Board of Supervisors - Regular Meeting

All right, Mr. Black, how are you doing? Good, you're ready. Kaylee, you're good? Yep. Is everybody on the dais ready to roll this forward? Good. Any more rhetorical questions? Okay, good. All right, let's start with a welcome, it says here on my to-do list. Welcome. to the Humboldt County Board of Supervisors. I'm gonna hold on a second till we get folks that are out front there settled down. Maybe you could, you know, wave at them. Come on in. Welcome, all right. Welcome to the Board of Supervisors meeting of Tuesday, June 16th, 2026. It is a couple minutes after 9 a.m. And let's start with a roll call, please.

Thank you, Chair. Supervisor Bushnell? Yes. Supervisor Bone? Yep. Supervisor Madrone? Present. Supervisor Arroyo?

Here.

Chair Wilson?

Also here.

All are here.

All right, great. The next on the agenda is a salute to the flag, and looks like Supervisor Bone is ready to go, so I'm gonna have him lead us off. Okay. All right, Kaylee, can you give us some virtual attendance instructions, please?

Yes, Chair. This meeting is being conducted in accordance with the Brown Act and applicable state and local requirements. 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 hand at the start of the item you wish to comment on. If you are joining by computer or mobile device, please use the raise hand feature to indicate your desire to speak. When it is your turn, you will be unmuted by staff. If you are joining by telephone, please press star nine to raise your hand. When recognized, you may press star six to unmute yourself and begin speaking. Please state your name for the record before making your comment. The board asks that all participants conduct themselves with respect and courtesy. Comments should be directed to the board as a whole and limited to the time allowed. That is all, Chair.

Thank you. Let's see here. A couple of things. Do we have any modifications to the agenda?

Good morning, Chair Wilson. There's one modification. Item H1 is being pulled from the calendar and will return at a later date.

Game Commission won, okay, great. There it is, all right. And then also of note, we have two time sets this morning, 9.15 for the Supervisor Academy Awards and for 9.30 for the Public Works Bridge Naming Presentation. So we have a couple of minutes before 9.15, but I think we could probably to help us through consent items, the consent calendar. So if you are commenting from the public on the consent calendar, raise your hand now, and we probably have a few presentations, or proclamations on this, so let's do the only one that I have noticed here that we're gonna do today, which is the proclamation recognizing June 19th as Juneteenth Day, and I think Supervisor Arroyo's gonna kick this one off.

Wonderful. All right. Do we have someone here to receive this proclamation? Okay, I'll go. I'm sorry.

Through the chair, we are waiting on someone that was supposed to accept trying to join via Zoom. Okay.

As well. They have joined via Zoom or they're still trying to? They are still trying to. They were provided a panelist invite. Well, Chair, I'd be happy to wait on this for a few minutes if you want to do it towards the end of the consent calendar.

Sure. Why don't we just pull it from the consent calendar and do it after?

Great. Let's do that.

Let's do that. We're going to pull that. Can we do that? We're gonna pull that from the consent calendar and then let's just jump into everything else that's on the consent calendar. And so there's a notice of vacancy for an at-large member of the Audit Committee, so anyone who's interested in that. And there's a letter of appreciation to John for his service on the Humboldt Audit Committee. And there's some other things on there too. But do we have any comments from the public on the consent calendar?

We do.

All right, please bring them in.

5288, I will unmute you and you will have three minutes.

Good morning, Ken Sawatsky. Unfortunately, I've got some feedback I'm gonna have to take care of here. i had to run on two phones the other phone was not able to raise my hand so i had a backup the important thing i wish to speak on today was regarding your first time home buyers loan uh potential project you've got going there i think that's through planning and building uh that is something that i've seen on here before but i haven't seen it be implemented i think we're going for a second round of funding i strongly suggest that any of those things we're able to get get put out there instantly it's very difficult for anybody especially the younger people to buy a home or even many of your employees with the county to buy a home because they're so expensive and because the pay rates are so low so strongly support getting this particular money but not just getting it but uh instantly setting up programs and getting the money out there are times of the essence when it comes down to these things is one of the times when you can help your uh your employees have special fast tracking for them i don't have a problem with that being a priority to enable your workers to have a good workforce housing or housing that they could get affordable the other thing i noticed there was another thing under the sheriff's where you have outside autopsy services and i find this is going to be an interesting one where the the sheriff I heard they don't really have anybody to exhume the thousand dogs or show they're buried out there on Mirandas, but it's gonna be important to get that done. That's something that'll need to be done. I don't think that it's just gonna go away, so thank you for the opportunity to speak on the consent calendar today.

That's all on Zoom, Chair.

All right.

Is there anyone here in the room that wants to speak on the consent calendar? All right. And if there is anyone else besides this person, then please line up, thanks.

Good morning, my name is Phyllis Coy and I'm here regarding consent calendar item number 26-577 concerning the lease agreement with the Humboldt County Fair. If the second amendment to the lease agreement with the Humboldt County Fair Association is to shorten the lease or lower the amount of the lease, please do not do it. If the Fair Board is stating that they did not make much money 2025 fair that is partly or mostly because they failed to collect $18,886 from buyers at the 2025 junior livestock auction. That item appeared in the April 30th, 2026 issue of the Ferndale enterprise paper. At the Humboldt County Fair Board of Directors meeting on April 27, 2026, in their finance committee report, item 6B, the majority of this amount is for sales to what appears to be an individual in the amount of $3,445 and a business in the amount of $15,008. Note, this business currently has three locations, Riadale, McKinleyville, and Eureka. It is my understanding this $18,886 is now considered a bad debt. If this $18,886 had been collected, then the 2025 fair would have shown a profit of over $19,000. Again, please do not shorten or lower the lease agreement. I will make copies of the minutes agenda and the newspaper article for each of you and drop them off later on today. Thank you for your time, respectfully, Phyllis Coy.

All right. Again items on the consent calendar. Seeing no one else in the room that wants to speak to this can I get a motion to move consent please.

I'll make a motion to move consent minus D 1.

Is there a second.

Second.

Great. Is there any discussion from the board on any of the items on consent. Seeing none is there objection to unanimous consent for items on consent. Seeing no objection, 5-0, pass those things. And we are moving on to our time set for 9-15. Oh, we have to wait two minutes? Well, everyone get ready, it's coming. Oh, they're on now? All right, you know what we're gonna do? We're gonna do the polled item. That's all right. So Supervisor Arroyo, wanna take it away?

Oh, great. I understand that Mo is online to receive this. Hi, Mo. All right. And we have some folks in the room as well. All right. This proclamation is in honor of Juneteenth, whereas on June 19th, 1865, Union troops arrived in Galveston, Texas, to enforce the Emancipation Proclamation, informing the last enslaved African Americans of their freedom, more than two years after President Abraham Lincoln had issued the proclamation. And whereas in 2021, the United States Congress officially recognized Juneteenth as a federal holiday, Juneteenth National Independence Day, marking a historic step towards national acknowledgement and healing, recognizing our shared history, and acknowledging the realities of past and present inequities that is essential to building a more inclusive and thriving community for all. And whereas Juneteenth, also known as Emancipation Day or Freedom Day, commemorates the end of slavery in the United States, it stands as a powerful symbol of resilience, liberation, and the ongoing pursuit of justice and equality for black Americans while honoring their strength, contributions, and perseverance throughout history. and whereas Humboldt County is dedicated to fostering an environment of understanding, respect, and inclusion, and recognizes the importance of acknowledging our individual and collective experiences in history to promote a more just and unified community, and whereas Juneteenth serves as a reminder that work remains to be done to ensure equitable access to opportunity for black residents, including the pursuit of strategies that improve access to education, economic development, housing, and land-based initiatives, Whereas in 2026, Black Humble and the Eureka chapter of the NAACP will host a multi-day Juneteenth cultural festival from June 18th to June 21st, featuring educational workshops, cultural performances, and community gatherings. The Juneteenth Day Festival, a cornerstone event celebrating Black liberation and community empowerment, takes place at Eureka's Halverson Park on Saturday, June 20th. Juneteenth is an opportunity not only to reflect on the struggle for freedom and civil rights, but also to celebrate the strength, creativity, and leadership of black communities in Humboldt County and beyond. Now, therefore, be it proclaimed that the Humboldt County Board of Supervisors does hereby recognize June 19th, 2026 as Juneteenth Day in Humboldt County and encourages all residents to commemorate this day through education, community engagement, and a continued commitment to liberty and justice for all. And we can clap. And I think we might, since I mentioned Mo, Chair, are you okay with her speaking first?

Sure. Mo, are you there? We're working on our technology here.

I'm here.

All right.

I don't put my camera on. Can y'all hear me?

Yes. We can hear you. And we can't see me. I don't think the camera portion is going to work. Is that right, Kaylee?

That's fine.

I see you in my mind, if that helps.

Hold on one second. There we go.

We did it. Thanks, y'all. So yeah, good morning. My name is Moe Harper-Duzier. I'm here on behalf of Black Humboldt. And so I just want to say thanks on behalf of our community members and our awesome hub that continue to pour into the work of Black Humboldt, which is to empower, enlighten, and entertain the black and brown community. This is maybe our fifth, fourth proclamation. Appreciate that ongoing recognition. Juneteenth is certainly more than a date on a calendar. It is something that's been celebrated by Black communities for a century, well before the federal government decided to make it a holiday. And it is an ongoing reminder that freedom has never simply been handed down. It has been dreamed of. It has been organized for, fought for, protected, celebrated. And now it gets to be passed forward by black communities across generations, which is a really empowering feat. And it asks us to remember the truth of our history while also asking what kind of future we are brave enough to build. and for black humble that work is local it's living and it's deeply necessary we exist because black and brown communities on the north coast deserve more than survival we deserve spaces where our joy is not an afterthought where our culture is not treated as a special occasion where leadership is trusted and sought after and our children can see themselves reflected And Juneteenth is one of the many spaces that Black Humboldt builds where people can gather without having to shrink, translate, or explain who we are as a community, very much with an emphasis on Black folks being far from a monolith and us taking space in many racial, ethnic, and different countries all across the world. And so culturally affirming space is not a luxury. It's a form of safety. It's a form of health. It's a form of self-determination. It allows communities to name our own needs, to design our own solutions, tell our own stories, and build programs, gatherings, and institutions for us and by us. And this is the exact work that Block Humble is committed to and we put a lot of love and strength and power into. And through our Juneteenth Cultural Festival, you know, this is kind of how we can start to create that representation here in Humboldt County. And so this year's festival theme is honoring the past to see the future, which reminds us that remembrance is not passive. When we honor the past, we are planting something. We are planting the truth. We are planting resilience. We are planting joy. We are planting a future where black and brown communities have the resources, space, and autonomy we need to thrive. And so Juneteenth is this weekend, but it's only one small part of an ecosystem that we are continuously building. Black Humble is working to grow our youth leadership through programs that give young people the opportunity to build skills, organize with purpose, explore culture, and step into their own power. We invest heavily into Black and Brown artists, especially local artists, through exhibitions and showcases. We host a lot of cultural programming. We have entitled it our Arts and Legacy Programming, which helps preserve community memory, oral histories, and creative traditions that often go undocumented. And we have a large emphasis on supporting Black and Brown entrepreneurs through business development, vendor opportunities, market spaces. We have a Black business fund. We have an ongoing relationship with Humboldt Made as well as the Small Business Development Center because economic empowerment is part of liberation work. And Humboldt County is a unique area that has a lot of entrepreneurs and small businesses. And so we want to continue building wellness. through mutual aid programming that responds to real community needs from culturally grounded healing spaces with an emphasis on access to healthy food, resource sharing, community care. And we are also dreaming really big with a vision of a innovation hub which we're working towards a permanent home for Black Humboldt's work, a space that we can hold events, youth programs, commercial kitchens, maker spaces, and so much more. And so what Black Humboldt is building, it's not just events, but it's infrastructure, and it's not just programs, but it's ongoing pathways And it's not just moments of celebration, but we are a living ecosystem of care, culture, memory, and possibilities. And we have seen what becomes possible when a community is given room to breathe. We've seen young folks step into leadership. We've seen artists feel witnessed. We've seen families find connection, elders sharing their stories, and our entrepreneurs grow. And so that is the impact of Black Humble. And today we accept this proclamation with gratitude, but also with an invitation. And so we invite Humboldt County, local businesses, organizations, institutions, whoever, everyone, right? To support this work, not only with words, but with resources, partnership, sponsorship, volunteer time, in-kind donations, spaces. it's really important to support our juneteenth cultural festival and our ongoing programming with the recognition that every time you support black humble it goes right back into your community and you know to share our work to bring your people to our events proclamations matter because public recognition is important the recognition also needs to be paired with investment where And when we invest in Black-led cultural work, we invest in the health of our whole region, right? Because once Black folk are free, we're all free, right? When we support culturally affirming spaces, we strengthen the social fabric of our cities, our county, and our collective future. And so may this recognition be a commitment to continue showing up for Black community, for cultural equity, for racial justice, and for the freedom work that Juneteenth represents. May it remind us that liberation is not a finished story. It is something we practice, protect, fund, celebrate, and build together. And so thank you for honoring Juneteenth for another year. Thank you for recognizing Black Humboldt. And I hope to see all of you at some point this weekend celebrating in person and having a good communal time. And hopefully the sun will shine. So, yeah, thanks, y'all.

All right. Thank you for that. Is there any comments from others? All right. What do you want to do next?

I'll just say I know you emphasized all the work Black Humboldt's doing and all the cool things going on over the next few days as a special form of recognition and community building. But if folks want to see the calendar for that and learn more, they can go to blackhumboldt.com. And I was just looking at the calendar myself and looking forward to seeing a film and community discussion and some events all throughout the next several days.

Was there a photo that happened or anything like that? Are we all good?

I think we snapped a photo of Mo talking. Michelle did. Thank you. And we'll make sure to get the proclamation. We'll get copies to y'all after this meeting.

And because we added this back in, I want to make sure that if there's any public comment, either online or in the room, this is the time to do that. Do we have any public comment online on this? We just heard.

We do not.

All right, anyone in the room? Seeing none.

I'll make a motion to accept the proclamation. I will heartily second.

All right, well, it's been added into what is the consent calendar, right? No, we did it separately. Boy, it is one of those mornings, I tell you. Well, that's great. I just want to say that I'm proud and grateful to just play even the smallest role in this community recognition and associate myself with everything Mo put out there in terms of just a real appreciation of the arc of history and and appreciation, again, not just of all the sacrifice and the work that people have put in to promote liberation and freedom for not just one group of people, but for everybody. And because we all are connected and we all need to work together on this. And so, and just the testament of the Not, again, emphasis on the looking back, but really looking forward. Again, the sacrifice, but also just the joy of that. And I'm just, I'm grateful and thankful for this small piece of this and its connection to everybody in all of our communities. And with that, we have a motion and a second. There's no more discussion on the floor. Is there any objection to unanimous consent for passing of this resolution? Seeing none, is unanimously passed by the Board of Supervisors, and we look forward to all the events that are happening this weekend. Please look them up, please go to them, they're super fun, and enjoy our community. All right, with that, I think what we might do is go to our 9-15, is that what we're gonna do, and we're a little bit behind schedule, but that's how it goes sometimes. All right, let's do it. All right, so, CAO, you wanna lead the charge on this one?

Sure and then I'll toss it over to Dr. Clark who's been leading this group of folks. This is our fourth round I believe. I'm looking at you Jeremy to give me a wink and a nod. Our fourth round of leadership cohort who has participated in a very intensive program led by Dr. Jeremy Clark and Rassam. It's a unique opportunity for Humboldt to be able to offer such a robust training program and leadership development program in Humboldt because traveling for us is not easy and it can get costly. Very grateful to HR for taking this on and continuing to develop our staff in positive ways. So with that, Jeremy.

Thank you, CAO Hayes. And on behalf of the director, I am Jeremy Clark, the manager, I almost gave myself a promotion, of the Organizational Development and Effectiveness Division of Human Resources. We got a lot to cover for your board today, so we're going to be really quick. If I could ask our Supervisor Academy participants to maybe form a line. Behind me, what we will do is I'll just make some comments, just updating the board on the Supervisor Academy. Rosam will read your name, and then Nevada will hand you the gift certificate. Gosh, what's wrong with me?

The certificate, and then we'll line up in the well, so that way we can shake some hands and get a photo.

So thank you all very much for that. So we do have a deck. Thank you very much, Kaylee. Rosam, can you? Can I say this really quickly?

Do they give certificates?

Okay, so you are correct, CAO Hayes. This is our fourth cohort of the Supervisor Academy. We started this probably, gosh, two and a half years ago or so in partner with the Eureka Chamber of Commerce Foundation. Since then, we've had a tremendous amount of success with this. We've had just about every department participate in this Supervisor Academy in one way or another. We will get specific in the next slide, but over the last four months, this group of folks has committed themselves to a journey, not just an individual journey, but a journey to capture the most up-to-date management and leadership skills to help lead in a dynamic environment. Some of the courses that they took you see here. I also want to just take a second and shout out our HR colleagues for Human Resources 101. This is an innovative training that they put together to offer to our supervisors to support them. While not everyone is here today to accept the award, we thought it's important to recognize them. And so you see all the names of the 23 participants reflected on this screen now. And as they say, without further ado, we will go ahead and start reading some certificates.

Thank you, Jeremy. It's my pleasure and honor to recognize the following Supervisor Academy graduates. Laura Agnoni.

Laura's doing the people's work.

Doing the people's work. Tracy D'Amico.

Thank you, Jeremy. You got it. Thank you, Tracy.

Thank you, Tracy.

Michael Demickle.

Daneth Davis.

Daneth.

Jessica Duke.

Jessica.

Amanda Hinkle. Sarah James.

Sarah James, doing the people's work.

Courtney Carnes. Sarah Kintz. Shaolan Loosmith. Jennifer Mager. Terrence McNally. Jennifer Murrell. Alithea Noland.

James Rockwell.

Duncan Rossum. Kristen Smith. Sarah Vogel. Meredith Wolf. David Risley. Felicia Zimmer. And last but not least, Sinden Sussman.

All right, squeeze in a little bit there, squeeze in.

We're gonna need some layers of folks, so like. Everybody on the side and even more, everybody over here, you gotta get in front because you are. Okay, I'm gonna take a bunch. You look fabulous. All right, got it.

If everyone wants to make any comments, I believe now is the time. You do not have to.

Yes, we will have public comment online first. Anyone online?

No.

Okay. Anyone in the room? Public comment time.

Hi, I would just like to make comment and to reinstate what both Jeremy and Rashom and Zach have shared with you and the importance and the knowledge that was gained out of this program. I've been with the county for a while and I, learned so much that i did not know about hr about our community about the other employees that are putting in a lot of hard work for the county and so a lot of times you might hear and see these kind of things but having someone on your staff go through it It was very valuable, a really great opportunity, and I would encourage you all to encourage other departments to really push their people to do something like this.

All right, we'll take comments from the board. Supervisor Madrone.

And the third person here representing today is

My name is Nevada Gomes. I just currently started as an extra help for.

Great. Well, welcome. Thanks for being here.

Thank you. Supervisor Arroyo.

Thank you so much to all the participants and all the departments for not only, I know it's a shuffling around of duties to be able to carve out the time for dedicated training and to really make this happen. And I know it's just one more thing on top of everything else you do, right? Just want to express my appreciation to each of you for bringing your best clearly while have a rapport with one another now. I can tell when you're interacting with each other even up here just a little bit that it's hopefully forged some bonds. I so appreciate the effort to really develop skills to mentor the next folks coming up behind you or with you in this organization. We all do our own little niche of community service and see the the people that we work with and the clients and the community members that we work with on a daily basis. But it's so nice to get to know more about what this organization does and all of the services we really put out there in the community and how valuable they are. So I hope it's been valuable for you and I'm so grateful for everyone participating and for Human Resources for continuing to work to make this available to folks.

Supervisor Bushnell.

Um, I also want to say, congratulations. I know it's a huge time commitment. I've tried twice and not gotten there. Um, and I think that it's really great and I can tell also what my colleague said that it forms a bond between all of you working together and it's just great for the organization. So congratulations.

So you guys are boom. I think the big thing behind this is we've done this for years now, as earlier stated, but it's a commitment we make to our employees, or hope to make to our employees, both financial and for your personal growth. And with some of the other comments that were said, the best part about that, we have 2,243 and a half employees. I'm still waiting for that half employee to run by. It's a lot of people, and it's amazing out in the public how many people. My son works for the county. Do you know him? It's like when you go out of state. I got a brother who lives in, you know, Pasadena, do you know him? No, but anyway, the idea of putting names behind for me to hear the names called out, a lot I knew, some I didn't. One that was called out reminded me the other day that I went to school with her dad and knew her dad real well, which is, connections are great in a small town. But the commitment the CAO's office, HR, has made to our employees, let your other employees know this is available, because at the end of the day, we get a better employee and through that we get a better product for the people that we serve. And that's all we're trying to do is just try to make a seamless, better project and kinda hear less that that department sucks or that department sucks. We wanna hear, and I get the phone calls all the time. I had a great experience. I went right in and got what I needed. And I'm getting those a lot more than I get the other ones. So I think we're making a difference. And I say we, we're not doing nothing. We're just allowing you guys to grow in your positions. So congratulations. Thank you to everybody that makes this happen and the investment we make. And that's the one thing, even in tough times, we're still gonna make investments in our employees. So thanks, you guys.

All right. I echo all of those sentiments. I think, I know from experience that, cross-departmental trainings of all kinds are very helpful, not just for the information that's being transferred, but really it is those human connections. What happens oftentimes is those relationships, because you're going through an experience together with people you just don't interact with in your everyday. So it's just really important. It creates those bonds between those people that are helpful when someone gets a phone call into their department and it's not really relevant to what they do, but it turns out that they might know somebody who knows somebody within the departments that can just help refer people because they have those experiences through these trainings, right? And just the understandings of who might know something to help somebody through whatever it is, through this grand work that we do to try and hold civil society together and move it forward. And as a team, in the best way we can, And so, in the long run, it's also not just interdepartmental within this organization. People move on to other places, and those connections actually are healthy through the entire community. And we've seen years of this work, and those connections have been very, very helpful. um because we do we are a government organization built on frankly a bureaucracy that you can't move have five people get together to do a thing without creating a bureaucracy of some kind it's just the way the world works and what we're trying to do is make that as efficient and effective as possible so that we can deliver services uh in a way that we hope that people can really recognize and be grateful for and support the endeavor that we're in. So thank you to everybody for your commitment to that, to yourselves personally, to the people around you, to this community. I really, really appreciate it. And with that, can I get a motion for accepting and receiving this report?

So moved.

Thank you.

Second.

Thank you. Is there any objection to unanimous consent? Seeing none, thank you and congratulations. Very grateful. Another round of applause. Okay. Awesome, we're on to the next item.

Yes, yes. Okay, sorry.

Testing, okay, there we go.

You got it. So if we could go back to the deck and I just wanna take a second to sort of acknowledge your board and thank you This work could not be done without the support, obviously, of your board, obviously with CEO Hayes, Director O'Hannon, and so we've been able to have an impact with the Supervisor Academy, and then last year we introduced Edge, Humble's Edge, targeting our high-performing population, and now we are very excited to share with you a new program that we've come up with, and this is called our Senior Leader Development Series. The ask here is that your board consider just offering your continued support to this initiative in hopes that this will continue to allow us to build on the success and the participation and engagement that we've had with other departments. So we will be really briefly, we will be really brief, excuse me, but I'd like to sort of just begin by expanding on what I said earlier by thanking our departments because through this partnership we've been able to have a significant impact to the agency and impact on the work experience of numerous staff at the County of Humboldt. So we just wanted to take a second to say in the work that we've been doing, we want to say we've been able to have 18 departments engage in our academies. We've had over 100 Supervisor Academy participants now. with this cohort that we just graduated. Humboldt Edge, we've had 70 participants. Our learning labs alone have had over 300 folks attend those. That is remarkable. And in response to our engagement survey data that indicated that our staff felt like they would benefit from health and wellness and stress management, we were able to sort of deliver on those and we had over 240 folks participate in that. This is a phenomenal impact, and so we want to, again, take a second to thank our departments. You see that SLDS here? We have 25, and there's a question mark, because that's why we're here, and that's what we're going to walk you through. And we hope, as I stated previously, that we can continue to build on that and attract 25 folks. I am going to turn it over to Rosam. Rosam is going to walk you through some of the research that underpins this important initiative.

Thank you, Jeremy. So as Jeremy was pointing out, I'm going to offer a quick overview or try to contextualize what the challenges and needs that gave rise to the Senior Leader Development Series, or SLDS for short. And so our research findings say that the need for creating an increasing organizational agility are paramount to prepare for the future. As we were saying earlier, the complex and dynamic work environment requires it. Another trend is declining public trust in government, which as you may be aware, can lead to significant operational and service delivery challenges. There's also budgetary constraints and resource strain, which as our own organization goes through that challenge, the cascading effects are becoming more and more evident. There's also strategic talent development and workforce transitions and disruptive technologies and artificial intelligence, which as you may know, are an immense opportunity for optimizing our service delivery but at the same time they may lead to significant risks when not managed properly thanks now that was external external research internally we have two main sources of data staff survey which as you can see mirrors a lot of the trends and challenges that external research provided. A need to build trust and leadership, performance management and recognition, addressing stress management and wellness, improving teamwork and collaboration, and reducing barriers to applying learning. And finally, we also had surveys from department heads, and as you can see, over two-thirds of them participated, including three elected department heads. And the trends you will see on the left-hand side are... included in the external research findings. Here, they are prioritizing retention and staffing, technology and AI, and work modalities, which is referring to remote work or hybrid work. and our department leaders are recognizing the following leadership competencies are absolutely necessary to lead us into the future. They are strategic planning and change management, team building and conflict management, talent development and employee morale, collaboration across departments, effective communication, and effective decision-making. To make the direct connection between how this data informed the design of the SLDS, I'm going to hand it back to Jeremy.

Thank you, Rosam. So in short, what we really wanted to just convey to your board is that the SLDS was designed really and informed by the latest research findings in organizational research. And also there's significant overlap between a lot of the challenges that are being faced sort of nationwide with public sector agencies. and also challenges that we're facing. And so we feel like this really, this being the Senior Leader Development Series, provides sort of the optimal solution to some of these challenges. So as you see here, I won't really get too deep into this, but the Senior Leader Development Series is really intended to support developing a culture of learning and supporting a strong succession pipeline and optimizing the employee experience. Because happy employees are more engaged employees, more engaged employees are more productive employees. That's the math on that. And by targeting the population of senior leaders, so think assistant directors, deputy directors, and in some smaller departments, program managers, because this population is responsible for really overseeing the day-to-day operations in our departments, and that positions them to be great change agents. So these are some of the program objectives here, as you see. They just really build on what I previously said. And then what makes this program really, really innovative is it's the first program that we've done where there's a book component to this. So the book is The Leadership Challenge. This is one of the most widely read books in leadership development space. We're also gonna pair this with the leadership practices inventory. which is a 360, which your board is familiar with, but it allows us to sort of streamline our own 360, and then we can deliver this 360 at each stage of development whether they be an individual contributor or high potential to our supervisor academy and then when they become senior leaders in the senior leader academy. There's also gonna be a development guide, so there's gonna be some focused development initiatives for the participants in this. So just really quickly, you see it here, I won't touch on it at all, there'll be a journaling component. These groups will meet every three weeks. We reached out to departments to get their feedback on what would be minimally disruptive. We believe that we struck that balance. to support the application of what they learn. Coaching will be available. And probably the most innovative thing is everything that the participants explore in this, every leadership concept, it is going to be directly tied to real life County of Humboldt organizational problems. I have to tell you, I've been in this industry for a while, I've yet to see a leadership initiative that is this precise relative to the application of principles to challenges. And so we are really, really excited about it. This is the curriculum here, just to give your board an opportunity to take a look at what the folks will be learning in here. We feel like this broad but balanced curriculum, again, really strikes that equilibrium between the skills that are necessary to solve the county's challenges in the current moment while also building leaders and capacity for the future in this really dynamic public sector environment. And so, again, the ask here of your board is that you just consider supporting this initiative and signaling to our department heads that this is a priority. I will just say that typically a program like this would cost between $5,000 to $6,000 and it looks like the final figure on this is gonna be about 2,500 per participant, and that is with every session catered. That's tremendous value in the world of leadership development, because my team and I, Director O'Hannon, we really focused on that, and actually in that vein, I'll say the Supervisor Academy, when we rolled that out, that cost was about 1,100 per participant to departments. This cohort that's open now, by the way, $500 per participant. So we are certainly trying to be responsive to the current budgetary environment. So that being said, we really do thank you and happy to answer any questions that your board may have.

Okay, before we go to the board, I'm gonna reopen public comment and do we have any public comment online?

We do not.

Is there any public comment in the room? All right, I'm gonna bring it back to the board. Supervisor Bushnell.

Thank you for that presentation. I'm going to make a second motion to accept the second presentation.

I think the motion is to support.

Support.

Okay. So to support the SD, excuse me, SLDS program.

Okay. I'll make that motion. All right.

Great.

I'll second. And to be clear, how... How is this, is this already something that is an additional request for funding, or is it able to be accommodated within the, I apologize, I was missing that part.

Yeah, no, no problem at all, Supervisor Arroyo. This is definitely not a request for funding. And actually, late last year, the director and I emailed department heads letting them know that we were going to be rolling this out later this year, and we threw a budget number out there to allow them to budget for this. So the ask is really, again, just to provide through your collective support behind this initiative and recognizing sort of the nature of the moment that we're in in public sector employment and the importance of endowing our leaders with the skills necessary to succeed in a dynamic environment.

Awesome. Well, I appreciate that the outreach happened within departments and that there was such robust feedback about it too. Thank you.

Thank you.

Yeah. I support this whole hardly. The list of program objectives was spot on, I thought so. Thank you, Chair Wilson. Yeah, the five that you had there. And it is dynamic right now. And we should recognize the role that AI is playing in that. And you're right, it's challenging because sometimes that we get lulled in and sort of tricked that it's going to solve issues or... And sometimes it makes more problems in this current context that we might imagine. I just want to recognize that even we are receiving, I just want to say we don't have staff necessarily as supervisors in the way that maybe other counties do. We have great staff in that we have the clerk of the board, but we don't have personal staff. So sometimes I find myself trying to lean on these new technologies to try and help my productivity. And I will tell you, they make mistakes. It makes mistakes. It makes you think that you're doing something that you're not actually doing. And I see it reflected in product that's coming to me from other places too. And even in emails we receive from the public now, I just want to point, you can feel it and see it. It's something that we're going to have to manage for and deal with because sure, There's some parts of this that make us feel like there's some productivity, added productivity. But at the same time, it is... we have a long ways to go to really figure out how we're going to function with that if that's how we move forward. That's not the only technology that's changing as well. So I want to appreciate and the science of how we work together as human beings. So I just want to thank you for keeping that dynamic information system abreast of the current times and bringing that to our staff and to our leadership. And so I guess this is me supporting that concept and messaging to our departments that these are important programs and that participation is supported. So we have a motion and a second. Is there any objection to unanimous consent to that support? Seeing none, you have support.

Thank you, Chair Wilson, and board members. We greatly appreciate that. We will go back to work. Can I say something, because it's really bothering me, and forgive me if this breaks protocol, but in the academy recognition, there was a certificate that was not read, and I just want to acknowledge IT Director Scott Irving, because his name was not read, and he dedicated a lot of time to this. I think it was just a small oversight, so appreciate it, Scott.

Yeah, I appreciate Scott, too. All right. All right, thank you very much. Thank you. Yeah, and we're gonna, we're only a half an hour behind schedule, which I thought, when I looked at what we put out for the schedule, I thought it was optimistic, it was ambitious, it was ambitious, but only a half an hour behind schedule, that's not bad. So, with that. Yeah, there was unanimous consent, yes, there was. I heard no objection to unanimous consent. Is there an objection? No, all right. Let's move on to the next item, and I think this is brought to us by Public Works. And we're gonna just take one minute while people clear out and hopefully move away from the doors. Yeah. Good morning, Mr. Seaman.

Good morning. Hank Seaman, Public Works Deputy Director. This item is the proposed memorial dedication for the new bridge over the Matoa River in Honeydew.

Can I just hold on one second? Does anyone want to volunteer and just let folks know that it's noisy? Yeah, yeah. Don't close the doors. All right. Director Beck is directing people away from the doors. All right.

Pardon the interruption. So this agenda item involves the proposed memorial dedication of the new bridge over the Metol River and Honeydew for George Heinle and Vernon Edward Shin. And I have a short staff report with slides. So the Honeydew Bridge is located in the southwest portion of Humboldt County, and it's a gateway to the Lost Coast, and it's also a hub and a junction between three major county roads in a very rural part of our county. The former bridge at Honeydew was built in 1920. It was a single lane truss bridge. It had a very unique design, a camelback truss design that gave it historic significance. And it was also very much a visual landmark for the area. That bridge needed to be replaced. It didn't meet design standards for safety considerations. And so the project to construct the new bridge was a major undertaking, and I just want to give recognition and appreciation for public work staff, Tony Szigeti, Angie Sorenson, Andrew Bunchew, and the whole public works team, McCulloch Construction and all the subcontractors, Bobby Shin, the Edders, who provided right away, both for the permanent bridge and the temporary bypass, AS WELL AS OUR PROFESSIONAL CONSULTANTS IN CALTRANS TO HELP MANAGE THE FEDERAL FUNDS FOR THE PROJECT. SO IT'S A 386-FOOT LONG BRIDGE, AND IT WAS A BIG PROJECT. There's a board adopted resolution that creates the process and the criteria for considering naming or having memorial dedications for bridges and other infrastructure and property that the county manages. And so being aware of interest for the new Honeydew Bridge, we published a notice inviting nominations. We received two nomination packages, and those were included as attachments to this agenda item. So the first nomination was for George Hindley. He was born in 1846 and died in 1914. George and his wife Margaret moved to the Metol in 1866 and they established the ranch that became the Hindley Ranch in 1872. They raised sheep and they grew apples and George went on to be elected Humboldt County Supervisor five times and he served a total of 17 years. and one of his priorities was advocating for improving the county transportation infrastructure, and he was one of the driving forces for the project to create Fern Bridge across the Lower Eel River in 1911. We also received a nomination for Vernon Edward Shin, born 1920, he died 1967. Vernon was a rancher in the Matoa Valley, lived his life there, except for serving in the US Navy during World War II, and he was wounded in service. Vernon Edward Shin was active in local and state wool growers and cattlemen's associations, the Matoa Grange, and also served on the Upper Matoa School Board. Vernon Edward Shin was owner of the Honeydew store for a while and that store remains in the Shin family and is really a community hub for the whole Honeydew and Southwest Humboldt County area. Public Works believes that both nominations meet the criteria in the board adopted resolution. You know the primary criteria is did the individual make a significant contribution to the broad pattern of local history and or cultural heritage. And Public Works believes that both nominations meet that primary criteria and Public Works recommends that the board approve a memorial dedication for both George Hindley and Vernon Edward Shin and we propose that there be signs located on each side of the bridge and At this point I suggest or recommend that the chair invite representatives from each of the families to come to the podium and address the board. Thank you. All right we can do that.

We have anyone here that wants to speak to this families. Please introduce yourself and.

Hi, I'm Robert Shin, owner of the Honeydew Store. First of all, thanks for the new bridge. It's cleaned things up, made it a little safer, a lot quieter. You don't have to listen to the planks rattling. The Shins and the Hindleys have been friends for well over 100 years. We continue that today. And they sold us water rights or we wouldn't have a store there. probably overcharged us by a dollar, I think. Anyway, just thanks for the board for doing that and considering my dad and Mr. Hindley for this. Yeah, there's not many that contributed that much to the valley. We tried to today and I continue to run the store. So anyway, thanks for your time. I appreciate it.

Anybody else?

Good morning, welcome.

I am Lisa Heinle, and I am joined today with my husband, Lawrence Heinle, his sister, Pamela Kraut-Kramer, and their cousin, Jack Lakin, who are all Supervisor George Heinle's great-grandchildren. We thank you today for inviting our family to the Board of Supervisor meeting. In the packet we submitted to you, we indicate a history of influence not only in the Matole Valley, but also in the Eel River Valley and Humboldt County as a whole. As an early settler in the valley and a founder of our sixth generation family ranch, Supervisor George Hanley was by historical documentation a hardworking, honest, and dedicated family man and public servant. More specifically, his role as extensive landowner, businessman, and recognized leader for both the Matole Valley and Humboldt County. Family patriarch George Hanley left the gold rush in the Trinity County town of Weaverville and embarked on a journey that would forever change not only the life of he and his family, but also the generations ahead of him. He and his family of 13 homesteaded the family ranch where he raised livestock and tended orchards with the perseverance that only a rancher could know. In 1885, George Hanley would be elected the county supervisor and then again in 1900. He was reelected and continued his incumbency until his unexpected death on March 14th, 1914 at the age of 67. Many believe that George Hanley's greatest accomplishment as supervisor was overseeing the construction of Fern Bridge in 1911. His obituary states, quote, Mr. Hindley worked hard for the construction of the big concrete bridge over Eel River, and after it was built, he was often referred to as the father of the bridge. That beautiful and substantial structure will long stand as a monument to his memory, end quote. I believe that each of us today can affirm as well as appreciate his efforts in the perseverance of the bridling of the Queen of Bridges. In late 1913, according to Jerry Rhodey's research as presented in Southwest Humboldt Hinterlands, George had planned the extension of the Bull Creek Road from the boundary with the second Supervisorial District westward over the junction of Honeydew Creek, the Main Metol, and the Upper North Fork. He had been well-positioned with his thousands of acres of ranch land stocked with cattle, sheep, and hogs, and his 40-acre orchard of apple, prune, peach, and walnut trees to take advantage of the connection to the Northwestern Pacific Railroad Station at South Fork. However, he was not to see the plan quite to fruitation as he unexpectedly passed away in 1914. After George's passing, his sons Joseph, Doc, Heinle, and Henry followed in their father's footsteps by continuing with the ranching of sheep and alfalfa hay. Doc's and Henry's farming and ranching legacy continued with the third generation of Heinle's as Doc's children, CJ, George, Harlan, Jean, and their families took over the reins. Through the generations since, our family has persevered and worked the land and changed our business dynamics as our world changes. As a fourth generation, my husband Lawrence and I are continuing the farming traditions that were set in place by Lawrence's great-grandfather, grandfather, uncle, aunts, and father. We currently organically grow hay, wheat, and rye in the majestic Matole Valley, and are proud to partner to Serral Grains, to Alchemy Distillery, and Arcata, who is only 80 miles from our family ranch. In July 2022, we were humbled and appreciative of the California State Fair and Expo. California Agricultural Heritage Club awarded our family their 150th year Milestone Award. And then just this last fall, we were surprised and honored the Humboldt County Farm Bureau acknowledged Lawrence and our family ranch as Agriculturist of the Year. The Heinle Family continued legacy achievements and awards have all been made possible by one man's dream for bettering his community, his family, and generations after him. We owe a heartfelt thank you and are appreciated by the encouragement and enthusiasm of our community, family, friends, museums, historical societies, agencies, and individuals who researched, wrote letters, and signed petitions recognizing Supervisor Hindley's contributions and advocating for the Hindley family proposal. Our DNA runs so deep in the soil of the Matoa Valley, and our entire family is appreciative of the honor you're considering today by bestowing to our great-grandfather, George Hindley. Should you vote in favor of arning him with his name on the north side of the newly finished Honey Bridge, we respectfully request that the bridge marker be historically accurate by reflecting his contributions to the County of Humboldt and read as Supervisor George Hindley. Thank you.

Okay. Thank you for those presentations. I'm gonna move this to public comment online and then back to the room and then we'll bring it back to the board. Is there any public comment online?

There is not.

All right. Anyone who wants to speak to these dedications in the room besides who we just heard? All right, seeing none, we're gonna bring it back to the board and first there was a request for some signage edits I say I would say so you want to speak to that Hank.

The request to honor George Heinle as supervisor George Heinle is feasible and we can make that happen.

All right. Bringing it back to the board. Supervisor Bone.

Yeah. I've had the honor of hanging around the Matoa Valley. I think it started like 53 years ago at the Send Properties and then have been involved. This is a 27-year project. I remember when I first got on the board, we had meetings at the Honeydew School talking about designs and trying to keep the trestle bridge up and use it as a walking bridge, but the maintenance wouldn't allow that. Now, it may allow it for the queen, which would make some people very happy. It may be able to, because the maintenance is limited on that, but it's just the structural. There's a lot of people thinking, I've got to, and this is no relevance to everything else, but if you look at the two applications, Bob, I mean, Bob has been on this for years. Lisa's been on this for years, and I'm glad the two families came together. I want to thank Jack, because Jack wrote a very eloquent letter about how to handle this situation, and so big thanks to the Shin and the Heinle families for being able to work this out for two people that have done a great deal for the Valley. Lawrence has made his own, excuse me, commitment to the county both through the farm shop but he was born 100 years too late because if you look at his equipment, it's not that he doesn't, he likes selling and fixing new equipment but he likes working on old equipment and he does a great job. He's famous throughout for both him and Lisa for everything they grow out there naturally and you mentioned Alchemy, I was gonna mention that. They just love you guys. But I think the big part of this is How many people supported both people and respect both people? And I get to spend a lot of time out there. My son works out there. The new bridge is great. I mean, and you're right. The one thing you don't notice, and I imagine Bob and the people at the store, especially the, I call them the table people that sit there on the table all day long. It is quieter, there's no doubt about it. I'm sure of that. But I think this is my second bridge dedication out there. And the last one was the Rathmans. And it was just Rex. And then we put Ruth's name on there too. And I was amazed at the hoops you have to jump to. And it's not hoops. It's just you don't want to honor somebody that hasn't committed just spur of the moment. It's a great way that Hank and his team put this together. and now we've got a great bridge that'll take us, it actually takes us out into modern times, now we can take, not that there wasn't full loads going across it before, and you know, 14 years of people, Winston Bridge, Winston Bridge, and it was keep moving, it was keep moving, and you know, 13 years ago I inherited the nickname Pothole from Lawrence, I don't get to be called Rex, supervisor, or anything else. It's always, hey, pothole. But they're getting better thanks to Measure O and stuff, because he doesn't complain as much. Still hasn't changed my name. But I think, as for the county, we do some pretty cool stuff, and this is one of the cool things we get to do, and get to drive by and see it. And it seems to me we forget a lot about history. in the county twenty years is you know as far back as we go sometimes but the history of that the history of the county and going back to the turn of the century and and doing the things in the hind hindley's in the shins and and their their length in the valley and stuff especially the hindley's hindley ranch road has got numerous people living on it and so thanks you guys i appreciated all the input lisa bob you guys And Lawrence, you guys have honored your families very well. And this is a big honor. This isn't taking, like I said, how much they have to go through. This is a big honor, and it gives you an opportunity to smile every day when you see that. So thanks, you guys, for working together, making it work, and especially Public Works for hanging in there and getting it done for us. So thanks.

I'm going to bring it to Supervisor Madrone and then Supervisor Bushnell.

Thank you, Chair. Thank you to the Heinle and the Shin families. Without you guys, there wouldn't be a Honeydew, really. I mean, it's thanks to your family's dedication to that area there, and I miss my conversations with Roger Redoni on the benches out there before he became supervisor. He was a regular drop-in person there, and I had the lovely opportunity to live in the Honeydew area on the Heinle Ranch up above back in the early 80s, late 70s. i also bobby missed the sunday baseball games out on the field we had a lot of fun out there and again that was another example of community spirit you know using some of the property there to hold events for the community horseshoes were popular yeah there were the people on the benches the tables whatever but it was just you know you come down the road long distance in these uh remote areas and there's the store there's the the corners, right, the three corners there. So I just want to thank both your families for having been so dedicated to that community for so long, and I miss being out there. I get to drive out once in a while, but very much appreciate your dedication to community out there. Thank you. Supervisor?

Congratulations to both families. I think it's such a great honor and there's nothing more than what a family wants is for their heritage to be remembered and that's so important and this is a great way to do it. A lot of folks don't know, but I'm a Stansberry and My grandmother, Laura Stansberry, was raised in the Honeydew Valley. I remember going to the baseball games and with Bob, of course. Bob and Val used to come down in. And so it's a very special place. And thank you to both of your families for contributing to everything out there. It's a magical place. And I'm so thrilled that your family's names will be remembered on that bridge.

Supervisor Arroyo?

Thank you. It was really great to hear a little bit more about your family members. I will miss the old bridge. It has quite a piece of my early memory in Humboldt County. In fact, it was my first distinct memory in Humboldt County when I moved out to Petrolia to work for the Matul Salmon Group in January of 2006. I went over that bridge coming from across the country, didn't know anything about. Humboldt County and I just had a paper map and I wasn't quite sure that I was going the right way. It was raining cats and dogs and I actually stopped at the honeydew store about to run out of gas and it may have been you, dear sir, who came out and helped me get gas. I was basically in tears at the honeydew store in the middle of the night and a kind gentleman came over and said he'd turn on the pump for me. So fond memories of that bridge and that store, and of course, love for the Mattole Valley, although I only lived there for a little over a year. But it really made an impact on me and helped me feel connected to this place and develop roots here and want to stay. So cool to hear about the supervisor connection as well and all the service of Supervisor Hindley. And I will look forward to seeing those signs when I go over that bridge. Thanks for being here today.

Okay. Just a few things. Shel and I lived near a bridge that was a lot like that. The Sprout Creek Bridge, the picture looked just like it. I was like, what? It had that same, and it was replaced a few years, decades, I think, before this patrol bridge was, but I remember it fondly. Yeah, it's nice to have these dedications. It's nice to have these touchstones in our community. It's great to connect with the past, but then also in with the future as well. I've bought maybe more than just a couple of bottles of bourbon made with your product. So I appreciate that very much. So with that, do we have a motion to support? I'll make the motion. All right. Is the motion to support this? Second?

Second.

All right. We have a motion and a second. Any more discussion?

Just congratulations. And I really, really loved the history. Thank you for detailing all that.

With that, is there any objection to unanimous consent to the motion? Seeing none, the motion passes 5-0. Congratulations. All right, yay.

Thank you, Hank. And Lisa, just so you know, I read all the letters. That was pretty good. I know how much time you put into this.

Excuse me, Rex, do you have a letter from DeMar Minley?

You know what I'm gonna do? I'm gonna take a five minute break and you guys can talk it over.

So when we come back, are we gonna do non-agenda items?

Yes, when we come back, we'll do non-agenda items.

Just for the community.

Yep, and that will be at, hold on, let me just make sure I have the right timing on this. Let's do that at 10.30. We'll be back at 10.30. Public comment on non-agenda items. Hoping that we are going to go online first. Do we see anyone online before we come back to the room?

Yes, Chair. Caller 7454, I will unmute you and you will have three minutes.

And just a reminder, if you are online and want to talk about non-agenda items, put up your hand right now. All right. Take it away, caller.

You can try to press star six. I will come back to you. Caller 9072, I will unmute you and you will have three minutes.

How's my audio?

Yes.

Good morning, supervisors. My name is Riley Morrison. I live in Willow Creek. I want to speak this morning to you because the helicopter operations in Southern Humboldt last week struck a nerve with a lot of people, myself included. Almost immediately, I started getting calls and messages from the community asking what was going on. People were concerned, confused, and in many cases frustrated. The sight of a black enforcement helicopter repeatedly circling rural properties brought back memories that many in our community would rather leave behind. What stood out to me was that many of the people who felt targeted or alarmed were not bad actors. They were legal cannabis operators, family, and rural residents who had spent years working through this regulation. permits, inspections, and taxes to do things the right way. They've invested an enormous amount of time and effort and money to be part of this regulated system. When they see this kind of operation, it doesn't build confidence, it creates anxiety, creates questions, and reinforces feelings that no matter how much effort people make to comply, they're still viewed with suspicion. According to the recent reporting, the Northern California Coalition to Safeguard Communities provides more than a half a million dollars in funding for the Humboldt County Sheriff's Office and funds multiple positions within that department. That funding is scheduled to continue through July of 2026. As the county faces difficult budget decisions, I believe the public deserves a transparent discussion on whether participating in this program should continue, what measurable benefits are being provided to Humboldt County residents, how successful this operation is and what process to evaluate it, as well as the discussion on the source of the funding. My ask today is simple. I would like the board to agendize a public discussion regarding Humboldt County's participation in the Northern California Coalition to Save for Our Communities, including a review of the program's effectiveness, cost, impact on community trust, and plans for future funding requests. At the end of the day, I believe most people want the same thing, safe communities, transparent government, and a relationship with local institutions that build trust rather than fear. Thank you for your time.

Thank you. Caller 0108, I will unmute you and you will have three minutes.

Hi, can you guys hear me okay?

Yes.

Good morning, my name is Sarah Shipley and I'm a worker on a licensed cannabis farm and a resident of Southern Humboldt. Licensed cannabis operations in this county are already among the most heavily regulated agricultural businesses in California. We are inspected by the Department of Cannabis Control. We are subject to oversight from CDSW and the State Water Resources Control Board on environmental compliance. We submit to track and trace. We pay county fees. When something is wrong at a licensed operation, there are multiple agencies with the authority and the mandate to investigate it. So I want to ask this board why the NCCSC helicopter, N487HB, has been conducting repeated aerial surveillance over licensed farms in Southern Humboldt including on June 10th of this year. This is not what that program is supposed to be doing. By HDSO's own description, the marijuana enforcement team investigates unlicensed operations. Circling permitted farms accomplishes nothing except harassment of legal businesses, their employees, their neighbors, and their livestock. And it's worth asking who is behind this program and why. The NCCSC is funded entirely by the Howard G. Buffett Foundation. Howard Buffett has used his foundation's money to block cannabis dispensaries in Illinois and to effectively purchase influence over sheriff's office in Arizona. An Illinois police training official was fired after improperly granting Buffett a law enforcement certification following millions in donations. That is who is paying for surveillance of legal forms in this county. I'm asking the board to place this on an agenda and provide the public with answers. Thank you.

Thank you. Caller 2912. I will unmute you and you will have three minutes. We can't hear you.

Sorry about that. Can you hear me now?

Yes.

Great. Good morning, Supervisors. Ross Gordon with Humboldt County Growers Alliance. I want to completely agree with the prior two callers and support that HCGA has a lot of concern regarding the recent law enforcement activities around the New York Cow Coalition and including the recent helicopter activity, particularly in Southern Humboldt, flying licensed farms. And it doesn't give me any pleasure to say these are tactics that for a lot of folks are evocative of the war on drugs and is the type of law enforcement approach that we're hoping that we would be able to move past 10 years into a legal and licensed market. These are farms that are legal, they're licensed, they're not to our understanding under any suspicion of any wrongdoing, but are still being targeted by these types of surveillance activities solely, as far as we know, on the basis of being a cannabis farm. And so I want to echo the request to agendize this for a future meeting in terms of a review of NorCal Coalition's activities and funding. And also want to add that I think a useful piece of information to bring to that meeting would be data from the NorCal coalition about the extent of labor violations and other violations that are being tracked by the coalition have seen consistent messaging coming out of the coalition including the article published in the other day that for example labor violations have gotten worse since we have legalization that would definitely be a surprise from our perspective And I think that's something which would be really helpful to really have a conversation grounded in data in terms of what exactly is the scope of the problem, where is that program problem geographically located, and how does that relate to the sorts of tactics and approach that are being used? Thank you.

Thank you, caller 5288. I will unmute you and you will have three minutes.

Hello, Ken Swarovski after multiple times trying to speak. Can you hear me in the chamber?

Yes.

Thank you. I had to switch over to a landline. The cell phones just was not working at all on both of our ends. Earlier in the meeting, I don't know how this thing's being run, but you had a time specific for 9-15. You took the report. You took a vote on it. There was no objection to unanimous consent. And then I guess the meeting was reopened by a spokesperson in not the public, but a staff member reopened that and you had a second topic. It was only agendized for one particular topic. That whole thing made no sense at all to me. The fact that, of course, we're looking at quarter to 11 before we take comment on non-agenda items is, again, perceived to be an attempt to chill the public from speaking. It's difficult enough, especially when we have to, on a We have to speak first if we're calling him. That's not how they do it in the Planning Commission. There was no time for me to even activate a phone, let alone a second phone when one wasn't going. I, again, will strongly recommend that we go ahead and switch that around, the people in the Chamber speak first, giving the people in the public the chance to comment after that. So it's just common sense, unless we just want to say let's not have people try and comment other than in the Chamber. I did wish that there's there's a concern out here and of course the Shannon Miranda thing moving along as far as the public can tell uh and there's an equity thing here my understanding uh when somebody else was involved in something and nowhere egregious of this is the Ray Christie was instantly put in the cops dragged out of his house along with another family member and and uh Why aren't we seeing that in this case? It doesn't make any sense at all. I do not know Ray Christie, but I've tried to vet him, and he seems like the kind of guy who wouldn't go ahead and shoot 1,000... dogs or animals in the head to kill them so uh the public's wondering why special treatment for shannon miranda continues to go on and i guess we will continue to be here until something's done both by your uh the sheriff and by the district attorney's office who by the way has a uh person at the last name nikki miranda working in the in the uh attorney and your your uh ATTORNEY'S OFFICE IN OUR PROSECUTOR'S OFFICE. INTERESTING OUT THERE, POTENTIAL CONFLICTS OF INTEREST, WHY THIS ISN'T MOVING FORWARD. THANK YOU FOR MY OPPORTUNITY TO SPEAK.

THANK YOU. THAT'S ALL ON ZOOM, CHAIR.

ALL RIGHT. THANK YOU. BRINGING IT BACK TO THE ROOM. ALL RIGHT. IS THERE ANYONE HERE?

I HAVE SOME PAPERS HERE FOR THE BOARD. MY NAME IS DANIEL PEARCE. I ran for supervisor twice, stopped camp. I stood there, never sat down. God has a sense of humor. God is great. You're all talking about a bridge. There was a bridge in Humboldt County that has a redwood tree in it. Can any of you tell me where it is? Can anybody out there tell me where it is? My cousin Chuck lost his job that day because he refused to cut it down. It's next to the Dyerville Giant. When you go over the South Fork, They didn't cut the tree down. In Redway, Lower Redway, you cut a bunch of trees down. Who dropped the ball on this? Who let those trees fall? I arrived in Humboldt County on the 5th of July, 1979. I was in a realtor's car when they dropped the trees in Lower Redway. That realtor was pissed. I'm pissed. You guys ought to drop the ball. What this is about, it's about Richardson's Grove. Richardson's Grove has a four-lane freeway in the north and a four-lane freeway in the south and Richardson's Grove is in between. Caltrans wants to cut all those trees down and make it all a four-lane road. Well, when they built 101, they built a freeway map from one end to the other and there's a bridge that goes around Richardson's Grove. You have ever seen it? I have never seen it. You need to send someone from this department over to Caltrans and look at that map and find that bridge because these redwood trees are cursed. When you read this, the history of Humboldt County, all this came from Humboldt's historians. The Humboldt redwoods are cursed. all the people that first found them, all the blood that was shed to take these redwood trees. The first spaceships were the redwood trees. They floated down the Ila River, around the Pacific Rim, and they became the canoes that people went around the world in. And now you want Amazon to come in. And they just lost a spaceship. They just lost their rocket, the rocket pad, because of the curse, the redwood curse. It comes back to you and your family. I'm not here to yell at you. I'm here to warn you that cutting down these old growth redwoods will come back to you, not me, to you and your family, because it's done with. They were a sacred thing. Ask the Indians. Look at my history. Look at the blood that was here. And then you want to name a bridge over a couple families? I don't know their history. All I know is my crazy cousin lost his job because he didn't cut down that redwood tree. And the greatest redwood park that we have is Richardson Grove. Anytime a president came to this area, the first place he stopped and hugged a redwood tree was in Richardson Grove. And the reason it's not there because when the RVs came and the dogs got out of the RV, they got smacked and killed and then it started happening to people. Build a road around it.

All right, thank you. Is there any more comments from folks here in the room? And other materials?

Good morning. Lori Barnwell, Chalk Mountain Ranch LLC. Chalk Mountain is a family owned and operated timber and cattle ranch located in Bridgeville. The Bridgeville Quarry, owned by Goat Rock Ranch LLC, operated by Mercer Fraser Company, is located on property adjacent to Chalk Mountain. Mercer-Frazier has been performing ongoing unauthorized activities on Chalk Mountain, including removing riparian buffers, extensive road construction, and destroying state-mandated timber harvest erosion control features. Mercer-Frazier continues to operate in noncompliance of the operating restrictions in the CUP, despite notification by the County Planning and Building Department. These actions have led to property damage, increased soil erosion, sediment runoff, and potential contamination of nearby streams. As a result, Chalk Mountain Ranch has received multiple agency violations. Chalk Mountain parcels are not included in the CUP. Mercer-Frazier does not hold permits as required, including not limited to a 401 water quality certification, section 404, or a lake and streambed alteration agreement. I've submitted numerous letters and attended multiple planning commission meetings regarding these concerns. At the June 4th planning meeting, Director Ford discouraged the commissioners from agendizing the Bridgeville Quarry from further discussion. Mr. Ford continues to dismiss the concerns due to a civil dispute regarding access that is currently between Chalk Mountain, Mercer-Frazier, and California Department of Forestry, CAL FIRE. I am not here about the access. I'm here about the county planning department's failure to enforce the county code for mining operations and allowing Mercer Fraser to operate without required permits and in noncompliance of their CUP. Additionally, the county conducts annual site inspections for the quarry as required by Samara. Mercer Fraser was barred through a court hearing from accessing the quarry from August 4th, 2025 to January 20th, 2026. On December 2nd, 2025, a site inspection was completed by the county. How was that done with the access bar? Mercer Frazier's quarry truck scale was recertified on May 22nd of this year. After two year lapse from a prior certification, how many truckloads of rock has the county purchased from uncertified scales? Mercer Frazier's actions demonstrate a pattern of noncompliance and disregard for local and state rules and regulations. Chalk Mountain is urging the board to suspend Mercer Frazier Company's Bridgeville Quarry CUP until a comprehensive review is completed and permit compliance is achieved. We seek assurance that all operations meet regulatory standards and protect local resources, ensuring compliance and environmental protection. For your review, I'm providing you a complete packet of documents that I've already provided to the planning department and a copy of the CUP. Thank you for your time.

All right, thank you. I'm just gonna leave those there. Okay, so is there anybody else that has anything they wanna talk about that's not on the agenda?

Supervisor Bone? Just for future reference, I was hoping Phyllis would still be here. All accounts are paid from the million dollar sale at the Junior Livestock Auction. I meant to tell her that earlier. I had checked earlier, but everything has been paid. So since that came up in her public comment earlier.

OK. Anybody else? Seeing none, we're closing general public comment. And we're going to move to what looks like a hearing item. Public works, excuse me, through planning.

Good morning, Chair Wilson, members of the Board of Supervisors, John Ford with the Planning and Building Department to present this request to adopt a resolution which incorporates the local hazard mitigation plan into the safety element of the general plan. This is important because incorporation of the local hazard mitigation plan into the safety element will satisfy state and federal requirements, thus enabling the county to receive a higher percentage of compensation when dealing with emergencies in terms of being reimbursed.

I'm going to interrupt you and open the public hearing.

Thank you. There you go. Proceed. So this version of the local hazard mitigation plan was adopted by the board of supervisors in December of 2025. So the contents of the plan itself are not at issue here. This is really just a decision to adopt a resolution to incorporate it into the safety element of the general plan. The board may recall a similar action in 2023 when the 2019 local hazard mitigation plan was incorporated into the safety element. The local hazard mitigation plan must be updated every five years, and with each update, it must be reincorporated into the safety element. So today we're here simply to do that, and that will satisfy this requirement for the next five years. So based upon this, it's recommended that the board adopt the resolution to find the action exempt from the California Environmental Quality Act. make all the required findings to support amending the general plan and adopt the proposed amendment to the general plan. Happy to answer any questions.

Great, good presentation. I'm gonna first take this to public comment. Is there any public comment online?

Yes, Chair. Caller 5288, I will unmute you and you will have three minutes.

We have a general plan and we have safety plans and things of that nature. But if those things are not enforced, it seems to be kind of a waste of time, hazard mitigation. I have repeatedly brought to the attention of this board and to planning and building. I guess one of your biggest hazard mitigations are out on the side of Samoa where you don't have the prescribed hazard places, safe places for people to go to. They're not accessible by a normal person. They're not ADA accessible. So I don't see why you have all these rules and regulations to satisfy something for five years. Will that mean in five years we're going to continue ignoring when things are brought to your attention? These things should be dealt with when people take the time to bring it to your attention. These kind of things just won't just go away. I guess I'll just keep harping on this one. And there's a whole bunch of other things out there in that particular area regarding the Danco projects which are not compliant with the permits and the parcel maps and things that have been done. So I'm asking for a total assessment, including the hazard mitigation plans that are incorporated to the town of Samoa. I don't want to see everybody out there drown for no reason and not have a chance to survive during the tsunami event. Thank you for my opportunity to speak today.

That is all in Zoom, Chair.

Okay, bringing it back into the room, is there any public comment on this item here in the room? Is there any discussion from the board? If not, can I get a motion to find the amendment exempt from CEQA, make all the required findings, adopt the proposed amendments to the general plan, and direct the clerk of the board to give notice of this decision to the planning department and any other interested party.

So moved.

We have a motion, is there a second? I'll second. Is there any objection to unanimous consent? Seeing no objection, the motion passes 5-0, and we are now moving into closed session. Can we get a closed session report, please? Thank you, John. Good job.

It is the intention of the board to meet in closed session pursuant to California Government Code section 54956.9 in order to discuss the initiation of litigation in one potential case.

Do we have any online comments?

We do not.

We do not have online comments. Is there any comments in the room? Seeing none, we are adjourning to closed session. How long do you think this will take?

I would say 30 to 45 minutes.

Okay. We'll be back here at 1145. All right.

Hopefully.

All right, please read us out here. Thank you, Chair Wilson. There was no reportable action taken with regard to item J1.

Here we go.

Adjourned. Thank you.