Veterans Affairs Commission - Regular Meeting

The we're adopting the agenda and approval of the consent calendar. I would like to, with your permission, move the chairperson and the commissioner's reports to after Andrea here. Is she gonna be on on okay. So after the spotlight, is there are there any objections? Okay.

So that will be before the the good area on aging. Yeah. So I assume that you all have reviewed the minutes and the agenda. The board will accept

Okay.

I'll I'll agree. Okay. And and, yes, I have put his consent calendar. Yes. Consent calendar. So moving along, let us let us do roll call. And where can we start? Bob. Here. Bob, have your position, please.

Oh, it's really representative. Representative. Right? Yes. I'm rewind it. I'm the representative also. What's the college District 4?

Jenna Steady Ford, special advocate. Johnson H. H. S.

Olivia Bermaldi, District 2.

White Burger, District 3.

Coordinator, and we are so happy. Actually, it's going strong. Nice to meet you all. I'm so glad she joined us, and hopefully, you get some of them here more often. Yes.

Great. Thank you. Jesse, you have a last name?

Hodlitz. Yes. How do spell that? H o a g o a n d.

That would know how to find you. I I don't know that. My name is Joan. I'm chair of commission and a community representative. Julie Bauer, Marge.

Tina Platon, Nancy Webb, representative.

Jim Foster, beauty representative. Annie Kenaway, ice plant. Bill Monek. Yes. Unity.

Bill Monek, director of the area agency. John,

welcome. How was your trip down? Pretty good.

It's a beautiful day. Yeah. Too too sunny.

Oh, yeah. Right. Who do we have on

I'm just going to check. Here. We have Kathy Lishman. I'm a member of the public.

I am a member of the public. No staff. Andrea was supposed to be

Oh, well, she's driving up

to Tahoe, so she may not be there yet.

Okay. So we're working

As soon as she pops in, I'll let you know.

We did make a change to the agenda. That's gonna be changed. So okay. Let's go ahead and do our commission chairperson for previous report. And I will start out as chair.

I'm very glad to have Julie sitting here on my left hand. But we're we're looking at a a very interesting and somewhat transitional year this year, And we're working closely with staff. There are gonna be a lot of changes to what we've been. And we will be renewing some of it today and a lot of it possibly at our next gathering, and look forward to all of you being there. I guess that's it's been about two months since we've had a met each other, so you welcome everybody.

Let us go to Raylene. And, Raylene, I don't know how good the microphone is, but if you can project as best you can.

Okay. Okay. Here we go. Brody, come on. But I'm going to give you a recovery about CSL because CSL Hello?

We have that later in the agenda. I'm I'm looking actually at in a in communication you've had with the supervisor.

Well, I'm sorry. I said I'll read the agenda better. Anyway, I've been in contact with Greg Bararo. I've sent him what I'm gonna talk about with a couple of proposals that that put forth, and I talked to him, and I'll tell you about that later. And send him about three or four emails about as I get things, I send it on to him. He responds that he sometimes check, but nowhere else Good company.

Anything good with him? Coming in? Or he's now sitting in the. Right? On the board?

Alright. Well, we'll be having hoping we'll be looking forward to a whole lot of communication.

With him. Yeah. And Well, it's a lot

of things that are happening. He's open. Yeah. Great. Yes. Then how have your chats been going with? Yeah. How are they?

There are none. The other thing is you wanna report Elizabeth and I went to the and our brochures. They had presentation. She made presentation, and they were very well received. They've received. So they are thrilled that we've got it. So our brochures now are all in the

bars. That's great. Thank you. K. We're gonna need hopefully, to have some better communication. Nothing's coming up this year. Good luck. That's my that's my. Roger, what's new between you and your supervisor? Not much. We all have been kind of sleepies through December. Yeah. Is he trying to? Mhmm. Okay.

Well, again, we're looking for more communication. It's gonna be pretty important. So Liz, hi.

I've been in need of contact quite a bit with Lori Carlin, my supervisor. She has agreed to be one of the two sponsors we need for getting senior leader on the board of supervisors' agenda. We have set that date in May on the earlier. And is it the third

May Tuesday. The nineteenth.

Is it the nineteenth or the twenty second? '20 something. Rebecca says it's the May 19 at 9AM. Okay. Thank you. May 19, and she also asked if we still wanted it at AM in the morning, which is the first item on the agenda so that we don't get bumped by a lot of other things that has agreed that it's her suggestion, and we agreed to that. So she will be sponsoring senior year, and

I think her supervisor. Yeah. You would want

the other one. Was the other. We are. We did that. I've also I will also be meeting with her each because this is her final year. She cannot she's charming out, as they say. I wanna she's always been very supportive of us, and I wanna get her idea for a legacy. I her legacy terms, what she would like to see us do as her legacy to seniors. So that is something I will be posing toward her for the next time we've been together personally to just on email. Okay.

Additionally, as that's with the supervisor. Additionally, as Linda mentioned, we went to the PD, and that was pretty interesting because they were in and out on calls all the time. There's only two of them on at night. They were yeah. They're not. Many of them in our meetings. So

And we have them in our meetings sort

of because they ran off to Oh my god. Somebody who escaped from the emergency room. As she said, she arranged all this with one of the sergeants there, and because it was actually quite well arranged. We did get in and he About half an hour forty five minutes. Talked to them and inter interacted with them in the sense that they asked personalized questions about what we do and how we can help.

And we got back and forth on that quite a bit. Additionally, I am also representing you all at Marshall Medical Center's February four year community health assessment commission or committee. There were seven times four, twenty eight people on the board representing all aspects of the county government and county agencies and individuals. The school board super director was there, the, you know, the chief of the medical staff. There were and there were 28 people around, a lot from board of education, a lot from senior things.

And we read over their current document and offered amendments to changes and updates for this coming year. We have another meeting the January, and that will finalize it. But what I was able to accomplish, I hope, because they took the notes on it, was that they had a generalized category for seniors for services to seniors. And when I saw that initially, I thought, oh, senior services, that's us or that's you. But I got thinking about it, and I thought that could encompass things like friends and seniors.

It could, you know, do seniors' aide. It could encompass a whole lot of things. So I went back to Doctor. And I said that I would like to see the area agency on aging specifically called out in that grouping. So I'm hoping that when we come back and see the changes that that would be identified individually as a service to seniors.

Great. So that's what I reaches your your outreach is thank you for your approval and what you do for them.

I'm working on the PD or the fire district now.

On the what? Fire district. Oh, yes. Mhmm. Important. I see on the screen that Kathy Blalcombe, and I also see Marie. Marie,

hold on. We've all done our report too.

Pardon me? We've all done our report. So

Marie is next. Is she? Oh, she's like

Okay. She should be.

There we go. Hello, guys. Thank you.

Hi, Irene. We're we're at a point right now where we're our representatives with the supervisors kinda giving a report about any conversations or discussions that you've shared back and forth with your supervisor, District 5.

Yeah. We've been having our monthly meeting, and we just had one a couple weeks ago. We discussed the housing for the aging communities, and Brooke is going to get personally involved in that. If she hasn't already contacted Jim, she will be doing that because he's the key man in that process. So, yes, we are still working on going forward and not sideways or backwards.

And it's all good stuff. It just you know, all this bureaucracy stuff going on right now is a bit crazy and out of hand. So she is is in a good position to be on board with us as far as the seniors in getting things done in our town and through that throughout the county. So everything's really going in a positive direction.

Well and and the reason you say she's an effective physician, I have to help you all know that she is now chairing the the board of supervisors. Yes. Any anything else happening in District 5? Well,

you know, we're still since the government shutdowns and stuff, we're still waiting on seniors, Inc. To get their five zero one c three pushed through that got delayed. So the county is still working with them. As you know, it's just everything is a time sensitive process with time not being a good a good thing to have. So everything is going well.

We're still on board. I've got the city council involved with handling the seniors', processes up here as well. So when all that gets kinda released and and calmed down too and we get all of our people in exact positions on where we're we want to go with the the available cooperative board members, that is going to be a huge asset. So we're we're working in all directions.

Great. Yeah. She, she did I just a couple of different things because I happen to be in that district. She did have a a forum held in Pollock Pines, and she invited the her her representatives from there were probably about six or seven different commissions to just address the the residents. And and, unfortunately, it wasn't that well advertised, but I she has another one coming up on Thursday. Oh, there you are.

Sorry. I had my my thing. I just noticed it was not on video. So, yeah, here I am.

She had another one on next Thursday at 05:30, and this is, I think, supposed to be regarding I mean, are you familiar with that? The one she's having next Thursday night evening? Anyway, I just happen to know that because I'm not just. But I think that she's very hands on with the community, and we have some good representatives. Okay.

Thank you, Lorraine. And I'm glad to see your little days.

Thank you. Sorry I'm not down there. I had another meeting directly after that one, so I wouldn't have been able to make it back. And I am actually gonna pop on two spots because I my computer does not have a good, voice. I can't hear you guys well.

Well, sometimes it's kinda hard. Yeah. Thank you. Steve is Hi. Not here. Okay. So, John, now let's have the rest of Tahoe. Right. And not the full report. It's so long. Okay. What's been going on with the

city council? Well, the city council, the the thing that held that held up the nonprofit organization status was the government shutdown. But it's we we were actually authorized to say we are because it's pending. So it's, you know, the pending statements, and we got the back of paperwork back. Yeah.

We did have an event there for the festival of lights for Christmas. They had the future bread houses at the Senior Center. And I've got different numbers of people, anywhere from 800 to 1,200 people went through the center and did that, and seniors were there. They revamped their big program. So it will probably at least break even financially.

It was losing money, so they had to revamp it. They've just elected the new board members. I don't know if you guys knew that. Who was that, sir? The new board members for seniority. I have the names of somebody. Well, I'm more interested in what's going on at this point in the with the city council. The city council's still supporting us. We lost one of our big supporters of Tammy Wallace, media reporter. Who?

Tammy Wallace. But I think I don't think that will be a problem. In new new things, I've set up a system sub similar to this at the senior center so that next next month's meeting, the seniors will be able to attend the screening in the senior center. Oh, wow. Great. And I've also been working on getting assistance for seniors for to make their house fire safe. That's coming together pretty good. And, hopefully, we will be able to extend that into the winter and help them through sidewalk show. Okay.

Oh, I have a little little birdie has told me that you have been reassigned as the representative to the senior to the all the council does recently. And then Linda, you said something about he He was your predecessor. Right.

Yep. He's in Mayor from Tim right now. Right. And he thanked everybody on Facebook yesterday.

Yeah. Well, that's a good good outreach for us because, you know, hopefully, Keith is still very, you know, into Holy. Let me get

you to sing. We have a pretty good city council, such for one number. Okay.

Okay. Well, thank you. At this point, five openings to public comments limited to three minutes per person. Do you have are you supposed to read something that I mean, Jasmine? Printed it in very large letters. I can read this. And I'm I'm allowing you to read it. I I do I have a fear of reading out loud?

Yeah. I'm taking public comment on chairperson and commissioner's report. Individuals will have three minutes to address the commission. Other comment will be taken first from those participating in the meeting room and then from those participating through Zoom. For those participating by Zoom, please make sure to unmute yourself when followed by. If you are joining by Zoom, please raise press the raise hand button to indicate a desire to come in. Please voluntarily state your name for the record.

Do we have any public comments?

Cathy is not raising her hand, so it goes on. Okay.

Very good. Well, thank you. Thank you for your assistance on that. Just checking here. Okay. Yes. Alright. Well, it's time to move on. And we still can you is is FDA available yet? No. Okay. Well, I guess we'll just move on to the area agency on aging, and would be fine. Okay?

Hi. I am Eva. I'm the program manager over our older adult programs, which puts me in the position has put me in the position of the director of the area of aging. I'd love to start out my my report to talk about where we're at with staffing. We still have several continuous open recruitments that we have, but we have hired a few people since we met last, which is good news for us.

We

finally have brought some staff on board in South Lake Tahoe, which has been a huge shortfall. We hired Extra Help meal site coordinator David Molin on 12/29/2025, and we also just onboarded this week a part time food services aide whose name is Jose Farias. So right now for Tahoe, that leaves us with one vacancy and a permanent meal site coordinator up there, and we still have the vacancy of the Wilmington term program coordinator who we're looking at or providing supervision to the staff on-site up there and also working more actively with activities and bringing new volunteers and increasing flight participation at that site up there. We also have similar recruitments that we're hoping will open up pretty soon for Placerville. We are we have a meal site coordinator vacancy because we recently had a meal site coordinator leave our Placerville kitchen, and we also are expecting the permit program coordinator recruitment to open, which is the position that replaces Jordan.

So it's been in the queue for a while, and hopefully, we can bring that onboard soon. But I will share that you worked with Beth, who's one of, that position's direct reports, she's doing an amazing job stepping up, touching every program there. So it's really been a pleasure for me to work with her. So if you stop by, you know, give her your compassion.

And you can tell that's happened.

But she's doing an amazing job. We still have a continuous program aid recruitment open. We did onboard a new program aid on December 15. She's returning to us. She was a staff member who was in Eldorado Hills and had left just before we closed that site.

So she's returning. We're glad to have a team that's looking pretty solid at this point. So let's knock on wood that it stays stays the course. And we are currently waiting on a program assistant to clear background, and that's the position that will help support the front desk. And you may know who our office assistant who was Lily got promoted over the last month as well. So we do have a vacancy in our front reception position. We've got a temporary hold on that because when we

have

vacancies in our staff, it's a good opportunity to look at if there's ways that we can create efficiencies, especially as we're looking at really tightening up what the budget looks like for us. So filling in that recruitment is currently on hold while we analyze and see if we can move that forward. And as you know, with volunteers, we have more volunteers in our program than we have staff. I don't know that I shared at the last meeting, but we had Andrea, who's our program coordinator over senior nutrition,

look

at how many volunteers she onboarded over the calendar year twenty twenty twenty five, and she operates with anywhere from about one fifty to one seventy volunteers in senior nutrition at any point in time. And over 2025, she brought on 90 new volunteers in that, which is a huge workload. You know, there are a lot of steps that have to take place to make that happen. So, you know, when when she talks about her workload later, I mean, you'll understand that that's quite an accomplishment for Right now, one of the things that I see as I talk with my team members is we're we're looking for additional volunteers. I'd love if we can recruit volunteers that have skill sets with data entry because, you know, especially in some of the programs that are missing supervisors right now, trying to get a chance to do the data entry while you're also providing today services is is really tight.

So we're hoping to find some some staff that have data entry skills or maybe can help with the front desk and provide reception. So as you're out and about in the community, you know, those are, I think, some critical points that will help support our.

That's really I have one for technology, but I don't

Oh, I love it. Okay. Perfect. We'll talk later. Are you coming on the twenty ninth? Yes. Okay. Recording in the process.

I'm sorry. I apologize.

And I

was trying to be able

Log in. Log in. Log Log in.

I think you're gonna have to watch the recording if you want to see that.

I'm sorry. I was trying to be able to see

Sir, let me

stop you. Know?

You should be.

But there have been feedback. Yeah. I'm sorry. While you were talking, I was trying to get up the screen on my phone so I

can read Read the captcha.

Who's up there.

Oh. I think it's gonna be an interesting read afterwards. A lot of interesting words popping up. Yeah. And my name in the closed caption was yo mama. You'll get there. Anyway, so let's see. We are in the process of updating our main senior services brochures, so the ones that we've been having housed. We're updating that. We're adding a little more information.

I've got it out to all the super all of my supervisors this week to give me updates and language, and so we'll be printing more brochures soon with those updates. And one of the wins that we had this week that aligns with the work Glenda from Aldi is doing is we're working right now on putting our brochures in the animal services vehicles as well. So right now, they have some of our adult day services brochures, so we'll add these to the mix when when they're updated. So once she has fire, I don't know what the next target is, but I think we're getting some good coverage. Senior center tours.

I just wanted to share with all of you after having a conversation with your exec team that I did offer after the last meeting to get Gail and Julie. I was just finding their names, a tour of the Placerville Senior Center since they're new to our programs and give them kind of some background on what we do, where things are at, who they would need to work with if they had questions. And so I wanted to open that up for all of you as well. I know we've had a lot of changes in staff. But if anyone else wants a tour, I'd schedule it on a different day because I have I feel like there's more things that I have to cover with them since they're brand new to us.

But if anyone else wants a tour and to come see beside, just reach out

to me, and let's schedule some time.

Should we pick a date?

We haven't picked a date. I'm so sorry. The last No. I I've been rambling to everybody this last month. It's been so busy with two supervisors on my team out and more direct staff that are reporting to me.

And so I haven't had a chance to schedule that, but I would like to schedule that before the next retreat meeting that you have so that, you know, hopefully, it gives you better insight as you're moving forward with that. I've also not yet scheduled rep new generation committee. I plan on getting that scheduled over the next month, so my apologies on that. Rebecca is unable to be here today. She did I think Liz already covered some of it, but she just wanted to let everyone know that she had the senior of the year scheduled on May 19 at 9AM.

And, Liz, I don't know if you've covered with her already about if we're proceeding with the two separate the proclamation and the senior. We have an anesthesia.

But I it's pretty usual. That's what

I was expecting. Yeah. She wanted me to let all of you know that Heap applications opened up this week, and so far, they've seen over 200 applications. So it's been busy Monday morning. There's one from reception down the hallway a little bit, so we've had a steady flow of people coming in without a receptionist. So if you walk into the building, you will see Rebecca sometimes sitting at the front desk.

We have coverage for Rebecca when she goes off. There be ready

for meetings? On what that needs to look like. When I have staff out, supervisors that are out, typically, I'm doing what I can to support some of the, you know, other workload for pushing to other staff as we can because I'm already down two supervisors supervisors right now then and not including Tahoe, but that burden falls on poor Andrea. You're pretty. But so I think Amy, who is Amy Hidgood, who is Rebecca's supervisor, is gonna be working to ensure that we have coverage on those items.

So it'll just kind of push some of the workload up. So we're so be patient with us over the coming months. Because Rebecca is I think we're anticipating she'll go about somewhere around March. So we've got a few months with her. Hopefully, we'll bring that program's assistant on board before she goes out because that is a position that would be reporting to her. So that will give us some help and support. So, again, volunteers for reception or data entry. And then the last thing I wanted to go over with all of you, and I haven't announced it to my team except for Andrea just yet because I knew she was gonna be in this meeting. But we are making some internal changes in structure. We're mapping it out right now.

I'm not sure ultimately what this is gonna look like. I don't imagine you'll see big changes, but you'll just need to be aware of it is that we are currently in the process of switching the AAA director role over to Lynette Scott, who is my supervisor, and she's the one that usually attend meetings with me. And so that means she'll have signature authority, and then she can attend all the executive level committees. Really, I've been doing both roles of manager and director. And right now, with staffing the way it is, it's really hard to manage.

So she's gonna be stepping in to provide more higher level of she's already providing a higher level of support, but providing more of it, which means that you all might be interacting with her differently because we haven't distinguished what those roles look like yet. I don't have a lot of information for you at this time, but but, hopefully, it it gives us an ability to better manage and then lets me stay in the program manager role, which is my my official county job. And then that was the and this is something I have been wanting as well. So it wasn't I think it it creates efficiencies with our structure. And and Area Agency on Aging is already supporting part of her function as my supervisor.

So this makes sense, and it's not gonna create an additional. And that was the last thing I had. Rebecca is not here, so there'll be a report out after me. And Lynette and Timlin both had a schedule conflict with another meeting and aren't able to attend.

So let me ask you this. Is is Jessie

in AAA? Jessie is El Dorado Hills Community Services District, so she's at the senior center in El Dorado Hills.

And and so you're with the CSD? Yes. Oh, okay.

But we'll have a job opening soon if you're interested.

Dear. So we don't have anybody any other staff?

Andrea is on now. Oh, yay.

We've been waiting for you. I hope your drive was safe. And if you're ready, Andrea oh, wait a minute. I guess we'd have to have public comments on this last report.

Okay. Because she's a part of the AAA, so could we ask for comment after her presentation?

Well, it's a different it's it's a kind of different topic because she's just she's spotlight and not a report. I'll read

it again. For Kathy,

how many comments? Please raise your hand. I'll read the official statement. Now taking public comments on item area agency on aging director's report. Individuals will have three minutes to address the clinician. Public comment will be taken first from those participating in the meeting room and then from those participating soon. For those participating via Zoom, please make sure you unmute yourself when called upon. If you would, please press the raise hand button to indicate a desired comment. Please voluntarily state your name for the record.

And Kathy's hand is by us. No public's. Alright.

So we have we have no nobody with HHS. Right? We have Andrea. Yeah. I know. But she's on the spotlight. Right. So being on the spotlight, Andrea, how about telling us a little bit about your position and a little bit about you?

Okay. Well, my name again is Andrea Muzzi. I'm program coordinator for Eldorado County Senior Nutrition. I've been in this position for a little over two years, and I coordinate, as my title says, I coordinate volunteers, and I have a few staff underneath me. Currently, I have about a 160 to a 170 volunteers that I coordinate, always looking for especially at a lot of our dine in sites.

I also help with daily service deliveries, ensuring that our clients, receive the the need that they are looking for. We have currently, we're serving about 354 to 400, clients in the Placerville area, and that includes Eldorado Hills, Diamond Springs, and then about a 130 to a 150 in South Lake Tahoe, and that is both dine in and then home delivered meals for both both sides. We do currently have a wait list, for the Placerville and South Lake Tahoe area, which is, 265. However, though not all of the people on the wait list qualify for the services. So as we go through, my program assistant will sort through them, and then I'll approve, as as they come.

We are always looking for more volunteers to help at our dine in sites. We're encouraging a lot of our clients to come and dine in due to the fact that it it does decrease social isolation and increases socialization, which is a complete benefit for somebody who isn't used to that. So, our volunteers at the sites would help excuse me, encourage that to you know, clients to come in. They would help with the check ins, the dine in, and everything. And we would encourage all of you to come join us for dine in and help bring in more clients as well.

Okay. Yeah.

Would you share a little bit about your background? I just need to know a little bit more about you, Adrienne.

About me? Like, so I am from the Placerville area. I've lived up here for thirty five years. I started working for community services and for the county back in about 2013 over at the what was known as senior day care, now the club. I was there for about seven years until we had to close down due to COVID, and so I went and applied over at the Low Income Home Energy Assistance Program and worked there for about three years.

I always want to not move up, but better myself and learn more. I definitely have a a hunger for learning, and so I went ahead and applied from the core for the coordinator position, and I've enjoyed it immensely. I've learned a lot. I have a great, I guess you would say, mentor. Yvette has been an amazing supportive supervisor.

I have a family of four, including myself. I have a young daughter that's six and a 14 year old. And then my husband as well is is a major role in in our family dynamics. I I guess I would say my hobbies would include hiking and kayaking and and just kind of relaxing at home and being with my family. That's a a a big thing for me. I I love being with my family.

Great. I'm so we're so glad to get to know you. Thank you. If we have a face to put, but perhaps some of the chores that Beth's gonna do, we'll get a chance to meet you.

That would be wonderful. I would enjoy meeting all of you. And, if you guys get a chance, give our main number a call and, come dine in with us sometime. We'd be more than happy to serve you.

Liz? Hi, Andrea. It's Liz.

Hi, Liz.

How are you doing?

I'm doing good. Little nervous, but I'm doing good.

I wanted to let you know that the ladies of the Shakespeare Club have produced another 112 Valentine cards for you to distribute in February.

Yeah. They the clients have definitely loved that. Well, we've gotten a little a couple of little notes back each time we send out cards, saying thank you and that they loved it and it made them feel special. I work with, also the Boys Charity League out of Eldorado Hills. They make the snowmen and the little gnomes that went out this last Christmas along with the Christmas cards, and it's a little something else besides, you know, a hot meal that we can serve to our clients that helps them feel, special and just kind of just kind of, special in their own kind. Yes.

Hey. They'll be delivered later this week for you.

Thanks, Liz.

You betcha. Oh, yeah. Tita.

So I have a question. This is Tita. I'm in El Dorado Hills. I wanna know, on the wait list. So right now, you have 265 people on the wait list, and you vet them for qualification. Qualification for free meals to get on the delivery list. What's what are they being vetted for?

So they're being vetted for what ex their qualifications would be where they best fit. So if we have a client that calls in that's interested in home delivered meals, but they still drive, they still get out, they're not necessarily homebound, we refer them to our dine in sites. And so it would be better for them to go in and have that socialization instead of just sitting at home, receiving a meal and not getting out and meeting new people. Whereas, if you have somebody with severe medical problems that can't get out of the house or have a hard time walking, we help with a a hot home delivered meals so that they're getting the nutrition that they need.

That's great. Typically, if they do qualify for, say, getting on the home delivered meals, how long does that take for them to get on the drive you know, get on the the list to be delivered a meal?

It all depends on the area. That wait list does cover all of El Dorado County, including South Lake Tahoe. Some of our and and my program assistant, she is absolutely amazing. Her name is Kristen Markham Price. She has sorted it out so that our wait list is going a lot faster. However, some areas are in of higher need or higher interest, I should say, for our program. And so as she filters through them, we kinda decide where they go best, and then we offer them resources or suggestions to dine in, or we get them on right away.

Thank you. That was great.

Thank you.

And I wanna add a little bit. Sometimes we will experience barriers to getting somebody on because we don't have enough drivers for the route. So we are unable to sort of that could be a barrier for it.

Another barrier that we do have is some clients are so far out, in rural areas, like Volcanoville above Georgetown, things like that, that we don't have drivers that can get up there to get to them. And so we try to find a neighbor or a family member or somebody that can do what's called scheduled pickup. And so they'll come down and pick up a week's worth of food for that that client. And, that way they are still getting a nutritious meal at home.

Any other comments or questions? I would personally encourage everybody to join dine in couple times a year maybe and just to have that experience. Laurie has a question.

Who? Laurie. Laurie. Thank you. So,

Andrea, you're doing a very good job, and I appreciate you. And it was a pleasure to meet you as well. And as far as the two sixty five, how many are from South Lake Tahoe?

Surprised not, it's only about two.

Okay. Okay.

I get them through quickly because I know there is a bit of a higher need up here, especially during the wintertime. A lot of our clients that, have limited physical mobility, do need that hot meal at home because they can't get to the store. They don't have transportation. The bus stops are icy, all sorts of factors. And so I just make sure that they get through a lot faster. I do the intakes for those. Most of our routes are full. However, I do work do my best to get them their meals, one way or another.

Perfect. Do you notice if there's oh gosh. If I'm I'm giving a feedback, I apologize. It's okay. Do you notice if there's a rise in dine in in the summer versus the winter?

Is a rise in dine in in the summer. I think a lot of people that have vacation homes here that are of qualifying age, They come up. They wanna join. They come have lunch and, you know, go about their days. And then, of course, when winter hits about October, our numbers do go down a little bit with dine in as far as our regular clients coming in.

Perfect. Thank you, Andrea. Thank you.

Any questions, Lori? Any other comments, questions? You're doing a great job. We really appreciate, what what you're doing with the seniors of our community.

Thank you.

Thank you for being with us, Andrea.

Of course. Thank you for having me.

I think at this point, we will take a break Easy. For Tim to this. Oh, were there any public comments today? Oh, no.

Really? Probably. Yes. I heard you.

It's 10:23 by my watch. Let's let's get back here by ten 04:40. Ten what? I mean, in ten minutes. Great.

Welcome back, everybody. We will move through the committee reports and then get you new business. Executive committee, I really have no report. Pretty good. Okay. We have we have some interesting issues and things going on with the policy and legislation. And at this point, I'll turn it over to to

Okay. Great.

Is is this is this gonna what what you're gonna say, is this gonna dip into the one of our items? Dip into it, but not full.

So I'll let you guys take that from there, but I'm gonna tell you about it. Okay. How it ended up with you. Okay. Okay. November, December, January are the months that are very busy for the CSL. This

is when the members Excuse me. When I was new and sometimes even now, I didn't have any idea what CSL meant. California, Thank you.

And but, anyway, they have to hear that. But, anyway, the CSL meet to with the legislators. The CSL during the year has created some proposals that they would like to turn. Don't have the authority to do that, so I meet with the legislators and present 10 proposals. We have several teams to go out and do this connecting with the legislators.

He and I are a team. And so our meetings went very well because we met with the same people that we met with the prior year. This was the first time we did something like that. It was great because it's just relationships are built over time. And so I think it paid off because this year, we've had four of our 10 proposals picked up, which is really exciting.

I'll just go through them real quick. One's the AP two, personal income tax, senior child care tax credit, automatic external configurators in places like senior centers and places where there's would be seniors. And then my favorite, the personal needs allowance, And that's where the secret centers, they also get 35 a month to live because they don't the rest

of their income goes to pay to, with

their automatic capital. And that that but then there's the older adult both the public health departments that are offered. So, anyway, those are what we've given where we are. We have the board that are not gonna be out there. And then as we chat with these people, we invite them to give us their proposals if they want CFL support.

And so right now, we're in a kind of a funny place because two year bills have to be finalized by January 31. So we had two proposals that have come forward to us for our support. And one of them came as I'm I'm the main communicator with our teams, one came directly to me. And with that, I sent it on to to consider if they wanted to support it. But in the meantime, I took it, and I sent it to to John and COA to consider if they wanted it.

And this one is property taxation, homeowners, veterans, and disabled veteran protection or homeowners property taxes. And we're getting a lot of discussion at that later because I sent it in time to get it on the agenda. And so we'll talk about that. That's why I said it's on the. So he I've sent it also as a request to supervisor Ferrero district one.

And he sent a request on to the Veterans Commission as well as himself. They're gonna be working on supporting. And so, hopefully, this is a process we've been getting to. Because now the next session of legislation proposals will get more that'll get more into the normal range of time. We'll have the time.

This came up. So that was one. And then the other one is a jury service exception for over 80 year old. We're not able to serve on the job. And as you know, tourists have to get a you don't want a survey.

You have to get a medical excuse. Well, this is limiting, but it's in some areas, not in El Dorado Hills or El Dorado County, but other areas, this is the employment. And so this takes that burden off of the whole sleep who are over 80. And so this bill lets them just send in a letter if they have a reason they can't serve. And so this proposal was sent to me later.

That's why we haven't talked about It's been on the agenda, but I just got it a little while ago. And I did send it to supervisor, he ran it by the DA. And the DA liked it. So he's right. And I testified at the assembly hearing on behalf of CSL.

I the support proposal and worked only at that time to get that assembly bill. The assembly asked. So then the assemblyman was working with asking me if I would do a quick consent. So I testified. Anyway, I think that some opportunities, we wanna take them. But we can support some of these new bills that may help our seniors. Well, that's about it.

Thank you. Been doing good work, and you're very busy, I know. Is this is time consuming. And That

it is.

Do you have a lot of time? Did you have anything to add to this from the assembly side? No.

But I've been a participant in meeting with the different legislatures, and definitely senior issues. I mean, most of them were very you know, were familiar with the needs. Affordability, of course, big issue. Housing, a big issue. Health care, accessibility, big issue.

So the offices that we've been in communication with, it's not like having to start all over. We had great conversations last year, and now I think we're gaining a little more support because we've also reached out to them to let us know when they put forth something on the floor that would be you know, that would improve the lives of older adults and people with disabilities. So I we started a much more broad range conversation with them that, you know, we're here to help if we can Be more informed as a clinician because we'll take the messages, you know, as we're sharing your view.

And so one of the things I'd like to add too is if, you know, if we see a need for legislation that has we can make proposals then, but one of the 10 might make it into this what we've just gone through. So if there's a need for legislation, Pete and I would love to talk to you about it, and then we can see about development.

So you're the representative for the senate side?

I'm the senate. And she is the. Good. And since now, we've been able to create some relationships with some of us. I a lot of easier, a lot better communication. So more dialogue. Right?

Right. Yeah. Tita, do

you have a TAC report? So I don't

have a TAC department. Why just just for a sec. What discussion TAC stands for?

The

AAA Council of California. Basically, it's comprised of of the 33 PSAs. So the 33 AAAs throughout California. Each AAA is allowed to appoint or have their advisory chair attend tap meetings. So I've been appointed to attend these happening meetings on behalf. So it's actually open. Or if anybody else wants to go to a. That that's available. I I really enjoy them. It's great.

Basically, we we share best practices. We share common issues, and we meet quarterly. Joan attended the last one in person down in SoCal back in November. We're gonna have a virtual meeting. The next meeting is gonna be March, but it's just a great forum where we learn about the other triple As or how they're working through a lot of initiatives that we we are trying to to help them.

And we also get some great ideas from the other triples. I mean, some of them are not rural like us. Some of them are much more urban or, you know, they have they're actually much more rich in counties. So they can do do programs that are a little bit more robust than what we do what we do. But, again, each county has their own focus to try to their senior population. It's a it's a great fall.

Great. Thank you. Yeah. That's Maureen has a. Maureen.

Thank you.

Sorry. I'm creating an issue. So this goes for Raleen Antita. The new declaration that the president has put out regarding seniors paying no taxes on property, etcetera, Has that come up in the legislation?

I'm not really sure of that because, like I said, those would be bills that would have to come, then it's just becoming known. It would be something they would have had to have already getting into place. So it's hard I don't know if it's happening this year or they'll look at it for next year based on the size. But they may have. I don't know. We don't know all the legislation. We just don't know what we're given. That's federal. And so Yeah. It's federal, but it may be a state.

But Okay. Okay. Recover

from it, and I don't know.

Okay. Thank you.

Any other comments, questions? We're gonna address more of this, but I can help with that. Outreach, Rameen, was not at our meeting the other day. No. And she has submitted to me a resignation for as a chair as chair of outreach. We're all very sad to see her step down and and not step off.

I know. I'm still there. I'm not in a fuss.

And we're in a bit of reviewing and revamping the outreach task force, what whatever we're calling it. So at this point, we had a lengthy discussion trying to figure out where we're going, and I think this is basically if you all agree with me, we kind of threw some ideas together, but we'll probably be better addressed at our next meeting at the strategic planning. Meaning, there are so many factors to outreach. And in fact, we all have to be and should be involved in outreach for seniors in our community and and anywhere. So, yeah, we all have to be out there talking and finding out what people need because that's that's our our goal.

Why you know, it's to communicate to the public what's going on on their behalf. So this is just this is something that's not just any committee or a task force or or whatever. This is our job and one of our important jobs. And in fact, I was gonna I I I was going to ask earlier, and I take that for sake of time. We will consider this in in future asking each person what you have done for outreach on behalf of seniors in the last month or in the last time period.

Did anybody else that was there with us? Judah? Gina, anybody else wanted to add anything to outreach at this point? Think I the emphasis is we'll use

it as a dynamic for the retreat as one of our our major goals to accomplish is the rebound based on the

recent criteria from the. Okay. But before, I mean, before I totally walk away from the chair with you, but I will be there every step of the way for that long. But, anyway, what I'd like to do is I've done this for a while, and I think we need to recognize our outreach team. The members have given so much effort into it. And so I just wanna take a couple minutes and recognize those special people. And the first one I'd

like to recognize, Jenna. She

has single handedly reached out throughout the county. She's focused on churches. She's visited and provided outreach package to 16 churches from Eldorado Hills to Camino. One church brought up last month was Holy Trinity. That one we've been to. There would have been 18 churches, which worked really hard, but couldn't connect. So I don't think she ever gives up. But, anyway, that was wonderful. She's left outreach pamphlets at eight businesses and organization. She's not done it yet, but she keeps coming up with the new avenues to explore.

And so she really has done so much in outreach that we can never thank her enough for what she's done. The rest of the outreach team, they tirelessly help spread the word. Those members are this, Ida, Janet, and Tom.

And, you know, even not on the necessarily on the team, Linda has been Well, wait till I finish.

They're always there and read. This is the team that's official team. And so they're always ready when the door opens, and we learn about a potential fiber outreach. They've done so many things, including making presentations and attending community events. So it's been amazing how many thousands of people we could outreach. But our outreach, either way, outreach doesn't stop there. Linda has made great strides, that drive in providing our program information throughout the county to our first response. She's been amazing. By doing those, we find they are new in a place in their life. This allows them to.

And she does many other things that helps improve the quality of life. Has just really taken on a role that has given so much. So and all of our work's been coordinated with INA, who's been so supportive and wonderful to work with. We love work. And we coordinate our what we do.

It's not like we can probably do something there. Yeah. And if they can, they'll pick it up. Some of our food got to well so, anyway, I will give you a detailed summary next month about what we did last year, but I just wanted to make sure everybody knows what this grantee can do and has done. So thanks to all of you for making it's such a joy for me to work with you. Thank you.

Really appreciate it. Yeah. I do wanna add one person. I think it's tirelessly working in for seniors and outreach, and that's John. Yes. In Tahoe. Not to forget, John. Anne Marie, I I I think that you're probably just as involved in Tahoe for seniors. Thank you. Okay. Let's move on. Okay. Let's talk about housing, Jim.

Thank you. Unlike the vision, the housing phase does not take much softer in a year. So we've done a meeting. Our meeting we have a Zoom meeting on the second Monday of each month, but we had one for December. We also had one this week earlier.

And Anna Glory was talking about supervisor Laid was talking about joining our zoo meeting. Now we have to pick a Monday that's better for her because Monday is an ugly day for a supervisor because Tuesday is the meeting day. So they're hammered, but she didn't have one coming up or looking at in February. But she couldn't make it. She was invited, But her assistant, Lisa, did make it.

So she put back power to be for helping, which is incredible to have somebody. We all know the assistants do a lot of the work and not most of them. So it was incredible to have her there. So we didn't have anything to tell you about as far as projects that are coming up that we're advocating for, but I did find one thing. I'm always on the lookout.

And today, the Parks and Recreation Commission is having a meeting today. And one of the things they're talking about is updates on park projects, and one of the projects is Orban. And you'll be interested to know that they are discussing discussing the location and phase of installation for the senior exercise equipment.

So we

kinda got all into senior exercise equipment. The senior housing, we're probably the closest thing to it. It's not out. We took it on, and it actually happened the first time when they talked about the park the large park that they're talking about in Diamond Springs. And so I had put in comments, and one of the things I said they need to be wider than because they're putting in trails.

But we still keep you're gonna put a trail in. Gotta be wider because we all see what happens like in El Dorado Hills, there's issues. Well, let's not do that. And while we're at it, what a what a great chance to put out some exercise equipment for seniors. And so we did the same with this, and I don't know if it's what we said or they already had it, their plan, but we're very happy to see it. So other than that, I'll let you guys move on. That's about all I have for.

Jim, the other one of the other things that was brought up was community action council. And this is just for for everybody, but just for your information, we do have a date from that. On the twenty eighth with 10:00, they are meeting here in Conference Room May. If if anybody can show up, we could have we could have somebody representing seniors. Community Action Council primarily is pushing for low in low income population in our county. Yeah.

They're looking for they have a opening for two positions. It's it's kinda divided into thirds. It's business, community, and low income. Those community action council, and they're looking for people in low income in the community. So you feel like you're qualified or you know somebody that does, they could definitely use the input because their their stuff goes on up like ours does. And, hopefully, it it helps the people make decisions that need it.

Thank you. John. Well, John is next. Steve is not here. Well, Lorraine, can you is there anything going on in South Lake Tahoe aside from your conferences or communication with your supervisors and and councils that you can share with us?

Yes. Well, as you all know, I I'm still in charge of the Vowels project, but I have kinda integrated that with all of my meetings rather than rather than creating a new wheel. We're working together. So I have coffee meetings with, Keith from the city council. I've got lunch meetings with Brooke still going on every month, And I work directly with Trudy from the Senior Inc.

And we are still in process of just getting through all the changes that are going up here, and I think we're on the right track with the city council. I think we're on the right track with the parks and rec, the new person taking over for John in the in the city position. Brooke is as you are as you're seeing, Brooke is dedicated to the senior projects and the senior problems, and we have set up a, South Lake Tahoe and El Dorado County, kinda like an advisory group informational gathered of the housing projects in order to stop the, no, how do I wanna say it, stop the people that are buying all the trailer parks and developing those and pushing the seniors out. She has contacted personally two groups that do grants and fundings who buy those trailer parks. However, they're out of funds right now, but they really wanna work with us in in helping the senior projects go forward with that.

So we are all working together to do more grants and fundings to be able to assist these parks from the damn takeover from, you know, the all the baddies. Anyway, everything is really moving forward. It's just you know, we knew over time that there were needed to be some very drastic changes. And as we're all seeing all these individuals that have chosen to be a little corrupt in their path in high ranking positions are finally exposing themselves and crumbling, which is giving us the opportunity to jump in and turn it into a good situation for our causes without so much constraints from all of the outlining recess corruption. So I am still processing and going through with Brooke on different levels.

Keith and I are working extremely close together, and he seems to be in a good position right now with the city council and has quite a few people who are on board with what our positions are. He is heavily involved with the senior project and the senior inc. So things are moving very well, and I'm very excited and positive. And I'm glad to hear Jim that Brooke followed through because her and my passion to help the seniors and the vets and everybody else that is having a hard time is is simply amazing. But that's our path, and everything is going good.

And positivity is coming out of everything that we step on, and it's just gonna take some time to delete those that are not in the same interest of doing good for our communities. And I'm sure you all get what I'm saying with that comment. But everything is please be assured that everything is moving in a forward path in a good positive position. And that's pretty much all I have to say at this time. We will continue our efforts together.

In fact, Keith and I and Brooke get together for lunch sometimes too so that we're all on the same path. And it it's it's it's really becoming productive. That's that's my final word. And thank you so much, you guys. And, Jim, I love you.

Joe, question. Do any police on trailer parks ever consider you know, the Green Bay Packers are owned by the city of Green Bay? Do any of them look to to become their own incorporation and go to the banks as a group and become the the owners?

That is on the table right now. I live in a mobile home park, and it's been brought up there. Unfortunately, they're still family owned, and there's not a lot of pressure on these people. They're they're fat and happy, so they're not looking at it. But it it has been brought up. That's why I know about it. And how we know Dorado is in touch with a crew that facilitates that very thing. They will come and have a meeting at your mobile home park if there's any interest at all and explain to you how you can do that. So it's out there. It's on the table.

It's just a question of getting to people that are willing to do that, that are not afraid. Because you have to understand when you're in that position where things are going up, the last thing you wanna do is stand out in the street and rail against the owners because they're afraid that other things are gonna happen. So but it is there, and there is a group. It's like a nonprofit group. That's exactly what they do. They will come and help facilitate that to happen, negotiating, if you will. Right. Saying the owners and the Yeah.

So that the park people that are living there have the ability to

They will own the park. That's what the idea is. They came over and own the park. And so when you're talking about a low income park, like, a lot of the places in Pogue Pye, things like that, the older park with older units, those people don't have a lot of expendable cash to buy out. You know, you're thinking, okay. They're gonna buy out this place. Well, there's there's funding. There are things they can do that are in place that they can explain that. So if you come across anybody that's looking at that, we we can put them in touch with you. We can help them.

Well, I was just wondering out of curiosity because I was thinking it was one way if there would be a bank that would make a long term client, you know, more than a thirty year mortgage type thing. It's even the low cost home people could put in a dollar a month. Yeah. And I was just curious as to whether that was an option here in California.

It is. It is an option right here in Elk Grove County.

This is this is a topic, and and, you know, maybe you'd be interested in sitting in on some of the housing meetings. But we do need to move on. And and, yeah, this and this is this is something I know that Perth is working on. She was supposed to be starting the bad heart committee. Subject. There's more to come. John, do you have anything to add to here? What's going on in Tahoe?

Not a lot of this time.

Great. Great. Yeah. Sounds like they're So they've been very involved. They're Okay. They're waiting on

the the paperwork. It's holding everything out. It does look like they're now moving to the new recreation center in

the next couple of months. So so the whole. They need a tour. Again, we need a tour or not without tripping hazards. Yeah. Okay. There are no more questions or comments. Steve's not here. Tita, can you this is a new ad hoc committee, and I'm gonna turn this over to Tita. Tita. The strategic planning, the preps, or strategic planning for the next month.

So you're getting a handout, and this is actually homework for the February retreat strategic planning. And the reason why I want us to get this done in advance of the meeting is nobody's in here. We've all been with the commission for maybe twelve to six months. Yes. Anyway, I want I I don't wanna do the blue sky thinking that we've done the past three to five years at the meeting.

I want you to come ready to work on what we're gonna try to accomplish in 2026. So to get this handout, basically, what I'm asking all the commissioners and the special advocates to submit to us in advance of that meeting in February. I have three questions for you. The first question is what activities should the COA work on in 2026? Now it could be a new activity, or it could be all the activities that you've done and just keep it going in '20 from 2025.

But I do want you to answer that question. So a follow on question to what activities should we be working on as the commission, do you want to take an active role in the activities that you've listed? So, again, you can have a great idea, but you may not be able to, you know, take an active role in it, but I wanna know if you want to. So if you have a great idea, please put it down. Don't be shy even if you can't personally commit to working on what activity you

think the commission should work on.

And then the third, which we usually spend the first hour of our retreat recognizing is what accomplishments do you want us to recognize that we did in 2025? I want you to think about accomplishments not only as part of the commission, but also as a commissioner. And if you have the privilege of leading a team and talk about accomplishments that you've had as a committee chair or team leader. So I would like to have this feedback at least a week before that February retreat. And the reason is I wanted to be able to compile as much information from you in advance of that meeting so we can review what we've individually thought about, what we wanna work on, and set priorities.

I mean, we only have you know, from February, we're only gonna have ten months to accomplish what we wanna try to get going on for 2026. So I'd like to come out of that meeting. The goal for the February meeting is to come out of that with next steps. Next steps in what do you want to do as a commissioner. Next steps if you wanna create a a new ad hoc team that's gonna explore a new idea as a as a follow on, for example, outreach.

So Jones says, yes. We all do outreach, and we all, as commissioners, in our active duties as a commissioner, we have outreach in many different ways. Some of the stuff is we might wanna formalize. For example, I've heard through the past year, what are we doing from a digital platform? What are we doing in social media? For those of you that are interested in pursuing those platforms as far as spreading the word, sign up. Put that on your list of what you wanna pursue, and let's go for it. Go for it in a way that you need to research. What is the criteria? What can the AAA support?

Because we are an advisory committee to the AAA. We just don't go off and do things that aren't approved by the AAA or not supported by the county Of Colorado. So, anyway, we still have blue sky thinking, but I wanted in advance of the meeting. And if you can put it in writing, then we can figure out how can we, you know, take action on it. What are the next steps?

And, again, when I think about 2025, what we've just recapped what's been going on from South Lake Tahoe to the Western Slope, It's been an amazing year. It really has been. So I think we should go into the February retreat with a lot of great things to work on, and we'll just try to figure out, is there something new or a new method or a new platform that we wanna pursue? And that's kinda maybe more of a blue sky, but I think what everybody has been contributing in the past year has been tremendous. So, anyway, I look forward to the retreat. And we'll probably have a sign up list as far as goodies for the morning and our lunch, but that that's to come.

You know, you want your comments submitted on or before the February 12, which is one week before.

Yeah. I'll send out a reminder email, but I just wanted to preface with those are our three burning questions. That's true.

I wanna personally ask you all to take a good look at your homework. And I respect it as a thank you to Tita because she has done an awesome job facilitating this. She can't do it by herself, so she needs our help. But, I mean, look what she's done year after year. This happened because of her. So least we can do is kinda heighten up and tell her what we think. K? Alright.

And we've got your mother-in-law's. We've got your mother-in-law's salad. Right?

That's all. That's all. We always loved it, and everybody that we've taken into a place, they won't love it. So it's become part of our tradition. We love it too.

That's you know, I'm ask my husband to send the link to the California State Commission for you to to be able to look at the the five volt goal that state vision on aging, has has put together for and I think it's until COVID through 20 I think so. 30. And that's anyway, this might stimulate some ideas because there are five different areas that they're looking at, and it might stimulate some ideas to you for you to come up with some ideas. So, anyway, I please do, and we'll have I will ask you to send them a link to to

You're gonna send it

to me.

I'll read it to you. Oh, well, revenue generating. Well, that has my name next to it. Well, your husband is already that wait, mama. Has already referred to this.

We have not met yet. Right now, Janet and Gail, the three girls over here, are are on this ad hoc committee, and this is regarding and we'll be talking about this in a few minutes anyway. But I I I have heard that there is some consideration about the the label for it. But we we promised last year that we would help generate in a. And so this is our effort to do that.

Please, if you if there's anybody that helps that is interested wanna keep the committee small. I know we can appoint maybe one more, but is anybody else interested? Let me know. Do we have anybody online that is

We still have one person online.

Oh, okay. Well, at this point, there are any dedicated to public comment.

Can I ask a question first on the? So, Yvette, in the website on on at the county website for how to donations and the wish list of how we can keep the public can donate to things. You say you're you're making a new senior brochure. Is there, like, a QR code to this web to this link? We will be creating that. We're gonna go over to the website, I think, September Close. Yeah. Three on the Okay. Okay. Perfect. Yeah. Perfect. Thank you so much. Public comments? Yeah.

Now taking public comment on committee reports. Individuals will have three minutes to address the submission. Public comment will be taken from Zoom. Please be sure to unmute yourself and join and raise your hands if you desire to. Please voluntarily state your name for the record.

No public comment.

Very good. Moving right along then. Thank you. The first order of business for new business is the issue regarding, the California senior legislature election process, and who is going to address this?

I have the essential here if

you want me to go over it. Briefly describe well, y'all can read, but is that there what is every four years, new senior legislature members are Elected. No. No. Just I mean, there there is an election.

And the application period has opened. It's as I understand, they they lengthy and comprehensive, and there's a process, which I'll have you read in a second. There well, there's one from every county. It's is one in the senate area and one legislature. Every This way. Oh, from every AAA. Okay. You want to address any of it before calendar?

Before the calendar?

Oh, before you ask before. I just gotta go over. I I my understanding was that you somebody else would be making a presentation, but we we the California senior legislature reached out to us recently about the election process. It's in statute that AAA and the advisory committees work together with this process. There's different ways that we can hold the election, because we don't have the staffing to offer in a more a more elaborate election process.

What we're looking at is for the Commission on Aging to be the electors for this process. So right now, because it is open, we're hanging flyers. We're gonna post on Facebook. Anyone could submit applications. I believe Yasmin has all the paperwork attached to the agenda item.

So anybody that's interested in the assembly or the senate positions can apply. And this is prior current incumbents or previous. It's anybody in the community within the AAA jurisdiction. We're only looking at El Dorado County because that is our jurisdiction. So what this means for us is we will the applications come directly to us, and then we will take the applications.

We forward them on to the California senior legislature. They will review board requirements, making sure that the candidates meet their requirements, and then they will certify each candidate that has submitted an application. They will let us know who the candidates are that will be on the ballot, and then we will be bringing that back to this group May or June to vote on our candidates for our area.

And from here, where does it go?

From here, we are just marketing. We're marketing for applications. So right now in this moment, we're helping people, seniors in the community, are working on their applications.

I mean I mean, once it's voted on here.

Oh, then we let the California senior legislature know who was elected, and then I believe they have a swearing in that takes place in October. Do we need the calendar? No. Tita and Ramin wanna talk about the time commitment involved

to give everyone an overview, that would be great. You know, how

many hours to spend in it,

how often do we need. Any

anything like that that you would want to share, that would be great.

Well, from my point of view, it it involves a lot of hours. The hours are very intense at certain times of the year. November, December, January, because those are what happens is we are expected to be a a proposal as legislators. That's done between now and the eligibility ends in. So everybody expected to put some kind of a proposal together.

And we have our capital meeting in October where 10 proposals are then collected. Those have to be marketed. Those are the 10 that as the person who has been the lead on this in our committee is ours and ours to try to connect to a legislative staff who will respond and go back. Like I said, this year was very easy because well, not easy, but better because these are the folks who jumped with last year. So about the same thing as that was bad.

So that was much better. But when you're going in cold, it's takes out. But finally, you're back and put something set. Then you have the times with And then, like, with myself, you have opportunities to testify before the legislature. And, again, you're preparing for that, and then you have legislative time. So, basically, there's a lot of commitment and expectations of the legislative.

So Raeleen, actually, she's vice chair for the

ledge Yeah.

Ledge committee. So she does a lot of kind of executive level coordinating with the chair of the legislative committee as far as organizing us as to how we're gonna meet with the different legislative offices. And it's become much better this year than it was the prior year because we had more teams that committed to reaching out to the senators and assembly members. So for me, I don't do half of that heavy lifting. Raylene is much more has much bigger time sink.

We also have because we're El Dorado County, we are members of the rural caucus for the California senior legislature. So we meet with fellow members that serve all the way from Humboldt, Amador, basically, the rural part of Northern California. We meet every month, and in fact, we're gonna meet tomorrow. Mhmm. So we talk about, like, certain issues that are affecting more in the rural perspective.

And it's it's really good because we think about what are the things that impact rural older adults and people with disabilities. So it's a very good forum, and we collaborate as a caucus to try and think, well, what type of proposal makes sense as a state of California to put forth and see if the standing legislature would adopt that. The other thing about the senior legislature were all volunteers were nonpartisan, but we are an authorized group where in the summer months when legislative staff isn't as busy with the standing legislature, we get the benefit of them volunteering for us to actually take our proposals and create legislative language so that when we bring a proposal that we will eventually vet in front of the standing legislature, it's the language is remedy because the actual legislative staff has created that proposal for us that it's bill read. It's pretty amazing that we get that type of expertise. Along with it, there's a vetting process that goes on.

It's kinda like the past three or four years, we haven't we we've been in deficits. Right? So we've been always cautioned, what's the budget x? Is there gonna be a budget x? So we're very cognizant of those policies and legislation that we're gonna we're asking for some money. With the caution that it may get detached because we're in a deficit, you know, situation. So, anyway, it's amazing. I really signed on to it because I really wanted to know how legislation works. So for me, it's just been amazing.

Yeah. It really has. And like I said, I was giving you only from the standard of being a member on a team because what Tito was mentioning is the other roles I play because I am the vice chair of the ledge committee, and I am the chair of the finance and insurance committee. So I play two roles in addition to being a team leader with the legislative brothers.

That's good question. That was very good feedback. Thank you both of you for for sharing what your goals look like. So let's say Bob has an idea. He thinks there's an unmet need of community, and he would like to see something happen, you know, maybe more in the rural community. How would you work with Bob? Or how would either of you work with Bob? I'm I'm like that where he thinks I have this great idea. I think that would

be great. That's what I wanted to hire somebody to come up with. Uh-huh. Because what Bob would do is bring that to us. We, as the commission, would determine whether we wanted to go forward with it. Then I would propose we take it to the supervisors to make sure this is something that is an area that they have covered. And if it is, then at that point, we can start drafting a proposal. And then at that after we got our proposal together, then we take it on to the legislature, see the legislature.

So what's great about that, say, we have an idea. If we bring it into the idea filter that we have available for us with this California senior legislature, it starts the process of going has there been prior legislation about this problem or issue that we're trying to

solve? Right.

And then we look at prior legislation. If there has been, and it was like, did it go? Why did it get stalled? Why did it get vetoed? Whatever.

So we're pretty knowledgeable then about what do we need, what is needed to possibly get it moving forward past all those roadblocks that it encountered before. So it's kinda cool because it could be an old idea, but then we look at it from what can we get. Again, being the state of California, some of the stuff maybe not be may not pass muster at the state level. Some of the stuff like the mobile home parks, some of the relief has only come at the local level. Because Raelene and I, we we try to craft mobile home our rent stabilization proposal, and we realized, oh my god.

This has gone through the legislature three times before, and it's gotten stopped. And we didn't have anything at that point in time that would get past what got it stopped. And so we we we said we need to rethink how old an attack was as an issue.

But then on the other hand, there's the proposal now, and that's what I mentioned, the one that has been picked up again. And that's for the special personal needs allowance for the nursing home folks for $35. That's from 1979, that dollar values. And that's the bioequal point. Your personal needs that you want to live there, like, pay with your phone.

But, anyway, that proposal has gone on for about five or six years. It keeps coming back and back and back because we don't quit. But you try to find out who's going to be for it who's going to after looking at what can we say that makes it more powerful to those who missed it. You know? So there's a lot of to do to get it to a point where it has a shot. Now DSL has been able to pass over 210 bills for the governor's signature. Sometimes they get to the governor, and he'll shut it down. So it's like any other legislation, but we have done it.

I think we need to recognize also the part who our two ladies doing their a really active job and really positive things. We had Ray, who's our state senator,

and then

Roger, who was the assemblyman. And they started this process, that that bill for personal finance started way back when they were up.

Yeah. It's been there.

So we've we've had a history of having CLA members as of the county representatives to the CSL. It's a money issue.

Mhmm. And money money issues are always problem. Right. Because of depends on the constituency of the people who are gonna get the money, and they you know, legislature doesn't have that much interest in seeing seeing you too. That's pretty much money for it. Yeah. They're kind of

this group of people are kind of lost. Yeah. Nobody really knows them. Who cares? So those who have the opportunity to

It's just a Yeah. It's such a minor thing for places like that is funny.

But it's all politics. Yeah. It's all politics, and that's

it. Okay. I guess we had public comment. Can we have

I just wanted to let you all know

that this is what the flyer looks like, case, and we posted it at all the meal site locations. You should be seeing one on Catawba maybe after today. And I think Andrea also posted it on

Facebook. She's going to it on the machine. Yes. Yeah. So we'll be out there, and I will be

I'm sending the applications till March 30.

March 31.

Would it be appropriate to ask whether Gita and Brigadena is submitting an application?

Yeah.

I will be.

I will. Okay. Thank you. Join us. Thank you both for all the work you've done. I yeah. We don't see it, so we don't realize just how how much time and energy put into this. I would strongly support those two shows again that are interested in doing because of experience. It's very. But they you're invited to that position. That position.

The first year, you're back up. Yeah.

But it's not And it's a process. The the the thing is that it's this is open not only to the whole mission, but the whole Yeah.

You don't have to

be a. You don't have to be.

Okay. No. I I I don't know exactly what you'd say because my first year was like, wow. Yeah. And then Mine too. The second year was getting better. And then second half of the year, I was involved, and now I've really been involved. And, yeah, it takes a bit to know.

Who was the who was the chairperson that that

Oh, it's John. Pointer's still.

Pointer is still on. He's still the He's

a very common

Oh, he has he has been great. Yeah. And then Ellen Lopez is the chair of the ledge committee. And so she and I have been working together with another assembly person who's vice chair. So I think we developed it. Yeah. We had great success with four big. That's that's what I'm gonna have. And then all of a sudden, so I think that awesome success.

Alright. We have. You have. Thank you. If there's anything really relevant, we do have to open this to public comments. We have one more items to get through.

Public comment. I'm taking public comment on item number two. Individuals will have three minutes to address the commission. Public comment will be taken from Zoom. Please raise your hand if you would like to comment, and be sure to unmute yourself

when called. No public comment.

Thank you. The next item three is reviewing the the senior services program donation, which is has what been working on it. And and we're you were gonna present to us the the this this is the website.

We're gonna walk you through the website that was pulled together. I am very proud of how this turned out. It was I feel like all of our leadership and the secret services programs touched it. All of the supervisors have added their language. Our ombudsman developed that lovely little picture that we have on there for us to really kind of try and put an image on what we're trying to do in coming together as a community to support the seniors. Is is does that get any degree at spindle still?

Let's see.

I've got

a full screen online. I think

it doesn't.

You have to close the online people to make it bigger.

So we don't wanna do this.

Oh, yeah. Just close it.

Wrong mouse. That's my box. See if I can

Can I give us the Oh, there in center. That's good. Alright. Here. That's good.

Yay. It's it's the bourbon chain on the bottom that's cutting short of picture. Oh, is that what's happening? Alright. So I'm glad I printed out a copy because I'll read that up there.

So it just gives an overview of what we're doing in our programs. It speaks to the area agency on aging as well as the club adult day services program. The club is lumped with us, but it's not a required program under the area agency on aging. So when I come and speak to all of you, I speak to both of them because they both of these programs fall under me, but they're not area agency on aging. And, so this is a resource we're looking at making available to the community to give them an update of the types of things we're looking for that they can provide help and support with and including a wish list of items.

We initially modeled this a little bit, on how our animal services donation page has been pulled together because they have a really robust donation program. And so this breaks down into several different categories. You'll see the blue bars on here, and I I tend to get a lot of information. And so we wanted to set up a format where we can pull put the headers that everybody that everybody that's going through this page might have interest in how they can contribute or be a part of what we're doing. And and so those are broken down into make a cash donation to the local area agency on aging, volunteer at a local senior center, donate new items from our wish list.

And, again, that wish list was pulled together by all of our leads in in our programs. Donate meetings, spaces, or services, in memory gift or memorial contribution donations, coordination of community service organization projects. We often have organizations like the one that Liz works with that will make cards that we can send out to the home delivery meal reps with our senior nutrition lunches. We have boy scouts that will come in, schools that will come in and sing to our adult day services program, and then a voluntary and this one is a standard part of our program. I revamped the title a little bit based on our supervisor's feedback, but it's voluntary monetary contributions for services received.

And so that's what you'll see us refer to as voluntary contributions. It's a requirement for all of our area agency on aging programs. And that is those are funds received from participants. We do not charge fees for services, but we are required to tell the people we serve that we can accept voluntary contributions. You'll see it posted at the senior nutrition sites, and those are people who have received services. So those are not tax deductible. There's no benefit to that. People aren't required to pay. We don't keep track of who is paying or who isn't, so we're respecting everybody's dignity. And people are struggling, you know, and and wanna come in and participate for free.

And so when you click on each one of these, it'll give you a little more information about our programs. Can't read those. And so this discusses what a voluntary contribution is and how that helps us. That helps offset offset the cost of the services that we're already providing. When you go up to the tab above the coordination of community services, community service organization projects, that talks about the different ways that community service organizations can help us, and they can help us with things like donating decorating cards and uplifting crafts to the AAA.

It's something that we can give to our long term care ombudsman. They can give it to people who are living in assisted in skilled nursing facilities or long term care facilities. We have groups come in to see Christmas carols during lunch services or in adult day services. We have we could coordinate community service days with organizations where they come in and help us out with projects on-site or volunteer throughout our building. But I think the thing we need to note there is anybody coming on-site working with their seniors has to be fingerprinted, so that would be a part of that process.

We could have community service organizations coordinating donation drives or hosting volunteer appreciation events. That was something we had tried to move forward. It previously was a volunteer appreciation, but due to county's requirements for food purchases and the other restrictions that we had, that was temporarily postponed. But it would be so easy if we were working with an outside entity that could help us out with something like that. In memory gift or memorial contribution donations, we can accept donations to honor loved ones.

We sometimes are in individuals' wills where we're working on processing a trust funding from a trust for a person that had passed away, the amount of $15,000. We do have to take an item that sides to our board of supervisors, but you know? So these are things that we see sometimes in the course of our services. Domation of meeting spaces or services. If there was an organization in the community that wanted to donate advertising in a local newsletter that they put out, there's a value to that.

And we use that value to meet our match requirement for our programs. To receive state or federal funding, we are required to contribute different percentages based on the program of our own dollars, and that's where county general fund dollars come in. But if we had organizations helping us with meeting rooms for our family caregiver support program, workshops, or those advertisements, then we can we can offset our county general fund. And so this gives an overall benefit to the services that we're providing and and maybe helps us to maximize our budget. The item about that, donate new items from the AAA wish list.

And this, all of our staff worked together to pull together this list, which even contains legal pads or Post it notes from senior labels, because those kind of things can can support the program while reducing our cost because we're not buying those types of items ourselves. But we do ask that the items coming in are new. We do have some community organizations that donate quotes on a regular basis that helps us meet our match requirement.

So you wanna go

to the one up above that. Volunteer at a local senior center. There are so many we utilize such a large pool of volunteers, and this kind of it it outlines some different suggestions on ways that people will volunteer. The cash value of those volunteered hours is a is a donation to our program. We track that.

We report that every month to the health working department of aging, and we assign a cash value to what that looks like. All of our volunteers have to be fingerprinted. Those volunteers that drive, we do require an annual DMV pool, so they have to have a clean driving record. But there's so many different things that people can do. All of our senior activities are led by volunteers.

So our line dancing is volunteer letter yoga. If anyone has a special skill that we haven't listed here, we can probably find a place for that, and that really does help support who we're able to serve within the community. And then the most important one at the very top, make a cash donation to the local area agency on aging. A cash donation, if you're not receiving services, it is tax deductible. We are required to go through a process to accept the donations.

Those who are on the revenue generation work group will learn a little bit more about what that process looks like when we start feeding. But we can accept a donation at any time. Senior nutrition has done a great job. They recently received a check for 2,300 as donation. They received another check for 500.

I feel like there might be a 7 or $800 in the middle. So they're doing a good job of getting the word unity on what those cash donations look like. In a time where we are having a lot of budget conversations and looking at ways to tighten our budget, this these types of functions help our programs immensely. So it's really outlining all the ways that can help us make our dollars go further and help us be sustainable. But but we don't have to stick to any of the roles on the volunteer list.

If you have other ways you think you can help, let's talk about it. We can probably find a space for that, you know, people with strong skill sets. I think I remember from one of our first meetings, Ray was talking about how far paralegal skills could go if we had a volunteer paralegal coming in to support our senior legal services program. So there's a lot of different things that we can do with those. And then there's more information you'll see throughout this.

There's contact information and phone numbers. We are hoping that the new program assistant that is in background will help support this process so we can have one point person. Otherwise, people are gonna be touching several of us when they're interested in doing something here. So our next step with this when we have a very rough, rough draft pulled together is we're gonna pull together the highlights of this and put it in the brochures, and we have handouts. I've got something pulled together.

I am not I'm a more business technical writer, so I'm looking for staff to add a little more fluff and marketability that I can't add. I can't do the pictures or images either. This is not my strong suit. And we do anticipate when we have that done, we're gonna have a few that we'll put on the brochures. For in the community, it gets full access to go straight to this website.

When we met last month, I was saying, you know, I was noticing that we had we weren't I wasn't getting the hits when I was searching for the site when I'm just going to Google and and do a search. And it wasn't taking me to that page directly. It was taking me to another page that was about six down the list. And, typically, when I'm doing a search for senior type services, we're at the top of the list almost every five of my searches. But but I am finding that it's moving to the top of the list.

So I think it was at the very top of the page when I sat down with Joan and a few a few others to pull up the page to talk about. What is should you all have just completed? Do have any questions or feedback or input? Which website? It's on what website?

It's on our page. So our website is set up for we're part of Eldorado County, so you can go to the Eldorado County website. And then we have our own set of pages on there for senior services, and this is one of the pages that we have. We're adding to the bottom of each program that has a link to go to this page. So if somebody's interested in the donation component, it gives them a link from any one of our pages. So but you will find it. When you open the main senior services website, you'll see a bunch of blue buttons on the left, and I think it's at the very bottom. So maybe we should move it up. Think so.

It's a good one. Having a swing.

Yeah. It's really good. Jasmine sent out an email. I can't remember. November, December with the link. Just poke on find the email that Jasmine sent out, poke on it, and get get to that landing page. It's really terrific. So Yeah. That. Yeah. I like it. A real solid team effort.

I feel good about that.

You're a

maximum donation, cash donation?

We have, and we're not putting it on this webpage. But as a county entity, the board has a policy on the donations that we can accept. So there's not a max. There's not a minimum, technically, but we do have process against going different levels. So if somebody came in, wanted to donate up to 1,499, I can sign off to accept that, and then we can move forward.

But if we go over fifteen hun if we go from 1,500 to 5,000, then our agency director, Olivia Byron Cooper, is required to sign to approve that. And anything over that goes to the board of supervisors. So that gets a little slower because it has to go through county council, get on the board's agenda. So there's a a little bit more of a lengthy process for those really large donations. If something comes to us with a restriction, let's say somebody wants to only use it in one location or only for the specific small group of services, then it adds additional layers.

We can't accept that right away. We'll have to go through an approval process. Smaller donations are quick and easy to approve.

Yes. That one particular thing you mentioned Mhmm. That, you know, seniors come to to the club. Mhmm. And you said everybody has to be fingerprinted. Do they have to be fingerprinted? Fingerprinted?

They're not left alone with our clients. If somebody's coming in one time, if they're coming in on a regular basis and if they're gonna have personal contact with our members, regulations require fingerprinting for those. But if you have a brivisible children coming in just to see where there's everything. Right. Same with that. You mentioned that you're tracking where you're following, like,

on Google Search or something.

Is there somebody in the county that does SEO marketing and, you know,

pays for or uses different tools to get you off the list? He We work, and and I think they actually do a pretty good job. We have a IT department, and so they're the ones that help set us up. I can't speak to how that works because it's it's work that they're doing, and

I really don't understand it.

But I know

I don't

understand. I don't understand. Just I just know

that there's people that do that that will get it to the front. And the other thing

I was gonna comment on is in the

era of AI. You you talked about different layouts and things that you were working on, and that's not your strong point. I mean, loading it into, like, chat GTT, it's amazing. And, Ari, do

you have the ability and, like, help me to boost those kind of words?

Mean, there I mean, it is amazing that you can load something up, and it will create a flyer for you. It will create just a language for you and

and create a marketing piece for you.

We do have county policy on how we work with home guide, and we only are approved

I think is it one or more? One? It's one maybe. The other one's grandma.

So we're only approved to use one. If we use it, we

have to cite that it was created by. And

so for a lot of things that we're doing, we're we're not utilizing it at this point. I mean, I think it's scary myself. But, I mean, there's just so many Well, for editing. And not.

Yeah. I was a teammate.

And I and I do use it, but it I know

that there's a downside to it as well. It is a tool that's available.

Yes. You know, the RET guide just put that on us, and you included your information about the program. Could you do anything about the raw materials and and of that?

So maybe I can work with you when you come by on the twenty ninth and talk about what that looks like. That hasn't been on my radar. I don't know how we would work with community services district,

but I would love to.

Yeah. We're doing our summer guide right now.

Summer guide, and this is the El Dorado County programs here. Uh-huh. So he had something here about the volunteering.

Love it. Yeah.

We have contact. Yeah. Okay. We'll talk more. Thank you. Give a suggestion.

Well, thank you. Good job. You know, it's just like for the the what happened last year, the letter to this is just a namesake, and just great. Okay. Public comments. Oh, sorry. Can't we? This is

all with business.

We just hold public comments.

And say it's all with business. And then do it. We don't have any new direction on public comments, so we are going with the status quo. Know they've changed things at the board of supervisors level, but that hasn't been. Been on task yet.

I have a maybe a suggestion. I know you're tied to policy and procedure. But can we say, does anybody have any public comment? Raise your hand. Then if somebody does, read that statement. Because we're reading it and reading it, and then nobody has any public.

Well, we have hand up right now, so we will have some public comment. Alright. Now taking public comment on the donation and wish list web page. Individuals will have three minutes to address the commission public comment. And I see, Kathy, you've already raised your hand. So be sure to unmute yourself when you're ready to go. Go ahead, Kathy.

Good afternoon. I enjoy listening to your meetings when I can, so I appreciate that. And on this item, the brochure, I think it would be a fabulous way to get the word out as much as you can because a lot of people wouldn't find it on the website. It's so detailed. I know you're working to tighten your budgets.

And that is something that I think we're all very interested in knowing because it's the long term viability of these programs that are so important. And one time money doesn't really deal with the budget deficits that the county has. But so I'm very interested too in in hearing down the road what things are being done to preserve the programs and services. And then I have a question. You use the value of each volunteer hour, and I would love to know how much you say that each hour is worth.

Thanks very much, and thank you all for what you do.

Thank you, Kathy. Thank you for being being involved with this. Do you have an answer that we can't do? We can't? We don't. Oh, we can't. Okay. Thank you, Kathy. On to the next order of business, which is appointing an ad hoc committee for senior of the year. And if you have any volunteers.

It's coming up. We have a date. I mean I'll

do a question. I'll I'll do it.

I'll do

it.

Wednesday. 06:12. Wait. Thanks for

tuning in. That's what you said.

So Joan, you know, has led this committee. So am I. I will ask Liz.

I think and I can always work together with your Right.

And, yeah,

India. Well, I don't if all was there, glorious.

Done. That I'm pausing for Public comments.

Kathy, do you still have your hand up from before?

Oh, sorry.

No. We had no public company. So what is the process to nominate some?

Oh, I think I can

talk to that one.

We work closely with the AAA, and they, again, are supporting us in this and that it's always been our project, if I remember from years past. I think Raeleen was one of the first seniors of the year and since has been involved forever. What we do is we put out publicity through Rebecca or now Amy to the public to nominate anyone who has volunteered in any aspect that supports the senior population. And then that entity, whether it's an individual, a family member, or an organization, can nominate a person. That nomination form comes into the office.

It accumulates them all, and then we have a deadline for that upon which we would like to appoint a committee to review and choose. Once the choice is made, really usually takes care of getting the the, what do call it, award. Right? There's a perpetual plaque that has everyone's name on it from every year that we've done it. Then we go in front of the board of supervisors on a specific day that we've identified and made a circle where we announce the names of all the candidates and have them come up and get a certificate of of appreciation and domination group.

They have the format for that. And then we now of that group, we now announce who is senior of the year. They get a An award. Award and a certificate. And then we all get to lunch. In this in this day and age, it's brunch, and it's because we meet first thing in the morning. We've had horrible idea that things left every week, two months, and it's held here in this room, which we have to get preserved.

Right? And is that important prevent and not preserve? I don't know. I can get you out of the same.

An important aspect of this is you didn't mention it. That's why I am the nomination that is it's it isn't just somebody's name. The nomination includes a a a assignment. To the bio about why you're nominated. What are the things that they do? So that and that nomination is very important because the selection process is based on that. Yeah.

Some of them go out and pay. It's incredible people.

No. Incredible. So they're barely it. Not so. Cindy usually deserves the. It and talk to her.

Yes. Cindy does. Uh-huh. Yeah. But this room tells other personnel, though.

She can still reserve.

She can do it. She does. Yeah. Done it. Okay. As long as we get it done. Is there a form that's out now? I actually was approached by someone to Oh.

I think it's ready, but we haven't reviewed it yet. We have to make sure that the verbiage is still appropriate and the dates and things are accurate. And I'll I'll just meet with Rebecca when she has time to look over that. Just let when I have it when we have it ready, I'll let you know. Okay. And then we can make and we put it out in the Cedars Times and the newspaper protest as well fairly soon in all of the publications and public publications and flyers everywhere.

I just have one thing to say. If you've never served on the selection committee of the senior of the year, volunteered this year, you will be amazed at The

hard decision

is Yeah. I I had a hard time when I served as thinking who I would prioritize. It was really tough.

Yeah. Generally, we send out bios to that team, that election committee in advance so you get a chance to review them all and then sit down. How many typically are submitted? That's been problematic in the last few years. We used to have up to twelve, fifteen. 15. And in the last few years, it's dropped maybe seven or eight. But 12 or 15 actually gets a little wiggly. Yeah. Because we've gotta read them all out in Florida supervisors.

And in years past, they put considerable constraints on us. So we get any starter members to that. But we are now no longer having to no longer reading their entire bio at the court of supervisors meeting for everyone to appreciate. We do that now here at the reception. The only one that gets red in toto is the winner is the doesn't mean I don't like calling them winners. Yeah. Because it's not a competition. But the Select versus order. The Select team. Yeah. And South Lake Tahoe, John, has always been bereft with with nominations, and we would accept anyone from up there too. You must have people that are

really, really hard. We've gotten too well. There

you go. Bring them down. Absolutely. Absolutely. And then we're gonna bring your balances and stuff.

There we go.

Could we call for comment public comments? We can.

I don't see Kathy have her hand up on this, so I know we're ready out

of time. Yeah. Okay. The next area of business, number five, we have we have some revisions to do on our by and on the policies and procedures, and this is also tied into the Brown Act and some of the recommendations coming down from the board of supervisors of legal. So we I would like to inform with Smithy to join me.

And I think that possibly, Ray, if you could be involved with this and volunteer for the. Okay. Just be aware of

your process. Last time we did this was when I was president about four or five years ago. You can get it approved around here and get the work coverage worked out, but then it has to go to county council. Okay. And then if they bounce it back to you because they don't like word seven and paragraph five, And then he bounced back to them. And I think last year last time we did this, was about nine months. Six to nine months. I'm gonna be told, which I'm pushing in the next year bracket. Well

but I understand what you're saying. The timeline, this might be

I I have a quick you sent us the copy, and it says under policies and procedures, 07/23/2012, and that the my law says that he advised it. I thought

I could have sworn.

I don't think it went anywhere. It bounced. It bounced. Bounced. It bounced. That was a one word change.

I thought

we did too, but I couldn't find another official copy. So that's the one we're using.

So I will look around, and

I did find some language we wanted to add, but I don't think it did.

I'm a I think we did, but

I actually got it finally.

So,

anyway, that will be if you have another copy of Roger,

you can scan it and

send over to me. That would

I will work with with to set up a date and and well, I guess, to set up a date. So start meeting just to start looking at what we're looking, and this will be a process. Janitor Gales, why don't you have your hands raised? You have any? Kathy, do you have your hand raised?

No. She doesn't. Moving right along with you. The last order of business is a something came out from the senior legislature between, I guess, Jim and and, Raylene and Tita. You all can put this out for discussion. I think that it had been discussed at a couple of other meetings that I was in as to what to do about this, but go ahead and present it. I I think you brought it to me.

That was the legislation, the proposal that I brought. Yes. Right.

About the tax exemption. Right. That was what I And and I guess question is, is this something that should support yourself?

We define define what is an exemption. Do they don't have to pay property taxes at all? No. It's. And do you have to be disabled or any best we can do?

Well, Jim, you wanna talk about it? You've got it.

Oh, yeah. And I can do it. It's shorter.

I'll try to keep it short as possible. It is a reduction in your taxable income, but they're not gonna knock $4,000 off. It's your taxable income just like IRS. You get you reduce your tax rate from so it it actually means a lot of that. The issue is there are two exemptions.

There's a homeowner's exemption, and then there's the veterans as a exemption. The problem is the law says you can only pick one, and the homeowner's exemption is much better than the veteran's exemption. So nobody, literally nobody, is going after the veteran's exemption because you have to give up the homeowners, which is more lucrative. That that doesn't make a lot of sense. You have everybody's a homeowner gets this one, and then you wanna say, okay.

You were a veteran, so we wanna give you some special, but you go and pick up one and say, you don't even get this. So it's a nonissue. So this is gonna come up in November to be voted on. Hopefully, to allow veterans, you don't have to be disabled. There's the bullet points here say you have to be honorably discharged.

You have to own and occupy the property. Third one is you have to file a claim with a county assessor by the February 15 of each year. Now I found this very interesting. The fourth bullet point, it says the veteran may not own property, real or personal, worth more in aggregate than $5,000 if the claimant is single. If married, the couple may not own property worth more than $10,000.

What? Yeah.

This this this is

So if you're a renter

Well, yeah, you have to own the property. Yeah. You can't get it as a renter.

Well See, that's that's discriminatory right there.

Well, you don't own the property, so you're not paying taxes on it.

You're a renter. Get the veterans discount.

Well, that that we don't get it anyway because you can only pick one. That's the problem.

Well, if you're a renter, you would pick the the one and not the homeowner.

I don't think you're putting this out for renters. That's one of the main thing. Have homeowners. You not only have to own the property, you have to reside in it, so you can't rent it out and get the benefit off your taxes. Right. You have to live it. So

there's Interesting.

There's some requirements. But, yeah, I find that really interesting, and it says over on the other side here K. Does the veteran who owns a home would most likely not qualify for the veteran exemption because you own too much. You owe more than $10,000 per year. So, you know, and then there's a question of how much is this gonna cost the county assessor? That's gonna be the question. So between now and then, we need to find out how many veterans are qualified, basically, how much the housing you know, there's some questions to be asked because they will be asked or they will be concerned. The county is in not a good position with money. We all know that. They don't wanna give anything away that they don't have to.

So we have to show them that the benefit is much greater than the little amount of bud little amount of money that's gonna be taken from. That's why. So we have until November.

No. We don't. And not this one. This is one that has to be done by January 31. These two are January 31.

Oh, this is January. I I think that's January 31. We haven't decided now. What

Right. That's the date. Two years ago.

So once again, it came out with your all your information, and, hopefully, you did your homework and read this. Those of you didn't, obviously, but we need to make a decision right now. We want to as a commission, you can definitely support them yourself. The interesting point, one of the things

I see over here under what they call problems is that the Board of Eagles Nation notes that their most recent data indicate zero applications.

Yeah. That's why. Right.

You you have to pick one. You can't pick both. Which one are you gonna pick? The one that's giving you more money. Nobody's picking the medical one because, yeah, they can

do that. Why? Zero. Have over 10,000.

Well, that that could be an issue too, I think.

Thousand dollars. That'd be 19 more than that for

the homeowner. That's why You know? No.