[This transcript was generated automatically from audio using AI and hasn't been reviewed by a person -- it can contain mistakes, including plausible-sounding sentences that were never actually said. Treat it as a starting point, not a verbatim record.]

[0:06] Ready, Cheryl?
[0:14] Good morning and welcome to the Moda County Board of Supervisors. Regular meeting, September 23rd, 2025. This agenda contains a brief description of each item to be considered. If you wish to speak on an item on the agenda, please complete a speaker request form identifying the item and return it to the clerk of the board. This time I call a meeting to order and
[0:42] and Supervisor Cochro, will you please lead us in
[0:45] pledge allegiance to
[0:51] the flag of the United States of America
[0:54] and to the Republic for rigid stands, one nation,
[0:59] under God, indivisible with liberty and justice for all.
[1:07] Good morning.
[1:08] Good morning.
[1:10] Love's great.
[1:12] Heavenly Father, we come before you, humbly and thankfully.
[1:16] Lord, we thank you for allowing us to gather together
[1:19] peacefully to discuss the situations or the conversations of the county.
[1:26] Lord, I ask that you keep peace among everyone, bring love into this county and into this
[1:38] meeting.
[1:39] And Lord, I ask that you guide this meeting to follow your plan, your desires, and your
[1:45] will.
[1:45] We'll allow our desires and our agendas to stay out of this meeting and to be successful
[1:56] in order to guide this community in a positive manner.
[2:02] In the name of Jesus, amen.
[2:05] Thank you.
[2:06] Thank you.
[2:09] Public comment.
[2:11] This is a time set aside for citizens to address the board on matters on the consent agenda
[2:16] agenda and matters not otherwise on the agenda.
[2:20] Comments should be limited to matters within the jurisdiction of the board.
[2:25] If your comment concerns an item shown on the agenda, please address the board after
[2:31] that item is open for public comment.
[2:34] If I law the board cannot take action on matters that are not on the agenda.
[2:39] Unless otherwise announced, the chair reserves the right to limit the duration of each speaker
[2:45] to three minutes. Speaker may not see their time. Agenda items with times listed will
[2:51] be considered at that time. All other items will be considered as listed on the agenda
[2:57] or deemed necessary by the chair. Do we have any public comment?
[3:09] We'll move on to the approval of the agenda.
[3:15] We do need to pull item 3K off of the consent agenda or remove it from the agenda.
[3:23] It is a consent agenda item.
[3:27] Are there any other additions or deletions been
[3:35] moved and seconded to approve as amended?
[3:38] All in favor signify by saying aye.
[3:40] Opposed?
[3:42] Motion carries.
[3:45] Correspondents.
[3:46] Item A is correspondence received from presiding judge.
[3:53] Wendy Dyer, reminding the Board of Supervisors to provide a response to the
[4:01] 2024-2025 Grand jury report.
[4:05] The second item is correspondence received from the State Water Resources Control Board.
[4:12] Notice of temporary five-year permit application, T033518, Big Valley Groundwater Basin.
[4:23] And I believe...
[4:25] Yes, Mr. Chair, I have a piece of correspondence we received.
[4:29] It is a thank you letter from Deetre Farms, their daughter Jillian participated in a
[4:35] Mustang challenge that we host.
[4:38] It says, here at Murac County Board of Supervisors, thank you for sponsoring a prize for this
[4:42] challenge.
[4:43] My daughter had an amazing experience and found her next horse.
[4:47] And her daughter Jillian writes, thank you for sponsoring the $50 prize for the video
[4:50] challenge in which you won.
[4:52] I'm going to spend it to pay for her lessons to train my new horse eclipse.
[4:58] any other correspondence moving
[5:05] on to department head reports do we have any department head morning
[5:14] Scott morning Scott word interim building official
[5:17] last Friday evening the governor and the state legislature approved the state budget and in that budget they slipped in an alternative to the vehicle mileage tax
[5:29] that they had been banning about around through the legislative process.
[5:34] And I don't know a whole bunch about it, I just found about it yesterday, and I researched
[5:37] it a little bit this morning.
[5:39] But from my reading, this alternative to the vehicle mileage tax will be assessed on new
[5:45] housing construction, their subdivisions, and new apartments.
[5:49] And it'll be based upon the geographic area, and the assumed miles driven by the public
[5:55] in that area and it could substantially increase the cost of new house and it's of a concern
[6:01] for us because of our average income level and the cost of construction and my departments
[6:08] on their your objective is to get more houses built in Moda County to you know rise lift or
[6:13] boat so I'll look I'm going to look more into it and I'll get back to you on it but it's of a
[6:19] significant concern well thank you for bringing that to our attention that's first I've I've heard
[6:26] of it and assuming that just because somebody lives in a new house that they will be driving
[6:33] anywhere is a gross assumption. Well, it's going to hurt the role folks most because
[6:41] we drive more and we drive more for medical and for big shop and things like that where there
[6:47] will be breaks for people that are developing an area so they got carbouts if you put a bus
[6:53] stopping your subdivision or if you're near Rapp and Transyl. So it really, really
[6:57] hurts your rural counties. Imagine there'll be litigation, but so I'll keep an eye on
[7:02] it. I'll let you know when I learn more. I'll probably do a send you guys all an
[7:06] email. Yeah. Why would a senior want to build a new home in a rural community?
[7:12] Right. And so if the new housing construction stalls, what's going to happen, the
[7:18] result is existing houses prices are going to go up. So it's a double whammy.
[7:22] It's just in the fact that they snuck it in on a Friday night adage of the budget with
[7:28] the Democrat supermajority.
[7:30] There was no intelligent public debate about it and it's unfortunate.
[7:35] Thank you Scott.
[7:38] Kester.
[7:39] Chester Roberts in administration wanted to provide a follow-up regarding the presentation
[7:45] by this Fry's Valley health care district that we had during the budget hearings.
[7:49] We had a meeting with Inyo County, which was the only other small county that is providing
[7:55] assistance or been requested to provide assistance for intergovernmental transfers, and we will have follow-up meetings with ad hoc committee meeting, but also the Treasurer Council in that what we learned is they have structured it in Inu County.
[8:11] It's not a decision of the Board of Supervisors.
[8:13] It's a decision of the Treasurer's Office, and it is treated as an investment, not as alone.
[8:19] and that investment cannot exceed a government code of certain percentage of
[8:23] little treasury and they have an application process and it goes through
[8:28] recommendation process of the Treasury oversight board. None of those
[8:32] structural mechanisms have been put in place here so we've requested to get all
[8:37] of those documents and would work to put those in place. I will be following up with
[8:41] the district hospital as how we will go about that process. That would be an
[8:48] extremely short amount of time to pull off all those approvals but that's our latest
[8:53] update on the potential path forward. We believe that a larger solution will be needed
[8:59] because I'm learning we're at the tip of iceberg but you're going to start seeing other
[9:02] small counties and and and in you as aware of that so they've also been in touch with their
[9:07] legislators. There's going to be needed alternatives or you're going to have probably multiple
[9:12] small districts not be able to make their intergovernmental transfers. So we'll keep you
[9:17] We updated as we move forward with the committee, but that's a structural difference from what we had last week in terms of what we were looking at.
[9:25] Thank you.
[9:27] Any other department head reports at this time?
[9:33] Item one, Board of Supervisor Items, 1A, consideration action, requesting approval and authorization for the chair of the board to sign a proclamation to establish October as domestic violence awareness month moved.
[9:53] Seconded to approve any discussion, any public comment.
[9:59] We have a little bit further a request with that.
[10:02] The board will indulge me besides the proclamation.
[10:07] So good morning to the board and good morning, Chair.
[10:11] Along with domestic violence awareness in the proclamation,
[10:14] we are also seeking the support of the board for a project
[10:19] known as the National Close Line Project.
[10:23] Historically, domestic violence not only plagues this county, but has been greatly underserved in this county,
[10:30] both prosecution and within the community awareness.
[10:34] Our office, along with our law enforcement partners, have sought to change that over the last two years.
[10:39] In fact, we have doubled our prosecution this year, and we're not even done this year in domestic violence cases,
[10:46] as well as we are almost doubled those that have violated domestic violence restraining orders.
[10:53] And we currently have nine very serious violent felonies known as 245-8-4s when an individual
[10:59] was choked in a domestic violence situation well ahead of the curve over the past years.
[11:07] This was highlighted by the recent conviction of a man named Adam Doig who plagued this
[11:12] county and had a history of violence and a history of domestic violence.
[11:17] He was recently convicted by our assistant district attorney, Cotta, and a jury here in
[11:24] Modok of a 245A4, wherein he choked his victim after being immediately released from the county
[11:30] jail for her reporting the original domestic violence.
[11:34] And what is important about that is that domestic violence not only affects the victims, it affects
[11:41] their families, it affects their children, it affects our entire community and statistically,
[11:48] it affects law enforcement. The number one killers of law enforcement in any community in the
[11:52] United States are those that commit domestic violence. And that's why we are taking such an
[11:58] aggressive approach. But what also is important is the stigma that comes along with domestic violence
[12:04] unfortunately in our communities. Many people don't want to report it because they're afraid of
[12:11] the stigma that it carries domestic violence crosses all boundaries and so our law enforcement
[12:18] partners and our community partners are committed to breaking that silence to doing
[12:24] away with the stigma and to support the victims and survivors.
[12:29] So the National Closed Line Project is something that we sought to bring here to Moda County.
[12:34] It's a very simple concept.
[12:35] It started in 1990 by a group of women who realized that during the Vietnam War and
[12:41] and God bless their souls, 58,000 soldiers were killed
[12:45] at the same time period, 51,000 women in the United States
[12:48] were murdered by intimate partners.
[12:51] So they started this project
[12:53] in order to start raising awareness in communities.
[12:56] And what it is is we give out t-shirts
[12:59] and victims, survivors, community supporters.
[13:01] We even have kids at the high school
[13:03] are decorating those t-shirts
[13:04] in an awareness of domestic violence.
[13:08] And then they get hung within the community
[13:10] And what we're asking today is we are, it has been amazing the support in the community.
[13:17] We partner with strong families teach a law enforcement to get these t-shirts that
[13:22] were donated to us generously out to the community and people are thriving in decorating them.
[13:29] But what we would like to do is hang them on the top rail here in the courthouse for the
[13:34] the entire community to see and those that visit us to see our support as Modaq County
[13:40] for domestic violence awareness.
[13:42] So along with the proclamation that is our other ask is for permission to hang those
[13:47] across the top railing and then to invite you on October 1st at 12 p.m. for where purple
[13:54] day to do a picture with those in the background and then display them for the next 30 days.
[14:00] So,
[14:05] while that is a great idea, I will refer back to the opening item that I read that
[14:16] items not on the agenda cannot be brought up.
[14:20] However, I think that if you work through the CAO, we can probably handle that aspect
[14:29] of it.
[14:29] Okay.
[14:30] Thank you.
[14:31] We actually thought it would end with the proclamation request, so that might be my mistake
[14:36] for my office, but thank you for that.
[14:39] Got it.
[14:40] So.
[14:41] We'll work together on that.
[14:42] Okay.
[14:43] Perfect.
[14:43] Thank you.
[14:43] No problem.
[14:44] Thank you.
[14:46] So we had a motion in a second on the proclamation, any other public comment at this
[14:55] point.
[14:58] It's seen now and all in favor.
[15:00] Signify, if I say an aye. Aye. Opposed? Motion carries, and supervisor Cockro will you please read the proclamation? Yes. A proclamation of the Board of Supervisors of the County of Modok proclaiming October 1st to 31st, 2025, is domestic violence awareness month. Whereas domestic violence is a serious crime that affects individuals and families of all races and ages, income levels and backgrounds causing long-term
[15:29] physical, emotional, and psychological harm, and whereas in the Motor County, sorry, whereas
[15:37] the Motor County border supervisors recognize us that the prevention of domestic violence
[15:42] and the support of survivors are of vital importance to the health safety and well-being of
[15:49] our community, and whereas it is essential to raise awareness, promote education, and support
[15:56] more outreach effects to break, outreach efforts to break the cycle of abuse and provide
[16:02] resources for survivors seeking safety justice.
[16:07] And whereas organizations, advocates, law enforcement, and community members in Moda County
[16:13] work tirelessly to provide support, advocacy, and services to survivors of domestic violence
[16:20] and to hold offenders accountable for their actions.
[16:24] Whereas, by working together to increase public knowledge, encourage reporting and provide
[16:30] accessible resources, Murat County can continue to create safer homes and a stronger community
[16:37] for all residents.
[16:39] And whereas children who witness domestic violence are often deeply affected facing increased
[16:45] risk of emotional trauma, behavioral challenges, and energy generational cycles of abuse.
[16:53] And whereas October has been nationally recognized as domestic violence awareness fund, serving as a time for communities to come together to speak out against domestic violence to honor survivors and to remember those who lives have been tragically lost to abuse.
[17:11] Now, therefore, be a result that the board is to the providers of the county of Modaac
[17:17] does hear by proclaim that October 1st through October 31st, 2025, as domestic violence
[17:24] awareness month.
[17:26] In Modaac County and encourages all citizens to stand together against domestic violence,
[17:31] support survivors, and help foster a community committed to safety, justice, and healing.
[17:38] I would like to say something, my life has been turned upside down because of domestic violence and it is horrible.
[17:50] And thank you for bringing this up and thank you for fighting for our children.
[17:58] Thank you for fighting for our mothers and everybody.
[18:06] Thank you for letting me go off script a little.
[18:12] I just wanted to mention to, in the agenda item, you should have attachments to talk about
[18:18] the closed-line project history and some of the flyers that show the collaboration with
[18:22] each, just for your reference, moving forward with the idea of hanging in the closed-line
[18:26] or the clothes or the t-shirts here.
[18:28] There is some things for you to reference there in the agenda.
[18:32] Again, we'd love to have you join through the activities through the month.
[18:36] We are also handing out purple light bulbs that we've secured to the community and again
[18:41] to an effort just to erase awareness and like I said earlier, I think the most important
[18:48] part is to erase the stigma so that we can encourage people to come forward to end the
[18:54] cycle and to also teach our young people of this community how important it is to not live
[19:02] in that lifestyle.
[19:03] Thank
[19:06] you again.
[19:06] Come up. We'll get a photograph.
[19:35] Thank you.
[19:50] Item 1 B, Proclamation, Consideration Action,
[19:55] Requested approval and authorization for the Chair of the Board to sign up Proclamation,
[20:00] Designating the Week of October 5th through the 11th, 2025, as National 4-H Week in Modot County.
[20:10] Good morning, supervisors. We are celebrating 70 years of 4-H in Modot County.
[20:16] this year and we thought it would be appropriate for us to recognize the National 4-H week in
[20:22] our county and celebrate that I think is Palatinum anniversary of 4-H. I have brought some
[20:30] wonderful youth with us today and we have brought you the best thing that I could find on
[20:36] the 4-H website. This is a cowboy 4-H hat. I would like all of you to wear it in our
[20:44] photo for the proclamation.
[20:48] I am told that it could repel water if you needed it and that
[20:54] it will fit in your pocket. I did look for other 70th anniversary items and they just
[21:00] didn't seem to fit quite Mo. County as well as this cowboy hat.
[21:04] So somewhere I have a green hat like those that are right beside you, I should have dredged
[21:16] that up.
[21:22] For each is the largest youth development organization in the United States serving
[21:27] about six million kids each year.
[21:29] In MoDOT County we serve between six and seven hundred youth every year.
[21:33] in our community club programs and then also in our general outreach in the community.
[21:39] We are really proud of that and we really thank the Board of Supervisors and MODOT County
[21:45] for supporting our 4-H program in a variety of ways.
[21:49] As part of National 4-H week, the 6th of October is Wear Green Day and so if you would like
[21:58] to wear green and be part of that celebration. That's kind of our special day and then that
[22:04] week will also be thanking some of our 4-H volunteers and doing some community service
[22:09] projects in the community.
[22:11] It's
[22:19] been moved and seconded to approve the proclamation. Is there any board discussion?
[22:28] I'll just say I also love for H. It's one of the best things we could say for disappears. Is there anyone on the board who was on the board? I was not.
[22:45] Any other comments? Any public comment?
[22:52] Seeing none, all in favor signify by saying aye. Opposed?
[22:57] motion carries. And I figured that all of us had either been in 4-H, have kids in 4-H,
[23:07] or as far as directly connected 4-H.
[23:11] I've been a 4-H volunteer. I know Kathy has been a volunteer for us as well.
[23:17] I figured there was enough categories on the board that we all had for each
[23:25] somewhere, but for each was was very special for me. I was in 4-H in CISQ County
[23:33] started as a nine-year-old and went all the way through high school. It was an
[23:40] All-Star and that had a very strong foundation in my becoming involved in a lot of different
[23:51] capacities and ultimately sitting here at this board.
[23:55] So as 4-H, I hope your path leads you to leadership in the future.
[24:03] But I would like to read the proclamation of the Board of Supervisors of the County of
[24:10] Modoc for claiming the week of October 5th to the 11th, 2025, as National 4-H week.
[24:18] Whereas this year's National 4-H week theme, Beyond Ready, reminds us that 4-H is building
[24:26] a ready generation in a world of challenge and equips young people with skills for the
[24:32] future while meeting them where they are today.
[24:37] Whereas 4H is America's largest youth development organization supporting 6 million use across
[24:45] the country, helping them to become engaged, successful, and independent, and whereas
[24:51] the MODOT 4H program is delivered to over 220 youths by 66 volunteers in its seven clubs
[25:00] and provides expanded educational programs
[25:04] through schools, community partner organizations
[25:07] reach in an additional 368 youth in Modac County.
[25:13] Providing opportunities for participants
[25:16] to become confident, independent, resilient,
[25:20] and compassionate leaders.
[25:22] And whereas 4H programs are delivered
[25:25] by the cooperative extension system,
[25:27] a community of more than 100 public land grant colleges and universities across
[25:33] the nation that provides experiences for young people to learn by doing whereas
[25:40] 4H connects young people and adults to their communities preparing them for
[25:46] work and life through experimental, experiential, excuse me, can't read and
[25:55] Inquiry-based learning while providing emergent research for positive youth development.
[26:02] And whereas 4H and MoDOT County is celebrating 70 years building from its strong agricultural roots and helping young people explore the world around them and grow into positive productive adults.
[26:17] and now therefore it resolved that the Board of Supervisors of the County of
[26:23] Modok do hereby proclaim October 5th through the 11th 2025 as National 4-H
[26:32] Week. Throughout Modok County and encourage all citizens to recognize 4-H for
[26:38] its significant impact as it has made and continues to make on empowering youth
[26:44] with skills they need to lead for a lifetime.
[26:47] Adopted at Altera, California on this 23rd day of September
[26:53] by the Moda County Board of Supervisors.
[26:57] Thank you.
[28:05] thank you.
[28:17] Thank you very much.
[28:27] Item two, clerk for the board items. Two A, discussion
[28:32] and information. The annual slash semi-annual presentation to highlight Alliance for Workforce
[28:41] Development Incorporated Contributions to Murat County for Program Year 2024 through 2025.
[28:50] Good morning.
[29:10] I
[29:14] forgot about that.
[29:18] Thank you for having me. My name is Celine Johnston and I'm
[29:22] coordinator for Alliance for Workforce Development, and as Ned laid out, I'm here to go over our
[29:27] accomplishments and our contributions to Moda County for last program year. So we have a
[29:33] little slideshow here. Go ahead and go to the next slide. Our mission here is we're here to help
[29:39] bolster the workforce and support growth in our community, both for employers and for job seekers.
[29:45] really our goal is to have our office be a hub for everybody who's looking for
[29:51] employment needs. We focus on WEOA funding that's Workforce Innovation Opportunity
[29:57] The act funding comes from the federal government, and that's...
[30:00] Strictly to help us, again, bolster the workforce. And we are a service provider under Nortech. That's the Northern rural training and employment consortium. And our office is over in the Bear Creek Mall. We are, we share office space with T-Shirtle Ed. And we work together as well. They're one of our required partners. And we do have a representative from the Department of Rehabilitation who comes monthly. Hopefully we get someone who's Modoc specific who can be here more often. But right now she's wonderful. Her name is Stacy.
[30:29] So we serve, we have business services and job-seeker services.
[30:36] For business services, we do a lot of job postings just trying to get the word out for open positions
[30:42] and have job-seekers come into our office and share those with them.
[30:46] We also, with that we owe a funding, can support classroom trainings to upskill any sort of,
[30:55] So, any current employees if they want to step up and receive some training that's going
[31:00] to help them.
[31:01] We also do on the job trainings that's one of our favorite programs where if there's
[31:05] a qualified candidate who's mostly qualified for a position that might need a little extra
[31:09] training, we can assist with that individual and the business.
[31:14] We give back 50% of those wages paid to the candidate, to the employer during that training
[31:20] If you're usually about three months, about $4,000 goes back to each employer.
[31:25] It's one of my favorite ways to help out the community, helps with retention as well.
[31:29] Those candidates usually stick around and they're very successful in their jobs.
[31:36] We've got some employment numbers right now.
[31:39] So actually, Modoc County wasn't doing too bad in comparison with the rest of California in terms of unemployment.
[31:45] An employment number is last year.
[31:47] You can see here we've just looked at quarter one and quarter four.
[31:50] And of course, with quarter four starting right after the winter season,
[31:53] And it's a little bit higher.
[31:55] We do lose a lot of employment with seasonal jobs.
[31:59] I do help out with the EDD as well,
[32:01] since we don't have a direct office here
[32:04] if anyone needs unemployment claims.
[32:05] They can come to my office and I assist with that.
[32:08] And we help them through that period in the winter,
[32:10] which can be more difficult.
[32:12] Last year, we served 1,130 individuals
[32:16] who would come into the office for different needs.
[32:19] That includes job seekers and employers as well.
[32:22] We do offer virtual workshops to help people with job readiness every month on every Thursday.
[32:31] And you can just see the numbers there.
[32:33] I don't need to go over them directly, but I'd like to see all of that increase as much as possible.
[32:39] These are based on our clients who are placed in different sectors.
[32:42] I know in the previous years we've been a little bit more in the manufacturing,
[32:45] working with the mill directly, but we've panned out a little bit more.
[32:48] And my goal is this year to serve even more employers and, you know, change that up a little bit more and share the wealth.
[32:57] Here we've got a little diagram to showing the various businesses we've served.
[33:01] Another main goal of mine is to get out more into the community and directly connect through outreach with employers that don't maybe know about our services and keep that growing as much as possible.
[33:15] And as you see with this one, that main sector there is health care.
[33:19] Modoc Medical Center is one of our great employers.
[33:22] They have many jobs that are open.
[33:24] That's a lot of job posting assistance that I've done for them.
[33:27] And we've got a few other ones in there too.
[33:29] I'd like to keep that going as well.
[33:35] It's a couple of photos highlighting what we did last year.
[33:38] One of the more exciting things I think was we had a job and resource fair that we put together.
[33:43] Modoc College Center, we worked with the road department.
[33:46] and I helped with the planning committee.
[33:48] It was very exciting.
[33:50] It was the first one we're going to be doing that every year.
[33:52] That was in late June.
[33:53] We had good engagement with partners and businesses showing up
[33:57] and we really want to make sure the community knows more about us
[33:59] so we can get a lot more people next year as well.
[34:03] Also, one client that I got went through all of our programs
[34:06] and I was very, very, his exemplary.
[34:10] He went through a classroom training, got his class A license,
[34:12] which we assisted with the costs of pass-with-flying colors.
[34:17] Jim Kavasa reached out to me.
[34:19] He needed a route driver for Modoc Steel,
[34:21] and we placed him in on the job training
[34:22] as that was his first job.
[34:24] Utilizing his plus aim, that went very successfully.
[34:28] He's now working for Ed's jobs as a delivery driver as well,
[34:31] and he continues to do wonderfully.
[34:33] So I just love helping people out like that,
[34:35] and helping out the community as well.
[34:40] In this coming program year,
[34:41] we've got a few different opportunities.
[34:43] I have a couple of new employers like Pacific Crest Federal Credit Union and all tourist
[34:47] branches that I'm wanting to work with on on the dog trainings.
[34:50] I'd like to continue working with Murdoch County on that as well.
[34:53] And we do have a new grant coming up which we don't know a lot about but it is working with
[34:57] the Department of Rehabilitation which I'm excited about because I know there's a great
[35:01] need for that helping place individuals in jobs who might have some special requirements.
[35:09] I want to be able to do that.
[35:10] I was connecting with a couple of career specialists at the Office of Ed and they're working with youths who need that extra care too
[35:18] So I'm very much looking forward to that and creating opportunities for individuals who really need it
[35:24] If anyone has any questions, I'm here for you
[35:38] questions? Yes, so I want that number to grow for sure and the youth program I
[35:45] is I wear many hats in my role of course I'm the only employee for AFWD here in
[35:51] Moda County and previously youth clients were handled out of County and I
[35:55] decided to take that on myself. So starting smaller, and I want to expand with that as much
[36:00] as possible, and anyone who's enrolled in the youth program has to be an out of school
[36:05] youth, so that's 18 to 24. Anyone who's younger than that, I still help and assist in any
[36:11] way possible, but the requirements for that program are, and they do need eligibility factors to
[36:17] be met, but we have many eligible youth for that. So I am actually going to be meeting soon
[36:23] with another possible youth client for this new program year so hopefully we'll get more of those
[36:28] following as well. Yeah.
[36:32] I have helpful posting jobs with them but not more directly in terms of
[36:38] like I should probably reach out to them a little bit more. Great idea. Thank you. Thank you.
[36:52] Supervisor
[36:53] you're the only person working out of this office? What are the hours?
[36:58] Hours are Monday through Thursday, 9 a.m. to 4 p.m. As I am the only one, there's times
[37:02] I have to go out and do outreach or OTT monitoring, and I do have to close the office down.
[37:08] I wish I could split myself in two. I really do. It would be great to be able to keep those
[37:14] doors open all the time and fulfill other requirements, but I am available for appointments. My calendar
[37:19] There is regularly full, if anyone needs to make time, I will make time for them, just maybe not exactly at that moment, but those are normal hours Monday through Thursday.
[37:29] Thank you.
[37:30] You're welcome.
[37:31] A question.
[37:32] You mentioned the department we have.
[37:33] They used to have an office in Alters and they had around 60 clients at the time.
[37:37] I think as they hasn't been a local presence, some of the people were working through other offices, but some of the services kind of faded away because the people weren't aware.
[37:46] Do you have any idea, I mean, they've primarily been served out of one office remotely or multiple offices in the department to rehab the local clients?
[37:55] My understanding is through speaking with Stacey Willis and the woman who comes once a month.
[38:00] She is handling a Moda case load and it's very high and she's reaching out across the whole county as well.
[38:08] And I believe it's just her.
[38:10] She has a very high case load with her own county and viewed as well.
[38:13] and I know we had had an individual there for a little while and that
[38:17] ended up not working out. So again I really am hopeful that we will get
[38:21] someone here because I think that direct help on a day-to-day basis will be
[38:25] vital. Any idea what the case count is? Is it still in the 60s? I remember her
[38:30] saying something close to the 80s. Wow okay. Yes and don't quote me 100% but
[38:36] that's what I recall. It's very high. It's almost enough for a full-time
[38:40] interesting. Okay. Thank you. You're welcome.
[38:50] That's you? Yeah. I was going to
[38:52] think a little bit of Cabasso for serving and I noticed she wasn't here and I
[38:55] looked online and I thought she was still listed there so thank you for that. I
[39:02] appreciate that. I think
[39:16] that would be great. I did do a work experience to get a
[39:20] receptionist to assist me that ended up being a little bit more work than it
[39:24] help because she was a work experience.
[39:27] It would be very helpful, I believe, to me to have a skilled receptionist at the front
[39:32] who could keep the doors open, schedule appointments for me with employers or possible clients
[39:37] to enroll.
[39:39] Assist me with some of the things that I'm finding hard to find the time to do, keeping
[39:43] our job board up to date.
[39:46] It's time-consuming.
[39:48] It's very important.
[39:49] And I think that that would be one of the things that would assist really greatly.
[39:52] and I feel like I would be able to serve Moda County better in my capacity with that assistance that we could really do a lot more.
[40:01] Yeah, for sure. Thank you for asking. I appreciate that a lot.
[40:04] Thanks.
[40:06] Any other questions or comments?
[40:11] Thank you.
[40:12] Thank you, too.
[40:13] I appreciate it.
[40:18] Item three, consent agenda.
[40:22] Motion to approve.
[40:24] Second.
[40:24] then moved and seconded to approve the consent agenda items.
[40:28] All in favor signify by saying aye.
[40:31] Aye.
[40:32] Opposed, motion carries.
[40:40] Item 4, building and safety items, 4A, public carrying.
[40:46] Public carrying ordinance to adopt the 2025 California building standards code with local amendments.
[40:58] And at this time of 1040, I will open the public carrying and Scott, do you have a staff report?
[41:07] I do. Every three years the, oh good morning again. Every three years the California Building Standards Commission, the state agency, reissues California Building Code with state amendments.
[41:21] And this is our opportunity to provide local amendments that suit our community and our community's needs and builders' needs.
[41:31] We did the same very same thing last year.
[41:33] I have to catch up because of previous 2022 building codes had not been adopted with local amendments so I wanted to catch up.
[41:42] And so this is basically bringing forward all the local amendments of this new addition of the building code, including the permit exemption for foreign and square foot green house and the fee refund and permit expiration local amendments.
[41:57] We've changed those strict dates in the building code to make them a little bit longer because of our climate.
[42:04] And nothing has really changed except that there's a new code in California called the California Wildland Urban Interface code,
[42:11] which takes the previous, it's always been in the code,
[42:15] they've just made a new book out of it.
[42:16] And that includes chapter 7a in the California Building Code
[42:19] and section R30, R337 in the California Residential Code
[42:24] which requires homes and the high fire severity zones
[42:27] is designated by CALFIRE to be ignition resistant.
[42:31] And it's a state mandate since 2008
[42:33] and they've just taken sections out of two codes
[42:36] and made in one new code.
[42:37] And that's about it.
[42:38] We've, as you may recall, we reduced the minimum size second well into 320 square feet from 400, that's carried forward.
[42:46] So nothing has really changed except for the new code and the local amendments are the same as we adopted last year.
[42:55] Look forward to any questions.
[42:58] Any board members have any questions?
[43:03] So does that include the exemption from fire sprinklers and solar?
[43:14] It does not, those requirements still stay in Title 24, the California Building Standards Code.
[43:21] The exemption we had was a separate ordinance under Title 25 for limited density rule dwelling.
[43:27] So those exemptions were still there, and we're not munking with that.
[43:29] We're going to leave that as it is, and that actually, I'm quite proud to say, and
[43:33] it's good for you guys for approving it, is what has increased our housing construction.
[43:38] It's not having to comply with those mandates.
[43:41] Everything else, it's just administrating.
[43:44] Give me people longer time between inspections, P-Rain Fund.
[43:49] A lot of this is for myself and for any successor, so they just have a good guideline to work within the county's constraints and our local flavor and culture.
[43:58] As this is a public carrying, I would ask for anyone wishing to speak in support of this.
[44:11] Anyone opposed to this action?
[44:17] Seeing none at 1044, I will close the public carrying and we will move on to item 4B, consideration action.
[44:27] requesting approval to waive the first reading of an ordinance to adopt the 2025 California Building Standards Code with local amendments and set the second reading for October 28th, 2025.
[44:46] I move to approve.
[44:47] It's been moved and seconded.
[44:50] Any board discussion?
[44:54] Any public comment?
[44:58] It's really hard on you today.
[45:00] All right, try to be more controversial next time.
[45:06] Seeing none, all in favor signify by saying aye. Aye. Opposed? Motion carries. Thank you. Item 5, planning items, 5a, consideration action, requesting approval of a budget modification for fiscal year 2024 through 2025 to the General Fund, 001, planning 2650, modifying
[45:32] by an expenditure in the amount of $8,158.
[45:37] Mr. Curtis.
[45:38] Morning.
[45:40] This is basically an adjustment for
[45:45] survey costs related
[45:47] to the VR site.
[45:52] Has always been sort of a lag, I guess,
[45:58] at what the costs are going to be.
[46:00] I've
[46:04] always agreed that we would rather than keep this a separate item, we would planning
[46:10] would pay for it out of the professional and specialized services, and if it was exceeded
[46:20] what we put in, then we would adjust at the back end, and so that's basically what this
[46:25] is.
[46:26] It's
[46:31] been moved and seconded to approve any board discussion.
[46:35] Public
[46:38] comment.
[46:40] Seeing none, all in favor, signify by saying aye.
[46:44] Aye.
[46:45] Opposed?
[46:46] Motion carries.
[46:48] Item 6, road and therefore, 6A, consideration action, request an approval and authorization
[46:56] for the chair of the board to sign supplemental services agreement number 4 between the county
[47:02] of Modoc and Bradley Engineering for the engineering design of a pavement
[47:10] crack seal project at the Tule Lake Municipal Airport, not to exceed $66,000 effective
[47:17] September 23rd, 2025. Good morning, Mitch Crosby Road Department.
[47:23] Brandly Engineering is our on-call consultant for the airport projects and this
[47:28] grant is a project that the FAA offered to us just a couple months ago or it has
[47:34] approved it. We just need to approve the contract with Grandly to get started
[47:38] on the work. They hope to have all the design work or they will have all
[47:41] design work done before the next grant cycles will be able to apply for a grant
[47:46] for the construction portion of the project.
[47:53] Second. Ben moved and seconded. Board
[47:56] Any more discussion?
[47:59] Any public comment? All in favor signify by saying aye.
[48:04] Aye. Opposed? Motion carries.
[48:07] Thank you.
[48:10] Item 7, administrative services.
[48:14] 7a, public carrying. Assembly Bill 2561, transparency in vacancy reporting.
[48:25] It will open the public carrying at 1048.
[48:28] 8.
[48:35] It should be the same as what's in your packet.
[48:46] Are you presenting, Jester or H.R. Director Randall will be presenting the book of it, and I'll present on the final page.
[48:56] Good morning, board, and council.
[49:00] This is assembly bill 2561, transparency and vacancy reporting.
[49:05] It was introduced as an amendment to the Myers-Millius Brown Act.
[49:11] It was signed into law September 22, 2024.
[49:16] It's effective January 1, 2025.
[49:21] It's designed to enhance transparency of ground staffing levels and
[49:26] labor relations in public agencies.
[49:32] This bill matters to us because it addresses the high vacancy rates in
[49:37] their impact, which causes increased workloads, burn out and turnover, decline in public service
[49:45] delivery. It ensures staffing data is publicly available. Employees voices are heard. And
[49:53] the requirements that we're going to present today is the vacancy rates, recruitment and retention
[50:01] information efforts and any obstacles that we have seen in hiring.
[50:08] The ones that are to be reported if there is a bargaining unit that has more than 20% vacancies.
[50:16] And we do have those.
[50:18] Our miscellaneous unit has an average of 22 to 27% vacancy rate.
[50:24] However, the usage of extra help employees, it decreases that percentage down to
[50:30] a realistic vacancy rate of 18 to 19%, but this Senate bill is only looking at full-time
[50:41] employees. The DSA currently has an average of 50% vacancy rates. However, the usage
[50:48] of extra help employees decreases his percentage down to 22%. The average number of applicants
[50:56] for vacancy is approximately six to seven applicants, average time to complete the hiring process is approximately 30 days.
[51:07] The average number with social services of applicants for vacancy is approximately four to five and Tom has updated those numbers for me.
[51:18] I think it was more closer to six to seven.
[51:20] Okay.
[51:26] And then the average time to complete the process is approximately 60 to 90 days.
[51:34] And then the implementation guide, so this is what human resources administration has
[51:40] come up to improve the recruitment strategies. We've reviewed the bottlenecks in our organization's
[51:47] recruitment and hiring process. Cal HR averages up to three months through their review process
[51:53] before setting up the interview.
[51:56] We've looked at improving the hiring strategy
[52:00] to become the employer of choice in our region.
[52:03] We've done that through purchasing an extra module
[52:06] with ADP, the recruitment and onboarding module.
[52:12] This will allow us to advertise to additional social media
[52:16] outlets, such as LinkedIn, Facebook,
[52:19] look, indeed, the recruiter to name a few.
[52:22] We are strategizing to create a workplace culture that will encourage employees to stay.
[52:28] We're looking into creating a welcoming video showing the features of working for
[52:33] MoDOT County in a positive light.
[52:36] We are looking to create a unique agency regarding working conditions that can draw potential
[52:42] candidates to.
[52:44] That will enhance the experience of wanting to work for MoDOT County through videos, onboarding
[52:48] announcements, newsletters, keeping the lines of communication open with the employees.
[52:55] We will continue to survey salary and benefits in our region to stay within the median
[53:00] range.
[53:01] ADP allows for these surveys with other agencies that utilize ADP.
[53:07] They have their own internal reclassification type or survey to where we can look to fill
[53:15] the positions and manage our vacancy rates.
[53:19] We're looking for employee offerings without breaking the budget by creating avenues for
[53:26] employees through maybe flexible schedules, different non-wage benefits that the employees
[53:34] might benefit from.
[53:36] We're going to continue to collect the correct data to understand the issues and make good
[53:40] decisions about where to spend our efforts and money.
[53:44] We'd like to utilize exit interview process and retention strategies to keep our valuable employees involved.
[53:51] And I must say that the employees that do stay with Mo. County, they should be commended because they're employees that are looking to what the community needs are.
[54:03] Not just how much money can I make.
[54:06] But it's more about what can I do to better the community, to better my job, and they should be commended.
[54:15] And the next I'll leave to Chester.
[54:19] I'm going to present on some of the localized issues.
[54:21] So what triggered AB 2561 in Moda County is very similar to what triggered the requirement in most other counties.
[54:29] Many of our peers actually have higher vacancy rate in a unit wide basis.
[54:34] This doesn't apply to all employees in the county, it applies it by bargaining unit.
[54:39] The three departments that we're seeing the high vacancy rate is the largest is in the social services department.
[54:47] We also have seen it fluctuate above and below that level in the public health and mental health department.
[54:55] And then we've also experienced those vacancy rates in the sheriff department.
[54:59] The board worked to address that shortly after the passage of AB 2561.
[55:06] In the Sheriff Department, we utilize some ARPA funds, which is the middle bullet point on the final page, to augment wages in those departments.
[55:15] And we also addressed some of the health insurance costs for the people in the Deputy Sheriff's Association.
[55:22] That largely among other things, recruiting and retention, and the good management by the sheriff alleviated the shortage of positions that were being filled.
[55:34] So what's not defined in the legislation is, is it 20% vacancy rate at the time we do this hearing?
[55:41] Is it the average through the course of the year?
[55:44] Had a question to council, she goes, you would ask that question.
[55:46] right? Because all the other people just assumed and did it. So that department and
[55:52] that bargaining unit, it depends at what point in the year you look at. So many of
[55:57] the agencies have not been able to fill that at any point in the year. So the good
[56:02] news is the actions taken by the board were there was a correlation are they the
[56:07] causal factor we'll never know but what we do know is the board took actions and
[56:12] there was a recovery of vacant positions. They're also prior to the
[56:16] A passage of AB 2561, but you knew it was coming, it was the board put an offer and it was accepted to increase the wages for the dispatchers.
[56:27] And they were quite a bit below parity.
[56:29] That was a long term offer by the county, it took a long time for the union to accept that offer, but that was part of alleviating.
[56:35] So that unit has largely has a resolved situation.
[56:39] What is not resolved is in the social services and health and human services departments.
[56:45] And to come in front what we're working on is a proposal for increased wages in public
[56:49] health and mental health to stay ahead of the healthcare minimum wage.
[56:54] In addition to the healthcare minimum wage you have increases the effect that department
[56:58] on the exempt minimum wage.
[57:00] In addition to that we have the opening of the skilled new skilled nursing facility, 80 some
[57:05] positions will be out there plus medical expansion by the state, which has led to a lot
[57:10] of positions in that field being opening up with the schools, office of education, and
[57:16] tribal governments. So that local competition, the increase in wages, and we're working
[57:21] to do that. Before we could even consider those wages, we had to look at revenue enhancements.
[57:27] So over the course since the passage of AB 2561 and we started last November, been from
[57:32] on the board, you've approved a series of contracts that will augment revenues, primarily
[57:37] federal revenues, so that we can raise wages in that department, so that we can compete
[57:43] with these legal minimum wages, but also the industry standard, and have a revenue that
[57:49] would offset the bulk of those costs.
[57:51] There is enough front investment by the county because if we increase those wages, it takes
[57:56] a period of time before we could recover.
[57:57] That was revenues from the federal government because they take an average rate.
[58:02] That means the county will, for a period of time, lose some of the money, but then later
[58:07] on you will receive money on the back end.
[58:10] So we have to cash for that.
[58:11] We will be engaging the labor union and working to have not only decision points in front
[58:15] of you very soon, but also a side letter with the general unit.
[58:21] The, for social services, we had evaluation of discontinuance of Cal HR.
[58:27] And this was explained, I believe this was, you'll see it showing up in the grand jury
[58:31] report that was made public last year.
[58:34] A lot of our county and many other counties are tied, the hands are tied.
[58:39] View County, I believe was the last one that the state allowed to get out of Cal HR.
[58:43] Cal HR itself is understaffed, and the agencies rely on Cal HR.
[58:48] So if you have people applying on a statewide basis for social service departments, and it takes several weeks in a hot job market to even get through people move on and get jobs in other fields.
[58:58] So this is a statewide problem. Our vacancy rate is much lower than many of our peers, and it's not the sole factor, but one of the large determining factors, the state's own bureaucratic process.
[59:08] Many counties therefore began relying on contracting in order to maintain their eligibility staffing levels.
[59:16] The state, as you all know, we took letters opposing legislation that would restrict the ability to contract out for those services.
[59:25] There are any of it is we're having trouble because we're relying on the state for the to get employees and then when we said, well, we'll use contractors, the state says, no, no, no, don't do that.
[59:35] And we had a meeting with the labor union the other day and they pointed out some of the legislative proposals were amended but they're still constraints for us to contract out.
[59:44] Needless to say, we could not, we have mandates to meet on our contracts.
[59:47] We came in front of the board with contracted employees that the goal is not to have that be a permanent structure in our county government, but we need that to relieve the pressure on them with high caseload counts.
[1:00:00] And it also provides us relief so that the existing employees can train new workers as we backfill those positions. There is some additional legislative proposals coming from the state that would basically remove your ability to contract out for that. And at the same time, the state won't let you change contractors going through to get the employees. And what we all know is there's potential sanctions associated with the state saying, if there's air ratio, the federal government's going to sanction the state governments, the state governments.
[1:00:29] It's anticipated will sanction local counties that so we view my personal view and I think this is an objective statement
[1:00:37] Not just subject. It's as though we're being set up for failure because the agencies are not able to utilize all their resources
[1:00:44] And as they try to use them in multiple fashions the door keeps getting closed and
[1:00:49] Sanctions could result. You know, we know the state has an air rate that exceeds what the federal government allows
[1:00:54] So the state will having to pay a portion of food stamp benefits and I'm stating this publicly
[1:01:00] I think is very important for the public to understand the county is in a dilemma because of the constraints that are being imposed on us
[1:01:08] And it's not us they're having trouble. It's all the other agencies not all but most of them are having the similar problem
[1:01:14] In fact many of our peers had ratios that are more than 30% vacant in these departments. I see the challenge for us
[1:01:22] that's different than health services is if we propose wage increases if you ended up
[1:01:27] with full staffing counts as a result there's not necessarily augmenting revenue so right
[1:01:32] now you might have money on the table but if you fully increase the wages and you became
[1:01:36] fully staff then you have an unsustainable situation where you couldn't support all of
[1:01:41] that so the challenge will be finding a balance of how do we raise wages in context of all
[1:01:47] these other logistical challenges imposed by the state but not so much that if we became
[1:01:51] fully staffed, that it drains the county of resources.
[1:01:56] The other things we look as we have departments that are continue to use educational reimbursement
[1:02:00] programs and multiple of these specialized departments.
[1:02:04] An example I put in there is Title 4-E and we have other programs that this county is engaged
[1:02:08] in, not all counties have engaged in the health department, but a number of people getting
[1:02:12] educational reimbursement will continue to seek additional revenue contracts, which are
[1:02:18] became more scarce with the federal and state pullback.
[1:02:22] And we've also, when I talk about, we've changed our contracting for inmate health, for
[1:02:29] cost relief to augment wages.
[1:02:31] So that allowed us to change how we're getting funded, which allows us to pay the wages
[1:02:38] for people where we have the shortage of positions.
[1:02:42] And I won't go into the details, but there's been multiple changes, whether it's through
[1:02:45] the CCPIF contracts that you've had the health department approve, which affects the providers
[1:02:51] that are within the jail. But that's been a huge relief, I think, relieving the stress
[1:02:57] on the staffing. And we will, if we have approval of wages and the union consents to that, we
[1:03:06] will submit an updated cost report for higher reimbursement for behavioral health department.
[1:03:10] So what happens is once the wages go up, then we have a consultant that will prepare a cost
[1:03:14] profile there's a delay but then when they approve that in the future we'll be able to get higher
[1:03:19] reimbursement and then we're working to recruit from the nursing programs primarily in the public
[1:03:25] health arena when there's graduating classes this December from community colleges primary last in
[1:03:32] county. The reason I state all this very publicly is a that's required by the legislation b so
[1:03:38] everyone knows that we're not alone in this journey 3 so that you know that it's not just management
[1:03:44] it gets aside, we're being dealt a lot of interesting constraints from the state of California.
[1:03:49] And then the fourth issue I want to state publicly is this is going to cause challenges,
[1:03:53] which I've been talking about, but I want the public employees to know.
[1:03:57] We're going to go into a situation where legislatively, we're required to lift wages and
[1:04:03] some of the departments and increased services while we also have a structural deficit in other departments.
[1:04:08] And the demand for those services is needed in all of those realms, right?
[1:04:12] the public expects those services, but you're going to have employees that will be able to have
[1:04:17] pay increases of results of these revenue enhancements and us trying to meet this law, right? If we
[1:04:23] focus on areas that are not having the vacancy rate, well, we have these vacancy rate, we're subject
[1:04:29] to potential implications from labor unions as well as the state. This report is a statewide report
[1:04:36] and it also requires meat and confer with the union. We started that. They know about this report
[1:04:41] and then they will meet with us in the results to see if they have any changes
[1:04:45] and what they recommend which is allowed for in the legislation. So therefore our
[1:04:50] focus is on the ones that have the higher vacancy rate and currently we've
[1:04:55] addressed the one in the general unit that is the Sheriff's Department's
[1:04:57] Dispatch and Jail and we will continue working on mental health, behavioral health,
[1:05:01] and social service departments. Any questions?
[1:05:21] I have not heard that that's in the works, but it would be a good idea and kind of goes along with what my comment was going to be that after the legislature has mandated that we do this report all counties.
[1:05:42] that I would hope that the legislature might review this and realize that some of their laws are actually creating these vacancies, making it hard to fill the positions.
[1:05:59] But I'm not going to hold my breath that second part actually ever happens, but hopefully.
[1:06:06] but I like that CSAC work trying to draw all this together.
[1:06:12] Yeah, I think this along with employment data,
[1:06:16] I think it really showcased that, you know,
[1:06:20] there's a magic
[1:06:26] that was going to do the state
[1:06:28] to register and say, hey, you know,
[1:06:29] can't what you guys are trying to do.
[1:06:34] I think those challenges, I will say,
[1:06:36] while we talk the AB2561 is about challenges in the county,
[1:06:40] we're seeing this also, and that's why we're
[1:06:42] seeing requests for IGT from counties
[1:06:44] and others to support their hospital districts.
[1:06:47] You have this legislative increase in medical.
[1:06:51] At the same time, the state has provided a huge amount
[1:06:53] of jobs in medical and non-traditional industries
[1:06:56] like schools, tribes, nonprofits.
[1:07:00] And as there's an increase, that means your match goes up.
[1:07:04] So as people are looking at making increased IGT transfers,
[1:07:08] they don't have the resources.
[1:07:10] So those entities are saying, if I can't make my transfer
[1:07:13] in advance to the Department of Health Care Services,
[1:07:16] I'm gonna lose millions of dollars,
[1:07:17] so they're looking for any other entity to assist.
[1:07:20] And what I'm learning is our county is not alone.
[1:07:22] The health district over here,
[1:07:23] people go, oh well, the bank ruptured
[1:07:25] has financial challenges.
[1:07:26] It's got a full skilled nursing facility in the home,
[1:07:28] but it is not alone.
[1:07:30] You have other well-operated,
[1:07:32] it's they cannot scale up to the match requirement
[1:07:35] to make the inter-governmental transfers.
[1:07:37] So we're not alone in trying to deal with the cost increases
[1:07:41] that have been legislated on all of us and the legislated cost increases are increasing
[1:07:45] the match.
[1:07:46] And then if you can't meet that match requirement you're looking at huge losses of federal
[1:07:51] revenues to our medical providers and those groups are coming to other government entities
[1:07:56] for assistance.
[1:07:57] So there's an interconnection with what I was saying is we have a structural deficit in
[1:08:03] the county we've talked about in the budget hearings.
[1:08:06] Most of it is out of our control it's legislated increases.
[1:08:09] These departments, these are legislated, mandated,
[1:08:13] are medical providers, legislated, increases,
[1:08:16] and those things are causing the system to fail collectively.
[1:08:20] Yeah, people like the increase in wages, but not dependent on the cost of living.
[1:08:24] So I think the IGT, if you're talking about CSAC and RCRC,
[1:08:28] there is a nexus with the IGT problem and also what we're seeing in our agencies.
[1:08:33] Because you're talking to you about, you know, essential legislation coming up in the
[1:08:37] five months next month.
[1:08:38] What is the ability to contract out?
[1:08:41] Do we help bring in additional revenue?
[1:08:43] So, that legislation, those types of legislation, before we lose those contract
[1:08:47] capabilities, we have to provide certain things to the warehouse,
[1:08:50] we lose our capability, and that's what I believe.
[1:08:57] I understand, and it's very, very distanced, naturally,
[1:09:00] and capy with the energy team.
[1:09:03] Correct.
[1:09:04] Same.
[1:09:05] Yes.
[1:09:06] Since it's self-fulfilling in two other aspects, it's not just the legislative proposal from the legislature, but it's also CalPERS began enforcing strictly with the rules after the State Supreme Court made a ruling on the gentleman that basically he was not even working for a CalPERS agency, he was a retired individual, he was contracted up to 32 cities.
[1:09:28] You need about $80,000 over a 10-year period working for 30 as a fixer.
[1:09:34] And CalPERS said, nope, you need to pay back all of your retirement.
[1:09:37] With fine spendings and interest, it was just under $700,000.
[1:09:41] He appealed it, and the courts basically said, no.
[1:09:44] Every one of those cities should have enrolled him as a personable inflow, which, having done
[1:09:49] this for years, that's not even possible, right?
[1:09:51] So you have people fleeing the workforce because of the person.
[1:09:55] There's what I mean is many of the people specializing in these fields, in these departments,
[1:10:00] they've probably, you don't learn those skills unless you've worked in county government.
[1:10:04] So if you're pooled in these firms, you have people who are A saying I'm afraid to work
[1:10:09] as a contractor for a contracted firm.
[1:10:11] The other is multiple attempts by the state legislator to restrict your ability to contract
[1:10:16] out.
[1:10:17] Now there's firms that are saying I don't know if I could put out a business tomorrow, so
[1:10:20] struggling to get investors to or get the capital to have a firm, right?
[1:10:26] If you're if you're on a firm and you go to a bank and said,
[1:10:29] I need working capital for payroll and all the people and they said,
[1:10:31] well, the state's tried to basically put your business model out of business.
[1:10:35] Your primary thing is contracting with state social services departments.
[1:10:38] It's very difficult to scale and grow a business when there's a legitimate need
[1:10:42] when you might be legislated out of business.
[1:10:44] So you got these headwinds, even if the legislation doesn't pass,
[1:10:49] that's causing problems for us and we will continue to try to work on it in
[1:10:55] context of just building ground increasing wages with those limits to what we
[1:10:59] can do. Good news is your departments are ahead of many of your other rural
[1:11:03] peers and I'm very proud of what the department heads of accomplished. I say
[1:11:07] that publicly because some of the staff people make fun they go hey you look in
[1:11:11] the paper and you just see this in eternity of jobs right and we had prior people
[1:11:17] will say well it's almost becomes counterproductive to have those but then if you're not seeking
[1:11:22] to advertise you're not in compliance with the legislation you're not showing an effort.
[1:11:26] I don't have an answer to those things but if you look a lot of times last in county has
[1:11:30] more postings than we do and so that means they're suffering from the same challenge.
[1:11:40] Another note, another update, increase the health insurance was just voted on to be increased
[1:11:49] by 9.85 percent through our JPA, which is not real bad because a lot of other agencies
[1:11:56] are going in the double digits.
[1:11:58] Our dental and vision was increased by 5 percent and the life insurance about the same.
[1:12:06] We do have other alternatives that we'll be bringing in front of the board that we brought
[1:12:10] up to the union when we met with them Friday.
[1:12:13] day. Two other life insurance is that one will remain the same, the other one would be
[1:12:21] less. And they're very prominent life insurance companies as well. We've also had discussions
[1:12:29] with the DSA who have now left CalPERS Health and they're coming on board with the JPA which
[1:12:37] is going to help a lot of the safety members to have a large decrease in the health insurance
[1:12:43] for them.
[1:12:46] The dental and vision, though, these increases are causing them to go over the
[1:12:53] counting cap, so we'll have to address that at one point in time. Thank you.
[1:13:01] There are any additional forward questions or comments regarding the AB 2561.
[1:13:11] make vacancy reporting requirement?
[1:13:22] Is there any public comment, either proponents or oponents?
[1:13:33] So at this time, I will close the public hearing at 1113,
[1:13:44] organizer star, thanked Pam for the report,
[1:13:48] but thank you, Pam, and Chester for what you're doing to try and
[1:13:55] reverse the trend of vacancies be able to provide the services that we are required to item 7b is also a public hearing
[1:14:08] Public hearing day I think we didn't have a proclamation on that
[1:14:17] Public hearing to adopt the fiscal year
[1:14:21] 2025 through
[1:14:22] through 2026 County of Modoc budget.
[1:14:26] I will open the public pairing at 1114 and turn it over to the CAO for Stafford for it.
[1:14:35] Just a reverence and administration.
[1:14:38] So for the public, we'll give the record.
[1:14:40] You have revenues of $16,786,443 in the general fund and expenditures in the general fund of $17,431,000
[1:14:52] $204 for an ending fund balance of $533,928.
[1:15:00] What we discuss in the hearings is this is a structural deficit. We will have to begin working, and we plan for this, but the much of it is legislative increases on exempt minimum wage, another wage that we've had the step into and health insurance increases and insurance regular property liability, what not, and then CalPERS. So I've looked at it and it's weird a point where it's not going to be very feasible to cut our way out, but we have no choice to begin that process.
[1:15:29] this coming year. But it's not that we've let stuff
[1:15:33] excessively grow. We're just we're meeting the
[1:15:35] challenge and the revenue is flat in this county
[1:15:38] because the local economy. There's a minimal private
[1:15:40] sector and we talked about sales tax growth being
[1:15:43] limited. In the special revenue funds, we also show
[1:15:46] deficit spending, but that is not structural. So special
[1:15:50] revenue funds, 53 million, $518,315 in revenue, and
[1:15:57] and special revenue fund expenditures is $59,292,810.
[1:16:04] They have an ending fund balance of $37,436,975.
[1:16:11] So this sounds like we have quite a bit of deficit spending.
[1:16:15] That was this was planned for and much of this is matched
[1:16:18] that we built up for grants and those grants
[1:16:21] or we're gonna now be discouraging those funds
[1:16:24] to do infrastructure projects and large outlays that, you know, it's not like we're facing
[1:16:31] a structural deficit different than what's in the general fund. It's basically the culmination
[1:16:35] of several years worth of work in the projects are being sent out the door. It does result in a lower
[1:16:41] ending balance of those projects. It was presented in the hearings. We're budgeting the full amount
[1:16:45] for a number of these projects, but they probably won't be completed. So we probably won't draw down
[1:16:50] this much of the balance of probably projects will extend in the subsequent year and a number
[1:16:56] of them are currently on hold from the federal government, but they're not suspended, they're
[1:17:00] just in a holding pattern. So we'll see how that plays out, but I think we're in relatively
[1:17:06] good position in those departments and a totally different reason than what you're seeing in the
[1:17:11] general fund. Any questions?
[1:17:19] So just a comment that you mentioned legislative minimum wage
[1:17:27] and all that on January 1 goes to $16.90 per hour. I think a bigger impact is in the minimum
[1:17:37] salary which now exceeds 70,000 correct we will continue to experience challenges dealing
[1:17:50] with that state mandate as I presented that exempt minimum wage is about what most
[1:17:57] department heads it's about 10,000 less than what I made as the CAO highest but what most
[1:18:04] to your department heads didn't even make that much,
[1:18:06] but yet, in the commensoring years,
[1:18:08] your exempt minimum wage is that high,
[1:18:10] but you've basically had flat sales tax growth,
[1:18:14] and that's a huge, you can't have flat growth
[1:18:17] because your community is dying
[1:18:19] and have these legislative increases
[1:18:21] and think that we have a sustainable situation,
[1:18:23] but it's not a matter of cutting most of what we're left
[1:18:26] right now as mandated positions.
[1:18:29] So I don't, we've always had ways out
[1:18:31] or we've figured out creative things,
[1:18:32] but the trend is not going to, it'd be one thing if it rose to a higher level.
[1:18:37] The state has basically created a structural mechanism that's just going to keep increasing.
[1:18:42] But I don't, what we're seeing is the other direction we've gone to tribal gas stations.
[1:18:47] There's no new gas stations, gas is the larger driver of sales tax.
[1:18:51] What little you have at the end of the tunnel is a little bit of building construction that
[1:18:55] has come from the building official helping get in us an exemption that only six counties
[1:18:59] in the state have for residential sprinkler and solar and no more than he gets a boom on that
[1:19:05] and the state as he presented today is trying to shut us down. So these are external factors
[1:19:10] that I do not look forward to the next couple of years but we have to continue and the fear is
[1:19:16] this is impacting others but we have a worst case scenario of it because we're smaller others have
[1:19:22] we're down to just statutorily required positions in much of the general fund.
[1:19:27] Thank you for letting me add that but I want to not pass blame but I just said it's the reality you can't have flat growth and
[1:19:34] Have state-legislated increases and be sustainable
[1:19:36] Are
[1:19:40] there any members of the public that wish to speak and
[1:19:44] support or an opposition to this?
[1:19:49] in a additional
[1:19:51] Board comments or questions
[1:19:53] All right, I will close the public hearing at
[1:20:00] 1119 move to item seven C
[1:20:05] consideration action, request and approval of a resolution adopting the County of Modoc adopted
[1:20:12] budget for fiscal year 2025 through 2026.
[1:20:20] This is, I believe, and I did not incorporate. We
[1:20:23] barely got this posted. So there was discussion of the board potentially wants changes on the asset.
[1:20:30] If we do do that, I would recommend 10,000 where you'd add a constraint. So under the current
[1:20:35] Resolution that delegates authority to the CAO and the auditor to make changes between
[1:20:41] operational line items as long as they're net zero and between salary and wage line items
[1:20:46] as long as they're net zero does not delegate board authority to move between those we have
[1:20:51] to come back before the board between departments and admin.
[1:20:55] We used to have an asset freeze in hard time and as we're going to those we well it doesn't
[1:21:00] appropriate you're recommending that you could put in there requiring CAO approval
[1:21:05] for asset purchases and excess of $10,000. And this begins the transition of
[1:21:11] pre-asset freeze and before having furloughs or any other kind of thing. But
[1:21:15] telling people we're definitely going to physically constraints, constrained
[1:21:20] times. And it creates an opportunity to dialogue with Department head to make
[1:21:24] sure that they're getting their revenue before there's expenditure of a fixed
[1:21:29] asset item. If there's going to be a reduction of revenue, then we have a
[1:21:33] discussion. No, we're not going to allow the others for cash flow purposes. So we
[1:21:38] thought we had a request from the surprise of all the health care district and
[1:21:41] that hey, can you assist? Well, the county can't assist unless it can cash flow.
[1:21:46] And that means if people just can purchase what's budgeted without respect to
[1:21:51] the timing of those purchases. So with the the freeze in the asset where it
[1:21:56] requires approval. Well, we would do is go in and said, can you purchase asset right
[1:22:01] now? No, I would probably say no. We haven't received our first installment of property tax
[1:22:05] revenues. We're in a dry period. We're actually cash flowing the general fund wants negative.
[1:22:10] Subsequently, let's say they come in the after-second installments have been made in April. I might
[1:22:14] say yes, you can make your purchase. So one of the purposes there is not whether or not
[1:22:20] the purchase is made, but the timing of the purchase to ensure that there's proper cash
[1:22:25] management of the county so with that's my recommendation for changes
[1:22:30] incorporated in the resolution thank you
[1:22:39] as mentioned okay thank you I'll
[1:22:42] second okay it's been moved and seconded board discussion I think the for the
[1:22:56] reasons that Chester laid out that approval for assets over ten thousand
[1:23:02] dollars is necessary so that there is a perspective of the larger picture of the whole
[1:23:11] of the county and cash flow at that given moment has
[1:23:20] been added into the resolution that
[1:23:23] moved and seconded any board discussion, any public comment saying none all in favor signify
[1:23:33] by saying aye.
[1:23:34] Aye.
[1:23:35] Opposed?
[1:23:36] Motion carries.
[1:23:41] Item 7-D, consideration action, requested and approval of a resolution adopting the personnel
[1:23:48] allocation table for fiscal year 2025 through 2026.
[1:23:55] Mr. Roberts, administration, so unlike the budget component where the resolution where we
[1:23:59] have proposed changes this year, this would remain the same, it would allow for the underfilling
[1:24:04] of position allocations being delegated to us and not bringing one of the, we did have
[1:24:09] discussion about hiring freeze and having it where we come to board approval. But we
[1:24:14] believe is what you just pass through the fixed assets and the constraints and the budgetary
[1:24:18] part of the resolution. We can affect the slowdown and help people understand the fiscal austerity
[1:24:24] that we're going to need. But here it could overload us bureaucratically bringing each of
[1:24:29] those things. What I don't want it to do is take away from the board's leadership and
[1:24:33] time focusing on some of the contracts they're going to have that'll be coming from in front
[1:24:37] of you enhancing revenue rather than getting bogged down with people whether or not you know we
[1:24:43] replace a position that will statutorily be required to be replaced. We'll deal with those but we
[1:24:48] are going to exercise our authority to meet with departments to consider not refilling certain positions
[1:24:53] when they become vacant and we'll have serious dialogue with them even about underfilling
[1:25:02] Any questions?
[1:25:05] I'm going to approve.
[1:25:07] Second.
[1:25:08] It's been moved and seconded.
[1:25:10] Any board discussion?
[1:25:14] Public comment?
[1:25:17] Seeing none, all in favor, signify by saying aye.
[1:25:20] Aye.
[1:25:22] Opposed?
[1:25:22] Motion carries.
[1:25:24] Item 7e.
[1:25:26] Consideration action.
[1:25:27] and requesting approval of a budget modification for fiscal year 2024 through 2025
[1:25:34] to the whole person care, 5510, modifying expenditures in the amount of $11,143.
[1:25:43] Mr. Robertson, administration, so as you recall, there's an inter-department MAU for $345,000
[1:25:49] with the pilot program funds.
[1:25:51] Obviously when we're purchasing all that, you don't want to leave money on the table, right?
[1:25:55] So if we came in at 340, right, you would alert turn 5,000, we know that we have needs
[1:26:00] that are far exceeding the 345.
[1:26:03] These purchases, basically when we did bids for materials, you're basically looking
[1:26:08] at 11,000 divided by 345.
[1:26:12] So there's a small variance that goes over, but that was basically we're buying enough.
[1:26:16] We're going to leave off the end of the roofing or windows and so we're going to leave five
[1:26:21] Windows, it completes the purchase of materials and we need to augment that by $11,000.
[1:26:27] Currently, that would be general fund.
[1:26:29] The proposal for this year, as you know, as you approved, it went to the vote.
[1:26:33] I don't know what ceased the Community Corrections Partnership did.
[1:26:36] The results of the meeting yesterday, but we incorporated money from the 2011 Public Safety
[1:26:41] Re-Element and also re-element from our restricted departments that would augment the building fund this year.
[1:26:49] Any questions?
[1:26:53] Thank you.
[1:27:02] Been moved and seconded.
[1:27:04] Any forward questions or discussion?
[1:27:08] Public comment?
[1:27:10] Seeing none, all in favor of item 7E signify by saying aye.
[1:27:16] Aye.
[1:27:17] Opposed?
[1:27:18] Motion carries.
[1:27:20] Item 7F.
[1:27:21] Consideration action.
[1:27:23] Requested approval of a budget modification for fiscal year 2024.
[1:27:27] 24 through 2025 to buildings and grounds, 1, 4, 1, 0, modifying expenditures in the amount of $110,000, $942.
[1:27:42] A lot of money here, this is largely, there's going to be some journal revenue that we'll have to bring in there that is doing work over at the health services department.
[1:27:52] So we've had one and a half individuals working in there.
[1:27:55] And then the large part of this figure is the change order that we remember we brought in front of the board for the
[1:28:04] North portion of the roadway behind the veterans hall
[1:28:09] And that's the you'll see 68 thousand one nine six
[1:28:14] There was discussion
[1:28:17] The roads did the adjacent road and the city of thrift that part was general fund
[1:28:21] I
[1:28:24] move to approve.
[1:28:25] Second.
[1:28:26] Been moved and seconded.
[1:28:28] Board discussion.
[1:28:30] Public comment.
[1:28:32] Seeing none all in favor of item 7 F, signify by saying aye.
[1:28:37] Aye.
[1:28:38] Opposed? Motion carries.
[1:28:41] Item 7G, consideration, action.
[1:28:44] Requested approval of a budget modification for fiscal year 2024 through 2025
[1:28:51] to do to order 1040 modifying interfund transfer in the amount of $60,000 and $48.
[1:29:02] This is a cost containment that we have limited control over but
[1:29:05] we will be having dialogue with our county council, health and human
[1:29:08] service directors and social service directors about possible solutions.
[1:29:14] Reality is, as more people get conserved, our costs go up.
[1:29:17] And we're seeing an increase in conservatorship and that goes through the court process and this is multiple types of conservatorship.
[1:29:25] So you might have an elderly person who's you know facing dimension doesn't have next to kin.
[1:29:30] You might have an LPS conservatorship and it's almost a doubling and we projected in this year's budget.
[1:29:37] We've historically been in the 40 to 70 range most of the time I've been here.
[1:29:43] This is more than the doubling and we're projecting that a doubling is coming here. In other words, you're having
[1:29:50] I guess I don't know what else to say you have a lot more people that need to be conserved and
[1:29:56] That's costing the general fun part of the money. This is not a system
[1:30:00] Sustainable situation. We don't have a potential solutions at this time. They can bring forward.
[1:30:07] I think you just answered my question. I'm going to ask, where is that? 60,000 plus coming from. That's fun. Reserves, yes. So our reserves are, and this is similar with the trend we've been talking about as justice system was we have changes. What's coming through us from the justice system, we have to
[1:30:30] I don't know, I don't have an answer because a lot of it's not sustainable, but we have to continue to pay these costs.
[1:30:40] Thank you to the department also who manages the increased workload of that, including kind of council's office, but
[1:30:45] Tom Sandage's group with minimal staffing, right, which we just addressed in the 2561 report.
[1:30:52] When I say is this not just a regular workload, you're seeing less staff with all those state constraints and
[1:30:58] And that last staff, just here is an example of an increased case count.
[1:31:03] So I want to acknowledge that the staff in that department are working harder, not just working hard, in context of what we're dealing with.
[1:31:12] And it takes a lot to run up another, I mean, these are hours that get tracked.
[1:31:22] Okay, motion check, move.
[1:31:25] been moved and seconded. Any board discussion?
[1:31:31] Public comment? Seeing none all in favor of item 7g, signify by saying aye. Aye.
[1:31:40] Opposed? Motion carries. Item 8, auditor items, 8a, consideration action. Requested approval of the 2025 through 2026 tax rate
[1:31:54] date, book, her revenue and taxation code section 2151.
[1:32:00] Stephanie's not able to present, so I'll be presenting her items today.
[1:32:03] Tax rate books, that's a tour they required, as you can see.
[1:32:06] You have, you're affirming the 1% base rate motion
[1:32:13] to approve.
[1:32:15] It's been moved and seconded, any board discussion?
[1:32:22] Any public comment, saying not all in favor, signify by saying aye.
[1:32:27] Aye. Aye. Aye. Opposed? Motion carries.
[1:32:33] Yeah, they did.
[1:32:34] Did your mic just go out? It looks like it's pretty dark.
[1:32:44] Fairies for now.
[1:32:47] I just have to look over and see that it wasn't lit up.
[1:32:51] There we go.
[1:32:58] Item 8B. Consideration action. Requested approval of a resolution
[1:33:03] and establishing the 2025 through 2026 appropriation limit under Article 13B of the California Constitution and establishing a period for contesting such limits for the Aden Light District.
[1:33:19] I district of $10,296 moved
[1:33:30] and seconded, any board discussion?
[1:33:33] Public comment?
[1:33:35] All in favor signify by saying aye.
[1:33:38] Aye.
[1:33:39] Opposed?
[1:33:40] Motion carries.
[1:33:41] Item 8c, consideration action, request in approval of a resolution establishing the 2025 through
[1:33:49] through 2026 appropriation limit under Article 13B of the California Constitution,
[1:33:55] and establishing a period for contesting such limits for the seat of a light district.
[1:34:01] 23,292 dollars.
[1:34:03] Been
[1:34:06] moved and seconded, any board discussion?
[1:34:09] Public comment, saying none, all in favor say aye.
[1:34:12] Aye.
[1:34:14] Opposed?
[1:34:14] Motion carries.
[1:34:17] 8D consideration action, request and approval of a resolution,
[1:34:21] establishing the 2025 through 2026
[1:34:24] appropriation limit under Article 13b
[1:34:27] of the California Constitution
[1:34:29] and establishing a period for
[1:34:31] contesting such limits for the county of Modok.
[1:34:35] This one I'll do a little more discussion
[1:34:36] because I'd like to do my part to educate the public.
[1:34:40] So appropriation's limit causes a rebalancing
[1:34:44] between the private sector tax payers
[1:34:46] and also various units of government.
[1:34:49] So the state is basically bypassing this because they'll have a subsequent resolution having it approved where they take your unused appropriation limit capacity.
[1:34:58] What's the point of having appropriation limits if the state doesn't have a limit, which is causing these problems that we're talking about earlier in the budget process, right?
[1:35:06] And so I wanted to point out in here the annual appropriation subject to the limit at the county for this proposed years, 12,073,191.
[1:35:15] one, but the amount that will be under the limit is $17,760,589.
[1:35:22] What that means is the state doesn't take the money, but it takes that appropriation
[1:35:28] capacity.
[1:35:29] It says, we're not, that'll be added to our limit, and when they do that, that's allowing
[1:35:33] them to appropriate well beyond rather than rebalance it to the private sector or rebalance
[1:35:47] It's a very important mechanism because what it allows is that you will be indexed to either population growth or private sector growth.
[1:35:55] When you remove that appropriation limit, your government, the unit of government can grow unrestrained without that rebalancing.
[1:36:02] and it's no longer being held accountable is it succeeding in having a healthy
[1:36:07] populist that's growing or is it having a healthy private sector. That's why our
[1:36:11] state can can grow as a business unit but you continue to lose your your
[1:36:16] middle-class businesses, your private sector, and you're losing student council on
[1:36:19] state-wide basis. And they're doing that using our appropriation capacity and the
[1:36:25] schools and the cities and others. And that's a significant amount of money. Don't
[1:36:31] I don't know how much of that they'll use, but just want to be on record staying up.
[1:36:34] I hope I object to the misuse of the constitutional provision by the state of California.
[1:36:42] And we will do our best to continue to ensure that we're utilizing what we can under the appropriation limit.
[1:36:50] Thank you.
[1:36:52] Continuation of, as I say, not as I do.
[1:36:58] We have to do a hearing, they get to do a hearing at the end of the year and
[1:37:00] He said you don't even need to do a hearing.
[1:37:02] That doesn't make any sense.
[1:37:05] Motion to.
[1:37:08] It's been moved and seconded.
[1:37:10] Any board discussion?
[1:37:13] Public comment?
[1:37:16] Seeing none, all in favor of item 8D, signified by saying aye.
[1:37:21] Aye.
[1:37:24] Opposed?
[1:37:27] Motion carries.
[1:37:30] Item 9, Information Technology 9A, Consideration Action.
[1:37:34] and requesting approval and authorization for the Chair of the Board to sign a statement of work between the County of Modoc and Civic Plus for two department header websites and identity provider to be to enable single sign on for centralized management of user identities with, excuse me, effective September 23rd, 2025.
[1:38:04] And short of that, what that means is not only you have a county wide website, but you'll have two larger departments that have their own website through the same service, but when you go, it'll say like Modoc Sheriff Department rather than you go to Modoc County and you have to go to a sub-many to get to the Sheriff for the Health Department.
[1:38:22] And there's a cost associated portion of that obviously it'll be general fund
[1:38:27] and portion will be restricted departments that are discovered but that functionality is important.
[1:38:35] And if you think it's not when you'd have that much savings but the department heads
[1:38:40] find that that's valuable for the service to the public.
[1:38:53] Moved in second-ed any board discussion?
[1:39:00] Any public comment?
[1:39:02] Seeing none, all in favor, signify by saying aye.
[1:39:07] Opposed, motion carries.
[1:39:10] Item 10, Board of Supervisor Items, 10A, consideration action,
[1:39:16] requesting a letter of support for the Modoc Resources Conservation District,
[1:39:21] RCD, application to the Sierra Nevada Conservancies.
[1:39:26] 2025 Wildfire and Forest Resilience Directed Grant Program to implement the Wildland Urban
[1:39:34] Interface Fields Reduction Project.
[1:39:40] Good morning.
[1:39:41] Good morning.
[1:39:42] I'm Lonnie Calkroll, and I'm here with the Medical Resource Conservation District.
[1:39:47] Again, asking for your support for a grant that we're applying for to do Fields Reduction
[1:39:52] should work in MRE, and it's going to be some new areas that have been treated in the
[1:39:59] past. And hopefully the, well they have already applied for it. Fire State Council is doing
[1:40:07] a similar grant application to Cal Fire for maintenance on existing work that's been done
[1:40:13] up there. So we're just asking for your support, and hopefully we'll get the grant.
[1:40:23] Any
[1:40:24] moved and seconded board discussion like
[1:40:30] to say that appreciate the effort to continue
[1:40:32] to seek grant funding to reduce fuels in some of our communities and hopefully reduce
[1:40:41] the threat of welfare yeah thank you appreciate that. Any other board comments? Public comment?
[1:40:49] Senate, seen none, all in favor signify by saying aye.
[1:40:54] Aye.
[1:40:55] Opposed?
[1:40:57] Motion carries item 10B, consideration, action, request in approval on authorization for the chair of the board to sign a letter urging the urging Governor Gavin Newsom to sign assembly bill 411 related to on-farm composting of routine livestock mortalities.
[1:41:19] I will address that briefly, the letter has been sent seeking approval after the fact
[1:41:29] because knowing when the governor would be signing this bill, there is a direct connection
[1:41:37] to Modaq County, our property of extension has been working with Chico for the last number
[1:41:46] of years showing that this is a safe practice for removal of deceased livestock and put your
[1:41:58] waste and providing a viable product that can be returned back to the soil.
[1:42:06] well, it also has a direct connection to the ever increasing wolf issues with ranchers
[1:42:16] not having the ability to be able to currently dispose of livestock properly, and this hopefully
[1:42:24] will reduce the incidence of what's referred to as bone piles, and the tract that creates
[1:42:33] for wolves. I don't believe that will continue going south. So with that I would
[1:42:41] entertain a motion for a move and seconded any board discussion any
[1:42:52] public
[1:42:53] comment. Yes come up so some they can hurry up if anyone is online. We did this at
[1:43:03] the bear ranch 10 years ago or so, and we had to do it in Nevada, but because of where
[1:43:10] the bear ranch was located on both states, we put the compost piles in Nevada, and
[1:43:16] it worked beautifully.
[1:43:18] Start composting the animals, the mortalities, and it took them, the crowed population to
[1:43:26] manage.
[1:43:26] The coyote population didn't have that ready-peed source, and it was a good thing, so thank
[1:43:32] Thank you.
[1:43:33] I'm glad you brought that up that you had to go to the Nevada side of your ranch to
[1:43:38] do that on because this is something this legal and I believe 48 other states in the
[1:43:44] nation.
[1:43:45] I'm just not California and why I think or something like that.
[1:43:50] But California was proposing to do human composting just how to add that.
[1:43:56] Oh yeah.
[1:43:56] Interesting.
[1:43:56] Remember that legislation alone.
[1:43:58] You can, you can compost a human, but you can't compost animals in the inverse of the rest of the country.
[1:44:05] Oh, yes.
[1:44:09] In the other public comment, seen none all in favor signify by saying aye.
[1:44:14] Aye.
[1:44:16] Opposed?
[1:44:17] Motion carries.
[1:44:21] Item 10C, consideration action, request and approval of budget modification for fiscal year 2024 through 2025.
[1:44:30] to the Cedarville light number 673 modifying expenditures in the amount of
[1:44:37] 1,177 dollars and 70 cents. If you look at that as a percentage of the approved
[1:44:44] budget you can see that there's kind of a corollary with the rate as you know
[1:44:49] rates are going up with Pacific power. Why is that not your other light
[1:44:52] districts because they're in the surprise valley service territory. This is
[1:44:57] specific core, and as we talked about.
[1:45:00] For eventually, it will be turning off of lights because this comes through the portion of the tax process and land values are not increasing at the rates that power companies are getting approved utility changes.
[1:45:30] item 10-D, consideration action, request and approval of the Board of Supervisors response
[1:45:37] to the 2024-2025 grand jury report.
[1:45:44] I do have some amendments that I wanted to propose to that, so maybe we'll lead with
[1:45:53] that.
[1:45:55] I did type those up and
[1:46:02] I should have gotten to that place in my packet so I can tell you
[1:46:07] I visualize it, well,
[1:46:14] my proposed amendments would be in regards to the grand jury report on election procedures striking the recommendation to R2 as it currently is listed and bold in the packet, which would strike out.
[1:46:42] conduct a thorough staffing review of the offices of the Registrar voters, auditor,
[1:46:49] county clerk to identify or secure additional qualified personnel improving.
[1:46:54] Excuse me, that is the recommendation from the grand jury.
[1:46:58] At the wrong bold, the Board of Supervisors' response to recommendation are to.
[1:47:06] The response starts out with a sentence of that I would propose striking.
[1:47:12] This recommendation requires further analysis by the grand jury with the information provided in our response focusing on improving efficiencies in government operations.
[1:47:24] Before I go into what I would substitute for that, I don't believe it's the Board of Supervisors authority to direct the grand jury to
[1:47:38] to re-review an item and additionally, as the grand jury was working on this item
[1:47:51] doing the interviews, was the same time that the CLA report on business opportunities
[1:48:00] these was being developed and subsequently presented to the board so they would not have
[1:48:07] had knowledge of that at that time. I do like the historic positions statement and then
[1:48:19] all of the information related to the CLA report that is in the body of our response but
[1:48:28] But I would propose that we replace the response with this recommendation has been implemented.
[1:48:39] The Moda County Board of Supervisors during the 2024-2025 fiscal year invested in a business opportunity assessment conducted by Clifton, Larson, Allen, CLA.
[1:48:53] today, this assessment identified areas within the Auditor Clerk Register of Voters Office
[1:49:00] and other areas of the county where process improvements, technology upgrades and structural
[1:49:07] changes can streamline workloads and free up staff resources ultimately supporting greater
[1:49:14] redundancy and reliability in elections operations.
[1:49:21] Additionally, I would like to strike the conclusion that is for that particular item and replace it with the Board of Supervisors appreciates the work and recommendations that the MoDOT County Grand Jury did regarding election procedures.
[1:49:41] The Grand Jury recommendations parallel the recommendations contained in the CLA business opportunity assessment.
[1:49:48] Through sufficient staffing allocations, cross training, process improvements supported by CLA, and facility security upgrades,
[1:50:01] the county is actively addressing these recommendations.
[1:50:06] This combined with regular ongoing system reviews, software updates, and other county systems will continue to ensure uninterrupted,
[1:50:17] efficient and secure election operations in Modap County.
[1:50:26] I can either make that as an amendment to the response myself or entertain that from other board members.
[1:50:40] Go ahead, Jester.
[1:50:41] I just want to make sure the first paragraph Board of Supervisors recommendations are to that would replace because we don't have a heading in that.
[1:50:50] But what part are you wanting struck,
[1:50:55] where it says under the report to election procedures it has the recommendation from the grand jury in bold right there.
[1:51:05] And then right below that it says board of supervisors response to recommendation got you R2 and the sentence following that.
[1:51:17] We have a two-fold beginning
[1:51:27] with explanation on up to conclusion would remain as submitted.
[1:51:52] Approved the response to the grand jury with a two-minute
[1:51:58] move.
[1:51:58] It's been moved and seconded in a additional board discussion in the public comment.
[1:52:13] Scott Swayze, I'm here today in no official capacity, but I was the foreperson of the grand jury last year.
[1:52:19] So, I cannot speak to the thinking of the grand jury that would violate our trust, but
[1:52:23] as a reader of the grand jury report and a reader of your amended response, I think
[1:52:30] they are totally aligned.
[1:52:32] My recollection of the thinking and the grand jury as I think back personally, not what
[1:52:39] the grand jury was saying, it was highly a great commendation for the elections office
[1:52:46] and the work they do.
[1:52:47] of all dependent upon your point E5 FTEs.
[1:52:52] And if one of those point E5 is not available
[1:52:54] during an election, you were in trouble.
[1:52:56] So that was the essence of the recommendation.
[1:53:00] And if I do suspect that if I had known
[1:53:03] the work that was going on at the grand jury,
[1:53:06] the proposal or recommendation might well have been different.
[1:53:09] Bottom line is, I commend the Board of Supervisors
[1:53:11] for doing that work.
[1:53:13] I think it's going to have impact well beyond
[1:53:15] the elections offices here in the county into all all businesses so I am fully
[1:53:21] supportive of the revised response to the grand jury thank you well I'd like
[1:53:28] to thank you and the other jury members for the time you put in last year and the
[1:53:36] this year's chair for being here for this process today any other public
[1:53:44] The comment, saying none, all in favor of the amended response, signified by saying aye.
[1:53:53] Aye.
[1:53:55] Opposed?
[1:53:56] Motion carries.
[1:54:02] I don't think public comment is going to take long.
[1:54:05] Administrative Services report, do we want to go into that now or wait until after lunch, because I don't believe we can do close session and everything.
[1:54:15] I will remain quiet point
[1:54:22] I would entertain a motion to do something we haven't done
[1:54:26] in a long time and that's a recess for lunch about five minutes early all in
[1:54:35] favor recessing for lunch singing five by saying aye opposed motion carries thank
[1:54:52] you for sending this with
[1:55:02] it ready sure
[1:55:07] Well,
[1:55:10] not County Board of Supervisors back in session picking up where we left off at 11 beave
[1:55:20] Administrative Services Report
[1:55:23] main thing at one report we went and attended administration the
[1:55:27] Surprise Valley help
[1:55:29] School District Board meeting
[1:55:31] They have completed an appraisal for their facility and we had expressed interest as a County willing to engage in a transaction
[1:55:38] We told them the grant that we had
[1:55:41] potential to get those opportunities gone but we're still interested we ask them
[1:55:45] to see if they could break up and spy it on terms as a sale leaseback over a
[1:55:51] period of time. They're going to reach out to their legal to see if that is an
[1:55:54] opportunity and get back to us and then we'll come back forward with the proposal if
[1:55:59] that's the case.
[1:56:03] Then also the assessor's office has been working with ION on the
[1:56:13] related to projections of impact to the county that's the group that's evaluating doing it was brought up at the last meeting a
[1:56:21] wind project on the west side of the county and
[1:56:24] Currently seeking permits through the Forest Service
[1:56:26] That's all I have to update any
[1:56:35] department head reports at this time. Let's
[1:56:40] go on to board a supervisor reports
[1:56:45] Supervisor star
[1:57:04] September 10th. I attended a first five commission meeting. It's the first meeting I attended in their new building.
[1:57:11] They have a lot of new options. Where is that at?
[1:57:18] The old Cedarville Ranch Rebuilding over there. Right on the street.
[1:57:23] Near City Hall.
[1:57:25] Yeah, okay. Yeah, so now they have a playground and they have other rooms and they have
[1:57:35] Ryan Street. Ryan Street, thank you.
[1:57:40] September 15th through the 16th I attended the
[1:57:43] Motor County budget hearings and September 17th I attended a CCPIF meeting.
[1:57:51] That concludes my report.
[1:57:55] The rise of roads.
[1:57:57] Yes, September 16th, following the budget session.
[1:58:00] I left.
[1:58:02] 16, 17, 18, returning home on the 19th,
[1:58:06] 10 of the RCRC meeting is very worthwhile,
[1:58:10] and I enjoyed it very much.
[1:58:17] All right.
[1:58:17] For my report, September 3rd,
[1:58:21] participated in a North Kali M.S. Board meeting virtually.
[1:58:25] September 4th was a busy day at a meeting with CLA regarding payroll, also on the fourth
[1:58:39] IT committee meeting, and a pre-trip briefing for the Pope fly-in in Washington, D.C. was
[1:58:50] was in Washington, D.C., September 8th through the 11th on the National Association of
[1:58:57] Counties, Bill Flyen, and also spent one day with RCRC doing visits on Capitol Hill.
[1:59:11] September 11th, the CSAC building advisory committee virtually, and also the board meeting
[1:59:20] for C-SAC on the 11th, participated virtually 13th,
[1:59:26] surprise Valley Electric Annual Meeting in Cedarville,
[1:59:34] the rest of you September 15th and 16th,
[1:59:37] Mo. County budget hearings
[1:59:38] and on the 16th through the 19th,
[1:59:42] the RCRC Annual Meeting.
[1:59:45] At
[1:59:50] this point, we are item 12, the closed session,
[1:59:54] Item 12-A, Labor Negotiations, percent of the California-
[2:00:00] Government Code 54957.6, conference with county council and human resources,
[2:00:07] risk manager, director to discuss deputy sheriff's association, 12B labor negotiations,
[2:00:18] president, California government code 54957.6, conference with county council, human resources,
[2:00:26] as Risk Manager Director to discuss United Public Employees of California, UPEC Local,
[2:00:38] 792 General Unit.
[2:00:40] Motion to go into closed session.
[2:00:42] Second.
[2:00:43] Then moved and seconded to go into closed session.
[2:00:46] All in favor, signify by saying aye.
[2:00:49] Aye.
[2:00:51] Motion carries.
[2:00:52] We are now in closed session.
[2:00:53] Moana
[2:01:03] County Board of Supervisors, back in open session, reporting out a closed session.
[2:01:08] Items 12A and 12B direction given.
[2:01:14] Motion to adjourn.
[2:01:15] Second.
[2:01:16] It moved and seconded to adjourn.
[2:01:18] All in favor signify by saying aye.
[2:01:21] Aye.
[2:01:22] Opposed?
[2:01:23] Meeting adjourned.