Board of Supervisors - Regular Meeting

Here we have, regretfully, have some technical difficulties. It requires our server to be rebooted. That can take up to one half of an hour. It could be less. So we are going to hold off on starting this meeting until that happens because if we start it without the server running, we miss out on well, see. There's no live streaming that occurs and that while while not a requirement today by law, it will be on July 1. And it also we also can't record as well. So these are two things that people think are important. And so That's right. Just saying.

And I'm kind of a little bit of an old schooler, but it's alright. We will I think we're just gonna take a break for a few minutes. Hopefully it reboots faster than half an hour. That's quite possible as well. And I'm turning to the CAO.

Thank you, Chair Wilson. We just wanted to get some information for the audience. That item I one regarding the q zone is going to be continued to a day uncertain but in the near future so folks know that there is still they can offer public comment on non agenda items, but this item will be pulled from the calendar.

So the Q zone Redway, Redwood Grove issue was not gonna be heard today, but if you wanna comment on open public comment time on non agenda items, can do that. I would ask for just the board's sake, if you're going to comment on that, if you've already given us that information in a previous comment or you plan on coming back to the next time we bring it back, we'll be okay with not hearing the same thing over and over again. That'll be fine for us. And that's it. That's all I have for you.

We're gonna shut this down for a few minutes while staff gets this together. And we'll be back as soon as possible. Apologize. Sometimes technology doesn't do. Imagine you're sitting on a plane. That's all I can say.

It's working.

It's It's

working. Working. He gave us one of these. I don't know what that means. Yeah. The stream is working. Alright. I'm gonna go with Kaylee on this. If she thinks it's cool, we're gonna we're gonna we're gonna roll.

We're good?

Stand by. We're gonna lift off.

Mhmm. I think we can move forward.

Alright. Mister Black, how are you rolling over there? Excellent. Good. Alright. See that? See? I'm I'm like, keep your expectations low, and then you're always happy. All right. All right. We'll start this board meeting right now. Supervisor Bone? Welcome to the meeting. Alright. We'll start with welcome.

Welcome to the board meeting of Tuesday 04/21/2026. This is

the board supervisors for Humboldt County, and we're gonna start with a roll call, please.

Thank you, chair. Supervisor Arroyo? Here. Supervisor Madrone?

Present.

Supervisor Bushnell? Good morning. Supervisor Bone? Here. Chair Wilson?

Present.

All are here.

Great. Now we're gonna do the salute to the flag. And supervisor Bone, you look dressed and ready for this. So please lead us. Despite all the technical issues, we like to give some help give some instruction to those who are not here. So, Kaylee, could you give the online instructions, please?

Thank you, chair. This meeting is being conducted in accordance with the Brown Act and applicable state and local requirements. Many of the public may members of the public may participate in person and or remotely as noticed on the agenda. For those participating remotely, public comment is welcomed and encouraged. To help ensure your voice is heard, it is recommended that you raise your I would to to for Thank limited to the time allowed.

Thank you.

Thank you you very very much. Much. CAO are there any changes to the agenda including the one we already announced?

Yes chair there is one change item I one is being pulled from calendar and will return at a future date in the very item near future on recognizing that there's quite a few folks who may want to comment on this they should do so under public comment on non agenda items.

Great. And at 12:30 we have two time sets. One is conference with labor negotiator and the other is discussion of litigation.

Supervisor Bowen. Point of order if they speak on non agenda items to the item they will have the opportunity to speak again.

Yeah because we anticipate modifications. Hear

their opinions so thank you.

Great. Alright. So moving on to the consent calendar. And this is where we're okay. We're doing the consent calendar. Moving into proclamations is where we'll start. And then the first one we have is celebrating thirty years of service for child abuse services team, CAST, and this is brought to us by supervisor Bushnell.

Thank you. And I'm gonna pass this to supervisor Bone. And if you're here for CAST, please come forward.

Come on, Nikki.

Coming forward means forward you guys. Mean, feel like I'm at a junior high dance. The Humboldt County Board of Supervisor proclamation in honor of the child abuse services teams. Whereas the impact of sexual assault, child maltreatment can cause severe and long lasting physical, emotional, and psychological consequences, the experience is gonna be devastating, not only for the child, the family, and friends of the child. Whereas sexual assault and child maltreatment across all ethnic, cultural, socioeconomic backgrounds, the tragedy of child abuse can cause disabilities and poor health, depression, poor academic performance, alcohol, and other drug problems with abuse of adult relationships.

And whereas it is recognized that child abuse is an adverse childhood experience, ACE, that has a lifetime effect on the survivor, and studies have shown that stability, support, and healthy relationships have positive impact on the children impacted by ACEs. CAST promotes stability, support for child, family, and caregivers through the multidisciplinary team approach. Whereas the child abuse services team, CAST, a multidisciplinary team comprised of specially trained individuals representing child welfare service, the district attorneys, Humboldt domestic violence services, law enforcement, mental health, North Coast rape crisis team, and tribal agencies was created to reach one of the most vulnerable populations in our community, children who are victims of sexually sexual and physically abuse. Whereas CAST is nationally accredited child child advocacy center through the nation National Child Children's Alliance, the office provides a child friendly setting forensic interviews to a cure occur. Whereas since October 1996, child abuse services team cast has conducted 3,941 comprehensive forensic interviews, and this coordinated response has proven successful in the criminal investigation and the prosecution of the child abuse cases.

Whereas the effective intervention of the child abuse services team, multidisciplinary approach to child abuse investigations has reduced the number of interviews a child abuse victim must undergo. Whereas cast interviews may also be used to interview witnesses of violent crimes, assault and domestic, and are sometimes used in cases where there are allegations of neglect, drug endangered children. And whereas the citizens of Humboldt County benefit from the coordinated services provided by the child abuse services team, now therefore resolve that the Humboldt County Board of Supervisors hereby express appreciation to the members of the the child abuse services team for their thirty years of service to sexual and physical abuse victims of Humboldt County, and it's been signed by our chair, Mike Wilson. And I would like to add on. I was telling our district attorney and stuff.

In the last few weeks, I've heard of a couple one especially of a case that Cass did and the results or the forthcoming results have been so positive, both for the family and the child. And I think that's the whole idea we're here because a child can't speak for themselves. So for for that, I'm always grateful. And the new offices are so cool.

Europe.

Good morning. Stacy Eaves, district attorney. Thank you so much for acknowledging the great work that our CAS team does. It truly is a multidisciplinary team that really takes the the talents and skills of people across the community to come together with the ultimate goal to serve children, children who have been victimized either by physical or emotional or sexual abuse. So it is tremendous work and we're so happy that this board has chosen to recognize the work that's done.

I too was just approached over the weekend by someone who just randomly wanted to let me know that she knew a child that was going through a very difficult time, but really felt, and I believe her words were, embraced by love through the CAST program. So what a huge accomplishment. So all the people that participate with the CAST program really do give part of their hearts to each and every child that comes through. And that's no small task. And also I want to recognize the fact that we just went through re accreditation this last year.

And speaking of no small task, that was really a tremendous feat that was undertaken because with new accreditations, there's always new requirements and new services that understandably the accreditation folks are looking to have us provide to the children that we serve. And I just really want to acknowledge that both our CAS coordinator and chief Kyla Baxley really went to the extreme to ensure and bring everyone together to make sure that each and every one of those requirements was met. And we were able to become reaccredited. And so that was something that I'm tremendously proud of from the team. And that comes from their collaborative work together, and the partnerships, and the trust that they have in each other.

So if it weren't for that, I don't know that we would have met those hurdles. And so I'm very grateful and thankful for the work that they did. And so thank you so much. And I think that perhaps mister Mefford had some words from child welfare services.

Hello.

Good morning. My my name is Jed Mefford. I I'm a social worker. So I've been working with child welfare services for a good while, and one of my assignments has been an interviewer with the child abuse services team. I'm one of several interviewers, and I'm I'm the only one able to make it here today.

The the the recognition of this board is is very important to us and very much appreciated. And the continued support from our parent agencies as this is a multidisciplinary team that, you know, comes together when there's a need. And I think, yeah, my role as an interviewer, I'm, you know, I'm one of the people be there talking with the youth. But I think it's it's really important for people to know that there is a place for youth to come and share their stories in a setting that is more appreciative or recognizing their status as youth and approach interviews in a way that's open ended and allows a youth story to come out or an account of their experiences so that it can be considered by our partners in the DA's office, with child welfare services, social workers, our friends in law enforcement, to get it right when, there's a need to address this. It's unfortunate that we're here talking about this, but for the people to know that there is a process for when these situations come up to to try to do what's best for the children.

So thank you for your recognition.

I even came prepared this time, almost. But no, just to echo the sentiments of the others that just spoke, I very, very much appreciate the recognition and the issuance of the proclamation. Programs like CAST are critical for our community. It gives a voice to those that may not feel like they're going to be heard. It holds offenders accountable.

And it strengthens how we respond to the most vulnerable in our community. I'd also like to mention the courage that it takes for people to come forward to engage in this process without their participation. We wouldn't be able to respond and otherwise strengthen the way that we do respond to them. I think it's important to recognize those that do come forward. And lastly, this work doesn't happen as alone effort.

Like the others have mentioned, it's a partnership and it's a relationship from a number of different agencies in our county that continue to show up every day committed with passion, compassion, respect, and accountability. So to, again, to echo what the others said, this cast is very, very important to me, I'm proud to work alongside so many that share the same passion for this this this unfortunate subject matter. It needs to be done. So thank you very much on behalf of everyone else as well.

Here's the thing about Nikki. She recognizes it's not about her. It's about the people she serves. And so she just never wants to be in the limelight. She doesn't wanna be upfront, but she is so there for her people and the people that she serves within this community, and she she gives her all. So I'm very grateful for that. And it it's okay if she if she wants to be there supporting the rest of us. So

Supervisor Bone.

You know, and I I I don't know all your family histories, I know quite a few of your parents, and I know it's hard not to take this home. But I've also seen you, a lot of you, out in your family settings, and you have a great bond with your families. And I imagine your work makes you realize how lucky you are and and what you do for other people's children so they can get that same same thing you have. And I've I've been able to see it in a lot of you, and I I I really can't say enough. And I I think the best money we've ever spent in the county is the remodel upstairs, the the appreciate they're having it closed, not that the old leaky building over there was great.

But I mean, just having it where you need to be and being able and and having such a calm space, good space, or basically fill the love space as you so eloquently said earlier. So thank you guys, all of you very much.

Thank you.

Supervisor Bushnell.

Thanking you guys for what you do for Humboldt County and the children here. Proclamation's really not enough. I've spoke in the past about how the cast team was instrumental in my own children's cases. And to be a victim of crime as a child, it's a lot. And for a child to feel okay with that is really on your guys' shoulders and really is helpful for them and to navigate that system.

And so I can't say enough how much you guys effectively take someone's worst situation and make it somewhat bearable for them and to be able to navigate through that process. So thank you again and again, and the proclamation does not do enough. Thank you.

Alright. Well, thanks you guys for being here. I mean, more than that, thanks for your day to day work of really supporting and representing the most vulnerable in our community. You know, sometimes we wish to just it was a world where this work wasn't needed, but that's not where we live. And so I echo and and associate myself with all the comments from my fellow board members. Thank you for being here today.

Thank you.

Supervisor or chair, if I could ask you to skip yours to go to National Crime Victims Week.

I was just looking at that. Let's do that.

Okay. So you guys can whoever wants to be up here for this one can just stay.

This one is a proclamation, National Crime Victims Rights Week, and it's going to be read by supervisor Bushnell.

Okay. This is Humboldt County Board of Supervisors proclamation proclamation national crime victims rights week. Whereas since 1982, the district attorney victim witness office has provided service to thousands crime victims, witnesses, and their families each year. And whereas victims of crime and their loved ones often face severe final financial, physical, and sociological traumas, and whereas victim witness advocates and other staff are available to answer questions and help victims and their families cope with the trauma they have experienced as well as the often complicated criminal justice system. And whereas an effective and fair criminal justice system must recognize the rights of victims and balance them for those of the accused.

And where all agencies are encouraged to strengthen partnerships to coordinate direct and referral services to crime victims, and whereas all citizens are encouraged to increase their awareness of the impact of violent crime, the needs of crime victims, and the vital services DAA victim witness has to offer. Now, therefore, be it proclaimed that the Humboldt County Board Of Supervisors recognizes April nineteenth through the twenty fifth as National Crime Victim Rights Week and expresses appreciation to the district attorney victim witness office for the forty four years of service to the citizens of Humboldt County.

So again, it's Stacy E's district attorney and it really should be Nikki Miranda that's speaking. But once again, it's not about her. And so I'm so grateful for the work that she does and and the team that she supports as they do the hard work serving victims every day. It's really an honor for me to work side by side with so many men and women that have dedicated their lives to serving victims of crime. Really just with the hope that perhaps in assisting that they can make the experience for those who have been impacted by crime maybe maybe just a little bit better.

I thank the board for joining us and ensuring that the voices of victims are heard, that through accountability and fair court proceedings and listening, that we can all meet the needs of victims to stand up for their rights, to be safe and to be protected, and hopefully give victims a chance to heal. So I thank you for that, and thank you for your continued support as we serve our community and do what we can to make it a safer place for everyone.

My

name is Roger Reese. I'm a deputy district attorney and I just want to speak on behalf of all of our deputies how important a role that our advocates serve in being that connection from the courtroom to our victims. We constantly have the victims front and center in our mind as we're seeking justice, and they're they're a critical lifeline. And and I'm I'm running upstairs two or three times a day to not just because they have the best snacks, but to reach out and to convey information to make sure that gets on to the victims, and and it's just such a critical line of communication. So I wanna I wanna express our thanks on behalf of all the deputy district attorneys.

Supervisor Bushnell.

Thank you. Thank you again. I if you go upstairs on the 2nd Floor, you can see folks running back and forth talking to the families, and those are the victim witness witness advocates. They're instrumental for those families that don't understand the court proceedings or are so traumatized by whatever has happened to them that it's hard to to understand. I've seen the how effective those folks have worked with those victims and those families and calling them after hours, emailing them, just being there and answering every question and reassuring them.

Really I see it calm people. I see them form bonds with those folks that sometimes last well beyond the court proceedings. And it's just so instrumental in, again, someone's worst time of their life sometimes to have that really structured person that can help them answer those questions and be there for them continually. So again, a proclamation is not enough, and thank you for all that you do.

Supervisor Bowen. I just wanna say that everything Michelle said, and then and you're right. It does take a you you make great relationships. I also wanna make a point that Nikki's not always this quiet. I got that from Mark on a text.

No, I'm just kidding. But the thing is is it's amazing how somebody so calm and quiet can run the ship so efficiently and have such a good staff. It's it's her calm demeanor plays off to the victims, to the kids, and to her staff, which means if everybody's on the same page, then we're heading in the right direction. And it's our job up here sitting here that you guys can do that job. You're funded to do your job. And we don't we don't allow legislation to tie your hands to get the job done properly. So I I hopefully know you guys. We have your back. So or you got this 20% anyway.

Alright. Well, thanks you guys for being here. Again Thank you. Really appreciate everything you do and all the work, and we'll do what we can.

Thank you.

I'll be on your side. All right. Next on the proclamation agenda, we have airport day in Humboldt County. And supervisor Bone, I think that one's sitting in front of you.

So anyway, it was the proclamation and recognition of Humboldt County Airport Day. If you've never been, it's it's pretty cool. It's pretty it's it's what makes Humboldt Humboldt. That little hometown feel, little podunk, the little parades, the little don't forget the roadie parade this weekend everyone.

So

whereas the influence of the aviation industry in California is enormous, creating significant effects across the state economy with 62,600,000,000 annual impact including a multimillion dollar annual impact right here in our local economy. Whereas Humboldt County Airports provides up vital services to the community including air carrier service, air cargo, US coast guard operations, air medevac, aerial fire suppression, business and government transportation, search and rest rescue aviation activities, and whereas the Cal Poly Humboldt Aviation Club is working to educate, inspire community members and local youth to pursue dreams of becoming pilots, engineers, and aviation professionals in one of the world's fastest growing industries. Whereas the student run aviation club utilizes emerging technologies such as state of the art GTX max Cessna flight simulator to provide hands on training and then introduce students to careers that intersect with industries like wildlife biology and mechanical engineering. Whereas the Cal Poly Humboldt Aviation Club has demonstrated incredible public service dedication by organizing airport day at Murrayfield Airport on Saturday, 04/25/2026 at that an event that is a free, family friendly, and designed to showcase aircraft and the diverse career opportunities available within the industry. Whereas this event brings together various regional pilots and organizations to provide an exciting free and educational experience for children in the public.

Now therefore, it resolved that the Humboldt County Board of Supervisors hereby proclaims Saturday, 04/25/2026 to be Humboldt County Airport Day. The board takes this opportunity to acknowledge the commitment of Kittler Cal Poly Humboldt Aviation Club and highlights significant role our local airports play in providing critical services and the economic benefits to our citizens.

All the students were in class today. I've got a really short statement. That's a good thing. They decided to go to class,

which I appreciate.

Thank you for this proclamation. And my name is David Marshall. I'm the faculty advisor for the Cal Poly Humboldt Aviation Club. And I'm here on behalf of Isaac Miller and Lee Donahue. They're the two student leaders that are making this event happen. Thank you for supporting community events like Airport Day. When young people experience events like Airport Day, it supports a growth mindset. Events excuse me. This event is about aviation, but more importantly, it's about a positive feeling for the future. And that's what events like this that you're supporting do for the youth in Humboldt County.

In this way, I think you are doing noble work. And I know the kids that come to airport day use the experience to expand their world view. This will help them make meaningful, positive goals for their education future. When the students at Cal Poly Humboldt create events like this, it's only in partnership with organizations like Humboldt County Board of Supervisors, the Aviation Department in Humboldt County, and the other entities that are part of the event. So feel good about this type of event and supporting these types of events.

Thank you all for the work that you do with this event. I appreciate your time and thank you. Those two other proclamations were really hard to follow. Don't know.

Well, it's nice to get something lighter. Go ahead supervise.

I think when you the proclamation when they talk about the economic impact. I think we just approved another $18,000,000 worth of runway and taxiway improvements. That'll be over $35,000,000 in the last four years being spent up at the California airport. I can't remember the name,

but it works.

Positive, emotional.

But I mean it really has helped. We're hoping for more repairs coming forward as these monies come into the county. The other air show that we have later on in the year brought in millions of dollars probably for tourist money because there was quite a few of them. It was a great event. So I think exposing the aviation industry to everyone, I think, is is is a positive thing. And and, you know, you go back to the sixty four flood and fires and stuff and what they do for emergency services. So it's great to get more kids interested.

One way one one other comment. Isaac Miller actually joined the coast guard because he joined the aviation club, we took a tour of the coast guard air station. His goal is to become a pilot working in Humboldt County, flying the helicopter to help the community. So thanks again.

Supervisor Bushnell?

No. I just want to say thank you. And supervisor Bowen's absolutely correct. Economic really depends on our airport and what circulates around it.

Yes. Thank you. I'm excited about the promotion of our airport and excited that this event gets to be at a different airport this year. So that's fun for people to have a chance to go to our different facilities. And a lot of folks have been to ACV but haven't it is at ACV this year, right?

It's about community. It's at EKA. It's at Murrayfield right

next Excuse to me. It's at Murrayfield again. Okay, great. Well, it's great for people to have a chance to visit that airport and see it. And not just, you know, I think people think of it as somewhere they, you know, may pass by on the highway and not necessarily stop and appreciate what it has to offer. So that's great. And while I would have loved to be a helicopter pilot, I don't have the eye ight for it, so I get to do other fun things in the Coast Guard. But but I do get to work at the air station often and see them. And I'm glad that you inspired a young person to become a pilot in search and rescue. That's incredibly important.

It's not about me. It's about community. Thank you very, very much.

Yep and I associate myself with all the comments here but especially I just will I will say the one story that you told about someone being in there are many many many stories. I hear about it all the time and it's not just people being encouraged to get into aviation. I'm just going to put it out there. The nerd factor for young kids who are just really this is what gets them going in their imagination. And it's not just about the aircraft.

It's about the mechanics. It's about what they get into. I've heard of folks getting into weather science and fields because of their interest, because their parents or somebody took them as a young person to an air show that just inspired them. So for parents out there, this is it's not just like a I mean, a parades were brought up and those sorts of things, but this is a little deeper than that. There's there's real time for young people to get in and see the mechanics and talk to the people who are who have been inspired themselves. So great opportunity and thanks for bringing that to the community. Really appreciate it.

Thank you.

Alright. And with that, we're gonna go to the next the next nerd proclamation. Whoop whoop. Labs. All right, take it away.

Right. Can the laboratorians please come up? Wait, did one have to step out? Okay, well we'll talk very slowly until she comes back. It's not awkward at all.

Great, well I'll go ahead and start reading the proclamation, and then she'll enter while we're reading it. All right. In honor of National Medical Laboratory Professionals Recognition Week, whereas Medical Laboratory Professionals Recognition Week was established to increase public awareness of the essential role that laboratorians play in supporting the health of all individual patients and the community, and whereas the highly trained and dedicated laboratory professionals make invaluable contributions to quality health care and thus save countless lives each day by providing reliable laboratory test results required for prevention, early detection, diagnosis, and treatment of disease, and whereas critical decisions regarding public health such as the control of disease outbreaks are dependent upon the accurate and timely analysis performed by laboratory professionals, and whereas the medical and public health fields rely on the dedicated efforts of laboratory professionals to maintain the high standards of quality in laboratory practice, and whereas through this dedication, laboratory professionals of The US make a vital contribution to the quality of health care. Now therefore be it proclaimed that the Humboldt County Board of Supervisors recognizes the week of April nineteenth through twenty fifth as National Medical Laboratory Professionals Recognition Week and encourages all residents to recognize and support the vital services provided by laboratory professionals for the benefit of all citizens.

And Mike is going to bring it to you just for fun.

Well, good morning, supervisors, and thank you for the proclamation recognizing the work of laboratory professionals. My name is Pepper Stockton. I'm the lab director for the Humboldt County Public Health Lab. And I know that we've had a lot of proclamations already this morning, so I'm going to try to keep this brief. We have a saying in the lab related to diagnostic medicine.

Without the lab, you're just guessing. Accurate and timely laboratory testing is the cornerstone to ensure that patients receive treatment needed to help them live the healthiest life possible. And in a public health setting, laboratory testing is integral to identifying outbreaks of infectious diseases quickly in order to curtail their spread. We are so lucky to have the highly trained and dedicated lab staff who are locals in our county. And I want to recognize not just the staff in the public health lab, but all of our colleagues in our hospital labs, St.

Joe's, Ribbon Memorial, Mad River, and Charles Phelps, as well as the laboratorians at Opendoor, United Indian Health Services, and all the other clinics and doctors' offices in the county. Lab professionals are the health care workers that are frequently not seen. And to have this opportunity to have our work recognized is greatly appreciated. Thank you.

All right. Good job. Any comments here from up on the board, Dias? I just want to say that good decisions good decisions require accurate and good information. Just want and that's especially true when we're talking about our public and personal health. I mean, that's just crucial. Without it, I don't know where we would be. Certainly our lives last longer and are of higher quality because we have this good information for our doctors and our public health folks. So just without you, this wouldn't be as a healthy and happy place as we have today. So I really appreciate it.

Thank you so much for coming.

I'm gonna take another picture of you all like that.

Since you're all together.

You can just say.

Yeah, thanks. You reminded me that I've got a lab appointment tomorrow. So I appreciate that. And Pepper, somebody in the family, we're gonna have to sit down and figure out what Asa was thinking when he named you all. I just I just I've done the most And I loved your father. Your your father was a great guy. But I just You gotta admit he had to be a He was eclectic as hell, but I just What do wanna name this one? So anyway, good stuff.

I'm not sure what that was about, but thanks you guys. Oh, I see. I see.

They

right over my head. Okay.

They have delightful names and very memorable. You're a memorable family.

Memorable family.

All right. Well, thank you, laboratorians.

Thank you.

I can't wait to see your next album. I think this is the last proclamation of the day. It has to do with the sorry about this. Certificate of recognition for the Humboldt Del Norte Film Commission's 2026 California nonprofit of the year award. Is there anyone here to receive that?

I don't think there is, but I do want to speak to it if you don't mind.

Please speak to it and then we'll

try to

close out on

this.

It's a big deal and they really requested this to highlight what a big year the film commission has had. So this is a certificate of recognition for the Humboldt Del Norte Film Commission and I will make sure that they get it. They've had such busy stuff going on. They were recognized. This is for being recognized as the Assembly District nonprofit of the year and one of California's nonprofits of the year.

But in addition, after that was announced, they were named a finalist for Film Commission of the Year at the twenty twenty six Global Production Awards, which takes place during the Cannes Film Festival in in France. So biggest film festival and perhaps one of the biggest film festivals in the world, believe so. And they've they've had some huge wins with, you know, having a multiple award Academy Award winning film partially filmed in Humboldt, one battle after another, and have brought a lot of productions here for commercials and independent films and blockbuster films, all of the above. And so they highlight our region, do a great job of bringing that multiplier effect to our community of having films produced here and hiring local crew, hiring local catering companies, and much much more that helps with economic development in our region and highlights what is so special about this place. So really proud of them and just wanted to highlight it since they weren't able to be here today to talk it up themselves.

Harlan. Alright. So I am going to move to public comment on non excuse me, on consent calendar items. And so do we have anyone online for consent calendar items?

Yes we do chair. Caller 7718 I will unmute you and you will have three minutes.

Hello. I can't hear you very well. Hopefully you can hear me today. This is a little bit of a pet peeve on consent items. Consent should take one minute. You should have a complete separate item called presentation. It's allowing for ten minutes. We are 40 it will be forty three minutes into the meeting to get on proclamations and so forth. I highly recommend you go ahead and look up the definition of consent. The only thing that should be brought forward is it's going to be pulled from consent.

And then I motion to pass these items. Did just speak on item number 10 on the consent. It's a sovereign making, the Karen Heisich, are attempting to get a agreement with Cal Fire to provide fire protection for them for the large five story hotel, which they are apparently still trying to build in the coastal zone that many of us still could not be there at all, never could have been approved. This particular project, them being a sovereign nation, Cal Fire does not have the ability to provide fire service. Know I think we have three people there sometimes during off season.

But you're looking in El Nino, and most likely, Cal Fire will be spending a good share of its year to start anytime now, not being present in Humboldt County but fighting fires in the state and other areas. I can't see this working at all as far as that goes. You know, the $25,000 is just to buy in on some studies. I think that you need to have a more of a study than countywide to fill in these holes with CalPi. But I don't know how you can do that with what we've got to happen with.

Because just to buy El Nino could be one of the biggest fire seasons in the history. I think it's been one hundred and fifty years of it's drawn into El Nino from what I've seen. Okay. Thank you for my opportunity to speak on that topic. I do want to point out that you have a item 11. You're approving something for a term of 2022 to 2027. In other words, you must be a few years late in approving something close to the end of that time period. So why wasn't that brought forward in 2022 rather now for approval? Thank you for my opportunity to speak on your consent agenda, and I'm not thinking on what actually could be a proclamation at the end of the year.

Thank you. Caller 3053, I will unmute you and you will have three minutes.

Morning. Thomas Mulder here. I just want to confirm if you can hear me there in the chamber.

Yes.

A point of order on the proclamation. I do just want to point out that I heard the chair use a term that some believe is derogatory and could be used as bullying term. I believe if that was two other board members, they might have already been up for censorship, if that word was used by them. I just want to be clear when we can use perceived derogatory terms and when we can't or if we have special abilities when we're the chair, like commenting on your con motion for your approval of your minutes last meeting where you can structure an agenda so, basically, public participation doesn't happen. So you can catch a flight at 01:00 with your newly approved travel budget.

So thanks for the opportunity to speak. Thank you for actually calling on me this time and not trying to skip past me. I look forward to speaking later in the meeting.

Thank you. Caller 2223, I will unmute you, and you will have three minutes.

Good morning. Good morning. Can you hear me?

Yes.

Okay. Great. I just wanted to add my 2¢ on the matter of how we're working with victims in the county. I definitely think there's room for improvement in serving the victims of crime. I've I've sat with many victims in our county, and I've learned about their unique experiences with the perpetrators of crime, the victim advocates, the police, victim witness, and the district attorney's office.

While you all do great work and I'm very happy about that, I do think, like I said, there's some room for improvement. Some victims of violent crime like rape have explained to me that they were not meaningfully helped in our county, and they subsequently had to watch their perpetrators suffer no consequences for their crime, and they were released early to be put out into the larger community, placing everyone in danger. Yeah. And that sort of experience ripples out, and it creates a deterrent for other victims to report crimes. I've also met with other victims of false crimes, the claims of a crime falsely, who have been criminalized unjustly for the crimes of other people.

And they have absolutely no victim advocates. These folks have to navigate the whole system without any advocacy when they're in reality real victims. I think there could be more expertise in identifying false reports of crimes against those real victims and better support systems for the victims of fraudulent crime claims. And I hope that changes because it undermines the good work that's being done otherwise. I think also that the district attorney's office and advocacy groups could educate themselves on the motivation of false crime reports and the exploitation of the services they're offered to alleged victims who, in reality, might be perpetrators.

Another way our county could better support crime victims is if the police department took false report more seriously and acted on them. If someone for example make

Caller, your time has ran out. Sorry. That is all on Zoom chair.

Alright. We're taking it to the room. Is there anyone who wants to speak on items that are on the consent calendar? Supervisor Madrone, comment.

Yeah. Just wanted to make a comment on item 10 on consent. Wanted to thank the Trinidad Rancheria for their $25,000 contribution to our existing CSA four agreement with Cal Fire, which provides off season fire protection. So thank you to the Trinidad Rancheria.

Chair?

Yes.

As we were closing public comments, someone was raising their hand.

Alright. We'll bring them in, please.

Thank you. Caller 9366, I will unmute you, and you'll have three minutes.

Please remember, this is on items on the consent calendar.

Hi.

I appreciate Steve Madrone and Kyle Baxley for being transparent, but it doesn't seem very meaningful when you have board of supervisors who are talking about victims of crime who are being investigated for their own behavior. Children are suffering and adults in our county, and Humboldt County is looking the other way. You've not created an environment that is safe. You're not protecting victims. And you're letting pedophiles do whatever they want. And so I just don't find it very meaningful. It's a little bit too safe. But I do know that some people are actually having doing meaningful work, and some people are looking the other way and talking the talk.

Thank you. Caller 8307, I will unmute you, and you'll have three minutes.

Hi. Good morning. I was calling because I wanted to just mention a different outlook on the cast interview and a victim's perspective. While, of course, many cases are successfully prosecuted and justices served and healing can appropriately happen for individuals who have suffered at the hands of others, there is the alternative to that when a child is brave enough to come forward and be cast interviewed even potentially up to three different times and consistently disclose abuse, very specific abuse by very specific individuals. And then for that child to get no no justice, imagine the detriment that that causes to that child.

You know, there there is always two sides to everything. And, of course, the work is important, and not everybody is doing this with any intention besides to truly help children. But we need to realize and consider what does it cause a child what harm does it cause a child when they are so brave, as everyone mentioned. It it takes such an an extreme amount of bravery for a child to sit in a room with strangers and disclose traumas. And when they are so brave to do that and then they're not helped, that is really, really harmful to a child, to a family.

And as the last caller said, there's a ripple effect in the community. It creates distrust. It causes high ACES scores in these children. And, you know, just keep doing the work. Of course, it's better better than not having it at all.

But, you know, there's a lot of praise, and everyone's talking about the positive and the success. These past interviews aren't mostly ending in prosecution. It takes group effort, and law enforcement really needs to be willing to put in the work and the time to follow through and investigate these allegations when they are made. And lastly, I would just like to say that if a child is disclosing abuse by a community member and that interviewer knows that community member, that is not okay. And they should recuse themselves, and there should never be a conflict of interest like I understand it's a small community but that should not be happening. Thank you.

Thank you. That's all, chair.

All right. Supervisor Leone and then we'll take supervisor Arroyo.

I just wanted to thank Virginia Bass, my former neighbor and and friend, not only for twelve years of service on the board, but her extended length of time on the she was on it when she was elected and she stayed around after she was elected and and was very committed for certain reasons. And so I really appreciate Virginia for putting the effort in and and and doing this.

Yep. Echoed. Supervisor Arroyo.

Thank you. I was also gonna thank Virginia Bass for serving on the behavioral health board. She and I have had the chance to serve on that board together for the last couple of years, year and a half or so. And I just really appreciated her dedication toggling between her job and often going to great lengths to make it to the behavioral health board. And I know that's something that's near and dear to her heart. I'm so grateful for all her service there and her deep investment in behavioral health.

Okay. With that, I'll take a motion and a second to see what we get.

I'll make a motion to approve the consent calendar.

I'll second.

There's a motion and second. It doesn't seem like there's any

Minus. Okay. Never mind.

Alright. There is we're all good. Is there any objection to unanimous consent on the consent? Seeing none, we're moving on to public comment on non agenda items. And so this is the time we talk about things that are not on the agenda. And so we will move to online first. See is there anybody online ready to talk about things not on the agenda?

Thank you chair caller 7718. I will unmute you and you will have three minutes.

I'm going to highlight a particular case and see whether it gets prosecuted or not. If you see a written article in Alasco's outpost in the 400 Block of Green Lake Boulevard, a Mr. John Edward King off for the second time. If you read the article in the comments there, one of the people happen. More So less than a year ago, in 07/19/2025, I believe according to what I put forward in this article, there was 40.49 grams of and 35.3 grams of fentanyl.

These are the hard things that we need to have prosecution. This last time, and again, less than a year later, the guy that's out, he's been throwing there. And I think this time, it was 60 grams of fentanyl that he was top for and pocket. When the sheriff goes in, they are negative. Need these things need to be brought to corrections and prosecuted.

What message do you hand if you have somebody who got pop less than a year ago and is right back to jail on the street? The family of their their mother allegedly fully aware of what's going on, facilitate or enable it, and yet she's not arrested nor other people on the premise. The following support, the interest attorney and their investigator following through on this. Otherwise, we're wasting our resources from our sheriff's department. We may spend all the time to go through an arrest, and nothing happens to a long term felon of this nature. Thank you for the opportunity to speak on this particular topic.

Thank you. Caller 3053, I will unmute you and you'll have three minutes.

Morning again. Thomas here again. I just want confirm you can still hear me there in chambers?

Yes.

Thank you. So a couple of things. Off, I'd say perceived perception. That goes a long way. I talk about it often. I hear that word used by certain members of the board often. Perceived perception when you're trying to discredit or keep the public from participating. It doesn't really matter when those rules only apply to them. Equality, very important for everyone. Equality for, you know, those of us that live rurally.

I heard a couple of comments where I heard some of the board members last week all of a sudden be experts on Humboldt County. That's outside your lane. I know I spent thirteen years on a school board directly involved. I highly encourage you to resign and jump on your local school board and make a change because that's where the board of supervisors doesn't really have authority over the school board. Want to remind you of that. Other things. There's great approximations, all these types of things that happened, but I don't know if it's true or untrue. Excuse me. I'm walking through the woods, cutting wood today. So I might be a little winded, but no notice inspections.

I mean, maybe that's a rumor of no notice inspections going out there or whatever. But if the county is participating in that, shame on you. I urge the board to immediately bring a letter forward to send to the DCC. There's absolutely no notice inspections. None of them. Disrespectful. Those of us myself, I'm up at 04:30 in the morning working on my cannabis farm, and I go out to my other job, make sure I can pay the bills, keep a roof over my head. Really, really support you guys looking into kicking the can down the road, as some would say, letting people use generators for another year. I know the extinction effect that it's going to have on those that had those conditions of approval put on them. And also back tagging.

That was promised by Nicole Elliott two years ago for flowering cannabis plants. She shook hands. Now she's resigned. I haven't seen the board come forward and say, hey, we support this. Just just something food for thought. You know? If you're trying to completely stomp us out in the rural areas, keep going the way you are. But, you know, let's bring forward some proclamations that really care about people that are out in the hills taking care of good stewardship of the forest. Thank you for the opportunity to speak.

Thank you.

Caller

2223, I will unmute you, and you'll have three minutes.

Hello? Can you

hear me?

Yes.

Okay. Great. Sorry about that technical difficulty there. Yeah. Just given that it's child abuse prevention month, I wanted to raise the issue of some alarming harms that are happening to children in our community as a result of some of the actions by the local family law court and affiliated agencies like Minors Council.

I've met with many moms and dads about these harms that are happening to their children by this court, and that includes parents that are denied due process, parents that have their constitutional rights violated, having their children removed from their loving safe arms, and caregivers and primary attachment figures are having their healthy attachments severed, causes lifelong harm to children according to many peer reviewed studies like the Saunders studies and Joan Myers study as well. Parents oftentimes are not giving any chance or let alone a meaningful chance to be heard before life altering and harmful orders for kids take effect. And sometimes those temporary orders can last for months or years. And, again, those orders are often made without both parents being heard. I've seen mediator recommendations of warnings of harmful custody schedules ignored by the court.

And, yeah, again, the peer reviewed studies like the Saunders study should be common knowledge to court actors like the judge and minor's counsel. And it's important for them to have better education around domestic violence, coercive control, post separation abuse, and cases. They have a very important job to do, and I think they could be doing a lot better in our county for children. And thank you so much for the opportunity to be here.

Thank you. That's all on Zoom chair.

Alright. Bringing it into the chambers. Is there anyone who wants to speak on items not on the agenda? This is the time.

Good morning. My name is Joanne McGarry. I arrived by bus in the rain. I want to speak on three things, fireworks, animal welfare, and war. But before that, I just want to remind you, when I do start riding my ebike across the Humboldt Bay Trail, I do hope we have something more satisfactory for me to park my bike e bike safely.

So I hope we will work on that somehow. Also, the concept of having to put my bike inside my apartment is problematic, because there's no safe place for e bikes. Oh, by the way, the Arcadia City Council will be hearing the regional climate action plan on May 6 at their council meeting just to report in on that. I do know that fourth of July is coming up. I do know there are plans for fireworks in the city of Arcadia city of Eureka.

I'm disappointed. I do think that we really need to find better ways to celebrate without these toxic, harmful, dangerous items. And when you're talking about children and their welfare, exposing them to these things and getting them used to these type of dangerous toys, it's it's really something we should be aware of and do something different. So that's the fireworks issue. I have spoken about animal welfare, and interestingly, I worked at the SPCA in San Francisco for sixteen years.

The New York ASPCA was founded before, which is Society for the Prevention of Cruelty to Animals. It was actually founded two or three years prior to the Society for the Protection of Cruelty to Children. But I think both those innocents need our better attention. And I go back to thinking about what we can do to improve the animal shelter somehow with a bond issue to re rebuild it, remodel it, and a spay neuter ordinance. I've seen a lot of puppies and kittens, and we just need to do better for the animals.

And finally, war, and I don't even know how much time I have, but the thing is we did a ceasefire resolution for Gaza and it never included no more weapons to Israel. And now, we have a horrible thing happening beyond Gaza, and we really need a resolution like the city of Arcata passed for resolution on war. Thank you.

Thank you. Alright. Next person please. And thanks for lining up. Appreciate that.

Hello again. I'm Linda Sutton. And I'm here to talk about Lower Redway. And I was lucky enough to have help finding two very old articles about logging in 1978. And I'm really astounded that we have not yet moved forward to protect this area.

Granted, it may not be your favorite place when you look at houses and trees, but, hey, this is a real old neighborhood. It provides shelter. It provides recreation. And it seems like it's a time of year when people love to come and visit you. So it has economic value.

It has the environmental stunning views. And redwood trees are the most dominant species in this neighborhood. And we want to see them protected. And they can only be protected by proceeding carefully on what we do in the future. I think that logging for obscene profits in a residential zone that has been residential for many, many, many, many years.

I think this is unacceptable and disheartening, and that the only way out of this is to strengthen the q zone. I appreciate your time and attention. Thank you.

Good morning, board. Good morning. I know it's not a public hearing, so there's no back and forth, but which I was super looking forward to. My name is Sue Maloney. I live in Redway. And same issue, old growth logging in Redway. Super important to a lot of us. I was initially outraged when I was about halfway up here. Got the call from one of our team members and said that the agenda item has been postponed. Really upset.

But I realized that it's ultimately probably a good thing because we want to get this right. And getting the Q Zone enforced and getting it clarified and getting agreement to enforce it is worth getting it right. It's worth waiting. So if I have to be driving up again and I get the call that the hearing isn't happening, that's okay. So earlier in this meeting, somebody said a couple of things that were actually pertinent to this issue. One was we want to be on the same page. We want to be heading in the right direction. Yes. We want that to happen for this issue. And somebody else mentioned, it's what makes Humboldt Humboldt is our old growth redwoods.

I encourage you to read those articles that Linda copied we found in the San Francisco Examiner, who was the Chronicle Examiner, I believe, back in 'seventy eight, and also in the Sacramento Bee. If there's one takeaway from this, if it's one thing we look at moving forward, Lower Redway is not timberland. It's residential. I can't be clear enough about that. When you think about logging trees, logging old growth, you think about forested areas, timber companies, big swaths of land.

Bigger than 42,500 acres, 500 acres, whatever. These are small residential parcels. They're less than an acre each. And so I direct us to a portion of the forest practices rules that says in 4516.5 letter F, it says that the forest practice rules do not apply if the acres are less if it's less than three acres, these are all less than one acre, if it's less than three acres and it's not timberland. So that's the area that we really want planning and this board to look at.

It's not timberland. I can't stress that enough. We also hope that this postponement is not to water the Q zone down. We don't want it watered down. We want it clarified and strengthened and enforced. We ask that the board work with Cal Fire for an MOU, a Memorandum of Understanding that says, yes, we'll help in this area. We can help direct things. We can help with foresters or with arborists. But the intention of the Q zone is to protect the large trees in lower red Way. Finally, if I have time, I want to talk about I manage an Airbnb right now, so I'm arguably involved with the tourist industry.

And here's what someone wrote recently. After the wedding, we're coming up from Sacramento. It's been on our bucket list to see the Redwoods. So I hope that whatever your bucket list is, that people are not working in other areas of the world to okay their destruction.

Thank

you so much.

Morning. Thank you for giving us some time on this. I understand the agenda item was postponed. My name is Patrick Mulligan. I am also a member of the old growth neighborhood association.

I'll keep this very brief because I understand many of these things have already been said. I just want to note that you guys have a whole bunch of letters from people in our Old Growth Neighborhood Association. I hope you'll read them. It's good that the agenda item was put aside because it seems like the staff report was incomplete. And I will just hope I think that the gist of most of these letters is that we hope you will continue to meet with the agencies to clarify the Q zone and end up with a memorandum of understanding or some kind of document at the end that will say yes, we want to protect the Q zone and stuff like that will not happen again. Thank you so much.

Hi. My name is Tricia, and I'm here also in regards to the Q zone. It's brought to my attention I'm new to the subject. Newly back home here in Humboldt. My family does live in Redway.

And as Sue had mentioned earlier, the the the area that the trees are in, with it being a community, I just and also, I'm gonna be a grandmother next month. And so I also feel like I also am having a voice for my my grandson that's gonna be here and grow up in that area. And the idea, just the one simple fact that one of those old growth trees being removed in a residential area affects miles of area, one tree. The weather changes for miles around. The environment changes for miles around.

And it affects the health of a tree miles away, and then that health of that tree is in danger. So I'm glad to hear about the Q zone being looked at, and hopefully, like Sue also mentioned, it's not being watered down. I look forward to continuing coming and following up on this and seeing what what's being done to make this a concrete plan for the voice of my son, my grandson that's coming forward. Thanks.

All right, good comments. Is there anybody else that has anything that they want to talk about in relation to nothing that's on our agenda? Alright, seeing that we're gonna take a few minute break so that people can go do what they need to do. We'll be back in about five to ten minutes. Okay.

Welcome back. Mr. Black, are we ready? Kaylee here. Hi. Getting there? Everybody's the chair today. Kaylee, are you ready?

I am. Thank you, chair.

Great. Staff, I guess, all set to go. Okay we're gonna do an open hearing. This is I am opening the public hearing. Proceed director Ford.

Thank you chair Wilson. Good morning. Good morning board members John Ford, Megan Acevedo and Rodney Gandel to present the safe parking ordinance for both the inland and coastal versions. This is not a new ordinance. This is an extension of an ordinance that has previously been adopted twice. Your approval today would allow us also to forward this to the Coastal Commission for certification in the coastal zone. I'm gonna turn it over to miss Acevedo now to make the presentation on this. It will be pretty brief.

Good morning, supervisors. My name is Megan Acevedo, and I'm presenting the safe parking safe shelter pilot program ordinance extension. So the purpose of this ordinance is to implement its implementation measure HIM 56 of the housing element and this allows a government agency, religious institution, nonprofit charitable organization, or private nonprofit organization to operate a safe parking safe shelter site to provide homeless individuals and families living in their vehicle or outside a safe place to park or sleep at no cost while accessing services. And we're proposing to extend the provisions of the adopted ordinance to 01/01/2036 and this is in line with the state's decision to extend government code section eight six nine eight point four, which allows the use of emergency housing building standards. The ordinance was first

able And And their the

extension to do on 01/09/2024 and that was for an additional two years. We are currently also making some amendments to the coastal to allow for this extension into January 2036. So, yes, we're extending the provisions for inland and coastal to 01/01/2036. We're also updating language to include current building code for emergency housing to both ordinances. And we made one update to the coastal ordinance to include a provision for gray water and black water disposal.

And this is to be in line with the inland ordinance as well. And that ends my presentation and I'm available for questions.

Okay. Bringing it back to the board before we move to public comment. Any questions? Supervisor Bone.

Can I make a motion?

Wait let's wait till after I get public comment and then bring it back to the board. Is there a public comment online?

There is not chair.

Can I make a motion now?

Is there any public comment in the room? Seeing none, I think a motion is in order. Thank you. Supervisor Bone, I'll please take it

make a motion to accept staff's recommendation with a question after somebody second. Second. Alright. Okay. With this provision, this doesn't address all the illegal campgrounds everywhere. Our boat launch and fields landing are out in small and everything else where they are dumping gray water and worse just on the ground now. So that doesn't affect that.

Correct. Those would not be legalized by this. That's why one of the important components of this, it has to be operated by a government, nonprofit, religious institution that is organized to provide those services.

Thank you. Supervisor Madrone.

Well, appreciate the extension and, you know, working on this ordinance to perfect it. I just wish the money was there to actually put in these camps. That's that's the real missing piece. They're desperately needed. There's a lot of big empty parking lots in McKindaville, at churches, and other places.

Back in the day, not that long ago, thirty, forty years ago, churches were a big component in helping unhoused people and things like that. But the problem is the funding for this kind of stuff has been disappearing. It was never really as as available as it would be nice to see. I know in McKinneyville talking with people that have camps, you know, in the woods. I mean, anywhere there's woods around any of these towns on the coast, there's camps.

And we're just kinda moving people along, but it's not really solving any problems. There's cleanup groups that get involved in cleaning up the camps or cleaning up the same places over and over again. I try to explain to the community that, well, you've got these illegal camps in your community, in the wooded areas. They're unsanitary. It's difficult to bring services as was mentioned here.

By having these, it creates an opportunity for services to be brought to people. But the problem is the funding to actually manage them and operate them and and make them work. And I wish there was a way to do that. Maybe profits from logging big trees and queue zones could go to something like this. But at any rate, I just wish there was a way that the funding was available because I think it's a it's an important part of the solutions.

So I appreciate staff's work on on this and I hope that at some point in time we actually can come up with the funding to actually get these camps running and for people in communities that have these illegal camps in their neighborhood, this would be a step forward to have a camp like this that's sanitary, has services, can bring services to people. That would be an incredible positive result of all this. But I guess we'll have to wait and see if any kind of funding starts showing up to help actually implement and utilize this ordinance. I appreciate the work on it. Thank you.

All right well to summarize we have a motion and a second to adopt the resolutions as provided in the staff report and find the inland coastal safe parking and safe shelter pilot program exempt from CEQA as part of its provisions. Also to find that the Inland and Coastal Safe Parking Shelter program complies with the general plan, our local coastal plan, the coastal act and basically make all the findings that this is in the public interest. Adopt the ordinance changes, amending both of the ordinances as referenced in the staff report and direct the clerk of the board to publish the post adoption summary. Is there any more discussion? Is there any objection to unanimous consent for the motion?

Seeing none, the motion passes unanimously. And we are on to the next item. Thanks. Oh close the public hearing. Otherwise it'll just go on forever.

Just a minute we'll start into the measures e recommendations. Our staff clear out. I think that might be our last in chambers item of the day. I guess there's an update to the status of the jurisdiction. Oh, that one's been done.

So this will be the last item of the day. Take it away, mister Quincy.

Think Alright. Good morning, chair, members of the board. Sean Quincy, deputy county administrative officer. Here with Jessica Messeel, assistant county assistant county administrative officer. We do have a short PowerPoint to provide and help guide this discussion.

Let's see.

Okay. There we go. Today's item will be to review recommendations for fiscal year twenty six twenty seven from the Measure Z Citizens Advisory Committee. This item will determine the projects that get funded for fiscal year twenty six twenty seven with the one time funding that is available. 20 Just as a side note, the we do have a three year spending plan agenda item that will come to your board later this year, likely in June or July, and that will guide allocations for the following three years.

But this is just for one year's allocations. Really quickly on the amount of funding that is available for 2627, there is $1,650,000 available. In the budget, we set aside about a half exactly a half million dollars. We had a $119,000 in revenue above projections for fiscal year twenty four twenty five. There's also 632,000 in savings from that fiscal year.

There's an additional 407,000 that was placed into the application pool. That's a result of removing the public works brush cutter project from measure z as a result of the successful passage of measure o. And quickly a snapshot on the three year spending plan. Just to give you an overview in fiscal year twenty six-twenty seven, these are set allocations. Of the $12,080,000 that is available, there's $10,460,000 that is going to county departments, and $1,620,000 that is going to community partners.

And so on to the fiscal year twenty six, twenty seven awards. This year, we received 14 applications, up from 11 applications last year. Total requested was $2,020,000. The that was reduced originally. The applications requested $2,600,000.

Last year, just for perspective, a little over $3,000,000 was requested. So reduced total number total amount of funding that's being requested this year compared to last year, even though applications we we received this year. There were four applications that were reduced during the process that we undertook with the Citizens Advisory Committee to judge applications. Fortuna's request was reduced by $20,000. Kamal Ambulance request was reduced by 325,000, and aviation had two requests that were reduced.

One for turnouts and one for the fire truck application. There were three applications that were rejected by the citizens citizens advisory committee. City of Trinidad's request for emergency water repair was emergency water infrastructure repair was rejected. Access Humboldt had an application rejected, and so did Bear River Rancheria.

Sean, is it Kamaa Medical Center was reduced or Kamaa Ambulance?

Kamaa Medical Center.

Okay. Thank you.

For ambulance service. So on to the recommendations. As you know, the citizen advisory committee goes through a couple rounds of ranking to get to their recommendations. This was a result of their rankings. Due to the amount of funding available, only five applications are being recommended this year.

North Coast Rape Crisis Team was the top ranking application. Three applications were tied for Tuna police for their school resource officer, Humboldt County drug task force for additional operational support, The fire chiefs association application, this and I'll just note this amount this 1,034,000 combined with their three year spending plan set allocation gets them up to $2,000,000 which is what their which is what they have around what they've averaged throughout the life of measure z per year. Canal Medical Center is also being recommended to receive 245,000. That is in addition to the 325,000 that they are getting because of the three year spending plan.

Can you

Go ahead.

Yes. I'm

sorry. Excuse

me. Through the board chair, whatever.

Supervisor Bowen.

Can you explain that last line about the $2.83 20 spending plan?

Yes. So the Canal Medical Center, because of our three year spending plan, they received $325,000 as a set amount throughout that each year for those three years. What the recommendation is today is to supplement that by an additional 245,000, which would bring them up to 570,000 or so. Is is that the did that did that answer the question? Yeah.

Okay. And so just a wider view of the disbursements for the year comparing county departments to community partners. If your board move forward with the committee's recommendation, the county departments would receive about 76% of the total amount of funding available this year. Community partners would receive about 23%. The reason I put this up there is because the the committee has taken a stance that they want to see this number trend towards seventy thirty.

They want it to be 70% allocated to county departments each year and about 30% to community partners and your board has shown some support for that too. And you know a couple years ago this was really lopsided. It was 90 plus percent that went to county departments and your board has taken a lot of work, taken a lot of action to reverse this trend. And so this is where we would be at for 2627 if you went with the committee's recommendation. These are the other applications that were eligible but did not rank high enough to be recommended for funding.

Boys and Girls Club, $20,000. Hoopa Valley Tribal Police, $84,000 for a vehicle. The aforementioned aviation application for turnout gear, Southern Humboldt Community Healthcare District to help them with some funding for the helistop, Arcadia Police Department for juvenile diversion program officer, and the other Department of Aviation application for a local grant match. And finally, these were the rejected applications here. And so with that, I know that we have a couple of members from the Measure Z Citizens Advisory Committee that are available.

I believe they wanted to make a comment, but I am also available for any questions that you might have.

Okay, board members. Let's start with questions for staff. Anyone have questions for staff? And then we have some of the committee members here as well. And then do you have any questions for committee members? I'll have one, but does anyone else have any? Well, we'll start with questions, and then we'll do you have something prepared you wanted to Tammy, did you?

Kinda.

Okay. Well, then, this is your moment.

Okay.

Take it away.

Chair Wilson and Board of Supervisors, I'm Tammy Trent, the chair for Measure Z. The Citizens Advisory Committee on Measure Z has completed the task of reviewing Measure Z expenditures and funding proposals. The report prepared by your staff and our recommendations, and sent our recommendations to you. A few of the applications we didn't feel met the intent of the measure, which you saw up on there. That gave a lot of the information that I had, so I won't go through all of mine.

But I wanted to thank you for your work and your consideration. Our committee thanks you for entrusting us in this work. And let me see. I think that was most of the stuff that wasn't already covered. And if you have any questions, we're here to answer any of that. This is my vice chair here. Do you want to say a few things?

Vice chair, Dylan Fehrabin. Thank you for the opportunity to speak. I would just add to that comment there. When we went through our ranking, we really tried to focus on the intent of the measure and go through a list of applications that fit it the best. We can always find a reason to want to fund all applications. It's not necessarily the easiest choice when you want to look at it from a heartstrings perspective. But looking at it from the intent of the measure, we try to do our best to rank them in our own personal views based on the true intent of the measure. That's all. Thank you.

We're going bring it back to the board if there's questions. Go ahead. Yeah, the committee or staff. Do you have any clarifying questions?

Okay. I'm gonna go back and I wanna and I and I warned the medical center I was gonna ask him a couple of questions. Back when we originally gave Kim gave the medical, it was to the ambulance. Now we're going to the the center medical center itself for the ambulance. And I believe ambulance is one of the one things we are required to for our for our citizens.

With that being said, I the original grant for the money, and that's where I was confused. The original grant fourteen years ago or thirteen years, whatever year it started, was $280,000. And and as we move forward, and at that time, we discussed very, very in-depth about putting a parcel tax or a tax initiative because what we've come up with is approximate 2,000, they say 2,000 residents it serves plus the traveling public, but about 2,000 people. And so that means we've actually subsidized the the ambulance service to almost to the point of $1,000 a resident up there. It's a lot of money.

And I'm I'm not saying it's not a bad good thing, bad thing, and everything else. But there comes a point where we probably should do what we said originally was look to put a tax measure together to subsidize much like Measure Z is. But with with it with it coming down and funding and stuff like that, I don't know what their total budget is, but $580,000 out of out of Humboldt County's, you know, tax initiative when it would you know, it it's when you look at that, I mean, that's quite a bit percentage of the fire, which is so important and and and and actually spreads out a lot more with, you know, 30 plus volunteer fire agencies. So I just I I'd like to know what the breakdown from the committee was on that, what the discussion was, and how we came up with. I'm not saying we need to pull it or anything else, but I just was there any talk of what originally was transpired 12/13?

I can't look to anybody on that. I was probably the only board member then, but I I do remember the talk because I remember telling Ryan. I said, you know, I'll support this this year, Nick, but they've they've gotta learn to stand on their own a little bit because it is a private enterprise. And we've always opened the door, and I can and I'll probably do this. But why didn't Eureka Ambulance or Arcadia Ambulance back in the day come to us?

Because they serve the hither lands also, and I mean Garberville areas that are are the same kind of situation, I think, on response and stuff. And they and a little bit of Northern Mendocino I know we go into. So it it's it's just one of the the questions I've always asked. I'm gonna keep asking it, and and I don't wanna deny my friends in Willow Creek anything at all, but I mean it's it's it's I don't wanna say it's a small population because we have the highway going through there, but I mean somewhere in there we need to get some funding. If if if a lot of the responses are to the highway, then we need to talk to the state.

We need to cause we can't we can't accept all this burden especially with we're increasing what we give them, but our funds are decreasing and we're finding ourselves not being able to to fund other things that or fund things fully that would probably be advantageous to the county as a whole. So just questions asked, no disregard to anything. But and Kimmel, I we did talk and we got know, I didn't wanna sideline them completely, but we did have a discussion beforehand.

Please reach on.

Through the

chair if I might.

So

there during this process, there was a little bit discussion about this going back to the original intent of funding this this project and getting some kind of a parcel tax put on the ballot. We'll note that the the Hoopa tribe does not have taxing authority to place a tax on the ballot outside of the for residents in Humboldt County, and so there would need to be some county and and interplay there where the board would have to approve placing that onto the ballot. And there would need to be some county staff planning dollars involved there so that staff could work on such a project. And obviously there would need to be coordination with with the tribe in order to get their approval to move forward with something like that. But there has not to my knowledge, there hasn't been any concrete decision made, especially from the from the tribe to move forward on that.

That is I think you're absolutely right, supervisor Bowen, in that that is The original commitment that was made with this allocation. Fourteen years ago. But it is something that we. Obviously has not come to fruition yet.

And

I'm I don't want to beat it you know, beat this deaf, I mean that that was if you go back and look at the original meetings and stuff like that, that was the intent. We were we wanted to help them. And they were instrumental in getting measures he passed. I mean, he's on the poster and and I mean, you know, I mean and he he banged on doors and everything else, and that should not be sidelined. But the reason is is why put a ballot measure together or anything else when you'll just give us some money?

And now we're talking, you know, more than a 100% increase over what it was originally. So and I don't know what their whole budget is or anything, but I mean, they're they're they're, you know, and I'm just saying it's something we should look at and and it's and like I said, I I spent a lot of time in Willow Creek and I worked up there for over seven years. So I I I was, know, especially going to Forks Of The Sam and everything else in a truck. I was really happy to know that if something, know, came to worse, they were there. But I mean, it's just we we need to do this as fairly and and and and what the intent was.

We can't bypass intent because everybody's forgot about the intent. The intent was there and we should follow the letter of the the word on this. So and and that was to help them, assist them, do a ballot measure and and so I mean, it's an important factor in this so we can apply some of this money to to the whole county. So otherwise we're gonna have, you know, this another ambulance company that's probably gonna come in and ask for money because they ask every year. Can we come in and ask for money? Don't know. So anyway, that's that's just where I'm I'm saying what everybody else probably wants to say but won't. So

And if if I might through the chair last time, when when we get to the to the motion of approving the recommendations that you all determine, it may be worth considering providing direction to staff to explore this because there's as you all know, putting a tax measure on the ballot is is a huge process to do, and there's a lot of implications there. But it might be directing staff to explore this with the tribe and then come back with our findings later on what it'll take to get a measure placed on an upcoming ballot.

Supervisor Madrone did you have something you want to talk about?

Yeah so I have a couple questions and couple comments. Have always also understood that there was a requirement of law that counties provide ambulance service. We don't have to provide fire service, but we have to provide ambulance service. What does that mean exactly? That we have to provide ambulance service?

That is a good question and I'll defer to our CAO maybe for that.

So we we have service areas designated for which we administer the permitting processes. Kamau is a permitted ambulance provider for that region. So you're meeting the mark of the requirements to have ambulance service available. There is no requirement for you to fund this to continue that but should Kamal go out of business then we have a larger problem out there of not being able to meet the muster on providing ambulance service.

So there's no set amount. It doesn't say you have to pay the full amount of providing ambulance service. You just have to provide it which leaves things in quite a kind of a weird little gray area I would say. So the undefined because clearly if we didn't continue to provide assistance, Kamal has said many times that even with this assistance, they're struggling to continue to maintain it. And it isn't just 2,000 residents.

It's Highway 299. A vast majority of the calls are medical calls on Highway 299, which are extremely expensive calls because of the nature of the the events. Often people weigh down the mountainside. I note in the application it talks about having rope systems and being able to do things. But ultimately, it's the volunteer fire departments that show up to help with those rescues and do all that.

And so this issue of providing these services in the Eastern County and probably in Southern County as well are are quite complicated because these volunteer departments, their districts are quite small. Blue Lake and Willow Creek, for instance, and I believe even Dinsmore and others. They're pretty small districts, but yet they're covering these vast areas when these accidents happen. And the ambulance cannot do this all on its own. So it's a complicated process that involves both volunteer fire departments that are underfunded as well as ambulance service.

And I do think that a ballot measure is in order. But frankly, also think our parks desperately need funding as well. Right now we're funding them. I mean, was $8,000 and I think we increased that to 100,000 for the year. But that's still a drop in the bucket to try and maintain all these parks and trails that we have that frankly by maintaining those parks and trails, we create a system of revenue support.

We bring it you know when we take good care of our parks and trails, then we bring visitors in to spend money that increases our general fund through sales tax and other things. So I do would like to see whatever motion is made to provide direction to staff to investigate, you know, a ballot measure that would include ambulance service and fire protection on these highways as well as parks and trails. But I will say that with the fire ad hoc, we have been having a lot of discussions about these remote areas and and how we can support our volunteer fire departments to be able to make these these responses on these state highways in particular. And yes, it is a state responsibility, I believe. You know, in the urban areas, you have plenty of EMS services, but not in rural areas and and a lot of it is on these state highways.

But it's also county roads like the Mattoll Road, and other county roads that aren't state highways. And those volunteer fire departments, whether it's Petrolia or Ferndale or wherever, are also struggling with these issues, Shelter Cove, Garberville, rest of it. So it's something that's really been very lively discussions at the fire ad hoc with the fire chiefs association and others. And I think we're going to have to raise some other money and the parcel tax seems like the probable place to go because we're not going to be adding any more sales tax anytime soon. I think we've maxed out where we can go with that one.

So I hope that whatever motion is made will include that direction. But thank you for answering that question. And so the 500 and some 570,000 that if we approve this recommendation of the $2.45, I believe it is, $245,009.14 would bring it to the $5.70. Is that for three years or is that one year?

That would just be for fiscal twenty six twenty seven, the upcoming year.

So that's the February being added to 2627 because there were cuts that were made in the last couple years that are part of the three year plan. Is that that correct?

That's correct. So the base amount of funding that they would receive next year if this application was not removed would be 325,000 And then you're being asked to Increase additional 245.

To make it for $5.70 for this final year of the three year plan. And in that three year plan, we have STAR Ambulance, I believe, on Highway 36 that is funded in the three year plan, I believe. Yes. But they have no new requests here.

They didn't think they could.

Absolutely. I think the same thing's true about student resource officers. Fortuna has their request in, but if other school systems in McKinnonville and other places thought they might be able to get some, they probably have applications in as well. But yet we're only looking at one because that's the only application we have. You know, I really very much do appreciate the work of the Measure Z Committee.

It's not easy. It's really like was said, the heartstrings get pulled, you know, on every one of these proposals. And it is it is not an easy thing. I will say that I've often struggled with this idea of how the committee is formed that almost everybody on the committee has a serious at least appearance of a conflict of interest, you know, in terms of how this stuff works. I mean, nothing else we do has that kind of a system where people that are actually supporting various funding around that.

But you know I don't wanna get into that. It's just always been kind of a an odd thing to me I will say. But how else are you gonna staff this thing with people that know what's going on in fire services and student resources and other things in our community. So I'm not looking to change any of that. I just and I don't think it's a financial conflict of interest by any means because I don't think any of these members on the committee personally benefit financially from any of that.

But it's always been kind of an interesting thing how it is made up and the decisions get made and stuff. And I think that the applications do get constrained because people don't think that they can get money from that. Because I know in McKinneyville they've been trying to get a student resource officer for a long time and it's never really happened. But they didn't submit an application either. So that is what it is. Well thanks for answering the questions and those are my comments. Thank you Mr. Chair. Okay.

Supervisor Bushnell and then supervisor.

Thank you. First of all, I want to thank the Measures E committee and also the folks that come to those meetings and have input, are the applications applicants. Secondly, I want to say that, when the ad hoc was created and we agreed on the three year spending plan, I know that applications can happen beyond that. And we see some, like this one with Kemah and the fire services. Services.

But I'm interested in how Kemah Ambulance how do you try to raise your if you could come forward, please. As supervisor Madron referenced, the STAR Ambulance also is always in jeopardy of not being able to continue forward because they don't have the funding. And so they themselves apply for grants, spaghetti feeds, all kinds of things. And I and I'm gonna ask Sean before I ask you a question. Did the Kamau ambulance get additional funds last year beyond what the three year spending plan was? I don't recall that. I don't think they did.

No. They did not.

Okay. So what has changed that you need $250,000 more? And then also, what have you done to try to fund yourself and alleviate utilizing Measures E funds beyond what your allocation is for the three year spending plan?

Yes, ma'am. Thank you, Board of Supervisors, for allowing us to come down and speak on the Measure Z and the ambulance service. So last year, we took a little over $100,000 reduction where the emergency services fire and everybody else along that wound up getting those funds put back into there. So last year, we did not. We stayed low.

With that staying low, that still put us at a deficit on the ambulance service with even our grants, anything else, third party revenue that we go to collect, dollars 392,000. So our typical budget for the ambulance service is right around $895,914 Now, with that being said, we're also slightly deferred because we do chase long term grants in there. We've got long term grants on our ambulances. And we had a couple long term grants for maintenance on the ambulances, some maintenance on it, and some grants for new equipment to help defer some of the cost for us to be able to operate up there. With that being said, out of the 895,009 and $14 we're able to collect $178,000 in a little bit of change in third party revenue.

Last year was $325,000 with Measure Z. And then with the $2.45 this year, we would still be looking for us to come up and fund another 147 plus on our own to be able to make it whole.

So I'm assuming that some of your riders or people that have to ride in the ambulance pay or their insurance pay which is often not you're not seeing the cost back that you need obviously it's a percentage is that correct

it's a percentage

so so your third party revenues refer to what

Third party revenue is all the insurers. Your car insurance, your health insurance, meaning like your Anthem Blues, all those. When you get in that accident, car insurance pays first, your health insurance picks up afterwards. Many of them, if we go out, will have either dead runs, meaning we go out and they have the accident and they don't want to go down there. We don't get paid for those. Those are long, they're expensive to go out, it runs the ambulance, let alone the transport time. Any time that we're out, we're paying for another ambulance service to come watch that area while we're down in Eureka dropping off patients on there. So there is a bit of a balance for extra additional cost.

I know that just talking with other ambulance services, I know that the revenues that you see often fall short. So I can understand that. And the service out there is very much needed. Like everywhere in Humboldt, we're very rural. And they're just needed. I'm wondering what kind of grants have you sought, and does that look like for your guys' ambulance service? Also, if you were not to receive if Measure Z wasn't here, what would you be doing?

Measure Z so that was something we've had some pretty critical talks with counsel and a few things like that. The original part for having the ambulance down on the Hoopa Drive was for the people, then it expanded out with there. If I was a private company, I probably wouldn't operate one up there. It would be a loss. I've operated ambulances in DC. I've operated them in Idaho and a few other states. But when they're close to a city, you actually have that turn time. You can make volume. Here, it's that transport that really gets us in that time frame of waiting. Grants wise, Rod, can I bug you on your grants for your equipment?

And then IHS was the one that we wrote for the ambulances. This was before we had GSAs that were being produced. So Indian Health Services, we wrote the need for the area, and they're the ones that originally funded that as a one time shot to have those newer ambulances.

Thank you. I don't need specifics on the grants. I just kind of want to know that you've applied for them. And have you been not successful in receiving? I heard you have a small amount, but your grant applications haven't been successful?

We have a there's a new state grant that just came out. They slowed down with this new administration being in. There's a state grant coming out that we applied for, and we're just waiting to see where the award is. And hopefully, that can offset some of the cost.

How much is that grant for?

The state one, I didn't read that one all the way. I was running with our grant reliance. It isn't much. It's between 80,000 and $100,000 at most.

Okay.

And that one's more for products, meaning infrastructure on the ambulances. It doesn't go towards labor or anything else.

Okay. Well, appreciate you answering my questions. I would encourage you that if you see some influx in your funding grant wise that you maybe try to put back into the Measures Z Committee and share those funds if you do get accepted for some of those grants.

Will do. Thank you, ma'am. Any other questions?

Right. I'll bring it to Supervisor Arroyo.

Thank you. This is a very niche comment, but it is something that I've been wanting to explore for some time. And I've been honestly a little bit frustrated that I think it's kind of on the back burner and it's related to the Service Authority for Freeway Emergencies. The acronym is SAFE, but lots of things have the acronym of SAFE. But that is something administered through our local transportation planning agency.

It's a stable funding source that deals with the call boxes and extra patrols and tow trucks for freeway emergencies. So anything on the state highway system and in the past, there have been some additional supplemental patrols and some extra things funded recognizing that in some places call boxes aren't even possible to install because of limitations. There has been, after a protracted effort to get additional call boxes on Highways 36 And 96, there are now some more. Yet we know that several volunteer fire districts and ambulances respond to freeway emergencies or highway system emergencies. And so it seems like it would be a great funding source.

And so Steve and I go to the Humboldt County Association of Governments meeting and every year in our audit we see that there's extra money in this account that hasn't been administered because there aren't projects for it. And so we've been trying to get to the bottom of whether this is a funding source that could be used to fund emergency response just like it can fund tow truck response and additional highway patrols. And it's been very frustrating. So I wanted to bring that up here in hopes that maybe we can have a little bit more of a push to get to the bottom of that question. If it's just ineligible, if that's not an eligible use, then we need to know.

And I'll stop beating this particular topic into the ground every time I get a chance to talk about it. But Steve and I have both asked for that. And when I go to the Humboldt County Association of Governments meeting, it's wearing my transit hat. So it's a little bit of a square peg round hole situation. But anyway, I really do think that that is worthy of exploration.

It's something that's funded through like vehicle registration fees. So it's a stable funding stream through that. Anyway, I see the utility of having the service be funded. I understand also how it's just so hard because there's so many great projects on this list. And every year we have to make these incredibly difficult choices.

And I thank the Measure Z Committee for doing the lion's share of the work on this. I do see the immense value in the ambulance services. I like that it's described as emergency ambulatory services. I'm not sure if that's make people more ambulatory. And I also want to speak to the value of I mean, every single one of these proposals, including those that were deemed ineligible, have immense value.

But the next in the line was that teen court diversion program, which has such incredible outcomes. And they have been able to be successful in finding some additional funding to keep that program going. But that is still a really incredibly important and valuable project. I was pleased to see that it got some good support from the Measure Z Committee. But I'll wait to hear what my colleagues think about the rest of it.

But I just wanted to mention that additional funding stream for us to all be looking into around freeway specific emergencies. And obviously, it's not automobile or I guess pedestrian or bike incident that occurs on the highway system, then it wouldn't be able to be funded by that. But at least a portion of those, I know the volunteer fire departments, many of them along those rural highways, a huge percentage of their calls are really specific. Just really want to run that to ground. Thank you.

Okay. I'll just take a shot at this a little bit. So just to pull back, there was another application for juvenile diversion program through the Arcadia jurisdiction. And I would say and I guess I do have a question as to what the difference between the Fortuna one is and, say, the Arcata one, which I would phrase I would kind of put the Arcata program as the Mad River Juvenile Diversion program, the Mad River Valley, because it includes Blue Lake and other areas. It's not just jurisdictional.

I mean, there's a lot of kids that come in from all over to our I mean, there's a whole crew of them take a bus down from Willow Creek every day. And some of those actually do and have taken advantage of the program. And so I see a pretty similar request in scale and scope. And so I'm just kind of wondering why there wasn't some sort of resource sharing in this. There and and is there such a fundamental difference between these two programs and the and the youth that they serve and the way they serve them that this would be so, you know, stark in the choice that was made here?

I don't know if the city of Arcata is here to talk about their specific application. I do know that the school resource officer for the city of Fortuna has been funded, I think, for nine out of the last ten years through Measure z. The juvenile diversion program through the city of Arcata has been funded on and off throughout the life of Measure z, has been funded for the last several years. And if I recall correctly, there is an existing juvenile diversion counselor through the city of Arcadia serving Arcadia city limits, and this would expand that service beyond the service area.

So this would create the Mad River Valley version of this?

Yeah. And one of the reasons I was hoping that the city of Arcada was here would be to kind of talk about the service area of this program if it's expanded. Do know, excuse me, I do recall that this would allow them to go beyond city boundaries to the unincorporated areas. I'm not I'm just

not sure exactly how far that would I had a conversation with city manager yesterday I guess maybe and this morning and he was saying that 60,000 would probably push them right into the zone. But in this conversation through through the Measure Z, it was only discussed around there was not a really reduction that was discussed necessarily. And so I guess the Ferndale or excuse me, the Fortuna one's been reduced by 20. So I'm just a little concerned about the equity and where we're putting this. And I would say that if you look at the funding, the Fortuna Police Department and then the drug task force is also through the Fortuna Police.

Is that on the case? Am I missing something?

Through the sheriff's office.

It's just through the sheriff's office.

Okay.

Appreciate that. So I I don't it's just a it's just I wanna emphasize, like, there was there was some heartburn, and I'm I'm hoping that there was a way for us to be able to fund Arcata's juvenile diversion program, has been which has gotten a lot of letters in their application of support from the schools that are not part of Arcata High School. So I mean, there's schools outside there that are very interested in that. And I just want to emphasize, there is a geographic sort of weight on the committee itself. Want to point out, we have like in for residents on committee members there's several from Fortuna, a couple from Ferndale, and then there's like one from Arcata, one from Eureka, and one from McKinleyville.

Right? And so the geographic weight is in that space. And I think we need to do a better job of diversifying our representation on there. But I do want to say the people who we have appointed to this are all very qualified people and do a lot of work in this in this area. But I'm just getting some some heartburn and some feedback from my constituents that it seems a little unfair, considering the work that's been done and the investment.

It's interesting. You get penalized for investing in this, in your diversion program by not being funded. Right? And I'm hearing from all the cities now that they're hitting where we were just having sort of budgetary issues the last couple of years, the cities are now facing some of those same challenges. So that's where I'm at.

I want to reach to the CAO and ask about, in the past, have we somewhat or sometimes over allocated a bit on some of these items in order to ferret out sort of these equity issues at the board level? And I'm just kind of wondering where that what's been our history on that?

I don't know that we could say there's been consistent history on that. You know, your board has has moved around where you really shift committee recommendations, you know, fairly significantly, which frankly speaking has caused in the past a little consternation with the committee. I think you have veered more in the last recent years of following more closely what the committee has recommended to you. But as you know it's completely within your board's discretion to move these allocations around however your board sees fit.

I appreciate that and I'm happy to bring it to staff some more and then we'll bring it back to the board for some discussion.

You. I just wanted to add to that that if your board chose to over allocate this is like the max of what we have available so you would need to direct us to dip into the reserve which is there for revenue shortages.

Okay I appreciate that. And as soon as what I'm going to try and get our us buttoned up for a minute and then we're going to go to public comment and we'll come back to the board. You think? Okay. Okay. I'm gonna you wanna go before public comment? Is that okay. Supervisor Bone.

Well, and I I appreciate the part that nobody on this financially. They benefit to help their community. So I I I understand what you're saying there, but I think the committee just find out. You're looking at the probably one supervisor if we total the years of Measure Z, the one district that gets the least amount of money. That's historically is always like like, you know, so with that moving forward, the betterment of the whole community, the county as a whole, I know we have to battle for our districts and I apologize District 1.

I think the county as a whole, I'm I'm supportive of all this. The county drug task force, and I'm gonna tell you that that item came to us five, six years ago, seven years ago, because the drug task force kept losing the Fortuna. Every time Fortuna got in a bind, they lost their their drug task force officer, and it became a serious problem. In the last six years, I read the numbers, and I forgot them. The Old River Valley and Fortuna specifically, the white drugs that have come off the street in that area has been overwhelming, and that's because the drug task force has been just ever since Tomlin was on there.

And now with the leadership they have now have just been killing it for for us. So with that being said, I appreciate that. As far as the school resource officer in Fortuna, financially, they don't have the tax base that let's say Arcata has. Know, I think Arcata is what ten, ten and a quarter, we're at eight and a half, eight seven five, I don't know where we're at. But and we're taking that money's you know, and making the best with our Measure Z. Hopefully with some of the things going on, we'll we'll see some more money. But I I think when you look at the whole picture, we're doing pretty well with this. Are we doing as well as when it first came out? No. Because we don't have the taxable dollars.

We're we're not getting those as much as we have. But I mean, to blame that on committee or not blame, but to to throw that out there. I mean, I know you're not saying. I know you're not saying, but you are saying it. And I don't think there's any bias on that committee. I I come to quite a few of the meetings as I know Michelle does too, and you can watch them online. Because I like to hear what's being commented on and stuff. So I I appreciate the committee. I I appreciate the the offers going forward. But and you're right.

School resource officers, and I and I believe Arcata has one now. And so I would you know, Fortuna's, I mean, that's the one thing I do get touched on. They touch on Ferndale. They touch in our letters. They go to they go to Ria Dale. They go to Scotia. They they they do a lot of, you know, fourteen, fifteen schools out there. So I I I appreciate what's going I appreciate what's going forward. And we now battle for the dollars that the committee has spent in excess of probably twenty four hours, twenty six hours coming together and tearing this apart and everything else. And we're gonna make decisions and changes an hour and a half. Like you said, we have very capable people there, and I I hope we respect that.

Thanks for that grounding. Appreciate it. Especially on the drug transport force part. Kaylee, do we have anybody online that wants to speak to this?

Thank you, chair. Yes. Caller 7718, I will unmute you, and you'll have three minutes.

So you're going to direct staff again to go ahead and deal with the ambulance situation? This is him again. Rex, I think, was the only one who's still in the chair at that time. That was supposed to be a one year event, and staff was supposed to come back with a plan to have a assessment district set up in the area, including a certain car route, I think, in the Trinity County, possibly, because that ambulance service goes over there and it's up to Stalin or something of that nature. So we're gonna do it again.

That that was supposed to be one year funding. And, of course, I'm I'm sure that the the people with the ambulance service would be told to not just go along with all these years of not setting up the specific district, which was and my understanding at the time was what the people said. They really don't want to have this because they don't wanna pay. That's not a reason. That's what they keep you.

And this this should be that. If you're gonna fund this for this, know, I kept the funding in half, wean them from it. It's just going to be a tough road. But that's the only way you're going to get their support and everybody's support to fix this particular problem. So regarding the school resource, I think we should have equity on that one.

Sounds like Arcata, is Arcata high bad? But there's all kinds of other schools up there, smaller schools and things up in the northern part of the district. And I think that money should be spent equally between the two halves of the county. I'm sure that the reason probably has their own person there, same as their state is there. I don't know.

But the money should be spent equally. And I think you've got to really do something about the universe. And that this has been ongoing for so many years that it's a naive finding. Luck with this. And inflation probably cut down your buying power for the amount of tax money you're getting by 40%, my estimate, from the time that we've initiated the measure. I used to attend all the meetings when it first started. It's interesting meetings to attend, not lately because there's really not much going on. But I highly recommend that you go ahead and take a good thing. I think you have some other things you can send, smaller things here and maybe cut the ambulance down by half of what it is and send the message.

I just just want to say caller 7718, I just want to say if you could work on your connection at some point, it just sounds like you're calling from another country or something. It's really it's very garbled and it's hard to hear and it's hard to know what you're saying. So in the future, you could work on that, that'd be great. So so we can get a clearer picture of what you're trying to give to us. Thanks. Next caller. Thanks.

Thank you. Caller 3053, I will unmute you and you will have three minutes.

Morning. Thomas Mulder here. Want to confirm you can hear me there. Yes.

I don't know if it

was just the last caller connection or

so it's tough following this, you know, different taxes and revenues our county used to bring in, and then that fund is dwindling and dwindling. I hear now that I'll say as someone that sat on a committee appointed or by board of supervisors, the Trellis Committee, it's pretty much a slap in their face to go against their funding. So I'd say ask the vice chair and chair of that Major D Committee to stand up to the podium and just take your hand and smack them across the face. That would be my interpretation of wanting to pick apart what you appoint them to do. If you wanna rake over the coals of what they do because you didn't get enough money in your district, you know, just get rid of it and just deal with it at the board of supervisors level.

I think it's disrespectful to people that do things for the county at a volunteer level or a level that doesn't provide compensation for their loss of work or the loss of fuel that they're getting there to even go down that route. So it shows true character, in my opinion, of the type of person that's sitting on the board to go there. That's just my personal opinion. If you want more funding, loosen up some of your regulations. Allow people to do more things. Back off of logging. Back off of cannabis. Back off of development. You know? Make more pro development housing opportunities. Then you'll get more funding because people will have money to spend. So just just food for thought. Thank you for the opportunity to speak.

That is all on Zoom, chair.

I'm not clear, but threats of violence are not something we encourage here at the board level. So with that bringing it back to the board. Is some discussion on some of these items? I guess I saw you guys kind of churning a little bit about the in terms of the discussion around the resource officers and the and the juvenile diversion and do you guys have any did you have any do you want to speak to that all? Either of the reps from the committee? Thanks.

And then I was waiting until after public comment. Okay. I'll let Dylan go. And then if you could come back to me, I'd appreciate it.

Sure, sure.

We got all afternoon. So

just a point of clarification or maybe some more information to address your question more specifically. When it comes to the Arcata resource officer position versus the Fortuna. The Fortuna resource officer, as Mr. Quincy pointed out, has been funded repeatedly year over year for a while. Additionally, Arcata, as in the presentation, does have a resource officer.

They would like to expand that, and they would love to have a second one is our understanding of it. And additionally, on top of that, the committee has had a policy, especially given the lack of increasing revenue, to not fund any new positions. So of course, we would love to be able to fund more positions. We know it's a very worthy cause. Most of them are.

But given the fact that we didn't want to fund new positions and the fact that Arcadia does at least have one currently, even though it may not be ideal, they do have something in place. They are stretched in. We get that. But the fact that they have one, Fortuna, Eagle River Valley, as Mr. Bone said, they do Fortuna does it says Fortuna PD or Fortuna restarts, but it does support the Eagle River Valley as well.

So both of them do have the support. Additionally, we always talk about trying to add find extra funding resources, find funding somewhere else to try to alleviate Measure Z, to try to give it an opportunity to fund other entities. And during the time of going through that process, we know that Arcata was trying to figure out that they had some money in the budget to fund whether it was I think some homeless funding or also maybe their water fix their water infrastructure a little bit as well. There had some money they were trying to figure out where to direct And we were hopeful maybe that our KWPD would reach out to them, because I know they did not fill out an application through their budget process, that maybe there was possibly some funding there that they could have used. So those were kind of some of the thoughts that I think we had in the discussions.

But hopefully that gives you a little more information.

And before Supervisor Bushnell, just want just a quick question, is so there is currently for Fortuna a diversion officer or

Resource officer.

Resource officer. Currently one.

Yes.

And this amount of money is to create another position?

It is just for the one resource officer that

they have.

So it's their payment, their benefits, their healthcare, all the costs that go in with hiring an employee not just their base wage that you would see.

Okay I really appreciate the clarification update and then supervisor Bushnell. I have your time.

So the CAA would like to let you know that you didn't do public comment on the audience.

Sorry about that. We're just jumping around. Is there anyone in the room that wants to speak to items on this agenda? This is your time. I apologize.

I had to come back up eventually.

I will

get to

you. And and also if there are others gonna kinda move in that direction so we can line people up. Thanks.

Mhmm. Chair Wilson and board, thank you. I'm Russ Brown, the fire chief in Fortuna, and the current president of the fire association. So in listening to a lot of the things I hear today, first, I would I would encourage you to go along with the advisory committee's recommendation for, like, funding the fire service. So let's start off there. But if you truly want equity, there is no more better spent money and measures needed than the fire service. Fire service covers every every foot of this county somebody is covering. So it doesn't matter whether you're in Alder Point or West Haven. It doesn't matter whether you're in Willow Creek or Shelter Cove. It doesn't matter if you're in Bridgeville to Petroleum.

And some of those places are every bit as remote as Hoopa. I don't wanna hear this remoteness unique to Hoopa. And for every ambulance, it goes somewhere 2.5 fire engines go there. So the fire service in Humboldt County truly is doing some wonderful things, some great departments. We're we're asking for $2,000,000 that's spread out over 42 agencies. We have one agency up here asking for 500,000 for one agency. So if you wanna talk about where to to spend your money wisely in Humboldt County, spend it with the fire service because that touches every single inch of this county. Thank you for your time.

Thank you for that comment. Yep.

Good morning, Lieutenant Jason Cato, fourteen police department. I'd just like to answer some of your questions I've heard here about the school resource officer position. This is to maintain our resource officer that we currently have. It's not a new position. It does incorporate the whole Eagle River Valley, Lolita, Ferndale, Rio Dell, Scotia, Hyattsville. It's just not for the for the city of Fortuna. We allow him to go out and go to those events, connect with those kids. And with us, it's all about diversion rather than enforcement. We want the officer to be out there. We want the kids to see that we're somebody they can come talk to, not somebody to be afraid of.

So that's the value of a part that we have with being allowed to go out to those other agencies that do eventually. When they come to high school, they come to Fortuna. So he sees them all from grade school up through high school. We have reached out and we have tried to get other grants and unfortunately we have been unsuccessful in getting those. So that's why we keep coming back to measure z. So I appreciate your time and thank you very much.

Thanks. Okay. Supervisor. Tammy.

I just wanted to say one more thing. This committee puts hours into listening to all of these applications, and that's what makes a big part of our decisions. You're here only hearing, you know, part of what we hear. So these decisions are made on what we hear out here. And so that's why I would recommend that you go with the committee.

That's why you have this committee, is so we can weed out, you know, the things that don't necessarily fit within the range of what the intent of this is. And we do put a lot of work and hours into this. So I just really want you to take into considerations. And I just want to let you know that, yes, we do have people from all the different areas, but there's not bias on this committee. You know, we treat everything equally.

All right. Thank you. Supervisor Bushnell. You're up.

Thank you. I I was going to speak to the Fortuna or Ill Valley officer, and I just wanted to reference to the application from Arcata that Arcata does have an officer. These are for two counselors, and I we funded they were funded somewhat last year, and it's an addition to the officer, which the counseling services they don't have in Fortuna, and this officer oftentimes is like that counselor. And I've had the opportunity since I've been a supervisor to interact with what they do in that area and beyond. And it's pretty amazing.

Additionally, I would love to see I think the Arcata intervention counselors are amazing. I met with them. I think we all did. And they do do some awesome work. They will have one, but they won't be able to have two.

Which one's better than none? And so I I just really appreciate the committee and all of what they've done. And I want to I'm gonna make a motion for staff recommendations, but I'm also gonna add to that staff recommendation that we explore some kind of a bond or tax to help with the ambulance services. As I do really appreciate Chief Brown's statement that one ambulance service getting $500,000 for one area. While I appreciate what you guys do because 299 is a terrible area and you guys respond to some terrible stuff out there, so do the fire departments that go with you.

And so if we could try to, you know, find some other funding for you guys, that would be amazing so that you can keep that service. So that would be my motion is staff recommendations for the current funding recommended by the committee and to investigate some kind of a tax measure to help with ambulance service.

I'll second the motion and I would ask if the motion maker would make that a little broader in terms of ambulance service and rural state highway emergency response that might include the Volunteer Fire Department.

Absolutely.

Okay. Thank you for that. And I I will say I think you know if we can be success through the chair. If we can be successful with that, which I believe we can be Because like with Metro, support taxes when they see they're gonna have a direct benefit from that. So that's on us to craft that and figure that all out. But I'm gonna say when we get that done, that will free up, you know, anywhere from 300 to $500,000 a year. And hopefully at that point, the committee might consider new positions. For instance, McKinneyville's in the county. It's not a city, so it doesn't have city revenues or resource. And it very much is a city in that it's 17,000 people.

And they deserve a resource officer. And I appreciate that what Arcata is trying to do is cover a broader area like the Eel River project you're all doing. So I think getting that done will be a wonderful thing We would be able to consider some new positions and have an even broader effort of student resource officers around the county. Lastly, I just want to say my apologies if I was offensive in suggesting that there might be bias. It just has always been interesting to me because for us, conflicts of interest and all public officials, our ethics, training, everything, it's just it's just it's an interesting setup with Measure Z.

But I do respect you all. And the work you do is phenomenal, which is why I'm supporting this motion because it is you you've done the work. And for us to sit up here and micromanage that and do a it it is something that feels feels bad. So my apologies for any part I might have played in suggesting anything that way. I I didn't mean it that way. I just it's it's something I've struggled with from a conflict of interest perspective. But I agree with you, Tammy, that you guys do an amazing job of setting your biases aside and really trying to look at the whole picture. And as was mentioned, the fire services keep getting a big chunk, and they cover the whole county. What is it? Forty two forty two fire districts.

So so with that, thank you for your hard work. I appreciate it.

Alright. Supervisor Bone. We have a motion and a second on the floor. To

the motion and the seconder, could we put a time? Because in 2014 we gave money to Kim Wan. We said we need to look forward to to some sort of track structure or something work with all the parties involved. Can we put a definitive date like six months or what? I know our staff is is is overburdened too but

So I think that could come when we when the agenda item, if I may, as the motion maker, I guess, we're gonna be bringing back the item for the three year spending plan, I do believe that's when we would discuss because we fund Kamau Ambulance now at a seven Oh,

we understand.

Can I finish? Please. Thank you. So I think that that item can come during that discussion which is gonna come pretty soon, right? Because we're done with the three year spending plan right now.

Yes. That item will come to your board likely in early July.

Okay. Twelve years later, the same thing was said.

So Different board twelve years ago.

So Fully fully agree, but I'm just saying. So Supervisor Arroyo.

Were you done, Supervisor Bunn? Contemplative.

As we go forward, since Supervisor Arroyo brought Michael Davies Hughes in here to the office of education, Should the office of education be involved in this since it's such an integral part of a child's education? Is the safety and well-being why they're in school? And I mean they're buying a new office building. Seem pretty well funded. I mean would it be worth our while to reach out to them and says can you guys help with this or do you have they have grant writers and kind all the parties should be involved and that that's the one person that touches all the school districts.

So I would probably should ask this last week. But if you guys could reach out to the office of education, that would probably be pretty helpful too because at the end of the day, it's all about the safety and the well-being of, you know, on the resource officers is the kids. And we know it's successful because the officer that's in Arcade is successful. The one in Fortuna is overly successful in the Old River Valley because I hear about it all the time. I'd appreciate that.

Great.

Supervisor Thank

you. Yeah, I want I'm happy to vote and proceed. And I do appreciate the work of the Measure Z Committee. And part of who gets appointed is who applies. So we did have a significant number of folks who live and work in Fortuna and Ferndale who applied, which I appreciate.

And I also think you all have clearly undertaken the effort to be as neutral as possible knowing that, of course, you have your communities that you live in and know very well. I do want to just make a distinction around the juvenile diversion and school resource officer. I mean, I don't doubt that the school resource officer plays an incredibly important role in making sure that youth get back on the right path. And the diversion programs do too, but they do it in different ways. And so I know there's increasingly more and more and more focus in our court system, both juvenile and adult, on diversion programs as not only a restorative justice angle but also an effort to keep people out of a system that often sets them on a path that is going to have lifelong consequences, but also saves money for that system.

So I do think the value of investing in diversion is high. It is true that we're not comparing apples and apples if we talk about Arcata's or the Boys and Girls Club application and the Fortuna Police Department's application. Because one is an officer position and one is a more specifically diversion focused approach. So I think in an ideal world, we'd be able to fund all of them. I do also recognize that we've had a lot of cities that have just started to say, you know what, we're not going to apply for this.

Because the logic here has always been we don't fund cities because cities have their own income streams. And as long as I've been watching the Measure Z discussions, that has come up and certainly in my time on this board. And so I think we just didn't even see applications from other municipal jurisdictions because they're like, well, it's like we've gotten the message that cities aren't going to be funded and these new positions. But I wouldn't call the Arcata Police Department or the Boys and Girls Club new positions in any way. So I think in the coming years, we recognize that we're going to see this discretionary pot of funding shrinking most likely unless something really wild happens with the economy.

And the reality is just that we won't have enough to go around. And so I think I'm also interested to have the conversation about that three year spending plan. But I'm hesitant to make big commitments even if it's something we funded in the past. So I'll just say that here. But I think that the recommendations are great.

If we could find a way to get that team court program in there somehow, it would be phenomenal. I was curious about the Fortuna PDs reduction by 20,000 and the Boys and Girls Club being 20,000. I didn't know if there was a relationship between those two things or whether that just happened to be the Okay. Sounds like it was just circumstantial. So my understanding was that we can't fund another layer unless we dip into our funds that are meant to address any funding shortfalls.

Is that correct? So we want to make these commitments as best we can hoping that the funding will be there and we have this reserve funding in place to do that. Okay. I'm ready to vote.

Okay but I do want to I do want to elevate that discussion a little bit about the difference between a resource officer and a diversion program. And they are different things and they look different and they feel different. And the people who are in them are trained to do different things and they actually have different pay scales as well in terms of the impacts they have on budgets. And so we're being asked to pretty much fully pay for an officer position versus not partially pay for a diversion position in this. And I think that is interesting because again going back to the city of Arcadia still paying, going to be paying fully for the position that they have now.

So there isn't any sort of like partial and partial. We're gonna pay fully for one city and nothing for for our existing position in in a different city. I think that that is of some concern too. And so I'm just wondering did you know maybe I missed it in the Fortuna application but is Fortuna putting in for a piece of this or is it are we fully funding this position from top to bottom? So and this is a question for the city of Fortuna.

Well I actually know.

No it's not.

I actually know the answer.

Okay.

So they're fully we're Measures Z would be fully funding it. If it is not funded by Measures Z they won't have the officer. They don't have the funding at all or any money to contribute to it. And two years ago was it two years ago I think Jason when measure z was not able to fund it they did not have a school resource officer.

I will say there's a difference between not funding and fully funding.

I understand.

So what you're saying is that if this was the if if $20 was was and 20,000 was taken off of this and put into say the Boys and Girls Club to get one more you know opportunity on the table, Would Fortuna then forego the what would then be $209,000 or two? Would that would they say yeah we can't do that?

So what I was talking with the city manager they do not have extra funding at all. They're on a hiring freeze. Fortuna's budget is not healthy right now at all, and I do know that there is a Fortuna City Council member here that could speak to that. But if we're gonna piecemeal things, then I also would like to ask Kamau Ambulance, could they forego $20,000 in function? I mean, we could do this all day long, but there is a motion and a second. And so I would like to vote

on

that if we could. But I know that Fortuna cannot fund any portion of the school resource officer. They are in very bad budget ways. Jason, do you have anything you would want to add? Thank you.

Sure. And I and I would say all the cities are hitting a wall at the moment.

So so I I believe our initial ask was for $20,000 more than you're seeing right now. So our initial ask was I think for 249,000. And we went through and we took out $20,000 of that to get it down to where it's at right now. So that is bare bones what we could do to to have this position with the city. And, yes, if we don't get the funding, we will not have a school resource officer in the county or in town.

We just we're already we're down four positions right now, and we're losing another officer in a month. Because, unfortunately, with the city, we are the least paid amount department in the county and everybody else keeps stealing our officers. So we can't find anybody to hire. We're going through that process right now. And in a perfect world, we'd have everybody there and it would be we we could have the position. But right now, we just don't have the money.

And we're familiar with the cannibalization of all professionals at It's every checking

for it though. All over the place. Understand that.

100%. Yeah. Okay and I don't mean to like pick on for tuna specifically about this? Because I want to first really say like these diversion programs or and or resource officers. This is like it really is the best investment we have in terms of well one of them.

It just pays back, right? This is very very important. So and everybody from the community members to committee members to this board, everybody wants our youth to have the best resources possible at every level. So I just but but I I do we do have two committees that are approaching it somewhat differently. And one is with a with a sworn officer and the other is with you know basically a resource diversion professional.

They're kind of two different things. And I'm just kind of wondering do you think in the future Fortuna might move away from the sworn officer version of this to to this more diversion method.

Well, one thing is our school resource officer does work with teen court. Yeah. He does a lot with them and trying to divert them into teen court rather than giving him a ticket and taking to juvenile hall.

Right.

He does a lot of that. So in the near future, right now, it's it's not a it's not something that we even can think about right now as far as what our staffing and stuff. But down the road, I'm not saying never say never.

Okay.

It definitely could be a possibility, but right now that's not what we're looking at.

I'm gonna say you're safe right at this moment. So I just wanna turn to supervisor Arroyo for just a minute because you're familiar with the application from the teen court. And let me ask you this question about like how what do you think and you're familiar with that service. Like what do you think that this impact of either getting or not getting this 20,000 is for that program.

Yeah. The request from teen court was much smaller here than what they needed. But thankfully they were able to get some funding needs met through a funding stream associated with juvenile probation. And so I think there have been some ways that that has helped them to diversify their funding. That's funding both the teen court and the teen lounge program, which are really complimentary services.

But teen court, I think folks are familiar with it. It works with first time juvenile offenders to have their matter heard by a jury of their peers for relatively low level offenses. But some of them are more significant if it's the first time offense. And so that can help keep folks, young people, out of the system with juvenile probation by addressing it and nipping it in the bud. So very, very, very highly valuable in that impact of having a jury of their peers, of fellow teenagers listening to what they did and what they're going to do to engage in some form of restitution has been shown to be incredibly effective.

So they have both a center in Eureka and a center in Fortuna and offer services in a really large area. I know they do work very closely with the school resource officer to try to push cases that fit that description to them. So I know they're also able to stretch the dollars really far. And they do need ongoing funding to be able to maintain their Fortuna location. So I don't know exactly how the shift has been accommodated with the probation related funding and this and kind of what exact gap this would fill given that they were able to realize that.

But I think the value of this is immense. And I do serve on the multi agency juvenile justice coordinating committee, which is always an awful, and the juvenile justice delinquency prevention committee. I'm pretty sure I got all the words right. And both of those are spaces where we hear about the value of these diversion programs, including the Arcadia diversion program, and just how effective they are at working with young people to keep them out of juvenile hall. And then the chance for people to go on and be part of the criminal justice system after that is significant.

I don't

know if that answers your question.

It does. Have a suggestion. I would like to add that one because it is next one on the list. And the reason I'm doing that too is because it is leveraging a huge amount of volunteer resources. I mean I'm just saying like when we spend the little bit of money that we spend on something like this not just comes back in spades in terms of what we see in terms of the response from keeping kids diverted.

But it also engages young people in the process as volunteers and creates really engaged citizens at a very young at a young age. And so I would ask that we just if we dip into that reserve for eighteen six six

six

there that would be I would be amenable to that amendment to the motion and I would be supportive of moving forward.

So I as the motion maker again I'm asking that we call for the motion however is anybody here from team court from this request and I'm curious with what supervisor Arroyo said that they've received some funding and they're not here I don't think and maybe they don't need the funds as much as when they first applied. And I would really caution us against dipping into our reserves, which this board set that parameter. And I understand that the diversion qualities are there. Likewise with Trinidad, I mean, me, Arcadia, you have a $50,000 hiring bonus for each officer that comes in maybe your council would be willing to forego those hiring bonuses to fund your counselors up there and you do have a school resource officer in the Arcata area. So I don't know how my board feels but I don't want to dip into those funds that's parameters that this board set was to not utilize those funds because we don't expect Measure Z to be healthy going forward as predicted by the sales projections.

I just want to speak to the funding ask from so they were able to they did have to significantly reduce the request from the probation related funding source and further reduced it in that meeting to be able to fully fund a different program that had a parenting education focus that was offered by different partner agencies. So I definitely saw the goodwill on behalf of the Teen Court folks in saying like, you know what, we'll take a step back with this, a different meeting where we were determining funding. So while they did get some funding, they reduced their requests significantly. And I do think part of that was in hopes that this would come through. So I think what Supervisor Wilson has suggested is something I could live with.

I know it's kind of a slippery slope to go and start amending recommendations. But because it's just the very next one on the list and the amount is fairly doable.

I'm going to ask for that amendment or I'm going to ask for an amending motion.

I have a question though to Kamal Ambulance. Could you come back up, please? Thank you I'm just curious because you said that you are anticipating some grant funding coming in so if you were to take a reduction in twenty thousand dollars to do team court to to fulfill this $20,000 do you think that it would you would not be able to run your ambulance?

We're 400 almost 400 short last year that we're making up that we've had to be in the negative on. To address your question on there, the grants are not guaranteed on that one. But if this is sitting into that and for help for the county, we would be okay with that reduction of the 20,000 to there with that also being said we took a big reduction last year just go forward to

I understand however your your ambulance service gets three times what the other ambulance services So I'm gonna amend my motion to reduce Kamau ambulance by $20,000 and fund teen court with that. Would be my if the motion make seconder is okay with that.

No. I mean, the grants are not guaranteed. And we won't know until fall at best on there.

If you were successful at getting that grant money, that would and then you were to return or reduce your amount by 20,000 at that point, it would put it back in our reserves at that point. I would just I I like what you're trying to do. I'm just thinking they're so far in the hole already covering such a great territory.

I understand, Supervisor Madrone. I however, I think they can function. And I think we've heard you hear this board that they will continue to function. And I don't know. Dipping into our reserves, something that we've said we're not gonna do is difficult.

Yeah. Everything's difficult I'm about just trying to find a way to not put them further in the hole. While I support the team court part, I don't think 20,000 out of reserves is gonna be a big hit. I frankly don't. I think we can handle that. So I'd like to see the team court be funded. But I'd like it to be in regards to if you receive the grant money, then you would reduce the amount you're getting by 20,000. And that would keep our reserves whole. Hopefully, you get that. We've had some conversations about a number of grant opportunities over the last couple of years, much of which went away with the federal shenanigans, I'll call it. So that's unfortunate. But we've been working hard to try and find other grant monies out there.

So I'll amend my motion that I'm gonna tell you that the STARR ambulance does spaghetti feeds continuously and bake cells to even be able to function. And so I hope that you guys are putting that same effort in, and I appreciate you guys more than anything. It's just difficult when you have as an ambulance that's on Highway 36, which is just as remote or more, no cell service out there. And they continue to do whatever is necessary because we gave them a parameter amount, and they've stuck by that. And so I appreciate you guys so much, and I know that 299 is a terrible highway and so is 36.

So if you do get grant monies, please put back into the measure z. We will. So I'll amend my motion to include $20,000 out of reserves with the understanding with Kamala Amulets, if they get any grant money, they'll be putting back in to make that up so that we can fund Teen Court.

Second agrees. Thank you very much.

And I don't it's not a not to be nitpicky, but I think it's eighteen six six six Yeah, but there was a leftover of

So the amount needed to fund the teen court application.

Okay. So there's been an amended motion on the floor. Is there any need for more discussion? If you, yes. Then. Hold on, Supervisor Bone, go ahead. Yeah, you're on.

I'd like just to. Alright. So I can get a clarification on what we're doing up here.

I was just going to ask possibly for a recommendation in the motion to replenish the reserve or with expenditure savings and or extra revenue before going out to next year's applications. Agreed.

Of course.

So the motion will be to staff recommendations with the amend the extra motion to fund team court the eighteen thousand six six six and then any reserves or extras that come in will replace that reserve money and come out ambulance if they get a grant will put back into measure z.

There was some direction to have more discussions around the

tax measure.

Okay, appreciate that. Rounding back to what Measure Z has done for this county which has been to give us a real boost in terms of expending or having funds available in the most rural parts of our community. And we needed to do that because there just isn't a tax base in those spaces. And so the fundamental push was for us to be able to do that. Both from a public safety perspective and in a livability perspective from you know having to have those services.

That those services do support everybody in the county. They support people who don't live necessarily in our most rural areas but we all travel through our rural areas. We all they're in it intimately. So we're we're one big county family that's trying to support one another. I wanna What's also unique about measure z is the transparency in the way that we do these processes.

As you can see sometimes a little painful, sometimes a little this, a little that awkward this that and the other but it's far more transparent than we see in other jurisdictions that have the same sort of tax measures so I want to appreciate everybody in that in those efforts so that's been very very good. And everybody that's been that is involved in this does it for the right reasons. I want to be really really clear about that. Whether we have you know discussions about where representation is or who or what. Every person in that process is heartfelt and authentic in their desire to try and balance these things.

And I always say the hardest part about even this board and even committees is like, you know, we're just put in a position to spend less money than we all need to do all the services that we feel like needs to be done. And all we're debating is really strategy. We all want happy and safe and fulfilling communities and that's what we're striving for. And before we take the vote, Supervisor Bushnell has something to say.

Supervisor Michelle, that's good. I just wanna say to the community and anybody listening, spend local. This money comes from local spending in our local stores. And this is what folks voted for was to have this public safety tax. Well, we have to spend local. And our all of our stores and every unincorporated, unincorporated need it today so that we can have measure z tomorrow. Please.

Alright. With that, a super

I appreciate Teen Court and I've been able to watch it for years and I think we'd be remiss if we didn't mention the judges that donate their time. Chris Wilson was big and then I've got I've got a very good friend. I won't call him out because he'll be mad. That helped fund teen court for years to the to 5 figure donation annually because he saw the the difference it made. So as as we move forward, they they and asking them, I mean, if you wanna help Boys and Girls Club, May 9 is their annual fundraiser.

So it would be great, their annual fundraiser and auction that you can not have to listen to me at because I'll be out of town for the first time in I don't know how many years. But anyway, I would hope that we all support that because Boys and Girls Club I think they have they're everywhere and they do a great job and if you I was just

there the other day, they're doing it on limited dollars. So And I appreciate this conversation centered on how we can help our youth. Is there any need for roll call vote? No. Is there opposition to unanimous consent to the motion and second? Seeing none, motion and second passes. Five zero. Thank you so much. Thank you everybody for your hard work. Really really appreciate it. Thank you. Oh and then we are gonna be going into closed session in seven minutes. Right?

Correct. Yes. Okay. So we'll be back here to read that in promptly at 12:30.

Okay. And okay. Then We'll do that then. We'll talk about it. Back in session.

Mister Black, are you available and ready to go? Kaylee, you're rocking. Okay. Please read in closed session and then we'll take public comment.

Thank you, chair Wilson. It is the intention of the board to meet in closed session pursuant to California government code section 54,957.6 in order to review the county's position and instruct its designated labor negotiators. It is also the intention of the board to meet in closed session pursuant to California government code section five four nine five six point nine d one in order to discuss existing litigation in the case of Corinne Morgan Thomas and Doug Thomas et al versus County of Humboldt et al. Case number one Colon22DashCVDash57255DashRMI.

Great. Is there any public comment online?

Yes. Caller 3053, I will unmute you, and you will have three minutes.

Afternoon. Thomas Mulder again. I want to confirm you can hear me in the chambers there.

Yes.