Board of Supervisors - Regular Meeting

Yeah. Thank you. you Thank you. you Music. ¦ ¦ Thank you. Thank you. Thank you.

Good morning, everyone. Gee, everybody's bright-eyed and bushy-tailed today. So today we have our regularly scheduled meeting of the board, Los Angeles County Board of Supervisors, and today, as you know, is Tuesday, June 30th, 2026, and we take note that a quorum of the board is present.

This webinar is being transcribed and summarized.

Good. We take note that we have a quorum of the board, and the chief executive officer, county council executive officer, and the sergeant at arms are all here to assist us. Members, before we begin officially, I would like to ask us to take a moment of silence, and if you'll stand with me, I want to... recognize the lives lost in Venezuela, the communities that were impacted by the devastating two earthquakes that struck Venezuela on June 24th, the powerful earthquakes measuring 7.2 and 7.5, struck less than a minute apart, as you know, and it had widespread destruction in the northern part of Venezuela, including Caracas and the coastal state of La Guaira. In the days since, we know families have suffered profound loss for many of our folks that live here and have family members there. Our thoughts are with all those mourning loved ones, those that have lost their homes, lives, and those that are still not found. I also want to recognize that the Los Angeles County stood up to the call for this emergency. Our Los Angeles County Fire Department's Urban Search and Rescue, USA2 Task Force, and 71-member team, that includes personnel from the Department of Public Works and Health Services, has been activated by the US Department of State to support and respond in the recovery efforts in Villanzuela. Their deployment, as you know, reflects the dedication, expertise, and humanitarian spirit that LA County brings to communities in crisis, both at home and abroad. We also want to recognize the courage and commitment of first responders, medical personnel, volunteers, humanitarian organizations, and moments like these remind us that compassion knows no borders, and that we are united in our shared humanity. And as these recovery efforts continue, may we keep the people of Venezuela in our hearts, our thoughts, and to help support those working to bring relief, healing, and hope to those impacted communities. So I'll ask you to please stand with me in a moment of silence. Thank you. Thank you. Thank you, members. Now we'll start the county's land acknowledgement. Can you play that? The County of Los Angeles recognizes that we occupy land originally and still inhabited and cared for by the Tongva, Tatavia, Serrano, Quiche, and Chumash peoples. We honor and pay respect to their elders and descendants, past, present, and emerging, as they continue their stewardship of these lands and waters. We acknowledge that settler colonization resulted in land seizure, disease, subjugation, slavery, relocation, broken promises, genocide, and multi-generational trauma. This acknowledgement demonstrates our responsibility and commitment to truth, healing, and reconciliation, and to elevating the stories, culture, and community of the original inhabitants of Los Angeles County. We are grateful to have the opportunity to live and work on these ancestral lands. We are dedicated to growing and sustaining relationships with Native peoples and local tribal governments, including in no particular order. Fernandeño Tataviam Band of Mission Indians, Gabrielino Tongva Indians of California Tribal Council, Gabrieleno Tongva San Gabriel Band of Mission Indians, Gabrieleno Band of Mission Indians Quiche Nation, Yahaviatam of San Manuel Nation, San Fernando Band of Mission Indians, Coastal Band of Chumash Nation, Gabrieleno Tongva Nation, Gabrieleno Tongva Tribe. To learn more about the First Peoples of Los Angeles County, please visit the Los Angeles City-County Native American Indian Commission website at lanaic.lacounty.gov. Thank you. And members, before we begin, I want to acknowledge that today's also a special day for one of our colleagues on the board. It happens to be Supervisor Lindsay Horvath's birthday. So, all right. Happy, happy. Feliz cumpleaños. Okay, and with that, today we're going to be hearing from our own EO office, reciting, or not reciting, but providing the invocation this morning since we were not able to obtain someone. It happens, but we're always ready. We're always ready. And after that, we'll be followed by the Pledge of Allegiance, which will be led by John Fulmer, veteran, United States Army from the 3rd District. So everyone, please stand if you can. Thank you.

Good morning. So our Heavenly Father, we ask your blessing upon this board of supervisors today. We pray that all of the many decisions made today are made with your guidance. We pray that the greater understanding of the problems of our county government by the residents of this county will result from this meeting. We ask these things in thy name, amen.

Thank you. Next, we will have...

Good morning. Please place the flag. Place your right hand over your heart. If you're a veteran, you may render a hand salute and join me in the Pledge of Allegiance. I pledge allegiance to the flag of the United States of America and to the republic for which it stands, one nation, under God, indivisible, with liberty and justice for all. Thank you.

Good morning, everyone. Please join me in thanking United States Army E-4 John Fulmer for leading us in the Pledge of Allegiance today. John served in the Army from 2005 through 2008, including Operation Iraqi Freedom. While serving, he was awarded many decorations, including Combat Infantrymen Badge, Army Commendation Medal, Valorous Unit Award, National Defense Service Medal, Global War on Terrorism Service Medal, Iraq Campaign Medal, Army Service Ribbon, and Overseas Service Ribbon Second Award. John continues to serve his veteran community as a goodwill of Southern California VPAN battle buddy. Program Manager for Merging Vets and Players, Los Angeles, and is one of my commissioners for the Veteran Affairs and Advisory Commission. John lives in the third district with his wife Maggie and their three children, Maya, who's eight, Kelly, who's six, and Anthony, who's four. Thank you, John, for all that you do for our veteran community and for the county. I am proud of your service. I'm grateful that you've stepped up to serve the third district in this way, and I'm really grateful to have you as a resident of our district, too. And on behalf of the county, we have a certificate of gratitude.

Thank you.

Yes, go ahead.

Ms. Lee, would you join me? I would just want to thank you, and we're going to take a picture too. Pastor from the second district is probably trying to find parking or circling around downtown. You know how that can be, so he didn't make it. So it's wonderful to have a member of the county family who can pinch in without chat GPT, Supervisor Hahn, and pray for this body and all of us. So thank you, Ms. Lee. We're going to take our picture.

Thank you.

Right, saved by the bell. And just quickly, if I can, Madam Chair, Sister Michelle Gorman, who was the chaplain for the state senate for 11 years with Sisters of Mercy in Sacramento, retired this past year. So I talked to her yesterday, so I just wanted to give a shout out to Sister Michelle Gorman.

Thank you.

Okay, let's go keep it going here. Supervisor Barker.

So I want to direct your attention over here and I want you to meet tux. Uh, this must be a formal occasion because we have him here with us this morning. This distinguished young gentleman is a four month old Pitbull lab mix and is honestly why his brother was here last week. He and his siblings were transferred to the Agoura shelter from Lancaster in May and are growing and thriving and honestly, sweet, sweet, sweet dogs. He's eager to show you all the tricks he has up his sleeve and he already knows commands for sit and down. He won't do it now because he's mesmerized with everybody. Tux is incredibly sweet and social and would love to find a family that appreciates just how friendly and loving he is. You can call the Agoura Care Center at 818-991-0071 if you'd like to make every day special with this beautiful tux. And now, would you please draw your attention to the screen for our pet from Palmdale. If you're looking for a superhero, look no further than Avenger. He's a two-year-old Pitbull who is energetic, rambunctious, playful, and affectionate. He loves people and other dogs and can't wait to find a home where he can play and enjoy playtime every day. Call the Palmdale. No, you look sweet. Palmdale Care Center at 661-575-2888 to make Avenger yours. Before I wrap up, I'd like to highlight the dog days of summer promotion. Now through July 31st, adoption fees are waived for all dogs at all seven care centers. Visit animalcare.lacounty.gov to find the one for you. Again, there is Tuck. If you know of anybody, I mean, sweet, sweet dog, and his brother was equally as sweet last week. I'm hoping we can find them forever homes. Thank you, Madam Chair.

Thank you very much. Okay, with that, Executive Officer, can you call the agenda for today?

Good morning, Madam Chair, members of the board. Today's agenda will begin on page one, set matters, items SM1 and SM2. On set matter one, this is a report by the Chief Executive Officer and the Director of Personnel on the plan developed to support represented Los Angeles Homeless Services Authority workers to access employment opportunities at county departments. This item will be held for report. On set matter two, this is a report by the Director of Homeless Services and Housing and other department heads when requested on the implementation of the new Department of Homeless Services and Housing. This item will be held for report. On page three, consent calendar, Board of Supervisors, items three through 19. On item six, Supervisor Solis requests that this item be held. On item 11, Supervisor Solis requests this item be revised to add Supervisor Horfath as a co-author. On item 12, Supervisor Solis requested this item be revised to reflect the National Park Service and the Department of Agriculture, United States Forest Service in Directive 3. On item 16, Supervisor Horfath requests this item be held and the Director of Public Works provide a verbal report. ON PAGE 22, ADMINISTRATIVE MATTERS, ITEMS 20 THROUGH 70. ON ITEM 20, THE CHIEF EXECUTIVE OFFICER REQUESTS THAT THIS ITEM BE CONTINUED TO SEPTEMBER 15, 2026. ON ITEM 21, SUPERVISOR HON REQUESTS THAT THIS ITEM BE HELD AND TO ALSO AMEND THE BOARD'S ACTION OF MAY 19, 2026, WHICH CONTINUED THIS ITEM TO JULY 21, 2026, TO INSTEAD TO ALLOW CONSIDERATION OF THE ITEM AT TODAY'S MEETING AND JULY 21, 2026. On item 22, Supervisor Solis is recusing herself from the vote pursuant to government code section 84308 because she received a contribution or contributions of more than $500 within the past 12 months from Al Ballesteros, who is a party participant or agent of a party or participant in the proceeding. On item 32, Supervisor Mitchell is recusing herself from the vote pursuant to government code section 84308 because she received a contribution or contributions of more than $500 within the past 12 months from Angela Minifield, who is a party participant or agent of a party or participant in the proceeding. On page 37, Supervisor Hahn requests that this item be continued to July 28th, 2026. On item 46, Supervisor Hahn requests that this item be continued one week to July 7th, 2026. On page 54, this includes miscellaneous additions to the agenda which were posted more than 72 hours in advance of the meeting as indicated on the supplemental agenda, items 68A and 68B. On page 55, ordinances for introduction, items 71 through 73. On page 59, separate matter, item 74. On item 74, the board will take a separate vote on this item. ON PAGE 60 PUBLIC HEARING ITEM 75 ON ITEM 75 SUPERVISOR MITCHELL IS RECUSING HERSELF FROM THE VOTE PURSUANT TO GOVERNMENT CODE SECTION 84308 BECAUSE SHE RECEIVED A CONTRIBUTION OR CONTRIBUTIONS OF MORE THAN $500 WITHIN THE PAST 12 MONTHS FROM ANGELA MEANINGFIELD WHO IS A PARTY PARTICIPANT OR AGENT OF A PARTY OR PARTICIPANT IN THE PROCEEDING THIS ITEM IS BEING HELD FOR A PUBLIC HEARING ON PAGE 61 SPECIAL DISTRICT AGENDA THIS IS THE AGENDA FOR THE MEETING OF THE LOS ANGELES COUNTY DEVELOPMENT AUTHORITY Item 1D. On Item 1D, Supervisor Mitchell is recusing herself from the vote pursuant to Government Code Section 84308 because she received a contribution or contributions of more than $500 within the past 12 months from Angela Minifield, who is a party participant or agent of a party participant in the proceeding. On page 62, notices of closed session, items CS1 through CS8. On CS2, County Council requests that this item be continued one week to July 7, 2026, as indicated on the agenda. On CS5, the Chief Executive Officer requests that this item be continued one week to July 7, 2026. ON PAGE 66 ITEMS CONTINUED FROM PREVIOUS MEETINGS FOR FURTHER DISCUSSION AND ACTION BY THE BOARD ITEM A1. ON ITEM A1 THE EXECUTIVE OFFICER REQUESTED THIS ITEM BE REVISED TO INCLUDE J CONDITIONS OF DISASTER OR EXTREME PERIL TO THE SAFETY OF PERSONS AND PROPERTY ON THE BASIS OF THE LOS PALOS INCIDENT BOYLE HEIGHTS COMMERCIAL BUILDING FIRE IN THE COUNTY BEGINNING ON JUNE 17, 2026 as proclaimed by the board on June 20, 2026, and ratified by the board on June 23, 2026. Supervisor Solis requests that this item be held. The requests for continuances through CSA and A1 are before you. That completes the reading of the agenda, Madam Chair.

Thank you. Moved by Supervisor Horvath, seconded by Supervisor Mitchell to approve the items. That will be the order. Executive Officer, please play the Code of Conduct.

Ladies and gentlemen, may I please have your attention. The meeting of the Los Angeles County Board of Supervisors is about to commence. A code of conduct will now be read and we request that you comply with it to ensure the efficient administration of the meeting. Members of the public, it is your right to participate in today's board hearing, and the board encourages such participation. However, the right of the public to address the board must be balanced with the need to ensure that public comment does not interfere with the orderly course of the board's business. All are reminded to abide by the following rules. Speakers must cease speaking immediately when their time has ended. Public comment on agenda items must relate to the subject matter of that item. General public comment is limited to subjects within the jurisdiction of the board. Public comment does not include the right to engage in a dialogue with board members or staff. Please remain respectful of the forum and refrain from uttering, writing, or displaying profane, personal, threatening, derogatory, demeaning, or other abusive statements toward the Board, any member thereof, staff, or any other person. Members of the audience should be respectful of the views expressed by speakers, staff, and board members and may not clap, cheer, whistle, or otherwise disrupt the orderly conduct of the meeting. Any person engaging in conduct that disrupts the meeting is subject to being removed from the board meeting. And finally, if you witness conduct or behavior by other members of the public that disrupts your ability to remain engaged or participate in this meeting, please notify the sergeant at arms or other county staff. Thank you for your cooperation.

Thank you. Today's meeting order will be the following. Public comment on items not held for discussion by the board, including closed session matters, followed by item A1. Item six, then public hearing item 75, followed by set matter item one, then set matter two, then item 16, then item 21, followed by general public comment and finishing up with closed session. Before we begin, executive officer, please read the call-in information and explain the speaking rules.

Good morning, members of the public. If you wish to participate in public comment, you may do so in person or remotely. To participate remotely, please visit our website at www.bos.lacounty.gov to register and join the meeting, or you may call 213-306-3065 and use access code 2534-367-4659 and meeting password 267-2026. You will have the opportunity to address the board throughout the meeting. For items not held by the board, you will receive one minute for one item and up to two minutes for two or more items. For items held by supervisors, you will have one minute to address the board, one minute for the public hearing item, and one minute to address the board on general public comment. Please clearly state your name and indicate the agenda item numbers you will be addressing. Please note, once your item has expired, we will immediately move to the next speaker. When it is your turn to speak, if registered on a computer or device, you will hear a beep and your name will be called, or if joining by telephone, you will hear your line is unmuted, your area code, and the first three digits of your phone number will be called. To ensure we hear from both in-person and remote speakers, we will alternate between the two speaking cues. Members of the public who are in attendance, when you hear or see your name displayed on the screen, please come down to the front of the boardroom and staff will assist you. Please do not approach the podium until directed to do so. Also, for members of the public in attendance, please note that we have a constituent assistance team that includes representatives from the Departments of Mental Health, Public Social Services, Children and Family Services, LA Homeless Services Authority, and Parks and Recreation in the audience, should you need assistance from them. At this time, we will hear from members of the public wishing to address the board on all matters, all items not held for discussion by supervisors, including closed session matters. The consent items will be acted upon with one motion. For members of the public joining us remotely to comment on these items, please use the raise hand feature if you're online or press star three if on a telephone. Please indicate the agenda item numbers that you wish to address in the beginning of your comment for us to allocate the appropriate amount of time.

We will now call in in-person speakers and while they're coming forward, we will take remote speakers. This will be for all items not held by the board for discussion and closed session items. Will the following individuals please come forward and staff will assist you. Caroline Goodman, Don Garcia, Isaac Reyes, and Daniela Romano. Sean McMorris, your line is open. Please begin. Sean, your line is open.

Apologies. Yes. Thank you. Can you hear me?

Yes. Please go ahead.

Yes. Good evening. I'm sorry. Good morning, supervisors. I'm here today speaking on behalf of California Common Cause. My name is Sean McMorris. I am the Transparency, Ethics, and Accountability Program Manager there. I'm speaking on items 25 and 27. Overall, we strongly support this ordinance. It establishes a solid foundation for an independent ethics commission and meaningful enforcement authority. We do recommend several improvements. First, the four commissioners nominated by the ethics commission itself should not require board approval. An Ethics Commission must be independent from the officials it oversees. Second, when the Ethics Commission recommends ethics reforms, the Board should be required to take formal action within 180 days, not simply agendize the item. Third, the ordinance should clarify that the two-thirds vote requirement to veto Commissioner regulations is rounded up so that it is truly a supermajority. Finally, the budget protections should count for new duties assigned to the Commission and employee step increases while defining exigent circumstances and requiring written public findings whenever that exception is invoked. We also support the Fiduciary Alliance's recommendation to further strengthen the independence of the ethics commission compliance officer by ensuring that hiring and removal decisions are insulated from political influence and that the commission has a stronger role in those decisions. Thank you for your time.

Thank you. Caller, your line is open. Please state your name and begin. Caller, your line is open.

Hello, can you hear me?

Yes, please begin.

Hello, my name is Laura and I'm calling in from SD2 in support of agenda item 21. I want to say very clearly that it has been long past time.

Ma'am, item 21 is being held. You can call back when that item is called.

Thank you. Caller, your line is open. Please state your name and begin. Caller, your line is open. Caller with phone number 323, last two digits 13, your line is open. Please state your name and begin.

Yes, can you hear me?

Please begin.

Can you hear me?

Yes.

Okay, my name is Eduardo Torres. I'm with the East Los Angeles Chamber of Commerce, lifelong resident of East Los Angeles, and I wanted to speak about the fire that happened in Boyle Heights affecting the health and safety and quality of life of East Los Angeles residents.

Sir, that item is being held by the supervisors, and you can get back in queue when that item is called.

Thank you. Caller with phone number 760, last two digits 85, your line is open. Please state your name and begin. Caller, your line is open.

Yes, this is Joey Chavez. Can you hear me?

Yes, please begin.

Okay, I'm calling on the board. I don't believe it's an agenda. This is just a general statement for the board economic consequences for Los Angeles County.

Sir, your comment would be appropriate during general public comment towards the end of the meeting. You can get back in queue.

Caller, your line is open. Please state your name and begin. Caller, your line is open. There are no other remote speakers to address the board. We will go to our in-person speakers. Please begin.

Good morning, Supervisors. I believe there's a couple things that were left out of the proposed ordinance that need to be mentioned, and this is on item 25. First, in the section regarding the Ethics Commission's ability to conduct investigations, I would recommend that language be added that allows the Ethics Commission to investigate or open an investigation on its own initiative without having to wait for allegations to be made by an individual. Good government depends on taking action immediately, not waiting for someone to tell it to act. Secondly, I think language needs to be added in the section regarding the Ethics Commission's enforcement powers. When the Commission finds that a vendor or contractor has violated one of the county's ethics laws, it must have the power to cancel the wrongfully earned contract and to bar them. Giving them a small fine doesn't hurt when it's a multimillion dollar contract when they've been awarded. Lastly, I believe it's wrong to give the new county executive the power to select and remove the ethics compliance officer. To be truly independent, that power belongs with the ethics commission. Now on item 27. Thank you. I think what you're doing to this proposed amendment to the political campaign ordinance I believe runs opposite to good government. Removing the limit a PAC can contribute is stacking the deck against the common man. What you're saying and doing is eliminating the ability for an unknown or novice to compete fairly. Only incumbents or individuals with prior PAC support benefit from this change. You are taking away the power the average citizen has with with its own campaign contribution. Under the existing ordinance, PACS had a limit of $150,000. You are now saying that is endless, what they can pour into a county election. How is this good government? Furthermore, saying that you're doing this because of the cost of living increases makes no sense. The common voter doesn't have extra money to be spent on campaign contributions. They have more power when lower limits are placed on what they can contribute. Instead of raising the limit from $1,500 to $2,200, you should be lowering the limit to $500 or less. That will give the common man or woman greater influence with their political campaign contribution and level the playing field. Again, thank you for time and thank you for listening.

Next speaker, please.

I'm Carolina Goodman, chair of the Criminal Justice Committee for the League of Women Voters of Greater Los Angeles. I'm here representing the County of Los Angeles for the League of Women Voters. I'm speaking on item number 13, and I believe I need to wait for item 21, is that correct? Yes, that is correct. Okay. I'm here to thank you for making the decision to decarcerate the girls and gender expansive youth. We haven't yet seen any movement on that, and so I'm here to hold you accountable for that. Thank you very much. Thank you. Next speaker, please.

Good morning, supervisors. My name is Isaac Reyes, and I work for Los Angeles County Department of Public Works. I'm speaking on items 26 and 40 under other to bring up a related issue, transparency over public dollars spent through county contracts. In my current division, PMP3, I created a system that tracks over 90 consultants' time and cost by contract, firm, consultant, project, charge codes, fund accounts, and date activity. From November 2025 through June 2026, it's tracked about $16 million in consulting costs just in my division alone, with totals matching firm invoices down to the cent. This proves contract spending can be tracked with the same transparency as county employees. Consulting contracts, job contracts, and other private contract costs are also paid with public money and should have the same transparency, accountability as county employees. Public Works and CAPE are aware of these concerns. There is an open investigation with Department of Auditorial Controller related to this, case number 2026 underscore 24202. I'm asking the board to review if this can be evaluated and expanded across Public Works. Thank you.

Next speaker, please. Hi, my name is Daniela Romano, and I was here to comment on item number 28, like the certification of the mayoral election. Um, I, I just feel that there's been a lot of confusion and a lot of questions, um, that have come up in my mind as a citizen. And, um, I was just looking for more transparency in the voting process so that I would feel confident in my boat. Um, in the future, I'm not sure what happened, you know, and I'm not insinuating anything wrong. I just don't understand why a bill would be passed right before the election that would say that voter polls wouldn't be able to be audited. And it has really changed my idea of what voting is about. I lost my business and my home in the fire. And I was hoping on change. And I don't know what NUSA meant by a break in the- Thank you. Next speaker, please.

Good morning. My name is Michael Chen. I'm the co-owner of Woon, a Chinese restaurant with two locations in Filipino town in Pasadena. We have 60 employees and also a member of the Independent Hospitality Coalition here supporting Supervisor Horvath's Motion 17 to support independent restaurants. I'm here because my industry needs all the help it can get. As you know, bars and restaurants are often the financial backstop for freelancers in creative industries. and with film and TV struggling right now, this matters more than ever. Our jobs often make the difference between making rent for the month and leaving California for good. Right now, the rules are designed to prevent bad things from happening, but they also prevent good things from happening. Working with the health department doesn't have to be the most onerous part of opening a restaurant, but these proposed changes would provide clearer timelines that we can rely on without compromising on safety. Thank you for listening.

Thank you. That concludes the time for public comment on these items. We have one more speaker. Please go ahead.

My name is Melissa Tumim. I'm a candidate for U.S. Representative in California's 36th congressional district. I'm here to comment on item 28, which is the statewide primary. I will leave the expressions of faith in the system to others. My faith in the integrity of Los Angeles County's electoral process has been shattered. On June 25th, I visited the LA County Ballot Processing Center. Prior to my visit, I was informed by a man named Chris Gleason, who has the technology and has analyzed data provided to him by the county from the June 2nd California primary that out of the nearly 5.9 million ballots mailed to LA County voters, exactly 694,308 were returned to sender and marked by the US Postal Service, undeliverable as addressed. The undeliverables must never be opened. They are not addressed to the county. We all know it is against the law to open mail addressed to. Thank you.

And that concludes the time for public comment on these items.

Madam Chair, members of the board, the following items are before you. 3 through 5, 7 through 10, 11 as revised, 12 as revised, 13 through 15, 17 through 19, 22 with Supervisor Solis recusing from the vote, 23 through 31, 32 with Supervisor Mitchell recusing from the vote, 33 through 36, 38 through 45, 47 through 67, 68A and 68B, 71 through 73, 1D with Supervisor Mitchell recusing from the vote, And then please note, we will take a separate vote on item 74. These items are before you.

Thank you. Moved by Supervisor Han, seconded by Supervisor Barga to approve these items, with the exceptions noted by the executive officer. Executive officer, call the roll.

Supervisor Mitchell?

Aye.

Supervisor Mitchell, aye. Supervisor Horvath?

Aye.

Supervisor Horvath, aye. Supervisor Han?

Aye.

Supervisor Hahn, aye. Supervisor Barger? Aye. Supervisor Barger, aye. Supervisor Solis?

Aye.

Supervisor Solis, aye. Motion carries unanimously. Madam Chair, we will now vote on the separate matter item. Item 74 is before you.

Thank you. Moved by Supervisor Mitchell, seconded by Supervisor Hahn. To approve the item, Executive Officer, call the roll.

Supervisor Mitchell? SUPERVISOR MITCHELL, AYE. SUPERVISOR HORFATH, AYE. SUPERVISOR HORFATH, AYE. SUPERVISOR HON, AYE. SUPERVISOR HON, AYE. SUPERVISOR BARKER, AYE. SUPERVISOR BARKER, AYE. SUPERVISOR SOLIS, AYE. SUPERVISOR SOLIS, AYE. MOTION PASSES. WE WILL NOW MOVE ON TO ITEM A1, PROCLAIMED LOCAL EMERGENCY BOYLE HEIGHTS COMMERCIAL BUILDING FIRE, WHICH WAS HELD BY SUPERVISOR SOLIS. FOR MEMBERS OF THE PUBLIC JOINING US REMOTELY TO COMMENT ON THIS ITEM, PLEASE USE THE RAISE HAND FEATURE IF YOU'RE ONLINE OR PRESS STAR 3 IF ON THE TELEPHONE. Anthony Maroney, Fire Chief, John O'Brien, Chief Deputy, Emergency Operations, Mario Tresiris, Chief Health Hazardous Materials, Fire Department, Dr. Montu Davis, Medical Director, Department of Public Health, Kelly LoBianco, Director of Economic Opportunity, Mark Pastrella, Director of Public Works, Kevin McGowan, Director of the Office of Emergency Management, Don Harrison, County Council, Wayne Nastry, Executive Officer, Dr. Jason Lo, Deputy Executive Officer for Monitoring and Analysis Division, and Steven Dutz, Assistant Deputy Executive Officer for Monitoring and Analysis, South Coast Air Quality Management District, are available for questions. For the departmental speakers, please state your name and title for the record when you address the board.

Thank you very much. I want to especially thank all the panelists that are here this morning and could see AQMD and everyone present. Members, I don't want to take a whole lot of time because we discussed the fire last week and I thank the board for working with us and with all our county departments and the city of Los Angeles to come to this place today. And I really do want to say, Big thanks to Mayor Bass and Council Member Jurado who yesterday signed two executive orders for the City of Los Angeles regarding the response to the fire. I know that our departments have been heavily involved and engaged and I would hope that the two executive orders that all our staff here have a chance to review it and understand what's being laid out by the city because there's many portions of it that directly respond to us. And so I wanna know moving forward how best we're going to accomplish our goals and objectives, which I believe are similar. Her two executive orders are pretty well detailed. And I know that moving along, there may be some challenges. However, I think transparency and discussion are going to be what I'm going to look for and our residents are, quite frankly. So I want to just say that at the top. So it's already been 14 days now. believe it or not. And the fire, since I know, is still somewhat contained. There's still some hot spots there. All of that is under the jurisdiction of the LA City Fire Department. And I know we're working closely with them. i want to also thank our office of emergency management and all the team for helping us stand up various locations in east los angeles i just want to say that at some point at the beginning people were criticizing the county myself and others that we were not responsive enough but in fact we we were working the day of the fire and the following days and moving forward. And I wanna say thank you, especially to our first responders who were on the ground and gave me a full rundown and actually walked me through the site, what was happening at the time, given the information that we had. and which we know this was an evolving circumstance there. I want to also thank our Parks and Recreation, our ISD, OEM, CEO, and everyone for helping us stand up. Similar, I want to say emergency sites, due to the impactful area in East Los Angeles, which you know there are over 120,000 residents. And most of the winds and fumes and what have you actually impacted, I would say, the entire East Los Angeles in portions of San Gabriel Valley. Boyle Heights is a smaller area. geographic area, but nonetheless was still very heavily impacted both areas, to be clear. So I want to thank our Parks and Recreation folks for working with us also to open up Belvedere Park, City Terrace Park, including a church called Our Lady of Victory Church, And I want to thank all of those individuals that helped us provide resources there because we even had Parks and Rec staff and even our youth at work staff were helping to distribute items there among many other CBOs and what have you. I also wanna thank the Nueva Maravilla Public Housing Development because we also had assistance provided there to over, I wanna say several hundred seniors, which Emilio Salas brought to our attention and we were able to disperse several, I wanna say several hundred purifiers to people who are impacted in the public housing, most of which are senior citizens. So I wanted to really give that a shout out to them. I also want to thank our staff, OEM, for working so diligently after we found that we had to close City Terrace. Red Cross was now coming out of that rescue mission there that we had. We thought we would have people overnight, and we did. And we were able to house some of the homeless and people that needed vouchers to go to motels. But I think in the coming days, that's probably going to grow. We're going to hear more about people that left their homes and did secure housing somewhere else. So I'm sure we're going to have to have a some kind of center or repository so that we get all of that information and that people can be compensated. We did stand up the LA County Community Resiliency Center, as it's known, and it's really at the East LA Civic Center, where we have our courthouse, probation is there, we have regional planning, public works, ISD, and we have one of our district offices there as well. Just to give you an idea, Thus far, with all of the different sites that we have set up, we've already distributed over 7,000 air purifiers. And this was not an easy task because I think that was the challenge, just getting purifiers and making sure they got into the hands of the right people that needed them the most. And as any incident like that, you're always having to verify that people truly were living in the area and they could show proof through either a receipt, rental receipt, a telephone bill, whatever it is, just to show where their zip code was so that we could disperse those air filters. We had people coming from as far as Pomona, West Covina. Monterey Park that weren't directly impacted, as were the people from East LA and Boyle Heights. So that's why we had to create a system to do that. We also provided over 59,595 masks. And I want to say that it took us a while to collectively get those together, but we're finding that there is a need to create a bigger repository, as we've discussed, Supervisor Hahn. So in the future, we can mitigate and be ready for any of these disasters. Just to give you an idea, at the locations that we did set up, at Our Lady of Victory Church, who set up... resource center there very quickly, we had 1,845 purifiers distributed there. That is in the Union Pacific area, one of the most hardest hit, which is just blocks away from the storage facility itself. Some of the poorest people and seniors who live there, and I know Supervisor Hahn, you're familiar with the area. At Belvedere Park, we had 3,081 purifiers. At City Terrace Park, 1,501 at Nueva Maravilla, about 100. And at our recently opened resiliency center at the Civic Center, we've already distributed 525. But this isn't nearly enough what the ask is, because we haven't touched the surface yet. So these numbers, I assume, will be growing. And one of the concerns is to make sure that we have sufficient supply, but we also have a responsible party. and whatever other levers we can push to get relief through the state or philanthropic or other individuals that can help us. I want to tell you, in addition to the purifiers, though, that isn't enough. You have people that have been unemployed for almost two weeks. So they need food. So we provided food boxes, well over 4,000. I wanna thank the LA Regional Food Bank for standing up and in part to our offices for working on that. People also needed water. It was very warm these days. So 2,000 cases of water were provided and we're expecting to get more for the remainder of the week in all those three categories. And of course, we continue to work with OEM and with the responsible party to a certain extent. But I do want to make clear that through OEM, we were able to activate our disaster workers, which to me was very helpful. We needed that as we stood up the Civic Center the resiliency center at East Los Angeles. And we had, I wanna say maybe over 30 different county workers that were there in addition to people who were representing their departments and providing direct information as well inside our library facility to talk to recipients and residents in their language, giving them information firsthand. They were helping, they were helping as well. Highway Patrol also assisted us as well as LA County Sheriffs. Just to give you an idea of the departments, CEO was there, County Council, OEM, DPH, DPW, County Fire, DHS, DMH, DPSS, Aging and Disabilities, DEO, DACA, DCBA, including OIA, and yes, of course, our very own Michael Lowe, ISD, who helped us to secure purifiers and help us set up the resiliency center himself with his limited staff that he has there, because he doesn't have a large staff. And Parks and Recreation, as I said, they activated their folks, but they also got youth at work involved and I hope that we can continue to employ them at these various other centers. That's something that I heard the city mayor talk about yesterday and I thought well we know what we can do and we need to activate them so I know Kelly LoBianco you can help us with that. But I also need to mention the CBOs and others that also participated because they showed up on weekends and the evenings to help us. Alma Family Services, who some of you are familiar with, the Wellness Center, God's Pantry, LA Conservation Corps, who's out there right now helping us, Soledad Enrichment Action, SBCC, I Heart LA, Dolores Huerta Foundation, and the East Los Angeles Women's Center. I also want to thank the federally qualified clinics that we called upon. We know that DHS had one of their mobile units out there, but that certainly was not enough to meet the need. So we called upon our clinics, many of whom are friends of all of us here, the JWCH, El Proyecto del Barrio, St. John's Community Health, ViaCare, Altamed, and Clinica Romero. These are our partners, and I hope to continue to establish that partnership with them so that they can continue to do the outreach as well as testing. Many were telling us that that people were having contractions in their lungs and felt a tightness in their chest and blood pressure cases as well as asthma and then other ailments. Because people were told to stay inside at one point, some people were literally taking that to heart and stayed in for maybe more than just one or two days. And that also impacts people's access to their medication. and some were not able to get their medication. So it was important to have all our mobile units there to help provide prescriptions or to give them treatment that they could do without having to go to a hospital or emergency. And yet there were some people that did have to go to hospital emergency rooms. But in the future, I hope we can do more prevention so we can bring those costs down overall. So I wanna begin very quickly, if I can, with Kevin McGowan, our OEM director, and thank you for standing up. This has been one of those, last two weeks that really take a toll on us and really ask us to stand up in so many different ways and creative ways. So I want to thank you and your staff for being very supportive and being there, boots on the ground from day one. But I wanted to ask you if you could just give us briefly an update on the cleanup and the debris removal thus far, and where can impacted residents go to seek claims for damages or injuries as they occur? So we could start out with that. if we can.

Kevin. Good morning, and thank you, Chair Solis, and good morning, supervisors. For the record, Kevin McGowan, director of the Office of Emergency Management. Related to the recovery, since middle of last week when the city fire department really made progress on knocking down the fire and then they made a declarative statement later in the week that they did knock down, the city and the county in a cooperative fashion started assessing the need for a recovery structure because the facility is directly located within the city. within the city's jurisdiction, they took lead on creating that recovery structure. It's also kind of the background on why the mayor issued those executive orders to, in another form, make a declarative statement on what that structure was going to look like. The county has seamlessly integrated into that structure for two different main components. One, regulatory oversight responsibilities. So a lot of our departments have specific regulatory oversight on how to handle food waste, haul, transportation management, and I'll let my partners up here speak to their specific areas. And then in addition to that, subject matter expertise. So a lot of our county departments, this isn't the first time we've responded to similar types of issues. So whether it's debris removal, which we have extensive experience over the last 10 years on significant debris removal operations, all the way to how do we manage impacts that are responsible parties created. And so all of our different county departments that have that integration have been tied to the hip with the city. There's multiple meetings every day. And I don't want to minimize them by calling them meetings, but there's a lot of coordination activities that happen throughout the day with all of the impacted city departments, county departments, and the responsible parties. So in all of these recovery efforts, the responsible parties at the front of the table where we are requiring them to take certain actions. And so where we're at today, I'll see if Mark wants to speak directly to the debris removal, but there's been progress being made. The first round of debris removal was really an assessment. So the responsible party along with the regulatory groups wanted to assess routes, hauling routes and what would be appropriate facilities. And then as that assessment was going forward, more and more debris has started to be removed under the oversight of the regulatory groups. And those range from state agencies through local agencies. In addition to that, there continues to be a lot of efforts in Managing, I'll call them like the secondary or cascading effects related to nuisance odors, impacts from like vector control, environment control. So there's a bunch of those different factors. CASCADING IMPACTS THAT ARE OCCURRING RIGHT IN THAT IMPACTED AREA. PUBLIC HEALTH HAS SOME SPECIFIC OVERSIGHT INTO THOSE ISSUES, TOO, SO THEY CAN SPEAK TO THAT. AND THEN OUR PARTNERS AT AQMD ON THE AIR QUALITY AND MONITORING THAT'S GOING ON NOT JUST AT THE SITE BUT ALONG THE CORRIDORS THAT WASTE HAULING IS GOING AND REALLY COUNTYWIDE. SO IT IS THE ALL HANDS ON DECK. not just from the city, but the county and our partners. And then I just wanted to acknowledge, and you did a great job, Supervisor, all of the county departments that have been working at the resource centers. There was a great picture up there. It's not every day that you see the fire department hand crews, but they were the perfect resource to go out there to that church and really bring stability and order to that function. They did a remarkable job. And ever since then, DSWs, our disaster service workers, Department of Human Resources, Lisa, I think Lisa, Joe, and I were on a phone call at like 10 o'clock at night early on talking about activating the DSWs for this. And so it's really been an all hands on deck and we'll continue to remain committed to the recovery as we move forward and work in lockstep with the responsible party and the city to make sure all of this is remediated and people are brought back to a state of normalcy.

Mark, do you want to chime in about the debris removal? Because there have been a lot of questions raised. How is the sorting occurring? What type of, if there is any material that can be hazardous, where is the debris going and what role are you actually playing in this?

Thank you, Supervisor, for the question. And I want to reiterate Kevin and the partnership amongst the county family You know, after a war-torn group of people and having the leadership with Kevin's group there to convene us, I think the county's response was really something, of course, with your leadership there. We're moving into recovery. In recovery, typically, our public works department becomes pretty front and center on recovery, so we're involved in multiple phases of the recovery. The first thing that public works did is stood up and got engaged with the city of Los Angeles, recognizing they were going to be the lead agency on recovery. We recommended a recovery structure to them. They had not formed that really formally. Kevin helped with that. Our role in there are twofold, as Kevin said. We're actually exerting our authorities as the county road commissioner, chief of flood control, county engineer. Flood control is focusing on recovery of the LA River currently and the waterways that have been impacted. County engineer component is the waste component and my staff is involved in approving the landfills that are going to be utilized for disposal, where they go, sorting it, as you said, making sure that it's sorted properly and goes to the right landfills. That oversight is being provided, but we're also providing expertise in this arena. As you know, we're pretty versed about disposal, debris disposal after our LA wildfires. We're coaching the city about what their role needs to be in terms of this. And we're partnering with LA San LA city sanitation to be the entity who needs to enforce on the responsible party the removal of materials The and this has been a good a very good relationship for many years and it continues to be we're exercising relationship Can I stop you in it you said the responsible party yes is handling the actual debris movement They are paying for debris movement and using contractors to do so, but they are not doing that on their own without being regulated and overseen.

So there's oversight of those contractors? Yes.

Yes, supervisor. The disposal plan is a plan that was developed by the recovery group, City of LA's lead again with our expertise. I will say that the contractor or the responsible party was attempting to do that on their own at first, to sort of move it on their own. and were asked to stop or actually ordered to stop. And one of the components you were just about to mention was where they haul it and how they haul the material. We currently have not approved their haul route. We are working on that for the major materials. That'll be probably approved today. Some of the concerns were how many residential streets were you going to cross? How many residential properties would you go by with this? So as a county road commissioner, I have the authority to approve that haul route. And we are reviewing the haul route and specifically where they're allowed to take material and what hours they carry the materials and what materials are carried over county roads. So we're in the middle of that right now. And I got an update before I walked out here. We have not approved their plan yet. And that's because we were concerned.

But we saw on the TV news that there were debris and trucks already the last two days. Actually, I think Saturday.

There's some debris that you may be seeing. The majority of the material is not being hauled. You may be seeing offsite material being picked up randomly. And yes, that is a concern. If residents are seeing material being moved or you're seeing that, we want to know about it because we've given them an order to not approve hauling until Approved haul routes are approved.

Right. But the question is, the public is seeing this already. It's on the news. It's been on since Saturday.

Yes. Mark. General supervisor, general cleanup, again, by this contractor has taken off. And we think we've gotten that under control with the city. to enforce their responsibility. Of course, one of the things that everybody wants right away is the cleanup to happen now.

And I get that, yes.

I think we don't want to be an obstacle in the cleanup, but we want it done in a way that's properly protecting the public as well as the environment.

And the appropriate landfills.

Yes, of course. And then the other thing you're seeing in terms of debris is we've collected a significant amount of debris in the river system. You're seeing some images of it. That's being actually documented and stored in containers county-approved facility, flood control facility at the moment, so we can sort through it. And then that also will be properly hauled to the right facilities, as well as the haul routes for that material.

And is that being tested, Mark?

It's being tested and categorized for the material, and then we're also studying the potential impacts of the discharges that occurred not only in humans, but on wildlife. And I know you've heard we've had some bird die-off, and there is some indicators that the water became acidic, and that is commensurate with bird die-off, typically. So we are looking to see what may have contributed to the acidic condition, and it certainly could have been. It certainly looks like it was related to the discharge. Not of the fire suppression water, but of the materials that left the facility.

Right. And so when will you have information about those readings and what you're coming up with, what you're finding there? I think that is something that we have to keep in mind for the public as well, because they're asking these questions.

I have information now. What we're sharing with the public is whether or not it's safe to enter or to be in. So based on the information we receive, we're taking... appropriate actions to protect the public and the environment. Right now, the water quality is normal for the LA River, which isn't perfect, by the way, but it is in a normal state. And so we don't have any restrictions on entry. Typically, we don't encourage people to enter the LA River during any flows anyway. We have seen the bird dive come down. So we're seeing at least what I would call some normalization of it. We are still seeing, we were seeing still some debris and we think we've got that under control. And that had to do with us going and actually installing BMPs on the property itself to control flow from the property because there's still water being used on site, Supervisor. Right.

Right, I understand that. And for fire, thank you for being here. You all were there, first responders, from the get-go, and I appreciate that. And I think it's even more important to understand what your role is now as we see the fire. I think it's been contained. I'm not even sure if it's fully contained yet. But again, just the water pressure that's being exerted in the building seems to also be creating some hot spots, is what I heard from Chief Moore. And as it was explained to me, and then wanting to know about the suppressant or deodorant that's being used now and what impact that will have with the water as it comes out of the building. And I get they're using the deodorant to keep the odor down and all of that. But I wanna understand what chemicals, what chemical reaction that might have with respect to all these different items that are now being washed down. Can you address that?

Good morning, Madam Chair. Members of the Board, my name is Mario Tresieras. I met you all last week. Again, I'm Chief of the Health Hazardous Materials Division. You know, I want to start off that I actually met once again in the field. I met my team this morning there. And I interviewed an individual there. I asked them how the odors were, and they were pretty prevalent. But the good news is that they did indicate that the air purifiers inside the home were very effective. So that's really good news. I am hearing on some of the updates that they are spraying some type of deodorant. And as they spray around, by the time they finish, they need to do another application. I'm hearing also that there is a product called chlorine dioxide that's usually sprayed on strawberries. But that's not my area of expertise as far as the waterborne and the allowance of that to be discharged. And I believe that's still under review.

So it's still under review.

We don't know conclusively what if that particular product can be utilized. I'm unaware at this time, but I believe that's where they want to head towards to really minimize those odors.

Right. So does public health have any idea about about the use of that particular ingredient in terms of health?

So I'm Muncie Davis, the health officer with Public Health Department. As far as we understand, it's something that's commonly used. However, the concern that would be related to is most likely going to be related to water. And water is being tested on a regular basis coming off the site. Public Works talked about them testing in terms of the LA River. But L.A. San is also doing testing, and the water is also going to a water treatment center. So I wouldn't expect at this point, you know, without seeing the full plans, that there's any particular concern at the moment.

Okay. Anything you want to add to that fire, biohazard?

No, other than just that met my team out there this morning just to review the game plan. As you know, our responsibility in health hazmat is hazardous waste. And so we were developing our plan to ensure that there was going to be a hazardous waste contractor that can legally manage, identify, and remove safely all the hazardous waste from this incident.

One thing I noticed on just viewing the news, television news, is that when these trucks are being brought in to carry the debris, I'm not certain if they're also being covered. I saw some that had lining, but I didn't see a cover on the top. And when they run through the community, it's still Boyle Heights and East LA. So I don't know what enforcement tools we have there.

Yes, Supervisor. Between the City of Los Angeles and the county, we're enforcing the method by which the materials are wrapped and leave the site. That's part of the haul route requirements as well. So they may be coming in empty without the wrap, but when the material is actually loaded, it will be wrapped in a manner that contains... And we can verify that? Yes, we'll be verifying it.

Thank you. And I wanted to quickly go to AQMD. Thank you, Wayne, for being here. I know I hadn't seen you, but everyone tells me that you've been in these meetings with our staff since this started as well. And I understand that you also were able to position two air monitors at schools, two school sites. Can you describe that and tell me what you're looking for with those air monitors?

Thank you, Madam Chair. Yes, so when the incident first responded, we were providing support to the LA Fire Department. And we provided that support through our mobile monitoring labs where we were looking primarily at metals. We did that for both the first and the second night. We also included HF in our second round of mobile monitoring. From our perspective, what we were seeing throughout the mobile monitoring was high particulate, which is what you would expect to see during that high smoke production event. So we were worried about the PM impacts, and so we wanted to deploy some additional stationary monitors. When we're utilizing the mobile monitors, and Dr. Lowe can maybe describe the difference between the mobile stations, the mobile monitoring, and why we deploy the stationary sources. So, Dr. Lowe?

Thank you. Dr. Lowe, thank you.

Absolutely. Thank you, Wayne. Good morning, Chair, and good morning, Supervisors. Jason Lowe, Deputy Executive Officer for the Monitoring Analysis Division at South Coast AQMD. So for mobile monitoring, it allows us to look at different pollutants street by street. As we drive these vans, it gets an instantaneous snapshot of the different pollutants that are in the air. For this particular event, for the active fire event, we were looking for air toxic metals as well as particulate matter, which is related to smoke. And then during the second night, as Wayne mentioned, we did hydrogen fluoride. So this provides that snapshot. In fact, our data is available on our website, aakmd.gov slash palace, to be able to show the air toxic metals as well as the PM that was street by street during that time. When we recognized that the results showed that there are Metals and the typical levels that we normally see in LA kind of similar to the water It's not great and in LA in general, but it at least was typical We did note that there are elevated levels of PM in the mobile monitoring So that did prompt us to deploy immediately at the two different schools Eastman Avenue as well as the Robert Robert Louis Stevenson schools, because those were where elevated levels of PM were observed. So we have ongoing air monitoring being conducted starting June 19th and is still ongoing right now through the active incident.

So can I ask you, does the mobile unit go, how regularly is it traveled amongst the area in Boyle Heights, adjacent from the lineage storage, as well as across the street, which is our line, unincorporated East LA? How regularly are those visits with the mobile?

So the mobile monitoring application is to get that snapshot and to get an indicator of where the hotspots are, and that allows us to kind of deploy a longer-term strategy to deploy the stationary monitoring. That's why when we did the overall evaluation, we were able to deploy the stationary monitoring And then it doesn't go on after that because we look for long-term solutions. So that's where we worked with our part. During the active fire, we worked with EPA and also a third-party contractor to be able to look at, hey, this is where we need certain types of measurements to be done on an ongoing basis rather than trying to send the mobile monitor out several times in a row. Maybe that being said, as we go from the active fire to the recovery phase, which we are transitioning towards now, we are also working with the third-party contractor on an air monitoring plan specific for the recovery phase. So the pollutants may be looking a little bit different from the fire and smoke. We'll be looking more for some of these other compounds that may be of concern. Chlorine dioxide would be one of them, just in case it is applied, and other pollutants that may be related to air toxics. But what we can say is that we are doing unannounced measurements in the communities just to provide a third-party independent evaluation to what that third-party contractor is doing to kind of ground truth that, and also to provide input to that final community air monitoring plan that will be developed. We hear we'll have it soon for our review and approval.

When does that, when can we expect that, the community report?

We just received the draft, I believe it was yesterday, so our team is reviewing it. I'm hoping we'll have it done probably within the next day or two. But I think it's important to recognize, Madam Chair, that the air monitoring is done by a number of different entities. What we try to do is work with US EPA, for instance, at the very beginning. US EPA brings various monitoring equipment It really supplements what we don't have. But again, as was described, once the incident starts to wind down, they pull back on their material. The information that we generate, that we obtain, we route through incident command. The notable exception, though, is the air quality index, what we host on our website, which in general talks about air quality. When we deployed those monitors, and the reason we deployed those monitors was because we wanted to get a hyper-local picture of what was happening in Boyle Heights and around the fire. It was very important for us to make sure that the people understood, not just from the large regional perspective, but very specific in that area. So that's in part why we deployed those monitors. But I also want to make sure that we convey that there was perimeter monitoring around the facility during the fire. And again, as it was winding down, we were working with EPA, the contractors. Unfortunately, it was with the lineage CEO and EPA trying to work out their willingness to do that additional monitoring. And they ultimately agreed to do that. So we continue...

So they're paying for... some of the monitoring, they're reimbursing you or how's that gonna be handled?

That's still a question in our mind. We're hopeful that we will be reimbursed and we're working on that aspect. But for us right now, the most important aspect is to get the monitoring done and get that information out to the public. And that's why we're working with all of the groups to hopefully generate a portal that people can access and that we can also share data and get that information out to the others. we're really focusing on our AB617 communities and all of our partners, elected officials, and so forth.

Right. I'm sure you're being bombarded as we are. But I think just keeping the focus in the immediate area is really of concern to me because as we're seeing people come up to receive these air filters, people are now asking, well, now the aroma and the smell is so bad that now it's causing other physical and health-related issues, nausea, And that's what I'm seeing. That's what I'm hearing from people as they walk up. And I'm talking about mostly a lot of elderly. And you see a lot of young children, too, accompanying them that live in those same households. So that's of importance to me. So if any information you can share with my office directly, I'd really appreciate it as well.

We will definitely do so. We are working with CARB to try to get approval of getting as many air filtration units as we can. Those would hopefully be distributed to the AB16 community members, but also to acquire enough units that we could distribute them in these kind of instances.

That's great, and I know my colleague, Holly Mitchell, serves on the AQMD board, so that she's been there with her watchful eye on this project, on this effort. So thank you for that. Quickly, I want to go to Kelly Lobianco, because yesterday it was pretty evident to me that, hearing from the mayor's office and Councilwoman Gerardo, that we do need a really robust recovery effort, much as what we went through, I believe, the latest experience was the Santa Monica Freeway, and how quickly you were able to get boots on the ground, talk to impacted small businesses, and some that have been shuttered now for 14 days. And employees that were let go, or not let go, They are on leave right now from the storage facility. So there's levels of displacement, dislocation, and what resources are available right now? And I know you've been sending some of your staff out there to talk to businesses. Can you give us a little summary of what's happening there?

Yes, thank you. Thank you, Chair. Kelly Lobianco, Director of the LA County Department of Economic Opportunity. We're out there supporting small businesses and workers right now and working very closely with the city to make sure that we maximize all available resources. We are actively canvassing. We were out last Friday canvassing and are canvassing this week as well. Through our office of small business and our Department of Economic Opportunity staff We're starting in the shelter-in-place areas where in our conversations with the the state and others We know there's about 250 business establishments there So we're starting there and cascading out going out with a survey to understand business impacts early results show what we know which is high revenue loss already and so We're also at the local assistance centers. We'll be there all week at both of them. And we have local facilities at our East LA Entrepreneur Center and our East LA America's Job Center of California. On the small business side, our focus is making sure that we understand these impacts because we're working closely with the Office of Emergency Management even later today. on the Small Business Administration Declaration that will unlock low-interest loans. But we are helping people, one, connect to us, let us know what's happening, helping gather documentation that they might need for any claims with the responsible party or for grants and loans. and helping them connect to available resources now. We know that with the California Community Foundation Awards, there's gonna be direct relief most immediately available through Inclusive Action for the City and New Economics for Women, so making sure folks know about that and are ready for those opportunities. as well as any other small business opportunities. We also are connecting with folks that just need available resources that we have, sidewalk vendors and others who are connecting to existing programs. So we're continuing to make that connection and help them get ready for some of the capital opportunities On the worker side, we know that in the case of small businesses, maybe it's one in the same, but workers are impacted both on leave at lineage and some of the related contractor parties, as well as in the small businesses in the region, including many home-based businesses. we are connecting folks immediately in partnership with the city to rapid response events virtually and we'll have in-person events too for unemployment insurance and other benefits so that folks have access to immediate relief and we're also as we discussed yesterday unlocking a million dollars in rapid response funds that will offer no cost training transitional subsidized employment and also need space assessment and hopefully in conversation with the state also some small business services so folks can access these today they don't need to wait for them and we're making sure that folks have full access thank you and i would i would encourage you to see if you could deploy some of the staff at our other centers that we just opened up the civic center is one main one but

We're scattered, we're at City Terrace, we're at some of these major parks that have corridors, as you know, small businesses there, and the impact is devastating. I thought I heard some statistics from some academic group that said the impact is millions, millions of dollars, because these workers that were impacted work in industries that permeate here in L.A. County. And if you don't have the workforce, then you're not producing goods and services. So I look forward to hearing what that report's going to be as well moving forward, because I think this is something that we definitely want to keep our eye on. And that will thank you very much for that want to go quickly to our County Council Our our lead Scott. I see you there Scott. How are you? can you kind of go over just kind of a framework of how an investigation would be undertaken so that we understand who the responsible parties are and what we can do to also assist our public and if you could just

Given your experience, you know, thank you supervisor and thank you board. Um scott coon assistant county council So using our experience on unfortunately several other disasters that the county has been through most recently wildfires as well as Dominguez channel incident the chiquita canyon landfill incident so again in those incidents the focus is really on the community and getting resources out to the community as all of the colleagues here have been talking about. That's the priority. In terms of our investigation, we're trying to identify what happened, who caused it, who's responsible. So we are undertaking that. Obviously, the nature of that investigation is confidential. in terms of who we're interviewing or talking to. We have retained some experts to look into it. We are coordinating with the LA City Attorney's Office. Your board motion set in motion a lot of the things that have been happening, including our collaboration with the City Attorney's Office. We're continuing to investigate, also cataloging all the costs and expenses that are incurred in the county, which we then presumably down the road would seek to recover through litigation like we're doing with Chiquita Canyon, with Dominguez Channel, against Edison for the Eaton Fire. That's sort of the model is gathering the facts now, doing the investigation, letting the first responders and the recovery responders focus on the immediate community needs, and then we would come in and try to recover those costs as well as damages and other things.

My understanding is the fire initially started because of solar panels. We didn't talk a whole lot about that, and that's another contractor issue. And I know that there were issues for our firefighters and first responders to be able to get into the storage facility because of the danger of those solar panels. And so my questions will be later on about code enforcement, permits, how is that allowed, where do they exist, and is that gonna create a situation where we have to look at changing our own codes as well as state regulation to prohibit those kinds of designs that can, as we foresee the future, how that will devastate in many ways our unpreparedness and the costs to our communities, so I don't know if you have.

Certainly, Supervisor, again, this was, the building was located in the city of Los Angeles, so they would be the permitting agency. A lot of the fire codes and building codes, though, are uniform across the state, and so, again, some of the other colleagues here on the dais would be better informed in terms of what the spacing requirements might be, what the electrical requirements might be for solar panels on the roof and for access and things like that. But again, I think there would be some full examination of that issue and if there's any need to. Collaboration. Yeah, collaboration. If there's any need to change any codes in the county, obviously.

Yeah, and that's mentioned in the executive order that the mayor put forward yesterday that she signed. And we are specifically listed. Most of our departments are. So I just want to make sure that we are engaged at that level, whatever level, to help make those reforms as we move forward. because certainly this is bigger than just the county and the city, and it's gonna require the state and federal government to help us out. So lastly, thank you very much. Lastly, my last question for our public health. We've talked about this on the phone and talked about the odors and all of that. What can we tell our public about moving forward for the remainder of the week since we're going to be experiencing high levels of, we're gonna have a heat wave for all intents and purposes starting I think Friday through Saturday. And then on top of that, the fireworks where sometimes that's uncontrollable. What kinds of alerts or information can we share with the public moving forward?

Sure. So what we'd expect is, you know, if this is really, if they're not moving very fast or if the deodorizer is not working, whatever they're doing, you may have that same smell as trash. And so that can cause some similar symptoms in terms of irritation of the eyes, nose, throat, and lungs. So similar to what we saw, you know, with the fire when it was in place. However, a different reason that caused some of the similar symptoms. We do want to encourage people to really send in complaints about odours if they have them so that it gets tracked, and it's tracked by AQMD in terms of their 1-800-CUT-SMOG number. that helps to really understand where things might be happening and where we may need to look closer and we also want people to really if it's really bothering you if it's causing some symptoms you feel like that do talk to your health care provider it may be related to that it may be related to something else but we want people to really make sure that they check with their provider if they have underlying conditions in particular in order to understand if they need to do something different related to their medication Generally, what we would expect is they would, the responsible parties are doing this, they would do things to try to reduce those odors. We have put out some guidance related to environmental odors and it's on our website. We've passed it out at the community resource centers as well to give people some other practical tips related to that. We also yesterday issued a public health directive signed by our director, public health director, because we understand the large quantity of contaminated food that's there that needs to be removed, asking lineage for a plan on how they're going to reduce impacts related to that. And so we expect to have that plan towards the first week of July, and we'll see what it looks like in terms of plans they put in place to help protect the community and mitigate whether it's anything from doing additional things to improve indoor air quality to temporary respite centers so people can get into cleaner indoor air or temporary relocation, whatever the case may be. So we're asking them to plan for this proactively before we get into any real potential trouble with a lot of odors.

Right, okay, thank you. And Wayne, I saw your hand up there, AQMD.

Yeah, thank you, Madam Chair. First off, thank you, Dr. Davis, for highlighting our 1-800-CUT-SMOG. It's really important, as you said, Madam Chair, that we get the record of complaints because that gives us additional authorities. We understand, though, that there are many people that are reluctant to call 1-800-CUT-SMOG or perhaps file a formal complaint. So we're actually sending staff out to community groups, community meetings, and elected's office to provide additional information. We also have deployed additional inspectors in the area to assess for themselves what the conditions are like on the ground. And then with regards to the odor mitigation plan, we also are providing input on that, and we'll continue to work with all of our partners here to address that. But it's really important that we get the administrative record, if you will, so that we can exert our various authorities to make sure that everything is being done to mitigate those odors.

Is it possible to ask if you can have someone assigned to our East LA Civic Center? That's our largest center, which is our one stop. So we have someone there and they can stand right alongside with our departments to get that information firsthand. I'd really like to see that happen.

I'm sure we can and I'll work on it and we'll get back with you this afternoon.

Thank you very much. Okay. And thank you all. That's it for me. I'm going to hand it over to my colleagues now. Catherine Barger. Yes, I'm sorry.

Yeah, I'll be brief. First of all, thank you, Supervisor Solis, for the work that you and your team have done out there. I have a staff member who lives five blocks from this and told me that... When she went out yesterday morning, she could barely go halfway down the street to walk her dog because the smell made her sick to her stomach. So, I mean, this is a real struggle. But what I would say, and Scott, she brought this up to me. Her mom is older. And evidently there are lawyers out there that are conducting in people's homes meetings with people. residents and her mother went and one of the people that was in this meeting started asking questions like, why do you want our information? Who are you working for? And they wouldn't answer. They were asking for personal information and they ended up walking out the back door of the home, um, to two people that were trying to get a group of people to sign up for a class action. All that to say, I hope we are educating the public that there are people out there that are going to take advantage of the situation and may take personal information fraudulently and victimize these people more than they've already been victimized. And my staff, she said, she told her mom, don't give any information. Be careful. And so I would just let you know that they're out there and they are, in my opinion, predators who are looking for a way to take advantage of a community that is in fear, is in fear. And then the other thing that was talked about is the rats. They are out there. She's seen them. And so I hope we've got vector control involved as well. because they carry disease. Dr. Davis, correct?

They can.

Well, they can. And so there are a high number of them that have been seen by residents because of the food. So I would ask that you also make a note of just addressing that from the vector control. I don't know what you can. They're feeding on the rotten food. But still, that could be problematic. So but thank you for the work you've done. I know how hard it is in an emergency. There's always Monday morning quarterbacks who will question or say you're not doing enough, not understanding the dynamics of what is going on and the coordination that's going on. And are there going to be people that may have tried to get an air filter that you ran out? Well, that doesn't mean they're not going to get one. That means that you're replenishing the supply. to Supervisor Hahn's point last week about having an inventory ready so that we don't. But again, as someone who dealt with an emergency recently, there's always someone who's going to say, you shoulda, coulda, woulda. But at the end of the day, I think that given the dynamics of the situation and given the multi-jurisdictional, the city of LA has oversight. I mean, it's in the city, but it's impacting the county And I'm glad you brought up, Supervisor Solis, about the solar panels, because last week I did. I mentioned the fact that this is an opportunity for us to look at where we may have those and take a second look at whether or not we want to address it in the unincorporated areas, because I guarantee you there are unincorporated areas that probably have the same setup as it relates to solar, especially if they're doing refrigeration. In my district up in Santa Clarita Valley, in industry, there are jurisdictions that are probably incorporating this use of solar panels across the top that created such a problem for the City of LA. But again, kudos to you and your team.

Thank you. Thank you for recognizing all of our departments, but more importantly, the volunteers and the teams that are out there. I appreciate that. Supervisor Hahn.

Yeah, thank you, Madam Chair, and thank you, Supervisor Barger, for really you and Supervisor Horvath sort of leading the way on these giant, giant disasters, emergencies. Unfortunately, we're going to have so much experience uh and and we'll be ready for the next one and you know the next one is coming um and again thank you uh supervisor salise again for uh just amazing to look at these photos and see how you you showed up and your team showed up and and our department showed up it's been really amazing my team and i went out to commerce uh because they've also Been impacted and we were handing out air filters with the mayor of Commerce, Kevin, and I was going to different businesses and just walking in and offering masks. And they were so appreciative because, again, a lot of people, no matter how much we put out, no matter how much outreach there is, sometimes people don't really know where to go or who to ask. To get something as simple as an N95 mask. So really appreciate the procurement of the masks and the air filters that we've done. And again, I will reiterate, I hope we can think about, you know, having more on hand. for the next disaster, I think. There's a lot of warehouses around the county. It doesn't have to be one giant warehouse. Commerce has their own warehouse. It would be interesting to look at that. I think we're going to get a report back that looks at the possibility and pros and cons of doing something like that. I think it's a good idea. You asked almost everything, almost everything. But I'm going to ask three that my constituents have been wondering about. One was some of the residents have complained that the sewers are starting to smell like rotten meat and didn't know if that's connected to the food rotting at the storage facility. And, you know, while we have the N95 and the air filtration for, you know, initially it was for the smoke, they're wondering are there any safety tips or safety risks with smelling this bad shit. Sorry. We have a delay.

As mentioned, it's irritating, and that's pretty much it. Depending on whether or not you have underlying health conditions, it could make that worse, especially for asthmatics. There's a possibility of that. In general for the air purifiers some of them are designed to help reduce odors and usually they have activated charcoal to try to help with Oh, yeah, but I wouldn't expect that the mask like the n95s because these are gases These are not particles and the n95s and the p100s are really for particles So I wouldn't expect those to help necessarily with that But in terms of indoor air quality the air purifies should help depending on how they're designed.

Yeah, I Thank you for that. And yeah, Mark, listening to you and talk about the oversight or the approval of the routes. I mean, 85 million pounds of rotting meat being transported in trucks. I feel like it's already started. So, you know, you kind of explained that you sort of have an oversight role in determining where it's going, but what a massive, awful procedure.

Thank you. The logistics of that, as you can imagine, you can appreciate, are significant, and they're expensive, and lots of mistakes can be made if it's not done carefully. And so, yes, along with the city, we are very focused on how it's transported, where it goes. Obviously, everybody want to know who's going to pay for it. The responsible party will be paying for that. They had to enter into contracts with not only, you know, the haulers, but also at the far end, at the receiving end of this. There's been a couple of locations already identified that are known locations within the county and outside the county, actually one of them, where the materials will go based on the how they're classified.

How does rotting meat, is that hazmat or is there another classification for rotting meat?

I don't think it qualifies as hazmat and we're looking at it as debris but I'm would turn to the health officer, it would become an uncontrolled pollutant potentially. That's the way we're looking at it as a pollutant.

Yeah.

So we want it controlled. And that's what you're trying to achieve is the controlled movement of the materials from an uncontrolled environment to a controlled environment. And the way you do that is you do that in unknown ways professionally with residents in mind because you have these other impacts that can occur post-pollution. You mentioned the rats, looking at water quality. So yeah, the material becomes, it's organic. So it's organic waste has a specific location it goes these days. And you may or may not know that the state is rejecting organics into landfills and they have to be processed in a way that is appropriate for organics so they don't end up generating the gases that we're concerned about. So our traditional landfill, is not a place typically that organic materials are being taken.

That's right. Well, we appreciate that oversight role that you're having just in the transportation of this stuff. So last week, Supervisor Solis, you mentioned the dead fish floating in the LA River. And that's something else that my constituents were curious about. I know you guys talked today a little bit about the update on the dead birds. But there have been dead fish floating downstream. And wondering if we know what the cause of that is. And if it gets worse, who's in our dead fish department?

First, Supervisor, we, the county, are the keeper of the LA River and the associated waterways. They're heavily regulated, but we see ourselves as the steward of those waterways. And as a regulated entity, when those discharges are made, non-stormwater discharges are made to the system, they all have some impact pollution in that. We have documented fish die-off, as you mentioned. We are, we did, we did, identify acidic water, the pH had lowered. That could be, and I have to be careful how I say it, but that could be related to this discharge. The timing is suspicious. We are working with, not an EPA, but Fish and Wildlife, State Fish and Wildlife is involved. They are working side by side with us to document that. As well as the State Water Board, locally known as the LA Regional Water Board are on site as well. And again, one of the cherished locations that are down and near your area there is the wetlands. It's not the Vingas Channel, it's the Vingas Wetlands. And that wetland area, also because it normally diverts flows from the LA River into the wetland. That area also, that was probably the area where most of your residents saw the dove because we saw the dove in the wetland and we had been diverting what a normal operation flows from LA River into that wetland. So we are looking at cause and effect and we will, working with, as I said, CDFW and our own biologists, Your Department of Public Works has biologists there too, water quality specialists.

It's all these impacts and these consequences that we don't know for sure yet, but ultimately it's going to be interesting to see how much devastation came from this warehouse fire. In Redondo Beach, I want to say five years ago, remember there was this massive dead fish And it was a lack of oxygen that swept through. And I don't know if it had something to do with the algae bloom or had, but it was like massive and it happened like overnight.

Dissolved oxygen is an indicator of the health of any waterway. And when we have too low dissolved oxygen, the fish can't breathe. And so it affects their respiratory system and there is a dive. The event you're referring to was a desalination pilot that occurred over...

Okay.

One of the water agencies was testing a desal pilot and had a die off.

Yeah, interesting. And then the last one is... The LA Times published an article about how the water used during the lineage fire ended up in the LA River and is carrying foam from the building's insulated wall with it. And just wondering if public health testing, are you involved in testing this water to see if there are any contaminants making their way down the LA River? I think we've talked a lot about that, but how far down the river has this foam gone? Again, my residents in Long Beach are I'm worried that it's making it down to the Long Beach Harbor.

Supervisor, it's made as far as Willow, and we're using booms to contain it there, and we've contained a tremendous amount of material. There were some pictures of it in the pictures there. Again, that's a violation of the Clean Water Act and state water quality provisions. Again, we have a principal party that has generated that. It is the actual owner of the facilities or the operator of the facilities. and not our county, one of the things I want to make sure is fire water, suppression water, is considered exempt from those provisions. However, the non-stormwater that reaches, including pollution like the foam, are a direct violation of the Port of Cologne Act as well as our own laws. And so we'll be citing, along with the other agencies, the principal party for this discharge.

Thank you. Well, thank you to all of you who have responded in such an amazing way to this disaster. And thank you again to Supervisor Solis and your team. I think we're going to be learning about, feeling the impacts, and understanding them for a long time. But ultimately, it's our residents and the residents of East LA who can least afford this kind of, and commerce, yeah, who can least afford this kind of disaster, both financially and physically and environmentally. It's some communities that have just long been the victims of environmental injustice, and this is just one more, and it's really a tragic tragedy. Thank you.

Thank you, thank you to my colleagues. I'm sorry we took a little more time than I thought, but there are so many questions, and I want to thank all of you, the panelists, and let's continue to work together. Our office, and I know our CEO is very supportive of how we're moving forward in OEM, and our outside partners, even the governor's office, who I understand after we text that he is now taking a deeper dive and what he can do and make available. I don't think he was fully aware of some of the impacts that we were talking about, particularly as it deals with debris removal and all of that. So hopefully we'll get some more relief or some relief from the legislature in many different ways. So I appreciate that. Thank you so much. To my colleagues and executive officer, let's go to members of the public who wish to speak on this item and you all can leave. Thank you, thank you again for being here.

Will the following individual please come forward and staff will assist you. Rogelio Martinez. As a final reminder for remote participants, to be placed in the speaking queue to address item A1, if you have not already done so, use the raise hand feature on your device or press star three on your telephone now. Roy Humphreys, your line is open, please begin.

Okay, great work given the circumstances. We ask that you hold responsible those on the rooftop panel situation, Boondoggle. There are others around the county that have matters to affect more than any given city or county entity must work together. And note that the LA County had competition, Orange County, where the garden grows chemical spill, and we thank God that we don't have that where they had to evacuate 40,000 people. Call resident Governor Arnold on the storage of emergency preparedness. And I'm sure Elon would be glad to help. Just give him a call. Thank you.

Thank you. Caller, your line is open. Please state your name and begin. Caller, your line is open. Please state your name and begin.

Hi, good morning.

Please continue.

Hi, good morning. My name is Cristina Hernandez. I'm a resident of Unincorporated East Los Angeles and the chairperson for the Maravilla Community Advisory Committee. We need to be clear, this warehouse is located in Boyle Heights, but literally on the border of Unincorporated East LA. When you cross the street, you're in East LA, and we have bared the burden of this fire as well. Let's ensure that the East L.A. community is part of the discussion. This is the second environmental emergency in a matter of one month. Five weeks ago today, there was an oil spill in East L.A. where 25,000 gallons of oil spilled onto our streets. The community has yet to hear any updates on the cleanup efforts, and we have reached out to Supervisor Solis's office requesting a community meeting and have yet to receive a response. We don't want this fire to be treated with the same disregard. This is serious. It should be treated like fluid areas in L.A. County and show the respect that the 120,000 residents deserve. We're asking for long-term solutions. We need evacuations and relocations to protect the health of residents. Everyone needs to have air purifiers year-round. Electric bills should be subsidized considering households are running with air purifiers.

Thank you. Caller with phone number 323, last two digits, 05. Your line is open. Please state your name and begin. Caller, please begin.

Sofia Quinonez. Experience cannot be teached. I have sent a three-month video of an engineer who specialized in emergency response regarding cold storage. What we have is 80 million pounds of meat that are combustible. This is just, we are so angry. I've also written to the director of the EPA. We need a task force to address this. this is very serious there can be an explosion and according to that engineer he does not respect what the fire department has said i asked that all of the supervisors review that video that i sent to mr riemann because he's an expert and i believe the expert over the fire department because he said the fire department was mis um representing what was going on in addition the response was horrible the eta reported 900 as hazardous, yet you have the mayor and all of you.

Thank you. Caller with phone number 323, last two digits, 13. Your line is open. Please state your name and begin.

My name is Eddie Torres.

Please continue.

My name is Eddie Torres. I'm with the East Los Angeles Chamber of Commerce, long-term resident of East LA. We were fortunate enough, oh, thank you for the efforts of the first responders, and thank you, Supervisor Solis, for your efforts. We were fortunate enough to get 40 purifiers on Saturday and we distributed them in the area of Union Pacific and Olympic and the stench was so bad and I have asthma even though the math. So I'd like to offer a suggestion if you could please have your staffs canvassing the area Union Pacific and work this way north, south and east from the area and incorporate installing and personally hand deliver purifiers so the impacted people such as me who are disabled and have asthma could be benefited from your efforts. God bless you and thank you once again for your efforts.

Thank you, Eddie. If you will, contact our office. You know where to get them, get a hold of them. And we also have the Victoria Church there that's right in Union Pacific that has also been stood up. There's also a mobile health unit there. We do have air purifiers and food available. Thank you.

Thank you. Madam Chair, there are no other remote speakers to address the board. Remote participation for this item is concluded. We will go to our in-person speaker. Please begin.

Rogelio Martinez, Supervisor, District 4 Candidate. So what are the acute and long-term health effects? You mentioned revenue losses. And what are the wage losses? Did you know that as of tomorrow, the minimum wage in LA goes up to $18.42 on a weekly basis at $736.80, but yet unemployment only covers $483.42 a week. That's a shortfall of $253.38. So who will make up the deficiency? You've mentioned several times a responsible party or parties. So who are those? Let me give you an example of who such parties could be that have not been mentioned. LA City Fire, LA County Fire, the LA City Planning Division or the County Division, the architect, the civil engineer, the freezer company, the solar company, the contractor doing the work, the LA Department of Water and Power, State and Fish and Game and Wildlife, the EPA.

Thank you. That concludes the time for public comment on this item.

Madam Chair, this report will be received and filed.

Thank you. Hearing or objection, that will be the order. Thank you, members.

We will now move on to item six, motion to adopt a resolution and proclaim June 6, 2026 as the third year anniversary of the Los Angeles County LGBTQ Plus Commission throughout Los Angeles County, which was held by Supervisor Solis. For members of the public joining us remotely to comment on this item, please use the raise hand feature if you're online or press star three if on a telephone.

Thank you. This proclamation before us, members, and the resolution reaffirms something that this board has consistently said for many, many years. Every transgender, gender expansive, and intersex person in Los Angeles County has the full and unwavering support of their county government. Los Angeles County, as some of you may know, is home to roughly 665,000 LGBTQ plus adults, about 9% of our total population. And within that, approximately 93,000 adults identify as transgender or non-binary. These are our neighbors, our coworkers, our youth, our families, and even our employees. And right now, they're facing a coordinated political assault. These assaults are even coming from the highest court in our nation. This morning, the US Supreme Court ruled that states are allowed to ban trans women and girls from participating in school athletic teams. And across the country, Legislatures have stripped nondiscrimination protections, eliminated recognition of gender identity, and dismantled access to gender-affirming care. For TGI immigrants, that threat is compounded by federal immigration enforcement. But amid these difficult times, the county has consistently done more. And since 2021, this board has passed four Care with Pride motions. And in 2023, the board approved a motion that I authored to create an independent LGBTQ plus commission dedicated to identifying and addressing the most pressing needs of our TGI community. I was proud to help create that commission, and it's gratifying to see its mark now its third year anniversary, having already done deep, meaningful work and engaging our communities. However, Needs among this population continue to be acute. TGI residents face disability rates more than double that of non-LGBTQ adults. Suicide attempts rates are eight times higher. And nearly a third of immigrant TGI residents report never receiving gender-affirming care at all. So today, this board acts. We are ensuring that no county resources will be used to detain, surveil, or penalize anyone for seeking or providing gender-affirming care. And we are affirming that the TGI immigrants are safe here. We're affirming our commitment to gender-inclusive facilities and language across county buildings to uphold state law on identity rights documents and pronouns. And I am proud to have brought this proclamation forward and resolution and hope that we can count on my colleagues' aye vote. I know the public has been waiting for this. These recommendations come directly from our LGBTQ plus commission. So I would respectfully request your aye vote. And with that, let me notice our members in the queue here. Supervisor Horvath, you're on.

Thank you, Madam Chair, and thank you to everyone who's made the first three years of the LGBTQ Plus Commission such a success. This anniversary is a testament to the advocates, community leaders, county staff, and commissioners who believe the commission was not only necessary, but long overdue. Three years ago, we made history by creating the Los Angeles County LGBTQ Plus Commission because our communities deserve more than a seat at the table. They deserve a permanent voice in shaping county policy and services and a place where those most impacted are helping lead the decisions that affect their lives. That includes our transgender, gender expansive and intersex communities whose leadership, lived experience and advocacy continue to move our county forward and make clear where more action is needed. I'm incredibly proud to have appointed Sydney Rogers and Alejandro Soria to the commission. I want to thank them both for their leadership, partnership and commitment to ensuring that this commission reflects and serves our diverse LGBTQ plus communities. A special congratulations to Sydney Rogers for serving as chair and helping to guide the commission. And I also want to recognize Sunita Menon, our first executive director, whose leadership has built this commission from an idea into an institution that is already making a meaningful difference for LGBTQ plus Angelenos. And to everyone in the county family who helped us celebrate Pride this year, thank you for that too. It feels especially fitting to celebrate this milestone during Pride Month, a time to honor the generations of activists who fought for visibility, dignity, and equality, and those who continue that fight today. But Pride is also a reminder that progress is never guaranteed. Across the country, we are seeing how quickly hard fought and won civil rights can be challenged or rolled back. And transgender, gender expansive, and intersex people are often in fact, all too often, the center of those attacks. That's exactly why we can't become complacent. We have a responsibility to keep fighting for equality, safety, healthcare, belonging, and for every LGBTQ plus person in order to live authentically and safely without fear. Los Angeles County has made clear we'll continue showing up for our communities and through Care with Pride, as our chair mentioned, through Cross County Partnership, and through the leadership of this commission, we are building systems that protect dignity, expand access, and affirm that everyone belongs here. That work starts by ensuring LGBTQ plus communities are not simply included in conversations about policy. They must be centered in them and have the opportunity to lead. That commitment is especially important for transgender, gender expansive and intersex residents whose voices have too often been excluded or ignored. Happy third anniversary to our LGBTQ plus commission. And thank you for continuing to lead with courage, compassion and hope. Happy pride.

Thank you. Supervisor Hahn.

Thank you. And thank you, Madam Chair, for this motion. It highlights the importance of the Los Angeles County LGBTQ plus commission, and it reaffirms our county's commitment to its work. And again, big shout out to Sunita Menon for really launching this commission and her leadership in getting it going. Uh, in these first three baby years of a brand new first ever commission in the county is remarkable. And she is really to be thanked and applauded and to my commissioner, Eddie Martinez. Thank you for agreeing to serve on this commission as well. This motion also sadly highlights the research that shows that our transgender and gender-diverse residents continue to face barriers to health care, increased mental health challenges, and discrimination. As Chair mentioned just this morning, on the last day of Pride Month, the Supreme Court issued their ruling upholding the ban that states have enacted upon on our transgender women and girls participating in women's sports. This motion reaffirms our responsibility to ensure that our residents can access county services with dignity, without fear. Any barrier that can cause one of our residents to want to harm themselves is a barrier that we should want to remove. In a time when our neighbors, our patients, and youth feel threatened by laws that are becoming more restricting, we can emphasize that local protections are more important than ever. We refuse to just sit on the sidelines and watch things happen to the most vulnerable among us. So again, congratulations on your third anniversary, LGBTQ Plus Commission, and thank you to all who participated this month in Pride Month through the various parades and activities. Thanks again to all the county buildings that raised the pride flag. Thank you to our fire chief who proudly wore the pride patch. on his sleeve and just mentioned to me yesterday, it's been amazing, he said how many people have come up, whether he's in public, at a restaurant, somewhere, and thanked him for the courage to wear that patch. So thank you, Madam Chair, for this motion. Thank you. Supervisor Mitchell.

Thank you, Madam Chair, and I appreciate you bringing the motion forward to give us this opportunity to, on the last day of Pride Month, acknowledge how far we've come. And I just want to say that I'm deeply proud to hail from and now serve on the governing body for a county that continues to make a very public commitment to acknowledge that our LGBTQ plus and transgender community feel seen, heard, respected, and valued. I think particularly now when I wake up every day To news to the contrary. Um, I am proud that our county, um, is standing true to our values and the commitment we made would also like to give a shout out to the second district commissioners and representatives. Dr Jerry Abraham, Luis Vasquez and Yolanda Whittington for their service. Again, particularly now, it takes great courage to stand up and demand that both civil rights and human rights be protected and upheld. And I want to continue to encourage the Commission to continue to strive for diversity and inclusion among its ranks. So thank you very much for the opportunity, and happy three-year anniversary.

Supervisor Barger.

Thank you. And I echo all the remarks, but I want to also do a shout out to my two appointees, Nick Arnzen, who actually is a fire survivor who lost, he and his husband lost their home in Altadena. And so he just sponsored through all this turmoil, the fifth annual pride event up in Altadena. And so for him, this is near and dear to his heart. And then Eric Nakano, who is on the San Dimas City Council and truly is committed to uplifting voices in the community. And so thank you for this motion and thank you to my appointees for the work that you do on the commission.

Thank you all. With that, Io, let's go to public comment.

Will the following individuals please come forward and staff will assist you. Jessica Peral, Trinidad Plasencia, Chasity Jennings-Nunez, your line is open. Please begin. Go ahead. Caller with phone number 818, last two digits 09, your line is open. Please state your name and begin. Caller, your line is open.

Hello, good morning. As supervisors and members of the public, my name is Annie Padpatian, pronouns she and her, and I am the management analyst for the LA County LGBTQ Police Commission. I am speaking on behalf of our executive director, Sunita Menon, who is out of the office this week. Thank you to Supervisor Solis and her team for writing the motion included on item six of the agenda, reaffirming the county's commitment to protect, support, and champion equal protection and rights of transgender, gender-expansive, and intersex people of Los Angeles County. The LGBTQ Plus Commission is grateful that SD1 took the advice and recommendations to create this motion and the recommended language for the motion and resolution. The LGBTQ Plus Commission recognizes the disproportionate impact this federal administration has had on our TGI community and has prioritized advice and recommendations to further to support access to care and safety of the TGI community. For the past two years, we have worked to provide strategic and actionable recommendations on issues impacting health, welfare, well-being, safety, and security of the entire LGBTQ plus community. We will continue to push forward the needs of the entire.

Thank you. Caller with phone number 626, last two digits, 67. Your line is open. Please begin. Caller, your line is open.

Hi, my name is Jessica Peral and I'm with the Los Angeles LGBT Center. I'd like to speak in support of the Supervisor Solis' proclamation to honor the LGBTQ Commission's third year anniversary and the TGI resolution. We are very proud to live in a county that created the first independent county level LGBTQ plus commission in the country. and it stands up for TGI and intersex neighbors, especially right now when so many other states are stripping away their rights and access to care. The county has immense power to impact the lives and well-being of LGBTQ folks in the face of unrelenting attacks from the federal administration, and it's going to be a lifeline over the next few years. This resolution sends a clear message that LA County will not be complicit in that harm, and everyone, including TGI immigrants, are safe here. And I think the board... and ask them to pass this resolution. Thank you.

Thank you. Wei Tse, your line is open. Please begin. Chasity Jennings-Nunes, your line is open. Please begin.

Good morning. I'm Dr. Chasity Jennings Nunez, and I am a resident of LA County and speaking on item number six. As a physician, I want to thank Supervisor Solis for sponsoring this agenda item and share that she has my absolute support. We are living in a time when a small group of individuals have decided that they have the right to target and demonize others in our society. This type of hate should not be validated, and it is our responsibility to speak out against it. This resolution is a visible and necessary action. It is shameful that any group of people requires a resolution from our county's government to say that they are deserving of all the rights, privileges, and protections provided to any other group. But this is the current state with the Trump administration. Thank you, Supervisor Solis, and all those who vote in favor of allowing every resident to live freely, safely, and to their fullest potential.

Thank you. Caller with phone number 840, last two digits 61, your line is open. Please state your name and begin.

Thank you. Okay. Please begin. My name is Dr. Juju. My name is Dr. Juju Lilliat and I'm the vice chair of the LGBTQ plus commission. I would like to speak in support of item six, Supervisor Solis' proclamation to honor our anniversary. I am proud as an intersex woman to live in a county that created the first independent county level LGBTQ plus commission in the country. One that stands up for its transgender, gender expansive and intersex neighbors. Thank you so much for your support. I appreciate all of the supervisors' comments today.

Thank you. Roy Humphreys, your line is open. Please begin.

Yes, happiness to the LBGQXYZ people, but a month for same is a bridge too far. And as Supervisor Horvath last week, with the individual, the academic achievement was due to mental acuity not being gay. Yes, common sense says trans men, women should not be in women's sports, as the Supreme Court has said. Long live the Supreme Court.

Thank you. Caller with phone number 323, last two digits 01. Your line is open. Please state your name and begin.

Go ahead. Hi, my name is Tony Valenzuela and I'm the Executive Director of One Institute as well as a member of the LA County LGBTQ Plus Commission. I'm calling in support of Supervisor Solis' proclamation to honor the LGBTQ Commission's third year anniversary and TGI resolution. I'm proud to live in LA County that created the first county-level LGBTQ Plus Commission in the United States and that stands up for its transgender, gender expansive, and intersex neighbors, especially right now when so many states as well as the Supreme Court are stripping away their rights and access to care. TGI people are our neighbors, coworkers, friends, and family. They deserve to live without fear of being detained, surveilled, or denied care just for being who they are. Go back 40 years and the same arguments made against gay and lesbian people are being made again TGI communities today. This resolution sends a clear message that Los Angeles County will not be complicit in that harm and that everyone, including TGI immigrants, are safe here. I'm urging the board to pass the resolution.

Thank you. Luis Vasquez, Rainbow Labs, your line is open. Please begin.

Hi, hello county supervisors. My name is Luis Vasquez, pronouns he, him. I'm the executive director and co-founder of Rainbow Labs. I'm a proud Salvadorian American, a United States native veteran, raised in El Sereno, and today proud to call Los Angeles Second District my home. I'm here in strong support of item six. Every day at Rainbow Labs, we work alongside LGBTQ young people who are asking a simple question, do I belong? The question becomes even more urgent on days like today when decisions from our nation's highest court send a message that transgender young people and their rights are up for debate. While those decisions may happen far from Los Angeles, our youth feel their impact immediately in their classrooms, in their homes, and in their mental health. That's why this resolution matters. LA County has a responsibility to send a different message that every transgender, gender-expansive, and intersex young person is valued, protected, and worthy of dignity. Advocacy is not just about policy. It's about making sure our young people know that the adults and institutions around them will never stop fighting for them. I respectfully ask the board to support this resolution and continue showing our youth that LA County will.

Thank you. Caller with phone number 310, last two digits for three. Your line is open. Please state your name and begin.

Good morning. This is Nick Arntzen I'm the supervisor appointed to the commission. Supervisor Barger's appointment to the commission. I know long meeting so I'm going to be quick. I want to thank the Board of Supervisors for the incredible creation of this commission. Thank you Supervisor Barger for the appointment and Supervisor Solis for this proclamation. I am so honored to sit on this commission thanks to the compassionate foresight of these supervisors. I have to tell you it's been daunting but we have had so many achievements thanks to the impressively diverse intelligent and passionate commissioners. They've relentlessly connected with the community at pain in this moment. a community that feels attacked and judged, but thanks to you, not forgotten. And lastly, a special shout out to our executive director, Sunita Menon, and our Army of One staff member, Annie Patian. Thank you, everybody.

Thank you. Jose Byron, your line is open. Please begin.

Good morning. This is Byron calling us an SD1 constituent. While we appreciate the proclamation and the We're committing to transgender gender expansive folks. This board, specifically with its current leadership, had a history of passing private care and other initiatives. So how do we make sure that we are doing intentional investments in our communities, specifically as are giving the legacy of this chair and this board? And how do we move forward to, one, investing in our communities like the TGI housing initiative? But more importantly, how do we put on the agenda things given the disproportionate impact of the carceral system in our transgender and TGI communities, specifically black trans women and Latina trans women? So we want to make sure that we move forward with pride, with, you know, patting ourself in the back. We're also looking at tangible investments and tangible policymaking for placing this agenda. Thank you.

Thank you. Madam Chair, there are no other remote speakers to address the board. Remote participation for this item is concluded. We will go to our in-person speaker. Please begin.

Hola, buenos dias, distinguished Board of Supervisors. Our name is Trinidad Plasencia, pronouns they we. Formerly going by Hector Plasencia, now by Trinidad, and that's how easy it is to transition. We are the president of Trans Queer Institute and Academy for Social Justice Scholars across California. Today, on the last day of Pride, the Supreme Court banned transgender girls from playing in sports. Although the dominant ruling gives people authority to shame and deny, we know that practice is not the norm in everyday life and everyday people. We are here to counter these larger stories about who TGI people are. We are your constituents, colleagues, community, and members of your family, and we need each other. This affirmation of TGI lives to protect, support, and champion is that much more important today. It is important that we as a county continue to recommit to transgender lives every day under the state of emergency for TGI people. Our elders have taught us, those who honor for surviving the AIDS epidemic, that in one day we can both dance and mourn. Gracias again for your continued commitment. We look forward to extending these conversations within the LGBT community.

Thank you. That concludes the time for public comment on this item.

Madam Chair, Item 6 is before you.

Thank you. I will move, seconded by Supervisor Horvath, to approve the item. Executive Officer, please call the roll.

Supervisor Mitchell?

Aye.

Supervisor Mitchell, aye. Supervisor Horvath?

Aye.

Supervisor Horvath, aye. Supervisor Hahn?

Aye.

Supervisor Hahn, aye. Supervisor Barger? Aye. Supervisor Barger, aye. Supervisor Solis?

Aye.

Supervisor Solis, aye. Motion passes.

Okay, moving on. We are now moving to the public hearing item. Executive Officer, please swear in the members of the public who are requesting to address the board on this item.

Members of the public, including in-person and remote speakers who are requesting to address the board on the public hearing item, please stand and raise your right hand to be sworn in. Please note that in the testimony you give before this board, you solemnly swear to tell the truth, the whole truth, and nothing but the truth. So help you God. Thank you. You may be seated. We will now move on to item 75, hearing on a project to authorize an expansion of the Charles Drew University campus located at 1667 East 118th Street, Willowbrook, California 90059 in the metro planning area. For members of the public joining us remotely to comment on this item, please use the raise hand feature if you're online or press star three if on a telephone. Departmental statement was submitted and no correspondence was received. David DeGrazia, Deputy Director, Department of Regional Planning is available for questions. For the departmental speaker, please state your name and title for the record when you address the board.

Not sure if Supervisor Mitchell wanted to, yeah, she'll be right. Well, let's hear from you all, the departments, yes.

Good morning, Chair, members of the board. My name is Kevin Finkel with the Department of Regional Planning. We do not have an additional presentation beyond the department statement filed with the board already.

Okay, very good. So let's hear from the representative of the applicant, Carl McClaney, who will be given a total of two minutes. If there are two of you, then you each get one minute. Thank you. Okay. Go ahead, sir. however you'd like to proceed.

Good morning, honorable supervisors. My name is Dr. Shannon Soto, and I am the Chief Administrative Officer for Compton Unified School District. I'd like to thank the Department of Regional Planning and the CDU team for their efforts in this project. I thank the Board of Supervisors for their time and consideration today. One of our primary missions here is to ensure that this once underutilized property is developed as efficiently as possible to provide new resources, educational opportunities, and support to our students and the community at large. This project will generate substantial lease revenue which can be utilized to fund educational programs, maintain facilities, or increase salaries in order to attract and retain teachers. This project represents an important investment in educational infrastructure, community wellness, and equitable development within the Willowbrook community. The district contemplates joint use agreements with the facilities built, allowing the district students and youth organizations to utilize them for underutilized programming. For district students, this project means the removal of barriers to higher education through the pipelines within CDU, such as the Saturday Science Academy, which we provided at no cost to the eligible students residing within a quarter mile of the project. Thank you for your time, and we hope the community continues to support our commitment and dedication to the health, safety, and success of our students.

Good afternoon, good morning, supervisors. I am David Carlisle, president of Charles Ardrey University of Medicine and Science. On behalf of our university and everyone at the university, I want to express our deep gratitude for the opportunity to collaborate on this transformational project with the Compton Unified School District and the County of Los Angeles, specifically in partnership with the 2nd District and the Departments of Economic Opportunity and Regional Planning. In this collaboration, working together, we will transform this land that has been vacant for well over a decade and turn it into something extraordinary.

We'll give you 30 seconds. Go ahead.

This project will complement the county's significant investment in the MLK Medical Campus and the surrounding communities. We're profoundly grateful for these partnerships, and we are looking forward to making the vision of the CDU Wellness and Education Campus become a reality. Supervisors, thank you.

Thank you. Any other speakers?

We could go to public comment.

Yes, public comment.

Will the following individuals please come forward and staff will assist you? Oscar Alvarado, Claudia Jerez, Rogelio Martinez, Javier Gonzalez, Denise Higgins, and Giselle Siordia. Caller Chasity Jennings Nunez, your line is open. Please begin.

Good morning again. This is Dr. Chastity Jennings-Nunez, and I am speaking on item number 75. I want to say as part of the faculty at CDU and the physician assistant program, I want to recognize the incredible work that they are doing in providing medical providers that will go out and serve the greater community, and in particular people of color. We know that concordant care in terms of race and ethnicity makes a significant difference in the positive outcomes of patients. So I want to ask the supervisors to please support this expansion of Charles Drew's mission with a yes vote on this item. Thank you.

Thank you. Madam Chair, there are no other remote speakers to address the board. Remote participation for this item is concluded. We'll go to our in-person speakers. Please begin.

Good morning supervisors, my name is Oscar Alvarado and I'm Senior Vice President for Housing Development at Century Housing. We are the member of the CDU Wellness Collaborative leading the affordable housing development for this project. I first want to thank Supervisor Mitchell and her staff for their stewardship of this process and county planning staff for all their work and support to get this transformative project to this point. This project is an extension of Century Housing's legacy from our origins as a state program created to replace thousands of homes lost to the construction of the 105 Century Freeway. Over the last 35 years, our organization has financed tens of thousands of affordable homes across California and has over 4,000 residents living in homes we developed and operate. This project brings us full circle back to our roots, and we couldn't be more excited. We have the privilege to bring 254 affordable homes for families and seniors to Willowbrook, and we thank you very much for your consideration of these entitlements and look forward.

Thank you. Next speaker, please.

ROGELIO MARTINEZ, SUPERVISOR, DISTRICT 4 CANDIDATE. SO YOUTH HOMELESSNESS IS ON THE RISE. I CAME HERE IN SUPPORT OF THIS AGENDA ITEM AND THE REASON WHY IS BECAUSE THE THREE BUILDINGS THAT WILL BE CONVERTED INTO 250 HOUSING UNITS IS EXACTLY WHAT WE NEED. We also need 200 non-university affordable units to house the community. And in addition to youth homelessness, senior homelessness is also on the rise. So the much needed 54 units will be good. However, I wanted to propose that in this area to accommodate the housing needs, we should also look at expedited ways for accessory dwelling units, junior accessory dwelling units, and Senate bill number nine units or and also shared housing living so the permitting of that would be what i would propose thank you so much god bless each and every one of you

Thank you. Next speaker, please. I just read this and I think it's great. I'm from South Central LA, so I'll be looking for programs just like these. I've been to King over there several times. It seems to me that there's a lot of different programs there and something different is going on. And I would love for South Central to have something similar, maybe a hospital nearby, because we have to go so far. So I would be looking into maybe advocating for South Central to have some of these programs and developments in that area. That's where I grew up. I know Compton gets, you know, I guess the diamonds, but we don't. But yeah, I think it would be a good idea to have South Central have a hospital, have maybe an In-N-Out, and all those things. Thank you so much. Thank you. Next speaker, please.

Hello, my name is Jordi Desta, and I'm 16 years old, and I'm a part of the CDU Public Health Professional Pathways. I joined this program because I've always been interested in learning about the medical field, public speaking, government, and etc. I hope this program helps me gain new knowledge, build important skills, and more. I think it would be beneficial to build the CDU Wellness Campus because it would bring positive changes to the community like affordable housing, parks, pools, and more. Thank you. Thank you. Next speaker, please.

Hello, good afternoon. My name is Melanie Iniguez. I am 16 years old. I'm a part of the CDU Public Health Professional Pathways Program. I joined this program because I wanted to learn and experience new things that relate to what profession I want to pursue in the future. I believe that it would be great to have the CDU Wellness Campus because it would provide the community of Willowbrook more activities and resources that promote wellness.

Thank you. Thank you. Next speaker, please. Hello, my name is Deborah Davis. I'm 16 years old. I'm a part of the CDU Public Health Professional Pathway Program. I joined this program because I want to major in public health and find innovative ways to better my community. As most of you know, public health is the calling to improve the overall well-being of humanity. Let's start with Watts with the Wellness Campus. It would be tremendously appreciated if you could support the CDU community so that we can advance our neighborhood with more opportunities such as farmer's markets, affordable housing, and more programs for the youth to showcase and develop their passion. Every person deserves a place in their neighborhood to be proud of, and with your help, that is possible for Willowbrooks. Thank you. Thank you. Next speaker, please.

Hello. My name is Dania Merlos. I am a resident in Watts and a part of the Public Health Professional Pathways Program at CDU. I applied to this program to learn more about my community and how I could contribute to WADs or other underrepresented groups with the use of research and science or advocacy. The construction of the CDU Wellness Campus at Watts would be a huge contribution to the neighborhood in an area with a predominantly disadvantaged community. And I ask of you to support it. It would bring housing for vulnerable and low income individuals who may depend on it while providing spaces for clinical research to provide treatments for the community. It would be a positive impact for academia and provide the resources needed to support marginalized groups and their environment, which is why I see this program as very necessary to improve my neighborhood and essential to help build. Thank you. Thank you. Next speaker, please.

Hello, my name is Denise Higgins. I'm 15 years old and I'm currently enrolled in the Public Health Pathways Program. I was recommended this program to connect and experience the different fields of medicine. I would like to know which one is the best fit for me. I would recommend the development of the Wellness Campus at CDU. This foundation enables the community to have well-paying jobs, providing housing, people can learn, and be successful entrepreneurs. I feel like it is a good investment to make to the areas that wouldn't get that opportunity otherwise. Thank you. Thank you. Next speaker, please.

Good morning. My name is Serenity Sedano. I am part of the Public Health Professions Pathway Program. I chose this program because I want to expand my knowledge of public health and pursue a future career in the medical field. I believe the construction of the CDU Wellness Campus will be a great addition to the community. It will bring people together and create a space where everyone feels free to engage in activities. Additionally, nonprofit businesses are invited to come in and sell affordable goods. In doing so, it will provide an excellent support system, better resources, and afford housing for families who cannot afford these pricey areas. Thank you for your time and for listening.

Thank you. Next speaker, please. Hello, everyone. My name is Giselle, and I'm 16 years old. I joined the PHPP program because I wanted to learn more about careers in public health, gain hands-on experience before college, and improve my communication skills. I also believe there should be a CD, the CDU Wellness Campus because it will support students' mental, physical, and emotional well-being. A wellness campus could help students reduce stress, improve their academic success, and encourage a healthy work-life balance providing a quiet and supportive environment. And most importantly, it could give all students equal access to health and wellness resources, including those from low-income households. Thank you for listening. Thank you. Next speaker, please.

Hi, my name is Xavier Gonzalez. I'm a part of the PHPP program, and I joined this program because I wanted to learn more about helping people and keeping my community safe. This program will teach me skills that I can use in the future when I become a firefighter, which is my dream, and further help teach me new things about public health that I did not know before. and I ask you to please help support the new upcoming wellness center because I think it's great for everyone as a community to come together as one, and it's great for the people that are struggling or less fortunate to experience it without having to worry about paying for anything. Also, it would be good to have a better living environment and style for people that don't have that privilege, and thank you.

Thank you. Next speaker, please.

Hello, everyone. My name is Jennifer. I'm 17. I'm a part of the public health profession pathway at CDU. I joined this program to keep myself busy over the summer. But the bigger part of it all was my curiosity to discover the different branches within public health. Being in this program gave me a better idea of what career I would like to follow within public health. I believe that this program will give me a full understanding of what public health really is behind the scenes. I believe that the Wellness Center campus at CDU will bring people together as well as plenty opportunities for people who struggle with housing and activities outside of work. Thank you for listening.

Thank you. Next speaker, please. Hello. My name is Teresa Davis, and I am a part of the Public Health Professional Program. I opted for this program due to its educational benefits. It helps me to embark the start of my own health care career journey and its exposure to more frequent public speaking opportunities. I stand for the full support of the CDO Wellness Campus because the campus itself is a safety net for vulnerable individuals. It grants affordable housing aid for students, families, and neighborhoods, creating a sustainable environment for the community. Thank you.

Next speaker, please.

Hello, my name is Madison Chukwudi and I'm a part of the Public Health Professionals Program at Charles Drew University. I joined this program because I want to pursue a career in medicine while also learning more about the communities I'm going to be helping in the future. I strongly believe that the wellness campus Drew wants to build is extremely beneficial to the surrounding populations. It will provide local opportunities that will help uplift not only the people, but small businesses and nonprofits. It will also greatly promote health and well-being, which is really important. Thank you. Thank you.

Next speaker, please. Hello. Good afternoon. My name is Isabella Arias, and I am part of the Public Health Professional Program. I am interested in pursuing a career in medicine, and I joined this program because I truly believe it will help me gain a deeper understanding of the causes of illnesses and diseases, as well as the ways they affect different communities, including my own. I am especially interested in learning how factors such as socioeconomic status, environmental conditions, and access to healthcare can influence a person's overall health and wellbeing. Additionally, I believe that the Wellness Center at Charles Drew University will be a valuable resource for the community by providing support such as access to fresh produce, affordable housing assistance, and other services that encourage healthier and more sustainable lives. Thank you for listening. Thank you. Next speaker, please.

Hi, everyone. My name is Lisa Ramirez. I'm a local from South LA. I'm very honored to be here, and I am in support of the CDU Wellness Campus. Yeah, I believe that this wellness campus will help the community thrive, especially with everything that's going on. And I think it's going to bring so much healing to the community, especially the underserved. And it's a form of you have the power to make a positive change in this history. And as you saw earlier, it's a new generation. So I'm very excited for them to become future public health leaders. Thank you. Thank you. Next speaker, please.

Thank you all for listening to us. 25 years ago, I came across Charles Drew University. I was born and raised in Watts, still live in the neighborhood, and I am now faculty in the Department of Urban Public Health. And I benefited from a youth program that changed my life at CDU. I've been at CDU since I was in high school, going to King Drew Medical Magnet High School and born at the MLK, the former MLK Hospital. With that said, we wanted you to get a little taste of what it is when we expose youth and reach youth with the opportunities that sometimes are not present for them. The CDU campus will do that. We will expand opportunities for our youth locally. Most of these youth are actually from the city Compton where the former elementary school was at. So they're from Compton Unified, from Watts, from Willowbrook and the surrounding neighborhoods. And it's quite an honor to be able to extend the resources that CDU offers that is intentional for the local community. So thank you all for listening to us.

Thank you. Next speaker, please.

Good morning, I'm John Backus. I'm the Chairman of the Board of Trustees of Charles R. Drew University of Medicine and Science. As you can tell by the parade of speakers before me, Charles R. Drew is living up to its mission, and it has become a vital part of the South Los Angeles community. And our reach is beyond just the student population we have. We really look forward to executing this lease with the school district, Compton School District, and continue our work. And frankly, it would be a very nice gesture on our 60th anniversary of serving South Los Angeles. Thank you.

Thank you.

Next speaker, please.

First, I want to commend all of the youth, the young people, the students from CDU, to come here and speak their mind. You are the future. We want to give them a round of applause, honestly, because it's not often We have our young people here. So bravo again for this magnitude of a project. The CDU Wellness Campus Center is much needed, you know, better late than never. But out of the 600, almost 600 units, why only 250 plus affordable housing? When you look at the demographics of what's needed, we need to increase that. So when the opening finally happens, we really do want the young people, especially who are going through traumatic episodes, to have somewhere to go. We haven't really done great with mental health on the adult side. So let's try to do best for the future doctors and medicine engineers. And thank you again so much for the work that you guys are doing and continue to support our youth. Go Charles Drew.

Thank you. That concludes the time for public comment on this item.

Madam Chair, the public hearing is now closed. Item 75 is before you. Please note that Supervisor Mitchell is recusing herself from the vote pursuant to Government Code Section 84308 because she received a contribution or contributions of more than $500 within the past 12 months from Angela Minifield, who is a party participant or agent of a party or participant in the proceedings.

Thank you, moved by Supervisor Han, seconded by Supervisor Horvath to approve the item. Executive Officer, please call the roll.

Supervisor Horvath?

Aye.

Supervisor Horvath, aye. Supervisor Han?

Aye.

Supervisor Han, aye. Supervisor Barger? Aye. Supervisor Barger, aye. Supervisor Solis?

Aye.

Supervisor Solis, aye. Motion passes. We will now move on to set matter. We will now move on to set matter one, report on the plan developed to support represented Los Angeles Homeless Services Authority workers, which was held for report. For members of the public joining us remotely to comment on this item, please use the raise hand feature if you're online or press star three if on the telephone. Joseph M. Nikita, Chief Executive Officer. Lisa Garrett, Director of Personnel. Rodney Collins, Chief Deputy Director Johan Julen, Assistant Director, Department of Human Resources, and Kelly Lobianco, Director, Department of Economic Opportunity, will make a presentation. For the departmental speakers, please state your name and title for the record when you address the board.

CEO? Yes.

Good morning, Madam Chair, members of the board. We will be putting a PowerPoint up. There we go. Supervisors, as you know, over the last few months, we've been working to transition lost employees into county employment. Our focus has been to find pathways to employment for all county-funded represented employees who are subject to potential layoffs as the result of the county realigning its homeless services funding. I know it's been difficult and a confusing time for these impacted employees and so it's with great happiness, and this is me happy, this great happiness and frankly relief that I am able to report today that the county has met its commitment to establishing employment pathways for all impacted represented county funded workers. I just wanna walk you through some of the numbers, Supervisor. So as of the 25th of June last week, 169 workers have been hired by the county and are now on board. 15 have accepted offers and are waiting on boarding. One is still considering the county's job offer. We hope that they will accept the position. 25 declined or were not interested in participating in the county employment process. This represents a total of 210 county-funded, represented LASA workers subject to layoff who have joined or had an opportunity to join county service. These employees were provided a pathway to county service regardless. of what percent of county funding supported their position at Lhasa. So just to explain, because Lhasa braids many different funding sources, some of these employees were 100% funded by the county, some as low as 3% funded by the county, with a wide range of percentages in between. We certainly did not do anything differently for the 3%ers than for the 100%ers, and we welcome our colleagues from Lhasa to the county. We're happy that they are on board. As you know, this process was not without its challenges. The county has never undertaken an effort of this magnitude as far as I can recall, and certainly those working on it haven't participated in anything of this nature. And there were definitely some trial and error along the way. We began by prioritizing outreach workers and holding job fairs for represented county-funded workers. At the same time, the county was dealing with its own budget curtailments, including, as you know, the need to address the $303 million structural deficit that impacted homeless service programs directly and staffing as well. And for this reason, we expanded our job placement efforts to numerous county departments beyond HSH in an effort to match lots of employees with appropriate county work, pardon me. Despite these challenges, as of this month, the county has honored its commitment to these workers, ensuring they have a county job. And it bears emphasizing we continued benefits coverage for these employees with no loss in pay. So while it's important to lift up this success, supervisors, it's also equally important to acknowledge that our work is not quite done. As of yesterday, and we did meet with labor yesterday, There remained about 23 represented non-county funded workers at Lhasa who are slated for layoff. We just learned this morning that Lhasa has rescinded a number of these layoffs, so this number will shrink. We're not sure yet how many folks will be left on the layoff list and are working with Lhasa to crosswalk their data with ours. The takeaway is that these numbers, these remaining employees at Lhasa who are slated for layoff remains very fluid, even as of this morning. But we will continue to assess our capacity to onboard any remaining represented non-county funded workers still slated for layoff, and we will discuss more about these efforts during today's presentation. I see our, whoever's trying to keep up with me going through the PowerPoint, I'm actually on the first slide, which is the title slide, we haven't started yet. In the meantime, supervisors, we've engaged the county's Department of Economic Opportunity to assist all remaining impacted workers. In fact, DEO staff is at LAHSA today. DEO's Chief Deputy, Jessica Kim, actually our Director of DEO, Kelly Lobianco, will share the services they've committed to rendering and upcoming events specifically for impacted workers. And before I turn it over to the director of personnel to walk you through a short presentation, I do want to express my gratitude to the entire board, your deputies, and SEIU 721 for their advocacy. I also want to thank our many county departments that hired LAHSA workers. And last but certainly not least, the Department of Human Resources and my team who tackle this challenging directive to preserve as many jobs as possible. And again, our work is not quite done, and so let me turn it over to our director of personnel to walk us through the PowerPoint.

Thank you, Joe. I do want to reiterate that the county has been working very diligently to find places for the LASA workers, as we promised as we first began this program. I do want to thank the board, your deputies. I want to thank the DHR team. We had a host of teams within DHR that were working on this project, and it's the strategic hiring team, employee benefits team, exams team, the impact team, the workforce and employee development team, which houses the concierge program. I also want to thank the CEO team, the labor relations team, class clock team, And all of the departments who helped with the placements, we could not have done this. This was a county team effort, and I just want to say thank you for that. I am going to turn it over to Dr. Johan Jueling to talk about the numbers and the status of the 210 county-funded represented LASA workers. I think we can change the slides.

Good morning, supervisors. Johan Ulleen, Chief Hiring Strategist and Assistant Director at DHR. We really only have a brief update for you today. The short version is that we have been enormously successful in placing all represented county-funded LASA workers who were facing layoff notice into county positions. I will go over some numbers with you. I think the CEO kind of... Showed or talked a little bit about some of those numbers. I do want to emphasize as he did that the numbers are constantly changing With every hour sometimes the numbers do change a bit as people's statuses change And as they take County positions or let us know what their disposition is It's still a very very fluid situation moving forward before I go over the numbers I do want to emphasize that We were able to find county job opportunities for every single represented LASA employee who had even a tiny bit of county funding. As the CEO mentioned, all the way, it didn't matter if the person had 3% funding from the county and 97% from other sources. We were able to find jobs in the county for those positions. Also want to mention that we placed these folks into jobs that, paid at least as well as the LASA job that they were leaving. And in many, many situations, the overwhelming majority of situations, we were able to place them into jobs that pay more than what their prior job was paying at LASA. Next slide, please. Now, to get through some of the numbers, this slide really kind of says it all. Of the 210 county-funded represented workers, we've been able to place all of them who wanted jobs with us. And it's actually, as I mentioned, the numbers are really fluid. The number up there on the slide says 169 accepted offer and onboarded. That is now at 170 as of last night. And that's because one more person who had accepted the offer has now been onboarded. The numbers are 170 accepted offer and onboarded, and 14 accepted the offer. So that represents over 80% of people have already started in the county job. We do have those 14 folks who have accepted offers but haven't yet started. The reason for the delay on those folks, well, there's a number of reasons for the delays there, but it's things like people are on medical leaves, people have vacations that they want to continue to take, They may simply have requested to start at a little bit later point in time. We also have that one person that's listed up there that's still considering our offer. We are trying to reach that person so we can get some finality on whether we are moving forward with that person. As I think I'd mentioned the last time, there are a few people in this broader category who have declined our job offers or have not been to our various job fairs. They haven't filled out any county job applications and have not been responsive to our outreach. We've tried to reach some of those folks through email as well as phone calls. We've worked with LAHSA as well as with SEIU to assist us in our outreach. As it turns out, Some of them have resigned to pursue other jobs or others simply weren't interested in county employment. We are committed to helping everyone at LAHSA who is being displaced, whether or not they are county funded. So to that end, our partners at the Department of Economic Opportunity have stepped up. And they're offering tailored services that are directed specifically at LASA staff members. So with that, I will turn it over to our partners from DEO.

Thank you so much. Next slide, please. All right. Kelly Lobianco from the Department of Economic Opportunity. Glad to be back and actually to talk about rapid response. The department works with our America's Job Centers of California to offer both layoff aversion and rapid response services when an employer anticipates that it will need to lay off employees. In this case, as you've seen, the county has done a comprehensive job in layoff aversion and supporting folks in the transition to the county. And so the department is stepping in to support both the connection of those that have declined offers and even those that aren't county-funded in accessing essential benefits, so connecting to unemployment insurance, covered California, and other public benefits where needed, as well as connecting to our America's Job Centers of California and other job opportunities. We have already held, in partnership with our Pomona America's Job Center of California, two virtual orientation sessions on May 28 and June 3. As our CEO mentioned, we are at LASA today with our colleagues at Human Resources talking to individuals from LASA and getting them connected to our services. We're planning on hosting two additional virtual sessions as well as a job fair in July offering as many opportunities as possible to those remaining impacted employees to connect to those essential benefits as well as I've described job training at no cost to them with partners including community colleges, community-based organizations, labor organizations as well as paid transitional subsidized employment with employers as well as direct connection to hire in a range of supportive services and needs-based payments that might support them during this transition. Our goal is to make sure that everyone has access to a great next job and a career pathway and are looking forward to reporting back to this board on those numbers and outcomes. And I think pass back to DHR on next steps.

So on the next steps, you have them up there on the screen. We will finish up the last of the onboarding of those folks who are represented, county funded. We're also working to ensure that workers have the right support as they start their county careers, as well as the departments who might need our support moving forward to ensure those folks are properly onboarded and assimilated into county service. Of course, our concierge services continue to remain available to all current and former LASA staff, and we'd encourage them to reach out to us if they have questions or need additional assistance. And then just as you heard from Ms. Lobianco, DEO will continue to provide rapid response and layoff aversion services to those remaining or those affected at LASA. Yeah, that is what we have for you today.

Great, thank you. Before I go to my colleagues, I just want to say thank you for the presentation and our CEO. I know the commitment has been to try to assist everyone, and I think in our various discussions on this, I still believe that that's true, that we should try to find even the non-represented employees, and the number has shrunk considerably, and I'm hopeful that we'll find a a way of addressing that. And I believe our CEO, you may have some information there.

Yeah, and I can ask our director of personnel to address that as well. Absolutely.

Thank you, CEO. DHR will be working with those community health worker equivalent positions to find positions within the County of Los Angeles. So we will help them through the emergency hiring practice. And so we've already identified who they are and we will be working on that immediately.

Now, do we have current positions available that we can target?

Yes.

And where are those? I mean, in what department?

We have. So I spoke with our director of homeless services and housing yesterday, and we were talking about some of the positions that are still vacant in her department. What we're going to do is do a crosswalk with her and see what positions there are available and match up with the folks who are still on the layoff list. And again, that layoff list is very fluid. We still don't have the final set of folks, but we think that we can match quite a few people off that list with existing vacancies, including... A PRIMARY EMPHASIS ON THE OUTREACH WORKERS WHICH IS A VERY EASY CLASSIFICATION FOR US TO MATCH. IT'S MUCH MORE COMPLICATED WHEN FOLKS HAVE DIFFERENT PAYROLL TITLES AND DO DIFFERENT TYPES OF WORK. SO I THINK AS A FIRST MATTER I THINK WHAT OUR DIRECTOR OF PERSONNEL IS SAYING WE CAN START RIGHT AWAY WITH THOSE OUTREACH WORKERS THAT ARE STILL ON THE LIST. Again, non-county funded, but we can look for homes here in HSH and perhaps other departments. And then for those remaining on the list, we are doing that crosswalk now to see if there is a place that we can hire them onto under our homeless emergency authority in the department of HSH.

And I understand there's quite a few vacancies in that department. So I don't know what the challenge would be, but certainly would like to see assistance so that these individuals don't lose their coverage for any medical and all of that. I didn't finish, guys. So I wanna see that we do the best that we can in addressing that, and especially because cutoff dates and we're just starting our new fiscal year. So we should be working really diligently to do that. And I know, Joe, you and I have talked about it, and I hope that we can really implore our department HSH to help us with this because I do believe that we need to have individuals that have already been trained and know how to do some of this work continue with us as we're seeing our own cuts right now in these programs. We need to have able-bodied staff that understand the needs of the homeless. So I'll leave it with that. Supervisor Horvath.

Thank you, Madam Chair. I agree and I want to congratulate our DHR and CEO teams who have really been leading this transition for so many of LASA staff to come into the county family. And I know it has been nothing short of a Herculean effort. But I want to thank you for the way that you have dedicated yourselves to this effort and making sure that we are offering every opportunity available and then some. I also want to thank the dedicated LAHSA stewards who have been in very close communication with my office. I know many others on what's been going on in this transition to make sure that we are following each detail and I think the SEIU 721 staff as well, who have negotiated over the last many months and made sure that every person on your team is represented and advocated for. I know that these efforts have progressed in good faith. I believe the time and effort have truly paid off, not only for the benefit of each and every individual that we're bringing into the county family, but for the work that we're doing in the county family uh in service to the people of the community that i know we all uh share and and care about uh we've offered all county funded uh 721 loss of positions um workers a position sorry and that includes positions even partially funded by the county as you noted And I think that's important because any bit of funding that the county invested in these positions needs to be honored. And I know that there is still work to be done, as our chair rightly noted. There are many dedicated workers who have committed their lives to ending homelessness and supporting our community's most vulnerable residents. and making sure that we remain invested in them, providing them every opportunity. I know that we have created the concierge program among others that have really stepped up and tried to help bring people into the county in extraordinary ways. And I hope that this is something that we will not only take away from this particular process, but as we look to opportunities to make sure that very talented staff come into the county family that we accelerate hiring processes for people who are eager to come into the county's work and to make sure that those who are living with uncertainty don't live with that for extended periods of time and then we miss out on opportunities to bring people into the county family and to that end I know this is a very difficult day for staff who don't have all of their questions yet answered, especially represented by 721. I know that there are staff beyond the county funded positions who have also received notices from LAHSA. And as you've heard, we're going to continue to explore opportunities for those remaining LAHSA staff who are seeking employment. to be connected to jobs whether through the county or deo sponsored job fairs whatever kind of support we can offer i know that we will remain committed to that and i just want to acknowledge that that means that there are some difficult moments that still remain unresolved but they are our work is not yet done and so we're going to continue to do all that we can to support these workers and i know that you have supported so many in our community and i once again want to thank our county family for really stepping up in an extraordinary way to deliver the results that we've seen so far thank you

Thank you. Seeing no further comments from my colleagues, Io, let's go to public comment.

Will the following individuals please come forward and staff will assist you. Rogelio Martinez, Katie Shang, Heather Varden, Mitchell Quintanilla, Sarai Villalobos, Raymond Afshar, Adelina Silva, Dr. Critical Trupe, Claudia Jerez, and Arnold Allen. Camille Valenzuela, your line is open. Please begin. Go ahead.

Hello. Yes, go ahead. Hi. Thank you, Supervisors, CEO office, DHR, all other departments and teams that were involved in ensuring the placement of impacted losses thus far. I'm calling to ask you all to ensure this transition is finished the way it was intended and written in Measure A, quote, not result in displacement of public employees. Today, as CEO reported, there are less than 25 represented loss of public employees that will be displaced without payment beginning tomorrow, July 1st. These are dedicated workers who are passionate about the work and fighting to commit, fighting to continue to contribute to addressing homelessness throughout the county. The language in measure A is simple. Please uphold it and see that these remaining less than 25 employees do not become public employees tomorrow. And thank you, Supervisor Solis and Horvath for your comments and support in ensuring that this happens. Thank you.

Thank you. Caller with phone number 818, last two digits 00, your line is open. Please state your name and begin. Caller, your line is open.

A greetings member of the board. My name is Naheed Arzegar and I'm here today in support of the 32 last of workers who are being left behind in the transition to the county employment. These workers are not numbers in a budget. They are experienced people who have been serving our communities, supporting vulnerable residents and helping people experiencing homelessness every day. What makes this situation deeply unfair is that the very workers who have dedicated themselves helping homeless individuals are now at risk of losing their own jobs and potentially facing housing instability themselves. If Lhasa employees are being transitioned to the county, the transition must be fair and complete. No worker should be abandoned because of the funding cut or administrative gap. I respectfully ask the board to pause these layoffs and create a real pathway to county employment for all 32 workers. His work has showed up for the county and for the public. Now the county has to show up for them. Thank you for your attention and time.

Thank you. Roy Humphreys, your line is open. Please begin.

Thank you, Roy. Humphrey J. Rowland Heights. Is this the same criminal, Lasha, that refused to turn over its books to this board with tens of millions of dollars unaccounted for tax dollars? Is this the same Lasha that is suing the federal government to fund their alleged fraudulent bilking of the feds via the state, which is in turn funds illegal immigration, illegal immigrants, a chargeable federal felony, 8 U.S. Code 1324. The feds have, sorry to say they're closing alligator island there. Thank you.

Thank you. Jacqueline Beltran, your line is open. Please begin.

Good morning, can you hear me? Yes, go ahead. Supervisor Horvath, every loss employee serves both city and county residents. City funded and county funded are simply budget designations. They do not determine who we serve or the work we perform. Measure A does not distinguish between funding labels when evaluating compliance and outcomes. So those labels should not be used to determine which employees deserve the opportunity to continue to serve in Los Angeles County. I respectfully ask the board to ensure the remaining LAHSA employees receive the same consideration and opportunity that has been extended to other workers affected by this transition. No one should be left behind because of the funding label attached to their position. Thank you.

Thank you. Madam Chair, there are no other remote speakers to address the board. Remote participation for this item is concluded. We will go to in-person speakers. Please begin.

Hello, my name is Heather Varden. I am a union steward and LAHSA employee. I came today to ask you to finish what you started as intended to not leave Lhasa employees behind. We're down to 25 people and we're asking for that direct placement for those 25 people. Someone as large as the county and even in the next agenda item when there's going to be openings reported in homeless services with the county, we should be able to directly transfer those 25 individuals into the county and that is what was promised when this board motion started and that is what we're here asking for. I see no reason that something as large as the county cannot provide jobs to these 25 people that were separated today. This is not a fluid list. These people turned in their equipment and left Lhasa today. That was their separation. There's nothing fluid about not having a job tomorrow. Thank you. Thank you.

Next speaker please. Hello, supervisors. My name is Katie Shang. I want to quote from the January 13th CEO office report to the board. In the absence of finalized staffing plans from Lhasa and the city, we are proceeding with using county funded FTEs as our planning basis. The funding source was used solely as a planning basis. It was never intended to be the definitive factor in determining whether it represented Lhasa employees could have a pathway to county employment. On April 20th, we received the actual layoff list. The people and employees who are being laid off solely because of the county's decision to remove $300 million from Lhasa to establish HSH. The direction in Supervisor Horvath's November 18th motion was clear, quote, support represented LASA workers to access employment opportunities at county departments. The back end funding code should not become a barrier that prevents dedicated public servants from continuing their service to the county's most vulnerable residents. Thank you. Next speaker, please.

Hello, my name is Mitchell Quintanilla. I'm an interim housing coordinator with LASA. and a proud member of SEIU 721. I'm here today to advocate for the 25 non-county funded loss employees who are facing layoffs today. The work they perform directly benefits Los Angeles County residents and supports the county's homeless response system every day, regardless of the funding source behind their positions. I had the privilege of speaking with colleagues from special projects, facilities, and outreach. Although we had never met before, we shared a common commitment to serve our unhoused Angelenos. Our conversation reinforced that regardless of our department or funding designation, we are united by the same mission and the same impact. Their work is essential to the success of our CoC and to the LA County efforts to address homelessness. The value of a public servant should be measured by the impact of their work, not by the funding designation attached to their position. I respectfully ask that non-county funded LAHSA employees be authorized direct placement to LA County jobs so they can continue serving the communities of LA County.

Thank you. Next speaker, please.

Hello, my name is Raymond Afshar. I'm affected by this transition of LAHSA to County of Los Angeles. I would like to start by beg to defer to Mr. Yohan, because I've been ghosted by DHR, a concierge, for the last three weeks, and my position was partially county funded. Also in March, Mr. Joseph Nachida mentioned if I'm a LASA employee, I would put myself on a list. I have a master's degree, and I'm on three lists, band A, three examinations, band A, no interview, even one interview. And I would like to thank supervisors for doing this transition. There are a couple of employees left behind. And we appreciate your consideration and helping us. And today is our last day. And after this meeting, we go back to Lhasa to return our stuff. And we were looking forward to receive assistance from you. Thank you.

Thank you. Next speaker, please.

Good afternoon. My name is Sarai Villalobos. I am one of the 25 dedicated LAHSA employees that was laid off today with no pathway to county employment. Excluding us from the pathway offered to our colleagues is fundamentally unfair. We did not cause this budget shortfall, yet we are bearing the ultimate penalty. I have given more than three years of service to Los Angeles County. As outreach worker during the wildfires, I helped evacuate vulnerable Hollywood residents until 3 AM. During flood warnings, I worked alongside the LA County Sheriff's Department and pulled people from the rising waters of the LA Riverbed. During extreme heat warnings, I transported sick and elderly residents in 114 degree weather. In my current position as a facility analyst, my inspections enforce safety codes in county funded sites. Do not divide us into tiers, abandoning the last 25 to unemployment. We risked our safety to keep this county running during some of its worst disasters. We have earned the right to equity.

Thank you. Next speaker, please.

Good afternoon. My name is Arnold Allen, worksite organizer for SEIU 721. We are asking you to authorize pathways to county employment for fewer than 30 lawsuit workers who are being laid off today after being excluded from the county hiring process. These employees have done the same work, responded to the same crises, and served the same Los Angeles County residents for their tenure. Yet when it came time to provide employment pathways, they were excluded. They were treated differently because funding codes. Rated funding is something that most people don't understand, but these employees are now victims of funding codes. That is not an equitable way to treat public servants who have dedicated their careers to this work. The county has repeatedly recognized the value of losses workforce. Today is an opportunity to demonstrate that those words apply to everyone, not just some employees. I urge you to provide pathways to county employment for every remaining employee. Thank you.

Thank you. Next speaker, please.

DWC, Claudia Jerez. There's something fluid about losing a job, of course. But, you know, I say there's nothing fluid about me losing a job because I lost a job at DWC. You know, there's still on the books that is getting looked at and everything. And, you know, that's where LASA is connected to DWC and to all those organizations organizations, and LASA has done a very terrible job at managing it. So, you know, it's important that you look at that and you start thinking about why is it that, you know, it's happening? Why is it that this LASA mismanaged all this stuff, all this homelessness stuff, all these homelessness programs? I work with LASA. And I know that a lot of that is coming from the federal government, the state government and everything. But you know, somehow, somewhere, I never got my items when I requested them.

Thank you, next speaker please.

Hello, my name is Adelina Silva. I've been at VOA shelter on South Hope Street, LA. My lead supervisor is a net and verbally abusive to all of us. When I came into the shelter 90 days thereafter, I was supposed to have a navigator and never had one. I am a 65-year-old and need housing. after eight months later. And of course, for the L.A. homeless workers, they need their jobs back. I've been over there for eight months. My dogs, they're with me. I never had any problem at all. They never bit anybody, nothing. Now my dogs have to be 24-7 with a muzzle on. Thank you. Thank you. Next speaker please.

Greetings. So my name is Dr. Critical Truth Bay. I'm actually a policy analyst and a housing navigator with zero pay. I watched Lhasa depleted almost $150 million, starting from 2017. So those who came on board afterwards, I'm sorry. Lhasa sucked from the very beginning. You guys sat in your cars. You guys are not available after 5. You barely housed the people. As you hear, some people here are still unhoused. And there was two, three people for the same position. It was a waste of funding. Sarah Mahan, I hope you're listening. At the end of the day, the county did a great job in cutting, but at the same time, there has to be a strong fortified housing program all the way around. A continuum of care oversight committee that will help house people like you have Skid Row. You don't have lots of workers there after five, barely. So stop with the boo-hooing and we need a job. No, find something else other than housing and home. Thank you. Next speaker, please.

Next speaker.

Rogelio Martinez, supervisor district four candidate. So I'm here to oppose this. So this entire program has been a stain on the county. So in addition to the 210 individuals that were addressed in today's presentation, who is going to be ultimately accountable for the mismanagement of said funding? We're talking about millions of dollars millions of dollars, and the only thing we're talking about today is saving people's jobs that probably were accountable for some of this mismanaged money. It's unacceptable. 11,000 homeless are being affected, but because somebody mismanaged the money. We should not be talking about saving someone's job. We should be holding them accountable. These people should be on a list of people that we should identify ultimately in the courts to see if they'd mismanaged.

Thank you. That concludes the time for public comment on this item.

Madam Chair, this report will be received and filed.

Before we accept the receiving file, I do want to go back to the CEO and really try to get to the heart of this. If we have people that have been notified they're losing jobs today, I know this is really critical. And I would hope that our staffs could follow up with them. And I hope we have that commitment from you to do that and to see if there are openings in HSH that we do whatever we can as soon as possible. And you can report back to this board on that, okay? Thank you. Oh, Supervisor Hahn.

Yeah, thank you. And I appreciate this. And I think it's really important. It does feel very frustrating, especially when they talk about numbers like 25. And I just can't let some of these public comments stand. These workers. particularly our SEIU 721 workers are out there, have always been out there from the beginning of this crisis, working so hard, doing the kind of work that a lot of people won't do. I have seen them on the weekends, I've seen them on the evenings, I've seen them doing incredible work as we all lean in to trying to solve this crisis, this humanitarian crisis of homelessness. And let's not disparage those who are actually out there doing the hard work. We make the decisions up here. The voters have given their tax dollars to solve this problem. But there are few and far between people who actually would be willing to do some of this very difficult work as it relates to being out there in the encampments, taking the frantic phone calls from residents from our offices that someone needs help. And I just didn't want to let those comments stand. I support our outreach workers. I support SEIU. Thank you for what you're doing. We're going to figure this out, too. We don't want any of you to leave here without a feeling that you don't have a job.

Thank you. With that, hearing no objections, that will be the order. This is a received and filed.

Yep. Thank you, Madam Chair. Before we move on to the next item, I'd like to announce that members of the public attempting to view our live meeting online on our website may be experiencing latency due to our network issues. You have an alternate platform. You can continue to view the board meeting by using our live stream via our YouTube channel by visiting the live broadcast tab on our website at www.bos.lacounty.gov. or you could search on the YouTube channel for BOS LA County, and you'll be able to find our channel as well. We will now move on to set matter two, report on the implementation of the Department of Homeless Services and Housing, which was held for report. For members of the public joining us remotely to comment on this item, please use the raise hand feature if you're online, or press star three if on the telephone. Sarah Mahan, Director of Homeless Services and Housing will make a presentation. For the departmental speakers, please state your name and title for the record when you address the board.

Thank you. Sarah, do you want to go ahead and begin? Welcome.

Thank you so much. Sarah Mann, Director of Department of Homeless Services and Housing. Thank you for having me here today to present HSH's second quarterly report. The metrics I present today are a subset of the data available on the public dashboards that HSH recently launched on key performance indicators developed by the Executive Committee for Regional Homeless Alignment, or ECRA, through its Best Practices for Standardization of Care Committee. They now join the Measure A metrics dashboard on HSH's website, providing more visibility, transparency, and accountability around how the county's dollars are being used. Next slide. This quarterly report highlights data for Q3, which is January through March of 2026, detailing the work that's underway while a new department was being built. I'll also discuss the preparations we've undertaken ahead of the July 1 transition, when HSH will directly administer all programmatic county funding that was previously administered by at least three different entities. including the CEO Homeless Initiative, the Department of Health Services, Housing for Health, and LASA. Tomorrow marks the beginning of an exciting new phase in HSH's transition. The board has been clear. The old fragmented way of doing things wasn't working. HSH exists to make the county's response to homelessness clearer, faster, and more accountable to the people and the communities that we serve. Centralizing county funded services under one entity helps us do exactly that. I want to commend and thank the incredible HSH team who've worked tirelessly over the last several months to make all of this possible and who undertake this work with diligence, resilience, and heart. And to our partners, our service providers, and your board, this is a big milestone, and we're deeply grateful for your support throughout the transition. Next slide. As has been the practice since the board proclaimed a local emergency on homelessness in January 2023, today I'll provide an update on the county's encampment resolution efforts. Next slide. This slide summarizes operations coordinated through the county's homeless outreach services teams or HOST and the Pathway Home Program. 214 county encampment resolution operations are protocoled were conducted during the third quarter. The average response time was roughly 45 days, which exceeds our target of 90 days. Next slide. In Q3, through the Pathway Home program, we brought in 141 new participants into interim housing, and 107 participants exited to permanent housing. On the right-hand side of the screen, you can see that about 1,400 participants were served through Pathway Home through the first three quarters of the fiscal year. I do want to note that we expect a downward trend to continue as we ramp down the overall size of our motel-based operations. Next slide. The county's encampment resolution efforts also removed 111 unsafe recreational vehicles and other debris from community spaces in the third quarter. Fiscal year to date, we've removed 311 RVs in total. Next slide. Over the next two slides, you'll see the locations of the county's encampment resolutions. Here, you'll see the locations by service planning area of the 214 operations or protocols. Next slide. And on this slide, you'll see the locations broken out by supervisorial district. I want to note again that these do not include encampment resolutions that are conducted by other local jurisdictions that the county supports, including those in the city of LA. This is focused solely on the operations that the county manages directly. Next slide. HSH leverages its unique coordinating function within the homelessness response system by strengthening regional coordination, collaboration through the Emergency Centralized Response Center, or ECRC, which serves as a front door and coordinating entity for the region. Next slide. ECRC received 4,896 tickets and closed 4,828 tickets in the third quarter. This demonstrates our responsiveness to resolving the issues being raised by stakeholders and the community quickly. It took an average of one day to assign an outreach team and five days to respond to and close out requests. As you can see, our response time has improved from prior quarters even as the volume of tickets has increased. The next two slides provide breakdowns of ECRC tickets by location. If we move on to the next slide, we'll see this shows the tickets by service planning area. And on the next slide are the ECRC tickets by Supervisorial District. The next set of slides focuses on interim housing. We worked with the county CIO to integrate data using the same data model that was used for the Measure A metrics to be able to capture the full story of our regional response, not just HSH's work in interim housing. Next slide. So we see in the third quarter is that 7,700 people were newly placed into interim housing. In total, we served 31,932 people in interim housing in the third quarter. And for the first three quarters of the fiscal year, we served over 46,000 people in interim housing across the county. Next slide. Of the 3,932 active participants, we saw 8,926 participants exit to permanent housing, a temporary setting, or a different system of care. or to another setting, so that's 8,926 people who exited. You'll see a more detailed breakdown on participant exits. About 22% of the participants exited interim housing to a permanent housing destination, and about 28% of participants returned to unsheltered homelessness during the third quarter. I want to note again that this is data for the entire county, not just HSH. I also know that it's hard to see that 28% of people exited to unsheltered homelessness, but when we benchmark ourselves against national and state data, we're actually outperforming it. At the state level, 33% of people are exiting into unsheltered. So we'll continue to do work on this. Next slide. So again, I want to note for permanent housing that these data points are for the region as a whole, not just HSH-administered permanent housing resources. Next slide. During the third quarter, 3,135 people moved into permanent housing, including about 850 people who self-reported their exit to permanent housing. The rest exited to permanent supportive housing or to time-limited subsidy programs that the system administers. But this doesn't account for all that we're doing in our permanent housing programs. In total, 52,199 people were served through our permanent housing programs because we're not just committed to bringing people inside, we're committed to helping people stay inside and stay housed. It's important to note that in the Los Angeles Continuum of Care, more than 11,000 people are currently housed with federal HUD COC funding. HSH and our partners are monitoring the potential impact of recent HUD changes and are planning around this very closely. Next slide. Retention is really important, as I mentioned, and our retention rates stayed strong in permanent housing, with 91% of people remaining in housing after one year and 83% remaining housed after two years. Next slide. As I mentioned, we recently launched the KPI dashboard that reports on metrics developed by ECRA. The next iteration of this version that's posted right now only reports on data for HSH, and then the next iteration of the dashboard, which will be launched in October, will include additional metrics as well as data from other system partners like the City of LA, Department of Mental Health, and other large funders of services across the county. Next slide. Over the next few slides I'll outline how HSH has worked closely with our partner departments. Next slide. Of note, on behavioral health and our work with Department of Mental Health and SAPC, we have developed the first comprehensive integrated services programs best practices framework. This helps us to better meet the needs of participants' physical health, functional health, and behavioral health needs. So we really came together and identified what is the framework for us to deliver these integrated services in our different housing settings. Next slide. Through the Interim Housing Outreach Program, or IHOP, HSH, the Department of Mental Health, and the Department of Public Health work in partnership with our interim housing operators, community-based organizations, and managed care plans, LA Care and Health Net, to provide on-site support to people who are experiencing homelessness and who have functional challenges. The IHOP team's caseloads have stabilized, and they're serving about 2,500 clients every quarter. Next slide. Addressing and preventing homelessness in the unincorporated areas is an integral part of the county's homelessness efforts. On April 1st, 2025, this board adopted a motion to establish an office of unincorporated services. And I'm pleased to announce that our lead for this office, Victor Hinderleiter, assumes this role tomorrow. And earlier this month, CEO, LACDA, DCBA, and HSH submitted a report back to the board outlining a jointly designed, coordinated housing strategy specifically targeted to the unincorporated areas for affordable housing and prevention dollars that we've received from La Casa. Next slide. HSH collaborated with DPSS to establish what we're calling a mega MOU to partner on state programs that you see on the screen. It's really an example of streamlined bureaucracy. We consolidated what was previously a web of MOUs between DPSS, LAHSA, Aging and Disability, DHS, and CEO into one MOU between DPSS and HSH that funds enriched residential care, benefits advocacy services, interim and permanent housing, as well as family solution centers. This is an example of what consolidating under one department enables us to do. We also collaborated with DCFS, DYD, DCBA, DEO, DMH, and JCOD to develop a large philanthropic proposal aimed at reducing youth homelessness. And finally, we're working with the same partners and with young people to redesign collective action tables that address youth homelessness. Next slide. I'll now review a few operational metrics. By placing contract management, program oversight, and fiscal accountability under one roof, HSH can more closely monitor contract execution, performance, and payment. This is critical for both public transparency and to assure that our provider partners are paid on time. Next slide. During this reporting period, HSH amended a total of 416 agreements and work orders to transition them from DHS and CEO to HSH. In Q3, we also began initiating new agreements with new service providers related to the transition of funding from LAHSA on July 1st. As of yesterday, we've executed 100% of the supportive housing services master agreements with these providers, 100% of the work orders have been sent to providers, and 96% of those work orders have been signed and executed. And if you're a service provider listening right now and you haven't returned your signed work order, this is another reminder to please do that today. We also began to administer board office discretionary funding in Q3, which was previously administered by CEO and LAHSA. Admittedly, this part of the transition hasn't gone the smoothest, and we're working diligently to reconcile the funding allocations and to issue contracts that advance each district's priorities. Thank you for your patience with this portion of the transition and for allowing us to focus on rebuilding the larger contractual foundation of the county's homeless response system. Next slide. HSH paid 941 invoices, of which 97% were processed within target timeframes. And while I understand that that makes us an A student, we aim for 100%. So we've undertaken some process improvements, including unifying the invoice processing steps into a single process under HSH. We had different processes under CEO than under DHS. So now we have one process for HSH. We've deployed electronic workflows to eliminate manual processing. And we've created automation escalation to automatically alert leadership if there's any delays. Next slide. And last, but certainly not least, we're going to end on our workforce. These next slides will share some stats on HSH staffing. In the next slide, you'll see that we made minimal progress in the third quarter on hiring and ended the quarter with 216 vacancies. This was due to a few factors. First was the need to get labor approval on specialty requirements for many of our positions. We also need to go through a CEO class review on the classification level for many positions. There is the timeline for when we could hire and transition LASA staff because we needed to maintain LASA operations at LASA during the third quarter, and also our HR capacity. With thanks to CEO and to DHR, we have made progress on all of those fronts, and you'll see that process reflected in our fourth quarter report. A lot more hiring has happened this quarter. Next slide. Before I wrap up, I'd like to share a story from a recent Pathway Home operation, because all of this matters about people, right? This is really about the people that we're here to serve. And on the screen, you see Alma, who's 35 and had been living in an RV in Lancaster with her dog and her partner for more than a year and a half. In February 2026, Alma entered our Pathway Home program. And she's now safely indoors. Alma and her partner meet regularly with their case managers to continue their transition out of homelessness. And she's looking to work again in her previous fields of employment. Next slide. So finally, I just want to restate how committed we are to this important work and to leading with people first, to keeping equity, accountability, and transparency at the forefront. I look forward to continuing to work closely with each of your offices as we continue to strengthen and stabilize the homeless response system, and to move on to phase three of HSH's implementation, which is the integration of additional county programs and services into HSH's centralized structure. Thank you for listening, and I'm happy to answer your questions.

Thank you very much for the presentation, and I'll start with questioning from the board members. So we'll start with Supervisor Barger.

Thank you, Madam Chair, and thank you, Sarah, and your entire team for the work you're doing. I know that when we moved forward with this idea of creating its department, it was about accountability, transparency, and we want to make sure we do it right. And I know that a lot is being thrown at you because there's a little bit of confusion in terms of the roles that Lhasa plays, the city plays, and the county plays. And I think it's important, even with the latest letter that came through from a city council member from LA, it's important for us to be transparent, but also educate. But not educate in a finger-pointing, saying it's not our problem, it's yours. Collaboration. How we can work together, because I don't want you in a situation where you are solving problems that, quite frankly, you're not equipped to solve, nor can you. And then it creates this sense of failure, which is anything but the truth in terms of the work that you're doing. But I know with the sudden growth, there can be growing pains. And I appreciate you acknowledging some of the issues. My office has been getting some frustrated calls and emails from constituents about the lack of responsiveness from the referrals that have been made to HSH. Can you speak to the general process and timing on how your department is handling referrals? And also, what kind of extra support does the department need from us to help you and your team address the time period, even acknowledgment that the complaint or the request came through, so that people know at least they're being heard?

Thank you, Supervisor Barger, for the question and also for the feedback that your office has provided us so that we can work to resolve it. The ECRC team oversees unsheltered coordination for the county, and they triage the outreach requests for individuals that are in unsheltered settings. And I've reported on the metrics for what they're doing with LA HOP and the HERE's protocols that happen for the encampment resolution. And we've made progress on those fronts. For people who, we also have a grievances team at HSH, and that is the team that looks at inquiries if a participant is residing in a housing program or another program that's administered by HSH. We do sometimes, and not infrequently, get inquiries and requests for programs that are not administered by HSH. In those instances, we have to identify who is administering that program and then triage that grievance or inquiry to those departments. We've also, and your motion recently around prevention, I think really spoke to this about how resources are scattered across a variety of different entities. And so the work before us now is how do we bring that together and stitch it together in such a way that everyone understands where they go and how to triage people to the right place and not just saying it's not our role, it's not our responsibility, we don't have those resources. So we're really working with our partners around building out that map. I also just want to note that we currently do not have resources for a dedicated constituent relations team to handle all the referrals that we're getting related to constituents. So I do want to acknowledge that there is a bit of a gap, I think, around what all the board offices are hoping that we're able to do with constituent inquiries and our current staffing.

to that answer right there. If someone calls 311, how does that triage? And how is that individual, how does 311 handle a call where they want to either seek help or report a situation that an outreach team needs to go out and work with?

Do you mean 2-1-1?

I mean 2-1-1, sorry. 2-1-1, 4-1-1, 9-8-8, yeah.

Yeah, I don't want to give you the wrong information. No, no, no, I'm, yeah. I think, oh, sorry, Carter Hughley, I'm with the department. I'll follow up on exactly what the relationship between a referral into the 2-1-1 system and how it relates to LA HOP. I'm pretty sure I understand the linkage, but that is, I think, the core design is that when you contact 2-1-1 to ask for help, We are routing that appropriately to an LAHOP resource, but let me double check it and get back to you all with the exact relationship between those referrals.

And I'd appreciate it, because I know that there are many that are told to call 2-1-1 if they need help. And I just want to make sure that we're not missing anything. I mean, when I say, Sarah, that I can speak for myself, but I believe the board feels the same way. You need to let us know. What you need because this department Standing up as a department to address homelessness. We want to make sure that we're equipping you With the resources that you need and resources may not be financial It could be just support from the county family as a whole breaking down silos making sure that we're all working together I know that the outreach is now a big part of HSH and and I am excited about the critical part of the homeless system housed within the county and the work that's being done. As you know, I funded my own outreach teams directly with LAHSA because I felt that it was important to have dedicated teams who knew my community and the host teams in particular had been phenomenal and the fifth district is still funding those teams. But with the change in LAHSA, and it's no longer housed under LASA, I want to ask what the department's outreach plans for, in my case, District 5, but I'm sure all districts this would apply to, are they specific to locations such as spas, or how is it going to be structured? Because I'm still going to have my host teams going out.

Thank you for the question. So we've been working with your offices to update all of our outreach maps and which teams are assigned to which areas and what types of teams between the multidisciplinary teams, the host teams, and what we're calling our URT, unsheltered response teams at HSH. So we've been working with your offices on updating those outreach maps. We've also been working on reworking our protocols and then training the outreach teams to prioritize resources in the most efficient manner possible. But I do just want to note that there was a true reduction in outreach services because of the fiscal constraints that we had. And with the spending plan, there is a true reduction in outreach services. So we're doing what we can to make the most with the resources we have and to stretch them. But there was a reduction in outreach.

So I'm trying to think of how to phrase this. So I know that we prioritize our triage. We want prevention to be at the top. We want to prevent people from ending up homeless. How would you triage outreach as it relates to getting people off the street? Because for me, I'm all in for prevention, because I believe that it's more cost effective, but it's also, to me, ethically and morally the right thing to do. But when it comes to outreach and the goal of getting people services, Where would you rank that in terms of the importance of how you are funding different programs?

Yeah. Outreach is really critical and it's been one of the core sort of programs and pillars within the homeless system and within the Measure A spending plan that we bring to you all. We typically prioritize permanent housing first because that is what ends people's homelessness and it is often more cost effective than our other interventions. Interim housing is another pillar that's been prioritized heavily because it provides a safe place for people to come inside while we work on the permanent housing plan. And then outreach has been sort of the third pillar that's been prioritized within our spending plans. We did make reductions this year in outreach in order to preserve our interim housing beds and the permanent housing.

So they're equally, they are, there's a synergy that you need all.

We need all of them. But if, but if we also, it's really important, we don't want to like cut our housing resources to preserve outreach because what are people outreaching and offering to people if we don't have those housing? So that's where we have to be looking at proportions.

So my last question, if you are talking about downsizing on the outreach, which I understand, How are you prioritizing by district? Is it a divide by five? Is it a divide by spa? Is it wherever the outreach or wherever the calls come in and we see a high concentration of need? I mean, how is that being determined?

Yeah, we use a variety of different things. And we actually look at it a few different ways. We look at it by SD and we look at it by SPA. And there's hubs that we create within those geographic areas because we need to break them down into smaller pieces to assign to different teams. We do look at the point in time count data and other data to help us understand what the needs are in terms of allocation of those resources. And then my team has been working very closely with your offices on looking at all this information for your districts and making sure that the priorities in your districts are getting prioritized with the outreach resources we have.

So with the host, you're going to have host teams. If I have dedicated to the fifth and I was funding an outreach worker to be embedded with the host team and was reimbursing LASA, Is that going to be available again, or are you all stretched so thin that you wouldn't be able to accommodate?

So all teams actually get loaded into LA HOP by where they're geographically focused. And so the ECRC can actually see when a referral comes in. And I actually got an answer to your question about 211. They enter in, when you call 211, they enter it into LAHOP directly on behalf of the caller, so that routes to the ECRC. And all teams are in the LAHOP system, so we can see who works in that area, and we deploy them based on that relationship, which is in part why, because I have the mic, the local jurisdictions who have their own outreach partners that are not funded by the county, we want them coordinating with the ECRC to make sure they're also in LA HOP so that the entity that knows that area the most and has the relationships can be deployed.

Excellent. So you're going to be that glue or that umbrella to make sure that all are brought together? Yes.

That's right.

Fantastic. Again, I know we're going to have growing pains, but I have to say that I'm really pleased And I appreciate the team that you have. You can get answers quickly. I like that. And I look forward to getting more of these reports and seeing how we can together collaborate to make sure that we address those that need our help. Thank you.

Thank you. Supervisor Mitchell.

Thank you very much, Madam Chair. I'll just start by saying I agree with Supervisor Barker who talked about transparency and accountability and we've all used those words and concepts a lot in general and with regard to standing up this new department. I will speak for myself when I will add in addition to those concepts which I have always supported and always will, it is also very important to the people I represent that this department be better than what we were purporting to replace. Better defined as faster, more efficient in getting people off the street. And so better is also kind of the rubric through which I continue to measure our success and hold you and us collectively accountable to. We should be better than what we replaced. I want to talk about two things. contracts, and non-conforming vehicle ordinance. So I appreciate the progress update on the encampment resolution The work to reduce response times for addressing encampments and related calls received really crucial attention about three years ago. And so I want to deeply thank you and to all the staff who were then in the homeless initiative and the partner departments, public works, sheriff's host team, who took this issue very seriously, seen the average protocol response now at about 45 days, is a significant improvement compared to the six to nine month wait times my constituents experienced back when I first took office. So I want to acknowledge that. That is huge. I have a question regarding the cabinet resolutions and coordination with other county departments. So what is the messaging you and your team are currently providing about the non conforming vehicle ordinance, which is now in effect and additional unincorporated areas and what materials are being shared.

Thank you for the question so we've partnered with the Department of public works and we're using an faq that they developed. On the oversized non conforming vehicle ordinance amendment expansion so we're using that to train all of the outreach workers on messaging around how the ordinance is in effect. And this is including the new outreach teams that we just transitioned from LAHSA to HSH. We've also revised the outreach protocols to take into account the changes in this new policy. And the updated protocols are right now progressing through reviews with county council.

Okay, so it's a fact sheet and people are being trained with regard to the new ordinance. And we're updating the formal protocols. I appreciate that. Moving on to contracting and invoicing. I understand that adjustments are underway for providers based on the changes that you've implemented. And I'm sure we have all heard concerns, I certainly have, about the fee-for-service model, and you explained why you chose not to adopt that recommendation from the Service Provider Task Force. So I would really like to see information not only on the number of executed contracts and invoices, but also on the impact of these changes. From the invoices side, on your invoices slide, it's not clear to me how the revised invoicing timelines have affected organizational cash flow. That's what we've heard from our nonprofit partners. It's the timing of the cash flow. We know tomorrow is a key target date for contracting and invoicing, and so given that this really was an anchor issue in the creation of the department, I hope that these reports can reflect learnings from HSH staff as well as the direct experience of providers during the transition. Insights into the data and into the direct impact on service providers and participants, I think, are critical to understanding whether the adjustments are truly resolving previous challenges and to identifying potential new issues early enough to address them or prevent them. So do you have the ability to provide information today on how the contracting, invoicing, and reporting changes are affecting provider staffing? Are they able to maintain their current staffing models and use the same staff to satisfy the HSH reporting requirements, including financial data, all those things.

Thanks for the question. It's really important. And we've worked really closely with the provider task force over the past nine months to be looking at the different models and how we're going to be implementing it. And while we didn't accept the task force recommendation to make all of our contracts fee for service, We did leave our intensive case management services, contracts, fee for service, and then we made all of our interim housing contracts cost-based reimbursement and aligned them all around that model, which is the biggest change. In our conversations with the providers, the biggest piece of feedback that we got from them is around the cash flow that you noted. It's not that they can't do the cost-based reimbursement with their existing staff, it's that they need more time to do that, and they need to have access to cash while they're working through those processes. So in order to manage that, what we've done is we're issuing a quarter advance. All providers have an opportunity for their interim housing and for their multidisciplinary contracts, which are also cost-based reimbursement, to submit a request for a full quarter in advance. And so that means that they should be submitting their July invoice requests in August and it gives us 15 to 30 days to pay it out so they should always have cash on hand and if they're submitting timely invoices between what we have in advance and then what they'll be submitting for reimbursement and then it's in the last four months of the year that will do the reconciliation on the advance payments versus what they're billing in to any savings that they have where they haven't fully utilized the contracts, MAX will be managing it in the last four months.

And is that enough to allow them to maintain their staffing levels?

That should be, yeah, for that. But there were other reductions. I do want to be clear because of the, for July 1, and I think we all know this, there were real reductions happening in homeless services. We have reduced outreach. We eliminated housing navigation.

Separate from those programs and funding sources that were eliminated. Yeah. But again, under this new contracting process, does it close their cash flow situation enough to allow them to pay their staff?

Yes, Supervisor, it does.

Okay. And are you requiring a kind of reporting and a kind of... technical expertise, if you will, that is above and beyond their current staffing level capacity?

No, we don't believe that we are. Okay.

Thank you. Appreciate it. Thank you, Madam Chair.

Thank you, Supervisor Hahn.

Thank you, Madam Chair. Thank you, Director, and your whole team for this report. It's your first full quarterly report as a standalone county department. And I think we're all sharing our appreciation to how much work has gone into standing up this department while continuing to deliver the services. across LA County. As my staff and I looked through this report, there's a few things that stood out to me, particularly as they related to my district. So during this quarter, HSH completed 22 encampment resolution operations in the fourth district, and the Emergency Centralized Response Center handled 500 service calls from my district. And those numbers tell me that, and looking at the other districts too, which were even more than that, that our communities rely heavily on county services, and we appreciate the work that you're doing to respond. I think the long-term housing outcomes were encouraging, seeing that 91% of people placed into permanent housing a year ago remain housed, and 83% remain housed after two years. And that's a reminder that when we successfully move people into permanent housing, those placements are lasting. And that's what we want to see. But a few questions. The report shows that 22% of people exiting interim housing moved into permanent housing, while 28% returned to homelessness. And another 36% were categorized as other. um sarah can you help us and the public understand those numbers what types of exits are included in the other category and what do you believe are the primary reasons that people are returning to homelessness and more importantly what changes can we make going forward to improve those outcomes

Thank you. So it is not uncommon in interim housing sites for participants to leave without disclosing to staff about where they're going. Participants don't always choose to report their exit destinations. And this is particularly true, we see this in our triage beds.

So is that the other category? Are those people?

No, but that will be some exits to unknown destinations would be those. Other destinations can include things like interim housing. And that's like we transfer people from one interim housing setting to another. We view that as important. We have different levels of care.

Why would that be categorized as other? That should be right up front.

It's not a permanent housing location.

These are people exiting interim housing.

Yeah, this question doesn't answer.

So interim to interim is, should be.

Good for that, yeah. Then there's also people who exit to temporarily stay with friends and family. So there's a variety of different categories that roll up to that other.

I think it would be helpful instead of other, just going forward, I think these kinds of reports for all of us need to be more specific. to help us understand what's happening and see if there needs to be any change in our priorities or how we fund things. I think other is not helpful to me anyway. Like 36% were other.

Yeah, it's also 34% are unknown of the other is unknown. And then 1.6% is to jail or prison and 0.5% were deceased.

Okay, so that's in there because I think Ivan just had them all as other.

Yeah.

Didn't you, Ivan? So the other, appreciate that. The other issue that I... It's funny because it's all relative. Some of my colleagues think 47 days is great. We kind of feel still that's a little long to resolve encampments. And we know Lhasa maybe took longer But I hear that from my district a lot. Sometimes they just think it takes 45, 47 days. It feels long. And maybe you could walk us through kind of that timeline. I mean, I'm familiar with, you know, inside safe and those were gigantic encampments and there was the. renting of the hotel rooms. And then there was the van showing up on the day, taking people to, I mean, I've been to some of those, the conclusion, uh, not, not all the work that goes in before you, before that last day, but, um, maybe walk us through. And are these encampments that are those gigantic ones? Are they, cause I thought some of our encampments were even like maybe three or four people was considered an encampment.

Uh, for the host, uh, encampment resolutions, they are not sort of one or two people. They're usually five or more. Um, and I would say the biggest difference with the large scale and camera resolutions program you referenced like Insight Safe or Pathway Home is that those are typically, we're trying to target locations that we know have been there a long time and that we repeatedly go back to. And we do that in partnership with your offices. Um, and so we, we've known about those locations and we're preparing for a long time to get the resources and to really go in and do a long-term solution there. So that's why it's a little bit apples to oranges to think about the host operations where the process there is we're notified, hey, there's someone or a group of people that are at this location. What happens then is we start to look at our... We send a team out to go take a look and confirm that what we're being told is in fact what we're seeing. And then it begins a scheduling process. As you know, all of the public works and sheriff outreach and other outreach teams that we have have to align their schedules to go out and figure out when can we collectively get to this location to conduct a cleanup operation. And then once we're clear when they have the ability to do that, that's when we set the outreach timeline to make sure that sufficient outreach is done in advance of that to make sure that people know their options.

When does the 47 days start?

Starts when we are, I believe, and I will confirm that it is when we have confirmed that that encampment exists and it has gone into the scheduling process to trigger that confirmation and putting it on the calendar to resolve.

And like you said, if there's five, is it 47 days for five people?

Sometimes. We've got lots of different people in lots of different types of situations. And I think there's a lot of competing work out there for Public Works and Sheriff's Department and Outreach to do together collectively to get it on the calendar. and resolved, so it's not as simple as getting all that on the ready, but what does happen pretty quickly is the outreach. That does not take a long time. We deploy that immediately. It's the very first step. So we go, we look, we assess, is what is being reported to us actually happening? Is there anything we can do immediately to respond to this need? It's when we can't resolve it immediately that we then put it into the scheduling queue for long-term resolution.

And what does that mean to resolve it immediately?

Like if somebody's willing to accept an interim housing placement based on the conversation, if somebody has a problem-solving conversation where they're willing to go back and live with family and friends, if we can figure out what to do right there on the spot, we will. But oftentimes folks are outside because there's a complicated situation. As you know, a very complicated situation we're navigating, and it's going to take a little longer. And so that is when we're going into it.

How long do you think it takes from the time someone reports that there's an encampment to the time that you actually confirm that, yes, this is an encampment?

I think we have it in the slides. That's typically just a matter of days for LA HOP. We're trying to drive that down as well, because as you see in the data, Some tickets are closed because there's no one there when we go. And we're trying to shorten the window of time that by the time we get there, we can see it. But we can get back to you on the exact timeline.

And the 47 days is from the day when it's submitted to when it's closed out. It's not about when it's confirmed. It's once it's submitted.

Yeah, he just said it's when it's confirmed. Yeah. So the day somebody calls and says there's an agreement, that starts the clock?

When it gets submitted into the HEARS system. Yeah.

Well, again, those are kind of they're the most visible, you know, to a lot of our communities. So they're the ones that and like I said, some people think 47 days is a big improvement. I still feel like that's we're moving in the right direction. You're right. I would think. Is there anything to do to shorten that? That was.

Yeah, something that we're working on with our partner departments right now is, like you noted, there's encampments that are of different sizes. And the threshold is five. That's the county protocol is five is the sort of definition of an encampment. But in areas like East LA, for example, where there's a lot more, you don't have so many large encampments. It's more dispersed in certain areas. So we've been working with our other county departments about... Can we cluster them together so that when you have a team that's going out from the DPW that they can go and go do multiple of those in the same area at the same time rather than treating each one like a separate operation? So we're looking at ways that we can be more efficient and cluster things together.

Yeah, that would be interesting. And I just really wanted to tag on to Supervisor Barger's passion about outreach, because I heard your answer, like, what's the priority, right? Because what are we outreaching for if we don't focus on our housing options, but I do think outreach is so important and it clearly is the point of contact for people who are experiencing homelessness. And I think it's one of the most important tools we have for building that trust. That's kind of because a lot of this wouldn't work if we can't gain the trust of those who are out on the streets. And I know there's been stories as long as I've been around of, you know, years, you know, of trying to gain the trust of one person. before they would be willing to come inside. So I just still think outreach is so important. And I think people have some, and you've given some numbers today to call, but I know, and you talked about working with our partners in different jurisdictions. There was a homeless person on the steps of my church. He's been there before. And even churches freak out. They're like, oh my God, someone's homeless. Who do we call? And when LASA was operating, we had a weekend number that we could call. This time, you know, we decided to partner with LAPD's circle team. And I don't know if that is... Do you guys support that? Or is that... what you would like people to call when they're in the City of LA. Is that still, you know, it always makes people nervous to call LAPD when it relates to a homeless person. But that's the number I gave because I knew that it's a rapid response.

I think that's fine to be giving to CIRCLE. They're one of the jurisdictional outreach teams that we're trying to coordinate through the ECRC. and we need all of our resources regardless of who's paying for it to be working together. I will say that we have weekend response that can be coordinated through our unsheltered response teams at HSH. We also have weekend outreach teams through the multidisciplinary teams. So we do have some different weekend outreach teams that are available. and requests from the community should go through LA HOP so that they can get triage to the right outreach team that way. But we're also available to partner.

How long do you think it would take? If somebody... saw a person who was unsheltered and homeless and they tried to get into the system was hop. How long would that take, do you think, until someone actually could come out to the... It takes us one day on average to assign a team and five days to close it out.

Yeah, that's not going to work. I understand that and I too want to help all of our unsheltered people. We have to also just recognize the...

I mean, I know that, but one day. I mean, they're not going to be there the next day. Most times. Not in the same location. But a lot are. A lot are. A day is a long time when someone puts a request in. People want to see help, and we want to give help as soon as we can to those who are experiencing homelessness. I've never seen a person that we called for ever stay in the same place a day. So it's a problem. I just want us to do better. And let me just follow up again on, so you think we have 357 employees. How many would you say are dedicated to outreach?

I don't have the number. Yeah. So I can get back to you.

Yeah, I would be very interested. And I realize you're trying to figure out the priority. But I do feel like it's a really important piece of our addressing the homelessness crisis. Thank you, Madam Chair.

Thank you. Supervisor Horvath.

Thank you, Madam Chair. I want to congratulate you on the progress that you've made to this point. I am one who will say that a change from nine months to 47 days is marked progress. And I think that's to be commended. And while there's always room for improvement, I certainly acknowledge that. I also think that you deserve to be acknowledged when you do Make progress, and so I want to say that I would also agree with supervisor Han that. There is an expectation that when you call that there's going to be a timely response I think that's in part shaped by when you call 911 the response times of some of our other emergency response agencies. I know you are not staffed or funded at the level of those agencies, and so I would suggest that if we want to move in that direction that I suspect is probably going to take a lot more resources than you presently have. But I do think that it is an expectation, regardless of how we are structuring and funding from the county perspective and so. I think that's something we're all up against is what do we do to make sure that the kinds of response that people want to see happen actually show up with the right kind of tools. Because otherwise there's going to be a call that responds with a different kind of tool and one that isn't a right match. In many cases. So to that end, I just want to acknowledge you've assembled a very strong, very dedicated team who have already demonstrated incredible success in transitioning providers and contracts to the county by the July 1st deadline. And now you're doing the work to change how the county operates an impactful efficient accountable homeless service response system. And I think supervisor Mitchell rightly touched on this, that it is not enough to transition the contracts in house, it is how do we move towards an outcome focused and improved system of care. That's why HSH was originally created to do things differently. That was a place of innovation. And in this moment, we really need the county led by HSH to establish a united vision and implement it across the regions as well as across our county departments. And I believe success depends on our ability to leverage every dollar in every program. to prevent duplication, and to more effectively address this crisis. And so it's time to strengthen partnerships with our cities, with COGs, with communities who time and again show how committed they are to supporting people who are unhoused. and these are also places now that thanks to measure a have increased funding sources so those are dollars that can be leveraged in partnership with the county to do more and faster and i do want to reinforce as you do future presentations really highlighting what we are doing differently and what we are doing better i think is an important component of the story going forward and I would offer, I know that when we had direct conversations as this change was approaching, you had indicated that being a program allowed you certain flexibility that perhaps scaling to a department might not afford, but I believe that we intend the whatever it takes model that you adopted in the Housing for Health program to continue here to be a place of innovation. And so telling us what support you need in order to continue that progress is an important part of what we do going forward. I would say given all of the uncertainty about funding, how do you anticipate the metrics that you presented could change in the next year? And specifically, how will the reductions in housing subsidies and vouchers impact the throughput in our system? Because I know that's a critical component to getting people into permanent housing.

Yeah, thank you for the question. As I mentioned in my presentation, it's important to note that the Los Angeles Continuum of Care has more than 11,000 people who are currently housed with our COC funding. And the funding to keep these individuals in housing is at risk due to federal actions that are underway. And I do want to be clear that no amount of local creativity and planning or local funding is enough to replace what's happening to our region at the state and federal level. So I'm going to be honest that I am worried about how we're going to be able to keep everyone in housing who's in housing today, as well as continue to make progress with bringing more people inside. That being said, we have to be prepared and we have to be uniting as a region. That is my number one message right now to our cities and to our partners. This is the time for us to come together. We are much stronger together than divided. And we do have resources that if we pull them together, we can use more creatively, more integrated, and continue to make progress. And we have to work closely with La Casa. We have to work with our public housing authority partners across the region, with our local jurisdictions to be planning on it. But going back to your question, without permanent housing subsidies, our throughput is impeded, and that is going to show up in our metrics. People stay longer, and we're seeing this now. People stay longer in interim housing, which is more expensive than permanent housing. and that downstream impacts our ability to outreach. When we're outreaching, there's fewer interim housing beds available. I will say, we are seeing this right now, even in our data, where the lengths of time in interim housing are, continuing to go out because we have fewer subsidies to be moving people out to.

So what contingencies do you have?

The contingencies around the COC funding, we have to be working with our public housing authority partners to understand how many of those households that are housed might be able to be supported through their resources. We have to work with La Casa and met with La Casa's interim CEO on Friday to talk about how we can be working around the funding that they have to help people retain their housing as well as to be making sure that the units that La Casa is building and helping to support the creation of with our local jurisdictions is available to people who are homeless today so that they can be exiting homelessness. And we need to be working with our local jurisdictions who get 70% of that LACASA funding to be administering. So our solutions really are leaning into our partnerships with each other across the region and making the most of the resources we have, but also being strong advocates together at the state and the federal level.

And I know the federal government has recently announced their plans around the loss of COC funding, which in past years has been to the tune of about $220 million. So I assume, but perhaps you can affirm for me if I'm correct, that the 220 million or whatever the federal government might be intending to allocate to this region, given the magnitude of the issues that we face, that's not something that we can backfill as a county if it doesn't exist.

That's correct. We cannot just simply backfill it.

And so I think, at least for my part, I just want to say that I think it's critical that we do everything that we can to keep that source of funding as part of the resources we have to solve the problems that we have on the ground. And I'm interested in making sure that your department and all relevant departments in the county are having that conversation because that is part of the critical lifeline we have to solving this crisis. I love seeing the increased coordination that you've demonstrated both with HSH and ECRC. But I don't see much about data integration. I know we get a lot of questions about that, especially from our Los Angeles City partners. So can you speak to the timeline for more data sharing specific to client-level data that we can expect to progress in the next, say, six months?

Yeah, absolutely. This is actually one of my personal passions and a priority of mine because we really need this information to understand what's happening and how to help people Our HSH's Chief Information Officer actually presented at the Housing and Homelessness Cluster on May 28th about our regional data integration blueprint and some of our upcoming milestones. We plan to make this a quarterly report in the cluster. Some of the recent progress and current priorities include integrating interim housing bed management into HMIS, The soft launch for that is tomorrow with full implementation, July 13th. There's further integration happening between CHAMP and HMIS. We've also signed data sharing agreements with LASA and HACLA and are finalizing data sharing agreements right now with LACDA, DPSS, DMH, and DHS. Once we have those done, we'll be able to publicly publish dashboards that show program performance across all of these system partners.

And the last topic I want to touch on actually relates back to our last item. There's been mention of vacancies in your department. And I think the last count that my staff had was 216 vacancies. So are these funded positions? And where do you anticipate hiring for these vacancies, especially given the notice that's being given to several people today?

Yeah, thank you for that question. That 216, it was our budgeted vacancies as of March 31st. Since March 31st, we filled 53 of those vacant positions. We have 37 more selections that have been made that are in the process of being hired, pending start dates. And we have 66 more positions that are in recruitment. I did get this morning a list from DHR of those remaining LASA employees. And from a quick look, we're able to identify positions for 12 of them. And we'll be looking through the rest to see if we have other positions available in HSH for the others.

Well, it's about half of the last number, so we're getting there. But I think the more that we can do, especially given the level of expertise and experience that could be translating to the positions that you have available, I think whatever we can do is really appreciated and appreciated. I know that you are taking seriously the mission of this new county department. It's not lost on me that it comes with a very focused spotlight on your work, given how prevalent this issue is in every corner of the county. And so that can feel like pressure, but I hope it feels like motivation, because all of us are behind you to make sure that we get this right and continue moving in the right direction. And so I just want to say thank you.

Thank you. Sarah, I just want to also commend you. Take care of that pet. Please. Sarah, I just want to say thank you to your team. I am glad to see improvements being made and that you've outlined in this report. I think it is comprehensive as best as possible given ups and downs and getting a new department settled in such a rapid amount of, I mean, short time, right, to get this far. So I think you should be commended for that. I am also thankful for your team's work with my team, especially in East LA, seeing the number of encampments that have been addressed there. But I too have concerns, because sometimes I look at, I'll have my staff call in, or I'll call in and I'll tell my staff, we have something in East LA that has been rectified you know, finally we'll get there to an encampment and maybe it's five or six people, and then two weeks later they're back again. So what do we propose to do about that?

Yeah, thank you for that question. I will note in East LA, East LA has been prioritized through Pathway Home and will continue to have a motel-based operation in East LA to help with the repopulation, but more generally, The strategy for repopulation is continued outreach and engagement. And we really want to be having proactive outreach, not just reactive outreach, but where we're proactively going out. Outreach teams know where people are by and large. And so for them to be able to go back and continue to build on those relationships. It's also important that we're supporting encampment participants and accessing the resources that and preventing, that's really critical for us to be preventing the repopulation.

And I'm glad to see that in your first quarter of this year, 3,100 placements were made into permanent housing, and 7,700 placed in interim housing. And I've always been a proponent of both, and I know for our HLS Village that we have over by Homeboys and what have you, there is a tendency for people to stay there longer than just six months. And I know that for a fact. Some have stayed for maybe three unfortunately, or fortunately. But there have been a lot of successes where people reunite with their family or they actually go back to their state of origin, which has also been helpful. I don't, and I do agree that we need to classify that and get our providers to do a better job. And I know we've had an instance in one of our, recently in San Gabriel Valley, where one of our We talked about what happened at one of our newer sites there where actually probation came in to the facility and went into our unit because there was use of some substance. I'm just hopeful that we can get our providers to also understand how important and sensitive these issues are. We do have cooperation from local host and others there, but I think it's really, I mean, it could really create havoc and just kind of fuel the flames again in the community that may have been resistant to have a facility that we know is working. So I would just want to ask us to do that TA, that kind of training with these providers as well. because oftentimes they're not culturally sensitive to the surrounding community. And I'm not saying it's bad, I'm just saying that it's needed because then our staff gets called and then we have to go out and host hold meetings or attend to those meetings and then try to explain something that we really don't have a lot of control over. So moving forward, I'd like to see that. And I do agree too with you that prevention is really important. It still is important. Even if you're not going to remove that one encampment, just continually talking to the individuals there and what's available is so important. And that people with lived experience are in many ways suited to help us. So again, the LASA employees that are losing their jobs, I hope that you can remedy bringing them on board. And I think that would help us. It's not a large number, but I do think it's important that we care and that we know that these positions are very much needed, because they really are, and especially out in the San Gabriel Valley. I think our problem is that we are so geographically spread out, and lots of teams can't always go out when we do call them, or when they finally get there, it takes a while. And I would just urge us to do that. And to also, because all of us sit on the Metro Board, that we're also seeing that the end of the line, I'm starting to see more people ending up at the end of the line, whether it's in Pomona or whether it's in East L.A. right now. it is growing. And I just want to alert, yeah, the end of the line, but to have services there, because we know this has been happening for years, but what are we doing to really put a flag down and say, okay, we're going to deal with this? I think that we owe it to our residents at East Los Angeles who are right now undergoing a lot of strain to begin with. So I would just ask you to do that. And I do want to give a shout out to my team and yours working in East LA because it has made a difference. So in no way do I want you to take that as a negative. And then I too am worried about the vouchers that are going to be cut back in HUD because we have public housing. I think the first and the second have the most public housing. And we're going to see people that are going to be removed. And what is our plan, our game plan to work alongside with those entities and trying to get information out Wherever we can. In concert with OIA as well, Office of Immigrant Affairs, for some of our areas who have just monolingual Spanish speakers and what have you. And maybe start to think about resources, resource fairs at those facilities as well. Working with, for example, Emilio Salas and all the other folks that you all work with. I would just say that, but thank you. I don't have any further questions. And let's go to public comment on this item then, if we can.

Will the following individuals please come forward and staff will assist you. Jessica Pearl, Tony Hart, Rogelio Martinez, Heather Varden, Adelina Silva, Dr. Kridkel Truthbay, Claudia Jerez, Byron Jose, As a final reminder for more participants to be placed in the speaking queue to address that matter too, if you have not already done so, use the raise hand feature on your device or press star three on your telephone now. Roy Humphries, your line is unmuted, please begin.

Thank you, Roy Humphries. This is 2026. You say resources are lacking, but you have resources to aid and abet illegal immigration and defunding district attorney. Integrated state-of-the-art computers are essential to registration of all. Forty percent are hardcore transients, and as in Roland Heights, with storm drains to include the 63-way trails and Nogales East as habitat. You continue to establish a countywide transient campsite system, which would give teeth to the sheriff for enforcement. The days of defrauding the taxpayer federal government to feed your quest for power are over. God bless and protect President Trump from the Democrat assassins. Also, it took Sheriff Villanueva to clean up Venice Beach in spite of years of political interference. Thank you.

Thank you, Madam Chair. There are no other remote speakers to address the board. Remote participation for set matter two is now concluded. We will go to in-person speakers. Please begin.

Good morning, ladies and gentlemen on the board. Chair Solis, my name is Tony Hart. I'm a proud American. And I'm here to express my frustrations with this housing process. I don't think it's been very fair. One of the things that I have experienced is that when me and my significant other came here from Nevada after buying a plot of land and trying to put our RV on it and going through code enforcement, this confusion. Unfortunately, we needed housing here back in my hometown, Los Angeles, and I chose the Skid Row District down there on Fifth and Crocker. And what we noticed was that they were housing people, men and women, who were single, but not couples.

Thank you. Next speaker, please.

Hi, my name is Adelina Silva, and I'm here specifically to get housing. That's what I'm asking for. It's been, I've been eight months where I've been. I've been threatened to be kicked out. If I ask, are you gonna place me somewhere else? No, because your dogs are a threat. My dogs are not a threat. They're just not. So thank you, whoever responsible for giving me a home. Please, do so.

Thank you. We can have someone on staff talk with you, ma'am, from our housing homeless department right here. They're coming right there. They're right over here. They'll talk to you right here. Thank you.

Thank you.

Next speaker, please.

Claudia Hernandez, DWC DPSS. I'm really cold over here. It's like a nice box. Okay, so I like to say this. I am a former ICMS case manager from DWC. I work with LASA. I work with the providers and everything. I got to tell you, I went to the Home at Last shelter. They are not culture proficient there. At all. They don't know nothing about that. They run that place like they're running some type of, I don't know, like a barrack or something. Very awful, you know? And the food is contaminated. I didn't eat none of that food, totally contaminated. I have to say that if there have been changes from Lhasa to HSH, we'd like to know what changes are those, what caused you to make those changes, so we can know what these people did in Lhasa.

Thank you, next speaker please.

Hi, Desire Truth Bay Housing Navigator. I wasn't really gonna speak on this, but you mentioned Victor Hinderlinder. Let me tell you about Victor Hinderlinder. Starting in the days of Good Shepherd in 2011, was already abusive. for women. Just like bad cops, they just go to a different agency. But there's still law enforcement. So this is why when I speak with certain vitriol is because it's personal. When you have people that are being recycled, that are not checked, you don't do background checks, and then they get hired, and then now you have them as one of the chief administrators for the housing for LA County. Bravo, well done. I want you to really re-evaluate and use people with lived experience in these positions, not recycled, abusive program managers who a decade later now has a permanent job with six figures. I'm ashamed, to be honest with you, after you just said that today. So good luck, and I'll be behind the scenes counseling. Thank you. Next speaker, please.

We should all be ashamed. While the county continues to use our jails, specifically Men's Center Jail, as the largest housing facility, and while we continue to have Joe and whoever his team under the CEO team continues to be, continue to budget Under these same failed infrastructures, that's the reason why the workers came here to speak, that's the reason why constituents come to engage, and that's the reason why we continue to see that we need to have community investments and really reframe the way that we're shaping our budget and that we're launching and building this new department. not to continue to create barriers, but continue to fund some programs and services that directly will benefit communities. So we look forward to working with this body to make sure we pass a housing initiative specifically for TGI communities, vulnerable populations, reentry populations, and our aging populations. So we want to make sure that as we look at our budget and our housing department and the set matter that was scheduled for 1130, we have more important things like when are we going to close the jail? Thank you.

Thank you. Next speaker, please.

District 4 supervisor candidate. Our most vulnerable communities are our unhoused or our homeless communities. The loss of funding to LASA is going to impact approximately 11,000 unhoused people. Because of the upcoming Olympics in 2028, because of major renovations that landlords can do, this crisis will increase. So what can we do? We can expedite and streamline the permanent process for affordable housing, known as accessory dwelling units, junior accessory dwelling units, and senate bill number nine units. There's three tranches to homelessness, those that are not homeless, those that are homeless, and those that were homeless. But our most vulnerable are those that are not. Thank you.

Thank you. Madam Chair, members of the board, that concludes public comment on this item.

Madam Chair, this report will be received and filed.

Hearing no objections, that will be the order.

We will now move on to item 16, Enhanced Safety Measures at Whiteman Airport, which was held by Supervisor Horvath. For members of the public joining us remotely, to comment on this item, please use the raise hand feature if you're online, or press star three if on the telephone. Mark Pastrella, Director of Public Works, and Jason Morgan, Chief Aviation Division, Department of Public Works, will be making presentations. For the departmental speakers, please state your name and title for the record when you address the board.

Supervisor Horvath, would you like to begin? Thank you, Madam Chair. I introduced the motion before us today in response to safety issues and recent crashes at the Whiteman Airport. On April 20th, we saw a pilot strike power lines outside the airport perimeter and crash in a commercial parking lot near a large residential community. The pilot was transported to the hospital in critical condition. Following this crash, the board unanimously approved my motion directing the Department of Public Works to report back with immediate actions the county can take to further strengthen safety at Whiteman Airport. Then on June 16th, another crash occurred when a pilot failed to deploy his landing gear and skidded through the perimeter fence. Thankfully, the pilot escaped with only minor injuries. In the wake of these incidents, there have been a lot of discussion about safety at Whiteman and how incidents like these can be prevented. Before we move to Public Works for their presentation, I'd like to provide more information about work underway regarding the future of this property. In 2020, the county initiated the Re-envisioning Whiteman Project, which explored ways to reduce noise-related impacts, improve health and safety conditions, enhance community engagement, and provide community benefits like job training on-site. The re-envisioning process, the community advisory committee recommendations, and subsequent board motions were the first steps in laying out the future of Whiteman Airport. While today's discussion is focused on safety at Whiteman and confirming that the county is doing everything within our authority to enhance safety and protect the surrounding community, the re-envisioning process is still underway. DEO, Public Works, and an expert consultant are finalizing a land use study that will inform discussions about the operational, financial, and regulatory realities of the property. It will give us the information we need to deliver on the CAC recommendations, and I expect these next steps to be completed before the end of the year. It's also important to note that while today's focus is on the county's responsibility, the airport cannot be discussed in a vacuum. The county owns and maintains the airport. This means maintaining on-site infrastructure, amenities, and security. The FAA is responsible for regulating all aspects of civil aviation, including exclusive authority over airspace management, aircraft operations, pilot certification, air traffic control, and aviation safety regulations. And the National Transportation Safety Board is responsible for investigating aviation accidents and providing safety recommendations. They're still conducting investigations on the causes of this year's crashes. My team has worked with Public Works to determine where the county could step out of our lane to play a greater role in functions that are traditionally FAA responsibility, and we keep bumping up against preemption issues. We've also taken an inventory of crashes that have occurred in the last 20 years and cross-referenced them with NTSB investigations. According to the NTSB, Every single crash has been caused by pilot error or aircraft malfunction. While upgrading hangars, more lighting, a Part 150 study, or any other community benefits will be discussed as part of the land use study later this year, these improvements would not have prevented any of the accidents we've seen, not just this year, but in the last 20 years. The residents living around the airport cannot afford to wait for those investigations to be completed. That's why following the July 16th crash, I called on the FAA to immediately suspend flight operations pending completion of a comprehensive federal safety review. In the meantime, I remain committed to exercising every authority the county does have to improve safety around the airport and to protect our residents. That brings us to the recommendations before us today. With that context in mind, I'd like to invite Public Works to present on the department's report. And I have a few questions in response to your presentation, as well as a read-in amendment that I think we'll continue to address what issues our members of the public want to see us taking action on today.

Thank you very much, Supervisor Horvath. I'm Director Mark Pestrella, Department of Public Works. As the board is aware, the department runs five general aviation airports throughout LA County. Whiteman Airport is the subject of this discussion today. I'm joined today by Jason Morgan, our general manager of the five aviation airports. He'll be joining me in the Q&A portion of our presentation. We have a very short presentation for you, Supervisor. Let me start here. In response to your previous motion, Public Works submitted a written report on May 18th. And again, I'm here to give a verbal summary of this safety strategies developed in that report. And I want to walk the board through them briefly. First, we recommended enhancing pilot safety in our report. Currently, we're initiating quarterly pilot safety seminars with the first one next month, bringing the FAA, the Whiteman Tower Manager, and certified flight instructors to the table. Second recommendation that's been endorsed is enhancing airfield safety. We programmed the rehabilitation of the runway and taxiway pavement, and we've secured the commitment from FAA to fund these projects. And then third recommendation, the community outreach. We're doubling down on our outreach and launching a communication campaign this month, utilizing social media and other communication tools to improve public education and collaboration. All three of these initiatives, we requested to know about the funding, all three of these initiatives are fully funded and are not in need of any further funding from the board or from outside sources. Again, I'm joined by Jason Morgan, my chief over aviation, and he can answer any questions you may have.

Okay. To that end, I want to start with how are pilot licenses and training verified at the airport, and who does this? Is that a county responsibility, or is that FAA, NTSB?

Sure. Good question, Supervisor Horvath. Thanks for that question. So FAA requires all pilots to be licensed, and typically the pilot's licenses are verified through various... actions usually always taken by the FAA. So those can be verified through when training is occurring. The FAA often will conduct spontaneous or impromptu ramp inspections and they'll verify pilot certifications or licenses during those. During pilot flight reviews every two years generally a pilot is required to go back and get recurrent and certified again to be a current pilot. So their license would be verified at that time. FAA check rides, the flight schools that are at the airports will verify licenses. When you rent an aircraft from any of the businesses at the airport, they will verify your license. And then any businesses on the airport that are hiring pilots, of course, would be verifying the pilot's license. That's generally how licenses are verified at the airport.

And does Public Works or another agency maintain aircraft maintenance records, and how is the functionality of aircraft verified before flights take off?

Okay, good question, Supervisor. Yeah, maintenance records are kept by the owner or operator of the aircraft, and that's required by the FAA really to ensure that the aircraft's airworthy and properly maintained. by the FAA standards before operating. So generally, the FAA requires annual inspections of aircraft. However, certain types of operations like flight schools or aircraft that are used for hire are required to get 100-hour inspections, so more frequently. But generally, FAA uses its oversight to exercise its inspection authority when it deems necessary.

And how does verification of medical certification for pilots take place? Who's responsible for verification of their fitness to fly? And how frequently are pilots supposed to receive renewals of their certificates or licenses?

So every pilot is required to have a medical certificate. For pilots that are under the age of 40, those are renewed every 60 months. For pilots over 40, it's every 24 months. And a pilot's medical certificate may be verified, again, through the same measures or actions that are taken by the FAA at the airport, typically by flight instructors that are providing instruction, aircraft rental operators, and flight schools at the airport. An FAA designated pilot examiner may ask for the maintenance records of an aircraft as well. And then again, FAA inspectors that are conducting those ramp checks may also be asking the pilot for verification that the aircraft met its maintenance requirements.

And I know there's an upper age limit for commercial pilots. Does that age limit apply to private flight as well?

There is no age limit for pilots, so your pilot's license is valid as long as a pilot can meet the FAA's medical and certification requirements.

One of the recommendations is to sponsor and coordinate pilot safety seminars. And you touched earlier on some of the education work that you're doing already. These are critical because once again, out of the approximately 35 crashes we've seen in the last 25 years, every single one of them has been determined to be a result of pilot error and or aircraft malfunction. Since pilot certification and aviation operations fall under FAA jurisdiction, what role does the county have to conduct the education seminars? I know you mentioned some that we're doing. Can we push to do more of that?

Sure. So we're taking the additional step, as you mentioned, and the pilot safety seminars are already occurring at the airport. So our department, we have stepped up to ensure that, as the director mentioned, those will be offered on a quarterly basis. So Public Works will be sponsoring the events, providing the venue and technical assistance for those. Pilot safety seminars will be assisting with the invitations and the outreach, coordinating with the FAA and the airport traffic control tower manager and the flight instructors that will be doing the presentations. And again, ensuring that those are consistently held on a quarterly basis at the airport.

And as the owner and operator of the airport, does the county have the ability to make these training seminars mandatory for all pilots that fly out of Whiteman?

That is something that we will be exploring. We support that and we will be evaluating that with our council and the FAA to see if and how we may be able to do so.

During our board meeting in May, you noted that neither Caltrans' annual airport inspections nor FAA runway safety reviews had identified safety deficiencies. I think that's important because I know there are allegations that the county is shirking its duty, but it's actually been quite the opposite. We are trying to step beyond the authority we have to step in in places where other regulatory bodies have not been present. So can you walk us through the scope of the proposed runway improvements project being recommended and any other operational requirements that would come with accepting federal grant funding for the project?

Sure, and I'd like to reiterate what you said. As we noted at the previous board meeting, the Whiteman Airport is safe. The recommended project that we're discussing here will rehabilitate the runway and taxiway pavements and include new pavement markings, just really to ensure that the pavement markings remain in a state of good repair at the airport. The initial estimated cost for that is about $5 million, and accepting airport improvement program grants for that project really would only commit the airport to remaining open for three years.

And I know that each of us who have airports in our district take that responsibility very seriously and anytime there's notification of a crash, even if it comes with very minor incident it's alarming to the surrounding neighborhood and especially for. the communities around Whiteman. This is a residential community that's very close to this property. So another recommendation in the report is related to a Part 150 study, which is also a community benefits topic being discussed in the forthcoming land use study. Can you give us some additional context for why we've decided to not yet move forward with that study at this point, but to reevaluate it in the context of the land use study?

Yeah, sure. I'd be happy to clarify that for you. So as you mentioned, the Whiteman Airport land use study and economic analysis is currently underway, and it's going to evaluate multiple scenarios. So that includes the continued operation of the airport or the potential closure. In addition, certain mitigation measures that could result from a Part 150 study, should we go down that route, such as residential sound insulation, may require accepting federal funding that could obligate the airport to remain open for 20 years, for example. The land use study will also provide important information regarding lease and grant obligations, potential operational changes, redevelopment options, and long-term objectives for the airport. So those findings could certainly affect the timing, the scope, and the ultimate appropriateness of pursuing a Part 150 study. So for those reasons we believe it's prudent to wait for the completion of the land use study.

And while we recognize that most aspects of aviation safety fall under federal jurisdiction, this airport is uniquely situated in a densely populated residential community that deserves no less than immediate solutions. Given the jurisdictional challenges at play and the repeated failures of the FAA to prevent crashes at Whiteman, I think we need to do more and think creatively, as innovatively as we can, and really push that boundary to make sure that we're protecting our communities, certainly within our jurisdictional lane, but to try and bring solutions to this community that desperately deserves them. I was glad to have almost our entire first term be completed without such a crash taking place. I know just before I came into office there were crashes that devastated the community as well. And it's absolutely unacceptable for community members to live in fear without answers to why these things are happening, and especially to know that over the past 20 years that these are really related to pilot and operational error, not to the county's lack of maintenance of a facility, lack of jurisdiction in terms of taking our authority seriously. These are issues that we really want to seriously address. And there is a role to play for FAA and TSB and each and every pilot who has been writing to my office saying that they want to keep this, they want to see this airport maintained and to stay open. I appreciate that, but they also have a responsibility to keep our community safe. So I'm interested in exploring what the county can do to impose standards higher than existing FAA guidelines, inspections, and enforcement. And so with that in mind, I want to read in this amendment to the existing motion, which reads, I further move that the Board of Supervisors direct the Department of Public Works and Department of Economic Opportunity with the assistance of County Council and the CEO's Office of Legislative Affairs and Intergovernmental Relations as needed to provide a verbal report to the Board within 30 days upon completion of the Whiteman Airport land use study on the operational implications for Whiteman Airport associated with the initiation of an FAA Part 150 study as well as federal grant funds that would be required for any eligible residential sound insulation, including but not limited to the terms of such grants and any requirements for the airport to remain open, the feasibility of implementing enhanced FAA ramp inspections, the feasibility of making the pilot safety seminars mandatory at Whiteman Airport, and legislative advocacy in support of enhanced oversight of aircraft maintenance, as well as enhanced FAA training and certification requirements for pilots and aircraft. I offer that amendment to address more of the concerns that we're hearing in the community, But I also want to note that Director Pestrella, as soon as that crash happened in May, you were immediately on a plane, ironically, over to our nation's capital to meet with the relevant agencies to impress upon them how seriously we take these issues and how much we want them to be partners in this work to keep this airport and the surrounding community safe. So I thank you for that because we are doing everything that we can. And I know that your department is taking this issue seriously, too.

Thank you, Supervisor. And to give you an update, I was in a meeting with FAA just yesterday, a follow-up meeting on this very subject, and we have secured a commitment for them to up the ante there. Of course, actions are larger than words. Thank you for your advocacy, for your letter. It did make a difference. It was in their hand when I met with them.

Well, I'm glad to hear that. I'm most grateful that you went there in person to get the job done and we're not going to stop until we get the protections that the community deserves. Thank you, Madam Chair.

Thank you and thank you to the panel. Seeing no questions from the board, let's go to public comment.

Will the following individuals please come forward and staff will assist you. Rogelio Martinez, Claudia Jerez, and Byron Jose. As a final reminder for remote participants to be placed in the speaking queue to address item 16. If you have not already done so, use the raise hand feature on your device or press star three on your telephone now. Teodora Reyes, your line is unmuted, please begin.

Hi, my name is Teodora Reyes. I am speaking as an organizer who has worked alongside families in Pacoima in the Northeast Valley on the issue of Whiteman Airport since November 2020 when a plane crashed in Pacoima near the runway killing a Civil Air Patrol pilot and really re-traumatizing the community beyond, and then the reminder of the casualties that can be placed. As we know for generations, residents have raised these same concerns and the recent accidents that have occurred within the past few years continue to reinforce the need to have our community in the process of what land use looks like and really want to thank the board and the supervisor Horvat for taking initiative and while many decisions remain outside of the county's control it's important to continue that leadership style of finding every avenue possible to continue reflecting what the community advisory committee had recommended in support of a closure of the airport but not just a closure but finding thank you julia hernandez your line is unmuted please begin

I'm a district representative for California State Senator Caroline Menjivar, and I'm here to give a statement on her behalf. The constant buzz of single-engine aircrafts flying overhead is part of Pacoima residents' everyday life, but they return home to a question no community should have to ask. Will another accident happen? The two recent aircraft accidents have once again reinforced what residents have been saying for generations, that their concern about public safety is real, and this concern cannot continue to be ignored. For this reason, Senator Caroline Menjivar strongly supports moving forward with the department's immediate recommendations to include quarterly pilot safety seminars, completing a capital improvement project to maintain runway and taxi payment conditions, and implement enhanced community outreach, while also ensuring the public receives clear timelines, transparency, and accountability as these measures are carried out. The county cannot afford to wait for another accident before exercising its full authority to implement recommendations that align with the community advisory committee process. Thank you.

Thank you. Madam Chair, there are no other remote or in-person speakers to address the board. That will conclude public comment on this item.

Madam Chair, item 16 as revised is before you.

Moved by Supervisor Horvath, seconded by Supervisor Han to approve the item. Executive Office, please call the roll.

Supervisor Mitchell. Supervisor Mitchell, aye. Supervisor Horfath?

Aye.

Supervisor Horfath, aye. Supervisor Hahn? Aye. Supervisor Hahn, aye. Supervisor Barger?

Aye.

Supervisor Barker, aye. Supervisor Solis?

Aye.

Supervisor Solis, aye. Motion carries. We will now move on to item 21, report on the progress of closing Men's Central Jail, which was held by Supervisor Han. For members of the public joining us remotely to comment on this item, please use the raise hand feature if you're online or press star three if on the telephone. Joseph M. Nikita, Chief Executive Officer, Wilford Pinckney, Jr., Executive Director, and Shidenma Ume, Deputy Executive Director, Jail Closure Implementation Team, Chief Executive Office, will make a presentation. For the departmental speakers, please state your name and title for the record when you address the board.

Okay, very good. I'm told that we'll sit through the presentation first and then ask questions. Thank you.

Yes, good afternoon. I'll move quickly through the presentation. My name is Wolfer Pinckney. I'm the Executive Director of the Jail Closure Implementation Team, and I'm joined by Chittima Umay, who is the Deputy Executive Director. Today, I want to provide a high-level update on J-CID's work to close down Men's Central Jail. Ultimately, our work is guided by a single question. How do we create the smallest footprint of incarceration possible while maintaining public safety and meeting people's needs? Answering that question is not simple and the road to the answer is not straight. Issues related to public health and safety are constantly changing. So the work of jail closure should be understood as ongoing and not finite. Next slide please. The seven required actions we provided in our report are foundational to any viable pathway to jail closure. The goal is to move from being reactive to proactive. We only put something forward as a required action when three things are true. There is data informed rationale that the action is feasible and can meaningfully support jail closure. The cost and operational needs are clear and the responsible departments are committed to the action. These actions are meant to reduce the 14,500 person projection that we offered back in October, the number of people who will be in custody in the jail in five years if all things remain constant. Obviously, that's not the case since, like I said, public safety is constantly changing. I think today's jail population, from what I saw, was 12,547 people. Today, I think it was, or yesterday, the governor signed a new bill, AB 46, which is aimed at decreasing diversions for mental health and people suffering from mental illness. So those are things that are examples of why we constantly have a changing environment. Funding, when we think about funding for this, we should view the funding as a single... Did I jump you? I'm sorry. Okay, go ahead. We should view the funding as a single investment across the full five years. Each year builds on the next. The entire investment of additional funding needed at this point is $1.5 billion over five years. While the number is big, we have to remember this is an investment in people. J-SID has been exploring alternative funding sources and will continue to work with CEO budget to determine which sources may be applicable to the recommendations outlined in our framework. Next slide, please. And I'll go through these. So each of these slides that show the required actions show the funding across a five-year timeline. As you can see, it starts lower and it builds up over the five years. So I'm going to not focus as much on this. I'm going to just give some brief remarks so we can get to questions. But for this first action, which is about expanding ODR lead, ODR LEAD intervenes at the earliest stage of law enforcement contact, reaching people in behavioral health crisis in the community before they enter jail. Since July 2025, ODR has expanded LEAD, I believe into the North Hollywood Van Nuys area. ODR has also engaged in discussions with other cities interested in establishing LEAD within their communities, including the city of Glendale. Next slide, please. HEAL is another action expanding PD public defender HEAL program. It's a pilot program. This is about getting people connected sooner and mitigating the challenges related to expert appointments and mental health affidavits. HEAL's work directly aligns with identified gaps in the system, specifically the absence of clinical screening at arraignment and the resulting delays to court order releases, and its potential to meaningfully shorten case processing times. JSA will continue to monitor and report on outcomes as the program develops over time. Next slide, please. The next program we were looking at expansion for was SAPC SENS. It's community-based care. SENS is the primary pathway out of custody for individuals whose legal involvement is driven primarily by substance abuse. And so we're looking at expanding that program. We provided some costs here, initial costs related specifically to DPH SAPC. In our July report, we will include any associated costs by other departments and needs. Next slide, please. This one is about stabilizing and expanding RDP. So it's really important to make sure that for the programs we have that are working and that are getting people out of jail, They have sustainable funding sources, so this is what is the basis of this required action. RDP is a pre-plea diversion program with linkages to mental health or substance use treatment, and this is initiated early at arraignment. It is really important for those where it's possible to get them released as early as possible to shorten the time or prevent people from going to jail when it's not necessary. Next slide. The next required action is about sustaining funding for JCOD's STOP program at 200 beds. STOP provides structured treatment and support services for lower acuity individuals as an alternative to custody. We've talked in past presentations about the need to focus on the P2 population, which is the largest populations in the jail with a P designation. And so this is one of those programs that has the ability to focus on that population. Next slide, please. We also are looking at stabilizing and expanding ODR housing for P3s and P4s, and the next required action will be about P2s. As you know, ODR housing is the only dedicated pathway to community-based treatment for most people with P3. or p4 designations and so we're looking at this stabilization um i know there is currently an unmet needs request that was submitted by odr uh as well so this is all about making sure not only that they continue to operate and serve people at the rate they currently are but also to expand that the ability to serve the p3 and p4 population also in conjunction with the um the consent decree that DOJ compliance is working with ODR on. Next required action. Next slide, excuse me. The next required action is once again about ODR housing, but focusing specifically on the P2 population. And as I said, you can see that the investments are scaled over the five-year period. Next slide, please. This is just giving you an overall picture of the investments over five years. This table will be updated. We are currently working to collect more information from all the departments who aren't the primary departments to identify what the final numbers are. I will say these costs are not complete. They're also not static costs. Five years is a long time. And I think many people have talked about making five year projections is very hard because things are constantly changing. Next slide, please. I said this work is not static. We are continually and aggressively pursuing avenues for jail closure. I would say we operate within the three levers and the four focus areas for the reason that while we may identify these specific actions at this point in time that can support jail closure, that doesn't mean we stop. As the population in jail shifts, as legislation shifts, as policy shifts, We continue to identify the populations in the jail and the strategies that will help to either prevent them from being there or decrease the amount of time they're in the jail. So our July report back will provide the level of impact of these actions on the jail's average daily population and whether jail closure is feasible in five years. We will continue, as I said, to aggressively pursue avenues for depopulation and case processing improvements. We will analyze the data and build the infrastructure to continually analyze data, conduct criminal case reviews to support early release, case disposition and service navigation, We do have two pilot programs that we've discussed previously. The HEAL pilot, which I already mentioned, which is focused on really early screenings at arraignment, and the San Fernando Court pilot, which is looking at early releases and case dispositions. And then we will continue to conduct the chart reviews. The work is being done by DMH and SAPC and doing the data integration necessarily to determine what the appropriate treatment capacity needs are of people being released from jail so that DMH and SAPC will know whether we have enough capacity. This is different from people who are court-ordered releases. We're talking about people who are released from jail not under a court-ordered release. Next slide. And I'll stop there. I don't know if the CEO has any additional comments.

No additional comments at this time, other than to highlight what Director Pinckney said about considering these investments as a single investment. When we take on multi-year, large multi-year projects or programs, we have to plan accordingly. So we look at these as the overall investment. Right now it's an investment scale over five years. If we look at it on a year-by-year basis, we risk not planning appropriately, and we risk not making the inroads that we plan to make at the top. So we talked last week about our budget, and our multi-year forecast doesn't have the level of flexibility in it to make the investments that are scaled up over the five years at this time. It doesn't mean that our financial challenges stop us from making difficult investments, but our financial realities do require us to plan appropriately and make choices that make sense within that context. So I'll just end there and turn it back over to the chair.

Yeah, thank you, Madam Chair, and thank you for the presentation. And again, just to recap colleagues. You know, first of all, just for everyone, I think it's clear it's good to always restate that this board has committed to closing Men's Central Jail without a replacement. And I was the one that authored the motion to get a little more specific plan on the table from the jail closure implementation team, a solid timeline with a price tag, how are we gonna get there in five years? And so this is the first of those reports. And as I told you all last week, We were supposed to hear part one, which this is last month. And when I looked at part one and saw the holes, the blanks, how it impacted jail population, how many people does each action actually divert, that was coming in the July report, the next one. So it was my decision. Look back on it now. I don't know if it was the best decision. I wanted to combine the two so we could see one. We could see two. And together, I think they paint a better picture of how we get there. But our justice advocates, I think many of them are here today, interpreted that continuation or as a as me personally wanted to delay the funding for our jail closure implementation team. And that, of course, was never my intention. So I decided, all right, let's hear part one now. But I think you all see when you read it that there are there's a lot of instances where it says the July report will will fully explain particularly how each action impacts the jail population. So that's why we're here today. But I'm glad this is the report, glad we've seen it. I appreciate that it finally gives us that timeline that we've been asking for. But again, I feel like part two will answer more of my questions. So this report lays out seven major actions that have to happen if we're going to close Men's Central Jail within five years. And it puts dollar amounts behind each of the action. But for me, of course, a timeline on a paper is just the beginning. The hard part is going to be the implementation. And it's making sure that those goals that are laid out in this timeline line up with the real world. And Director Pinkett, you sort of alluded to that. There was legislation that just came out. It was very disappointing, very disappointing. It talked about the governor signing something that will make it more difficult for diversion. and even could mean more incarceration. I authored a motion that I think we all supported to oppose any legislation that, in fact, would cripple our attempts at diversion. But let me just... Talk about a couple of so so actions two three and four depend heavily on the Superior Court and I know my staff has and I've been talking with the court and while they're eager to be part of this effort They have initially said they don't feel like they've been meaningfully engaged in this plan. And in fact They sent a letter to you yesterday kind of laying out their concerns about this first report. Specific to their concerns were courtroom and calendar availability, judicial officer staffing limitations, physical facility constraints, operational assumptions, program realities, timeline feasibility, dependence on justice partners, and data and technology limitations. And of course, they said some of the outcomes that we're projecting will depend upon the exercise of judicial authority and decisions regarding diversion, release, competency, procedures and other case specific matters are made by judicial officers based on individual facts. So some of the things we're not necessarily going to be. able to maybe accurately predict the outcomes. So that was concerning to me, how much the courts have felt out of the loop on this first uh... report so for me this july report this next one i'm hoping to see in that not just what needs to happen because again you had three actions that were heavily dependent on the court and if they're not uh... agreeing with you on how feasible you said that was one of your criteria for an action that had to be feasible and the funding had to be uh... realistic They seem to be disputing that, so what I'm saying is I hope the next report you can actually talk about the specifics of how you've engaged the court and what feedback you've received, and maybe even under your actions of the two, three, and four, you specifically say the court doesn't feel this is feasible or the court is finding the limitations of you know, just the physical courtroom being challenging for what we're advocating. I would like to see that just so we might have to adjust where we go in terms of those actions. I also have a consumer concern with Action 1, expanding the ODR and the LEAD program, because this was amazing. It's very aggressive, right? It doesn't just require the Sheriff's Department and LAPD. It requires buy-in from roughly 40 municipal law enforcement agencies across the county. That's a major undertaking. and um you know that's going to take a that's a heavy lift that's a heavy lift so again i'm hoping that the july report will talk about progress you know on that action like who have you met with which agencies have committed to participating where are the obstacles because if it's you know really a five-year implementation implementation plan we need to make sure that the implementation is currently underway or we're never going to Meet our goal and even with some of the municipal law enforcement agencies, maybe that's something that even we could help with Many of us have very good relationships with our different municipal law enforcement agencies So if you're if you're coming up against some obstacles there because again, that's a huge lift to get the buy-in of the sheriff LAPD and 40 law enforcement agencies is a lot. So I just want to see where you are in the July report and, um, And of course, I think the key part of this report is the dollar amounts that you assign to each action for program expansion. And your report shows that we need 24 million in this fiscal year to expand everything from ODR to social workers in courtrooms to substance use diversion programs. And I brought this up during either last week or during the last budget discussion because you know i just want to make sure that the way you've laid it out if this 24 million does not somehow get in the budget and again we're not writing a check to jacet right this is the 24 million is to a lot of the departments that have these programs that you are rightly pointing out that need to be expanded if we're going to meet this five-year guideline. And I think When I looked at your timeline and your dollar amounts, particularly this first 24 million, I don't really remember you being kind of here during the departmental budget request. Because I think, Will, you need to be at the table with all these departments Helping them to develop those requests when they come to us. I mean, our priority mountain that we're all trying to climb. Right. But you're you're kind of you're leading this jail closure implementation team and you kind of need to be the quarterback with these departments that you that you believe in and that you think need to be expanded for us to to reach this goal. But, you know, I didn't hear one unless I. Wasn't listening. I didn't hear one of our department heads when they made their unmet needs request or any of their requests saying this is specifically related to jail closure. Your board has committed to closing Men's Central Jail in five years. I'm not asking this request just for our department and all the good stuff we do. This is important to this whole jail closure implementation team. I didn't really see that, but I think I'd like to see you be more involved with the other departments that you're trying to expand, and making sure that they're on the same message, that when they bring their request, it's a lot of what you're saying needs to happen. And these are all really great programs, whether it's our Our public defender. I mean, there's so many great programs, but I think You kind of need to be a little stronger in your messaging of why You know, we need they need they need the money, right? Because again, we're not writing the check to you. We're expanding programs within our departments and and on that note, Joe Um, I just looked at all these numbers for the first time. I'm kind of focused on this 24 million because that was the first one seemed like the smallest amount of of all the years. Have you verified these numbers, these requests that are next to each of the action items?

Can I respond quickly to your first statement about quarterbacking these requests as they come in through budget? I think that's a good recommendation. Many of these requests are in the budget as an unmet need. In fact, I think Will had mentioned ODR has the unmet need for 24 million, which may be, if I'm hearing you correctly, on top of the additional 24 million. So really what we're looking at in year one is close to 50 million to get this program started. We haven't done a deep dive on the full five years to validate all of the funding at this point, but at least for year one, I think we have a good understanding of where those numbers sit. So, yes, we do work closely with departments on these requests, and I think what we can consider doing is when we think about the budget present, I hate to add more work, but if your board would like a separate presentation on some priority items and consolidating all the budget requests across the department so you can see what's there, maybe that would help you all understand better what's going on.

Yeah. And so, yeah, it's confusing on the 50 million versus the 24, but you think the 50 million is already funded and there's this gap of 24 million to make the first year, because I think we all want to stay on track. And if we don't, Do this 24 million, does that put us like, it's six more years till we close the jail?

I will say the 50-ish million is requested in 26, 27, so not funded.

Okay.

And then in terms of starting, I think I'll look at Director Pickney, but I think the answer would be yes. If we don't start this year, it'll push back the timeline by a year.

And is this year the 50 million or the 24 million? That's confusing.

So it's $24 million, you know, a couple of things. So we did talk with CEO budget and the departments. We meet regularly with the department leaders. We have a department head meeting every four to six weeks. The court's present at those meetings, and we talk about everything in the reports we present it. the information around this current report in that meeting prior to the report being released so the court was aware and is involved in that. The court's also involved in, we have a case processing work group which the court is involved in, which many of the actions in the report.

Why do you think they have written that letter that says...

I didn't talk to them so directly, so I'm not going to venture a guess.

I've talked to them directly.

But I'm just saying I didn't, so I'm not going to venture a guess. I would say it makes sense, the things in the letter, that the court is underfunded. It makes sense that they would have concerns. We did mention, and I know the health departments mentioned that everything that they put forth was contingent on a judge releasing someone. I mean, that is something that the county doesn't control. So, um, so, you know, um, their concerns about space we've talked about, we've talked about in previous reports or nothing that they mentioned in a report was new to me in terms of the challenges we face, but this is their framework of a plan. Um, so there was an expectation that on a regular basis, there's going to have to be changes as anything happens. The jail population goes up, down. changes in policy. So that's expected. But in terms of the 24 million versus the unmet needs. So there was an unmet need we talked about in a previous report also. ODR has come personally and talked about the fact that they will run out of funding. I believe it's next month or August. And if they do that, it's not that they stop serving people, but I think they're able to serve 140 new people a month right now. If they do not get that funding, that number is halved. So that impacts that. Not getting the funding will push them back in terms of, Restarting that effort to serve 140 people, and it also pushes back the scale up that we are describing in the five-year plan. So there's a lot of moving pieces. Once again, because we're being transparent as we go along based on the board's directive of reporting every 90 days, we're reporting things, but things change. Things change very fluidly. I hear you.

It just was concerning to have three of the seven actions be dependent on the court and then have them write the letter that was, to me, very challenging. Okay.

Yeah. I mean, but they did provide numbers for what it would cost to do the things that we find. I mean, we worked through that, and we'll talk to them, but I'll let Chittima add anything.

And then, Joe, back to just when I was looking at their tentative framework budget. I mean, the currently funded column, I just want to make sure that that's accurate. currently funded through 2030-31. I just didn't know how far out we could guarantee that those programs would be funded.

So you're referring to the existing investments that we scheduled over five years. So my understanding, I'd have to go back and confirm it, and I will confirm it, is that these are programs that are generally funded with ongoing funding and so are expected to continue. We talked about preserving what was in our budget during our budget meeting. If some of these components are one-time funding, I will report back and make sure in July we know.

Yeah, I'd appreciate it if you looked at that, because obviously if we're off on what is guaranteed funding, then we'll be off on the new funding needed. So I just want to make sure going forward that you, can you just verify those numbers? The ODR LEAD program, Law Enforcement Assisted Diversion program, is currently in seven sites. I think you said that, and can serve 780 clients. And it seems like it's a big lift, LASD, LAPD, and 40 different municipal agencies. Um, and for us to expand this program and ensure we can rely on the officer deputy to use their discretion to divert at the point of arrest. We definitely need more law enforcement partners. Um, maybe you can not wait till the next report, but let us know how how are you engaging currently with these different law enforcement agencies?

I'm not sure where the 40 number came from in terms of the people we need to get agreement with prior to starting the program. The program already exists. ODR on a regular basis engages with departments. They already have great relationships with the LAPD, LASD. And I think it's one of the Long Beach, who are the largest departments in the county. Those departments are open to expanding. I know I had a conversation with the San Fernando police chief, went to an event out in San Fernando. He wanted to expand to lead. I connected him with ODR, but ODR doesn't have the ability to service them because they can't expand right now. And so it is important, and I know we put this in the report in terms of how all of these actions, all the actions that are steps that are necessary for expansion, right? And one of the necessary steps talked about how ODR evaluates whether to expand into an area. So there wouldn't be a need to. engage and have agreement with 40 departments because you're not going to expand all at one time. You're not going to necessarily even expand where you're going to need all 40 departments.

It's just that obviously people get arrested, you know, all over the county. Um, and you're trying to get sort of the point of arrest to see whether or not those law enforcement agencies can work with you.

Yeah, but it's also, it's not necessarily just at the point of arrest, so from my understanding of the program, a lot of it is focused on people who are homeless. And so if you know, and I think, you know, I'm not going to speak completely for them, ODI, I can speak for themselves when we come back again, but If you have a specific location in a specific area of the county where there's a lot of homeless people gathering, they may have substance use issues, and it's resulting in a lot of calls for service, then that's the place where ODR will say, hey, let's work with this department. The department wants that. Because they want to focus on more serious crimes. They won't necessarily be committing resources to those areas. So this is how that engagement happens. So that's why I said it's not necessarily about just generally blanketing the county and working with 40 departments. It's being very strategic and targeted in the approach. And that's why I said I'm not sure. We didn't have that 40 number in our report. I might have been somewhere, but I'm just not sure.

Yeah, thank you. What was it? Let's see. And then I do think next month's report is going to be important to see the population impacts next to each action. And just again about the Assembly Bill 46, will you have to adjust any of your projections or change your numbers any, knowing that this could really impact

I wouldn't say in the short term we would. I mean, it's just like when Prop 36 happened, there was an increase that sort of leveled off. Like, you have to give things time to see how they work out. It's possible it will have an impact, but we will keep an eye on it and see that. And this is why I go back to this is constantly a day-to-day, a month-to-month approach. So I want to caution against thinking we're going to have some final thing that's going to be this is all that we ever have to do and we're going to be able to achieve our goal of closing the jail. We have to constantly work at this. So we can definitely share anything, and we will share any policy impacts that we understand. We've been involved with DOJ compliance. And other departments, Lair, in advocating, there was another bill, SB 1373, that's moving through the state legislature right now that is similar to AB 46. And so we've been working with Lair, like I said, and other departments to speak out. The county's already taken a position. We're speaking out as to the impacts for all of those departments. And so we continuously work on this, but this is an ongoing thing.

But do you think you're going to stick with the seven actions?

I would say no, I mean the jail population right now is 12,547 people. I think this year, last year, it was up to almost 13,700 people. So if we were to do our projection, and we plan on doing that projection on an annual basis. But if we were to do that projection now, the number wouldn't be as high as 14,500. It would probably be lower. So this is a fluid process.

No, I just mean, because you pretty much said we need to take these seven actions to close the jail in five years. Are you going to stick with those seven?

I would say this is what we see right now based on what we have. But a year from now, I'm not going to say it's going to be the same actions. I mean, maybe some things will change that we need to change. Yeah. So I don't want to say that, and that's why I said this isn't it. And we're never going to get to a point where we say this is it and this is the only thing we do.

So the 1.5 billion price tag, is that for, Does that cover the current seven actions?

I would say in the next report, we are going to add on like the court sent us numbers to say, hey, if we had to expand this, this is what it looks like. We'll add that on. We talked to other departments that weren't the primary departments that say, hey, within these required actions, are there costs that you would incur? So it's about getting all that information.

So that number might go up?

It could go up, yes.

Yeah. Okay. Thank you, Madam Chair.

Thank you.

Thank you. Supervisor Mitchell.

Thank you, Madam Chair. Um, as I was listening to my colleague and we were talking about who's the quarterback, I was reminded that Jason's not a department. Um, it was in a department, but I think it was board action that moved it from the department, Jay Cod to CEO. So I, I think CEO is the quarterback, frankly, in that that's where Jason is housed. And I think the challenge is, as you raised ODR, which is a sensitive topic for me and that I have fought since I got here to try to get a permanent growing funding source for ODR, the fact that we manage it every year in supplemental often means it's one-time funds, so it is not a permanent funding source. So I hear you in terms of really trying to make sure that there is somebody quarterbacking this budget but it also has to be, I think, permanent funding sources or we'll never get to this place where it's a truly building an ecosystem that can be sustained over time. Every year we're holding our breath as we get to supplemental about what one time funds we're gonna find or draw down to be able to fund it. So I think it's not only who the quarterback is, but the source of the funds and the kind of funds that we identify. One time doesn't get it for institutional structural change. You know, from my perspective, clearly closing MCJ isn't solely a compliance measure. It really should move us toward reducing reliance on our carceral system, I think. fundamentally, MCJ specifically. And so I appreciate your framework, which aims to really interrupt the cycle by, as you showed us on slide three, preventing new inflows, shortening length of stay, and enhancing the community-based system of care. I think for me, You know, one ongoing question is how do we do that in a way that aligns with our care first jail class commitment and it meets our legal obligations. And it's done collaboratively with 40 law enforcement entities or county departments and with a sense of urgency. I think that's what everybody feels is lacking and certainly the community does. And I think our measures of success have got to go beyond dollars committed. We need the dollars, but to truly measure our success, it's got to be some additional factors, I think. We should be evaluating how many people avoided incarceration, how many exited custody sooner, how many were connected to treatment and housing, and ultimately whether we are meaningfully reducing the jail population. Because from my perspective, more investments should result in fewer people in custody. And so I appreciate kind of where you are in the process and the report so far. You know, one question for me as I look at your slide 13, I'm not sure, and correct me if you disagree, if your category of preventing inflow is really addressing how we reduce current population. And what is the path from the report presented today or will come in July that will address current population reduction? We know funding is needed, but beyond funding, are there other actions or decisions that the board needs to take to move that element forward.

So a couple of things. I can start with the last one. I didn't want to forget the first one you said about the inflow and is it addressing current population. Let me start there because otherwise. So when we think about inflow, people think about 55,000 admissions to the jail every year. And I'll use maybe probation violations as an example right and so for us an inflow we think about you know who's coming back on Technical violations right right and so in addressing that in inflow We are addressing current population in the extent of people are cycling through the jail all the time so we can stop somebody who may be on the verge of coming and lead is another example of this and then we are addressing maybe not the people that are currently housed in the jail, but current population in terms of the cycling. Because the jail population, probably in the time that we've talked, has changed 15 times.

But with that, I appreciate the inflow. I do. And going upstream, there's been a lot of the work of this board and predecessor boards. And yet there is a core element that aren't in the loop. They're there. Right.

And they're not moving. Right.

And so what do we need to address them?

Yeah. And so there's two things. There's a bunch of things that we're doing that address that and even the required action. One, that's where you look at diversion in the sense or releases from from. custody right because diversion has a specific meaning right and so when you think about your audio leads when you think about the sentence program and the screens and the things that are meant to either connect people to treatment so that you know or at least make the public defender who's representing them aware of this opportunity so that they can make a a presentation to the court to say I think this person should be released, that's addressing the current population, right? So LEAD does that, the SENS program does that, RDP does that, right? But the other big thing in Chittima is, this is where a lot of her focus is, she does a lot of things, but this is especially her focus, Shortening the time that someone is in jail while their case is litigated. So there's a lot of discussion. We hear a lot. We can't divert any more people. Well, it's not everything we're doing in our framework is not just about diversion because there are people who won't be able to be released or a judge might not feel comfortable safely releasing them into community. Well, then if they're going to if they're going to have to have the case litigated, then how do we remove unnecessary delays in that process? And I can let Chittima speak to that a little more.

I'll just say briefly, good afternoon, supervisors. Will is speaking to the length of incarceration. So, supervisor, when I hear your question, I think about two things. The inflow and impact, of course, on current population. And then what do we do about the drivers of the current population? I just want to speak to the first. When we look at our jail population, we've seen that if you look at just who's in currently prison, Any given day, right, based on one snapshot that we pulled, about 64% of the people who were in our custody had been here before. So inflow is quite literally contributing to our current jail population. So we are trying to dig down to the next level to understand why those folks are coming in. Is it because of unmet needs? Is it because of houselessness? I will say that that is data. We have some of it, but not all of it. So as we obtain it, we can get at some of the drivers. And I do believe we'll then see more targeted inflow strategies that can lead to a depopulation effect. So that's one piece. The second piece is what Will talked about with length of stay, length of incarceration. Right now, when we spoke a little bit about our case processing work at the last presentation, but I'll just briefly remind everyone for public consumption. Most of our jail population consists of people who are in on felony charges. And under California state standards, most felonies should be resolved within a year. Not all. So murder cases, capital cases, those are exempt. But most of the cases that come through should be done within a year. And I should also say diversion is excluded. I know our partners are watching and keeping that caveat in mind, too. So a lot of our work is focused around how are we doing with that standard? As Will mentioned, part of our case processing work group is to bring the partners together and the department heads. And it's convened by our CEO and our chief of strategic initiatives. to make sure that we are all on the same page, that adhering to that standard can lead to shorter jail stays. And then beyond that... And the courts play a critical role in that as well. Yes, the courts are at the table. They're a partner in all of our efforts. I can pause there, but I hope that answers your question.

This is where we are the quarterback, right? The board's directed us to be the quarterback, and we're doing that in action. We're making sure that departments know, and we work, I think, hopefully I finished this thought, but we work with the CEO budget to say, if you are going to put in a budget request and it's related to our work, then that should be made clear to budget so that then we can have a conversation with budget around that. So we quarterback in that way. We quarterback in terms of facilitating the conversation that Chinema just discussed that was with the courts and the public defender Alternate Public Defender IDCO to think about the case standards and talk through what are the challenges, what are the barriers, and get some commitments from them to really focus on that, and they are doing that, they are, Chittima didn't mention it, but they've been looking at and working internally, even the DA's office around people who have been in jail over two years, one year, we are getting that data, we're providing that data, we work with the court, and the court has provided us with data that we can share with the partners, so all of that is happening, to make sure that we're focused, to your point, on people in jail because that's something Chita and myself talked about a lot when we first started, at least when I first started, where there wasn't enough of a focus on the people who are currently in the jail, right? And there's a lot of great work being done by CHS and DMA. So we're all talking around that group. We're digging through data to get a better picture of who that group is and who or what strategies can be done. So, you know, I'd say to go to your question around what can the board do, we need to ensure that we are not missing the forest for the trees. Focusing just on closing MCJ itself shouldn't be the point. I've said this before, and I think other people have said it. We need to close MCJ, full stop. But this is about public health. This is a public health issue because the main driver of the jail population is people suffering from mental and substance use disorder. And so we really need to make sure that we are thinking about it more broadly as a system. That's what our view is. We take that macro view. Each department has their own responsibilities and focus. But us as J-CIT, we're taking a macro view to make sure that we're understanding how we can pull the levers. I've said this before, too. The jail currently is the largest mental health housing in the state, country maybe. But in order to stop that from being the case, whether it's, it's not gonna happen this year, it probably won't happen next year, but five years down the road, we need to look at the root causes of that. And that's how you also deal with the people in the jail now. And that's how you also make sure you're moving to jail closures. So we need to do that. We need the board to make sure we are doing that and make sure that we can all articulate together how this work is about that broader approach. We need to make sure we're, Ensuring the sustainability, to your point you just made about ODR as an example, of programs and strategies that are successful in getting people released from jail earlier than they might get released. And so we need to make sure that that's the way the board can help us. And then we need to make sure that, you know, you guys are supporting and helping and giving us clear direction, but to support policies that are important to change and operational or other policies that need to change if we're making this full commitment to it. It's not going to be easy. This is not an easy process. I don't think everybody knows, right? It's not going to happen quick. It's not easy. But if we want to do it in the shortest time possible, we have to make that commitment.

Can I add to that, Supervisor, since we're talking about things that would be helpful? We need buy-in from stakeholders. I mean, that's at the very bottom of all the work that the JCIT team is doing. Now, I've been to a bunch of meetings where Will has presided over with lots of different participants in various aspects of the justice system. There's a very wide range of opinions on how to approach this work. There is general support, I think, from county departments, but they approach it differently. I'll give you an example. Our public defender and alternate public defender are very concerned about speeding up case processing because they believe it disadvantages their clients in the process. Now, that's an issue for us as we try to approach case processing reforms that speed up the timeline, having a system that our clients public defenders don't feel like, to the benefit of their client, is something that is going to slow down the work. I mean, I'm not making a judgment as to whether they're right or wrong on it. I'm just saying that is one issue that we've encountered. The courts, I haven't seen the court's letter, but the courts are very concerned about their ability to remain impartial to the process. So they've told us a number of times their job is not to close the jail. Their job is to do, as a separate branch of government, what they are assigned to do. And so while we have a great relationship with the presiding judges and David Slaton over at the court, there are certain limitations when we interact with them. They're just not going to take the steps that we would think are beneficial because that is not something they perceive in their role as well. So it's an issue that we encounter repeatedly. Again, it's not an easy solution. But to the extent we have county departments that report to this board, They should understand that the objective is to close this jail. They need to make operational changes to make that happen. And we can't sit in these meetings repeatedly and have discussions about whether to do something. We should all have the goal in mind. And now we're discussing how to do it. And I feel like we kind of. Turn that corner sometimes, and then in the next meeting, we'll write back to square one. So that is something I think would also be very helpful. And Supervisor, I've been looking all over my email for my schedule. ODR has a substantial amount of ongoing funding that is base funding. It's not all one-time funding. I think what you're referring to is the ability to keep expanding, right?

Yeah, no, I'm clear it's not all, but the point has been we need to expand it to meet the needs we've talked about to get the closure. So some of the expansions over the last six years, at least, have been through supplemental and one-time, but I'm clear that that's not their entire funding source. You know, I am also clear, you know, the court's right. It was a board of supervisors who declared care first, jails last, not the courts. We are a separate branch of government, I get it. I also think that the courts also have a constitutional responsibility for a speedy trial and to make sure that people aren't languishing in jail waiting to go through that process. Speedy trial versus rushed process, there is a difference. I hope that our public defenders understand that as well. We're not talking about rushing it, but people do have a right to what our foremothers and them defined as a speedy trial. Again, we have the examples of people sitting and waiting and waiting. That is problematic. Uh, thank you for that. Uh, and I appreciate, I think we are certainly a lot. Oh. Go back. I'm glad that you gave the example because when you said stakeholders, I wasn't thinking county departments. Um, because from my perspective as the policy setting, setting entity. if this body and bodies before us said, care first, jails last, and then there was a vote to close the jail. That, from my perspective, was a clear direction to county department heads for everybody to roll in the same direction. And so if we need to restate that, consider that having just been restated, and perhaps we need to continue to do so. We set policy and have full expectation of implementation. Yes, resources have to come to the table, and we need people to understand this, the policy of the county, and we are trying to transition from a carceral-based system to one that's care-based, and need everybody rowing, quickly in the same direction. So I'm glad that you gave the example because that provided me with some needed clarity. Last piece I'll say, did I say it already? About the courts, that they have a responsibility in terms of the timely admission of justice and while everybody, including all of us, can acknowledge funding cuts, cuts from everybody, I wonder if there is a fundamental duty that counties have. We have a fundamental duty at the county of safety net. There are times when we cannot turn people away. Our county ers cannot turn people away and so at some point i hope the courts understand that while we're all struggling with reduction of resources they have a fundamental responsibility to to serve and if there is a way in which we can elevate that uh remind them of that whatever the case may be i think it's important that we do so and i say one thing about that because i just also

I know there's been mention of a letter here. I just also want to be clear. There is no light distance between us and the court around anything you said.

Okay, good.

In the meeting that Chittima talked about that the CEO was at and we facilitated, the court made commitments just like others. I know for a fact they are actively doing things to try and come as close as they can to the standards and work with partners. So I don't, you know, we work with people and I don't want discussions in a public meeting. You can blame me. No, no, but I don't want to paint a picture that's not accurate.

Okay, I appreciate that.

They are committed to that. Is there always work to do? Yes, there always is. Just because we agree on something doesn't mean there are not challenges we have to overcome. Same thing in this framework. We can put on paper the things that we know need to be done, but we also included in our report the challenges or the things that have to be done in order for those expansions and things to happen. So that's all part of the process. So I just wanted to say that because I don't want it to be. Fair enough.

And just walk me through where we are. The original vision was to have the conversations separate. Now we're talking about it today. But the July report isn't out. July report will be expected.

July 9th, the written report will be due. And we will come before your board on July 21st. Thank you very much. And we will be at Cluster 2 on July 15th. Thank you.

Supervisor Horvath. Thank you. Thank you, Madam Chair. I just want to touch on two quick things. First, since there was so much discussion of the courts when we've met with them, they have mentioned part of their hesitation in diverting or releasing people to lower level placements or an alternative placement has to do with the fact that they don't see from the county's side how we are monitoring and standardizing What effectiveness looks like? How are we outcomes based? And while that might not be your primary purview, I think you definitely have a voice in the broader county family that is responsible for that to say, here's what a rubric of accountability looks like when it comes to our community partners. What level and standards are we expecting of them? I think it would be helpful if you have any insight around that to be sharing with our respective departments who are administering those programs. Because I do believe that's something they've been very clear with my office about. And I think they would be more inclined if we had some sort of standardized rubric of evaluation for our partners. And then the second piece is just around funding. You've talked a lot about expansions in your recommended report. I think there's been a lot of touch, you know, a lot of discussion around what we want to be doing, but without the appropriate funding to do it. Are there any other sources of funding that you're looking at outside of the county? Are you working with CEO's office on funding? What role are you playing in identifying the kind of funding that would be related to effectuating the proposals you have here?

Yeah, no, thank you. Yeah, you know, we definitely are looking at it. We've talked with CEO Budget. We talked with Laird. You know, Proposition 1, you know, there's some innovation funds, the CJCC does certain things, PSRT. So we are constantly looking at it. That's why in our report we outlined what are the different funding streams currently going in so we can have an idea of what it is. It's a challenge, but yes, we are continually looking at other funding sources. You want to add anything?

We're also working with the Center for Strategic Partnerships to explore outside and philanthropic support.

I think that's great. Obviously, as we're going through our budget process, really having your input on where those moves could be made to bring greater benefit to your work is something that we have the authority to direct with your partnership and saying, here's what's going to help move the needle fastest. And so I think new sources of funding will be critical, but also working within whatever we have to maximize the resources we do have is important. And I welcome your input on that. Thanks.

Thank you. I won't ask too many questions. A lot of my colleagues have really asked a lot of good questions. But I wanted to go back to the notion of care first, jails last. And that really came about at a time when we wanted to take immediate action to reverse the trend of people going into jail. And the way to do that, you've kind of outlined, is by providing all these services, ODR, places where people can get help in the community and all of that. And that was, I think, that was our intention, to do that. And then came the notion that, well, one way of doing it is by saying, at least, Men's Central Jail should close. Now how that happened, obviously, is where we are today. But the whole point was to create more beds in the community and in areas where we could develop our own restorative care villages. And I've seen that happen now. We're starting to see more of that in our districts. I see it in mine. I know the second is doing it. And I know that also in the fourth district we're seeing it. So these things are happening. And I'm wondering if you can also include some of that information because we are keeping people from going into jail, many of whom have mental health, substance abuse issues, or were homeless. And if you think about it, that's a sizable population, and we know what the costs are. So if we can start to look at those models as well, I think that's very, very valid for us to look at. And that's one of the reasons why I moved quickly in that direction. to flatten out properties that were not being used at our L.A. General Hospital campus, and to put up and actually build out recuperative and subacute beds. Many of the people there, I can attest, have gone through our carceral system. one way or another. And I don't believe that the public is fully aware of what benefits those are, because we still have to keep on that trajectory. And I also think that we need to be creative. I'm disappointed that the governor, they took money out for diversion. And I would ask too, if someone can answer this, your report from April stated that the current eight ODR sites were at risk Losing state funding. Was that cut? Was that cut in this budget?