 Good morning. Good morning. I'd like to welcome you to the October 19, 2021 meeting, regular meeting of the Santa Cruz County Board of Supervisors. It's nine o'clock. Please call the meeting to order. Call the roll. Supervisor Koenig. Here. Brent. Here. Coonerty. Caput. Here. McPherson. Here. Thank you, Chair. You have four supervisors. We're still in culture communities. He's not. He responds, just let me know. Thank you. OK. All right, we'll have a moment of silence and then the Pledge of Allegiance. Are any supervisors have any comments? He will have the Pledge of Allegiance. Pledge of Allegiance. Pledge of Allegiance. Pledge of Allegiance. I have number three consideration of late additions to the agenda additions, deletions to the consent and regular agendas. Chair McPherson, there are no additions or deletions from the agenda. Thank you. Is there any, is there anybody that, excuse me, just saw a lot of hands. The announcement by board members of items to be removed from the consent or regular agendas. Any board members have any that they would like to have removed? I know. OK, we'll move on to for public comment. Stephanie, Ms. Cabrera. Thank you. Now it's a time for public comment. If you wish to comment and are joining us in chambers, please form a line down the center of the room. If you are joining through Zoom, please find the hand icon at the bottom of your screen and click the icon to raise your hand. I'll call you by name when it is your turn. We ask that you please state your name at the beginning of your comment. Once you begin, the timer will start. The countdown timer will display on the screen and a chime will play at the end of your time. If you're calling in by phone, please dial star nine to be placed in the speaker queue. Now it's a time for the director of supervisors to receive comments from the public. If you wish to comment in Spanish, we have services for you to use. If you are joining through Zoom, please find the hand icon at the bottom of the screen and click to raise your hand. If you're calling by phone, please dial star nine to be placed in the speaker queue. Once it is your turn, I'll call you by name and you'll see an emergency screen on your screen. Please accept and start talking. Your time starts as soon as you start talking and it ends automatically. Thank you. Thank you. Any person may address the board once during public comment, not exceeding two minutes. Comments must be directed to today's consent or closed session agendas. Our regular agendas and yet to be heard items on a topic or a topic not on the board today's agenda both in the board's jurisdiction. We'll take public comments for, there's plenty here that want to speak. I know that there's a group that wants to speak as a whole. I hope not each one of them will speak. We won't have time, but we'll take public comments now up to 30 minutes. And if necessary for additional time, the public comments will be allowed after the last item on today's regular agenda. And we have three items that are going to be on the afternoon agenda that starts at 1.30. So go ahead and start. Pardon me, Chair, for the record, Supervisor Coonerty has joined us. Very well, thank you. You can go ahead, Ma'am. Yes. Freedom and form choice. Thank you. My name is Carol Bjorn. Can you restart the timer for me please? Cause the microphone wasn't on. I'm here for informed choice, medical freedom and bodily autonomy. I'm also here today to voice my opinion and to oppose all California department of Health mandates in our schools, including facial coverings, quarantines, testing and the COVID-19 injections. For many years, people have thought that scurvy was a contagious disease. However, as it turns out, it was just a nutritional deficiency. Vitamin C cured scurvy. I wonder if we are lacking information in the COVID-19 narrative. As it turns out, yes, we are lacking information. There is no isolated SARS-CoV-2 virus. If you don't have an isolated virus, you cannot prove causation. You cannot say that that virus causes the disease of COVID-19. Therefore, all these mandates are meaningless, especially the ones on our school children. So I provided some information for you today. Literally, it's the instructions to the PCR test. And it was created by the CDC. It's on the FDA website. I'm gonna point you to page 40 on that instructions for the PCR. Since no quantified virus isolates of the 2019 in COVID-2 were available for the CDC use at the time the test, which is the PCR test, was developed in this study conducted and it goes on and on and on. So they clearly admit right here, there's no isolated virus. There's many more sources for that information. It's not a dream or a conspiracy theory. Also in the same report that I gave you on page 38, it says, depection of viral RNA may not indicate the presence of infectious virus or that 2019 in COVID-2 is the causative agent for clinical symptoms. It also says the test cannot rule out other diseases caused by bacterial or viral pathogens. So clearly there's other reasons why people are getting sick. So to continue to focus on all these mandates is meaningless. It's illegal. I would like for you all in your capacity today to do what you can to remove all mandates in this county, especially for the school kids. Thank you. All right. My name is Michael Armstrong. The topics I'm addressing are cannabis licensing, sheriff response, civil penalties during July of 2018. My neighbor Andy Hospore paid $75,000 to cannabis licensing for residential permit. He added my contiguous parcel as a grower told me to keep it under 3,000 square feet, paid 7% CBT cannabis to sales tax. I've made four years of continuous tax payments. Andy came down with pancreatic cancer last year, was on chemotherapy, let the permit lapse. I was never informed. And then he died in July. I found it in August of this year. I did not know that the permit was expired until the September 20th, 70th. Sheriff SWAT team showed up at my door, standing in my front yard with my hands in my head in my underwear while the neighbors were driving by. I have post traumatic stress because of this. I should have checked on it, the license. That's my responsibility. I apologize for that. I received a civil penalty for $40,000, which was reduced to 15,000 based on volume. Thank you. I appreciate that. And then the cannabis office reduced it another $3,000 to $12,000 because of the payments I had made. The Sheriff also has my cell phone CD chips for 30 days now. They promised to return them after they looked through them. It's all my family photographs. The $12,000, I'm 65 years old. I'm on state disability at this time. It's not viable for me to pay it. I tried to offer $6,000. I've been trying to communicate with the cannabis office. During the first 10 days, I received one call back and they answered my phone once and then told me I had till the end of the week to decide during the last 16 days I've sent four voice emails, two emails and letters and I have received absolutely nothing back. It's causing me a super level of super high anxiety because I'd like to take care of this matter. The fact that they told me that they don't negotiate the fines and Sheriff told me they don't negotiate the fines is that I'm just don't know who negotiates the fines. And there's a lot of gray areas currently in the cannabis licensing structure that could be improved on. I'd be willing to go help and work with it or whatever. But hopefully my experience today here, I'm coming here to try and plead that I can get my fine reduced to $6,000. But I also have a hope for the greater good that we can get this established. This is a gray area. None of the civil criminal dethrones will talk to me. There's no criminal crime. Thank you so far. It's always a potential, thank you. But I believe that it's just in conclusion. Give it to us. Thank you for listening everybody. Thank you. Michael J. Luarty, Bonnie Dune School Board President. I call attention to consent agenda item 36 in which Santa Cruz County would join a bipartisan movement to fix the terribly broken sexually violent predator conditional release program. Forcing SVPs into family communities, wrecks residents mental health, destroys neighborhoods and attempts far worse tragedy. But that is exactly what Liberty Healthcare, a secretive for-profit and private contractor is doing as quickly and quietly as they can. They have come to Santa Cruz, Bonnie Dune is fighting and asking for your help. Liberty has an intense financial incentive to win court approval for the SVP placements, but extremely few homeowners will lease to them. The result is that Liberty promotes SVP placements that are terribly inappropriate, like the one to put Michael Cheek in Bonnie Dune. But their courtroom technique is very well practiced. A primary tool is secrecy and a key advantage is limiting local participation in the process. Amending the SVP law to increase local participation is a solution and counties must lead the fight. Your action also sets the tone for vigorous opposition should Liberty propose another site for Mr. Cheek somewhere else in our county as is likely. Passage would make Santa Cruz County the second after San Diego to take this bipartisan action. Activists elsewhere will see your example and urge their supervisors to follow. San Diego County research the SVP law and today is considering an additional motion directing county agencies to take full advantage of specific existing pathways for participation. I hope this board will consider that action at its next meeting. Please approve this item and follow up by encouraging your state representatives to support a legislative solution to an out of control corporation that would destroy family neighborhoods in Santa Cruz for profit. Thank you. Good morning gentlemen and audience. My name is Gina Marie Kavuta. I've been a constituent here since 1994. I'm here to plead with you loudly for a remedy and relief. As you pledge the allegiance, I remind you as local government that you take a sworn oath to serve and protect under God. I have been deprived Liberty since 19, excuse me, 2019. You all are in possession of documents that I have submitted to you. I'm a victim of a hate crime, violent death threat on May 7th, 2019. A few days later, I was retaliated against by my new East Indian landlord in a place that I had lived for six and a half years. And because AB 1482 was not upheld in court, I was forced out of my six and a half year rental displaced from my son. Catapulted into renting your room for $1,200 a month on day 38. I was pushed by that landlord, fractured my rib, injured my L4, L5, right sciatica. The DA remains dead to both of those issues. That landlord served three unlawful detainers. He forced me out into the streets the week pre pandemic. I was homeless and displaced. I used to own a condo. I used to own a house. Luckily I had friends in Southern California who did not want me to be homeless during a pandemic. I made my way back home, rented a room. That lady moved back to Thailand. I took over the rent. And as soon as the moratorium was up, the landlord wanted to take 2,300 to 2,800. I of course would have gotten a roommate, but we had a serious rat situation, a sewage problem and a water problem. I was ordered by the judge to be out by the 22nd. This is my sixth storage unit. I have not been able to sell media. I'm normally paid $100 an hour to assess errors into deficiencies. And there's a major disconnect as you fail to vote in measures via email directly since 2020. I'm here to pray for relief, some type of remedy to this situation. Thank you for your time. Morning, my name is James Ewing Whitman. How about some public service announcements for this week? Tonight at 127 Vine Hill Road, Scotts Valley, there is parents meeting for education. On the 21st, there is a rally at the County Office of Education, 400 Ensignal at 3.30. And on Wednesday, at SoCal New Brighton Middle School, at 6.30, and that's 620 Monterey Avenue. Hmm, it's time to go ahead. Okay. Well, the CDOC allows hospitals to classify dead-vaxxed people as vaccinated. Could there be anything worse than this corporation could be doing? I'm going to paraphrase a CDC ruling about three months old. One is not considered vaccinated until after two weeks of a single, after two weeks of a single dose, for example, J&J, or two weeks after the other two main vaccinations. It means that any human lab rat who dies or is injured by the first single dose or on any period before two weeks after a two dose is considered unvaccinated. My question is, how long have the civil eugenics programs been going on? I would need a lot more than two minutes to briefly explain more than stating this. Adolf Hitler was so successful in his propaganda, human experiments and genocide because he and Gerbils used what had been successful by 1920 by Rockefeller, Stanford, Carnegie, petrochemical finance, Western medicines. I could explain this more greatly but I just don't have time right now. So thank you. Good morning. My name is Meg Sando. I'm speaking on your closed session negotiations. I'm a psychologist with children's behavioral health and I'm here because I'm exhausted and I'm angry and I'm ready to strike. I'm fed off with the offensive non-response from the county bargaining team and supervisors, I'm respectfully asking your assistance in bringing some light to our contract negotiations. My exhaustion is from the past 18 months and more of supporting this county's children and families through a hellacious time of COVID-19, massive wildfires, police brutality, particularly targeting our Brown sisters and brothers, political unrest, instability, global environmental crisis, all of which my colleagues and I have experienced along with this community. My colleagues have lost loved ones and their homes. They have worked from other locations while evacuated and sheltered in place. We quickly mastered alternate strategies for serving and assessing and providing services to our clients. We often work 10-hour days in order to meet their needs and our clients are coming in with ever more serious behavioral health conditions. These include suicidality, eating disorders, cutting, psychotic symptoms, severe depression and anxiety. You only need to listen to today's news. Crisis are up in all sectors and we workers, both furloughed and without a cola, cannot afford to live in the community we serve. We are being asked to shoulder the increasing cost of healthcare through comparison with the healthcare provider that does not even have all necessary services on this side of the hill. We are hemorrhaging staff at every level. From our clerks to our clinicians, our supervisors and our psychiatrists and our workloads went up during furlough, not down because our clients needs went up during furlough and we have less staff to serve them. How will we find additional staffing or even retain the staffing we have when our contract and benefits are so poor in comparison surrounding counties and other employers, including the school system that is poaching our clinicians when other counties are providing hero bonuses and affordable healthcare. If you value the wellbeing of your community, I ask you to wake up the bargaining team, the county's bargaining team, to bring a fair offer to the negotiating table. Thank you. Good morning, members of the board. My name is Helen Ruiz-Thomas. I serve my community as a program coordinator for voter registration and outreach with the County Clerk and Elections Department. Santa Cruz County Clerk and Elections Department has shown exemplary dedication to public service. During the pandemic, our County Clerk's office has been the only one out of 58 counties in California that kept their doors open to serve everyone, no matter jurisdiction. Our safety was not being considered when we were told to keep our doors open. Regardless, we met the challenges associated with continuing in-person services during the pandemic, even managing the highest voter-read participation for Santa Cruz County since 2008. In addition to the pandemic, many of our team members were evacuated due to the CZU complex fire. Each of us was impacted, but we continue to serve our community. We deployed into our role as disaster service workers as we County employees experienced the same crisis as those we were serving. We have shown good faith, sacrifice, and compromise. It's time for this partnership to show reciprocity. What the County has proposed is an insult. We have gone without a wage increase for over two years. Was the County strategic plan process all for show? Does the County truly represent their vision, mission, and values? Your bargaining team's offers of healthcare takeaways and insulting cost of living increases show that you, our representatives, don't care. What we County workers provide to our community is essential, and we deserve to be appreciated. We ask you today to join us in supporting our contract negotiations. Tell your bargaining team to offer a fair contract now. My name is Leona, and I'm a public health nurse in the Human Services Department. I speak not only for myself, but all of my colleagues when I say I am honored to serve the people of our community. We are highly educated professionals and are extremely dedicated to our work. Through the shutdown and multiple COVID surges, I have continued to serve the most vulnerable people in our community, in their homes and on the streets. In addition to my regular job, I have worked over time at IQV shelters and I worked many days and nights to find shelter for evacuated community members during the CZU fire. Despite the fact that no other surrounding County asked employees to furlough, we agreed to it because we are willing to make sacrifices for the greater good. But during these contract negotiations, it has become painfully evident that County management is unwilling to do the same. Management spends thousands conducting national recruitments for high level positions, but when it comes to the people here, management is okay cutting our wages and paying us less than our counterparts. The proposed terms do not even amount to a COLA. County nurses had to petition for parity of 9% with neighboring counties. While management has agreed to rectify the disparity, they proposed to do it over four years, putting us back at the bottom before the next contract expires. And it is the same for all in County employees. This proposal amounts to a wage loss that places us in the perpetual position of being behind our neighbors. Employees are striking all over the country because we have been pushed to the brink without being compensated or treated with dignity. As usual, the people at the top earning record high salaries feel entitled for the rest of us to do more with less. We refuse to allow County management to run public services like a private corporation. They hired a lawyer to direct health services instead of one of our very own public health experts. In the last two years, every top level HSD position has come from Alameda County while qualified people within our own community were ignored. They divert 4 million from HSA revenue into County administration and continue to add more deputy director positions. Meanwhile, service worker positions remain unfilled and we drown in our workloads. Thank you. Thank you. Good morning, my name is Micah Posner. I'm the chair of the local Sierra Club. We have 4,000 members here in Santa Cruz County. Nice to be here in person with everyone. We're here to express our deep appreciation to the SCIU for considering the world's climate while they struggle to take care of themselves. I think that that's a very large generosity of spirit and it shows a collaborative way to think about society as a whole. So thank you SCIU and we've worked with the SCIU to make sure that their aspirations about climate are doable. In fact, in the moment, all they're asking is that you sort of re-up the commitment you made before the pandemic as supervisors, which we appreciate it. And so it just needs to happen again. The world's climate hasn't gotten stable in the interim. So please accept that part of their bargaining position. Since my, just speaking personally, since my activist rabbi father's not here, I'm gonna say something that's a plea to the supervisors and a blessing to my brothers and sisters at SCIU, some of the rabbi Hillel a hundred years before Jesus. If I'm not for myself, who will be for me? If I'm not for others, what am I? And if not now, when? Good morning, Board of Supervisors. My name is Dalmariz. I'm a child support specialist too with the Department of Child Support Services. I am here to ask the board a question. Why is Santa Cruz County not honoring Juneteen as a holiday? It's a federal holiday. It's the eldest national celebrated commemoration of ending slavery in the United States. Also called America's Second Independence Day and Freedom Day. The reason I ask is because our neighboring counties honor and celebrate this important date in America's history that is Juneteen. Our neighbor, Monterey County being one of the most recent to honor it. I'm also asking you to show some leadership in the serious pay gaps amongst our county workforce. Did you know there is a disparity in pay between Latinos, Hispanics, or Latinx? We earn 8.3% less than Santa Cruz Caucasian workers. We need your leadership to write these and the other injustices my coworkers have shared. I will now turn this over to our chapter president, Veronica Velazquez. Good morning. Good morning. We'll have about five more speakers before we go to our regular agenda and then anybody that wishes to speak could do so after our afternoon session. The agenda items are completed. Go ahead now. Good morning. Good morning. My name is Veronica Velazquez. I'm a social worker for the department of family and children services and I also serve as the chapter president for our membership. This morning you heard from SEIU members and community activists who support our bargaining team. You heard firsthand from members who delivered vital services to our community during a global pandemic. We did our part when the county needed us and now it's time for the county to do theirs and give us a fair contract. We worked through fires and furloughs and all we got from management was a thank you email. I'm here on behalf of our membership to tell you that a thank you email does not cover increases to our healthcare. It does not cover high costs for rent and it does not put food on the table for our families. I am here to deliver a petition signed by over a thousand workers. The petition reads as follows. I support my bargaining team in their fight for a fair contract. Last year we worked through fires and furloughs and a global pandemic. We sacrificed to keep our community safe and expect management to honor our sacrifices by giving us a fair contract. I am willing to take action up to and including a strike if needed to win a contract. Thank you. Thank you. Thank you. Thank you. Thank you. Can you please close the door? So, courtesy to the next, close the door. Thank you. I'm not sure if you can hear me yet. You're closing the doors now. I'm Gary Richard Arnold, Chairman, Supervisors. About a fourth of the businesses, small businesses have been shut down in Santa Cruz by a person that was secretly paid. Her name is Margaret Lopez. Or if people can come up with the name and the amount that was given to Margaret Lopez, that caused many of those shutdowns which were highly selective. It's especially interesting. So there's a direct connection between not only virus which was put together by Dr. Charles Lieber who's in jail for being a communist spy going back and forth from Harvard to the labs at Harvard to Wuhan. Also, I think it's important that people watching this understand that it was a union that not only disrupted the meeting here, but interfered with that person who said he was from the Sierra Club. And one of their organizers came over and I said, what's this guy doing in front? Anyway, there was nothing I could really could do because I was certainly outnumbered. I wasn't protected. They don't believe in equality. If they cared about their jobs, they'd get rid of the sanctuary cities. The Democratic Party would stop bringing hundreds of thousands of people over to downgrade the wages and put the burdens on them in cities across California which is wide open again by the Panetta machine who gave policy and military information to the red Chinese. COVID is part of that. Small businesses do have a claim against this person that was hired by Palacios with the connections with the red Chinese. Excuse me, I think we've lost the audio from the chambers on the Zoom. Supervisor Coonerty or Fran, can you hear the chambers? Can I ask a clerk if my remarks will be in the art guide or can I do that again? If they're not, I've been cut off before and I know some other gentlemen have been chopped off their communications with this board of supervisors by the community TV that sits over there. And that has happened with another jurisdiction. Sir, let us try to solve this problem, please, here right now. Are we on? We're calling for ISD support. Okay, I think we should take a five or 10 minute recess. Find out exactly when it gets up again. Supervisor Coonerty and Fran, can you hear us? It's been resolved. Yeah, okay. That's great. Okay, go ahead, ma'am. You're welcome to speak. Can you pull down the mic a little, please? Okay. Good morning. I'm Marlise Roten, Aptos, California, members of the board. There is a growing number of concerned citizens, including parents, grandparents, teachers, and the general public. The issue of concern is a proposed mandate that all school-aged children will be required to get the mRNA shot in order to attend school. We are concerned for the following reasons. The injection is experimental and was rushed to date over 500,000 COVID adverse reactions. On the bears to date, 19,000 deaths. From past history of reporting vaccine adverse reactions, only 1% are reported. Every cure is aggressively suppressed. Many people could have been saved. Many people sick are fully vaccinated. Specifically for children, the COVID risk for children to die is 0.00049%. During Pfizer's clinical trial, death rate after shot was 200 times. At the mortality rate of the COVID virus. Harvard Medical School did a study on July 1st. 1,000 cases of myocarditis and paracarditis were reported after this shot. And this is for ages 12 to 18. Long-term adverse effects is unknown. There's no liability for the farm company since 1986. Children have strong, robust, God-given immune systems. Children are of no threat to each other or to adults. As a grandparent of four, I'm extremely concerned about these mRNA shots. In the upcoming days, you will see increase in citizens getting involved in to fight this proposed mandate, which is not a law. If it does go through, parents will be pulling their children out of schools, and many people will be exiting the state and will go to more free states. Please do the right thing and stand with us against this proposed mandate. Documentation is here for each of you, taken from the vaccine report, which is Dr. Selinko, who's a Nobel winner, and also Children's Health Defense documentation, top 10 reasons. Thank you very much. Hey, that, since my announcement, about five more speakers, three have spoken. Is there anybody else that was wanting to speak for the comments? Pardon me, Chair, there are five via Zoom. Oh, there are five via Zoom. Go ahead. Mary Scott, your microphone is available. Thank you, supervisors and chair. I am excited to be here to speak to you about the Coast Futura rail demonstration that happened in Watsonville Thursday, Friday, and Saturday, and is coming this Thursday to Santa Cruz. You know, I spoke to a lot of TAMC and Caltrans people that rode the Thursday run, and I promise you there is nothing but excitement about our rail line being used for public transit. You know, this vehicle operated at low speed because of the condition of the tracks, but improving the line to offer 30 and 40 mile an hour speeds is not a big problem. It's lighter. This vehicle type is lighter than other vehicles that we've seen, so it puts less stress on the bridges. This exact technology is included on page 13 of the Electric Rail Business Plan. The TIGM is an option for our light rail public transit. The people who rode, especially South County, are so excited by this, and it ran by the segment 18 trail. We can have rail and trail. So I hope everyone takes a chance to ride. I thank Supervisor Caput for riding, and I encourage everyone to take a ride on this in Santa Cruz. It's actually proving that rail can happen literally this week between the boardwalk and Capitola. It's literally happening hourly transit from the boardwalk to Capitola and back. You fix some bridges, you let Roaring Cam do some work on this line, the speeds can be faster, and we can have rail transit happening in the near term and not this crazy 30 year out thing that's been projected. So let's do the right thing and keep this rail line operating. Let's improve the trestles, the bridges, and get this moving. Thanks so much. Come out, see the coast futura. Bye-bye. Caller 7399, your microphone is available. Star 610, meet yourself. Last call for caller 7377. Call in user one, your microphone is available. Good morning. This is Marilyn Garrett, and there used to be three minutes for speaker and it used to be, you would listen to everyone who was there, not just limited to 30 minutes. I think that reflects the board's disrespect for the public, that's just one thing. I'm citing from a publication called Wise Traditions, westonaprice.org from the summer 2021 edition. In our book, The Contagion Myth, Weston A. Price Foundation, Vice President Tom Cowan, MD, and I, Shalit Bell and Morel, argue there is no such thing as contagious disease. That is disease transferred from a sick person to a well person via pathogenic bacteria or viruses. Disease results from nutrient deficiencies, poisons, including electromagnetic poisons, and an injury. And any micro found associated with the disease is the result, not the cause of the illness. But by now a large portion of the population has received an injection against COVID-19. We are hearing about a new kind of contagion, unvaccinated people getting sick after contact with vaccinated individuals. There are reports of menstrual irregularities, miscarriage, fatigue, rashes and strange bruising and unvaccinated after close contact with the vaccinated, skipping down. Whatever the explanation we are witnessing is a vaccine that transfers illnesses to others. And the publication also lists shocking data on this. Any folder, your microphone is available. Good morning, Board of Supervisors. I'm speaking about the moratorium on non-retail cannabis licenses. For over 40 years, actually over 40 years ago in the late 1970s, my husband and his brothers built our family home on Crest Drive, a few doors away from the Kittyama brothers farm field. Since then our children and now our growing number of grandchildren continue to enjoy this quiet, rural, mostly residential neighborhood. I wanna urge you to continue the moratorium for non-retail cannabis licenses so that improvements to the cannabis cultivation ordinance, like the ones made to the retail cannabis ordinance can be considered. I trust you agree that families and children in rural neighborhoods deserve the same protections as families and children in urban neighborhoods. If so, then I further trust you we'll see the wisdom of requiring a setback of 500 feet to protect rural neighborhoods. Our neighborhood is also the home of an abundance of wildlife, including deer that come up from Manrasa State Park. Two does and their fawns wander through my proper daily. Early this morning, there was a buck crossing my driveway. I am particularly concerned that the proposed fencing for the cannabis operation will prevent the deer and other wildlife that move through my property from reaching the only significant freshwater source available to them. Thank you for your consideration and for your care in protecting rural neighborhoods. All are six, seven, two, four, your microphone is available. Hey, thank you. This is Pat Malo. I'm speaking in regards to agenda item 10, the continuation of the cannabis moratorium and associated recommended changes for the ordinances. I just like to say, me and a lot of people have been working on this for a long time. The idea was to get as many folks as we could get into this program and so that they would become good neighbors, taxpayers and part of a regulated process. That process is semi-failed because the majority of us were unable to obtain licensing and even today, the folks who are still attempting to get licensed are getting caught in one issue after another. This situation was just the latest chapter in that. In my mind, I'd like to just point out a couple of things too, is that this whole issue seems to be about one particular garden that was just spoken about on Quest and another garden that a few gardens, but one licensed garden and seemingly many unlicensed garden on Browns Valley. That licensed garden already has a license and wouldn't be affected by the changes or any of the things we've done. The garden that we were talking about on Quest is within the coastal zone. It's going not an over-the-counter license and there is a robust public process to deal with all of these issues. And I've just watched a trend of a few problem gardens setting off blanket responses that end up excluding the people with the least amount of resources, the black and brown people that are trying to get into this process for equity reasons and really has derailed our whole project that we all set off together as a community around 10 years ago. Santa Cruz used to lead in cannabis policy. I believe we can still do that and I believe in some ways we still are, but we've got a long way to go. Thank you. David, public transit, your microphone is available. Hello. Yes, hello. Hello, good morning, leaders of our county. This is David Van Brink, live from a beautiful sunny west side this morning. Just to echo Barry, the Coast Future Light Rail demo was super well received in Watsonville. There was only like one or two grumps who refused to smile. Obviously it's a mock-up, but it does show an existence proof that it's most of the critical features. It's a long way from prototype to product, but we're seeing an undeniable proof that it is possible. I hope you all get to ride Coast Future on the boardwalk. I hope you encourage your constituencies to check it out and you all know the event information. Thanks very much. Thank you, this is the last caller, HCA. Your microphone is available. Good morning, supervisors. This is Leah Samuels, the executive director of Human Care Alliance. I just wanted to call in. I'm on my vacation, but I felt the need to thank you all for your thoughtful participation and the core process this year. We're really happy with how it's going. We also wanted to thank Mimi Rogers and Randy Morris as well as the Nichols. We've spent a lot of time this year talking to them and establishing a relationship. And we just feel that people are listening and having a really nice open dialogue. So thank you very much and have a great day. We had one last person joined. This is the last caller for public comment, Tina A. Your microphone is available. They have muted themselves, so you're not going to speak. There are no other callers. Okay, that'll complete our public comment for this morning. On the consent items, the provisor Koenig, any comments? Yes, thank you, Chair. I want to begin with item 22 and thanking our CAO for bringing forward these legislative priorities. I appreciate that it's a good short focus list that hopefully we can accomplish them all. Working with our legislative partners. On item 34, I want to thank Sanjay Khandelwal for volunteering to serve on the Fire Department Advisory Commission. The commission has important work to do, particularly in making sure it's easier to train and retain volunteer firefighters in our county. On item 37, I want to thank Supervisor Coonerty for bringing this forward, which would be translation services for the Latino Affairs Commission. My office is currently looking for a new Latino Affairs Commissioner. And we also realized that this was a shortcoming of the current commission not having these translation services. And I appreciate Supervisor Coonerty for recognizing the same thing and bringing this forward. On item 56, accepting $348,000 for the CDBG grant for Live Oak Schools. I want to thank Santa Cruz Community Health Centers for spearheading this effort. This is a great program, pretty innovative that will embed a dual language community health outreach worker and one social worker at school sites to work with students, parents and their teachers. And as we've heard repeatedly, mental health needs and health needs in general are a huge need in our school system today. So this is a great program. And finally on items 58 and 60, I want to thank Public Works for their ongoing work on Glen Haven Road as assistant director, reasoner knows residents up there are eager for improvements and it's glad to see some moving forward. That's all my comments, thank you. Thank you, Supervisor Friend. Thank you, Mr. Chair. Just a note of appreciation on item 40, the item that you and Supervisor Coonerty brought forward on generators. This is an item that also impacts my district. We've had similar difficulties of people that are trying to get licensed for generators in particular during PSPS events or now it seems to be the near weekly other shutouts that PG&E does. Just a note that we don't want these to be 24 hour operations. And one of the reasons we brought forward these, the initial changes on the generators was because some people were using it in lieu of actual power, recognizing that as your board letter talks about fire victims and others with PSPS, we do need to make it easier for people to have a backup system. And I think that this is a very good direction in that way. And I appreciate your and Supervisor Coonerty's work on that. Thank you, Supervisor Coonerty. Thank you, Mr. Chair. First, item number 22, I'd like to request that we continue this to this item to the next meeting. As Supervisor Koenig mentioned, this is a great list. It just doesn't include anything from the third district because we weren't consulted about it. So if we can continue it, then we'll add a priority and then we'll bring it back to the board. Item number 32, I wanna thank the County workforce for nearly 90% vaccination rate for doing its part, not only as an institution, but also as partners in the community and making our entire community safer. Item number 36, it was discussed, it's been discussed widely in our community. The placing of a sexually violent predator in our community whose only connection to Santa Cruz County is that he committed crimes here. It's not only offensive, but idiotic and we need to revamp this program. And I appreciate that San Diego is being a leading voice in this and we hopefully can join them in trying to improve this program. And then finally, item number 37, I wanna acknowledge that staff has a lot going on and it's a difficult time, but I think it's critical if we're gonna pursue equity that we make sure that all voices literally and figuratively are understood in the room, especially in the Latino Affairs Commission. Thank you. Congratulations, Caput. Thank you. I have a couple of comments about number 21, continuing the hybrid board means. I think this approach has been a good balance and in my view, I think it's been very successful. It's allowed not only encourage safety precautions as we continue to deal with COVID, but it also has increased the opportunities for more public participation without having everyone having come to the County Center. I recognize Supervisor Coonerty's request for continuance on item 22, but I'd just like to mention that one of our highest legislative priorities and maybe there will be some added to that, but as the Santa Cruz County member to CSAC, this was the top funding priority to have to increase broadband access and the California State budget has increased or included a $5 billion in its budget this year for broadband and that'll allow a lot more communications for members of our rural community. I know this is also a matter that's being addressed in the National Association of Counties, of which Supervisor Friend is our representative and I think they will be supporting that as well. On item number 31, it's been mentioned, I'd like to thank Supervisor Coonerty for bringing this item with my office to address the barriers in our code that make acquiring and selling generators difficult, especially for folks in our rural areas. We've been experiencing too many outages and there's a real need for people to have generators and we think this is a good way to address that. And on item 55, the addition of a park staff member, I'm glad to see these additional resources through June of next year. I wish we could add them permanently, but this one time funding will nonetheless be helpful. I think what we've been able to offer in our park system has been a really important issue that we need to enhance, especially under the restrictions that we've had with COVID. It's been very valuable to our community. With that, I will entertain a motion. To approve the- Will there be a motion for Supervisor Coonerty's request? Yes, I think we will, that'll be part of, we'll, I think the motion should be to approve the consent agenda, but with added direction to continue item number 22. To our next meeting. To the next meeting. Thank you. Thanks. All the roll please. I need a mover and a seconder. I'll move. So moved. Second.visor Koenig? Aye. Friend? Aye. Coonerty? Aye. Caput? Aye. McPherson? Aye. I think your motion passes unanimously. We will go to item number seven on the regular agenda. It's a presentation from the Health Services Agency on the American Rescue Plan Act. Funding for the health centers accept a grant and adopt a resolution accepting unanticipated revenue in the amount of 3.4 million plus from the Health Resources and Service Administration for ARPA funding for health centers. Adopt a resolution accepting unanticipated revenue in the amount of $51,615 from the Health Services Agency and for fund transfer into the general services department for fiscal year 2122. Authorizes the purchase of up to the amount of $429,009 for medical equipment and vehicles approved addition of 23 full-time equivalent permanent positions and conversion of two full-time positions from limited term to be permanent directed to the Health Services Agency returned by October 31st, 2022, a year from now to present the update on the ARPA funding for health centers and fund plan accomplishments to take related actions that's outlined in the memorandum of the Director of Health Services. We have a list of the positions and fixed assets and so forth. But I want to point out that this funding is grant money and not general fund money. Please present. Thank you. We need to replace your PowerPoint. It's corrupted. So it'll be just to note we're having an issue with their PowerPoint. And when I just, we're waiting when I spoke about the generators, it's item number 40, not 39. Thank you. Thank you. Tiffany Cantrell, are you going to be opening this up? Yes, thank you. Good morning. I'm Tiffany Cantrell Warren and I am the Assistant Director for the Health Services Agency here for the county. And I'm here today to introduce my colleague, Amy Peeler who is the Chief of our Clinic Services Division and will be giving this morning's presentation. Thank you, Assistant Director Cantrell, Warren and Chair and Board for this opportunity to talk to you a little bit about what we have been up to and how we are hoping to use this specific funding to boost our services and provide a little bit more infrastructure to what we do. I want to first introduce you to our mission. We had our first strategic planning process a couple of years ago over the last couple of years and our first true mission statement which is to promote and protect the health and wellbeing of our community by providing access to quality comprehensive and affordable primary and integrated behavioral healthcare. So everything we do is filtered through that mission to help us decide if what we're proposing is consistent with this mission. So today we will talk specifically about this American Rescue Plan Act funding for health centers specifically and how we would like to use that funding to meet the community's need and how we will be able to sustain the services once the funding is used. So this slide is an overview. This funding came to us as a result of the American Rescue Plan Act but through the Health Resources Services Administration. So also known as HRSA, that is our federal oversight agency. So through that, when we get the notice of award there are very specific things that we can use this funding for. It has a specific purpose, a specific focus and a narrow group of things we can use the funding for. So the purpose as you can see is to support maintaining and enhancing our response and infrastructure as a result of the pandemic with always an eye on inequity exposed by the pandemic. And then to get a little bit more focused to establish, modify, enhance and expand and sustain the accessibility and availability of comprehensive primary. Surely all of these are consistent with our mission. So those two, the purpose and the focus come to us from HRSA. Our priorities are to add support and service staff to bolster our infrastructure, expand our operations, increase our outreach specifically to South County and improve equipment and supplies. These align very well with that, particularly three of our strategic plan goals which are to create a workplace that fosters an equitable, stable and highly competent workforce, strengthen the systems through continuous process improvement and creating financially sustainable systems that support operational growth. So these are the very specific reasons sent to us through HRSA about how we can use this funding. You can tell from the first three it's all about expanding capacity to provide services. And then also recovery and stabilizing from the pandemic last year was a particularly difficult year for everyone and certainly for us in the clinic services division. We plan to use some of the money from minor operations, mobile units and we'll talk a little bit about that in a minute. We ask ourselves, why? Why are we making these priorities? And what we've seen over the last year is that so many community members have deferred their healthcare. And so now, including children getting vaccinations, adults getting vaccinations, preventative care and primary care. So we're experiencing a higher demand now. We've also seen as some people have lost their jobs, a higher eligibility for MediCal, which is primarily the vast majority of our patients have MediCal. So we see an increased demand due to that as well. Also, we have been talking about expanding services in Watsonville long before the pandemic happened. So this is an excellent confluence to be able to use some of this money to support our expansion in Watsonville. And then also we provide X-ray and lab services both our Emeline campus and our Freedom campus in Watsonville. And some of that essential equipment is aging and failing. So this is a good opportunity to be able to provide that updated infrastructure as well. This, and I think we skipped a slide. Nope, we didn't skip a slide. Okay, so what we wanna do is tell the story about how this can be sustainable. So the blue graph represents the visits to all of our clinics in the first two months of fiscal, of 2020. The first two months of the last fiscal year. And then the orange slide is the first two months of this current fiscal year. So you can see that we're already bouncing back and experiencing higher demand in our world clinic visits translates to revenue. So let's go to the next slide. Thank you. Just down on the wheel and roll it towards you. You wanna press it down, Tim. So here's what we are specifically planning to do with this money. We are asking to add staff, a substantial amount of staff, predominantly revenue generating positions, but also some positions that will provide support and infrastructure to those who are revenue generating. I talked a little bit about our X-ray and lab upgrades. And then you might have heard, we have an excellent outreach ban that we're using predominantly for our people experiencing homelessness and predominantly in North County. So we wanna be able to do that in South County as well. And on these outreach bans, we are able to have a medical provider, nurses, medication assisted treatment, and it's really proven to be successful. So we would like to expand that. And also on our Watsonville campus, we have two separate clinics and it can be difficult for patients to get from one to the other where one clinic we have lab and X-ray, but they might have been seen in another clinic. So having a small transport vehicle so that we can get our patients what they need, especially in the winter. And then lastly, vaccine refrigerators. As we are doing more and more vaccinations, we need to have refrigerators that can allow us to keep our vaccine supply at the proper temperature. How will we sustain this? Firstly, we are in a midst of a pilot project right now to expand our Saturdays to an additional 100 days a year. And what this is allowing us to do is provide better services to families, especially to children so that parents can bring their children in for well-child exams, vaccinations, et cetera, on days where they might not otherwise be working. And this is for the grants for two years. So that's the 100 days of service if you're talking Saturdays. The grant is for two years. So what we're talking about now is how we will be able to sustain the ask. And having 100 additional days of service produces more revenue and better service for our community. Also the annual cost of the positions alone is almost $3 million. But the revenue that we're projecting to bring in from those revenue generating positions is 3.6 million. So we're projecting a return on that investment of approximately $630,000. And then another part of our sustainability story is part of the pandemic story, which is prior to the pandemic our Integrated Behavioral Health Services which are social workers, therapists and psychiatrists. We had approximately a 20% no-show rate. When the pandemic hit and we switched so many of our services to being remote either by the telephone or telemedicine, we saw that number decrease. And so our Integrated Behavioral Health Services actually saw more patients during the pandemic than they did before. And so one of the benefits of having to shift the way we provide care is seeing that we can continue with this. We can bill for it and be reimbursed for it and we find many patients prefer to receive their Integrated Behavioral Health Services from their own home rather than having to come to the clinic. Thank you. So let me now turn it over to assistant director Cantrell Warren to talk about their recommended actions. Thank you, Amy. So as you've heard, there's a high demand and there remains an unmet healthcare need in the Santa Cruz County community. This federal funding will allow the Santa Cruz County clinics to increase staffing and healthcare equipment, which will in turn expand access to healthcare services for Santa Cruz County residents, meaning we can serve more residents. The clients at our clinics predominantly have Medi-Cal insurance or are uninsured. And so they've also been adversely affected by the pandemic through illnesses, job loss and possibly a decreased financial and health status. So these funds enable Santa Cruz County to provide this preventative and treatment services in primary care and behavioral health to help more County residents achieve their highest state of health and wellbeing. Our request has been designed to maximize the federal investment so that a sustainable revenue is achieved. And after the startup costs, the staffing positions and services will pay for themselves. So today we're asking your board to receive the presentation, to accept a grant allocation of 3.4 million, to adopt the resolution to accept and appropriate the 3.4 million, adopt a resolution to accept and appropriate $51,615 in intra-fund transfer, authorized a fixed asset purchase of up to $429,009 for medical equipment and vehicles, to approve 23 new positions and the conversion of two limited term positions to permanent and to direct our agency to return to this board by October 31st, 2022 to present an update on the ARPA funding for health centers accomplishments. This concludes our presentation. Thank you. Any questions from the board? Is there any no? What about your board? Yeah. Thank you for the report. I mean, we're talking about a lot of resources and activity and things that we're able to do in South County that we weren't able to do in the past. The old building pretty much, it's gonna remain. I mean, they're not gonna knock it totally down. They're gonna renovate it, is that my understanding? There are quite a few buildings on that campus. We are currently in the process of doing some renovation to what we call suite D, which is our main clinic. So renovation is happening there and then we anticipate after that some renovation in building B as well. Okay, yeah, that's good. I understand. But anyway, I think it's very exciting that the area with the new behavioral mental health facility also there and the old building used to be a courthouse. So it really wasn't set up for any type of private conversations. It was mostly a big room. And so this is gonna be really nice. Yeah. Yeah, we're very excited. And is there any plans to real quick question? Maybe a small picnic area, park, barbecue area maybe? We do have a little area behind the clinic where we've had picnics before. And then there is a lot of open space behind that area where we could certainly explore that. We have a section in our newest clinic to where people can gather, but it's mostly for our staff. Yeah, nothing real elaborate. There may be a little playground for kids and families in the neighborhood and also throughout the city can take them over there. That'd be nice. Yeah, absolutely. Supervisor Friend. Thank you, Mr. Chair. And thank you for the presentation. And to just build upon what Supervisor Caput was saying, I just appreciate this focus on equity, the continued investment in South County services, which are so important, not just with the new facility that we're putting in with the new service center, but in specific to your investments here, a lot of your presentation and a lot of your concerns were focused on ensuring this equity for South County residents that are either Medi, Medi or MediCal pure. And I just appreciate the fact that there is a voice being elevated for them by you and your team. So that's just a lot of appreciation fully supported with this item. Thank you. Thank you. Thank you. Thank you. Yeah, I'm just gonna add my voice. I appreciate that while we have so many priorities and so many challenges, we're being thoughtful about our investments and thinking about how we deliver better health and equity in our community in this way. And also understanding that we're trying to build, use short-term money to build long-term solutions, which is always a challenge, but I appreciate the thoughtful and coordinated approach that we're taking to this initiative. Thank you. I'll agree with that. And I only hope that we can be successful in our FEMA reimbursement process that we don't have to identify additional funds to make that hole. I think that's about a $5 million or something, we're still waiting for that. So thank you. Are there any comments from the public? Yeah, good morning. My name is James Ewing Whitman. This is a very interesting subject. You know, I've been in the professional building trades for 33 years that doesn't imply that I'm a Mason or a Jesuit or that I have anything to do with the logic or illogic of the secret covenant. You know, during the scandemic, I've taken up a bunch of new hobbies. One of them is I have a mechanical, I have a couple new microscopes. What's not new is the best of my knowledge it was built between 1943 and 1947. It has the capacity to mechanically 5,000 times magnify things. So a direct comment in regards to the refrigeration, equipment that are being used to store some of these cryogenic hydras that are GMO organisms that are 70% human stem cells. I certainly would like at the end of the day to have the ability to look at this stuff under a microscope. The hydra living organisms are a little bit different than the mechanical nanotechnology that's in it. So it's a new way to figure out how to detox from these things. Though I provided some information on September 28th on Waking the Bear, which is a local radio station it airs tonight on every Tuesday from eight to 9 p.m. How do we get here? You know, one could go back and look at the Biologist Control Act of 1902. But let's jump to November 13th, 1986. Before that, the vaccine manufacturers were going broke because they are being sued. The 13 vaccines that they're giving to children were greatly hurting them. But due to Anthony Fossey, strong-arming Ronald Reagan in 1986, now the vaccine manufacturers have immunity from prosecution. And now they've pushed forward over 72 vaccines. So there's a lot of problems still in Santa Cruz County. Thank you. Any other public comment? I have one speaker on Zoom. Colin, user one, your microphone is available. Thank you to James for his factual comments. And this, we call it health services agency. It seems like it's a harm, committing harm agency. When you talk about vaccines, the list of disastrous health impacts, negative impacts are long. And I wanna refer you to a document. I'm glad to provide a copy of this to anyone who will read it. It's titled, Vaccines for Health or Profit is compiled by Brandy Vaughn, former pharmaceutical sales executive and founder of learntherisk.org. And it starts out stating right at the beginning, medical freedom is a human right. The county officials are disregarding this human right. Here's the statement. First and foremost, mandatory vaccine laws are a violation of the basic human right to voluntary consent without coercion to any and all medical procedures, tests, experiments and preventative measures. The Nuremberg Code was established following World War II based on the fact that all medical products have an inherent health risk and serious side effects. Vaccines include the table of contents reads, includes vaccine ingredients, the vaccine side effects, vaccine court and there's vaccine adverse events reporting system, vaccines and disease decline, the reality, herd immunity, can vaccines achieve it? Is measles a real threat? There are no other speakers. Is there any other person, I didn't speak, will bring it back to the board? Chair, I'll move the recommended actions. And I just wanted to add, as I was learning about our local healthcare system, I remember the fact that we actually get much better reimbursement rates from the federal government for care that happens in our own clinics. I mean, twice as much really as many of the other local nonprofit healthcare providers. And so I remember thinking, well, why don't we provide more care in our own clinics? This is such a great opportunity to do exactly that. And essentially we're using these one-time monies to jumpstart a new program where we have provide much more care at these clinics. And I mean, I think the business model, if you will, demonstrates that we're doing that we're able to continue these services long-term because of the reimbursements that we're getting for the care we provide. So always support this and I'm excited to move that in the absence. Thank you. I'll second the motion. I just wanted to make a comment. Marilyn, if you're still listening, I miss seeing you here in person. Appreciate all your comments. We go back to when I was on the city council in Watsonville and with the pandemic and everything, you haven't been able to come out here, I guess. But anyway, thank you. Okay. Thank you. Yeah. Human Services Department and Health Services Department too for getting this becoming a reality. I mean, Supervisor Koenig or write on, we can do a lot more for a lot more people. Thank you. We have a motion to second. Please call the roll. Supervisor Koenig. Aye. Friend. Trinity. Aye. Caput. Aye. McPherson. Aye. Thank you. Motion passes unanimously. Item number eight is to approve an agreement with the Santa Cruz County Office of Education in the amount of $3,917,139 over four years for navigation services and training to support students in the Santa Cruz County schools and take related actions as recommended by the director of the health services. We have a contract with the Santa Cruz County Office of Education performance measures and administrative issues as well. Thank you. Oh, just in time. Thank you. And, well, it's take your time and get your presentation. Thanks, sir. My board members. You might speak up just a little or lip. Sorry. Excuse me. Yeah. Thank you. Hi, my name is Dr. Tam, I'm a children's behavioral health. You know, I'm here today with my colleague, but the recommended action is to approve an agreement with the Santa Cruz County Office of Education contract number 808 in the amount of $5,917 over four years for the navigation services and training to support students through the program. I'm through being very impressed with the service teams that assess the services act. Thank you, Dr. Tam. I'm honored to be here. I'm honored to be here. Thank you. Thank you very much. Thank you. Thank you. Thank you very much. Thank you. Thank you. Thank you. Oh, I'm so sorry. I did get it. So I'll click right button. I'd like him to have that repeated. He's just going to go through with implementation. Yeah, and I apologize for that. Briefly, I am the executive director of the Student Support Services Department. That's much louder. At the County Office of Education here in Santa Cruz. And we provide a whole host of programs around youth. As students K through 12, they're experiencing challenges in all kinds of circumstances, which we can talk about a little bit later in the presentation. And I want to take the first couple of slides here to really give you the big picture and then we'll get more specific, which is probably where you're most interested. This is coming from, this is called the MHSSA grant, which is a slight different acronym than MHSSA, which is the Mental Health Services Act, which is Prop 63, which is taxed on income over a million dollars in California past some years ago. And the reason this is slightly different is the state legislature really wanted this, another long acronym, MHSOAC. This is the state agency that is funding this grant, the Mental Health Services Oversight Accountability Commission. They wanted specific dollars from this Prop 63 pool to go to the school and behavioral health interface. And some of that has already happened, which Stan will talk about as well shortly. But this was really targeted to ensure that that's occurring in a large way. And hence, this very, this big, great, amazing robust grant, which will be four years in duration as you can read for a million per year, total of four million. Looks down and then. I think I need four degrees to figure out how to... There we go, I think that's okay, very bad. The second layer I wanted to talk about was that for the last two years, the County Office of Education, under our fairly new elected county superintendent about three, four years ago, Dr. Ferrisabaugh went through a strategic plan that really looked at key components that at least from the county office perspective, we wanted to pursue in support of all school districts and students. And one of those key components, I won't go into the whole plan, is around safety. And what we have interpreted safety as to be very broad. And one of those is really around social-emotional safety, psychological safety, school culture and climate safety. And that has then come down sort of a pipeline to my department in large ways. And one of those is this school's Integrated Behavioral Health Initiative, which we launched about two years ago. Administrator Mimi Hall was part of this. Pretty much anybody you can think of that was government, nonprofit, community-based came to several large convenings. And then we've had multiple meeting sense that were really more around focused work groups and peer levels of service. And I wanted to tell you that because this grant really represents one of the first efforts that we took to really put dollars in resources and personnel behind some of these focus groups and sort of bigger picture systems thinking processes that we did. And so now I wanna pass it on to my colleague, Stan Einhorn again. So to make this as simple as possible, one of the things that this grant acknowledges and helps us do is that there are youth and families who are dealing with mental health issues. And what often happens is those people who need services don't necessarily know how to get to the services to help them out. And so this grant really is a bridge between helping to educate the schools and the public about mental health needs, about how to overcome stigma for asking for help and then connecting them with the services that are most appropriate for them, whether it be funded by MediCal, whether it be funded by their own personal insurance, whether it may be a service that's outside of their insurance that's needed. It's really helping to assist families, say something's not working with my child who is having a hard time in school or socially or in the family. And that when that's identified, we wanna help to connect them with the services that are going to most accurately and appropriately help that youth and family, again, become successful in those areas. We have had a partnership in our system of care here in this county for close to 30 years that was originally coming from the system of care legislation, which meant different constituencies would come together and say, when we have children who are not succeeding, it's the community's problem. And we want to address it that way. And this grant allows for a robust building of system navigators who can actually work with identified youth and families to help them get from that place of identifying. We have an issue to connecting them with the right person to help them address that. So that expanded and so that's really the goal and purpose of this grant and the fact that we've got identified six navigators that will help throughout the county to help actually work with individual families, help them to connect to the access to the behavioral health services as they are now. And then also working to make sure that we're addressing the disparities as well. So underserved portions of the community have better access to support. All right, and we'll get into a few more details here. And I am remiss that I did skip a few statistics which you probably don't need to hear, but there's a everyday new documentation coming out about the sort of severity of the mental health impacts that the pandemic has caused on all people, really, excuse me, but in particular youth in schools. National stuff talks about 25% increases in anxiety and depression. Locally, we administer something called the California Healthy Kids Survey, which every district, just about every district participates in. And there was already issues prior to the pandemic, but we've seen about a 15 to 25% increase in students reporting anxiety, hopelessness, sadness. And then if you, on the other side, we talked about LGBTQI plus and other sort of more vulnerable youth populations, those are all higher, sometimes double, experiencing bullying or non-non-connection at school. And so I tell you that as a backdrop to say, of course, there's a need. And we made a really sort of, I guess, strategic decision not to simply hire six more therapists to deploy to the 40,000 students across the county. And we did that because in this two years of the School's Integrated Behavioral Help Initiative focus groups, which really looked at, let me use one more acronym and then I'll stop, the multi-tiered systems of support, MTSS, you'll see that in all kinds of school plans. And often what happens is what they call tier two or tier three, and this is a public health model that goes from universal to targeted to individual or higher severity, if you will, as you go up the triangle to the top and less folks needing more resources. What we found was general linkage works pretty good. There's a lot of folks, I heard the union mentioned that schools are poaching some of the mental health therapists as I walked in earlier today, right? And so the schools with their one-time funding, hopefully to be sustained, are hiring more internal resources, social workers, counselors, therapists, in addition to the whole host that exists from County Behavioral Health, to all the nonprofits that are affiliated. And so what we found was that there is information, there is therapists, there is service. The question sometimes becomes the initial referter doesn't have time to spend three, four hours with that family to understand the depth of the need, the complexities, the geographic need, the type of symptoms, the type of service needed. And Access Team does a great job and we'll do some more of that for MediCal recipients. But what about folks that have Kaiser or Blue Cross or HealthNet or any insurance? And so what we decided was let's do an experiment. Let's take six navigators to become expert regardless of insurance, regardless of symptoms, regardless of severity, and we will help walk you through to get you to where you need to be. And so we are looking, we're actively recruiting, we haven't hired, of course, because it's not yet approved, but my boss has let me do parallel processes to try to not hold up the line. And so we're trying to recruit five, what we call guidance counselor tech twos, they're called behavioral health navigators here, and one project coordinator who also carry cases. And our hope is that by providing this in and of itself, it will be a therapeutic moment. It'll be a process where the family gets to be heard, seen, sort of relax a little bit and then have a journey, maybe three days, maybe three months to get to where they need to be based on their need and ability to pay and whatever their circumstances are. I know in one of the documents submitted to you, I think we wrote 100 students. That really I think was supposed to say 100 per person, meaning we would hope to serve either 100 per person over the course of the year or 100 to 200 at a time with this team. And again, we don't know the turnover rate yet because we don't know the needs. We expect we'll get the higher acuity referrals, meaning the ones who have sort of more ability to search for their own resources will probably connect and not need us. And so we'll probably get the more challenging folks that are still needing additional support. But ideally, if this is a well-running machine and we can have folks connected within a couple months, we could hopefully easily serve 1,000 families a year. That would be the sort of gold standard. And the last thing I'll say, because I talked way too long on the slide, is that we did build in 10 paid positions for students and we felt it was really important to have their voice included in our design, in our feedback, ones that are getting the service, ones that have ideas about the service, ones that are experiencing mental health challenges. And we have at least, at the very least, 100 hours of paid work experience for each of them who volunteer to be part of this process. And we felt like that was important both to pay them and to include them. Now we'll do one more. That's part A, and that is, to be honest, 2 thirds plus of the grant, if not 75% of it probably, because of the personnel cost. And then this is part B, and I'll end back to Stan. So the second part of this is one is stigma reduction. One of the things that we have engaged with over time with some of the Mental Health Service Act is our prevention and early intervention services, which helps organizations like NAMI, the National Alliance for Mental Ill, the Diversity Center, and other, and also some of our family support centers to have a better understanding of what mental health needs are and substance use disorders, Family Service Agency and the Suicide Prevention, also where these are, and also supporting the LBGTQI plus students, in terms of saying, if you have a need, please come forward. Let's understand what that is and helping to educate the community in terms of reducing the stigma. And then also in terms of behavior health training, trying to help make sure that we've got a good understanding of what does mental health look like and when people are starting to go off the tracks, how do we identify that? How do we have more people watching with the information about what does that look like so that the referral process and connection can happen? And so this grant helps to expand some of those services that we already have. We're looking to work with partners that we already have and part of the grant expands those education opportunities and outreach support. And that is integrated within the grant. Yeah, and we're very, back to Sibhi, we're very careful. We don't want to reinvent anything. We want to work with 2-1-1, with UniteUs, with Deakin social workers, with Access Team. Like we don't want to come in and do any kind of parallel process. We want to fill in the piece that is maybe missing and all of that. Yeah, and I think we have really partnered well with NAMI and Diversity Center and Compass and PVPSA and all these agencies who are already doing amazing work on the ground and in schools in large cases. So I think that's the end of our presentation. So we obviously welcome any questions. Thank you very much. I know this is a question that's really a concern to a lot of people under the circumstances we've experienced with COVID of just how much of an impact do this have on students? It seems to evident that it's having more severe impact than normal, for sure. And I just want to reiterate, this funding is not general fund funding from the county, but our health services agencies agency will be administering this with the County Office of Education. You said you hope to serve 1,000 students for your, and you've been serving some already. Is that additional or is that the total? Well, this program will be brand new. So my department and COE is not doing this work as it stands. I think there are all those other sort of folks and processes I mentioned. There's definitely referrals occurring. This would be sort of coming in to fill that gap of, and services are they provided by the campuses for referral only then? Well, yeah, so these folks would not, this is back to the choice point. We did not choose, so I call it therapeutic navigation, right? Because if you find a human and you're talking and you have issues going on, you want to be seen and heard and you want that therapeutic sort of holding, right? But you're not going to be doing professional psychological services. You're going to be doing social work to get you to a long-term solution. And it will be at, I don't know if I'm anticipating your question, but we will be going to school sites and we have two models in mind. Because again, six people, 40,000 students, if you count Alt-Ed, it's 11 school districts. And we've been doing a lot of service towards charter and private schools under sort of the COVID safety work. And I don't know, we haven't quite determined yet that does this fall here as well. May well likely. So what we'd like to do is probably, we have a similar program called FosterEd that serves just students' independency. And they are co-located with child welfare in your county buildings, as well as two big district seats, EOE and PVUSD. And we're thinking of doing something similar where they'd have maybe multiple seats in school districts and EOE and possibly some of these agencies if they're open to that. So that there's an expertise developing both at the school site level and one person knows this district and encompass. One knows PVPSA and PVUSD. One knows the small school districts. And that kind of answers the question about the provision of the issue of equity and providing services North County, South County and so forth. But this is an exciting project that I think it's gonna be very helpful to our young people in Santa Cruz County. Supervisor Friend, do you have any questions? Thank you, Mr. Chair. No, I don't. I really appreciated this presentation and the breadth by which we're doing this. I mean, I actually felt like I had an understanding of this issue, but I actually didn't have a full understanding of this issue until this presentation was just made. But this has been an exceptionally difficult year in particular in the schools. I think it's an under discussed issue in regards to what's been facing our local students. And so I just appreciate the leadership of both of you on this. Thank you. Supervisor Coonerty. Yeah, I just wanna take a moment of appreciation. I hear from a lot of parents and when their kids are suffering, they're already under, these families are already under tremendous stress and navigating these systems can be extremely challenging and add additional stress to an already difficult situation even if they can find the services they want, navigating them is extremely hard. And so adding these navigators to help people at a moment when these families and kids need it the most, I think it's really critical because then not only can we help get people the services they need, but I also think hopefully there'll be a feedback loop where we can figure out how to simplify systems, reduce barriers and be there hopefully early and effectively when the kids need us the most, right? And so ideally this is not just a one-stop program, but it's a program where we're trying to look at how to improve systems over time and learn what we can better do to simplify access to critical mental health care in this county. Thank you. Very well. Thank you. Supervisor Caput. You bet. Thank you very much. What we've gone through in the last couple of years has been very, very difficult for students. And it's been difficult for everybody, but I think it's almost like lost years. We lost a year and a half, almost two years. You think back and it's hard to put things in perspective. My son's sophomore year and junior year which is sort of built together and you can't really picture things. In our family, what I tried to do with my wife, we didn't have any computers or cell phones or anything like that. Television, we only had local channels. No, what do you call it? Streaming or competing? Right. So anyway, what I'm getting out of is it was personally, we were trying to make sure our kids were very social and that they were actually doing things rather than just everything on computers. But when the pandemic hit and everything, all the schools went virtual and we pretty much lost that battle. And everything was, we had to have a computer, we had to have Chromebooks and all that. So I guess what I'm getting at too is we have to understand if we can have open campuses when school's not in session where kids can go down and use the playgrounds, they can go down and play catch, they can play soccer, they can play baseball or football or whatever. So social skills is what I kind of was pushing. I noticed when we didn't have virtual everything, we were playing checkers, chess, monopoly or whatever, with the computers and everything and all the garbage that they throw on there. We've caught our kids when they're done doing their schoolwork, they get on some strange channels and games and all those games, some of them are very innocent, but something is being destroyed and something is being killed off or whatever in these games. It's kind of teaching them a bad habit of not respecting what we have. So anyway, I think I wanna applaud you for this and hope we can make it a little easier on all the school children out there. Thank you, Professor Konig. Yes, thank you, Chair. Thank you both for the presentation and the action plan as you mentioned and as I've heard repeatedly, youth mental health is one of the most pressing issues in our society today. My wife was a school nurse before the pandemic and already it was, we were seeing that this is an issue that is increasingly important, whether it's because widening wealth inequalities, leading to increased pressure to succeed and kids to push themselves further and harder or increased pressure from social media as people, as children compare themselves to others. And the pandemic, of course, really just brought this to a crisis point. People asked me over and over again, where's the state money, that state surplus showing up? And of course, this is it, right? This is, if I understand correctly, this was a grant that we didn't get the first time around and then thanks to that surplus, the state came back and funded it. And so this is really the state surplus showing up in our community to address one of our most pressing needs. I love the plan you put together, particularly the fact that you are getting students involved, students with lived experience to work with other students. Of course, we've seen that kind of peer mentoring work in all kinds of other programs, including substance use disorder. And so I think it's great that we're doing that here and empowering students who've lived through this experience to help others. So thank you for the plan and I'm fully supportive of it. Thank you so much. Any comments from the public? I do have a speaker via Zoom. You have one from Zoom? Yes. Call-in user four, your microphone is available. It is star 610 mute. Hi, this is Marilyn Garrett. And thank you so much, to provide your account for your comments and your account of what's happened in your own household with your children. It's a real tragedy what's going on with this lockdown, like in a prison and putting people on dangerous technology. It's been a thriving business for the telecommunications industry and computer and Google, et cetera. I think what we really need to be doing is to remove known causes of these problems that you cited in your staff report of increasing anxiety, depression, and hopelessness during the pandemic because it's called known causes of these disorders, ailments. And one of the things that could be done is the Wi-Fi and all this wireless radiation technology needs to be removed. You can't be really improving people's health in a toxic environment and where people have lost their livelihoods. They can't provide good nutrition or housing. It's ludicrous to make it look like things are getting better and you can navigate. You have to get out of the poison, remove the Wi-Fi. Vaccines are toxic as well. And I'll submit a document called Time to Remove Wi-Fi from our School of Citizens for Safe Technology. This is 10 years old and it's written by a mother. Post-modulated microwave radiation like that emitted by Wi-Fi has been demonstrated through thousands of published peer-reviewed scientific studies to cause headaches, migraines, concentration difficulties, hyperactivity, it goes on. Thank you. Gonna call us on Zoom. There are no other speakers. Okay, we'll return it to the board. I'll move the recommended actions. I'll second that. So the recommended actions are to approve the expenditure agreement with the Santa Cruz County Office of Education, contract numbers stated and in the amount of close to $4 million for navigation services and training to support student in Santa Cruz County Schools for the term of October 19, 2021 through June 30, 2025 and authorize the Health Service Agency Director to design and sign. Well, that's... Supervisor Koenig. Aye. Friend. Aye. Poonerty. Aye. Caput. Aye. McPherson. Aye. Thank you, motion passes unanimously. And congratulations. Very hopeful. Thank you very much. So much for your support. We look forward to coming back and letting you know. See you again. Okay, we will go to now to item number nine. It's a continued public hearing to consider an ordinance amending the County Code chapters 1310 and 1320 regarding health, excuse me, regarding accessory dwelling units and de minimis waiver for coastal development permits affirm CEQA notice of exemption and take related actions as outlined in the memorandum of interim director of planning, a resolution of, we have a resolution of accessory dwelling units owning code update, a CEQA notice of exemption, an ordinance amending 1310 and 1320, an ordinance amending Santa Cruz County Code 1310 and 1320, a strikeout and underline. Please, thank you. Yes. Thank you, Chair McPherson, Supervisors, Daisy Allen from the planning department. So the purpose of today's continued public hearing is to consider changes to chapters 1310 and 1320 of Santa Cruz County Code, as you said, regarding ADU regulations, as well as a coastal development permit de minimis waiver with the added text expanding property owner to include relatives of the property owner for the purposes of owner occupancy requirements per board direction at your October 5th public hearing. Staff recommends that the board hold the continued public hearing, affirm that the amendments are exempt from CEQA, adopt the resolution and ordinance, direct the clerk of the board to publish a notice of adoption and admit the ordinance to the Coastal Commission for certification. Thank you. Thank you. This is a continued public hearing. So is there anybody from the public that would like to address us on this issue? Number nine. Seeing none here. Is there anybody on Zoom? Yes, there's one speaker. They've lowered their hand. There it is. They've lowered their hand. They're back. I hope your microphone is available. Good morning supervisors. Co-Britain, Matt's Britain Architects. Wanted to point out that the parking rules being proposed amongst the various other ones by this board are more restrictive than the city of Santa Cruz. At what point is the county going to take its fair share of addressing the housing crisis? Clearly parking rules are a hindrance to thousands of potential lady use in exchange for a minimal benefit in parking convenience of seasonal day users driving in from over the hill. Exactly whose interests are being served here? Coastal staff? It's not the communities. Is there some form of quid pro quo going on between the supervisors or two of the supervisors and coastal staff for some future political favorable position on the coastal commission? If so, that needs to be transparent to the public. Thank you. There are no other speakers. Okay, I'll just ask again, is there anybody here in the room that would like to speak on this issue? Okay, we will close the public hearing and return it to the board. The supervisor Coonerty, I think is first up, but maybe he's not there quite. Supervisor Caput, do you have any comments? Sorry. You're okay? Supervisor Coonerty? Yeah, I'm okay and I'm prepared to move the recommended actions. Okay, we have a motion and a second. We'll get it comments from supervisor Koenig and friend if they have any. Yes, thank you, chair. Once again, I mean, this is a continuous of a former item. You know, I feel like we really need to be doing everything we possibly can to increase housing production in this county. You know, we heard it from our union members earlier today. It's one of the biggest expenses that they face. And I feel that really we should be empowering everyone to add additional ADUs. That's why I don't support the changes that we made because we're fundamentally disallowing folks who rent their property and don't live on that property from participating and adding to the housing stock. And also to the speaker, the public speaker's comments, I believe that we should be in line with what the city of Santa Cruz is doing in the coastal zone as far as parking requirements. Thank you, Supervisor Friend. Thank you, Mr. Chair. And I definitely respect supervisor Koenig's comments. I mean, at the end of the day, what's being proposed in front of us is an increased deregulation of ADU rules and regulations, which will increase the housing stock. And so I'm supportive of what's being proposed. I'm not really sure what the point of what the public speaker was saying, but in regards to the coastal commission component, but ultimately what county staff has brought forward is an increased loosening of the rules of what we currently have in our code. And I think that it will increase or I know it'll increase the number of ADUs. A lot of communities throughout the state are trying to find the best way to increase the housing stock. I think that we've done a good job on the ADU side. This, as well, a lot of our policies is an iterative process, both at the local and state level. And so I would anticipate that by no means is this the end of this discussion in regards to accessory going units, JEDUs and other components, such as your item previously on tiny homes. And so I think that you can expect that this process will continue to evolve over time, but in the meantime, a statement that is true is that it is now cheaper and easier and faster to build an ADU than it was in our county even just a couple of years ago. And this process that's being proposed today will increase that. So I'm supportive of the motion, Mr. Chair. Thank you. I think the ordinance strikes a balance between that respects really our existing neighborhoods but also allows for increased density that is certainly needed in our county. And I'm sure that we're gonna have some desired incomes. I understand the concern of Supervisor Koenig, but I think this is a good way to put this forward. It strikes a great balance, I think. Please call the roll. I'm sorry, Supervisor, I did not catch the seconder of the motion. Supervisor Caput. Thank you. Supervisor Koenig. No. Brenda. Aye. Coonerty. Caput. Aye. McPherson. Aye. Thank you, Motion Passes 4-1. Okay. We'll go to the last item on the morning agenda, the consider report on updates and potential changes to the non-retail commercial cannabis program provides specific direction to staff regarding amendments to the non-retail commercial cannabis program codified in the Santa Cruz County code and take related actions is outlined in the memorandum of the County Administrative Officer. We have an extension ordinance moratorium on cannabis in commercial agriculture, 1031-21. Final map of A zone, 30 acres or more. This melody's real. Good morning. Good morning, Board members. At the August 24th meeting of the Board of Supervisors, a Board member identified potential conflicts between residentially zone parcels and commercial cannabis operations in the commercial agriculture or CA zone. I'm gonna give a very, very brief presentation today that reviews the actions of the last few Board meetings and gives you some updated data. I wanna do a quick review of how we got here today. At the August 24th Board meeting, staff presented our annual report for the Cannabis Licensing Office. This item was pulled from the consent agenda to the regular agenda and community concerns regarding the conflict between commercial cannabis operations in the CA zone and nearby residential properties were discussed. These were the directions from the Board at that meeting. And then at the September 14th Board meeting, staff presented a limited evaluation regarding how the proposed code changes would impact the number of CA zone parcels available for cannabis operations and those in the licensing process. And then we got some additional directions from the Board. So for today's meeting, staff has returned for the Board to consider an extension of the temporary moratorium ordinance to provide some updated data on the changes in the temporary from the setback of 500 feet from a residentially zone parcel to a setback of 500 feet from a residence to the received, per the received direction and to look at what ordinance changes should be actually done when we come back to the Board again. We can either let the moratorium expire or extend it as it is. However, we are not able to change the moratorium language. So option two in the Board letter should not be considered. I'm gonna show you a map now. And you're probably from a little familiar with this. So first, I wanna show you all the CA zone properties. And if you remember from our last meeting, that's 1,462 properties are zoned commercial agriculture. They're primarily in the South County, as you can see from this map, we have a few in various other areas of the county. And then going up the North Coast in the coastal zone. We're gonna concentrate the map primarily on the South County here. And so then we can add some layers to indicate the parameters of the moratorium. So first we're gonna add all of the residential zoned properties. And then we're going to add the structures on those residential zone properties. Pardon me, I need to get the map, sorry. The map is not sharing. Okay. And I can see all the structures. And now we're gonna put that buffer, that 500 foot buffer around the structures themselves. And then what's left then is that green, that dark green area that shows you all of the properties that would be available for cannabis licensing during the moratorium. So once you take out all of the properties that are going by the buffer around the residential, that was 592 properties. There's 870 properties left. Again, we're seeing them primarily in the South County. We have very few in any other area in the county. Here along the coastal zone up in the North Coast. But they're primarily in this South County. And the data was in your board letter by Supervisor District. I need to go back to sharing your screen one moment. Okay. Please release control of the mouse. Sorry. Okay, there we go. Hey, based on the current moratorium language, there are 29 licenses located on 18 parcels in the CA zone district, which do not comply with the setbacks. And those 29 businesses have invested approximately $7 million in their facilities. And they have plans to invest an additional $5.4 million. They employ 120 full-time staff and 88 part-time staff. And last year, those companies paid out approximately $7.6 million in taxes and other fees and license costs. Mr. Chair, may I just interject something real quick? I just have a question, if that's okay. Yeah, Supervisor Friend. I'm a little confused as what the purpose that last slide was when there's another part of this presentation that shows that the board had directed that those would not be included in this discussion. So what was the purpose of illustrating that information? I think it was a slide that was in there. Maybe I forgot to take it out. Sorry. Okay. Thank you, Mr. Chair. So then the next slide is the potential licensees that are in conflict with the moratorium. There was no change when we changed from the 500 foot set, 500 foot set back to the 500 foot set back to a residence. There was no change in how this affected the potential licensees that were in conflict. And so these are again, the same number of licensees stay in conflict with the current moratorium. And that's all I have for today. These are many things which merit much discussion by the board. And so we'd rather move on to specific conversation and questions. Thank you. I know that there's going to be several people probably who want to speak to this. Anybody who would like to speak to this? Raise your hand. Okay. All right. We want to hear all of you. So if you'd line up, just say five of you at a time or something so you can keep moving. Good morning. My name is Sylvia Carrillo-Constance. Thank you for this opportunity to speak to you today. I live near 110 Crest Drive in Watsonville. And recently I learned that a Merced-based LLC had begun the application process to obtain a license to operate a commercial cannabis cultivation facility at this location. Now, 110 Crest Drive happens to be my home as well as that of many of my neighbors. I'm here to ask that the cannabis licensing moratorium be continued as you consider how to better protect our rural homes. Homes like everywhere else occupied by families, by abuelitos like me, my moms, dads and kids. Please give us the same protections and 500 foot setbacks that are given to county residents in more urban and suburban neighborhoods when it comes to their proximity to cannabis businesses. I think that you would agree that the impact of a small retail cannabis outlet pales in comparison to the huge community impact of a large scale cultivation operation. Growing up as a farm worker's kid in the Central Valley, moving to our home surrounded by agricultural fields felt like a coming home to me. I could not have imagined at the time that we bought our home that the flower farm next door would someday become a full-fledged cannabis factory. Finally, I wanna leave you with this thought as you're considering ways to improve the ordinance. When I applied for an Airbnb permit a few years ago, I was required to notify my neighbors. I don't understand why something that has a potential for such a huge environmental impact on a neighborhood which is a commercial cannabis operation would not also be required to have a more transparent public notification process. Please vote yes on responsible cannabis farming. Yes on your constituents quality of life. Vote yes on this moratorium. Thank you. Hello, my name is Jason Tavani and I live directly across the street from the farm on Crest Drive that is applied for a commercial cannabis cultivation license. My wife and I are both educators. We have two young boys. We first moved to the neighborhood as renters and fell in love with it. So when the ugly pink house across from the Heather farm at the 110 Crest sat on the market for a few months, we decided to see if we can make it ours. We did. And we have since poured countless hours into renovating almost the entire house, one small affordable job at a time over the last eight years. Our two sons are now 12 and 14. We're terrified at the idea of a commercial cannabis moving in across the street. Our boys would see cannabis every time they look out the living room window and every time they walk out the front door, they would smell it constantly. They would see the neighborhood lit up from lights and hear the fans instead of the waves or the owls. They'd have weed on their minds any time they were home. How much will these factors influence the critical decisions that they will make as they grow? We don't know. Things are already inundated with media that glorifies cannabis culture. What happens when they are surrounded by it continuously year after year while in their homes? How do their outcomes change? Do you know or are my children the guinea pigs here? We bought our home. We knew that there would be impacts from the farm. We lived near the farm on Crest for three years as renters prior to buying our home and experienced the daytime noise of tractors, the seasonal smell from fertilizer, and a dozen or so cars coming and going from the farm each day. The impacts from the proposed cannabis factory are on another level, 24-hour noise from a variety of sources, lights, a year-round, pungent, skunky smell you're all familiar with, and however many big rigs it takes to move tens of millions of dollars worth of cannabis a year. At least half of the 22 greenhouses at the 110 Crest Drive farm are within 350 feet of my living room couch. For this reason, my family and I urge you to vote to continue the moratorium to provide time to modify the ordinance to protect children like mine. Thank you very much. Thank you for the opportunity to speak here supervisors. My name is Rina Philip and I live in the Crest neighborhood in Watsonville. I moved to the Crest neighborhood for its character, rural and quiet, not just an industrial complex. While our neighborhood has its own characteristics, it is quite similar to urban neighborhoods. 10% of our homes are rental properties giving opportunities for young families to live in. We have few Airbnb's in South County where there are few lodging options. Good portion of our homes are clustered in the two residential style streets. And like lots of urban neighborhoods, we have our local preschool and an active neighborhood watch. But unlike urban neighborhoods, we have to maintain our own roads and water systems. We do not have sidewalks or street lights. We have narrow country lanes which allow for a multitude of animals. The diversity of the age, backgrounds, employment and so many other factors bring strength to our community. And while our property taxes might not equal the taxes from a cannabis operation, we all live, shop, dine and recreate right here in Santa Cruz County and not to mention vote. Your decision today will determine if our neighborhood and other such rural neighborhoods maintain their unique characters or are they ripped apart at their core by misplaced industrial operations? On a separate note, my friends recently informed me that they held their decision to move forward to take the risk next to the cannabis operation. I urge you to vote to continue the moratorium. It has little impact to the overall cannabis industry but a huge benefit to our rural neighborhoods like ours. Thank you. Hello, my name is Rick Rogel. I'm a farmer in the Crest neighborhood. I grow squash, I have fruit trees, raised sheep and chickens for my small family farm. I especially love that my children are learning to be farmers but still live in a somewhat residential area. With close by friends, I'm speaking to you today as I wanna urge you to vote for continuing the moratorium. I'm not against cannabis by any means. I own a commercial property with a cannabis retail. However, this is different. They're the huge cannabis operation plan in the center of my neighborhood. This operation would not be licensed if it was retail. So I have to ask why are my children and other rural children being subjected to this type of industrial operation on our doorsteps? Shouldn't our ordinances for urban and rural residents be the same or at least similar? The setbacks that have been discussed as part of the ordinance modifications would impact a small set of parcels, leaving an estimated 800 parcels for cannabis operations. Being that there are 80 current licensed non-retail operations, that provides a lot of opportunity for cannabis growth. By voting today for the moratorium, you will simply be continuing the process to examine minor modifications to the ordinance that will have a little impact on the overall cannabis industry, but a huge benefit for our rural neighbors. Thank you on behalf of my children and other rural children. Good afternoon, my name is Lisa Barker. I'm a single mom raising two teenage boys on Crest Drive, a place where I found my forever home. I worked in the cannabis industry for three years. I was the marketing manager for 10 different cannabis products from CO2 wax to infused chocolates. I know this industry and I know the people that work in it. Nobody that I knew commercialized cannabis in their own neighborhood. They would drive to their sun grows in Modesto or high up in the Santa Cruz Hills, places safely out of sight from their own homes. If they did take on the risk of living where they cultivated, they live so remotely they didn't even have neighbors. For the indoor grows like the one proposed for Crest, these weren't industrial areas. Cannabis grown under rows of fluorescent lights in a warehouse next to a firestone tire store or one of the abandoned buildings behind the smokestacks of the power plant in lost landing, far from where their homes were. And far, I'm getting choked up and far from where their families were. Even the cannabis growers don't want to live near the cannabis factories they build. My other friend inherited a home in Day Valley, a home with acres of land and wonderful neighbors. She grows lavender in her front yard in a small cannabis grow in her backyard. Her and her husband have been talking with cannabis industry people about going full out, leasing all their land for commercial use. She says to me, Lease, I'm tired of my job in high tech. If we lease our land to cannabis, I could retire early, but if we did, we would need to put up an eight foot wall and higher security guards. It would not be a good, but we ran out our home here by another house with the cash and move out of our neighborhood. Even the cannabis landowners don't want to live near the cannabis factories they build. Please vote to extend the moratorium. Thank you. All right, my name is Mark Sanchez de la Vega. I was born in East LA, number six of seven children first to graduate college. I'm humbled and I'm proud to be a homeowner in Watsonville. I understand that there was an illusion of my neighborhood being landing spot for tech refugees. Well, I'm proof it did happen, but it happened 21 years ago at the height of the tech bubble. I was looking for a place where I could spend the rest of my life doing what I love, fishing, and I found it on Press Drive. It's just a short hike down to the beach where I can fish to my heart's content. And I'd love to share all my amazing fish stories with you, but that's not why I'm here today. An application has been made to change our neighborhood farm into a commercial cannabis factory, negatively impacting our way of life. What I have chosen my forever home 21 years ago, if I had known I'd be living next door to a large commercial cannabis factory with an eight foot fence around it. Course nine, would you? I urge you today, and this is why I came, to vote to continue the moratorium. While I may not pay as much taxes as the deep pocket cannabis growers, it's a lot to me and it's a lot to my neighbors and combined our taxes do add up. Additionally, I along with many of my neighbors add to the county's revenue and sparse rental inventory to STR and ADU rentals. It'll be hard for us to find renters when the serene farmland is converted into commercial cannabis factory. Today I rent my downstairs long-term to support my retirement. And recently I applied for a short-term rental permit. When it was granted, I felt like I won the lottery. It was one of only 250 STR permits available through all of Santa Cruz County. Now that's in contrast to the 800 plus available parcels available today to license for cannabis. You know, I don't know if there's a shortage of cannabis in Santa Cruz County, but I do know we desperately need more housing and lodging. So I'm here today to ask you to vote to extend the moratorium while you further evaluate the impact of cannabis ordinance on the rural neighborhoods like ours and on the rental market. So thank you very much for your time, appreciate it. I think that works. My name is Edward Hickey. My wife, Kathleen and I live at 55 Crest Drive. We are about 50 feet away from the corner of 110 Crest Drive. And I'm here today in support of the moratorium. Now this has been a rather contentious event that's taken place. And the other side as characterize our group rather negatively, which I can't even really use the terms they've used, but just for argument's sake, I'll say we've been called spoiled millionaires. Well, I thought about it and there's many ways of characterizing a spoiled millionaire, but I'm gonna talk about three today. To me, a spoiled millionaire would come into a neighborhood that the neighbors are very conscious about lights, just their houses, they don't use spotlights. And right in the middle of the neighborhood around a 30 acre parcel, they're gonna build a security fence and then to highlight the security fence, they're gonna put up lights all the way around it. And then they're gonna have guards to go and patrol that. And because those lights have to be on 365 days a year, they're going to have to make sure that electricity is always running. Well, we have outages eight to 10 times a year. So that means we're probably gonna have generators humming. So now we have noise pollution. And on top of that, well, spoiled millionaires really don't care about CO2 emissions because they're special. The second one I thought about was, I've lived there for 18 years, I've had to get two permits for biodiversity because there's a dangerous species. I don't mind it, I want to protect the environment, but as I understand it, they're sort of exempt from that. And any other impact for their fencing, their lights, their grow lights, that's another one where that's a millionaire. The last one real quickly is water. They are going to put in a very intensive agricultural use of water. And this is a neighborhood that is dedicated to lose or to minimize its water usage from 15 to 20%. Thank you very much for your time. And I ask that you vote in favor of the moratorium. Thank you. Hi, my name is Cheryl Smith. I've lived in Santa Cruz County since 1980 and I'm now in the Crest neighborhood over 30 years. My husband and I moved here when first married and we've raised our two children here. My husband worked in affordable housing and we are now retired and rent part of our home which helps us to pay the bills and remain in this neighborhood. I'm very worried with the license that has been applied for by our neighboring farm that the character of our community will be altered negatively. This would impact not only my family but also our livelihood. The license application wants to turn 22 falling down greenhouses into a 24 hour cannabis operation would be surrounded by an eight foot chain link fence with security lights. It will no longer appear as a farm but like a penitentiary. This is what my renters will see when they drive to and from my rental and walk the neighborhood along with the noise and the odors. People come to our neighborhood to relax and enjoy nature, not to experience industry. I provide affordable housing which we all know is scarce in Santa Cruz County but will I be able to continue if the very reason people want to come here are attracted to the area for the peace and quiet if it's gone. Our duty to vote today to continue the moratoriums so the ordinance process can proceed. The minor changes being considered to the ordinance will have little impact on the overall cannabis industry but will have a huge benefit for rural families and businesses such as mine. Thank you for your consideration. Good morning. My name is Andy DeGirolamo. My family has deep roots in Santa Cruz County going back to the 1860s. My great great grandfather was almost around tree sheriff of Santa Cruz County in 1869 and my mother Sally DeGirolamo, the past mayor of the city of Santa Cruz. My wife, Susie, holding a picture of our grandchildren and I moved to the grass neighborhood over 10 years ago. Our grandchildren love nothing better than the hike down to the lower memories of park and beach. I am here today on behalf of my seven generations of Santa Cruz County and also all the other families who picnic and camp at the lower memories of park. You've never been there and you should check it out. It's a walking campground that does not allow vehicles so family and campers can roam freely. It's a small spot away from the world's cares where parents can relax and children can play but all that can be changed soon. Within 600 feet of the park, the farm has applied for a license for a huge cannabis operation. This operation will entail 22 greenhouses with lighting and most likely the humidifiers and emissions equipment running around the clock. The client times around the campfire will be destroyed by the rumble of cannabis factory just a few hundred yards away. I urge you to continue the moratorium so that minor changes can be made to the ordinance to protect our rural neighborhoods and parks. The change may have a very limited impact where cannabis can be grown but will make a big difference for families and campers too. Please help us defend our rural neighborhoods. Good morning, Chair McPherson, Supervisors Gappet, Ronig, Kennedy and friend. My name is Michael Balch and my wife and I live in the Crest neighborhood and how she built over 30 years ago. Now there are so many concerns that are being addressed by our neighbors today but I wanna comment on just one. It said that we signed agreements acknowledging that we would be subject to ag activity in our neighborhood. That may be true for some or all of us but when the vast majority of those acknowledgements were signed, cannabis cultivation was illegal and remained illegal for 30 to 40 years and it's still is illegal in most states and on the federal level. As has been pointed out many times by myself and others, cannabis farming is not normal farming activity and was not contemplating in the building of these rural communities. The heavy regulation of this farming activity like no other legal crop speaks for itself. I'm in the healthcare profession, I'm a nurse. I've been honored to have several of my teams in front of this very board on EMS day recognize their actions and helping save the lives of Santa Cruz citizens. As a healthcare professional I'm not gonna dispute that there are benefits to cannabis. But those benefits are directly to the individual. All here in the discussion about the benefit to the county is money and quite but it's at the expense of these rural neighborhoods. The crest neighborhood operation and ones like it are not the small farmer. This is not a garden. This is a large, noisy, smelly industrial operation with notable security environmental concerns. This is a big money operation being forced down the throats of my family and my neighbors. This is big farming. This is fracking. You pick your analogy. I beg you to extend this moratorium and get this ordinance right. The cost is not too high and I'm not talking about dollars. As Chairman McPherson said, this is about respecting neighborhoods. Thank you. Morning, my name is Cedar Melazo. I own the property bordering the cannabis proposed cannabis factory in crest. I've been renting this property out to Little Sprouts Daycare, which is to work for those factory. We provide also low income housing there or affordable housing. And this will be in jeopardy as soon as this is approved or if this is approved, the daycare, most likely will lose all of their customers. Nobody wants to bring their child and three or four-year-old, five-year-old to a daycare that's right next door to something that looks like a prison, which will be, as everybody else here has said, eight foot tall chain link fences with security lighting 24 hours a day. The dehumidifier is running with a constant hum. I urge you to extend the moratorium and more importantly to look at changing the zoning there to make sure that properties and that families like these are not impacted in this way and that rural communities have the same property or the same protections that you get within the urban communities. Thank you. Good morning, supervisors. I'm Linda Snodder and I live on CBU Terrace in front of the proposed commercial cannabis operation on 110 Crest Drive in Watsonville. I have lived in my home with my husband for 24 years. I am here today to honor my husband, Jim Snodder, who passed away this year on January 17th from stage four pancreatic cancer. We were married for 44 years. My husband was a US Marine combat soldier in Vietnam. He served our country from 1968 to 1973. My husband and I built our small farm for us to retire someday with our grandchildren growing up with the love of farming. He raised over 100 chickens and was an avid beekeeper. He planted avocado trees, apple trees, lemons, limes, oranges, all types of organic fruits and vegetables. We now donate 25% of all our gross sales to pancam.org in remembrance of my husband, Jim Snodder, for cancer research. To say I am devastated without my husband is an understatement, but I am going to persevere in his honor with the help of my family and grandchildren to run our small farm. Please, the proposed cannabis operation on 110 Crest Drive will affect our small farm, our chickens and our community, not for the better. It will not be a greater good for all, which it needs to be for the survival of all our local farm communities. The ag land in our South County cannot be reproduced, is needed to grow food, fruits, vegetables, and it's intended use for families and children. I am here to ask you to please protect our food sources for growing fresh fruits and vegetables. I am asking you all to please vote for the moratorium for the greater good of all. On behalf of my husband and I and our neighborhood, we thank you for your consideration. Onagin tend to extend this moratorium. Thank you. Well, supervisors, my name is Robert Pettiker. Speaking in favor of the vote for moratorium on the new retail cannabis license within 500 feet setback. My wife and I found the perfect place here in a small section of the Seville Beach adjacent to Crest Drive. We built our dream home doing majority work ourselves. We are constantly reminded of how fortunate we are with our very dark skies at night, quiet surroundings, no crime, no gates, no HOA, but a lovely group of neighbors who passionately care about the welfare of our small community as much as we do. I rent part of my home as an Airbnb that allows me to have a comfortable but busy retirement. However, I recently found out that the neighborhood farm has applied for a cannabis cultivation license. The license application process proposes to turn as many people said, all the existing eight foot fence and everything was security lights and high power transformers. It will look like an industrial complex, not a farm, with odors and noise and ventilation and emissions equipment, which you've heard this morning. People rent my Airbnb because they want a quiet country ocean feel, not to experience an industrial complex on the way to their place. I worry that my retirement income will disappear and I will be forced to move from what I thought was going to be our forever home. Well, my business is small, doesn't it deserve consideration regarding how this proposed operation would negatively impact it. I urge you to vote today to continue the more I've told my wife passed away a few weeks ago and she would be the first one up there to support this idea of the March one. Thank you. Good morning. My name is Trevor Luxon, county resident and local attorney. I can't help but notice that almost all the people who came here to speak today spoke about one particular project on Crest Drive. I think the board should really consider that it could be a major mistake to make a county-wide policy change based essentially on one project. The cannabis licensing office did a nice analysis. They found that about 773 parcels throughout the county, 52% of the available commercial ag properties for cannabis would be affected. Excuse me, could you put a mask on? Sorry. Yes, thank you. 52% of the available canvas, possible parcels would be affected by this moratorium and this change. I think there's other ways of addressing single projects. I don't think you need to change the county regulations for one project and wipe out 52% of the available space. I think the board should also look at section 16.50 of the county code. It's been in place for a long time. It states that agriculture is a priority use and creates a 200-foot buffer zone between agriculture and non-agricultural uses. So there's already laws in place for these type of situations. And I'd urge the board to consider option four of those presented by Canvas Licensing Office. Hi, my name is Katie Excoffier and I live in the Crest neighborhood. I'm a recently retired environmental professional and currently sit on multiple nonprofit boards. I wanna talk to you today about extending the moratorium for the sake of the environmental assets in my neighborhood and other rural neighborhoods. Rural homes often provide a protective habitat for wildlife to live and thrive in the next door to agriculture. As an example, our community provides woodlands, native plantings, water features that help birds, butterflies, and other animals thrive. Our current small neighborhood farms provide space for wildlife to roam. However, all this will change if the license is granted for the 110 Crest farm. An eight-foot fence, as you've heard, will surround the farm, bisect the neighborhood and cut off access to important water source, the farm pond. I brought a picture of the farm pond. I've been talking environmental, I can show pictures of pretty things. The noise of the 24-hour cannabis operations will surely drive away our neighborhood's great horned owls, bobcats, deer, and the mountain lion that sometimes passes through. Homes and farms have characterized our neighborhood for 100 years and have supported biodiversity, including threatened butterfly and salamander populations. Another photo, the long-tailed Santa Cruz long-toed salamander, which is an endangered species. And that, of course, will change again if the operation, the industrial operation is located in our neighborhood. I urge you to vote to continue the moratorium so that minor modifications to the ordinance can be considered to protect all rural neighbors, including our local wildlife. Thank you very much for your time. Hello, supervisors. My name is Troudesh Mele. I'm here today with my husband, Rick. We moved to the Crest neighborhood where we have lived since 1978. We built our home here and we raised our son. An article in the Santa Cruz Sentinel reported coastal farms, sun farms, self-righteous, CFO, saying that our, and I quote, neighborhoods privileged people are only anxious to protect their retirement nest egg. Well, I am a travel agent still working part-time and my husband is a retired elementary teacher. Like so many of our neighbors, we look directly at the Crest farm. I simply can't imagine how awful it would become if the whole farm would be surrounded by an eight-foot security fence, the constant noise of the dehumidity equipment to give the cannabis the right conditions to grow. And the 220,000 square foot, clear plastic cupboard hot houses with grow lighting all night. This is not an agricultural endeavor, but rather an intensive enterprise of mass cultivation in an extremely poor environment. My street, Crest Lane, Lindeiro Drive and parts of Seville Terrace are lined with homes with modest lots on modest lots that are zoned residential agriculture. Don't we deserve the same kind of protection given to residents in urban areas for retail cannabis? What is the definition of the public nuisance? I ask you to please, please vote to extend the moratorium and allow the process to review the ordinance to codes like ours to deserve the same protection given to city residents. Thank you for your time. Hi, my name is Susie Campbell and my husband and I are both retired teachers. We bought our property in the beautiful heather and strawberry fields of Crest Lane in 1997. I am here today to help represent both our neighborhood and specifically our neighborhood preschool, Little Sprouts Daycare. I owned and operated alphabet soup preschool in San Jose for 35 years. I know how important a service daycares are to the families and communities. In 2010, before the most current regulation changes, I had to battle a medical cannabis store from operating right next door to my school, sharing my same parking lot. I have nothing against legal cannabis operations, but just like liquor stores and distilleries, they don't belong next to schools, children and families. Thanks to the parents of my one small school and the city council members of San Jose, changes were made to the existing regulations, establishing legal setbacks between the cannabis industry and the community at large. Other cities have followed suit in an attempt to help protect children and families. Rural children and families deserve the same. I understand that lawmakers cannot foresee all of the circumstances which may occur in the future, but I urge you today to grant yourselves time for careful consideration of this controversial issue. Please vote to continue the moratorium. Cannabis farming is here to stay. We all know that, but it requires careful planning and a few common sense restrictions. The moratorium will grant the city planners time to foresee and possibly avoid future conflict. Thank you for listening. Good morning. Thank you for this public speaking opportunity. My name is Rob Hartzell. My family and I, will throw passive and active solar home in the Crest Drive neighborhood over 40 years ago. We're still there. We heat our home, water, and run our electric cars using our homes, built in and on solar features. We chose solar power because we recognize our responsibility to lower our carbon footprint as much as we can. Now we have a plan to turn 22 neighborhood greenhouses into a 220,000 square foot commercial cannabis cultivation, a plan that would result in intensive energy consumption. And that's just right off the EIR that the county produced regarding this. Just to give you a feeling of the scale of this proposed operation and a level of energy consumption involved, there would be 151 motion control security lights installed around the complex, 2,200 grow lights and our plan that would beam out 61 million lumens of light and just for the grow lights alone, use the equivalent of power of 181 homes. Therefore, it's estimated that the grow operation would likely require special power infrastructure. And for additional perspective, the magnitude of this intensive energy consumption for this proposed site has been compared to having the energy consumption of three Costco buildings right in the middle of our neighborhood. So no, this is not an appropriate operation next to our homes and families. I strongly urge you to vote to continue the moratorium on a new non-retail commercial cannabis cultivation in our county. Thank you. Hello, supervisors. My name is David Gaisick and I'm here with my wife, Shawnee. We have lived in the Crest neighborhood since 1997 and we're here today to urge you to continue the moratorium. I volunteer on our neighborhood road committee and unlike most of the county, we have to maintain our own roads. Our neighborhood roads started as narrow dirt tracks and they are now paved and remain one lane private county roads. There are no center divides, no lights or sidewalks and no paved shoulder to pull over to when a large truck comes from the opposite direction. The cannabis license application that has been made for our neighborhood farm references 40 trips per week for delivery and distribution and 40 car trips per week for workers. This is significant increase in the use of the roads from the current farm. More importantly, these roads were never constructed for the type of vehicles that the cannabis operation will use. The Brown Valley residents have shared with us that they now have 18 wheelers going in and out of the cannabis operations. The weight and size of these types of trucks will damage our roads and block our ability to enter and leave our own neighborhood. Rural residential neighborhoods like ours often simply do not have the road infrastructure to support large scale industrial cannabis operations. They were never intended to do so. The cannabis industry has 80 current licenses in the county. With the discussed changes, the staff analysis shows that there would be 870 parcels with more than 27,000 acres that would qualify for cannabis operations in places with more suitable infrastructure. We urge you to continue the moratorium so that the ordinance can be reevaluated and minor fixes can be made to support and protect rural neighborhoods and specifically prevent the deterioration of the physical infrastructure that is vital to rural residential neighborhoods like ours. Thank you. If you might guess, I live on Creslane. My name is Ben Warren. I was gonna summarize a bunch of the other, some of the other discussions, but I wanna focus on something Zach Fran mentioned earlier. There was a, in the report that came out this morning, there was a discussion about how much they were gonna pay for taxes for these properties and how much they were gonna invest for the various other things going on. They had some numbers in there for what their investments were. I think what their investments were is not relevant. What's relevant is how much tax will account to get. And that's where I'd like to start. At the last meeting, we were told that the 1,400 parcels, 800 could be convertible to cannabis or 40%, but there weren't any tax estimates back then. Now, the tax revenue gain is now proposed to be $10 million based on subsequent on this last CAO report. Well, first of all, with 40%, which is a big number compared to today for the number of licenses, be converted to cannabis. But more questionably, it's $10 million of new tax money makes a series of really unusual and unsupportable assumptions. First of all, how many of these parcels are already revenue producing as ag? Those parcels represent 27,000 acres in the county. They're not sitting empty right now, paying no taxes. So the idea that these new jobs are being created seems questionable. What only has to drive through Watsonville, where I live, of keeping the fields and paying taxes. We're not arguing that some cannabis will create some taxes, but doesn't it seem worthwhile to refine the $10 million before disrupting our neighborhood with a noise, smell, et cetera, all the things you've heard today? I think not having a good tax number, but you can get because you have 800 parcels, go back and see what you're getting right now and come up with a number before you decide, oh, we have to do this because of the tax money. Please, at least continue the moratorium while you're away, protecting our neighborhoods as you propose when most of you voted to set these rules. Are the taxes real? One of the comments that I will make based on some of the things I've learned is that the other takes no energy to grow. This is going to take a lot of gas or some other something else to grow because it won't grow cannabis without it. We have gas in the area, so we want to have two million cubic feet of gas used every month to support this. It just doesn't seem logical. Thanks. Good day. My name is Tim Folger. I'm one of the many longtime residents of the Crest Drive neighborhood, as you've heard from us. Many of these voices have worked with me over many years to conserve as much as we can. Every resource that you've heard described in this county and that the general plan is focused on here. I urge you to continue the moratorium as it is a period of delay. That's an opportunity to study this issue. It is not just our neighborhood, it is a countywide issue. Under the noticing and community input process section, it has said that a setback exception requests triggers a level five use permit, which requires public notification and a ZA hearing. As an immediate neighbor to this subject property, I received no such notice. It is clear from reading the report that staff was directed to return with ideas that help grow the cannabis industry, quote unquote. It is clear from the substance of these recommended actions that county staff has been encouraged to advocate for the cannabis industry. Yet this industry is described as quote unquote, nascent, a term appropriate for something just beginning to exist. In the developmental stage of anything, each step is crucial for the success of each succeeding step. Otherwise one risk going down the wrong path with consequences of waste leaving you nothing but regret, which is worthless. Steps that are effectively backward and often irreversible. It is also pointed out that residents near a CA parcel are required to acknowledge an ag buffer zone and to agree to tolerate a quote unquote inconvenience or discomfort arising from the use of an adjacent agricultural lands. I remember that day vividly. This, however, makes no reference to this ag operation, receiving taxed permission from the county to contribute to the deteriorating condition of the common aquifer rather than ensuring that any new or increased use of water does not adversely affect the common water supply. Nowhere in the applicants current 140 page business application is any definition of their responsible plan of water use. Only that there are two wells belonging to the property owner. Staff refers to quote unquote drip irrigation but those are not the words of the applicant and is therefore non-binding and unenforceable. There are no water use restrictions as staff writes anywhere in the public documents. This is about responsibility, the ability of each of us to respond with honesty, full disclosure and respect for all in what we call the community. Governance is acting responsible for all, not just business interests. Thank you. My name is Vicky Shepherd and I raised our two children in the Crest neighborhood home that we built 32 years ago. We were farmers. Then I've always had a tremendous respect for the farming community. Next door to where I live is our community preschool that you've heard about called Little Sprouts. That's my grandson, the graduate. So for 10 years we've had the fortunate, we've been fortunate to have the local preschool within walking distance of our homes. My grandson, the graduate and many other children from our neighborhood on any given day, I can hear them laughing and playing in their outdoor play area where they spend much of their day. And their teacher would be here today, but she's there with the kids because it would put a lot of working parents in a jam, not to be there for the kids. So the preschool is literally right next door to a proposed cannabis cultivation operation on Crest Drive. Supposedly a school this close to a cannabis cultivation would not be allowed, but 110 Crest Farm application is proceeding to the planning department. If the application is proceeding with no chance of approval, isn't that a waste of everyone's time and money? If there is a thought that an exception could be granted to allow cannabis operation on the doorstep of a school, it's alarming and it's horribly sad. You are elected supervisors, carefully crafted protections for urban children of your cannabis retail operations. And we ask the same consideration for our rural children. Please, we need you to vote for the extension of the moratorium that includes a 500 foot setback with from any residential structure on residential properties. And we pray you will vote to extend the moratorium and keep setbacks as written. Give yourself the time needed to properly review the cannabis ordinance so you can be sure that our rural neighborhoods are protected. And I thank you so much for your time and your consideration. I'm Chris Kodega and I'm part of the Coralitas Coalition for Balanced Land Use, a member of it. Our family has property on Browns Valley Road where there are several cannabis growers. We urge you to continue the moratorium. You voted four to one last meeting. There's no reason not to continue. The discussion and ordinance update changes must include the neighbors, not just the cannabis growers with the cannabis licensing office. It seems to me when we look at what's proposed by the cannabis licensing office that they're talking with the growers and they're not talking with the neighbors. The neighbors concerns are real. They include cannabis in rural residential neighborhoods, safety and security, improper vetting of the licensees, environmental issues, scenic corridors, smell and odor and noticing. We feel that we've been dismissed by the cannabis licensing offices. Just read, they're right up today. We're also worried that the proposed updates that are in the right up today will put us in a worse position. The county's main goals, and I believe in 2015, the main goals when it was allowed in Santa Cruz County was to minimize environmental damage to have no residential conflict and ensure a supply of medical cannabis. It's not about the revenue. It's about the quality of life of the residents, not the cannabis industry in the county. I don't see how today we're looking at something that shows $8 million and $11 million decreases in revenue when the revenue's off 50% this year and the total revenue is only expected to be $2.3 million. And also in sitting in today's meeting and talking about all the health issues, it just seems like there's a really large disconnect in the meeting. The health of the community versus the cannabis industry does not make sense to continue cannabis grows in our rural residential neighborhoods. Thank you. Good morning, my name is Susan Williams and I live in the Crest neighborhood Watsonville area. My husband and I have lived here over 20 years after moving from the Happy Valley, Supervisor Koenig's district. My husband, Jeff, when he isn't working at Dominican hospital likes to surf. We found this neighborhood to be close to the ocean and the sea air. I love to garden, so I've loved living in a peaceful area where I can pursue my love of gardening. Our dreams and love for our neighborhood seem to be on the verge of being destroyed. Our neighborhood farm is being considered for an industrial cannabis operation. They wanna convert 22 decrepit plastic and wooden structures into hundreds of thousands of feet of cannabis cultivation. Here's a picture of one of the greenhouses and how they're just falling apart really. There's a good reason cannabis is also known as skunkweed. When you have a large concentration of cannabis, it smells like a dead skunk. The reason it does according to scientific research is that both cannabis and skunk share the same odor compounds. And despite what the cannabis lobby tries to tell us, they attest to the inability to eliminate its pungent odor. In some cases, they have resorted to masking the odor with artificial perfumes. My choice is to smell the flowers from my garden. Let me ask you, would you want to live next to a large cannabis operation that smells of skunk? Would you want your children and family to endure the nighttime lighting, the odors, the noise of a cannabis industry? You have said in the past that you want to protect neighborhoods. We're very much a neighborhood looking for your protection. So as you vote to continue the moratorium, your vote should be based on whether you and your family would be willing to live next to a cannabis operation. If not, you need to vote to continue this moratorium. Thank you very much. Hey, everybody, I'm Darren Storey, born and raised in South County. I have a farm there. We do grow cannabis. We went through a level five use permit and we engaged our neighbors. There's a preschool in proximity. We're on speed dial with each other. We've never had a problem. Every single one of our neighbors supports us because we were very constructive and the neighbors were constructive and we found a way to work with each other and we still continue to do so. Everyone here from Crest Drive, this project would have to go through the same use permit process. It's already been addressed. We have procedures for this. We've developed this code over the last five years with a lot of stakeholder input. Unfortunately, none of the people from Crest Drive are there, but we have a way of doing this. All of these comments can be brought to the Planning Commission and even if they were overruled, they can still appeal to the Board of Supervisors and we have the same parade of complaints and you guys get to make a decision. But the repercussions of killing one single project by affecting County code and sacrificing an entire industry sets a horrible precedent. This could happen for any sort of discretionary project moving forward, it could be something as simple as Airbnb's where we can change an entire code just based on one project. I think it's a terrible precedent and I think by leaving this moratorium in place, we completely back up the use permit process we've already provided. I'd strongly encourage everybody here to engage your neighbors, whether it works or not, because if they were growing hemp in this facility, no one would be here right now. There'd be nothing you can do. The Right to Farm Act attacks federal crops. Sooner or later, cannabis will become a federal crop and you will have no right. So I would say open arms right now and work with them to try and affect something, a solution that works for everybody as we have. We're also open doors, anybody that wants to come see how it's done right. We work with another group of compassionate farmers in our area and we have an open letter to the supervisors welcoming, we can bring everybody through and you guys can see ask questions and maybe it works, maybe it doesn't, but I think now's the time to work with each other because if we don't, it could be, it could become a time in the near future where you'll have no options. Thank you. Good evening, board. My name is Alex Monceau. I am the applicant for 110 Crest Drive that most people are here to comment about. I don't want you holding up the other 23 applicants because of our project. The county has notified us. We are going through a level five. Every neighbor will be brought out to discuss all concerns, whether we move forward or not. Ultimately, we don't want to be in a neighborhood we're not wanted. Every concern they have at our other facilities, we deal with endangered owls, we deal with water, we deal with all these things. We would love to invite them all out to visit us in the central valley, see how we've mitigated all that, meet all our neighbors. We have no odor leak outside of our property, but none of that's important. We're gonna, we're still six to eight months away, maybe a year the county said, going through the CUP process, please don't hold up the other applicants who have been in this process because of our one project. That's all. Thank you. Is there anything you want to talk to me afterwards? I'll stay after. Thank you. Is there anybody else here at the county center that would like to address us? Have anybody on Zoom? Yes, there are five speakers on Zoom. Five. Tom Moran, your microphone is available. Hi, can you hear me? Yes. Okay. Good morning, supervisors. My name is Tom Moran. I live on Browns Valley Road in Coralitas. First of all, thank you for voting in August to adopt the interim urgency ordinance regarding the moratorium and the issuance of cannabis licenses in rural residential areas. It is important for the extension to be approved given that the original moratorium was adopted to give the county time to introduce, review, and adopt a comprehensive revision of relevant county code provisions. And there has not been sufficient time for this work to be completed. One other important comment I would like to make, many speakers at the August 24th Board of Supervisors meeting indicated that families who moved to agricultural areas should have been aware that we would be in proximity to commercial ag operations. This is true. However, when I moved to Coralitas 10 years ago, and as is the case for nearly all residents here, agricultural meant apples, other fruits, vegetables, and flowers. The issue we have is the recently legalized cannabis growing near our residences, which among other issues brings with it a horrible stench. 0.5 of the CAO analysis provided for today's meeting materials claims that CLO has received odor complaints about only two licensees. If that's the case, one of them must be right down the street for me on Browns Valley because it smells terrible and many of us have reported it to the CLO. I'll close by saying that balancing the use of land with the rights of existing residential homeowners and their families is the issue that can be addressed by extending the moratorium to allow thoughtful revisions to the county cut. Thank you for your consideration. Caller 4740, your microphone is available. Can you hear me? Yeah. Very good. Thank you, Chairman Fearsen and thank you to the board. My name is Evan Dacies and I'm a commercial ag property owner in Watsonville where I have two state and county permitted cannabis operator tenants. I rise today to applaud the August 19th report from the CLO on behalf of the board of supervisors. The August 19th reports grounded this conversation in the facts and it dispels some myths that have long plagued the permitted cannabis operators in our community. Notably, it specifically states that no guns have been seized on legal operations. The cannabis operators use less water per acre than almost every other commercially cultivated crop in our county. Traffic noise and smell are in fact not pervasive issues to our community. There are specific conflicts that have been referenced in this conversation so far. And that these permitted operators abide by extremely specific management practices that only apply to this industry and their record of compliance speaks for itself. The CLO was also correct to acknowledge the priority you supported the CA zoning in our community and to call out the acknowledgments required of property owners adjacent to commercial ag farms. Regarding CA zoning, I would personally reluctantly support the CLO's preferred option number four but with a 200 foot setback. A 200 foot setback is consistent with the standard 200 foot ag buffer that has been part of the county code since 1978. Adjacent residential properties which have been granted an ag buffer waiver or other exemptions must be excluded from these licensing criteria and setback measurements as the owners of those residences have already accepted the inconveniences and risks associated with building a home in close proximity to a farm. Regarding the moratorium, I support the CLO's option number two which is fair to those people who have already invested in the permitting process and it affords the board time to address these complaints. Finally, the permitted operators before you, Darren and the others that have already spoken today and those that are listening that have maintained good standing with their neighbors and regulators deserve your support. The CLO has provided you with great options for increasing tax revenue by rewarding good behavior and continuing to support this novel industry. Thank you. Either five, your microphone is available. This is Marilyn Garrett commendations to those speaking today defending the Crestville, Crest Drive family from the destructive industrial operation. Similar to the documented ruination to our health and the environment caused by deadly radiation emitting shell towers and pesticide poisoning in our neighborhood, corporate and big business interests usually prevail. And it is the health of the community versus these large business interests. I noted that the three speakers in favor of cannabis huge growth like this are in the business. They have a vested interest that harms the neighborhood. We used to have a group when I was teaching in Watsonville farm without harm. I'm trying to stop pesticide poisoning. This goes here for this too. There should be farm without harm. And this is demonstrably very damaging. We do not consent to the destruction of our neighborhoods which has been very well substantiated to you. I hope you vote with the neighborhoods who are trying to protect the wildlife and their families and the quality of life. Continue the moratorium also denies its application for Crest neighborhood for cannabis industrial growth. Thank you. Use our six or microphone is available to star six to unmute yourself if you're calling in. Hello, can you hear me? Yes. My name is Wendy Weil. I'm a 35 year resident of the Crest Drive neighborhood. I'm here to echo the input from my neighbors. I ask your support to continue the non-retail cannabis moratorium and the 500 foot setback. I hope you will agree that a small rural neighborhood such as ours deserves the same ordinance protection that you have awarded neighbors and schools on the retail side of the cannabis industry. As we have just heard, continuing the moratorium would still leave 870 CA parcels available for development. That is not a small number. I understand that the prior EIR on cannabis growing was disregarded by the board because the environmental concerns it raised could not be mitigated. Now is the time to dust off the EIR and study it. That's exactly what we neighbors are doing. One of our chief environmental concerns in this neighborhood is the vulnerability of our water supply. The proposed cannabis operation would pump groundwater to support the nursery. Calculations need to be made as to exactly how much water would be extracted. Their pre-application neatly avoids the central issue. There are other issues related to the wells and monitoring of water, especially saltwater intrusion. There is no required monitoring process right now so that we will not know whether we're in a safe or a hazardous condition. So if the cannabis operation were successful and they over pumped their wells and ours, whose responsibility would it be to supply these 60 plus families with water? Please support the moratorium and the setback. Thank you very much. There are no other speakers. Great. Again, is there anybody else in the audience who'd like to address us? Okay, we will return it to the board and I'll start with Supervisor Caput. You bet. Thank you. You know, it wasn't that long ago. What? Five or six years ago, marijuana cannabis was illegal, right? So we've, they've come a long way. We wouldn't even be having a conversation about setbacks. Would be whether or not you could actually legally grow it or not grow it. So we know that they can legally grow it. The thing that I, when you're weighing the benefit and the burden is you have a neighborhood that is standing up for itself and they want to be protected. They want to be respected. And I don't see the compelling argument on the other side that they want to impose marijuana cannabis grow within less than 500 feet from a neighborhood. These neighborhoods are all over the county and we're always trying to respect them and protect them from different, it could be a traffic thing, it could be a hazardous thing or whatever. But to me, it doesn't make a whole lot of sense that we're talking about, in my opinion, I'd like to see it instead of 500 feet, I'd like to see it 600 feet personally. But we're trying to find the compromise and maybe 400 is too small, but 500 seems like it's reasonable. And that's not even a football field, right? 500 feet is 100 feet short of a football field. So anyway, I think the cannabis group, you can work this out and get along with your neighbors. Everybody in that neighborhood pays property tax. They've been there for many, many years. The cannabis is new. It's something that wants to go near their neighborhood and you have homes there that have been there for 50 years. And we heard from them. So anyway, if I was gonna do something, I would be very respectful if I was trying to do a business near a neighborhood that is very concerned about their quality of life and raising their families. Anyway, and the other thing that gets me too is when we're talking about mobile warming, protecting the environment, that's a big thing with young people today. And it was when I was younger also. We wanna protect our environment. You look at the water use, apple trees at one time were the prevailing crop that was being grown. And that uses much less water than strawberries, raspberries and all that. So what I'm getting at is here, we saw because of money, we saw a lot of people chop down all those apple trees. They put in strawberries, they put in raspberries and then those are foods, they're not a drug, but at the same time, we're using a lot more water than we used to use. And so what I'm getting at is we have to be very careful. We have to protect what we have. We run out of water, we're in real trouble. And I understand that cannabis doesn't use as much water as strawberries and all that, but it sure uses a lot more than apple trees. Anyway, and then the other thing too, indoor grow, it could be with the greenhouses and all that. My understanding that a typical indoor grow can burn up to $25,000 per month in energy costs. And I'm being told by my kids turn off the lights when a room is not being used. And at the same time, if we have cannabis out there burning up $25,000 per month in energy, doesn't seem fair somehow. And I'm sure that people in the neighborhood there turn out their lights when you're not using a room. So, but anyway, I'm just making the comments. I'm for extending the moratorium. I'd like to actually see it made permanent, but I'm willing to go along with the moratorium extension. Thank you. Thank you. Thank you. Yeah, this has been five years of discussion in the making and it's been very controversial all along the way. And this is no different. And this has been, it is a complicated issue. I am concerned about the impact on the current applicants where we proceeded and what's in place in the CA zone and of the applicants that are in the process, what they would be subject to. Of the applicants who already have entitlements, I'm asking the county council, but not a cannabis license. How might this affect them in the county going forward? The moratorium, if your board extends it, will apply to current applicants. It's not possible to amend the moratorium. Your choices are to either let it lapse or to extend it. And the applicants are currently part of the moratorium. Thank you. Yeah, I wanna get to some decision on this and I supported the moratorium last night because I wanted to get more information. But I do think this report gives me enough information to support option four. On the zoning issue and returned the setback to 400 feet where from residential structures, that was our original ordinance, what it allowed. This provides more separation that exists today, I think from the cannabis operation to end a home and still recognizes the CA use. That said, I'd like to see the current applicants then grandfathered in, I think they would have to be at a moratorium and or ordinates change passes. But I think you've explained that situation. I lastly, I'd like to encourage staff to continue working with the chair of the board for a study session. We have quarterly reports on the cannabis operations in this county. And I certainly would like to have an annual report specifically upgrade that in October of next year, a year from now to see how this is working or not working. And that's, I would, and study session in 2022 would include the ideas of the concerns that as a result of Supervisor Koenig's request of a couple of weeks ago. Thank you. Supervisor Koenig. Yes, thank you, chair. Today, obviously there's a lot of emotion in this room as there should be. These are your homes we're talking about. And I think we're naturally all extremely sensitive to the incredible investments that you've made and establishing your lives in this area. Of course, I was very interested in understanding the situation firsthand. I often feel that we do too much supervising from behind the desk or behind the desk. And it's important to get out there in the field and actually see these situations firsthand. I've visited a number of cannabis cultivation sites both in my own district as well as the second district including coming out to Crest Drive to see the area. My biggest conclusion was that the best way to mitigate the smell and the impact of the cannabis industry is with indoor cultivation. And there's a limited amount of sites that for indoor cultivation. I visited the site that someone mentioned it's a combination lavender farm and cannabis cultivation grow in Day Valley. And I walked around the whole property. I could not tell where the cannabis cultivation site was until I actually walked not even through the first door, but the second door. Other sites I've been to, right in the middle of my own district, you would never know that a grow site was there. In discussing with the cannabis licensing office and knowing that the site specifically on Crest Drive would have to go through a level five permit review. I have full confidence that these concerns will be addressed that we can work with the applicant in the neighborhood to make sure that there is no odor, none, and that the light impacts will not be a serious consideration. I mean, or that these are not going to be glowing greenhouses all night long. I think it's important to also understand that a number of folks have mentioned this is in the commercial ag zone. And our county code basically requires us to prioritize commercial agricultural uses in this zone despite the protest of residents asking for greater restrictions. What would be, so with this particular site it's currently owned, one of us who've had a long history of growing cut flowers in our county. I think we would all agree. Someone mentioned that they love the smell of flowers. We all agree that these are a vital local agricultural business. And they're trying to sell this property in order to fund reinvestment in their existing greenhouses for cut flowers. Between that, the example of the lavender farm and the cultivation of cannabis. I mean, it's clear that cannabis is just one piece of a larger agricultural puzzle. It's a way that agricultural producers can support their existing operations. If we were to say that cannabis could not be cultivated in these greenhouses, again, we limit the creation of new greenhouses. Then this land should clearly be divided into more home sites. However, our code does not allow us to do that because we have to protect commercial ag use in this county. If we were just to divide it into more home sites, we would quickly run in a situation where our beautiful agricultural land turns into more neighborhoods just as we see in the Santa Clara Valley or San Fernando Valley in large urban areas. And that's precisely what we don't want to happen. So if we value agricultural space, we need to give a small amount of that space to crops that agricultural producers need to grow in order to keep their operations going. And again, we can all feel the emotion in this room. You will win every time if we just say, do what residents want. Because actually, yes, and probably we could get more property taxes from allowing the development of our commercial ag zones into neighborhoods. That's what has driven that development in other communities. So I'm confident that we can address the concerns that you've brought here today as a community on Crest Drive. And through the level five permit hearings, you've heard from the applicant himself, they don't want to be neighbors to folks that don't want them there. And he's willing to work with everyone to ensure that if they do go forward with the facility, that it'll be well mitigated. So, I guess that's all I have for comments. I also would be in support of greater setbacks, particularly from outdoor cultivation. So option four, which would be 400 feet setback to outdoor cultivation sites. Supervisor Friend. Well, thank you, Mr. Chair. First, I'm going to start by appreciating the tone from the speakers today, the civility that the neighbors brought. You weren't afforded that same civility at the last meeting by the cultivators or some of them anyway. I appreciate that Mr. Story changed a bit of his tone in his presentation today. I thought that his comments at the last meeting were inappropriate and very personal and unnecessary about the neighbors. I'd like to just speak to some of these. I mean, I can see where the vote is going, but I think it's important we have a discussion on sort of a broader component here. I mean, first, just in general about the staff report, which read like an advocacy piece for the industry, it didn't even feign avail of neutrality in any stretch. Nothing that's being presented within the staff recommendations would do anything more than sort of be a gratuitous attempt to help the neighbors. The setback that Supervisor Koenig and Supervisor McPherson are speaking of really does actually nothing to improve the situation within these residential areas. I mean, the reason why, and part of the issue is this, there's been a few speakers that have spoken to the fact that this is making macro policy based on a couple of neighborhood concerns. The issues have arisen specifically where we allow a license to occur within a residentially zoned or conflict area. We have a lot of grow sites within my district that are not problematic because it's CA next to CA next to CA on exceptionally large parcels. So the reason that we haven't received a significant amount of complaints is because we don't have a lot of locations that are in conflict residentially zoned areas, but what my colleagues are proposing right now would be an exponential increase of these conflicts. And I gotta say a study session next year is just is meaningless. We have quarterly reports and those are the opportunities to bring forward changes. I did exactly that based on challenges that were presented and the board is ignoring them. So I have absolutely no faith that a study session in a year is gonna modify anything in the future for my district or any other district that's impacted by it. But speaking of that, I think it's important to speak to that as well. Two of the five districts that represent 40% of the vote on this issue, the third and the fifth district represent 1% of the non-retail licenses. In fact, the third district doesn't even have any, either retail or non-retail, the fifth district has just one constituting 1%. It's easy to discount concerns from the neighbors when none of these impacts occur within your own district. I think if there was a shared burden across all of these districts, there might be a different understanding of why this really matters, but it's pretty easy to be disconnected when this doesn't even occur within the individual districts. This functionally occurs in the second and fourth district. The first district does have non-retail but it's all in the commercial and manufacturing. By the way, we afforded 600 foot setbacks and even further in some respects from any residential area in the first district in the urban areas and we're not even willing to necessarily grant that within the rural areas. And I'm not really sure what the disconnect between the urban and the rural is on that. There are assumptions made within the staff report that, and I don't wanna go point by point, but it assumes a 40% conversion to CA parcels to cannabis grows. Just think about that for a second. Four out of every 10 parcels the cannabis licensing office is predicting if we move forward with what at least two supervisors are saying they currently support would be converted from current ag operations to cannabis grows. If you don't think that there's gonna be an organized interest against that as time moves on if four and 10 parcels throughout the second and fourth districts churn from berries or apples or lettuce or any other grow toward cannabis. I mean, you're living in a fantasy land. I mean, I don't think that four and 10 are actually gonna convert. I think those numbers are completely manufactured in order to inflate a tax number in order to try and stare the board into taking an action a certain way which I'm disappointed that it was presented that way. But realistically, if this were to actually occur the way that they're presenting it it would be the largest shift in agricultural uses in the Pajaro Valley's history, in the history. I mean, just think about four and 10 parcels converting to cannabis away from a food product to a non food product. Additionally, there's comments about ag primacy. You know, the cannabis code is not in the agricultural code. It's segregated in its own code for a reason because it's fundamentally different. As we talked about in the last meeting we don't have security site plans over apple orchards or strawberry grows. So this idea that there's an ag primacy in CA land for cannabis is a complete false premise because the board and the state and others fundamentally shift its understanding of what cannabis is versus any other quote unquote crop. I mean, personally, obviously I'm in favor of extending the moratorium while we do a continued look in this process and I'd be supportive of doing that. I know that there aren't four votes obviously to do that. I'm not supportive of any of the staff recommendations of either the increased setbacks to 400 feet. I mean, it's acting like that's giving a gift to neighbors when it really absolutely does nothing. I mean, going from 200 feet to 400 feet away from your window for a 30 acre grow or 22,000 square foot grow really is not going to subsequently change somebody's experience in these residentially zoned conflict areas. That's why we were specifically trying to eliminate the conflicts. But apparently we believe in clearly the profits over this community interest or at least this multinational corporation interests over the community interests and especially in these residentially zoned areas. It's really disappointing to me that the board does not respect the second and fourth district in that way but I understand that it's a very easy decision to make when it has no impacts within your respective districts that people would feel that way. When it does come time though, Mr. Char, at least like the respect of being able to make the motion to extend the moratorium. So at least everybody can go on the record where they stand on that before the board makes this decision to propose something that does nothing for either my district or Supervisor Caput's district. Thank you. Mr. Chair, can you hear me? Can I? Mr. Craig. Okay, thank you. So I want to appreciate the tone and substance of everyone's testimony today. You make clear what you want in your neighborhoods but did it thoughtfully and respectfully and I appreciate your participation. I voted against the moratorium and the changes in the last iteration because I felt like it was a step too far and was going to have too great an impact. After hearing the testimony, I do believe that we should increase the buffers to protect neighborhoods in the same way we do for retail dispensaries and other impacts. And so I would be supportive of the direction that Supervisors Capirson and Koenig have recommended in terms of moving towards option four and looking at additional study sessions or impacts down the road. I think that makes sense. I do believe, as one of the cultivators said, within five years cannabis will be treated as a crop. There's simply too much movement nationwide in this direction. And once it's treated as a crop, and as other people said, these greenhouses could be converted to hemp for CBD. It could be converted to mushrooms or other crops and there would be no regulations, no limits, no public hearings, no mitigations. And so on water supply or anything else, it's pretty clear that cannabis is moving in that direction as well. And this is frankly an opportunity, as was talked about, to have a community's voice on this use and to put conditions on it to reduce impacts before there's essentially federal preemption of this opportunity. I recognize my colleagues' frustrations about the impact that is specifically hitting two districts. I believe that's true. There are issues that are of a county-wide benefit but also disproportionately impact my district or other districts as well. And so, I think we have to try to take a broad view on what's best for the county as a whole, recognize that there are these impacts, try to listen where we can and put in sensible regulations that balance the various competing interests and prepare us for what is in the cannabis world has been a constantly changing regulatory environment and will continue to change. And I believe that option four moves us in that direction. Okay, did you need to have further comment? I'll make a motion. May I ask courtesy to supervise a friend? I would like to have a motion. He asked for it first, so. Yeah, I appreciate that, Mr. Chair. I mean, I recognize this is just an exercise and procedure, but I think it's important for future boards to understand what this board was thinking during this time and what our thought process was. So I would like to move the recommended actions actually, which don't speak specific to these subactions, which would include a consideration of the extension of the moratorium. So I would like to extend the moratorium at its current construct and then direct staff to work on ordinance revisions based on that at a board based on that moratorium, 500 foot from residential structure elimination. That's my motion. I assume Supervisor Caput's gonna second that motion, but I wanna add one additional point. You go. So I'll second that and just can we actually read exactly how it's gonna be voted on? So Supervisor Caput, my motion is to just continue to do what we've already, what we're currently doing, which is extend the moratorium at the second component was the direct staff to make, to prepare the ordinance revisions based on the moratorium language, which is a 500 foot. It looks like. Exclusion. Now, I did wanna clarify that just because it can sometimes be confusing to people that aren't as steeped in this as I wish I never was, but the items that are before the board on this 400 foot setback, we're talking about setbacks, but they're fundamentally different situations. One is a 400 foot set. The one that the board majority is proposing is a 400 foot setback, which would allow you to grow on a parcel adjacent to a residential structure. It just could be 400 feet away from a bedroom window. What I'm proposing precludes its ability on a 500 foot setbacks. You couldn't actually grow on a parcel that was within 500 feet of a residential structure. So they're fundamentally different. That's why I said that it's gratuitous. It really doesn't do anything. I'm also confident that my other colleagues that if you represented my district or Supervisor Caput's district, you'd be at least as strident as I am on this issue. And so I agree with Supervisor Coonerty's comments about things of county wide benefit. And I've definitely supported things that only disproportionately impact other districts, but that those supervisors have felt was an important issue to rise. I recognize that that doesn't always apply on certain situations. I'm just disappointed today that this is going a different way. But anyway, thank you, Mr. Chair. That's my motion. I recognize there's a second. So we'll vote on this and move on procedurally to the next motion. Well, it's gonna take a vote of four. Yes, it requires a four-fifth vote to extend the moratorium. Right, okay. But we're extending the moratorium for 400 feet or 500 feet. We're extending the moratorium in place and there was additional direction to have staff return with ordinance changes around the 500-foot discussion that the board has been having, not the 400-foot discussion. Okay, so it'll continue right now if we vote in favor of the motion that it will be 500 feet. And we're not changing that right now. That's the motion on the floor is to extend the moratorium as it is currently in place and to have staff return with recommended changes to the cannabis ordinance based on a 500-foot setback. And that motion has been made and seconded. And now they're calling for a vote. Now the board is calling for a vote on that motion. Okay, so who made the motion? Supervisor Friend made the motion and you seconded the motion. I did. Yes. Okay, I just want to clarify what I said, seconded, all right. Thank you. Supervisor Koenig? No. Friend? Aye. Coonerty? No. Chappett? Aye. McPherson? No. Motion fails. The vote, three, two. So, yeah, go ahead, Supervisor Koenig. Yeah, so I will move the recommended option four to increase setbacks. And then I can add additional direction, Supervisor McPherson, if you wanted to. Maybe it's already built in, but hey. One thing to a clue for. Wait, just a minute, Supervisor Friend. Yeah, I think we do have quarterly reports, but I think it'd be good just to have an annual report to see one year from now, exactly what's happening. Well, the board isn't being asked to put any changes into place today. What we're asking for is direction, specific direction on how your board would like the code to be amended. And then once we get that read, we can go to the planning commission to have that vetted by the planning commission and then brought back to your board with the changes. Alternatively, we could bring to your board in upcoming meetings before it goes to the planning commission so your board could weigh in. Those are the options. Okay, I think, what would you prefer, Supervisor Coonerty? I'm okay right now with proposing the option four to direct staff to increase setbacks and have that just go to the planning commission. Before it comes to us, is that correct council? If there would be an appropriate direction? Yes, as long as staff understands the direction. Yeah, I think staff is indicating they understand the direction. Okay, so that's my motion. Second, okay, second by Coonerty. All the roll please. Okay, one thing, if we don't vote for anything today, the current moratorium expires that has a shelf life, or what are we talking about here? Yes, it expires on October 29th, which is 45 days after it was initially implemented. All right, and then what would be the setbacks then? If we don't vote for any motion here, they all fail. Then the current setbacks are in place. What are the current setbacks? I would have to go back and look at the code for specific reference on each specific property, but I believe it was reduced to 100 feet and the staff is nodding their head. So yeah, it's a hundred feet right now. It would be how many? 100 feet in CA land. Okay, we should use what I'm calling the vote then. Supervisor Koenig. Aye. Friend? No. Coonerty? Aye. Caput? No. McPherson? Aye. Thank you, motion passes three, two. Okay. All right, that completes our morning session. It's 10 minutes to one. We do have some scheduled 130 items, but can we call those people who will be involved to maybe come at two o'clock, or should we just stick with 130? We can come back at two o'clock. Yeah, so two o'clock would work. I know Supervisor Caput has a personal commitment where he'll have to... What's the family? He's gonna have to miss the afternoon session. Oh, you will anyway? Yeah, you need me. Great to be here today. Okay. I have a family member of the Smurray Hill. Well, we can move with it. It's just, it's a recognition of the retiring employees. Okay. Yes, so two o'clock, two o'clock would work. We will recess until two o'clock. And we'll reschedule... Just a minute, Mr. Supervisor Caput. We're gonna recess until two o'clock. We do it, we're going into closed session. Are there any reportable items from closed session? There are no reportable items from closed session, and do you want to start closed session at one o'clock, or do you want to start closed session immediately? No, let's start at one o'clock. Okay, one o'clock, thank you. Good afternoon. We will call back the meeting to order of the Santa Cruz County Board of Supervisors. It's just being after 2 p.m. And this is an unhappy congratulations that I have for two outstanding employees of Santa Cruz County who have served so well. And the first we're going to talk with is Christina Mowry, is retired as a County Budget Manager from the County of Santa Cruz, and has, she began with the County as an Accountant One. In fact, in 1989, after graduating from San Jose State, and has been with the County ever since, and we are so pleased that she decided to stay here. She advanced through the Accountant One Administrative Services Officer positions, the County Parks Department. She was with the County Parks Department for 15 years, and promoted to Senior Administrative Analysts, Principal Administrative Analysts, and so on, over the next 15 years before she became the County Budget Manager. So we have a great deal of appreciation for what she does because we get paid for it. Christina's dedication to fiscal responsibility and stewardship has led to the County having a AAA rating. That is phenomenal. And that helps each and every one of our 200, what is it, 80,000, 90,000 residents of Santa Cruz County and how we operate. She's always been presented with how we get to a balanced budget on the fiscal resilience, including budget priorities and service efficiency. And believe me, she gets plenty of requests from the five members of the Board of Supervisors, and from within every department in Santa Cruz County. She has worked tirelessly to maintain and augment safety net and other needed County services. The importance of reserve has never been more pronounced than what we've just experienced with COVID-19. Thank heavens we had increased that to 10% with her oversight and we would be in much more dire circumstances without that leadership that she exhibited at that time. She's brought her direct experience with County budget administration and development and capital projects, cost accounting, debt financing and expenditure and revenue projections. And always keeps an eye on the state budget and what they do to us or for us, however you want to put it. It changes sometimes from year to year, but she's always says, this is what we have. Let's get real and let's get a reality check and let's move on. Christina helped the County through the fiscal impacts of the great recession that we experienced recently and the COVID-19 pandemic that we're still involved with, unfortunately. And she's earned County national budget and reporting awards, including the Government Finance Officers Association Distinguished Budget Presentation Award where the County's annual two-year budgets, which we just began. So just as she was getting ready to retire, we got into the two-year budget cycle and that's been really great to have. So we have a better foresight of what we're headed for and what adjustments we might have to make. She is widely viewed as a knowledgeable and approachable person, a dedicated County employee and a mentor and a supervisor. And she's highly regarded by people both inside and outside the County of Santa Cruz government. But most important of all, her professionalism can't be overstated, but her kindness and pragmatism and thoughtfulness through the 32 years of exemplary public service, she's very deserving of immense happiness and many adventures as she tours the country now. We in Santa Cruz County are neatly indebted, but that's the right thing to say to a Finance Officer. What you have done for this County for so many years and I can't ever state personally how much I have appreciated your realistic approach and you're just saying we can do this somehow or how can we do this? We can't do this, but we'll cry again and we can do it this way maybe better. You're immensely impressive to me. So now I'm going to pass the baton to our CEO, Carlos Palacios, I'm sure other County Board members will want to say something and possibly some of your colleagues. And then I will present you with your proclamation when that is completed. Mr. Palacios, Tina, I just want to thank you for your service to the community. And it's one of those jobs that's hidden from the public. People don't understand, but it's probably one of the most important jobs in all of County government because you have made possible the services that we provide to the community while doing so in a very thorough and also very safe way in terms of managing our budget. And more than anything, your legacy is going to be all the staff you mentored. There's so many people that have grown up as analysts and as accountants and budget people under Christina and she mentored them with values. One of them is a work ethic that's incredible. Christina, I don't know if I've ever met anybody who works as hard as Christina. If anything, my only job was to try and not try and get her to work less. She's incredibly dedicated. That work ethic is amazing. Her thoroughness, she has a very high standard of work and she does it in a nice way. But at the same time, she's very demanding and she required a great high level of work and I appreciate that. And then the other thing is that she always was dedicated to the people that we serve. She always had in her mind the community because she's from here. She grew up here. She's of the community and she's for the community and she always kept that in their mind of how can we make the numbers work to benefit the community? So Christina, I just want to thank you so much for all that you've done for our community, for our county government and for all the staff that you leave as your legacy that you have mentored and taught and brought up. They were going to be doing good work in your absence. Thank you. I'd like to invite any of the supervisors and I want to also recognize supervisor Caput couldn't be here this afternoon because of another obligation. But I don't know if there was any other supervisor who would like to speak. Sure, Mr. Chair. I'll just say real briefly. I was told a long time ago that the budget, you could ignore all the politician's statements and speeches and just look at their budget to see the reflection of the values of not only them, but the country or community and our budget reflected our values and it's not only what the budget ended up being but how we did it. And Christina's work with the departments, work with the elected officials and work across the county. You know, a good process creates a good outcome and I want to just thank you for the work over time to ensure that our budget, both in how we did it and how we spent the money reflected this community's values. And so thank you for your good work over these many years and wish you all the best in rest and retirement. Hey, is not necessarily any other board member have a comment? Anybody? Mr. Chair, Mr. Chair, I'll briefly just say, Christina, again, you've heard me say it at the last meeting that you were at that how much we appreciate it. And one of the things I think is overlooked although Carlos mentioned the safety of it is there's a lot of communities, a lot of cities and counties. We take it for granted here because you were running the ship for so long but that don't have above board budgets and actually have run into trouble you know, don't get clean audits every time but I have to say that one of the easiest things to read were every time that we had a thorough look at our budget it always came back in a very positive way. And I think that your ethics are unquestionable and it's a really an important component when you're a steward of ended up being from the point you started to the point you ended a billion dollar county budget which is quite a number for somebody to oversee. So I just wanted to acknowledge that element as well because we're not in the front page of the newspaper because of your actions as well. Keeping us out of troubles are very important component of budgetary and there's with the ever evolving rules it's a very difficult thing to do and I appreciate your work on that. Thank you supervisor, supervisor Koenig. Thank you chair. Christina we haven't had that much time to work together but I deeply value all the time that we have had together. You've taught me an immense amount in a short period of time and your compassionate but concerned look always I think highlights that factor of being very attentive to the details but also passionate about explaining those details. You made me feel part of the county family right from the beginning of taking office. And I wish we did have many more years to work together but I'm so happy for you that you're gonna get to explore many more areas outside of our county and I hope that you'll continue to make suggestions and communicate with us even though your official duties have ended. Thank you. Is there anybody in the audience would like to speak? Nicole? Hi, so Nicole Covern assistant CAO I'm joined by the fellow members of our senior leadership team, Melody, Marcus and Elisa. We just wanted to thank Christina for working alongside us particularly the past four years when we took our positions. You've just been so tremendous in supporting us supporting our junior leadership team and our whole admin team. I've heard about you long before I ever came to work for the county you were truly a legend and it's just such an honor to have been able to spend this time with you. So everything that chair McPherson said is accurate in terms of your pragmatism, thoughtfulness, kindness, respectfulness, responsiveness. It's been truly an honor. This is Christina and then I'm gonna take off from that. Just for a moment. Yeah, just for a minute. We'll just reach. We're not with that arm. Yeah, I know with this arm. I'll be in trouble. Thank you Christina. Thank you so much. Thank you. Okay, I will put my mask on because I want to adhere to the rules. I don't want to be a rule breaker at the end. Yeah. I want to thank you chair McPherson and members of the board and Carlos and the senior leadership team and everyone who's had such kind words to say, I feel truly blessed to have worked with some amazing people over the years and been mentored by some of the best in county service. I never imagined that when I started my career almost 33 years ago as an accountant in the auditor's office that I would promote and go to parks for 15 years and amazing 15 years, it was hard to leave. And then later become the county budget manager and with CAO, it's been an adventure navigating the financial challenges from the loss of the utility tax when I was at parks, impacts from proposition 218 which greatly affected parks, the Great Recession and COVID-19. It takes a team to put together a balanced budget each year and I'm very grateful for the cooperation and hard work of the department heads and their budget staff and especially the CAO staff who did what it took each year to get it done. And I truly enjoyed budgeting but most importantly over the years I've enjoyed my coworkers who have become like family. I know I'm leaving sooner than some would like and even sooner than I originally planned when I first started, went through my employee orientation I circled 40 years, I planned to stay 40 years no doubt in my mind at that time sounded like a good target and financially made a lot of sense too. And then later as things progressed, I thought, well, you know, 35 years seems like enough. But now I find myself leaving at almost 33 years because it's important now that I take the time to spend more time with my family. Several of my family members are facing health issues and they've made a lot of sacrifices over the years and as I've worked, as Carlos said, a lot of extra hours and I wanna be able to be there for them. And but it's so much easier to leave knowing that you are in good hands and under the leadership and talent and the great many people in the CAO's office and in the county as a whole. I'm also so grateful to leave the budget and the capable and talented hands of your new county budget manager, Marcus Pimentel. He will guide you well. I look forward to volunteering more in the community. It's always been a part of me. Even though I work countless hours, I've been volunteering in this community since I was in grade school and I will continue to do so because I believe it's important to continue to be of service. And as time allows, I plan to do a lot of traveling in my new RV and see a lot of our national parks across the country. I'm only slowed down just a little bit right now for my recent accident, but it's been an honor and a privilege to serve the residents and the employees of Santa Cruz County. And I thank you so much for this honor. The next retiree who we are going to honor is Ian Larkin. He, the fifth generation resident of Santa Cruz County as the, and serves as the Santa Cruz County Fire Chief as well as the Chief of San Mateo County Fire Department and the Fire Protection Districts of Pajaro Valley and Coastside. He began his fire service career in 1988 as a paid call firefighter with the South Sepoytas Fire Protection District in Santa Cruz County. Before moving on to work for the Aromas Tri-County Fire Protection District, the Cal Fire San Benito Monterey Unit and the Cal Fire San Mateo Santa Cruz Unit as he is now, where he is now. He has served for 33 years and has that much experience in fire service. Cal Fire Operations Training Emergency Command Centers Administration and State Incident Command Teams. He leads 288 paid staff from Cal Fire headquarters across 16 career fire stations, Ben Lohman Conservation Camp and the Soquel Demonstration State Forest. It serves as the Chief to approximately 118 volunteers across nine additional volunteer fire stations that serve and protect the citizens of San Mateo and Santa Cruz Counties. Larkin was a Chief Larkin was a member of the Cal Fire Incident Command Incident Management Team from 2011 to 2017 and held the positions of resource unit leader on Incident Command. Plans Chief Section Trainee and Incident Management Team Six and was Deputy Plans Section Chief on Incident Management Team Two. His knowledge and experience were essential during the CCU Lightning Fire Complex, which was the largest and most destructive in Santa Cruz County history. His leadership and oversight and leaning some of those great first responders that we all appreciate and love Chief Larkin over the years has shown his professionalism, his leadership that's much appreciated by the people of Santa Cruz County and we appreciate everything that you have done for us in this County and through the other districts that you have served throughout the years. Chief Larkin, I don't know if you Mr. Palacios if you'd like to say a few words as well. Yes Chief Larkin, I just wanted to thank you on behalf of the community and the county government. This last year when we had the CCU Fire Lightning Complex was probably one of the most traumatic events that has ever happened to our community and it was also immensely scary. And I know that when I saw you out there at the Command Post, I heard from you, you were a strong and calm leader and I never for once doubted your competence and how good you are. And so I want to thank you on behalf of the community for the leadership you showed in that event. I watched you through it and I was very, very impressed. You have all of my respect. And thank you on behalf of the community for everything you've done over the years. Lots of years of service here. Wish you the very best in your retirement. Thank you. Any comments from the board? Your advisor, Coonerty. Sure. Yeah, Mr. Chair, I just want to take a moment and thank the chief for his many years of service. As the CAO just mentioned, we're calm, collected, mobilizing in a difficult situation where there just simply weren't enough firefighters statewide to deal with lightning strikes and you organize for response. And then on a personal level because of your deep connections to this community, when people would call and they'd have concerns you knew them. Like often they were somehow family members of yours. All spread all across this county but there are also people you knew and grown up with and worked with. And those kinds of relationships and having somebody who's representing a state agency but has those local connections, it was invaluable to helping address the biggest crisis that these communities ever faced. And I want to appreciate your hard work and efforts not only during the last year but also over your whole career is a true example of public service. Thank you. Any other comments from board members? Mr. Coonerty. Just thank you, and I think you've left us in a great place moving forward to build on to continue to keep the county safe and I appreciate all your hard work and keeping the disaster to the sides that it was. This last year could have been a lot worse. Thank you. Thank you. Supervisor Friend. Thank you, Mr. Chair and Chief, I just wanted to add in something that isn't discussed that much which deals with a lot of your foresight in regards to how to set up our regional County Cal Fire structure into something that was more sustainable moving forward working strongly with our office. For example, on the CSA 48 measure and your accessibility for all these communities that tie into what Supervisor Coonerty said, anytime we needed to have a community meeting and correlate us, for example, to explain the process, you were more than happy to go out and do it. I mean, you always made yourself available to any questions that we have but as well as the community have but you were always looking at a long-term viability and in your yearly presentations to the board, we're also talking about not just the immediate needs but what you foresaw is to be the needs in the next five to 10 years. And I think that that type of vision is going to make this community stronger and better moving forward. And you leave that as part of your legacy. I appreciate that. Thank you. Is there anybody from the audience who would like to speak? Thank you, Board. Michael Beaton, Director of General Services. What do you say about a man that has given us all for his community? Before I knew Chief Larkin, I worked with his wife, Lisa, who's in the back of the room, starting in 2012. I worked with Lisa for over six years at the Health Services Agency. During that time, I would hear tidbits about Chief Larkin about his commitment to his family, his work assignments and the crazy long hours that he would put in. I remember the first time I truly met Chief Larkin. It was approximately six to seven years ago when he was the division chief under then unit chief, Scotty Talbert. I was in a meeting with Chief Talbert where we kept asking detailed questions about Santa Cruz County emergency response that honestly, Chief Talbert didn't know the answers to. Chief Talbert kept going to a back room and then about the third time he'd come back with an answer he brought, Chief Larkin. And from that point forward, the meeting was no longer with Chief Talbert, it was with Chief Larkin. He knew absolutely everything, including the history and recommendation on how to proceed. I quickly learned that if you wanted something, you go directly to Chief Larkin and he absolutely knows everybody in this town. From that point on, I've had the honor of seeing the chief appointed to the unit chief of the San Mateo Santa Cruz unit, our county fire chief. I've had the honor of working with the chief through numerous local emergencies. We did the education campaign for CSA 48, resulting in the passage of a special benefit assessment for the betterment of the fire protection and this county. He has never been afraid to do the right thing even in the face of adversary. Throughout my time, directly working with the chief, his level of commitment to our county has never wavered. I have learned a lot from Chief Larkin and honestly, I wish he weren't retiring. But the price on institutional knowledge that's going to be lost is going to be huge. However, I wish Chief Larkin well in his retirement to this county, this county owes you a big debt of gratitude. And I personally owe you a big debt of gratitude for being our chief. So thank you. Present that. All right. You want to thank you and you and your wife and the folks? You know what I'm saying? I'm getting the, I'm getting the no. In my home. She better be. Would somebody like to take a photo? Sure. Take a photo of me. I'm going to take a photo of you. Take a photo of me. And now it's Bruce's family, let me go way back. Oh, thank you so much. Thank you. I'm a Christian, members of the board, Mr. Palacios. This is truly an honor to be recognized by the, just for the love of your job. That's what it shows. I'm a passionate person. So sometimes my emotions get the best of me. It was just one second, 33 years ago, when I decided to make a major life change, I had no idea that I actually wanted to be a firefighter, but as a kid, everybody dreams about being a copper firefighter or doing something in nature. I wasn't, I was into building things and designing things. And just going that route, I actually was on my way to be a mechanical engineer and rapidly figured out that that wasn't the path for me. And I had some friends of mine that were doing the firefighting thing and they kind of introduced me to it. Well, it only took one call. I was hooked. Here I stand 33 years later. Through those years, I've learned, I've had some great mentors that taught me the value of building and fostering relationships. And I think that's been the key component in my career and in my life is to foster those relationships and build upon them. And five and a half years ago, when I stepped into this position, it wasn't a position that I had any idea that I even wanted. I actually despised going to that level. I wanted to be operational. I wanted to be down in the trenches with the group. But I realized very quickly that somebody needed to step up and jump into this role when I did. And I'm glad I did because we have been able to make some significant changes, build our emergency response platform that we have here in the county and make both counties, San Mateo and Santa Cruz, better prepared for the event of a major incident. And if it wasn't for some of those planning ideas and things that came forth during the CZU Lightning Complex, I think even though it was a major disaster and it caused the largest fire in the county, we had a lot of successes that came out of that. And our evacuation management platform is moving forward through Zone Haven. And those are just the things that are making us better prepared. But I would be truly remissed in my success not to recognize Mike. All right, lovely wife, Lisa, who started this with me from the very start. We started dating in high school and 33 years later, I'm stepping out of a career and hopefully be able to get back to my family. Some of the time that I have selfishly taken away from them. And so with that, I appreciate the accolades. I appreciate the relationships. And Michael, it's truly been an honor working with GSD and building and fostering that relationship. And I hope as I step away, I leave the county a little bit better than when I stepped in. And my replacement has been named Chief Armstrong who's currently our deputy chief, Nate is going to do an outstanding job. He has a similar foresight that I have. And I think he'll lead the county into the future. And thank you very much. Thank you. Pardon me, Chair. Before we go to our third and final. Pardon me, Chair, that's a point of order. We do need to vote on items 11. Before we go to our third retiree, I'd like to, I would entertain a motion to accept the proclamations for Chief Larkin and then also Christina Mallory. So if we could make a motion, do you want one motion or two? One motion is fine, but we'll also want to ensure that there's no public comment on these items. Yeah. Correct, there's no public comment. Other than what has occurred. Thank you. Thank you. I'd entertain a motion to accept the proclamations for Christina Mallory and Chief Larkin. Don't move. Second. Please tell the roll. Supervisor Koenig? Aye. Friend? Aye. Unity? Aye. Jefferson? Aye. Thank you. Supervisor Caput is excused. Motion passes floor zero. Very good. And before it is, as we get into the final retiree, I'd entertain a motion to accept the retirement proclamation for Mimi Halt. Are there any public comments? There are no members of the public wishing to speak to sign them. We'd entertain a motion. So moved. Second. By Koenig, second by Friend? Supervisor Koenig? Aye. Friend? Aye. Unity? Aye. Caput is excused. MacPherson? Aye. Thank you for zero. Thank you. Okay, now we're gonna get to Mimi Halt. Thank you. For two decades of public service, we appreciate everything you have done for this county and really for the state of California, as you will hear about her many affiliations throughout the state of California. She was the daughter of immigrants and followed her parents' footsteps into the healthcare field. She began a public health career working to reduce the prevalence of communicable disease and previously served as a public health director in Sierra, Plumas and Yolo counties. She spent a tireless advocate for improving health outcomes through innovation, improved effectiveness and elevating the spectrum of prevention and serving with kindness while grounded in the pursuit of equity. She served during a crucial period in history by leading Santa Cruz County through the COVID-19 pandemic. And what a task that has been by coordinating with local healthcare system and community partners to minimize harm resulting in a pandemic response that has saved the lives in Santa Cruz County, limited and in many cases eliminated inequities while eventually fostering one of the highest county vaccination rates in California. Congratulations. Whereas she has led with courage and conviction and believe me, she has both of those. If you don't believe that, just ask her sometime. She has conviction and is demanded compassion in the face of difficulty and vitriol which led to well-deserved 2002 Penn Benenson Courage Award. She's a former president of the County Health Executives Association of California which include public health directors from California's 58 counties and three local city health associations. She has also been a key contributor to the National Association of City and County Health Officials and many other foundations and institutes. She has a passion and is a service-driven work ethic built with that. She has built trust and collaboration with dozens of partners in the community from educational institution and healthcare systems to non-profit organizations and cities. She is an inspiration to our community and staff through her leadership with graciousness, equity, advocacy and integrity. All while utilizing data and science to inform her decisions. Amy and her family will remain in Santa Cruz County and we look forward to working alongside her as she continues to contribute to the county in new and important ways. Congratulations, Mimi Hall. Lisa Benson, would you like to have a few words please? Yeah, thank you, Chair. Lisa Benson, Assistant CAO. Mimi, just on behalf of the CAO and the County family, just we want to express incredible appreciation these years. You came originally as assistant HSA director and rapidly became director and just brought a spirit of collaboration and kindness to an organization. And you shared that with community partners and all of the other departments. In particular, your collaboration with human services and the CAO on homelessness made a huge difference in where we are today. And of course, we just look at COVID and what you brought with Dr. Newell in terms of that equity focus. And as the chair said, that data-driven science-based leadership and we so appreciated everything you've done with us in the last few years. Good luck on your next adventure. We're glad you're staying here and we look forward to spending time with you in the community. Thank you, members of the board. Supervisor Koenig. Thank you, Chair. Maybe I think the only thing more infectious than the COVID-19 virus is your smile. And I know that you put me in a better mood oftentimes despite the circumstances and I know that the whole team and the county family, it's your optimism that got us through this crisis and ultimately human business as well, of course. And that's why our county is leading the state and ultimately the nation in terms of our equity metrics today in terms of who has been vaccinated and our approach to dealing with the pandemic. Thank you. Thank you. Supervisor Friend. Excuse me. Thanks, Mr. Chair, Director Hall. It's gonna be tough having you leave us in many respects. We went through a lot of, I feel like every community had to deal with the same type of struggles over the last year and a half during the pandemic, but not that many communities actually led the way on the response. And a lot of communities emulated the decisions that you and Dr. Newell made during that time. And it's something that I don't think has really discussed enough, but California led the way for the nation, but it was the Bay Area and in particular, the decisions made even in the Santa Cruz area that helped shape decisions that were made in both California and the country. And it was because you were comfortable with advocating for what you knew was right early on, even when the decisions were exceptionally difficult. And in the face of a lot of external pressure and adversity, you stayed very strong. You also kept your team who have been, basically haven't had a day off in 18 months, motivated, inspired and supported in a way that shows that you had a lot of balls to keep up in the air. You had a family to take care of at home that were watching their mom and wife be attacked in public for no reason, other than trying to really just keep them safe. You had employees that were struggling with a lot of similar issues that you had to support and stay motivated. You had elected officials with a lot of questions, but and also a lot of concerns that you were able to help address. And then you had just the community at large and all the external information coming in that you had to synthesize and help guide. And it's not trying to paint a perfect rosy picture on everything, but I wouldn't trade your decisions over the course of the last 18 months for any other health director across the state. And as you know, I'd asked you during a particularly difficult time about who guards the guardians, who takes care of you and your team when you're doing that. And I think that actually you're answering it in some respects by even where you're continuing on in your next career move. I think that maybe that's what you were destined to do in this world is that you were meant to be that protector of not just the disadvantaged, but moving forward also those that protect the disadvantaged. You have a voice, a trusted voice in a national platform and I hope you continue to use it. It's well earned and I have a great amount of respect for you. Thank you. Director Ho, you've gotten a lot of praise for your public outreach and leadership during this last pandemic. I wanna take a moment to also recognize the work that you did behind the scenes. As the pandemic exposed weaknesses in all of our systems, particularly our healthcare systems, you were the glue that held many of our health systems together and in fact found opportunities whether it's partnering with UCSC, partnering with local healthcare providers or nonprofit organizations, working across different agencies, departments, organizations, school districts, small businesses and beyond to ensure we had a good response to COVID and kept our community safe. I saw that work with the Alliance. I saw that work with Watsonville Hospital and with UCSC and it made a huge difference and oftentimes there's a lot of focus on these big public decisions but it's the private conversations that keep organizations aligned and moving and working collaboratively in the interest of a community and I appreciate so much your leadership in that regard. Thank you. Is there anyone from the public that would like to speak? Now to present the award, I know Alisa's already spoken so I'll bring this down to you Mimi. May I say a few words? Is that okay? Sure, yes, I'm gonna present you. Here you go. Are we doing pictures? Okay, I'm six feet away from you, Mr. Yeah, Mr. Home Director, yeah, I'll direct you. Stanley, one of the people told me that to do that. It didn't mean anything. I think yeah, there you go. Thank you everybody. Thank you for your kind words. I feel incredibly humbled to be honored today with two giants of civil service here in the Santa Cruz County community and I'm new to the community. I feel like a newbie but what wasn't new to me or actually what was new to me was the amount of love and support that this community has for its own members and that was apparent to me before COVID. It was apparent to me in the elected officials that are here, everyone that I've worked with in other departments and the CAO's office. We have a CAO who took a chance on me. I remember the first time I spoke with him about potentially coming to Santa Cruz. He said, how are you gonna make the leap from such a small county to Santa Cruz? Cause I'd spent so many years in Plumas County and my answer was it's just a love of who you serve and what you do. So tons of appreciation for the work that I've done in my team overall and during COVID and I wanna thank you for that but that could not have been done without elected officials who believed in us who supported their subject matter experts who loved their community enough to do the right thing, even though sometimes it was the hard thing and without a county administrator who also opened the door for that and this community is so incredibly fortunate. That's why I'm so glad to be staying here and whoever wrote, I think it was Jason and maybe some of my team who wrote all the nice things that Supervisor McPherson said about my career but what a lot of people don't know is I didn't have a direct path to here. We just had a staff meeting yesterday where the ice breaker was, what did you think was impossible? And I thought it was impossible for me to be here right now, have the career that I have, own a home, do all of this and I didn't have a straight route to being an administrator or an executive. I had a very, very crooked path that included working out of school, being disowned by my parents, being homeless for a while and when I was younger, I could never see a path to having the life I have now. So to all young people, I say it's never the end until it's the end. Keep putting one foot in front of the other, listen to your heart and this community has the biggest heart and is so accepting and I wanna thank every single one of you from elected officials and department heads to community members. And just thank you so much for allowing me to have the best time of my life these last four years. That is the last item on our agenda. So we will adjourn now as the County Board of Supervisors until our next meeting is on November 9th, is that right? November 9th, we will meet again, yes, Lisa. I just wanted to remind the board, we do have a special meeting next Tuesday, October 26th. October 26th for your first public hearing on redistricting. Right, and that'll be the first one, we won't... That's correct, there'll be three total hearings. Okay, very good. We will be meeting a special session. Oh, I'm sorry. And the time is at 6.30 on Tuesday. It's Tuesday at this chamber. It'll be a hybrid meeting. Okay, very good, very well understood. Thank you, this meeting is adjourned.