Board of Supervisors - Regular Meeting

Good morning, everyone. Buenos dias. Welcome to our public hearing meeting of the Los Angeles County Board of Supervisors. Today is Tuesday, July 28, 2026. Please note that Supervisor Mitchell will be absent from our meeting today, and we take note that a quorum of the board is present. The Chief Executive Officer, the County Council Executive Office, and the Sergeant at Arms are all here to assist. We will now start the county's land acknowledgement. The County of Los Angeles recognizes that we occupy land originally and still inhabited and cared for by the Tongva, Tataviam, 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, Gabrielino Tongva Nation, Gabrielino 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 lanaisc.lacounty.gov. This morning, the invocation will be led by Pastor Tonya Rios, representing Baldwin Park United Methodist Church, representing the First District, followed by the Pledge of Allegiance, which will be led by Roberto Alvarez, Special Assistant, Department of Military and Veterans Affairs. Please stand and join us, thank you.

Good morning, everyone. My name is Tonya Rios. I am a pastor at the United Methodist Church in Baldwin Park, and I want to pray in Spanish. Amantísimo Padre, Heavenly Father, we give you thanks this morning for the blessings we have to give us a new day. We give you thanks for the opportunity that we have in this moment to gather in your name. We ask you to join us in what we have to do today.

in what we have to do today.

I want to ask for blessings for Ms. Solis.

Who works.

For the community.

And in the community.

Follow her. Protect her. Guide her. So she can be sensible.

To the needs.

For those that need more.

We ask you.

In the name of Jesus. Our Heavenly Father. Amen.

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 a 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.

Today it's my honor to recognize Reverend Tonya Rios, who is a senior pastor. Please sit. Please be seated. I'm sorry. She is the senior pastor of the Baldwin Park United Methodist Church and a lifelong organizer and advocate for immigrant rights. I want to acknowledge our Sheriff's Department Deputy Wilfredo Cebrián for translating today's invocation. Give him a round of applause. I think this is double duty for him. As an immigrant from El Salvador, Reverend Tonya Rios knows firsthand the struggles and barriers and resilience that immigrants carry as they seek safety, opportunity, and a better future for themselves and their families. Her lived experience has shaped her lifelong commitment to justice, dignity, and building communities where all people are welcomed and empowered. Before immigrating to the United States, Reverend Rios learned from and worked alongside Saint Oscar Romero in El Salvador. His unwavering commitment to justice, compassion, and standing with the marginalized profoundly shaped her faith and vocation. Reverend Tonya Rios most recently led prayers and vigils at Avocado Heights Park during the ice raids which began in June of last year. She has worked alongside my office to ensure our immigrant communities know their rights. It gives me a great deal of pleasure to present this now to you, To Pastor Tonya Rios on behalf of the entire Board of Supervisors for gracing us today with your words, your thought, your compassion, and your resilience in our community. Muchas gracias. Thank you. So this morning, it's my honor to introduce Roberto Alvarez, who's special assistant to the Los Angeles County Department of Military and Veterans Affairs. And of course, we know him as also being a part of Supervisor Barger's office. I had no idea you did all that, aside from your regular duty. So we want to express our deepest appreciation and want to recognize you today on behalf of the entire Board of Supervisors. So muchas gracias. Thank you for standing up. Thank you. Okay, great. Thank you. Okay. All right. Catherine Barger.

After the dogs. After the dogs.

Catherine Barger. We're not doing it.

welcome thank you for being here thank you for being here good morning good morning welcome all right good morning good morning yeah there we go this morning i am proud to honor a group of individuals who went above and beyond their daily duties on the job saving lives in the process On June 13th, the LA fire broke out two miles west of Camp Glen Rocky in San Dimas. Staff on site calmly and efficiently followed protocols to ensure youth were safe, and as a precaution, visitors were asked to evacuate. But just 13 minutes later, a family who was leaving the camp after visiting their child was faced with a life or death situation. As the mom, grandma, and grandpa were backing out of the parking lot, Their car malfunctioned and slipped down the hillside. The car landed sideways on the road below, trapping the family inside. Deputy Probation Officer Abel Lopez happened to be driving down the hill and saw the car had fallen in front of him, and he immediately jumped into action. As the first on scene, he ran over to the car and broke the window and was able to get the injured mom out. Department of Mental Health clinician Jessica Palayo arrived on site after leaving the camp and was able to draw on her experience as a volunteer with the San Dimas Sheriff Station Search and Rescue Team to assist. Senior General Maintenance Worker Gabriel Ortiz and Edward Pinoir and General Services Managers Nicholas Schwartz and Alfonso Avila came equipped with tools in an effort to rescue the grandparents still stuck inside the car. Supervising Deputy Probation Officers Adrian Stewart and Julio Garcia coordinated the response, continued to manage the nearby fire emergency, and prepared the camp for potential evacuation. Deputy Probation Officer Norma Hayabel arrived on site and served as a translator between the mom and the emergency personnel. First responders arrived shortly after and were able to transport all three family members safely for medical care. If it weren't for the quick actions of the Camp Rocky staff, this story could have had a very, very different ending. Let's give them a round of applause for the amazing work they did. Each of you went above and beyond the call of duty that day. I know each of you show incredible dedication when you show up for your jobs every day, and this incident certainly is not part of your job description. Your quick thinking, selfless teamwork, and bravery ultimately saved three lives. Thank you for how you worked together to help this family in their time of need, especially in the midst of a nearby wildfire and other daily duties serving our youth that day. This is truly a testament to your care for our communities. It reminds me of the words of Brene Brown, who once said, you can choose courage, you can choose comfort, but you can't choose both. I want to thank you for choosing courage that day. As a token of my deep gratitude for this action of heroism, I'm proud to present each of you with a certificate of commendation for the work that you do, not only on that day, but each and every day that you show up for the youth. With that, I'm going to turn it over to Chief Probation Officer Guillermo Vieira Rosa to say a few words. Again, let's give these nine individuals a round of applause.

Good morning. Thank you, Supervisor, and also special thanks to Commissioner Meredith for the opportunity to recognize our people. Thank each and every one of you. What you did was extraordinary. And I want your families to know that know this is the face of heroism it's not marvel comics drawing but it's folks that go to work every day whether recognized or not trying to improve the lives of Angelenos and that's what we know you do every day also thank you for the opportunity to highlight that this is what probation does this is what you and your peers do every day whether or not there's a headline in the newspapers to the contrary, that you show up every day because you know that what you do has an impact on someone else in a positive way. So thank you. Lastly, be remiss if I didn't take the opportunity to highlight that this was a collaboration between sworn and non-sworn staff. and being the probation department in the Department of Mental Health. And that's what we do at probation. We really create an environment in which we want the entire Los Angeles County family to do what's best. So once again, thank you personally, and your family should be very proud of you.

Thank you. And I do want to acknowledge Don Meredith because he's the one that immediately notified me and wanted to highlight the fact that he goes up to this camp constantly. And you see each and every day the dedication of the employees, not only behind us, but those that are working at the camp. So I want to thank you for your service and for everything you do to help me do my job better to represent not only probation, but the youth of L.A. County. So let's give him a round of applause.

Thank you. I don't want to say anything.

Thank you.

Colleagues and friends, It's my honor today to recognize an icon, David Ono, one of Southern California's most respected journalists and storytellers. and one who shares our community voices. For nearly 30 years, David has helped Angelenos understand the events shaping our region, our nation, and our world. Since joining ABC7 back in 1996, David has reported from the front lines of history, covering Hurricane Katrina, the earthquake in Haiti, the tsunami in Japan, and other defining moments across the globe, including the selection of two popes at the Vatican and historic interviews at the White House. Yet despite reporting from around the world, David has always remained deeply concerned to the people and communities of Southern California. What sets David apart is his ability to go beyond the headlines and bring context, compassion, and humanity to the stories that he tells. Through his award-winning documentaries and reporting, David has helped preserve the history and experiences of Japanese Americans, including the courage and sacrifice of the Nisei soldiers who served our country during World War II. His work has ensured these important chapters of our shared history. are recognized and passed on to future generations. As one of the nation's most prominent Asian American journalists, David has shown why representation matters and the importance of ensuring communities that they get to see their experiences reflected in the media. Beyond the newsroom, David has used his platform to strengthen connections across the Japanese American and broader AAPI community while inspiring the next generation of storytellers. His distinguished career has earned some of the journalism's highest honors, including 31 Emmy Awards, 12 Edward R. Murrow Awards, and recognition from various organizations, including the Asian American Journalists Association and, of course, the Los Angeles Press Club. But David's greatest legacy is the trust that he has built with viewers and fans and the impact he has had through decades of journalism. At a time when trust in journalism is more important than ever, David reminds us that thoughtful, compassionate reporting can help us better understand one another. On behalf of the County of Los Angeles and the residents of the First District, I want to thank you personally, David, for your extraordinary contributions to journalism and your lasting impact on our communities. I'd now like to turn the mic over to you for a few words, Dave, please.

Thank you, Supervisor Solis, and thank you for all you do. I know you care deeply about your community, and so do we. So I think we are kindred spirits in that. We find it a privilege to do what we do, and I hope you understand that this is a team effort. These are the wonderful people behind the scenes that run and make very difficult decisions on what we do. Free and fair journalism is a key part of democracy. To be able to say this in front of this entity I think is a real honor and a privilege, and I hope you understand that we do the very best in what we do, and we know you do as well. So thank you so much from the bottom of my heart for this recognition. I appreciate it.

Thank you.

Congratulations.

Congratulations. Bravo. Bravo. Bravo.

It's been fun to watch you.

Thank you. Yes, absolutely. Thank you. Wow.

Thank you. Thank you. You too. Thank you.

Okay, I've got one more. You're welcome. Then the next one we'll ask some members to come up here. Yes, yes, good. Great. We have a whole village here. It's all good. Come on in. They'll help you. They'll help you situate.

It does.

Some of us were here in the very beginning.

Thank you. Champions. Come closer because he's going to speak. Okay.

We're all situated now?

We have more?

Oh, there's more. OK. That's good. Well, let's squeeze in. Come on. There's more. There's more. It's a party. It is.

Are we all good now?

Yeah? OK. Can we see everybody? There's some shorter people in the back.

We want to see them.

I'm like looking over my shoulder. Okay, we're ready. Well, guess what? Today we are celebrating the 10th year anniversary of the Dream Court at the Edmund D Edelman Children's Courthouse, which is located by chance in the first district in Monterey Park. The county for a decade has stood up this very important court for vulnerable young people. DREAM stands for dedication to restoration through empowerment, advocacy, and mentoring. And for 10 years, that mission has guided this courtroom. 10 years ago, the county recognized that CSAC youth in the dependency system needed more than just a courtroom. They needed a team built around a team. That vision became Dream Court, a specialized juvenile dependency courtroom staffed by trained, knowledgeable attorneys, social workers, and judges dedicated to serving youth experiencing commercial sexual exploitation and their families. A decade later, that vision has become a model. Dream Court staff use trauma-informed, strength-based, harm-reducing, survivor-centered, data- and outcome-driven practices to meet the unique needs of CSEC youth and their families. because participation is voluntary. This team has built something very rare, a place where survivors can trust enough to keep coming back. Consistent, familiar faces among the attorneys, providers, and the judge are what keeps survivors and families engaged, showing up and doing well. That trust extends beyond the courtroom. Youth in Dream Court receive mental health support, a peer mentor, and medical and reproductive health services. Comfort animals and pro-social activities like art, music, and dance are woven in to help them heal and reconnect with things that they love. Parents haven't been left out of that either. Through parent empowerment programs and parent partners, families learn how exploiters operate, how to support their child, and find community with other parents walking the same road. It's fitting that we mark this 10-year milestone today, just two days before July 30th, World Day Against Trafficking in Persons. None of this would have been possible without the agencies who built and sustained Dream Court for a decade, and I'd like to recognize them. Los Angeles Superior Court, represented today by Judge Brett Bianco. The Children's Law Center, represented today by Leslie Starr Heinvolve. The Los Angeles Dependency Lawyers, Inc., represented by Shelly Caterino. The Los Angeles County Office of County Council, represented by Maria Blanco. And the Department of Children and Family Services, represented today by Diane Iglesias. Thank you all for your 10 years of hard work and dedication in making the Dream Court a reality for everything that you continue to do for these young people and their parents every single day. It's my pleasure now to call up Judge Bianco, who will share a few words on behalf of the Dream Court team.

Thank you, Supervisor Solis. I'm Brett Bianco, the supervising judge of the dependency courts in Los Angeles County. Judge Anibal Cortez has presided over Dream Court for half of a decade and couldn't be here and I'm sharing with you her prepared remarks. Los Angeles County has been identified as one of the nation's most prominent hubs for the commercial sexual exploitation of children and we see youth as young as 12 years old before us. That reality is what brought Dream Court team together and those youth remain at the center of everything Dream Court does. Dream Court was established 10 years ago following the passage of SB 855 in 2014, which clarified that children who are commercially sexually exploited and those parents who have failed or who are unable to protect them fall under the jurisdiction of the court. That legislative shift from criminalizing children to recognizing them as victims fundamentally changed how we serve children and families. Judge Cortez had the honor of presiding over Dream Court for half of the 10 years of its existence, with Commissioner Janelle Mims now continuing her legacy. And this specialized courtroom was built by this team behind me, including Leslie Heimhoff from Children's Law Center, Shelly Caterino from Los Angeles Dependency Lawyers, Diana Glacius from DCFS, and everyone else, including Maria Blanco of County Council. who have partnered here and are watching on camera as well. From the beginning, their commitment has been to lead with respect, courtroom civility, and empathy, to lessen, never deepen, a child's trauma. The attorneys of Dream Court have developed a nuanced, specialized skill set, zealously representing their clients while maintaining respect for the parties, for one another, and for the work of the court. Exploitation rarely stands alone. It is compounded by violence, forced criminality, substance abuse, unmet mental health needs, and the absence of basic supports. That's why Dream Court takes an intentional, holistic, and family-centered approach, why safety begins in our courtroom, and why every milestone is honored. Every step towards a safer place matters. Looking to the future, the Dream Court hope is simple, that this partnership with this board this county, our justice partners, and this community will continue so that we never miss an opportunity to protect an exploited child. Thank you so much for this honor and for recognizing Dream Court. Thank you.

Thank you to all of you. Let's step forward again.

Supervisor Horvath. Yes.

Thank you. Hi, good morning. Thank you. Good morning. It's always a wonderful morning to recognize the leadership in our communities. And July is Disability Pride Month, which is an opportunity to celebrate the leadership, resilience, and contributions of people living with disabilities while recommitting ourselves to building a Los Angeles County where everyone has the opportunity to thrive. Today, I'm honored to recognize two organizations that embody this vision every single day, BuildAbility and the Disability Community Resource Center. Together, these organizations are helping to ensure that people with disabilities have access to opportunity, to independence, and to the resources that they need. Buildability has expanded pathways to meaningful employment for adults with disabilities through workforce development, vocational training, and strong partnerships with employers throughout Los Angeles County. Our office has been proud to partner with BuildAbility by supporting improvements to their community garden and to campus infrastructure because investing in inclusive spaces strengthens our entire community. For nearly 50 years, the Disability Community Resource Center has empowered people with disabilities through independent living services, advocacy, housing assistance, emergency preparedness, and peer support. Last year, when the January wildfires impacted communities across our county, the Disability Community Resource Center launched its durable medical equipment wildfire recovery grant, helping residents with disabilities replace their essential medical equipment. During Disability Pride Month, we're reminded that accessibility and inclusion don't happen by accident. They happen because organizations like BuildAbility and the Disability Community Resource Center show up every day with compassion, with innovation, and an unwavering commitment to the people they serve. Please join me in welcoming first Jonathan Kim, Executive Director of BuildAbility, to share a few remarks.

Thank you, Supervisor Horvat, thank you to the board. It's an honor to get a recognition like this, especially during a month where we get to highlight a community of amazing individuals. BUILD's been around since 1967. We provide a variety of different services. But those services don't happen in a vacuum. It's a collective. It's a community effort. So the recognition today isn't really just for BUILD. It's for the staff who provide creative, person-driven support. its recognition for other service providers who are doing amazing work in the space, and its recognition for the circles of support, the families, the friends, the donors, community partners, uh... and and most importantly it's recognition for the individuals who participate in our services uh... when you see individuals who meet adversity head on uh... and and move right through it it's something that needs to be celebrated admired uh... and i'm lucky enough and get the honor to see that every single day so we thank those individuals for the effort they put into making their own choices and really just living the lives they want to live. So thank you again to the board and supervisor. Thank you so much. Thank you.

And next, I'd like to welcome up Maggie Chifo, board member of the Disability Community Resource Center, to provide a few remarks as well.

Thank you very much. Good morning and thank you. I'm honored to accept this recognition on behalf of our Executive Director, TJ Hill, and alongside Program Manager, Judith Davila. She carries this vital work forward every day alongside all of her colleagues at the DCRC. Supervisor Horvath, thank you for your continued and your unwavering support of the DCRC. Your leadership strengthens our work and our community every day. As we celebrate Disability Pride Month, and the DCRC's 50th anniversary this year, we honor the disability rights movement that began here in the third district and laid the foundation for our work. Since our founding, we have been proudly peer-led, providing longstanding, innovative, culturally responsive services that promote independence, community, and disability pride. During the devastating wildfires, DCRC contacted more than 900 people with access and functional needs, helping them navigate to safety and begin their individual recovery journeys. And as Los Angeles County's first countywide aging and disability resource connection, we are bringing no wrong door services to older adults through a disability specific lens that seamlessly promotes culturally competent services for the most underserved population in Los Angeles County. Thank you to the board for honoring disability-led leadership across Los Angeles. And congratulations to all of today's other honorees. Thank you.

It's truly an honor to be able to recognize these organizations who do this work each and every day. And I'm glad that July gives us this opportunity to highlight their work. But I hope that you'll take a moment, if you didn't know about it before, to invest more, to learn more, and to share throughout all of our communities about the work that they do. so we can continue to uplift those who are living with disabilities and make sure that they have all of the supports and services that they need and deserve from our community. Jonathan, Maggie, and everyone that you represent, thank you for your partnership, and please extend our gratitude to all of your staff, your volunteers, to your families, to the advocates who join you in this work and whose dedication makes all of this possible. And so on behalf of Los Angeles County, it is truly my privilege to present individually designed scrolls by our fabulous county artists to recognize your wonderful work and to thank you for your commitment to building a more inclusive Los Angeles County. Thank you very much.

Absolutely. Thank you. Supervisor Hahn. Hi. I know we're last. That's right.

Thank you, Madam Chair. And before I get into my presentation, I just wanted to take a point of privilege and introduce two visitors that we have who are here all the way from Texas. We have Nydia Cardenas, who is, you can stand, and her friend Ambika Sharma. Nidia is a candidate for Tarrant County Commissioner. In other states, they call county supervisors county commissioners. They're here because they wanted to observe good government. And they're also wanted to observe how can a county of our size be run by all women? They wanted to see that for themselves, but they wanted to take back some of our good government policies that we have in our open meetings and take it back to Tarrant County. So welcome. Thank you. And all the best to you, Lydia. OK, following up on honoring Disability Pride Month, I am honored to recognize an extraordinary leader, an advocate, and a champion for the disability community, Dr. Sue L. Hessen, Miss Wheelchair California 2026. Let's hear it. Dr. Su, we're so proud to have you with us here today. And I have to say, you wear that crown and you wear that sash very well. Dr. Su was crowned Miss Wheelchair California earlier this year, and next month, she will travel to Michigan to compete for the title of Miss Wheelchair America. And I know I speak for all of us here in the county of Los Angeles, and now you have another county in Texas that will be rooting for you to win that title as well. You know, but this title is about so much more than a crown and a sash. It recognizes the leadership, resiliency, and advocacy that Dr. Su has demonstrated throughout her life. Her platform as Ms. Wheelchair California is especially important, empowering young people, with disabilities to become their own advocates by understanding their rights under the Americans with Disabilities Act. And we were together recently when we were recognizing the anniversary of the Americans with Disability Act. We were in Long Beach and we raised the, I got to raise the disability pride flag at It's at the Civic Center in Long Beach. But you had a young person who was a mini wheelchair California. And I could tell just by listening to you that you have been mentoring her and you've been helping her understand the opportunities. And the opportunities particularly to influence others and to educate others. And I know this mission is deeply personal for you. Some of the most basic opportunities many of us take for granted, getting an education, finding a job, being fully included in our communities were significant challenges for her and for so many people with disabilities. She was told, We've never had someone like you. Well, Dr. Su showed them exactly what someone like her could accomplish. She earned her master's degree in industrial and organizational psychology from Cal State Long Beach and her doctorate in education from USC. And she didn't stop there. Dr. Su has spent her career breaking down the social, architectural, and cultural barriers that have too often kept people with disabilities from having the same opportunities as everyone else. she has brought that advocacy into public service as well. Dr. Sue is my appointee to the Department of Public Social Services Commission, where she helps us advocate for some of the most vulnerable residents in Los Angeles County. Governor Newsom appointed her twice to the Commission on Disability Access, where she worked to bridge the gaps between the disability community, businesses, and government and advance accessibility compliance. She was elected to the Bellflower Unified School District Board in 2013, where she created the district's first equity policy and helped expand opportunities for students with disabilities to earn their college credit. Dr. Su, you're an amazing woman, and you have spent your life breaking down barriers, opening doors, and now as Ms. Wheelchair California, you are using that platform to make sure that the next generation knows how to advocate for themselves and demand access and opportunities that they deserve. Your leadership and your friendship inspires me, and your advocacy is making a difference. I know you know this. Well, I hope you know this. It's making a difference in the lives of people throughout Los Angeles County and beyond. I'd like to invite you now, Ms. Wheelchair California 2026, Dr. Sue L. Hesson to say a few words. Thank you so much.

Thank you for that wonderful introduction and recognition. I've always been honored to serve under Supervisor Hahn as a commissioner for public social services. I want to talk about the Americans with Disabilities Act because we just celebrated 36th anniversary, as Janice had just mentioned. But more importantly, it's breaking down barriers and the barriers are not only architectural program barriers, but people need to remember the spirit of the ADA. And even though we may break down barriers, we haven't embraced the spirit, which is equity and inclusion. And that's still a process. And as part of my role for Miss Wheelchair California 2026, my goal is to go out and teach our youth and young adults on the Americans with Disabilities Act. So they may learn to advocate for themselves. But most importantly, they know that there's a legacy, the shoulders that they stand on those who came before them to be able to be where they're at today. A law is only as good as understanding it and using it. And our youth today have very little knowledge just from being a board member at a local school district and knowing that they don't know what they need to know. And that's my goal as part of Miss Wheelchair California. And the mini Miss Evelyn, she's adorable. And her platform, and it touched my heart, is to make parks accessible for people like her. She's also in a wheelchair. And as part of my role when I was ADA coordinator for the city of Santa Monica, was working on parks for access. So we still have our work to do. We've made progress. But again, I wish that we can learn to embrace the spirit of the ADA. Thank you.

Thank you so much. And you know, we were commenting, it was the 36th anniversary of the Americans with Disability Act, another connection to Texas. It was President H.W. Bush that signed that law. And we were talking about, it's really, You know, it was just the beginning, because there's so much more work. But you know, there's a lot of countries that don't have this. And so the fact that we in America passed that law, signed by President Bush, to make sure that Americans with disabilities had full access and opportunities. It was a start, but I know for a fact, even in LA County, some of our parks, we need to do a better job of making sure that they're accessible and you can help us with that. Okay, so I have something for you. On behalf of the County of Los Angeles, I wanted to present you with this in honor of you being here today and in honor of Disability Pride Awareness Month. Thank you, Dr. Su. You inspire us. Thank you, Janice.

Congratulations. Okay, with that, members, let's move on. Executive Officer, can you please call the agenda?

We will begin on page three, public hearing items one through seven. Items one through seven will be held for hearing. On page seven, administrative matters, items eight through 11. On item nine, Supervisor Hahn requests that this item be continued to August 11th, 2026. On item 10, Supervisor Horvath requests that this item be held. On page 11, ordinances for introduction, items 12 and 13. On page 12, special district agenda. This is the agenda for the Newhall Ranch Sanitation District, item SD1. This item will be held for hearing. On page 13, notices of closed session, item CS1 through CS10. On item CS5, County Council requests that one case be continued to August 4th, 2026, as indicated on the posted agenda. On item CS7, Supervisor Mitchell requests that this item be continued one week, to August 4th, 2026, as indicated on the supplemental agenda. The requests for continuances through CS10 are before you. That completes the reading of the agenda, Madam Chair. Please note that in the interest of time today and voting requirements, item six will be heard following item 15A.

Thank you. Moved by Supervisor Hahn, seconded by Supervisor Horvath. To approve these 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.

Okay, with that, today's meeting order will be the following. Public comment on items not held for discussion by the board, including the closed session matters, followed by closed session item CS10, then item 15A, followed by public hearing item six, then items one through five, and seven, followed by items SD1, then item 10, followed by general public comment, and finishing up with closed session on items CS1 through CS9. Before we begin, Executive Officer, please read the calling 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 2539-698-2165 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, and one minute to address the board on each 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 time 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 last two digits of your phone number will be called. To ensure we hear from both in-person speakers 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, Los Angeles Homeless Services Authority, and Parks and Recreation in the audience should you need assistance from them. At this time, we will hear from the members of the public wishing to address the board on 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 are 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.

Madam Chair, there are no in-person or remote speakers to address the board. Remote participation for these items is concluded.

Madam Chair, members of the board, the following items are before you. Items 8 and 11 through 13. These items are before you.

Moved by Supervisor Barger, and I will second to approve these items. With that, exceptions noted by the Executive Officer. Executive Officer, please call the roll.

Supervisor Horvath? Aye. Supervisor Horvath, aye. Supervisor Hahn? Aye. Supervisor Hahn, aye. Supervisor Barger? Aye. Supervisor Barger, aye. And Chair Solis? Aye. Chair Solis, aye. That motion does pass. Members of the public, the board, The Board will now be going into closed session. In accordance with Brown Act requirements, notice is hereby given that the Board of Supervisors will convene in closed session to discuss item number CS10, Conference with Legal Counsel, regarding anticipated litigation, one case as indicated on the posted and supplemental agendas.

Executive Officer, please read us into closed session. You just did.

I just did. You just did, so we're good.

Okay. With that, we are going into closed session.

Thank you. Thank you. ¦ ¦ ¦ Thank you. Thank you. Thank you. © transcript Emily Beynon 🎵 🎵 Thank you. Thank you.

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We are now back in open session. Executive Officer, please read the report of action.

The following is a report of action taken in closed session on July 28th, 2026. Item number CS10, conference with legal counsel regarding anticipated litigation, one case, no reportable action was taken. We will now move on to item 15A, ensuring ongoing accountability for the East Los Angeles oil spill, 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 are online, or press star three if on a telephone. Anthony Maroney, Fire Chief, Ron Durbin, Chief of Forestry, Mario Triceris, Health Hazardous Materials, Fire Department, Dr. Barbara Ferrer, Director of Public Health, Kelly Lobianco, Director of Economic Opportunity, Mark Pastrea, Director of Public Works, Rafael Carbajal, Director of Consumer and Business Affairs will be available for questions. For the departmental speakers, please state your name and title for the record when you address the board.

Thank you. I believe our witnesses are entering now the panel. Go ahead and come forward, please. Panelists. Thank you. Thank you members for indulging me this morning and members of the public. I have asked our various county departments to join us today to provide a situational update on the East LA oil spill. And I know that there continues to be ongoing attention and response right now on the lineage logistics fire and for good reason. But residents both in Boyle Heights and East LA continue to contend with nauseating odors as well as insects and rodents all during the cleanup phase. But we can't forget that East LA residents are dealing with the fire's fallout on the heels of another environmental justice disaster that also occurred. And as a reminder, on May 22nd, a pipeline ruptured near Eastern Avenue and Cesar Chavez Avenue, and it occurred when a telecommunications group was conducting work there by a private company and they were installing a fiber optic cable. The spill released an estimated 25,000 gallons of crude oil from an underground pipeline, which our Department of Public Works Director Mark Pistrella described to us in June as one of the largest oil spills into the LA River in recent history. On Eastern and Cesar Chavez, at that intersection, it was reopened on May 28th, but the recovery of oil, the oil there, and testing and cleaning and sampling of air, water, and soil, and impacted wildlife continued. So much was going on, as you can see from the photographs before you. My team and I were on the ground conducting door-to-door outreach immediately and in partnership with residents and community organizations such as the Wellness Center, Alma Family Services, and Strength-Based Community Change. The Department of Economic Opportunity and County Fire also canvassed the community to provide information, resources to impacted residents and businesses, and that's a part of their routine. During the initial month following the incident, known as the emergency response phase, oversight was under the purview of the united or unified command. That included the state's California Department of Fish and Wildlife Office of Spill Prevention and Response, the Federal Environmental Protection Agency, and county departments led by our county fire department. The unified command demobilized on June 23rd after completing cleanup of the LA River and the storm drain system. The response was then handed off to County Fire Hazmat Public Works with oversight of the Los Angeles Regional Water Quality Control Board as it moved from emergency response to long-term remediation. However, the county has remained very involved in the recovery, primarily through County Fire and Department of Public Works, who continue to meet with the Water Quality Control Board on the cleanup and regulatory oversight, as well as plans for mitigation and further cleanup. To our departments, I've asked you to come here to basically help us accomplish a few key goals at this meeting, to provide an overview of what occurred with its impacts to the residents and businesses, the status of the incident today, and a clear roadmap moving forward, including outreach efforts and direct assistance for those residents or businesses that may have been impacted. I'd like to begin, and I want to thank you Chief Anthony Maroney and Chief Mario de Ceras for your continued support and response to this. And I wanted to ask if you could go over how your teams, including Hazmat, Health Hazmat, responded immediately and in the days that followed the incident. And we'll begin with that question, and then I have a series of other questions to ask. Thank you.

Good morning, Madam Chair and supervisors. Again, Mario Tresieras, Chief of the Health Hazardous Materials Division. Yeah, so immediately following the crude oil release, you know, LA County Fire Department's Health Hazmat responded. We were in joint unified command, as you indicated, with US EPA. Our personnel conducted continuous air monitoring to evaluate potential public health impacts. We provided technical expertise regarding hazardous materials, and we coordinated with responding agencies. and supported the cleanup operations within the affected area. Over the following days, Health Hazmat continued environmental monitoring, worked closely with EPA, California Department of Fish and Wildlife, Public Works, and other agencies until the cleanup objectives with the LA River, the storm drain system were achieved. After the emergency response concluded on June 23rd, our focus shifted to supporting the transition into the environmental remediation phase and conducting community outreach regarding the planned soil investigation. So effectively what's happening is there's still some oil contamination at Cesar Chavez and Eastern Avenue. They have effectively conducted soil sampling and we're waiting for those results. There's going to be a work plan put forth by Plains Health Hazmat Fire is going to have some input on that. What's really key, and as noted before in this meeting, was the importance of notifying the community. And on June 30th, I did participate with Chief Yanni Gasawa as well. We had boots on the ground, and we had a number of businesses in that area. And what we plan to do moving forward is once that plan gets put forth, we do plan on having health hazmat response teams out there conducting air monitoring. We're gonna coordinate with South Coast AQMD as well to get some of their resources and support out there as well to support the effort. So handing out some informational flyers to the community prior to the event for the removal and excavation of that contaminated soil is gonna be key. And then we're gonna work together with our other county partners to ensure social media and other efforts are made to communicate with the public.

Has there been any data collected right now by some of the other regulatory agencies to give us information as to what the current status is, especially with respect to wildlife?

You know, what I can report to you is, I'm going to stay in my lane as it relates to health hazmat. And again, we use those monitoring direct reading instrumentation. What we do when we go to an incident is we start at the point source, and when we're getting some readings, we step back to determine how far back are we getting some readings. There was no levels of concern. In fact, one of the examples is going to the Torres High School, and we went with LA Unified Safety Personnel to ensure when school opened up, we had handheld monitors with them hand in hand.

So the information we received from Health Hazmat coincided with LA Unified as well to show there was no levels of concern.

And if I can go back a moment too, I think it's really important that the information that we put out to the community was both in English and Spanish.

Right. I wanted to ask too, is there any potential risk right now presented to the community? Is that something that we can...

I can speak to that as well. I don't believe so. I think that at that time when we actually had the crude oil released and the levels that we actually detected were of levels of no concern. And the way we partner up to with public health is that if we do encounter some levels of concern, we report that data and information to public health. and then work together to interpret that. That if there is a call to action to notify the public, it would be done so. But I did review some of the past information that was put out. And again, at the beginning of this incident, there was no major levels of concern so that there was noxious odors. And that's always going to be something in people's mind when you smell that. And I know public health did a great job talking about people that have sensitivities or may have asthma. Of course, you want to avoid that. But overall, any initial items for a call to action were not available.

I know that moving forward we want to, at least I want to ask that we ensure that we get our necessary state partners involved. So you mentioned AQMD who has been involved but continuing to monitor as well as calling on DTSC to help us out if through the remediation process there's anything else that may come about. So I'm sure you coordinate that. What's the process for that?

So the Water Board is the lead, right? They are taking the lead on that one. I do not believe DTSC, Department of Toxic Substances Control, is involved in this. We're kind of the local, as Health Hazmat, for the lead on hazardous waste. Again, as I indicated earlier, we do plan on participating and reviewing that work plan to ensure that, like I said, more importantly, the notification once that excavation starts to remove that contaminated soil, we have proper notification.

So you mentioned you get a work plan back. What status is that right now? Who's reviewing it and where is it? Mark?

Supervisor, I want to thank Mario and the team from FIRE and their lead in response. And Public Works has been effectively taking the lead on the recovery portion of this. And so to answer your questions regarding a couple of things you asked about, one thing is, have there been testing done? There's been some significant testing done and more to come. with respect to the mitigation, we're trying to understand the total impact and not close them out before, allow planes to walk away from it without understanding total impact, both the subsurface conditions and surface conditions in the LA River, in the pipe system, and on the surface conditions around East LA. So that study that has been demanded, one has been required not only by the state water board for water quality purposes, but our department is also requiring this analysis to understand, again, the total impact that this incident has occurred upon. The team, as Mario said, the task force that you have set up will be informed about what we find, but also be informing us about what they see as a good outcome for remediation. That report is due to us on August 31st.

That report is due?

That is due on August 31st.

Okay, so it'll be coming in a matter of a week and a half.

Yes, August 31st, Supervisor. We're actually asking for it sooner. That's about a month away. We're asking for it sooner, but we also know, we are looking at what we've required them to test for and what the state has required them to test for, and it's significant. It will require further borings. It will require work within the field, surface conditions, as well as, again, as I said, within the LA River and in the storm drain system, to again quantify the total impact on human health and safety.

So I know initially when we had our first discussion, we understood that there were about 55 gallons of oil.

There were.

And what was captured? And what was that?

The supervisor is about 25,000 gallons of crude oil.

Sorry, 25.

And 595 barrels of oil, 42 gallons per barrel. Much of it was captured in the soil itself and in the street. A significant amount of the oil made its way to the storm drain system and into the LA River. And you saw what we did to remediate with respect to the oil that made it to the LA River, putting up booms and capturing the oil within the river itself.

And so moving forward, part of what your role will be is to look at this report as it comes back and then have a plan to go into a provide remediation, which means you will also go back into the streets that were impacted.

That's correct.

Eastern and what have you. So you're going to have to remove pavement and dig boring holes as well to test where the soil is and then figure out how to extract that. How does that process work?

So that'll happen under a permit issued by L.A. County Road Commissioner, our department. The scope of the work that they propose will be developed from this analytical report we asked for that's due on August 31st and input from partner agencies, health, fire, state water board, fish and game, to be sure we're testing for the right things, what we're looking for, and particularly human health impacts and water quality impacts that this may have. And then what happens, supervisor, along the way, in fact, continually, there'll be a request over the month of August, there'll be further requests for boring samples. So they will be going into the street, probably into one or two of the lanes. We'll be having to manage the encroachment and public works will manage that encroachment and manage the communication with the partners here to community as those road closures are happening or lane closures are happening. And then we will put together an actual mitigation plan. That plan then cannot be implemented until, again, we issue permits to them to implement the plan. Permits could be everything from hazmat permits to road permits to water quality permits from the Department of Public Works as well. And then the state regional water quality control board, they're actively pursuing a violation case. And we are working with them hand in hand to give them the evidence that we've gathered as to the impacts. And they also will use this report to understand the total impact as they develop their violation case.

So we are not the responsible party because this was conducted by private individuals. private groups that's private businesses and um i know we have county council here i think um to just uh give us kind of maybe briefly what the extent that means because obviously for any of the losses by residents or businesses including the county everything that we've had to pay out has to be recouped. And typically, what is our strategy there? Scott?

Thank you, Supervisor Scott Coon, Assistant County Council. The strategy, as we've used it in other disasters, is to have the community needs addressed first, and the recovery, and the planning, and the mitigation take place first. And then all of those costs that are incurred by the county family a lot of the department heads are sitting here, that we calculate those and then make a demand and ultimately if there's not cooperation we would sue the responsible parties to recover that money.

Thank you. And going back to you, Mark, what is your estimated timeline? for the full remediation and what will that entail? I mean, you kind of walked us through a process, but what do you think? Given your experience.

Yeah, from our experience in recovery and construction, this is going to become a fairly involved construction project, cleanup and construction project. I don't have a very good handle on the timeline other than I can tell you, be very conservatively give you a date like January of 2017. I'd say that'd be a very conservative estimate. I'd expect it to be done before then, but not sooner, or hopefully sooner. We do have the one milestone, as I said. We have required the mitigation report from Plains, and that's due to us on August 31st. So our first milestone that we're looking to is that. Then we would expect to have a plan in place within September, and then we would commence the construction post-September. So there's... There's work to do to understand the problem. We don't want to act too fast, Supervisor, because we could miss something. We could miss the mitigation. Of course, the outcome is public health and safety, as was stated. And then also, the county's seeking to not gain any liability. So if we leave behind any of these residue of these, we do not want the liability to be on the county going forward. So we need to reduce all liability. They need to clearly show us that they're not leaving behind a hazard for the county to deal with.

And I wanted to ask, I know that your department does outreach as well. Yes. Could you describe what that entails?

Well, our standard outreach on construction projects is, you know, communication all levels, multi-language. A project like this, we would use door-to-door visits. We've already used them, as Chief already mentioned. you know the hand-in-hand work with health and fire department very effective um and get how and the goal of course is people to understand what the situation is and what's next and what they can do to protect themselves so a lot of work to repeatedly find the people who have been impacted that's the work we would do we are constantly looking who needs to know who hasn't found out and then communication is paramount that we are communicating on a regular frequency, especially as we get closer to new actions that could be coming, like the construction starting.

So basically you're saying that at least the three of you here that I see before me have your various teams that coordinate and go out. So was that step taken as a result of this?

I'll let Mario respond.

That was the effort, I believe, on June 30th that we went out door to door, provided those flyers in both English and Spanish, and we have every intention of doing so. Once we find out that plan, mitigation plan. We want to get ahead of that. We'll notify your office as well. We'll make that effort and work together as a team to make those notifications.

So you'll go out again as soon as you get the plan. So Dr. Ferrer, thank you for being here too. I wanted to ask you if you could share any updates on any potential public risks that you identified during the emergency response.

Yeah, thank you, thank you so much, Supervisors, and thank you, Supervisor Solis, I'm pleased to be here today, and I'm glad we're doing an update. You know, we work very closely, obviously, with Fire Hazmat and with AQMD, based on their test results, so we would confirm that at this point, you know, we're not looking at ongoing health impacts, besides the fact that for some people, the nuisance odors really affect their health. So I never want to minimize the impact of bad odors, while most of those odors have now subsided as more construction work is happening. is gonna happen in the future, there could be again those nuisance odors. And our advice remains the same about protecting yourself from nuisance odors, staying indoors, making sure that you're closing your windows, et cetera. We've always talked about the fact that when nuisance odors are extreme, we do look for relocation opportunities, temporary relocation. That doesn't, there has been no evidence to date that that's been needed, and we don't anticipate. For this particular. For this particular incident. Yeah. But I do, I don't wanna minimize the impact of nuisance odors. Because we call them nuisance, people think that we're, you know, really underestimating their impact on people's health, and we're not, that's just a technical term. We know that those odors can cause nauseousness, they can cause people to have bad headaches, throat and eye irritation, and again, we have our standard information out there in the community about how to protect yourself. At this point, I want to give a lot of gratitude to both AQMD and Fire Hazmat for the testing of the air quality. I know people are concerned, particularly around benzene. We haven't seen any elevated levels of benzene the entire incident, and don't anticipate that we would see that during the remediation either.

And you two will have your teams out there as soon as? We will work closely with fire hazard and with public works.

You received the plan, right?

Yeah. Okay. I know you've used in the past Prometoras. Yes, yes. Health navigators that are familiar.

Yes, and our staff. I mean, our staff have been assigned to help when they're needed, so.

And again, you haven't seen any data or findings that would lead you to believe that there's a health concern at this time. Okay, thank you. Next, I want to ask Kelly LoBianco, thank you for being here, our Department of Economic Opportunity and Rafael Carvajal. Kelly, I wanted to ask you, During, or following this bill, many businesses, as we know, were impacted. We got calls and we actually visited with some of them. I did. And at one particular store right across the street there, it was known as AutoZone, they were telling me that they lost a considerable amount of revenue daily. and I was very concerned with that and started to walk around the block there to hear what other people had to say, including some of the restaurants and other businesses. What have you learned, because I know you've had teams out immediately, and can you describe what your department did? and what you are doing.

Yes, thank you, Supervisor Kelley-Lobianco, Department of Economic Opportunity. Following the oil spill, like many of our colleagues here and with your office, our Office of Small Business and DEO team went out canvassing. We went out for three days in May and June. Our teams talked to over between 40 and 50 businesses who were impacted sharing up to 70 and 75% revenue loss in those early days of the oil spill those first few weeks and that's for the directly impacted businesses with road closures and In that area, we know some of the indirect impacts for businesses extended further. We've been supporting the small businesses who have been impacted with connection to no-cost legal aid and other resources through our Office of Small Business. We also have been supporting the claims process. So we've been following up with those businesses directly to make sure that they have the support of our office in submitting their claim. To our knowledge, 19 businesses have submitted claims so far. Only one has actually officially had their claim approved. Three are close, but we are working to gather more information about those folks that are still in the pipeline and how to support those additional businesses in getting claims submitted. there's still some work to do to make sure that we connect these businesses who we know have had the compounding impacts of COVID and fires and lineage in the area too, to additional capital resources. So we're working with your team to see where we can unlock dollars and support through our shop local campaign and future business interruption funds.

Do you have sufficient support for staff to go out and visit all these commercial properties and owners?

We are, as you know, a lean team. We've been, our Office of Small Business is going out with the support of individuals from across the Department of Economic Opportunity. We have folks, as you know, at the two resource centers for lineage right now and canvassing for both that, both the lineage fire as well as oil spill and supporting as well with the West Hollywood. water main break and so making sure that across these emergencies we have support for small businesses with the various agencies that are leading efforts. So we certainly we're doing what we can with what we have and we'll maintain presence in the areas that's important to us.

Have you established I want to say a website so that information and claim processes can be made public? Is that available?

We have flyers in English and Spanish on the claims process that we've been pushing out and are available through our department and our office of small business. But we can certainly make sure that it's more readily available on our website in pop-ups. We can do that.

I would encourage you to do that. In fact, especially as we're talking about the status of the claims and it seems like we're not doing too well there. So I would really want to hear what obstacles or challenges these businesses are facing and what we can do better. so that we can help remedy and provide support to them in a real-time, quick manner, because this is something that is very complicated. And obviously, if there's more to come because of our remediation plan, I would certainly want to make sure that the public is fully aware of where they can access information about business interruption fund that I know we have. set up and establish that I actually put a motion forward to set aside and would want to see us utilizing that as well as another recourse, if possible, to have that made available. And I know, CEO, you and I talked about that yesterday in our walkabout.

Yeah, Supervisor, thank you for the question. We've already been in touch with Kelly staff, and we have a meeting set up to discuss details around that.

And is there any other resources out there right now from the state that's available aside from this business interruption fund and what you currently have? Can you talk about that?

Yeah, the claims process is the main one we've been trying to encourage folks to take advantage of right now. The business interruption fund, we are in the processes of establishing a permanent one, but like Jeremy said, that we're working with the CEO to make sure that we have a plan for the variety of emergencies that are in progress right now and certainly are supporting folks in connecting to available capital with CDFIs and other partners in the region. So we're trying to make sure that people have all the information they need. You heard from this group here, Spanish and language capacity is a challenge for some of the businesses that are engaging I heard you about updating our website, and we'll also make sure as there's additional canvassing and outreach opportunities over the course of the next few months that we'll stay coordinated so all folks going out know about the business resources that we have.

Right, and just to underscore, the claims that you're assisting them with is to follow the process, I think, that has been set up by the responsible party. That's right. Is that correct? And do we know, I mean... What amounts have been given out? Like what is that range? What is that range? People ask me that.

Yeah, I'm gonna get back to you on that. We're trying to set up additional meetings to better understand from the responsible party side what the pipeline of individuals looks like, how we can support getting folks to the finish line and what those dollar amounts look like.

Right, and for Rafael, I wanted to, I asked you to be here because, like any other disaster, oftentimes we have outside entities, law firms, that like to go knock on doors and say, is there a claim here that you can, you know, that we can help you with? And can you please tell us your role as the Consumer and Business Affairs Office there? How we can help this from occurring so that our community is not signing documents or being taken advantage of. This is something that happens at every disaster. I've heard it from my colleagues since the Eaton Fire, Palisades Fire, everywhere. And our community often is preyed upon in many ways. But what can we do to combat that? Or what is it that your office is doing to help our community?

Yeah, thank you for the question, Supervisor. Rafael Carvajal. I have the privilege of being the director of the Department of Consumer Business Affairs. And unfortunately, as you stated, we've seen time and time again that bad actors take advantage of these situations to take advantage of the most vulnerable. That's why we're centering our approach on prevention and awareness. making sure that folks have accurate and true information available to them before misinformation reaches them. We're helping people verify contractors, verify legal services providers, and how to recognize scams. We provide them information so they know what questions to ask before signing anything or understanding or assigning their rights to anybody. And more importantly, we're reminding people that they should never feel pressured to sign anything immediately without understanding Ultimately, the goal will be that at minimum folks have enough information to pause, think about what they're going to do, and if they don't have the answer, to reach out to DCBA and ask us. They could reach us at our 800 number or through our website, and we'll literally walk through their situation, help them understand what they're going through, determine whether or not they're potentially good or bad actors, and then refer them to any resources that they might need.

Will you be involved also in the direct outreach, boots on the ground? Because I could see a need to have this, especially when you start part two, which is the actual plan, implementing the plan and going to businesses. And is that something that you would be able to do?

Yeah, we would absolutely would support that. And given this event and the lineage fire, we've done a couple of things to readjust our outreach, including updating our materials to reflect some of the information that we're hearing on the ground in partnership with the Office of Immigrant Affairs. We're going to do both. in-person and virtual webinars so folks could talk to us directly, ask questions, get answers on the spot, and ultimately recognizing through all of this that consumer protections is just as important to recovery and emergency response. So we're going to continue to work with OEM and our partners to make sure that we are affirmatively integrated into all of the phases of emergency response and recovery and make sure we get information out to folks.

And you too have information posted in English, Spanish as well?

Yes, absolutely.

About all of this, about any fraud, where to report it and all of that?

Yes, absolutely. They could call our hotline and we have multi-language counselors that they could speak to, but also on our website, on our emergency recovery pages, we have all this information both in English and Spanish and some other threshold languages as well.

And supervisor, just wanted to add in apologies. I know we're both talking about our departmental websites, but folks can, and especially folks listening and can go to the recovery.lacounty.gov website for connections to our departments too, for support. So I want to direct folks there.

So that brings me to just kind of pigging back here on my original motion of June the 9th, which this Board passed, and it included a 90-day report back, as you all recall. So we still have some time here, but what I would like to see included in that report is more public engagement by the different groups that are here represented, the departments, as well as AQMD and others that might need to be engaged. and also to have a dedicated website, one that is centralized, that people can go to on this particular disaster. So people don't have to go to five different departments to get five different answers. That needs to happen and it has to be in the languages that are most preferred. So I would want to get a commitment from you on that and as part of the report.

Yes, I think we can absolutely do that, but we do just want to emphasize, and apologies, I should have said this right off when you said that, we do want to direct folks to the recovery page, the county recovery page, and we'll all make sure collectively our information on the oil spill is there and centralized in multiple languages. Okay.

Supervisor, just to affirm the task force of public works leading on recovery will provide that be working with the team to draft the report back and then take lead in terms of who you're going to hold accountable for that. And so I hear you on the outreach.

Would you be able to post that on your departments? I mean, you could be the centralized.

Well, Sue, but I think it's true that we should have it, and as Kelly's referring to, is on the LA Recovery site. It's the central recovery site, and that can link to, there's a page up behind you right now which displays it.

I see Kevin, Kevin shaking his head.

Yeah, and Kevin's shaking his head, so we'll do that. I think that's our best way to reach people. They have one place to go to, and then they can link off to the different entities.

And as I look at it, it needs to be in Spanish, right? And I also think that it's important that it's regularly updated. Now that we know we have two weeks or a period of time we're going to have a report back, so we need to include all of that information and all the resources and what activity is taking place by the departments.

Yeah, so we'll make the commitment that the public will know and you will know what we know when we know it. And so that would require us to continually update this. portal for information.

And you can do it before September, so you can start now. I would also ask that DPW, fire, DPH, DO, and other relevant departments hold a community meeting to ensure that residents are fully aware and updated on the status and recovery. So I would ask you to do that while we're preparing and then after the report that you prepare for us. So that's gonna be very important to the community. And I just want to say, you know, oftentimes people feel that East Los Angeles, the unincorporated area of L.A. County, is often always overlooked. And that should never be the case. And we've gone through many instances. And I know many of you have worked hard, but we need to work harder. And we need to make sure that we're doing our very best to respect the residents and also the businesses and obviously the livelihoods of people that come through East Los Angeles and traverse our roads onto the freeways because there's a lot of things that happen in this particular intersection. And I will keep a close eye on that as well. I want to also, well, EO, you just displayed the recovery LA County disaster oil spill link, so people can see that again. Can you just put that up again? So people know that. And I just want to continue to ask our departments to step forward and do the best that you can. And if necessary, you know, let my office know and Let's keep the community aware of what is taking place. And I appreciate your presence here today. So with that, I'm going to turn to my colleagues. I have Catherine Barger.

Thank you. And thank you, Supervisor or Chair Solis for bringing this presentation forward today. I mean, you know, I want to acknowledge the department's efforts to respond to and address these difficult situations between You know, public health has faced a number of tests that these couple of years with the Eaton and Palisades fire, the Boyle Heights fire, the oil spill, and many others. As you can all imagine, these events have caused this board and our residents a great amount of concern. as it relates to the public health impact. I mean, we heard it with the lineage, Chair Solis, when you brought that forward. We've heard it with the oil spill. I know I'm hearing it in my district with the Eaton Fire. And I appreciate the opportunities for us to engage in dialogue on what is happening. Communication with county residents is extremely important. I mean, communication is actually vital to getting the right information out, and especially when it comes to people's fears about their health. So it's important that our offices work closely with all the departments, but in particular public health, to make sure information is dispersed in a quick, digestible manner. And that's why I want to discuss communication. And I don't know if you know, Dr. Ferrer, but when we... talk to your office about the soil testing. And I know you mentioned soil testing here. My office received a notice and asked for your team to hold off on moving forward any termination of soil testing because we wanted an opportunity to engage and discuss the appropriate communication strategy because it is, and I will tell you, and I'm sure you're going to hear from your East LA residents, Even though you can say we think it's okay, how we communicate that is vital. And last Friday, my team received an inquiry from a constituent who was asking for assistance in utilizing the county free lead test. We went to the website that DPH had set up only to find that the submission for oil or soil samples had already been removed. And we had specifically asked that you hold off doing that so we could prepare communications because in Altadena, hypersensitive right now, hypersensitive to what is going on. And this was against what we were told, which was that the soil program would be live at least until the end of the month. Um, I find it incredibly frustrating and disappointing, and I hope that my Eaton fire impact of residents would be, uh, would, I know that they would be disappointed to hop on and find out the program had already been shut down, especially when we gave them the reassurances that it would not. Um, so I would ask that we moving forward work on communication, because to me, it's not only a disrespect to this board, but it's a disrespect to our constituents who look to us. to make sure that we are on top of it. And on this one, we weren't. We had no idea that it had been terminated, especially when we asked your staff to hold off doing anything pending discussion on how we would roll out the information. So I know my team is met with your team. I'm bringing this up only because as we face these disasters, credibility is important. credibility for this board. And Chair Solis, you have made it a point to bring forward two crisis back-to-back in your district to make sure that the departments hear loud and clear that you're engaged, that our expectation is that the residents receive the quality services, especially in the unincorporated East LA. I'm doing the same right now, calling this on the mat, calling your department on the mat, Dr. Ferrer, and saying it's unacceptable. And so I hope that we can build back trust in Eaton and find out how we can move forward addressing that issue because credibility across the board is important. And I just wanted to put that on the record. incredibly frustrated but I know not insurmountable. And I just lessons learned as it relates to what you're going to be going through with the soil testing. It's an opportunity for us to to work with our constituents to make sure that they know that the resources are important that we value their their health and the information that they're provided. I just want to put that on the record. Thank you Madam Chair.

Yeah, thank you so much, Supervisor Barger. I feel a little disadvantaged because I'm confused because the website says the program is ending on July 31st and then redirects people to another free soil testing site.

you know we've been running the program for a while and we're only having a handful of people but i didn't think i'll make it clear that i'll make it clear to you okay my office talked to your your department and asked that you hold off so that we could pass the communication on to the residents okay but your department felt that they don't answer to i guess the board and went ahead and did what we asked them not to do So there's no confusion. Well, I was confused, but the confusion is that we asked for you all to stand down until we could get the message out to the town council, to the residents. And again, Sheriff Sleas, you know, because you hear your staff is very engaged with East LA. So they hear the fear.

Yeah, second time.

That's what I'm dealing with.

Okay, that we should extend it past the 31st is what you asked.

Well, yeah, we wanted to figure out how we can make it happen because we're still getting complaints and concerns from those whose homes didn't burn down about remediation. And so that's the confusion for me was why did your department choose to just basically blow off our office and go ahead and do something that we asked you hold off on doing? And the 31st is, what's today?

Today is the 20th.

Yeah, the website took it down before the 31st. Your website took it down and took off that page for soil testing.

Okay. I'm going to go back, obviously, and talk with our team. Thank you for bringing it up. We do want to make sure people have access to free testing for their soil.

I know you've been passionate about this.

Exactly.

I'm bringing it to you because I think your staff did a disservice to you. I know when you go out and talk to the survivors, and you've seen it in your district, even with... The battery.

Exide.

Exide. I know this is personal for you, and you understand that even if the news is that their public health is not going to be compromised, the way you deliver it is giving reassurances so that they know that you hear them and that you have the science behind what you're saying, and that did not happen in this case.

Okay. Well, thank you. Thank you for bringing it to our attention. But I do want to reassure people, like, we want to make sure everyone knows there still is access to free soil testing. Because the most important thing is that people get their soil tested.

And that's what we need to communicate? Yes. That's not what they hear. Absolutely. That's not what they know. Absolutely. And I just was told that you're no longer accepting samples. So we'll talk about it.

Okay. Yeah. No, I will definitely get with our team. But I do want to make sure the public knows that there is free soil testing still.

And is that for East L.A. right now? So this?

No, this soil testing program is something we set up for Eaton. Okay, so my question would be that we need to have something. Yes, I mean, we're always... We're always happy to put up testing programs where it makes sense. I mean, we had evidence that there was lead contamination, and that's why we offered the program.

We'll coordinate. I'll have my office.

Yeah, I think we need to include that in the report back as well or before, and we can stand up. And I know in the past with Exide, we actually followed through on blood testing for lead.

And we still are continuing, just again, we still are continuing free blood-level lead testing for everyone affected, both in the Eaton, from the Eaton Fire and the Palisades Fire. So I just, again, the blood lead testing is still available. We still do lead testing, blood lead testing in the Exide communities. And we can, if we have evidence that there's been contamination of lead associated in East LA with the oil leak. We'll go ahead and talk with your office about what we need to do.

I think we do need to do testing in this particular oil spill on Eastern and the surrounding area, whatever that parameter is. Mark?

Supervisor, there will be testing. It'll be part of the analysis that's happening now. And of course, we're going to share that information with our public health officer.

So I want to make sure that we're in lock and step here, that we're not missing a beat, and that if people want testing now, they know where to go. And you may have to put a banner up there that says on your website or whatever, if you have been impacted by the oil spill in East LA, these are the things that are available to you. That is not clear.

For clarification, supervisor, if we detect oil impact of the oil spill on private property or public property that could impact human health, we obviously going to be around that and require the consult the planes to do that testing. And then that data will be provided to this team. And this team would come back to you with a recommendation of like what further needs to be done.

But there are a lot of folks out there that are just wanting to get information. And I think the more that we can provide, be transparent, that's what this is, that's what we have to strive for, absolutely. So I would just ask you to do that. So thank you for the question, Supervisor Barger. Next, Supervisor Hahn.

yeah thank you uh madam chair and thank you for bringing this forward it's just uh so devastating for uh our communities uh in east la uh who seem to be bearing the brunt of uh environmental injustice at every level you know and These are residents who are just trying to survive, get through the day, make ends meet, many of them two and three jobs, and then boom. This oil spill happened and then it wasn't that long afterwards that we had the lineage warehouse fire. And really do appreciate looking at all of our departments, really appreciate all of you really leaning in to really support these communities. I think the first time we talked about this, I talked about when I was in Congress and represented Wilmington, and there was an oil spill of 40,000 gallons, I think. And at the time it was, they attributed it to an idle pipeline, or inactive. which there really wasn't a designation for that, federally or at the state level. So I worked in Congress to work to really narrow that definition of what an idle pipeline or inactive pipeline is. This apparently was, but no one had ever checked it. So it still had oil in it enough that it leaked into the streets of Wilmington. There's another community that bears the burden of the port pollution, truck traffic, as it relates to goods movement, and then here they had this oil spill. And it really does affect people. The odors, the smells, when they came back in to try to repair it, there was cracking of their sidewalks and their driveways, it's just a huge burden, so I really appreciate us leaning in and trying to offer as much support and mitigation to these communities. I think also, if you ever looked at the pipeline map that runs underneath, particularly the city of LA, but the county of LA too, it's an unbelievable crisscross of various pipelines carrying all sorts of, you know, really, you know, useful fuel at some point, a jet fuel for instance, and yet if that leaks into a community, it just wrecks havoc. So my question is not as life-changing as what we're talking about, but I do know that this oil spill touched some of my cities, but also went all the way down the river and ended up in Long Beach. And my question is to Mark, I guess. because I did hear a little, we got calls in our office, you know, has it or hasn't it? What should we do? What's our, just so the public knows, how do we communicate when there's a spill or any kind of incident in another part of LA County, but when we look ahead to see where the consequences end up, it may be in different communities. What's our... what's our response, or at least our communication response? How do we let communities, how do we let the city of Long Beach know? And, you know, just feels like they need the warning as well, sort of like it's coming, get ready. What can I tell them? What's our, what is our protocol?

Okay, there is, Supervisor Mark Pestrella, Public Works, there is protocols in place, the county has, in which the flood control district is mandated to report to health department or any other discharger to us of substances that may impact human health. Whenever we have a sewage spill, oil spill, we're required to notify health department, and so Barbara's team has a role in notification.

So you would have notified that Long Beach's health department, because they have their own health department.

Yes, and we are in constant contact with Long Beach around this, so we're regular contact, but we did immediately notify them that there would be an impact. Right. They have jurisdiction.

And they have to obviously communicate, so we were probably getting calls because maybe that communication wasn't communicated directly to their residents.

And we found that that's the most effective way to utilize our health officer to provide that, and it's actually mandated in state law that we do that as well under our current stormwater permits, that we notify our county health officer of any discharges of non-stormwater into our systems.

Right. Because, of course, and I would just encourage us to really follow those in as timely manner as we can, because, of course, Long Beach has their own beaches that they're responsible for keeping safe. And so we need to make sure that they're aware of an incident like this that could could impact them as well.

Yes. Well, elected officials, I understand the need to know. the regulatory arm of the city is the one that actually implements the safety measures, their health officers. So it is the best way for us to protect human health is to use those protocols.

Right. Thank you. It's just, I think what we're learning from the warehouse fire or what we're learning about the causes of the Altadena and Palisades fire or this, you know, corporations who, you know, unknowingly are doing their work and spring a leak because of their irresponsibility in detecting where a pipeline is before they do that just creates such an unfair burden on our communities that lasts forever. So this was two months ago, but the fact that we're still concerned about it, we're still hearing from businesses who lost revenue, it's unbelievable sometimes of how these corporations should be really thinking twice and three times before they begin to dig or do work in our streets because the consequences of a mistake can be irreparable to people's health and businesses and livelihood. So thank you for continuing to bring this forward.

Thank you very much, Supervisor Hahn. Supervisor Horvath.

Thank you, Madam Chair. I just wanna thank you for uplifting this conversation. I know when members of the public are impacted unexpectedly by an emergency, that's how they happen, often they're left without information and they're expecting us to respond. and I think the county does a great job of jumping in to respond, but given that we have now had an accumulation of so many emergencies, it's time for us to move from response to proactivity and putting more measures into place that are responsive to the things that we have heard. For example, we've heard that economic impacts may be addressed by those who are responsible for liability, like in the case of West Hollywood, but until and unless insurance or other funding comes through, those businesses are waiting. sometimes months for assistance so making sure that we are able to deliver economic relief urgently is something is why we stood up this permanent program and to make sure that businesses are able to get the help that they need you know in in the case of west hollywood even though ledwp is you know taking responsibility while those businesses wait, that could be the difference between whether they come back or not. And so I wanna highlight that from the economic impact perspective and then also from the health perspective. When people are getting sick from smells, from impacted air quality, whatever results from a disaster, And they hear that everything's within permitted levels, which sounds a lot like everything is okay. And they know it's not okay. And they're going to doctors and they're asking for medical assistance. You know, they're experiencing something that it feels like we're gaslighting them when we say that everything is okay. And I know that we have to move within what is permitted and we have to, from a governmental perspective, act within what permitted levels are, help people understand what our responsibility is. But in the case of the Palisades fire, when people heard that in my district, many of them had the resources to go out and do their own testing and host their own conversations. And when that information contradicts the information that's coming out from the county, like testing that was done at Cedar Sinai to indicate that the impacts of the fires and the smoke were felt much further inland than what they had heard from the county, it starts to create dissension in community and the lack of trust that Supervisor Barger mentioned. And we've had this now with landfills, with fires, with other environmental disasters. So if it's time for us to advocate for changes and permitted levels of impact, I rely on our experts here to help us understand what we need to be advocating for. but we can't be telling our residents that the things that they're experiencing and feeling aren't real and that we don't have a responsibility in them. Because I think that's what they're counting on us to do is advocate for them. And I think we have to find ways to get to yes on what we can do for them, even when we're, you know, policies or, you know, protocols might say, oh, well, it hasn't yet reached a level of danger. You know, it doesn't matter. When people are sick, they're sick and they're looking for support. So, I'm glad that we're having these conversations so we can highlight and move to a place where we're meeting people with what their experience is because I think that's what they're asking of us in these moments. Thank you.

Thank you very much. So just to wrap up, I know I've made a lot of requests on you, department, so I want to hear back from you immediately and then let me know what the schedule will be for the report back, the planning that's going to happen, your purview of that and then moving forward the outreach and then having all this information in one central location as soon as possible and that that is updated on a regular basis and then more information to come on the business interruption fund and how quickly we can get that off the ground because I'm assuming it's not just That was set up for the whole county, and I'm assuming there may need to be more support for that once the supplemental budget comes before us as well. So I think there's an expectation on our part to do this. So again, thank you for coming here and answering questions. And I hope that we can continue this conversation with the community. And that's really what this is about. So thank you. You're welcome to stay because there's going to be some public comment. So I would encourage you to stay if you can. Thank you. With that, Executive Office, please call those that wish to speak.

Will the following individuals please come forward and staff will assist you. Emmanuel Carrera-Ruedas, Sylvia Corona, Joaquin Angelis, Marguerite Mendez, Yesenia Palm, Raymond Palm, Adelia Lara, Rosa Samaniego, Alvaro Velasquez, Gloria Zabala, Alma Marquez, Mark Weasley Herrera, Tran Hidalgo, Sophia Guenones, Collin Campbell. Caller, your line is open. Please state your name and begin. Caller, your line is open. Please begin. We will go to the next speaker. Vanessa Gonzalez, your line is open. Please begin.

Hello, my name is Vanessa Gonzalez. I appreciate this effort to convene experts to have this important conversation given our communities keep being impacted by environmental injustices. Remediation is key and transparency too. There's a lot of outreach that is needed, and I do appreciate the conversation regarding centralizing all into one portal, because it could be really confusing to navigate all the websites out there. So I think that's really key. And also, I really hope that these efforts can be documented and replicated as a response for any other emergencies at the county or for other jurisdictions to also take note of this. I support Supervisor Solis' efforts to make sure that there is ongoing accountability for the East Los Angeles community. Thank you.

Thank you. Caller with phone number 323, last two digits 29, your line is open. Please state your name and begin. Caller, phone number 323, last two digits 29, your line is open. Please begin.

Good morning, Supervisors. My name is Diego Rodriguez and I'm the COO of Alma Family Services. I want to thank you, Chair Solis, for convening today's discussion and for your continued leadership following the East LA Oil spill. I also wanted to recognize your team whose presence both in the field and behind the scenes has been unwavering from the earliest day of this incident through today. As Alma has partnered with Chair Solis' office throughout the response, we have seen firsthand the care, urgency, and commitment that has been brought to residents, businesses, schools, and community organizations. We appreciate the First District commitment to keeping this issue before the board and ensuring that the public continues to have clear, timely, and accessible information until the work is complete. Thank you.

Thank you. Rosa Soto, your line is open. Please begin.

Good morning, Board of Supervisors and Chair Solis. My name is Rosa Soto with the Wellness Center at Historic General Hospital. Thank you, Chair Solis, for convening this important discussion, ensuring that we continue to have accountability for the East LA oil spill. I am in support of 15A, item 15A. In late May, my staff and community volunteers joined Supervisor Solis's office to share information, remediation efforts, and how to help protect families in the surrounding communities. Many of our communities of East L.A. and City Terrace are worried about the ongoing impacts of housing safety, and I'm glad that you, Supervisor, are making sure any impacts to residents and businesses remain front and center to our departments. I, too, appreciate the coordinated effort of a joint website and our ability to continue to keep our community informed. I support the efforts to make sure we have accessible information for the public moving forward. Thank you.

Thank you. Victoria Burdin, your line is open. Please begin.

Good morning. Thank you so much for bringing this issue to the front again, as we are also dealing with so many other environmental issues. So thank you very much, Supervisors. I am in support of 15A because I am still very concerned about the long-term health of not only our but our ecological system as well I feel like this issue is being talked about as if it's something that's ended but even as of two weeks ago myself and other neighbors have seen oil in the river and there have been reports of this not being mediated in the correct way and so I would love to see more action on how we are going to restore the ecological balance of the LA River. And it's downstream as well in Long Beach. But I really, really thank you for bringing this to light again. And I hope that we can continue to advocate for accountability.

Thank you. Caller with phone number 909, last two digits 16. Your line is open. Please state your name and begin.

Can you hear me?

Yes, go ahead. Thanks.

Okay, thank you to all those who are doing jobs out there, very difficult circumstances. And a thumbs up to Supervisor Barger for taking people to task on this and setting issues. And the question is, where on earth are you putting all of this debris and stuff? Captain Barger's area is the only one that has the geographical size to deal with the situation. And as to detection, we need to have a canary in the mine there. And that would be senior staff from each supervisor living in the complainant areas until such time as the remedies. And those canaries would be the first and the best source of information. And I'm doing my best to get everybody here in Rolling Heights to come to these meetings. Thank you.

Thank you. Caller, your line is open. Please begin.

Hi, good afternoon. My name is Christy Hernandez. I'm a resident of an unincorporated East Los Angeles and chair of the Maravilla Community Advisory Committee. I just want to thank the LA County Board of Supervisors for bringing this topic forward. And I agree with Holly Mitchell, the level of disrespect and neglect of incorporated communities, specifically East LA is just very glaring. And we want to ensure that this changes. And so we're asking that the supervisor Solis bring these professionals in this presentation to the community. the Maravilla Tech and the East Yards community for environmental justice has sent a third letter as of last week marking two months and requesting that we work together to bring a town hall to East LA we keep asking community to come to you it's time for the county the responsible agencies to come back to our community because as you've stated this has been a level of neglect and disenfranchisement and marginal marginalized community

Thank you. Kenya, your line is open. Please begin. Hello.

My name is Kenya Reese. I am from the Wellness Center at the LA General Hospital. I want to go ahead and state that I do support this motion and I appreciate Supervisor Solis for continuing to hold this accountability in the community of East Los Angeles in regards to the oil spill. I want to let you know that I do support the 15A motion and I'm glad that the Supervisor Solis is making sure that any impacts of the resident businesses and schools that remain in front center, just like her and her team have been supporting these last few weeks. I support these efforts and I want to make sure we continue to provide information and support the community if needed. Thank you.

Thank you. Michelle, your line is open. Please begin.

Michelle?

Michelle, your line is open. Okay, the caller drop. We'll go to Jasmine Gutierrez. Your line is open, please begin.

Hi, my name is Jasmine Gutierrez and I'm calling from the Wellness Center here at the LA General Medical Center. And thank you Supervisors always for convening this important discussion, ensuring that there is continuing to accountability for East Los Angeles boils bill and for continuing to improve the impact that remains ongoing. And I'm glad that the supervisor is making sure that the impact in the residents and businesses and schools remain front and center, such as she and her team did the weeks following this bill. And I support her efforts to make sure there is continuous support and access for important information for the public moving on forward. Thank you.

Thank you. Michelle, your line is now open. Please begin.

Can you hear me? Yes. Can you hear me? There you go. Okay. Hi, sorry. My name is Michelle with the wellness center, um, as well. I just also want to thank, uh, you know, supervisor Solis and, um, going with the motion. And I think it's an important decision, a discussion, and to be able to continue with these resources for the community and keeping it accountable for the Los Angeles oil spill. Although the incident did occur in late May, redemption of the impact remains ongoing. I'm just glad Supervisor Solis is making sure any impacts to the residents' business, schools, to the community remains front and center, just as she and her team did in the weeks following the spill, and I just want to enhance that. I will continue supporting her with this as well, moving forward, and for making sure that the community gets the resources that they need. Thank you.

Thank you. Caller with phone number 323, last two digits, 84, your line is open. Please state your name and begin.

Hi, good morning. My name is Genesis Coronado. I am a resident and community as an advocate in Los Angeles. I am here, as we heard from Supervisor Janice Vaughn, and SELA has bared the burden of environmental injustice as we've seen with oil spill and the lineage warehouse fire. However, we have also bared the burden of an LA County system that has failed to effectively and timely communicate with the residents it is responsible for serving and represented. Since May 22nd, the only updates the community has received has been via social media. That is completely unacceptable. We have not, as a community, seized in reaching out to our most local representatives and have requested a community meeting time and time again. However, today we have not seen that. During the June 9th board meeting, Supervisor Solis responded directly to my comment and committed to, and I quote, a convening of those departments in the district, end quote. Regardless of that commitment, we have yet to see or hear a meeting happening in East LA anytime soon. It's been over two months with . Let's just say like it is. If East LA were a city, we would have a series of meetings by now hosted by- Thank you.

Lilia Lopez, your line is open. Please begin. Please begin.

Okay. Hello, my name is Lilia. I'm kind of just calling today to thank Supervisor Solis for her continuing efforts on the East LA oil spill. She's making sure the people responsible are held accountable, and she's also making sure that the community that's been affected are not forgotten. Even though it happened about two months ago, the effects of the spill continue. So I'm so thankful that she hasn't forgotten about the community. And I also just want to say thank you to everyone else who is speaking out and being our voice. Thank you so much.

Thank you. Madam Chair, there are no other remote speakers to address the board. Remote participation for item 15A is concluded. We will go to our in-person speakers. Please begin.

Hello, my name is Manuel Carreras Rodas. I am a member of East Yard Community Revision Government of Justice, as well as a community member of Southeast LA. And I wanted to say that I was at a drainage site in the city of Vernon, July 13th, the same one that dumped the Boyle Heights oil spill, as well as all the runoff from the Lineage fire. And almost two months since the oil spill, I still found crude oil washing up into our river. We called the fire department, and a few days later, the oil was cleaned up. But that didn't feel like enough. And on July 22nd, on my birthday actually, I went into the drainage site with my lab partner to verify for ourselves the effort from the county. And look, most of the oil was cleaned up. There was a lot of power washing, a lot of great stuff. However, those issues are not complete. Those efforts are not complete. There is still oil in our drainage site today. And we must get that out before the first wash comes, because we know El Niño is coming. And once that comes, all that will get washed into our river, and it will affect our fish, our birds, and everybody else in between. And those who bear the burden of those things are those who live in our communities. Thank you.

Thank you. Next speaker, please. Buenos dias. Mi nombre es Silvia Corona. Y yo lo que les vengo a decir que gracias a las personas que están diciendo que es un mal, No es temporal, ya es permanente.

Good morning, my name is Sylvia Corona, and I wanted to thank the people who are saying that this is a bad thing. This is not temporary, this is something that has lasting effects.

El día de ayer fui a una junta a las oficinas del condado de la ciudad.

Yesterday I went to a meeting at the city offices.

Ahí donde está Isabel Jurado. Where Isabel Horado is in Boyle Heights.

The Lynch company or something like that, they were there. In other words, the people who are responsible for this whole disaster.

The person who gave the presentation was a very arrogant person. What a disgrace that the people who were there present weren't able to tell them what a horrible thing that they've done and how awful it is both to the ecological system and to the community. Yo le dije que no son bienvenidos porque, como ustedes saben, en la comunidad nosotros van y vienen representantes, van y vienen compañías,

And as I said, they are not welcome there because companies and representatives come and go, but we, as a community, we stay there. We don't go anywhere.

The bad decisions that you make are then reflected in us.

Thank you. And I told that person he's not welcome in our community and he said he's going to stay there. Thank you. Next speaker, please.

Hi, greetings. My name is Rafael Rodriguez, and I'm with United Teachers of Los Angeles, and I'm an educator in East Los Angeles. And I'm here to express our continuing and ongoing concerns for the health of our students and their well-being. I teach within walking distance, blocks away from the oil spill, and our school is also currently being affected by the lineage fire. And for us, it's important that we address the systemic issues issues of environmental racism that have affected our communities for far too long, for generations now. And for us, it's important to recognize that our students need to be able to live in a safe and healthy community and to deserve a quality education, and it's What they're suffering right now, we have students who basically have been housebound for two summers in a row, not one, but two. And to us, these are ongoing concerns that we're going to continue to address. And we're hoping to continue to be partners with all of you on the board of supervisors

Thank you. Next speaker, please. Sofia Quinones, due to our history of fighting environmental justice, the East LA Boyle Heights Coalition issued an SOS call for help to create a task force in unincorporated East LA because we had two catastrophes, the oil spill and the lineage fire, and both hazardous waste goes into the same blood channel. We can smell and we can see the sublimation being released into the atmosphere. Now the fire department and UCR's environmental justice told us that yes there were monitors but the more sophisticated monitors were out in Orange County dealing with the tank and we didn't get the real-time readings. So I think that's important so we're calling on the supervisors to support the creation of the task force with all our agencies because the current meetings that are being held in CD14 exclude unincorporated East LA. East LA has not gotten the same resources as the representatives from Boyle Heights, and those meetings are dysfunctional and do not include our agencies or qualified people. Thank you. Next speaker, please.

Good morning. My name's Alma Marquez. I'm a resident of Monterey Park, and I also have a business in Monterey Park. We've been impacted by both this oil spill in East LA as it's very close to Monterey Park, I have also expressed concerns to all of you about the impacts of the lineage fire. My voice is being impacted, physically we're being impacted by these unfortunate incidents that may not be your direct responsibility, but you are responsible for the public health. So I know that it's a a burden for you all to bear as our elected officials. We're asking to have a real community engagement process in the communities that have been impacted, specifically because we know one minute is not enough to engage. And even though there's 20 of us here today, we represent thousands and want the opportunity to engage.

Thank you. Next speaker, please. My name is Yesenia Poum. I live in unincorporated East L.A., and to quote Katherine, frustrating. We are living in continuous orders for months with mysterious unknown disgusting toxins for months now. We are being exposed and poisoned from above and underground. Clean air and water are human rights, not a privilege, and we need to start acting like so. I need everyone in this room with the political power and agency power to start acting like it. We need Isla Solis to replicate this presentation and host a community town hall so the residents and small business owners can hear these updates directly and ask their specific questions. People can attend. We're a working class community. We're working during this time. This is the first time folks are hearing about this and it has been two months. Thanks to the community efforts and pressure of us being here and asking for updates and bringing it up to the agenda because I emphasize it has been two months and the updates are being now given to us. We are the Canaries and we are sounding the alarm, yet no one is hearing us. And I need these updates to be given to the people and I need you to tell them too as well. Thank you. Next speaker, please.

Hi, my name is Raymond Poom. I'm an LAUSD student. On May 22nd, 2026, while being dropped off to school like every student and parent from 7 a.m. to 9 a.m., we all woke up and smelled a pungent smell. The smell turned out to be an oil spill on Cesar Chavez and Eastern. I'm a high school student, and my older brother went to Esteban Torres, and while being dropped off, we smelled the oil spill and immediately rolled up and closed our windows. An intense oil spill smelled the... Many students felt nauseous, headaches, and sick, and none of those students were evacuated. No alert system, no nothing. Again, East Los Angeles students, children were left, like myself, got a headache. LAUSD follows the commands of LA County, and no one evacuated us. alerted us with critical emergency, no one was informed. It's been two months now, and thanks to the community efforts, it's been brought up. The oil spill was more than initially stated. Stop lying to us and be transparent and accountable. We are talking about the impacts to students.

Thank you. Next speaker, please.

Buenos dias. Mi nombre es Joaquin Angeles. Estoy aqui porque me siento discriminado.

Good morning, my name is Joaquin Angeles.

I'm here because I feel discriminated against.

Because when the Boyle Heights fire began, they said we needed to stay enclosed in our homes.

Excuse me, this item relates to the East Los Angeles oil spill. Comments regarding the Los Angeles Palace fire may be made during public comment.

Thank you, next speaker, please. There is a related comment.

In regards to the oil spill, we were never alerted to the dangers that were present there. My son lived two homes away from there.

And he had to move away from there. He was afraid that his son may be in danger of getting an illness. Because the information was not clear and it was not precise.

Hasta hoy en día esa información está en muchas cosas que la gente no sabe.

And even to the present time, with regards to that communication, there's a lot of things that people are not aware of.

I just ask that our representatives would make the companies responsible, that they would really give forth the correct information to the people. so that our community can make use of benefits and be able to continue forward after this catastrophe. Thank you. Thank you. Thank you. Thank you. Next speaker, please.

Honorable LA County, I'm Colin Campbell, CEO of ADAPTS out of South Pasadena District 5. I'm here to request consent for a critical infrastructure upgrade at 72 E Glenarm, Pasadena site to build a smarter, safer LA County. This relates to oil because it gets us off of oil. Our proposal integrates a fusion reactor to power a dual-purpose strategy and underground desalination plant for water security and dam for JPL at Millard Canyon. This is for water for all of L.A. County. Here's a design for Anthony Maroney if he wishes to look at it. This is by Susie Wiles, Chief of Staff of the White House. The funding has been secured.

Sir, these comments are appropriate for general public comment at the end of the meeting. Thank you.

Thank you, next speaker, please. Hi, my name is Barbara Martinez and I'm here to speak on the atrocity that's been going on in the communities. This oil spill that happened is gonna hurt a lot of families and in the long run, people are gonna be sick. I feel that honestly, some of our experts are minimizing what's really going on. I feel like we're being lied to by AQMD. We're being lied to by some of our experts. We need to make sure that they realize that you guys are working with human beings. And it's not okay that we're going through all this disaster that we're going through. We have rights to live in a place where we're going to be safe and secure. And honestly, I don't feel that way no more. I wish we had a... a representative i mean uh advocate just like miss barker that really fights for her community and i i applaud her for what she did because i wish royal heights and easterly had someone like her to be able to speak up for us thank you thank you we'll now go to remote callers carmen your line is open please begin hi good morning can you hear me yes please begin

Hi, good morning. My name is Carmen Calcana. I'm calling on support of 15 eight. I am glad to give me a second. I apologize. I have let the supervisor Solis is making an impact to residents, businesses and schools, and they still remain a priority for her. I want to thank you, Supervisor Solis, for giving East delays a voice. for demanding an immediate thorough investigation into the pilot rupture, and also for demanding accountability for what happened. I appreciate the economic support that you have given to affected businesses. Thank you so much for your time.

Thank you. Lisa Villarreal, your line is open. Please begin.

Go ahead, Lisa. Hi, my support 15A, motion 15A, Thank you, Supervisor Solis, for convening a discussion, ensuring that there continues to be accountability for the East LA oil spill. Thank you.

Thank you. Angelica Prieto, your line is open. Please begin.

Hi, my name is Angelica Prieto. Thank you, Supervisor Solis, for convening this important discussion, ensuring that the um that it continues to be a kind of accountability accountability for the easterly and thank you for making sure making sure any impacts to residents business and schools are in the first in the first role in this um in this following weeks and it stays that way thanks again for for doing this for us i support motion 815.

Thank you. That concludes remote participation for item 15A. We will go back to in-person speakers. Please begin.

Good morning, Chair and Supervisors. My name is Rosa Samaniego. I'm speaking in regards to the oil spills. As you consider a response to the East Los Angeles oil spill, I ask you to recognize that this is a part of a larger pattern of environmental emergencies impacting communities across Los Angeles, LA County. My own family is currently living through impacts of the lineage fire as well and i'll be sharing that during our public comment every family deserves timely information clean air health protection and meaningful support when environmental disasters threaten their well-being we shouldn't have to wait until people become seriously ill before action is taken. I urge you to use this moment to strengthen the county's response to environmental disasters so every community is protected regardless of where they live. Thank you.

Thank you. Next speaker, please.

Hi, my name is Roxanne Nazario. I'm here to support the residents of East LA. I really just have to repeat what the speaker before just said, because I was going to say the same thing about this being a pattern, not just in Los Angeles, but in a very specific part of Los Angeles. I really doubt that this is the way this would have been handled if this happened in West LA. How would it have been handled? Let's picture that for a moment. It would have been a night and day difference. People would have been scared for this to happen over there. There wouldn't have been these type of industrial buildings to begin with, whether it's a warehouse or an oil spill, it's not gonna happen. So why is it okay to happen? I would really, really push all of you to consider going down there and stay down there for a night. Go drink that water. Go shower in it. Go breathe that air. Because I've been there for 30 minutes and immediately I start feeling sick. I drove through Commerce the other night with my vent open. That was a mistake. Immediately started smelling the smell. And with the heat... Thank you. Next speaker, please.

Good morning, my name is Maria Morales. I'm here to say two very important things. I live in the area where the oil spill was and they never said anything. I live very close by.

I've been in that community 30 years.

And if I didn't come because of the fire, I wouldn't have, to this meeting, I would not have been aware of the oil spill. It's not something that was talked about among people. Yes. In regards to the fire situation, I live very close and it's affecting me every day, early in the morning and midday, later in the day. The breathing is very... I have headache, pain, and vomiting, and then you call this phone number, and then they don't respond, they don't answer, and then when they do, they say they can't do anything about it. That's not fair. When I call the phone number for help, they say they're out of the area. They can't help. There are five areas here. Each one of you are guilty and responsible. You are responsible for this. Thank you. Madam Chair, that concludes the time for public comment on this item.

Supervisor Horvath. Madam Chair, I just wanted to say I was watching that there's a news report that just came out that said there's a new application to replace the warehouse already to rebuild. And so I know at this board, this topic has been brought up already. And so I would just ask that we proactively comment and share our concerns as part of that process. And I know our Director of Public Health has been very clear about making sure that proactive plans are discussed. I just want to flag that for everyone, because I think it's poorly timed for that to be.

Good bit of information, but I would think that we're not going to go in that direction, and certainly our permitting agencies here will have to take a strong look at that, because I certainly don't feel that they are comporting themselves correctly since the get-go. That's another item, but I'm just saying that that is, it is something that is very, very disappointing to hear. And I know we don't, it's in the City of LA, but we also have a responsibility in the permitting process. So we have to speak up, and we will prepare whatever correspondence is necessary to let them know that's not something that we wanna see happening, thank you. members okay thank you thank you very much to the public and to the panel madam chair this report will be received and filed we are now thank you hearing no objection that will be the order we are now moving on to the public hearing items Executive Officer, please swear in the members of the public who are requesting to address the board on these items.

Members of the public, including in-person and remote speakers who are requesting to address the board on the public hearing items, please stand and raise your right hand to be sworn in. Please note that in the testimony you give before this board, you are solemnly swearing to tell the truth, the whole truth, and nothing but the truth. So help you God, may you be seated. We will now move on to Item 6, Hearing on Ordinance Extending the Eaton Fire Disaster Interim Ordinance, Number 2025-0034U, Project Number PRJ2025-001003, Advanced Planning Case Number RPPL2025-003574. For members of the public joining us remotely to comment on this item, please use the raise hand feature if you are online or press star three if on the telephone. No departmental statement was submitted and no correspondence was received. Amy Bodek 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.

Okay, are there any colleagues that have any remarks or question on item number six? Item number six, the Eaton Fire Disaster Interim Ordinance. Yes, Supervisor Barger, yes.

I'm sorry, Supervisor Hahn and I were solving world problems over here, so I apologize. I just have a few questions, and Amy, I think my team has talked to you, but I want to thank you and your team for continuing to prioritize the needs of the Eaton Fire survivors as our community rebuilds. I mean, it's... I believe it's become the gold standard for how we can work on housing in LA County. And even with all the progress we've seen, we know that there are thousands of families that are still displaced. And we've done, I mean, you've done herculean things to break down any barriers that would exist within the bureaucracy. And As the department works on the permanent ordinance that we voted on, I'd like us to investigate how to support more housing choices for seniors and renters. And one of the more common ideas is centered around the bungalow courts. I think it sounds interesting, and I know it's something that people in Alkdina are supportive of. Can we look into out being a specific solutions for bungalow courts and gentle density opportunities via the permanent ordinance? Is that a possibility?

Yes, we absolutely can do that. I think we're going to have to try to thread the needle between some of the concerns that we're seeing with, as you know, other legislation that's coming in from the state and try to find a way to support that gentle density, which everyone likes. I think the real issue is renter versus ownership and scale.

Right.

Bungalow courts are very low scale. And some of the other density projects that we're seeing are not necessarily of that same type of vernacular. So we're trying to thread that needle as to how we can allow that small scale bungalow court concept in the permanent ordinance, it may be complicated by the Subdivision Map Act. So that is one complication that we're trying to understand and whether we would have to amend our Title 21 as well. We do have an existing bungalow court project. There was an existing bungalow court pre-fire. That project is being redeveloped. For other gentle density, as you know, the community did support the upzoning of Lake Avenue, and we do really want to see some of those commercial properties convert to mixed-use development, which would include rental and could absolutely include 100% seniors or even affordable components. So we are looking forward to having those discussions with the commercial property owners to see if we can find commonalities and maybe leverage their properties for renter uses on Lake.

Thank you. And I know that, you know, I tell people Altina is not, they recognize that the housing shortage. And I think that we've seen the number of ADUs coming in. Yes. Indicated the fact that they recognize that they have an opportunity to rebuild, but also to bring housing online, affordable housing and revenue for them as they rebuild. One of the other issues I want us to address is ensuring that we continue have the land use authority to quickly site and deploy resources for larger scale rebuilding. Have you had any discussions with Department of Public Works about opportunities or tools needed for the siting of elements that will support the rebuilding infrastructure?

We do. Some land uses are allowed in the interim ordinance, like a potential lumber yard. We do have opportunities to use the interim ordinance for that purpose. For something larger, like a concrete batch plant, Public Works did identify some potential locations, not necessarily in Altadena, but nearby. And at the time that they feel it's necessary, they can enter into those discussions with other public agencies like Caltrans.

Excellent. So, you know, in conclusion, I'd like to say that when we adopted this ordinance last year, our goal was simple. Give Altadena residents more flexibility to rebuild their homes and remove unnecessary barriers that will slow down their recovery. We've made significant progress. And actually, I say we, you all have made significant progress, but there is still a tremendous amount of rebuilding ahead of us. As of yesterday, we've received more than 35, 3,500 rebuild applications in Altadena. Of those, 2,700 residential parcels and families have a residential building permit in hand. More than 1,900 are in construction, and 130 residents have been completed. Those numbers demonstrate that Altadena is rebuilding, but they also show that we need to keep these recovery tools in place as thousands of families continue working to return home. This ordinance gives residents greater flexibility with setbacks, building footprints, parking requirements, and other development standards so that the county regulations do not unnecessarily stand in the way of the rebuilding effort. It also begins to streamline disaster recovery permit process and gives our local businesses additional flexibility to operate while Altena's commercial quarters recover. Extending this ordinance for another year provides certainty for the residents who are still designing, permitting, financing and beginning the construction on their homes. It also allows time for the Department of Regional Planning to continue to work with our residents, businesses and county departments to ensure that we not only have existing tools in place, but that we are proactively developing the tools needed for the next three months, six months, and quite frankly, for the years ahead. This includes looking at ways to create more flexible opportunities to deploy different housing solutions to help displaced residents. Prior to the fire, Altnina was home to a robust population of seniors and renters, something that I think gets lost on many out there that in fact, disproportionately impacted as a result of the Altena fire. As we continue to provide a recovery for all, we need to also provide the framework for the recovery efforts that are yet to come, which means that we are focused on residential rebuilds, commercial recovery, and looking at the future needs of the community when infrastructure rebuild is fully underway. We must continue providing Altena residents with the flexibility that they need to rebuild and return home as we remain focused on our common goal. And again, I want to thank regional planning. I want to thank you, Amy, and your team. I also want to acknowledge my team, Anish, Soraya, and Susie Niemer, who each and every day are working to make sure that the residents in Altadena, their issues are addressed. And so I, again, thank you. Thank you, Madam Chair.

Thank you. Seeing no other questions by board members, let's go to public comment.

Will the following individuals please come forward and staff will assist you. Colin Campbell and Roxanne Nazario. Caller with phone number 747, last two digits 09, your line is now open. Please state your name and begin.

Hi, I'm calling in regard to this agenda, and it's unfortunate what's taken place has taken place. But Holly Mitchell's office, when people were having issues in their area regarding water damage, water leakage from the sewage in certain areas, she ignored Mrs. Atkins, never returned Mrs. Atkins' call. And I think it's because Mrs. Atkins is Muslim. And I want everyone to remember that when it was the time to vote, Holly Mitchell voted against Palestinians, she voted for Israel for county money to be given to Israel. When Holly Mitchell had a chance to vote for peace, she elected not to. So as well as other people that may need assistance for emergencies, people in Holly Mitchell's district, because they're Black Americans or maybe Muslims, they were- I'm sorry, sir.

I don't think this pertains to the Eaton Fire.

It's pertaining to the- No, it's not. Thank you. Thank you. Next caller.

Okay. We'll now go to in-person speakers. Please begin.

County- Honorable L.A. County Supervisors, I'm Colin Campbell of ADAPT, South Pasadena District 5. I went to Altadena and Pasadena last week to request this upgrade for critical infrastructure, which is by the White House Chief of Staff. It's funded already. We're asking for your consent. This is an upgrade to host the Stargate AI for police, fire, EMS for advanced real-time risk assessment and life-saving coordination. There's an incentivization plans for those who wish to join the effort to enhance LA County's infrastructure, supporting the union's ongoing negotiations with Pasadena, providing safe and high-tech jobs. I propose this to Altadena, Alhambra, Pasadena, South Pasadena, and Monterey Park, and I ask you to join and Chief of Staff Suzy Wells' point, and we're ready to deploy immediately. And this is from General Atomics out of San Diego. We'll bring in a fusion reactor using BNSF. Thank you.

Thank you. Next speaker, please. Hi, again. My name is Roxanne Desario. I do work for a nonprofit called HPP Cares. I am their policy and legislative affairs director. So I am in Altadena on a daily and weekly basis. There's lots of events. I've been to Sacramento. fighting for resources and money. And I just want to reiterate what the supervisor said is that Altadena is extremely open. They're willing to do their part. They're not NIMBYs. They're not saying you can't do it here, but they're concerned about safety and density and rebuilding in a very intentional and thoughtful way. And I hear over and over again, and I speak to them, the two most vulnerable groups, I would say, yes, are renters and seniors. And so I would just love to see the county continue to do whatever they can to make this process as simple as possible, even though I know that might be hard, and continue to support them with resources as they fight the state and federal government to get what they need and what they deserve. Thank you.

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

Madam Chair, the public hearing is now closed and item six is before you.

Move by Supervisor Barger, seconded by Supervisor Horvath to approve the item. Executive Officer, call the roll.

Supervisor Horvath?

Aye.

Supervisor Horvath, aye. Supervisor Hahn? Aye. Supervisor Hahn, aye. Supervisor Barger? Aye. Supervisor Barger, aye. And Chair Solis? Aye. Chair Solis, aye. That item does pass. We will now move on to item one, hearing on the annexation and levying of sewer service charges to the Consolidated Sewer Maintenance District within unincorporated areas of Covina and Santa Monica Mountains and the cities of Rosemead, Sandinas, and Santa Clarita. For members of the public joining us remotely to comment on this item, please use the raise hand feature if you are online or press star three if on a telephone. Departmental statement was submitted and no correspondence was received. Mark Pastrea, Director of Public Works, and Sid Tesoro, Deputy Director of Department of Public Works, will be available for questions. For the departmental speakers, please state your name and title for the record when you address the board.

Thank you. Are there any questions from my colleagues on this item? Okay. Seeing none, Executive Officer, call those members of the public who've signed up to speak on this item.

Madam Chair, there are no in-person or remote speakers who have signed up to speak on this item.

Madam Chair, the public hearing is now closed. Item one is before you.

Okay, I will move that item, seconded by Supervisor Hahn. To approve the item, Executive Officer, call the roll.

Supervisor Horvath?

Aye.

Supervisor Horvath, aye. Supervisor Hahn?

Aye.

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

Aye.

Supervisor Solis, aye. That item does pass. We will now move on to item two, hearing on the annual levying of assessments for county landscaping and lighting districts for fiscal year 2026-27. For members of the public joining us remotely to comment on this item, please use the raise hand feature if you are online or press star three if on a telephone. departmental statement was submitted and no correspondence was received mark pastrea director of public works angela george moody chief deputy director james chan land development department of public works will be available for questions for the departmental speakers please state your name and title for the record when you address the board thank you are there any colleagues that wish to speak on this item no no your mic is on supervisor okay

Okay, very good. Then, Executive Officer, let's go to public comment, if there's any.

Madam Chair, there are no remote or in-person speakers who have signed up to speak on this item.

Okay. Madam Chair, the public hearing is now closed. Item two is before you.

Okay, moved by Supervisor Barger, seconded by Supervisor Hahn. To approve the item, please call the roll.

Supervisor Horvath. Aye. Supervisor Horvath, aye. Supervisor Hahn. Aye. Supervisor Hahn, aye. Supervisor Barger. Aye. Supervisor Barger, aye. Supervisor Solis. Aye. That item does pass unanimously with those members present. We will now move on to item three, hearing on the hearing of fiscal year 2025-26, hazardous vegetation and defensible space abatement enforcement charges. 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. No departmental statement was submitted and no correspondence was received. Maximiliano Regis, Chief Deputy, Adrian Savala, Deputy Director, Weed Hazard and Pest Management, Department of Agricultural Commissioner Weights and Measures, Anthony Maroney, Fire Chief, and Ronald Derman, Chief Forestry Division Fire Department will be available for questions. For the departmental speakers, please state your name and title for the record when you address the board.

I understand there were no departmental statement was submitted and no correspondence was received. If there's any questions from like, yes, Supervisor Barger.

Yeah, thank you. Over the last few months, we've heard directly from And again, it seems like I'm only talking about Althena, but I'm sure it pertains to areas where you've got a lot of vegetation. And they've talked about the fire risk as well as from survivors who've received notices of violation from county agriculture requesting their properties come into compliance with the fire code. to avoid possible legal action. While I recognize the importance of keeping properties clear and reducing fire risk, I mean, no one can argue that that's the right thing to do, it is important that we make sure we are helping fire survivors come into compliance and not creating another financial or administrative burden during their recovery journey. My office has been working with the county departments to provide practical assistance to residents on this issue, working with nonprofits to see if we can get them to come in and help. Specifically, I've asked the Department of Public Works to work with the community-based organizations like Neighbors Helping Neighbors, who have volunteered to help take on this work to provide green waste bins through Alpena's Waste Hauler. In addition, on June 9th, Supervisor Horvath and I brought forward a motion directing Public Works and the Rebuild Authority, in conjunction with county departments and partners, to develop a more coordinated approach to hazardous vegetation on fire-impacted vacant and stalled properties. The motion called for prioritizing voluntary compliance, defensible space assistance, community outreach, and non-punitive mitigation before imposing financial penalties on fire impacted property owners. We also asked the rebuild authority and our departments to look beyond our traditional approaches and identify creative solutions, including potential pilot programs, partnerships, and alternative vegetation management strategies. There are already community organizations in Altina doing this work and looking for ways to help their neighbors. So we know it can be done. My office has connected some of these local groups directly with Public Works and the rebuild authority so that we can explore how the county can support and coordinate with the work that has already happened on the ground. As the department prepared the post, or the report back requested in our motion, I understand that we will, are gonna have that by the end of this week. I wanna make sure that we are moving towards solutions that reduce both fire risk and recognize the circumstances that outlander residents continue to face. And so I just, one of the concerns we have, and this is to County Ag, Can you explain why the notices of violation are being issued to property owners who are not in a very high fire severity zone and why fire code was cited as the reason for this violation? Because it seems like there's some contradictory message being sent.

Thank you for the question, Supervisor Barger. My name is Max Regis. I'm the Chief Deputy for Agriculture Weights and Measures. Regrettably, that letter was sent in error. We started our process of inspecting the parcels in May, and we utilized an old letter that we would send to folks in the high severity zone. So that was sent out a mistake, and it went out to 430 residents.

Okay, so did you send anything to clarify? Because we got the calls, and I think we went to FIRE, who said, no, it's not us.

Yeah, so the first complaint we received was about a week ago, And we're in the process of amending the letter and we will reach out to the residents again with a different type of letter. We're thinking of calling it a notice of work needed or something softer. We understand that that was an issue. And also I will add that 300 letters went to the residents of Sunset Mesa as well. in Supervisor Horvath's district. So we interacted with them as well. So apologies for that.

Thank you. And just out of curiosity, what is the consequence for noncompliance if these properties have not been added to your declaration list?

At this point, there are no consequences, meaning we cannot impose any kind of financial fine when we're not going to do the work and assess it to their parcel.

So does fire play a role in that?

No, supervisor. So because the parcels are not habitable, they're not going to be under the fire department's jurisdiction. And as you stated earlier, they are outside of the very high fire hazard severity zone. So I think what we need to do is come together as a county family, LA County Fire, DPW, and Agriculture Weights and Measures, and figure out how to help these people get their property cleared if they can't afford to clear it themselves.

Yeah, I mean, I think it's important that we clearly explain the process to the property owners in terms of compliance, but also expectation in the areas that are going to be impacted because confusion creates more trauma for individuals that are already just trying to navigate what's going on up and out. Dina, are your departments reassessing how these notices are worded? Are you working together to make sure that it's consistent?

Yes, we are working internally to change that letter so it doesn't have that same title, and we will not be citing the safety code. So yeah, we are working on that.

And then this is a question for both fire and ag. Regarding the pending report back, what partnership or funding opportunities have been identified to address hazardous vegetation without creating additional financial burdens for Eaton survivors?

So I can speak to that. Unfortunately, there aren't a lot of resources out there available for this. What we've identified through working with Public Works and Fire is Neighbors Helping Neighbors, which is a nonprofit from Mount Adina made up of residents. So that has been something that has been identified. We also looked at utilizing the California Conservation Corps, but that comes at a cost. We also do have vendors that we have contracted with that we can utilize, but again, that comes at a cost that we have not found a funding source for.

And then to public works, I don't see public works here, but the waste hauler and getting green bins out for individuals, because some of them will do it themselves. If they have a waste bin, then they know. I mean, that's an added cost. So I'm hoping that if Pastrella is listening, that he make that a priority. For those people that want to call in, we will make sure we advertise it so that if homeowners want to do it themselves, they have that opportunity to get a waste bin put in front of their property. and then have it emptied on the day when they pick up the trash. I think that would be helpful. Have you identified any vegetation mitigation pilot programs that could be implemented in Alkenina, including targeted grazing or other alternative approaches contemplated by the motion?

Yeah, we have discussed gracing, and we were talking about this with Chief Moroney earlier today. It does pose some issues because we have to have the residents' permission to go on site. And typically, when we do this type of work, we want to have a contiguous area that gets cleared with the goats. And oftentimes we don't get that type of permission. So that poses an issue. The second issue that we identified is that the goats will indiscriminately eat anything that's on that parcel, including landscaping. So we are working through that. Other than that, there aren't any other simple solutions or innovative solutions that we can implement.

Yeah, Mark. Did you hear what I was asking you to make sure you've got to work with our trash hauler to make sure that we provide green waste bins for residents that want to clean their property off? Please.

Yes, that program is alive and well, and we've been coordinating with the waste hauler, and we have been providing those bins continuously through. So it's in good shape. We're getting coordination with our folks here.

Thank you, and then last but not least, my one ask is education to the people up there when they are replanting native vegetation. I think it's important, and we can work with Eaton Canyon, who has a program in place that is actually using seeds from the area that are native vegetation to make available to the Altina residents. I think it's an opportunity for us to recognize that sometimes, you know, we talk about eucalyptus trees and all that, that are highly flammable, that we use this as an opportunity to rebuild in a way that actually also addresses the native vegetation from the area. So with that, thank you, Madam Chair.

Thank you. Seeing no further questions from the board, executive office, let's go to public comment.

Madam Chair, there are no remote or in-person speakers who have signed up to speak on this item.

Madam Chair, the public hearing is now closed. Item 3 is before you.

Thank you. Moved by Supervisor Barger, seconded by Supervisor Horvath to approve the item. Please call the roll.

Supervisor Horvath?

Aye.

Supervisor Horvath? Aye. Supervisor Hahn? Aye. Supervisor Hahn, aye. Supervisor Barger, aye. Supervisor Barger, aye. Chair Solis, aye. Chair Solis, aye. That item does pass unanimously with those members present. We will now move on to item four, hearing on ordinance amending county code title 12, environmental protection, annual fees for hazardous waste generator, tiered permitting, hazardous materials handler, California accidental release prevention program, and the above ground petroleum storage tank programs for fiscal year 26-27. For members of the public joining us remotely to comment on this item, please use the raise hands feature if you are online. Press start three if on a telephone. No departmental statement was submitted and no correspondence was received. Anthony Maroney, Fire Chief. Mario Trecero, Chief Health Hazardous Materials Division, Fire Department will be available for questions. For the departmental speakers, please state your name and title for the record when you address the board.

Are there any colleagues that wish to be recognized on this item? Seeing none, Executive Office, let's go to public comment.

Madam Chair, there are no remote or in-person speakers who have signed up to speak on this item.

Madam Chair, the public hearing is now closed. Item four is before you.

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

Supervisor Horvath? Aye. Supervisor Horvath, aye. Supervisor Hahn? Aye. Supervisor Hahn, aye. Supervisor Barger? Aye. Supervisor Barger, aye. Supervisor Solis? Aye. Supervisor Solis, aye. That item passes unanimously with those members present. We will now move on to item five, hearing on ordinance granting a petroleum pipeline franchise to Crimson Resource Management Corporation. For members of the public joining us remotely to comment on this item, please use the raise hand feature if you are online or press star three if on a telephone. No departmental statement was submitted and no correspondence was received. Mark Pastrea and Geetha Shan, Deputy Director, Department of Public Works, will be available for questions. For the departmental speakers, please state your name and title for the record when you address the board.

Thank you, are there any comments from my colleagues? Seeing none, Executive Office, let's go to public comment.

Madam Chair, there are no remote or in-person speakers who have signed up to speak on this item.

Madam Chair, the public hearing is now closed and item five is before you.

Moved by Supervisor Barger, seconded by Supervisor Horvath to approve the item. Executive Officer, call the roll.

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

Aye.

Supervisor Solis, aye. That item passes unanimously with those members present. We will now move on to item seven, hearing on general plan safety element amendment project number PRJ 2025-004464, general plan amendment number RPPL2025003809, environmental assessment number RPPL2025003811. For members of the public joining us remotely to comment on this item, please use the raise hand feature. If you are online, or press star three if on the telephone. Departmental statement was submitted and no correspondence was received. I believe that Amy Bodek, the Director of Regional Planning, is available for questions. And for the departmental speaker, please state your name and title for the record when you address the board.

Thank you, Amy, for coming. But are there any colleagues that wish to make a statement on this item? Seeing none, Executive Officer, let's go to the public comment.

Madam Chair, there are no remote or in-person speakers who have signed up to speak on this item.

Madam Chair, the public hearing is now closed and item seven is before you.

Moved by Supervisor Hahn, seconded by Supervisor Barger to approve the item. Please call the roll.

Supervisor Horvath.

Aye.

Supervisor Horvath, aye. Supervisor Hahn. Aye. Supervisor Hahn, aye. Supervisor Barger. Aye. Supervisor Barger, aye. And Supervisor Solis. Aye. Supervisor Solis, aye, that item passes unanimously with those members present. We will now move on to item SD1, hearing on a resolution in ordinance prohibiting the installation of residential self-regenerating water softening appliances. For members of the public joining us remotely to comment on this item, please use the raise hand feature. If you are online, or press star three if on a telephone. No departmental statement was submitted and no correspondence was received. Ray Trimbley, Departmental Engineer of Facilities Planning, and Rochelle Asprin, Secretary to the Board of Directors of the Sanitation District, will be coming shortly to receive any questions that the board may have, but for the departmental speakers, when you do arrive, please state your name and title for the record when you address the board.

I understand no departmental statement was submitted and no correspondence was received. Do any of my colleagues have any questions regarding this item? Seeing none, Executive Office, please call public comment.

Madam Chair, there are no remote or in-person speakers who have signed up to speak on this item.

Madam Chair, the public hearing is now closed, and item SB1 is before you.

Approved by Supervisor Barger, I will second. To approve the item, Executive Officer, please call the roll.

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

Aye.

Supervisor Barger, aye. Supervisor Solis?

Aye.

Supervisor Solis, aye. That item does pass unanimously with those members present.

I understand... Supervisor Barger would like to move to reconsider the votes on items number eight and 11. Is there a second?

I'm just abstaining.

Oh, okay. It wasn't to reconsider.

I just want to be recorded as an abstention. We already voted. We have to reconsider.

In order to reconsider, it would take a vote to reconsider and then to take a roll call vote on both items eight and 11. So we'll take three votes. So the first will be to reconsider. So we would need a second on that. I'll second.

Second. Okay, moved by Supervisor Barger, seconded to reconsider the vote on items eight and nine. If there's no objection, that will be the order. Executive Officer, call the roll.

So we will now vote on items number eight and 11, so we need a motion and a second to approve item eight.

I'll move it. I'll second.

Okay. Supervisor Horvath?

Aye.

Supervisor Horvath, aye. Supervisor Barger? Abstain. Supervisor Hahn? Yes. And Chair Solis? Aye. And Item 8 does pass, and now we just need a motion and a second for Item 11.

I'll move it. Second. Executive Officer, call the roll.

Supervisor Horvath?

Aye.

Supervisor Horvath, aye. Supervisor Hahn? Aye. Supervisor Hahn, aye. Supervisor Barger? Abstain. Abstention. And Supervisor Solis? Aye. So Item 11 is approved.

Okay, now we go to item number 10.

We will now move on to item 10, report on the status of the probation department, 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 were online or press star three if on a telephone. Robert Arcos, Chief Deputy, and Sheila Williams, Chief Deputy, as well as Guillermo Vieira Rosa, Chief Probation Officer, are available for questions. For the departmental speakers, please state your name and title for the record when you address the board.

Thank you. Supervisor Horvath, you held the item.

The floor is yours. Thank you, Madam Chair. Is there anything that the department wants to present before I get into questions?

No, we're happy to demonstrate the question.

Okay, just get into the discussion. Okay, thank you. I understand that all of probation's pools are now open, so I'm glad to hear that. I'm sure, most importantly, our youth are excited to know that. So I do understand that that comes with the impact of probation staff. having to get special training, because they are serving as lifeguards. So how does that impact the department's staffing model in terms of compliance or other services?

Yeah, that's accounted for, and it is a stressor, and we look forward to other partnerships, for example, with the UID to train non-employee as well, but it is, that's not one of the major sources of strain.

Right, so I think we initially started off, I'm sorry, Sheila Williams, Chief Deputy Admin. We initially started off working with Parks and Rec to provide lifeguard services for our pools. Unfortunately, that did not come to fruition this year, but we will continue to work with them to see if we could have them stand up a lifeguard program. And I think we want to do some additional types of services and activities with them with respect to the pool. Right now, we are using our internal staff to address that issue. And of course, that does impact our staffing.

Just to, because I want to make sure you get a very precise, the reason it's only partial impact is because it's recreation. We already account for folks being out to observe recreation. So, and then we also use a lot of overtime to do that portion. So, I never want to leave here saying it doesn't impact our staffing model, but when I take a look at all of the different things that do, this isn't a major one.

Did you want to add to that? I just want to add one thing. Robert Arcos, Chief Deputy Operations, all five pools began operational the first week of July with our staff that wasn't certified. It was a very, very difficult lifeguard certification process. It has been really well received. One of the things that we are missing as we talk a little bit about programming is that some of our kids don't know how to swim. So to break up the day to make sure that we are getting the kids some swim lessons would be really appreciative. The department would also like to thank Supervisor Hahn for a donation of 300 swim caps to Los Padrinos. We are working on acquiring other swim caps for the other facilities as well.

Great, thank you, and I'm glad to hear that we were able to find a way through the department to accommodate this, and thank you for pushing our staff to pursue that training so that way our young people could enjoy the facilities, and it's helpful to hear what else comes with that programming. It's not just as simple as making sure there's a lifeguard there, but the materials and equipment as well as the training is all important, so thank you for highlighting that. A BSCC inspection of LP is scheduled to happen I think in the next couple of weeks. As of last week, our population was higher than the 175 person goal that was set. So what are we doing to make sure that we're in compliance and address what goals we're trying to achieve when it comes to that upcoming inspection?

Let me, I'll start, Chief. So as of today, our numbers at Los Perdidos are at 241. And it is the summer months. I wanted to make sure that we looked at July 28, 2025. Our population, absent the girls, for boys was 269. So it was, these summer months sometimes are very unpredictable on the types of charges that are coming across the county through law enforcement or through warrants. etc. The BSEC phone call today is at two o'clock to discuss that very topic around when we will be prepared for the inspection within the month of August. So we are hopeful we're going to have a very robust conversation around what that looks like, as well as some feedback from the Barry J. Neidorf CAP that they just completed as well.

Okay.

I just, sometimes it's useful to go back to the reasons for those numbers. In this particular case, the court has continued to provide guidance. And so with respect to the depopulation plan, one should bear in mind that the reason for the depopulation is based on this principle that the lower the population, the sooner we would be ready for a reinspection. The court has indicated that a re-inspection should take place by the end of August, irrespective of whether those numbers had been met. They've further provided guidance to seek, which we've already started, input from BSCC to utilize Dorothy Kirby also as a juvenile hall. Both of those things, depending on how they would have an impact, so for example, If, in fact, we go down the line, as the court has indicated their preference, to use Dorothy Kirby for predisposition youth that may be developmentally disabled, as was in the original plan, that would have a small effect on moving and lowering the population from LP. And then dependent on whether BSCC finds that we're in compliance at NIDORF, there may be some more space there for the juvenile hall there from population that could go from LP. So there's two things that are happening that could still drive down that population, but nonetheless, the re-inspection should take place irrespective of what the population is by the end of August.

Okay, I know that one of the reasons we moved our young, our girls and gender expansive youth from Dorothy Kirby to Campus Kilpatrick, and now we have seen that there have been incidents involving placement youth which sort of begets the question around need for additional services and support. And some of these issues are new given the transfer to that new location. So are you planning to adjust the services made available to young people if you're looking to repopulate Dorothy Kirby? Is that a possibility? Are you working with DMH or DCFS? To address this, what, what are we going to do to I feel like we moved our girls and gender expansive youth from Kirby. To campus Kilpatrick and hope that we were trying to solve some issues and campus Kilpatrick was a place where we could have taken on more population of boys, which is sort of the challenge at LP so. How are we going to get there, given the movements we've made.

It's definitely a work in progress. At no point have we stopped thinking about, and we have Superintendent Binion working with the other departments on what other services can be provided there. I think that the level of services, for example, from DMH, they've provided testimony before, is higher there than it is at any of our other sites. So it's not due to a lack of attempting to provide services from other departments. It's just that we've had to face the reality that... We have a population that was involved in, I'm trying to say this in the nicest way possible, while the predispositioned girl population was at LP, many of the same things that we're seeing at Kilpatrick were occurring. It's just that it was within the larger context of LP. For example, the acting out, the incidents of violence, they were occurring at LP in the girls' section. And folks that visited would tell you that's a tough unit. And we haven't been able to fully wrap our arms around, even in this new campus, on how to undo that. Some of the theories that we had in terms of providing an environment that was better suited to provide it, the population broken up into smaller just hasn't borne the fruit that we thought it would and so we continue to work with our partners dyd with the mh to bring more services there still think it's the right model we simply haven't refined it sufficiently and of the 50 youth currently at kilpatrick how many are charged with non-felony or non-707b charges

I don't have the number, supervisor. The number this morning at LP is 48. And of the 48, that includes three of our girls that are there are on SYTF. And we have another 16 in placement and another small number in camp. So the juvenile hall number is somewhere around 20 or less. And I can't tell you how many of those are 707B offenses, but I can get that information for you. But we have seen both at LP and at CVK a number of youth that are being remanded to the court on warrants. And for the girls in particular, some of the warrants are also misdemeanor warrants. And the issue at hand is Superintendent Binion really goes very quickly into having MDT meetings with the team and also to reach out to the court. In these particular cases, some of these girls are hard to place. It's hard to place, to find a suitable placement for them, to relieve them there. So then the outcome is that they have to stay with us until we can find a suitable placement for them.

Is there a different kind of facility that we need to be investing in, or when you say they're hard to place, what kind of setting is needed?

I think that's a great question for us to continue to explore with OYCR. We have been working with OYCR on those other types of options that deal with the misdemeanor youth that are either homeless or having family disagreements at home that that's not the right place for them. So there are a number of options that have been presented to us from OICR called Cool Beds that San Diego County is using that we are very interested in learning more about what that looks like with them.

And I know that we have at least, oh, go ahead, Chief.

So we'll owe you the number specifically there. I thought I had it in front of me, but I just have the LP numbers. A couple of things that, just to bear in mind, which is, and we'll provide this information to the board, We'll have to break down. It's not simply what their commitment offense was, but if they're back because they had been released and then they absconded from the new place, that won't show as a new 7B offense, but it's someone who had already been put on CDP, for example. It didn't work, and so they had to come back in. That's an important number to track on the girls because we find placements for them. They're very difficult. but then the persistence how long they stay becomes a factor. I'll answer your question with respect to the placements. One of the most challenging things is that we don't have contracts that say, if you're going to enter into business with us, we need you to serve the population that we have. We can't choose who we need you to take. And so there's probably room to be had to say when vendors can refuse, or if we need to enter into different types of contracts that essentially say, we have young people with us that are going to have all of the high risk markers. And if you can't work with folks that have all of the high-risk markers, then we need to work with somebody else. So what will happen is that there are plenty of vendors out there, but some of our kids are exceedingly challenged with dynamic factors that have to do with conduct. And so they take a look at it, and they see this is going to be a disruptor, or this frankly just isn't worth the amount of money that you're paying for us. So there's probably room. to have some contracting best practices or work to be had with some of our partners and come up with a way of saying, more than simply having more beds, which I think is what we have focused on here, simply saying that it's this type of bed and services that we need and or if you have a vacancy, we need you to take the young person that we have with whatever challenges they have, if the judge is willing to place them there.

Well, in speaking with Dr. Wong yesterday, I know that at least DMH is having some of those conversations with our potential contractors with other populations. And so if we need to have conversations around what placements are available or what kind of settings need to be created, I think that's a conversation this board has articulated. If we need to be creating new types of settings, we need that direction from you all. and what it is actually we need in order to help make sure that our young people or anyone in our care is in the right kind of placement for what they're experiencing. And to that end, it's my understanding there's currently one pregnant youth in custody at Kilpatrick. So what are we doing to help get that young person to a different placement?

Yes, Supervisor, the process has been very aggressive from the onset of any time we learn of a pregnant youth in our custody, that they are quickly assembled into an MDT, provided with support, working with the parents if this is something that was unknown to the family and to the youth, and then the work around finding placement immediately. In this case in particular, when we went back to court last week, There was not a decision by the court to release her. She has another court date coming up next week. We'll continue to work on that. There was some issues in the home that were a little problematic and basically provided some obstacles for us to get her released. But she is being surrounded by care and support there by the staff and the team and through the MDT work.

Is there, so do we see that there will be an option for her to go to an alternative placement?

I believe that that's going to come on this next court hearing, but I don't want to put all of my eggs in one basket, but we're hopeful that this is moving in that direction.

Okay. I know you've had success with this population and finding alternative placements, so I just want to make sure that we're continuing that focus, so thank you for that. Another focus that we've had in my office is on our CSEC youth, and I want to turn to the child trafficking unit This is the third time in the last six months we've discussed this topic, and it's still unacceptable for me that there remain unanswered questions about how our department is serving our young people who are going through this experience. Just recently, Governor Newsom signed an executive order focused on preventing sex trafficking and supporting survivors. The executive order made clear that this work can't be done in silos, that we must work collaboratively with service providers and survivors to ensure that survivors are getting the services and supports they need and deserve. Your written report back did not present a plan or explanation of services that we're currently offering these young people. It's my understanding that the PowerPoint you provided speaks to what you would like to do going forward, but I'm still not satisfied by what it is we're doing now. I understand that several of the staff currently in the unit are not full duty staff, meaning they're not directly interacting with youth, so we need to understand what services are available to our young people now, not in the future when probation is more stable. If there are barriers in place that limit the work dyd or DC FS can do, how does this probation plan ensure that all of the youth eligible for these services are getting them and that we're not leaving state dollars on the table to address this concern.

Thank you, Supervisor. I'm just going to address the component of the staffing piece, and then my colleagues here can address some of the specifics on the rest. I think there's a misunderstanding here. When we use light duty staff that has restrictions, those aren't restrictions to not have contact with you, to not provide services, to not do that component. So part of the restructuring of the unit has been aimed at a few things. One of them making it less dependent on having peace officers so that because we have a need in the facilities and it's volatile on who can be sent, that the unit can continue to function with non-sworn staff. So the long-term presentation that you've been told is that the unit would be composed of few peace officers and then probation assistants or analysts would do the rest of it. In the interim, because we still have to promulgate an examination for The PA position and because we do have plenty of DPO twos that are on light duty status that the fastest way for us to both keep it. Full is to use those in the probation assistant area long term so really this isn't that the unit is being shorted is that the fastest way to get them up and running with more staff was to use light duty. But light duty staff, of course, all have individual restrictions. But typically the restrictions, if they're being put in there, is not that they can't have contact provide services to youth. They may be restricted from doing things like going to the home, just as an example. That's different than you have the staff that is full duty that could do that.

But in this particular unit, sometimes the concerns might be what is going on in the home. And so I just want to make sure that we have the staff who are able to actually fully deliver the kind of service and the level of service that we need.

That's a point well taken. This is sort of, this is actually better staffed than most of the field. So we are listening to this as a priority. If you take a look of traditionally what the unit has done and how many of these contacts are being doing being done in the field and we take a total number of the whole universe that we think that we have. The staffing packages that we have now calls for very small case loads and for the combination of the light duty that will eventually be non sworn. and the supervisors to be able to do this work. So I don't think we're off in terms of the composition. I think that we have some policy fixes that we need to do. For example, on the side of how we're receiving referrals, some fixes with respect to that. But in terms of the composition, they're not being shorted by having the light duty staff, from my perspective.

So are you currently contracted with service providers for this population?

We have a number of service providers that we can contract with from DYD.

But are any of them actively contracted at this point, or just available if you so choose?

Available for sure, and I can't tell you with full assurance that they're already actively Doing things, the ones that I do know of from DYD are the Young Women's Freedom Center is teaching a curriculum at CVK called Becoming Me. And ARC...

Specifically for CSEC youth?

Correct. And ARC just hired a credible messenger to work with the post-dyspo youth at CVK.

And how are young people getting referred to these service providers?

So the referral services for the... the youth in CSET come from IDC. The intake and detention center makes the notification and referral to the CTU and the CTU sets them up for assessments. At CVK, we have a CTU DPO that is on the ground daily working through the assessments.

So if SB 794 funds go to probation, but they can go to fund the services that you said DYD is providing, why don't we just transfer the full amount to DYD?

Thank you, Supervisor. I just want to make sure that we're clear that this is not a pot of funding that is actually given to the department. It's a reimbursement-based type of funding, and so you have to incur the costs submit the claim. It then goes to DCFS, who is our county, if you will, person or entity that's responsible for submitting that claim to the state. And then you are reimbursed those funds. So it's not a pot of money that we can then transfer to another department.

Okay, several of our community partners have indicated that organizational changes within probation's trafficking program have made it more difficult to obtain timely consultation and support for high-risk youth. So how is the department assessing whether leadership and staffing changes have affected service quality and placement stability, and how are these staffing challenges impacting our young people getting referred to services?

I don't doubt the veracity of that at all. I think that like every other area in field services, when we've had to move folks into the facility, there have been things missed. It is their communication back to us that is important. We now have a different structure. I think what Chief Deputy Argos described, an on-site person there, the fact that the superintendent is personally involved and is holding these interdisciplinary meetings, that's how now we're finding areas that could be improved or that were lost. The referral component was a shortcoming on our part in that the majority of the cases were being referred through IDC when in reality we should have these other avenues of contracted people for those referrals to come in. That's what they're currently working on now to make sure that we have a vendor, a third party that is getting those referrals to us and it's not simply coming from probation staff That's currently in process to fix that component of it. The funding component is, and sometimes we just have to say things out loud, we have no reason to short DYD or anyone else that is going to provide services. It's been difficult to make clear that we're a pass-through for those funds, and if those services and that is incurred and it complies with the requirements by the state, then we'll pass those funds up. There have been a little bit of growing pains, I think, on multiple sides here. One of them is on what can be reimbursed. And so the accounting has been different. If you're providing for reimbursement, something that the state doesn't allot for, we can't do that. Also, the money then isn't reallocated for probation for use. It goes back to the state. So we want to make sure that moving forward, we're sending as little money back as we need to, but we don't, you know, probation has no gain in maintaining the funds because we can't use it.

Is our DYD director or somebody from DYD here? Just to see if we can connect these dots. And who in probation is leading the reform on CSEC, you know, to continue to be the point person on this issue? Is that you?

Its director, Felicia Davis, is the new supervisor over the CTU, and she reports to the acting senior director, Suzanne Lyles, and Suzanne Lyles reports to deputy director, Gabriella Aguilera.

Okay, so should we be working directly with her or should we be working with you?

Work with me and I'll make sure that it gets to the right point of contacts on those things.

Okay, so they've been addressing, you know, probation has been addressing that they are passed through for funding that could also go to DYD. So can you talk about what DYD's experience has been and see if we can figure this out. Are you able to take on the support for CSEC youth now and so long as you're able to access these funds?

Yes, absolutely. Thank you, Supervisor. We have been working closely with probation and talking through those sort of growing pains in the process, but are on the same page about what it could look like moving forward, which is understanding the reimbursement limitations, you know, happy to continue to be in that process where we submit for reimbursement as long as we have an agreement about what the amount is up front and what the process is. If that makes sense for us, we are ready and have been supporting.

So can you take on that full, if probation were to give you that responsibility directly and you were able to submit for reimbursement on those funds, can DYD do that?

We have the capacity to do so and are happy to do it at any level depending on what else is being used with those funds.

Okay, so it sounds like D.Y.D. is saying that they can do, are we able to make that transfer happen then?

I'm sorry, Supervisor, when you say transfer, because right now under statute, only probation and DCFS are allowed to submit the claims. Now we can contract with D.Y.D. for the services, and then they submit the claims to us, and then we pass it on to DCFS.

Okay, well.

And that process is occurring. Okay. and they have submitted expenditures, I think up to about 225 this fiscal year. Unfortunately, the deadline for their last submission was not met, and so it will be carried over to next year for submission.

Okay. Do you want to respond to that?

Yeah, I was just going to agree with Chief Deputy Williams and say, when I said we have the capacity, what I meant specifically is we can continue to work with these providers in the process that exists. But we understand, you know, given the statutory limitation that we can continue to do this reimbursement process with probation, no problem.

So the way it's working currently now is the best way that it can work between DYD and probation?

I think in terms of how the reimbursement works with the state, my understanding is yes, of course, I defer to probation. If it's helpful on the ground in terms of how invoicing works and how we work together as departments, we're actively talking about that and making sure that that's even smoother for 26, 27 to avoid some of these growing pains we felt last year.

I think, Supervisor, through all of this, we've all learned a great deal about this process and the process the billing and how it's relegated to probation and DCFS. I was speaking with Director Carroll a couple weeks ago, and Taylor, and I learned a lot about the availability of the services that they provide from CAST LA, LGBTQ Center, the National Center for Youth Law, Zoe International, Saving Innocents, Young Women's Freedom Center. One of the things that David pointed out, though, that was kind of a, an issue was that some of these providers were billing directly to probation and DYD was never seeing it. So that was creating the delays in the services. One of the things that Director Davis and Suzanne Lyles have put together is they're putting better systems in place to capture these referrals, the services, the metrics, and data behind the service provided as well. So I think we are really strengthening the model that we have now.

Okay, I'm hearing a lot of administrative challenge, but at the end of the day, it's really our young people who don't get served if we don't figure this out. And so my concern is if there isn't more support provided, then ultimately programs might not be able to be provided if we don't figure this out.

So I just... Yeah, if I could, because I'm... I'm a plain English type of person myself, and so the way I would propose to approach it is more of a challenge, meaning a lot of what you've heard is, as you said, the administrative portion, how much money is allocated, what fiscal year does it go into, and that's important for us operationally because we have responsibilities, legal responsibilities. But what I would say is that I would invite DYD or the other folks that we have provide as many services as you can, and then put the challenge on my doorstep to figure out if it exceeds the allotment or not. That hasn't happened. So what's typically happened is that either the services that are being billed don't comply, or we're waiting for the money to be moved up front. But I'd like to approach it the other way, which is, To your point, it's about services for the young people that we have. We already know it's a limited number. It's not going to bankrupt probation or the county. So DYD, please proceed and provide, go to a ceiling, provide as many services as you can, contract for as many services as you can, and then bill us and we will pay it. Because this isn't fully reimbursed anyway. It's only a portion of it. So I doubt that we will exceed the capacity that you all want and that the county can pay back to them at this point. If we get close to that, then I'll come back here and say, can we please halt? The amount of money is beyond and let sort of the county make a decision on that money. So I would encourage proceed, contract for as many services as possible for this population.

And do you have, does DOID have any problem with what the Chief just said?

No problem with what the chief just said. And just as an example, at the end of last fiscal year, we were able to, you know, as we were realizing we didn't have clarity on the amount of SB 794 funds, we're able to just say, you know what, our providers are ready to increase their services for this important population. And so let's see what funding DYD can put on the table to, you know, reach that expansion.

What I just heard him say is go for it and they're going to figure out how to pay for it.

Well, I think, and maybe I was giving an example of, for us, when we go for it, we have to know that there is funding available so that we're not putting our providers in a situation where they can't. So how do we square that?

And I would just say from a fiscal standpoint, we do need to make sure we have a contractual amount because they can't just contract open-ended. It has to be a set amount. So we do have to come to some sort of agreement from a fiscal standpoint on what the dollar amount will be so they can appropriately contract for that amount.

And this is why it is mind-numbing for all of us, I know, to drill down to this level. But I think if we don't figure this out, it's going to take this level of... No, and we will.

We'll come to an agreement on achieving what you both are asking for, but from a fiscal standpoint, making sure it's something that we can contract for and that we can fiscally... be responsible and pay for it.

My challenge is knowing that all of my partners are government entities that know how this works. Nobody's going to come back and say, we billed $2 million. It's going to be, we came up with another $50,000. Now, the devil's in the details. If you come back and you bill for something that's not covered by the state, I can't cover that. So all of that will take coordination here. For the board, And I know there's a limit. You can only provide services for the small population after which there's just nothing left.

Well, we gave a motion last week, and I know that I heard a willingness from the chief to figure it out. I heard a desire for us to figure out what the infrastructure needs to be. So I'm gonna give you some homework to work with the chief executive officer to report back to the board in 14 days with a detailed report of the total amount of funds available for probation CSEC-related services, including SB 794 funds, net county costs, any other funding used for CSEC-related services, This report should include information for FY25-26 and 26-27, and work with the chief executive officer to report back to the board in 30 days with a detailed analysis of exactly how probation is using its available funds during FY25-26, which should include all funding sources, including state, federal, and local funds. and report back to the board in 14 days with a detailed explanation on how referrals to CSEC services are made in probation's current model, including referrals at Campus Kilpatrick, and how that referral process is impacted by staffing shortages and limitations in staff availability, the time between a youth asking for services in a completed referral, and how many referrals probation made for CSEC-related services during fiscal year 25-26. i'm committed i feel my colleagues remain committed alongside me to focusing on the care being provided to our youth i i heard expressed a desire to get there but i don't see yet the tools and organization that's necessary to get to where we need so i think i need to see how you're putting it all together and in order to help us get there and make sure that the desire that the chief expressed to just and make sure that we have the resources to support it. That's ideally where we need to be. And so I think these are the pieces that are gonna help fill in the puzzle for me. So thank you.

Thank you. Supervisor Janice Han.

Thank you, Hilda El Solis. Thank you, Supervisor Horvath, for kind of drilling down on that, because I know my staff has also been concerned about that. I feel like the only missing piece on it, and I'm not sure it needs to be the report back, but it seems like there was the... amount of funding that's available and then there was all then there was the services that may be unreimbursable because they're outside the guideline i feel like that still is the missing piece for me is to make sure that dyd understands which services are reimbursable and which is not. That I haven't heard.

Well, that's why I included NCC and other funding because they may not be reimbursable under that Senate bill funding.

Right, but still I feel like that's a little bit of a miscommunication. But I do respect DYD for saying we can't just go out and do services unless we are sure that they will be reimbursed. So I feel like that's also the missing piece and maybe probation can... work on making sure they understand what is and what isn't reimbursable in terms of those particular services. So again, so my staff and I are focusing a little bit on the intake and detention. So thank you for the data that we got in this report. I know a lot of work was put into it, especially because of the many challenges with data collection. And just to reiterate the fact that I believe the more we can invest in decarceration, the better off everyone is. When we release youth who are safe out of detention, who are safe to be out of detention, the numbers at our facilities will go down, making it a better, less chaotic environment for the youth who remain there and for the staff who are there to care for them. And this data in this report shows that since the early 2000s, youth incarceration in California has gone down significantly. But the report also tells a story that the youth who are currently detained must be detained. And there is little else in the department's control to release more young people. So I just have a few questions about that. So I understand that probation must detain certain youth after they are arrested at intake because of mandatory detention requirements like youth with 707 offenses, bench warrants and firearm crimes. But the law, as I understand it, does not require probation to recommend detention after intake at that initial detention hearing in front of a judge. In fact, it's probation's legal obligation to only recommend detention when youth would pose a risk to either themselves or the public if they were released. I'm just curious, do you think there is times when probation in the past has recommended detention in front of a judge that could have been a recommendation for release?

Absolutely.

I am sure there are times when probation is aired and or there could have been more work done to find alternatives to present to the court. I mean, ultimately, if you take a look at the same data, for example, on the CDP on the front end, we're recommending more releases for CDP than the judges are accepting. It's also possible and likely that we've made errors in the other direction. We've recommended releases or released on our own. We don't know because we don't really have a sophisticated way of looking at recidivism or to see if our judgment for risk has been on point.

Yeah, I appreciate that. Yeah, the data shows that of the 62 times probation recommended a youth be placed on ankle monitor at their initial detention hearing, the court concurred with only 36 of those recommendations. However, this data does not show the number of times probation recommended detention, but the court ordered release. So in other words, there's times when the court is more conservative than probation, but there are also times when they're more lenient. And I'm wondering, do you have the data that would provide that whole picture, both the times you recommended release and the court disagreed and the times you recommended detention, but the court ordered them to be released either at home or on an ankle monitor? And could we see that? Yeah.

Yes, Supervisor Hunt, I think we can get that for you, but I think what is also important at this time, our director over IDC, Director Marroquin, has been providing training to the court on the LADD scores. We're entering the LADD scores now on the court reports, which are much more helpful to the court officers. I know there's another belief that they want some more information related to that risk, but that is the direction that the IDC has been going with the training to the court officers, to the public defender's office. We've appeared in POC with Director Marroquim at least three consecutive times, I believe, to continue to answer the questions from the POC on how we can strengthen it and make it better. I know this board has asked a number of times of, what does decarceration look like at LA County Probation? And we are really drilling down to that. There are 10 focus areas for juveniles with 47 KPIs that we've initially identified to see how does that all interplay? How does it work? How is each section, each unit of probation working towards that end? And then we've also gone another step towards adult supervision with 11 focus areas and 30 KPIs as well. It's like, how do we help them successfully release and discharge from supervision? So we're thankful for the focus that you've been placing on the department, and we are drilling down to look and give you better answers on what that looks like.

Yeah, I mean, again, with all of our challenges, I just think, you know, less population in our facilities is always better. It's better for compliance, better for our staff particularly, and it's better for the young people who are in our custody.

So there's another... Just add one thing because I know that maybe I've mentioned it here before or maybe you've heard it at POC is also the... the intake officer is turning away a large majority of requests from law enforcement also to detain. So I think sometimes that is not captured and we're trying to do a better job on our reports to show what that looks like. I know for a seven or eight month period, it was almost 700 turn aways and we asked the local law enforcement to cite and release.

So that's another area that we really- Yeah, so maybe on the next report, we can get a more complete picture. Let me ask another question. So a large number of our girls and gender expansive youth are detained on bench warrants. So this means they did not commit a new crime, but are detained because they did not follow the conditions of their release or didn't show up in court. I mean, my team thinks we could make some more headway in decarcerating our facilities if we made progress in this area. Is there an opportunity here to advocate to the courts to change their bench warrant protocol? So either probation or the courts could use more discretion when determining whether it is necessary to detain youth who have bench warrants.

Yes, Supervisor, and part of my expression of saying that's kind of the low-hanging fruit. I believe that we need some discretion. I know that Judge Espinosa has been very open about it and wants to engage in more conversations. So we're hoping that we have much more deep conversations about that and what that would look like. Because we also have to weigh what that does to the youth that we're releasing as well. Of course. Well taken. I think we have a lot of room there.

Yeah, well, if there's anything that this board could do to also support that in our mission to, again, if possible, you know, particularly for the girls, you know, to keep them from being reincarcerated, we would be happy to help you in that effort. So thank you, and again, thanks again. I meant to open up with this. Thanks for, again, opening the pools. Big, huge step in the right direction, particularly this summer. And I was pleased to know that our compound youth are able to swim because before that was off limits for them. And I really appreciate that, that compound. And even though we black topped the basketball courts, which is better for playing, it seems like it has increased the heat in that compound by 20 degrees. It just feels a lot hotter in there. I mean, they're not out all the time. Obviously they're in luckily air conditioned units, but really appreciate the fact that the pools are open. I do hope we can... make some progress on the swimming lessons, because there's a lot of young people who don't know how to swim. And it's such a skill that, you know, I believe everyone should learn how to swim. It's a sport that you can use your entire life until you're a senior. You can continue to swim. So Anything we can do, again, to support the swimming lessons piece of it. And, yeah, and I was happy to provide the swimming caps for some of the young men who did not want to get in the water without a swimming cap. Thank you.

Thank you. Supervisor Barger.

Thank you. I'll be short and to the point. Well, then. Thank you, Supervisor Horvath, for bringing up the issues surrounding the youth that are at Kilpatrick and the CSEC protocol and what needs to be done. And I'm still concerned about that. And I guess with the SP-794, I like to keep it simple, and I feel like it's become a little complicated. DYD has a role. You have the providers. You all do the billing. The providers, that is their focus. Their focus is working with this population. So just do it. I don't think that's a big ask. I think what's frustrating is that the providers probably have already come in contact with some of the youth that we're talking about. you know, the expectation is to not make this a bureaucratic maze or complicated situation. Just do your job, right? And as far as DYD goes, you know, my question to the department is, when you look at community detention programs, are you working with DYD and other departments to make sure the youth have the services or programming, or DYD, are you taking the lead on that in terms of making sure that youth that are in the community are getting services and everything that they need in order to succeed?

I can take a first pass at that question. Thank you, Supervisor. I know we have had conversations about that population in particular, youth on supervision.

but aren't having an active role in terms of- What do you see your role, what do you see DYD's role as? Do you view it as a department where we, the board, dictate what we want you to do, or how do you see DYD operating in this county?

Great question. We have a strategic plan, a multi-year strategic plan.

No, but how do you see the services that you provide, the reason why you were set up,

We see our responsibility to be to serve all young people in the county and to reduce the size and scope of youth justice system involvement.

So I would suggest that you work with all departments, including DCFS, to make sure that we are connecting youth to the services and programming so that your strategic plan is to keep them out of the system. that you keep them out of the system. Because if we're putting them in community detention programs and we're not providing them with access to resources, which by the way, I'm sure my colleagues could talk to their team and could tell stories about parents who call desperate to have their child put into something so they don't end up in our camps. And they don't know where to turn. They are desperate.

Absolutely. And I do just want to raise, you know, I mentioned the specific conversation about community detention programs and youth on supervision, but we do have a wonderful program called Reentry Action for Youth, or RAE, that does overlap with this population that we took initiative to start. and find funding for, and expand, and that program is really promising to meet this need, and we are constantly looking at ways to expand it, exactly to your point, Supervisor, about how we can take initiative, collaborate with other departments, and do what you're saying.

So what portion of the CareFirst dollars do you get, the Measure J dollars? Do you know off the top of your head?

I don't know the percentage off the top of my head, but we can absolutely get it for you.

But you get money, correct?

We do.

And that, I would think, rather than waiting for probation to say, I would think that you would team up with all of our departments, and you've got resources allocated, and quite frankly, that's what the resources are for. I mean, I did not support Measure J, but I did support the fact that we should set aside money to invest in our youth, whether it be in programs like homeboys industry, or boys and girls club, or big brothers, big sisters, whatever it is. But I just hope that we're more proactive. Because when I asked that question, I would think that automatically the answer would be we have linked, the minute we find out a youth is put into a detention program, here's what we do. We reach out to the family, we do this, and all that kind of stuff. And if that's not being done, I think that's a missed opportunity for us. And I'm not trying to be hard on you. But I mean, in just listening to all the discussions here. I keep saying it, keep it simple. I mean, look at it through the lens of these are youth that are just that they are going to be released into the community, whether it is when they finish doing their their time at our camps or our halls, or they're put out on diversion. That's our one opportunity to make sure that we help them turn their lives around. It doesn't define who they are moving forward. And I just don't want to lose that opportunity. So thank you, Madam Chair. Thank you.

Thank you. And I don't have a lot of questions. And I thank you, Supervisor Horvath, for really drilling down on the funding for SB 794, because I do have questions about that and wanting to make sure that we cut through the red tape. And it seems like There needs to be more clarity in terms of what can be paid for, for services that DYD is wanting to provide, but you should be up front, meet, collaborate, talk about, this is in the standard, or this is the metric we have to follow, so they're not spinning their wheels, and meanwhile, we're getting the money accordingly prepared. and I get it that you have to pay out, get the receipts for what their service is, but is there a way to get a little smaller task force involved in just that, administrative staff? Your administrative staff, probation, and your fiscal side as well, DYD, to get this going, because I mean, we should not be leaving anything on the table at all, and we can't afford to. And the numbers should be better. we should be lowering our numbers. And I get it that you're talking about, Guillermo, about the women that have some issues that are really difficult. They may come from torn homes, they're trafficked, or they can't go home because they don't have good relations, or they were homeless. So I really wanna see that we have the right type of And that's a standard that's higher. And that's where we need to have the professional, clinical help available. But to be able to assess and diagnose these students, these ICOM students, appropriately. So that we're not just handing them off like that or sending them to people that... You know, may not have the appropriate licensing skills to treat the individuals, because this is we're talking about a life of maybe 17 years where this young person may have been traumatized. It's not going to happen and get cured in one one session. but it should be something that's done methodically, that's charted, and we can see progress being made, and all of that. And I know you know all that, but I'm just saying that to me, it's not a large number, so we ought to be able to try to deal with it. And with the young girls, again, sorry to hear that we have a young pregnant woman there, but again, I don't think she needs to be there. And I think you need to try harder on getting some other appropriate care for her and work with whoever it is, the courts or whatever it is. And I'm a little... concerned about the stigma that I kind of hear about the girls that were at LP, that they're the same ones that got transferred to Kilpatrick, and they have these issues and concerns. The settings may be different, the person is still the same, but the treatment has to change. And if the treatment doesn't change, you're not gonna get any results. So that's my, that's just what I'm talking about from Hilda Solis. And I do care about Camp Kirkpatrick because I represented it for many years, more than seven years. And I was always in awe of the services that they provided and the faculty that were there. And the Kirby, I'm sorry, Kirby. What am I, I'm sorry, Kirby. having a moment here, Kirby, that really gave full attention to their students. They knew them by name. They knew their capacities. They knew what their reading levels were and participation. If you could set that standard at every camp or every hall, then I think you have a winning ticket here. But I don't see that happening. And I know you have to call on other departments and resources, but maybe there has to be something very dramatic that happens that says this has got to be the standard and we're not gonna tolerate anything different. And you'll see results from students because I do remember visiting there several times and having discussions with students who said this was the best thing that could happen to them. They were so motivated by, not by themselves, with their peers, but more importantly, by faculty, and they were actually being attentive to them, and knew them probably better than their parents did, I would imagine, because there was trust, and that's something, I mean, I know that students there are, our youth stay there for a certain amount of time, but that time's precious. And I would say we really need to have a come to Jesus meeting about how we deliver these services to these kids. And I get it. You're responsible for state funding, formulas you have to meet and codes and all that. But aside from that, it's the human element. And the human element, sometimes I think it's pushed aside here and our outcomes aren't as best as they can be. And that's not to say you haven't tried. I know you have, but I think we have to do more. The population is much smaller than it was when I first started here. So I hope that resonates with some people. Thank you.

It does, Supervisor. You had me at drama. I do attempt to being dramatic like I did earlier in my challenge that came across as fiscally imprudent, but what I would like to do instead is I want to make a couple, just to make sure, we're not up here often, and I want to make sure the people that are hearing, I'm not misspeaking or they're hearing something differently. Not stigmatizing the population of girls or those that are Kilpatrick. But from time to time, I do have to set the record straight because there seems to be very short memories that much of what we're seeing there was occurring in our other locations. That's not an excuse for saying that we don't have to do more because the whole point of this was to make an improvement, not to maintain the status quo. But I do reject that the setting is making matters worse. It's just that we now know definitively in one location what's occurring. But it's not that there's new violence because they're in that location. That was occurring where they were before an LP. And then the last thing, I would like to implore the supervisors to consider the following. Probation is going to continue to come here and not provide what you want, which is essentially more releases at intake or more releases and an impact when it's really a judicial decision. But it may be that there are these two other areas where we should start focusing. One of them being, if the majority of contacts with law enforcement and arrests do not result in a booking, what are we doing to make sure that that kid doesn't come around a second time? That's the missed opportunity, it's the prevention. They've already been identified because probation didn't take them today, All that means is that we've deferred because in all likelihood, within the next 30 days, they're going to have another contact because the intervention hasn't been there. If we really want to reduce the population, really, it's in that area. And that area doesn't mean that we're doing risk assessment improperly. it means that we didn't intervene sort of at the first. And then the second is the juvenile justice system in LA County is missing the in-between, meaning when there's a violation, for example, on a bench warrant, it means that the young person was placed they left. Simply saying we're going to not produce them in custody really isn't an option usually because miraculously there hasn't been another placement or another location. The real question is what do other jurisdictions do? And jurisdictions have halfway houses in between community correctional facilities that are run by probation that are short of detention but that are structured so that you don't have to take somebody into detention you have an option for somewhere for them to go that has 24-7 supervision, that's missing in the LA context. In the LA context, you have to go back into custody so that we can present you before the judge, and then we look for a placement. It's that in-between component that we certainly have not worked on as part of our budget or with our partners to say, stop thinking of it in the direction of going out, but in how they come back in and that recidivism. Is there a place for them that is more than electronic monitoring, but less than detention, in which they can stay in the community and still be presented to the court? I think until we fix that component or those two areas, you know, we're going to keep putting a lot of resources to an area where there's very little juice, but we have these two areas in which we can make a tremendous impact on the population and how the kids are going back into the system.

Forward to seeing that plan and having input from our partners. I agree with you. I don't disagree with you. But I do think the urgency is now.

And if I may, supervisor, just to build on what was just said and share a little bit to the earlier conversation about our reentry action for youth program and the way that we are making the best use of the dollars, the Care First dollars we have available. I just want to share with everyone here that as an example for what the chief was just lifting up, we do have for our reentry action for youth program a pilot program. co-located at the Inglewood Courthouse, a partnership with Judge Espinosa and probation and the defense agencies and many partners, where the focus really is on this population of youth on community detention and figuring out how we can learn best about what prevention looks like for this population, what kind of wraparound support they need, and how we can innovate to get them the flexible funding that they need for their basic needs and really think creatively about the particular ways to cut off that pipeline to future justice system involvement. So I wanted to share that as well. I'm happy to share more if folks are interested.

That's good. It has to expand, I would say. Okay, thank you very much. With that, Executive Officer, hearing no more discussion from the board, let's go to public comment.

Will the following individuals please come forward and staff will assist you? Ian Kersey, Claudia Jerez, Roy Humphreys, your line is open. Please begin.

Thank you. These issues have been discussed ad nauseum for decades, and you still try to make a silk purse out of a salger. You fail fundamentals as to who wants to work in a violent environment with one arm tied behind them. Humans live and learn by pain and pleasure. Instead, inside and outside lock up. The county robs Peter to pay Paul while spending hundreds of millions on Biden illegals, and the legacy illegals live have lived for decades under county slavery. As to no sophisticated tracking method computers, call Elon Musk. Tell him I sent you. Decreased numbers is a two-edged sword of truth and lies. Thank you.

Thank you. Carly Alba, your line is open. Please begin.

Members of the Board, my name is Carly Alba, speaking on behalf of the Supervising Deputy Probation Officers Association, Teamsters Local 986. We appreciate the Board's ongoing care for our youth and the Department and thank Probation's leadership for today's update. We understand the Board's Care First, Jail Last policy, but true Care First policies cannot succeed on the backs of exhausted and understaffed workforce. Our supervisors and officers work daily under critical staffing shortages, mandatory overtime, and growing safety concerns. To deliver real care and achieve lasting compliance, our workforce must be supported. Our members deserve to be recognized as an essential part of this solution, not treated as the problem. We ask the board to invest in our workforce by improving staffing, retaining experienced employees, and listening to frontline supervisors. Compliance requires more than just reports. It requires supporting the people carrying out the work every day. We deeply care about these youth, and we know that they are the priority, and we simply want to be part of the solution. 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.

Good afternoon board. The youth is one of my things that I hoard very dear and I have a little bit of time. But I believe there needs to be a massive and aggressive campaign to eradicate unworkable social norms that are destructive. and youth can be molded like a pot of clay, provide the proper instruction, direction. I guess the question is, do we have the patience and the funding to actually provide the youth this type of a special treatment? because that is something that they should already know. They should already know how to behave. They should already know how to have proper social norms. They should already know how to have order, and they don't. And those youth that go to these youth facilities, they don't.

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

Madam Chair, members of the board, this report will be received and filed.

Hearing no objections, that will be the order.

Madam Chair, it's our office's understanding that Supervisor has motions to be presented to be placed on a future agenda.

Thank you. Colleagues, there has been a great deal of discussion recently about earthquakes and the potential impact on our region. Having grown up in Southern California, we've always lived with the notion that the big one and the importance of being prepared, and it's something that we do during the month of October. But I am convinced that given the LA Times recently reported that the extended quiet period along the San Andreas Fault has not reduced risk, but in fact has concentrated it. With that in mind, the motion I will be introducing today will be considered for a vote next Tuesday is focused on strengthening and earthquake preparedness. Given the many disasters that we've all been encountering, and those that we will undoubtedly face, it is essential that we as a county are adequately prepared and that we also are equipped to help our residents prepare. The directive of the motion will be as following, that the Board of Supervisors request that the Office of Emergency Management provide a verbal presentation to the Board on September 29th meeting regarding the county's own earthquake preparedness efforts, including the current readiness of county staff and facilities, any existing gaps that must be addressed, and a plan for how the county will ensure continued service to residents and businesses while ensuring community safety and infrastructure needs in the event of a major earthquake. The presentation should include public works, fire, sheriff, CEO, asset management branch, and all relevant county departments that have a role in emergency preparedness and in response, and engage key stakeholders such as Dr. Lucy Jones and representatives from the academic institutions such as Caltech and UCLA. And I further move that the Board of Supervisors direct the Office of Emergency Management, in collaboration with the CEO, county-wide communications, to develop and implement an emergency earthquake readiness public awareness program that includes the following. An online Know Your Risk portal, leveraging available resources through the California Office of Emergency Services and other partners, provide accessible preparedness tools, resources, and information to help residents, businesses, schools, and community-based organizations prepare for a potential earthquake. A multilingual public education outreach campaign leading up to and surrounding the great shakeout day on October 15th, utilizing traditional media, digital platforms, social media, county facilities, transit partners, and community organizations to support emergency earthquake preparedness and recommendations for sustained year-round public engagement strategies that move beyond annual preparedness events and establish earthquake readiness as an ongoing public safety priority for Los Angeles County. So I'm going to bring that in. And then my last read-in motion is that last Friday, a mural at the Pasadena Jewish Temple in the center was defaced with anti-Semitic graffiti. The mural featuring a large, bright orange poppy flower was created as a symbol of hope resilience, and solidarity. In response to the previous anti-Semitic vandalism act that targeted the synagogue earlier this year, these incidents have deeply affected a congregation and community that is still in the process of recovering from the Eaton fire. The Sheriff's Department is investigating both incidents as hate crimes. Let me be clear. Acts of hate have no place in this county. We must stand in solidarity with our Jewish community and reaffirm our commitment to fostering an environment of respect, inclusion, and understanding. So anyone with information on the incident is urged to contact the Sheriff's Department or Crime Stopper Hotline. So next week we'll vote on a motion that the Board of Supervisors reestablish the offer of a reward and increase the amount to $20,000 in exchange for information leading to the identification, apprehension, and conviction of the person or persons responsible for the acts of vandalism at the Pasadena Jewish Temple and Center. Thank you, Madam Chair.

That objection.

Okay. We will now move on to general public comment. At this time, we will hear from members of the public wishing to address the board on general public comment. This is an opportunity for the public to address the board on subject matters within the board's jurisdiction, but not on items on the meeting agenda. For members of the public joining us remotely, please use the raise hand feature if you are online and press star three if on a telephone.

We will now call in in-person speakers, and while they're coming forward, we will take remote speakers. Will the following individuals please come forward, and staff will assist you. Emmanuel Carrera-Ruedas, Colin Campbell, Rosa Samaniego, Alvaro Velasquez, Trent Hidalgo, Adelia Lara, Margarita Mendez, Yesenia Palm, Raymond Palm, Roy Humphries, your line is open. Please begin.

uh thank you and having general public comment at the end of the session is a fascist silencing as to underserved rolling heights county roads and replacement of the monument sign negligence public works multi-commercial signs turned in to be repaired failure to do so sheriff refuses to keep duke off of no gallus center medium The state fails criminal accountability of the board's men's central jail and Lasha. Thank you.

Thank you. Caller with phone number 323, last two digits 06. Your line is open. Please state your name and begin.

Yes, good day. This is Mel Bailey, District 2. I was just calling, wanted to command the board. really appreciate this morning the acknowledgement i apologize i forgot which supervisor made the acknowledgement but for the probation employees that assisted the individuals with that in with that injury i mean we'll start with the accident i just wanted to say i really appreciate you all uh acknowledging them Because, you know, honestly, I had not even heard of that incident before. And so I know when there's something negative, probation gets dragged back and forth, back and forth, and all over social media. So this was the first I heard of it. So I just wanted to say thank you for that. And for Ms. Mitchell, I'm still waiting for assistance with this orange cat that I... you know complained about recently and it's now creating a lot of damage and i don't know if it's because the cat's orange that's why we're not doing anything but we still need your help out here in district too so if you can have someone return the call i'd appreciate it and otherwise thank you all have a blessed day thank you caller with phone number seven four seven last two digits zero nine your line is open please state your name and begin

Yes. In relation to the last caller, I can understand not getting calls from Ms. Mitchell's office. I can attest I'm sure he's probably telling the truth. I have an issue with the district attorney's office where I'm a victim of a crime and many Black American crimes are being listed as misdemeanors by the assaulting person. And I presented information to the Board of Supervisors. The district attorney has not responded. Mr. Yen's office has not responded. I've been asking Mr. Yen to respond, to give copies to the Board of Supervisors. And every day, I'm sorry, every Tuesday, Mr. Yen appears at the meeting, but he still hasn't responded to me. And this is a discriminatory issue with the district attorney's office and I'm still waiting on a response from Holly Mitchell's office. Her office told me that the new chief of staff is busy getting centered into the office, and he still hasn't responded to me. And black people's crimes are being listed as misdemeanors, and I have bodily injury. I presented proof to the Board of Supervisors, and no one is contacting Nathan, the district attorney. I'm asking the Board of Supervisors to do so. And the chair office, Mr. Lee's office, doesn't answer the telephone. So I have- Thank you.

That's not correct. Caller, your line is open. Please state your name and begin. Caller, your line is open. Please begin. Caller? OK. Madam Chair, there are no other remote speakers to address the board. Remote participation for public comment is concluded. We will go to our in-person speakers. Please begin.

Hello, my name is Colin Campbell. I'm from South Pasadena, District Number 5. We're proposing a federal upgrade. It's called Stargate. And we're asking if you're willing to join in with Susie Wiles, Chief of Staff of the White House. This is to bring in new technology, fusion. And one of the benefits of going to fusion is we use ocean water. One gallon of ocean water is the equivalent of 300 to 600 gallons of gasoline. If we reduce the cost of energy, that reduces the cost of food, supplies. This is also going to fund our AI, which does life support. So life support, this upgrades EMS, police, as well as also the fire department. And we wanted to do it in Altadena and Pasadena initially. And South Pasadena is where I'm from. I'm also going to go to Glendale tonight and request them. They're in the fire zone. So I encourage you, if you're interested, please follow up with Suzy Wiles. Thank you.

Thank you. Next speaker, please. Claudia Jerez, DWC DPSS. So let me continue on this. The youth is very, very close to my heart, and it's because they are clean slate. So they can't properly be molded like a pot clay, but provided the proper instruction and direction. I guess the question is, we have to find out If we have the proper funding to provide the special attention it requires, it's important that there must be the right balance and decide if the youth are worth investing in. I believe we can invest in the youth and But it requires your motivations as a board and all the programs, and it requires their motivation to want to have order. Thank you. Next speaker, please.

Good afternoon. Once again, my name is Rosa Samaniego. At the beginning of this disaster, which is the lineage fire, my family stayed because we believed our government would protect us. We only left when conditions were bad. and unbearable for us. We actually stayed the whole week at the Red Cross due to this and because I also have a neurodivergent son who asked for refuge at this location. He felt more safe than home. You know, we called 2-1-1 for help, and we actually had the assistance to stay at the 2-1-1, the Airbnb, for 14 days. We tried to call again, but they told us to call Hilda Solis' office in regards to this, but Hilda Solis' office sent us back to over there. I have a son who suffered nosebleed on Sunday night. who just came back from the Airbnb. What are we really breathing that's making us ill? Why isn't the county helping?

Thank you. Next speaker, please.

So good afternoon. My name is and supposedly we are in a state of emergency in my community, but

But unfortunately, we do not have help for our community. And we've tried calling the phone numbers that have been provided for help.

So for example, calling the electricity company, they said that they were unable to help us out with our bills.

They said they could only provide us with extensions. We don't need extensions.

And then unfortunately, as my wife just mentioned, our children, they're bad in terms of their health. Their health keeps getting worse.

Personally, I am very concerned about our health. I would not want all of you to go through this situation, so I ask that you please do something for our community. That's all I have to say. Thank you and have a good day.

Thank you. Next speaker, please. Excuse me, there's somebody in my staff who will talk to him.

Hello, my name is Dutrell. I'm from the LA Emissary here to speak in regards to the supplemental budget and also the upcoming Measure A budget for next fiscal year in regards to the homeless youth system. The homeless youth system has been very demolished by the cuts that happened in this previous year. However, we know that last year about $150 million was recuperated in the supplemental budget, and HSH is predicting another $150 million deficit for next year. So I ask that those dots be connected and that hopefully the supplemental budget process also feed into the deficit that we're seeing for the next year. I know that there are a lot more pressing issues on the agenda. However, I do ask that you all put this in your back pocket as you are approaching the homeless budget building of this year. Also, if we know that measure A is not disabled that we were expecting it to be, please look into your local solution funds, work with COGS and different communities to find other funding streams to help make sure that the continuum of care doesn't get disrupted. Yeah, thank you.

Thank you. Next speaker, please.

Yes, my name is Trinidad Alvarez. I'm here because of the lineage issue. I'm concerned for my family.