County fish and wildlife commission meeting for august 26, 2026. We'd like to take roll call complete form okay commissioner byrne here commissioner davies
commissioner robinson here. Commissioner swarzbach. Here. Commissioner allen? Here. Commissioner gardner.
commissioner, what what
commissioner robinson said he will be here and he might be late because he had an appointment. Okay, he's here. I'm here. Oh, no, I'm sorry, commissioner dee… I was thinking davies and looking at robinson.
all right the wallflower. We'll move on to the adoption of the agenda and approval of the consent calendar.
adoption of the agenda and
yeah, this is just where we adopt the agenda. Okay, adoption of the agenda and approval of the consent calendar.
any discussion, any changes, any alterations?
public comments. Now taking public comment on the consent calendar and adoption of the agenda. Each speaker will have 3 min to address the commission. We will begin with comments from individuals present in the meeting room, followed by those participating on zoom
if you were joining via zoom, please ensure you unmute yourself when called upon. If you're joining by phone, press star 9 to raise your hand. If you're on zoom, use the raise hand feature to indicate your interest in speaking. We ask that you voluntarily state the name for the record before beginning your comments.
and I'd like to
record the fact that commissioner davies walked in at 3.01
welcome.
yeah, yeah, I'm sorry. That's an appropriate zone for you.
all right, there being no comment from the public or from the commission, I'd like to hear a motion.
motion to approve. I'll second it. Been approved and our motion has been 1st and seconded. All approved saying by aye. Aye
anybody saying nay? Okay, good. Unanimous. Sorry about that.
open form. Okay, now taking public comment on open forum. Each speaker will have three minutes to address the commission. We will begin with comments from individuals present in the meeting room, followed by those participating on zoom. If you're on zoom, use the raise hand feature to indicate your interest in speaking
if you're joining by phone, press star 9 to raise your hand. And we ask that you voluntarily state your name for the record before beginning your comment.
okay, all right. El dorado county agricultural commissioner report. I'd like to say that commissioner will and I just had a meeting with her and it was very brief, but just an introductory needless to say she's getting her feet on the ground
so she was hoping to come up with deer, so maybe we can put her off until
she arrives and she can give her report, if that's okay with everybody. Commissioner reports
mr. Schwarzbach
last week I went to
your 100-year anniversary of the forest genetics lab and
pacific southwest research station and pacific northwest research station
wow. And it was a really wonderful celebration of science. There are a lot of people there who I'd worked with in my career, actually. I didn't expect to see. But what it did is it
reminded me of
the collaborative science efforts I've been a part of in the past
and it made and I also had a phone call last week with, or two weeks ago with the mount lion foundation and uc davis veterinarian, fernando
nahara, their carnivore project
and talking about collaborative science and how to put something together for this county
and going to the genetics lab celebration
it made me realize that
one, people support what they help to build. And two, the agencies whose mission it is
but the ones with skin, again, county ag department and cdfw have to be part of any working group to craft a solution
and so
I'm doing this, you know I call it working group. It's just discussion group really. But without without those players, we're just talking to each other. And we don't have
we have expertise
you know, good expertise in that group and political
I was hopeful that, you know the mountain lion foundation could provide a more financial support than they actually can
they really don't have the budget to support this, and of course, talking to
fernando, the berkeley veterinarian, you realize, oh, it's actually way more expensive than you think it is. There's things I hadn't thought of, that are needed
but I really believe that it'll come together when all those parties are together. The legislative report that we got sent forward to us from bill gaines
sb 1337
which was the the mountain lion bill
that was a good build. And it had was supposed to have funding. It passed the senate with no neighborhoods passed the assembly with no nay votes, and it's dead
because it didn't go to the probation.
but it never got funded
so it's easy for people to vote for it in a bipartisan way. So that… so we should start there. That's a model of what people support. I just have to
how it's funded
and in my thinking
collaborative project is a better sell than a sole-funded project
and so, I think that's kind of the direction that
wow
and we need to go in
those are my thoughts
thank you, commissioner byrne. The only thing I have is I need to get with the department
and find out, make sure I have $1,000 funding, because I hope to get some cooperation from the other 2
sponsors to stock
the pond that we have been stuck in for years in late fall when the fishing pressure is down.
on the other end of my head, there's part of the agenda that I'll talk about that was that something you put in for assisting what I basically did is
I put a budget item in. Okay, but
csd and sean o's homeland association put in more money, so that left me with an extra $1,000. Yeah, it's not… you just need to. I want to make sure that
I have the funding for the fish. We didn't do that. We didn't approve that.
what we did is we improved
for the kids derby. Okay. And I was approved for $2,000, and I only spent $1,000. So I want to spend the other thousand if it's not a problem, stock the pond in october, november
when all the fishing pressure is off, and that will give the fishery an opportunity to… to grow.
good idea.
thank you, sir. Commissioner davies.
I wanted to comment on steve's thing. I think that
when they do that, they vote on it and it all passes, and then they decide it's not funded. It's just so they could please everybody. I don't trust any of those guys.
so you're gonna have to do something different as they are for employee.
now, my only other thing is I got this from
dfw, which is their great wolf update report. Got some good information in it. It actually is very similar to what we got from the ecd people
yeah.
yeah. Yeah, I agree. It's easy to vote for something to kill later. Yeah. And everybody's happy. Oh, geez, he voted for it, but geez, you know, oh yeah it's called politics. Yeah, absolutely.
commissioner gardner. So
4 of us were at the da's office, 3 commissioners bob were at the da office this morning. We had great conversation, lots of things for bob and the da to work on. But they are requesting our help
potentially to assist bob as well, which I'm sure bob's gonna be going into a little bit more. I will be adding an agenda item for next month
about
taking essential
we go wording to put into
the government
legislation. I think the story with the county ordinance. Yeah. There you go. County ordinance to stop people from messing with
the fish and wildlife bear trap
there's
nevada has a law to that effect already
and bob's going to give us a copy. It's it's with kaylee, but I didn't realize that she was out, so it will be coming to you folks when kaylee goes back on monday, I guess. And and then
heather's going to put an agenda item to
discuss the publication, how to proceed with that language. Would this be a board of supervisors action? It would be trying. We're going to advise a recommendation to them.
all right.
get strong, folks.
were you going to talk some more? I could talk a little more about it.
thank you.
thank you. Commissioner robinson. Yeah, this last month, you know we got that letter from the cameron park link
so I took myself down there on monday, and I lost the entire shoreline
I'm looking for a fishing line and lures
I found one hook and one little short piece of wine
it looked very clean down there
I see a lot of geese and stuff around and
but where was this? What did they say in their letter that they were continually cleaning it up? Yeah, it is very, very clean.
they have signs up there, they have the, you know, the white pvc pipes with the notations up there for everybody to put their line on there, or in those boxes, fishing line. They have several signs around the lake on fences and stuff
about, you know who to call if you see something going on, you know, they got a phone number there, that
what day of the week did you build? I went on monday.
perfect. Yeah, on our monday, and there was pete fishing there. There was a few that said the fishing went a little slow that day, but day four they had caught some fish there
but it looked really clean. I didn't see anybody else there to talk to, you know.
but like I say, I walked around the whole lake and
took my time and walked kind of the park of it, too, and just kind of circled around a couple of times in some of the areas.
like I said, I didn't see nothing down there, you know, too bad.
not that what they're saying is not concerning, you know, about these or animals getting fishing land, but
so, it really has to be on the shoreline for the guts and the beast probably to get it
because there is no voting there or anything, so you got a fish in the bank. So chances are you're not going to find too much fishing line up somebody loses it, of course or snakes, that's nothing they can do about that.
but what's on the shore and look real clean. So
I'm wondering if we should check that every once in a while. I mean, I'm not talking about walking the whole sun hour lake, but, you know, just say… we have the same problem at sawmill pond up in the tahoe basin, but it's a nightmare, and they have active feeding of bears, and we have lures and everything
all over the place, and we have to have a community contingency of people to clean it up. Oh, nice. They got a lot of signage and a lot of stuff going off. I mean, there's nothing we can do for them, you know, other than asking
you know, somebody else to check the place out, but it's
I wouldn't do that when I see it that clean. Right. Why don't you send us those pictures there but I have them on my own if you jump ahead and share it to you, I can't share I'd like to get a copy of the letter. The letter came to us
I was on our last month. So can we send that letter out to everybody? Is that possible? It was it it was sent to me. I was cc from kaylee, and it was a letter from the csd
director to commissioner robinson specifically about cameron parkway
but I can forward it to you if you'd be great.
and just for the recorder, commissioner dagam
what is responsible for stock without, like, 10 years ago with members of the high school
it's a beautiful place, I'm telling you. They take very good care of that, that way. It's
I was impressed
I had been there years myself. I used to go there all the time. That's a lot of use. Yeah.
thank you, commissioner weber.
yeah, I thought it was time to review the website, so I went on and reviewed the website and I encourage all of you to do that too. And if you have any comments or questions about it, get a hold of accountant is still doing our website for us.
are working on that. But it seems to be following the way the county's trying to
standardize all these different websites. Were you on the… how many years have you been on
we'll see it needs to be updated then. It says 12.
well, we need to change those because that's on the biography thing, right?
yeah, I thought it said 14. So we need to update those when I saw some might be some other updates that y'all may find
so I encourage you to do that. Let's see… there were
yeah, I got the legislative report out because there were a number of bills there that I thought about
are we talking about that for a second? We can do it at the legislative report time, too.
yeah, let's do that.
I just wanted to copy something. I tried to get my computer to show me the 4 bills, and I could not get how old is your computer? It's not the computer's age. Yeah. And he didn't know how to use it when he got it.
and then we, as heather mentioned, we had a very productive meeting with the district attorney's office today and also a very brief but enjoyable meeting with our new agricultural commissioner
which will let her have the floor in just a minute.
is that it?
that's me. That's it for me. Okay
I don't have much, I'm gonna let bob perra take over for the bear situation in tahoe and explain everything that's going on, but I want to personally thank commissioner byrne for completing his ethics training. I know it was a struggle, and I know we all hate it
but as your current chair, I am compelled to remind you that it is a requirement of being on the commission, and I'm here to protect kaylee and make sure she doesn't have to do too much work in babysitting all of us, myself included, because it's… that's a job in itself. So who currently is not… I'm not going to say it
but the people who… we know who we are. The people who have it in the right so can we do it together? Absolutely. You only get one certificate? No, you can't. Oh, I was going to say you get a bottle of wine
that might make it easier. Just keep in mind, however, that any of our decisions, and this I was reminded of this this morning, there's the potential that any of our decisions could be rescinded if not all of the commissioners are in compliance with all of the regulations.
so if we can just get that done. If you have no intention of doing it, then please let kaylee know so that is basically all right. So let's move on. Oh, wait, sorry.
would you like to introduce yourself? Yeah, let's do. Yes, so this is jesse fowler. She's our new agriculture commissioner. So yeah, I'm two and a half weeks in.
so I met with a few of you a little bit earlier, happy to meet the rest of you, obviously not in the quorum, but just kind of just talk about whenever you'd like to talk about. Just be patient with me, because I have
a lot of things coming across my desk, a lot of people want meetings, and I'm just trying to catch up with all of that. I actually did start my career here in 2004. I was a biologist at the ag department. I left here in 2018. I went down to san joaquin county, where I was a deputy, so it was a promotion
I was there for a little over two years when I became the agriculture commissioner in calaveras county. I worked with their ag commission, or excuse me, their fish and game commission there. The whole time, I was the liaison, just like I am here, so, I'm
I'm sure this will be similar, but not the same, just because every county is a little bit different. It's nice to see the engagement, and it looks like you have a lot of similar
thoughts and ideas, and that's great. Just a comment. You have a very good staff you're going to be working with
because they really helped us a lot. They've gone out of the way to support us.
that's appreciated.
don't be telling people. You've got to prove yourself before you get on his christmas. Oh, yeah, yeah.
christmas cards are a big thing around here. Yeah
and all you have to do is look at him crossways.
people were never really on the list. I know. Oh, good point. Do we have any moving on. Thanks and welcome. Oh, I'm sorry. Any questions or anything? Any questions? I just assumed everybody would jump in. What are some of your priorities coming in
so much, yeah, and it is priorities plural. So that's kind of there, and they're changing to the top priority each and every day right now I'm trying to
I'm really trying to wrap my head around, so obviously the ordinance here are different than calaveras, so I'm just trying to really get into some of the ordinances here to see how they're different, how they're applied differently, especially since yesterday the ranch marketing ordinance went up to the board
that's something that my department and I'm gonna have to be heavily involved in with the ag mission and just stakeholders in general. So that's something that I'm trying to gear up towards. Then there's also the glasting sharpshooter infestation that's down in el dorado hills. That's been an ongoing thing all of northern california, as all the
I deal with the fallout from the shipments that went to virtual, that shipment that went to costco's, and a lot of people bought these vines. Yeah. I don't know where they all are. We only recovered a fraction of them
so, that is also something that could impact our wine grape industry significantly, and again, just trying to find research on that, and then we want to kind of go out and talk with uc extension today about
partnering together to get information about that out into our community, both on the residential and industry level
and then otherwise
oh my gosh, I have so many sticky post-it notes all over my desk. Don't forget to. I have to do ethics training, which is really fun. Like 70% the way through, I've been… so I'm trying because I only have 30 days, so yeah, I… it
119 slides of pure joy. That's kind of it. And again, just like a meeting with community and just kind of finding out
what's going on, you know, what's important to you, what's pressing to you, how I can kind of help facilitate something. That's kind of where I'm at right now.
learning phased
awesome. Well, again, welcome. Thank you. Yes, I think I need all the help I need. We'll get you in trouble. And then there's that. Then there's that.
do we have any ad hoc committee reports?
all right, I'm going to go to shelly because she's online and kind of under the weather, so I want to get her so that she can
get through this and go to bed
hey guys, can you hear me?
hey
you guys can hear me okay?
yeah.
okay, sorry. Yeah, I have a nasty cold, and I just didn't want to share my germs with all of you guys, so I'll be listening in. So some updates from me at the end of july, I was able to meet with byron weckworth from the mountain lion foundation just to discuss
el dorado county and kind of our goals for the mountain lion stuff, and it was a good meeting because I missed him at the commission meeting I was in spain. So, so that was a good thing. Deer collaring continues in a lot of different areas. We're just trying to finish off our collaring
and it's been really hard because we can't find deer, unfortunately. So we're doing a lot of that, and we also received some buck collars that we're hoping to put on bucks in the egg zones, which is in the more of the eastern sierras
so we're looking forward to doing that after the hunt season is over. Archery season started, and the rifle season will start the end of september. So that's gonna keep us busy. I'm gonna be doing some chronic wasting disease
sampling the opening weekend at, at the meat processor in town here. And so, also, the deer management plan
we are currently… it's out for comment internally with regions, and it should be out for public comment the end of this year. They're hoping to have a finalized deer management plan by january of next year. So I will keep you guys posted on that, because I want to share that with you in case you have any comments on that deer management plan. Now is the time to do so
just like the bear plan. So with that, I think that's it. Do you guys have any questions for me?
shelly, I had seven does and thoughts across in front of me on pioneer trail a couple of weeks ago. So if you're interested in knowing where they are, just let me know.
yes, so we spent two or three consecutive days driving around tahoe to try to call our deer. We saw three bucks
on barker pass and one doe on the backside of sugar pine point campground. And and so our efforts were not great, and we were starting early in the morning and going till really late in the evening. So yes, we… we want… we want to collar some deer there, so I will definitely get in touch with you
find out
yeah.
this was like in the afternoon. All right, I'll keep an eye out.
okay, thank you.
mr. Parrot. Yeah, actually, this is kind of up shelly's
avenue 2 is, I don't I don't know if you heard this information, shelly. I got it from my wife, who is obviously a biologist with shelly. It was just… it was interesting to me that the statewide bear harvest so far this year is occurring at a 66% faster rate than in years past
have you heard that, shelly, from arjun?
yeah.
yeah, arjun did tell us that, yes.
yeah, I just thought it was a really interesting statistic that, you know, I don't know what that really means overall, but I thought it was just really interesting that 66% faster than years past and years past we haven't reached the harvest quota in I couldn't tell you how many years, so we'll see what that reflects this year, especially with the multiple tags. And it's just archery season so far. What's
the quota. The quota is 17
1700, yeah.
so you're 66% there. Well, no, it's where we're at currently, we're 66% ahead. It's happening. Let me rephrase that. We're at currently the same number
we've achieved at a 66% faster rate. And this is statewide too. This is, you know, a-zone, b zone, where some of the bear seasons have been open for a little bit. So, just, it was, it was an interesting statistic
and before I move on to more bare stuff, I know earlier, heather, you had mentioned that some fine money had been coming in of interest, mr. Newsmeyer. That's only about a quarter of what his total fine is. He's taken a payment plan based on my notes
so there should be about three times more of that coming to you folks at some point within his diversion period. Such a small fine for-yeah, his total fine was $1,655
so what what are the consequences if he renegs on that? Well, he had a failure to complete his diversion, okay, which means it would go back to a hearing, okay, which would be a criminal liability to get it that way. So he has good incentives
he's got good incentives, and it's, you know, I've dealt with the gentleman, he's all intents and purposes, he seems like an upright citizen, so I don't suspect that he will fulfill his obligations there
and then moving on with the bear versus the bear situation
my staff has been extremely busy. I know I was at the last meeting. I apologize. I just conflict been extremely busy with bear conflicts, especially in the lake tahoe basin. I want to thank wiona for helping me with a bear one night, or 2 bears, I guess, technically
so thank you with that. There were several
what we call type read varices, so bear attacks, or well, I shouldn't say bear attacks. Bear contacts with humans. We had five of them in six weeks in the tahoe basin. So part of that is the department's effort to attempt to, you know, trap and remove those animals from
the environment up there.
of the five events, we were successful on
two of them
two of them.
and so the other 3 offending animals are still on the landscape. Some are just not for lack of effort, just they don't come back around when we're there trying to do our jobs. It was 5 different bears. Five separate incidents, yes.
and so, part of what heather mentioned earlier about a potential recommendation to the board for a ordinance stemmed from our conversation earlier with the district attorney's office, which in turn stemmed from a conversation the district attorney's office had with
my leadership at our headquarters level regarding violations for individuals kind of hindering our efforts. It's very common for people statewide to, once they learn that we're attempting to remove bears, to come and sabotage our traps
whether it's by pouring, you know, toxic chemicals to keep the bears away, closing the traps, doing whatever. We in california, we don't have a very good law prohibiting anyone from
interfering with our activities. And so my leadership took it up with local the district attorney and their staff to try to come up with a solution. There still isn't a really good answer. So that
earlier today at our meeting with the da, that conversation came up again with those that were there. Nevada has a very good statute on their regulations that will be coming to you folks as soon as… I said it's kaylee, I couldn't send it to you, too, but we could get it out faster. Okay
I said to kaylee, realize I got a kickback that she was out, so we can get it out to you folks, just for your knowledge of what that is. So
at least
two of our efforts up there were interfered with with people coming around the traps and kind of interfering with our stuff, so I just kind of, like I said, kicked off this broader conversation.
so amongst that, it has been archery season. But my staff, like I said, we've been out, but we've been kind of tied up with other things as well. I am down
3 people in the area. Currently, I have one coming back to fill, not coming back, a new person coming in to backfill one of those positions starting next week.
another person has continued on leave, medical leave, and then I have still one vacancy that we're hoping to fill
soon, I hope, which would give us an extra body, but we'll see how that kind of shakes out.
are your… is your agency hiring new people? Friday we are graduating a class of 30 something. They already have their assignments, though they're going to other those positions generally get filled with
I hate to say it, the position that nobody wants. They'll offer the positions for transfer, give it to seniority-based transfer. If nobody takes them, then the new people at the academy get here. This is where you're going type of thing. How does that graduation fit with previous years
as far as numbers? Yeah. It, you know, every year it is different. We've had bigger classes, we've had smaller. It's kind of… I think it's… I would say it's pretty average. On balance, are you getting more wardens in place, or is it staying static? We're kind of just keeping up with our attrition through
you know, resignations and retirements, but we're kind of just keeping up.
so, we have, I think, the number is 500 and some law enforcement personnel from the very tip top chief all the way to the bottom field person. I think we have about 500 in the state. That's including the 100 or so people that are assigned to trees
and other special things statewide.
you put cameras on your traps of who's. Well, a masked hooded individual. Okay, your guess is as good as mine. Unfortunately, when it comes to that, because they're very
they know we're watching. It's posted online on their facebook. Yes, the bear league when they find out that we have a trap out there, usually the first
get it to the public of where it's at and what we're doing.
what the da was saying is that they don't really have to go charging them anyways.
all the loopholes of our ordinances you could get a permit for a trap
but since bob's not getting a permit, since he is the authority, that doesn't work. Our law, the fishing aim law, it keeps someone from messing to sabotaging or altering or messing with a trap
is intended for sport commercial traffic. And the wordage, the verbiage in the law says, you know, if you're you're interfering with the licensees equipment. And so we're not a licensee. We are the
the agency. So, it doesn't fit under there. It doesn't really fit under vandalism, because there's not a lot of… we're not taking an effort to… we don't need to do an effort to clean up something like a spray paint or something like that. There's just… we don't have a really good law to keep
did you… did you request the agenda item? I haven't yet.
okay
it's
south lake tahoe and a little bit to the la basin. It's a town down there. I'm sorry, it's big bear. No, maybe big bear, too, but the town I'm thinking of is
I believe, on the north side up against the angeles forest. They have a very big bear problem down there. Is that where the
oh, we haven't had a fatality from a bear in
what was the last one? Was it in downey? Yeah, in downey. I thought there was somebody in la county, too.
it's not that long ago. I think it was an attack, but not a last fatality we had in the state. It's been some time. There's generally most of the attacks they deal with down there are coyotes. I can't think probably the most recent
for there, anyways, bear attack. They do one or two a year down there, but I can't think if they had a fatality recently. One or two a year, and we just had five recently, and… 5 and 6 weeks
but that will, but in the past now, 3 months, yeah, it's been a 6-week. Now that it has trees. Yeah, it's just amazing anymore. I mean, I was just saying, if it's more of a state issue, should you see somebody in some of the legislature might carry this bill
and I'm sure my department at an executive level is probably toss that around. That's outside of my pay grade, unfortunately. So the county ordinance would work, wouldn't it, bob?
I think, ultimately, a state law would be more beneficial. A problem with the county ordinance, too, wouldn't cover the incorporated city of south lake tahoe, the incorporated city of placerville
if there are issues there. Definitely need one in south lake. So we're gonna try to do
yeah, it's, and we can take this to the city city council. That's not a problem. Once once the county has an ordinance, it can be the problem is, is that the bear league is trying to make the city of south lake tahoe a bear sanctuary. So that could be a little
I think that's for the grizzly bears. Yeah, that's where we… yeah, just close to it. Well, leona, we made california… but, you know, really, they do have a bear sanctuary up there. They're everywhere.
so in a not conducive past everywhere I went, everywhere I work, we run into marijuana growers
I've seen a lot less of that because I'm in different places. They're legal now. That's what I wondered, is there as much pressure on your department, because there's still that many illegal grows? As far as our cannabis? Yeah. So
in the statewide scheme of cannabis control, it's a… what's the wordage they use? It's a committee, if you will. And
the department of cannabis control and the department of fish and wildlife co-chair this team of state agencies to combat illicit marijuana. So since we are kind of
the lead agency. A lot of the funding from that we get comes from excise taxes on the legal sale of marijuana, and because it's taxes for marijuana, it needs to be spent on marijuana enforcement. So that's it goes right back into those programs
just like we have offices that do nothing but oil spills because we get that taxes from the oil companies and that's
I shouldn't say it's not all they do, but their primary focus is oil spill. So it just depends on where the money comes from.
so without that marijuana money, those 100 positions would probably go bye bye because there's not enough general fund money to borrow them if they're not busy. They're pretty busy. They still stay involved. You may not be seeing it on the landscape in the
in the wild lands, because when it became legal, it moved into kind of an agricultural setting and it was pretty prevalent here in the county, even up until deputy ishville got killed several years ago. The sheriff's office took a lot more proactive stance on it, and that's why
used to see it driving just around in the county, and you know you'd see it hardly anymore, but still pretty prevalent. We saw the sheriff's vehicles and their jump trailers loaded with that
and that kind of put the end of that, to that. And that's why I thought, well, maybe it was less of a problem
it locally, I would say it probably is, but it's statewide, it's still pretty prevalent
all right, that's very good. Thank you. Okay, moving on to agenda item three.
commissioners, alan and metal committing recommending the commission review the fundrais and board of supervisors report approved the report as revised, and then determine which commissioners will present the final report on september
so did you guys all have a chance to look through the
I'm confused about the mission state.
oh, did I mess up on something? No, is that our little mission statement?
or is that
so el dorado county fish and wildlife commission is committed to having abundant healthy and diverse fish and wildlife. Yes, that's one that's okay, just one
well, I mean, that's something if you think that that should be changed, certainly
I just want to be clear that that's what it is.
anything is changeable. I have no
okay.
and y'all have the date of when that
presentations for the september 15th at 9 30. Anybody that can
show up for that
because sometimes the board has questions that
somebody may give us the answer better.
those people presenting her
we had a really good turnout. Yeah
most of the commission
and I think the board appreciates that too.
and then, I'm gonna switch these here just really quick. I would assume that it was you and me presenting, but if somebody else wants to present on the 15th, please
typically, it's the chair and the vice chair. Yeah, I think our vice chair is not be. That's yeah, that's what I that's what I remember. So she appointed me to
okay, unless anybody else wants to jump, I'm happy to step in. All right, and so now public comment
we're now taking public comment on item 3. Each speaker will have 3 min to address the commission. We will begin with comments from individuals present in the meeting room, followed by those participating on zoom. If you're joining via zoom, please ensure you unmute yourself and called upon. Press star nine
to raise your hand and use the raise hand feature to indicate your interest in speaking. We ask that you voluntarily state your name for the record.
no. Okay, so no public comment. So there being nothing, I will entertain a motion.
motion to approve.
second the motion. It's been moved and seconded. All in favor? Aye. Any opposed?
okay, motion carries unanimously. Item four, commissioner allen recommending the commission discuss plans for the september 30th, 2026 meeting in south lake tahoe
so I have organized us to do the exact same thing that we were supposed to do in may when it snowed
basically, we'll meet at lake valley fire protection district open the meeting, have any agenda items that we need to handle, walk over to the aquatic invasive species station, which is right behind the lake valley station. Have a presentation by the california by the tahoe resource conservation district
then drive over to the upper truckee marsh, walk to the little marsh area. We'll provide chairs and coverings for each of these areas. Have a presentation by the california tahoe commission conservancy
california tahoe conservancy on the restoration of the upper trucky marsh, and then adjourn.
any changes to that? Anything anybody else? And I don't think that, logistically we could fit anything more into the agenda. So if we decide on something else that we want to do, then we're probably going to have to omit one of those agenda items
when you say we can't fit anything more, you mean other business? Other field trip activities. Sorry, I apologize. Yes.
that is a splendid idea. Okay
okay. All right, cool. Okay, so we don't need to we need to do public comment, but we don't need to vote on this since everybody's just in discussion correct
so yeah, public comments.
we're now taking public comment on item 4. Each speaker will have 3 min to address the commission. We will begin with comments from individuals present in the meeting room, followed by those participating by zoom
we ask that you voluntarily state your name for the record before beginning your comment.
there is no public comment
tribal response to me. Oh, it's two o'clock usually for the tahoe meeting. Okay. But that was a bathroom issue when we were meeting in
that
county facility. So where will we be meeting? We will be meeting at initially at lake valley fire protection district, and I'll send you guys everything you need to know to get everywhere.
addresses, parking locations
and it'll be identical to what you had in may, but you've probably cleaved all of that.
and we'll get all this stuff out. So yeah, we're meeting at lake valley fire protection district, but you'll be parking behind the fire station on cbo circle, which is where the aquatic invasive species station is.
he'll have a bathroom. They have it. Well, we have a bathroom at lake valley, yeah.
for those of you who are in need, there will probably not be a restroom facility at the ctc property at the marsh, so let's all go potty before
but yes, I will ensure that we have a restroom available to us.
yeah, I hear you. Okay, commissioner weil, item five, commissioner weil recommending the commission discuss the potential establishment of an at large commissioner position.
yeah, had an interesting email come across my desk last month from jim clincher, the
assistant district attorney that we've been working with, and his son, jackson, is a senior at oak ridge high school
jackson's an avid fisherman, and he's interested in some involvement with our commission
it had never occurred to me that some youth involvement
would be something we would do, but
it does now
and what he was
with jackson was thinking about was helping with the derbies, for example
and of course we can always use help for the derbies. But
when I was thinking about as well is, you know
are there other things that we could involve younger people in with the kind of work that we're doing
people that have projects like what steve is working on
issues relating to some of the problems that you're having their bears
anything that commissioners might want to
put some extra time in
would there be some opportunity for volunteer youth people to get involved here
what I what I would propose is that we have
young jackson clincher come in, introduce himself
at a future meeting and give us an idea of what he was thinking about. But at the same time, I think we should consider
mechanisms for including younger people into some of the work that we do, and
I mean, we could go through a whole bureaucratic thing with the county, or we could at the
the chair has the option of forming ad hoc committees that don't necessarily have to be made up solely of commissioners.
so those are 2 opportunities.
be interested in any discussion ideas. Some of you, the rest of you might have on that subject.
I think it's a good idea. This kid has a 4.5 gpa
he's a competitive soccer player
member of the entrepreneur club and the investment club
and members of the student leadership for the last several years
so he's a kid that probably
I see
good things to offer. And I'm sorry, you said he was a senior this senior this year. Okay
so he's a minor. Yes
all county council that I'm at. I'm going to run it by them just because again, I the liability of the county is where does that fall yeah
I'm just taking it to that level, because that's what they pay me for, but okay, yeah, again, I'm sure fish and derbies, that's great, but I mean, again, he's, like, out there, like, let's go outlines.
and so
yeah, but none of these guys are familiar. Oh, oops, I didn't take that back. That brings up a good point. You know, last year we had three of the derbies on the same day
so I think we need to at least communicate with
the organizers this year next year on dates.
I think that's a different topic, though.
that actually is, yeah, that is a different topic, but we should probably agendize that for next meeting and discuss that because that's a very good point.
thank you. 18 to 20? But they wouldn't be voting members. Would they have to take the
well, they wouldn't be commissioners, so no decision making roles. I mean, they're always welcome to come sit at the way
when we go out, and if we were to go work with the font, the… we are not doing that as commissioners. We're doing that as individuals, so they're always welcome to be and sit and do public comment. No, they're not going to vote. He could do a ride-along buff
and I'd be happy to take them. Jim has my number.
but I mean, that one's a good point. Love all of his input. But
as a kid like it would be, I mean, we would have to add a whole nother position if it was
well, and I was advised that there is another commission that does have a youth member, but not as a commissioner. It's a… and what was the name that was used
like a youth representative, but not serving on the commission. So yeah, no voting power, no none of that. Good. So the other commission that I'm on family, we do have
commissioners, but it's not it's different. They're giving insight into what it is to be a youth.
so they don't have an official position or
they could on that one, but I don't know what the age limit is
well, I don't… I wouldn't… would it… would an ad hoc committee
person, would that be an official county position? Not well, the ad hoc would be
representatives, several representatives from here, plus whomever else wants to participate in the, you know, as it… like, like bob and shelly, they're not commissioners, but they participate in our conversations and advise us, counsel us. I would like some clarification, then
on just exactly what our opportunity might be to include youth into activities of our commission.
what the constraints like.
yeah. And then what
unless there's any objection, I can ask jackson to come in and
speak with our commission
maybe during open forum, he can give a little presentation on himself and why he's interested. Yeah
or we could even agendize it. Or agendize it, either way. Okay.
I'll do that. Do you want it agendized? Would you feel better about that? I would feel better about that, but I don't think he'll… I don't think we should expect him to come up to tahoe, so it'd be the october meeting. Yes, thank you for reminding me
although, you might want to come to talk, but we wouldn't have time for something like that. I think we need to keep that one pretty short. I will ask him if he'd be available in october
okay.
perfect. And then, yeah, if you can make a note, and if you need verbiage, or if katie needs verbiage.
okay, so this is a discussion item only, so if we go to public comment… oh, wait, I'm sorry, did anybody else have anything to say?
welcome. We're now taking public comment on item five. Each speaker will have three minutes to address the commission. We will begin with comments from individuals present in the meeting room, followed by those participating on zoom. If you're joining by zoom, use the raise hand feature to indicate your interest in speaking. We ask that you voluntarily state your name for the record before beginning your comments.
can I talk
I just wanted to mention that el dorado high school has that natural resources program and part of that program when they're juniors and seniors, they have to do volunteer work. Have a certain amount of volunteer hours in natural resources and in their community
but I'd love this idea of having a youth person involved in this commission somehow. I think it's really valuable for them to see how this operates and and how you represent the county concerns about natural resources
I think it'd be a really neat thing to share with that program that's close to us too. So maybe
even mentioning it to the el dorado high school natural resources lead person, krista potter
thank you, shelly.
that's my comment.
you could also… I'll bet, use help at some of your hunter safety classes
yeah, I mean, all that stuff, I think as a youth person, they just need to be exposed to all this different stuff. They don't really understand what's even available for them.
and I think it's great for their… to build their resumes if they want to pursue stuff in natural resources, too. It looks good for them to be involved in some of this stuff
it does krista potter's daughter rena, work for us this summer. She's back at school now, but
she was… she was incredibly good help.
really, really connected.
alrighty.
and then
if you can give us a little update next meeting, if you have the ability regarding what county council
meeting, yeah, absolutely. Thank you
all right, moving on. Item number six, commissioners gardner and byrne recommending the commission review quotes for the purchase of hats and shirts.
for official events, determine which commissioners would like to receive them, and consider taking action to approve a not-to-exceed budget amount for the purchase of such items.
you wrote the best quote.
okay. Mike was for 500 is very sure.
dennis was saying that for he got a quote, the number's going to be a little off
we got it for like 400 something.
so, 4 to 500 is what we're looking at for… for 14, yes. Oh, wow. And that was
just an overbought.
and that's the same logo that we have on the shirts currently, right?
a number of years back we had shirts and we had hats
and this particular vendor has all the information as far as our logo goes
and has a good understanding of what we're looking for as far as quantity.
and that was the…
rcd
which clip did you get to go from?
what kind of shirts were they
yeah, so you're the same kind of deal. Depends on what the commission wants, but that's what we did last time. I think we're doing white hats and we had. Well, we have
emissions pilot or do we buy them?
ourselves from the reimburse or anything? No, I think
I think it was a budget item. Yeah, it was there.
okay.
well
who all moons one every beach
I have one already that I have
with the size and
it is a quantity order, so there has to be 14 of them to get that quantity. No, I think it was 12
and I'm wondering if we should, if we don't have enough to meet the 12, maybe we should just order a small, a medium, and large just to have them on stock so that
somebody dies
and they were replaced. Because yes, point of view
for older commissioners, it is. Yeah, you gotta be careful, you guys. There's laws in particular.
let me do this. Give me a call, tell me what you want, I'll verify the cost, and I'll bring it. We can finalize that at our next meeting. That sound fair? Okay, yeah. All right.
let me know what you need, and what size. Okay.
and so we don't need… so we need to agendize this for the next meeting. And this will be short and sweet, so
I was going to make a suggestion and myrna can say if I'm wrong, but I know that the other commission, sometimes I would say if you want to make a purchase, they would say that they were going to make a purchase in half and
whatever else you're gonna get shirts, not to exceed, like, $500 if you vote on that. Oh, that works. Yeah, and then we can just do it. Thank you. Maybe I'm wrong.
bernard
yes, ma'am?
that's a great idea. Just say that up to, you
500, then he'll have to come back if it goes higher.
I make a motion to appropriate $500, not to exceed $500 appropriation for the tax insurance. And before we do this, we need to take public comment. Yeah
now taking public comment on item 6, each speaker will have 3 min to address the commission. We will begin with comments from individuals present in the meeting room, followed by those participating in zoom. If you're joining from zoom, use the raise hand feature to indicate you're interested in speaking
please voluntarily state your name for the record before beginning your comments.
there's no public comment. Okay, now I will entertain your motion
gotcha
I'll second it.
it's been moved and seconded. All in favor? Aye. Opposed?
okay, item 7, commissioner byrne recommended commission discuss and consider taking action on whether the existing 15 minute time limit for outside presentations should be adjusted.
like I say, in the past, we have basically talked to presenters. I'd like to know what is the process number one for presenters to address this.
and who approves it
that's one question. The other question I have is that I would recommend a subcommittee to preview the presentation and emphasize
you know, you had 15 minutes to communicate your issue. Because we've had presentations that have over 50 minutes
and we have no in 14 years, I don't remember any presentation that was only 15 minutes long
and I take responsibility for the last presentation that went over. I did say you're at 15 minutes, but a couple of people said, no, let them continue. So we did, and then it went on to almost 30 min. She did a good job. That was a good presentation. Absolutely. And they couldn't have done it any shorter
I disagree. I think it could have been a little more efficient. Absolutely. I think they talked too much about stuff that really didn't relate that was still on the slides, and we had access to that. But
yeah, we had a conversation about it, and I just think it's disrespectful, you know, to the commission. You hope I understand what's not being. Oh, no, no, no, no. I'm being critical. I'm just saying is that I think it's a good idea if somebody
some person or individual wants to present information to us that a couple of us sit down and say, show me what's your mission
show me what you're going to present, please
and what you need to know is 15 min. And that's what we're expecting, not an extended period of time right well so my another option for that is
for the chair or vice chair to communicate with these people in advance, not just kaylee or whomever, but the chair and say
you know, we need to be, you know, we're gonna cut you off, just so you know, you're gonna be stopped, so practice it, make sure it's 15 minutes, because I have no problems doing that, you know. It's 15 minutes. But here's hear me out
if they say, well, I really can't get this in 15, can you give me 20?
you know, then the chair maybe has that option to extend a little bit. I think the chair should.
that was an option
what's the process? The process is, like, if you have somebody that approaches you and said, I'd really like to talk to your commission about blah blah blah, then you send it to kaylee. Kaylee sends it to me, and I say, you know, put it on the agenda. And then kaylee gets in touch, or you get in touch with the presenter saying
it's 15 minutes, make sure you have your powerpoint to kaylee before the event. So we can post it, et cetera.
so it's
it's a pretty
cavalier
process
but
you know
sorry, go ahead.
well, I mean
studies have shown that after about 10 minutes, people check out on a subject. But I think that the chair should have the option, given the progress, or lack thereof, of the meeting agenda
to allow extra time if
and especially for question and answers.
we have never had questions and answers more than about 5 or 10 minutes. With the mountain foundation we got.
yeah. In the weeds, and it was more of a discussion which
we were trying to handle that. But what I would say is maybe not have more than one presenter each time. So when the mountain lion foundation came to presentations, and that was very stressful for all of us, because that was just way back
I don't think there's really, besides that one time, I don't think we've ever pushed the 5 o'clock dot.
and that I've only been here for a year, but we haven't ever pushed it besides the time, like, talking about that different. So I think we have some flexibility with the 15 minutes, and we don't have to be super strict
as long as it's staying on topic, we could say only one presentation
yeah, and I just don't want to constrain
the chair from allowing more time should the agenda
I think the chair should have discretion. Yeah, I do too.
but the guidelines are $15. But that's up to the whomever invites the presentation. They're just guys that communicate
well, and I… like, when we go to tahoe, those presentations, I'm gonna cut them off, because we have travel time, we, you know, we have… and we have to meet these deadlines per the agenda, so… that's your prerogative. If they're not… if they're not done too late. You can send us the rest of the information, but, you know… the chair manages the meeting.
yes, that's the job to share. Yeah.
but here is my… and I like the idea of previewing the presentation. My only problem with that is, what if it's something that is a timely topic. It's going to take an ad hoc committee some time to do that, so we may miss that next meeting. Unnecessary work. It's a longer process.
I don't think it just respectfully disagree.
you're off the christmas curtain. I recognize that. I probably wouldn't sign up to approve you because that's I don't have the time to sign up to preview. We have 7 commissioners
oh, do you ever just because again, when I met like conferences, if you generally ask how long is your presentation? We tell them 15 minutes max. And then 5 to 10 minutes for questions afterward. Yeah.
I think it's generally worked.
well, let's see how tahoe goes. That's what he's around. Yeah, I mean, I don't have choice. I'm going to
they're going to be cut off, and they know that. So the other thing, though, is that I have a relationship with these guys, and I think that they can be pretty respectable of that.
wait till we get to the end. Right, right. But one more thing. Well, I mean, we always
have the chair always has the discretion as well to move other agenda items
in the event that we do get bogged down somewhere. And we got lucky that last meeting, is that we were able to squish everything in. Yeah
but the
the operative principle is we start at three o'clock and we're done at 5. So as long as and you have always had a great management style in getting that happen. Well.
you've been able to do it the better. So
the last meeting was a work of art
I just walked fast. It worked. I just think that there's if there's things that we need to know, sometimes no longer we need to say
yeah, working with
okay. Because when I'm chair, I'm always going to ask you guys, is it okay if we continue on? And I think you did that. So okay
all right. If it doesn't work, then we'll bring it back and we'll discuss it some more.
so, but I'm glad we talked about it. I feel better. I think if there's more than one presentation
really look at
welcome to the
I really don't like tabling. I mean, unless there's another reason, but I don't want tabling an agenda item for time. I don't think that's fair to the whoever brought it forward.
awesome. Since we're not making a decision per se, public comment, please. Okay, we're now taking public comment on item 7. Each speaker will have 3 min to address the commission. We will begin with comments from individuals present in the meeting room, followed by those participating on zoom
if you're joining via zoom press star 9 to raise your hand.
we asked
that you voluntarily state your name for the record before beginning your comment.
thank you.
I think there is no public comment. Cool, moving on. Legislative reports
go for it. Oh, no, I was, oh, oh, oh, oh. Anybody have any legislative report?
okay, our next meeting. Did you guys know that the five suspension? Yeah, that was, I think that was sent out to the commission so it's pretty much done for this year
can I remind
we got something on it, didn't we? Yeah, we got something from bill gang said pat sent to us.
but you all read it. But thank you. I thought that dennis would have an interest in that sb 12.
not really connectivity, ltran's connectivity.
oh, and speaking of which, the pathways for wildlife, it looks like they got their funding for some of the connectivity projects. That's something I can't understand
I rarely go past
was a reply I wrote up right into hides at the
but I had to do that today
and I saw two deer killed alongside the road
one on either side of that wildlife tunnel
there's got to be a better way. That isn't working
that's working, it's just some get around it didn't work for them.
did you hear that, shelly
yeah, so I'm curious, jim, was it the missouri flat, the el dorado road crossing?
yeah.
yeah, I know that there's been some holes. I don't know, maybe it was homeless people that have created holes in the fencing and we've brought it to the attention of caltrans, but just to let you know that there's so much use
that you don't see under there. So there's a lot of deer being saved by it, but every once in a while, they do get along that fence and get on the freeways.
that makes sense. You're only going to see the ones that were killed, not the ones that made it.
yeah.
this is true
but it could be a fence issue and I will definitely check that out.
yes, sir. This is not a time of the year that you expect to see them. You know, spring and fall, yes, because they're moving, they're in new territory
but you think this time of year that they would
be accustomed to using the crossings at the beginning of the year. Can you tell when they're young, because I've seen some other adults. But the issue is
this is… we're still going to have at least in there
at this time of the year
there normally isn't that much activity
they're not moving. That's what I said. That's why I was surprised to see them. The one thing we do have, though, is with the explosion in folsom, we have 10 times the traffic
and if we're going to discuss this any further, we should probably agendize it. Sorry. Well, let's do it for next week. Maybe you'll see dear and tahoe. All right, so that being said, I adjourn this amendment. It's deer season, too.