Board of Supervisors - Regular Meeting

Thank you. so you

you

you so so so so so so so Thank you. Thank you. so so

Good morning, everyone, and welcome to our regularly scheduled meeting of the Los Angeles County Board of Supervisors. Today is Tuesday, September 15, 2026. We take note that a quorum of the board is present. The chief executive officer, the county council, deputy executive officer and the sergeant at arms are all here to assist. And I just want to say that there's a lot of traffic. We know folks are trying to make their way I know here to this meeting. And they are City Hall is preparing for their annual grito, which is this evening. So I just want to recognize that the grito is later on tonight at midnight or whatever. So anyway, we will start now with the county's land acknowledgement. Thank you. 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, Gabrieleno Tongva Nation, Gabrieleno Tongva Tribe. To learn more about the First Peoples of Los Angeles County, please visit the Los Angeles City County Native American Indian Commission website at lanai.lacounty.gov. Great. And with that, the invocation this morning will be led by Pastor Christopher A. Born, from the Second Baptist Church of Monrovia, representing the Fifth District, followed by the Pledge of Allegiance, which will be led by Renee Jimenez, former United States Marine Corps MV-22 Osprey Crew Chief from the First District. If you are able, please join us and stand.

Good morning. Dear God, we come thanking you first of all for this day, a day that we have never seen before. Thank you for your protection as we've traveled over the highways to come to this sacred place. Now, Father, today I pray your blessings over every supervisor, every staff member, every public servant, every community leader, every resident that's represented here today. I pray that you give wisdom beyond human understanding. I pray that you will give them wisdom for every complex decision that must be made. I pray that you give them discernment to know not only what to do but how to do it. I thank you for the integrity that each of these leaders walk in. I pray, Father, that their decisions will be governed with truth, that they will work being accountable, that justice and personal interest and pleasures will not just supersede the plans that you have for our community and our leaders. Thank you for unity today. Thank you, God, that you will give them the strength that they need I pray for them personally, that you will bless each and every one of them, keep them healthy and strong. I thank you for our first responders, God, that you will continue to watch over them. Now bless every program, every decision that they must make, and I thank you for this time, and I ask it in Jesus Christ our Lord. Amen.

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

Supervisor Barger.

Pastor Bourne, thank you for the inspirational words in opening our board meeting and thank you for the prayers. Please join me in welcoming Pastor Christopher A. Bourne. senior pastor of the historic Second Baptist Church of Monrovia. Born and raised in Monrovia, Pastor Born is a proud son of the community and has dedicated much of his life to faith, family, leadership, and service. He earned his degree in religion and leadership from Vanguard University in Costa Mesa. Under his leadership, Second Baptist Church continues to build upon its rich legacy while reaching a new generation through community outreach, youth and family ministry, and service beyond the walls of the church. Pastor Bourne is recognized as a respected community leader who remains committed to encouraging young people, strengthening families, and making a positive difference throughout Monrovia and I would argue the entire county. Together with his wife, Heather, and their two children, Savannah and Christopher II, Pastor Bourne continues to build a lasting legacy of faith, family, and service in the community they proudly call home. I love the theme, faith, family, and community. Pastor Bourne, thank you for joining us today, for leading us in this morning's invocation and for your faithful leadership and dedicated service to the Monrovia community. We are lucky to have you and we treasure everything you do on behalf of not only the residents of Monrovia, but the County of Los Angeles. So on behalf of the County, I'd like to present the certificate of appreciation for leading us today, thank you. Thank you, sir.

yes and now i am very honored to recognize renee jimenez for leading us today in the pledge of allegiance renee is from the first district he is a proud la puente resident and a veteran of the united states marine corps after graduating from brea olinda high school he enlisted and went on to serve five years as an mv-22 osprey crew chief This is a role that carried immense responsibility from aircraft maintenance to flight safety and secure transport of service members and equipment. His service spanned from 2008 to 2013, during which he achieved the rank of corporal and earned numerous distinctions, including the Marine Corps Good Conduct Medal, the National Defense Service Medal, and the Global War on Terrorism Medal. Following his service, Rene continued his path of leadership and public service at Mount San Antonio College, where he became the student body president. It was there that he deepened his commitment to mentorship, community service, and environmental stewardship, values that he continues to guide through his work today. Rene now serves as deputy director of the San Gabriel Valley Conservation Corps. where he leads impactful workforce development and environmental programs for our youth at risk under renee's leadership these programs offer youth job training industry recognized certifications hand-on experience in urban greening forestry hazardous fuels reduction watershed restoration graffiti abatement and organic farming he has played a critical role in implementing climate resilience projects across los angeles county particularly large-scale tree planting in disadvantaged communities renee's profound commitment to mentoring the next generation of environmental leaders is very inspiring i have seen him in action and i truly truly appreciate your stewardship and continued involvement he's carrying on a project for the county right now over at santa fe dam along with his colleagues and he has been there to help us in so many occasions so thank you for your leadership and we are proud today to recognize you on behalf of all the county board members here for leading us today in the pledge of allegiance and for serving our great county thank you so much renee and god bless you

And now I would like to introduce you to Luca.

Where is Luca? Here comes Luca. This handsome boy is a one and a half year old bull terrier. Luca was brought into the Agoura Care Center in April as a stray. He is a gentle giant, and he truly is, with a calm, sweet demeanor and an easygoing personality. He's friendly with other dogs and would make a great companion. If you'd like to meet Luca, call the Agoura Care Center at 818-991-0071. And Luca obviously was a stray, but knows how to sit, shake hands, and again, is really wonderful with other animals. So thank you for bringing Luca down. At the Agoura Care Center, you can call 818-991-0071. And then above us, we've got the Palmdale promotion. And this is our pet from Palmdale that's gonna be up on the screen. This is, I was gonna say Guillermo, but it's Guero. He's an eight year old pit bull and Labrador mix. He was surrendered by his owner because they were moving and they couldn't bring him with them. As a senior dog, he's a little shyer, slower, and calmer than he once was, but he's still got a lot of love to give. If you're looking for a relaxed dog to cuddle up with, he could be the perfect fit. you can call the Palmdale Care Center at 661-575-2888 to give this sweet senior the love and life that he deserves. I also wanted to highlight the Downey Animal Care Center is at 97% capacity for dogs, and they need the community's help to find homes for those pets that are there. Adoption fees are waived for dogs in Downey until population levels stabilize. If you're thinking about adopting, now is the time to find your new best friend. If you want to foster, we would welcome that as well. And all animal care centers are open Monday through Saturday from 11 a.m. to 5 p.m. for walk-ins. You can visit animalcare.lacounty.gov to see all the pets who could be yours. Again, thank you for bringing the beautiful little Luca down. Thank you, Madam Chair.

Thank you so much. With that, Executive Officer, please call the agenda.

Good morning, Madam Chair and members of the board. Today's agenda will begin on page two, set matter item SM1. On set matter one, Supervisor Solis requests that this item be continued one week to September 22nd, 2026, as indicated on the supplemental agenda. On page 3, consent calendar, Board of Supervisors, items 2 to 23. On item 2, this includes an addition as indicated on the supplemental agenda. On item 8, Supervisor Hahn requests that this item be held. Also, this includes a revision as indicated on the supplemental agenda. On item 11, this includes a revision as indicated on the supplemental agenda. On item 20, Supervisor Mitchell requests that this item be held. On item 22, Supervisor Hahn requests that this item be continued to October 6, 2026. On page 17, administrative matters, items 24 through 72. On item 25, the Chief Executive Officer requests this item be continued to October 20, 2026. Also, this includes a correction as indicated on the supplemental agenda. On item 28, Supervisor Mitchell recused herself pursuant to government code section 84308 because she received a contribution or contributions of more than $500 within the past 12 months from Angela L. Minifield, who is a party participant or agent of a party or participant in the proceeding. On item 37, Supervisor Mitchell is abstaining from the vote. On item 38, the chief probation officer requested this item be continued to October 20th, 2026. On items 42, 43, and 44, Supervisor Mitchell recused herself pursuant to government code section 84308 because she received a contribution or contributions of more than $500 within the past 12 months from Angela Al-Minifil, who is a party participant or agent of a party or participant in the proceeding. On page 39, this includes miscellaneous additions to the agenda which were posted more than 72 hours in advance of the meeting as indicated on the supplemental agenda, items 70A and 70B. On item 70A, this item will be held for report. On page 40, special district agenda, this is the agenda for the meeting of the Los Angeles County Development Authority, items 1D through 5D. On item 5D, this is an addition as indicated on the supplemental agenda. On page 45, notices of closed session, items CS1 through CS8. On CS1 through CS4, County Council requests that these items be continued to October 20th, 2026 as indicated on the posted agenda. On CS5, County Council requests that this one case be continued one week to September 22nd, 2026, and one case be continued to October 20th, 2026, as indicated on the posted agenda. On CS6, Supervisor Solis requests that this item be continued to October 20th, 2026, as indicated on the posted agenda. On CS7, the Chief Executive Officer requests that this item be continued one week to September 22nd, 2026. On item CS8, this is an addition as indicated on the supplemental agenda. The request for continuances through CS8 are before you. That completes the reading of the agenda, Madam Chair.

Thank you. Moved by Supervisor Barger, seconded by Supervisor Hunt to approve the items. That will be the order. Executive Officer, please play the code of conduct.

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

Thank you, and 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 item eight, item 70-A, item 20, general public comment, and finishing with closed session. Before we begin, executive officer, please read the call-in information and explain the speaking rules to the public.

Good morning members of the public. Individuals participating in public comment, either by phone or in person, will have the opportunity to register for their desired items prior to the agenda item being heard. We encourage all members of the public to register to speak during today's meeting on our website at www.publiccomment.lacounty.gov. Registering online will allow you to identify agenda items that you are interested in addressing. You will receive a confirmation email with further instructions. To receive notifications via text message on your phone when the item you wish to address is next, just enter your phone number on the website. If you do not have a computer or wish to make a comment at any time when the agenda item is active, you may call 213-444-2600 and press star. Then follow the instructions to register. An operator will be on the phone to assist. You can find more information on our website at bos.lacounty.gov. Please click on remote participation instructions for more information. You will have 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 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, your name or the last four digits of your phone number will be called. To ensure we hear from both in-person and remote speakers, we will alternate between the two speaking cues. Members of the public who are in attendance, when you hear or see your name displayed on the screen, please come down to the front of the boardroom and staff will assist you. Please do not approach the podium until directed to do so. Also, for members of the public in attendance, please note that we have a constituent assistance team that includes representatives from the departments of mental health, public health, health services, public social services, children and family services, homeless services and housing, and parks and recreation in the audience should you need assistance from them. At this time, we will hear from members of the public wishing to address the board on all items not held for discussion by the supervisors, including closed session matters. The consent items will be acted upon with one motion. members of the public already on the phone if you have signed up to speak for these items you do not need to do anything further if you are on the phone you have not signed up to speak and would like to comment on these items please press star now and follow the prompts to be placed in the speaking queue If you are watching the meeting and would like to address the board on these items, please call 213-444-2600, press star, and follow the prompts. An operator will be on the phone to assist. Please be prepared to indicate the agenda item numbers that you wish to address.

We will now call in in-person speakers and while they're coming forward, we will take remote speakers. This will be for all items not held by the board for discussion and closed session items. Will the following individuals please come forward and staff will assist you. Paul Mitre and Chi Chi Navarro. Adriana Batista, your line is open. Please state the agenda items you're addressing and begin.

hi i am addressing item number 30 um in regards to the eaton fire um i'm calling with altadena ursi community land trust and um i would like to request that there be an after action report specific to the eaton fire due to specific communication.

Ma'am, that item is being held. You're going to hear a presentation. And you can, after action report, and then you can also call in at that time. Thank you.

Thank you. We will now go to our in-person speakers. Please begin.

My name is Paul Mitri. I'm speaking on item 21. Good morning. My name is Paul Mitri. I'm here on behalf of the Los Angeles County Lifeguard Association. We would like to start out by thanking Supervisor Holly Mitchell and Supervisor Lindsey Horvath and your leadership in ensuring that Los Angeles County lifeguards remain at Will Rogers and Dockweiler State beaches. Will Rogers and Dockweiler are not isolated beaches. They are critical pieces in an interconnected regional emergency response system. There are more than The beaches are more than just about emergency operations, though our presence there support junior lifeguards water safety awareness youth programs recruitment and Community engagement and we're committed to protecting these programs and this regional system moving forward into the future. We would like to thank supervisor Mitchell and supervisor Horvath for providing stability during this time today. We look forward to working with the state and with the county in turning this six-month agreement into a strong, long-term solution.

Thank you. Next speaker, please.

Sorry, they got me doing all this kind of work. All right, so my name is Chi-Chi Navarro. I'm part of the Transantina Coalition. Today I will be talking on general public comment as well as items. Let me see here. 20, I know 22 is not being heard. 37 as well as item number 40. JUST LET ME KNOW WHEN MY TIME BEGINS. OH, SHE ALREADY STARTED.

JUST GENERAL PUBLIC COMMENT WILL COME AT THE END OF THE MEETING, BUT YOU CAN SPEAK ON THE OTHER ITEMS.

OKAY, PERFECT. YEAH, SO I JUST WANTED TO GO AHEAD AND SHOWCASE SUPPORT FOR ITEM NUMBER 20. THANK YOU FOR INTRODUCING THIS. THIS IS ONLY THE BEGINNING.

AGENDA ITEM 20 IS ALSO BEING HELD. YOU HAVE TO TALK ON THE ITEMS THAT ARE NOT BEING HELD.

SO THAT WOULD BE ITEM NUMBER 37 AND 40. I WILL GO AHEAD AND OPPOSE ON ITEM NUMBER 37. AND THEN FOR ITEM NUMBER 40 I WOULD ALSO LIKE TO OPPOSE THAT. THANK YOU SO MUCH.

Thank you. Madam Chair, that concludes the time for public comment on these items.

Did he sign up?

Did you sign up, Jose?

Did you wanna speak on these items that are not held? okay let's move on please executive office executive office where are we at is that it okay seeing no uh other public members addressing the board these items will be moved by supervisor horvath by supervisor mitchell madam chair members of the board the following items are before you go ahead items two through seven

Items nine through 19, item 21, item 23 and 24, item 26 and 27, item 28 with Supervisor Mitchell recusing from the vote, item 29 through 36, item 37 with Supervisor Mitchell abstaining, item 39 through 41, item 42 through 44, with Supervisor Mitchell recusing from the vote, item 45 through 69, item 70B, and items 1D through 5D. These items are before you.

Thank you. Sorry I got ahead of you there. Moved by Supervisor Horvath, seconded by Supervisor Mitchell. To approve these items, with the exceptions noted by the Executive Officer, please call the roll, Executive Officer.

Supervisor Mitchell?

Aye.

Supervisor Horvath?

Aye.

Supervisor Hahn? Aye. Supervisor Barger?

Aye.

Supervisor Solis? Aye. Item passes.

Very good. Moving on, Executive Officer, to Item 8. Do you want to introduce that?

We will now move on to item eight, motion to proclaim November 24th, 2026 as Anti-Phospholid Syndrome Awareness Day throughout Los Angeles County, which was held by Supervisor Hahn. For members of the public on the phone, if you've already signed up to speak, no further action is needed. If you're on the phone and wish to comment but have signed up, press star. and follow the prompts to join the speaking queue. To address the board from the meeting, call 213-444-2600, press star, and follow the prompts. An operator will assist you.

Thank you. Supervisor Hahn, will you please start?

Thank you, Madam Chair. I have a motion here today, and you, Madam Chair, are the co-author. to proclaim November 24th, 2026 as anti-phospholipid syndrome awareness day. I have to admit, I didn't know much about anti-phospholipid syndrome. I'm gonna call it APS for the rest of the meeting, until recently. I learned about it from Lori Saroff, who was my chief of staff when I was a member of Congress, who is a friend of singer-songwriter Christina Perry, who has APS and who is here with us today. APS is a treatable. autoimmune condition that causes blood clots. During pregnancy, these blood clots can raise the risk of miscarriage, stillbirth, and other complications. In fact, APS accounts for roughly 15% of recurrent pregnancy losses. But right now, APS is not a part of routine prenatal screening. It is only regularly tested for after a pregnancy loss. So women go through multiple miscarriages or other serious health complications without knowing there is an underlying condition that could be easily treated. Besides proclaiming APS Awareness Day, this motion will also ask our Department of Public Health, our Department of Health Services to make this information about APS easier to find on their websites, including information about the condition, who may be at higher risk, and where people can go for testing and treatment. In a few minutes, we're going to hear from our very special guest. Many of you probably know Christina Perry, the singer-songwriter behind hits like A Thousand Years, Jars of Hearts, and Human. Christina Perry has her own heartbreaking story about this disease, how it impacted her and her family, and she's going to share that story with us today. My co-author, Supervisor Solis, do you want to make a few remarks, and then we'll hear from Christina.

Yes, thank you so much. I'm honored to join you, Supervisor Hahn, and thank you for asking me to be the co-author. It is an important... awareness that we have to make public to everyone. APS is a treatable autoimmune condition that disproportionately impacts women, and I also understand it impacts women of color. And unfortunately, although APS can easily be detected through blood tests, screenings are not always routine. And APS is a leading cause of stroke in young adults, surprisingly, accounting for an estimated one of three strokes in adults under the age of 50. If untreated, APS is also a significant risk factor for miscarriage and other pregnancy complications. In fact, according to the APS Foundation of America, one out of every five individuals that experience recurrent miscarriages has APS. We know that women of color, as I said, are at risk at a higher rate for poor maternal and infant health outcomes. And these disparities can be further compounded by conditions with APS. That's why education and early detection are definitely critical and needed. Ensuring that all of our communities learn about APS and how to get tested in culturally and linguistically appropriate ways to me and to many is so equally important. The health of pregnant people and young adults throughout California is crying out for this kind of assistance. So I'm glad to join you, Supervisor Hahn, and I'm happy that we have our special guest here to explain her particular situation. Thank you.

With that. Thank you. Welcome, Christina. We're really appreciative of you being here with us and sharing your story. The floor is yours.

Sorry, first time. Hi, I'm Christina Perry. I'm a singer and a songwriter, but most importantly, I'm a mom. I'm here today to talk about one of the leading causes of miscarriage, antiphospholipid syndrome, also known as APS. In 2017, I had a very normal pregnancy, my first pregnancy with my daughter Carmela. But in 2019 and 2020, I suffered two heartbreaking miscarriages. The first was early in my pregnancy at 11 weeks, but the second miscarriage was at the very end of my third trimester. To the shock of my doctors, my baby girl Rosie's heart had stopped beating just weeks before her due date. I birthed her, I held her, I said goodbye. It was the absolute worst experience that I could have ever imagined. Physically, mentally, emotionally, spiritually, I was broken. It was only after that second loss that my OBGYN suggested that I test for APS. And she was right. Antiphospholipid syndrome was the reason behind both of my miscarriages. My moment of relief was out overshadowed by my realization that this was preventable. If I had known I had APS, I would have taken blood thinner and Rosie would be here. Why wasn't I aware that I had APS? Because it is only tested in women after loss, not one, but two or sometimes three losses before you get the test. After a year and a half of grief work, therapy and lots of prayers, I did get pregnant again. This time I took blood thinner and Pixie Rose, my double rainbow baby, arrived safely in October of 2022. Carmela got her little sister. I am so glad that my story has a happy ending, but let's make a change so no one has to have my story again. Let's not get angry. Let's get inspired. This is not about the past. This is about giving a purpose to my little Rosie's life. It's about saving babies, and it's about helping other women, families, and kids avoid the anguish that I experienced. Since Rosie's died, I've told everyone and anyone who would listen, and I'm overjoyed that a resolution supporting the APS test be included in the first trimester prenatal screening was introduced to Congress. And thank you, Supervisor Hahn, for supporting the congressional resolution today and for honoring Rosie with an APS Awareness Day on her birthday. My dream is to update the protocol and to give everyone this test before they have a loss. I truly believe this is Rosie's purpose and that we can turn something heartbreaking into something beautiful. Thank you so much.

Thank you. Supervisor?

Yeah, thank you so much. And in case you missed it, the reason we chose November 24th to make this our APS Awareness Day is because that was the birthday of Rosie, the little girl that Christina lost. Thank you. Thank you so much for being here.

Thank you. And with that, I'll recognize my colleagues, Supervisor Mitchell and then Supervisor Horvath.

Thank you very much, Madam Chair. And thank you, Supervisor Hahn, for bringing this today. And thank you for coming. It is never easy to do something for the first time and tell something so deeply personal to the public. But the reason it's so important is because who knows how many people will hear your story and will be affected by it. So thank you. Great to hear that Congress is considering a protocol change. My interest is not only the protocol change, but the cost. And so I'm wondering if there's any movement either at the congressional level or at the state level to make sure that the cost of the test is covered either through medical or private pay insurance. Are you aware of any movement on that end? Because for my perspective, it is equally as painful for something to be in a protocol and a person can't afford it.

Correct.

Or their coverage doesn't cover it.

If you put this blood test in the panel that you already do in the first trimester screening, which is I believe seven or eight different tests, then it should be covered by your insurance. So I do believe that it would be covered as long as this change happens and the protocol is updated, it will be specifically put into that panel.

excellent i appreciate it and thank you again thank you madam chair sure thank you supervisor horvath thank you very much madam chair i want to thank supervisors hahn and solis for bringing forward this motion that recognizes and enhances awareness of those currently suffering from and those at risk for aps and i want to thank you also for sharing your personal story and using your powerful platform to make a powerful difference and I think through the leadership of my colleagues today and hopefully the collective action of this board, that's exactly what will take place. Though APS is not common in the entire populace, it is disproportionately more common for women and those with other autoimmune disorders, and it presents an increased risk for pregnancy complications. It's important for women's health and maternal health and can contribute, as you've heard, to some pretty devastating complications, including miscarriage, stillbirth, preeclampsia, placental insufficiency, fetal growth problems, and other pregnancy complications. So going through pregnancy, as we know, is a long and arduous journey by itself in the best of circumstances, let alone adding difficulties that come with underlying medical conditions like APS. And I know personally going through the experience of a miscarriage, it is traumatizing in and of itself. And to know that you could have done something or anyone could have done something to prevent it. is nothing short of devastating. So I'm very sorry for the personal experience that you've had and that you had to go through that in order for the rest of us to take action. But I am grateful that you are giving us this opportunity today. Thank you. And thank you again to my colleagues who have brought forward this powerful motion.

Thank you. Supervisor Barger.

Thank you. And I echo what my colleagues have said, and I thank you for this book.

So cute.

It's touching. And. The fact that you can share this with us is important because we need to educate and I think supervisor Mitchell you've talked about the need to educate as it relates to what goes on for women who are pregnant and. I just really appreciate everything you're doing. And thank you, Supervisor Hahn and Supervisor Solis for bringing this forward. I think it's important for us to use our ability to really get the word out And I know Dr. Galley, DHS, we run a large healthcare system here, and it's important for us to share this so that women know and we can do whatever we can to uplift. So thank you very much. I'm really moved by it. And this book, I was looking at it. I Love You for a Thousand Years. Beautiful. Thank you.

Thank you, Supervisor Barker. With that, EO, I believe we have some call-in speakers.

Madam Chair, there are no in-person speakers who have signed up to speak on this item. We will go to our remote callers. Jackson Benaroche, your line is open. Please begin.

Good morning. My name is Jackson Benaroche with the Office of Congresswoman Sidney Kamlager Dove. Last year, the Congresswoman introduced a resolution in support of maternal health in the United States House of Representatives with Representative Kat McCack of Florida. The resolution is simple. It supports testing for APS as a regular part of parental screening. The Congresswoman remarked last year, and I quote, anyone who has experienced the heartbreak of even a single miscarriage or stillbirth knows that one is already too many. Failing to include APS in routine parental testing isn't just medical oversight, it's a glaring failure of our maternal health care system. This is not complicated. It's a matter of basic human decency and a call for smarter, more compassionate health care policy." Today our office wants to thank the L.A. Board of Supervisors under the leadership of Chair Hilda Solis and today's resolution sponsor Supervisor Janice Hahn for supporting the congressional resolution and designated APS Awareness Day. Thank you.

Thank you. Laura Ashton your line is open. Please begin.

Hello my name is Laura Ashton and this resolution is deeply personal to me and I might get a little bit emotional to be diagnosed with antiphospholipid syndrome after two pregnancy losses, and then I lost a third due to chromosomal abnormalities. I am now 28 weeks pregnant on the APS protocol, and my hope is that other women will be able to have access to this protocol sooner, but I don't have to go through so many heartbreaks to get testing for this. I'm so grateful for the testing that's available now, but if we could get it available as a part of prenatal care, that would change maternal health so much and directly influence our lives. Thank you so much for supporting this resolution and I appreciate it. Thank you.

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

Thank you. Seeing no further members on this item and the public, this item will be moved by Supervisor Hahn. I'll second to approve the item. Executive Officer, please call the roll.

Supervisor Mitchell.

Aye.

Supervisor Horvath.

Aye.

Supervisor Hahn.

Aye.

Supervisor Barger. Aye. Supervisor Solis.

Aye.

Motion passes.

Thank you. I believe we're going to take a group photo in the front. All members, if they would like to. Go ahead then. Executive Officer, let's call up the panel.

We will now move on to item 70A. After action review of recovery and repopulation efforts for the Eaton and Palisades fires and consideration of necessary actions, which was held for report. For members of the public on the phone, if you've already signed up to speak, no further action is needed. If you're on the phone and wish to comment but haven't signed up, press star and follow the prompts to join the speaking queue. To address the board from the meeting, call 213-444-2600, press star, and follow the prompts. An operator will assist you. The speaker list here is Aaron Sutton, partner for McChrystal Group and lead for Emergency Management and Public Safety Practice, will make a presentation. Kevin McGowan, Director of the Office of Emergency Management, Chief Executive Office, will make a presentation. Robert Luna, the sheriff, is here today and he will make a presentation. Mark Pestrella, Director of Public Works. Dr. Anish Mahajan, Chief Deputy Director, Department of Public Health. Sarah Mahan, Director of Homeless Services and Housing. Anthony Marrone, Fire Chief. Morel Karkuzian, Director of Aging and Disabilities. Andrew Weiss, Acting Director of Countywide Communications, Chief Executive Office. Lisa Mendel, Interim Director of Children and Family Services. Michael Sylvester, Chief Deputy Director of Department of Public Social Services. Amy Bodek, Director of Regional Planning. Carter Hughley, Senior Manager, Department of Homeless Services and Housing. Michael Oh, Director of Internal Services. Luis Ramirez, Deputy Director, Department of Public Works. Roel Amara, Nursing Director, Emergency Medical Services Agency, Department of Health Services. Jason Skeen, Assistant Sheriff. Danny Ovario, Chief Deputy Director, Department of Animal Care and Control.

Okay, with that due, we want to begin With the McChrystal Group, is that? Yes. Thank you and welcome.

Thank you, Madam Chair. Good morning, Madam Chair, members in the board. My name is Erin Sutton. I'm a partner with the McChrystal Group and lead the emergency management and public safety practice. The board asked, how did the county do on recovery and repopulation after the Eaton and Palisades fire and what should change before the next one? The short answer is that your people delivered. The systems behind them did not always help them do it. And what worked only worked because someone made it, not because a plan told them how. That is the major theme of this report and why the recommendations target overall systems rather than the people. In the short time I have, I will move quickly, review the high level critical components, and thoroughly encourage everyone to review the details in the report. Next slide. Before we get into the findings and recommendations, I want to review our scope and methodology for this report. Next slide. Your March 2025 motion asked for three things, an independent review of recovery and repopulation, a status check on the 2018 Woolsey Fire After Action recommendations, and an assessment of how county programs and funding could expand for the next event. Per the motion, we examined six critical focus areas, communications, volunteer and donations management, recovery, repopulation, shelter, housing, and people at higher risk, and public health and access and functional needs. The report covers the window from January through the end of March. This is the transition from response to short-term recovery and one of the most difficult steps in a recovery plan and program. Our focus entailed reviewing systems, processes, coordination structures, and authorities. We did not assess liability, evaluate individual performance, or address ignition, fire behavior, or suppression. This report picks up where the alerts and evacuation review left off. Next slide. Nothing in this report rests on a single voice or single data set. We reviewed operations across 19 county departments and reviewed more than 1,000 records. We interviewed 111 stakeholders and stakeholder groups so people could speak confidentially, so people could speak candidly. We also reviewed all 85 Woolsey recommendations. A primary working group of county departments, decision makers, and representatives from SD3 and SD5 provided strategic guidance, validated the review framework, and prioritized key assessment areas. Each focus area had a designated working group that provided insight and information and identified additional stakeholders to interview. We also fielded a public survey and received 1,500 responses. and attended five community engagement events. Some key points of the data. The majority of the respondents were from the Eaton fire footprint. Two thirds of the respondents reported they were 55 and older and homeowners. So no single finding rests on survey data alone. Every finding was tested against other sources. Next slide. So the findings and recommendations are broken up into the focus groups. Next slide. If you take one thing from this briefing, please know. County personnel and their partners built effective structures in real time. An expanded joint information center, one of the fastest debris removal operations on record, and successful animal sheltering and reunification. Many of them did that work while displaced from their own homes. The problem is that those structures rested on past knowledge, ad hoc items, ad hoc ideas, and individual relationships, not on standing plans, codified authorities, and rehearsed systems. That is not a criticism of the workforce. It is a description of risk. Improvisation cannot be scheduled, budgeted, or handed to the next team. When the people with this knowledge move on, the capability leaves with them. This pattern runs through all six focus areas, and most of the 25 recommendations exist to convert what your workforce proved it could do into something that the county owns. Next slide. Our first focus area is communication, and it starts with a positive. The LA Ricks system performed well throughout the event. On the peak day of the fires, it carried 51,600 minutes of talk time at 100% availability with better coverage than prior large fires. That is infrastructure performing under the worst regional demand you all have seen. The coordinated Joint Information Center supported the incident as it moved into recovery. However, it could not scale fast enough. Liaison staffing, integration of department-owned content, and final publication authority for cross-departmental information did not keep pace with demand. Second, reopening decisions were made, but they were not consistently translated into something a resident could act on. Knowing your zone reopened is not the same as knowing whether you are eligible to enter, where to get a pass if you needed one, and which credential would be honored at the checkpoint. And third, when the fires reached custodial settings, families, caregivers and oversight stakeholders had no predictable way to get direct information. Next slide. In these recommendations, first and foremost, sustain the LA RICS practices. The system worked, your investment in this radio system has paid off, and support expanded adoption. Formalize how the Joint Information Center scales, who holds publication authority, and better integrate countywide information into an overall recovery website. Work across the county to develop a standardized way to communicate to residents about road closures, reopening procedures and checkpoints. Develop the scripts now and establish a scalable, consistent notification protocol for custody related emergencies. Most of these recommendations are considered near term and encompass documenting procedures and processes that were already used in this event. Next slide. For volunteer and donations management, public generosity arrived immediately, and the county had to build the structure to receive it while the incident was still unfolding. Staff centralized inquiries, built tracking tools, and steered donors away from unmanaged intake of goods. And the county's nonprofit and philanthropic partners absorbed work the county could not run at scale. The county lacked a volunteer and donations model defining what the county coordinates and what qualified partners can operate. So departments, board offices routed donation and volunteer inquiries however they could, through individual relationships rather than developed institutional pathways. And your cash donation system was not activation ready. So when interest peaked, There was a delay and being able to accept it. The live donation link went up on February 11th. And worked very well once in place. Next slide. Emergency managers have a saying spontaneous volunteers and donations are the second disaster. Unmanaged generosity consumes staff time, space, and trucks at exactly the same moment you have none to spare. We recommend that you formalize a countywide volunteer and donations model. This is more than a plan on a shelf. It means signing agreements with partners in advance and appointing a voluntary agency liaison with a dedicated seat in the emergency operations center. That person builds that partner relationship before the disaster, so messaging and direction are ready on day one. This was also a recommendation in the Woolsey after action report. And document the cash donation process that you all implemented and keep it activation ready. Next slide. For recovery, your debris removal stands out as a highlight of this report. Working with federal and state partners, the county collected roughly 4,000 rights of entry forms in the first week and removed more than 2.6 million tons of debris. More than 75 percent of survey respondents who reported using the debris removal services said the process moved within or faster than the timeline that LA County provided. This was done without large pre-positioned contracts, a debris management plan, or pre-negotiated landfill agreements. Federal contracting capacity was the foundation of this response, and it worked well. But the county must establish and maintain its own capability for large scale debris removal as well. This points to the underlying finding that county does not have an up-to-date recovery plan. It has deep recovery experience, but experience lives in people and not in documents. Multiple recovery task forces were stood up to support county recovery. However, there was nothing written to define missions, rosters, lead responsibilities, and no training was provided. Task Force leads received little preparation for their roles, so time was lost determining scope, responsibilities, and decision authority. Disaster recovery centers opened one week after the fires and provided services for those that needed them. The gap was that no single individual or group was clearly assigned the leadership responsibility of the centers. So county staff had to figure things out on the fly, including significant logistical needs like buying equipment and setting up Wi-Fi under their own initiative. Finally, there were many local, county, state, and federal programs that come into play after disasters, and navigating them is a significant challenge. All have various eligibility rules, and this leads to residents having to prove who they are and what they own repeatedly, causing them to make duplicate trips while displaced. Next slide. It's imperative that you update your county recovery plan to capture the successes identified during this recovery process. One specific example is codifying the task forces, formalizing their roles and responsibilities, establishing the training necessary, and maintaining a year-round meeting cadence. Finalize and promulgate the debris management plan that is currently in development. One key strength of this debris removal process I want to highlight was that there was an option for an opt in and opt out so that no resident was left behind. Identify staff and train them to fill coordinator and supervisory roles for disaster recovery centers before the next activation. and build one online location where a resident can access the county's post-disaster services, one single entry point for all programs. Recovery plans, debris plans and contracts, disaster recovery centers, and post-disaster programs are not unique to LA County. There are best practices and templates that exist across the country, and all of these should be addressed in the very short term. Next slide. For repopulation, we found the decision model was sound. Reopening ran on a daily unified command rhythm with law enforcement, fire, public works, public health, utilities, and emergency management reviewing conditions together. Areas were reopened by multi-agency agreement and not on containment alone. And they reopened zone by zone with controlled checkpoints rather than an area-wide release. The weakness was standardization and clarity. In the Palisades footprint, several entities issued separate access passes with different formats, colors, and eligibility rules before converging on one design. And in the Eaton footprint, there was no access pass or process. So residents did not know whether they were eligible to return, where or how to get a pass, or which credential would be honored. Separately, while the repopulation command structure worked, participating agencies lacked clarity on who held final decision authority. Next slide. The key recommendation for this is a repopulation plan. Ensuring that the plan includes the decision process so that it does not live in daily meetings or a set of relationships. develop a countywide access credential standard in coordination with key stakeholders, such as cities, infrastructure partners, and non-governmental organizations, and make authority, approval, and escalation pathways explicit to partner agencies. The Woolsey After Action specifically called out a repopulation, decision-making, and final authority as areas for improvement. Next slide. Sheltering in any catastrophic event is challenging and support is needed at every level to execute a sheltering mission. County departments mobilized alongside the American Red Cross, state partners, and other organizations across the county. The gaps identified included shelter site planning. There are limited geographically distributed shelter options, which affected the timely placement of shelters near impacted communities and residents' ability to access them. Staffing was also a challenge. There were not enough trained, experienced shelter leaders at the county level, so the county had to rely on state teams to fill the gap. Shelters were not consistently equipped for the full range of medical mobility, personal care, and continuity needs. Among public survey respondents who reported access and functional need requirements, many raised concerns that their needs were not adequately addressed during repopulation efforts. Shelter transitions and demobilizations were not guided by a formal multi-agency protocol, which resulted in delays for residents needing temporary housing or other services from the county. And public information on housing, transportation, and sheltering remained fragmented. Finally, the county used spreadsheets to monitor child relocations in care, which restricted real-time oversight. Additionally, emergency planning for individuals in custody and justice involved adults and youth still needs improvement. Next slide. Revise the mass care plan to establish shelter governance and readiness model and broaden the formal staffing program via the disaster service workers initiative. So the county continues to build its capacity and reduces dependence on the state. Strengthen your access and functional needs requirements and shelters and give them an owner. Set a formal protocol for closing shelters and transitioning people out of them by developing a temporary housing annex that addresses roles, responsibilities, and availability of countywide services. And build a single multilingual source for sheltering and housing information. Jointly, across the county, update shelter planning for custody populations, and develop a coordination framework for justice-involved adults and youth in community housing. Next slide. Public health did substantial work here, implementing health officer orders, distributing personal protective equipment, building environmental dashboards, and supporting the recovery centers and shelters. Two things developed during this event proved significant value. The rapid needs assessment gathered more than 2,300 responses and gave decision makers real-time visibility into what residents needed. And the Health and Social Services Task Force became the recovery's key cross-departmental coordination mechanism. The core issue here is structural. Public health's role in wildfire emergency support was never formalized in an annex, role matrix, or decision protocol. While public health staff participated in discussions, their role in decision making was unclear. Procedures for approval and escalation were not initiated early enough in recovery and repopulation decisions. Additionally, the county lacked a wildfire personal protective equipment stockpile, and so the gap was filled by COVID-era equipment and donated reentry kits. Access and functional needs preparedness has no permanent year-round lead. And residential care coordination lacked a live view of bed availability, so evacuating facilities competed for the same receiving beds, working from plans built for one building at a time rather than a regional evacuation. Next slide. It's important that public health adopt a response and recovery role matrix to clarify role and decision authority both internally and externally before the next event. Institutionalize a personal protective equipment readiness playbook, identifying key pieces of information on how much to keep on site and what is more valuable as just-in-time ordering. Develop and exercise a public health communications playbook with key information in it like decision trees, scripts, and talking points. Make the Health and Social Services Task Force and the Rapid Needs Assessment standing capabilities. And designate year-round access and functional needs lead who works across the county with departments, stakeholders, community leaders, and organizations to coordinate support for those with access and functional needs. Finally, establish a residential care emergency coordination program with visibility into real-time capacity and a regional planning standard. The county should leverage EMS's ongoing skilled nursing facility mutual aid initiative as the foundation for a broader long-term care preparedness network. Next slide. Each of the 25 recommendations has a named lead agency and named supporting agency and a proposed horizon. In sequencing these 11 are near term. Generally low to moderate cost and largely codified what the county already demonstrated. Nine are mid-term and require planned development or multi-agency agreements. Five are long-term and carry real cost. Funding and staffing will affect the schedule, but they should not affect the ownership. Next slide. The board also asked us to review the status of Woolsey recommendations. Our task was to track implementation and identify overlap, not to revalidate the report's findings. Of the 85, 30 were implemented before January 2025 and six were in progress. 13 fall directly within the scope of this review. 20 were within the scope of the earlier alerts and evacuation after action. And 15 have no confirmed implementation update. Those require follow-up from the agency responsible. I would offer that the last number as the real test of today. Seven years on, 15 recommendations cannot be confirmed either way. That is the outcome this report is trying not to repeat. Next slide. Let me close where I started. County employees and their partners carried much of this recovery, many of them while displaced from their own homes. The recommendations in this report target systems around those people, not the people that outperform them. An after action review is only as valuable as the action that follows it. We have partnered with the county and developed a dashboard that tracks implementation of the recommendations in this report and in the alerts and evacuation review so the board can monitor the progress directly. The window is now while urgency and funding attention are still available. Thank you.

Thank you very much. Now we'll go on to Office of Emergency Management. For your presentation.

Good morning, Chair Solis and members of the board. For the record, Kevin McGowan, director of the Office of Emergency Services. The McChrystal Group's After Action Review of Recovery and Repopulation provides an important examination of our collective efforts during the recovery from the January 2025 wildfires and identifies where we must continue to evolve and improve. We accept the report and view it as another important roadmap for moving the county's emergency management enterprise forward. The first McChrystal after action review focused on alert notification systems and evacuation policies during the wildfires. I want to briefly provide the board with an update on the work that has occurred since that first McChrystal report was presented last September. First slide, please. the 90 recommendations resulting from the first after action report approximately 70 have been completed or are underway and are being embedded into the permanent county operations one of the key recommendations called for the restructuring and expanding the scope and scale of the office of emergency management with the support of this board and the ceo earlier this year during the fiscal year 44 new positions have been approved for OEM and we're rapidly building out the workforce. Conditional offers have already been provided to over 30% of those positions. More are forthcoming. To expand the level of countywide operational capacity and capability, the county, all of the different departments here today on the dais have increased training significantly. For example, our county communicators recently hosted a large-scale Joint Information Center exercise at the Emergency Operations Center. We've also distributed thousands of multilingual preparedness guides and strengthened our evacuation training and coordination across the county and our departments. Since the first AAR, Los Angeles County has not only made significant updates to policies and procedures, but put those policies and plans to the test while we've responded to numerous major emergencies and complex incidents, including the winter storms that we had during the 2025-2026 winter season, wildfires, the World Cup, and the Lineage Warehouse Fire. During those incidents, OEM, fire, sheriff, public works, our communications teams, the broader county family have been actively applying, testing, and refining these recommendations for the first AER so that they embed in our real-world operations. Slide two. The work that is occurring across the five major areas identified in the first review, policies and protocols, training and planning, resource management, situational awareness and interoperability, and community engagement and public information. The goal is not simply to just close out those recommendations, but instill them throughout all of our departments and embed them in our county operations. One with more clearly defined authorities, increased training, highly interoperable technology systems, which includes the rollout of our WebEOC system that's already in place, stronger public communications, which we've consistently been demonstrating in recent emergencies, and the ability to rapidly coordinate full resource and capabilities across the county. Slide three. There's still a significant amount of work ahead. We are continuing to strengthen our unified alert and warning and evacuation framework. However, as we go through the policy and procedure portion of that, we've already implemented those in operational strategies, which we are currently using in our responses to fires and floods. We are rebuilding and expanding OEM, developing countywide common operating picture platforms, strengthening our joint information system and team, expanding multilingual communications, and placing the greatest emphasis on community preparedness that we've done in over a decade. Some of these improvements can be accomplished relatively quickly. Others, particularly the technology modernization, organizational transformations, and building lasting cultures of community preparedness, are going to take time and are going to be sustained efforts moving forward. That brings us to the report before us today. The second ARR identifies additional opportunities to strengthen recovery, repopulation, mass care and shelter, public information, public health, and supporting our most vulnerable residents. Our collective responsibility and our expression to the board is that we are going to ensure that the lessons learned from this fire and previous incidents continue to move us forward in building our resilience and readiness for the next earthquake, the next flood, the next severe storm, or any countless of the major emergencies that we face throughout LA County. Every after action review is geared to make us better for that next disaster. That is the work we are undertaking today, and that remains our commitment to the board and the residents of LA County. I will be available for questions.

Yes. We'll start with Supervisor Horvath and then Supervisor Barger.

Thank you very much, Madam Chair. And I want to start by acknowledging the 31 people who lost their lives in these fires, the thousands of residents who lost their homes, the countless businesses and workers whose livelihoods were devastated and the families who are still grieving the loss of loved ones. That has to be centered in this work ahead. As I read through this report, I keep thinking about all that is not and maybe cannot be captured on paper. The fear, the loss, the disruption to people's lives, the uncertainty that so many families are still living with today. In short, the trauma. No report can fully capture the devastating impact these fires have had on our communities. And I know residents will feel that elements of their individual experiences are still missing. While this report is focused on devastation in two areas of our county, the change we must make as a result of the recommendations in this report must have a countywide impact. The county's core obligation is to keep our residents safe, Disaster preparedness, response, and recovery are a year-round responsibility, and they cannot simply live in the minds of those doing the work of our county. I've been out in our communities with the incredible first responders of LA County Fire, Sheriff's Department, Public Works, Office of Emergency Management, and so many others. And all of your dedication and commitment to this work is extraordinary. And you all deserve systems and support to do your jobs as effectively as possible, as well as having lessons learned documented to reference easily in time of crisis. So to get this right, we must work with all levels of government to clearly delineate roles and responsibilities. And we must always listen to our communities and prioritize the changes we know are needed. I often hear about too many motions coming from this board and how that at times can even cause additional pressure or confusion. But when things are done less formally, as was noted by the McChrystal group through this process, as an outside evaluator, they can't make sense of what our plans are. That's not a good reflection on us. And it's certainly not the reflection we want on the kind of work that we're investing in our response to an extraordinary crisis. So to that end, I'm going to ask a few questions. And afterwards, I'm going to read in a motion co-authored by Supervisor Barger for our board's consideration today regarding the implementation of those recommendations. So first, turning our plans into action, following the first AAR, we directed a dramatic increase in the size of our Office of Emergency Management. So can you tell me where we are now in terms of the number of staff that we have inside the Office of Emergency Management, where you expect to be by the end of the year, and whether you believe that change will allow us to do the kinds of drills, trainings and coordination with city and state partners that are required, given the challenges we know are ahead.

Yes, thank you, Supervisor. I'm going to work backwards, actually. The work with our cities, our state and our federal partners is ongoing in a parallel track to the hiring of our new personnel and the expansion of the Office of Emergency Management. So we're not waiting. When we went to the board during the budget process to increase the size of OEM and its scope and responsibilities, we were already well underway to additionally work on those coordination roles and expansion of the planning process in parallel, specifically to where we're at in the growth of the Office of Emergency Management. We have 44 vacancies. Before those 44 vacancies were approved, we were already beginning the recruitment process. We sent our recruitment process across the entire country. We worked through our professional associations. We had a really good response. Well over 80 people responded to our solicitations for the 44 positions. We are in the process of onboarding the first 30% of them. We're doing a phased onboarding approach so that as they're onboarded, we can put them into a training academy and build out that capability and capacity. I think one thing that's important for the board is to understand that one of our key priorities in this recruitment endeavor is the quality of candidates that we're selecting. It cannot be emphasized enough that we need the highest caliber professionals in the Office of Emergency Management, and we're putting that as a prime component of that recruitment process. Our goal is to before the next budget process starts, is to be in the process of onboarding that last cohort, which would get us to the full 44 positions.

I'm clear that we have standard processes to recruit people in, but I also know there have been changes at the state and federal level in terms of personnel that might make, to your point, very highly qualified people more available than ever before.

And we've been taking advantage of that. Yeah, poaching has been a strategy.

The second piece is in terms of communication. Nothing is more important than communicating quickly and clearly and accurately in an emergency. So we know that during the fires, people were inundated with information. It was hard to decipher among official guidance that was put out. I know that we've talked a great deal about the one voice communications being essential But how do we turn that into the reality to achieve one voice messaging for the region? I know we need to make sure that departments are sharing and vetting information quickly. And it took a couple of days for our CGIC to even provide, even get up and running. So how are we learning from that? Coordinating and centralizing communication in a way that is intelligible to a regular person.

Supervisor, I can take that question. Andrew Vease with Countywide Communications. The Coordinated Joint Information Center is the one voice in an emergency, and it's our job to synthesize all the information that's coming in from the 39 different departments into that one voice. And so when the CGIC staff's up, we pull in people from all the different departments. Specifically for this fire, we had 18 DSW communicators from 13 different departments, many who are up here with me today, some who are not from other departments. But I think it comes down to county departments kind of needing to recognize the authority of the CGIC as that one voice messenger. and to have the authority to be that one voice to the community, whether it's about debris removal, emergency communications, it should all kind of flow through one CGIC so that it's the same information going out through the press conferences, through websites, social media, it's all the same information.

I know that's our goal. And then the lived experience of people who went through this tragedy was that even if they knew to go to your social media accounts, to your newsletter, to your webpage dedicated to this, they then had local officials, in some cases, who put out different information. They had their trusted community organization who put out information because they trusted it because it was in language. How are we learning from this experience to know that even though we as a county agency come together in our messaging, we know that there are so many more partners we rely on. So I think we need to be more proactive in asserting that role and making sure that we're clear about where communication is coming from and how it gets relayed as opposed to sort of what the experience has been where it's kind of coming from all different directions and not always in a vetted manner.

Yeah, there were a lot of good lessons learned from this report back, and I'm anxious to implement them. And I think we can even add more capacity to the CGIC by adding in that external affairs piece that can work with the different cities and community groups a little bit better, building in capacity to work with CBOs, FBOs, and work more cohesively across the region.

Supervisor, just to add a little bit to what Andrew was saying, part of that structure build out in OEM is that external affairs component. That's going to work hand in hand with county wide comms. We actually put some of these into place during the World Cup. One thing I would use as a reflection point is related to the different local jurisdictions having a voice to share related on operations, specifically public safety around the World Cup. What we did this time was we embedded personnel. This is resource intensive, but now we are building that capacity. So we embedded personnel in every different joint information center or local communications component so that we could make sure that we were synthesizing that information and sharing it in a broader way, but consistently.

Yeah, I think there's inevitably going to be examples of when people have to relinquish a little bit of authority in order to make sure that the unified operation is doing its job correctly. And so whoever that is, I'm asking that this team, as we're prioritizing implementing these changes and recommendations, that we are making sure that that is our message and our outcome the next topic i want to touch on is debris removal and specifically landfills the aar recognized la county's private property debris removal program as a recovery success story the largest and fastest operation of its kind anywhere in american history i'm proud of the leadership from this county and the hard work especially of our public works team to make that happen The report recommends developing a debris management plan before the next disaster to codify lessons learned. And I support that and believe we should have done it after the Woolsey after action. So I am disappointed that the report did not address the significant challenges we faced specifically with landfills and waste management governance, which I know were also challenges under Woolsey. Multiple state agencies determine what facilities can accept different types of debris, how it can be disposed of, and only sometimes with local authorities involved. Yet during a disaster, communities look to our local government for answers about decisions we do not control. For Public Works, you helped our office to lead several conversations with state partners after the 2025 fires to discuss opportunities for reform. Do you agree that the state needs to reform the way it handles that decision-making process for there to be clearer access for public input? And even if you don't, how do we get to the prospect of consolidated decision-making and accountability that allows for that input?

Mayor Mrakas, Thank you supervisor mark pastralla with public works public works, welcome the independent review and the opportunity to learn from unprecedented disaster. Mayor Mrakas, As you know, we perform after actions internally and we're also happy to have this third party review. Mayor Mrakas, I absolutely agree with you regarding the landfill the management of landfills the coordination, you know experienced a lot of frustration and attempting to explain to the Community why we were choosing which landfill. And that had a lot to do with the lack of understanding about governance over landfills from the state level down to our local level. We are currently working on this. First step is to understand who's in charge and who has the call and then to come into agreement with the state that they would take the role and I would suggest that we push for and it will be obviously may even take legislative action to push for the state to be the keeper of landfill capacity and direction in emergency management operations, such as a debris removal program.

Yeah, I think landfill governance is designed for no one to really be in charge. is what it feels like for people who are trying to figure out where they can take their concerns, where they can get their questions answered. And no one likes to hear that's not what we do as a response to their questions. And yet, we know, especially in this case, that's sort of what happened with things moving so quickly and with those roles being not clearly defined. So how we codify that going forward, I think, is critically important. As it relates to climate, our discussion today is essential because it's not just about Palisades or Altadena. It's about all our districts and the many neighborhoods that are threatened by climate change, not only from wildfires. In the past week, we're dealing with dangerous heat, Flooding, coastal erosion, county roads that have been destroyed, and a forced major concert to be canceled in Santa Monica force majeure because of these conditions. And we're not even formally in that storm season yet. We convened the Blue Ribbon Commission on Climate Action and Fire Safe Recovery to guide our rebuilding with all of that in mind. So for our CEO, what is the order of operations that you're directing with our departments to address these fundamental threats to our communities, and as it relates to investing in climate preparedness alongside the AAR's emergency response recommendations, and how are we going to track progress on this critical preparedness?

So I appreciate the question, Supervisor. I think, let me go back to something that you mentioned just a couple minutes ago, which is commitment to implementing After Action Report recommendations. We'll go back to Woolsey. and some of the implementation actions that remain unfinished. That is something we absolutely cannot have happen with respect to this after action report. I think although this is specific to wildfires, it certainly is applicable to all hazards, the kinds of things that we are working on, whether it's a flood or a fire or an earthquake. Um, and we need to make sure that our plans are updated and the plans kind of drive the thinking. And I, I, in terms of one major theme that I'm going to pick up on from, uh, Andrew visa's comments is empowerment. And you mentioned, uh, bottlenecks from people not delegating. I think one of the things we need to address as a County, when we think about one County, even, even our own County is how did the department heads fit into a larger. response strategy and what is their role and how do they embrace their role and what do they need to embrace their role? I think all of our department heads came to the table in a very material way during Eaton and Palisades. But I think what the after action report shows us is that there's differing levels of understanding of what their obligations are prior to a disaster and during a disaster. We need to address that. For me, that's number one when I think order of operations is getting our own house in order. which requires us to make sure that every departmental leader understands, embraces, and owns their role in disaster preparation and disaster recovery. So that's number one. And I think number two is resourcing, which you mentioned as well. We have invested quite a bit in the Office of Emergency Management. That is not the only area of investment that's needed. We're also working on climate strategies as well, and there are investments aligned with that. I'm not 100% satisfied with how the county treats climate investments as a whole. I think it's a bit fragmented. You and I have had that conversation. And I think when we think about climate investments, we're thinking about reducing our footprint in terms of what our greenhouse gases or pollution. But we also have to think about resilience as well. And that's another area where we're not quite there yet. In an ordinary times, we'd have hazard mitigation grant funds pouring into the county to help us do that. That money is locked up. We haven't received it. So we need to think through some other strategies. But all of these things kind of are happening all at the same time. So we need to do a better job of prioritizing, being clear with our departments what we need, and then for the board is setting those priorities so that when the budget comes around, we can make sure we're meeting the needs of the county as well.

I raise it because there's a reliance on our motions to come forward. The current protocol is the fiscal resilience program, which I don't think encapsulates the degree of urgency that some of these directives require. And so I know that we have to rely on your team and how you prioritize this work in the budget overall to make sure that we are making those kinds of investments. And to your point about identified climate investments, we now know that these are not nice to haves. They are not to be disregarded based on political agenda. This is essential safety preparedness. And so if we need to change our languaging to help strengthen the kind of investment we get from all levels of government and what we know will keep our community safe, then so be it. But we must make sure that this work is prioritized because it's essential to every community safety in the county. I would ask McChrystal Group, one of the issues that you highlighted was, in our district specifically, was the confusion regarding access passes due to the multiple jurisdictions that were assigning them in our district. Each city wanted to be leaders for their community, understandably so, and yet you highlight the confusion that that has caused. So what would you recommend to solve for the jurisdictional challenges when it comes to repopulation and access, recognizing the current state of affairs in terms of who holds which authority?

I come from a community that has a very similar problem. The Hampton Roads community has 17 cities that want their own passes and their own processes. So I certainly understand the challenge. And becoming across the county, understanding that cities need to have their own identity and want to help their own residents I encourage the county to bring the stakeholders together. They may still have their own passes or their own process, but how it's coordinated across the county with the communications, you emphasize that, Supervisor, and I think a lot can be solved with how you communicate with the residents. and that coordination between each of the cities. And you also have other companies that also come over the top, which can be challenging. So as you bring them to the table, and Director McGowan had mentioned that he's starting those conversations and working with these cities. It's very important to keep that open line of communication. You are not going to solve every issue. But if you can break down some of those walls between each of the cities to have consistent communication, I think you will have a better experience for your residents in the community.

My final question touches on the vulnerable populations that your report highlights. We need to better track our jails and juvenile facilities, the locked DMH facilities, interim housing, permanent supportive housing, and assisted living facilities, and ensure that each of these has appropriate evacuation and shelter plans. Yet the county in many of these cases does not have licensing authority or quite frankly, any authority over these facilities. It's actually the state that does, even though we are the implementing government on the ground. So how do you recommend we establish a complete inventory of all of these locations in order for our respective departments to develop the kind of plan you're describing?

It's very specifically why I identified that this is a significant project and could take a number of years to do. You have a patchwork in your community of state, federal, county city ownership of all of these facilities. My recommendation is the step one. Start with the facilities that you have direct oversight with. Start with the facilities and organizations that you have good working relationships with now and then continue to expand from there. I have to say it is the elephant for you all. You're going to have to start with step one with the small piece before you can capture We put the statistics, the number very apparent in the report. It's over 3800 different type of facilities. You are not going to solve this right out of the gate. But my recommendation throughout the report was what is step one that you all have control over to start building those frameworks and then expand from there?

I asked because I heard you highlight that you would like to see us reduce our reliance on the state, but quite frankly, we are the size of a state in this county. And the amount of resource that needs to be invested in protecting 10 million people, many with whom have special and emergent needs in such a time. I'm always optimistic about what we can do, but in this case, we need to be realistic in order to keep people safe. And I know that even before the fires, for example, my office had spoken with the sheriff's department about evacuation protocols for our various facilities. You rightly highlighted, we had the same conversation with probation as two of those facilities are in our district. You rightly highlight that each facility had its own plan, but that the cooperative plan throughout the county did not exist. And we've been asking that because we know that these disasters don't know our district boundaries. They do not know who is responsible for which facilities. It's going to strike and we have to use whatever resources we have available countywide. And so to that end, I think we need to be able to work with all of our partners on what those plans look like. I know Supervisor Barger is going to touch on some of the health concerns, so I'll leave it there. But I do want to read in this motion and then turn it over to her. The directives of this motion that will be shared with all of my colleagues read, we therefore move that the board of supervisors direct the chief executive office to work with all relevant county departments to report back to the board via a written report every 30 days on the implementation of the McChrystal Group's after action review on the recovery and repopulation efforts for the Eaton and Palisades fires. and the after action review of alert notification systems and evacuation policies for the Eaton and Palisades fires in 90 days report to the board via a verbal report including a presentation at cluster before the board report on the implementation of the McChrystal group's after action review on the recovery and repopulation efforts for the Eaton and Palisades fires and the after action review of alert notification systems and evacuation policies for the Eaton and Palisades fires the reports should address how each department will complete the near-term mid-term and long-term recommendations what recommendations if any are already underway or completed how the departments will address resource gaps including staffing and funding challenges the feasibility of implementing these recommendations and whether any board actions ordinance changes or policy modifications will be needed to support implementation After the 90-day verbal report back to the Board, the CEO should report back to the Board every six months via written and verbal reports on the progress of implementation. We further move that the Board of Supervisors direct the CEO to designate a point person within the CEO to regularly work with the relevant county departments to track after-action review progress and report back to the Board as outlined in the prior directive. The CEO's designee should operate within the CEO, but outside of the Office of Emergency Management, as a third-party administrator similar to the CEO's Chief Department of Justice compliance officer in the oversight of DOJ compliance efforts. The designee should also prioritize communication to state, local, and federal partners on the AAR's findings and recommendations with a particular focus on intergovernmental partnership so that we can determine appropriate roles and responsibilities for future emergency protocols. finally we further move that the board of supervisors request that county departments immediately implement the recommendations referenced in the after action review of recovery and repopulation efforts for the Eaton and Palisades fires related to the Woolsey fire and report back to the board in writing every 90 days on the progress of implementing these recommendations there's no excuse for us not to be taking action in this way And we certainly need to centralize how we are holding ourselves accountable because we know our communities are. And they shouldn't have to. We should be able to do that and make sure that we are charting our own progress and make sure that even when our partner governments do not include us, in their own reviews that our review is highlighted to them. So they take what we are finding into account as they're doing their own reviews. We should all be working together. We will push this envelope as much as we can with them, but we need every level of government to be moving with the one voice vision that this group of leaders is directing our county to move with. So with that, I'll turn it to Supervisor Barger. Thank you.

Yes.

Thank you. And thank you, Supervisor Horvath. And I too want to recognize and let us remember that 31 lives were lost and thousands of people lost their homes. And there are thousands that are still displaced because they cannot get back into the homes because of the issues surrounding insurance. So I just I just want to make it clear that Nothing we do today is going to bring back those lives. But what we can do is make sure the lessons are learned. And that's what this report is about. So my first question, because of the last report to McChrystal, is did all agencies fully cooperate with this report? And did you interview all agencies that were involved as it relates to the after action report across the county and the partners that were involved?

Yes, we did. As we had the challenge in the alerts and notification, we reached out to the surrounding cities to participate. and they politely declined.

I'm sorry, say that again. Can you help her with her mic? Sorry.

All of your county departments that we were interested in speaking with participated across the board as well as partners that they worked with in order to solve the issues. We worked with Cal OES as well. We did reach out to surrounding cities who declined to be engaged in the process.

What impact does that have on the overall content of your report, not having that piece regarding the recommendations you're making?

I believe that what Supervisor Horvath brought up that in order to accomplish some of these tasks, the surrounding cities are going to need to be part of the conversation. And so not having the voice from what their challenges were is is a difficult piece that's missing in this report is how they came up with their process, how they are conquering their challenges after the fire as well.

Okay. And then, Dawn, I understand that the McChrystal contract is with your office, and I think that's an important thing to know because there is some confusion in terms of who contracted for this. I'd like to understand the process of review. And can you share that with us in terms of how it's reviewed before it becomes public?

Yes. Thank you, Supervisor, for the question. That is correct. It was through our office. The process is privileged and confidential. However, I can say that the after action review process includes the county's review of the AAR before it is finalized. For a document of this significant impact on the agencies being reviewed, standard practice includes a validation step where the draft AAR is reviewed with stakeholders. The process is to ensure that the findings are accurate and complete and that the recommendations are realistic and practical and informed by the stakeholders who must ultimately implement them. There were no substantive changes to the findings and recommendations developed by McChrystal for this review.

So then my question to McChrystal is, do you believe that the process was independent and that this report is a result of you exercising your independence, even given any input? Because ultimately it's up to you to publish the final report.

I do believe that this was an independent report. We think it's important to have the county agencies review the draft. because if you are going to implement the recommendations and validate the findings, you need to have a say in it. We have the final say. There were a number of comments, suggestions that we did not take because they disagreed with our decision or our statement in there. So we had the final review, we had the final decision process, and not one of the departments had any issues with how we finished that out.

Thank you for that. Um, now I'm just going to touch on the Woolsey fire. Cause I'm, I'm a little, I mean, when I saw the 20 outstanding, um, it's a concern. I mean, these reports are done so that we can establish protocols and lessons learned. Um, the board approved a motion after the Woolsey fire to hire, um, city gate to, um, to support implementation of the recommendations. What became of that work and the contract, given that several recommendations are still pending?

Thank you, Supervisor Buerkle. I'll take the first at that and then if any of my partners want to add any additional information. So in November of 2019, the board accepted the after action review and then retained CityGate afterwards to do the implementation plan. That contract was managed through the CEO's office and provided a third party monitor to the implementation of that process for the next a little over two years. Their final report was issued to the board on January of 2022. I think the essence of that process was that while we had a third party that was centralized in monitoring our progress, there was a repeat report backs to the board and there was a considerable amount of effort to sustain those activities. As we all remember, that was also during COVID. It was also during some budgetary constraint times and the final report back shows that of the 86 recommendations, roughly 80% of them were complete, and then there was another 15 to 17% that were in the process or ongoing. I think what I take away from this process and what McChrystal provided in that review is that there are challenges that occurred after the third party administrator provided their final report in sustaining and documenting the future activities of those remaining 15% of those recommendations. And that's why I believe the the actions that were just read in the read-in motion would be very beneficial where we have a centralized reporting structure um that can that can track not just what the departments are doing because at the end of that final report it was those recommendations were kicked back to the departments to implement and we all know that during that time frame there was a significant amount of other activities that everyone was focused on and this would be

Like I'm fully supportive of not repeating that process having this new process and then Integrating the Woolsey after-action reports in this tracker moving forward I think I can safely say on behalf of my co-author on the motion as well as for it I can guarantee you it's not going to happen again it is Very frustrating to me that we have an after-action report That we contract for that specifically gives us guidelines on lessons learned that either departments don't feel a need to implement or maybe it's a cost associated with it and it's not getting to the board. But this is a wake up call to all departments that this board is gonna be engaged on the after action as it relates to the fires that devastated la county and i think it's important for us to um to call that out because people are watching and wanting to know what this board is going to do to ensure that for example skilled nursing facilities and that's going to be my next line of questioning You know, after COVID, when we had the audit on skilled nursing facilities, and knowing that this fire, the Eaton fire, and Chief Moroney, your department worked to evacuate a skilled nursing facility, what lessons learned through this after-action report as it relates to the skilled nursing facilities have we learned and what, if any, of those recommendations are duplicative of what was in the auditor's report that was provided to public health.

Thank you, Supervisor, for the question. Anish Mahajan, Chief Deputy, Public Health. I just want to start by saying thanking the Board for engaging McChrystal. Public Health believes that the recommendations are very good and strong, and we look forward to meeting them in a timely fashion. To your question, Supervisor, I'm going to speak a little bit about the background here and pick up on something the McChrystal group mentioned, which is that You know, we have nearly 3,000 to 4,000 facilities where there are vulnerable people in them. About 18% of them are skilled nursing facilities, which would be among the most vulnerable. And DPH is the lead on behalf of the state through its Health Facilities Inspection Division as the licensing body for the skilled nursing facilities only. And in that process, DPH's Health Facilities Inspection Division, on behalf of the state, licenses skilled nursing facilities, which includes a requirement for an evacuation plan, a requirement that skilled nursing facilities actually do practice drills. And that is something that DPH's HFID Division has been doing consistently and appropriately in compliance with the requirements. When it comes to an actual evacuation and at the scale of the evacuation that was needed during the fires that we saw in 2025, the actual evacuation plan is on behalf of the actual skilled nursing facilities to implement that plan. with assistance from local agencies. EMS is one of those agencies that would help fire and other safety groups. But there is a gap. For the hospitals, we have an electronic health system called ReadyNet, where hospitals have to report in, they're required by licensing to report in when they have available emergency room beds. That enables a proper triaging of people who need hospital services. We do not have such a requirement for skilled nursing facilities. DPH has been speaking with the California Department of Public Health to request that licensing now include a new requirement that skilled nursing facilities actually participate in the same way that hospital emergency rooms are required. IN THE READYNET SYSTEM AND INDICATE WHEN THEY HAVE AN AVAILABLE BED. WHAT THIS WOULD DO IN THE CONTEXT OF ANY EMERGENCY, WILDFIRE, EARTHQUAKE, ET CETERA, WOULD ENABLE EMERGENCY MEDICAL SERVICE, EMS AND ALL OF THE SAFETY AGENCIES TO KNOW WHERE CAN WE TAKE SOMEBODY WHO HAS A SKILLED NEED WHO HAS AN AVAILABLE BED. THE STATE DOES SEEM INTERESTED IN THIS AND THIS WILL TAKE ADVOCACY TO SUPERVISOR HORVATH'S POINT THAT This is a team game, and we need the state to take an action. But it's an important one. While we wait for that and we advocate for that, I know that EMS is leading the mutual aid program that was mentioned. I don't know, Roel, if you want to say some words about that. But that's an ongoing activity that EMS is leading with other partners to determine how we do safe evacuations, even in the absence of that requirement. But it is a huge challenge. As McChrystal mentioned, that's only 17% or 18% of our problem. We have board and cares. We have locked facilities for people with cognitive issues. They're not subject to this licensing. And we need a solution for everybody.

So with COVID, we had to evacuate a skilled nursing facility on Fair Oaks. While it wasn't a fire, we had to do it very quickly. Does was this something that was highlighted at that point that is that when we began the process of talking to the state about making changes or did this after action report or or what prompted this one? When did this kick in in terms of the state being aware of it?

That's a great question, Supervisor. I don't have an answer to that question. It's something we'd have to come back to you with. I don't know. Rowell or EMS or DHS would know the answer to that.

I can just tell, and I'll let you answer, but I will say, with a sense of urgency, because that took first responders offline for how many hours, Chief Maroney, to evacuate? Because those people were not ambulatory.

Yeah, thank you for the question, Supervisor. It was several hours.

Several hours. So I think it's important, I mean, if not now, when, to take that corrective action?

All right, so good morning. Rawal Amar, LA County Health Services. So during COVID, we helped nursing homes evacuate to place their patients. Now, during the fire, it's a rescue scenario, so they had no time to prepare and find beds. And as Dr. Mahajan mentioned, we don't have situational awareness on where these beds are. And so we are working with this sector to develop the technology to help us finding those beds. And we are in the process of doing that. We're actually working with Redinet without the state intervening on our behalf. So we are engaging with these facilities to develop the capability to see where their beds are. During the fires, we had no problems in providing medical transportation. We had plenty of ambulances to evacuate the facilities. The problem was finding the beds, and so we are trying to address that right now.

So as you develop registry, I'm looking to Lisa Mandel, DCFS, because we know that we have two large group homes in Altadena that were impacted and had to evacuate. Can this registry be across both DCFS skilled nursing facilities. I know in Altadena, many of those that died faced physical challenges getting out. And so I think it's important for us to try to figure out a way to put together a registry that makes sense, and not just for skilled nursing, but possibly leveraging what we know, because DCFS places children there, and so you know where these youth are.

Good morning, Supervisors. Lisa Mandel with the Department of Children and Family Services. Yes, we embrace the recommendations from the McChrystal Group and the After Action Report. We have opportunities to improve while we had over 350 children and families that were evacuated and replaced. We did that manually with some tracking from our computer system. So recognizing that the fires are our new normal, that we really do need to find new ways to react quickly and nimbly. I think registry would be helpful. We're looking into either building our own or working with OEM to find systems that will help us track both evacuation and relocation. All of these children and families were removed and safe given the work of our workers. And I have to say many of them stepped up while they were suffering their own losses. So a testament to the really dedicated, hardworking individuals that stepped up to make sure these children and families were safe and continue to be safe months after the fire and addressing all their needs. But yes, there's room for improvement. There are systems, technology out there that we really need to look into.

Thank you. And that leads me to the Department of Aging and Disabilities, because that's also an area where I think the recommendation was to create registries. And I know that there are some challenges to doing that. I mean, I thought it seemed like a no-brainer. And I even talked to Supervisor Hahn about that. Can you talk a little about that concept as it relates to people who have loved ones that live in an area and want to create a registry so that law enforcement knows that they may have challenges getting evacuated?

Thank you, Supervisor. It's a complex, okay, so I think coming into the helm as the director, and we worked on this motion when I was in Supervisor Hahn's office, you know, I really wanted to lean in on the McChrystal group and their expertise around registries and, you know, we had the initiative, Kevin and I met with Cal OES with, you know, the access and functional needs lead in the California department. And I mean, in a nutshell, registries are not a best practice. As soon as you create a list, it gets outdated. To maintain it to the complexities of this jurisdiction with over 40 law enforcement agencies and over 40 fire departments, we just don't have a seamless data system. So as much as it seems like, okay, I can call and register, I think, you know, could we get there eventually as a system, as a county? I hope so. How we're currently structured is just not a best practice for us, and we've tried this in the county before previously. There was a lawsuit against the county, historically, and I think we've heard a lot from our disabilities commission just on where does this information live, how are people self-identifying, it's complex. So I think having, at the helm of being this department, to lead on access and functional needs, to build out the proper expertise, to have a community-based approach to start until we start fixing our systems, I think is, and like Supervisor Horvat said, we're as complex as a state. So I think there could be a legislative priority here as well, where we advocate at the state and figure out a statewide solution, because if you look at Florida and Texas, they did it at that level. To have all of our jurisdictions talking to each other is really, I think, would be a great start.

I hope that we communicate because we know who the vulnerable and those that are going to need assistance. And if there are opportunities for us to think outside the box in terms of better coordination, working with the Office of Emergency Management, I think it's important given the lessons learned, at least I can speak for Eaton, I'm sure we all have instances where the vulnerable population is the one that always afterthought, how do we help? What can we do different? And we have to do something different. Knowing that, I mean, moving on to DPSS, the report says that the county had too few experienced shelter leaders and staff and had to rely on state teams. It also found insufficient pre-vetted alternative shelter locations and inconsistent capacity for medical mobility, personal care, and continuity needs. How many trained shelter leaders do we have today? How many residents can we shelter without outside staffing assistance? and how many backup shelter sites are currently pre-vetted.

Thank you, Supervisor. Michael Sylvester, DPSS Chief Deputy. So going to your first question, it was- How many shelter leaders? County shelter trained managers. We have 185 countywide, most of which are DPSS. So we can tap into that. That's a good, pretty sizable pool, but still with a county as large as ours, we think we can do much better than that.

Oh, still can't hear it? Okay.

I thought it was okay.

No, it's on.

It's on. Yeah. We have 185.

There you go. There we go.

I have to hold it really close. We have 185 trained shelter managers across the county, most of which are DPSS. I highlighted this in a prior meeting is that we really wanna emphasize making this sort of a county-wide pool and enlarging the pools for all three areas. Our trained shelter workers is at 1,000. across the county, but the county's 110 plus thousand employees, so we can have a bigger pool there as well. We also have, and this is the area that we have probably the lowest number, and that's in FAST train or AFN train staff who are doing the screenings for assessment of access and functional needs. There's only 40, so we really need to improve that as well. So those are definite improvement areas that we can tap into. During the fires, we actually did, we do reach out, obviously, we worked with American Red Cross and we reached out to CDSS. CDSS offers their staff to us as well. It wasn't that we didn't have managers for the shelters, they offered, and it wasn't management personnel that they provided, it was actually their FAST team members who were doing the assessment of functional needs, and also their VEST team members, which are working the actual shelter itself. If you remember, the two largest shelters were managed by LA City and Pasadena City, and they also had support from American Red Cross, and that's who was doing the management of those sites. But we were supporting and we were providing staff from DPSS to be there. So in terms of capacity, I think you had a question about capacity. How many shelters could we stand up and manage? We approximate that to be roughly between 10 and 15 shelters that could be stood up if we could maximize the resources we currently have trained and be able to tap into all of them. That roughly translates to somewhere in the neighborhood of about 3,000 plus that could be sheltered in those 10 to 15 shelters. uh... shelter uh... shelter sites during the fire we had approximately fifteen hundred that were sheltered in total across the the various sites so just to give kind of a magnitude so we still believe there's a tremendous amount of improvement i mentioned on the last update i i gave you that we can tap into the dsw program really make this a county-wide effort not necessarily even though DPSS is the lead It shouldn't be exclusively DPSS. It should be a county-wide effort, and that way we can use it just like the DSWs are applied for other purposes, for shelter-based purposes. Supervisor, I might not have hit all your questions.

No, you got them. On the DSWs, how did that work under COVID? Who was the point of contact in terms of coordination?

Thanks, Supervisor. The DSW program, it... The process is housed within the Emergency Operations Center, but DHR is the managing department that works through that process. DHR has a skilled list that they've developed. We've asked all of our employees to take the survey. categorize people based on skill sets. So like if you're a forklift operator or you can lift heavy items, warehousing, all of these different subsets. The process is the requesting the department. So for example, if DPSS is running a shelter and needs additional support personnel wise for a shelter, They have a person that's in the Emergency Operations Center. It goes through the logistics section, which goes to DHR. They source that resource, and then it's assigned to that department for them to administer. We actually used DSWs quite a bit in the lineage fire that we did that. A significant amount of DSW hours were used in the 2025 wildfires, only second to COVID. COVID was by far and away the biggest DSW support mission that we've done in the county's history.

Okay, I'm going to switch gears only because I know my colleagues want to ask some questions. So I'm going to just touch on. Oh, oh. on repopulation. This is for OEM, Sheriff, Fire, and Public Works. The repopulation process in Eaton Fire footprint was confusing and frustrating for residents and actually even for myself and my staff. My office received a lot of questions from residents about how repopulation decisions were made During repopulation, who had the final authority to reopen an area? Was that understood by everyone sitting at the table? Because that seemed to be very confusing. I want to acknowledge the captain who I would call to help me get through the barriers because they didn't know who to let in and who not because we had National Guard there. And it didn't seem like there was there was one voice speaking.

Thank you, Supervisor. I'm going to defer to Assistant Sheriff Jason Skeen for the original or the initial response to repopulation.

Thank you. It's an honor to be here. Just I think we all understand and many of you visited the commands that we had established at multiple fires. And you could see and understand the briefings, the intelligence that went into making critical decisions, everything from public works. Our utility companies, understanding public health and all the facets that come into making a decision when to repopulate. It's a collective decision that's made at unified command. It doesn't rest with the sole individual in terms of that decision because of the criticality of the issues at hand. are complex and need to be thought through and to ensure that we're doing a thoughtful repop plan. Ultimately, unified command as a collective whole makes that decision when to do it and in the most expeditious manner with consideration of traffic flows, all the other casualties that could come up we had to deal with in many of the cases, the block appearances that Public Works referred to earlier. It was challenging in many facets, but at the same time, we felt we moved in the most expeditious manner possible. And I think to touch on your question about the communication, That is something that we recognized was challenging. We think that there's ways to solidify that so everybody's getting the same information at all the checkpoints, regardless of the agency, whether it was National Guard, CHP, LAPD, that we're all working from that same framework. And part of that is while communication, collaboration is key at the Unified Command, getting that information to the various checkpoints is also the next critical stage of that and making sure everybody at each shift that comes on As you know, there were thousands of people that contributed. All 12 of our divisions were on site. It was for the first time in my career that I had ever seen that. And yet still, we found challenges, but ways to also overcome those challenges.

Thank you, because that was highlighted in the Woolsey fire as well as a recommendation and the gap still remains. So I'm hoping that through this and identifying that there are still gaps that we coordinate. And I obviously I think LAPD should be a part of that because I know LAPD was doing the repopulation in Palisades, although we were getting the phone calls from the residents. So I would I would ask and knowing that through the McChrystal report that some cities did not participate. I don't know if LA City was one of them, but I think it's important for us to take that knowledge and address it as it relates to possible gaps that are going to remain so that we don't have this discussion again as it relates to who's in charge. For DPH on that, Finding two says that DPH personnel did not view their role as clearance authority for reentry, but other agencies expected that they did. When did Department of Public Health first tell the Unified Command in writing that it did not hold clearance authority?

Thank you, Supervisor, for that question. We don't have record of indicating in writing or even in sort of verbally that We don't have authority. That said, what I what I would say is that in general and quite understandably from the public, as you and I were on so many town halls, people ask us, is it safe? Is it safe to go back? Unfortunately, the scale of a disaster like this with the kinds of fire pollutants that were residual. It's not safe until it's entirely cleaned up, but our role in public health is to ensure that people minimize their risk as they go back in. And to minimize risk when you're going back in, there's two major components. You have to have very effective communication about how to minimize that risk, and you have to have the right safety equipment. I would say that When it came to reentry and repopulation at the very beginning of that in both burn scars we were a half beat behind in getting the messaging and the safety equipment, where it needed to be. And that needs to be rectified, and I think we saw the recommendation that we need a repopulation framework with triggers that systematic. with role clarity. And I think everyone did the best that they could. We were a half beat behind because there wasn't that at that moment. And so what did that mean? For example, I think we all remember as people wanted to go back and see the state of their property. What was left were their valuables left, it was very important that. We got the message out that if you're elderly or if you're young you ought not to go because you're vulnerable. And if you are going to go, you must have a tyvek suit we went and got those tyvek suits you must have ppe and we needed to get ourselves, which we did. Wherever those checkpoints were going to be so that people as they went back in had that safety equipment. That's an example of DPH's role. DPH's role, public health would argue, our role is not to determine, you know, not to be the final arbiter of when it's safe. We leave that to the safety leaders to make that decision with input from us about how we message safety and how we make sure people who do reenter are safe.

So how do you reconcile the report stating that there, I think you said that There was a lack of access to PPE for those that were returning. And yet I'm just hearing that. And I saw him, by the way. So I was kind of shocked by that because when I went through the the the checkpoint, they were handing out PPE. So is it a certain point or how do you respond to that?

So in the report, we did identify that they were able to pull the covid era PPE to distribute, and we do recognize that they distributed PPE, but the distribution process and getting more in took time because they were creating that as they were going.

Got it. I would just add, Supervisor, we need a stockpile of PPE for all disasters. That's what's missing. That's what was missing.

We need to do that, and air purifiers. Yes, I agree. This one's going to be a tricky one. So I'm going to ask it. Recommendation R1 makes Office of Emergency Management the lead for defining public health's role in these disasters. Does DPH agree that OEM should be the lead on that? And if so, Does public health and will public health view its own affirmation obligation to act when it holds health officer authority?

Yeah, that's a great question. And I think there's two parts to that question, if I may, Supervisor. Taking the first part, when it comes to the planning and the emergency operation plan, the all hazards mitigation, DPH believes OEM is the lead, and they're the coordinator. We're the public health experts, and we want to work lockstep and improve the plans that exist that have been updated even before this report was completed under Kevin and OEM's leadership. When it comes to health officer orders, public health takes those affirmative obligations very, very seriously. It is why the health officer issued several health officer orders as it relates to the wildfire. And so when there is a need for a health officer order, DPH absolutely sees its role to issue those orders.

Thank you, Supervisor. I think how we've been interpreting that recommendation moving forward is that it's explicitly talking about an annex to the county's emergency operations plan that specifies some roles and responsibilities by public health because OEM leads the development of the county's emergency operations plan from input from every department. It's kind of a natural fit that OEM would coordinate that development, but we would heavily rely on the team at Public Health to actually be putting in the content of that document.

Thank you for that. Throughout the recovery, and you touched on it, people are still in fear of the soil and the remediation that's taking place. DPH took the position that certain post-fire health guidance and remediation questions were the state's responsibility. This report does not examine that, and I think Supervisor Horvath touched on that. What was the position documented at the time, and what did public health do to get the state to act? And that still remains a problem, and I, as a supervisor, don't like to tell people it's not our problem to call the state because they look to us. to lead, and that's why we allocated 3 million towards soil testing. But I think it's important for us to get this clear and then figure out how we can bring the state agencies into the discussion.

Yeah, it's a great question. Thank you. What I would say is, what we would say, and I think just taking the example of the decision Not to have soil testing With debris removal that was made, you know by the state and federal agencies That was a decision that I know we in public health did not have input on It's a decision above our authority here locally And one that we thought was problematic as everyone recalls and we appreciated the board support in launching a soil testing program in a probability sample to determine a and answer the question about what is the level of risk because agencies above us, outside of our authority here, decided that they weren't going to soil test. That said, what did DPH do to try to reverse that before that decision was finalized? We heard about it when it was announced at a press conference, I think, in this room. We weren't told before. And that really gets at the earlier point about, you know, this is an after action report that doesn't seem to have those voices in it. You know, and I think our responses are inherently going to be integrated with other agencies outside of our local government. And that's the challenge we're facing. What did we do? You know, we worked very hard talking to our colleagues at the California Department of Public Health. at the Department of Toxic Substances and Control, that's DTSC, as well as the Department of Insurance for all of those issues. And we advocated hard as best we could to get what we believe would be the right policy decisions and operational decisions by those bodies. Were we successful? only partially at best probably with that advocacy and so we took matters in our own hands with your support to do the soil testing we set up the self-collection soil testing for you know we had over 3 000 entities of individual you know properties choose to do that we had to take steps in our own hands and we did that with your support we appreciate it but we did advocate we were in constant communication with them

Thank you. And I just want to I'm going to stop and let my colleagues ask questions. But I want to thank you for this to the survivors who are listening and are looking to this board to have accountability in place and know that that their pain and suffering is going to change the system for the better so that someone else doesn't have to go through some of the heartache and loss that they are. The motion that we're bringing in today is going to do just that. It is about moving the needle, about recognizing that We live in a county and in a state that has earthquakes, and it's important for us to make sure that we, as government leaders, have the resources in place and also have the chain of command in place. And that's something that's brought up because we may have the resources in place, but if you don't know who's in charge, it doesn't matter. And I think that is an important thing to note. moving forward. So thank you again Supervisor Horvath for letting me co-author this motion and thank you to the McChrystal report. I appreciate you putting on record the independence of this because there are those out there that are going to question that and I have promised transparency and integrity and it frustrates me when people lodge innuendos and try to create doubt on something that is important for us to get right. So with that, thank you, Madam Chair.

Thank you very much. I'll recognize Supervisor Mitchell next.

Thank you very much, Madam Chair, and thank you to my colleagues for creating this opportunity for us to have today's conversation. I echo your comments with regard to those who lived through this disaster. And for me, as I listen, this is the unique opportunity and why I really am passionate about my opportunity to work in government. Because it's our ability to respond to crises and circumstances in which our family, friends, and neighbors are living through that it's just a unique opportunity. And like all of you, I'm willing to lean in to be a part of the solution. I fully appreciate today's report and the fact that it includes an implementation tracking process. Happy to support the read-in motion today that creates a timeline by which we do that. As I thought about it, Supervisor Barger acknowledged her disappointment with regard to where we are or where we aren't with regard to the after action report for Woolsey. I began to think about other reports that we at the county here have and pay for. We paid millions of dollars for the Covington report and I have no idea where we are in terms of tracking progress against that. So I would certainly hope, thank you, Supervisor Barger, that you said that won't happen again, that we make sure that in all of our after-action reports, reports, that there is an element, much like we see in your report, with the near-term, mid-term, long-term solutions, your recommendation on what agencies should be lead agencies, that empowers us as the governing entity to be able to be crystal clear about how we are making progress Because when you know better, you do better. And when we are told better in these kinds of reports, I feel an obligation to make sure we're moving forward. Ms. Sutton, thank you. I agree with all the comments raised by my colleagues. One area that I was intrigued by that I wasn't able to quite see where you suggested it land, also when you talked about that there are national templates and you listed all of the areas, the one that I am not able to find, so I hope you'll help me, is the second recommendation regarding volunteer and donations management. having had my own experience rushing, as many of us did, me to Altadena, to the Rose Bowl, and seeing well-intended people show up, and me taking it upon myself, because I am a leader, to say to some, this is not a time to empty out your closet and your trunk. and give stuff you should have thrown away to people in need, right? So is there examples of other municipalities who have stood up the volunteer management element? Because I think we see that every time. I'm not real clear what department it should live in. Who can you direct us to? I'm thinking that CSAC and NACO should be a space that we take this recommendation to to make sure all of our local government entities are thinking about this. So can you direct me to a jurisdiction or an example that stood up the volunteer management element as you talked about?

So there are some significant best practices in those localities, and I will get you that list. Thank you. The models of where they sit. If you've seen one volunteer and donations management program, you've seen one volunteer and donations management program. There are best practices and templates across the country. In my own state of Virginia, when I was the chief deputy, our volunteer and donations management, we identified a volunteer agency liaison role as part of my staff, and it sat with them to develop and develop the partnerships in order to bring that all together. You will see across the country that it sits in different places based on how emergency management organizations are set up. What I will say is that the most important role is that voluntary agency liaison because that's their job day in and day out, before, during, and after the disaster to link the the nongovernmental organizations, your partners and county resources to help it. We always say it is the second disaster because so much comes at once. But I will also emphasize that it is not 100 percent the county's responsibility. You have tremendous nongovernmental and philanthropic organizations that are happy to lean in and help you. and that role can really support that for your organization.

But the issue is coordination. Absolutely. And I think if the public sees coordination, there was so many well-meaning people that just kind of show up and did pop-ups, but it wasn't coordinated. And then, like, what do you do with all the stuff after the fact? And that became another issue. I appreciate that. Mr. McCallum, do you want to comment on what you think about it, where it should be housed, if it's a part of your near-term, mid-term, long-term plan?

Yeah, thanks, Supervisor. It is definitely a part of our plan because we're accepting the recommendations. I think, you know, prior to the fires, OEM has had extensive coordination with the Emergency Network Los Angeles, which is our county's volunteer organization's active in disaster consortium of different CBOs and to some extent faith-based organizations, but it's primarily the non-governmental and community-based organizations. I think what this highlights is moving from the day-to-day preparedness front into how do you operationalize it? I agree with Erin that there are a lot of models. I think the journey that we're about to go on in this is to determine within our county Because we have to make this work for LA County and we're a unique place, right? And so I think the core effort right now is a part of that journey is primarily identifying where that responsibility rests and then how do we operationalize it? OEM is going to have a role. I think it's premature to say right this moment that this is an OEM role. I think that's going to be part of that 30-day report back.

The live donation link. I hope that we are never in a position again where it takes weeks to set that up. Just like we have learned and talked about making permanent our response to small businesses in terms of the recovery that it takes, we've had to start and stop it a couple of times and there's delay. And so now we have the permanent infrastructure so we can just flip that switch. So I'm hoping the same as with the live link that proverbial switch can be left sit hit and a link goes live.

So that infrastructure exists now that we've implemented it. I think the the art of this solving this problem is that no one disaster is the same. And so we have to have a solution that is adaptable and flexible, but then also meets that rapid implementation. And that's always, sometimes those two issues are actually, you know, working against each other. So really the art of moving forward on this is how do you make that accessible and available in a quick timeframe, but that's applicable to these different hazards that we face.

I appreciate that. Last question for me, Madam Chair. I completely support and agree the conversation around congregate settings where vulnerable people reside, be that group homes or SNFs. There are also memory care centers and adult senior adult residences that aren't SNFs, but we also saw evacuation. I got calls from constituents and family friends and neighbors who have elder family members who they couldn't track and couldn't find. And so the registry is important, but I don't want us to lose sight on, particularly from my experience, Altadena, where we know the story of multi-generational home ownership and seniors who are living in place. I don't know if it's tracking through our in-home support services network, but those who are physically disabled and seniors who are at home and aren't a part of a organized network. and what our responsibility is, if any, to make sure that we are able to monitor and understand those populations as well. I mean, that just became blaringly apparent to me in this last fire. I think in the report you talk about the average age was 55. Did I make that up? No, that was in the report. respondents for their survey interesting um but but we know that there was a significant uh senior community homeowners who were still living at home many by themselves and so how do we um provide for that population yeah thanks supervisor i'm this is

This is a challenge that every local government across the country is facing. Our disaster obviously amplifies the importance of it. Going back to the Woolsey after action, following the Woolsey after action, and we've been implementing this on all of our significant weather events. It's cited in both after action reports that through our IHSS and then also our empowered databases, when we get those weather alerts that are concerning and we notify the board, we notify our operational area partners, we also send messages through these different databases. I think one thing that really has elevated through this analysis is that how do you take that information, we're pushing it out, but how do we create a way to then receive information from, you know, whatever that population group is that needs additional support and then operationalize it? And I think that is what is going to be an endeavor that we embark upon on this. I think Meral, you know, really emphasized something that's of importance. We started this Last year, we met with the state. We've met with other partners. We've been going to access and functional needs and vulnerable community conferences. And it's clear in all of those I'll call them like the pre-work that we're doing, that a registry is not the answer. The registries create a lot of confusion, a lot of unmet expectations. Where everyone is kind of moving towards is how do you push out the information to those needed groups? And then how do you actively get them to participate in neighborhood groups, family groups, and then some sort of mechanism for them to communicate back to public safety or governmental entities a way to support them prior to that impact occurring. And I think that's where we're going to thread the needle.

I appreciate that. I see here in the key strategic recommendations outstanding and in progress from the CEO, your 5D community preparedness and the whole notion of promoting the need for individual family emergency plans and mapping the neighborhood, the buddy system for residents and access and functional needs. I will continue to be interested in figuring out how we process and build that infrastructure. You know, I'll never forget the news report where the family said that their, you know, elder family member kept telling them, you know, if it gets bad, you know, they'll come get me. They'll come for me. And, you know, just wondering in his mind who they was. Who's the they? when you're 100 years old, and he was. And he's one of the 30 plus that perished. And so how we figure that out. I appreciate you saying the registry isn't the issue. We also have to recognize, as hard as it is for us in government, because we're trying to operate as efficiently as possible, and so we use technology in excess, that there are people who don't. and how we still, as a local government, with that knowledge of them, provide the information they need to know when to evacuate, to know when to call, to define their they, who's gonna come for them. So I'm really engaged in how we continue to figure that piece out.

Thank you, Madam Chair.

I just wanna, if I could just jump on that one topic, because sitting on the LA Care Board, they have a system of providers around the county. And I'm sure that there's a way of maybe working with them through a more systematic manner and be able to, once we know where the fire or the disaster is hitting, is to connect with them to identify the providers of care. And they can probably, lend some information about where more of the disabled or folks that are really in need of assistance at that time, where you could target it. It would be interesting to try out a pilot to see if that could be done. And that is granular. And I get it, there might be some privacy issues, but then again, if it's an emergency, an evacuation, hey, you need all the help you can get. I just throw that out as maybe one thought.

yes thanks supervisor can i build on one uh part of this too is i think at the end of the day when we're talking about this particular issue about responding to um the needs of our vulnerable populations our access and functional needs that we really understand that this needs to be a layered approach that when we talk about an earthquake and i get to come back here in a couple weeks to talk about earthquakes so i don't want to get the cart in front of the horse but um there are going to be more needs than all of us have the resources to provide. And so really, at the end of the day, this is where that family preparedness, community preparedness is needed. We experienced that that night. Every single resource this county had was mobilized prior to that wind. and then executed its actions, and we were quickly overwhelmed by the sheer size and scope of what took place that night into the next day. And so we really need to emphasize the community preparedness component as being a part of that layer. Neighbors helping neighbors is a great start.

Thank you. With that, I'll recognize Supervisor Hahn.

Thank you, Madam Chair, and thank you to my colleagues for this thorough question and answer period. And we always kind of feel like we're deferring to, of course, to Supervisor Horvath and Supervisor Barger, who had real life experiences, who have the constituency base that was Living the lessons learned after report that the whole time and thank you to crystal for this report. I just wanted to add my voice to everybody else to say, I think what's important is, of course, the implementation of these recommendations and um it is frustrating even though it was you know 80 percent of the wolfie fire um i'm wondering and i don't know if you compared which ones didn't get implemented and would that have made a difference this time around but i will just um say from my perspective i appreciate uh kevin what you said well don't forget we were in covet and um there was budget issues but i think we are there's another emergency around the corner that there there may be another worldwide health uh emergency around the corner there there may be something so we have to figure out how we don't use any excuse um to implement these recommendations i think the public is going to want to know how you know Haven't we learned all the lessons? Do we still have to keep saying lessons learned? When are we going to get to the point where we can say we've learned the lessons and here's what we're doing? So I just wanted to add that and then make sure that everybody talks to us during our budget time. or the whole year along, because this clearly is a priority for this board. So we don't want to ever hear that they would have been implemented if it hadn't been for some particular. So that's all I'm going to say. And then, Miral, I just wanted to, I can see you back there kind of waiting to say something, because particularly as it relates to our seniors and our disabled population, we have a whole department. It's the Department of Aging and Disability. We have a new department head, Miral Karakusian, This is a perfect opportunity for your department and you to really figure out this one piece of both of those populations, and many of them are overlapping in terms of how they fit the population. And wondering if you have any initial thoughts, you might have already said something about how we do coordinate the response find the database, get the input. I also feel like many times we don't use our commissions enough. We have citizen commissions that represent all of our departments that are kind of the in-between level between our bureaucrats and the elected officials. Let's make sure we engage our commissions, because they are the ones that also I think can provide valuable input into real life experiences that would be helpful. So Meral, I didn't know if you had any.

absolutely thank you supervisor i think um it's really cool to come into this position because we already went through our budget cycle it's been it's been a year since i came in as interim and so we requested we anticipated um with the registry motion that you you authored um that disaster services i don't have the expertise right now in my department so we went through the budget process and it was presented at the family and social services cluster last week and they'll come to the board at the end of this month but we will have two items. So we're gonna start building our unit around disaster services to have that expertise. So I think we were trying to get ahead of the curve, not ahead of the board, but ahead of the curve because we identified this as a need because we are the aging and disabilities department and I think the expectation is there. We want to own it. We want to follow the clear mandate from the board on how we run point on it with our sister county agencies as well. So I think as we kind of build out that expertise, we will continue to build out that unit and just continue to lead on that. And I think that's what's really important. And I think there's targeted outreach we can do. We can work with so many people. And I heavily lean in on our commissions. I enjoy popping into the meetings whenever I can. So they're very much tried, trued, and trusted experts in their own field. So we really lean in on them.

I think they have real, live, lived experience and sometimes I think we don't elevate our commissions enough and respect their opinions. They can help us a lot as we move forward. I was gonna ask, there were, and I think, This has already been touched on, but I just want to touch on it again is the the evacuation of those who are incarcerated. There were several fires, including a fire that was near our jail up in North County at the start of 2025. That brought up a lot of concerns about how we safely evacuate. I'm wondering, McChrystal, why you selected probation as the lead agency instead of the sheriff's department to evacuate. Was that just meant for the probation facilities, or did you also mean the sheriff's facilities as well?

That was for the probation. the probation agency. It's a multi responsibility. The sheriff's department has some ownership as well as probations, as well as DCFS. You have a lot of custodial facilities and those that are part of the juvenile and adult system in the community as well. So you have multiple stakeholders. And while, yes, probation needs to oversee probation, all of them need to come together to have Because if they're all evacuating differently, it causes significant challenges.

I mean, I'm concerned. I've made no secret about my concern about our probation department. Our probation department has been out of compliance at a couple of the facilities specifically because they did not have an evacuation plan on record. So I'm concerned about that. I just want to make sure that we have a lot of eyes looking at that as well. And just to follow up, Assistant Sheriff Skeen, are we coordinating with the state to work through emergency evacuation of our incarcerated adults in case we run out of secure sites here in the county? Have we looked at the idea of transportation and buses and all that?

Thank you for the question. Obviously on the evening that we had that secondary fire come on the back of the Santa Clarita Valley, our Peter Pitch's detention facility did in fact have fire that was encroaching. The great thing was our custody divisions had evacuation plans already in place and began to execute them. Several of our facilities were in fact evacuated and inmates were transported. to from some of the more vulnerable facilities particularly south and were transferred to the supermax facility which is our newest one on that property and people were safely secured we then got the confidence from our fire department and chief tony maroney was speaking directly with the sheriff communicating about all the protocols that his department had put in place in concert with our own protocols and practices and then we even went as far as developed contingency plans or also executed which was a staging of buses god forbid we actually needed to execute on that plan we had very good confidence in fact the fire department had brush clearance just the months before and we felt very calm in the sense that we were also sheltered in place students at Pepperdine University. We were doing the same shelter in place on an even more hardened facility, which was a jail. They just don't burn down. And we looked at best practices from around the country to make sure that we were also going in the right direction. But had we needed to, we do have plans in place. We do have other facilities that can accommodate other inmates, both at the county, Mira Loma, back down at CRDF and so on.

And that was an interesting decision. that was different than maybe some of the earlier fires surrounding Pepperdine, which is my alma mater, that before it was evacuation and now it's shelter in place. Can you talk a little bit about why that is a better strategy?

Yeah.

So we look at particularly the Malibu- What all the parents are thinking about and wondering about and why did you make that decision?

So we look at some locations in geographic as well as the risk of moving someone. And again, that's a unified command decision and also talking with the stakeholders at place for, in this case, the university. There's not a lot of entry and exit points into the university. and students would actually be at more risk had they transported and attempted to try to get out on the PCH, it could have resulted in a lot more losses. We've seen certain things when we look at the Paradise Fire, the Maui Fire, where people actually perish sometimes in their vehicles and very sad to say. Those facilities are true, tied and tested in compliance and making sure in the fire department gives us a lot of confidence when they say, hey, based on the amount of brush, the type of brush, the ember cast that can be shadowing sometimes either feet or up to miles apart. They know the growth in the vegetation. There's a fire science that goes behind this when we're listening to our partners who are subject matter experts and they're giving us this guidance and we're making those final decisions. And so we did that same within the custom facilities that we did with like Pepperdine University.

I appreciate that. And I know Pepperdine has been a good partner, particularly with our fire department. I know we've had some command centers up there at their Malibu campus. But I know, yeah, when my daughter was a freshman there, there was a fire. And yeah, they had to evacuate. And a lot of students are from out of state. And they're like, where do we go? A lot of them didn't know where to go. And you're right. They're spilling out on Pacific Coast Highway. Speaking of transportation, did the McChrystal Report look into overall transportation as it related to evacuation.

So in the first report, the alerts and evacuation was looked at more significantly there. It did carry over into this report as well, but more so on after the evacuation, the evacuation of the facilities and then the reentry back into the communities.

Was there a recommendation or have we thought about partnering with different ride share companies, Uber or Lyft? Is that part of our conversation? I only say that because I just recently was offered from Uber some help. We had some fires in La Habra. Well, there was an evacuation warning. There wasn't an order, but I got noticed that Uber would be happy to give free rides to those who needed it. I didn't know if that's something we wanted to keep in our back pocket for the future, just some agreement or arrangement.

Thanks, Supervisor. So the transportation issue is one of the recommendations from the first that we're already working through. It is more expansive than just rideshare. It includes our discussions. We're working with Public Works on Metro and other mass transit organizations. Related to the rideshare, we actually used Uber and Lyft services during the warehouse fire. They provided a substantial amount of support during the 2025 fire. So it is a capability. We do have those relationships. Our emergency operations center has their, both of those organizations contact. They have their own emergency management structures and we action them. They also have some capacity where they work on some of these smaller incidents. And it's similar to like with the landslide in Rolling Hills Estates where we used Airbnb for additional housing. So we've really tried to maximize our opportunities with some of these private sector entities to support whether it's transportation or sheltering.

Right, and then the last thing I just wanted to, I was glad to hear us reviving the idea of stockpiling PPE. I still think, I know there's issues with expiration dates and shelf life and all that, however, I would like to see that, and I don't think that was a specific recommendation, but I still, I think I said that publicly before, I'd love to see some thinking on that, reporting back to us on the possibility. I particularly think, obviously not one giant warehouse would work, but I know during the lineage event, We went to the City of Commerce and they have a giant warehouse themselves with lots of room and wondering if we can begin to at least have the conversations with many of our cities about their capacity to store in advance of a major emergency certain, you know, masks or air filters, again, with the understanding about shelf life and expiration date. I would like to see us begin having more of these conversations, Madam Chair, that we're having today with uh you know contract cities or independent cities there's a lot of organizations where our cities look to the look to the county for leadership on a number of issues and i i think that this conversation that we're having needs to uh be elevated to uh our cities as well so Thank you. You don't have to answer that about the stock. Oh, yeah.

Supervisor, I'm happy to answer that we can begin to have that conversation later this month when we present supplemental budget and we can go from there.

Thank you.

Thank you. I'm always the last person here. But a lot has been said and I really want to thank you, Aaron, for your presentation. It was most enlightening and reassuring. And I appreciate OEM staff and all our departments. that have helped us through not just the Eaton and Palisades and the Woolsey Fire, but more recently, the Lineage Fire. That's one of our latest disasters that took place in the city of LA, Boyle Heights, across the street was East LA, which is unincorporated. And that in and of itself is also a challenge. Because when emergency response goes out to an unincorporated area, it's technically our departments that try to get that information out. Now whether it's done in a concerted effort or cooperative or partnership in one system, information going out, you raise a lot of those issues that I have in my mind about what happened with the lineage. And I see that there are a lot of good things that we learned from these previous fires where we did have disaster workers. We were able to get immediate relief how could I say, assistance for people who had to leave their homes during the fire if they needed to leave because they had to evacuate near lineage. And we put up with the Red Cross some facility at City Terrace Park, and we did have coverage there. We did also have a Department of Health Services mobile unit there, which was important. And then the following days after we started to provide air purifiers and getting that assistance out and water and food. So there is a need to have a stockpile because I did ask the question before where we could get masks. And quite frankly, the department said they didn't have masks. But that doesn't mean that other resources or people we know didn't stand up and provide that. And I know eventually they did, but I'm just saying that when it's immediate, you wanna be able to have that on your fingertips because we're the ones that get the calls. And that to me is very important to be able to locate strategically where those items are gonna be. And I don't think it has to be at one warehouse. I think you have to have it strategically placed where there's minimal congestion in and out and whatever it is that needs to be made available is happening. I just wanna say that we do need to have partnership with other locales. Because in this instance, I've seen it happen with the city of LA now with the Palisades fire. And then other local jurisdictions, even around the Altadena Eaton area, and I saw it even with lineage. There were cities that wanted to help in the lineage fire that we may not have thought were heavily impacted, Monterey Park. City of Commerce, Southeast Cities, and others, and they raised the issue. They also wanted to have access to air purifiers and assistance, and some were even willing. Monterey Park, as I recall, one of their business owners there actually donated several hundred, and people were willing to do this. Again, the coordination effort. And I want to thank ISD for helping us and Public Works because we utilized whatever space we could. And that was more because my staff knew about it. And I think we really do have to have a systematic institutionalized memory of where these things are, where they're available. at a moment's notice, because time is of the essence. And people were displaced, just as they were in the other fires. Lineage also shut down businesses, and I know we're looking at trying to help some of those small businesses. We have set up, I think, a system for a resiliency fund, but it isn't fast enough. should be a moment's notice, and it should be always rapid response. Our staff went out and actually did our own rapid response, but that's not called for. Not every office can do that, and not every part of the county is capable of doing that. So, we're going to have to think more strategically and what that really means, and especially when it impacts disparities that exist in our communities where the level of access to resources is always historically limited. And East LA is one of those places. In my mind, it's those Boyle Heights. So, it's some of the other parts of the city of LA and the county. I do want to thank, when I think back about the Eaton Fire though, I do want to thank the Sheriff's Department working with the California Office of Emergency Management as well, or systems, and we had access to the Guard. Right? We had the guards, the reserves, Army reserves that were out there. And I recall them coming out up in the Azusa Canyon because we thought the fire was going to penetrate going east that way. And so some people were told, you know, evacuate or get ready or we're going to block the streets. And they did. And I saw that firsthand and I thought, well, that's good. But then again, communication. And getting that because Wi-Fi and satellite and all that is very different when you're up in those in those mountains and hills. So I want to know what, you know, the share of how that coordination went, because that's one thing that was really critical. And that was needed because you didn't want people coming in and out of places that would just create more havoc. Right. And safety. So I don't want to speak on that. Mr.

Yes, ma'am. Thank you for bringing that to light. It had been the first time in my career again that I'd seen the National Guard deployed had been more than thirty three, thirty four years since they were deployed in the county of Los Angeles. We think back to the Rodney King riots versus now. And here we were using them in a much more different state of emergency. And I will tell you, they were extremely expeditious in getting set up and getting boots on the ground. I think it was like less than 38 hours or so approximately from the time of the fires, at least from the early morning hours on Wednesday to having them in place the following day. They were amazing in many ways. I think the community also embraced them. We weren't exactly sure when all of a sudden you see their large Humvee vehicles out there, along with their military fatigues, along with their weapon systems. We've had discussions about that. They were embraced by the community. The community actually loved them. It was a good relationship. We were grateful for them, and we now know how that relationship works in coordination with all of our partners, but they were a force multiplier, and I don't think we would have been as effective at what we were doing in terms of all the control and access points that we were. And we were also, as you know, concerned about looter suppression and they played a critical role in that as well.

And I want to add to that. I know that they were very present during the fires in Malibu and everywhere. And I do wanna recognize them because I know people did reflect and say that they felt safer seeing them and that they were involved and they were there to help. They weren't there to do anything else. The other thing I wanna mention is that we talked about landfills. And that is always gonna be an issue, I think, for us as we move forward. Lineage certainly is no different. And we heard from outside communities that were very, very upset about why trash from Boyle Heights was being sent to areas in Ventura or farther out past the Fifth District because of odors and things of that nature. There's always issues around that. But I think the more information and coordination, and I know there was an attempt, and I want to say thank you to Mark Pastrella for actually making and helping the city and their sanitation district decide how to open up more landfills quickly, quicker than was already somehow thought of. And we were able to loosen that up. Those relationships are really important. But I also want to say that just because the Army Corps came in or FEMA did to help us to remove some initial debris from the fire, the fire in Palisades, a lot of it was very toxic. And much of it had to do with EV vehicles and batteries, titanium. And they were sent to a community where I... Shared with Supervisor Barg in the city of that overlays the city of Duarte, but also Azusa Canyon, the city of Azusa and Irwindale. And there was a lot of concern from the public as to why who made that decision. And of course, the immediate calls came to our offices about that. That's when I think federal government, while they want to be expeditious, should also be doing a better job to help understand what the community needs are. Because after that happened, we had to have deployed sheriffs, police from the surrounding cities, including guards around the area because the communities were so upset. And they wanted it out. And so I know we have Public Works here. Do you want to say anything about that? How that could have maybe been different? Or what things in hindsight did we learn from that?

Yeah. Good afternoon, Supervisors. Luis Ramirez. I am a deputy director with Public Works. I just wanted to say that that is one of the items that is addressed in the current report. One of the recommendations is that ahead of the next incident, we figure out what areas can be used as money is used. The word staging. Right. where we're removing debris and we're placing it somewhere prior to final disposal. So that is definitely one of the areas in which we can improve for the next event is to figure out where these strategic locations can be placed to avoid issues such as the ones that you described where Community members were surprised that debris was being brought into their neighborhoods without prior notice. So part of what we're working on is really identifying those sites and making sure that everybody is aware where these potential staging areas can be placed so that when an event happens, it doesn't come as a surprise that we're using them as an interim storing place before we dispose of the debris at a landfill.

And then that's layer two, because we we actually got calls from the state assembly person, assembly and the city council, who are not previously made aware. So I say that because these things will continue to happen unless we have some protocols in place. Once we know where decisions are being made before they're being made. Maybe there has to be that discussion should be as a part of that plan.

Yeah, absolutely, Supervisor. And it was a concern to us, too. And as you recall, our team did work with the Army Corps and with the contractors that were doing the re-removal to try to mitigate that as quickly as possible.

And I do want to thank overall our system of government that pulled together during the Eaton fire because we saw use of people wanting to help. In fact, our animal care control also helped to work with the Pomona Fairplex to take in equestrian animals and pets there. I know that was tremendous and that was on short notice, as well as having some of our outside community CBOs who didn't even live in the impacted area, but started distributing food items. We even assisted in doing giving out foods at the Irwindale Speed Raceway. 2,000 boxes were given and the call was to identify people from the area that was impacted. That's what it means to do things quickly, but to be able to do it in a manner that's systematized so we don't throw off the resources that perhaps LA Regional Food Bank may not have access to. Yet we know we can work with them and do something to help provide for those distributions. Those to me are essential things that we need to stockpile and have on hand and have our disaster workers who I want to salute as well. Because there were a variety that came through and helped in many occasions and I was very I'm very pleased to see them with the lineage at the East LA Civic Center. We had numerous individuals coming out there who actually wanted to volunteer because they were from the area. And that has to be said as well. And that's honorable. So I'll leave it with that because I know I'm very pleased to see the report and the motion and I intend on supporting it because I think there's lessons learned for lineage as we move forward. So with that, Supervisor Horvath.

Thank you, Madam Chair. I'll be very quick. I just wanted to reiterate, I know county residents are really in dire need of responsive, accountable leadership when it comes to emergencies. And I think we're also looking to modernize our systems, which is also critical to supporting the work that each of you has done. And when I woke up and saw the headline today, I found it to be unfortunate that the headline is that we didn't have a written plan when all of you worked in such extraordinary ways. And so to prevent that going forward, I hope that this conversation and the motion that we're bringing forward and the path that it sets us on really empowers you all in that proactivity. That don't wait for this board to bring a motion to you if you see something wrong. Within your respective departments, if you are seeing goals that are highlighted in this report that you know we're gonna hold you accountable to, come to us proactively rather than waiting because that is how we're going to all be able to work together as a team and avoid whatever today's headline was the next time. So I really appreciate the work that will be done and that there's a lot of work to do. So thank you very much for really digging into this conversation today.

Thank you. Again, thank you to both Supervisor Horvath and Supervisor Barger and, of course, our staff. And thank you for the report, the McCarthy report and moving forward and our CEO and everybody that helped put this together. So with that, we'll go now to public comment. I believe we have callers on the line. Telephonic. Telephonic.

Will the following individuals please come forward and staff will assist you. Faye Seabox, Claudia Jerez, and Loretta Lorraine. Adriana Bautista, your line is open. Please begin.

Hello, my name is Adriana, and I'm a community member who was impacted by the Eaton Fire. I also work with the Altadena Earthseed Community Land Trust. And I appreciate the interdepartmental collaboration to make sure that this after action report is not just a report that sits on the shelf but gets implemented in meaningful ways especially to protect seniors people with disabilities and folks with transportation needs. Our community is still in a state of emergency and the disaster has impacted us long term. I have concerns regarding evacuation and I believe that this should be prioritized in terms of the action piece and also hearing the- Thank you.

Roy Humphreys, your line is open. Please begin.

Democrat supervisors took $5 million from the Wildfire Housing Fund to spend on thwarting the effects of the federal immigration enforcement, also a felony. With these funds, Supervisor Solis of Roland Heights, a fairway monument sign rebuild Steve Paul, Walden Park Roads. Governor Schwarzenegger was the first and only governor to create an emergency preparedness warehouses, but the Democrats let them go asunder. As to disaster preparedness, are you telling me that we are not prepared for the inevitable catastrophic earthquake situation? As to the tarpon heads telling Supervisor Barger to kiss the moon, I will do that for half the price. Time to fire and hire. Thank you.

Thank you. Caller with phone number ending in 6503, your line is open. Please state your name and begin.

Yes. Good afternoon, Board of Supervisors. My name is Jose Miguel Ruiz. I'm the Executive Director for Cultiva LA, a community nonprofit here in the LA County area. I do want to emphasize and highlight the need for community-based approach as we look at emergencies. We're proud to have partnered with Supervisors Solis for a pilot program as the fires were ongoing where $140,000 did allow for us to purchase equipment that was utilized to then distribute food, a lot of the basic needs, PPE, and that also transferred to now the lineage fire. So my ask is that we continue working with the public sector, business groups, as we start looking at different initiatives. And then also not forget about the youth. We do work with the California Climate Action college core, which is a huge force. It's over 10,000 youth that are tasked to give back to their community. And this is something that we could definitely utilize. So again, thank you, Supervisors. Thank you to all the supervisors that came together bearing the need. And now we're moving forward together as we help to make a safer and also climate us.

Caller with phone number ending in 6005. Your line is now open. Please state your name and begin.

My name is Sophia Quinonez. I want to thank the county for trying to do what it can but you know we're falling short my concerns have to do with the incident command system an unincorporated area that wasn't activated and my other concerns too are with the mobile unit and after speaking with Dr. Ferrer and Montu Davis but that's private and that would those mobile units wouldn't trigger their incident command system because that's what we needed we needed to evacuate and just looking what happened recently in new york with the you know what happened the years of cover-up you know with all the contaminants we feel the same way that there's a cover-up that lineage did give the information to the aqmd but that information hasn't been given public but we have to really help um our businesses they haven't received a penny and they're hurting, not only losing their businesses, but they may lose their homes because there's no income. So a pre-registration, I know the county did a good job of going out and talking to people, but right now, they should be pre-registered. Thank you.

We will now go to in-person speakers. Please begin.

Hello, I'm here as Fee, Fesha Baggs, Two Million Baggs specifically. We should all be working together. It is a shame that Sheriff Luna just gets to waltz in here and he brought his gang leaders for the next item instead of talking to the response on this item, specifically when policing, patrolling, and closing streets through permits was one of the first responses. Unfortunately, the failures in the emergency management system and the coordination will happen again. And it will happen again as long as the CEO and the county council continue to prioritize the growing liability from our sheriff's department, the gangs, and everything that we continue to see time and time again. So all the items, the lineage fires should be as important as this item and shouldn't just be pushed to the next week. We should build the jail. right in the Palisades, let's put it right there. Let's put it on the canyon, right? So we wanna make sure that we're having a concrete answer and response from this board and not just on items that have slowed down the process and people that have been waiting here to do public comment. Thank you.

Thank you, next speaker please.

I'm Ms. Loretta Lorraine. I do have to thank Ms. Holly Mitchell. I really respect you, and you ladies do. Ain't anybody should be sitting here at the fire department because those men are heroes. They lost their own lives to rescue other lives. And always, I've always say, there's older people out there that lost their home. I'm always working, I always talk for seniors, because seniors are really, they get the bad end of the deal. Because when you get old, old can't get out there and do what youngs can do. And always, you know, we need to do more for the seniors. And also, the fire department should be sitting right here, because those heroes are the ones deserve their policy and anything that has coming for them. Because they always get the end of the deals. They're Bill and Joes, they got money. They get all kinds of stuff. They get traffic tickets out there. They doing something out there to get that money going.

Because, you know, you understand what I'm saying? OK, good.

Oh, for the record, the lady says I'm an idiot. No, she's wrong. I'm a fucking idiot. So you got to remember, there's two things, right? So it's been a long time, hasn't it? A long time. It's been a goddamn long time, hasn't it? Well, Janice, my good partner in crime today came to talk to you and he wasn't allowed in the room.

Sir, you need to keep your comments to the actual agenda item.

Oh, yeah, I'm talking about who's accessible to this meeting and who isn't under the ADA. The gentleman came here to speak and he was denied entry to your meeting. So we have some papers.

Sir, can you keep your comments to agenda item 78?

Janice, please. It's been three years. I've been busy. I've been busy, Janice.

I haven't forgot. Sir, this is your third warning. Keep your comments to agenda item 78.

But you thought I forgot about you guys. I didn't. You're in my heart.

That concludes the time for public comment on this item.

Madam Chair and members of the Board, that concludes public comment on this item. Madam Chair, item 70A with the motion from Supervisor Horvath with a seconded by Catherine Barger is before you.

Thank you. Moved by Supervisor Horvath, seconded by Supervisor Barger. To approve this item, Executive Officer, please call the roll.

Supervisor Mitchell.

Aye.

Supervisor Horvath.

Aye.

Supervisor Han?

Aye.

Supervisor Barger? Aye. Supervisor Solis? Aye. Motion passes. Members of the public, Supervisor Horvath would like to hold item A4 discussion and consideration of necessary actions relating to the county's homeless crisis as requested at the board meeting of May 17th, 2026 and proclaimed as a local emergency on January 10th, 2023. This item will be held following item 20 and before general public comment. We will now move forward onto item 20, identifying deputy gangs within Los Angeles County Sheriff's Department to ensure accountability and risk mitigation, which was held by Supervisor Mitchell. For members of the public on the phone, if you've already signed up to speak, no further action is needed. If you're on the phone and wish to comment but haven't signed up, press star and then follow the prompts to join the speaking queue. TO ADDRESS THE BOARD FROM THE MEETING, CALL 213-444-2600, PRESS STAR AND FOLLOW THE PROMPTS. AN OPERATOR WILL ASSIST YOU. EILEEN DECKER AND UNDER SHERIFF TARDY FROM LOS ANGELES COUNTY SHERIFF'S DEPARTMENT AND COUNTY COUNCIL ARE AVAILABLE FOR QUESTIONS.

Very good, thank you. This item was held by Supervisor Mitchell, and I will turn it over to you.

Thank you very much, Madam Chair. I wanna start by really just as my colleagues did on the previous motion, really centering who this motion is focused on. So I wanna acknowledge all the community members throughout the county who've endured the callousness of deputy gangs for decades. I also want to thank the departments and community members who provided feedback for this motion. We brought this motion to cluster almost a month ago, August 19th, including County Council, the Sheriff, Civilian Oversight Commission, and the Office of Inspector General. In April, colleagues, I held an $8 million settlement related to deputy gangs to not only point out how serious and dangerous deputy gangs continue to be for the community and for the deputies within the department, but also to make clear the financial burden falling on us to address this issue aggressively. I want to start by also acknowledging Sheriff Luna and the significant strides he's made to address this issue internally, which I'm sure he's going to speak to. And I also want to be very clear that the goal of today's motion is to keep that progress moving forward. And to not only engage the Sheriff's Department, but other county departments as well. For decades, L.A. County has talked about the issue of deputy gangs. We've had reports, investigations, hearings, lawsuits. We had a state bill, AB 958, back in 2021, that quote unquote outlawed them. We've heard directly from community members, including those who are incarcerated, as well as from sheriff deputies themselves about the harm they have experienced. So at some point, colleagues, we have to ask ourselves whether we have a system truly capable of identifying these groups and stopping this issue. That's the point of today's motion, accountability and transparency. It asks for clear criteria to be established for identifying deputy gangs. It requires a department-wide review of county facilities, including stations and specialized units, to identify deputy gang-related insignia and to ensure that racist insignia are prohibited. Frankly, we can't outlaw what isn't clearly defined. It also seeks to provide transparency around how the county is addressing this issue and what tools are available when implementation is delayed. This motion is about addressing the system that allows this problem to continue. It seeks to determine what we know about deputy gangs, cliques, and secret subgroups, how we identify these groups, how allegations are investigated, and what options are available to this board to hold these groups accountable. I also want to be equally clear about what this motion does not do. It does not validate or invalidate every allegation. Nor does it assume that every group of deputies is a gang. And it does not presume individual guilt. Instead, it creates a process for consistently evaluating information and patterns and determining what exists. We can't talk about deputy gangs without talking about the cost to the county and every county taxpayer. Just this year, we have approved over $27 million in settlements related to the Sheriff's Department. And I want to be clear that not all of these settlements are related to misconduct, but quite a few are, including some stemming from incidents that occurred between 2023 and now. and every dollar we spend responding to harm that has occurred is a dollar that can't go toward training, recruitment, retention, mental health services, necessary county programs, and community investments. That's why this motion specifically directs the CEO and County Council to look at our financial exposure and accountability measures to reduce judgment and damage costs. because we cannot simply continue to pay settlements to limit exposure. We have to be better at preventing the conduct that leads to them. There's also another part of this issue that often goes unsaid, the impact on the sheriff deputies themselves. There are deputies who come to work to do their job and want nothing to do with a gang or a clique. Instead, they are faced with the possibility of being bullied into making decisions that, if they refuse, may affect their relationships with their colleagues, their ability to effectively do their job, and their opportunities for career advancement. There are a number of deputies who have come forward, both anonymously and publicly, to share their unfortunate experiences with the gangs. Some left the department and some remain within it. We have pulled together a packet, colleagues, a summary of some of the past COC meetings, summaries of public podcasts, LAS reports, if you're interested, that document some of those comments. My office received an anonymous letter with the header, quote, the ink, end quote, that details systemic issues from the perspective of a deputy. The account was profound and troubling. It states, quote, inner department retaliation rarely arrived as an open threat. More often it appeared through refusing backup requests, poor evaluations, denied opportunities, increased scrutiny, social isolation, unfavorable assignments, or the quiet understanding that speaking honestly carried professional risk. No one needed to explain the rules. People simply observed what happened to those who challenged the wrong individuals. That's why silence becomes so powerful. Most people remain silent not because they approve of misconduct, but because they understand the cost of confronting it. The ink is the root cause of this department's poor retention and the years of promoting candidates from poor hiring practices. In a department where the whistleblower is punished, where truth is buried and loyalty is enforced, speak and get isolated, resist and get buried, fall in line and become part of it. So what's left? Sometimes the only thing a deputy can do is remember everything and wait for the right time to tell it." That's not the kind of workplace anyone should be forced to endure. and what kind of department morale is established when employees feel that not only their livelihood, but their very lives could be at risk. Addressing deputy gangs is not an attack on deputies. It's about protecting deputies who are doing their jobs. Our constituents deserve better, and those who've chosen careers as deputies with the LA County Sheriff's Department deserve better. And we have a responsibility to be good stewards of public dollars, public trust, and the people who work for this county. Constituents deserve accountability and transparency. The deputies who refuse to participate in deputy gangs deserve protection. We have documented this problem for decades, and this motion is about creating the infrastructure to identify it, address it, and ultimately prevent it. In closing, I'll just say to the sheriff, I appreciate your three or four roles of captains being here today. And I certainly, I sincerely hope it was not intended as an intimidation factor because it can certainly be interpreted as such. So thank you for being here. And I look forward to hearing your presentation as well.

Thank you, Madam Chair.

Thank you. I know our sheriff wants to address us. Do you want to begin, Sheriff Luna?

Yes, thank you very much. And if I can get the PowerPoint. But first, I want to thank you for the opportunity to speak with all of you today about the pending motion. I absolutely recognize the serious issue that deputy gangs pose to our department and our community that we serve. I understand that you have a responsibility, all of you do, to take this step as I do. I do want to address a portion of my command staff that's here. It's sad to think that anybody thinks they're here to intimidate. What you have here in the front rows, actually, is my law enforcement gang and hate groups committee. There's 30 of them. They each chose to be here to listen to the community and all of you. Uh, that makes a big difference because, as you'll see through my presentation, this isn't just about me setting a standard. It is about everybody taking a specific role and ownership in this challenge that we have faced in this county for decades. So I thank them. And I also want to thank the community that's here, and I'm looking forward to hearing from all of them as well. So I share your objective of aggressively investigating deputy gangs and taking all authorized and appropriate steps to address this issue. This issue has challenged our department and county for decades, and it is time we conclude this issue clearly and decisively. As you know, I have repeatedly expressed to you privately and stated publicly my commitment to addressing the issue of law enforcement gangs and cliques within our department. I believe my actions have proven my commitment to addressing this issue. Since becoming sheriff, I have made numerous efforts to impact this issue, including but not limited to the following. And please be patient. This was brought forward and I have a lot to share with you about what's been done. Number one, acknowledging the problem. I want to spend a moment on this issue of acknowledgement because it would be easy to brush over it. I have acknowledged the issue repeatedly, internally to the department and externally to our community. I would like to remind you that my predecessor did not speak openly about this issue or do anything meaningful to address it. I understand that this issue generates much concern and unfortunately consistent misinformation and misunderstanding on this topic. The implication in the draft motion is that neither I nor my department are sufficiently addressing this critical issue. I do realize that I have never presented our work to the degree that I will today, and that may have led to some uncertainty. So thank you for bringing it forward. Today, I hope it will make it very clear to you about what path we're on, and at no time will I sit here and say that it's a completed project. Number one on this slide, accountability at all level. I just gave you an example. I don't know if we've ever had this many command staff here on an issue like this. It is important to them and what I'm doing today is talking about their work and they've taken this work very serious. So first, I have set a clear, I have set very clear expectations for department employees making any gang-like behavior unacceptable. I have met with all supervisors on this topic repeatedly. I hold meetings with captains and above on this issue specifically to impress upon them their responsibility. No prior sheriff has done this. I met with every new recruit class specifically to reinforce a zero tolerance policy for participation in such groups and behavior. I meet with all supervisors to ensure they understand their responsibilities in addressing and ending this issue. I meet regularly with department executives to reinforce my position that I will not, and I repeat, will not tolerate participation in such activity. And I invite the Office of the Inspector General and the Civilian Oversight to these leadership meetings. I require new deputies to sign a pledge that they will not join a law enforcement gang or they will be fired. All existing deputies also reviewed the policy and submitted an acknowledgement to that effect. All department members seeking promotion to captain and above are asked whether they have participated in this type of activity or whether they have a group tattoo. What this means is that every sworn member of this department has read the policy, acknowledged it, and knows that there are consequences to violating it. Every leader in this department knows how seriously I take this issue. Every leader knows I will hold them accountable. So much so that I was sued by an individual who claimed he was not promoted because he had a tattoo. The judge in that case ruled in our favor. This is a significant turn of events. Don't underestimate the change that is occurring. The motion underestimates that change that these steps have generated, steps that have never been taken before. I want to talk a little bit about leadership development. What I have spent so much time talking to the leaders in this department or why have I done that? The answer is simple. Every leader has to own this issue. But even more importantly, if you read the RAND report issued on law enforcement gangs or the earlier report from the Citizens Commission on Jail Violence, or even the earlier report from the Civil Rights Commission, they all talk about leadership or the lack thereof, contributing to the existence of this problem, Developing effective managers and leadership, therefore, has been a significant goal in my efforts. In fact, to help me, I hired Dr. Bernard Malikian, who is here in the audience, former chief of police in Pasadena, a former undersheriff from another county and the former head of the Department of Justice Community Oriented Policing Office under the Obama administration. In that position, he saw firsthand how law enforcement agencies around the country operated and came to understanding the best practices being implemented throughout the nation. He now brings that experience to the Sheriff's Department, our Sheriff's Department. He works with me through the Office of Constitutional Policing to develop leadership programs for the command staff in my department. He hosts a leadership program every month, bringing outside speakers in. He helped revamp our college, our captain's college, where all new captains go for training. And he is helping update our training programs. This is long term work, but it is exactly the type of sustained effort needed to develop the leadership required for long term sustainable change on this issue. And it did not exist before I took office. You'll hear me continuously talk about this because none of this has happened overnight. It takes time to get here. In addition to acknowledging the problem, ensuring all members of my department acknowledge the issue and the policy, and focusing on leadership, I have taken numerous other steps to address this issue. The very first act I took when I became your sheriff was to allow the Office of Inspector General back into our buildings and provide them access to our systems as the law required to begin with. I want to remind you that access for this civilian oversight body, which has lawful authority to review our materials, had previously been blocked. I change that. All the members of my department know that the Office of Inspector General gets access to materials it seeks. There is no longer any question about this, and to my knowledge, the OIG has not raised any access complaints. I have said this to you before and I will say it again. I believe in civilian oversight. There is a great opportunity for change when objective civilian oversight and the department work together to identify issues and solve problems. That has not always been the history of this department and its oversight bodies. And frankly, I believe that some people don't want the contentious approaches of the past to change. Those people, I would argue, do not want our department to improve. They would rather fight than help build long-term sustainable change. I believe in working with our oversight bodies to affect that change. And I would like to put that contentious or any contentious battles of the past behind us. Of course, there are legal issues we still have to work through with some of these entities, issues that I know that all of you are aware of. But frankly, these legal issues that we are now addressing should have been addressed many, many years ago. And they have not. We are, I am, tackling those issues. We are not shying away from them. We will resolve them and we will put them in the past. I want to briefly describe our Office of Constitutional Policing. I also created the Office of Constitutional Policing. I hired the former US Attorney, who's sitting to my left, to help lead our efforts on law enforcement gangs, on improving compliance with court orders and settlement agreements, and on ensuring constitutional policing practices are adhered to. In terms of law enforcement gangs, our Office of Constitutional Policing handles all inquiries and allegations of deputy gangs and cliques. This is the investigative step that determines whether allegations are supported by sufficient evidence to send the case to Internal Affairs. While it took some time to fully staff the Office of Constitutional Policing, they have been handling inquiries and allegations of deputy gangs and cliques for years now. I should say several years. With my concurrence and the concurrence of county council, OCP decided to hire an independent law firm to evaluate all of its work and provide recommendations for improvement. They wanted to do this to ensure they were leaving no stone unturned to address this critical issue. I have thoroughly reviewed that report and its recommendations. While I cannot discuss the substance of that report here today because it is attorney-client privilege, I can say with confidence that it is my present assessment that OCP's investigations are complete and comprehensive, and investigation outcomes are driven by facts and evidence. In other words, OCP is doing its job that it was designed to do. As we would want, OCP is self-critical. Its investigations, while mature, continue to evolve. And that's one thing you'll hear continuously. We are still learning. We are adjusting and we are evolving. Tell me who else in this county voluntarily hire someone to conduct an independent review of their work to ensure they are on the right path. and not missing anything they should be reviewing. Rarely has that department undertaken any, I should say any department has undertaken such steps, but we have chosen to ensure that we are on the right path. Now we're switching to slide three. The Office of Constitutional Policing not only handles these inquiries, but also addresses overall compliance with laws and settlement agreements. This is not an easy endeavor. I think all of you are aware that when I became sheriff, I inherited five different settlement agreements with our department. When I took office, the Antelope Valley monitors were threatening to take us to court for failure to comply with the terms of the Antelope Valley settlement agreement. And the custody monitors were threatening to take us to court for failure to honor settlement terms related to the inmate reception center. Now, obviously, I think you can see it on your screen. I want to point out that right about the time where you see everything in red, especially for the first three, the three pillars that you're seeing. I want to thank each and every one of you because I had come to you in budget hearings and I asked you to staff or budget the Office of Constitutional Policing. They're responsible, along with many others, for a lot of this work. And you also approve the two captain model for three of our stations. As you see specifically in the Antelope Valley, that was a game changer for us to get in compliance with the federal monitors. And a lot of their reports are indicating that as well. On top of that, I talked about the department and we inherited the department that there are a lot of our policies were inconsistent with state law, leaving department members without appropriate guidance on how to handle critical issues. Three and a half years later in the Antelope Valley, we are now almost in complete compliance with the settlement agreement. We have five provisions left to complete, and I am hopeful that we will have done this by December or the end of the year. They never brought us to court. We and the Office of Constitutional Policing in particular worked through these issues with the monitors. That along, and I got to give a lot of credit to the deputies and supervisors up in the Antelope Valley in Lancaster and Palmdale. They were incredible. They've had to make a lot of adjustments and a lot of changes, but they've worked very hard, and now we are nearly in compliance. That tells you that leadership matters. My team has shown that leadership. Similar to the Antelope Valley, the issue with the inmate reception center was resolved. And the monitors did not take us to court. Again, with the work of the Office of Constitutional Policing and the great minds in our custody division, we were able to resolve these issues and stay in compliance with that agreement. This is why it is important that the, or how does this issue relate to law enforcement gangs? Because complying with the law, setting high expectations and achieving a culture of excellence is a department wide effort, not one focused on just a single issue. All issues impact other issues, and I am determined to ensure that this department, our department, with its exceptional leaders, are focused on achieving excellence. We can go to slide four, please. I want to talk a little bit about our department policies. I know there's been a great deal of interest in this topic, particularly as it relates to law enforcement gangs. In the last three and a half years, we have updated our policies on the use of force, personal weapons, tasers, hate crimes, automatic license plate readers, domestic violence, stops, media policies, and ADA issues. emergency procedures, pursuits and a number of others. In fact, I have a six page list of all the policies we have updated since I took office, and that's not even a complete list. These policies are not inconsequential when it comes to the issue of law enforcement gangs, even though a lot of attention has been fixed. on one of these two or just on two specific policies that you talked about earlier. For example, the new use of force policy conforms to national standards and includes de-escalation, the duty to intervene and the limits on the use of personal weapons. The Taser policy was also updated alongside the acquisition of the new Taser 10 device, which is significant, which is a significant improvement over the last past models. These policies are creating sustainable change and a shift in culture with buy-in from our employee labor groups, such as ALADS and POPA. And again, from 2022 to 2025, we have over 1,000 uses of force that are gone down, and we're still a work in progress. We're still working towards this. I want to go to slide five. As a result, we reduce use of force incidents on an average seven point nine each year since 2022. That's what I just talked about. And deputy involved shootings are down twenty two point eight percent on a five year average. Why is this important? When it comes to the issue of law enforcement gangs, according to published reports, the inappropriate use of force has been a significant factor driving the emergence of and the belief about the gang culture within the department. The report suggests that force was being used inappropriately and disproportionately targeting certain communities. Lowering the use of force numbers reduces claims that force is being applied based on gang culture or membership. Importantly, throughout the department, the policy ensures that our members understand clearly when force is appropriately applied. It does not leave them in the dark with vague language or language that is out of date with state law. As I am told, this was the case before this policy was instituted. It is the totality of these collective policies that matters on the issue of law enforcement gangs. And that's something the motion and many people fail to recognize. I understand there is an interest in a very specific department policy, particularly particularly on the issue of law enforcement gangs, where people tend to take a narrow approach to look at one or two policies. However, focusing on one or two policies in this context is incomplete, and I would argue it's also inappropriate. This issue is not one click policy or one logo policy, as some would suggest. This issue is the totality of our efforts to ensure professional behavior and the department's compliance and leadership across the board. But because there is so much interest in the law enforcement gang policy, the click policy, and the logo policy, let me address each in turn. We have worked with our labor groups, again, ALADS and POPA through the meet and confer process, which resulted in a new policy on law enforcement gains. This policy is consistent with penal code section 13670, and it is a game changer. yes there are other policies i continue to work with labor on including the logo policy and the tattoo policy both of which will give our department members and the public greater clarity on what is expected in these areas yes i want to update our click policy but it does not mean that the existing click policy is ineffective we currently have such a policy And we use it. In fact, during my tenure, department members have been discharged under this policy. That also has never happened before. Your Civil Service Commission, however, has stated its intent to overturn one or more of these decisions. I wrote to you about this. Let's hope that doesn't happen, given the record that in this case and the inappropriate message that it would send to everybody, including my employees. In regards to the law enforcement gang statute, I would like to focus on the law enforcement gang policy and statute for a moment longer because there is a lot of misperceptions about the law enforcement gang statute. Some of those misinterpretations appear to be reflected in the motion put forward today. I am talking specifically about the the effort, which is a significant focus in the motion to focus our investigative efforts on the names or groups and on tattoos. This is misplaced. This is a misplaced focus, I should say, and I will not run investigative efforts or departments overall approach in such a limited and narrow way. An investigative or department strategy focused narrowly on such identifiers names of groups or tattoos will not combat such or what I consider to be such a complex and fluid issue that does not take. on such a simplistic form. Such a strategy will not produce effective disciplinary outcomes under a legal scheme that requires evidence of concerted misconduct, not merely common use of a group name or identifying mark. Further, it would leave untapped much of the department's broad authority to combat law enforcement gangs, which in no way depends on establishing the use of a group name or tattoo. It is true that under the statute, the group may be associated with a particular name or an identifying symbol, including matching tattoos. but group name symbols and tattoos neither necessary or sufficient to identify a gang. What ultimately matters under this statute is that the department must find and prove to discipline anyone is a pattern of behavior, not tattoos or group names. Focusing on group names and tattoos unnecessarily limits the department's authority to root out deputy gangs because under the statute, any group of two or more officers or deputies engaging in any pattern of concerted misconduct, regardless if they use a name or an identifying mark, is prohibited. It is against policy. There is a broad authority, basically two or more deputies who commit any pattern of on duty conduct that violates the law or policy constitute a law enforcement gang. Whether or not they have a name or tattoo is secondary. This is what the statute says. It is very broad. And if you don't believe me, please ask county council. But I want to make sure everybody understands that we're looking for gang-like behavior. And whether it's a name or a tattoo, that can definitely help the case or use it as an enhancement. The law enforcement gang statue stands in sharp contrast to the penal code's definition of a criminal street gang, which requires that a street gang not only engage in criminal conduct, but also have a common name or common identifying sign or symbol. I'm hoping that we're not confusing both of them. Do not equate unprofessional or even unlawful conduct, law enforcement conduct with the street gang. The statues are not the same. The motion seems to blur the lines between the two. Law enforcement gang statue is much broader and it permits the department to broadly discipline any pattern of coordinated misconduct, including informal and short term concerted action that does not use the identifiers at all. So what I'm saying is you don't need names, you don't need tattoos. We're looking for the conduct. That's what we're going to discipline for. But everything else augments it. When making this argument, some have declined to read the exact words of the statue, which does not require a name or a tattoo to be involved. They have then accused our department of ignoring group names and tattoos. This is categorical, categorically false, consistent with the statue and the broad authority it provides. The department focuses its investigations on concerted misconduct, not names or identifying marks only. The focus of conduct rather than identifiers allows us to tackle misconduct in all its forms, whether or not a name group or tattoo is involved. Whether names and tattoos are involved, if they are involved, they are investigated as well. Now, just to let you all know, we're not making any of this up. This is actually in statute. We reviewed the statute and it's plain reading without any political filter whatsoever. We consulted with county council. We consulted with multiple outside councils, including labor lawyers, First Amendment attorneys, and others. And while I am not a lawyer, I am frequently surrounded by them and consult with them regularly. I know we are on the right path, not only in our interpretation of the law, but in honoring the due process rights of anyone accused of misconduct. I will follow the law, not politics on this issue. Other policies, some have criticized the fact that we have other policies still in the meet and confer process, and they have been there for a long time. It is easy to criticize, it is harder to make long-term sustainable change. And this is what I've been talking about over and over. I am focused on long, sustainable change where I get buy-in from all the employees. That's the only way that instead of making headlines, we're actually gonna change the culture of our department. Many characterize, excuse me a second here, I am confident that we will continue to implement more policies going forward. We have a great deal in the meet and confer process. And this is all while over the last few years, our labor partners have also been spending significant time in contract negotiations. When we work with labor rather than fight with them, there's a real opportunity to build stronger policies that department members will accept and understand. and to create long-term sustainable change. This is my goal and I hope it's all of our goals. In fact, we have had more change or we have more change on the horizon with labor. For example, in partnership with labor, our department has agreed to implement a new enhanced field training officer program. Effective January of 2027, this will create consistency in training, culture, and in how new deputies transition directly from the academy to patrol. As a lot of people have asked, why aren't deputies going to patrol instead of going to Patrol instead of custody. This is going to allow us to do this starting in January of 2027. This is long overdue and it will have a dramatic impact on our department both in the training of our people and receive in the leadership culture that we want to support. Good and consistent training along with strong leadership will affect positive culture change. Now to slide six. In addition to listening and working with labor, I also spend time listening and working with our Civilian Oversight Commission. As you know, two and a half years ago in March of 2023, the COC issued a report with 27 recommendations, 26 of which were applied to our department. 19 we have substantially complied with. Five are in progress, including in meet and confer. And two, I'm not in agreement with and have not chosen to implement. And just quickly on the two, for that, there was definitely a problem with communication I think from sheriff to captain, I've completely modified that. They wanted me to knock out all those ranks. I don't support that. The other change they wanted me to make is to rotate all the deputies throughout all the stations. And I think all of you got letters from our 42 contract cities and unincorporated communities that they did not want that change at all. So I'm supporting our contract cities there. Implementation is an ongoing process, and I have already spoken about many of the recommendations that we have implemented. However, I do want to mention a couple of them. Implementation of the two captain model now in place at three stations to assist culture change, messaging, and community engagement. The use of standardized list of questions by internal affairs done in collaboration with the Office of Inspector General when there are allegations of any law enforcement gangs. The development of an internal focus group to ensure department leaders at every rank take responsibility for addressing this issue, spanning development, communication, leadership and training. community meetings held throughout our county to discuss the impact this issue has had on our communities the internal focus group has spent time developing leaders has developed an internal webpage to provide resources and information on this issue and they are about to launch a new training video on this topic they meet monthly to discuss a number of issues where they can have an internal impact It's a total coincidence. Before this was even scheduled, that entire group is the one sitting behind me. So they chose to come here and listen to what was going on today. From a risk management perspective, Supervisor Mitchell, you talked a lot about lawsuits which concern all of us. So I want to spend some time on risk management. I have also made risk management a top priority in reducing preventable harm and litigation costs. This includes transforming our risk management forum, where every captain now presents directly to leadership on key risk and litigation trends. We are now finalizing a contract for a new risk management system that will provide real time data and trend analysis on factors driving our litigation exposure. We previously launched an early warning system that flags risky behavior so supervisors can step in early with training and support before small issues become serious problems. We revamped our performance mentoring program to help people who are struggling. A lot of what you talked about earlier in the letter and we publish more information and more data than ever before on our department's transparency page to keep our community informed. No one has published this much data as currently on our transparency page. I know that because we rebuilt the page to add details to be as transparent as we legally possibly can. The ultimate measure of risk management is lowering lawsuits, and the number of lawsuits on this issue is down from a high of 20 in 2020 to four last year and one so far this year. I know you mentioned one earlier in your presentation, but a lot of these lawsuits that you guys are paying out on Absolutely very important to it. But if you look at the date of occurrence, it happened years ago. So we're still catching up. And as we're improving on all of our systems, we believe that will absolutely decrease as time goes on. Slide 7, in regards to community reporting, in terms of the community, we have a publicly available online complaint system. Any member of the public who wishes to file a complaint on this issue can do so, and they never have to speak to a member of our department to do it. The motion asks that this be established. It already exists. The Office of Constitutional Policing also developed a centralized complaint intake system, which accepts complaints by telephone or by mail or through an online channels. They also offer a new online virtual deputy program where people can speak to a real person and discuss what happened. There are many avenues available to anyone who wishes to file a complaint. This motion does nothing to improve this. In conclusion, and I go back to slide eight, my administration has done more about this challenge in the last three and a half years than anyone else in our history. At all levels, I have been very clear. I do not and will not tolerate gang-like behavior or participation in a law enforcement gang. What troubles me the most about this motion is that it paints every member of the sheriff's department with one broad stroke, as if law enforcement gangs lurk behind every corner. That is not true. I do not deny the history, though. I think I've been very clear about the fact that this problem has existed and does exist. And this is why I'm taking the time to describe everything that we're doing about it. Like every law enforcement agency, we must address the issue and do everything possible to stop this kind of behavior. The department for our department, we work very hard to protect the people that they serve. The board as a body should recognize that more often. That does not mean you should that you should not care about this issue. but our men and women are out there serving, and I think the majority of them are doing an amazing job, as I think all of you know that. But here's the difference. I think we can accomplish both. It doesn't have to be either or. I think we can do a great job of moving forward with the issues that you have brought up, with the work that we're already doing, Um, and, uh, instead of just constantly bickering or figuring out a way not to agree. I think we could set just go in an absolutely very different direction for all of us. The motion does suggest that the public has not been taken. Or that anything that we've done has been insufficient from our department's perspective. And we're here to listen if there's ways for us to improve. I'm telling you about all the actions we've taken to date. But if there's things we can continue to do better, we're here. to learn, but I think we're being as transparent as we possibly can, or as the law will permit us to be. I would ask this board to recognize that record. This motion does not advance any effort forward movement or improvement. It focuses on the past. The motion fails to reflect the progress that has been made and the effort behind it. It fails to acknowledge that when we held community meetings, people told us, yes, we are aware of the issue, but our concern is crime. It fails to address the real cultural shift happening in the department. It fails to address the lawsuits that are going down, the real investigations that are underway, and the leadership that is being developed to go in a different direction. It also fails to acknowledge that in the history of our department, there has never been this much done on this topic. and never this much forward progress. I'm not saying that we're perfect and that every investigation is perfect. Again, we're evolving as we move forward. Like you, I'm aware that the words have an impact and consequences, and I'm very concerned about the impact words used in the motion will have. I believe this will undermine community trust by suggesting things have not changed, and I believe that they have changed. And and just to wrap up. Supervisor Horvath said something earlier with the first issue and the previous issue. And you were talking about don't wait until this board makes a motion to take action. And as you've heard, for the last three and a half years, we have been working very diligently and very hard to make sure that we have the department going in a completely different direction. And I hope that's acknowledged. And with that, I'll turn it back over to all of you.

Thank you. Can you please hold your clapping? Remember, if you want to either support it or not, you can do a high five or a thumbs down. Thank you. So with that, I see Supervisor Mitchell, you have some follow up.

Thank you very much, Madam Chair. And, you know, Sheriff Luna, I am sorry that you appear to take this so personal. I'm really sorry about that. Because it is not intended that way and i've said that to you repeatedly privately and i'm going to say it today publicly for the record, and for all of whom are within the sound of my voice this isn't personal. The, this is not a new conversation you and I have had this conversation with every check in we've had since you assumed office. At the beginning of my remarks, if you did not hear, I'll repeat, I give you full credit that is due for all that you have accomplished. But just like with the previous motion and the after action report, we do have a responsibility to look at a set of circumstances and to continue to push for additional improvement. Your comment about it's not about politics or headlines i'm not sure to what you were referring but, like you i'm duly elected and have a constituency who call upon me to step into the gap to continue to reflect their lived experience. Based on our numerous conversations, you know that I haven't approached you or the work of your department in a myopic way. This isn't the only issue I elevate with you. All of the issues that you've made progress on at your presentation are issues that I elevate based on the constituency I represent. I have indeed read the numerous reports and statutes to which you referred, so I hope that you wouldn't underestimate my knowledge base either, and my commitment to the issue either. I am not the sheriff, I am not a sworn officer, but I do have a responsibility to bring voice to the issues that everyday Angelenos do experience with regard to your department. The point of this motion is not your policy in its entirety. It is one tool in the toolkit towards aiding you and all of us to a reduction in deputy gang activity. Your department was asked for comments or changes and we were told you had none. We brought it to cluster early to engage all of the departments, CEO, County Council, and hopefully you. So I am sorry that you view this motion as a direct attack on you. It is not. I agree leadership matters, and that's what I'm attempting to bring to the issue and to the table. It is, I don't bicker, have never bickered with you. and to bring a motion forward to try to move policy and bring a variety of county departments that are impacted by this to the table is not bickering. It is what policymakers do. And so I would hope that the report back on the motion which is another tool in our overall toolkit to combat this issue that you do acknowledge is an issue that in no way suggests that the entire department is a party to. I said that also in my opening statement. So I'm sorry if you're viewing it in such a myopic way that you think that that is the perspective or what we bring to the table, it is not. And I can't be clearer about that. This is a report back to let multiple departments come to the table. Since multiple departments in our county budget is impacted. I will close by stating again for the umpteenth time. This isn't personal. Elections have consequences and you being elected our sheriff has brought meaningful policy change to the county. And the point of this motion and the point of the governance responsibility of the Board of Supervisors is to continue to elevate issues that we hope we can work collaboratively to bring to solution. That's the point of the motion, and that will be the point of every motion I engage in with you and your department. Thank you, Madam Chair.

Are there any members, colleagues that would like to be recognized? Supervisor Hahn.

Yeah, I first of all, yeah, this is this is a very sweeping motion. And I do want to acknowledge the sheriff because I remember the other administration. who not only denied the existence of deputy gangs, but in fact sent us a letter of cease and desist that we were not even allowed to speak the words deputy gangs. So there is a, Huge difference with Sheriff Luna and you campaigned on this issue of rooting out. Eliminating and banning deputy gangs and I think you are. adhering to that. I like what you have laid out today and may also say that I respect, you know, the majority of the men and women who have chosen to put the badge on and serve this county in my particular district we've talked about how um how revered the deputy sheriffs are we have had some instances in some of my stations um but you know for the most part you know my constituents appreciate it um complain that there's not enough And I do a lot on this board to work towards that of more hiring, more recruiting. We've done a lot to talk about changing the culture because I don't think there's anyone here today that in any way can support the existence of deputy gangs. It tarnishes the badge that our sheriff's deputies should proudly wear. So moving toward that goal of eliminating our deputy gangs is a priority. Whether or not this motion is going to be helpful in doing that, I think is part of our conversation today and part of our debate today. Madam Chair, I don't know how you're going to go from now, but I would be interested in hearing from the public. May still have some things I want to say, still some questions I might want to ask the sheriff, but I know they've been waiting a long time and I would be interested to hear what the community has to say before I ask more questions.

I believe Supervisor Barger wants to be recognized.

Yeah, I just wanted a clarification from from the author on one of the last directive, and I'm trying to find that you were too quick. Because there's a question, and I think you raised it sharply about can. I mean, There's expectations of what he can do and what he can't do. And I'm trying to find it. So why don't we go ahead to the public while I find it in this motion, because it's all crossed off anyway. I just want to make clear and I think it's important that we all want the same thing. And I appreciate Supervisor Hahn's comments, because I know in my district we hold my city's hold law enforcement in high regard. But they also have an expectation that no one is above the law. and i don't think any of us would disagree with that including the men and women who are in uniform today um we're all held to the same standard and um and and i believe sheriff luna that you have made great strides not only in addressing the issue from within your department but also developing relationship with this board so that we understand What is going on, and I think it's unfortunate that I mean some of this, I think, is new and you acknowledge it, we first talked about the fact that that you. have not been as communicative with us as it relates to what's going on. I am frustrated with the COC versus county council versus the board versus the county something I think at some point, we need to address. Because they spent more time arguing over who has authority to do what than they have doing what they were set up to do in the first place. And that's for another discussion. But I believe that if the COC was in a position to really address what they wanted to address on this, we wouldn't have the motion here today. So what I want a clarification on and direct the chief executive officer and county council in coordination with the OIG to report back to the board in writing in 120 days on the legal, budgetary, administrative and oversight options available to the board to enforce the directives of this motion. What if they cannot? And so my question is, what if they cannot because of statute, state law or impasse issues with labor? I'm reading from your Your directive. The last one. The last directive is. Yeah, I know. The last I'm sorry. I apologize. The last directive states direct the CEO County Council in coordination with OIG to report back to the board in writing in 120 days.

The legal budgetary administrator said options.

Yeah. And so my question is, what if they cannot because of state law? or an impasse issues with labor. I mean, I think those are real impediments that are out of the control of Sheriff Luna.

And if they cannot, then that should be a part of their report back. I think a part of it is getting clarification on what we can do and what we can't do. Sheriff Luna talked about his interpretation of the statute. And so if if as a result of this directive that these

multiple county agencies come together and determine that that should be a part of the report back okay no I mean I just wanted to I just wanted a clarification yeah no really I think there are those especially in the audience today and I'm a little disheartened at the lack of respect from both sides for those people that are speaking and it's I think it's very sad because we have individuals that come down to this board who are former gang members who still have tattoos, but I do not judge them based on their tattoos.

Nor should I.

Excuse me. Excuse me. Nor should I. Nor should I. And I feel that we need to, as a board, recognize that we have an obligation to protect public safety. But we also have an obligation to hold individuals responsible who are not Following the law. And I know that's what your motion wants to do. But I feel as though there are individuals that that feel that law enforcement as a whole is bad. And and Sheriff Luna said that. Not all law enforcement is bad. There are bad. Accountants, there are bad lawyers, there are bad politicians. They're bad law enforcement, but you don't condemn the entire industry based on individuals. You find out who those individuals are and you weed them out. And I think that's what you, Sheriff Luna, are intending to do. Correct?

Yes, I think I articulated that. And I'm very clear about the fact that I'm very serious about this issue and have already taken action and will continue to take action. Thank you.

And Supervisor Barga, let me just say that I wasn't being catty that if when these entities come together and they determine that state law prevents them from doing that, that should indeed be a part of the report back. That's the value of report backs. Let me also say.

But let me just say, I didn't take it that way at all. I just wanted to seek a clarification. I know what your intention is. I mean, Supervisor Mitchell, the one thing that I admire, I admire a lot about you, but The fact that you are straightforward and very clear in terms of what your intentions are is something that I respect because I know when you are talking, when you bring an emotion, it's thoughtful and you are as transparent. It went to cluster. You look for feedback. So I'm not thinking that you are.

being catty or anything like that i just wanted to get a clarification i appreciate that you know and let me say i i think you know and i hear you and we you know we the the the public comes at us most most days on most motion supervisor barker this isn't the first time we've heard you know people commenting people come at us this morning we had public out of pocket. So that's not new. I would argue that this is a reflection of the depth and the emotional harm this issue continues to cause. And let me further add, I appreciate my colleagues have talked about their districts representing law enforcement. And let me be clear, I am not an abolitionist, personally. I represent the second supervisorial district that also want to pick up the phone and have law enforcement respond when they call. What they don't want, are law enforcement representatives who respond with a bias, who use excessive use of force, who engage in activities as these multiple reports show, where they take advantage of individuals in order to make their way through a gang activity. That's what the second district people don't want. They too want law enforcement to show up when we need them. That's the kind of law enforcement we respect and that's the kind of law enforcement I respect. So don't get the impression when I say I'm speaking on behalf of my district, the second district don't want protection when they need it either.

And, and, and I would say that that is not what I'm saying. I think countywide, but I was just talking, I can only speak from my district. And what I would say is that everybody should want to make sure that whether you're wearing a uniform or not, that you are following the law. But if you're in a uniform, you are held to a higher standard and there is no question about that and i i fully embrace that and support it um and i think it's important to note that that when we look at what is taking place in the antelope valley and i commend um sheriff luna because he inherited a hot mess up there and he has if you look at where we are with the department of justice it speaks volumes to the work that he's done and I want people to know that that is as a result of making tough decisions as a sheriff that are not popular amongst the rank and file, but it's the right thing to do because it sends a message and sets a tone. Okay. So, I mean, I think we're saying the same thing and I'm not discounting your motion, but I'm just trying to get clarity because it sounds like in your motion, a lot of what you're asking for, he said is being done. And I guess my question to you, Sheriff Luna, is when provided with the opportunity to provide that input to Supervisor Mitchell and her staff, was that spelled out? Because I think it's important for us to understand and for the public to understand that you've talked about what you have done that's included in this motion, but in the motion it's more about why wasn't it done.

I don't disagree with you at all. All my conversations with Supervisor Mitchell have been very professional, clear, and upfront. You have never hidden the way you feel about anything, ma'am. So again, it's all good. The conversation that we had about deputy gangs talked about community complaints. And I know we engaged in back and forth, but to go into the in-depth of this motion, And I'm not saying that you it could have been me and I'm just say right now, maybe it was me. I maybe didn't understand it the way that that you put it forth. I don't know if that answers your question, but.

Is there, are you, did you want to respond to that? Okay, Supervisor Horvath, you're on.

Thank you, Madam Chair. I want to turn to CEO labor relations, because that, you know, part of what's at issue is some of this being part of ongoing discussion at that level. So is our labor relations team keeping track of Sheriff's Department policy changes that are in the works that require me in conferred negotiations? If so, how are you doing that and making sure that those discussions are staying on track so they actually get accomplished?

That's a good question, Supervisor. Thank you. What I'll say generally is that We have a general understanding of what's going on between the department and labor. We are not engaged in the nitty gritty of every detailed policy. I think this motion identified that as a gap. I talked to Supervisor Mitchell about it and her team. This was one of the areas where they want to get our labor relations folks more involved. I mean, we do have insight and visibility into what has been negotiated, what is still in the meet and confer process. I think the gap is our level of involvement. And that seems to be the intent of the motion is to get us more involved.

Okay, and for County Council, or which aspects do you believe are going to require meet and confer that are not already in progress?

Well, that is certainly the subject of one of the directives for the I think the very first report back within 30 days is to report back on which directives do or do not require meet and confer, the status of the current meet and confer. So that's something that we will analyze. General report backs, just the general ones, most likely do not require meet and confer, but then the implementation of any recommendations certainly would. So that's certainly something that we will look at in addition to what's already in meet and confer. We will look to see in response to that 30-day first report back which of these directives require meeting confirm, which do not, but likely just general report backs probably do not, but the implementation recommendations most likely would.

And I think that's really what's at heart here. I take to heart how Supervisor Mitchell initiated today's discussion, remembering those who have been impacted and what the corresponding action is. It's not only important for us to address as a county with with that in mind but it's also important for us to address when it comes to liabilities the risk that we assume as a county and the cost that comes with that and i don't think that's limited to the sheriff's department i think there are many settlements on our agenda today from various different departments that acknowledge that we have work to do in that regard overall So I would ask our CEO, how are we comprehensively looking at risk management when it comes to liabilities with this discussion in mind as a significant portion of that? And help us understand what is being done in the county already as it relates to risk and liability.

yeah in terms of risk management so every year we do an annual risk managers report, and that really is our sort of our comprehensive update on the on our risk management efforts and the outcomes and typically. The CEO's office looks at risk at an enterprise level. So we're tracking to a benchmark, right? Where our benchmark is 2% of our budget, no more than 2% of our budget should be paid out in risk. And that's an industry standard. And we are below that benchmark. So as an enterprise, as a county, our risk management work is quite good. We're way ahead of other jurisdictions that are similarly situated. Now, specific to this issue of law enforcement liability, I've had multiple conversations with our risk manager, Destiny Castro, who's sitting behind me to the right, about getting more involved and more visible on the work that we can do to support the sheriff's department. The sheriff's department actually has the numbers that the sheriff has presented. The trends are good. They're going in the right direction for use of force. They're going in the wrong direction in some other areas like auto liability. But as a whole, our goal is to reduce the overall cost of risk for the county. I think for Sheriff's Department and some of the other, we'll call them frequent flyer settlements we see on the agenda, what I've asked our risk manager to do is get more involved in the cost of risk on a departmental basis for those particular departments. In our risk manager report every year, we indicate the 10 departments that have the highest cost of risk, and we provide more specific support and guidance and oversight for those departments to get them out of that top 10. And so we are taking various measures now to look not only enterprise wide and say under 2% great that's not our standard anymore. we're also diving down into the departmental level and we'll continue to work with the sheriff on that and sheriff I have a lot of conversations we have regular meetings and so we're on the same page with respect to risk liability.

Yeah, I think it is notable that some degree of progress has been made and especially as it relates to what that impact is for us from a liability and risk perspective. We've seen in other departments who have been called to the table and asked to address their liabilities and even been afforded months of negotiations back and forth to find resolution and still we have no resolution. So, I can appreciate the sense of urgency that we want to address this issue with, and I also think that we benefit from making sure that where there is room for discussion and moving forward together, that Can often mean things get resolved more quickly than if there's continued disagreement that can lead to other kinds of disagreement like litigation, so I think I take all of that to heart as we're having this conversation. As a county and specifically on this issue, how are we turning what has been directed into action, how are we making sure that we're protecting county resources that need to be invested in care, which is the sports commitment and how do we make sure that we are also. operating a department that addresses the concerns that we have and that have been routinely surfaced for discussion, which causes complications for everybody. It is painful to discuss the realities of what people have experienced. It is painful to hear your department and your place of work constantly under this kind of microscope related to this issue. And I'm sure it is painful to have to navigate that in a place of work. So I want this conversation to be productive and actually achieve results. So I want to make sure that that's the path that we're sticking towards.

can i have one more thing supervisor which i think is important and it may serve as a helpful message to departments who are struggling with risk liability too and the sheriff's department is a good example of it but a lot happens in the budget on risk mitigation as well and so for example the sheriff's department has deployed body-worn cameras and patrol and now i think the next phase is custody know that's that's a budget line item the department has to not only you know, bring that forward as an operational change, it has to get funded in the budget and so your board has been very supportive. of those types of things to reduce, not only reduce liability, but improve the quality of service and help our residents feel like with body-worn cameras, there's a visibility into the work that's being done by the Sheriff's Department. Other departments can do that as well. We need them to work with us on the types of risk mitigations that they think would be the most useful, have a commitment to operating them, and we can certainly bring them forward in the budget as line items to help us get there.

Supervisor Hahn? Yeah.

Well, one of the things I will be very interested in, I'm also almost wishing we could have Directive 8 come back first. which is direct ERCOM to report back on whether any of the directives in the motion require a meet and confer, because I really think that almost should kind of start this conversation, because I'll tell you, what I've heard is a lot of frustration about what gets stuck in meet and confer. um our our sheriff has a deputy gang policy which he's had in effect since um september of 2024 but there have been other uh policies that have attempted to hold deputy gangs accountable uh but they're stuck in meet and confer and um some of them have been stuck for three years Some of them that referred to guidelines about the display of tattoos, which could indicate an affiliation with a gang, a deputy clique, a hate group, have been stuck in meet and confer. So that's why almost I wish we could kind of hold these other directives, hear back which ones are going to require meet and confer, and then maybe we pivot or find another way that we can get to a result, or we figure out, and maybe, Sheriff, if you could, Tell us, are you doing anything to move the meet and confer process forward, or can we? I think that's going to be frustrating, because we can say we want these things to happen. And we believe in meet and confer, right? That's a basic premise of our labor relations. That's a basic premise of constitutional policing. But if it's for three years, some of these directives are gonna be stuck in meet and confer, then I'm not sure what value this motion will be. So is that something that we might consider getting back immediately? How long would that take for us to know that and decide whether or not the other directives could be accomplished another way?

A question for sheriff.

Yeah, one of the questions was can you be helpful in moving along meeting for for some of those?

um some of the policies the quick answer to that is yes uh within the structure that we have in the county uh i i would challenge us that we need to look at it as an entire county uh from a meet and confer process for for all labor uh but yes but if if you go back through my presentation uh i've the most important policy i got through meet and confer was a use of force policy And you see the results. You're talking about results. Supervisor Horvath, the results are there. Use of force is down. Deputy involved shootings are down because

Can we have some quiet in the audience, please? You've already been warned. If you want to say something, raise your hands. If not, thumbs down, okay? Please, so we can have order. We want to give courtesy to our speakers. Go ahead.

Yeah, for anyone who has concerns or questions about our statistics, we have them on our transparency page. They're clear for anyone to see. That's what I'm presenting today. But going back to meet and confer that went through labor took a little bit, but that was my priority. Revising the deputy gang policy was a priority. We got that through. And I think I listed a lot of the very important ones that we've had, but we do still have some pending. It is very frustrating. I acknowledge that to wait. So, yes, I will continue to push on my end. But please know this, that. because our profession changes so rapidly, it's consistently evolving, we are sending policies. You can ask anyone at ALADS or POPA, I got their head spinning. I've sent in so many policies that direction because I'm changing the department and I've changed a lot of it over the last three and a half years. So it's not, that's what I was talking about. It's those two policies, but this is a broader conversation about many policies.

Just wanna, can I say something? Yeah, sure, go ahead.

Just to, thank you, Madam Chair. Supervisor Hahn, that was an issue that came up during cluster that is reflected from my perspective, page eight, the first I further move that the Board of Supervisors direct CEO through employee relations in collaboration with the sheriff. So if you look at that whole section that I think it's to your point and it's within the first 30 days. It's the analysis done in the first 30 days. So if you look at page eight.

Yes.

No, no, no. Look at page eight. The further the first I further move. I'll come show you mine if you don't see it. It's right under directive eight. I know it sure is. Page eight.

okay um i lost my train of thought there is that any follow-up so are you asking um that we kind of pull this out and say this be the first because you if i go back to what you were saying is that what you want to

I think that would shape how we feel about the other directives, depending on which ones are meet and confer. Because I think to have everybody begin working on the directives and then in 30 days find out that all of them have to be meet and confer, I think that changes, in my opinion, support of some of those directives because if they're going to get stuck for three years or three or four years then i don't know where we're you know and i feel like this is urgent for all of us do you any response from the sheriff on that sorry ma'am i didn't hear a question in there can you repeat that please

Okay, well, you know what I would what I would like to say is, you know, this is the first time I think that we've had a really full discussion on deputy gangs in this manner and and about other accountable measures that we know have been pending at least since I've been on the board, which is almost 12 years. And I will say, for better or worse, we're in a better position, I believe, because many of the things that I carried as motions, numerous that are even listed that we needed to take action on. I know progress is sometimes slow and it's hurtful. And I've had many families in my district tell me that they wanted to see reform with use of force and obviously with the gangs. And that came out of East LA. And I know that when you were beginning your process with us here at the county, that was one of the first things that you, even before that, you talked about eliminating, eradicating that, because you also shared that you grew up in East LA. and that that's very important to you. I have seen some changes, but I also wanna see more changes too. And some of my concerns relate really to addressing the needs of our community when we have people calling, to get assistance from our local sheriff's stations. Sometimes it is not, it's a no-show, or it's so delayed that it's embarrassing. Or I would get calls from residents saying, well, the sheriff's office said to call you, as if I have the authority to go out and do something on the street. I'm not a law enforcement officer. I hope all of that changes and I would hope that we do better. And I know you have, uh, put now the two captain concept in East LA and we have one, I believe, or maybe we have two now. I'm not sure. Uh, sheriff, you have two, we just, you just, you just onboarded someone, right?

That's correct.

Right. And that's great. And I hope that that individual will work with our community and with our staff and that, um, that we continue to build on these relationships. And I get it, meet and confer is a difficult process. But you said earlier in your presentation that A-Lads and Popoa, Popa? is also working with you to what extent what change have you seen since since you are now i guess at a different point with them because that's kind of what i think i'm hearing you say but can you describe that so when i first came on as your sheriff i understood my mission from the community and that was to make significant changes

In order for me to make the changes that this community expected, they had to be long-term, sustainable changes. And the only way to do that is to get buy-in throughout the organization. Not everybody is going to like the changes, and Supervisor Barger mentioned it earlier. There's places of our department I'm not the most popular guy. But here's the reality. I serve the community. I think 99 percent of our deputies are doing an amazing job and are in working like the use of force policy. I keep on going back to that or the gang policy. Yes, they were tough meet and confer sessions. But yet. A Lads and Popo were both committed to making those changes. And I think as excited as I was about changing the use of force policy, which has reduced the uses of force, the numbers are there. The next one I'm really excited about is revamping our field training officer program. And ALADS initiated that. They want to change. They understand that culture change is important. So as we move towards that change, I'm really excited about that because all of you have talked about culture change, sustainable changes. Those things are in progress. That's what my whole presentation was about, that the changes are occurring, but we're not done. It's like The cones are out. The signs are up. Work's still in progress. I'm not finished. There's a lot of work to be done. But you got to understand, when I walked in here, some of the challenges that I took over. And I'm not going to make no excuses. I'm here in this seat now. I'm moving forward. We're moving forward. This whole team's moving forward with me. And we've made significant progress. And that's why... To Supervisor's Mitchell point earlier, I am frustrated. I did take it personal, because I've put my heart and soul in this, and this means everything to me. And I'm 100% committed to doing a good job.

I just want to add that I know that deputy gangs has been a big deal for more than one decade. But I will say that when I saw what was revealed through the LA Times about the industry station and the gang that existed there, I know you went to work because we put pressure on. I did. And I know that people were dismissed. They were terminated. Is that correct?

You are accurate.

And I think that sends a message that we have to take that kind of action. And I know it's not always going to go over well with the body, the folks that all work there. But I think they have to understand that there is a culture that does have to change. And our community demands that respect. So I mean, if you're going to continue to go on that trajectory, I support that. I will tell you in all honesty, we've never really had a discussion since you got here with the previous administration in this manner without someone casting insults or calling Board of Supervisors personal names, derogatory, and going to their homes, confiscating, in my opinion, illegal material from them. That to me doesn't put just fear in the community, but it puts fear in those elected officials. And especially because those attacks have been leveled against women. I'm not gonna stop because someone calls me a name. I've been called everything and assaulted and been talking, I'm not saying by sheriff authorities, I'm just saying overall, I wouldn't be in this business because I wanna see change. But I will tell you that that change has to happen, and I think people want to see it. And I do think that what Supervisor Hahn is recommending isn't unreasonable because if we can get through the first not, the first, and I mean not, where we're stuck, maybe that will help us. and then come back with some recommendations and really look at the budget and think about where we can make progress, which you stated, which is training, right? And more accessibility for reform in the institution itself and tracking those metrics and coming back here more regularly to share all that with the public. I think those are the things that I think would be important. So do you want to respond to that, Sheriff?

Yeah, I think any of you should never be discouraged or intimidated by anybody anywhere, specifically the Sheriff's Department. But just as a reminder to all of you, I am not that guy.

Oh, I know that.

I have never treated any of you in anything but a respectful and professional manner.

And I didn't imply that, Sheriff, and you know that. So I'm not going down that. that route i'm trying to distinguish that we did not we did not receive any in my mind respect and there's still dispute about a lot of that and they'll probably continue until after several months have passed but nonetheless the attitudes have changed and i would hope that that's the attitude leadership that we need So that while you have your rank and file here, and I see some of our captains from our stations here, that they understand that we need them to work with us, to work with our communities. And we expect that. And I know that they expect something of me as well. But it's got to be mutually respected. And the dignity and respect has to go along with it because I'm speaking for my community too.

Yeah, and they're here. They're here. They're hearing you loud and clear. And that's why they're here. That's when I spoke earlier and said they want to they want to be here. They want to be part of this change. And we're we want to be in partnership with everybody to make sure those changes are made.

OK, Supervisor Mitchell.

Yes. I just thank you that I'm trying to respond to Supervisor Hahn and the reason I don't support that strategy, just to be clear that I think the point of the directive is to really get some clarification of what things even have to go to meet and confer that that that's a question and not all of the elements of the motion. involve meet and confer, the ones to the CEO regarding risk management and the budget, identifying the gap, that doesn't have anything to do with meet and confer. So I wouldn't want to stop that process while we wait for this piece. So I'm not sure why, so that's why I don't support the sequencing that you're suggesting. I think that there are elements in the motion that aren't bound by the meet and confer process. And I'd like to see those continue as well.

I would agree with you. I mean, and then again, some of these directives are already happening. I mean, I do see eight and nine as being important to set the stage of the expectations of uh, particularly of the public, um, and us of what we actually, um, you know, how we can progress with this motion, um, with what I think the sheriff certainly already starting. So, um

Might I suggest something? Yes. Why don't we take public comment and then you two can work on it and have the staff and county council, if there is reasonableness here, to do something, right?

And I will just say before we go to public comment that the language was shared with the sheriff's chief of staff on August 13th. And so I appreciate that there's some elements in the motion that they're doing. It was shared on August 13th. So there was opportunity to inform me of that. I agree.

Okay. All right. With that, then let's go to a public comment and we'll allow for these two offices to meet and confer and talk with the county council and perhaps even the sheriff. Who knows? Okay, let's go.

Madam chair. There are currently over 50 speakers who have signed up to provide comment on this item. Given the number of speakers who have signed up to speak on item 20, in order to finish today's meeting efficiently, the time for public comment on this item will be limited to up to 60 minutes or until all registered speakers have spoken. If you're with a group, Please identify one person to speak on behalf of your entire group. Additionally, if you do not have any additional comments other than what has already been stated by other speakers, please indicate only your name and your support or opposition to this item to allow others the opportunity to speak. Should you like to provide more detailed comments, you can do so by submitting written comments to our customer service staff with badges. Additionally, you can provide your comments online at our websites at bos.lacounty.gov by clicking the link Submit Public Comment Online. All comments submitted online will be filed in the official record. Thank you for your understanding and participation in today's meeting. It is now 2.22 PM. Public comment for this item will end at 3.22 PM unless all registered speakers have spoken.

Will the following individuals please come forward and staff will assist you. Gigi Navarro, Raquel Duffler, Fi Ciabax, Aero Dykes, Yvette Aguirre, Denise Gastelum, Claudia Jerez, Omar Aguirre, Tiago Tomas, William Zanner, Loretta Lorraine, Crystal Chavez, Nicolas Tomasio, Anthony Arenas, Vanessa Perez, Dr. Terrence Neal, Stephanie Ai, Anthony Robles, Berkley Donovan, Carlos Magalon, L.A., Gabrielle Quiroz, Marcella Rosen, Helen Jones, and James Nelson. Assemblymember Isaac Bryan, your line is open. Please begin.

Thank you. And thank you, Madam Supervisors and Sheriff Luna, for your testimony today. I want to especially thank Supervisor Holly Mitchell for drafting this motion. The deputy gang issue has been front and center in Los Angeles County since long before I was in office. And I want to thank my colleagues and comrades in the Justice LA Coalition who have never let this issue fall to the wayside. And while we have seen some progress, over 3,000 use of force incidents is still too high. And we know that when there's a prevalence and presence of deputy gangs, that those incidents are more likely. We also had a very serious conversation at the state level about public entity liability this year. And a lot of that was spurned by lawsuits that have been absorbed by the County of Los Angeles, including lawsuits from the Sheriff's Department. The state has looked at deputy gangs and what we can do across California to eradicate them. And I want to thank the County of Los Angeles for their leadership. We're going to continue to follow that leadership. And this motion is my full support. Thank you, Supervisor Mitchell.

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

Thank you, Roy. It was Roland Heights. Law enforcement has been a dichotomy of organized crime and public safety since the beginning of time, as noted in movies Vendetta, Serpico, Rampart, Compton, etc. However, you still refuse to do the heavy lifting of getting the sheriffs out of jails and create a Department of Corrections, i.e. Washington State and others. Until you do that, the mission will never be complete. The Democrat gang of four, including Sheila Kuehl of this board, are guilty of so many levels, as to Men's Central Jail being compared to the Bastille, as they canceled the $1.4 billion new facility. The criminals are everywhere. No one is above the law is delusional at best. As to Supervisor Horvath, the department has earned its scrutiny.

Thank you. Cindy Nunez, your line is open. Please begin.

Good afternoon, Madam Supervisors. My name is Cindy Nunez. I'm the sister of Francisco Nunez, and I'm also a county employee. I serve our public, too. I understand the responsibility that comes with serving our communities, and I know that public trust depends on our accountability as county employees. Yes, Luna, you ran on 2022, promising to eradicate deputy gangs, making it clear that you would not tolerate any of these deputy gangs. So I just ask you ask yourself again, why are we here today? You're nearly four years later, still having to demand his promise that these gangs would be identified and held accountable. They haven't disappeared. They've grown bolder. So when you talk about identifying deputy gangs, you're not just talking about a policy issue to me. You are talking about families like us who are left to deal with the cost of these gangs. The lives lost, our communities. You're talking about lives here, our pain and our losses. And you'll be deciding whether promises made to this community actually mean something. Please pass this motion. Identify these gangs. Investigate these independently.

Mia Coleman, your line is open. Please begin.

Hello, supervisors. My name is Maya Coleman. I am a resident of SD3 and a member of the Reimagine LA Coalition, and I'm here today in support of Agenda Item 20. For years, LASD leadership has asked this county to believe that deputy gangs are just a few bad apples, as we heard today. But when the same violence, retaliation, tattoos, lawsuits, and misconduct keep showing up across stations and across generations, that's not a bad apple problem. That's a leadership and a culture problem. It's extremely problematic to hear Sheriff Luna today taking this motion so personally and continually touting his accomplishments when community members are still experiencing real harm done by LASD. People have lost their children to this violence. Yes, LASD has investigated, but those investigations and outcomes are not public. And that's what truly erodes public trust, not this motion. There needs to be regular transparency and external accountability, period. Thank you.

Derek Mejia, your line is open. Please begin.

Hello. Yeah, I'm calling just to support. This motion in East LA we know very well the history the violence that deputy gangs continue have and continue to inflict. Yeah it's long overdue that this issue be addressed and yeah it's just frankly just disappointing I mean really annoying to just have to listen to Sheriff Luna kind of whine about It's feelings being hurt by this. We need more accountability. We need something to be done about this. Yeah.

Thank you, sir. Your line is open. Please begin.

Thank you. Thank you, Holly Mitchell. Thank you. Thank you for this item. We are calling from Alcedena. I'm clicking right now. I forgot the district, but in favor. In favor. So much positivity has been said and I know it's going to continue to be said. Righteousness and justice shall return to righteousness and the upright will follow it. Thank you for following and leading it. Helping us lead it. Ms. Mitchell. Good thing. Pass this board. Pass this. Let's do it. One vote.

Thank you. James Takamatsu your line is open. Please begin.

JAMES PAGMATSU CALLING IN SUPPORT OF THIS MOTION. I KNOW IT'S REALLY INFURIATING TO SEE THOSE GANG MEMBERS IN ATTENDANCE BLIND THEIR COLORS INTIMIDATING THE FAMILIES COMING OUT TO SPEAK THEIR PEACE AND SPEAK THEIR MIND. LOONA TALKS LIKE SHE'S IN CHARGE BUT WE ALL KNOW THAT'S NOT THE CASE. It's the sheriff, the sheriff union and the sheriff gang czar. Luna can even get his deputies to stop abusing overtime. He had to rescind his call for that because he got so much pushback. He's not in charge. He doesn't run things. And you supervisors always trying to couch things like there's only bad apples and so many of the deputy members are great. Yet the letter Mitchell received had to be done anonymously because there's no support. The Good Apples won't protect anybody. There's no such thing as Good Apples. They let the deputy gangs run rampant throughout the department. If it was a majority of Good Apples that wouldn't see the case, they wouldn't let it thrive. But we do see it thrive. We see it in the case of Joseph Perez, who was beaten by the Indian. Thank you.

Saned Devermont, your line is open. Please begin. Saned, please begin.

Hello, I go by Mr. Checkpoint. I'm born and raised in Los Angeles, and I'm a constituent. I'm in support of the motion by Ms. Holly Mitchell. Luna should not be continued to try and let the department investigate themselves. They continue to assassinate victims. They continue to assassinate their character while deputy gangs thrive in L.A. County. How many times are we going to talk about it while they continue to beat, kill? The time to act is now. Thank you.

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

Hi, my name is Karen. I'm a member of the Reimagining Right Coalition and a lifelong member of SB2. I'm here in support of Agenda Item 2, and I first want to thank Supervisor Mitchell for putting forth this motion to finally address deputy gangs once and for all. Deputy gangs have been terrorizing Angelenos for decades, and even through the Sheriff's Department's Even though the Sheriff's Department likes to claim that this is a problem of the past, the community knows that that's certainly not the case. The problem has been well documented by courts, oversight bodies, researchers, journalists, and community advocates. And communities are still raising concerns, and the consequences of deputy gang culture are still being felt. We can't protect communities from a problem that the county refuses to fully see. We deserve to know that when our community experiences misconduct, intimidation, or abuse at the hands of deputy gangs, the county will actually listen, investigate, and act. Lastly, let's not forget that the sheriff is in an elected position, so even if Sheriff Lindner is alleging that he's working on it and that changes are occurring...

Thank you. Caller, with the phone number ending in 6005, your line is open. Please state your name and begin.

I want to say that I participated in the federal oversight meeting that was invite only and we were censored and they were led by someone from Texas and it was just not a transparent meeting. Also, it's unfortunate that people don't understand that people will not apply or call in, especially men. And I want to point out, I know I'm from East LA and there's problems, but there's also the Compton station that's full of a gang that oppresses people beats up people and then threatens them they know where they live and these men will not report it because men don't act like women and so i wanted to highlight that you transfer people i think luna you're wrong when you don't transfer people because there is a culture and there has to be culture of deprogramming of all those officers that suffered under tanaka for years and so you have to talk about the psychology of those officers that were tainted And so I encourage you to deprogram them. Thank you.

Thank you. We will now go to our in-person speakers. Please begin.

Good afternoon. Thank you, Supervisor Mitchell, for all your work, your leadership, and your courage, because I guess it's needed here. It is a shame that county council nor the CEO haven't given the executive office nor ISD a backbone to make sure that Luna doesn't just get to waltz in here or sneak in here and take over the presentation. With flagrant violations to the Brown Act, this was not on the agenda. Your little circles and graphs that say nothing was not on the agenda. You had a month if you have something to say. This motion is about accountability and risk mitigation. That is what we are discussing here right now. So again, even if your districts are not impacted by the gangs, they're not being killed by the gangs, you should at least be concerned about the budgetary impact that we continue to see time and time again. So it's unfortunate that we're going to have one office dip out. But we look forward to this whole board as a body, making sure that you take on your role as policymakers. And as for now, the executive branch of this government to make sure that the sheriff and the deputy.

Thank you. Next speaker, please.

Good afternoon, Board of Supervisors. My name is Errol Dykes, and I just want to say I am sorry to not see Ms. Hahn and Ms. Barger here while I speak. Our unhoused community, our unhoused TGI folks make up one of the largest demographics that end up interacting with law enforcement. Think homeless encampments or intervening with people needing critical medical or mental health services, calling 911 while black, while Latino, while some are struggling getting citizenship. Brown unhoused folks add in TGI tiers of struggle with communication with law enforcement. We suffer barriers of cultural bias from so many intersections. How are our houseless TGI neighbors supposed to feel safe when speaking with law enforcement? We are also confronting the existence of deputy gangs within our county's law enforcement. Housing itself is public safety, and the intersectional challenges are real. I am pro-care.

Thank you. Next speaker, please. Hello, my name is Evetta Geary. Thank you for listening to us today. Sheriff Luna. Supervisor Mitchell said for you to not take it personally, but I'm telling you, please take this personally. My son passed away in Twin Towers under your watch. It was misconduct by your deputies, and according to you, when three or more law enforcement personnel conduct something as they did misconduct, that's gang activity. All of them are still employed by you. I'm asking for us to pass this motion today, please. And I believe you can do better. I appreciate your efforts. Please continue. Don't take it personally as an attack. Thank you. Thank you. Next speaker, please.

Chichi Navarro. First and foremost, thank you, Supervisor Mitchell, for bringing this item forward and keeping the focus on deputy gangs. Sheriff Luna claimed today that this motion undermines trust and that policies are already implemented. But policy on paper is not accountability, and trust cannot exist while deputy gangs operate with impunity. Furthermore, when Supervisor Barger talks about public safety, it is completely disingenuous. Calling for safety and responsible funding while actively opposing Measure J's charter protections and continuing to funnel millions into the Sheriff's Department is a blatant contradiction. If you care about the safety and fiscal responsibility, you must invest in community care that prevents harm before it starts. For TGI, Black, Brown, immigrant, and poor Angelinas, we demand total transparency, strict post-desertification, and a permanent bar on gang-affiliated deputies from public service. Supervisors, do not let the deputies filling this room intimidate you. Look at this audience. You have the full backing of the community members filling this room today who are here to support this motion and fight for real safety. Stand strong.

Thank you. Next speaker, please. Good afternoon. My name is Raquel Durfler with the check the sheriff coalition and a constituent and supervisor bargers district of the Antelope Valley. And I know for a fact that many of her own constituents have been harmed by the actions of deputy gangs. I am strongly in favor of this motion. And thank you to Supervisor Mitchell for taking her responsibility to protect her constituents seriously and authoring this long overdue motion. This motion should not cause distress on the part of the sheriff if he believes in true transparency. It's ludicrous. He continues to insist there is no need for this motion and the community just needs to trust all is being done when it comes to deputy gangs. This board needs to bravely step forward and pass this motion unanimously because your constituents are looking to you to protect them. Thank you. Thank you. Next speaker, please.

You know, I want to see this, because I want you to see me, Chief Luna. Me and you have faced this before. You have answers to answers, parents that your deputies have killed in your jail. And the DA is always your little buddy. Where's he at? That's his people over here, because he's always with you and back you up in a lot of shit that you done and swept under the table. Now, come on, you got answers to answers to parents, just like that lady that just came here. She wanted an answer. I told you a long time ago, where's your answers? You just sit there and you came with a script. It was a nice script. but your script, but your DA over here, because I noticed people are part of your buddy, the DA over there, because that's how you work. Now be real with yourself, because you got to live with yourself and answer to those parents what you have done, and they have to live with it. You know what I mean?

Thank you. Next speaker, please.

Thank you.

Next speaker, please begin.

Good afternoon, Madam Chair and Board of Supervisors. My name is Denise Gastelum. and I am a current civil rights attorney on 21 active cases against the Los Angeles County Sheriff's Department. 15 of those are jail death cases, three of those are excessive force cases, and the remainder are inmate on inmate violence cases. For 50 years now, the Los Angeles County has been well aware that there exists deputy gangs within its Sheriff's Department. Five years ago in 2021, the Loyola Law School released the policy report advising Los Angeles County that part of the transparency and accountability that had to happen was releasing names, releasing deputy gangs, et cetera. Five years later, we are here asking that same transparency. I'd ask that any deputy who is opposing this motion be reminded that you chose a public career. Thank you, next speaker please.

Hello, all ready? Hello, hi, my name is Shakira Julian, so I just want to say I'm Belisha Guatemalan. I want to say thank you, Holly J. Mitchell, so I'm scary right now talking, but I'm very strong because somebody need to come, right? So I want to say I'm coming for my community, for supporting housing, for supporting in housing in a special all the people outside because I'm part for that people. I was working hard. Ms. Holly J. Mitchell remember me when I'm working like community health workers. So I remember your words. I was taking education. I was make the things right. And I was focusing in support my community. So I come in for defense that people and apart for the 18, 20, So I can say we have heroes over here. So you can see how the innocent people, heroes over here. So I just wish you working hard and put that bad people, and especially that bad people, ignorant, right, into jail. So anyway.

Thank you. Next speaker, please.

Hello, board members. My name is William Zahner. I'm a JD MBA graduate from Loyola Law School, worked with the Juvenile Law and Policy Center. I'm here to strongly urge the board to vote yes on Supervisor Mitchell's motion to identify and investigate deputy gangs, which is a good first step in addressing This issue, the reality and presence of these unacceptable groups, cliques and white supremacist gangs inside the sheriff's department is heavily documented, undeniable. And it finally appears the existence of these gangs is acknowledged by the sheriff's department. Yet seemingly they oppose a motion aimed at addressing it. This problem has cost taxpayers hundreds of millions of dollars and inflicted severe harm and trauma on our communities for decades. Accountability cannot wait. Do not leave it up to LASD to hold themselves accountable. Pass this motion. Thank you.

Thank you, next speaker, please. Crystal Chavez with Council of Contract. We urge the Board of Supervisors to pass this motion and take seriously the longstanding documented concerns surrounding deputy gangs and secretive subgroups within LASD. This is about protecting our communities, strengthening accountability, and rebuilding trust. Not only have millions already been spent on settlements, but when organized groups within a law enforcement agency are associated with excessive force misconduct, retaliation, or code of silence, the consequences reach far beyond individual incidents. They affect families, neighborhoods, and the trust between our communities and those sworn to protect them. Accountability is not anti-law enforcement. It is what makes law enforcement legitimate. Our communities deserve fairness, safety, and constitutional policing. We urge you to act, not later, Not after another tragedy, but now.

Thank you. We will now go to remote callers. We'll continue with the in-person speakers. Next speaker, please begin.

Hi, my name is Professor Terrence Killa, UCLA. I want to commend Supervisor Mitchell for your courage for this motion. In the 1980s, Los Angeles introduced its first gang injunction, and it was based on one very simple principle, that organizations that threaten public safety must be reeled in by the law. For nearly 40 years, this county has used this principle, this tool, to reel in gang organizations all throughout our streets. But there's been one glaring exception, sheriff deputy gangs inside of LASD. These organizations have operated at least since the 1960s. And because of this exception, countless lives have been lost and terrorized, lives like John Horton and Joseph Perez. This is the moral paradox facing this board right now. Los Angeles has used the law to reel in civilian gangs, but has refused to do this to reel in sheriff deputy gangs. Why? Either this board has lost control of law enforcement and is afraid, like everyone else, or it believes public safety. Thank you.

Next speaker, please.

Hello, my name is Marcella Rosen. I'd like to start off by thanking Supervisor Holly Mitchell for authoring this motion. Supervisor Barger, who has now walked away when community was talking, said earlier today that there are bad people in every job. There are bad accountants, there are bad lawyers, and there are bad politicians. What she did not mention was that the difference between those jobs and being a deputy is that deputies have guns. They have batons and they have qualified immunity when they commit violent crimes. This community has seen this happen. They have watched as they themselves or their loved ones have been victimized by LASD and no disciplinary action was taken. Luna, you claim that the problem with this motion is that identifying specific gangs and tattoos would narrow the scope of disciplinary action, but this motion includes no disciplinary mandates for individual gang members. It requires that you name the gangs, the tattoos, and ban them. The only real proof that this motion is necessary is the fact that you do not want it to pass. The Sheriff's Department opposes outside oversight whenever possible. Thank you. Next speaker, please.

Good afternoon. My name is Omar Aguirre. I'm the father of 22-year-old Air Force veteran Maxwell Aguirre, who horrifically lost his life at Twin Towers Correctional Facility due to deputy misconduct. Maxwell tragically lost his life, never being convicted of any crime of any kind ever. Following my son's death, the Sheriff's Department Deputy gangs collectively falsified records lied hid information and made every effort to avoid transparency and accountability We later discovered that this criminal cover was not accidental at all There was a conservative and well coordinated effort by Los Angeles County Sheriff's deputy gangs who controlled the jail to sweep death and misconduct under the rug at core issue with secret deputy gangs is who is in charge and and whether they hold allegiance to their oath, the U.S. Constitution, and the Sheriff's Department, or do they hold allegiance to a secretive, tattoo-engraved brotherhood which is not governed by the Board of Supervisors and certainly not governed by Sheriff Luna? Thank you.

Thank you. Next speaker, please. Claudia Hernandez, DPSS, DWC. So I'm not going to necessarily say a summary, but I want to talk about risk management. Can there be perhaps a list of risks posted in order to, or examples of the risks? when you're gonna take a risk, it's important that you put examples of what the consequences are and what type of risk will determine that there's a criminal behavior. It seems to me that there's a misunderstanding among youth and among young people that you take a risk and there might not be a consequence. So I think that's very necessary for youth litigation. I have a fund for it updated with the new information, long-term labor terms stipulate consequences, get full cooperation and get the signatures. Culture change must be updated. Accountability should include all parties. So there are deputies and there's you, the citizen. So you have a responsibility as much as the deputy does. Thank you. Next speaker, please.

Good afternoon, everybody. My name is Nicholas Samcio. I am a resident of West Carson. Holly Mitchell is my supervisor and I want to thank Mitchell for authoring this all long overdue motion as deputy gangs have been here and reported back in 1973. So this is five generations worth of pain, suffering, harassing, and The sheriff, Luna, is talking about he is making people sign pledges to be promoted, but who is the woman next to him? Her name is, here she is right here. April Tardy, she left in the middle, she left like 30 minutes ago. Where is she? She has a tattoo of the V boys on her ankle. And look, look, where's the staff? Where's the staff right here? The office staff? There's nobody, there's seven people. Next speaker, please.

Yes, my name is Carlos Magallon. I'm here to support this bill because my son, I believe he was murdered. His name was Jose Magallon Castellanos. He was murdered in Ventura County Jail. His documents are still confidential. It's been nine years, so stop all these gangs within them. They have all these guns, all these batons. I even got threatened by them by saying, do you think you can take us? It's 800 of us. So stop it. Stop having all these gangs within yourselves. You're supposed to help people, not hurt people. You're burying people that you're not supposed to. They're not sentenced to death. So why are you killing them? You need to be ashamed of that and supposed to be accountable for that. You're supposed to go to prison for killing somebody. Just the way you send the other people to prison, also you guys supposed to go to prison for when you do something.

Thank you, next speaker please.

Hello, my name is L. I'm one of the concerned citizens from Janice Hahn's district. Good afternoon, board, and thank you to Supervisor Mitchell for having the courage to stand against the criminals sitting here infesting our sheriff's department. We must be clear that although this measure is too little, it is not too late. In the words of Martin Luther King Jr., the time is always right to do what is right. and you have the opportunity to do right by your constituents right now. The residents of LA County are all very aware of the evil scourge violating our civil rights, festering within the very department who's tasked with protecting our rights. The question is why has it taken the board so long to catch up to the rest of its constituents? Not only have these deputy gangs wasted countless lives and public funds, but their crimes get covered up by this very body via the county attorney. Let us be clear that the deputies who showed up today ought to be prime suspects for investigation. they have a financial incentive to maintain the corruption of this board by way of ALADS. They know that the more funding this board authorizes, the more dues ALADS receives further concentrating the corruption. That's why they are here today, not to promote public safety, but to protect themselves from being held accountable for their crimes. We should question why public officers are allowed to lobby in uniform in their official capacity as officers instead of constituents.

Thank you. Next speaker, please. Hello, my name is Stephanie Luna. Thank you, Supervisor Mitchell, for bringing this motion forth. I'm the aunt of Anthony Vargas. Station captains, deputies and LASD representatives have come to hear this motion, yet their silence lets us know where they stand. The very captains who should be safe points of contact for reporting misconduct are instead here trying to intimidate the people who speak out against them. if your own deputies are afraid to report misconduct through your chain of command then that chain of command has failed lasd cannot investigate itself protect itself and then ask the public to trust the outcome this is not a radical demand it is the bare minimum the public deserves robert you stood and you stand before families who have spent years living with the harm caused by lasd failures you promised accountability yet your continued complicity and willful ignorance tell a different stories Constituents from every district, people who live and work in the communities you represent are here asking you, the board, to take accountability. The Sheriff's Department answers to the people of this county, not to itself. Thank you. Next speaker, please.

Yeah, my name is James Nelson, and I first of all want to say thank you, Holly Mitchell, for being courageous. to come up with this motion, and I hope the rest of your colleagues be as courageous. And Janice Hunt, I live in your district. I would not never call the police. I do not trust them. It's too much behind me not trusting them. I know too many people that call them, and the people that call them end up dead. So I would not call him. I'm a victim of flashlight therapy. And this was a show of intimidation. Because if it wasn't, they would still be here. And this is how they pull up in communities with the same show of intimidation. And gang members should be documented, just like somebody else said, the ones in our community, they are documented. It should not be no two sides of a law when we are all human.

they are held at a higher standard so they should be really penalized because they have guns as others have said so thank you thank you will the following individuals please come forward and staff will assist you janet asante ingrid martinez angie claudia abundis Next speaker, please continue.

Thank you, Supervisor Mitchell, for bringing this motion, and I hope the board please pass this motion because it is very needed. My name is Helen Jones. I am the mother of John Horton. The Sheriff Department can't truly reform unless you hold the deputies accountable for the murders and the rapes and the beating and the crimes that they have already committed. The 3,000-boy deputy sheriff gang member Mark Romero, who I believe has been promoted to homicide detective after killing my son John Horton. Cliff Yates after he retired after killing my son John Horton. Christopher Kidder was fired and ran to Vegas with his family after killing my son John Horton. William Penn Hollow, after murdering my son, ain't no telling what position he is in today. March 30th, 2009, my son John Horton was beat to death and all his organs including his liver, kidney, pancreas, intestines, a muscle in his back hitting his head.

Thank you, next speaker please. Next speaker please.

Vanessa Perez, the mother of Joseph Perez, who was beaten by seven Los Angeles County Sheriff deputies. We know that these gangs exist. They have been documented not only by journalists, but by the county itself. Families like mine have been talking about them for years. We were asking you, the County of Los Angeles and Sheriff Luna, to embrace the responsibility of moving this county beyond simply documenting deputy gangs and toward actually identifying the deputies who belong to them and holding them accountable. This cannot continue to be a conversation that only happens behind doors. This is about my son who was beaten nearly to death. This is about mothers like Lisa Vargas, Helen Jones, Terry Lovett, who have all buried their sons due to deputy gangs, and Sahara who had buried her loved one. As an impacted mother, I am reminding you, Sheriff Luna, you ran on eradicating deputy gangs. This is your opportunity to show the community that you serve how serious you are about accountability, transparency, and ending this deputy gang culture. As Joseph's mother, I am counting on you, Sheriff Luna, to uphold the words you made. You ran on your election on deputy gangs. Look at Joseph's face. He's counting on you as well. Thank you. Next speaker, please.

Hi, my name is Anthony Arenas, lifelong resident of District 3, speaking in favor of Supervisor Mitchell's motion alongside the roughly 200 people who called each of your offices and the 436 emails, both of which I had coordinated. Thank you, Supervisor Mitchell, for finally taking deputy gangs seriously. And as someone else said so much for the respect these deputies claim to hold for the community, they traumatized with how many left the room. Sheriff Luna was also dishonest during his presentation when he said OIG had no reports of issues providing oversight. That is not true. The OIG has reported to the Civilian Oversight Commission of being barred from participating in investigations. Someone died in custody last Friday. Someone died in custody the Saturday before that. And the Sunday before that, someone died in custody. And you still want to consider building a replacement facility run by the same department with no accountability.

My name is Berkley Donovan. I'm with ACLU SoCal and a constituent of District 4. And let me start by saying I do not believe in or ask for more sheriff or policing in my community. We thank Supervisor Mitchell for authoring this motion and urge the supervisors to pass it. Five years ago this month, this board passed its first deputy gang motion. The Board understood then that addressing deputy gangs and protecting our Black and Latin communities requires leveraging accountability and oversight systems that are impervious to leadership changes, departmental restructuring, and cultural resistance within the Sheriff's Department. Today, the Board has the opportunity to follow through on its commitment. In addition to providing a pathway to identifying deputy gangs, this motion provides the board with an opportunity to better understand how ALADS and PPOA have weaponized the meet and confer process to undercut reforms and investigations aimed at understanding and addressing the deputy gang crisis. The board is the only body with the political will and power to address deputy gangs. How can we truly do anything about deputy gangs if Sheriff Luna doesn't want us to have the names or the tattoos identified anywhere?

Thank you. Next speaker, please.

My name is Gabriel. First of all, I want to thank Holly J. Mitchell for putting together this motion and willing to hold Luna and the sheriffs accountable. That is something that we've been wanting. I'm in the district of Hilda Solis, and we have met with her and asked for her to do something about deputy gangs. you know it's a shame that she wasn't the one putting together this motion but hopefully she can support it you know we've been told by solisa's um staff that if we see pictures of races logos and races for the apache um pins that the sheriffs were the east la shares were to send them a picture Well, I would say, you know, so I'm here. You can go on their Instagram. They proudly wear it. They have flags, and they gladly advertise it. And then it's just hilarious that Robert Luna wants to talk about deputy gangs when he sat next to one for three hours who's his undersheriff, a tattooed deputy gang member. And we could talk about captains, about Omar Camacho, Detective Leo Sanchez, Captain John McDonald, Captain Edmundo Torres, Joe Mendez, and Robert L. Jones. Thank you.

Next speaker, please.

Deputy gang member.

Hello, my name is Tigo Thomas. I'm a resident of District 2, and I'm strongly in favor of this motion. I'd like to thank you, Supervisor Mitchell, for authoring this long overdue motion, continuing to fight to hold the Sheriff's Department accountable for its actions and violence, and taking the first step towards identifying these gangs and gang members. Black and brown Angelenos have suffered for decades before these courts, independent oversight bodies, and investigative journalists documented deputy gangs associated with excessive use of force, falsification of reports, witness intimidation, retaliation against whistleblowers, and targeted harassment of community members. The existence of deputy gangs within LASD is no secret. It's a nationally recognized problem that has cost the county hundreds of millions of dollars and has inflicted an enormous amount of harm and trauma on our communities. I urge the board to hold the LASD accountable to all report back timelines and refuse any additional funding while they continue to refuse to hold LASD gangs accountable.

Thank you. Next speaker, please.

My name is Anthony Robles. I'm a resident of District 1. Just last weekend, we celebrated the anniversary of the Chicano moratorium at Mariachi Plaza, and that was to commemorate one incident where Ruben Salazar, a journalist, was killed, who was documented by the Sheriff's Department as he was documenting the nation's largest protest against America's imperialist war against Vietnam. He was shot and killed by deputies that come from the same station as the Fort Apache station. And so how much hasn't changed since then? It's been over 50 years and we're still here dealing with the same problems. That's also to say there's one power that the board has complete power over the sheriff's department and that's over the budget and the same scrutiny and review process that you're putting the probation department through, you can do it with the sheriff's department and starting to begin real accountability. And not only does the department need to be held accountable, individuals need to be held accountable. Just like I've been put on gang databases without any evidence.

Thank you, next speaker please. Next speaker please begin.

Hi, my name is Janet Asante. I lead the Justice LA Coalition. I'm also campaign and policy manager for Dignity and Power Now. And I think what all of the previous speakers have said is very true. Thank you to Supervisor Mitchell for bringing forth this motion and actually participating with community to make changes that we want to see. I see Joseph Perez's name in the motion. I see so many of the things that I hear and experience from people in the community are actually a part of this motion. And I know that we reached out to other offices, but I encourage you all to model that same policy moving forward. And as other speakers said, yes, this board does have the onus to do something about deputy gangs, and that's going to be in the form of the supplemental budget and every budget hereafter. We should not be looking at additional facilities to give to a department that continues to harbor deputy gangs. We were just at Men's Central Jail this weekend, as we do through many weekends at Freedom Harvest. And I see people coming out of there being released, being brutalized with the bruises there, and they're just trying to make it to their next destination. They can't be here with us. So that's why we're here. And when we fight, we win. We know that you owe.

the community money that's currently going towards deputy gangs so we need to give it back next speaker please hello my name is jess springer i live in the first district i'm strongly in favor of this motion it sounded like the sheriff agrees that there's a significant problem but would rather wait until groups of two or more deputies enact harm to take action and would prefer broad policy that lacks definition than to act with proactive precision on identifying these groups I believe that voting to pass this motion is the bare minimum in fulfilling your responsibilities as the Board of Supervisors with any integrity. If an independent autopsy showed your child had been beaten to death, wouldn't you want to uncover the organized groups that are perpetuating crime? I cannot fathom voting to stand in the way of that. Let's be real about what this motion is. This motion is simply the county caring enough to find out what's happening when we know people are being brutalized, harassed, and dying. It doesn't name names, punish anyone, release footage, or stop a dollar of spending. We can talk about good and bad apples, but you are able to take action now. Delaying passing this motion is willfully allowing more deaths and injustice from the state, and now that's on you.

Thank you. Next speaker, please.

The people who are supposed to protect the community become the people that community is afraid of. When we talk about gangs in Los Angeles, we also have to talk about the relationship between communities and the LAPD. Gang violence has caused real harm to families and neighborhoods, but aggressive policing has also created fear and mistrust in many communities. There have been documentation cases and allegations of excessive force, racial profiling, and police misconduct. When officers are unnecessary or brutal force, it can make people feel like the system that's supported to protect them instead of targeting them i'm a gang member and we get required we get indicted how come these are not indicted how come they don't get the request for all the murders they're able to cause if we could do it and we get indicted why can't they they're supposed to be human and they protect next speaker please hello my name is martin hernandez i support this motion i grew up in east los angeles and i still live in the area i want to thank miss mitchell for bringing this to the fall

I know someone who worked for the Association for Los Angeles Deputy Sheriffs for decades. When they were being interviewed at the first, they were told that they'd hear about deputies engaging in abusive behavior and misconduct against the public, as well as their own family members. They were told that ALOD's job was to protect its members, which they've been doing very well, apparently, for a long time now. So the sheriffs and the ALADs continue to work to do just that, protect their members. As such, it's difficult to believe that the Los Angeles Sheriff's Department can be trusted to hold themselves accountable, and this motion will help to do that so that the taxpayers won't bear the brunt of the actions upon deputies that take advantage of our community. Thank you very much.

Thank you. Next speaker, please. Hi, I'm Kat, and I'm strongly in favor of this motion. I want to take a moment to recognize the families. I think it's really important. As Holly J. Mitchell mentioned, this disproportionately impacts communities that are black, brown, people who are in mental health crisis, people who are unhoused. and people who are still experiencing this who are incarcerated currently. I want to name Joseph Perez, John Horton, Anthony Vargas, Jelani Lovett, and many other names who we may never know who've lost their lives or been victims of deputy gang violence. And this is, as has been mentioned several times, this is well documented. And, you know, you mentioned today that the misconduct has gone down. But again, as a number of people have mentioned, this is you investigating yourselves. This is also these intimidation tactics keep people from coming forward about these things that happen. So these numbers, like your little presentation that was not on the agenda. Thank you. Next speaker, please.

Hello, my name is Joshua Jacobo, for the record. Earlier we were shown numbers, raw totals versus actual rate. We were shown that the overall use of forest incidents have declined since 2022, and of course that's welcomed. But raw total doesn't tell the whole story. LASD's own data shows that stops in public content have declined, have also declined in that time. So the real question is, what is the rate per 1,000 deputy contacts, and has that rate actually declined? You also have something called lower level force increase, which I'm not sure what a lower level would be. And there's another piece that deserves scrutiny. While overall forces decline, the department's own reporting shows that lower level non-categorized uses of forces increased 64% from 2021 to 2025. That matters because declining top line numbers can conceal changes in how incidences are being categorized. So the public needs to know what type of force that is. Yeah, I guess we'll leave with that around the time. Thank you.

Thank you, next speaker please.

Good afternoon, my name is Teresa de Jesus Ponce Arias.

I am a biological parent and a guardian of Lucy Ponce. My daughter is a miracle of life. She weighed two pounds and 11 ounces.

She was born at seven months and two months she was in the incubator.

And that's why she has the disability of intellectual capacity, cerebral palsy.

She has problems of learning and language, and she isn't able to understand things as easily. Okay. My daughter was abused by a sheriff whose name is Cristian Morales. Is Jonathan abused of my daughter? It was a crime for sexual abuse.

He took her to a hotel and he did the damage there. And he sent videos, pornographic videos of his body. And also masturbating.

Videos.

Explicit.

Thank you, next speaker please.

Hi, my name is Sahara. I lost my loved one, Quentin Thomas, inside a Twin Towers correctional facility after he was housed there for less than 48 hours. If it wasn't for me being able to get an independent autopsy done, I would have never known that the sheriff's department and the county coroner's tried to cover up his murder by getting rid of his brain without notifying us. We are here every Tuesday, almost every Tuesday, fighting for the basic necessities of our communities. Don't let this sudden show of force fool you. We don't see the sheriffs coming up when our families are crying out for justice. We don't see them showing up when our families are trying to find the money to bury their loved one. But the moment we talk about holding these deputy gangs accountable, suddenly they close ranks and they show up in force to protect their own. That speaks volumes. Twenty-nine people this year have died in their custody. 29 more families are forced to live and suffer with the trauma and the grief that this force inflicts upon these families. The moment that we have to fight tooth and nail just to get an ounce of accountability is not right. Thank you.

Next speaker, please.

Anybody against this motion is for the Sheriff's Department and not for the people.

I'm asking the Board of Supervisors to address this growing issue concerning deputy gains and deputy violence. My brother, Jose Magallon, who died in the Ventura County jail facility, has a proposed amend protective order in the federal litigation. The document specifically identifies the sheriff's investigation, medical examiner, and autopsy records records, jail custody records, and audio video recordings concerning my brother as categories of information that may involve confidential material. If the county is relying on the protective order, I ask the county to identify the specific provision that prohibits disclosure to my family and explain whether the material has actually been designated confidential. If the county is relying on different statutes, privilege, privacy, exemption, court order, or other legal authority, I'm asking the county to identify that authority rather than simply referring to the protective order. Thank you. Next speaker, please.

My name is Deborah Aschheim and I live in Supervisor Barker's district. So I do want to confirm that we care as much in District 5 about law enforcement accountability and misconduct as we do about public safety. I'm an artist and I make artwork for families impacted by law enforcement violence. One family told me that when they called 911 for mental health support for their loved one, one person in their family was having a mental health crisis. But now everybody in their family is suffering a mental health crisis. When we can't trust that armed uniformed officers are not members of a criminal organization, that's a community-wide mental health crisis. Supervisor Solis, I know this is a really important issue to you because you organized a mental health fair at Belvedere Park with my friend Hilda Pedroza, whose brother was also gunned down in front of his whole family by LASD sheriff gangs. So I just want to say that we need to be able to trust the police. It's a moral issue, but it's also a mental health issue for our whole community. Thank you. Thank you.

Next speaker, please. My name is Ingrid. I'm from District 3. Thank you to Supervisor Mitchell for this long overdue motion and for taking the first steps of holding the Sheriff's Department accountable. While this motion will publicly identify and list recognized deputy gangs, it will not identify deputies who are members of or are associated with LASD gangs. It will not oblige LASD to hand over critical evidence to the families affected by deputy gang violence and it would not bring them justice deputy gangs often brutalize and even kill la county residents and we all know that the county jails are breeding grounds for for this violence the district attorney's office often refuses to prosecute these cases leaving families to file civil lawsuits accountability cannot stop here stop the over bloated sheriff's uh budget thank you thank you next speaker please

Good afternoon, Supervisors. My name is Hilda. What we've heard today reinforces exactly why this motion is necessary. Accountability cannot depend on whether the institution being asked to account for itself agrees with the evidence, the terminology, or the need for greater oversight. If existing processes, as Luna has named, were sufficient, communities would not still be asking the same questions decades later. Although this motion is not the end of accountability, does not identify individual deputies like my colleagues have said, or repair the harm families have experienced, but it does something necessary. It creates an official record, requires greater transparency, and begins to remove the protection that secrecy provides. This matters because it moves accountability beyond the discretion of LASD. It requires public identification, reporting, oversight, and consequences for noncompliance. Pass item 20. Enforce every deadline. Make sure that this time the public can actually measure whether change has occurred.

Thank you. Thank you. Next speaker, please.

Hi, my name is Jasmine. I'm a constituent of District 2. And I'm strongly in favor of this motion. Thank you to Supervisor Mitchell for bringing it forth. It was mentioned that the history of LASD gangs is complicated, so I'm going to make it simple. Black and brown Angelenos have suffered for decades. The existence of deputy gangs within LASD is not a secret. Let's stop funding sheriff gangs. LASD has lost trust. That's why there are so many lawsuits for violating the Constitution. They continue to illegally block investigations. And let's name the names of the families who've lost loved ones. Joseph Perez, John Horton, Anthony Vargas, Jelani Lovett.

Thank you. Thank you. We will now go to our remote callers. Deanna Brock, your line is open. Please begin. Deanna your line is open.

Hi I'm Deanna Brock. I do recognize some progress has been made with issues of gangs under Sheriff Luna but LASD should welcome and support this motion to show sincerity in wanting to rid the department of deputy gangs. Deputy gangs are a well-known problem that cost the county billions of dollars. I urge the board to hold LASD accountable by passing this motion. Gangs have been linked to patterns of excessive force. LASD cannot be trusted to hold themselves accountable. They continue to illegally block investigations into their misconduct and deny legal subpoenas because the information would confirm that this department regularly falsifies reports of their own criminal activity. My son, Emmett Brock, was a victim of excessive force in February of 2023 at the Norwalk Station. They investigated themselves, determined there was no excessive force. Only when the FBI got involved did the truth come out that there were eight personnel from the Norwalk Station involved in the coverup. Joseph Perez was beat almost to death six years ago, and still no one is held accountable.

Thank you. Rebecca Arvizu, your line is open. Please begin.

My name is Rebecca Arvizu. I am an attorney and former ACLU SoCal board member who lives in the third district with the Lost Hills Sheriff Department. I have been harassed for the past three years since I submitted a complaint to the Oversight Commission about ALADS when they launched a misinformation campaign about the March 2023 COC report lying that one of the requirements is for deputies to be rotated every five years. Sheriff Luna just lied to the board, stating that all contract cities sent a letter to the board supporting the ALADS lie. The city of Agoura Hills did not send the letter, but their harassment against me has been ongoing. As late as last week, they surrounded my property with four of eight SUVs, even pulled into my driveway when they were looking for one black man in my mostly white neighborhoods.

Caller with phone number ending in 7489, your line is open. Please state your name and begin.

Hi, my name is Kristen Flores, and I am a resident of Supervisor Mitchell's district, and I support this motion. At a time when public trust in policy and government is so low, when everyday Angelenos are dying in the streets and in the jails, you should be ensuring that you're doing everything you can to prove you're trustworthy. Sheriff Luna's comments about how personally he's taking this makes no sense. If any institution I worked for was proven to be actively engaging in the type of violence, intimidation, and repeated cover-up that LASD gangs have, I would be more than happy to support external oversight and investigations into ensuring that we eradicated those in our ranks and proved to communities that we were trustworthy, especially if I believed it was only a few bad apples. An internal investigation cannot be considered when LASB gangs have caused multiple lawsuits against the county from state and federal agencies and respected legal organizations. This motion doesn't even cause eradication of the gangs, it's just identification. It is one first and late step toward justice and accountability for families. Thank you.

Thank you. Caller with phone number ending in 8724, your line is open. Please state your name and begin.

Hi, my name is Grace. I'm a member of the JLA Coalition and I strongly support this motion. I think it's ridiculous that the Sheriff's Department is balking at these extremely basic requests to just make the existence of deputy public knowledge and to establish external oversight. If you don't have anything to hide, then why not lift the veil? Many of the conversations this board has about how to distribute funding in the county are false choices. We shouldn't be here debating which safety net hospitals get additional funding or where the money to expand ODR should come from when we allow deputy gangs and violence to fester and consume massive amounts of taxpayer dollars. And in addition to these funding issues, to refuse to name these gangs and to make them known to the community is a slap in the face to all the families who've experienced unthinkable trauma. Accountability is not a prize that we should have to earn by politely waiting, by staying quiet, and not reacting during these meetings. It's a right that every person in this county is entitled to, and if the rage of families and community members who have been continually denied that is uncomfortable to you, then you need to grow the plug up.

Thank you. Xenia Moreno, your line is open. Please begin.

Yes, Xenia Moreno.

Please continue. Caller, we can't hear you, please speak up. Okay, we'll go to the next caller, Victoria Gomez, your line is open, please begin. Hi, can you hear me? Yes, go ahead.

Hi. Thank you to Holly Mitchell for placing this motion on the agenda and enslaving the brave leadership that is required to make real change happen in L.A. I'm looking at you to vote in favor of this motion because you want to rock yourself as a champion for the SDV and East Side. And growing up in the region, it has always been a known thing to watch out for the police violence and to not expose the corruption amongst the East L.A. Sheriff's Department out of fear of retaliation. This should not be the norm. As a mother of a young son who will eventually be a young adult in LA County, I need accountability to happen now because I do not want to join the loads of mothers who have lost a son to this corrupt department. When will Los Angeles feel like a safe community that takes care of its children? We have all the data we need. We have all the examples we need. So do what it takes to make the right decision and hold sheriffs accountable now. Thank you.

thank you madam chair members of the board it is now 3 22 and that concludes the time for public comment on this item madam chair item 20 is before you any discussion on

Well, first of all, you know, hopefully and sheriff appreciate you staying and listening because we've had sometimes other incidences of other department heads giving their report and then exiting stage right. So we appreciate you sitting here and I'm sure you've heard as well as. The captains that have been here have heard the frustration of community members. I know you take that personally. We all do. There is no tolerance in my mind for any badly behaving deputy. We don't like to hear these stories. We abhor every time we have million dollar settlements as it relates to um a deputy that has not uh behaved how we would expect our sheriff's deputies to behave with with the standard of our la county sheriff's badge so i know you've heard that and you know I think there's a lot in this motion, but I think it's a false narrative to say for any reason what we do today, maybe continue some of it, vote for some of it. In no way, for me anyway, I can't speak for my colleagues, says that I'm somehow on one side or the other of this debate. We're all on the same side. We are all part of... LA County, we need each other. We need law enforcement. We need our community. We need voices to be heard to hold us accountable. This motion, while it has a lot in there, as someone said, it's not going to get rid of Deputy gangs necessarily. It's still going to take the sheriff. It's going to take your commitment, which I think you already have, and it's going to take the commitment of every single officer who puts on the badge and gets sworn in to uphold. But I still I want to get this right because, you know, I've been talking about this since I've become a Supervisor, it's my comment, but I want to get it right so I still would like to before I vote on all the directives I would like to know as Directive 8 says which one of these Has to go through a meet-and-confer. You said it's already gonna happen in 30 days. I would just like to see that first Before I vote on everything and I and I will say maybe even in that 30 days Sheriff and I will It is disappointing a little bit that I said, Ms. Mitchell, Supervisor Mitchell did give you an opportunity to say what you've already done and what you haven't done, and you missed an opportunity. And so I would take this opportunity as well for you to let us know again what things that you've already implemented, which you talked about some of it, but just to make sure if there's a directive that It's already done, you've already completed it. I think we have a right to know that. And I think you missed an opportunity not working with Supervisor Mitchell's office to determine that. So that would be my ask, Madam Chair, that we hear what has to go through meeting before we vote on the rest of the items.

Well- So are you making a motion to bifurcate?

Yeah. Well, yeah. So continue all the items except for eight. I want to hear which one of these items goes through meet and confer before I vote on the rest of them.

So just to be clear, not number eight. It's the one after number eight. I'm sorry.

My staff gave me an abbreviated. It's directive eight, I think.

No? No, no. It's the directive after number eight. So you'd be making a motion to bifurcate and move forward and vote on that item yes first yes before the so you have to have you have to make that motion and someone would have to second that motion and make that motion it needs to be seconded second so now we're voting to bifurcate directives one through eight and then the four other I further moves, and we're just voting on the I further move. I'm just going to call it number nine, if that's okay. It comes directly after number eight.

Can I get a clarification though on the one through eight? Are you asking for continuance of how many days? 30, 60, 40?

I would think if Supervisor Mitchell's motion already says this will come back in 30 days, then... Okay.

So you want to stick with it?

I want to see that first before we... Before me. I'm just talking about myself. If I have support for that, great.

So you want to see the answers to the meet and confer before... Yeah.

Before I vote on all the other ones.

How long will it take you all to... It says the directive is 30 days. I know, but can you do it? We do a lot of directives where we ask for 30 days, 60 days, and then we ask for a continuum.

I would defer to CEOER. They're the ones who are being directed by the motion.

We can do it in 30 days, but I just want to level set a little bit on what you will likely see in our report. I think most of the directives, with perhaps the exception of Directive 8, call for two things, they call for a report back, and then they call for implementation. Report backs are likely to be not subject to meet and confer. But once we turn the corner to implementation, it's likely to be subject to meet and confer of some kind. we can do the report but generally speaking that initial round of reporting and we'll confirm it in our report is is likely not something that that's a management right it's not likely something we'd have to meet and confer but once we start changing the operations of the department in a way that impacts employment conditions we would likely have to work with the unions on that right and i'd like to see that

And for the record, Madam Chair, I don't support that. I said it earlier. I don't support that.

Can you clarify for us, County Council, again, what we're voting on right now?

So, well, first we're voting on, we're going to do a couple of votes, but depending on if the bifurcation passes. So first, there's a motion to bifurcate out. I'm going to call it number nine. It's not numbered. Bifurcate out a directive nine. I further move, and it's the report directing the CEOER in collaboration with our office and the sheriff. to report back in 30 days on whether any of the other provisions require the county to meet and meet and confer there's a motion to bifurcate that one directive out and vote on it separately so first there needs to be a motion it's been moved it's been seconded on whether or not to bifurcate then we vote on if it passes the bifurcated portion So first we have to vote on whether or not to even bifurcate at all. That's the motion that's before the board right now.

I just want to clarify, County Council, what you're calling directive nine is the underlying portion that exists on page eight, beginning with I further move, and it goes all the way to page nine, section five. That's the entirety of what Supervisor Hahn is asking to be bifurcated. Is that correct?

That is correct. That's my understanding.

Yeah, I'm not looking at it. But it was the idea that the 30 day report back of which one of the directives must go through meet and confer. I'd like to see that first.

You want that reported back?

Yes. Is what Supervisor Horvath just referenced?

Yeah. Okay, so. So it's been moved and seconded?

So again, what you'd be voting on now is whether or not to even bifurcate. You're not voting on any directive at this point. It's just whether or not to bifurcate. That's what's been moved. That's what's been seconded. That's what needs to be voted on.

Okay.

Okay. So at this point we will vote on the bifurcation.

Call the roll.

Supervisor Mitchell.

No.

Supervisor Horvath.

Aye.

Supervisor Hahn.

Aye.

Supervisor Barger.

Aye.

Supervisor Solis.

Aye.

Motion to bifurcate has passed.

So now what we're voting on is what has been bifurcated out As Supervisor Horribath referenced, what I called number nine, that's what we're voting on whether or not to pass. Then we're going to have to vote on the rest. So that's what we're voting on right now. That's what the board is voting on. The I further move that the board direct this chief executive officer through employee relations in collaboration with the sheriff and county council to report back in 30 days all the way through up to section five on page nine. That one directive is what's being voted on right now.

And can I get clarification before we vote? If that passes, do we then vote on the motion in chief?

Yes, we then vote on all the other items as well. There's been no motion to continue those items.

OK. Let's go.

So the motion now to motion now to report back the bifurcation on the bifurcation is now before you.

Right.

Supervisor Mitchell.

You have questions.

Yeah, no, I mean, because now I think both Supervisor Hahn and I are confused. We're now voting on that one directive, which is the one to have the CEO on the meet and confer. That's correct. But in answer to Supervisor Mitchell's question, the next one is going to be the continuance that she's asking for.

There hasn't been a motion to continue yet.

Oh, I thought you did that. Okay, because that's what you were asking.

I wanted to get clarification if we're going to vote on the motion in chief.

Okay. Unless there's a motion to continue it. Otherwise, yes, we're going to be voting on the remainder of the provisions unless someone makes a motion to continue all the rest of the items.

Okay. So now before us is the bifurcation. We need a second. There's a motion by Supervisor Hahn.

I'll second it.

We have a second by Supervisor Barger. Supervisor Mitchell?

No.

Supervisor Horvath?

Aye.

Supervisor Hahn?

Aye.

Supervisor Barger? Aye. Supervisor Solis?

Aye.

Motion on bifurcation passes.

You already did the motion on bifurcation.

The motion on the directive on the bifurcation passes.

Okay, now the entire motion.

So I want to see this report back first. I don't know if my colleagues do, but I do. So then I would have to say I would not be prepared to vote on the other items until I see that.

So are you making a motion to continue?

Continue it. Right.

So then that motion needs a second.

So I move to continue the other items until the report comes back. So I don't know if you want to do it at 30 days or 45 days. What's the will of the board?

You want to- I will, because there's been 30 days for that. 45. 45.

Well, you also decide, because you've now reframed the motion, so you decide how long.

Well, I'm up for, I mean, I just need to see that report, which comes back in 30 days. If we want an extra 15 days so that we can all absorb it, that's fine with me.

I'm sorry, was that a 45 days? Is that what you're making a motion for?

Well- A motion to continue for. 45 days, that's fine with me, 45 days. But we certainly don't expect the sheriff to stop any of the effort that you're already doing in your efforts just because we're waiting 30, 40 days to approve this.

So then that needs to be seconded. The motion to continue for 45 days needs to be seconded.

Farger seconded.

Did she?

I'll second.

Okay, moved and seconded.

It's been seconded by Supervisor Horvath, so now you need to take the vote on continuing the remainder of the directives for 45 days.

So now the vote is before you to continue for 45 days. Supervisor Mitchell?

No.

Supervisor Horvath?

Aye.

Supervisor Hahn.

Aye.

Supervisor Barger. Aye. Supervisor Solis. Aye. Aye. Motion continue. Passes.

Next item. Item A4. Item A4. Item A4. EO.

You guys are being disruptive. We need to continue on with the rest of the meeting.

We will now move on to item A4, discussion and consideration of necessary actions relating to the county's homeless crisis as requested at the board meeting of May 17, 2016.

Again, you guys are being disruptive.

And proclaimed. as a local emergency on January 10th, 2023, which was held by Supervisor Horvath. For members of the public on the phone, if you have already signed up to speak, no further action is needed. If you're on the phone and wish to comment but haven't signed up, press star and follow the prompts to join the speaking queue. To address the board from the meeting, call 213-444-2600, press star and follow the prompts. An operator will assist you.

Thank you, Madam Chair. I held this item today following this morning's LASA Commission meeting. At that meeting, the Commission affirmed that LASA will not apply for the request for qualifications that the Continuum of Care Board opened last week for an entity to lead the COC. This means that in the future, LAHSA will no longer lead the Continuum of Care, which they have led since the 1990s, including $220 million in funding from the federal government. The four functions under the Continuum of Care umbrella are homeless count, homeless management information system, known as HMIS, the coordinated entry system, and the collaborative applicant that submits a regional application to HUD for federal COC funding. Lhasa no longer leading these functions is a fundamental change and reflects the significant performance, contracting, and financial concerns that have surfaced and plagued Lhasa for far too long. Moving forward, another entity will be leading the COC, which I believe should be the county, given our ability to most effectively administer contracts for our region. Given that we have a set matter on homelessness on next week's agenda, I thought it was critical to elevate what was decided by the LASA Commission today. By doing this, I want to ensure that next week's set matter addresses the many urgent questions related to the future of the continuum of care and how we address our homelessness crisis in the future. And I see our director of HSH is here, so I appreciate you jumping in. In response to the numerous performance issues at LAHSA, LA County pulled our funding from LAHSA this year, and our homelessness contracts are now administered by the Department of Homeless Services and Housing. After that action, LAHSA's reduced purview included city-funded contracts and managing contracts as the continuum of care lead for the entire region. Now that the LAHSA Commission has decided not to apply to retain the Continuum of Care functions, I believe this is effectively the end of the county's relationship with LAHSA, as well as LAHSA functioning as a joint powers authority. Once LAHSA no longer leads the Continuum of Care functions, it will only administer city-funded contracts. That is not a JPA. We must begin the critical process of thoughtfully winding down this joint powers authority. Moving forward in the short term, LAHSA's two main functions will be administering City of Los Angeles contracts for homelessness services and administering the current COC contracts and funding until they are transitioned to the new entity. Of critical importance, we need to understand how and when those contracts will transition away from LAHSA. Visibility into the state and federal contracts that LAHSA holds will be necessary to determine a streamlined transition of those contracts to the new COC lead. A top concern is the 2025 LAHSA COC contracts that HUD is refusing to execute, although those programs are already operating without funding. Based on these new developments, I'm requesting that HSH provide updates on two items next week. One, the status of HSH's response to the RFQ to lead the various COC functions, including a timeline moving forward. As part of this update, please describe the four COC functions that HSH will be applying to lead As a part of this topic, I would like to understand how it would work if the City of Los Angeles applies for the HMIS or CES functions, which they have proposed to do. Given that the COC is responsible for all of the 85 cities and our unincorporated communities in the COC, we know that there are some communities that have their own COC, how would the City of Los Angeles take on this type of regional responsibility? It is more important than ever that the county intentionally and thoughtfully engage with the city of Los Angeles to co-design a collaborative regional homeless response system that serves everyone. Officials avoiding accountability will no longer have LASA to hide behind, and the county and city must be accountable to each other and to our entire Los Angeles region. Our proactive coordination will make all the difference in continuing to build a more effective and accountable homeless services system. And to the extent that is useful in establishing this new COC entity to be working with the other regional COCs in Los Angeles County, I would ask that we consider that as well. Additionally, for next week's update, HSH, in consultation with county council and CEO, should provide information on how the county can transition out of the JPA and how COC contracts will transition away from LAHSA and to the new LEED. To date, I understand we cannot even secure contract information from LAHSA. So if there are any surprises, and what I mean by that in earnest is liabilities, who is responsible and how do we hold them accountable? so to that end i would ask our director how is the collaboration with the city of la going we know that in order for this transition to be most effective the county needs to build the system in partnership with los angeles so i would ask how how you see that happening to date

Good afternoon, Sarah Mayen, Director of Department of Homeless Services and Housing. Thank you, Supervisor, for your question. Ever since we began creating the new department, working directly with the City of LA has been a top priority. We have established In addition to the ongoing day-to-day work that we're doing at a staff level, we have established biweekly leadership meetings that include myself and City of LA staffers. Joe, the CEO of the county, has stepped in to help facilitate conversations with the city around these important COC matters and will continue to do that. I personally have met with 13 of the 15 council members and with the mayor and will continue to have those kinds of engagements and hope that those kinds of engagements will happen between electeds. I think it's really important that we do that and that we also learn from some of the lessons around losses governance. We are understanding what the City of LA's concerns are, and I think they're similar to our own and to the other cities. It's important that we consider how those can be addressed in this new structure for our continuum of care.

I'm clear that you're doing the outreach. I know that there have been both public and private concerns around how effective that has been. So have they been responding? Are we actually engaged in a productive conversation where partnership is forming?

I think it varies at the level. I think it's productive at the ground level. I think when we start talking about things like the COC governance and the structure, I think there's, I think we have some room to go in those conversations. And I think more direct communication, I'll be honest, I think more direct communication between electeds might be helpful in that.

That's helpful to know. Thank you.

Thank you. Supervisor Barger.

Thank you, and I also want to echo what's rather horrible said, I mean, I think we talked when we talked about loss that we talked about accountability and the accountability begins and ends. With this board, and this is an opportunity for us to write the ship and i'm happy to know that you're working with the city of La because. while they are only one of 88, they are, I always say, ground zero for the homeless crisis as it relates to the numbers that we're seeing. And so this is an opportunity for us to step up to the plate and really work together and apply for the funding that we know is necessary to keep this going. So I wholeheartedly agree with what you said, Supervisor Horvath. And I think Lhasa making that decision today was the right thing to do. And it made it a lot cleaner from the standpoint it's there's no fighting going on. They recognize that they need to focus on what they need to focus on internally and let us move forward with the application. Thank you.

Supervisor Hahn.

Thank you. Thank you, Madam Chair. I think this is an important recognition of where we are headed as a county. This board made the decision to fundamentally change how we deliver homelessness services in Los Angeles County. Supervisor Horvath, you have been solid on this and have really led us to this point. We created our new Department of Homeless Services and Housing because we wanted greater accountability. clear responsibility and ultimately better results for the people that we serve. I appreciate the loss of commission recognizing that having Lhasa, the city and the county all competing against one another for these responsibilities could create even more uncertainty during an already complicated transition. But Lhasa stepping aside also puts an even greater responsibility on us. If the county is going to take on these responsibilities, we need to demonstrate that we are ready. We cannot allow this transition to disrupt services to people experiencing homelessness. We cannot have providers wondering whether their contracts are going to continue or when they are going to get paid. and we absolutely cannot put federal funding at risk. There are also critical regional functions that have to continue without interruption, including coordinated entry data and HMIS, federal funding administration and coordination with our providers and our cities. I really want to emphasize our cities. I think this is a great moment for us to really regroup uh with our cities many of our cities have been unhappy and frustrated with the um the current model and homelessness as we know does not stop at the border of the city of los angeles we have 88 cities in our county along with unincorporated communities and many of our smaller cities depend on the continuum of care for for funding resources regional coordination whatever comes next has to work for all of los angeles county This is an opportunity for us to finally establish clear accountability. For too long, when something went wrong, everyone pointed to someone else. If the county takes on these responsibilities, then we also have to accept responsibility for the results. And I think we're ready to do that. And the public should hold us accountable for whether people are actually being housed and whether this new system is working better than the one we are replacing. I think we have a real opportunity here. I know that we all are on the same page. I think we're going to all have to lean in and Sarah, we're really going to count on you. to lead us through this transition stage. But ultimately, everything we do is for those who are experiencing homelessness, those who are on the streets, those who have mental health challenges, those who are addicted to drugs and alcohol. I mean, our responsibility is to see what we can do to Set them on a better pathway so that they can achieve all that they're meant to achieve to as a member of the great family of Los Angeles County. So thank you.

Thank you, Supervisor Mitchell.

Thank you, Madam Chair. This is a question for both the CEO and our director of HSH. I just want to make sure I understand that this request is for a report with a seven day turnaround. I just want to be guaranteed that you believe a thorough analysis can be provided in seven days.

If I'm not mistaken, this is coming back to the board next week for discussion as part of the continued item that was continued today. So we can have an initial discussion next week. And if there's any issues that are not completely nailed down, we'll have to get back.

So it's coming back next week to be discussed. It's not the analysis won't be.

Right. what's right that the analysis is to be expected by next week or anything that we can speak to by next week i'd like to know so we know what the framework is and anything that still needs to be discovered i would like that to be part of our discussion so we as a board have i have a clear understanding about what's next that's helpful thank you

Okay, very good. Seeing no further questions from the board, let's go to public comment.

Madam Chair, there are no in-person speakers who have signed up to speak on this item. We will go to our remote caller. Roy Humphries, your line is open. Please begin.