Veterans Affairs Commission - Regular Meeting

Well, good morning. We will commence with our meeting starting at 09:43. We've had some technical problems, and it's all straightened out now. We're working well. Let us start with Okay.

The next order of business is the approval of the consent calendar, which is an agenda and the minute or the minutes from last the last meeting, the chair will entertain a motion to approve. Almost interpret. Second. Okay. Any discussion? All in favor, please say aye. Aye. Those opposed? Alright. We're good on that one.

And I did I move this around? No. The next order of business is to introduce our guest speaker, Nancy. Hey. Nancy Wilson is supervisor, and she's in charge of the club or, you know, adult day care services. Nancy let's see.

You wanna just talk to where you are? Or I will, but I always have to stand up when I talk. Yeah. Oh, please do. I move around. Do. So I am the supervisor at the club, although sometimes I think I am the ringmaster. There's always a lot going on, so you never really know. Some days, I'm a ship's captain. Some one day, I was a faith healer. When you think about dementia, what comes out of those? What what comes to your mind when you think of dementia? Memory. Fear. Memory?

What kind do we always hear about? Oh, Alzheimer's. Alzheimer's. Right. So we hear about Alzheimer's, and we hear about it being a memory issue. And I would like you to just erase those from your thinking because dementia there's about 87 types of known dementia. Alzheimer's is the most common, but there are so many very nuanced differences. And and by the time somebody gets to the club, I, you know, I I don't mind if they have a diagnosis. It's usually wrong. And it really doesn't matter because they have dementia.

And dementia is a biopsychosocial issue. And we've all come to call that person centered now, but, actually, it is biopsychosocial in that there's the biology of the brain which is breaking down. It's got areas that are no longer functioning. They are broken. So that is the biological part.

It could be because of alcoholism. It could be because of poor nutrition. It could have been prevented with some vitamins perhaps a long time ago, but here we are. So you have this brain condition, but then you have the psychological piece of what you're telling yourself. Oh my gosh. I'm I'm bad. I'm horrible. Why is this happening? I'm afraid. I don't know what to do. Your family may be contributing to that or supporting that depending. They don't know what to do with you. Oh, just be quiet. Just go sit over there. And then the social piece.

Who is affording you? Who is saying, this isn't you. This is a piece of what you're having to live with, but you still wanna be social. You still wanna give back to your community. You still wanna be part of something greater than yourself.

And so that's what I try and look at. I just do a real deep dive into people's histories and kinds of their story, what they've been, where they're going, what they still wanna do. And we come up with a really special care plan. And that it's now called person centered care, which is so much easier to say. So I like that. But, really, you have to look at you

could even divide it out further. Yeah.

But there are so many different pieces of the puzzle of somebody who's living with dementia.

We

provide exercise twice a day because we know that you need to keep moving what's moving. And if you don't, it's it's gonna stop moving. And I should practice what I preach. And when I do the exercises with them, I always absorb the next day. So I really should do it every day.

But we do that in the morning and in the afternoon. We and then we do an activity. Yesterday, we were painting, gardening, watching that old John Wayne film because suddenly we didn't have enough staff, and we had a whole more men than women. So pull out the John Wayne. You have to be able to just kinda turn on the fly.

And the best life plans, our calendar's a beautiful thing, but it doesn't always work out that way. We really like to engage folks in an immersive experience too because if you're not hitting more than one of the senses, you may not get through. So for instance, I I like arts. I love to paint. If I put a piece of paper down in front of you and said, paint the ocean, you might get some color on there.

But if I and I won't walk around with these. But if I take out my shells and my driftwood, and I put that out so everybody can touch the shelves and smell the driftwood because it actually sort does smell. Because I in Utah, like beach. But I have tons of this stuff. And we put it out, and we lower the lights, and we hopefully

come on now.

Your headache begins here.

It's the room. It's supposed to be playing. Said stick out your beer. So that's Zao. I got an iPhone. We're going to the beer fest. It's an iPhone. The funny thing is I'm trying to play it through YouTube. You know? I also have my YouTube hooked up at work, and they're playing something else right now. And so it's not gonna let me talk

about that.

But imagine the ocean sound. Ocean. It's brashy, the seashells, the wood, the lowered lights, the colors of the ocean only to get from. It's no fail. You're going to come up with a watercolor that's just beautiful. If we're outside, we're gonna put a fan out there, and we're gonna get a water sprayer. And you're gonna feel the mist, and you're gonna feel like you're at

the beach.

And somebody is gonna remember the beach. And we're gonna start talking. We're gonna have this great conversation about things that I never knew they did, but it it woke up. And the process of the painting is not we don't we don't care about what you know, it's just about having fun. No fatal art. But it's all that other stuff that gets engaged and creates memories, and they get new memories. And they connect with the old memories. And so it's just it's very fun. We have a lot of entertainers that come, bands that just give us their time. They're wonderful.

We have one today, actually, at 02:00. They play local clubs. They play up in the vineyards and make money doing this, but they come and share it with us just because they wanna give back. And music, as you know, is magic. When we're having a rough day and people's energy is just getting stirred and stirred, we have a couple energy stirred that are hard to deal with sometimes. You know, everybody feeds off everyone else. And if they're just having a bad time, I walk in and start singing you are my sunshine. And then top of my lungs

Uh-huh.

Everybody knows the words. It's I

think we're born knowing the words.

And it just breaks, and we start singing it. And then we sing another one, and then we sing another one. And pretty soon, I'll be able to play my guitar again, and I'm really excited about that because it takes them out of the fear and the sadness and and brings them to a happy time, and they feel safe. And a gentleman the other day showed up in his pickup. He came in, and he was talking to Sean, our office assistant. He's like, I need to get the bus. How do I get the bus? And I heard this conversation, and I went over. Tom, what what are you doing? It wasn't his day to be

there. But

Tom had seen something with his meal that was delivered, and I think he was trying to follow the meals on delivery person. And he drove and he drove to us. And they lived kind of out. And so but he knew to sum there because he got scared, and he said, I'm scared, and I don't wanna drive home. Was hard. But he felt safe. So And we were able to let me have your keys. You're my buyer. Okay. And then got him a cup of coffee and sat him with some guys, and and he was able to calm down.

And we got his daughter took care of what needed to happen. So, you know, it's just every day is so special, and it's such an important program. And we've enrolled, I think, since July, and we've lost 11. So it's just this constant hamster wheel of how are we gonna keep folks here? If you're 93, how long are you gonna be there?

It's real it's tough. We have forty three to 93. We have a few folks with traumatic brain injuries or a developmental issue they were born with. Two or three. But most most are folks with dementia. So we have a fifty year span of people, which is always fun. But how do we keep getting them? And we have been marketing like crazy. We've been in the paper. We've been in throwaways.

We're handing out flyers. We're handing out brochures, but it's just one walks in, two walk out. So what I'm seeing you guys today is to think maybe, you know, of other groups that you belong to because you guys are active. You know, you belong to lots of groups between groups. I'll come talk to them. Help me get this information out to other groups. Because if people don't know about us, they can't send people to us. And I don't know how after thirty some years, we're still the best kept secret in town, but we

are. So

I left my cards, a bunch of flyers. Hey, Tim. A bunch of our brochures. Please take them. Spread them far and wide if you think this program is important, and we'll get it done. And, eventually, we're gonna be full. And I I can't wait. You know? I want I want us to have a cure. I want us to be able to say we have a cure, and we're getting so close.

And I I just love that in nineteen o three, they started cutting open brains after people passed, and they could see blacks and tangles, tau proteins, and all this fun stuff. But the only way you could know if it was actually Alzheimer's was to cut over the bread. And then they started doing PET scans and eventually got to spinal taps. And both of those sound really fun. If you have dementia, you're gonna wanna do those.

And just very recently, they came out weeks ago with a blood test. A blood test. It's amazing. They can test your blood. And, of course, Medicare won't pay for it. So if you wanna help that, you can write to all your elected officials. It's on the Alzheimer's website, Alzheimer's Association. They haven't asked for folks to ask to get this funded. It's a it's a simple blood test. We all get them every year.

So I think, you know, it matters, and people deserve our help at this point in their lives. They built our community. We have doctors and lawyers and a superior court judge. And, you know, the gentleman who married me at my first wedding, which we don't talk about.

He thought he

was only 18. Didn't last long. But he was a great guy, and I was so honored to be able to take care of him at the end of his life. He marked with Martin Luther King. You know? So these are people that deserve this, and maybe they can't afford anything else. And a lot of them are it's starting to be they can't afford this. But, you know, we're doing everything we can to make it possible. And I just wanna tell you one quick story, and I'll one of my clients yesterday was just she doesn't talk anymore. Just one or two words, and she was a gymnast.

Little bitty thing. She's pushing herself up on that chair and, like, looks like she's gonna try and do a flip or something. This little tiny thing, and she's getting more anxious and more anxious, and I got

this out too because I just

thought it might fall under.

Oh, my. Yeah. Oh, that's one of those guys.

It's one of these fun little cats. This one has been loved a lot. Every time I bring it out, I wanna start thinking memory. That's just when it was flexing me, but it starts purring.

Oh, it's

Pretty soon. She was. She was able to sit in her chair without getting ready to do a back flip, and it it works. Then you just figure out what works. It might be this. It might be drying. It might be sudoku and dominoes. Oh, yeah. This poor kitty has been really loved. We gotta brush, and we try and brush her mouth. But Does anybody have any questions about the clubs?

That's good.

My only comment is that I've heard marvelous things. Marvelous things. Good. People who say, I don't wanna go there. Yeah. That's alright. And then

they come home saying, when can I go back? Yeah. It's wonderful. It's it's hard to leave your safe space.

Work a lot with volunteers. I know.

Like, do right there. We

have several volunteers, and then, oh my gosh, they are just golden. I mean, we didn't be able to do it without them. And the funny thing about the volunteers, they've been coming for a long time. One of them's been there for twenty seven years now, and nobody will let us honor them as senior of the year. What? They they don't want to be recognized. They're doing it because it's in their heart.

Oh my. But I try.

Don't I? So if you haven't been there, come by anytime. I would love to show you around, or just come by if you've been there. I'd the more the merrier. And and help us so we can get this information out further. You know, you throw the rock in the pond as the ripples go, and that's I need those ripples now more than ever. Mhmm.

And when you said you're not full, how many would you be able to accommodate? 32.

K. Yesterday, we had 23.

Do you

have an address? I do. 935 A Spring Street.

Also, the staff is really overloaded, but Beth and Jordan had a list of the trailer parks and churches and other places that they could zing out an an update or information that

I would love to get that list. I'm I I just heard of it, And I I would send things out weekly to get people to just know us.

So I'm I'm on that. Have a a complete list. And Wonderful. That would probably be able to

You know what? We don't need to reinvent the wheel if it's there. I've been work calling lots of churches. I've been calling lots of other organizations, and getting to the person that it knows the person that you need to talk to is

challenging. I can add some of your things to my packets that I take to the churches. Wonderful. Yes. So

I got a bunch on the table, and I can always get you more. Thank you. Alright.

So you have a I have a I have a question. One of the things that we're working on is funding. We're trying to help funding. And we know that your your program has taken some hits, and we wanna see what we can do to help prevent that. There's a a committee of us that are working on that.

Do you have any suggestions or thoughts or or ways we can, you know, just go out finding some help? Yeah. I I I like the scholarship programs Yes. Especially.

Yeah. And that has been wonderful.

So any any suggestions? What's the Scholarships and advertising is what we really So do you feel that if there are more participants, we would be able to generate some extra funding?

Well, I think the idea is it would be less of a drain off of the general fund that help me.

Yeah. Yeah. That's right. Yeah.

Those would not be for service. So the more participants, the more fees coming in, the less general fund dollars we use.

And so what I mean, I I already know, but I think a lot of us do, but tell us about the fees.

We are currently at $80 a day if you come one or two days a week. If you come three days a week, it goes down by 10%. I believe it's 72. Then it goes down another 2% if you come five days a week. And we have folks who come five days a week and some who come once and some that are three days and two days. That's generally, people are three or two days. But we have lots that are coming five days now.

And what's your competition? You know,

what what other sources are there in the in the general public? For a day program,

there aren't any except there's one that just opened in Eldorado Hills called Daycation. A lot more expensive. It's a private company, and it's a franchise. I haven't been in there personally, but I met the owner, and she seems lovely. I heard they have four people. So they might be having a challenge too. They are giving away a half a day free to let people try it out. But the one person that is now with us tried it out and came to us. So who knows?

So we can promote not just cost, which is not something that we wanna brag about, but also the care, the the staff, and what people are really getting for. The respite for the caretakers as well as the participants. And are they all dementia related?

Almost all. Almost all. We have a few who have Parkinson's, and that eventually generally leads to a I have a dementia. We have a few who have disabilities from birth and a couple traumatic brain injuries. Before I I did this work, I was assistant director at a home care agency, and I I enjoy the benefits of home care as well. I think they're the perfect match mix there. I know people have a real hard time getting a bath, giving them of that stuff that they really, really need. And, you know,

I have a husband who

is just not gonna do it. And so doing things very rich a lot of the time. Do have wipes. Try to help. But I think there's a perfect match. I'm the group socialization and the individual one on one time, I think it's a great

partnership. I forget, Nancy, is this a eight hour day? Yes. I mean, that's incredible.

08:30 before thirty. Isn't it? I mean, where

can you get the $10 an hour? Including lunch. Yeah. That's incredible. And we're doing

that for need cared for. Can't get your dog cared for. Right. Oh.

Two.

Can you do half days?

We're just a daily rate, and then some people only stay for half the day. Most we have ex school teachers who show up right at 08:30. Like, the the bell rang. Mhmm.

And

so they have to be there, and they're right till 04:30. It's just how they always work. So it's a fun, fun place. It's the only place I've ever worked where every day somebody's giving you a hug and saying, thank you so much. Thank you so much. And for so little. You know? You just smile, and they're they're happy.

I I just wanted to say that we've actually taken a a tour, and, you know,

I've I've kind of seen a

little bit about the club, but I haven't taken that level intense tour to see every single, you know, space there. And it really is an amazing place. Just the number of things that you have for them to do is amazing. That's something for everyone. And until somebody sees that and all they hear is, oh, senior day care, that's really two different things. So, I mean, maybe we can offer, like, a free day or something. You know? Like, your first day is free. See how it is. Plus the transportation component for people to know that you can catch the bus from wherever. That's huge. That is huge for people.

So Yes. We were really concerned when Eldorado Hills had to be consolidated with Placerville about that transportation. And Eldorado Transit worked really hard to just get set around, park and ride to the front door. Yeah. It's awesome. And so most of those folks came and except she passed away between finding out we were thinking and actually

Well, it's such a great service, and it's not just helpful for the people that are there, but it's for their families too. As someone who was a full time caregiver for years, just to have a safe place for the person that you love for for a certain amount of time, and that gives the caregiver even if they're not working, it's you know, just gives them time away. It gives them a break.

That's why. So so important. Well, thank you for having me. Oh,

thank you.

I was here I was

in front of this group ten years ago. Yeah. I see where I am again.

Well, too long is gonna come with us, but

we'll have to check back.

We'll see you

in ten years. Oh, not yet.

Yeah. No. No. Yeah.

Thank you. That will be the. Okay. Because we wanted our speaker to be able to go first, if if you need somebody financing, please feel free. Although we'd like to have you stay for our meeting. Okay. So back to the agenda, we need to do roll call. So let's start with Jetta and go around the room and just name and your position. Jetta Steadyford, special advocate. I think so you're next.

Oh, I'm sorry. I was involved in something else. Sorry. But what's the question?

Your name and who you are.

Oh, that's easy. I'm

Raymond Wyatt, and I am a member at large.

Raymond. I'm Raymond. I'm district one appointed supervisor. Pardon me? I'm the district one supervisor's appointed commissioner to the commissioner. And if you wanna know

more about I do, I know. Just. I

was the.

Jim Lawson, commissioner at large.

But, you know, rather than the community representative. Community

representative. Yeah. I'm a quite a few. I'm a community representative.

I'm Julie Aikenbauer, and I'm vice chair and member of Arch. Neil Willman community. I said community representative.

Linda Gormaldi, commissioner of District 2.

Know? You.

I'm Janet Kenaway. I'm a special advocate.

Lynette Engelhardt Stott. I work with HHSA.

Yasmin Hitchborn, admin analyst and support to the commission, and I'm with HHSA.

Simone James. I'm with HHSA.

Can I say something? We have books too. I'm sorry.

What? We have online books.

I know.

Oh. But

I'll do those.

Hold on just a minute. Now I wanna make clear online. It looks like John and Laureen are on a line. Is that correct?

Yeah. Laureen's on twice.

Are either of you at

Sorry. Could you repeat that?

John, where are you currently located?

I'm in South Lake Tahoe. I found out at 07:00 this morning that I had a problem getting down there, so I decided to zoom in. From where? South Lake Tahoe. Where? Where where physically are you right now? Oh, at my home.

Okay. And, Lorraine, are you on?

Yeah. Is being recorded. Yeah. I'm here.

Where are you located currently?

Currently, I'm in my office. I did show up at the location for Tahoe meeting this morning and discovered it was in Flacerville.

Well, the the office at the commissioner or the supervisor's office has a place that you can be. What's it called? There's a name for it.

3368 Lake Tahoe Boulevard?

No. There's a name for the room. Oh, here. It's In her office. And unless you are coming to us from her office, you're not counted as part of the quorum. So Oh, wow. I just want you to know if you're gonna if you're going to have to stay in Tahoe, we are trying to make it possible for you to be actually a part of the commission and be counted in the quorum if as long as you're at her office. So, yeah, in in the in the future, heads up. Please please come from there. If you

planning to attend from Tahoe, if somebody wants to let me know, I'm happy to help facilitate getting the room set up, and I can be in Tahoe with them.

And In all honesty, I need to get the code from Lisa. We had discussed this earlier.

And just said that she would be able to help you facilitate that.

I am here in the Zoom room.

Oh. Oh, hi, Lisa.

Hi. So I was I

was here this morning and got everything all set up for a 09:30 start. So anybody that wanted to come or needed to, we were here.

Okay. I thank you

for that, and I was across the street.

Oh, yeah.

Okay. This is interesting because I was trying to set up a meeting room at the senior center for for everyone to participate in. Can they do that?

But then

I Messina. They can come here.

So you will be hosting the meetings in Tahoe. Okay. That's good. I we're we have people who would like to join by Zoom.

Yes. We'll be here, and you know where to find us.

Uh-oh. I've hit this mute button again.

Okay. And I see, do we have a guest?

I think so.

Right here. I can't remember.

Ball. Vanessa Ball. Vanessa

Ball. Vanessa, are you there? It's weird. You're muted.

Am I muted?

Oh, yeah. Who is that? What is your name, please?

She's muted. No. You're not muted, Vanessa.

Okay. We do have one guest. Actually, we have two guests because the two of you are not officially here. Very close to Alright. We do have quorum. Our quorum is now at least seven because we are missing a commissioner from District 3. Three.

Three. Three.

One, Yeah. And so as soon as one is appointed, we'll be back up to fourteenth.

Alright. That little order of business is completed, and we now are going to turn to the chairpersons. Wayne, I wanna ask you. That's right. I'm sorry, Linda. While we're talking about commissioners, you know, Keith was a commissioner here from Todd Hill. His wife passed away, and I think we should send them a card from the commission. Just a general card. It was about a week ago. She was super sick. She had two surgeries, and she did not make it. Oh, no. We should. We really need to send a card from her.

I think that's a sure sign idea.

So Okay. Well, we'll Just We'll see to that. From us. Sure. Yeah. Thank you. Thank you for letting us know. Let's get into the chairperson's and commissioner's reports. I'll start, but I basically don't have a full report because I haven't been around very much. I want to firstly thank Julie. I had no doubts that the meeting would go well last last month. And any other time, I'm not gonna be around in particular. It will go well. Thank you, Julie. Of course.

Thank you.

She's a great leader. We appreciate it. I am I brought my new little friend, my little heart monitor pacemaker. And so if I skip over something, it's just like, I'll catch it up. That's as far as mine. How about, Rylene, do you have have you had any conversations, or do you have anything to report from district one? Well, I can give you some ideas. What do need

to talk about? One of them that I'm very excited about is I went to a CSD community meeting with and I met the county recorder. After the meeting, we discussed issues. One that is common to us as a CSL and to the recorders of every county is the issue of confidential marriages. Confidential marriages. Mhmm. And this is a huge issue amongst seniors.

Shouldn't do it too.

I can tell you what confidential marriage is like. Yes. Please do something. What happens is back in the sixties ish, the movie stars did not want to have their marriages published. So the law was passed that one person can show up, One person can stand there for the marriage.

One person is now married to the other person who may not know they've been married or and that is not public information. It's not recorded for the public. So many families just learn about this after the pay the person the other member of the marriage passes away, and there's nothing left. The house is gone. Money's gone.

Nothing's left. And it's a huge issue throughout the state. And so, anyway, this is something that we at the CSL that kind of submit proposals on and that haven't done very well. So I talked to the recorder, and she is going to be involved with she's involved with this other organization of all the three quarters of the county of all the counties, and she is going to represent them. We'll get CSL.

We're gonna work with her to maybe come up with something that somebody might like and consider as a proposal for them to carry. And so that was a a great meeting with her because I wasn't sure how the state felt about it since it's not gone anywhere, but the recorders would like to take care of it because it's very difficult. And sometimes even if the married person

is

evicted Right. You know, and the person who

is a married person, the other married person did it, has everything, and this person has nothing. So it's it's tragic. So, anyway, that was a great discussion. We're meeting on the June 6, the June 2, to to talk about this as the CSL. I sent the COA information about the scams, the 20 pages, to our CSL information to Greg and also to the CSL so that we could be working on that because we're forming this in the CSM, we're forming this caucus for scams.

And so and potential marriages will fall in under that as will any other scams. So I'm very interested in closing information about scams. I'm thankful get them. She's been giving me good informations. Okay.

I attended the board of supervisors meeting to present a neighborhood award to the code enforcement and Greg. I wanna have some of my other autism CSD master plan, and I'm involved in that with my focus being on. And I did send the senior year of the year nominations to both and to the senior center. I did it back in February, so didn't pay off very well. Yeah.

And then I also forwarded it up to Yasmin that I received from district one supervisor about the April 15 County Behavioral Health Commission meeting, and so sent that out. But, anyway, that's about it.

Hey. Thank you. You've been busy. Linda, history too. Have you had any conversations with your supervisor? Yeah. Sort of. Anything to share

with us? He's having his knee surgery soon.

And

he's still working on trying to get Sierra Pacific doesn't want another lumber company up here, and he's trying to get them so we can do lumbering again. So they're arguing because Sierra Pacific does not want anything done. He's been working with Washington DC about the burns up here and getting people reimbursed. The Caldor fire is just a pain in everybody's side, so we're still working on that. I I've been out.

I haven't been out too much because everything is blurry, but I ran out of brochures. Yasmin, if you have any more, I need it stacked again. The sheriff's office has them in their cars. The Placerville PD has them. And I've talked to three different people at Surgeon Rescue and STARS. We're trying to get them in. I'm trying to get them in there. And they're in small restaurants and but I ran out. Good job. Well, I haven't really done too much this last month because I'm blurry.

My eyes I had cataract surgery, and everything is still blurred. It's been five weeks.

So you're a blur. And you're

a blur. Man, this is a blur.

It's

all fuzzy. Yeah. It's very annoying.

Alright. Moving on. District 3, Roger did submit his resignation, and so I'm not sure of the status. It has gone on the board of supervisors site, the vacancy house. Is that correct? And so we haven't heard any more about it, you know, who will be appointed. Right now, we don't have a report from here. Marie, unofficially, what have you and your supervisor been talking about that you didn't share with us?

Oh, you forgot Liz.

Well, I'll go

You can you give me five minutes? I'm gonna be in the official office with Lisa.

Okay. I'll give you five minutes, and we'll come back to you.

And then I'll be official.

Okay. And then, Liz, I forgot. I didn't forget you. I just synced over you. Mhmm. I'm sorry. No. No. Sometimes I can. I

have been in touch with my supervisor and asked her to, in her monthly newsletter, include information on senior of the year. Her response was that the applications were due by the April 10, and that time has passed, essentially. I suggested to her that perhaps we could put it in this month's newsletter anyway and see if we could get some more action on it. In addition, I have some statistics from the senior center. The VITA tax preparation people were there on Mondays and Fridays, I believe, doing tax preparation at the senior center, and they have some summary numbers.

These were I don't remember how many were in that group. I think four or five preparers and a coordinator on each day. And according to the summary report from that activity at the senior center, they prepared 354 returns that includes, and each one is a set of two, the state and the federal. They got a 185 refunds for people totaling $265,017. The average refund was $1,400.

The state refunds, there were a 184 state refunds totaling $79,064. The average refund was $234. And they logged seven hundred and ninety one volunteer hours. Wow. So that was a well used space at our senior center and a very important service to our community. So that is pretty important. And they're done now.

Thank you. Thank you. Very nice. Gave us some good information. Alright. How about if we go to? Do you have anything to share with us?

Me?

Yeah. With the city any that has gone on with the city of South Lake Tahoe?

Not much of having the grand opening for the rec center on the eighteenth. I think it's around noon.

This month? Saturday's month.

Yeah. This this month. So that'd be this weekend, Saturday, I think. I don't know if I have the time on my book here. There we go.

Rec center. Yeah. I don't have the time of the opening ceremony, but that should be Ten Yeah. That sounds about right. And then to this evening at our potluck, we're having a presentation from Kevin Schrier of the South Lake Tahoe Police Department on seniors and fraud.

That's what I'm working on right now, actually, is setting that up. That's one reason I couldn't be there. So that that's about it for now. It it sounds like the nutrition center isn't gonna move into the new facility for several months yet. We have no feedback on what what they're planning.

That's about it. Okay, John. Thank you. Maureen, last but not least. Are you there? No. She's not. Is

that not her in the purple?

Lisa, is morning there?

I am here. Thank you.

Great. Good to hear you. Good to see you. Good. Part of our quorum. I mean Very good.

What a morning. Let me tell you. I apologize. My my book said Tahoe. Oh, thank you.

No problem. Good. Tahoe. Just ignore me.

And I showed up here. So, again, I I apologize. So, moving forward, Brooke and I have had lunch. We are still working on the community here. Give me a minute.

Been running. Outreach to get back information on needs and capacity and other situations that are going on in our District 5 here. So that is in the works. We've got several people working with us on that project. We are also in the midst of trying to find an electric company for our town because they're pulling out.

So there's a lot of stressfulness going on, and we're just trying to alleviate some of the issues for the for our seniors and our vets because, as you know, just like the rest of us, we're all struggling and trying to get through this mess. I have I'm glad you brought up the the, living wills and people's probates and things like that because I personally am working with several groups across The United States and within our county to help people set up their own living will so that they don't lose everything. We don't charge anything. If they wanna pay a fee just for our labor, that's fine. But I'm very busy and active helping people do their own wills and getting them set up and putting their assets in those.

So that's one way for me to pay back to our community and get our seniors settled. I'm doing them for my entire family as well, setting up all of theirs. I I've got a lot going on. And, again, I apologize for my disheveled schedule, but, it's not for lack of doing something. John, thank you for handling the senior center part because I just can't really take on any more of that issue.

I had lunch, breakfast lunch with Keith on Saturday. He's doing well, better than expected. We are also working on his family, will as well now that all this has been going on. He has expressed some concerns and issues that he's having with the new senior manager. So that is another roadblock, if you wanna say, on some of the things that we were doing because it's her way or no way.

What else can I tell you?

You're afraid to come in clear. What do you mean by senior manager?

Hold on. I can't get the volume. Am I getting I can barely hear you. Hold on. Can you hear me better?

City person. County person. I'm wondering if she needs seniors, Inc.

Yeah. What senior manager are you referring to?

It's not the senior manager. It's the city manager who has everything to do with what we're doing with senior projects and moving things forward.

Yeah. So

my, again, my apology for miss misspeaking on the senior. We're just having issues with new people that are getting involved that believe they know what's best, and they're not mhmm. They're not willing to negotiate or have a conversation outside what their beliefs are. So, again, it's just more roadblocks, and I'm and we're just trying to muddle through this mess. So Brooke and I are trying to be the liaisons for all of this, as best we can.

And, again, John, thank you for handling the senior thing because, it's it's just a lot at this point. We're trying to help people in different ways than, than people really realize. Do you guys have any questions? I have a question. Can we

how can we support you? How can I mean, you're you're part of the greater good here? And is is there what can we do to help you?

You know, let me even even what you guys were talking about, I think I'm gonna I'm supposed to present my article next month to Tita, and I think I will draft up something now that that now that the group is working on helping assist others with their future and their assets and their holdings. I think I'll draft my article on that. And then if we can just if we can get some sort of a type or order of people that need this assistance, I can have others work with them to get it done, and you're not paying an attorney 5 to $10,000 to do it for you because you're gonna learn how to do it yourself and set it up yourself and manage it yourself. So I think that would be a huge benefit, and we can all do that together. That that that would be beautiful.

I have a question too. I was wondering how you collaborate with senior legal on all these issues.

I haven't had any contact because I've been doing this for years. I've studied the trusts and stuff that we do, and I have been actually researching shit for ten oh, excuse my language, for nine to ten years on this stuff. So I'm pretty set in what I do, and I don't I don't involve legal because that's where we get into trouble, and there's bureaucratic BS that's involved, just to be straight and honest. And I'm tired of bureaucratic BS. I I would suggest that you

talk with briefly one of our senior attorneys because in our it's my personal experience and that of people I know, they are direct. They are without cost. And, in addition, like you, have had years of experience doing this kind of thing and perhaps a collaboration where you could take some of the workload from them. Yeah.

It would be perfect.

Or supplement what they're doing because they do appear in South Lake Tahoe on a monthly basis. Twice a month. Can

you can you guys provide me with their information?

It's easily accessible from any of the, senior brochures, but I'm sure, Jasmine will provide you a direct line or someone, to speak to because they are they also, in addition to what you do, they are an excellent asset.

Okay. Perfect. Anything that's an asset, I'm up for. Anything that's a deterrent, I don't wanna have nothing to do with.

I can give you a phone number.

Perfect. What is

it? (530) 621-6154.

Okay. And that's the senior legal? It is. Yes. Okay. Any particular person to speak to?

One of the attorneys, Michelle or Molina.

Say that again? We

have two attorneys, Michelle or Molina. Michelle. Ward, Molina. Blanking on her last name. Molina? Walker. Walker. Yeah. Sorry.

Okay. I think I met one at one of our meetings before quite a while. A younger gal. Molina. Okay. Perfect. You heard I had some words. So I can get beautiful.

Okay. Great. Anything else going on?

Other than just being exhausted? No.

Okay. Well, thank you.

And I'm glad to hear that you're doing well, sweetheart.

Thank you. Thank you. It's good to see you too. At this point, it is open the floor is open to public comment.

Any other commissioners have anything?

Oh, other commissioners have anything to report about what's going on other than what is on the agenda.

So oh, go ahead.

I'm sorry. I'm not a commissioner, but I have a question. How come we weren't invited to South Lake Tahoe's opening of their Knox Senior Center recreation, whatever they're calling it now?

Why weren't we invited?

It's Saturday. That's what she just reported.

We weren't invited. I don't

think they want us there. Yeah. You weren't invited since. Simple answer.

I do plan to give an update on the senior center when

we Okay. If if we can hold on, as long as

they refuse to put the word seen authoritatively, stop. We're not gonna be invited.

I think it was just a general invitation. I I I don't know of anyone that was personally invited or any groups that were personally invited. I only know there was an announcement made. Maybe. It's on there with.

If that helps. Or Yeah.

Met with them several times and, you know, had a lot of discussion. And I just think it's interesting that the commission wasn't invited to the grand opening of a scene.

Well, I'll I'll give an update. Yeah.

Okay. And I have just And Julie.

I just have a brief thing that so I Oh, sorry to forget. That's I'm just right here.

No. I'm just so that I

Well, remember, she know. I'm the odd man out. As I said earlier, I took which was fabulous. Thank you. And, also, I I belong to this group of retired United Airlines employees that my dad was a part of, and now my mom and I go to it every month and, you know, retired from around the county. And I did give them a little presentation on the club and told them how fabulous it is and handed out a couple of brochures. So that was great. And I also presented C. V. M. B. Thier opportunity to them. So a couple of them are very interested in that.

That's it.

Thank you. Outreach. Outreach. Outreach. Yeah. Okay. I think I saw the taken, but first, we I have a little little something from yeah. We have

You ready for me to read it?

Yes.

Yes. Yeah. That that is that Jim? No. Talking to Chad.

Something we have to read the thing first,

Jim.

I know. But I'm wondering, John, do you have your hand raised?

No. That's not a yes.

Not a child. Okay.

No. I don't. Okay.

Thank you.

Thank you, John.

Okay. Now taking public comments on the chairperson and commissioner reports. Individuals will have three minutes to address the commission. Public 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 be sure you unmute yourself when called upon. Okay.

You've got your hand raised.

Please voluntarily state your name for the record.

Oops. Please unmute, and you're on.

That's alright.

That's alright.

Hi there. Can you hear

me now? Oh, we're good.

Hi. Good morning. My name is Vanessa Ball, and I just wanted to, for some reason, I was kicked off when I tried to unmute myself, but I just wanted to introduce myself. And thank you for, inviting me to this group to attend. My name is Vanessa Ball.

I am the business development manager with Nurse Next Door. We offer home care services and home health as well. So like Karen, as she was speaking, I'm extremely passionate or I'm sorry, Nancy. I'm extremely passionate about senior care and supporting all of us having an happier aging process. So whatever I can do to be a resource in the community, we serve El Dorado Hills, Folsom, Placerville, Greater Sacramento area, Yolo, and Stockton as well. So whatever I can do to support and help, I'm happy to, however I can.

Thank you. And, yeah, thank you for attending with us. We appreciate. Anybody any member of the public would like to be Thank you. Yeah. Okay. Let's see. Is it your turn? Yes. Okay. This is the area agency, the AAA directors. You're the You're the mayor.

I yes. So I'll be providing the AAA report. I have a number of program updates, which I'll start with and then some personnel updates as well. I just want to commend our senior nutrition program team. I feel like I commend them a lot because they're just really a remarkable group of people.

On Monday, we had snow in Tahoe, and, apparently, people took their snow tires off already, and and some of the roads weren't plowed. The mountain route, we needed to cancel, and then we needed to cancel a second route too because our volunteer drivers weren't comfortable, and we had staff covering other routes already. But, you know, early in the morning, they're they're aware of this. They're monitoring highway cameras, looking at the snow. They called all the participants or clients on the route and ensured that they had emergency meals in place and that they were okay.

They could go without their meal for the day. And so it's just kind of a remarkable team that responds to whatever life throws them, and life throws them things on a pretty regular basis. So they did a great job managing that. And then, at our congregate site, two days ago, our volunteer and staff showed up to find the parking lot, and Cameron Park was completely full. No possible parking spot available for our senior nutrition clients, and so they were able to scramble.

There was an event that, we didn't know about, and so they were able to scramble, contact all of our clients there. We have, I think, 16 to 17 a day who participate on average in that meal site and let them know that they would be offering a drive up meal if they weren't able to find parking. And so we're able to take care of that and figured out what the best place to stage was and where they could be seen. And so just kind of always making certain that folks have their meal and that whatever the obstacle is in place, they're responding. So just really appreciate all that they do.

Our ombudsman program is very happy that they have a new volunteer who is just about two weeks shy of having her state certification, so she'll be up and running soon. She's just wrapping up her I think they call it shadowing, so she's been out with. And then another three volunteers who are ready to start the virtual training, and they Debbie thinks that they can start in May. So working to get more volunteer ombudsman in our ombudsman program. That's a very hard word for me

to say. I probably butcher it every single time.

We did receive our fiscal year twenty six twenty seven area plan entitled by funding allocations from the California Department of Aging. We received those early this month. They're due back. Our budget has to be submitted to the state by I think it's May 2. Although that falls on the weekend. So I know that means Friday and Monday, but we'll we'll get it in nonetheless. Our fiscal colleagues are just they've got that they're working on it. They're just doing some final reviews on it. We'll have it to program staff to take a look at. We don't have any major concerns right now about the funding allocations.

There was a decrease in the supportive services allocation, and that was an adjustment the state made because, apparently, in '25, it had been over allocated. This is kind of, you know, the first round, so we don't have major concerns. I think that was about 20,000. So we'll kind of take a look at that and keep monitoring that. But in general, we don't have concerns about the allocations.

We continue to need volunteer drivers for our home delivered meals. Andrea is looking for more volunteer drivers for both our South Lake Tahoe and Placerville routes. So as you're out and about talking with folks, if you have any people that would love to help deliver some meals and and bring good cheer to our homebound folks, we would appreciate hearing from them. Cars are no. Was gonna say cars are provided, but they're not.

Yeah. I was thinking I was thinking our shuttle, so don't quote me on that one. But, anyway, we are looking for volunteer drivers. Personnel, we as kinda seems to be a theme here, we we often have personnel openings, but this is a super positive report. We have filled a lot of spots. So, Eric Louie, who might be a familiar name to you. He was once an office assistant in senior nutrition, has returned to us as a program assistant. He is splitting his time between senior activities and not senior activities. He's splitting his time between supportive services and our energy assistance program, so about half time in both programs. We have a new office assistant at the front desk who is splitting his time between senior activities, CSBG, and LIHEAP.

And his name is Alex Corrigan, and he just began the beginning of this month. And he previously worked at the senior center in Davis, so he's got senior center experience. It's very nice to have that position filled. Staff were filling in for so other staff could have breaks and go to lunch, and it was just really Yvette and Amy, our managers, are really juggling that. And I tried to help, and then someone asked me for

a bus pass, and I

had no clue what to do. So we are happy to have someone in that spot and trained for that position. I Yvette may have mentioned this last month, but Anika Van Dam has transitioned. She was our limited term program assistant working on our fall prevention program that ended. She's now transitioned into a full time regular program assistant in our senior nutrition program. So working with Andrea. So we're really, really happy to to have her stay with us and helping with that. We have a new program coordinator, the new Jordan, if you will, is starting on Monday the twentieth. So Right. Monday.

She'll start with her new program orientation here probably in this room and then be at the senior center on Tuesday. So we're really delighted about that and and looking forward to having her on board.

And you should. What her background?

She has community action agency experience and a fair amount of experience in social service nonprofits. And you can't give us her name? Her name is Denise Ramos, I think. Denise Ramos. Remembering it correct. Yeah. And she starts on Monday. And wish me luck because Yvette will still be out, and so I will be Denise's first day of onboarding on Tuesday. HR will get her set up on Monday, and then I'll spend some time with her

on Tuesday getting her set up and introducing her to folks. Mhmm. And Beth is maintaining her position. Yes. Yep. Yep. Alright. And

then

we have two. We're we're trying so hard to build South Lake Tahoe senior nutrition program, and we're making progress. We have two staff there and or two people in background. Hope to soon have them on board, the meal site coordinator and a food service aide. And on Friday, Timeline and I are interviewing for the limited term program coordinator position in South Lake Tahoe. As you know, that's just been a that's been really hard to to find candidates for. So we will interview on Friday, and we'll we'll let you know. We're closing I'll speed up here. We're closing a couple grants. Our 2025 CSBG funding, we have some funding available to senior day care.

And then also friends have seen so CSBG is wrapping up at the end of this month, the April. So we're finishing up there, making certain everything is spent, everything is neat and tidy there. And then we're also wrapping up our friends of seniors grants. We had two, one for transportation, one for senior day. That's that ends the June, but we're I think in transportation, we we've spent that out now and kinda wrapping up final spending there.

Timlin will talk more about multi generational center. We are we've mentioned the opening date. Senior doesn't have a move in date at this point, and then we'll keep you posted on that as well. And then finally, as the new AAA director, trying to figure out what that means and how I can best be supportive, I had a really nice opportunity this week, maybe the very end of last week, as a triple a director in California and as a member of the California Association of Area Agencies on Aging, c four a. I am the AAA directors are board members, and c four a has just started peer groups, which is really lovely.

And so I had my first meeting. They call them triads, but there were four of us. So what is that? Quadrat? I don't know. There's something in A quadratic. I don't know. But it was very, very nice. So they they're pairing AAA directors across the state together for kind of some informal meetings and conversation, get to know you, and then kind of just see what your strengths and weaknesses are in your triple a's and really just trying to help us do some peer to peer problem solving, sharing of resources, and that's been just wonderful. I got paired with a nice group of folks, some urban, some rural, some who wear different hats like I do.

Two of them also work on veteran services, so there might be a little side benefit there as well and then one who is strictly in senior services as the triple a director. So a really nice opportunity and I think a very helpful thing for c four a to do for the network. And with that, I will stop.

The fall prevention program has ended?

Yes.

What does that mean?

Well, our funding. Our funding end.

Well, they they always brought us money here. Is it, like, for the year, or is it they're not gonna get any more funding from the state? Or

No. So I don't think we're anticipating any additional funding there. We did we did we were working with I mean, it was we applied for a grant with UC Davis Marshall Hospital, to HHS a, but, that was, I think, over a year ago now. So for the time being, we do not have fall prevention funds.

Do you have any people on a list, or how did it end? I mean, did it because I know when you run out of money, you just kinda make a list, and then you would get money again, and this went on for a few times. But what you're saying is that's not happening. K?

We don't, yeah, we don't have anything right now. Yep. So Yeah. Yep. And I don't I'm sorry. I don't know about the list. I don't have an answer for you on that, but

I I'm just curious because Yeah.

It's a good question. I just

Might not have problem when they don't qualify. I have referred people, and you guys didn't put them on a list. But

Yeah. At least

I had somewhere to have them call, it'd be a little better. But now that it's gone.

Yeah. And my understanding in I have the name right here. Safe D of Eldorado County. That's Oh, that's you.

You're referring them to me.

Oh, that's okay. Oh, you

our new senior time. So

I I have been doing it seven years, and I wonder but I know as of this week, we hit over 700 clients. We're at 703 this week.

I Great.

When they were quite low income or they needed a ramp or something, I would refer them to your program. Not very often, but it was it was something. So I kinda kept track of it. But and I I would hear that, okay. There's no more money, so we're waiting for money, and they put people on a list, which doesn't help anybody at all.

Yep. Yep. Well, I'm glad of your safety. Yep. And I knew you did this. I didn't realize your safety. And then I will find out about a list and about funding, and I'll reach out to you directly. And then next month, I can provide more information for

you guys. I'll just stop referring people. That was my main concern is can I refer anybody, but it doesn't sound like there's any more money?

Not right now. No.

That was an issue I had when you guys first started. They wanted me to be part of that, and I didn't want to because of the funding issue. Yeah. So that I appreciate it.

Yep. Yep. Questions? Yeah. What, supportive services, what exact what what falls under that?

So those are the three b programs, information assistance, transportation, senior legal, in home supportive services, I think would be the main ones.

Okay. Need to find somebody for them. Anything okay. At this point, we do open it. I have that on my notes. To public comment. Oh, okay.

I'm now taking public comment on the Aireon aging director's report. Individuals will have three minutes to address the commission. Public comment will be taken first for those participating in the meeting room and then for those participating through Zoom. For those participating by Zoom, please unmute yourself when called upon. If you want to make a comment, please raise your hand. Please voluntarily state your name for the rest.

No. Seeing no no hands raised, now let's move on to HHS. And that is that which one of you?

Two. Two? I'll start I'll start with senior center multigenerational center in Tahoe. So, yes, multigenerational center is having their soft opening on the eighteenth, which is Saturday. I think they said 10:00. I don't know the details. I just know that's the date. They intend on opening their doors on Monday, the twentieth. We program staff were working pretty closely with city parks and rec to identify the logistics of senior nutrition moving over. There there were a few hiccups.

So You identified the acreage. What we've done is the 56 acre agreement speaks to what would be allotted for senior active senior services and senior nutrition. It also speaks to an annual meeting. So I've worked with our county facilities and CAO's office. We've decided we're gonna let them go ahead and open, and then we're gonna be requesting a meeting with them so that we can iron out some logistics and get get something a little more detailed in writing it the a facility use agreement type of thing.

I have let CAO's office know that seeing that Commission on Aging was a part of the original talking talks was involved. I wasn't involved. Most of the people that are at the county facilities and CAO's office that were involved are no longer there. So I've gone back through all the historical records that I can find. I've definitely found some emails from some of you in this room.

So I'm just right now, what I'm doing is putting together a timeline, putting together where I can show what was discussed when the original 56 acre agreement was prepared and kinda getting our ducks in a row and then moving forward with a request to meet with the city. I am requesting that commissioner on aging be included in that meeting. So I don't have a lot of information, but that is where we're at. And we've decided to pause with transitioning over until we can get a little more clarity and get some more definitive answers.

Less smooth than I thought it would. I thought it might be better, but I'm sorry. We there there's a and let us know if there's anything I was involved in the beginning. We actually had an ad hoc committee, so I've got some of the stuff, maybe history, what was said. Yep. A lot of stuff like that. Let me know, and I will Yeah. That I'll I'll put I'll start sending you stuff that I

If wanna send it to me, I I did find a pretty robust file that's got some really good documentation in it. So I but, yeah, I'll I'm I'll take anything that you wanna send to me that pertains to original discussions and what was agreed upon or what was

what What was it? Yeah.

When I was chair of this commission, we were involved at the level of floor planning. I know. I have emailed. Essentially that. And then the purchase agreement and the exchange agreement, we had input into at the board of supervisors. Mhmm. That's how we got the 9,000 square feet.

Mhmm.

That was supposed to have been ours.

I have found some correspondence about that.

There's probably a lot. We In the beginning.

I can't speak for the whole commission, but my my own feelings are that the intent of that was ignored by the city in their planning. I found some correspondence about that also. Legal compliance with those directives from the board of supervisors were ignored by the city. So letting the barn doors be closed after the horse is out and they've already opened the place doesn't surprise me. But somewhere, someday, perhaps we can hold them to the agreement in some fashion.

It it would be a shame to have all that work go for naught.

And that is part of why I'm putting together the packet that I'm putting together. So I wanna I don't I don't wanna overly share at this point because we have not engaged the city, and so I wanna be careful. But we are I wanna I wanna make sure that our ducks are all in a row and that we understand what took place in the original development of the 56 acres and what the intent was behind the square footage that's listed in the 56 acres and things like that so that we can clearly articulate and show documentation to support what the original agreement was, and then engage the city and see where we go from there. We do intend to engage county council, and I am I am very aware that we have supervisors that are very invested in this, and and that is also being brought to the forefront that this is this is not something that we can just agree to if it's not in line with what the original intent was. So I'll leave it at that, but I will continue to provide updates to you guys.

And it's it's not being overlooked, I guess, is the best I could say at this point in time, even though it might feel like it.

And I'm sure Jim's got adequate documentation to support whatever you have.

Yeah. And I I have documentation from Jim, from you, Elizabeth. But but, yeah, I will take anything that you wanna forward

to me. I'll send whatever I have and redone it. We can just get rid of it.

Okay. I

may have something you don't have.

Exactly. Yep. That sounds good to me.

Well, I'm wondering if

Hey, Melin, do you have a time frame for your packet?

Well, I'd like to get it to CAO next week.

But, I mean, I can add if you wanna meet, Lorraine, we can meet. I can add next week is tight for

me, but we could meet after that. And, I mean, I I just wanted to have my preliminary packet, but, I mean, we can always add if needed.

Okay. Perfect. Yeah. Let we should meet again just to catch up on where we're all at on all this. Okay. Great. Because, yeah, I've been working with Keith and Jenkins behind the scenes to try to help accommodate that smooth transition with all this as well.

It's like one. Okay. Yeah.

One of the things that okay. Ray, you know, one of the

things that the commission has discussed in the past, and I think that the consensus is is agreeable to this, is the word senior center should be involved somewhere on that building. Really? And it's completely missing as far as I know. Yeah. So it's hard for the seniors to understand that this is their senior center. Yep. So I I I think that just the just the placement of that word in the name of the building is an important issue.

Okay. Thank you, Mary. Thank I

just wanna say that, I think the fact that you can speak with one voice with your accumulated knowledge is going to be important rather than having Jim and I and somebody else all going behind the scenes backdoor and trying to do these things. It doesn't work. Right. You need to

be the voice, and we we will support. Thank you. And I and I am saying Mission wants to be involved. So

You're a good voice too, and we appreciate you.

Thank you. I'm giving him my best shot, guys. I promise. At

this point, unless there are any other comments, we do need to open for public comment.

So I guess John would be Well, John? Comment.

Yes.

Can you hear me?

Yes. We can hear you.

One thing. You know, the the seniors in our city were not included in most of these discussions about the new rec center, and most of them do not want to move into the new rec center. That's why we were fighting to keep our current facility. So I hope we're not working at cross purposes here. Frankly, I think if if the seniors are moved into the rec center, you will totally destroy any senior activity in South Lake Tahoe.

Yeah. And and we should probably get together too to make sure that we are rowing in the same direction. What basically, because we have not met with the city aside from at a program level to work through logistics of what it would have looked like to move senior nutrition over. Through those meetings, we had some things come up that we that made us want to pause. And so then I said, you know what, you guys?

Let's pause. This is actually bigger than senior nutrition, so let's go back. The because the agreements originally between the city and the county were handled at the I don't know who in the city, but they were handled through CAO's office at the county level. So it's really not appropriate for me to be trying to resolve this when I'm not in the CAO's office. And then so it needs to be raised to that higher level. And so that's when I said, let's pause. Let's get our ducks in a row, get

all

historical information. I know there's been there's some memos. There's some different things. There were some city council members or city council meetings. There were some board meetings. Let's get all of that together. Let's make sure that we know what we're walking into this meeting, what our objective is during this meeting. And and that's where we're at right now. It's just gathering, getting it to CAOs, consulting with county council, and making sure that we're all on the same page. I want to be at the table. Commission wants to be at the table. CAO needs to be at the table. County council needs to be at the table. So it's it's gonna take some talks.

Yes. In answer to what John was saying, from the very beginning, we fought to make sure that the existing senior center would not be closed until such time that everything that was agreed on was given to us. So there's no hurry to close the existing senior center job.

We're leaving

the senior existing senior. Yeah. They yeah. No. No. We're not talking about closing in. No. We're just status quo until we get this figured out. Yeah.

Great.

Okay. Do we have any public comments? Julie, you were through with your report?

Yeah. I don't know. Elena, did you have anything else that you like to add? Okay.

Thank you,

sir. Finished. Thank you.

At this time, I believe we're open for public comments. I'm now taking public comment on the Health and Human Services Agency management report. Individuals will have three minutes to address the commission. Public comment will be taken first from those participating in the meeting room and then those participating in Zoom. Please unmute yourself when called upon. If you are on Zoom, please raise your hand to indicate a desire to comment. Please voluntarily state your name for the record.

Seeing no hands raised and nobody you're you're the only one in the room. You got anything?

And I have nothing left to say. Thank

you. Seeing no hands raised, it's time to break. 11:12. Let's give us about ten minutes, and we'll come back. 1122.

Okay. I'm back.

Alright. It's back. We have a couple of people who have to leave around noon, so let's yep, do as much as we can. With committee reports, I'll be very quick. I'll be very quick. The executive committee has stopped me at the annual report. Policy and

legislation for your being? Well, I can see about legislation. It has been busy time in a way and that all of our proposals are being processed through the legislature. Now we have, if you remember, four bill proposals and one budget ask. And so one of ours is coming up for a hearing.

One of our proposals is coming up for a hearing on the twenty first. I'll be testifying for that particular bill, hopefully, with the past. I'll be there with the legislators and presenting of you going on that. And that's the automatic external facilities that are required for senior centers because they don't have them. And well, it's. Nationwide, frankly. And so then we have supported about seven other bills.

About 707 bills that Seven bills.

To us for support. So we're supporting them by sending support letters, and I've sent us some of those as well to see if we were interested. So that's about where we are. And I'm also have asked Jasmine to send out she probably doesn't know if I sent

it today.

The request to send out the April 10

summary of our bill. Great. Let's see what we're doing. You do so much behind the scenes that we go in. Thank you so much. Welcome. There's retreat strategic planning we missed that here. Does anybody have anything to address for that committee? We're running generating.

Just a quick report that Janet Joan and I met, and we started discussions just kind of tossing around ideas about how we can generate some income for our community. We really haven't got, you know, anything to report other than we're kind of in process. We're looking for ideas right now and meeting with our community members to see what is possible.

Okay. You're moving along. No. No. I'm moving along. By last, we do we have many per se?

Yes. It was you and Roger and Elizabeth, was it you? Was it Ray? Might have been Ray.

I I don't recall. No. I I couldn't have been. I don't know.

I was talking about wanting to be on that chemotherapy.

Yeah. And and you I'm not sure what was

finalized. And we need to we need to meet with that, and nothing has been scheduled so far. So we will work on we'll work on doing that. Okay. I'm available for you. I do to do even though I'm resigning until what available. You're resigning? You're resigning?

Yeah. I am resigning for

the commission. You didn't? Well, I'm sorry. It wasn't official. I didn't get I did. I told Jasmine, Jen, I'm

gonna send her an email. Yeah. That's why all the donuts says fine. What

are we going to do without you?

Well, I'll I'll be available. I just

don't want be I just don't wanna have the obligation to sometimes do things that I don't have time for or that I can't stand and can't get. So I'm don't don't hesitate to contact me if I have a question. So

That makes Jim and I see

me. Yeah.

I I I could be a special advocate if you want.

We'll work on that one.

But, you know, the membership committee will work on it.

I've been

on the commission for about twelve years, I think.

So You hired me. Yeah. Ray, we will not say goodbye until we hear officially. We won't issue it. Appreciate that. Seniors are here, many. And there's an issue an issue on a new business that we're gonna talk about as soon as we get there. So is there anything other than appointee?

Yes. There is, actually. Talk to us. So, Yasmin, do you have any additional, registrations? No. Like, I think

maybe three three to five. Beth did send out

a

email last yesterday, so, hopefully, some more interest will be generated. So did did the timeline get extended then? We'll take them off still up until the end of the month.

And do we get somebody you know, can you guys get to work up in South Lake Tahoe for senior of the year? You're you're part of the county, and we'd love to have I I know there are a bunch of people up there that are not only working with the commission, but for senior different senior activities. So maybe put your thinking caps on and and see if, you know, let's let's get some nominations from up there. Okay. I see that. Having been on

the on the commission the the committees for picking senior of the year and viewing various documents that we get. It's very important the way you write. The person who make them down in Asia, the way you write. You wanna you wanna put as much in there as you can because some of them are very, very scared. Just, you know, he's a good person or something like that. He needs some needs some

good examples of the health community.

So and that's very important to get us to get a selection. Yeah.

Janet. John? Janet, can't start.

Go ahead. John first, please.

Oh, yeah. I had someone working on that, but I don't think they were receiving the information they needed to publicize it. So I can get some information. I will definitely get people working on on the senior of the year project.

Oh, perhaps Yasmin could resend all the flyers for you.

As soon as possible, John.

That would be great. Fine.

Thank you for your efforts.

Jared?

I just wanna come in staff, and I don't know who that was for the awesome article on the front page of the senior times about the senior of the year. It it got reworded nicely, so it because it always felt like it was gonna kinda had to be a El Dorado County volunteer, and it's not. It's a volunteer that's of a certain age that volunteers anywhere at any agency, entity, whatever. So that beautiful article on the cover of senior side. Yeah. Really, it was wonderful. That was well done.

Any more comments on senior leaders? Did we see any publicist publicity among democrat or anything like that?

I haven't seen any.

I haven't seen any. Right. And it's kinda hard because Rebecca this is Rebecca's project. You know? She went on maternity leave. Sure. So we're kind

of scrambling to the ground. It's time consuming to get it through county to get it in there. But so we're gonna hit it again. The the expiration date was the April 10 with for applications, but we're ignoring that until the end of this month. It's not until the May 19. Please, everyone, get that on your calendar. Because if we don't have a lot of nominees, I want a lot of lot of commissioners there at least to show our support for our whomever is nominated. So get that on your calendars, please. We are first agenda in the morning on the board of supervisors at 09:00. Usually, we're followed by a whole bunch of schoolchildren.

Okay. Hang on. If we're

not done, last year, there was three of us, I think, that looked at the names.

Uh-huh. Yes. That was the

new And

that's coming. We're Okay. I thought you were done. I thought you were moving on.

I am moving on, but that's Oh, later. Okay. Any public comments on the committee reports? Well, we don't have we

no longer have a member of the public. Okay. John's the only one on Zoom besides Lorraine in the Zoom room.

Okay. Commissioner commissioner commissioners, anybody involved with Outreach? What have what have you done? I mean, we've already heard from John.

Or did you have more? Yes. I'd like to thank John and Laureen because John gave us a list of things between here and Stop Lake Donald, and we have things at the Strawberry grocery store. Oh. And Maureen, I had given packets to because she said some of the churches in South Lake Tahoe had closed.

So when I last checked with her, she's given those packets out to the churches in South Lake Tahoe. So, hopefully, some of them are using that. And the other thing is I gave you all my proposal, which I said I would give you at the end of last meeting. It the it's definitely out of date, but it's a very important thing. So I would appreciate it if you would look at my proposal and put it on the agenda yay or nay for the next meeting and not take the time now.

Jenna, do you have a list of the different places that you've given out your kit already so that we could look

at it? Rainy has it. Jordan, you have it. Beth has it. It's a it's attached to my Okay.

If you have my report, I sent out for the summary of the year Okay. You'll find it says '18 Okay.

Okay. I never do anything without running it past either Jordan or Beth or Raylene so that they know exactly where I'm going and how I'm doing it. And, yes, but once in

a while, who knows what I'm up to. Yeah. So that list is and and if you don't still have that. I would love some

kids to help out with that.

And so if you haven't gotten the summary, you still don't have the summary, I'll send it to you again. Okay. Thank you.

Yeah. I was referring to you to me. Jenna was referring I like putting y's in front of everybody's names. I don't know. But you've lost your spouse. This is what she's referring to. So take a look at it.

And then parents of John, referring to the proposal I made that would say that the commission gets the permission for the Oh, last meeting. That's it. Yeah. The last meeting, I said Okay. Oh, the scams one. Yeah. Because I was informed by a couple of the members, and rightfully should have been. It was absolutely obsolete. And when I called AARP, they couldn't even find it in their archives.

The archives said, you guys with us today.

And they gave me good information on updates. So but I can't do anything without your approval. So if you put it on next thanks.

The newest information you've had is probably out of date already.

I Just a comment. I can remember hearing from Jordan and Beth after Jordan left, Beth was shouldering all the responsibility that if we needed more packets that you have that one of us or a team of us should go in and help assemble those packets because she was overwhelmed. Right. And so if we can you know, if if somebody needs those, let us know. We'll come in. We'll we'll do the work of assembling those for you.

Yeah. Beth told me I also could or run through my printer a lot of the things that were there, and I can go pick up senior times and all. Oh, okay. She told me that I could even make my own packets based on what she had already given me. Okay. Mhmm.

I'm sorry.

Shoot. For Outreach, how are we doing on the senior services brochures?

Raven and I were just talking about those at the break. We're close. I need Yvette to come back and check on it with her. So but we're close.

Yeah. Okay. She's at the Yeah. Fundraising event today in Tahoe.

Is that where she's at? No. She's in Paris.

I hope that we had somebody Yeah. Go up there. It not to be It's not. It looked like a good program. Yeah. About fundraising. Anything else, outreach and events? I mean, about education, did you know anything about educational financial issues?

I attended the seminars. I think that you've been showing also that you had passed passed out the Zoom seminar on retirement and financial matters. Unfortunately, it was about, you know, that deep, you know, and then why. And so I didn't find it very useful at all for anyone because it it it wasn't the type of presentation that I would promote for this group carry forward or not. It just was not helpful.

It needed to be more detailed. And and the audience that it was really designed for were I mean, the useful audience too. When I say useful, I'm talking about 30 years old in a bud. I guess that's where, you know, my age is now when I look, you know, who's useful is 30 year old folks. And so it offered, you know, suggestions and opportunities for individuals who are, if you will, still in the workforce or could participate in the workforce, which we have a number of seniors who do and and still can.

But, anyway, I I just I think we need something broader. For those of you that remember a couple years ago when we took some initiatives to gather data and and look at things, AARP was not useful at all when we tried to get out from them, you know, the skeleton of a presentation that we could use. They weren't useful. So if we were to do something ourselves, I think we we would have to build our own presentation, which work with staff on and incorporate, you know, the audience that we would really like to get involved in planning for their senior years. This would be, again, normally where we outreach to 40 year old folks, but we would really want them to start thinking about that.

Certainly, options all the way up to the, you know, 70, 80 year old folks who are so I've given some thought to it, but I haven't put anything down. But it would have to be quite a a bridge and and offer, you know, sources to go to, not only our staff, but outside sources also that can be trusted, such as AARP in general, about the information available to them. Just on the and this is a new subject, but, again, follow-up with what Liz talked about and the tax preparation services. I participated two sites in doing that. I didn't I don't have the sort of detail that Liz presented, but I think our sites are probably comparable.

You know, one site public finds, we have seven tax preparers tax preparation one day a day a week. And at Garden Valley, we got five five tax preparers, and their schedules are full every week. But interesting enough, I had yeah. They've given me a package of the senior services, and I did talk when there was opportunity about preparing taxes about services available at the county that could be, you know, accessed. But the coordinator for those two sites was not familiar with the services that are available.

And her both of her parents are in need of assistance now. One's an assisted living facility, and the other one needs a lot of attention at home. And so I gave it to her and also a copy of the senior times, which she wasn't aware of, and showed her, you know, the back page, here's where you submit your subscription for the senior times. And so, hopefully, we will have we're participating and more knowledgeable as we're, you know, again, going forward over the next year. So

That that's a really good outreach opportunity because they come in for one thing, but to be able to expose everything that we have to offer is fantastic. You know, considering the number of people that were that we processed, and that's just in in the senior center. Right? Yeah. We made sure

they had whatever brochures were left over as long as we could. We put them on the table where they signed in and made the things. I don't know how long that lasted because we had a limited supply. But Yeah.

There are there are several other sites that where this tech service preparation is provided, and Cameron Park being one, Eldorado Hills being another. And so there are several of those inside. Gold Country. And Gold Country. And there's also it it sounds like Tahoe, which is a little different because they have many they have people coming across from Nevada also. And so it's a little different. It's a more of a challenge certainly in in the in the tax part there in in in South Lake. But there's opportunities there also at these tax preparation sites.

Yeah. I agree.

No. I I think that's great that that because people don't know what they don't know. So we get them in for one thing, and then you could say, here's some other services, give them brochures and whatnot. So that's hard to to do that.

With any of our activities, because I know I

do it with ICAP all the time.

Yeah. In Placerville, the they were doing the texts right across from my office, so I got to see it on a regular basis. And we there was a table outside with senior times on it with brochures and all sorts of information, and as people were waiting, I saw them picking it up and reading it. It's just a great opportunity. And I had several people ask me if I could do their taxes. I said Okay.

General, the housing.

Everybody got one of these, passed these out earlier. Real quick. The county has a website called eTracken, and you can look up items by permit number, parts number. That's a little cumbersome. We found this. It's called engageeldorado.us. If you just did that, for you up in Tahoe that didn't get one of these, it's engageeldorado, one word, .us, and it pulls up a program that has a map. What I've shown you is a map that's close to me to show this will show you everything in your area. You wanna see where the gas stations are gonna go. You wanna see where there's an RV park on Eldorado gonna go.

It's on this map. And each thing that what you see right here to the affordable housing, it's a blue logo. So just to show you up in the right hand corner, you'll see a brown spot of dirt. That is almost built. So it's not on this map. These are items that are in the process, I believe. It's a great easy tool for us to use because you open this map, and you can basically look around the county, and these things pop up. And they'll show you what parcel they're on. You can get information for it. I found it a really useful tool.

And like I said, it it has all projects, not just affordable housing. So if you're curious is are they really gonna put a gas station at the corner of Forney and Missouri Flat? Yeah. They are. It's gonna be an. It's all in here. But I I find it really easy. I think we can all manipulate this one here a lot easier if you track it. So that's why you got that. Thank you.

Great. So That's a good tool. Anything else going on, Hal, that that we want to know that?

Oh, we are just the hardest working ad hoc committee on the commission. We met again. We meet on the first. You're sorry? Second. People. What did I say? Ad hoc committee? Oh, yeah. They're we meet on the second Monday, which we did. There was a number of people who weren't there, but we had the meeting anyway. But you guys missed good stuff.

I was otherwise occupied.

Yeah. There were a couple of people. So, yeah, Tina was in Argentina, and Ralee was involved. So but we had a meeting anyway. And so we have fruitful discussions no matter how many people. We don't need it for them, because we don't vote on anything. So sounds good. Yeah. Yeah. Nothing else big. That was about the biggest thing this month for you guys.

Perfect. Perfect. Perfect. I have all my papers askew. Southlake Tahoe, anything we haven't discussed in Southlake?

I I think we covered it pretty thoroughly for now.

Alright.

I just confirmed, with Keith and the city council, I'll be attending the, opening on Saturday.

Okay.

And I invited Brooke, but she'll probably already be there as well.

If anybody's going up, I'd like to hop in. Right. I'm not allowed to drive right now. Okay. Good. We're we're on to some action items that we need to get while we still have the full commission and senior of the year committee. And who all is interested or who had in the past?

In the the committee to select senior veer, it's usually two to three commissioners and then myself just representing of the the ad hoc committee. The job is to read and review all the applicants and make a choice. The choice is then kept confidential until the secret unopening on the day, except for the people at Bartleinsburg Awards who have to etch it in to the lovely thing and the wall thing. So I need at least two volunteers, three if I can get it to, do this. We'll set up an appointment for doing this probably two weeks before the event so that we have time for the for Arnold's to do their thing.

Don't all stand at once.

I'll I'll I'll help you. I'll do it.

Alright. I got Braylee, and I've

got our chairman. K? One more? I didn't know. Thank you. Great. That was. Thank you.

So I don't think we need to make a booking or anything about them. They just didn't get a business. Okay.

So you've assigned Raeleen, Joan, and Gail for this?