in the community when you're picking up your kid from school or you're at your kid's soccer game, maybe instead of only saying, hey, how about the playing time? Don't they get more? Saying, thank you for volunteering to help my kid have a great life here in Santa Cruz. In every place in this community, there are people who choose to make their community engagement and their civic duty be with time and talent bringing solutions to the table. And our hope at the Volunteer Center, our cause, our passion is to walk with those people and thank them and make it easier to get started every day. And we hope that this partnership continues to grow and we hope that you help us with that thanking part and bringing attention to it's fun, it's positive, it makes us all better. So with that, I'll let Sheriff Hart say something. Thank you, Karen. Morning, Ward, Jim Hart, Sheriff Corner. And about 20 years ago, Sheriff Mark Tracy started our community policing division and we started to recruit volunteers to help us in our substations. And we have since expanded to six substations throughout the county and the volunteers do a great job of keeping those open. But we've also expanded the services that we have volunteers working in and they're working in our investigation division and our missing person. We've had people in our corner section, our crime scene section, citizen patrol. And then we've also started a new program which has been very successful and that is our home and business safety inspection program that we have that is really run by our volunteers. And we have about 115 people that work in our office providing the community a great service and also helping our deputy sheriffs do their job too. So it's been a great relationship with the community. It's something that our deputies value and I really value. And I wanna thank the county and Karen for really running this great program that benefits us all. We've also been very fortunate and we were able to recruit Claudia Yamaspidea from the health services and she's taken over our volunteer program and the work that she's doing is really strengthening that program and we're only expanding and growing now because of the great work that she's doing. So thank you for recognizing all of our people today. I think this is an important ceremony to have and I wanna thank all the people that volunteer for the county and especially to the sheriff's office. Thank you. Thank you, Sheriff Hart, thank you, Ms. Delaney. Good morning, Ms. Patters. Good morning. I'm so excited to be here. I have like the best job ever as I get to work with all of these volunteers. I get to take people who are interested in giving back to our community and matching them with departments here in Santa Cruz County that need help and that want to learn and teach and nurture and it's such a great, great relationship. So I love my job. Thank you, Karen, for hiring me for my job. It's awesome. But, there we go. I'm a lot that tall. This morning we honor a few outstanding volunteers and interns who give their time to make Santa Cruz County a better place. The volunteers we honor today are providing new ideas and different ways of working and thinking to make our community safer, healthier, happier and stronger. I am proud to be able to work with these amazing individuals who volunteer with Santa Cruz County and to have this opportunity to honor them today. As we recognize award recipients this morning, I will read the names of the honoree who should then come forward and join me here at the podium, after which a member of the board will give us a brief overview of the honoree's volunteer service. Our first honoree this morning is Linda Brodman. Supervisor Friend will be reading the remarks. Linda has volunteered with County Parks for many years. She has over 400 hours organizing and recruiting people of all ages to volunteer with her work towards eradicating the invasive French broom, shrubbit, quail, hollow ranch or county park. Linda has an immense knowledge of both native and non-native plant life and she's always willing to share this knowledge and teach volunteers the importance of maintaining native plant life. Thank you, Linda, for your great volunteer work. Our next honoree is Linda Gray. Supervisor Leopold will read remarks. Linda has been a stretch class volunteer instructor with the mall walking program for the past seven years. With over 250 hours volunteering, Linda sets a great example for her fellow mall walkers and has earned the top annual mileage award year after year. Last year, while I was sitting here at this, at going to these meetings, she logged over 1,000 miles and since 2011, Linda has accumulated over 8,500 miles with the program. Good for you, good for all of us, thank for your work. Thank you. Our next honoree is Al Coyter. Supervisor Friend will read the remarks. Al makes things happen at Quail Hollow Ranch with 16 years and over 4,000 hours of service. By the way, that's about 167 full days, 24-hour days. He leads a team of volunteers that maintains trails on a weekly basis. This year, Al focused his time on overseeing our AmeriCorps crew, working with them to develop and implement new projects and to share his knowledge and we saw them here a couple weeks ago and they had nothing but amazing things to say about that experience. His dedication to trail maintenance and advancement of the trail network in Santa Cruz County is to be commended. Congratulations, Al. Our next honoree is Paul Martin. Supervisor Coonerty will read the remarks. Sure. Well, there's a familiar face. Paul has been volunteering in Santa Cruz County for many years. He's been a part of the Neighborhood Pride Program for over six years and has accumulated approximately 858 hours of volunteer time. In his role, Paul locates and removes gang tags throughout Santa Cruz County and the past year has removed over 8,000 square feet of graffiti. Paul gives freely of his time and is always looking for opportunities to get back in our community. You can see him out on his bike all around town. Thank you, Paul, for all you do. Thank you. Thank you. Our next honoree is Richard Mitchell. Supervisor Caput will read the remarks. Well, all righty then. You, I could read it. Should we wait a little bit? You might have stepped out. Just move on, I think. So we'll just move on to the next one. Come back or read it. You can go ahead and read it. I don't think he's here, so. Okay. Richard is new to our neighborhood pride program. He started volunteering with this program via a community service court referral. Richard completed his service by working with the county park maintenance crew at Pennell Lake, which is in South County, to remove gang tags throughout the park and throughout the disc golf course. During his 24 hours of service, Richard identified and removed 64 tags covering 980 square feet of graffiti. Upon completion of his community service requirement, Richard determined he enjoys volunteering so much that he has continued to volunteer with the neighborhood pride program at Pennell Lake and is looking forward to assisting with more graffiti removal. So we're thanking him. Our next honoree is Nancy Newby, Supervisor Leopold, will read the remarks. Nancy is a dog TLC volunteer and her dog savvy skills help our shelter dogs become more comfortable and better socialized during their time with animal services. Nancy often takes dogs to events and for overnight outings to help relieve some of the stresses of shelter life and give the dogs some real life normalcy. Nancy has taken on responsibility for the shelter's Instagram account and has creatively come up with ways to highlight the dogs as well as promote the shelter and events. In 2017, Nancy also became a dog TLC mentor helping new volunteers engage and acclimate to volunteering with the dogs. Thank you so much for your work. Nancy. Our next honoree is Sean Wharton, Supervisor McPherson will read remarks. Sean has been volunteering with the parks department for eight years and has given over 180 hours of his time leading walks to the Forbidden Santa Cruz Sandhills. His commitment to the county spreads in many different directions. He has been a volunteer and advocate voice in Santa Cruz County since he was a student in college. Sean dedicates much of his time to sharing information that otherwise would not reach the public. Thank you very much Sean and I wanna read a little, this is part of a diary he has. December 98, Raven kills chicks of stellar J's at Propane Tank. April, hole one, roof rat on feeding platform outside kitchen window. February 2004, Sheik had Mount Lion house from a cross creek and road up narrow ravine. She comes down that way. He keeps track of the critters in Lompico. May 2005, young coyote, Rado sees this, runs across crests of driveway hill to what they squirrel in its mouth. It was a roadkill sitting up there for about two days or so. I don't know, you keep track of this stuff. All right, so we have December of 2000, a wedge of honking Canadian geese flies through the night about two to three a.m., honk the whole way. Well, you keep track of everybody. You've got them all up in the air. Very nice. Our next honoree is Penny Bullert. Supervisor McPherson will read the remarks. I sure appreciate the substations in Felton and Boulder Creek now. Penny has been serving as a volunteer in the Felton service center since 2006. In the last 11 years, she has given 3,605 hours of her time to our community. She is knowledgeable and proficient in the Sheriff's Office volunteer program and helps train our new volunteers. Penny is an amazing asset to the team and thank you very much for your service to Santa Cruz County. Our next honoree is Christina Hyland. Supervisor Caput will read the remarks. Hi, thank you. Christina has been volunteering with the Sheriff's Office for over three years. And has volunteered 531 hours of her time, primarily with assisting visitors, with locating the proper resources. Christina has also been instrumental in transitioning volunteers to assist with the abandoned vehicle program. Thank you and our district, you've helped out. As well as the home crime inspection program, Christina's dedication, kindness and intelligence and commitment are a tremendous service to the Sheriff's Office and to the public throughout. Thank you very much. Our final honoree is Roger Jano. Supervisor Coonerty will read remarks. All right. Roger's been a volunteer with the Santa Cruz County Sheriff's Office for two years and he volunteers twice a week. Roger responds for reports of abandoned vehicles by marking and monitoring them for a 72-hour parking limit as well as completing and placing courtesy notices. On any given day, Roger marks up to 20 vehicles in a four-hour shift as well as completes some files paperwork. With his experience, he also helps train new volunteers to participate in the abandoned vehicle program. Thank you, Roger, for your work. This concludes our formal presentation of awards. We would now like to invite you to join us for a reception in the hallway where we will be serving light refreshments. Would all the award winners please meet across from the elevators as we will be taking a group photograph? Thank you, and we look forward to seeing the amazing things our VIP volunteers will be accomplishing in the coming year. So thank you to all of you for your amazing contributions to our community. The board will meet you out there. We have one more item of business, but please do feel free to step out now and we'll meet you out there for the reception in a few minutes. The last item of business that we have is we received some requests from members of the community to be able to comment on the items in closed session. We normally do allow that through the consent process, but since it wasn't clear this time, we wanna make sure people have an opportunity to be able to comment on items, on the items specifically in closed session, so we'll give people an opportunity to comment on that. Good morning, welcome back. Yeah, yeah, morning. I wanna be able to illuminate members of the public that the Light End and Magenda closed session item, let me find it on here. It's 56. Okay, yeah, there it is. The 56, the government code section 54956.9 for potential case, right? That is not stipulated back then, the Light End package. So us trying to figure what that is all about makes it very complicated. I would say is that the Brown Act, we need to respect that and before you do closed sessions, I would like to be able, and not only me, but other civil society activists will wanna be able to weigh in on the issue, but we need the information that's available to us so that we can make qualifying statements. It's imperative as we go forward, we wanna be able to shape the rules that bind the rule and we wanna be able to participate in the local affairs. And I do appreciate your leadership, Chairman Friend, and I thank you for allowing this. And remember, we have the Brown Act and then also we have the members of the public can Google the SoCal Unified Elementary School District and the Brown Act, the violations of that. And it has a plethora of wonderful information that will just illuminate members of the public regarding closed session meetings. Thank you. Thank you, Mr. Alexander. Anybody else like to address us on the closed session item? Yes, I would, thank you. Becky Steinbruner, resident of Aptos. Thank you for giving us the opportunity now to comment. By the Brown Act, and I've researched this recently because I've been working with the Aptos, the self of fire department, and they've had a lot of difficulty, as you know, Supervisor Friend. So I have done some recent research regarding closed sessions and the Brown Act requirements and it is required that the government body allow the public to comment at the beginning before the closed session on what it is. And that was not allowed today. Also part of the Brown Act in the closed session ruling is that it is supposed to be described so that the person in the public can understand what is going to be discussed during the closed session. The way that it is written here, anticipation of litigation to be considered pursuant to subdivision D4 of government code, section 54956.9 for one potential case does not describe for the person on the street what this is going to be. And during your break, I did try to determine what this was and was told I could go look it up on the public computer in the clerk's office, the clerk of the board's office. And I tried to do that, but it didn't work. The computer there didn't work. It seems dedicated to issues regarding cannabis and to items on the board's agenda. So I was not able to look this up. And what I would like to ask change in the future for the betterment of public input and as was reported in your vision Santa Cruz strategic plan, one of the big things that this county government really wants to support is transparency and accountability. And those were issues brought up by repeatedly by staff in the informational meetings with the vision Santa Cruz staff. So in that light and in that spirit, I would like to ask in the future that all closed sessions be allowed to have public comment before you go into closed session that there be a very clear description of what it is you're going to discuss. And I understand if it's litigation, you can't get too detailed, but at least what is this code? What does it involve? A brief description would be helpful for members of the public and is required by the Brown Act. And lastly, a request for reportable items. You did ask if there would be anything reportable and it was rather nebulous based on what action you took. So I would like a report on that now and at all future meetings. And thank you very much. Thank you, Ms. Sanmer. There were some questions raised here council. If you could just briefly address some of these questions. So closed session or executive session is already an exception to the Brown Act. And then within that exception, there are even further exceptions and this D4 is one of them. When this body goes into closed session to decide whether or not they want to initiate litigation, this is the required notice. There's a reason for that. You don't want to tell a potential litigant that the board's considering suing them. We don't have to do it. And there's strategic reasons why we don't want to do it. So that's what D4 is. The board's allowed to go into closed session and talk amongst themselves with their attorney present about potentially filing a lawsuit. The reason I said that there may or may not be a report is because it's only reportable if the board chooses to initiate litigation. And the only thing that's reportable about that is that I come out and say, the board has voted three to two or four to one or unanimously to initiate litigation period. That's all we have to say for the same strategic reasons that I already talked about. Once that lawsuit is filed and it's public, then people are free to ask me questions about it and I will give the public information about it, not what's confidential between attorney and client. So from all of that, you could discern that the board, because there was no report, declined to initiate litigation, but we're not required to say that. You would just discern it because there was no report. Is that helpful? Yes, and the question regarding the commentary in advance of the item, we agree, respect that. We're under the impression that, but I recognize that we'll make this clear that the opportunity is through the consent process based on where it's located on the agenda, but we need to make that clear as the community understands. The board has the option to make a motion to go back into closed session now based on the things that you said. I'm not seeing anybody interested in what we did, but that allows us to actually take your consideration and then go back in again based on your information. So I want you to know that your comments were heard. I'm not seeing any interest in the board to make a motion to reconsider, which would then put it back at the beginning if that makes sense of the process. So thanks for bringing it up. We'll make the clarification on the agenda or in a different process of what I say verbally. And I appreciate council explaining how this works. So this is the end of the agenda. I appreciate the Sentinel and the community TV for covering it. The meeting is adjourned and join us out here for the refreshments. Thank you very much.