foreign
everyone I thank you so much for being
here um I will call to order this
meeting the March 14th meeting of the
Ventura County uh Board of Supervisors
uh Madam clerk do you mind calling the
roll
supervisor girl here
here
supervisor Lopez here chair levere here
and everyone could please us stand and
join me in the Pledge of Allegiance
all right item four is the approval of
the minutes from our meeting of February
28 2023 uh any of my colleagues wish to
pull an item or a motion to approve
so moved I'll second
supervisor girl yes supervisor long
yes supervisor Parvin yes supervisor
Lopez yes chair levere yes and then item
five is our agenda review Dr Johnson
thank you Mr chair good morning
supervisors members of the public and
all staff in attendance today the agenda
review is as follows item 8 opening
public comments comment letter from
Samuel Fang and Susana Macias Robles
have been submitted item 36 County
Executive Office approval of a strategy
to direct the use of 15 million dollars
allocated for affordable housing
construction and Loan capital a board
letter has been submitted
item 37 County Executive Office approval
of an allocation of 5.5 million as home
key 3.0 funding requests to be heard
before 10 a.m time certain items
item 44 supervisor guerrell and
supervisor Parvin public hearing
regarding adoption of an ordinance
repealing the Ventura County campaign
Finance reform ordinance
173 comment letters have been submitted
and finally item 57 closed session
conference with labor negotiators
comment letter from Grace Dunleavy has
been submitted this concludes engine to
review Mr chair
thank you Dr Johnson is there a motion
to approve the agenda as revised
the agenda has revised
second
supervisor girl yes
supervisor loan yes
supervisor Parvin yes
supervisor Lopez yes chair levere yes
okay and that takes us to our moment of
inspiration and uh in March
as we celebrate uh women's History Month
I thought it'd be appropriate to
recognize an organization in Ventura
County that has been incredibly active
engaged in the local political scene for
many years and that is the League of
Women Voters uh many of us who are
elected have been through their debates
they're usually the most professional
and a best moderated debate something
that I think all of us enjoy doing as we
go through our our various campaigns and
so I know I see uh four women from the
league here this morning and I would
like to invite up Susan King Roth who is
the current vice president of the League
of Women Voters of Ventura County
and Miss Roth we have a certificate we'd
like to present to you and
um it says you know we as the Board of
Supervisors honor and congratulate the
League of Women Voters on its 103rd
anniversary and commend the league for
its steadfast commitment to strengthen
and uphold its mission of empowering
voters and defending democracy and so
thank you so much for being here and I
would love to invite you to make a few
comments thanks so much chair Olivia
um
and members of the Board of Supervisors
as he said my name is uh excuse me Susan
King Roth is the Michael case yes okay
sorry my voice is a bit hoarse this
morning
um
I'm vice president at Kathy Morgan
president of our league is currently
traveling and asks that I present in her
absence
the League of Women Voters of Ventura
county is deeply honored to be here
today to present a moment of inspiration
marches women's history month during the
month we recognize the efforts of all
the remarkable women who've contributed
to this country and around the world
often in defiance of the expectations of
their time
Carrie Chapman cat founder of the League
of Women Voters is one such woman
Carrie was born in 1859 and grew up in
rural Iowa and became interested in
women's rights at an early age
she questioned why her mother did not go
to town with her father and his farm
hands to vote and we called her father
saying that voting was too important a
civic duty to be left to women
her father also didn't want her to go to
college believing that a girl did not
need that much education however she did
get a job and put herself through
college earning a Bachelor of Science
degree the only female in her graduating
class
she later became principal of high
school and was promoted to
superintendent of schools in Basin City
Iowa one of the first women in the
nation to be appointed to such a
position
after she married she became co-editor
and publisher of the Mason City
newspaper along with her husband
unfortunately after less than two years
her husband died so she supported
herself by writing freelance articles
editing newspapers giving lectures and
becoming a paid field organizer for the
Iowa women's suffrage association in
1890 she married again and had the
economic means to devote time to
suffrage work after moving to New York
City she began working with Susan B
Anthony
who chose her to succeed her as
president of the National American Woman
Suffrage Association she was twice
elected to the presidency and became
involved in the international suffrage
movement she met with world leaders and
was widely quoted in newspapers across
the country
soon her name became familiar in
American households the struggle for
women's suffrage was a long and bitter
fight requiring 72 years of effort women
who had never had public lives were
emboldened to speak out March in the
streets and protest
lessons learned about the women's
suffrage movement deeply influenced
later American social justice and
advocacy movements lobbying public
relations and Grassroots organizing
techniques developed by the suffragists
including their use of non-violent
protests became a model for later civil
rights movements
Carrie chapmancat founded the League of
Women Voters on February 14 1920 six
months before the ratification of the
19th Amendment her vision and League
of the league was that it should be
nonpartisan working towards securing the
infranchisement of women of every state
removing legal discrimination against
women and making democracy safe
in fact the mission of the league today
is empowering voters defending democracy
and it continues to be non-partisan
working to educate all of the electorate
about issues and candidates and
encouraging informed and active
participation in government in the 1930s
League members worked successfully for
enactment of the Social Security Act as
well as the Food and Drug Act after
World War II The League carried out a
national public support campaign at the
request of President Franklin Roosevelt
to establish the United Nations and to
ensure U.S participation following the
campaign President Harry Truman invited
the league to serve as a consultant to
the U.S delegation at the United Nations
Charter conference
one of the first organizations
officially recognized by the yin un as
an NGO the league still maintains
official Observer status today
throughout history League members laid
grass movements for Universal voter
registration campaign Integrity the
right of reproductive Choice civil
rights clean air and water safe and
affordable housing and child care early
in the history of the league it was
committed to establishing child labor
laws and equal pay for women
more recently the League of Women Voters
has worked to eliminate remaining
obstacles to voter registration across
the country it supported and advocated
for redistricting reform to a limited
partisan and or racial gerrymandering
countering misinformation and
disinformation
protecting voting rights and educating
voters with the intent of creating a
stronger and more representative
democracy the League of Women Voters of
Ventura County provides candidate forums
prior to its elections so that voters
can hear directly from local candidates
to better inform their choice when
voting it educates voters about ballot
measures based on factual information
and conducts legislative interviews on
Zoom with representatives from the state
legislature
League members also visit Ventura County
high schools to explain the voting
process and assist students with voter
registration as well as award
scholarships to students enrolled in
three local colleges
although the League of Women Voters has
evolved over the last century it still
continues to support the core Mission
conceived in 1920 I would like to end
with a quote from Carrie Chapman cat
everybody counts in applying democracy
and there will never be a true democracy
until every responsible and law-abiding
adult in it without regard to race sex
color or Creed has his or her own
inalienable and unpurchasable vote Voice
in government thank you
[Applause]
well thank you Miss Roth for being here
and sharing that really unique history
that's quite appropriate for this month
so we would love to come down and
present this certificate to the to the
league women and we'd love to take a
picture
yes
we're gonna come up here yeah the front
in the front here
thank you
foreign
you know it still shocks me that some
people are not registered to vote
it just it's amazing yeah yeah so thank
you for bringing this up today yes
hey item seven on our agenda this
morning is our consent calendar items uh
11 through 28. does anyone like to pull
an item or ask any questions no and I'll
move
consent item agenda forward
supervisor guerrill yes
supervisor long yes
supervisor Parvin yes supervisor Lopez
yes chair levere yes
which takes us to public comments and I
know we have quite a few public speakers
this morning so why don't we um
start with public comment
thank you thank you chair lever
to members of the public who wish to
address the board today with live public
comment on any agenda item please visit
ventura.org forward slash BOS comment
for participation information and
instructions Grant Person Public comment
please check in with the deputy clerk at
the entrance of the boardroom if you
wish to make comments you must be in the
boardroom or if you're participating
remotely you must be connected to the
meeting via Zoom or telephone before the
close of the public comment period for
that agenda item request to make live
public comments on an agenda item will
be accepted until the public comment
period for each agenda item is complete
for our remote participants please
accept the prompt to be promoted and
when your name is called you will need
to inmute your mic when it's your turn
to speak for all public comment
participants your name will be called in
the order the registration was received
and our first speaker is going to be
um Lee green who's here in person
followed by Barbara Marcy Ortiz and
Rachel sleet so Lee green if you could
please proceed to the podium you will
have three minutes
good morning good morning
supervisor long thank you for wearing
red this morning uh if that's
appropriate
foreign
I didn't realize I was going to be first
and would have to set the table
as you no doubt are aware the county
nurses are in negotiations for a new
contract
they still seem to be
far apart from an agreement on several
issues
the one I my name is Lee green by the
way and um
I'm married to a nurse who has been with
the county for 15 years working in
vcmc's surgery Department
and because she is there working right
now you're hearing my voice instead of
hers
so I wanted to focus on the cola
the cost of living adjustment that helps
retain the value
of the pension that the nurses receive
a typical younger middle-aged person
doesn't think about colas my wife has a
master's degree in business
but even she didn't think about coal is
when she took the job
neither did most of the other nurses at
County but they are thinking about it
now and they're not happy
by refusing to give our nurses a cola
the county is insisting that the nurses
not the county bear the considerable
burden of inflation
the county saves a lot of money and the
nurses lose a lot of money
the county Hospital's recruiters ask
nurses to work for substandard
non-competitive wages
why would anyone do that when they could
take a job across the street for
significantly more money
one big reason is that the county offers
a pension
but what those recruiters don't say is
that due to inflation that pension year
by year will gradually Melt Away
nurses who retired in 2000 at age 60 and
are now 83 have seen
74.7 percent of their pensions
value simply disappear
there is this is no small matter it goes
to what sort of lives our nurses will
have in their later years
the nurses at vcmc work alongside techs
and other staff whose pensions are
protected by colas
the nurses have no such protection what
does this say about our County what does
this say about us
it's not right
you supervisors were not the ones to
formulate this policy Mr Green you're
out of time well you can be the ones to
correct it and give the nurses the
financial security and you're out of
time and we have 12 speakers ahead of
you
[Applause]
okay our next speaker is going to be
Barbara Marcy Ortiz followed by Rachel
sleed and then Monica Kennedy
good morning chair lever and supervisors
my name is Barbara macri Ortiz and I'm
here to support the nurses and their
bargaining proposals
you know over many years Ventura County
created a really strong Health Care
system
for residents our nurses have always
been the backbone of that system
unfortunately the system is eroding
because we no longer can recruit and
train sufficient nurses
to support the system why the working
conditions and compensation for nurses
are woefully inadequate
so our nurses are training new nurses
only to see them leave along with many
senior nurses
who have been the heart and soul of our
system
you know our primary problem started
with covid and with the extreme strain
put on the nurses who are our only real
line of defense our nurses were the only
ones who comforted our sick and dying in
the hospitals his family and friends
were locked out
the nurses took all the risks
they were Herald as Heroes as nurses
died from covid and others retired
because they couldn't handle it anymore
the county relied on traveling nurses as
a stop Gap
to you know to keep keep the hospitals
going
during that period and but the pay of
the traveling nurses just ballooned into
millions and millions of dollars
um
now we've gotten through covid but the
county never readjusted back we are now
relying on traveling nurses rather than
building back our infrastructure that
made our system so strong
knowledgeable and experienced nurses who
are committed to Ventura County Health
Care system and our hospitals
a traveling nurse does not give you that
and they are often inexperienced putting
more pressure on our nurses for patient
care making it harder and harder
this negotiations the county must take
care of our nurses so they can help the
county build back our Health Care system
and its infrastructure
23 million dollars has been spent this
fiscal year for traveling nurses 23
million dollars
if we don't invest in our own nurses
that figure is going to continue to grow
and we will lose even more nurses the
Traveler's budget must be diverted now
into supporting our own Health Care
system and its nurses
you know we need to build back a strong
Health Care system that we're very proud
of but in order to do that
you know we need to improve it for the
for the future by supporting our nurses
these are the ones that support our
hospitals and these are the ones you
need to support thank you very much
foreign
followed by Monica Kennedy and then
Katie dernmost
I actually have two things to speak on
today hopefully I'll get through both of
them but I'm going to start with
I'm gonna start with the safety of our
children so I have two daughters my 13
year old attends Balboa my 15 year old
is a freshman at Buena
this school year Senate bill to 328
which establishes new mandatory start
times for schools went into effect
this bill did not affect my 13 year old
her start time remained the same but my
high school daughter now starts at 8 30.
my issue is not the start time but what
time the bus picks my daughter and many
other kids up for school
my daughter Audrey wakes up at 5 30 to
get ready and is picked up at 6 50 a.m
she arrives to school at roughly seven
o'clock Audrey along with many other
kids
are waiting 90 minutes and on Fridays
two and a half hours for school to start
Fridays is a 9 30 start time to kill
time a lot of the kids are going into
the Vaughn shopping center on the corner
of Victorian Telegraph
the same shopping center that one month
ago a group of teens were attacked and a
teenage girl was slashed on her back
with a knife by transient
sorry this is that could have been my
daughter
oftentimes I
I stop at the same shopping center on my
way home from work I see homeless
wandering the parking lot and often
acting erratic I was not shocked to hear
a child was attacked but I was thankful
she did not lose her life
at this time my concern is for the
safety of my daughter along with many
other kids waiting for school to start a
few weeks ago I attended a
transportation meeting that offered no
Solutions
SB 328 was signed by Governor Newsom to
improve student
to improve students chances of success
this bill works with teenagers natural
sleep rhythms
at this time Buena bus riders have even
and Ventura have even longer days than
their safeties at risk Ventura County
School Ventura Unified School District
is not operating in the spirit of the
Law changes need to be made to protect
our children and improve the chances of
success
so I'm reading this for another nurse
who was not able to be here we're just
supervisors I've been a nurse at vcmc
for 18 years I currently work in the
Pediatrics caring for some of the
County's most vulnerable vulnerable
population I'm asking at the the board
listens to our concerns and agrees to a
fair contract so that vcmc will be able
to retain and hire experienced nurses
vcmc is the only Hospital in the county
with a pediatric and Intensive Care Unit
unfortunately due to uncomparable wages
Rachel your time is up
we need picu nurses
[Applause]
okay our next speaker is going to be
Monica Kennedy followed by Kate durnbos
and then Scott durnbos
good morning I am Monica Kennedy I have
been in LVN in the NICU at vcmc for the
past 19 years working on night shift
to my family I am known as Monica mommy
daughter sister and wife
to Ventura County I am better known as
115580 my employee number that's all
just a number
we are here today to ask the county to
not only listen to us but for us to be
heard
actions speak louder than words and we
are asking to be presented with a
contract that will help recruit and most
importantly retain nurses and Health
Care staff
we are the backbone of the hospital and
we are demanding dramatic change
to think just not that long ago we were
called Heroes where's the respect gone
we have lost many nurses to other local
hospitals in one month alone the NICU
lost 13 seasoned nurses
these were highly skilled nurses that
were trained at vcmc staffed our unit
for many years and left for higher pay
and better working conditions
why are we the current regular staff not
worthy of the large budgets that are
being approved for travel nurses
we are the same staff who left our
families and the safety of our homes
while many including this board sat
behind their computers safely conducting
business safely conducting business not
us we showed up to work are we not
worthy of an increase in our pay to be
competitive with surrounding hospitals
an increased for cost of living safe
Staffing and consistent breaks and
lunches during our shifts
I hope that the board can make decisions
that bring positive change make
decisions that you can honestly say are
right and you can lay your head down at
night and know these decisions you made
are the ones you would want if you were
in our position
we too have families and after years of
always staying at vcmc for the patients
these poor conditions are making us
think differently our patients deserve
more and we deserve more
[Applause]
okay our next speaker is Katie dernboes
followed by Scott durnbos and then Carla
Molina
good morning Ventura County Board of
Supervisors my name is Katie dornbos and
I am a member of the California Nurses
Association I've been a registered nurse
at vcmc for 18 years I'm a resident of
District 3 in Ventura County
we at CNA proudly represent Healthcare
professionals throughout Ventura County
we as nurses and Health Care
Professionals are crucial stakeholders
in the realm of Public Health and we are
eager to obtain a fair and Equitable
contract
I believe that this includes significant
wage increases to bring our members
close to the wage disparity I mean to
close the wage disparity with local
hospitals in the county this is the way
to be fiscally responsible
by decreasing and eventually eliminating
the need for travel nurses these travel
nurses receive compensation roughly
three times a staff nurse's wage in
order to retain and recruit nurses with
experience and retain those who we train
in order to not lose them to other
hospitals for higher wages for the same
work we must be compensated much more
than we are currently on our wage grid
the highest paid nurse is still paid
significantly less than State average
for a nurse this needs to change it is
your responsibility to help us achieve
that goal continuing to fund travel
nurses instead of increasing the wages
of our members is irresponsible we are
here because we deserve better we are
also requesting Cola known as the cost
of living adjustment in regards to our
retirement most of the other unions in
the county have Cola in their retirement
why do we not deserve this I'm here
today to ask you as all of the Ventura
County Board of Supervisors to advocate
for a fair agreement for CNA nurses and
health care professional thank you thank
you
[Applause]
I'm also here to speak on behalf to
finish off what Brandi was trying to say
the picu is a valuable asset to the
county because it is imperative ma'am
I'm really sorry but we we don't allow
that as part of our protocols though
okay yeah I'm sorry okay
okay our next speaker is going to be
Scott followed by Carla Molina and then
Naomi Corpus
hi my name is Scott dornboss and I'm a
resident of District 3 in Ventura County
I am here today on supporting my wife
and all the CNA Healthcare professionals
recently I was admitted to the vcmc ER
on December 19th with a ruptured artery
and I nearly died
I had to wait six hours for blood my
nurse until 11 pm was a traveling nurse
and thankfully a staff nurse took over
and noticed my vitals deteriorated
I am I after being in the ICU tele and
Med surge units I got to go home on the
23rd I was back to Santa Paula ER and
was transferred by ambulance to vcmc on
the 26th and was discharged again on the
29th
it's because of the regular nurses and
staff that I'm alive today this is why
it is critical that you take Recruitment
and Retention of your nurses and Health
Care staff seriously
our hospitals need experienced staff
who are retained and compensated for the
life-saving work they do I look forward
to supporting my wife and her fellow
colleagues in their CNA negotiations and
hope you do the same because that's
what's best for our families and
communities
thank you
[Applause]
speaker is going to be Carla Molina
followed by Noemi Corpus and then
Ignacio Gonzalez
good morning my name is Carla and I've
been a labor and delivery nurse at vcmc
for 12 years we're in a crisis right now
we have nearly 160 plus Travelers
filling our Hospital some departments
expering more Travelers than regular
staff on any one shift this is a safety
crisis a lot of these Travelers have way
less experience than our seasoned nurses
one unit this week had a charge nurse an
orientee and the rest were Travelers
this is a huge liability your seasoned
nurses who have been here through thick
and thin are feeling underappreciated
and undervalued were burnt out we have
lost countless nurses to local hospitals
for significant more pay
the cost of inflation over the past
three years is astronomical and our pay
and pension does not reflect the cost of
living increase that we have been faced
with minimum wage can increase at the
rate it has but healthcare workers are
responsible for patient lives don't get
the same respect and appreciation
I can tell you there are several senior
nurses who have already mentioned that
they are waiting on our new contract to
take effect before deciding to leave to
our local hospitals we need competitive
wages and benefits that will entice
employees to want to work here instead
of only new nurses being trained and
getting experience then leaving for
better pay we need competitive wages in
a pension with Cola to retain our nurses
for our patients and and our nurses
thank you thank you
thank you no I'm in followed by Ignacio
and then Lisa mayallianis
hello everyone my name is Noe corpuz and
I'm a member of California Nurses
Association I've been a registered nurse
at Ventura County hospital for two years
but I've been a nurse for 12 years it is
our belief in understanding our
perspective on the ground is key to
fully informed decision making by
leadership
it is not beneficial to hear um it's not
only beneficial to hear expertise of our
workers but our testimonies also provide
invaluable glimpse into how decisions
made at the top actually play out in
reality as a break relief nurse I should
be providing Chef relief to my fellow
colleagues for their much needed breaks
however far too often we are pulled from
that work and told to take on patients
as you know one break relief cannot
provide break relief to every nurse
working in one shift this means that
nurses working 12-hour shifts or more on
their feet running from patient room to
patient room from one end of the
building to the other end of the
building are not getting a moment of uh
to eat to sit down and rest and at times
even to use the restroom exhaustion
jeopardizes safe patient care research
has shown that tired Healthcare
professionals are more up to errors and
missed markers that can indicate change
in patients conditions it is also common
sense that nurses who are work in who
are working in exhaust exhausted will
not want to stay but will look for other
jobs where they will get the rest and
meal breaks they deserve new nurses come
to Ventura County Hospital to gain
experience and leave once they become
good nurses instead of retaining them
the county continues to choose to
participate in revolving door of Staff
instead of investing in lift terms
lift terms teams transport teams and
providing enough resources so that we
can best serve our community it is truly
unfortunate to see these nurses and
Healthcare professional walk out of our
facility after we have watched them grow
and become such good skilled care
providers we know how to grow and keep
New Generation providers who will stay
at the county and advocate for highest
quality of care highest quality of care
that our community deserve highest
quality of care that your constituents
deserve thank you thank you
[Applause]
and then Lisa Marianas and then Christy
Lewis
Ignacio
good morning Board of Supervisors my
name is Ignacio Gonzalez I'm a
registered nurse at Ventura County
Medical Center uh to this morning I'm
going to be speaking for Laura Lopez the
GI nurse who has worked for the county
for 42 years she's at work today and
couldn't be here to speak for herself
during the first six months of last year
I lost three or four full-time trained
GI nurses leaving me just to run the
department with several less trained
temporary all whom have since Departed
the three GI nurses that left didn't
retire or move out of state they went to
other local hospitals sorry
in clinics where they make more money
work less overtime and call and have
better work-life balance these other
facilities are much better staff
now my staff consists of me three pricey
traveling nurses and I and an
experienced per diem nurse and I like
Duty nurse
I work 45 Plus hours per week plus I'm
on call two weekends per month I have no
work life balance
I've had a total of seven traveling
nurses in my department during the last
nine months I get up to speed I get them
up to speed but soon they'll even go to
the next contract this routine is not
sustainable we need competitive wages
and a pension with Cola to attract
nurses and keep them and we need these
improvements now thank you
[Applause]
okay next up is Lisa magayanas followed
by Christy Lewis and then Jeremy
Goldenberg
good morning border supervisors my name
is Lisa magayanis and I have been a
resident of Ventura County for 42 years
I'm deeply passionate about the quality
of care that is given to our community
members who pass through the doors of
our two hospitals and public health
agencies I currently work as an
emergency room nurse at Santa Paula
hospital and I'm floated between both
ERS at vcmc and Santa Paula I was born
at Santa Paula Hospital in 1980 and my
oldest son was also born there in 2001.
my father passed away at Santa Paula
Hospital in the ICU in 2015. I have seen
multiple family and friends receive
their health care needs through our
hospital system and I'm proud to say
that I was lucky to have some of the
best training and learning experiences
of Highly qualified and experienced
nurses when I joined the agency in 2016.
unfortunately this is no longer the case
and there's a problem with our current
working conditions we've lost highly
qualified and experienced as nurses from
the bedside both hospitals have multiple
mass exoduses that nurses have left to
other hospitals will they be better
compensated and have better working
conditions I would like to share with
you a day in the ER there's a charge
nurse their role is required for traffic
control they're responsible for multiple
multitude of things including ambulances
coming in the back door making sure the
sickest patients have a bed and that all
the nurses are getting their breaks
among many other duties there's the
triage nurse they're the nurse in the
waiting room that puts their eyes on
every patient that comes to the front
door and prioritizes who's the sickest
and needs to be seen by a provider
quickly this by the way should be one of
your most experienced nurses there's
also the preceptor nurse the nurse who
is orientating a new nurse teaching them
IV medications and protocols for how we
prioritize and treat different
emergencies due to lack of Staff core
staff and experienced staff at times one
nurse must fulfill all the roles above
in a single shift the stress that comes
with all these responsibilities is
defeating I can describe it as feeling
like I've lost a Super Bowl sometimes
because at the end of the day despite
all that we've done to go take care of
the patients and give them the best
quality care that we know we can give
them and that they deserve it becomes
nearly impossible would you like your
mother father or child to be the patient
whose nurses stretched into so many
places they can't dedicate their time to
your family's needs why do we have a
lack of stuff it's simple we're unable
to hire experienced nurses because we
don't offer competitive wages we train a
new nurse and after six months to a year
they're leaving a higher pain hospital
with better conditions if we invest in
our County nurses and we have
competitive wages and an improved
pension then maybe we would have more
experienced nurses to apply to work at
our hospitals and retain them and the
new graduates stay for longer terms I'm
here to ask you to help us to listen to
us we are the ones dedicated to taking
care of you and your families we are the
ones who are here because we want to be
here we want to serve our counterparts
and the community members who are
underserved that deserve the highest
quality we can give them I beg you to
invest in us our community deserves it
and so do we thank you thank you
thank you
[Music]
[Applause]
hello my name is Kirsty Lewis I've been
a nurse for 22 years
18 of those with the county
I've worked at Ventura County Medical
Center in Santa Paula Hospital
I am an IC nurse but sometimes I work in
the ER
I'm here to tell you that nurses are
burnt out and overworked these issues
existed before the pandemic but have
only gotten worse
in the ICU at Santa Paula hospital where
I usually work we have recently lost two
of our experienced nurses due to burnout
and to obtain higher pay elsewhere
one nurse had 12 years of ER and ICU
experience and the other had 15 years of
ER and ICU experience
replacing experienced nurses is
impossible with the current wages we
have our highest paid nurse isn't even
making the average wage compared to
other surrounding facilities
in the ER at Santa Paula Hospital
we have lost most of our ER nurses over
the last couple of years due to burnout
being overworked
and to obtain higher pay at other
hospitals
some have retired early doing be due to
being plain tired of being short staffed
and expected to pick up the slack when
other staff leave
we hire new grads they stay six months a
year in the leave
to go to better pay and Better Staffing
at other hospitals in the local area
many times when I go to the ER there
will be one experienced staff nurse as
Lisa described and the rest will be
travel nurses this is scary
we should be investing the County's
money and staff nurses who live here in
the county and are committed to working
to improve the hospital for the Long
Haul
we need raises and improvements to our
pension to keep our nurses from leaving
we need more support to prevent burnout
we want to be able to provide the best
possible care to our patients
but we need your help to accomplish this
honestly we need less lip service that
we are heroes and more tangible evidence
that we are valued
we hope you can support our continued
dedication to Quality and safe patient
care
by supporting our CNA negotiations to
get a contract that we deserve thank you
thank you
[Applause]
and last two speakers we're getting here
from Jeremy Goldberg and then Gavin
Jones is our last speaker
good morning supervisors my name is
Jeremy Goldberg I'm the executive
director of the Central Coast labor
Council we are an umbrella Union
organization that has about 75
Affiliates representing 70 000 members
in Ventura County Santa Barbara County
and San Luis Obispo counties
and so knowing that like I've I've been
here before right with with a union
that's got an issue before a board or a
city or a school district and we call up
to the supervisor's office or call the
the council members and we get this we
get this line that like you know staff
is handling it it's not a it's not at
our level yet we can't weigh in I think
you've heard today that like it's time
to weigh in right there's a problem
two weeks ago on a Monday I spent the
morning uh rallying with the healthcare
staff the nurses at St John's Hospital
because there's a care crisis and
Tuesday I spent the evening with CNA at
vcmc same reason and the following
morning on the Wednesday this is all in
one week not coordinated not planned the
Wednesday morning I spent at Los Robles
Hospital in Thousand Oaks doing the same
thing all right there that the care
crisis isn't one hospital it's it's
everywhere it's the entire industry
we've got to set the bar higher
the last three years social media feeds
were just chock full of praising nurses
and health you know all health care
workers front line workers and now's
time to make good on those promises you
know I
I I think right we we hit this we hit
this like moment in the pandemic where
as you know we're I think we heard a
couple times already that
a lot of folks were at home and our
nurses
they put themselves at risk they put
their families at greater risk then then
most of the rest of us and the best I
can do is to come here and look them in
the face and look you all in face and
say thank you to them for everything
they did
I think you guys have the opportunity to
do something greater which is to fix the
crisis to find out what's going on in
negotiations to know exactly what they
are asking for what they put on the
table and and make good on all the
promises of the last three years because
I know we've talked about it we have
regular meetings the the members the
workers of this County they're not going
to forget what the nurses did and so I
strongly encourage you to find out if
you don't know everything that's going
on if you don't know exactly what
they're asking for and
find out do the best you can to to you
know make it right and do right by the
nurses uh who went so far above and
beyond over the course of the last three
years
um that they we we owe them this and a
whole lot more thank you
foreign
[Applause]
looks like our last speaker is going to
be Gavin Jones I don't have any other
speakers registered or in our queue
thank you good morning uh Board of
Supervisors my name is Gavin Jones I am
a vcmc ER nurse and I've been there for
about 15 years and I live in District
three
uh as a board of directors member
they're responsible to the shareholders
I will remind you you are a Board of
Supervisors member and your
responsibilities to the people of this
community
our catchment area at vcmci is
approximately the size of railroad
Island in roughly the same population
vcmc is the trauma center for 75 percent
of the county takes care of the worst of
the worst traumas your trauma system is
on the verge of collapse and often Just
One charging or sick call away from not
being able to stay open
within the ER recently checked there's
44 nurses and of them over half are
Travelers 23 in fact
I've trained many new nurses over the
years usually takes over six months of
doing so at a huge cost to the community
and to you only to see them leave within
years this is not a good return on
investment we take care of some of the
sickest children in the county with our
NICU picu impedes
this is not a left issue this is not a
right issue this is not a labor issue
this is a county issue this is your
issue the five or you are the only
people that can solve it not your
negotiator the new demographics are Grim
we don't produce enough nurses to
replace those that have left this is not
just a county problem this is a world
problem and you must find ways to retain
the nurses that you have The Negotiator
only cares about the costs they don't
care about the consequences
you are supposed to care about the
consequences to your constituents the
flood of sick patients keeps coming
you are the only ones that can stop the
nurses from washing down the stream
this is your issue
it's not your negotiator's issue you're
the only ones that can protect the
people of this County and I'll remind
you this is your only responsibility
thank you for your time
[Applause]
thank you
[Applause]
chair liver there are no other requests
to speak thank you all right thank you
madam Clerk and thank you all for being
here and sharing your comments this
morning
uh item nine is CEO comments Dr Johnson
thank you Mr chair again thank you all
for being here expressing your comments
we do take them to heart thank you so
much
uh I want to congratulate uh Sheriff
freyhoff last week he had his briefing
breakfast and I want to thank him for
his remarks and his vision for law
enforcement in keeping our County safe
as we move forward I also want to thank
the District Attorney's office and the
Dei office and Council for planning the
international women's day event that was
held at the Family Justice Center last
Wednesday
there were cultural presentations and
demonstrations
and the keynote was by Graciela Casillas
a heavyweight boxing champion that
shared her story of grit and resilience
as a worldwide heavyweight female boxer
I also want to thank the Dei team and
Natalie Hernandez for the women's
History Month video highlighting women
in the County Workforce that will be
shared with all employees via email in
honor of women's History Month
congratulations go to Dr Thomas Duncan
vcmc's director of trauma who was
presented with the Eastern Association
of surgical trauma president's
distinguished service award for his
outstanding contribution to the care of
trauma patients at the local Regional
and National level
also to Dr David araujo vcmc's Family
Medicine Residency director was chosen
among the more than 750 residency
directors in the nation to receive the
Nikita servano's outstanding program
Director award recognizing his
leadership in our residency which
remains one of the top four Family
Medicine training programs in the nation
lastly this evening I'll be attending
and I'm really happy to attend the 56th
annual Eagle Scout recognition dinner at
the Reagan Library thank you Mr chair
this concludes my comments
thank you madam CEO and we'll do board
comments now before we start the regular
agenda so why don't we start with that
supervisor guerrill thank you Mr chair
uh just a few things on March 1st I had
the opportunity to attend the state of
the University uh by Cal Lutheran
University president and I went over the
Strategic plan plan for clu and the
importance of the future and integration
of that that uh you know very
um respected and venerated academic
organization and entity in our community
it was very helpful on March 2nd I
attended a bioscience open house and
um it was a organization that was stood
up to to represent the life sciences as
they continue to grow in our community
and employ a lot of different people but
but the bioscience Alliance was formed
to to promote
um the life sciences particularly
biotech in our community and the growth
there and help them kind of incubate and
and expand their impact and their job
creation opportunity communities in in
Ventura County so that was exciting on
March 4th I had the honor of emceeing
the for the troops Gala at the Ronald
Reagan Library it was a opportunity to
to recognize our veterans but also to
raise money for great great cause and
that was for the troops we care packages
they send they've sent over 280 000
packages to deploy men and women in
uniform all over the world our our
service members men and women and so
that was a a great night and a good
opportunity uh to to recognize our local
veterans
on March 8th my staff participated in
the groundbreaking for Miracle League of
the 805 as a groundbreaking ceremony and
they are they exist to provide
opportunities for what we called
disabled or differently abled children
who would ordinarily be excluded from
playing
baseball in a team environment anyway
the uh the new rubberized turf field
there as is able to accommodate
wheelchairs and crutches and provides a
amazing opportunity for some of our
challenged youth in Ventura County
um on um yesterday I had an opportunity
to tour the Arc of Ventura County
particularly the their facility in Simi
Valley I did so because there are so
many people from all over the county
that that are that that are that are
participants there
um and they support so many uh great
local residents I had a chance to shoot
some basketball with some of the
participants and get to meet them and
get to meet the staff and look at the
different programs and opportunities
they had there and um and it was it was
really heartwarming I'm maybe steal a
little bit of supervisor
um Longs Thunder by uh by talking up a
little bit of this weekend there is a
air show at Navy base Point Magoo navy
base Ventura County it's free it's open
to the public and it is uh hopefully
rain or shine we're going to see both
the the Navy's demonstration team Blue
Angels and the air Air Force
demonstration team Thunderbirds fly on
on Saturdays certainly and that's
amazing because those two demonstration
air teams don't usually fly together
only on some rare occasions but they'll
both be here in Ventura County it's
opening as I said to all residents and
it's free so I'd encourage you to go I
have uh finally a list of
of individuals who sadly passed recently
who I'd like to ask my fellow colleagues
to adjourn in memory with today and
um of those I want to mention in
particular somebody I know personally
that was George Tash George passed uh
last week and left behind his wife of 48
years Debra who I'm whom I know and he
survived by his two children
um Jennifer and Adam the Tash family is
amazing they're small business owners
and Somas they created a beautiful
gardens called Eden Gardens where a lot
of people have been married a lot of
people have celebrated amazing events
It's a Wonderful It's a Wonderful venue
and George was just a a great person
a wonderful Community leader and he'll
be sorely missed so um with those with
George and the remainder of the
individuals I would be honored if we
could adjourn in their memory today
thank you Mr chair back to you thank you
um supervisor long
thank you very much uh super supervisor
Grill I love that you're talking about
things that are going great in my
district and Miracle League that is a
county-wide uh location I've been
working with Rick Pena and Randy
Churchill since 2015 before I was even a
supervisor on my school board hat
um but it's such a great opportunity to
provide for our children all children
and so I'm really excited that that is
moving forward it's a big push for
Ventura County we don't have that type
of facility and to have it at the
Freedom Park where all kids are playing
softball baseball I think is really a
great opportunity
um congrats you did a great job at the
four of the troops to be be up there
thank you for your service as well so
many of our members that live here in
Ventura County serve here their families
go to school here
um it's just a great
event and I just really appreciate Paula
Cornell and rosemary Allison for really
oh yeah for just the power to get that
done to serve our troops uh Sheriff's
breakfast briefing it was nice to see so
many of our community members there
supporting our Sheriff's Public Safety
that is just key for our community I was
at the California State Association our
board of directors up in Sacramento last
week huge discussions in regards to
homelessness the services that we
provide wraparound Services many of the
presentations coming out from the
governor's office it was very timely to
be having these conversations we have
some items today for homelessness
and and hopefully we will make a a mark
on this it's not something that we can
do in a day but appreciate everyone's
efforts on that the California state
University Channel Islands is always
doing amazing things and we had our
social justice conference just last week
weekend
Supervisor levere was there as well as
Dr Johnson and the check of five million
dollars for their child care was just
very timely so I wanted to say thank you
to the board for supporting that we did
celebrate our International women's day
at our family Justice Center it was a
great opportunity to talk about the
differences in where our women where
they started where they're ending and
how they power through for their
passions
so it was a pleasure to be there the
point Magoo Air Show I can't wait for it
it's going to be an exciting time and so
I want these storms to get through and
be done we have our app what is it the
atmospheric River that's coming through
today and tomorrow just in time so it'll
be done so we can have our air show I
wanted to say thank you to Public Works
and our Sheriff's fire for continuing to
serve our community Camarillo we had a
sinkhole on private property we have
Lake Piru and I can't believe I can say
this it might be overflowing
did any we were Rock Bottom pretty much
a little while ago to to actually say
that we've captured that much water in
Ventura County speaks volumes
um so thank you for everyone who's
watching this safety is crucial for our
area
um Piru has been hit by many storms and
a lot of mud and dirt and debris so
we've been really actively working on
that
recovery to storm to recovery to storms
so it's it's really a plug-and-play that
our our community is
um
getting from our our amazing staff so I
just want to say thank you so much for
that I know that there's extra
assistance out there and just really
appreciate the sheriffs
and with that I just like to join in
menu memory of those on this list and
thank you for the opportunity chair all
right thank you supervisor Parvin
thank you
well we had a lot of exciting things
going on since our last meeting we
sponsored a Simi Valley job fair trying
to fill those jobs grow the economy
um I also met with Caltrans District 7
Gloria Roberts where we talked about a
lot of ongoing projects but we also
spoke about the suicide bridge and
what's going on with that and the vctc
is very familiar with that
um I also met with the fire chief
Gardener who is really a
forward-thinking chief you know he has
so many great ideas and having that
meeting really helped um look at what
our future will look like relative to
being fire safe so I want to thank him
for his time I also attended the Ventura
County Cal Fire Academy graduation
actually that was the very first time
and I love what they do and whenever we
are in trouble they're the first they're
almost the first ones here
of course Ventura County Fire first
those are two but there was in Moore
Park I remember many many fires and they
were there camping out laying in our
actually in our front yard sleeping in
between some of these fires so I had a
lot of personal contact with Cal Fire
um I toured the United Water
Conservation District's Freeman
diversion facility I've driven by that
place a million times I never drove in
that place I always thought they just
had two little Reservoir areas until I
went in there and this is a really good
time to visit there's a lot of water in
there
a lot of birds too so it's it's just
really amazing I was really impressed um
and while at the same time they're
preserving you know the steelhead trout
so it's just really fascinating to watch
that
I'm sure everybody's done that already
but it was my first time and it won't be
my last
and it's really windy over there too
um and also attended the state of the
city for the Simi Valley Unified School
District and their attendance is up
there's a lot of places in the county
where the attendance has decreased but
in Simi Valley it's growing I also met
with Nancy Schram the Ventura County
Library director as well as Ventura
County healthcare agency director and
Deputy directors and met with Resource
Management Agency for a general plan
overview briefing this is all part of
that new supervisor training
and then I also got to witness some
pretty inspirational speakers one of
them being our Sheriff he was amazing at
that breakfast
he's so inspired he's really got
everyone charged up so when we left that
breakfast I was ready to conquer the
world
but I also attended Dr Condoleezza
Rice's speaking engagement at the Reagan
Library I found her to be incredibly
inspirational as well
and my first town hall meeting is coming
up
it'll be March 23rd at the Simi Valley
Elks Lodge there'll be plenty of food
and beverage so attendees will include
many here from the county to speak and
answer questions and lastly I'd like to
adjourn the meeting in the memory of the
people that I provided to the clerk of
the board but I also wanted to make a
comment about George Tash one thing you
may not know about George Tash is he's
actually an inventor too you may know
that he actually invented a plunger
and it's amazing and they sell them in
the stores so that's one thing most
people don't know about him he has so
many talents but that's a pretty amazing
one too
so on that I am complete thank you
thank you supervisor Lopez
thank you chair there's definitely been
a lot of really great events and
activities and opportunities to engage
in the community so just to share of a
few uh that I think we've all been
crossing paths with each other as well I
attended the women in ag mixer was just
nice to connect with with the really
strong group of women really impressed
by them really taking over our AG
industry here in Ventura County and I
think it's just really awesome
I attended the opening ceremony for the
first robotics competition that was held
at the Port of wainemi and it was also
supported by fathomworks at their
facility on site and it was just really
great to see so much energy very early
on a Saturday morning and to see the
competition just so Lively early on and
we had a participants from all over the
world there was a large team from from
Holland there was a team from Mexico
multiple states that were that were
participating so it was just a really
great event and hopefully encourages
other local schools to participate in
the future
um
these last few weeks have definitely
been very focused on our youth which has
been a really great for me a really a
really nice nice opportunities to engage
and and provide some advice and I think
just some representation for different
groups so I joined the Latino youth
leadership group at Thousand Oaks High
School to share about my experience and
hopefully provide them some guidance as
as they head into the future I also
attended the international Women's Day
celebration at the Family Justice Center
and the keynote speaker was Graciela
Casillas who is just a remarkable woman
and she has actually also been named The
Woman of the Year by Senator Monique
Limon for the 19th Senate District so it
was really exciting to make that
connection and highlight the the
significance and contributions of so
many women throughout our community I
also attended the Navy League Channel
Islands Council Awards luncheon they
recognize the CV of the year so that was
really great and then this past weekend
continuing on the
the youth Focus I participated in the
career day at Ocean View Junior High and
hopefully informed some seventh graders
about the work of the Board of
Supervisors and and really encouraging
them and and making driving the point
home about voting in the future so as
was mentioned today the importance of of
being registered to vote and I also
attended the seventh annual CSU csuci
Dia De La Familia there were about 200
families that attended and getting
connected to our higher education system
and then lastly
um
uh just with the the focus around
there's a lot of activity in the Fifth
District as was mentioned by both
supervisor gorrell and long on the air
show at Point Magoo happening this
weekend uh and there have been some
notices sent out about some road
closures so anyone attending just keep
an eye out for for those directions and
and make sure that we're all safe out
there uh the city of Port Hueneme is
celebrating its 75th anniversary on
March 25th there will be a parade that
I'm looking forward to participate in at
10 A.M and then there will be a festival
so I encourage anyone out there to come
out and join in the celebration for the
city and then lastly the
uh we attended the the education
conference where Dolores Huerta was
present and we celebrated the uh the
commitment and the contribution from the
county towards the Early Education and
Childhood Center at csuci and she had
quite the presence last week here in in
the county
um specifically around the opening of
the uh Dolores Huerta exhibit at a
Smithsonian exhibit that is at the
Broome library at csuci and it is going
to be open and available to the
community through May 7th so I
definitely encourage anyone out there to
also come to csuci and I have also
submitted a list of people that I've
request we adjourn in memory of so that
concludes my comments thank you chair
thank you yeah and it's been mentioned
several times but uh I think most of us
attended uh sheriff sheriff freyhoff's
briefing last week and uh he really
knocked it out of the park I think his
passion for policing is really
inspirational particularly his passion
for a community policing and building
Partnerships with the communities uh
that he serves so a great job sheriff
freyhoff and I also wanted to think it's
been mentioned
um our district attorney Eric nazarenko
and our Dei office Kate English Stephen
oclair for an incredible event last
Wednesday at the Family Justice Center
in Ventura celebrating International
women's day in office my colleague
supervisor Lopez and supervisor long
offered a really inspirational remarks
and it was a great event
I want to thank the Ventura Elks and the
organizing committee we had the annual
Ventura St Patrick's Day Parade last
Saturday despite a consistent rain it
was good Irish weather and uh hundreds
and hundreds of people turned out it's
always a really fun day in Ventura and
so thanks to all of those who made that
happen
um I'm gonna be two reminders of
upcoming events one is this Thursday
March 16th Caltrans is hosting a public
meeting at the Oakview Park and Resource
Center regarding proposed changes they
are looking at making on Highway 33 from
Casita Springs up through Ojai
some some traffic calming changes and
some some some active Transportation
changes but if anybody wants to provide
feedback it's really important that they
go to this meeting it's 6 30 this
Thursday March 16th at the Oakview Park
and Resource Center
and then a reminder that this Sunday uh
we're having our annual Ronald McDonald
uh walk at San Buena Ventura State Beach
in Ventura at 9 00 a.m it's a walk they
do to raise money for the Ronald
McDonald room at Ventura County Medical
Center uh that room is an incredible
asset to the community to all of those
receiving Care at vcmc it's actually the
only Ronald McDonald room I believe in
the world located at a public hospital
and so it's really something that all of
us as stewards of ECMC should be proud
of and it's really uh great to do this
walk to raise money for that room and so
I will be there and I hope to see a lot
of you there this Sunday 9 A.M at uh Sam
Buena Ventura State Beach and then I
would like to adjourn in memory of those
on on the list I provided to the clerk I
want to call out several of them
including several uh highly decorated
veterans but I want to start with Connie
bear who passed away she was actually
the longest serving board member of the
Ventura County Medical resource
foundation in 2000 15 she received the
Trailblazer award for her commitment to
social justice and health care for all
residents Paul Waters was a highly
decorated U.S Navy veteran Barbara Bean
a long time teaching career highly
respected teacher in the Ventura Unified
School District
uh Fred DeFazio who's a longtime police
officer with Ventura Police Department
John McCarthy who was a U.S Navy veteran
World War II actually and he earned
several medals and honors of Distinction
with his service Dennis John Beardsley a
U.S army veteran uh Lawrence Larry Diaz
Another World War II U.S Navy veteran
and he's one of those Fun Classic
stories about he was so passionate about
serving his country that he lied about
his age and actually enlisted when he
was only 17 years old to serve our
country in World War II
Ronald Edward cook who had a 40-year
teaching career in the city of Oxnard a
very a respected teacher and then uh
Daryl Pugh who was another U.S Air Force
veteran served during Vietnam but his
children Zach Sarah and Shekinah are
long-time interns a great great family
so we're thinking about all of them with
their father's passing
and with that that concludes my comments
so thank you everyone for your um
comments today I know how busy we all
are so it's always great to hear what
we're all up to in our various districts
and so we have a few minutes before the
10 o'clock time certain so why don't we
start with item 37 I know we want to
take that we have several people here to
present on this item and I believe
kicking it off is it Tracy are you
straight okay Tracy McCauley
we've been talking a lot about homeless
this morning and I think this is
something that's going to go a long way
to helping us with that crisis
yes okay
good morning chair oliviera members of
the board and Dr Johnson my name is
Tracy McCauley with the county executive
office I'm joined here today by Christy
Madden also from the executive office in
this gen parking series
okay I don't see Jen but that's okay
so in response to the covet crisis in
2020 the state of California rolled out
project room key which was meant to
temporarily shelter people through the
the crisis and has been operating
locally in our County since the
beginning of the crisis serving more
than 800 people
shortly thereafter the state created
project home key which was really meant
to Quick create shelter and permanent
Supportive Housing resources
locally our investments into Ventura
County from the home key program have
exceeded 48 million dollars and they've
resulted in or they will result in 158
units of permanent Supportive Housing
and 40 units of transition aged youth
transitional housing so we've had huge
success with home key in the first two
rounds
in anticipation of the third and the
final round of home key in December
County staff released a request for
letters of interest to partner with us
for this final round we received 13
responses with six eligible projects
remaining at the end of our cycle
staff evaluated and scored the six
projects and we had an evaluation
committee meet who convened reviewed the
scoring provided input and then
ultimately made the recommendations for
you today
we're requesting Board of Supervisors
approval to partner with and provide
match funding from the general fund home
key set aside for two projects and I'm
going to talk through briefly each of
these two successful projects the first
involves the acquisition and renovation
of La Quinta Inn in Ventura and 138
excuse me 136 units of permanent
Supportive Housing with two on-site
resident managers units in partnership
with the housing authority of the city
of San Buenaventura
a letter of support was provided by the
city with a significant contribution
recommended subject to council approval
additional Investments are going to be
made from the Housing Authority
including a sponsor loan and 30
project-based vouchers to support the
ongoing operations of this effort
we're requesting approval for this
project today in an amount of 5.5
million dollars to match the state home
key funds
this project is located in one of the
cities in the city of Ventura with one
of the highest homeless counts we also
as of our last report have 85 people
remaining in Project room key so this is
a key part of our strategy to exit
project room key
with us today from the Housing Authority
we have Karen flock deputy director of
real estate development and Kyler
Carlson project manager for the Ventura
Housing Authority
the second project that we're
recommending today involves the
acquisition and renovation of the Days
Inn in Camarillo to create 62 units of
permanent Supportive Housing one
resident manager and 20 navigation beds
the City of Camarillo was a direct
responder to our request for letters of
interest and they're proposing a
substantial contribution as well subject
to council approval
we are requesting approval of County
match in the amount of 3.5 million
dollars to also leverage additional home
key funds this project is anticipated to
make a significant impact in
homelessness in the City of Camarillo
and surrounding areas
one quick point of clarification in our
staff report we mentioned the county
would be the lead applicant for home key
that's still under discussion we may be
the lead applicant on this project or
maybe a co-applicant if we are an
applicant we will come back to your
board with a resolution
with us today on Zoom we have Carmen
Nichols the assistant city manager for
the city of excuse me City of Camarillo
and also Alonso Ramirez a Senior
Management analyst
additionally today we're requesting your
board find both proposed projects exempt
from environmental review under sequel
guidelines section 15301 which applies
to the minor alterations of existing
structures and Facilities
we will be returning to your board in
about a month to finalize partnership
agreements with the City of Camarillo
and their chosen housing provider
Jamboree housing and we'll also like
likely request approval of the
resolution on during that time upon
Award of home key funds we will return
to your board with Grant agreements for
both of these proposed Investments
as I close today I really want to thank
the evaluation committee who directed
staff and really put a lot of thought
and consideration and had the hard job
of really selecting these projects and
recommending them and I also just wanted
to thank all of our responders those
here today and those also who weren't
recommended receiving 13 Lois was really
a testament to the Partnerships in our
community and our commitment to ending
homelessness so it was really moving to
receive that many excellent responses
I'm here and happy to answer any
questions you may have and I thank you
in advance for your consideration
thank you Miss McCauley any questions
supervisor long
um are we going to hear from the City of
Camarillo or the city of Ventra is any
Speakers Going to speak from them I
believe they signed up for public
comment they're not part of the formal
presentation then I'll hold my comments
thank you okay we have three speakers
then why don't we do public comment okay
we'll be Leon
o Karen flock
Alonzo Ramirez
Yuna you have three minutes
hey my name is Leona Rollins I am the
housing services manager for the city of
Ventura and I'm honored to be here today
to advocacy of the city of Ventura to go
ahead and show our support for this
project this project with me very much
to the city in a recent needs and gaps
assessment that was done in
consideration of our own harm or
allocation plan it was indicated that
affordable housing development is
essential to addressing The Chronic and
homelessness that we are facing at our
city of Ventura
this particular project will not only
provide housing to those facing chronic
homelessness it would also provide them
with needed wraparound services to
provide them with their long-term
success to ensure that they did not
return to home assist at a later date so
I'm this morning I am urging you to go
ahead and support this item in its
entirety and to help those that are
facing home assist in the city of
Ventura thank you so much for your time
thank you
our next speaker
that's going to be Karen flock good
morning my name is Karen block I'm the
deputy director for Real Estate
development with the city of the housing
authority of the city of San
Buenaventura and thanks to staff and in
anticipation thanks to all of you for
your support of this La Quinta project
we're really excited about this
opportunity to really have an impact on
addressing permanent Supportive Housing
for folks who are homeless or at risk of
homelessness
and I will also say thanks in advance
for uh the another item number 36 where
you're being recommended to provide
funding for the Housing Trust Fund
Ventura County as well as other
affordable housing developments thanks
again
thank you and then our next speaker is
going to be Alonso Ramirez
foreign
supervisors my name is Alonso Ramirez
I'm the Senior Management analyst for
the City of Camarillo City manager's
office on behalf of the city manager and
the city council I would like to thank
the Board of Supervisors and staff for
their consideration of our letter of
interest for our home key project the
city is looking forward to this
partnership to bring services to those
who need in Camarillo we are very
grateful for the hard work of staff and
the evaluation committee interviewing
our letter of interest as well as a
funding allocated by the board the
project will have a permanent support of
housing component and as long as as well
as Bridge housing component helping us
to close the loop on the Continuum of
housing in the City of Camarillo I'm
here available for any questions you may
have and thank you for the support
I have a question for you I just thought
this was a good opportunity for
community members to understand
um does the City of Camarillo have other
homes in the city for affordable housing
and so forth that they participate in
yeah the city does have a couple
components we're actually currently
working on a Berry Street project which
will bring a number of affordable
housing units to the City of Camarillo
they will be breaking ground pretty soon
we also have a program in which the city
procures homes and then resells them at
an affordable housing rate and then we
also have other affordable units of
sprinkle all throughout the city so City
Council in previous years have done has
done a really good job at increasing the
stock of affordable housing throughout
the city we're doing now is putting in
the other two steps in the Continuum of
housing in the City of Camarillo by
bringing Bridge housing and permanent
Supportive Housing and the existing
affordable housing in the City of
Camarillo as well so
thank you for highlighting that I think
it's really important for our community
members to understand this that this is
just one piece of the puzzle in which
the City of Camarillo has been working
on for years
from our past council member Charlotte
Craven Mike Morgan uh kildee so many
that have really the dailies have just
really invested in their Community I
think that this is one more step in in
trying to get that affordable housing
the networking of the services and
wanted to just say thank you I
appreciated meeting with your city
council and and managers in regards to
this project and very happy to see this
going forward thank you Mr chair if I
can before you leave sorry if when
you're done supervising along that's it
thank you survives Lopez thank you I
didn't want to let you go away
um curious if there is a current use of
the days in right now that would impact
any current uh
uh tenants or if you want to call them
that um and the reason I ask is because
I recently drove by and I noticed that
there were some Cal Vans
um pulling up and so just curious if
that's going to impact the current use
yeah no that's a good question um we uh
our understanding is that they see in
motel does have an h2a agreement with a
developer and they are housing some Farm
Workers on the interim basis our
understanding is that the property owner
will not be renewing that agreement that
agreement is set to and I believe in
August and they will not be renewing the
agreement
um it's really up to the conversations
that our developer that we've selected
Jamboree housing Corporation and the
property owner need to have us to how
they're going to move forward with that
agreement but it does and if I remember
correctly on August so there will be no
relocation cost after August to re-house
these folks great thank you so much
thank you
all right thank you
any other questions for either our
public speakers or Miss McCauley
no I just I want to say uh but I think
both of these projects are going to be
transformational for Ventura and
Camarillo it's such a need and if the
fact that we're putting housing together
with services that really is kind of the
magic solution as far as as we can tell
in terms of best practices and so I want
to thank the city councils and the city
leadership in both of those cities and
then obviously you Tracy and Jan and
Christy for all of your work and kind of
shepherding this process and I know it's
a lot of work and so thank you for
getting us here today to make these
these levels of approval
um I'll motion to prove if there's no
further questions or comments
and I'll second if that's appropriate
right okay Madam Clerk
supervisor girl yes supervisor long yes
supervisor Parvin yes supervisor Lopez
yes chair levere yes all right thank you
we are at 10 o'clock so we can start
our time certains and we have several
proclamations we're going to go through
now and I want to start with item 40
which is a presentation proclaiming the
month of March 2023 as National social
worker month in Ventura County I'd like
to invite our HSA director Melissa
Livingston up thank you for being here
this morning
and why don't I I'm going to read a
little from the proclamation and then I
know you have some comments and a short
video to share as well
um but where whereas the primary mission
of Social Work the profession is to
enhance human well-being and help meet
the basic needs of all people to provide
preventative Services as well as complex
case management with individuals and
families who need assistance overcoming
a range of barriers especially the most
vulnerable uh in our society and where
social workers are present throughout
our society including governments
schools universities social service
agencies communities and the military
and also health care and mental health
facilities and organizations
and where our social workers are the
largest group of mental health care
providers in the entire country and work
daily to help people overcome depression
anxiety substance abuse and other
disorders so that they can lead more
fulfilling lives
and where our social workers are also
guiding forces in times of Crisis
helping communities recover emotionally
from natural disasters such as floods
earthquakes and fires now therefore be
it resolved that in recognition of all
social workers in our community whose
shared commitment dedication and
advocacy improve lives every single day
the Ventura County Board of Supervisors
hereby proclaims the month of March 2023
as National Social Work month in Ventura
County and calls upon all citizens to
join us in celebration and support of
this important profession
so miss Livingston
right it appears we have social workers
in the room this morning
[Music]
[Applause]
thank you chair levere members of the
board uh Dr Johnson for the record
Melissa Livingston the director of The
Human Service Agency and is my honor and
privilege to recognize social worker
month it is very much an honorable
profession and it's represented by the
people behind me in this room but social
worker month is a time to celebrate the
social worker profession
raising awareness and celebrating the
important life-changing work social
workers engage in Daily
social workers address the needs of
vulnerable children youth
adults families and communities bringing
attention to and advocating on social
justice issues
social workers are often the voice of
those whose voice goes unheard
and encounter barriers and challenges
in Equitable access to Services supports
and Wellness
social workers roles are rewarding and
meaningful but they are also very
challenging and complex can create
secondary trauma and compassion fatigue
self-care balance and resiliency support
the day-to-day commitment of our social
workers our entire social worker
Workforce today we recognize all social
workers across our County family and our
extended partner and community-based
Social Service networks we celebrate
their commitment contributions and the
difference they make
in people's lives social workers perform
a variety of roles touching a
cross-section of our communities
they do Administration and management
they support social policy and practice
from an Ethics equity and healing
Centric lens
they support advocacy and Community
organizing they support our aging
populations so they can live
independently be safe and be afforded
dignity and quality of life
our child welfare support strong
families with supportive safe and
nurturing environments
we support developmentally disabled
advocating for legal rights and
Independence
our Healthcare social workers address
the social determinants of Health
and factors that impact Wellness our
Justice and Corrections social workers
connect individuals to services and
supports providing hope and healing
our mental health and substance abuse
and clinical social workers provide
assessments intervention treatment and
wellness and by the way this is the
largest group represented Nationwide
and I'd be remiss if I didn't recognize
our own employee assistance program that
is always there for our own County
family and the variety of County
Employee Assistance programs that are
businesses have and other providers
across our Network
so now I would like to recognize one
story it's reflective of a father's
story that was recently highlighted by
the Ventura County Star radio laser and
20 affiliate stations across California
Nevada of a parent who was supported by
our children and family services social
workers
his name is Orlando Gonzalez Estrada and
he tells his story through a song called
Orlando's song so if we can play the
video
[Music]
you know
much
[Music]
Evelyn Alvarez services
episode
[Music]
foreign
Familia
is
serlo
Alton area
[Music]
sacrifices
foreign
[Music]
foreign
[Music]
[Applause]
so many other social workers in the
community so we'd love to come down and
present you this Proclamation and we'd
love to invite all the social a lot of
you so let's see if we can all get
together and take a group shot
thank you
everything
else
all right everyone so you're gonna all
look at me let's just group and then
we'll be able to take the photos here
because there's so many people does that
work
so pios if you could take the picture
from this side
Natalie
yeah
okay I just wanted to make sure that
made sense
okay so all eyes on the dice
yeah they wanted
to like
yes
thank you
[Applause]
all right
guys
okay and then item 41 is a presentation
proclaiming the month of March 2023 as
American Red Cross month in Ventura
County and we as a county unfortunately
have had to rely on the American Red
Cross more than we would like over the
last five years fires and mass shootings
and storms and we've been through a lot
in Ventura County and it's because of
the support from the American Red Cross
that we've been able to excuse me get
through so many of these disasters and
emergencies so I'm really appreciative
of the Red Cross being here this morning
Sabrina ashgian is a board member of the
Ventura County uh I guess it's the
Pacific coast region of the Ventura
American Red Cross and I'd love to
invite you to make a few comments and I
know we all want to say our thanks and
then we can read from the presentation
after that that's great thank you so
much for having me good morning Tara
levere an honorable board members
supervisors gorrell long Parvin and
Lopez it's great to be here with all of
you as
um the supervisor said my name is
Sabrine Ashton I'm proud to represent
the American Red Cross Pacific Coast
region as a board member and volunteer
March is a very special time of year
when we celebrate American Red Cross
month to honor the people who make the
life-saving mission of our work possible
this annual tradition began in 1943 when
Franklin D Roosevelt declared the first
Red Cross month and every U.S president
since has honored this month as we
celebrate this year's Red Cross month
celebration I am proud to recognize the
incredible work done every day
the unwavering compassion displayed by
Red crossers is nothing short of amazing
despite the challenges of the past
couple of years of the pandemic and fire
and floods we continue to be there for
individuals and families who need us
most a dedication that truly embodies
the vital mission to deliver support
when help can't wait during emergencies
over this past year your red cross
Pacific Coast region has held 225 blood
drives we assisted nearly 100 families
who experienced Home Fires we handled
nearly 950 cases of service to the Armed
Forces branch
and our teams helped teach nearly 9 000
individuals basic first aid and other
life-saving skills
this Red Cross month I encourage
everyone to participate with us to help
by taking a preparedness class giving
blood donating financially or by
becoming a Red Cross volunteer I can
promise you that by doing any or all of
those things it will promote the
selfless service that make our
communities a better place to be so
thank you so much again for taking the
time to honor our work we are so
grateful for your commitment to the
American Red Cross thank you thank you
Sabrina I'd like to read two of the
paragraphs from our Proclamation I think
there are quite appropriate and it's
whereas in times of Crisis people in
Ventura County come together to help our
neighbors in need through humanitarian
efforts mobilizing the power of
Volunteers in the generosity of donors
thus our annual celebrations of American
Red Cross month are special time to
recognize and thank Our Heroes the Red
Cross staff volunteers and donors who
give their time and resources to provide
relief hope and comfort to Residents
this humanitarian spirit is part of the
foundation of our community and is
exemplified by American Red Cross
volunteers and donors and whereas this
work to prevent and alleviate human
suffering is vital to strengthening our
community's resilience our community
depends on the American on the American
Red Cross which relies on donations of
time time money and blood to fulfill its
humanitarian Mission today and into the
future building stronger more resilient
communities we dedicate this month of
March to all those who continue to
advance the noble Legacy of American Red
Cross founder Clara Barton who lived by
her words you must never think of
anything except the need and how to meet
it and we ask others to join this
commitment to give back to our community
so thank you so much for all you do all
of your volunteers do and we'd love to
come down and present this proclamation
to you so much thank you
thank you
yes
anyway
s
our next item is item 42 which is a
proclamation from supervisor Lopez
thank you Mr chair today I have before
us the a presentation of a resolution
proclaiming the month of March 2023 as
National nutrition month and recognizing
the partnership for a healthy Ventura
County's Health Champion award
recipients so I would like to introduce
our Public Health director Mr Rigo
Vargas
thank you good morning and uh chair
levere members of the board Dr Johnson
uh thank you for this resolution I'll be
very brief and my comments as we have a
very short but uh very exciting
presentation uh in uh in celebration of
national nutrition month but also in
recognition as was said of social
workers but also of our nutritionists
dietitians that work in public health
that work in the hospital and work in
our County also providing vital
information and services to keep our
families healthy I just wanted to put in
context this uh this celebration
rational nutrition month and also the
the awards uh that uh we are very proud
that you're going to help us give today
the partnership for a healthy Ventura
County has actually been in existence
for almost 25 years of Ventura County
Public Health gathered this group
many of them still with uh since that
time actually about 25 years ago to
address chronic disease prevention in a
comprehensive collaborative Manner and
the group has gone undergone different
name changes but it's been in existence
again for almost 25 years it has
representatives from our schools from
the healthcare sector
from the cities such as the Oxnard
police department and their Community
Services you'll hear more about that it
also has representatives from our
community organizations such as
FoodShare which you'll also hear about
uh shortly
um and so it's just a great partnership
it's it's organized currently into two
committees one recognizing the
outstanding work that are done by the
community organizations and another
committee is working to recognize and
put forth best practices in schools many
of our schools are doing really good
work around nutrition and also promoting
healthy eating active living and that's
the whole mission of the partnership is
is creating opportunities for healthy
eating active living and uh so um
without further to do I'd really like to
turn it over to the chair of one of
those uh committees the healthy
communities committee It Is chaired by
Miss Maria Martinez she's a community
services coordinator with our partner in
this effort the housing authority of the
city of Buena Ventura and what she's
going to do is is uh offer a little bit
through just three or four slides for
the context of this partnership and then
also the awards the awards by the way uh
prior to covid we're at an annual event
where your board helped helped us
recognize uh previous uh Health
Champions that are just doing exemplary
work in the area of promoting Health and
Wellness in the community so so without
further Ado I'd like to uh call up Maria
Martinez to conclude the representation
foreign
good morning chair Olivier members of
the board and Miss Johnson my name is
Maria Martinez as Rigo mentioned I'm the
chair for the healthy communities uh
Committee of the partnership for healthy
Ventura County as well as community
services coordinator for the housing
authority of the city of San
Buenaventura on behalf of the many
organizations that make up the
partnership I thank the board for
supporting the vision and mission of the
partnership to promote healthy eating
and active Lifestyles among residents in
all communities especially your low
resource communities to help reduce
obesity and chronic disease including
certain types of cancer heart disease
and diabetes which rank among the top
leading causes of death in Ventura
County next slide please
okay
so during the month of during the month
of March we hope everyone will join us
in celebrating National nutrition month
this is a campaign that was created over
50 years ago to bring attention
to the importance of developing healthy
eating and physical activity habits as
National nutrition month aligns so well
with the vision and mission of the
partnership for a healthy Ventura County
we take this opportunity each year to
identify and recognize Health champions
in our County individuals and
organizations that go above and beyond
in their work to improve the health and
well-being of the people and communities
they serve
the health Champions Award recipients
are selected for their work of
excellence and achievements in serving
the community in their respective areas
Mrs Elvira Savala is a community liaison
with the Oxnard Police Department
selected for her dedication to serving
the Oxnard Community for over 25 years
both as Community liaison with the
Oxnard police department and as
Community volunteer
she has empowered and connected
residents with critical resources to
meet their immediate needs most notably
during the kova 19 pandemic much of her
work was centered around connecting
residents to Neighborhood food
distributions and other critical food
resources as well as helping increase
exposure to healthily healthy locally
grown produce for Children and Families
by promoting and supporting Community
Gardens such as a Camino Del Sol
community garden she is also
acknowledged for her work in promoting
and fostering support for Community
walking clubs in the Rose Garden Rose
Park Colonia and Southwinds
neighborhoods promoting safe outdoor
physical activity and collaborating with
multiple organizations to bring services
to underserved communities we thank Mr
Vira Savala for being here today
FoodShare Ventura County was selected
for this steadfast dedication and
support to Ventura County residents in
making nutritious Foods more accessible
and for the Outreach efforts over the
last couple of years to increase
services to families in need especially
in the midst of the kova 19 pandemic
they served over two hundred thousand
residents last year reaching more than
double pre-pandemic levels as they
embarked on expanding Outreach efforts
by collaborating with an array of new
and existing Community Partners and
increasing specialized programming to
vulnerable populations such as their
free farmers markets the seniors senior
box program kids farmer markets and
tailored food backs for the unhoused
members of our community we thank miss
Monica white president and CEO of food
chair for being here today representing
the work of her team thank you
thank you and so with that thank you for
those introductions and really want to
express my appreciation to both
FoodShare Monica white and Elvira Savala
who have also worked with throughout our
community and she has is just a selfless
woman anytime that you call her up and
you ask her to you know there's this
need
um she there's no hesitation for her to
show up and give and give and give to
our community throughout Oxnard
disregarding boundaries disregarding
anything and and I know that there's a a
large community presence who just
admires you and appreciates you so much
thank you for all that you have done and
uh quite an honor to be able to
recognize you today and and just two
weeks ago as one of the promotoras who
participated in the program as well and
so this just goes to show how much you
continue to give and give and give so
thank you and so with that I we do have
a resolution from the board and as was
stated
um this uh this year's theme is fuel for
the future which reinforces the goal of
eating healthy a healthy diet with
plenty of fruits and vegetables that are
locally grown so that support our our
local Ag and whereas recognizing that
everyone has a role to play in turning
the tight against obesity and its
disproportionate impact on racial and
ethnic mind minority groups the
partnership for a healthy Ventura County
a collaborative Network that includes
representatives from Ventura County
Public Health school districts Community
organizations youth organizations and
others focuses on sharing resources that
promote healthy habits among residents
and supporting policies that Advance
Community Health and there's no better
people than FoodShare and Mr virasavala
to recognize in this effort for all that
you do to support the health of our
community in Ventura County so I have a
resolution two certificates and I'll
invite the rest of our board to come
down and take some pictures with with
everyone here thank you
thank you
so the recipients and their supporters
their organizations can come up on the
front as well
we have a police department team and
fuchsia thank you
congratulations
on this side
congratulations all right so you can
also follow in the back here
[Music]
from here
everybody
[Applause]
foreign
we're going to do 43 and then 45 and
then go to 44. I know there's a lot of
uh people here to speak on item 44 so
why do I do these two proclamations
first uh beginning with item 43 which is
a presentation from supervisor guerrell
yeah thank you for the opportunity
um before we start I want to see if some
of our our folks are here from
um The Arc of Ventura County Patricia
Schultz Lupe Escobar if you could come
down and join us yeah there you are come
down and join us at the podium if you
wouldn't mind Julie Duran and John
grissaf
if you're available come on down
um this uh has already been a part part
of our conversation this morning is
those with developmental disabilities
and there's hardly a family I know
including my own that hasn't been
touched
um by you know the
the issue that that comes from those
that have developmental disabilities and
and so
um it's really an honor today for me on
behalf of the board members we've all
signed this uh Proclamation declaring
March 2023 as a developmental
disabilities awareness month I had an
opportunity yesterday to spend some time
down at the Arc of Ventura County and
just the amazing things that are going
on down there the wonderful people I got
to meet the participants in all the
different programs and just
um really surrounded with support and
care and love and I got to shoot some
hoops I got to meet some people I got to
look at all of the different activities
that are going on all the time there but
it was just uh it was really
heartwarming it really was so it's it's
our honor to to be able to do this
Proclamation and I'm going to allow you
to to say anything or make any remarks
you'd like to about the ark or about
about the amazing constituents that you
support every single day but before I do
before you do if I could just read a few
of these whereas is on this resolution
more than seven million individuals with
developmental disabilities live in
United States and I think there are over
14 000 here in the County of Ventura 14
000. every person regardless of ability
has the value strengths infinite
capacity to learn and a potential to
make important contributions to the
local communities and celebrating the
abilities and contributions of people
with intellectual and developmental
disabilities can only serve to enrich
our community and enhance our diversity
more than 700 individuals with
intellectual developmental disabilities
receive educational employment and
Independent Living Services every day
from The Arc of Ventura County one of
the most amazing organizations that we
have here in our community The Arc of
Ventura county is celebrating 69 years
of service to individuals with
intellectual and developmental
disabilities and their families since
1954 and whereas developmental
disabilities aware awareness month is an
appropriate time to commemorate the
progress of improving the lives of
people with intellectual and dis and
developmental disabilities and identify
the improvements that remain in
achieving full inclusion now they're be
resolved that the Ventura County Board
of Supervisors do hereby Proclaim March
2023 is developmental disabilities
awareness month and urge our citizens to
give full support to empowering people
with intellectual and developmental
disabilities to live productive lives
and achieve their very fullest potential
presented on this day
thank you for everything you do I want
to see is there any public comment on
this besides our speakers but maybe
we'll go first to those at the podium if
you'd like to speak Lupe
hi my name is Lupe Escobar I wanted to
tell you guys thank you for supporting
us it really means a lot to us
yes thank you for having us we're very
proud of Lupe she is a self-advocate and
a paid employee of the Arc of Ventura
County as our Advocate coordinator so
I'm very proud of her accomplishments
I'm sorry what's your name
Patty thank you yeah thank you Patty
anybody else not necessary but if you'd
like to speak
well I want to thank the board for this
recognition
uh we're very happy with the progress
that our community members have made
under the help of some of the staff that
you see here uh it's an amazing as you
mentioned thank you for your kind words
as you mentioned it's an amazing
organization that's been in the
community for 63 years
69 I'm sorry
see I'm too young to know the song there
you go I say that but it is amazing the
growth that the participants achieve
through the guidance and organization
throughout our County and it really
allows these folks to integrate into the
community and be part of the community
in a way that's
very very honoring to our to our County
I want to thank you for your recognition
of the progress of these folks thank you
thank you
um and your name is John John thank you
yeah thank you John and then before we
come down to take a to take a photograph
I believe there's which we'd like to do
with you and anyone else here to support
this but I think there's one online
comment
thank you supervisor guerrell we have
one comment from Carol Shelton who's
with us today on Zoom
Carol can you please accept the prompt
to be promoted
okay I see you've been promoted if you
unmute your mic you'll have three
minutes to speak
hello my name is Carol Shelton I live in
Thousand Oaks I wanted to thank you for
proclaiming March as developmental
disabilities awareness month and
recognizing art Ventura County
that has been dedicated to this
community for the last seven decades Ark
does great work in Ventura County across
the state of California and across the
country Arc of California sends out a
Weekly Newsletter that allows families
like mine to keep up to date on issues
impacting us I have two boys with
developmental disabilities that were
born and have lived their entire lives
here in Ventura County
some may ask why proclamations like this
are necessary
and I would like to share my perspective
it tells people with developmental
disabilities that you see them
value them and are interested in their
lives and their successes
the lives of people with developmental
disabilities are in transition Equity
accessibility and inclusion and the
pandemic has shown the light on the
lives of people with developmental
disabilities and their families
conversations have started more and more
policies are considering the needs of
people with developmental disabilities
gone are the sheltered workshops
sub-minimum wages and the use of
segregated care facilities the promise
of true inclusion in the community is
here
people with developmental disabilities
have many talents and skills to share
with their Community they need
opportunities and access to jobs
Transportation housing Health Care
Emergency and Behavioral Health Care
Services
they need access to community
opportunities services
both during the day during the business
day and after
as items move across your desk for
approval may I ask that you consider how
people with developmental disabilities
will be impacted supported and served
people with developmental disabilities
are musicians artists Baristas Advocates
healthcare workers Hospitality workers
volunteers and small business owners the
list goes on and on
their son's daughters brothers sisters
uncles cousins mothers fathers and they
are your neighbors and residents of the
communities that you all were elected to
serve I cannot wait to see how this
Proclamation impacts you as you make
decisions on this board every person
should be valued respected and given the
opportunity to reach their fullest
potential here in Ventura County thank
you so much for this Proclamation and
thank you for your time
all right thank you we'd like to come
down and take a picture with you now if
we could thanks
thank you
all right thank you for that uh
Proclamation supervisor guerrell and
item 45 is a presentation from
supervisor Lopez
thank you Mr chair uh today uh I have a
proclamation resolution recognizing the
31 years of public service by our
Harbormaster Mr Gary hartensteiner and
uh
[Applause]
I almost didn't recognize them because
he's in a full suit so he's ready for
the transition out
uh but it's so great to have you here
and to have uh so many staff uh here to
recognize your service
um 31 years is is quite uh quite a time
and you've certainly seen so much uh
happening uh in the harbor and so it is
an honor to recognize uh your time uh
although I've I've probably been one of
the
supervisors to have probably the
shortest time serving alongside you
um it it is quite an honor and and I'm
sure there's others who can share a
little bit more uh in a moment but I
want to mention that under uh Mr
hernsteiner's leadership there was
training implemented for officers to
become emergency medical technicians and
training efforts that were coordinated
with the Ventura County Fire Department
increasing the level of Medical Response
and safety for the public
he also LED and oversaw the junior
lifeguard program which continues to
serve youth in our community and
collaborated with our local Boys and
Girls Club to help students with limited
resources to obtain scholarships to
participate in the program and and so
with that I know that there's a lot of
history in between all of all of this
that is mentioned but want to thank you
for your time and and wish you all the
best as as you look at your future
endeavors and still remaining a Ventura
County resident so not too far away
and so with that I do have before we
present the resolution I want to invite
our Harbor director Mr Michael Tripp to
share a few comments
yeah
good morning chair of the Year honorable
board members and Dr Johnson I'm here
today to honor Gary hertensteiner who as
you heard served the department for 31
years and during that time he worked his
way up he started out as a harbor patrol
officer and then became the harbor
Sergeant the harbor captain and in 2014
he got his current roles the Harbor
Master and
if you look at Channel Islands Harbor in
the the beautiful safe place that it is
today uh Mr hertensteiner had a lot to
do with that he's shaped those two teams
that he oversees our maintenance team
and our Harbor Patrol team into the the
fine running machines that they are
today
and when I think of Gary that the one
thing that I really comes out is
commitment he's always shown a
tremendous commitment both to the harbor
and to his staff and whenever we think
of different events and things like that
he always does think about you know what
kind of impact is that going to have on
the residents on my staff you know what
what what's going to be the end result
of you know the different plans that I
come up with
but
the the one thing that
I really wanted to say is that
Gary is really pledged his life to this
work and it's going to be hard replacing
them so with that I just like to
thank you Gary for all this years of
service
[Applause]
can I just make a comment I would just
love to thank you so much if anyone's
been on the Harbor whether you're
floating on a little toothpick of a
paddle board or getting surpassed by a
yacht I mean Public Safety has been
crucial and it's a way of life and you
know how you just love it and it shows
with the with the nature of the harbor
and the safety and commitment to all of
our Parolees I've been there where
someone has fallen bloody hit the deck
ran into the water the trolls there as
fast as possible I mean you if it if you
could think it it could happen and it
has at the harbor and you've been at the
lead to make sure that Public Safety was
number one and I just really want to
appreciate your years of service and you
will be truly missed on it thank you
thank you
it's been a great career
um it's a dream job I enjoy going to
work every day
I do have to say that I owe so much to
the Harbor Patrol and the maintenance
department and the fiscal department and
just that the admin they make me look
good so everybody there is so important
and I'm very lucky and blessed to have
them
thank you so much so with that we have a
resolution for you and invite anyone
else to join in the photo and thank you
again for all that you have done and uh
we'll keep seeing you around yes thank
you thank you
[Applause]
I think a lot of people have the same
idea why don't we take a quick two
minute break and we'll come back and and
do item 40 uh item 44. thank you
all right well thank you everyone for
your patience I'm gonna pivot really
quickly we have over 30 uh speakers on
item 44 and our Sheriff's Office been
patiently waiting so why don't we take
item 29 real quick Mr Persian thank you
for your patience and this is an
important item so we'll do it real quick
thank you
good morning chair levere members of the
board
I'm Michael prigion I'm the manager of
the crime lab
so I'm asking for the board you need my
glasses to prove and authorize the
county purchasing agent to execute a
three-year County of Ventura contract
number 8970.
it's an agreement with Bodhi technology
for a three-year term not to exceed one
million dollars
in February of 2022 your board ratified
the acceptance of the sexual assault kit
initiative known as sake
as part of that Grant application
obligation we identified sexual assault
kits that will be tested using the
latest DNA technology
the crime lab doesn't have the staff to
conduct these additional tests and
therefore we want to contract the
services out to a private Laboratory
or the technology was selected in a
competitive bid process
I had to adjust the board letter a
little bit that's in front of you
the changes on the last page
um they Auditor controller's Office
wanted me to change
it's the end of the last last next to
last paragraph
they wanted me to make sure that five
hundred thousand dollars was allocated
for fiscal year 23 250 for fiscal year
24 25 rather and 250 for fiscal year 26.
they thought if we didn't specify that
that we might encumber the whole million
dollars right at once so that was the
change that you have before you
if you have any questions feel free to
ask me
I would just like to say thank you for
that clarification it helps us with the
budgeting so we know which when it hits
so appreciate that
and I just want to add you know we've
been doing this in the past couple years
with some of the funding we've gotten
and you know these these these kits that
we test are leading to I think it's 178
arrests from some of these cases that
are older and because of the work that
your lab's doing and our sheriffs and
our D.A we're Prosecuting some really
bad people and so we've had some good
success in the past few months yeah so
thank you I think this is a really
important item
I'll move staff's recommendation I'll
second
supervisor girl
supervisor loan yes supervisor Parvin
yes supervisor Lopez yes chair levere
yes thank you very much for being here
thank you
yeah and we'll finish with our last 10
30 a.m time cert and that is item 44 uh
proposal from supervisor guerrell and
supervisor Parvin uh gonna change this
up a little um we're going to start with
public comment this morning I know we
have I believe over 30 public speakers
and so we'll take public comment and
then I can return it to this board for
discussion
so Madam clerk why don't we start with
public comment
thank you trailer bear so just a
reminder if you wish to make a public
comment on this agenda item and you have
not pre-registered please check in with
the deputy clerk at the front of the
boardroom if you want to participate
remotely please visit ventura.org
forward slash BOS comment for
participation information and
instructions we do have about uh 30
people here signed up to speak so far
your name will be called in the order
our registration was received and you
will have two minutes please accept the
prompt if you're on Zoom to be promoted
and then when it's your turn to speak
please unmute your mic
and if you do want to speak on this item
and are on zoom and have not
pre-registered please press the raised
hand
otherwise we will start with Bert
pirrello who is here in person followed
by Patty quiroz and then
Joy kabashi so Bert if you please
proceed to the podium
three minutes
I'm sorry two minutes good morning my
name is Bert brolham an Oxnard city
council member I'm speaking as a private
party today I want to apologize to the
other 29 people that have signed up
because I signed up just recently and
have been put in front so I apologize to
those I suppose you gave difference to
the elected official
I speak against this item
for two simple reasons
the limit has seemed to work very well
for the County of Ventura for a period
of time
and increasing the amount will reduce
the ability of a small party to take
advantage and I will use the example of
my city
the outside influence of large funds of
money sums of money coming from outside
the state of California
Have Been instrumental in measures in my
city that have cost my city tremendous
amounts of money in litigation
time effort and ongoing statute of
limitation because there was unlimited
amounts of money that would be able to
put in I do understand that there can be
political action committees that these
things can be funded but I do believe
that you are making a major mistake and
a compliment to the intestinal fortitude
for the two new selection of elected
supervisors to put this on the ballot to
change things so drastically in your
very first term on the on this board I
give you credit for having the guts to
do that but I think you're making a
mistake
I think you're making a serious mistake
and the longer you serve on this board
you might learn that but I hope that you
learn it before you pursue this issue
again I speak against this matter and I
will use the example of what it has done
to my city with respect to outside
influence of money and the large volumes
of money the rules were changed in my
city after this happened and I hope that
you continue to follow the rules that
are in place good rules that helped
the County of Ventura stay where it is
without the scandals and stuff that have
happened in other places in the city
state of California thank you for the
time to speak thank you Bert
okay so our next speaker is going to be
Patty quiros followed by joy kabashi and
then Daniel Bloom plum
putty and adjust your time to two
minutes
hello my name is parikiros and I will be
reading this statement on behalf of
assembly member Steve Bennett
good morning chair levere Board of
Supervisors and Dr Johnson
as a County supervisor for 18 of my 20
years I lived with the strict limits of
Ventura County's campaign law
as a State Assembly member I currently
live with the higher state contribution
limits I know Both Worlds were well and
I wish the state limits were lower
I assume you I assure you that overall
the larger the maximum donation allowed
the greater the difficulty in keeping
the average Citizens Voice heard in any
legislative body
most citizens firmly believe that big
money has undue influence in politics
and they believe moving the contribution
limit from 750 to 5500 will
significantly increase the indirect
influence of big money over Grassroots
Citizens Voice
you say that that is not a concern of
yours and public trust can be maintained
because the reasons day law blocks you
from voting on an issue if an interested
party has donated more than 250 in the
12 months before the vote that is a weak
justification and defies logical Common
Sense most citizens believe the
influence of an eleven thousand dollar
donation from a married couple 13 months
before a vote does not suddenly
disappear at the 12-month mark
that is particularly particularly true
if the official will be up for
re-election in the coming cycle will be
fundraising soon and looking for another
donation you will also be repealing our
local requirements that County
Supervisors can only raise funds in the
12 months before the election without
that restriction politicians will raise
funds Non-Stop and be distracted from
their primary focus of legislating
fundamentally our local ordinance has
many protections that go beyond state
law we lose all of these protections and
decrease local citizen confidence in
politics with your repeal of the
ordinance I respectfully and humbly ask
you to please reject the recommended
action thank you
thank you
our next speaker is going to be Joy
kabashi who's here with us today on Zoom
followed by Daniel Blum and then Maria
Elena moreiras
Joy they will animate your mic and I'm
going to adjust your time to two minutes
press star six
good morning supervisors
my name is Joy Kobayashi I am a proud
38-year resident of Ventura County and
I'm here to voice my opposition to the
ordinance repealing our County's
campaign Finance reform
the current ordinance and its 750 750
contribution limit helps candidates with
Grassroots support be elected these
candidates often have the best interests
of the general public in mind this is
the very definition of good government
current law also has rules that prevent
abuse by large donors to influence the
votes of Supervisors
if it is repealed this will mean that
wealthy special interests like oil
companies will be able to contribute
much more money to the campaigns of
their chosen candidates repealing will
also create loopholes that will allow
for violations that will circumvent the
spirit of the law
this was result in supervisors who are
no longer voting for what is best for
the county but instead of what is best
for these companies
frankly the current method of financing
campaigns in this country is legal
bribery
campaign Finance laws with small maximum
contribution and contribution limits and
strict regulations like our current
ordinance is the bare minimum required
to control this practice
four of the five supervisors currently
serving on the board were elected by the
following by the following by following
the current campaign Finance ordinance
it is clearly not an undue burden upon
anyone I request that it not be pampered
with
thank you for the opportunity to speak
to speak to you this morning
thank you Joy
our next speaker is going to be Danielle
Blum followed by Marina Elena Ramirez
and Renee Ayu
Danielle I'm going to adjust your time
and if you
push star six you should be able to
speak
hello
uh Ventura County Board of Supervisors
and Community I am a Ventura County
resident and voter I'm calling to oppose
the elimination of the County's campaign
Finance ordinance
I'm opposed to repealing our current
ordinance the current ordinance is
needed to continue the 750 contribution
limit and maintain transparency the
current ordinance is needed to decrease
any incentives to attempt to influence
our supervisors from monied individuals
it is not accurate that this law is no
longer needed based on the California
state law the state law doesn't provide
the same transparency the state law
doesn't provide the same safeguards
against incentives for influence by
money please make sure to keep our
current election campaigns free from
money and influence please do not remove
or decrease the campaign contribution
ordinance for Ventura County thank you
thank you Danielle our next speaker is
going to be Maria Elena Ramirez followed
by Renee Ayo and Josh
nicoba
good morning
um I'm of a I am a resident of Ventura
County and during the last election
cycle for supervisor
not the very last so 2020 before that I
was at my sister's house and I was uh
doing probably laundry and I was going
in and out of her living room and I had
CNN on because I'm a political junkie
and I all of a sudden I see this ad by
purchased by oil companies and it's
there she was Carmen Ramirez the corrupt
politician going on junkets to China and
all this blah blah blah blah so she
comes home and I said to my sister
Carmen I said hey I didn't know you've
been going on junkets
what's this all about you know and of
course I was joking with her my sister
was beyond
question
a public servant of deep integrity and a
record of 40 Years of Public Service
before she became an advocate as a city
councilwoman
she said yeah Mike my constituents have
have questions about that when they see
it they ask me
why are they lying about you
she
was available to the constituents and of
her districts for whatever office for
whatever job she did including working
for the clerks people came to her openly
with questions she was there walking her
districts knowing her community this is
how public true public servants who are
committed to their communities do their
job know your constituents do not take
money from people who are going to own
your vote because if you vote for this
it's as good as putting a for sale
shingle out at your door saying to
whoever gives me the money you have my
ear and eventually you have my vote we
all know it
that's what this is about this is a
wrong move we don't want to become like
bigger areas like LA and it's miasmic
cloud of corruption because of all his
money involved I'm so sorry thank you
very much thank you
okay our next speaker is going to be
Renee Ayu followed by Josh nicoba and
Anthony Angelini
Renee I'm going to adjust your time to
two minutes
good morning uh chair levere and members
of the board and Dr Johnson
um what many of us do not understand
including myself is why the sudden rush
to repeal the entire campaign Finance
reform ordinance of the county
it gives the impression that the County
residents understanding is not of this
of the impact of this action is not
relevant or unimportant
this is not a simple Amendment to the
County's campaign Finance Finance laws
but the wholesale elimination of an of
an entire County ordinance that the
people of the county have come to rely
upon to safeguard election transparency
and fairness
at the very least the people of the
khani should be allowed and deserve
adequate time to better understand the
consequences and impact of this proposed
action
it is especially important to the people
who live in the two minority majority
districts as I'm sure supervisor Lopez
and supervisor long understand how
important it is to their residents the
time to understand what the consequences
are why shouldn't the Board of
Supervisors delay its action on this
proposed repeal for at least 90 days so
the people of the county can have
adequate time to better understand
whether or not this repeal is in their
best interests
or the alternative is simply to put it
on the ballot in November 2024 and see
what your constituents and the people of
the county really think
this is the right thing to do
it is consistent with the commitment
that this board has to be transparent
and fair
and that's what I ask you to do either
oppose reject this or do the right thing
thank you Renee
our next speaker is going to be Josh
nicoba who is here on Zoom followed by
Anthony Angelini and Elisa Salcedo
Josh I'm gonna and uh change your time
to two minutes and if you unmute your
mic you'll have two minutes to speak
okay thank you can hear me we can hear
you please proceed okay good morning
board members my name is Josh and I'm a
student at Cal Lutheran I don't know how
many of you have worked on political
campaigns but it's grueling work with
very little pay one of the reasons the
pay is not commensurate with the work is
the limitations on contributions to
candidates who have staff to pay
Ventura county is one of the most
expensive places to live in the country
with local campaign workers often
putting in excessive hours in a place
like this a livable wage is virtually
impossible often these jobs are filled
by our young people college students or
recent graduates trying to get a foot in
the door and afford the Bare Essentials
there are factors too many here today
are conveniently ignoring what this
board is proposing is a fresh look at an
old ordinance that fixes historical
issues and provides greater opportunity
for those looking to make a difference
and become more publicly engaged I look
forward to seeing this ordinance move to
the next phase and adopted with your
support thank you
our next speaker is going to
Angelini followed by Elisa Salcedo and
Barbara macri Ortiz
good morning supervisors thank you for
taking my comment thank you for all you
do for our County my name is Anthony I'm
speaking for myself as a Westlake
Village resident
you know
the way this issue is Being Framed by
the detractors I think leaves so much
critical information out of the argument
I know first of all I know we know the
state now has new laws and safeguards in
place that didn't exist when the Ventura
County's ordinance was originally passed
and new rules provide guardrails for
political contributions prohibit the
pay-to-play component of politics that
we all fear SP 1439 limits contributions
to 250 for having the business uh for
any businesses under consideration for
contract by a state or local government
it was authored by democrats it was
voted for by our own Ventura County
assembly member Steve Bennett the entire
Ventura County legislative delegation
voted for it most of the other counties
in California have adopted the state's
plan was spearheaded by the
democrat-dominated state legislator
so why are local Democrats now claiming
it's good enough for everybody else but
not us
look
uh confusing layers of Regulation have
been far too prevalent in Ventura County
government and we finally have an
opportunity to make a change for more
fair reasonable streamlined process
that's not confusing
and I would just ask that you support
that thank you and thank you for your
time thank you Anthony
our next speaker is going to be Elisa
Salcedo followed by Barbara McCree Ortiz
and Alia Ewing
Elisa is with us on Zoom
hello my name is Elisa and I live in
Oxnard and supervisors long District
I support this item
one of the main complaints we have heard
when it comes to local elections is the
influence that independent expenditures
have in the process
they don't have the same limits as
candidates they cannot coordinate
directly with candidates and they can
engage in negative campaigns
in fact in public forums and on social
media Jeff Curry also opponent in the
supervisors race blasted independent
expenditures and the negative
campaigning they resulted in this can be
a problem the less money individual
candidates can raise themselves the more
power and influence a gift to outside
groups
the way to fix this is to make
individual candidates responsible and
accountable for their own messaging do
you have an opportunity to fix this
today by raising the direct contribution
limits for candidates I hope that you
take this into consideration and thank
you for your time thank you
our next speaker is going to be Barbara
macri Ortiz followed by Aaliyah Ewing
and Michael McDonald
good morning again my name is Barbara
Bakery Ortiz and I'm speaking in
opposition to item 44.
this local law was adopted to try to
level the playing field and maintain
Integrity in the Democratic process this
ordinance has served our County well
why would the newest members of the
board want to undermine it I do not
understand why supervisors Parvin and
guerrill have brought this forward
obviously they did not have a problem
winning their election with a 750 limit
because we see him sitting on the dice
what is their motivation for changing
the rules that have served us so well
I've read the board letter and thought
about the reasoning and it simply makes
no sense Ventura County should be a
leader not a follower it does not matter
how many cities or Counties have not
taken the initiative to do better than
the bare minimum
what is wrong with transparency
transparency and standards regarding the
amount of money that should be spent on
political elections
the unmistakable contribute conclusion
is that some board members are trying to
give an unfair advantage to supervisor
long who will be running in 2024 for
re-election uh in District three one of
the two newly designated minority
majority districts I note that
supervisor long already played an
integral part in designing the lines of
her District that was approved by the
supervisors
if the contribution limit is increased
that Advantage will be even more
pronounced
Maybe I'm Wrong in how I see this
supervisor long you can prove me wrong
I respectfully request supervisor long
to recuse herself from voting on item
44. since a repeal of the ordinance
would materially impact and improve her
chances to be re-elected in this
primarily Latino primarily low-income
District thank you thank you Barbara
okay it looks like we don't have Aaliyah
on Zoom so we're gonna go to Michael
McDonald who will be followed by Chantal
margotten and Karen Stevens I'm Michael
thank you reduce your time to two
minutes okay go ahead
thank you so much Madam clerk chair
Olivier members of the Board of
Supervisors and Dr Johnson I'm here
today to express my strong opposition to
the proposed ordinance being introduced
in item 44 which seeks to repeal the
Ventura County campaign Finance
ordinance as a concerned citizen of
district one I believe that this
ordinance has been instrumental in
ensuring that special interest and money
do not unduly influence our elections
since its Inception in 2003 with its
emphasis on Grassroots campaigns and
prioritizing The public's interests and
concerns the ordinance has fostered a
culture of transparency and fairness in
our local elections don't be fooled by
the recommendation that the county align
with state law this is an incumbent
protection plan that aims not to level
the playing field or increase
transparency but rather decrease his
trust in our electoral process by
increasing contribution limits 633
percent when voters believe that
elections are fair and transparent they
are more likely to participate and to
have confidence in their elected
officials the campaign Finance ordinance
is critical for leveling the playing
field ensuring transparency protecting
local interests and enhancing public
trust in the process our current
ordinance is also responsible for
preventing corruption in the appearance
of corruption without campaigns Finance
regulations like this wealthy
individuals and special interest groups
can use their financial resources to
influence elections and buy political
favors
this ordinance also levels the playing
field for campaign Finance between
candidates with differing levels of
Financial Resources by limiting the
amount of money that can be spent on a
campaign candidates with fewer Financial
Resources have less of a chance
competing against wealthier opponents
and this ordinance also protects Free
Speech while campaign Finance ordinances
limit the amount of money that can be
spent on a campaign they do not limit
the freedom of speech candidates and
political committees are still able to
communicate their message to voters
through means including television ads
mailers and social media I strongly urge
you to vote no and to keep this
ordinance in place to prevent the
influence of corporate interests and
individual donors with greater resources
than the general public from swaying the
outcomes of our local elections thank
you for hearing me today and everyone
please join me at Fair electionsvc.com
thank you Michael
our next speaker is going to be Chantel
margotten followed by Karen Stevens and
then Catherine Willett
Chantal
good morning happy wet Tuesday
I am here briefly to speak in support of
the item number 44. I as a small
business owner and citizen of Ventura
County would like to see us able as
local citizens at a smaller level to
contribute more if we're able to
financially and desire to in support of
whatever cause or candidate
my concern with comments that I hear is
that many who are opposing this are not
acknowledging that there are many large
donors who have special interests
billionaire activist Tom Starr would be
one in a short 10-year period he donated
271 million dollars and more to his
desired contacts that are outweighs
anything
I'm quite certain anyone in the county
could afford to do and we have Patagonia
as well donates millions of dollars to
its causes and candidates it chooses to
support and I doubt seriously that those
individuals are looking at a community
level interest for Ventura County or
another County
so I would speak in support of this
measure it in many ways makes it more
Equitable in the amount of money that
you can donate and I have worked on many
local political campaigns on both sides
of the aisle and I think it would be a
step to clear it up and keep it
transparent
not do the opposite so I would encourage
a serious look at this and an agreement
to support it thank you
thank you
our next speaker is going to be Karen
Stevens followed by Catherine Willett
and then Debbie Mitchell
hello uh thank you for the opportunity
to speak my name is Karen Stevens I'm a
resident of Thousand Oaks I'm here today
to express my very strong opposition to
the repeal of the campaign Finance
reform ordinance this ordinance is
essential in protecting the rights of
local voters so that they have a voice
and a choice in local candidates
repealing this ordinance would open the
floodgates for out-of-county interests
and oil corporations
to control our elections and ultimately
our County
foreign
we have seen the disastrous effects of
this in other areas of the nation
with this ordinance in place it has
guided our local candidates to focus on
the needs of constituents without this
ordinance candidates and local electives
need only to follow the directives of
wealthy corporations to ensure election
to office
I urge the board to protect the voices
of Ventura County residents
in ensuring Fair representation in
government and abandon this
ill-conceived resolution to repeal the
campaign reform ordinance
the resulting vote on whether to repeal
this will inform voters of those truly
intent on working for local voters
please vote no thank you thank you so
much for your time thank you Karen
our next speaker is going to be
Catherine Willis by Debbie Mitchell and
then Claudia bildale Pina
hi I'm Kathy Willett I'm a 25-year
resident of Ventura County in District
2. I oppose the repeal of the Ventura
County campaign Finance reform ordinance
this ordinance has served as us well for
over 20 years it encourages the
electoral process to better represent
individual constituents needs the repeal
would conversely enable special
interests with Deep Pockets to have
undue influence on the electoral process
while increasing Temptation for elected
officials to look favorably on their
more generous donors requests
people of Ventura County have come out
in force repeatedly to denounce oil and
gas efforts to destroy our local
environment I fear that repeal will
drown out our voices please don't repeal
the Ventura County campaign Finance
reform ordinance thank you thank you
our next speaker is going to be Debbie
Mitchell followed by Claudia bildale
Pena and Haley ehlers uh Debbie Ducey
that you've been promoted on Zoom I'm
going to adjust your time to two minutes
and if you want to meet your mic you can
speak
good morning to all
my name is Debbie Mitchell resident of
Oxnard in Ventura County and I oppose
this repeal
I've been very encouraged by the
positive changes resilience and
solidarity I've seen recently in Ventura
County government through recent crisis
losses and changes until this to remove
campaign limits in Ventura county is not
inclusive of the population of Ventura
County and is a step backwards from
public trust social justice and
transparency
if someone wants to represent or
influence the people in Ventura County
they should be seen by the people in
Ventura County they should be heard by
the people in Ventura County and they
should hear the people in Ventura County
we need doers we need involvement and
not invasion
special interests are ought too often
not in the best interest of Ventura
County constituents please stop this
fiscal obsfuncation and and leave
campaign support to the real
constituents of Ventura County and
ensure that all residents organizations
and businesses in Ventura County have an
opportunity to participate in campaigns
on a Level Playing Field and not be
overrun by large campaigns funded by
people who may not share our best
interests or care about the residents
they impact
donor organizations and corporations who
want to be a part of Ventura County and
and contribute should consider
contributing to Ventura County needs
through action and donations to the many
Partnerships Community efforts and
organizations of that the county and
cities work so hard to do with so little
one in six in Ventura county is food
insecure our Health Care system has
overburdened our education system needs
businesses to invest in training and
identify needs cons I believe that
eliminating the limits defies the
principles of social justice at the
court we need candidates for Ventura
County not for special interests please
encourage your donors to donate to the
people candidates should be for the
people not special interests please
reject this
thank you Debbie
could I ask Debbie Mitchell as president
of Oxnard what
I don't see Debbie on Zoom oh resident
okay I heard president and I was like
okay thank you would you like her to be
promoted back to zoom no it's okay thank
you for the clarification okay thank you
so our next speaker is going to be
Claudia Bill de la Pina who is here in
person today and Claudia and adjust your
time to two minutes and please proceed
where you don't need to repeal Ventura
County's campaign ordinance you'll want
to because you have the votes to raise
the contributional limit to a grotesque
5500 per person and to eliminate a cap
on expenditures altogether
you know very well that the power of
special interests pocketbooks will
squash those of the average resident in
the county
case in point
Jeff just finished running the most
expensive and dishonest supervisor
campaign in recent Ventura County
history
dwarfing even the race between Sheriff
ab and Jim freihof his race knitted just
over one million dollars I was outspent
almost four to one I raised money from
small donations from a record 900 people
and only lost by a small margin and I
did it while working full-time taking
care of a family taking a business I
didn't have the luxury of taking 10
months off from work
the notion that independent expenditure
committees will somehow disappear with
the elimination of the County's campaign
Finance ordinance is absolutely
ridiculous
Jeff's friends supporters and donors
that included an lgbtq hate group ran a
character assassination against me
because it was the only way Jeff could
win they not only made up stories about
me they also lied about my husband it
was disgraceful yet Jeff never once
denounced the lies these committees were
telling
Jeff himself made up his own publicity
stunt faking an October surprise about
big tobacco and now we are to think that
all of these morally corrupt Shenanigans
will somehow disappear
while I appreciate the State's new
restrictions on the amount of money
someone doing business with the county
can give there are ways to get around
that another case in point Sean marati
and owner of the board shirt wetland in
Newbury Park who wants excessive density
on his parcel but needs you the
supervisors to lift the Watershed
Protection District easement moradian
fought like a pit bull to keep me off
this board Claudia you're threatening to
in harassing me and special interests
bought the seat Claudia your time is up
we have thank you and I just know that
it is a frightening thought of what will
happen once these floodgates are open
thank you our next speaker is going to
be Haley ehlers
followed by Stephen Nash and then Terry
lisagor
hello my name is Haley ehlers resident
of Ventura and director of climate first
replacing oil and gas or sea frog we are
a Grassroots non-profit dedicated to the
transition away from fossil fuels to a
carbon-free economy in Ventura County I
am urging you to reject the upcoming
proposal to repeal the Ventura County
campaign Finance reform ordinance as a
501c3 non-profit organization we help
fill gaps left by the Ventura County
government strengthen our communities by
providing educational and Civic
engagement services that your
constituents need and also follow strict
regulations to stay out of partisan
elections we rely on sound and
responsible campaign Finance rules to
ensure that special interests can't have
excessive influence in our local
elections and therefore the local
policies that shape our everyday life
and even the responsible Advanced
ordinances in Ventura County don't do
enough as is to protect our democracy
from the influence of Deep Pockets and
independent expenditure groups we cannot
roll back even further just last year
Big Oil spent eight million dollars the
most ever spent in a political campaign
in Ventura County to put a common sense
regulatory Improvement on the ballot and
then proceeded to lie and scare Ventura
County voters leading to the defeat of
policies meant to better protect our
communities from Antiquated oil drilling
permits
just like just last month you saw the
consequences made possible by this
campaign two dozen Wells rubber stamped
for redrilling in an environmental
justice Community without environmental
review impacting the air that school
children and families breathe every day
our democracy shouldn't be bought and
paid for by the wealthy and Powerful
Ventura County alongside 25 other
California counties value transparency
accountability and local citizen voices
and priorities this is in direct
conflict with the major sums of money in
the fossil fuel industry spends in local
state and federal elections to drown out
the voices of the people and prevent
meaningful outcomes for clean energy
before the upcoming vote I urge you to
thoughtfully listen to your constituents
concerns who are clearly saying no to
more money in politics thank you
thank you Haley our next speaker is
going to be Steven Nash followed by
Terry lizigor and David growl
uh Stephen please proceed
thank you and good morning to the Board
of Supervisors staff and all attendees
this is such a transparent attempt to
circumvent the public will
that somebody earlier suggested that it
be put up to a vote I think that is a
great idea but you won't do that because
uh well the majority won't do that
because they're they know which way the
the public the public would vote this is
a transparent attempt to game the system
in favor of
the uh one supervisor whose election is
coming up
I will say that as the past chair of the
city of Oxnard ethics advisory
subcommittee we would have left out of
the room Andy council member that came
before us with with such a ridiculous uh
reform so I will say to the people who
to the supervisors who proposed this and
the supervisors who voted for this one
word and that word is shame thank you
good morning
thank you Stephen
our next speaker is going to be Terry
lizigor followed by David growl and then
Manuel Marquez
thank you very much for have for
allowing us to speak I'm a proud 46 year
resident not 46 year old 46-year
resident of Ventura County and I've
always been a participant in the
election process ever since I could
start using my voice many of the
positions of the speakers have been
articulated very well in opposition to
this resolution resolution 44. again it
seeks to repeal the Ventura County
campaign Finance reform and as a
concerned citizen I strongly believe
that this ordinance has been a critical
Safeguard against the influence of money
and special interests in our local
elections for those reasons and many
more I ask that this be brought to a
public vote I ask that all of you reject
the ordinance number 44 at this time and
reject rushing it through thank you
thank you
our next speaker is going to be David
growl followed by Emmanuel Marquez and
Leslie Ogden
Mr girl
hi
good morning
board members
Dr svet Johnson I'm sorry
um my name is David grow I'm speaking
today on behalf of the Ventura County
taxpayers Association
part of our mission is to inform
taxpayers advise public officials
regarding issues of concern to taxpayers
and recommend positions that will best
serve the taxpayers interest we consider
the proposed campaign Finance ordered
ordinance to be an issue of concern for
taxpayers and a step in the right
direction while further leveling the
playing field for contributions to
campaigns from all sides of the
political Spectrum
the current Ventura County ordinance is
an outlier in the state of California
limiting individual contribution to just
750 dollars
we agree that since the state of
California's political reform act and
its governing amendments are followed by
more than a majority of the state's
counties and cities
there is no reason for our County to
maintain a separate campaign Finance
ordinance
defaulting to the State's new rules with
important anti-corruption safeguards in
place is the right move to update an
Antiquated ordinance created in a very
different regulatory climate we look
forward to your board moving forward on
this thank you thank you
Manuel Marquez followed by Leslie Ogden
and then Linda Parks who's with us today
on Zoom
good morning my name is Manuel Marquez
I'm a resident of Ventura City and
Ventura County this is my first time
ever in this board room I feel very
honored to be able to speak to all of
you thank you so much for your attention
given that this is the first time I've
ever come to this room I hope you
understand that this issue is very very
important to me
and that I speak passionately against
this proposal
never in my life have I felt more heard
as a citizen of a county than I have
here in Ventura I've been a resident now
for almost 43 years in my previous years
were spent in Los Angeles County
I value this County for The Unique
opportunity it provides for its citizens
to have a voice
in how this County will be managed and
what its future would look like
a couple of the previous speakers
have made illusions
to aspects of this ordinance that are
simply not
founded in Logic for one
it is naive to believe that political
action committees would take a step
aside and not be a part of your
campaigns in the future if this limit
were raised and secondly with respect to
equitability how is it more Equitable to
raise the donation limit by such an
amount which would exclude a
significantly greater percentage of the
population from being able to
participate in this process what would
be Equitable is that every citizen in
the in this County would equally be able
to participate financially in supporting
your campaigns so again I ask you to
vote against this ordinance thank you
thank you
our next speaker is going to be Leslie
Ogden followed by Linda Parks and then
Nancy Lindholm
good morning
there are few people who are unaware of
the effect of money and politics
most see it as corrosive
yet here in Ventura County for the last
two decades we've followed a different
path and we've made it a case that our
small donors could have impact
when the maximum donation possible is
750 dollars you're 75 or 250 dollar
donation counts
most donations in this County have been
small ones and
and
diverse
allowing many many people to feel
invested in their government
this will change
if the proposed jump to five thousand
five hundred donation is approved
when any random couple can give eleven
thousand dollars suddenly your 250
dollar donation would seemed like a big
deal at the time doesn't seem like much
by changing the law you discourage the
policeman the teacher the electrician
from feeling that they too have a voice
not only is this wrong
and it's not only is this bad for
democracy but it will be perceived as
such
suspicions will be rampant
that this measure was pushed through by
a board more interested in the high
rollers than the nurses and firefighters
and plumbers
we're better than that in Ventura County
I urge you to vote against it thank you
thank you Leslie
our next speaker is going to be Linda
Parks followed by Nancy Lindholm and
Todd cullard
I see you on Zoom I'm going to adjust
your time to two minutes and you can
begin
in the Parks ICU and muted and I see you
and zoom can you hear us
if you're calling in you can push star
six to unmute your phone
it can you help Linda Parks with her
hand raised
Linda Parks
we see you on Zoom um we're not able to
hear you at the moment I'm gonna go to
Nancy Lindholm who's also on zoom and
then I'll come back to you
Nancy I'm gonna adjust your time to two
minutes
please proceed
good morning chair and Board of
Supervisors uh Nancy Lindholm CEO of the
West Ventura County business Alliance
which is the Chamber of Commerce serving
the communities of Camarillo and Oxnard
I know you have received a lot of
comments opposing the proposed ordinance
repealing the current campaign Finance
limits
most of those comments claim repeal of
the limits would allow only welfare
wealthy donors to impact elections and
that smaller donors and the general
public would lose their voice
I look at this a little bit differently
the current campaign limits restricting
contributions of more than 750 dollars
per election promote the use of
independent expenditure campaigns
those campaigns actually make donors
less visible to the voting public
I encourage the board to adopt the
ordinance as a means of Greater public
disclosure in our elections thank you
thank you Nancy
I'm going to go back to Linda Parks I
see you with your Henry's um are if
you're able to hear us
okay I'm gonna
hopefully somebody can help
okay so uh Linda Parks can hear us
unfortunately we can't hear you all
right I don't see that you have a mic
muted
okay so we're going to go to the next
speaker while you try to connect to
another device
so our next speaker is going to be Todd
color followed by
Arthur van Valenzuela Jr and Maria
Navarro
good morning supervisors I oppose the
proposed repealing of the current
campaign Finance ordinance I do so
because the purpose of that ordinance
was to promote public trust and also to
minimize or avoid the appearance of
corruption due to money influences I see
nothing in the in the board report that
you have in front of you that attempts
to explain how this proposed deletion or
repeal of this ordinance will achieve
that objective it's patently contrary to
it in fact
conveniently enough the board letter
does not support excuse me outline the
parallels between what the County's
existing ordinance does and what the
state law provides for if we had that
comparison contrast I think we'd see a
sharp difference in what our own
interests are and how they're managed by
our own local ordinance versus state law
the simple one that's come to play is a
county limit of 750 dollars per contract
contributor versus 500 and 5 500 into
the state law that's not even mentioned
it simply said it's redundant our code
is not redundant there's too many
differences between our code and state
law and unfortunately the staff report
didn't even take the time to outline
those
as to leaving it to the state to manage
I think having a cop on the beat locally
is just as important as having a bunch
of administration up in Sacramento with
the appearance of local control and I
further see the disadvantages of leaving
it all in the hands of the state because
as we know state laws can be repealed by
referendums paid for by large corporate
interests
so tying our case and our regulation of
finances to the state law really takes
it out of our hands thank you
thank you Todd okay so it looks like we
have reconnected with Linda Parks
yes okay I'm gonna adjust your time to
two minutes
and please proceed
good morning supervisors and staff thank
you as the executive director of soar
representing thousands of our members
throughout Ventura County I ask that you
reject supervisors guerrill and parvin's
effort to eliminate Ventura County's
campaign contribution ordinance
local contribution limits were necessary
before I was elected to the Board of
Supervisors because campaigns were
dominated by big money from developers
and other special interests including
the ninety thousand dollar check one
developer gave to my opponent
once I was elected supervisor Steve
Bennett and Kathy long had the third
vote needed to pass our campaign
contribution limits which also
importantly include expenditure limits
and with each election we would make
changes to the law to close loopholes
and demanded enforcement during
elections instead of waiting what could
be years for the state to enforce their
laws at which time the unethical
candidate could already be elected
the law empowers local citizens voices
and elections by limiting campaign
contributions to 750 dollars
soars Grassroots campaign are stronger
as a result of this empowerment soar has
benefited from campaign limits because
soar is all about empowering the voters
it is not about how much money
candidates pay their workers including
coming to the speak at the Board of
Supervisors in favor of their items
our campaigns are run by volunteers our
workers don't do it for the money what
supervisors guerrill and Parvin propose
would change the playing field by
increasing the influence of well-heeled
special interests most people cannot
afford 5500 or 11 000 per couple
on behalf is soar I respectfully request
that you vote no on this threat to our
democracy
thank you
okay I'm going to go back to the top of
our list so we are going to start with
Arthur Valenzuela Jr who's here in
person followed by Maria Navarro and
then Christy Weir
um good afternoon uh good morning my uh
chair levere Board of Supervisors uh my
name is Arthur Valenzuela and I'm
speaking to oppose the repeal of the 750
contribution limits permitting
contributions at 5500 will prioritize
wealthy individuals and families over
retired seniors blue-collared workers
and young families we want electives are
accountable to Working Families not the
wealthiest individuals I know that
campaigns are difficult and require
funds but successful candidates are able
to build a wide amount of support not
just a handful of special interests by
lifting the campaign contribution limits
it could also create more County staff
time to review candidate contributions
that are one thousand dollars or more
within 90 days of the election with form
497s please do not repeal the 700 750
limit thank you
thank you
our next speaker is going to be it's
going to be Maria Navarro Foster wear
and then Sandra Bates
we have Maria Navarro on Zoom
all right thank you good morning I'm
Maria Navarro a policy advocate for
cause and I would like to express our
strong opposition to the proposed
resolution under item 44 which seeks to
repeal the Ventura County campaign
Finance ordinance the principle of free
and fair elections is one of the
founding principles of this country
campaign financing factors in end is
greatly right and although it has always
been expensive to run a campaign we
shouldn't actively cry to make it more
expensive to run feature campaigns
because if we continue to increase the
price Mark more and more we will be
making it impossible for legitimate
Grassroots candidates to be elected what
will remain the county campaign Finance
Ordinance do well it will force
candidates to spend less time knocking
on their constituent stores
and more time talking to donors and
potential donors who are very who are
very very small subsection of our
population a subsection that is
overwhelmingly wealthy and who
themselves are disconnected from the
issues that are facing the majority of
the community
and by the community I mean working
class Community which does happen to be
the majority of us I asked
how can a representative be connected to
the people if they don't talk to the
people
as a county we should be proud of our
stringent campaign Finance ordinance
to remove it or modify it thank you
thank you
okay our next speaker is going to be
Christy Weir followed by Sandra Bates
and then Julie Hensley
foreign
Christy Weir former mayor of the city of
Ventura thank you for talking about this
important topic
um
our local campaign ordinances are way
better than the state
even the new state ordinance isn't uh we
have a high quality ordinance here that
has worked for us and I cannot figure
out why we would give up the best
for sort of a mediocre one at the state
level
allowing big donations invites big
donors to have big expectations of
influence benefiting big special
interests
it's not what we're about
this would not decrease the power of pax
it would double it donors could now make
big contributions to packs and also to
candidates
this change would benefit candidates
certain candidates and special interests
not Ventura County residents
what average resident can give five
thousand dollars
but it's a small amount for someone with
a big company who wants a board a
supervisor's decision that benefits them
representative government works better
when many small donors are investing in
their future
just 20 to 30 large donors could get a
candidate a campaign consultant and lots
of mailers that's not very many donors
but hundreds of small donors means more
Civic engagement more broad support and
more representation
so please be very careful let the people
vote on this if you're serious about a
change
your decision today
could help candidates in the future with
lower levels of Integrity get elected
and also those candidates will not be
representing the broad spectrum of the
people of Ventura County we are special
County we deserve a special campaign
Finance ordinance not the generic State
one thank you thank you Chrissy
okay our next speaker is going to be
Sandra Bates followed by Julie Hensley
Steven causal Luis lampara and Bernardo
Perez
lucinder Bates
I agree with all the people who do who
do not want to repeal this ordinance
that's protecting our County against big
money interests
um
we want fairness in our local elections
and we need to keep the ordinance in
place we don't want corporate interests
or individual donors that are greater
resources than the average person the
general public we don't want them
swaying the outcomes of our elections
we want Ventura County to remain a good
place for people the people who live
here and a fair place so people's voices
can be heard and not the voices of big
money which are the people behind
repealing this ordinance thank you
thank you
okay our next speaker is Julie Hensley
followed by Stephen causa Luis lampara
and Bernardo Perez Julie
thank you
good morning
I don't know if any of you have seen the
movie called don't look up
about the meteor
imminently about to crash into the Earth
and no one wanted to admit it
I'm from Wisconsin I ran for the state
senate
I have seen what corruption does
I have seen that meteor hit the ground
and it blows everything up and what you
are proposing today is the same it's
chipping away year by year at the
systems in place that cause the level of
corruption that sometimes there is no
coming back from
no coming back
and I am
you can tell this is very important
today that we make the right decision
I had 8600 donations
the average value was 31.80
and you can't tell me that if you raise
the the limit that people with 31
dollars in their pocket think they have
a voice
and even now people in Lemonwood in
District 2 don't feel like they have a
voice
we need to be out there talking to them
going door to door to find out what they
want that is what true representation is
big money has no place in elections
thank you
okay so as we um near the end of our
speaker list I just want to make sure
that we've hurt everybody so if you're
on zoom and your name was not called
please press the raise hand button so we
can make sure that we add you to the
queue
if you're in the boardroom and you want
to speak on this item please see the
deputy clerk at the entrance of the
boardroom and we are going to hear from
Stephen colzo who is here on zoom and
then Louise lampara and Bernardo Perez
um
thank you very much this is Stephen
Cosell I'm a 40-year resident of Oak
Park
well actually in June of this year and
uh
good afternoon now uh chair of the board
levere members of the Board of
Supervisors and Dr Johnson thanks for
letting me speak I'll be brief we are
paying attention in the community that's
why we're speaking uh we're trying to
increase engagement in the community
everybody's uh points of view and get
more people involved introducing
additional money into County politics is
then difficult to representation of all
of our constituents
practical effect of this will be
marginalization of the viewpoints from
those without Deep Pockets
I.E the average County resident
we urge you to
vote to support continuing ordinance for
510 and not to repeal it
I think it has the overwhelming support
of the public as reflected by comments
um this morning and early afternoon I
appreciate the time to speak thank you
very much
thank you
our next speaker is going to be Louise
lampara who's here in person and then
Bernardo Perez who is on Zoom
good morning Louise lampera Ventura
County co-lab over the weekend two
former supervisors staged a messaging
campaign to block the repeal of the
County's campaign Finance ordinance the
former supervisors claim that for 20
years they have significantly decreased
the influence of big money in local
elections the opposite is true the
County's low individual campaign
donation only encourages manipulations
and work a lot rounds that have allowed
independent expenditures packs to become
more powerful and influential here in
Ventura County
but not once did the former supervisors
mention independent expenditures strange
especially when State and County records
show that IES were nearly unheard of a
decade ago in local elections but in
this last election IES collected and
spent over half a million dollars on One
race alone this happened because of the
County's ordinance the 750 limit on
individual campaign donations doesn't
stop big money donations it drives them
to the less transparent and less
accountable IES and the former
supervisors know this in October 2022
then sitting supervisor Parks
manipulated around the local ordinance
contribution limit and donated nine
thousand nine hundred dollars to a pack
supporting one of the district two
candidates nine thousand nine hundred
dollars foreign excess of the 750 limit
she claims must be imposed on the
average voter the messaging also claims
that the local ordinance creates strict
accountability and stops donors from
getting around the law again not true
the local ordinance did not catch
campaign donation irregularities
committed by the same pack to which Ms
Parks donated that nine thousand dollars
those irregularies were caught by the
states fppc recent changes to state law
have created robust and effective State
monitoring and enforcement and the
County's ordinance is redundant contrary
to the messaging campaign the County's
ordinance actually perpetuates
disenfranchising the voice of individual
voters and strengthens Pax please vote
to repeal this ordinance and if the
supervisors would like I did bring 10
copies of these documents and I can
submit them for the record thank you
thank you
sorry about that okay
so our last speaker of the day for this
item is going to be Bernardo Perez who
is with us on Zoom
Bernardo thank you for your patience you
have two minutes I see you're in needed
please proceed thank you uh dear members
of the board and uh public viewing this
meeting the purpose of existing 45-10
supported by the chair Kelly long in one
of her early votes on the board is to
promote public trust in governmental
institutions and the electoral process
and to eliminate the possibility of quid
pro quo corruption or the appearance of
quid pro quo corruption in which money
is exchanged for official acts I request
the board to reject the proposal by
supervisor Parvin and Garrell which
would repeal Ordnance 4510 in its
entirety I have been an active
participant in local and County public
service and the electoral process since
the mid 70s from that time one
consistent and prevailing theme is the
Public's healthy distrust of obscene
amounts of campaign contributions by big
money and special interest or ordinance
4510 serves the public interest in
wanting and having open transparent and
fair elections
supervisors Parvin and Garrell would
have us believe that repealing the
ordinance would reduce the need for and
the future occurrence of the obscene
amounts of independent expenditures we
saw in recent County election campaigns
please do not insult The public's
intelligence with this highly
speculative implausible and laughable
argument
even with the existing ordinance the
county clerk record a register of Voters
reported
two apparent violations of the ordinance
4510 by one of the proponents repealing
of repealing the ordinance
to be fair I am not aware of the outcome
of these reports
in closing I respectfully asked
supervisor long to maintain her support
for the ordinance and reject the
proposal to repeal yeah I ask a board
majority to join her and reject the
proposal in it to reject to repeal the
ordinance in its entirety excuse me
we all value our quality of life here in
Ventura County a special place we call
home it is made special for many reasons
one of which
is that Ventura County has worked to
maintain the efficacy and integrity and
fairness of our local electoral process
help keep our elections open transparent
and fair thank you thank you
chair levera I don't see any other
requests to speak for this item thank
you thank you madam clerk supervisor or
girl
yeah thank you first of all I want to
thank all of the the public speakers who
gave comments uh the feedback is helpful
and particularly those that are here in
person uh weathering the storm to be
here with us in person I I I do
appreciate it I'd like to kind of just
walk through a little bit of the the
thought process and how we we got to
this concept
um and and maybe that'll help a little
bit in the understanding of it about
three years ago the California State
Legislature
began to look at all of the Electoral
systems throughout the state of
California and the patchwork of
different rules and laws and regulations
oversight enforcement that were going on
throughout all the various cities and
all the various counties and what they
saw is that in many of them that
Patchwork was ineffective and in many
ways confusing duplicative of what was
going on at the state level
um that some of them although
well-intentioned hadn't changed in
decades
and ultimately some of them were
unconstitutional and had become
unconstitutional over the years
um
I think in evaluating whether to reform
our current Ventura County campaign
Finance ordinance or to Simply
um defer to what the state had recently
created was kind of the conversation
that happened
recently with me and my colleague and
and County Council as we began to
evaluate how to to fix a system that in
many ways was duplicative of what was
going on in Sacramento and what was
inefficient
um
what uh what Sacramento did was they
passed a law AB 571 just a few years ago
just two years ago
that legislation created a framework
into which any County could participate
and any City could participate and would
create the framework of transparency
accountability
oversight complaint
complaint receiving and ultimately
enforcement through fines and other
measures
um
today more than 33 counties more than
half of the counties in the state of
California are deferring to that
framework that was created by the state
and are participating in it very
successfully
and more than half of the cities in the
County of Ventura are currently
deferring to that state that state
framework and utilizing that same
what we created here in Ventura County
way back in 2003 had become in many ways
very duplicative of what was going on in
Sacramento
if you create an independent expenditure
committee here locally or if you run for
office here locally and you want to
accept resources campaign contributions
or to file locally and you have to file
with a state
um we have a Ventura County campaign
Finance ordinance ethics commission
there's also an Ethics commission at the
state level the fair political practices
commission that has full-time staff and
enforcement capabilities and
investigators and resources to
to evaluate complaints and to perform
enforcement including fines and other
penalties
um our County ordinance hadn't changed
much since it was really originally
implemented in 2003 and in many ways
have become ineffective and outmoded and
I'd like to share with you a couple of
examples of why that is
first Much Ado has been made about the
donation limit to a candidate yes
Buckley vivallejo
1979 U.S Supreme Court of the United
States of America says that
contributions done independently by an
independent committee cannot be limited
but independent but contributions to a
candidate directly to a candidate
handing a check from a citizen to a
candidate that the government could
could regulate and limit that direct
contribution 1979
but they also said that it had to be
reasonable and it had to be
narrowly tailored and it had to be least
restrictive means to achieve what the
government wanted to do which was a
compelling governmental interest
to limit what would what was possibly
corruption or the perception of
corruption it could undermine our
democratic system
yes they said that direct contributions
to a candidate could be limited but
could only be limited reasonably so in
2003 we adopted a 750 limit
but what else Buckley Vallejo and all
the Litany of cases from the Supreme
Court that have happened since then
require us to do is to continue to
evaluate whether that limit is
reasonable whether that is the least
restrictive means whether that is
narrowly tailored to fit the
governmental interest the compelling
we don't do that every cycle we don't
look at the uh growth in the economy we
don't look at inflation we don't look at
Cost of Living we don't look at livable
wages and whether 750 still makes sense
to many of you I can tell who spoke you
feels good it feels good to have 750
dollars be the maximum contribution the
challenge is
that we haven't every legislative cycle
every political cycle we haven't looked
at raising that to meet to meet
inflation or Cola or livable standards
or the ability to to fund a campaign and
to hire staffers and to pay for paper
and lawn signs we haven't done that
we've been lazy as a county so as a
result that's 750 dollars which was set
in 2003 I can guarantee you is currently
unconstitutional and would not pass
the test
a compelling governmental interest test
before the U.S Supreme Court
so how do we change that but that's not
the only problem we also have because we
have our own system locally we also have
our own uh infrastructure attempted
infrastructure
to evaluate investigate and enforce
against our own campaign contribution
limits and our own policies at the
ordinance that is our local Ventura
County campaign Finance ethics
commission can any of you name the last
time that that ethics commission has
taken bold action against any candidates
or any independent expenditures or
against anybody you can't do you know
why because it's ineffective it truly is
it doesn't have full-time investigative
staff it doesn't have the backbones to
do what the fair political practices
commission can do in Sacramento which is
to evaluate to investigate and to
enforce and to impose those penalties on
elected officials and independent
committees
locally
um
the state of California also given this
infrastructure that they created given
this framework that they've created in
ab571 they every legislative cycle every
political cycle they take the time and
to evaluate
what what uh the right contribution
limits are for campaigns given the
growth in the economy given the cost of
living giving given inflation giving
livable wage and that we don't have that
ability at the county level we don't
have those experts we're not going to do
that evaluation every year because we
haven't done it since 2003 when the
original limit was set
the ability for ourselves to run our own
infrastructure here that the state of
California currently does already is
enormously would be enormously expensive
if we tried to do it if we tried to come
to to comply with Buckley vivallejo and
the and the requirements of
constitutionality that are opposed upon
governments who wish to impose upon
donors and candidates and independent
committees
any kind of uh contribution limits which
found
is a First Amendment right is is
political speech whether you believe in
that or not that's what our Supreme
Court says and that's the law of the
land and that's what we as a government
have to comply by
I won my election under the current
system this is not as this is not an
effort to change things
uh that would
make any outcomes any different
this is an effort to change things to
streamline to make constitutional to re
to to limit bureaucracy and redundancy
that has become very confusing for
voters
do you know if you want to find out a
contribution that was given to a county
politician you have to go to one site
but if you want to look at what
contribution was given to a state
legislator Jack Irwin or
or um
Henry Stern at the Senate level you have
to go to a separate website State
website
um
people don't understand
that there's a difference and it's very
difficult to ascertain who's giving who
to what unless you can create a One-Stop
shop where you can go to one set of
governmental records one portal one
oversight entity and find who's given
what to whom and when and how much
and that's what the state's ab571
framework does it creates a One-Stop
shop in many ways
um
it's been also said that 750 is is an
amount that a one can run a campaign on
it it it it sounds good but in the
enormity and the population size of the
districts that that we have to run in
and county-wide for some of the other
uh County of officials
the the amount of donations and the and
the fundraising ceiling that has been
created will not allow you to run an
effective campaign and get your word out
and to pay a staff to help you do that a
livable wage you just can't and I want
to point to one example
just one example of how I know that a
750 dollar contribution
um is not adequate
and that example is right here in this
document and that is that
in the primary of the last election
cycle former supervisor Linda Parks gave
us 750 contribution to one of the
candidates in the second district
and then in the general election
uh supervisor Linda Parks gave another
750 contribution to that same candidate
that was the maximum amount per person
well in October of last year just a
month before the election supervisor
Linda Parks took nine thousand nine
hundred dollars from her own supervisor
coffers left over
and funneled them into independent
expenditure committee that was created
in support of Claudia Bill de la Pena's
election
so the same person that just told us
that 750 is enough for a person to give
a contribution they gave over ten
thousand dollars to one person through
two different mechanisms
that's that should be an example enough
that 750 contribution per person is just
not adequate
to to to be able to to fund fully fund a
campaign that requires you to hire staff
and it requires you to to employ people
a livable wage that will allow them to
survive in the County of Ventura
the largest donors in the campaign that
I just ended
uh was not Big Oil I didn't take oil
money wasn't tobacco I don't take
tobacco money was wasn't Developers
it was labor unions it was labor unions
they were the largest contributors in
the election that I participated in
and that's okay maybe you need to give
to all kinds of different candidates
but they gave over four hundred thousand
dollars in my election through an
independent committee and they did so
because they could see the candidates
could not raise and spend and
communicate to a constituency what they
needed to given the amount of
contribution limits that are currently
and unconstitutionally enforced in the
County of Ventura
um
the point was made and it is a hundred
percent accurate is that there has been
a rise in dark money and independent
expenditures that have go that are going
on in every election cycle to achieve
outcomes because candidates cannot raise
the kind of resources that they need to
communicate themselves so other
organizations entities interest groups
step up and have to fill that void it
wasn't like that 10 years ago
there was a rarity of independent
expenditures of independent Committees
of these monies that were moving around
behind the scenes that wasn't the case
10 years ago
that is significantly the case now and
in fact the largest
contributor and expenditures made in the
last election cycle were done
independently not by any candidates
candidates
so I understand that there's concern
but I want you to know that what we're
suggesting what I'm suggesting
is that we participate in a framework
that was created
by A legislature and signed by a
governor Gavin Newsom
that will continue to work on that
Foundation that that infrastructure to
make sure it is the most transparent the
most accountable
the most visible for constituents to
find to look to make complaints
this is a system not created by us or by
some henchmen this is the California
state legislature and every single one
of your legislative delegation members
voted for it
every single one of them because they
looked down and they thought that this
Patchwork of different rules and
regulations
an ineffective oversight mechanisms like
the county ethics commission has been
it's just not
it's not fair it's not fair to
constituents
so if you think the contribution limit
shouldn't be fifty five hundred dollars
make that case to the California state
legislature they're the ones that
evaluated every two years they're the
ones that are going to look at what the
right contributions are
and what what makes sense in this state
of California
but right now
in my own District
it overlaps with the city council race
it overlapped with the city council race
and that city council raised that a
candidate for the fifth district
um could raise four thousand nine
hundred dollars because Camarillo
participates in that state state program
that state framework
but my the district I was running in I
had to communicate with 10 to 12 times
more constituents over a larger
geographic area
could only raise 750 from that same
contributor
it just doesn't make sense
so we have two choices we have two
choices
we can continue to build out a
bureaucracy that's duplicative that's
ineffective and that is absolutely
unconstitutional
or or we can
or we can do what most other counties
and most other cities are currently
doing and that is participating in the
framework created by democratically
controlled legislature and a
democratically controlled governor of
the state of California that makes sense
that's accountable that's open that's
transparent and that's fair to the
voters of this state
um
there's been there's been some hyperbole
today about about things but the most
important thing we can do
is to move forward with something that
creates transparency where people know
where money is coming from so you can
make decisions about which candidates
you want to support
and to move forward with a system that
reduces duplication
and creates
um
Clarity and consistency between what we
do locally
and what our legislators and the state
of California are doing and so that's
how we can that's how I came to this
position and that's how I think that
this County would be best benefited
thank you
supervisor apartment
well that's um very tough to follow I
didn't go to law school so
but you know I've heard a number of
people say today
that you won you know we've won our
elections so we won with the 750 dollar
limit what you don't know is how
difficult it is because most people
don't contribute 750 which is fine
because if you think and I'm just going
to talk for myself if you think that I
don't appreciate the 10 donation just as
much as I appreciate the 750 donation
you don't know me but I do
um when the county put together their
current ordinance in 2003 the state had
no rules
Ventura County creative rules that
protected the election process by
ensuring transparency and that makes
sense
but now the state is caught up and the
programs are working and they Place
limits and additional transparency on
local jurisdictions I know was running
for mayor
I could certainly receive a lot more
contributions than running for a
district supervisor
which doesn't make sense to me but
that's the way it is
the state has robust top-notch
investigators that specialize in
identifying abuse
more counties are following the fppc
rules and
it's the best way to protect our
taxpayers
we are duplicating the state's program I
know we mentioned that I know people
don't care for that but we are really
duplicating it we're not getting rid of
rules There are rules in place we're
just providing more access easy access
and it's not about raising limits it
really isn't it's about increasing
transparency and improving enforcement
through the state who has more resources
than we do
the state is the right enforcement arm
and former supervisor Steve Bennett
supported SB 1439 he voted yes on it and
yet during an opinion piece over the
weekend that I read he um made a comment
it was easy to get around so why would
you support it if it's easy to go around
fix it I'm sorry I just have to say that
it's about it's a this is about everyone
who runs for office not just one
political party not just one it's
everybody
and it's going to help the entire
process and it's going to affect all the
county offices not just this one
why do we have our own system when the
fppc has caught up
this will help all candidates running no
matter what party they represent
and that's my comments
thank you um
supervisor Lopez
thank you chair
um and I want to thank everyone who has
submitted letters and
expressed their their opinions and
comments uh today
especially those who are still sitting
here well after an hour of this
discussion
bringing a lot of points to this
discussion
that uh
make me question why we are doing this
when I have always taken pride in any
place that I am
a part of involved in especially as an
elected official on the school board on
city council to say we are doing better
we are leading to be stronger to be
fairer and not following others just
because that's the norm
and this is one of those opportunities
where Ventura County can continue to
lead can't continue to to represent the
people when elections are about
representing people
they are elections
for the people that we represent
they are elections about the people that
we represent and they are made by the
people we represent the very people who
live in this County
with this
recommendation to repeal the ordinance
it is disregarding
the power of people and voters
to have a voice in what is happening in
our community
making elections attainable and
accessible
not about how much money a person can
raise but having that voter engagement
and the further we raise a limit
is just continues continuing to move
the bar of how much money should be
raised
and disconnecting from the people and
engaging with people
I've ran four elections as a school
board member as a council member
and there is no better way to engage
with people than to be there in person
you don't need money for that
you just you need the time
repealing this ordinance doesn't mean
that independent expenditure committees
will go away
there's and I respectfully say this
there's there's flaws in in the reasons
that that have been presented
and this is something that I I cannot
cannot support
if this was an issue that should be
revised
then it should be up to voters
who are the voice in this community
we are their voice on this board
and as leaders in the cities that we
represent
this ordinance has been effective
and to
adopt
the state limits
that are applicable to our state
officials who represent larger districts
there is no comparison in the size of
the districts that we represent
each district in Ventura County has
about 167 000 residents
that is not comparable to a State
Assembly District and especially a
state-centered district that reaches a
million people
if this is something that should be
revised then why not take it to the
voters why not take it to the campaign
Finance campaign Finance ethics
Commission
so that there is an independent revision
of this of this ordinance
and bring it back to the board
thank you everyone for for being a part
of this at the opening of this board
meeting we had a presentation from the
League of Women Voters
who said their motto was about
empowering voters defending democracy
money should have no role in our
democracy when we're here to represent
people
so I cannot support this today thank you
[Applause]
um you know I really want to say thank
you to everyone who has either emailed
stopped me on the street
showed up at our our meeting today I
think this is really an important
discussion this isn't the first time
we've had discussion on this ordinance
as stated in the letter so thank you to
remind everybody of how many years we've
been discussing campaign finances
running a campaign this is a County
ordinance this doesn't affect just one
office I think people need to remember
that
I think there's another thing is thank
you for the taxpayers association of
transparency
having one location in which to find all
the information and to be very
transparent of who is making a donation
where is spending coming from I think
it's very helpful for our community and
I I value that the amount of websites
you have to jump through to find who did
what where when how can be very dis
ingenuous I think I've run through
campaigns personally I've seen fellow
colleagues run campaigns and if you're
not a politician and you're just trying
to serve the community I know it's very
hard to do and to make sure that we're
doing it in the right fashion I think is
really important
um I I do value what our state sets and
this this topic for the county we follow
many state ordinances I just want to
remind people of that whether it's
housing whether it's our Code Compliance
I mean we do a lot of different
ordinances that we follow State rules
and regulations so that's not abnormal
for us I just want to make sure that
people are aware of that
um what I what I do like is having
centralized system
that can really for the public for
transparency to have Camp to have public
records of your campaigns to do
complaint investigations to enforce
actions against candidates committees
and contributions those are key things
and I think those are very valuable
um I appreciate the staff presentation a
couple meetings this isn't the first
time we've had a few meetings ago that
show showed how cloudy what we have
versus the fppc is
and that concerns me I have great
concern of how what we have currently
set up to how people are held to the to
high regards on the state level so that
really you know if we're if you're
telling me to come Red Line what we
currently have versus what we have I
mean I think the cleanest way is to
follow what our fppc procedures are
because that's what we're held
accountable to and I and I really value
that democracy and we have how many
Democrats up at this state how many
Republicans bipartisan we have our very
own assemblyman that's voted for these
type of procedures I value their
experience as well
um so so I think this is this is an
important vote today but I think it's
really for all of our residents none of
us got voted in by the amount of money
that was provided to us
the people voted for the people they
wanted to have there has been races
where they lost by 19 votes four votes
it's it's your community is who elects
all of our elected whether it's our
Sheriff where are those tax collector so
to tell me that you only got voted
because the amount of money you spent
really disheartens me because I think
that every school board member every
College District every city council
member that that got elected was there
because they wanted to serve their
community so I I it really disheartened
by having people say well it was the
amount of dollars that they were given I
no there are so many people who would
never run for an election for many
reasons
so I want to First say thank you to
everyone who has served whether you're a
city council whether you're a school
board whether you're our wonderful tax
collector or Sheriff their amount of
things on that they do which is
extraordinary we have city council
members that spoke today you know so I I
just have to clear the air on some of
those things because I think that's
really important for us not to forget
what we're really talking about here
so um thank you for your time
well um I appreciate all of my
colleagues comments and I I really
appreciate all of the public feedback
in my opinion when the board passed this
ordinance in 2003 it it really put
itself forward to put Ventura County
forward as a leader in campaign Finance
reform and frankly that's a position I
would hate to give up
um true any ordinance that's 20 years
old it makes sense to take a look at to
to make minor tweaks and it's happened
several times already in the past 20
years
and you're one of the items being
discussed today is the individual limit
being 750 and we've seen the analysis
and yes we are way behind almost every
other county in the state so maybe we
can have a conversation about making
minor minor modifications there but I
don't think blowing up the whole
ordinance
is the path forward to get there um we
want to have that conversation I'm happy
to be part of that but I think the
ordinance itself Beyond just the
individual limits has some really
important uh safeguards in place you
know increased in extensive reporting
that increases transparency uh total
expenditure limits which which cap you
know the total amount that people the
candidates can spend
um you know all of those are I think are
apart from some of the discussion we're
having today and I would hate to give
those up just to talk about individual
limits and so as presented I I I can't
support an entire repeal of the
ordinance if there's ever a need to
discuss minor minor modifications to
certain parts of it I'm happy to be part
of that that conversation but uh as
presented today it's not something that
I can support
thank you Mr chair I'd move uh the the
item 44. I'm I'm sorry I need to close
the public here and I apologize okay go
ahead I'm sorry
it's closed yeah
then I'd move no item 44 for
um public hearing on the 28th of March
I'll I'll second
okay Madam Clerk
I'm going to read the title of the
ordinance into the record
it's an ordinance of the County of
Ventura repealing the Ventura County
campaign Finance reform ordinance
supervisor guerrell yes
supervisor long yes
supervisor Parvin yes
supervisor Lopez no
chair levere no
okay thank you
we have now finished our 10 10 30 time
certaints
yeah we would go to Dr Johnson are we
ready to proceed on item 46
the the UC UC Cooperative Extension
it's our first to be at 11. yeah
should we come back give us a moment
yeah two minute break yeah why don't we
oh he's here okay good
James
foreign
thank you
all right yeah so I'll call uh this is
our 11 A.M time certain
item 46 uh thank you for being here Mr
importante and uh please go ahead
I'll set a PowerPoint for this
all right well uh chairman levere Board
of Supervisors uh CEO Johnson I'm James
and portante program management analyst
with the county executive office's
budget and finance division here to
introduce to you Dr animique shoulder
director of our University of California
Cooperative Extension Ventura County
so she's not one to talk at length about
herself so I'm going to do that on her
behalf right now and so Dr shoulder's
passion for agriculture comes from her
family's long line of Dairy Farmers in
the Netherlands where she was inspired
by her grandfather and after completing
her primary secondary education she
completed undergraduate studies in
agronomy and developed a an appreciation
for Cajun culture
at the Louise University of Louisiana
Lafayette
she then pursued her Graduate Studies
and updated her Master's in PhD degrees
in Plant Pathology at Cornell University
and her professional Journey began in
Nigeria where for three years she worked
at The International Institute of
tropical agriculture focusing on
agricultural development
and then for 20 years she was a
professor for in small fruit pathology
at Michigan State University where she
conducted research on diseases of grapes
and Berry crops
and her work has involved collaboration
with a wide range of experts in the
fields of Entomology Horticulture plant
breathing breeding
agricultural economics and extension
education
and in 2018 she brought her talents and
expertise to our local Cooperative
Extension Office as a director and we
are grateful for her and her staff's
research and support of our local AG
industry its employees and education of
Youth and adults in our region so with
that please welcome Dr shoulder
I'm a huge fan I just have to say thank
you
thank you very much and good afternoon I
think it is by now
chairman Olivier
supervisor long Parvin Lopez and Dr
Johnson and also supervisor gorrell I'm
happy to be here I also want to thank
James it's been a really great analyst
to work with in the county
and I thank you for your time to let me
present our work plan for this year we
did submit the work plan in writing
um so there's a lot of detail in there
obviously I'm not going to go through
all that detail but I want to give you
some of the highlights and also explain
uh exactly what we do here
so hopefully this will go forward yes so
I want to uh obviously first say that we
are part of the the arm of the
University of California that's called
the division of agricultural natural
resources and the mission is to Surf
California through creation developing
an application of knowledge in
agricultural natural and human resources
and
we are part of a network of County
Extension offices in all the counties of
the of the state as well as those are
the red dots
um and then the green stars are research
and extension centers of which we also
have one in Ventura County so we're
really blessed to have the opportunity
to have a research center locally as
well and then we work closely with
Specialists which are professors at UC
Davis UC Berkeley and UC Riverside which
are the the
experiment station the the land grant
colleges but we also have Specialists
now located at UC Santa Barbara UC
Merced and other UC campuses
and we also run you may be familiar with
our Statewide programs like California
naturalists Master Gardener and 4-H
those are the more programs that use
volunteers and are present in many of
the counties of the state
so I'd like to share and this of course
you don't need to read all this but this
is our current uh organizational chart
we have about 20 staff right now a bit
reduced from a few years ago
and I just want to explain that the blue
boxes are advisors so Farm advisors that
have masses or phds that work in the
county do research and extension the
green boxes are Community Education
Specialists
who work also with the community to such
as coordinators of the Master Gardener
program and 4-H and such the red boxes
are supervisors and the yellow boxes are
administrative and Farm staff as well as
staff research Associates
and I just want to
add that the the current the red boxes
indicate staff positions that are under
recruitment or are being hired so on the
left you have a new entomology advisor
and a new Horticulture advisor that
we've been waiting for we haven't had an
entomologist in 14 years and we have a
lot of insect problems in the county
and also in Horticulture the Nursery and
Greenhouse industry is in need of of
advice and research so those are we were
very grateful that we got funding
through a state funding that was
championed by Senator Laird that really
allowed us to rebuild our footprint of
advisors in the county really over the
last 25 years the number of advices in
the state was
reduced by about half so each person is
trying to do more but we really cannot
address the issues in each County
because we just don't have the human
power to deal with it to the right we
have a new academic coordinator who we
hope to hire who would also
connects our agricultural education or
the institutions in the county that do
act education to try and streamline
online and develop career paths we have
many organizations doing AG education in
the county but we don't have any really
coordination between them and I think we
can benefit from that and then we loaded
our two Community Education specialist
positions that I will talk about in a
little bit
also we do have a cross-county advisors
that are based in other counties and do
have some responsibilities in Ventura
County for instance Chris Greer in San
Luis Obispo helps us with integrated
Pest management issues
is an agriculture Economist in San
Bernardino County and she also can help
us with some some issues and Liliana
Vega is a 4-H advisor in San Luis Obispo
who helps us conduct more Outreach in
Hispanic communities in the county
so we get a little bit of time from them
it's it's looks like we have a lot of
coverage but we still need more people
so just to summarize some of the things
that we are doing in the in the coming
fiscal year so 23-24 I'm just gonna just
focus on
uh some of the the big issues we have a
pest called the Diamondback moth in coal
crops that's
devastating in in cold crops and also
um
you know is responsible for a lot of
pesticide applications and so we we're
working on that to try and understand
how we can reduce that pest to the right
you see our advisor Matthew Shapiro our
livestock and range advisor uh working
on prescribed Burns and that's one of
the he's developing the prescribed burn
Association in the county on the bottom
left you can see actually an avocado
Orchard with a pollination Hedgerow so
we we're really trying to look more at
the ecology and increase biodiversity
and especially for climate smart
agriculture so that's an area we're
focusing on and to the right you can see
celery growing in a field we have some
serious soil-borne diseases fungi that
live in the soil that kill celery as
well as strawberries
end up having you can lose a lot of crop
and in strawberries is responsible for a
lot of the fumigation chemical
fumigation that occurs in the county so
again we have really working on those
trying to evaluate resistant cultivars
to you know to have non-chemical
approaches
um on the top left you can see a picture
of a long term lemon
rootstock and cyan trial where we're
working with University of Riverside and
other universities to try and get some
higher performing lemon varieties and
this takes a lot of years to do so we
have Ben Faber our advisor is doing a
lot of work in that
to the right we have Master Gardeners at
the agriculture Museum in Santa Paula
they they've been there five years now
said Amber garden and this year coming
year we'll have a new crop of Master
Gardener trainees about 35 that we're
educating they go through a lot of
training to be able to work in the
county
4-H to the bottom left where we'll have
the fair again this year and we hope
next year as well so we've lost a lot of
members clubs especially club members
through
covids but we're trying to rebuild and
expand our programs as well and to the
right is actually a picture of the
Ventura County tree Coalition we joined
the Coalition when clay Downing was
still there with the county
sustainability program and we hope to
encourage tree planting and Tree Care in
the county in collaboration with a lot
of other organizations
hmm
excuse me so
um
as you know the Ventura County General
plan 2020 2040 we were involved in some
of the discussions with the AG
commissioner we are supporting as our
organization the different AG element
categories such as the specialty farming
education nutrient management plans
water saving irrigation techniques
encourage and facilitate carbon farming
research on effects of climate change
and subsidies for the resilient Crop
Production now many of these areas were
still we need to do work we need people
on the ground so we're in the process of
hiring starting the recruitment of some
of the positions that would support
these categories in the AG elements
and we're very appreciative of the
funding that has been allotted to us to
to hire these people
and so these are in in the tan color or
orange that those are the positions that
are in that budget that was allotted to
us to support the AG elements and one of
them is a climate researcher
who will research climate change
indicator specifically for Ventura
County in collaboration with a professor
at UC Merced
um we hope to hire an agro-ecology super
advisor who will work on regenerative
agriculture biodiversity carbon
sequestration and things like that we
also hope to hire an agriculture
engineering advisor we really do need a
lot more application of agricultural
technology and precision agriculture
robotics
to deal with labor issues as well
and the two next Educators a climate
resilience educator and the on-farm
technology educator is a bilingual
educator those were two educated
positions that we were able to use the
county funding as a match to get a match
from UCA R for the next three years to
hire these people so having this new
funding from the county helped us to
hire is helping us to hire these new
people and we're currently in the
process of recruiting the climate
educator who will also work with the Cal
naturalist program
and the on-farm technology indicator
will educator will be a bilingual
educator who will really work Hands-On
on farms to train the people that work
there that really are doing all the work
in irrigation and spray application and
things like that who tend to be left out
in some of our extension work because of
the language barrier
um and then the other positions in blue
the academic coordinator and a master
food preserver educator we hope to fund
through the Thelma Hansen fund but also
we'll be working with our new staff
so there's a lot still going to happen
and the university works very slowly so
we are cranking slowly through the
process
so the other big news is that you may
have heard is that we are moving the
Hanson agricultural research and
Extension Center to a new location
will be sad to leave the Faulkner Farm
it was a wonderful place a 27 Acre Farm
to do research and a lot of school field
trips we had farm field trips over the
years a lot of research was done there
but we need to increase our capacity so
we're moving to the rights I don't know
if this actually works oops I see
upright is our current location and
we're moving to Camarillo the bottom
right and on a much larger farm and
there's going to be a lot of the
transition our actual move over the next
six months is going to take a lot of our
time to actually physically move and
then start to develop the new site this
is a bit more of a close-up of the
particular
Farm it's next to the Ventura youth
correctional facility that is closing I
understand this year
as well as the California Conservation
Corps and we hope to have some
collaboration with them as well and it's
a more central location in many ways as
well as you know providing a lot more
land for us to to develop
we hope to develop a research facility a
research and education facility over the
next four to five years it will still
has has to be designed but it will
contain offices conference rooms
Laboratories greenhouses
um field facilities like a compost
Training Center we hope a biological
control research facility and a fire
science lab
so we um
excuse me
there's a lot of ideas that we we have
there that we hope also if you have any
ideas you want to us to consider we'd
like to hear from you
um so there's a lot going to happen in
the next next year
um and we really thank you for your
support for the financial and moral
support that we've received from the
Board of Supervisors and we really look
forward to working with the county on a
lot of the uh the the aspects of the
general plan so thank you very much
well Dr shelter thank you so much for
being here and for all your important
work that you're doing as part of the
extension uh supervisor okay so I have
been so excited working with this your
program since
um 14 years ago I was a mom with a
daughter going into kindergarten and
they didn't have any garden boxes at the
school and so I connected with the UC
Hanson group and the Master Gardeners
and a Boy Scout trip and we built 17
garden boxes at the La Mariposa
Elementary School and I was first
provided this wonderful location for
free seeds for gardeners and to educate
our kids then I found out that we had
free tours for our schools so I
connected with the teachers and
everything we got all these kids to do
school trips out and the joy that the
students had for finding out where a
carrot came from that it wasn't in a
plastic bag and I think about this and I
go holy oh my gosh like we are the one
of the top agriculture counties and we
have our very own students that think
carrots can be little perfect sizes in a
plastic bag and the education that
you're you do is just extraordinary just
to give free tours for our students I
really am excited I'm unfortunate you're
moving but I'm excited because it's a
more hub for all of our school districts
to really get there especially when we
have hard costs with bussing and so
forth and then also the Master Gardeners
we have programs here with the bees and
with pesticides and the lemon trees and
we have these ordinances in our general
plans that we need assistance and
educating for our community and I think
that you do that very well and helping
us also with water conservation how do
we water how do we get healthy soils is
it composting is it doing the teas
there's a lot of great things that is a
resource to our community that I hope we
can get more people to know about what
you do because it's it's very valuable
and we have so many farms that I think a
reward for it and it's a huge business
here
and so I'm very proud to have your
facility in my district because I can
see that I mean we just have the Healthy
nutrition month it touches base from
food to table what you do is extremely
valuable it helps our hospital system if
we have healthy people they they live
longer lives you know and it's what you
eat and how you do things so I just want
to say thank you I really value the
education to our community in so many
different ways and so
I'm fully supportive of your new
location so far so thank you
thank you supervisor along supervisor
apartment yes um I think that was the
most enjoyable report that I've read in
the entire book as I was reading through
it I didn't know any of the insects so
of course I had to look them up
um it was really fascinating how many
horrible insect insects are impacting
our County Agriculture I mean I knew of
some of them but you you named a number
of them that I'd never heard of but the
work that you're doing is significant
when it comes to reducing costs for egg
um and keeping us competitive here in
Ventura County and the state so I
appreciate that work and um I just
wanted to thank you thank you for that
hey welcome thanks
all motion to approve staff
recommendation
receiving fun yep
is it receiving file can we confirm okay
a second
supervisor
yes
supervisor loan
yes and reach out to my office if you
need more assistance as things go along
thank you thank you
supervisor Parvin yes supervisor Lopez
yes Jerry levere yes thank you again Dr
shoulder really appreciate you being
here
why don't we do item 47 real quick I see
Mr Abilene back there and then um we
will uh break we I know we have to do
some setup for apcd so we can break and
we'll do a closed session item in that
in that little interim period but this
is item 47. it is a public hearing I'll
open the public hearing take it away
good afternoon chair levere members of
the board CEO Johnson for the record my
name is Robert Apollo with the Labor
Relations Division of the county
executive office
I'm here before you to request that your
board commence a public hearing on the
adoption of agreements to the
memorandums of agreement
between the County of Ventura and the
nine bargaining units listed in your
board letter
and to set a second hearing for March 28
2023
previously your board approved
amendments effective March 22nd 2020 two
agreements with the nine unions
representing County Employees allowing
for a period of natural disaster to
accrue in excess of 60 hours
of their original applicable maximum
accrual limits these amendments also
provided within six months from the date
of the end of the declared natural
disaster such excess accrued leave
amounts would be required to be drawn
down by use of cash payment or leave
Redemption the value of all hours in
excess of the applicable maximum accrual
limits would be lost if not done in that
six-month period of time however at this
time the amendments were approved it was
unforeseen that the declared natural
disaster would be in place for almost
three years or that the impact of the
pandemic would create the dramatic labor
shortages we're now seeing
as such we recommend that amending the
referenced moas to allow an extension of
time to December 31st 2023 for employees
to continue to accrue the excess leave
acros previously approved by your board
and to Grant an extension of time to
utilize the excess hours by additional
four months also December 31st 2023.
we anticipate this additional time will
allow employees to request more than
normal time off of work thereby
preventing potential operational issues
at the county agencies and this will
help during the current labor shortage
concludes my comments I'm available to
respond to any questions you may have
any questions this time no any public
comments
okay then I will close the Public Public
hearing and return it to the board
chair I'll move staff's recommendation
oh second
supervisor yes
supervisor loan yes supervisor Parvin
yes supervisor Lopez yes chair levere
yes thank you Mr Ebola thank you
so why don't we uh recess and get set up
for apcd um Miss North do we have any
announcements before going into closed
session yes thank you chair we'll we
will now be going into closed session on
items 48 through 54 as indicated on the
agenda uh just to notify everyone there
will be no discussion on items 55 or 56
today as it was no longer needed thank
you
thank you we'll see everybody after apcd
okay
thank you good afternoon I'd like to
call to order the apcd meeting for March
14 2023
Madam Clerk rocom
here but remember gorrell
here board member levier here board
member long here board member Lopez here
board member McLean LaJohn here or
remember Mendes
board member Parvin here
board member Whitman
chair zaragosa here
okay so we have a quorum right yes we do
okay our next item is the Pledge of
Allegiance and I'd like to ask our
council member Martha McQueen or John to
lead us in the flag salute to our flag
pledge
of America and to the Republic for which
it stands one nation
indivisible with liberty and justice for
all
foreign
thank you our next item is item number
four that's the minutes the minutes have
the air pollution control board for
health for 2C the 14th of February
any concerns with the minutes or we need
a motion of approval Mr chair the motion
by Matt lavier I'll second second by Mr
Parvin roll call second Parvin
board member campus proof
foreign yes board member levere yes
board member long yes
board member Lopez yes
foreign
yes board member Parvin yes and chairs
Zaragoza yes
thank you
our next item is item number five this
is agenda review and if any board
members have any items I'd like to add
remove or continue from the air
collusion Control District agenda
board members
I can't confirm chairs there we go so
there have been no changes to the agenda
okay thank you Mr zaragosa yes I need to
check with County Council appears our
video broadcast has been interrupted but
we have audio
um
I don't know if we need to take a recess
under the current rules to rectify the
video issues
okay can you go ahead and want to share
that
yeah let's take a break and see what the
issue is and um we'll get right on top
of it
so we're okay
let's take a quick break okay
we can keep going while the clerk
figures out what the issue is so the
board can continue to meet okay yeah
as long as all the members of the board
are here in person
um so so we're okay then that's right
okay
so then our
Madam clerk we ready
thank you our next item is uh the public
comments do we have any public comments
on this on the apcd board
at this time
to the members of our public wish to
address the board today with live public
comment on any agenda item please visit
ventura.org forward slash cob forward
slash apcb for participation information
sorry my microphone went out for persons
in Person Public comment please check in
with the clerk of the board staff if
you're on Zoom please press the raise
hand button and chairs there goes at
this time we have no members of the
public requesting to speak
okay thank you
okay our next item then is uh item
number seven board member comments
okay I have a comments group that I'd
like to share with you and I was talking
to her our County console is uh that I
will not be able to attend the March
28th apcd special meeting because uh I
have a city council meeting that day and
am I okay then does that count against
me are there that's one what's your
priorities
it yeah
as long as the Quorum of the board is
present on that day that's all that's
needed to approve the item
so some Matt says I'm okay thank you so
much
okay thank you know the board member
comments
not at all okay so we next item is item
eight and this is air pollution control
apcd comments Mr Ali
you have any comments no comments
thank you
then our next item is a regular agenda
item this is a receiving file a status
report regarding the district's
application for a section 103 Grant from
the U.S environmental impact agency I'm
sorry I misunderstood to I thought maybe
you want me to make any comment
regarding other items yes I have it okay
go ahead yes I apologize that's okay
APC the executive officer in regard to
personal personnel and vacancies we are
still in the process of reviewing
application and scheduling hiring
interviews for the qualified applicants
in regard to apcd programs all divisions
are continuing working on their
respective tasks
and regarding our operation state has
lifted the covet state of emergency as
of February 28 as such starting April
3rd we are going to have one day of
teleworking plus one day of flex hours
as we had before providing the team with
more problem-solving collaboration
engagement opportunities as well as
better serving our communities
regarding apcd vessel speed Reduction
Program we are planning to become a
co-sponsor of Bill AB
953 which was introduced by Connelly and
Hart which will develop a Statewide
voluntary vessel speed reduction and
sustainable shipping program for
California coast to reduce air pollution
the risk of fatal deaths vessels strikes
on Rails and harmful underwater acoustic
impact the bill is referred to assembly
water parks and Wildfire abbreviated by
wpw on March 28th
I would like also to inform you that we
are awarded a new standing Standalone
grant for 159
242 on their cleaner act inflation
reduction act funding that support
activities of 103 Grand which will be
used for new air monitoring equipment
and activities that's all I had and I'm
ready to take any question you may have
thank you any questions go ahead Bob Mr
Casimir will you be able to to speak in
favor of that I mean when it comes to
the the commission yes maybe some of us
can't I mean just to show the impacts of
what it's done for us locally the air
quality here yes actually there was a
lot of activities that has been
completed by Ventura County apcd Bay
Area Santa Barbara to reach out to
elected officials and Bay area's effort
finally got we got somebody to authorize
the legislative active action that we
were looking for yes we are maybe you
can let us know how we can can
participate if
we are preparing a supporting letter for
your signature
thank you Mr chair if I can just ask for
the bill number again
953 AB 953
okay any additional comments questions
I'm surely
thank you no problem our next item in is
item number nine this is receiving file
the report regarding the district
application for section 103 Grant from
the U.S Environmental Protection Agency
surely yes
yes for the record I leave a
semi-executive officer Ventura County
apcd this item is just received on file
this is to inform you that the district
has submitted the grand application to
EPA for the continued fund continued
funding of the Nationwide fine
particulate monitoring Network in the
amount of 71 500 on March 1st 2023 for
your background on December 13 1994 your
board approved authorization for APCO to
submit applications for EPA grants on
January 11 2000 your board also approved
authorization for the APCO to accept and
execute Grant award offers for EPA
grants as long as it doesn't exceed the
prior year's award or the amount
approved in the budget by more than 20
percent that's all I have and I am ready
to take any questions any questions
um
okay no none okay so if we did a motion
is I know it's a receiving filed and we
still need a motion
a little approval to receive a file and
now second look Lopez first second by
long rocom
thank you board member compost yes
board member gorrell yes remember Lavere
yes or remember long yes board member
Lopez yes board member McQueen Le John
yes board member Parvin yes and board
member Zaragoza yes
okay
thank you so that motion has passed the
next item's item 10 authorize uh the
approval of 43 Grand funding requests
for new AG air quality uh projects under
the coral Moyer Memorial air quality
standards uh attainment
programs holding 4 million 72 108 and
this requires a a six affirmative uh of
boats so
go ahead thank you good afternoon chair
zaragosa members of the board my name is
Tyler Harris I'm division manager with
the district
this item requests approval of 43 grants
for Carl Moyer program
staff received 86 total applications for
projects through the incentive programs
in 2022 applications requested grant
funding for to replace 105 pieces of
diesel agricultural equipment
seven pieces of off-road diesel
equipment not agricultural
six diesel school buses install four
electric charging infrastructure
projects and repower seven commercial
marine vessels
total grant funding requested
by applicants was 14 million four
hundred forty thousand one hundred and
twelve dollars today we are requesting
board approval of 69 qualified
agricultural off-road equipment
replacement projects
total Grant value of four million
seventy two thousand one hundred into
eight dollars with a total cost of 7
million
four thousand five hundred and one
dollars including the applicant cost
share
this is the 24th year the district has
administered the Carl Moyer program
total Grant award for fiscal year
2021-22 was five million 960
186 dollars this is an exceptional
Grant award for the the Carl Moyer
program and it was due to delays in the
state legislature approval of uh
authorization to increase Moyer funding
to air districts the year 25 Carnival
program Grant
to the district total award was three
million one hundred and
120 475 so that's the fiscal year 2223
amount and we expect it to be about that
going forward from from here on okay the
staff will administer the grant
agreements and ensure contract
requirements are met prior to making
Grant payments completed projects will
be monitored according to the car motor
program guidelines
for the life of the grant agreement and
that's all I have happy to answer any
questions thank you board member long
yes I'm very excited about this project
I think it's really great for our
businesses one and schools what I'd like
to ask is the timing in which the next
cycle of Grants happen is there any way
to
um
make sure like for buses that we do it
before school starts or uh before they
they're using their tractors for
harvesting so that we we can get them
the latest greatest equipment when
they're using it the most so I think we
can hopefully speed it up a little bit
this cycle because like I said that was
a
double the amount of money we would
normally receive and so it just there
was a it took a long time to get through
the inspection processes and and the
application reviews
um
we tried to
get this step approved in like November
or December for a normal Grant cycle and
we're obviously we're in March so it was
a little bit delayed but
um
one of the things that that happens
especially now is with the uh the the
supply side issues is that you know we
we're still finishing Grant projects
from last year that were approved in
March and you know they're just now
getting the equipment available so
um we'll do our best to
expedite the review of the applications
we we start we will open for new
applications in March at the end of
March so just in a few weeks and we give
give the applicants until like the first
week of June okay I just thought it was
helpful for us to understand even though
with grants you know you think they come
and the money is there but there's a lag
with supplies and then getting the
applications and all that kind of stuff
and I was just hopeful that for the next
process we can line it up
um accordingly so appreciate you looking
into it sure thank you thank you good
point board members any I'm sorry any
other questions no then I I would
support this staff recommendation thank
you motion by uh long second second by
Parvin roll call
board member compost yes remember Grill
yes remember Lavere yes remember long
remember Lopez yes foreign
yes for member Parvin yes and chairs
aragosa yes
okay
thank you okay our next item is item 11.
this is adoption of resolution
reactivating one classification of apcd
public information manager and amend the
classification title to apcd publication
information officer established one
vacant position of apcd
public information officer and all that
um
I'll leave finish arrest because sure
for the record Alex semi-executive
officer Ventura County APC Dean the item
that I have before you is to adopt the
resolution effective March 19th to react
if the Pio position public information
officer position as this position was
deleted in 2017 and replaced with
non-management classification
the second request is we are requesting
your board to amend the classification
title of apcd public information manager
to apcd public information officer
this is this was based on further review
of Just job responsibilities and
recommendation of HR and finally the
third request is we are requesting your
birth to establish one vacant position
classified as apct public information
officer
then there is another item that also we
would like for your board to consider we
are requesting your board to amend the
salary range of the apcd office systems
coordinator for classification
and this is because the apcd office
system coordinator which refers to as
osc series of one two four
series was created in 1997.
which followed the same title job duties
position level and salary ranges as the
counties office system coordinator
series
staff has determined that the salary
range of apcd Osco sc4 is the same as
the salary of the apcd osc 3 level like
it hasn't been changed so we are
requesting to change it accordingly so
we it's going to match the counties
classification level
and finally we would like to adopt we'll
be we are requesting your board to adopt
the proposed amendment to the apcd
management resolution by first adding
the Pio classification second updating
section
1404-a to provide additional two days of
unpaid bereavement leave of absence and
amend section 1204 with an effective
date of March 1st 23 and third by
allowing a four months extension to
utilize the additional 60 hours leave
time allowed due to covid-19 to the
deadline obviously extending it to
December 31st 2023. to provide you with
the little background on September 29
2022 California code government code was
amended per
ab1949 to provide employees with
additional two days of bereavement leave
without pay due to covet 19.
I'd like to point out that the county
will continue to pay for the three days
bereavement leave as allowed and allow
the employee to take additional two days
of unpaid Improvement leave
also on March 22nd 2020 your board
approved an amendment to management
resolution to allow employee to occur up
to
additional 60 hours in excess of their
maximum allowable limit During the
period of national declared disaster
declared by the board of supervisor such
as covet 19.
the employees were also required to
exhaust these additional hours within
the six months after the end of declared
natural disasters
with termination of covid-19 pandemic on
February 28 2023 employees maximum
allowable leave return to their
pre-pandemic limits and they
and they have six months window to
utilize these additional leave hours
which gives them till August we are
requesting to extend it for another four
months to make the deadline to December
31st 2023. that's all I have and I'm
ready to take any question you may have
thank you any any questions
there's you mean December 31st 2023 yes
okay just confirm thank you yeah
um
no question just to calm down you know
we've been talking about the importance
of this Pio position for a while now and
just I don't think the public has a full
appreciation for everything that apcd
does and the the contributions it makes
you know bring an awareness to the Carl
Moyer program to the vessel speed
Reduction Program all of the things the
apcd is doing to impact air quality here
and I hope this position is really able
to get that out and bring awareness to
all of the good work being done I'm sure
it will but thank you yes
and I think that's a good point too
because uh that Pio can convey a lot of
the messages that were to the unserved
community too which I think is really
really important of course thank you
okay board members
um
I just want to make the comment that I I
saw you at our um the Ventura Council of
government meeting you gave a
presentation to us and you emphasize the
importance and the need for your Pio so
I just want you to know you've sold me
at that meeting
okay thank you so much so we have a
first by board member levere second by
second Clive McQueen Okay roll call
thank you thank you for the presentation
too
board member comp o yes or member
gorrell yes I remember levier yes board
member long yes
yes board member Lopez yes remember
McQueen Le John yes board member Parvin
yes and chair Zaragoza yes
okay so the motion is passed our next
item last item is a public hearing
concerning the adoption of amendments
would be effective dates of March 1 2023
to 2020 225 an mou agreement between the
county Ventura SEIU union and 2025
memorandum between the county Ventura
and Tibetan and um they should take it
over from there appreciate it thank you
so when I open the public hearing now um
okay I'm gonna open the public again go
ahead thank you good afternoon sure
there goes the members of the board for
the record my name is Robert abalov with
the Labor Relations Division of the
county executive office I'm here before
you to request that your board commence
of public hearing on the adoption of the
amendment between uh two memorandums of
agreement SEIU and vea with the district
and to set a second hearing on March
28th so similar to what you just heard
what we're requesting here is the
additional use of 60 hours in that time
frame uh moving to December excuse me
December 31st 2023 and given the ability
for the employees to accrue that time
between now and then and then giving the
employees the ability to also draw down
that time by an additional four months
between now and then this is due to the
labor shortages that we're now seeing
and it's also due to the pandemic going
a lot longer than we anticipated uh
three years is quite some time we're
happy to be through it but we do want to
give the employees the opportunity to
draw down those Bank hours this
concludes my comments and I'm happy to
answer any questions you may have you
okay any questions
second by Marvin roll call
and I'm going to close the public
hearing
and this is to set the next hearing date
for uh March 28th yes March 28th yes I
remember compost yes remember Garrell
yes remember Lavere yes I remember long
yes I remember Lopez yes remember
McQueen Le John yes remember Parvin yes
cheers zaragosa yes
thank you thank you
okay so that's the last item so uh
we are any any other comments we're
going to be adjourned and we have a
standing committee meeting but after
this and we have a
civilizer Lopez
supervisor Jeff and councilwoman McQueen
standing committee so right after it
okay thank you so we're adjourned
all right welcome back everyone we are
going to continue with our regular
agenda uh starting with item 30 a
recommendation to supervisor girl
thank you Mr chair
um this is really I would just describe
this as kind of a cleanup measure
I'm asking the board to act to help us
um expand our map boundary for the
municipal advisory committee that makes
up the Santa Rosa Valley
um there are two homes that were in
accidentally left out of the Mac
boundaries
they were excluded but they're all but
they are considered part of the Santa
Rosa Valley and part of that kind of
voting Precinct
um there's also a an area that is also
part of Santa Rosa Valley and part of
this Precinct there are no homes
currently built there but if there are
ever any homes that are built there we
want to also make sure that that's
included in the Santa Rosa Valley Mac
map
so that those folks can participate in
Mac elections if they want to be on the
Mac board and that they're considered
part of that community so that's what
this measure is uh 30 and I would just
ask my colleagues to to help us expand
the map and include a couple additional
homes thank you
I would move this matter
stop the resolution move the resolution
I'll second
supervisor girl yes supervisor long yes
supervisor Parvin yes supervisor Lopez
yes chair levere yes
and item 31 is a recommendation of
supervisor long thank you very much I am
pleased
please as many know Gordon Kimball has
resigned from that spot he is just big
shoes to fill and I taking this moment
just to talk about how tremendous Lisa's
skills that are she is a sixth
generation Ventura County farmer and has
been in the business with her whole life
she has a degree from Cal Poly San Luis
Obispo an architecture business and a
master's degree in public administration
she is currently oversees the production
of 800 acres of Farmland in Ventura
County and she's on a numerous
agriculture committees around the state
I'd like to really just say thank you
for her continued dedication to serve
our community and I'm very honored to
have her want to serve on this capacity
as well so I motion to approve
I'll second thank you
supervisor girl yes
supervisor long yes supervisor Parvin
yes supervisor Lopez yes chair levere
item 32 is a recommendation of
supervisor Parvin
thank you I want to put forth the parks
advisory committee Bruce Thomas I'm
asking that he be appointed to the
Parks advisory committee because for
many reasons for one he was on the Santa
Monica Mountains Conservancy Advisory
board he has a long background in parks
and also a Water Works District 17 I'm
recommending Chris schubeck to be
appointed to the Water Works District
17. Chris is a Bell Canyon resident with
the ba and Ms degree in engineering
he's also a lawyer
and I believe he will bring unique
solutions to his community water needs
using his extensive engineering
background and he'll be an incredible
asset to the committee also for
Waterworks District 17 I'd like to
reappoint Gregory McHugh to Waterworks
District 17. I sincerely appreciate the
time and commitment Gregory has shown in
working with this committee he's done an
excellent job and I'm happy to recommend
his appointment I greatly appreciate all
of their interests in volunteering their
services to our County and with that
I'll put forth a more motion a second
is that you supervisor grow yes
supervisor Grill yes supervisor loan yes
supervisor Parvin yes supervisor Lopez
yes chair levere yes and then lastly
item 33 a recommendation of supervisor
Lopez thank you Mr chair I have a
recommendation
reappoint Bobby Jones to
to troll policy advisory committee Mr
Jones is a third generation farmer in
Ventura County and provides a is a
valuable addition to uh to the APAC
especially as a strawberry grower so I
respectfully request support to
reappoint Mr Jones to this committee
I'll second
we activate 33 Mia
on the meeting
supervisor Lopez you motioned to approve
and second
thank you supervisor guerrell yes
supervisor long yes and this is a great
choice thank you very much
supervisor Parvin yes supervisor Lopez
yes Gerald levere yes thank you I know I
was flying through those things you're
keeping up that's okay
at item 34 is a proposed adoption of a
resolution
um or and I will turn it over to Ms
North for this item thank you chair
four is the number resolution adopting a
policy statement to strongly encourage
contractors to hire locally and use a
skilled and trained Workforce uh with in
the meaning of the public contract court
for uh orphan and idle well projects and
plugging in abandonment projects to
implement a settlement agreement between
the county and the California Works
Labor Management cooperation trust
CalWORKs this resolution is being
brought to you as part of a settlement
agreement with regard to the general
plan litigation and we the county county
council's office has negotiated a
settlement with CalWORKs as part of the
CalWORKs offered suggestions regarding
the County's Emergency Operations plan
and catastrophic Wildfire action after
action report that the county staff
found acceptable that's also included in
the settlement agreement which is
attached to the board item but as part
of the settlement CalWORKs has requested
that your board adopt this resolutions
strongly encouraging private contractors
under the resolution the county would
also adopt make the adopted resolution
available on the County's website and
provide a copy of the resolution to
operators of idle wells in in the county
and also to the California geologic
Energy Management Cal Gem and we would
request that private contractors when
applying for County issued permits for
covered oil well-related construction
practice construction work notify the
county whether or not they will be
implementing these encouraged hired
practices this does not require private
contractors to take any specific action
and also the proposed settlement does
not make or involve any changes to the
general plan itself so should your board
adopt the attached resolution the
settlement agreement between the county
and Cal Works will take effect and Cal
Works will dismiss their lawsuit with
both parties bearing their own
litigation costs and fees
thank you
any uh questions on this one or a motion
to approve chair lever we have one
public comment oh yeah I'm sorry thank
you have Christina Carl that will have
it promote
hi Christina we can see you with your
hand if we're going to have it promote
you to a panelist
okay so once you mute your mic you'll
have three minutes to speak
hi Christina if you would meet your mic
you'll have three minutes to speak
thank you
can can you hear me Madam Clarke we can
hear you please proceed
thank you good afternoon chair liver and
members of the board my name is
Christina Carrow I'm an attorney
representing California Works Labor
Management cooperation trust as you know
the California Works has a pending
lawsuit against the county challenging
the general plan 2040 policies related
to Wildfire impacts and related to oil
and gas production we are pleased to
report that based on recent discussions
with the county we have uh achieved a
settlement that is presented to the
board today for approval
um this settlement would modify
practices within the county office of
emergency services to improve Wildfire
emergency notification and Reporting in
the county it would also result in a new
county-wide resolution which encourages
the hire of local contractors for oil
and gas well plugging and abandonment
approving the settlement will result in
more robust emergency Wildfire
protections for County residents it will
help ensure that the closure of
hazardous and abandoned oil and gas
Wells is performed by a skilled local
Workforce encouraging the use of a
skilled and trained Workforce and local
State Certified apprenticeship programs
helps to ensure quality work protects
against accidents and can help
demonstrate emissions reductions from
reduced travel
approving the settlement will also
resolve the California Works lawsuit and
is fully supported by County staff and
County Council it also does not require
any amendments or changes to the general
plan as staff explained so we greatly
appreciate the County's willingness to
engage with California works on these
issues and we respectfully request that
the board approve the settlement
agreement and adopt the proposed
resolution today
thank you Christina
I would just like to thank Christina and
her team for their work on this as well
thank you Miss Carl and any other
questions or comments or action
Cheryl move approval and thank you for
bringing this forward and uh coming to
us at all announce second
supervisor girl yes supervisor loan yes
supervisor Parvin yes supervisor Lopez
yes Jerry levere yes
takes us to item 35 which is the
approval of American Rescue plan act
recovery funds budget adjustment
recommendations with this we have Mr
kumazawa good afternoon
CEO Johnson Mike kumazawa with the CEO's
office budget and finance
uh I'm here today to present item 35 uh
which are recommendations to authorize
certain accounting transactions related
to the American Rescue plan act funding
and state and local fiscal Recovery Fund
um these recommendations before your
board today are really just one of uh
many steps in going back to March of
2021 when the American Rescue plan Act
was passed and the multiple uh report
backs and updates that we have given
your board really now for almost two and
a half years now
and most recently the October and
December actions by your board the
recommendation in October in action by
your board was to approve the American
Rescue plan act funding plan and
projects
um basically how the county was going to
spend 164 million dollars and then the
action in December was to approve the
funding strategy to use and Report arpa
under that treasury category uh
provision of government services uh
which basically allowed the county to
spend arpa directly on County costs and
then the general fund Surplus on those
projects uh directly
and so
today as I mentioned there's two
recommendations related to those actions
the first recommendation is the
recognition of that Revenue so bringing
in approximately 104 million of the 164
a million dollars from the arpitrust
into the general fund and then
recommendation two is the the parallel
action parallel action to that which is
appropriating that Revenue to a majority
of those projects in the funding plan
um so why is this coming to your board
today well well two reasons one is the
county has reached a point in terms of
timing both where many of the projects
and the the funding plan are ready now
for this this funding and so the
budgetary uh actions are needed and
we've also reached a significant sort of
amount in terms of cost obviously 104
million is a significant amount of money
and so we're trying to bring this all um
in in kind of one big action
um for efficiency and administrative
ease the second question you might have
is why 104 million and not 164.
um we're trying to keep the cost that
we're going to use this for and report
to treasury within this fiscal year even
though arpa goes back to 2021 and we
could technically claim costs going back
to that far we don't really want to do
that if we don't have to that would
complicate prior year financial
reporting and and necessitate some
complicated adjustments that we really
we don't you know want to do if we don't
have to and so we're doing 104 million
now we expect to come back to your board
probably around the end of the fiscal
year so in the few months by that point
we will have accumulated enough
remaining expenses to bring in the rest
and appropriate the remaining funding to
the projects that aren't getting
appropriated today
um so that's really uh the the basics of
this recommendation I'm here to answer
any questions that you might have
appreciate this I am just looking at the
exhibit one with all the wonderful
projects I want to make sure we
highlight all the projects where the
funding is going it's one's to put them
to the GLS but this is wonderful from
what we've talked about with the arpa
funding
um one question I just had is in regards
to the follow-up when when is it that
we'll be getting some update on how
these projects are doing no that's a
great question and we had planned to
have periodic report backs to your board
this is one of those needed steps you
know these projects need this type of
action to start the next step which is
to do agreements and final scoping
actually a couple of the items that were
before your board today the home key
item is a perfect example of that
there's another item I think immediately
after me related to the Housing Trust
Fund you'll notice that those are in
this list so those Appropriations are
supporting those projects by having
those Appropriations there they support
the next steps so what that all means
supervisor is that I would imagine
probably maybe in the summer I hope not
by the fall but around that time I think
we'll be able to come back to you with
the fullest and kind of show hey these
are the ones that have started these are
the ones that are already in process
these are the ones that have yet to
start and we can kind of you know
flowchart that for you so you can kind
of see the whole portfolio and where
they stand well
wisely is
bring it back because some projects
didn't get done at the time they were
requesting certain funds so I appreciate
this so much yeah no absolutely our
communities will definitely need it so
thank you
any other questions
all right well then I'll motion to
approve if you have nothing else I do
have one other thing if there aren't any
other questions there was one small typo
related to recommendation number two for
the four and a half million that was
going to be appropriated to the Human
Services Agency for two projects in the
board letter we cite that division as
3400 it should actually be 3410 sorry to
inconvenience you with some dorky budget
stuff but it's important for the record
do you need the motion as um amended uh
yes please okay so Iowa motion approve
staff recommendation as as amended thank
you second
so it's approval of the recommendations
with the revised board yes correct thank
you sure supervisor Parvin were you this
second yes
supervisor girl yes supervisor long yes
supervisor Parvin yes supervisor Lopez
yes chair levere yes thank you great
thank you
item 36 the approval of a strategy to
direct the use of 15 million dollars
allocated for affordable housing
construction
um Miss Madden good afternoon yes good
afternoon chair levere members of the
boards Dr Johnson Christy Madden with
the county executive office
um it is my pleasure to be here before
you today to formulate some
recommendations of how we allocate 15
million of the funding that was just
discussed as part of this funding plan
the 15 million dollars for affordable
housing and construction Capital was
included in the funding plan
following some extensive Outreach and
engagement with community members
non-profit organizations local
developers and others as described in
the staff report after the board adopted
the spending plan the Community
Development Division did some targeted
Outreach to inform recommendations for
house specifically to allocate those 15
million dollars to maximize the benefit
for housing production considering the
feedback that was received and including
responses to letters of interest
regarding the last and final round of
project home key as your board approved
earlier this morning we're recommending
that funds be distributed as follows
5.84 million dollars in match for the
last and final round of project home key
that will bring the total available to
nine million dollars one and a half
million dollars to the Ventura County
Housing Trust Fund actually I think it's
called the Housing Trust Fund of Ventura
County they will be able to match those
funds dollar for Dollar by applying to
the state of California and then 7.66
million dollars in funding that will be
administered by our staff on a
competitive basis for other Housing
Development projects that we hope to
bring to your board
by the end of the year now in the event
that any of our home key projects don't
get awarded funds those funds would roll
into that other pot of funding that we
will distribute competitively for other
Housing Development projects
I'd like to thank all of our partners
for their input and participation in
this process and appreciate the
tremendous work of our small But Mighty
housing team which is Tracy McCauley who
is here with us and Chelsea Russell who
is on a much deserved vacation and of
course Jennifer Harkey for all of her
diligent work on homelessness so happy
to answer any questions and appreciate
your support
is the county affordable housing fund is
that a new fund that we're creating or
is that an existing fund that we're just
contributing to well it would be it
would be a pot of funding that we would
administer similar to the other grant
funding that we already administer the
plha and the home and other competitive
funding we would we would distribute
those funds in a similar fashion okay
great
be a one-time thing great no I I think I
think it's a great breakdown really
really effective way to allocate the
money a lot of a lot of good work to be
done there with that
thank you those those Monies
any other questions or comments sorry
thank you
from Linda brunch
Branch Swagger sorry Linda
um well it's promoting you
hi Linda if you unmute your mic you'll
have three minutes
wonderful thank you so much
uh chairman levere and Board of
Supervisors and Dr Johnson I'm Linda
braunschweiger I'm the CEO for the
Housing Trust Fund and the housing Land
Trust I was there with you this morning
but decided it was better to go back and
work and make sure that I could be on at
this point in time I I just wanted to
thank the incredible housing team at the
county led by Christy Madden and Tracy
McCauley their creativity and their
ability to juggle multiple projects all
requesting funding has been just Stellar
I'm just very pleased that the Housing
Trust Fund is being recognized with this
investment because it truly is an
investment that we will be matching
um with other funding sources and expect
to be matched by the state of California
as well in a one-to-one match and I just
wanted to point out that the reason this
funding is so important is this
particular source of funding for us will
be for short-term lending and that will
be used to get a a lot of these projects
their early costs covered and get them
moving quickly so that the rest of the
funding can get into place and these
projects will be developed as soon as
possible so I just want to thank the
county once again for your ongoing
support of the Housing Trust Fund thank
you
thank you Linda
Charlie lever there are another requests
to speak thank you
hi thank you madam Clerk okay
any uh
further comments or
action
approved second
supervisor guerrill yes
supervisor long yes supervisor Parvin
yes supervisor Lopez yes chair lavier
yes thank you miss that
all right two more item 38 is the
adoption of some resolutions amending
salary ranges and classifications
good afternoon Miss deal
good afternoon chair levere members of
the board and CEO Johnson I am Marjorie
deal your manager of classification and
compensation
today I'm before you with five
recommendations our first recommendation
is to amend the salary range for the
chief public defender investigator
while this SEIU represented
classifications reporting to this one
received market-based adjustments this
management classification did not the
recommended increased mirrors the sum of
market-based adjustments awarded to the
SEIU classifications and will maintain
an appropriate differential between the
reporting levels
second
to establish one classification a per
diem nurse extern this new class will
allow us to hire employees who have
completed their nurse training and are
awaiting receipt of their respective
nurse licensure having these employees
will increase the applicant pool for
future registered nurse vacancies
the proposed salary is approximately 20
percent less than the herdium registered
nurse
our third recommendation is to delete
two obsolete classifications that are
neither filled nor budgeted the director
probation agency and the senior
information system support analyst
fourth we are recommending adopting an
amended schedule for market-based
adjustments this amendment corrects a
clerical error that omitted a single
classification the supervisor Public
Health Services with one incumbent from
receiving an appropriate total
market-based adjustment of five percent
the first increase of 2.5 percent will
be retroactive to January 8 2023 to
match the original market-based
adjustment increases
Fifth and lastly we are recommending
that your board adopt an amended
management resolution which amends
section 1901-a to replace the obsolete
classification of director of probation
agency with the new classification of
Chief probation officer
to amend section 403d to add a Ventura
County Health Care classification health
care plan classification to the list of
classifications eligible for
certification pay in line with eligible
HCA classifications
to amend section 1404-a to comply with
assembly Bill
1949 to provide two additional days of
unpaid bereavement leave I believe this
is covered earlier this morning with
Robert abilo with the Union contracts
and lastly again as was covered by
Robert avilo amend section 1204 to
extend the time for employees to use
excess leave hours accrued during the
covid-19 pandemic until December 31st
2023 as previously presented by Robert
with that I'm open to any questions
thank you Mr Steele any questions on
this item
pretty straightforward thank you concise
as always
I would move I'd move approval
I'm happy to second
supervisor guerrill yes supervisor long
yes supervisor apartment yes
supervisor Lopez yes chair levere yes
and then our last uh regular agenda item
this afternoon is item 39. and uh Miss
Madden welcome back good afternoon I'm
back uh we'll make this real quick
um the Community Development Division in
the homeless unit that assists Jennifer
Harkey currently has a fixed term
position of a program assistant that is
slated to expire so we are asking your
board to adopt a resolution to establish
that position as permanent we have a lot
of grant funding a lot
and it requires a lot of Staff resources
to manage those grants so happy to
answer any questions
um I didn't have a chance to read the
details of this is the is the m a from
the grants um underwrite the position
salary back to the county
does the the program assistant yes so
will you use the contract Service rates
that are established and adopted by the
board and we use that to reimburse
actual expenses time studied to each
Grant great thank you
I'd move the
CEO recommendation I'd move thanks
there's clearly a need for this position
so
Jennifer thanks you
supervisor girl yes supervisor alone yes
supervisor apartment yes supervisor
Lopez yes chair Olivier yes thank you
thank you thank you
all right that completes uh the regular
agenda we still have I believe one item
in closed session any announcements uh
yes supervisor will need to go back into
closed session for item 57 and there
will be no reportable announcements
today so the board can adjourn from
there we will return out of closed
session and our next regularly scheduled
meeting is in two weeks March 28th so we
will see everybody then thank you