Board of Supervisors - Regular Meeting

Good morning, If we could please take our seats, the chair is gonna start our meeting momentarily.

Oh, it got quite quick. Good morning. Welcome everyone to the Napa County Board of Supervisors meeting. I'm calling this meeting of 04/14/2026 to order. And may I have roll call,

please?

Vice Chair Laciel. Present. Supervisor Ramos. Here. Supervisor Gallagher. Supervisor Schroed? Here. Chair Manfrey?

Here. And if I could, I'm looking around the room. Could I please have Jennifer Yasimoto lead us in the Pledge of Allegiance? All right. Our first item is the pet of the week.

So I would like to welcome Louise and Josie, the pet of the week. Good morning. Who do we have here?

Hi, everybody. This is Josie. Before we talk about Josie, I just wanna introduce Megan. Megan is our new shelter manager. So I'll let her kinda introduce herself.

Hi everyone. My name is Megan Schuler. I'm the new shelter manager. I'm super excited to be a part of this team and this community. So thanks for having us. Okay.

This week, we decided to bring Josie. Josie and I did a training this past Sunday with Napa Cart and I was like, oh, she's an amazing dog. She was a good decoy. Being out there with a lot of random people, being in the crate, practicing a disaster like event and just being so great as she is now. I was like, why is she still at the shelter?

The other thing that I that really set out to me was when you look at her, a lot of people will think, oh, she's like a pit bull mix or she's displayed as a pit bull mix on our website. But then you see her in person and you're like, I've never seen a pit bull with long hair like this or color coat or color colors like this. So she is like a pity mix with a cattle dog. So if you're interested in something like that, you can always come and meet her. If you look at her ears, she could probably hear everybody in the back row right now and anything that you guys are talking about.

She's been at the shelter since January. She did come in as an owner surrender. The owners had a newborn and they were allergic to the dogs, so then they unfortunately had to bring Josie to the shelter. They tried to re home her, but we ultimately had to take her in. Since she's been with us since January, she's been really, really social, really outgoing.

She's been dog friendly with most of the dogs that we introduce her to. She does amazing when she goes out for a walk, and where she really stole the show for me was for her being in the shelter environment for as long as she's been and then to bring her to a completely new environment, she has been doing amazing. And you can come down to the shelter. I know we do waive fees for the pet of the week, but we're also doing an adoption event that started on the eighth and it's gonna end on the nineteenth where we're waiving all the adoption fees. The only thing you would have to pay for if you're a Napa resident would be for a license fee, but otherwise, it covers the spay and neuter surgery, the microchip, the vaccines that she's gotten at the shelter, flea and tick medication, and for our dogs, we do heartworm testing and heartworm prevention.

So you get a huge head start at, being a pet parent.

Okay. Great description. And I have to say she's super photogenic, so this dog is gonna look great in your family pictures. Yeah. And she was a real sweetie meeting people in the office. She was really gentle and and lovely with everyone. So so this looks like a winner. Good to meet you, Josie. Thank you for coming in today. Thank you, Luis.

Thank you, Ashley.

Thank you. All right. So our next item is item four, approval of proclamations and commendations. We have two proclamations today recognizing Library Week and Child Abuse Prevention Month in Napa County. Do we have any public comment on either of these proclamations? You don't see anyone in the room. Is there anyone on the phones? No? Okay. May I please have a motion to approve the proclamations?

So moved. I believe that was a motion by Anne Cottrell and a second okay, by Supervisor Cottrell and a second by Supervisor Alessio. Thank you. All those in favor? Aye. That passes unanimously. And I would like to welcome Jenny Olson, COPE Executive Director Harmony Plenty, COPE Development and Marketing Director and Veronica Piper Jefferson, CWS Director to accept the Child Abuse Prevention Month proclamation. I would like to invite Joelle Gallagher to present it.

Well, it's my honor to present the Child Abuse Prevention Month Proclamation. I'm going go ahead and read that. April 2026: Whereas National Child Abuse Prevention Month is recognized throughout The United States during the month of April and serves to highlight the essential role of community cooperation in fostering awareness of child and family well-being and advocating for the implementation of effective strategies to support families and prevent child abuse and neglect. And whereas all adults and caregivers have a responsibility as neighbors, community members, and residents of Napa County to help create a healthy, safe, and nurturing environment for children and youth. And whereas during periods of extreme stress, such as economic challenges and natural disasters, families feel more vulnerable, and as a result, rates of child abuse and neglect increase.

These incidences and impacts can be reduced, however, by ensuring families have the support they need to cope and raise their children in safe and healthy environments. And whereas child abuse is considered to be one of our nation's most serious public health problems, with scientific studies documenting the link between the abuse and neglect of children and youth and a wide range of medical, emotional, psychological, and behavioral disorders, and whereas effective child abuse prevention programs succeed because of partnerships created among state and local governmental agencies, schools, faith groups, community based organizations, law enforcement agencies, the business community, and dedicated community members. Now, therefore, be it proclaimed that this Board of Supervisors, County Of Napa, State Of California, on April, does hereby recognize April 2026 as Child Abuse Prevention Month in Napa County. We urge all community members to increase their participation in efforts to empower parents and nurture children to prevent child abuse, strengthen our community, and raise children who thrive. So, Jenny Olson from COPE, would you like to say a few words?

Would. Thank you. Okay.

Thank you, Chair Manfrey and supervisors. I didn't prepare any comments for this because I have a whole presentation for you that's on the agenda. But I will say that I'm four months in at COPE as the Executive Director, and one of my favorite parts of joining the team has been to chair the Child Abuse Prevention Council. The work that the county is doing, all our partners, is really incredible, moving from a response method to a community supported method where we focus on prevention and supporting families. And I think I will share the one quote that I was going to share during my presentation now because it's so appropriate.

I saw this recently on Instagram. Glennon Doyle, who many of you may know, shared that, The measure of a person, family, nation, is how it treats its children. There is no such thing as other people's children. We must do better by ours. And with that thought, I will just say thank you very much for continuing to support Child Abuse Prevention Month every year, and for issuing this proclamation year after year. It's really important, and I appreciate your support.

Thank you. Thank you for your work. Yes, and I'd like to invite my colleagues to the well for a photo.

The well. Are we handing these back? You can keep it if you want. I'm putting them in my flag.

All right. Thank you. Our next proclamation is for the library. So I would invite Anthony Halstead, Director of Library Services, to accept the Library Week proclamation and join me at the podium there.

And

if there's anyone else from your team too. There are. Yeah, you're welcome to all come up if you work for the library.

We also have members of the Foundation, Friends

and Friends.

Oh, wow. Awesome.

No? You're all going to sit there? Okay, but you

can take the picture with us. You can take the picture with us in a moment. So it's a brief remark, which is that my love affair with the library began when I was four years old, and I got my first library card. And I walked in the other day, and I saw the PEEP dioramas, which are fabulous. Are they still there?

They have gone home.

Oh, so sad.

Yesterday. They've been

Oh, if you if you caught if you caught that, you were lucky. It was a really good show. And I immediately got on the phone with my mom, and we remarked about how when I was a little kid, the library had competitions for egg decoration, And I entered several times, and I made a Humpty Dumpty sitting on a little brick wall. And she still has it. There It's blown out. Yes, it was. It was. Yes.

So there you are. Okay, so,

all right. National Library Week, April 2026. Whereas National Library Week is a time to celebrate our nation's libraries, recognize the invaluable contributions of library workers and volunteers, and encourage community members to explore and support the vital services libraries provide, the 2026 theme, Find Your Joy, highlights the many ways libraries spark curiosity, creativity, and connection in our communities. And in Napa County, more than a 100 Literacy volunteers meet regularly with adult learners to help improve reading and writing skills, opening doors to employment opportunities, educational advancement, and greater independence. And dozens of additional volunteers of all ages generously donate their time to help encourage the love of reading through our Bow Wow for Books and Generations and Books programs, help develop and prepare for events, and tutor younger students demonstrating leadership and strengthening a culture of service throughout Napa County.

And the Friends of the Library organizations in American Canyon, Calistoga, and Yountville, together with the Napa County Library Foundation, generously raise funds and provide vital volunteer leadership each year to support library programs, expand resources, and enhance services for residents throughout Napa County. And, oh, the library services serves as a safe and inclusive space where all individuals are respected and valued while connecting the community to essential technology, digital literacy resources, and personalized support, and collaborating with community organizations and county departments to expand programs, outreach, and services that reflect and support the diverse interests and needs of Napa County residents. Therefore, it be proclaimed that this Board of Supervisors, County Of Napa, State of California on this April, does hereby recognize April 2026 as National Library Week in Napa County. And in doing so, we celebrate the countless ways that libraries enrich our community, fostering lifelong learning and provide inclusive spaces for connection, discovery, and empowerment for all. Thank you.

And if you'd like to make any comments, you're welcome here.

Thank you so much. Ken, does he want

to say something? Sure.

So I'm Ken Dejarnit, and I'm the president of the Friends of the Napa Valley Library. I just want to thank you actually for the proclamation. I would also be remiss if I did not also acknowledge the extraordinary leadership of Anthony. We are so lucky to have a leader like him. And also to, just reiterate what an important asset the library is to our community and how important it is to other issues too, for instance, like with children and literacy. And so I would encourage you to continue to support the library, but thank you.

Thank you, Kevin. Checks in the mail. Thank you so much, chair and members of the board. Yesterday, had the opportunity to work at our checkout desk for a little bit yesterday. And in doing so, I helped somebody get their library card in Napa.

They just moved to town. They said we were one of their first stops. I got to meet a 100 kindergartners from Pueblo Vista and say hello as they came in for class visits. I helped someone who was checking out a hot spot that they placed on hold, another who came in and was in the middle of a series and she couldn't wait to get the next one in the series, and someone coming for our one of our memory care labs that we offer for residents. In that ninety or so minutes, I met maybe two dozen people, right?

And that represents a small fraction of the 250,000 or so people that visit our library each year and the million or so items that they check out. And it's a real pleasure to be able to do that for our community. And thank you all so much for your support. I know that many of you I see in our buildings as well checking things out and using the library. It's really important when you work with different people for them to know what it is that you do.

I feel that that's just such a privilege that we get to have that in Napa County. So thank you again so much. I do have a small representation of the 100 or so people that work at our library in various forms here. They do a great job as well as representatives from our library commission, from our other friends groups in Yountville and in Calistoga, and I and just so many other people here that help us do this work. So thank you again for your support.

Great. Thank you. Well, Anthony, here is the proclamation. And I'd like to invite anyone who's here from the library to join us in the well, and anyone on the Board of Supervisors, come on down for a photo.

I said we should bring, like, a random selection of random things you could check out from the library, like a sewing machine or the pumpkins.

Okay, we're going to order. Order? Right. We are we are hearing that you can check out a sewing machine at the library, which is fabulous. Thank you. Okay. So moving on to consent calendar item five, including special districts. These are items a through s. And please note there's a correction memo on item five k. So do we have any board comments or items to pull off of the consent calendar today?

Okay. I'm not hearing any. Is there anyone here wishing to make a public comment on items on the consent calendar today? I don't see anyone in the room. Is there anyone on the phones? Okay. Not for So may I have a motion and a second to approve consent calendar items a through s as amended?

Second.

We'll give it to Gallagher.

Okay. So I have a first by Supervisor Ramos and a second by Vice Chair Alessio. All those in favor? Aye.

Oh. Aye. Aye.

I was going I think Gallagher and I were kind of in a tie, I was going to give it to Gallagher. Oh, you didn't? Oh, Okay. All right.

Aye. Okay. I'll second. Okay. Okay. That passes unanimously. Thank you. We have nothing pulled off consent. So that concludes item five. We're moving on to item six, public comment for any items not on the agenda today and also any items in closed session, which we have one. Is there anyone in the room wishing to make a comment for items not on the agenda today? Yeah, welcome. Come down to the podium and yeah, go ahead whenever you're ready. We all have three minutes.

Good morning. My name is Kevin LaMastrios, I'm the current president of wine growers of Napa Valley. And I'm here on behalf of our four major industry groups, wine growers in Napa Valley, Napa Valley vintners, Napa Valley grape growers, and Napa County Farm Bureau. This past Friday, the board of supervisors should have received a letter from the four main groups regarding wine industry regulatory policy recommendations. And with the encouragement of the Board of Supervisors, I asked our Executive Director, Michel Benvenuto, to engage with our partner groups to meet and discuss how we can all work together as a cohesive group.

We did just that. And for well over a year now, we've been engaged with other groups and interests in the Napa County. With the community and our industry in mind, we've come up with a joint industry regulatory policy recommendations list. Now we're not gonna get into the weeds of that because we know you gotta read it and understand it, but we're hoping, that we would like to encourage the board of supervisors to embrace and immediately implement where you can, some small policy recommendations put forth by our four leading line groups. And additionally, we would like to encourage the board to ensure the larger recommendations be considered the general plan update that will be happening starting this year.

So I want to thank you for your time this morning and we all look forward to working with the board of supervisors and our county officials to make this happen for everybody. So thank you.

Thank you, Mr. LeMasters. Welcome.

Morning, chair Manfrey and supervisors. My name is Robert Vanderbilt. I'm the foreperson of the 2025, twenty twenty six Napa County civil grand jury. First, I wanna thank all of you for including our recruitment for next year's grand jury in your respective newsletters. I'm here today to alert you to the release yesterday of our investigatory report, fear of ice in the valley, Napa County's law enforcement's response, available in English and Spanish on the court's website.

The grand jury examined local law enforcement interactions with ICE amid concerns over immigration enforcement in a community with a significant foreign born population. As you know, NAPA law enforcement agencies issued a joint statement reaffirming that they do not enforce immigration laws as it is a federal, not state or local function. They comply with state protections in order to encourage community trust and emergency reporting. We found that agencies adhere to department policies not to inquire about immigration status, to engage in community outreach, and to comply with laws, including SB 54 and the TRUTH Act. They distinguish judicial warrants from ICE administrative warrants and do not share license plate reader data with ICE or out of state agencies.

As you know, the Napa County Jail is uniquely administered by the Napa County Department of Corrections under the Board of Supervisors instead of the Sheriff's Department as in other counties. The Napa County jail uses the full extent of its discretion under SB 54 in providing release information to ICE regarding those convicted of offenses listed under SB 54, including certain misdemeanors and those who have charges with the probable cause finding that fall under that act. In at least one instance, information was released regarding those who were charged with but not convicted of certain offenses listed under SB 54. The grand jury found that local law enforcement should be commended not sheriff condemned, but commended for effectively communicating its role in non enforcing immigration, but should expand its social media outreach, especially in Spanish. Our recommendations include continuing community collaboration and more detailed and more frequent truth act reporting to the Board of Supervisors.

We also recommend that you review jail practices regarding individuals with misdemeanor offenses, so called wobbler offenses, and charges without convictions, and whether their release dates should be excluded from ICE notifications. Just as the Brown Act limits what you can say in response to these public comments, I'm limited in what I can say more about our report other than to encourage everyone to read it closely. And I look forward to receiving the Board of Supervisors' official response. Thank you for your time.

Thank you, Mr. Vanderbilt. Welcome.

Thank you. Good morning. Happy to be here. Good to see you, Ms. Gallagher, as always. I apologize it's my first time in this forum, so please go easy on me, especially since I left my glasses in the car and having trouble reading my notes. My name is David Erickson. I'm a very happy resident of Napa County. I work in the wine industry, but I'm here today representing the Community Action Napa Valley. This is a non profit organization that many of you are from might be familiar with and really this is just a an outreach initiative that we have to make sure that we are staying connected with those who are part of the community on all levels.

As a review of our programs, Community Action Napa Valley also known as CAN V supports the county residents in many ways. Most notably, the food bank where we distribute over half a million pounds of food monthly. Meals on Wheels is another program we have where we support over 400 homebound seniors in our community. We have a network of eight pantries ranging from American Canyon to Calistoga where our clients can get food, as well as seven additional free markets throughout the valley. Oh, and one more thing, we have seven USDA commodity distribution sites.

So a lot of support going into the community for our most vulnerable residents. Additionally, we partner with some of the local hospitals with a mobile wellness unit, and we have employed registered nurses that are not only administering first aid and wellness checks for our clients, but also running or starting to develop a program called Food as Medicine, where we're learning more about healthy nutrition in our community. Yeah. My handwriting is getting to me now. Oh, in summary, I was really here just for three three reasons.

One is to let you know how we support over 14,000 residents on a monthly basis here in Napa Valley. Also, that as a non profit in the Napa Valley that historically had relied on federal funding has become more and more reliant on the local community as well, in supporting our growing needs here, as well as just as asking our supervisors as we make decisions for the betterment of our community to remember that one in ten, so nearly on a statistical basis, six people in this room have a hard time deciding between paying their bills and buying groceries. And that's what Community Action Napa Valley is here to support. So thank you very much. Have a wonderful day.

Thank you, mister Ericsson. Thank you for your work. Welcome. Good morning.

Good Good morning, chair Manfrey, board of supervisors. My name is Tom Davies. I'm the president, managing partner of Isatouille Winery, also a proud member of Napa Valley Grape Growers. I find it coincidental that today a joint industry letter with policy recommendations is being presented to you as an example of how both industry and government can work together, not against to sustain a vibrant and successful agricultural economy. This is exactly what I learned while attending the great wine capitals in Mendoza in 2022, which I will speak to later today, as the Argentinian government takes a proactive role in partnering with wine growing industry and promoting tourism and organizational agility.

As you well know, getting these recommendations like these approved by all the major groups takes times takes times for everyone to be heard. Perhaps it is the crisis that our industry is now facing with bankruptcies, layoffs, closures, winery sales, no market for grapes, grapes left hanging on the vine and follow land that finally got this letter across the finish line. I urge all of you including staff to work and please help our industry that is responsible for virtually three out of four jobs here in the county. We are in a crisis. We need action as over regulation, time delays, and outdated policies are contributing to our crisis by not allowing our industry the flexibility that it needs to meet today's challenging wine growing industry.

Thank you very much.

Thank you. Mr. Davies, welcome.

Thank you. Good morning, Madam Chair and members of the Board. Michelle Novi with the Napa Valley Venturers. I'm here to follow-up on the letter that's been referenced. As we noted, we do believe that honest feedback and thoughtful flexibility in departing from the status quo are themselves acts of stewardship.

We are communicating to you the measures that we believe are necessary to ensure a resilient agricultural future for our community. It will be through partnership, collaboration, and leadership that we are able to move from a vision for this future to the reality. This is a thoughtful board that makes thoughtful decisions. And we're confident in your willingness to collaborate with us on this work. Thank you for your consideration of these recommendations, and we ask for your support in the near term implementation of the initial measures we identified.

On a completely separate note, but related to another public comment around Community Action of Napa Valley, I'm helping organize a early bird dance party called the Happy Hour Hustle that will be $60 per ticket and all proceeds going towards Community Action Napa Valley. That's happening at thirteen thirty one cocktails on Wednesday, May 6 from five to 8PM. So get your groove on and then go to bed. Hope to see you there. Thank you.

Thank you, Ms. Novi. Welcome. Good morning. I

didn't know I was going to have to follow the happy hour hustle. That's tough. John Dunbar, Napa. I want to also reinforce the real value in the work that the four major industry groups have done over the last year plus. I know that I've also worked and met with each of you individually over the last eighteen months to talk about the concerns that the wine industry and hospitality and tourism have about kind of the state of things today.

They've gotten worse since we've all met. But also there are opportunities, think, that you have great resources and the principles involved in the wine industry, tourism and the other related fields to be your information and to help you make really smart sound decisions over the next several months, even years during the general plan. But I hope that you don't wait and count on the general plan. That process is going to take many years and you're going to talk about it later about many millions of dollars. So the need for collaboration is now and it's really urgent.

I would also suggest and I know that some of you were either viewing or present when the state, our majority leader Cecilia Agri Akhuri and Senator Kobolden co hosted a meeting at the college just last month about how state regulations impact locally. It's not all about Napa County's regulations on the industry and others. It's about the impact that the state and the federal regulations have on these industries. And now is a good time to be able to cooperate with our state partners because they're paying attention, they're engaged, they're coming to us here to find out what can they do to eliminate outdated, ineffective, unnecessary regulations to enhance the ones that are working. And I think we can learn from that and work well together.

Sometimes those regulations at the state level, we have found are in conflict with what we're doing here at the local level. So, think now is a really good time to be very active, engaged and collaborative with our state partners and with the industry representatives that you have at your disposal. Thanks.

Thank you. Welcome.

Good morning. Thank you. Peter Rumble from the Napa County Farm Bureau. I'm joining my colleagues and partners in the community to bring up the letter that we sent and I want to pick up on mister Dunbar's comments on collaboration. Want just express how grateful I am to the partners in the community, the fellow industry groups for the collaboration.

And I want to thank your county for wanting to collaborate, wanting to find solutions. And that letter was really sent in that spirit, working together to find solutions. Mr. Dunbar also referenced the heavy burden of regulations, right, and was able to share a recent report from Cal Poly on the cost of regulations. And to be sure, you know, we're looking at the bulk of those coming bulk of those costs coming from the federal and state governments.

Right? So, the work that we have together is directed, I think, at finding ways to make it easier to operate, make time, shorter, and to give greater flexibility, to meet the current economic demands. And all of that, I think, is captured in the letter both in the short term, things that we can be doing now, today, as well as things to consider as we roll into the general plan. So I really just want to thank you and look forward to working together.

Thank you, mister Rumble. Welcome.

Thank you. Good morning, chair Manfrey and members of the board. I I stand before you, a little ticked off this morning. And and the real reason is, you know, I served as the accounting ag commissioner for about twenty years here, and I don't know that I ever saw four our four main wine industry groups agree on anything. And, no, to be completely serious with you now, I want to take my hat off to the folks that are part of the these four organizations and the work that they've done to bring to you their kind of candid and well thought out discussion about concerns that they have.

It's clear that there are headwinds in the industry at the moment. I don't need to tell you that. And there are good reasons for us to continue to evaluate how we do business and what we do, and how, we as a community can really work to make those headwinds less if possible and to help our industry partners as much as we can. So I tip my cap to the four industry groups for, for bringing their issues forward to you in a in a very kind of positive and and teamwork approach. And I look forward to seeing what you as our thoughtful leaders in the community do with those recommendations.

Thank you, Mr. Whitmer. Is there anyone else in the room wishing to speak? Welcome. Good morning.

Good morning. Jim Hinton, 45 Spring Street, Napa, California. I used to be a regular here, but I've had to take a leave of absence to care for my father with sundowners and I'm glad to say that we are beating the sundowners even though all doctors, everybody else say, oh, there's no cure, there's nothing you can do, it always just gets worse. That's a load of shit. There's things you can do to help people who are ailing from this disease.

But, that's not why I'm here today. You know, I got to see John John Dunbar is here today. Last time I saw John Dunbar, he basically accused Belia Ramos and myself of driving Ryan Clobus, the Farm Bureau CEO, to kill himself. Now, though Ryan Clobus had been subpoenaed by the FBI and all that, he acts like it was something we did and not what was really going on. And whatever happened to that FBI investigation?

Where is our transparency? Where is our accountability? Where is our closure on this matter? I've spoken to people like the Napa Register. They don't even know what happened to it, where it went. I've called congressman Thompson's office. They got nothing to say on it. But, if you go on YouTube, you can see the congressman. He's drinking wine with Alfredo Pedroza and John Dunbar as if nothing happened, you know. So you have the Farm Bureau, you have all these people like the Halls and the Wagners, they're all donating to Thompson, they're all donating to the Farm Bureau, they're all donating to Alfredo Pedroza, they're all named in this FBI probe.

What happened? It was just a big misunderstanding. Alfredo's innocent. There's nothing going on. I mean, how much money did our government spend on this FBI investigation? Where is our accountability? Why do these people act like nothing happened? Why does Mike Thompson glorify being endorsed by the Farm Bureau, an organization that used to harass Supervisor Ramos? They used to have people follow me all around town. They used to have people harass my mother.

And we're supposed to be proud of some industry letter they signed off on today like there's some kind of noble organization out doing good. I mean, really, I don't know how you can stand here and take a pledge of allegiance to liberty and justice for all when there clearly is no liberty and there clearly is no justice. Just look at the Epstein list. Do you think that's an example of liberty and justice for all? Anybody? Does anybody feel this kind of stuff and behavior by our government is something to glorify?

Thank you, Mr. Hinton. Is there anyone else in the room wishing to comment during public comment on any topic? I don't see anyone approaching the podium. Is there anyone on the phones?

Yes, Chairman. Have two callers on the line. Our first caller is Sophie.

Okay. Welcome, Sophie. Anytime you're ready.

Hi. Good morning, supervisors. My name is Sophie Wassif, and I'm a senior at Justin Sienna High School and co president of Napa Schools for Climate Action. Recently, we had opportunity to share our perspective on the county's 2026 legislative platform as we have in past years. The platform lists the climate emergency as a guiding principle.

We pointed out that the continuous destructive impacts of wildfires on our lives and the escalating insurance crisis are symptoms of the larger planetary crisis we face. We ask that the count the that Napa County call for stabilizing the climate, not only by cuts in greenhouse gas emissions, but by removal of cumulative carbon dioxide solution as well. In support of our request, we pointed out that the Napa RCB and the Napa County Office of Education passed resolutions endorsing congressman Mike Thompson's house concurrent resolution 46, which presses for national and international policies that decide decisively restore a safe and healthy climate for us. You amended your legislation platform so that it now calls for investment in atmospheric carbon pollution drawdown. Thank you for your care in doing so.

Today, I urge you to pass a resolution in support of House Concurrent Resolution 46, which was introduced into Congress this past July. Action on emissions reductions and adaptation, while essential, are no longer sufficient. The congressional resolution declares that The United States has a moral obligation to future generations to restore atmospheric carbon dioxide levels to levels humans have safely experienced long term. My team and I are especially grateful for the Napa RCD, Napa County Board of Education, and just last month, American Canyon for unanimously passing resolutions endorsing Congressman Thompson's climate restoration resolution. Furthermore, the Napa County Office of Education Superintendent Joshua Schultz recently sent letters to each of the mayors and to County Board of Supervisors Chair, Amber Manfrey, urging each jurisdiction to endorse House Concurrent Resolution 46.

We shared this good news with the Climate Action Committee in March. Napa Schools for Climate Action appreciates the effort and dedication it takes to make a difference. Please do all you can to continue the positive momentum. Thank you.

Thank you, Ms. Wasaf. Is there anyone else on the phones?

Yes. Our next caller is Elise.

Good morning, Elise. Whenever you're ready, you'll have three minutes.

Good morning, supervisors. Elise Nerlov here with the Micro Winery Guild, formerly Save the Family Farms. I think last time I saw everybody I was very pregnant. I'm happy to say I'm home with my infant but still staying plugged into all of the issues going on in Napa County and I'm here to comment on industry letter. There's a tremendous amount of work underway and I appreciate the effort that our industry groups are doing and we appreciate being included in the discussion.

I support the idea of conducting a comprehensive assessment what staff has determined as a policy matrix to determine what is working, what isn't working, and where there may be unintended consequences for the Valley's smallest producers. You've heard me say this before, but too often smaller producers are unintentionally left behind in the broader policy discussion. Taking time to evaluate how existing regulations impact them will help ensure that future policies are more balanced, inclusive and effective. Our organization the Microwinery Guild has been in conversation with industry groups about our position in three critical areas as new policy is being considered under the WDO. I want to ensure these items are included and considered in the general plan discussions as well.

First, please consider those wishing to go through the youth permit process and ensuring that the process does not push small producers into overdevelopment of ag land. The joint letter didn't really acknowledge this subset of constituents and I think that's a huge miss. Second, allowing microwineries the ability to design a production and hospitality space that is not subject to the sixtyforty rule. Third would be addressing the road and street standard requirements and how Napa County is interpreting the Board of Forestry Standards in relation to other counties. For the Valley's smallest producers, these are not minor considerations.

They are fundamental barriers to entry. If we are serious about advancing policy that supports small producers, these three issues must be part of the conversation. Thank you very much.

Thank you, Ms. Narilove. Is there anyone else on the phone?

That concludes public comment.

Okay. Thank you. All right. Thanks to everyone for thoughtful public comments. I would like to move on to agenda item seven, Board of Supervisors Reports and Announcements. Is there anyone here who'd like to start us off? I see Supervisor Cottrell first.

Thank you, Chair, and good morning. I have some notes that we have put together in response to the letter that has been mentioned. Yes, we have received this joint letter from the four major industry groups outlining a series of regulatory policy recommendations. I want to acknowledge, as we've heard, the collaborative nature of this request. It's clear these organizations have come together to identify both immediate actionable items as well as longer term general plan priorities.

With respect to the immediate priorities, I also understand that our team at PBES is already working on some of these themes and is in the process of preparing updates to the zoning ordinance that are expected to come before this Board later this year. Given that this effort is already underway, I would ask staff to evaluate whether some of these near term items could be incorporated into that work program where appropriate. That helps us keep things on a fast track. On the longer term recommendations, many of these touch on more fundamental policy questions, particularly around the winery definition ordinance, agricultural zoning, and conservation strategy. Those issues are broader in scope and really warrant a more comprehensive discussion.

So it's really encouraging to see the engagement of these industry partners, and I look forward to seeing these groups and others remain actively engaged in the general plan update process, as that is the most appropriate and effective forum to evaluate these proposals in a holistic way. Again, I really appreciate the input and the spirit in which these recommendations are offered, and I look forward to the continued coordination with both staff and our agricultural stakeholders as we move forward. And then I had a couple other quick items I wanted to ask for. I'd like to make a referral to the CEO to see if we could bring Pat Blacklock, who is the CEO of the rural county reps of California, forward to give just a very brief presentation on what that group does. I sit on that board and I think having the community and this board have an understanding of some of the work they're doing would be great.

And then an important note from the scouts of Troop One in St. Helena, they are doing a smash burger fundraiser tomorrow night at Longmeadow Ranch. That's Wednesday, April 15. And the final thing I wanted to say is just gratitude to Mr. Vanderbilt on his report out with the civil grand jury and encourage anyone who might be interested in participating to look into signing up. So, thank you.

Okay, thank you, Supervisor Cottrell. Supervisor Gallagher?

Thank you. I just wanted to say ditto on Supervisor Cottrell's referral around staff taking a look at the industry letter and looking at sort of evaluating those recommendations. And then also just wanted to mention that we celebrated Five or Week of the Young Child with First Five. Yesterday, I brought a proclamation to the agency. We were unable to do that here at the Board level, but we are making proclamations out in the community and celebrating those different opportunities as well.

And wanted to mention that I attended the Gun Violence Prevention Collaborative Meeting in Yolo County, which I thought was really informative and very important, and I would like to look at what we might be able to do here in Napa. And thank my colleague Lucas Frerichs for his leadership in Yolo County and also to Congressman Thompson for his leadership on the issue and for continuing to come into the communities and speak about gun violence prevention. Thank you.

Thank you. Supervisor Gallagher, Vice Chair Alessio?

Thank you. I want to thank the industries for coming today and the work you did on the recommendation. I know you took your time in doing that, and it really did require collaboration. In this time that we're seeing a historic downturn that's going to affect everybody in our community, not just our local economy, but it will impact jobs. It's going to impact the community benefits and the charitable giving that you give back to nonprofits and to community members.

So there's a ripple effect that's happening here. The stone thrown in the pond is being hit first, being felt first by our wine industry and our hospitality industry. But it's going to ripple and it's going to impact everybody in this community. The community benefit, the work I did I'm going to go back and talk about the work I did for Queen Valley Medical Center. Community benefit, so much of it is funds and it's they are financial funds that the government does not have to provide otherwise.

So if we didn't have all this community benefit, all this generous giving by the wine industry, we would have more people that would not be helped because we can't do it all here in local government. We just don't have the revenue to do it all. So again, I want to thank the industry for that work. I also want to chime in what Supervisor Cottrell said. I agree.

I would really, in terms of that, if that was a referral or not, I know that PBS is starting to work on this, but this is an urgency issue. And as soon as they possibly can to bring something back, to look at what is the short term, what is the long term, that comprehensive assessment and a matrix in terms of how do we move forward and what we can do in the short term. Similar in the sense of a strategic plan is what I like to see. And again, it's not all on the county. There's a lot of this and most of this is really tied to state and federal regulations.

I think it's important for us to understand that, tease that out, so we can work closely with our legislators both on the state and the federal side in every aspect, especially in terms of just educating, creating more and more awareness. So, I'm done with that. I do want to share a couple of things. I want to commend the twenty first Annual Agricultural Day that was held at the Expo. What a great event.

That was my first time attending. Next year I'm going to block out more time so I can hang out with Supervisor Rambos longer and hold the animals. I think you were out there probably the longest of any of us. I know that you were loving on those cute animals. What it does in terms of exposure and for the youth in our community, It really inspiring and so much fun.

Thank you for all who worked on that. I also want to thank Chair Manfrey and all who worked on the annual Climate Summit, Councilmember Beth Painter and others. That was also very inspiring, called Resilient Napa. I think that was the fourth or the fifth, I can't recall, but really very, very important and very inspiring work. I did attend the Sheriff's Citizens Academy one day. I always find that really impactful. If anybody I really recommend it. If you have a little time, look into next year's schedule and consider joining the Sheriff's Citizens Academy. I was there with Chair Manfrey. We were both there on that one class evening.

I want to thank also for the opportunity to be able to speak with the Health and Human Services staff and other staff on child abuse prevention out of the HHSA. I think everybody else was at the ribbon cutting for the flood district. I was down at the South County with our staff and was able to say a few words on child abuse prevention. Exciting update is the Dry Creek Bridge. We had our ribbon cutting.

That's really cool. I think that took like ten years maybe in the making. So thank you Public Works and all the staff previously who worked on it and who saw it to What a big improvement. Incredible. Critical to access for public transportation for people who come through their everyday evacuation if it was needed.

That was really fun and exciting to be a part of that. And then I was really inspired this Sunday. Boy, I can't even tell. There are no words that can really express the gratitude that I have for our local fire departments. There is a gentleman who is the volunteer chief for the Dry Creek Fire Station.

Is Volunteer Chief Ken Overen. And he is a remarkable person, a genius in his own right during his profession, retired up at Mount Veeder and took all that intellect and really gave it back to community through the volunteer fire program, specifically around policies and procedures. Volunteer Chief Oberyn passed away in March. I want to say it was March 12. And there was going to be a very small celebration of life for him and our fire departments heard about this and they wanted to thank him in a way that our fire departments do as they recognize somebody of their own.

In that, were so on Sunday, kind of last minute, but in forty eight hours they pulled us together. It was eight engines, including one fire engine from the city of Napa, and the city of Napa, I believe, presented the honor guard, one ladder truck from the county, and six other engines for the total of eight. They reserved the Elk's Lodge to do a celebration of life. The folks that really pulled this together at the last minute for the family, who most of them don't live in the area, was Battalion Chief Nate Fire Captain Kyle Bru, Deputy Fire Marshal Eric Hernandez. And all the chiefs were there.

The chiefs, the captains, they were there. They did a procession down from Mount Veeder with at least four or five engines. The family was aboard to be part of this. It was just so moving. It was so beautiful. And what a way to honor the service of Volunteer Chief Van Oberyn. So thank you for all that work, for continuing to demonstrate excellence and service above self.

Okay. Thank you, Supervisor Alessio. Supervisor Ramos?

Thank you. And thank you, Supervisor Alessio, for recognizing volunteer firefighter Van Oberen for all his years of service. I've had over a decade, to work with him, and, so grateful for everything that he's done for for our county and to our fire department for honoring, his send off. I wanted to give a couple of updates. One that is important, we talked about Senator Cabaldon's SB ten eighty seven, which is the reform to SB three seventy five.

And the reform comes to those regional long range planning processes at MTC ABAG, that is Plan Barea 2050 plus, and we just finished the last plan. It covers a four year period, and so now we start on Plan Baria 2,060 already. And so that's one of the reasons why we are seeking reform for SB three seventy five. I'm very fortunate. As your representative on ABAC and sitting in my position as President of ABAC, I have a seat at the table with the large four MPOs to negotiate this.

That's with Los Angeles, San Diego, and Sacramento. So, unfortunately, they schedule Friday afternoon meetings, which doesn't work for my brain, but we're doing the best we can, and I'll continue to keep you updated on that. As the language has come back, the proposal is that these plans move to an eight year cycle. And the reason that is important is we spent $5,000,000 creating these plans. So that's money out of everyone's pockets.

The next update I wanted to give as your representative to the Airport Advisory Commission as the liaison, I will make sure that I'm giving regular updates here to the board and making sure that you can also distribute those updates through your newsletter. You can always reach out to myself or Melissa, and we're happy to provide those touch points. So you will recall that in November, we engaged the services of Kaufman and Associates to look at an alternative fair weather approach to Runway 19R. Airport staff has begun that work into looking at other options, including we've had some of our airport commissioners that have flown what some of those alternatives may look at and provided us that information. And what we're really looking forward is making sure that we have a proposal that we're able to present to the FAA that is credible and technically sound and is presented in a fully actionable way by the FAA.

Sorry, no, not FAA, that's farm. FAA. Sorry. Like I said, a lot of animals in my life right now. Sorry. FAA. And one of the things that we know is that the FAA has had a shift in the engagement that it has at a local level. I think that's a nice way to say it. Meaning they don't come to our meetings anymore. They used to come.

I used to actually have a touch point with the FAA at every meeting. They no longer come. So we really need to make sure that we're making this as easy as possible. One of the things that we're going to be doing is and I want to be very, very clear, I know that government process is sometimes hard, especially when you are experiencing an impact that is less than desirable to you and what you're accustomed to. We are going to have community engagement meetings to be able to have those multiple opportunities for the public to share not just what they're experiencing, but also feedback as to what the approaches are that we're looking at.

And so one of the things this I'm using the word project loosely so I don't get daggers from our County Council, but we're going to have a project website where you can have updates from Kaufman and the work that we're doing where we will make sure that we are including community meetings and also where you will be able to provide input. One

of

the things that I think is important to say is we do not control airspace. We are trying to inject ourselves in the decision making process and to encourage a decision making process that affects airspace. This is not a project for the county. And so while normally things that would go through our planning process and would have CEQUA and other types of environmental reports, we're not presenting a project. We are presenting an alternative approach.

And so there have been some questions I certainly have received about CEQUA and impact. The truth is, the airport is built. It already exists. And interestingly, a great statistic, and I'll make sure that this we're gonna work with airport staff to make sure that it is actually on the airport's website, is that we have had fewer landings in 2025 than we did in 2024. And so that's a really important statistic.

It it says a lot towards the sustainability of the airport, the type of flights that we have coming through. JSX is a big contributor to that because you can have a nice small plane and not fire up your own plane and send it off into the air. And so the conveniences and the diversification of services that are being offered through the airport and through now our two fixed based operators are certainly paving the way for a more sustainable future for the airport. We will make sure that we're distributing those links of the website, and I'll make sure that when that gets debuted that we get it all out to everyone. In the meantime, if you have I would just say if you want to join at the AAC meeting, just remember, only one more other person can join me.

But we'll make sure that we get those updates out to you. The next one oh, I did want to acknowledge one more thing. We did receive a letter from the City of Napa. And the City of Napa was requesting and offering up for placement of the mayor to sit on the noise working group. And I would like to just refresh everyone's recollection.

The noise working group is no longer assigned to this matter. And the reason is, upon my recommendation, I think that because it does impact so many people in the community, there needed to truly be access and touch points through the board. So the board is now responsible for that. We will have input through the Airport Advisory Commission as a whole. But the Noise Working Group itself has since referred this matter and the Board has taken full control of it.

So if you get questions, I want to make sure that I just remind you what we did in November. Next, Supervisor Cottrell and myself had the opportunity to attend a CSAC Board of Directors Retreat, and it had been a while since CSAC had actually met. And it was really great, aside from the fact that we went to San Diego, because that's beautiful. We had the opportunity to talk about I think they picked a really beautiful venue because we had the opportunity to talk about some really depressing things, like HR1 and indigent care and where is this money coming from and what is happening on the housing and homelessness front, the lack of Prop 36 funding, and truly, the state of the state's continued path of unfunded mandates. And so we really looked at how we are going to change directions as counties.

And I think one of the things I will share with you that I did share with all of my colleagues there is, unlike specific industry groups and nonprofits and advocates that represent a segment of the community, counties represent absolutely everyone. We leave nobody behind. That is our constitutional charge. So to that extent, what really came out of CSAC is you're going to see out of this retreat is that you're going see CSAC on the offense. And you're going to see CSAC in a very loud way.

And you're going to see us making very specific requests and really making sure that we are no longer being held and being tasked with state responsibilities that don't have a reciprocal dollar attached to it. The next thing I'm looking forward on the twenty seventh to the Commission on Aging, being in American Canyon, and to coming to the Las Casitas Community Room. That is also the location where our B. Well. Mobile truck is going to, and we're trying to really have some greater touch points.

We do have a lot of mobile home and manufactured home communities in American Canyon. I think this is a really great way to have that additional outreach. One last thing I will share with you is that the lower portion of Skyline, as we know, the state retained and is in the process of the design and and scoping the project that is gonna go there, an affordable housing an affordable housing development. They're having a community meeting. It is actually organized by the developers them themselves.

And that meeting is on April 27, six p. M. At the Napa County Office of Education. I do believe this will be a well attended meeting. A lot of considerations in terms of pedestrian safety, access to services, water, and simply just the coexistence to the open space that we have next door. So again, April 27 at 6PM at the Napa County Office of Education. I'm done.

Okay, this is a very hard working board, so I would like to commend my colleagues for everything that you're doing for the community and for the county and for the world, the greater world around us. Okay, I can't promise that my update is going to be a lot shorter. I apologize in advance. Where to start? So thank you all for those thoughtful comments.

I would like to especially thank Supervisor Ramos for those excellent updates on the Airport Advisory Commission and airport work going on and with MTC. I had the pleasure yesterday of spending yesterday lobbying in Sacramento on behalf of the Mega Region Working Group, which is a working group under the Metropolitan Transportation Commission of San Francisco. And we were bringing awareness about Senator Cavaldin's bill, SB ten eighty seven, to restructure SB three seventy five to better suit the kind of planning and work that needs to be done in the region. And I think we made a very strong showing with representatives from each subregion from SACOG, which is the Sacramento Area Council of Governments, with the combined government entity I'm forgetting the name for the San Joaquin County. It's like the San Joaquin Council of Governments, I believe, and then for the San Francisco Bay Area.

And I think we hit six or seven offices in just a few hours and put a lot of miles on our shoes. So it felt very effective and I'm glad we were there. I also had the opportunity to speak at the NAPA Climate Summit, which was a lovely event put on locally. And thanks to everyone involved in making that happen. It was really positive and summarized all the good work that's already going on in the community.

That was kind of the take home, is that we are well on our way to accomplishing a lot, and it is a problem that often feels overwhelming and like just how could one or two or even a few 100 people make a difference. But once we got together and really started evaluating the kinds of projects that are underway, we could see that there is a lot happening here and that we're getting to a place where responding to climate resilience needs and to emerging changes in our environment is really woven into the policy and the work that's ongoing all over the place. And I think that is something to just be aware of as a community, that we're making a lot of progress and to not feel discouraged, but to feel hopeful, because it is possible when we're all working together just the way we are. I also attended the Flood Project groundbreaking ceremony, and this will be the this was the groundbreaking ceremony for the with some of my colleagues, too for the extension of the river trail from Oxbow Bypass north to Lincoln. And that's improvement for the community.

Right now you kind of have to thread your way through parking lots and it's a little awkward. It can be done, but it could be better and it's going to be. So thanks to the Flood District for all their work getting that project ready to go. It's taken a few years and groundbreaking is pretty exciting. We're going to start seeing a lot of changes there in the next few months.

I toured a couple facilities with Treasury Wine Estates and appreciated their commitment to sustainability and the kind of work that they're doing with their facilities and really thoughtful adaptation to, I don't know, just changes in the industry and also the ways that they can find to be both environmentally responsible and a good business, a sustainable business model, like double bottom line kind of thing. Also, I attended Afternoon in the Vineyard with the Napa Valley vintners this past weekend and appreciated seeing work on soil conservation through perennial cover cropping with grasses, which was that was a very positive thing to see as well at Groth Winery. Thank you for hosting. I also attended the Gordon Valley Fire Safe Council meeting this past Saturday and had a wonderful time connecting with neighbors in one of the more remote pockets of our county with a very tight knit community, and it was really good to see everybody out there. It's a lovely way to stay connected.

And also, the California Native Plant Society plant sale was this past weekend, and the Sheriff Citizens Academy was also good to attend. Okay, I think I'm getting the wrap it up vibe over there. Okay. Coming up, have Earth Day at Oxbow Commons on April 18 from 11AM to 4PM, and there's also a Clean Up Day, April twenty five, with the Resource Conservation District related to Earth Day from 9AM to 12PM, so check-in with the Resource Conservation District about that. There's a Knoxville area cleanup with the Sheriff's Department, which will be yeah, and I'm planning on going to that one.

I'd love to see everyone else there, but I probably just a few of you maybe might make it, I hope. It's cleanup in OHV area north of Lake Berryessa, and And that'll be nice to get out there this time of year. That part of our county is unbelievably gorgeous in the springtime, and so few people go out there because it takes a long time to get there. But I highly recommend it. It's just heaven on earth out there, so take a picnic or, I guess, an OHV, if that's where you're going.

And there's also an Indian education cultural event run by our local tribes at Napa Valley College, one to five p. M. On April 25, which I'm hoping to somehow cram into my schedule with everything else. I'm really looking forward to that one, too. Okay.

So thank you to the industry groups who have come together to write a collaborative letter on ways in which the county or other entities might consider adjusting the way we do things. In addition to the comments of my colleagues, which I appreciate, I just want to say that I would be very interested in seeing from county, this is a referral in seeing each item broken down in terms of which department it's relevant to and which policy, which existing policy it's relevant to, if any, because it's I see things in here that are planning, which we might expect, but I also see things in here which are County Council and things which are the Fire Marshal. And I just want to make sure we're working our way through our departments to comprehensively consider these requests. And then I think also it'd be very helpful to see which specific policies, if any, each of these items relate to. Because again, there are things in here that have to do with our general plan, our strategic initiatives, with zoning, also with our water quality tree protection ordinance.

And so if we're going to be considering changes to existing policy, it's probably going to help that process to be very clear on how these items relate to the rules we already have. It might help us also think about why did we adopt those rules and are things different now, or were those good rules when they were made? That kind of thing. So I hope that's clear. I'm happy to talk about it anytime.

Let's see. Okay. We also had a comment on the phone from Sophie Wasaff, which this is another referral, was a request for a county resolution endorsing House Concurrent Resolution 46 for climate awareness. And I would like to see that come back to the Board as a resolution. Sophie has offered in a follow-up letter, which the clerk handed out, to assist in any way with the development of that with existing materials being made available or further conversations.

So let's have a look at that in the near future. I wanted to give a quick update on CivicWell, which is a conference that I attended March in Inyo County at Yosemite, which was lovely. And the waterfalls were very big that week. And so this is a gathering of leaders from across the state who are perhaps more progressive and like minded. And we had a lot of great conversations about government efficiency and also ways in which counties can just be comprehensively meeting the needs of their communities.

I think in specific, we were talking about how municipal utilities districts can have benefits to users with more local control than typical maybe more other types of utilities, and also with efficiency having centralized management of resources across larger areas. Looking at my actual notes here, so bear with me. I have a note that we have some counties that are striving to educate and permit street food vendors and home day care operators just to make sure everybody knows what the rules are and that things are clear. I guess maybe And echoing some of the comments about ICE, they're also coordinating and protecting day laborers through providing a central location that feels more safe for people. We had a really good presentation on neighborhood scale energy solutions, which we're starting to do here in Napa County, which is great.

They're calling it zonal decarbonization with some areas served by natural gas strategically. And then also they're talking about a bundled approach where we're making sure that if you're using more renewables or maybe on-site solar or something like that, that it's also bundled with more efficient appliances. I think that's a well known way to make sure that we're being efficient about energy use. Okay. And I think I will close that one there.

But very good presentations there and really good to connect with my colleagues from all over the state. Okay. I think that might be it. And I also think we're about ready for a break. So before we go to break, I want to note that we have no items pulled from the consent calendars, so we will not be talking about Item eight.

And when we come back, I would like to have Item 9D, which is a presentation on the Prevention Napa County Child Council 2026 report thank you we'll take that first and then go to Item 9A and continue the calendar as it's listed. Ten minute break. See you here at 10:35. Okay. Thank you.

That break went a little bit long. I am going to go ahead and also move up item nine e, which is about authorizing additional funds for the general plan. And I'm going to take that before item nine d. So we're going to do nine e, nine d, and then return to nine a and continue down through administrative items today. I welcome planning staff to present. I know you're pulling you're asking people to come up from downstairs. But I'll let you get started while they're on their way. You're welcome to begin whenever you're ready.

What are we doing? Nine A?

We're doing nine E. We're doing nine D first. And then nine D as in David. Okay. E first. Okay. Yeah, E first and then D. I know. And we'll get through it. Okay? Anytime you're ready. Welcome.

Is Bev coming up? I hope so. Well, we'll get started. Thank you very much for having us today. This is a very exciting moment for us to be kicking off our general plan and having a discussion about the contract and the related details.

I'm going to provide just a brief overview of the agenda before I turn it over to our consultant team. You will receive a quick update on the status of the baseline data report and how that interplays with the general plan update. We will provide an overview of what we heard in terms of board direction from the meeting in December when we last saw you on this item. And as part of that, we'll summarize how the scope responds to that direction as as well include some details on some of the major milestones, particularly those that involve the public and the Board of Supervisors. And then we'll close with request to approve and adopt the scope of work, which will enable us to proceed with the general plan update.

I'm joined here today by several staff members here in the audience, Michael Parker and Christina Adamson. Leading the consultant team is environmental science associates, Beverly Choi, who's probably running upstairs right now. I'm joined here to my right. Matt Ramey from Ramey Associates. We also have Matt Cota from BAE.

You may recall him and his firm along with Bev Choi and their involvement in our housing element update a couple years ago. And then we have members of Fear and Pierce as well. So with that, I will turn things over to Shannon Wages, the project manager for the baseline data report who's on the line available to respond to any questions. And I believe I covered everybody, and I apologize if I didn't. We have a large team here today. K.

I will, since we're missing, I guess I'll take over.

Apologies. I was using the ladies' room. All right. Good morning. Thank you so much, Brian, and good morning, Chair, members of the Board.

Bev Choi with ESA. And I will serve as project manager for the general plan update. As you can see here on the slide, the baseline data report kicked off about a year ago in February. And the plan includes a comprehensive overview of the existing conditions and the county's regulatory framework. We have worked really closely with staff and really taking the time to draw upon the best available data and using that information so that we're getting the right information.

We've worked very hard to collect community input over the last year and utilize current best practices. The timing is great in that the public review period for the baseline data report recently closed just on Friday of last week. And our team is now working to review that data. We're working to synthesize that data. And we'll be making refinements to the baseline data report and its executive summary.

Next, please. Oh, great. I'll take that. So we had been in front of the board in December, and we heard very clearly that there were several priorities that we wanted to incorporate into the general plan update. First, as you can see here, it was really important that we address the inclusiveness and accessibility from a community engagement standpoint and really making sure that we're reaching a broad cross section of the community is really looking at the activities within our scope, lowering those barriers to participation.

The second bullet here, integrating health and equity throughout the general plan update process. Third here, closely coordinating with regional planning efforts so that the general plan truly aligns with the ongoing work around the many shared key issues that the county is facing. And finally, maintaining flexibility and innovation, both in the process as we work through the general plan and also the plan structure so that the county has the ability to shape the approach as the work evolves, given that this is going to be a multi year process. With that, I'm going to turn it over to Matt at Alta to walk through how the scope responds to some of the more specifics direction that you have provided us, particularly focusing on the engagement approach.

Thank you, Bev. Thank you, Brian. It's nice to be back here. Thanks for inviting us back to share the scope of work. I'm going to just talk through a little bit about our response to some of the points that you brought up last time and the great conversation that we had.

I believe it was in December when we received comments. So again, I'm Matt Ramey with Ramey and Associates Alta. There's some name confusion because my company was recently acquired by a firm called so apologies. I'm getting confused, and I think other people may as well. So first I want to start with one of the areas where we put a lot of extra effort into revising revising a draft scope of work that we had following December, and that's really focused on community engagement.

The vision here is to make sure that engagement is inclusive and accessible, and we took a very multi pronged approach to doing this. There's no right answer to doing it, and really it just takes a lot of hard work to make sure that we're getting a wide cross section of county residents and experts involved. Throughout the BDR process we, I think, did a very good job of getting a lot of the experts, the technical experts involved, and that was sort of by its nature the people who were likely to be involved in a project like that. The general plan is different. This is really where we need to involve the broadest cross section of the community and make sure we are really going out to the community to ensure that all voices are heard.

And so we've tailored our scope in order to do that. So overall, it's a really multi pronged approach to engagement. We're doing early targeted outreach, and I'll talk about that in just a minute. The the majority of the activities are going to be publicly accessible. We're going to do a variety of sort of in person hands on activities, as well as web based activities to allow people to engage as they feel is best to engage.

We are going to have we're going to focus a lot on listening, particularly early in the process. We're going to spend the time hearing where people are, what their issues are, what their concerns are, what their vision is, and really build the plan based off of that. And then we have, again, a lot of different ways for people to engage in the process, because everybody learns differently and engages differently. One of the tasks that we added after the December meeting was a task really focused on initial outreach and engagement. I want to sort of differentiate between outreach and engagement.

Outreach is really where we go out and talk to the community and tell them about the process and figure out how they can be involved. Engagement is the process of community members, experts being involved and providing their input. And so we added a task that we were spending a lot of time, probably two to three months right at the beginning of the project, trying to talk to as many groups and organizations as we can. Think of it like a funnel. We're meeting with everyone that we can so we can bring everybody into the process that we have for the rest of the time.

So this is really the best way to go out to the community. We have meetings where we'll have town halls in each of the supervisorial districts, so we'll work with each of you in order to figure out how to involve people in your district. We're going to have group stakeholder meetings. We're going to attend community events, and we're going to do direct outreach to residents, businesses, organizations, and really this is to build that sort of whole group of people who may

be

interested, because it's most important early in the process people to engage. The purpose of this is really three main points, and very easy for people to engage. What's your vision for the community? What are the issues that you're facing and the challenges? And what are your priorities.

So we're going to focus this sort of first few months on this part of the engagement. The next change to the scope is that we replaced the thematic advisory groups with topic specific workshops. What we had proposed previously was advisory groups where we picked 10 to 12 people for each of five topics topic areas and have that group meet five times throughout the process. What we decided to do is to open that up a little bit. We'd still like a sort of consistent set of people engaged in this, but we want these really to be topic specific workshops so that anyone can be involved and it's not limited to that.

And so this really broadens participation and transparency, and it's structured to have both experts and interested parties and really designed to welcome diverse And this will really help us beyond just the sort of the broad community engagement, but to target and have really focused conversations to get more specific feedback. The next is we have a series of community wide workshops, and these are the workshops where people where we're to deal with sort of cross cutting and higher level topics. It's going to be easiest for the kind of the average resident to participate in these work shops. And so they're going to help inform the overall vision and the priorities for the general plan. We also have a public agency working group.

This is going to build off of the work that we did in the BDR with the working groups. It's going to complement engagement, and we're going to ensure that the technical experts within the county and within the county government and related agencies are involved in guiding the process. Switching gears, one of the other pieces of feedback we received in December was to focus more on health in all policies. This is an approach that combines sort of health, equity, and environmental justice so that it's an overarching theme of the general plan. We had environmental justice already included, but what we did in this revised scope is to broaden the focus of that to be health in all policies so that the topic of health is really included throughout the plan.

We can talk a little bit more detail if you have questions about how we do that, but essentially we want to make sure that health is a cross cutting theme and it is embedded in all of the elements in addition to probably having a standalone environmental justice or environmental justice and health element broader than just environmental justice. And in order to do this, we're clearly going to need the county public health department support. We've spoken with them since the last meeting, and we think it's going to be a great partnership with all of the amazing work that they're already doing, so we would want to tap into that. Okay. Back to Bev.

Great. Thank you so much, Matt. So regarding coordination, the general plan update is going to be, of course, coordinated with regional and resource planning efforts. And at a high level, it's going to be shaped by those key issues that the county faces and things like climate, water, wildfire, the evolving economy within the county's communities. And so going in a little bit more detail on some of these subtopics for wildfire, that really ties to the growth management and how and where development occurs within some of the higher risk areas.

For water, it's about long term supply and just overall resilience of the groundwater. Climate, it's about planning for those future conditions. And we're seeing those conditions of rising temperatures, extreme heats. And those can really impact how we look at land use, infrastructure, and, again, overall resilience within the county. And last but not least here, economically, it's about building on what strengths the county already has, wineries, tourism, but also opening up the opportunities diversification.

This plan will align with key regional initiatives, including those that are listed here. And that coordination is going to happen with partner agencies on those key topics. And as Matt talked about, we're going to do so early on in the process and certainly throughout the process with your direction. In regards to flexibility and innovation, we've built that into the general plan and how it's organized. We're going to be coming back to the board to give you all an opportunity to revisit its structure at key points within the process.

And that's certainly going to include the visioning phase early on at the onset. And so we're incorporating some innovative tools into the project as we have within the baseline data report. Matt mentioned some of these, but, you know, for instance, we're going to be using Social Pinpoint, which is an outreach tool that, we can use to gather and synthesize data. We'll continue to use urban footprint for mapping scenarios, as well as planning scenarios, project management and file sharing platforms. We've been using Airtable.

We'll continue using Project SharePoint, as well as ESA's Ignite system so that we can keep all the data that we have, the data that we're collecting well organized. So this slide looks at the general plan update and its timeline. This gives you a high level overview and how the work generally unfolds from time to time. You saw an earlier version of this back in December. Before I walk you through these different time frames and the icons, I generally stay pretty high level, but want to emphasize that community engagement is going to be critical, again, as described.

And we'll want to ensure that that is a continuous component of the project as we move along. And then we'll have various activities to support our various stages of engagement. With that context, I'll generally move from left to right as I describe the work. In 2026, which is that first band there, the focus is really going to be on setting this foundation. And so we'll have the baseline data report, approved.

And so we'll be able to incorporate any additional existing conditions data as needed. And during this stage, we'll also plan to have a comprehensive policy audit of the existing plan and of the existing general plan. And what that will do is really enable us to identify where those gaps are in policies so that we can keep digging into those key issues. You know, what those new legislative mandates will be as we have identified in the baseline data report.

And

within this year, this is where we will begin that early outreach that Matt had talked about using such activities like the town halls, a community survey, different types of stakeholder conversations so that we can get that information to understand what the community values, again, their priorities, what those challenges are. And then moving into the next phase in that 2027 timeline, the work starts to shift into developing and testing options. So we will be translating all the information that we've heard through the community, through elected officials, and moving that into land use and policy alternatives. So we'll be producing growth scenarios. We'll be evaluating those trade offs and working with you to move towards a preferred direction.

And the engagement here is going to center on some of the items that Matt had mentioned, including the topic specific, those community wide workshops. And we're going to be continuing to refine the approach and those alternatives to work towards a preferred direction. And then in 2028 and on, this includes drafting the general plan update and the environmental review. This includes, of course, preparing those elements and supporting detailed policies as well as implementation strategies along with the environmental impact report. And regarding outreach at this stage, it's going to focus on drafting that plan and EIR attendance at hearings to get the feedback that we need, as well as the feedback through public formal comment periods.

And so from there, as you can see, moving on to the rest of the schedule, it really is focusing on drafting that plan, going through workshops, and really bringing the plan together, and then ultimately forward for adoption. And if there are any additional questions, we're happy to answer this another time that we have is when we bring the baseline data report in June for any detailed questions on the early phases of the general plan update. So regarding immediate next steps, as I mentioned earlier, the public review period for the baseline data report just closed on Friday. So our team is reviewing the input, going through it to ensure that we understand the direction needed to make those refinements. Again, we'll bring that baseline data report back in June so that we can have that as a foundation to get us started on the general plan update, which is anticipated to begin if you move at the far end of that spectrum in July, August of this year.

We would like to start with the board and having a kickoff meeting with you all so that we have a good understanding of the project goals and the engagement approach. This is a really important effort for the county, and we would really love to continue our collaboration. On behalf of the team, we have appreciated your guidance and direction. Appreciate your time this morning. And with that, I'll turn it back over to Brian.

Great. Thanks, Beverly. So, yeah, with that, of course, we're available for any questions. But just to reiterate our requested action today is to review and authorize the first amendment to the agreement to enable ESA to add the scope of work for the general plan update and related environmental impact report for the amount of $4,000,801,110 dollars with an effective date of April 14, with work anticipated to commence in the '26 upon completion of the BDR. Again, we thank you very much for this opportunity to present these updates and welcome any questions you may have.

Okay, thank you for that very detailed presentation. I welcome any questions from my colleagues. Oh, I see Supervisor Cottrell.

Thank you, chair, and thanks to the team for the presentation. I have a few questions. I encourage to hear the responsiveness to, I think, board direction about saying, hey, in the BDR process, we didn't quite have the the, community coming out to the meetings or workshops that we were hoping. So, it's good to hear that you're thinking about that. It also sounds like there is an added piece, and so I'd love to understand what the cost of that added piece is.

And if we hadn't you know, if we if you weren't doing that, what would the process have been like? So that's that's one question. And then in terms of the different kinds of events, I mean, we've all done different town halls. And what I found is it's really about if someone's interested or has a concern about an issue, you know, whether it's wildfire preparedness, the airport, things like that, that's it's those kinds of things that draw people out. So how do we make this, feel like it's something that someone should is motivated to go to?

And I a couple of ideas, I think, are, to do events too that are not, as time intensive. Right? I think about showing up at a local harvest festival where you can have a booth and a quick easel and get people's quick feedback that way. I think even informal feedback, you can pick up a lot of information that way. That's something I've done at our local St.

Helena Harvest Festival and there's a lot of engagement from people walking by. I think we've got Director Yasmoto here. Her department does really a lot of wellness fairs and different kinds of health fairs, I think having a booth there would be terrific. Calistoga does a back to school night, which is actually much more than that, and all kinds of different agencies show up and there's a lot of interaction there, too. So those are a few examples I think of and suggestions I have because I think we'll get more engagement there than just saying, Hey, come talk about the general plan, because I think that feels very abstract to folks.

And then I think the other comment I would make, I liked seeing the questions that you have about what you're looking for. I think keeping those three make a lot of sense. I also think before you can ask someone to share what their vision is for the community or what the future we need to define what do we mean by that, you know, and what's the education there. So those are just some thoughts and a couple of questions. Thank you, Chair.

Okay. Good comments. Thank you, Supervisor Cottrell, Supervisor Alessio, and then Supervisor Gallagher.

Thank you. Thank you for this report. Thank you, Supervisor Cottrell. Very good points. I think that instead of asking people to come to us, we need to go to where the people are at. And that will be a better approach. I was involved in the City of Napa's general plan. And I'll tell you, even with some great ideas of going out to the community, there were times that very few people really showed up because we weren't where they were already existing. You know, so just keeping that in mind, I think that's important. For clarification, for this general plan, you know, we have roughly 132,000 people in the county.

There's roughly 112,000 people that are in the city, in the different city town jurisdictions, which just leaves roughly 21,000 people plus living in the unincorporated area. In terms of this outreach, we want to reach everybody in the county, correct? People in the jurisdictions and outside, in the unincorporated area. That's where the outreach is going to? Just for clarification, yes? It's going to everybody?

The majority, for most topics, is really focused on the unincorporated areas of the county. The incorporated areas have their own general plans and their own engagement. And so while there's only 21,000 people or so in the county, there's also a lot of businesses. And so it's not just focused on residents. It's also on businesses and visitors who are coming in. But really, it's the residents of the

So, we're really focusing on the 21,000? Correct. Ask that I think it's really important. I think you're going to find some people within that live in the cities and towns engaged. I do think that's going to be important also.

And I also think it's going be really important that we work with the general plans in the cities and towns that have updated general plans. The city of Napa is roughly 77,000, 78,000 people. They did an exceptional job on their general plan and to weave our general plan into what the existing updated general plans, I think it's going to be really important in terms of our working together in collaboration. This is a small county, as you know, and so that's going to be critical. So I just want to keep that in mind.

If our focus is really reaching the 21,000 people in the unincorporated area, it's going to be more important that we bring in those general plans, okay? And just know we'll get other people participating. Also, will this general plan have elements? Will there be identified elements in the general plan? For instance, the city's general plan elements include land use and community design, transportation, community service, parks and recreation, historic and cultural resources, climate change and sustainability, natural resources, conservation, safety and noise, public health and equity, economic development.

So I can see how those would all connect with the county's general plan. And again, another reason why we want to make sure these are working together. Will we be identifying elements in our general plan also? Is that kind of the path forward?

Yeah, I'm going to jump in, Bev, maybe chime in after. Yeah, absolutely. Every the state requires that a jurisdiction have eight topics. They call them elements. Jurisdictions are allowed to add elements and organize it in any way that they see fit. And so part of the process, early on in the process, is to work with the board and work with staff to figure out what the best structure is. So there will be chapters. And there's different reasons for organizing and having different elements in the plan. Sometimes you want to highlight an issue, which is we might want to highlight equity and health, environmental justice and health. So that may be called out, even though it's a cross cutting theme.

That may be called out sort of as a separate element. And then we also want to make sure we're clear on how staff is going to use the general plan so it's easy for them to use it. And so there's some sort of give and take with that we're going to have to do, but it will be part of the process. It's not decided at this point. We know the topics, but we don't know how it's organized.

Okay, thank you. And just for clarification, because people are saying, what is health in all policies? And the city included that and I have to say I had a lot of part in that, being an advocate for that because even though the county holds public health and health and human services, the people that we serve live in the city, right? So many of them. So it was important to include that.

I'm just going to read real quick just for general knowledge, not for you, but for the public in general who might be watching this. The NAPA General Plan, again, it's for the city, incorporates a Health in All Policies approach which acknowledges that many decisions made about housing, transportation, land use, climate and safety are all health decisions. The approach aims to better coordinate and prioritize community health conditions as a social determinant of health throughout the General Plan. The Public Health Element connects these health impacts to the General Plan's other elements, again, such as housing, circulation, climate safety, open space, and land use. This integration ensures that the general plan reflects how people experience life in Napa County, addressing health related issues in a cohesive manner.

Again, that just states to why it's so important that we are working with the other jurisdictions in the City Of Napa's general plan. That could very well be something it could be our statement, correct? So, again, just going to reinforce that as I did when I was on Napa City Council. This is a big budget item. How does this cost compare to other light counties in terms of population and size?

Thank you. I can start us off and want to share, as I mentioned in the slide, this is going to be a multi year effort. We had lessons learned from the BDR and have revised the scope so that it's not a business as usual. We're making the outreach and engagement more robust to, again, address the direction that had been provided. The health and all policies components certainly will add to that.

And with general plan updates with the legislation that we're facing, this is kind of in the middle, if you will. We're also looking, again, county wide, it is a larger geography. But I think it is inconsistent with what we're seeing in other jurisdictions. And based on the scope that we're looking at, the level of engagement that we anticipate having throughout the process and the various milestones within the process.

Thank you. My understanding is that the cost will be over the several years that the general plan is going to take, correct? So we're not approving the 4 point something million dollars today for this current budget, but it will be stretched over the years. Is that correct? Okay. That makes it a little bit more, yeah, palatable. Okay. Thank you very much.

Thank you. Supervisor Gallagher and then Supervisor Ramos.

Thank you. And thank you for the presentation. A few questions and clarifications. In 4.2.10, Historic and Cultural Resources Element, the comment is made, The scope of work anticipates a focused policy level effort rather than a comprehensive re inventory or major regulatory update. I'm not clear that we have a comprehensive inventory of historic and cultural resources.

So if you all could, have that discussion to determine if that actually exists and when the last time it was updated, I think that's going to be important. I agree with Supervisor Cottrell and her comment about town halls. But I think, obviously, we'll be working with you all and find the best way to engage our various districts, looking for maybe specific topics that might be of higher interest in each district based on what is happening in those different districts. I'm curious. I think that it's kind of a bummer that we're not doing the thematic advisory committees and that we're actually I think it's great to open it up.

I mean, we are going have community meetings, so there is a lot of opportunity for overall community engagement. But I guess I'm kind of wondering how are we going to best engage the experts in those very topic specific meetings if we're not actually appointing people. So just something to think about in terms of what is our strategy going to be to get those people there and to get them to all the meetings on that particular issue? I also thank you very much for the relook at community engagement. I think that we'll also probably have to do a little bit more work on the hard to reach communities.

I would suggest working with several of our community based organizations that work directly with those communities. They have some great tactics for engaging those harder to reach communities and could be very helpful there and maybe could partner. Also, thank you for weaving in the Health in All Policies framework. And I am also in favor of broadening the scope of the EJ element. I think we have to attack this from both sides.

There needs to be a health in all policies through line, through the whole general plan, and I think also an element. If you were to broaden that, I would suggest broadening to EJ plus health and equity health and equity, not inequity. Also, when I'm reading the piece on general plan development, the general plan functions as a cohesive values driven document, clearly demonstrating how individual policy areas advance shared community priorities. And I'm not sure if I saw this in the scope, but I think I wanted to comment and also to assure that every county department is understanding that they are integral to the general plan update process. And so I think as we have this goal of not having silos within our general plan, we need to make sure that every county department is involved in the general plan and has the necessary time and resources to actually be very intentionally involved in this.

So think that that's going to be an important piece to bring in. Everything the guiding principles and policies and processes that come out of a general plan cut across all county services. Whether or not those departments or even the public understands that and really sees it as currently visible, It may be in the background, but that is definitely happening. So we want to make sure that all of our county departments are engaged and do have the resources to be engaged. I think that's all that I have now. Thank you.

Thank you, Supervisor Gallagher. Supervisor Ramos?

Thank you so much, and thank you for taking our prior comments, incorporating them. I think one of the things, and I've said this before that I hear now even through my colleagues' comments, that is how are we going to engage really, I would say, a unique population opinion and input. And when I think about how we do our outreach at the county, in some ways, you kind of need to know that we exist to begin with. And I think we're I know we've been we're going to be utilizing, I think it's social pinpoint, I think, is one of our applications to be able to do outreach. I think to myself, are so many great opportunities where people actually do have interactions with the county that we could double down on.

When you get to our county website, I don't know if you go to, like, at the City Of American Canyon, every time I go to look at a city council agenda, I get asked to sign up for their newsletter. I get it at three different places, but I still get asked. I think that's a great way. Why are we not doing that even and we haven't done that yet even on our county website. Like, what is the most important element of the general plan for you?

Like, if you want to access the board agenda, if you want to go pay your property taxes, answer a question. Sure, give them a way out, but put it right in front of them. When we've got people that are going, walking in through this lobby, why don't we have a station with an iPad that asks them a question? When you're going to use the bathroom, everyone uses the bathroom, make them answer a question about important is public health to you in in your daily life? How many times do you think about it?

Those types of things where we are we need people to tell us what what they want that future of Napa County to look like. So I say that in the sense that communication and engagement is not a destination. It's a way of how we do business, and we do need to do better that sense. The next one, you know, I'm happy to hear about the engagement that we're going to have at a community wide level, but I want to be cautious in that the people who show up in those rooms are the people who are always going to show up in those rooms. They've been showing up for years.

And so really, if we want meaningful feedback, it needs to be something other than the people that are willing to show up in the room. So I'm going to ask that we really we go further, that it's not just, you know, online surveys and emails sent, that it needs to be far more approachable. The library, we heard today from our library director the number of people that go in. Like every time a classroom walks into the library, why don't we ask those kids? That is they're going to be here long after us dealing with the impacts of whatever decisions we make in this general plan process.

So being more creative, I think, is going to serve us well. One of the things where I'm struggling in understanding really scope and how we can measure what success is going to look like here. And I say that with a slight bit of PTSD that we had the 2008 general plan. And a short six years later, there were many people that were very unhappy about where we were headed, even though the plan was kind of brand new, didn't even have dust on it. And what came out of that disheartened and disgruntled feelings was the APAC process, the agricultural

Advisory Commission Committee?

Something. Yes. APAC. I I I remember being in these rooms and and lots of people, a a very large committee, and it it somewhat felt like a rehash in some ways of these actionable items. So understanding the last time we did a general plan and what perhaps was what led to the feeling that not everything was addressed.

How do we use that past experience to not find ourselves in the same position and that we can measure success of this $4,800,000 investment at the front end and not have to sit at Napa High School's District Auditorium and listen to people say that we missed the mark. Super loaded. Have fun with that one.

I will. So the APAC was a result of an action item that was built into the general plan. So when the board adopted that general plan, it told staff to go do this APAC thing. And that was quite some time ago, and I'm gonna speculate that it was highly likely that the board punted on that larger discussion and kicked the can down the road. If that is in fact the case, then we will wanna be thoughtful about not doing that in this general plan update.

That said, if we were to, there are gonna be a whole host of action items that will come out of this general plan, which will result in further plans and discussions and and a whole host of, implementation items. So again, we'll wanna be more thoughtful and forward thinking about that, and we'll we'll try to be, have established some leadership in a way that, you know, doesn't kick the can down the road, if you will.

Jump Can in?

Yeah, please.

Could I just add a little bit to that? Because I I think it's a great question and and certainly understand the frustration of having a big effort and then a few years later coming back and feeling like you have to redo that effort. So there's a couple of just ways of kind of thinking about this and approaching the process. One is, as Brian said, we need to think about the general plan as almost the beginning and not the end, which is a little bit challenging to think about when you're spending a lot of time and money on something. But it is supposed to set the vision and then set the course forward.

We will want it to answer every single question, but it will not be able to answer every single question. And so really understanding and getting that high level direction and vision is going to be really important and acknowledging where it can answer questions and where more work is needed. It needs to be an open conversation with that. So there are no surprises. The second is that engagement is going to be really critical to make sure and you all have brought this up about the importance of engagement, not just of the people who are typically involved, but of all people, and making sure that they're helping to set the direction so that people don't feel like it's a surprise at the end.

Typically you'll have people coming in at the end saying, I never heard about it, but we want to minimize that as much as possible. The third is we should really have metrics that are identified at the beginning of the process to understand what success is. And so that can build off of the vision and guiding principles to identify what some of those metrics are. And then we need to build in a process with the county of being able to review the general plan on a regular basis to see how it's doing. New things come up, new laws come up, but to have that built in of sort of a built in we're going to relook at this rather than just wait, I think is going be really important, and that's what leads to success in the long term.

Thank you. I do think that the work at the front end of what success looks like is incredibly important, fully understanding that general plans are to have action items. I just want to say I am not interested punting to a later committee of sorts and to avoid what will be tough issues. Is what we were chosen to do. There's no mistake that the five of us have been elected with the electorate fully knowing that this is this is the biggest task in front of of this board.

And I think it's incumbent upon us to make sure that you as our consultants through this that we keep each other mutually accountable to making sure that we are making those decisions. Under task 4.29, subtext 4.29, I don't even know where I'm at in the document. So let me subtext 4.29. Of the agreement, I'm on page 27 at the bottom. It's economic development and fiscal sustainability element.

I find this interesting without talking about the recent communications and reports that we, the Board, have received, and I don't want to talk about that since it hasn't been agendized for our discussion, but I do want receive a bit more clarification about really what this means. I find words like identified economic development and fiscal opportunities and challenges to be incredibly vague. Challenges for whom, I think, important. This seems like a concern rooted for commercial activity, and I don't see the county's fiscal sustainability acknowledged or incorporated in here. Revenues and expenditures at the county have a direct relationship to business commercial operations, certainly, but also to cost of living.

When we that relationship of what that means of fiscal sustainability is it of the person? Is it affordability for people? Is it the continued growth of jobs? Is it the continued growth of development? Is it commensurate revenues for the county? I don't know from your description.

Thank you for that comment, Supervisor Ramos. I'm going invite Matt Cota from BAE to talk a little bit more about TAS 4.2.9.

Good morning, Madam Chair and members of the board, Supervisor Ramos. It's a great question and I think the answer is it's all of the above and it's really about balancing all of those concerns that you highlighted. Fiscal sustainability for the county, economic viability and vitality for the residents, for the businesses, the whole community. And that is not just, people that live here, but also people that work here. And so we know a lot from our work on the housing element that issues of concern to farm workers are, you know, different and important and also need to be taken into the equation.

So, part of this process, you've talked a lot about this robust outreach and it's really important that we hear from all of those facets facets of the community about what their concerns are and then thinking really hard about how those concerns can all be balanced. Because as supervisor Ramos rightly points out that if if we're talking about fiscal sustainability for the county, that could mean needing revenues. Where do those come from? Oftentimes, it's the taxpayers who live here. It could also be guests who pay transient occupancy tax and other other sorts of, taxes.

So, it is real really a balancing process and we need to use that, outreach process to inform what the best strategies are gonna be to make that balancing and then also draw in technical analysis data that's going to help to identify the best way forward with that as well. So not a not a clear answer of exactly how we're going to do it, we're gonna listen very carefully and try to take in all those perspectives and give them weight in the process so that we're not overemphasizing or deemphasizing any particular point of view there.

I appreciate that response. I guess my concern is I want to make sure that as we move forward in in looking at the economic and fiscal sustainability that it is it is known, it is it is an assumption that this county this county cannot be successful if our residents are not successful. And and if there isn't a partnership, to be able to to look at that fiscal sustainability, we are going to find ourselves on a downward trend of revenue that is not going to be able to serve the very, very people that this general plan is supposed to serve and the goals that we are supposed to implement. So with that, I want to say the description in the agreement seems very vague for my concerns. So I'll leave that to staff to do as you wish in that.

I'll contrast that thank you. I'll contrast that with subtext 4.2 the environmental justice and public health element. I find that the very specifics of the topics are very detailed. I think one of the things that is concerning to me and just from anecdotally knowing that I want to make sure that we are addressing is in the anti displacement area and that is the multiple families and multi generational living that continues to be on an upward trend. And there are two components of it.

One is, I will say in my district, is a very cultural component where there are purposefully multi generational families. Another one is cost pressures component. We hear of this and it tends to be less captured in data. But when you know of multiple families sharing one house, one apartment, those persons are not ever going to rise to the level of unhoused because they are housed. And so I want to make sure that when we look at anti displacement and how we capture that, that we also are incorporating concepts of being adequately housed, I would say is probably.

I'm not sure I'm the best to define what adequately housed means, but I think that we need to look at the trends that we have. And I think it's important in that to understand that the lack of mobility in housing amongst our farm worker communities is different than in 2008. The pressures of immigration policies and the federal landscape are certainly going to have a different lens over that situation. The next comes with when we look at what the county is responsible for and Everyone belongs to the county. Everyone is a resident of the county.

When it comes to the general plan, I want to make sure that we are ensuring that the focus of what we do is in that unincorporated area. I understand the concerns of coordinating with the City Of Napa and looking to make sure that there aren't blatant inconsistencies. But our charge is the unincorporated. I think it's very important that we remain centered on what this general plan is supposed to do. In that, it also looks to what those prospective growths will be in those areas.

With my LAFCO hat on, I think that this is a call for greater understanding and coordination in the role that LAFCO plays towards the future organization of public resources and services. When we look at how water and wastewater are a part of it, we have a current municipal service review on that very topic to look at it at a more regional level. We have more countywide municipal services reviews that are going to affect the land use and the delivery of services and the accessibility and most definitely public health in every aspect of those that reside in the unincorporated area. So I would just say that needs to be a well placed and highlighted strategic partner as we go forward. Thank you.

Thank you, Supervisor Ramos. Good comments all around. So I want to give us a little bit of a time check. It's 11:42 and we still have my comments to go. I will have to take public comment. I will want to take public comment not have to, want to. And after that, I think I might bring it back to the Board for just any follow-up following public comment, because sometimes there are things that come up there that we might need to discuss further. And also because this is a super important item, and I do appreciate everyone's time on this today. And then by then, I have a feeling it's going to be time for lunch. I don't know.

I see I have heard that the other presentation that was going to follow this could be kept to ten minutes, and if that's possible, maybe we could what do you yeah? Okay. Okay. Okay. We'll see how this goes.

I'll try to keep my comments as brief as possible and move us through. This is a big ticket item, and I'm not going to sugarcoat this. I went to every single BDR public meeting except for one. I was really disappointed in the engagement that we got. It wasn't that the people who were there didn't have good things to say, but it was the cross section of the community that we engaged were going to engage no matter what we did.

And those are really, you know, with very few exceptions, what we got. So that said, if you're thinking of using an approach similar to what we used with the BDR going forward, I would suggest scrapping it. It would be better to do something else entirely because that didn't work. We just tried it over the last year. And I think you're hearing that in a lot of nice ways up here, but I really want to call that out because this is so important.

And as Supervisor Ramos pointed out, we didn't quite hit the mark with our last general plan, it took us years to try to correct that, and it was really contentious. And one of my big goals here in this role is to avoid that going forward. So not to just say what's wrong, but also to say how we could improve it. I think we heard a lot of good suggestions here from my colleagues on engaging in town halls in our districts, on making sure that we table at events. I also ran across recently a concept called the Citizens Assembly, which Petaluma has used in their planning and which other locations are using in their planning, in which you do lotteries for elected panels from the general public to participate in planning processes.

And you're basically drafting citizens who are likely to be more moderate into discussions that are focused and well facilitated. And I think that's a model worth looking at because, from my understanding, it can be transformative and really help people find where the broad consensus is instead of just focusing on kind of two ends of a spectrum. And certainly that's what I hope to do here. So I'm really hoping that we get substantial value out of this process. And we have a long way to go still, and I think we can absolutely do that.

I went door knocking last week for the first time since campaigning, and the things that I heard at Doors were that people were extremely concerned and had a lot of anxiety around the cost of living increasing, around their rents increasing beyond what they were able to pay every month. You know, people are struggling in our community on a daily basis, and those are the kinds of things we need to keep at the forefronts of our mind working through this process. I also heard about people understanding and knowing that the state and federal government might not be the most reliable partners right now. And so that is something to think about, how we can be more self reliant, I guess, as a community, to make sure that we're not slipping backwards just because perhaps other government entities who have historically been better partners might not be in that place right now. And also at DORS and at the Gordon Valley Volunteer Fire Department meeting in both places, rural and city, I was hearing about traffic danger being a major concern for people.

So people are worried about speeding, they're worried about roads that are designed in ways that don't slow drivers down enough to keep pedestrians or cyclists safe, things like that. So that's minutiae. I don't want to get into all the details, but I thought it was interesting that I was hearing that both in the city and way out in the country. Same story road safety. And I know that's a big priority for this whole board with the Vision Zero goal.

Let's see. Other things I have here are that we do 2008 was almost twenty years ago. It's amazing to think that, you know? But we do still have a lot of people in this community who are involved in that planning process, and there's no reason we can't be asking them what really worked and what didn't, and what was most helpful for them. I had somebody gift me the entire 2008 general plan with background materials, and it's in my office for anyone who wants check on it.

Something that I noticed was that they ran educational events for the community, for planning commissioners and elected officials, agency staff. So this is a 12/06/2003 overview of California planning law that was held at Sonoma State University to get people oriented to the job ahead of them. And I think that kind of thinking is really interesting. I don't know that we need to repeat this exact exercise. But in thinking about how to move all of us through this in the most thoughtful and successful way, understanding the foundations of what we're doing can be really helpful.

2003 was a different era. And nowadays, we might do this with a webinar or something that could be canned and saved and you could refer people to. I don't know. What would be the best way? Maybe it would be a community forum.

Or maybe it would be a speaker series, or something else. We can think about what that might look like. But it will be a lot easier to have the kinds of conversations we need to have if we all have the same foundation and we all understand what the baseline rules are. I appreciate the comments suggesting an environmental justice element throughout, a health element throughout, and I would say also climate element throughout would be an important component. And I guess the last thing is that I personally would like to see that our climate assumptions are as up to date as possible and we engage the scientific community on their current best models for our region at the best resolution that we can find, because that understanding our physical environment is a driver for so many other things here, especially our economy, that we're not going to be making correct assumptions or, know, how to say, the most accurate possible assumptions if we don't have a good baseline for that.

So with that, I will go to public comment. Is there anyone in the room wishing to comment on this item? I don't see anyone approaching the podium, and I'm a little surprised, but okay. Is there anyone on the phones? Thank you, Clerk Hoskins. Okay, we don't have any public comments, so wrap up comments from the Board. Let's try to keep it brief. Supervisor Alessio?

Thank you. To keep this brief, thank I you, Supervisor Gallagher, for bringing up the change in approach of dropping the thematic committees. Going through the general plan process, again, I'm going to echo this, for the City Of Napa, we had a general plan advisory committee. I found that critical for the community to believe us, to trust us, for there to be a real deepened representation, very similar to what you were speaking of, Chair, and maybe that's another approach. But I'll tell you, I'm not comfortable moving forward without either a General Plan Advisory Committee or a Thematic Committee or maybe something of what Chair was just talking about, a citizen assembly committee.

We need and the one thing I've heard is that people in this community who are very invested, who have a wide, either specific in terms of an area that they're experts in or just very committed to those people that do show up, they want to be a part of this process. Not only do they want to, they're demanding to. And I don't feel comfortable moving forward without having some approach that includes one of those approaches: the thematic, the general plan advisory, or the citizen assembly. It creates accountability. It creates an oversight on behalf of this Board.

And I will tell you that for the city's general plan, they didn't make it easy for the consultants. I'll be frank. It's more work. But they kept everybody's kind of toe to the fire in terms of what the residents really want. And I mean, you're experts in this area, but these advisory committees are experts in our community.

And so I think it's really important that we bring that back in one way or the other. Thank you.

Thank you, Supervisor Alessio. I don't see any other comments from my colleagues. So I think we are concluding this item unless there's anything else you wish to share.

I don't have anything in particular Unless there's something you want me to respond to, we would be happy to. We will need some clarification, I suppose, because Supervisor Gallagher, I think, also mentioned a preference towards a board selected advisory committee of some sort. Sure?

Yeah.

I think I just want to clarify that. I don't know that I said I had a preference. I think what I said was, please give us more information about how we would engage the appropriate experts or a number of experts and how we would assure they attend the meetings regularly, just so we weren't getting different people, frankly, to each meeting. I know there's supposed to be five per issue area. And so I don't know that we need to institute one of those specific ways of doing that. But I think that consistency part will be important. And I would imagine you've thought about it.

Yeah. And Matt will add a little bit to this in his experience as to what he's seen be successful in terms of participation. The idea at the highest level was to not preclude anybody from attending. Whether you're selected or not is gonna involve a commitment to participate. So I see no difference if you're selected by the board to attend or if you're not.

Everybody's welcome to share their perspectives. We do have the public agency working groups. Those are the experts in all the various fields and all the various departments will be involved that are separate. So the idea was for it to be less administrative, less Brown Act, less clerking, and some of the procedural requirements that that would trigger, and ultimately to be more inclusive to allow everybody to attend. Matt, I know you've done this in several jurisdictions can speak better to how it's been successful.

Yeah. And I think what we're trying to do with the topic specific workshops is sort of walk a fine line, because we want consistency. We want to make sure that we have a group of people who are experts on the topic, who are with us from beginning to end, because that will actually really help the product. At the same time, we don't want to exclude people. And so what we plan to do for those workshops is to make sure that we are for the people who we know to be engaged, we are targeting them, we are talking to them in advance, we are asking for their participation throughout the process, but we're also opening it up because there are people who we don't know about we collectively don't know about who are experts or even just interested who have a perspective.

And so we're trying to kind of walk that line of getting everyone involved, right people involved for the whole time, and yet letting everyone get involved when they want to be involved. And so it's really targeting people at the beginning, trying to get their commitment, but yet keeping it open so that it's not like a closed group because we want to make sure there's transparency.

Okay. You may want to explain this in greater detail. The Planning Commission, as we have this set up, is to some extent going to serve or function as the advisory committee, not in the traditional sense as we did in 'eight or the city of Napa did, of this last go around. But they will have a significant role in in that.

Okay, thank you. Do you have enough guidance?

The action before you is to Yeah. Yeah, we do.

Okay, thanks. Okay. So we are let's see. I've taken things out of order, now I need to find them. Okay. We are ready for a vote. So do I have a motion and a second?

So moved.

Second.

Okay. I have a motion by Supervisor Cottrell and a second by Supervisor Gallagher. All those in favor? Aye. Any opposed?

Nay. Without an advisory committee or some type of form of direct oversight by a select group of residents, I can't move forward with an approval on this.

Okay, thank you. We have a four-one vote on Item 9E. Thank you. And I think we'll move now to item 9D, which is a presentation on Napa County Child Abuse Prevention Council 2026 report. I welcome Jenny Olson, Koch Family Center Executive Director for this report, and any colleagues? Okay. Thank you. I see you at the table. Thank you. Go ahead whenever you're ready.

Thanks very much, and I will I promise I'll keep it to about ten minutes. It's a good thing I talk fast. Let's see. So this is actually the report. Do you have a slide deck?

I sent a slide deck at the same time.

It was there.

There's nothing up there. That so I have I sent this is the

Yeah. There it is.

Yeah. That's the report, but I also sent a slide deck. It's okay. I'll just, it's not gonna be my comments are not gonna be okay.

Okay. The clerk is are you searching for it? Or It

was in the same email. I'll just go ahead and start talking. I know we're on a on a time limit here. Okay. So thank you, Chair Manfrey and supervisors and county staff. I'm Jenny Olson, executive director of Cote Family Center and chair of the Child Abuse Prevention Council. Thank you for the opportunity to share this year's Child Abuse Prevention Council report. I hope you all had a chance to review it. If you haven't, I encourage you to review it. This year's theme that we came up with together with Health and Human Services and the Greater Bay Area Council is Strong Families, Safe Futures.

When we care together, families thrive. I will start with the simple point that prevention works. I guess can you I don't know. I feel like we should have some visuals, but Okay. Weird.

Okay. Anyway, I can send the slide deck as well. But everything is in the report. So back to my point about prevention, we know that when families receive support early before challenges become crises, we see better outcome for children and families. It's not just more effective, it's more humane and more cost efficient than responding after harm occurs.

In working with Veronica from Child Welfare Services, we have a snapshot from twenty twenty five of the child abuse cases, reports. There were thirteen fifty eight child abuse referrals made to child welfare. Only 54 of those were substantiated, which involved 65 children. What that tells us is that most families coming to our attention don't need investigation. They need support, community support.

Napa County also saw 37 removals from the home, 23 reunifications, 11 adoptions, and five guardianships. So the system is working, but it works best when we intervene early. It's important to understand what drives referrals. Most are not about intentional harm. They're about family stress, things like financial hardship, housing instability, lack of childcare, mental health struggles, and increasingly, as we all know, fear related to immigration and policy uncertainty.

This fear can keep families from asking for help, we're seeing that on the ground level. I think you all are too. The good news is that we built a strong system here in Napa together with Health and Human Services, our schools, our family resource centers, nonprofit agencies, health care, and law enforcement. All of those are represented at our monthly Child Abuse Prevention Council meetings. We're also aligned with the California Office of Child Abuse Prevention and the Greater Bay Area CAPC Network.

This is truly a countywide and a statewide system of care. And we did start when I started at COPE in December, a month later in January, I started reconvening the Child Abuse Prevention Council meetings. And we're doing a lot to rebuild that system of support throughout the year, not just in April with the work we do. So what does prevention actually look like on the ground? It's a full continuum, including a comprehensive prevention plan that guides our work.

And I was hoping to have Jennifer Yasimoto share more about that. But I think that if you could follow-up with Jennifer and I about the comprehensive prevention plan and all that we're doing together with Cope Family Center kind of taking the lead on a pilot project. Mandated reporter training shifting towards a community supporting model where we're hoping and training our individuals in the community as mandated reporters to know what resources are available and connect family members to resources first, or in addition to before calling child welfare hotlines. A public awareness and outreach campaign, policy and advocacy, and most importantly, our family resource centers, which are kind of the heartbeat of this work, because this is where families come to get help early. We are the trusted messengers for those families.

As you know, April is Child Abuse Prevention Month. It's really where the whole community shows up, and I won't go into detail about all the things happening, but I will put a plug in for today is free scoop day, free cone day at Ben and Jerry's downtown. And the Cope Family Center staff will be there from twelve to eight serving ice cream, which is free, but we will take tips. And all the tips go towards child abuse prevention. I'll be putting in a shift at six to eight tonight, so come see me if you want some ice cream.

So let's see. As I mentioned, this past several months has been about rebuilding the Child Abuse Prevention Council. We've reactivated the council. We've reconnected regionally. We've advanced the prevention plan, and we've deepened our coordination with Health and Human Services and our partners.

We're in a really strong place to keep building from here. To continue this work, we're asking for your partnership in five key areas to support public education and training, to advance the comprehensive prevention plan again, please reach out to Jennifer for more information if you're not really familiar with that plan and what we're doing to strengthen family resource centers, to maintain stable prevention funding, and to champion cross agency collaboration. These are the strategies that help families earlier and keep children safe. I'll end with this message that prevention works, partnership works, and local leadership really matters. Thank you.

Okay, thank you, Ms. Olson, for that presentation. That was incredibly concise. Thank you. I appreciate it. And I'm sorry that the slides didn't work out here.

It's okay.

They're in the universe somewhere right now.

They're somewhere. Thanks so much.

Okay, thank you. All right, is there any public comment on this item? All right, seeing none, is there anyone on the phones? No? Okay. Any comments or questions from my colleagues? Okay, seeing none.

I have my light on.

Yes, you do. Supervisor Gallagher?

Thank you. And I would like to actually make a referral for Jennifer and partners to come back and do a presentation on the comprehensive prevention plan. That is really, really important that we understand that. And I know that there have been lots of different plans over the years from the state and we need to understand the one we're under right now. I think that's important.

I want to link this to the discussion we had about the general plan update. These are inextricably linked. Focusing on social determinants of health housing, jobs, climate, health care, will help us reduce the incidence of child abuse and neglect. Many times, neglect, as Jenny said, it is not a result of parents not caring. They may be working three jobs, have very few choices about child care, may have health care issues, or have an inability to provide consistently nutritious meals.

So a lot of this really has to do with people's basic needs and when basic needs are met, parents are able to focus on their families and their kids. So this is absolutely linked to our general plan update and why having a health in all policies thread throughout the general plan is so very important. So I just want to link that up. These are not different issues. These are all part of very important issues that affect our community at every level. So just wanted to make sure those dots were connected. And thanks.

Okay. Thank you, Supervisor Gallagher, the referral. I would second that. Yeah. And I'm seeing maybe a third there. So very good. I think let's see, where are we? Again, out of order. I think that's it on this one. This is an information item. Thank you, Ms. Olson, for being here today. Okay. Yes, have a request that we take the Great Wine Capitals presentation before lunch, and so I kind of want to get a temperature test on that. Yeah?

Okay, I'm hearing yes. I think we'll go ahead. Ms. Gallagher, when you're ready, we would be happy to hear about let's see, let's find this on the agenda. We're moving now to Item 9A presentation by the Board and the Agricultural Commissioner and CEO Ryan Alsop and also Visit Napa Valley President Lindsey Gallagher and Napa Valley vintners on our participation in the twenty twenty five Great Wine Capital's Annual Conference held in Bordeaux, France, November 2025. Welcome.

Hello. Good morning. Thank you, Chair Manfrey and members of the board for this opportunity to give you an update on the Great Wine Capital's global network. We will cover the annual general meeting, which involves attendance participation of several of you here in this room. But for the start of the presentation, we wanted to take the opportunity to give an overview of the network and just make sure that everyone's aware that this is a year round effort, our participation in this network, and that it is a combination of Visit Napa Valley, Napa Valley vintners, and the county collaborating together in our participation in the network.

So with that, there are three key components of this year round effort. First, we're going to go over the best of wine tourism awards through the Great Wine Capital. So that is a very important recognition that is given here in our region and then transcends to the global level each year. And so, part one of our involvement is the, Best of Wine Tourism Awards. Second, we participate in working groups throughout the year, primarily, Napa Valley vintners and Visit Napa Valley staff those working groups, but they do meet each group several times a year, sometimes in the middle of the night because we have to find a time zone that works for the entire world.

But that's another important piece where a lot of the work of the network gets done throughout the year. And then finally is the annual general meeting and conference that some of us in the room have the opportunity to attend and represent our region alongside the other regions. So I wanted to start by highlighting those three key components and the year round effort and involvement that is involved in this network. So now let's just take a moment to focus on what the Great Wine Capital's network is. This is a network of major global cities both in the Northern and Southern hemispheres that are internationally known for their wine tourism.

This network facilitates education, business exchanges, and best practice sharing among these members. Napa Valley is one of just 11 regions in the world that is the distinguished great wine capital, and we're the only capital in North America. And through this we have the opportunity to exchange information, to, really work together on common challenges and common opportunities. Those include, aspects like drought and pest management, sustainability best practices, wildfire, tourism volumes, name protection, pandemic response, etc. And all of this allows us to enhance and maintain Napa Valley's global reputation on the world stage by participating in the network.

Next, you'll see on the map here the other 10 regions that are part of the Great Wine Capital's global network, and you'll see that there are representatives from both the new and old worlds of winemaking. And now I wanted to show a little background video.

So you can see we're in

very good company, with the rest of the wine world as part of this network. Next, we wanted to just, take the opportunity to show who is participating in the network here in Napa Valley representing our region. The partner on the left is, of course, the county of Napa, and the current, delegation includes supervisor Cottrell, supervisor Manfrey, CEO agricultural commissioner Cleveland. In addition to myself and my staff assisting from the tourism and hospitality side, and then the Napa Valley vintners team has very active participation, Linda Reeves, Stacy Dolan Capitani, and Rex Stoltz as well. And so each of us, participates in various pieces of this network, but you're well represented by those three organizations, and participants in our local network.

Now just a quick update on item number one, which is the awards. We have an annual Best of Wine Tourism Awards call for entry and celebration each fall, so we'll be starting that in a couple of months. There are seven categories that these awards are delivered in each year, and we announce the winners locally and present the trophies at the Visit Napa Valley Annual Destination Symposium event, which takes place at the September. And so that's how we announce our local winners. And then from there, we go on to the Great Wine Capital's Annual General Meeting in Bordeaux, and part of that activity is awarding the global winners for the Great Wine Capitals each year.

So one of our seven winners is elevated to a global winner at a very nice ceremony at the Annual General Meeting. Our winners in this year's 2026, they were awarded in late twenty five, but they're for, the year of 2026. For accommodation, the winner was the George. For architecture and landscape, winner was Cuvezon. For arts and culture, the Boise collection is the winner.

Culinary experiences, Cliff Family Winery was recognized for that. Innovative wine tourism, the winner was Sterling Vineyards. For sustainable wine tourism, the winner was Chandon. And for wine tourism services, the winner was Festival Napa Valley. And then in, on the stage in Bordeaux, supervisor Cottrell had the honor of receiving the, regional, sorry, the global winner for Sterling, Vineyard and Winery for the great renovation and restoration they did, of that property.

So that, is how the award piece works. We also have a best of club here in Napa Valley as do many other regions to really promote networking, collaboration, and engagement, here in the community, and we last met with our best of club in February at Couvaisant. Okay. Moving on into the working groups. As I mentioned, these are taking place throughout the year, and the working groups include membership, activities and partnership, brand and communication, and then there's a local coordinator and executive committee.

Those are primarily staffed, as I said, by Visit Napa Valley and Napa Valley vintners team members, and they meet four or five times throughout the year. And then when we come together at the annual general meeting, we have the opportunity to meet with those working groups and continue to conduct, and finalize the business of the year. The the annual general meeting, I would describe sort of as the United Nations of wine tourism, and we come together with partners from the other countries. The delegations include elected officials, tourism and business and wine and agricultural delegations, and they come from all over the world. This is the delegation that traveled with us in November to Bordeaux, you see at the bottom of this slide.

And while we are there, there are three different tracks to the annual general meeting and conference program. And, our county delegation is part of the delegation that goes on lots of technical tours out into vineyards and wineries so they can learn firsthand, how the agricultural and wine space work in the region that is hosting us. There's also an international wine tasting one evening where all 11 of the regions bring some of our best and brightest wines to showcase, and it's a fantastic event for attendees to get to taste the wine world at that event in the evening. And then there the program sort of concludes with a conference, which is an excellent all day thought leadership opportunity, to really dig in on trends in both tourism, wine, and agriculture, and and to find themes that are consistent across all of our regions. And the program typically ends with the global best of wine tourism awards ceremony taking place in the final evening where those global awards are given.

I'm going to, in a moment, turn it over to members of our traveling delegation to share their key takeaways. But you see here on the screen some of the things that, our participants have reported as we come back from that annual general meeting touch point of really remarkably common experiences and challenges, the importance of government and business working together, we've heard that a lot today in this meeting, and some successes and challenges that we all share. So with that, the next annual general meeting will be held and hosted by Hawx Bay, New Zealand in October 2026, and wanted to bring to your attention from there that we do have a landing page for all things great wine capitals, hosted on the Visit Napa Valley website. And so there, you can find more information on past winners and, all of the activities that are happening for the network here locally. I also want to acknowledge two folks who've been in the room all morning with us who have experience with the Great Wine Capitals network.

Tom Davies from V. Sattui Winery had the opportunity to travel to Argentina as part of our Great Wine Capital's delegation in the year that he was chair of the Visit Napa Valley board. And we also have Dave Whitmer here, who was really part of the team together with Rex Stoltz and some others who, got us involved in the Great Wine Capital's network to begin with. And I think they both have some comments to share on how the network has really derived value from their perspective for us to participate in that. But with that, I think I will turn over to our delegation folks and also have an announcement to make at the end.

Okay. Thank you, Lindsay. Go ahead anytime you're ready. Ms. Cleveland?

Okay. Not good morning, good afternoon, board chair Manfrey. So I'll keep my comments brief. I kind of had a few things I wanted to talk about. Just in general, I would say, as always, this is an eye opening and really incredibly valuable experience.

We get a chance to see how agriculture, tourism, and government are closely integrated, not just in Bordeaux, but really across all of the regions that we have an opportunity to visit. That's fairly different than how we operate in Napa County. So it's interesting to kind of make those connections. In all of these regions, wine and vineyards, that's a major economic driver, and that recognition is reflected in the strong collaboration between government, industry, and tourism organizations. I think one of the most valuable aspects of this, trip for me and this organization and our partnership with it is the opportunity to to meet and connect with vineyard owners, with, different organizations, tourism organizations, government industry groups, all of the above.

And those opportunities to connect kind of result in additional things. So I was gonna talk more about, you know, we we share a lot of common challenges. We all were recovering from the pandemic. There are pest pressures, disease pressures, there's wildfire issues, sustainability farming practices, a number of things. I think for me, so I'm going skip all that, and I'm going to jump right into, I think, my biggest takeaway is the collaboration that comes from this organization.

So just for an example, I think Dave will probably talk about some things, but, in 2023 throughout the state of California, we had an an explosive population of fruit fly, quarantines that are happening throughout the state. We had seven quarantines in 2023 throughout California. I think that's a high number. In a typical year, you will see 75 introductions of fruit flies, and we had over 900. So that results in, like, dollars and, eradication efforts and pest prevention efforts and exclusion efforts.

After everything was said and done, we had a chance to connect with our South Adelaide Australia partners who I had met through Great One Capitals. And so we got to meet several times. We met individually with them and then we invited industry partners so California Department of Food and Ag and some of their different departments to come and sit in this meeting virtually and to talk about fruit fly one of the fruit flies that was introduced was Queensland fruit fly, it's an Australian native. So we were able to share ideas to talk about strategies, kind of the different mechanisms that we use and may use and talk about trade issues and all kinds of things. That connection and that relationship is invaluable and it's something that we continue to kind of look back and then, you know, build on.

And then a second example, I would say last month we had a researcher from, Vine Health. It's, sorry, Vine I'm I'm missing it up, but, a researcher from Vine Health, and she came from Australia again. She had a grant that was issued through Great Wine Capitals, and so she was able to spend a week in Napa Valley meeting with industry, meeting with farmers, meeting with large growers, small growers, researchers, and then my team. And so we had a chance to sort of demonstrate what we do as far as glassy winged sharpshooter and our Pierce's disease program at the state level, at the local level. Again, we brought in CDFA and we talked about strategy.

We talked about things that we're doing successfully that they are looking to implement in Australia as it continues to become an issue for them, a bigger issue. It's not necessarily something that they're facing now, they anticipate it coming. So again, it just highlights those relationships and those opportunities to network and to have conversations about really large pressing issues. So I'll stop there. That's my major takeaway, and I'll kick it off to someone else.

Okay, thank you. Who wants to go next? The OL is up. Anytime you're ready.

I'll be quick because I think you said it all. I just want to say that it was a real honor traveling and accompanying Supervisor Cottrell and Supervisor Manfrey, our Ag Commissioner, the rest of the team. It was also an honor to be there representing the supervisors who were not there, Supervisors Ramos and Alessio and Gallagher. And in addition to, I mean, one of the unique things about this job is being able to do something like that in Napa representing the community, incredibly proud to have been able to do that. The perspective that you get on the trip is value added coming back and working here with the industry.

It's incredibly value added. I got a lot from it. I'll just finish just by saying that it's an elite group. It's a limited group. And if we don't engage and participate, somebody else is licking their chops to be able to do it. So that's why it's important for us to be there.

Thank you. Well said. Supervisor Cottrell?

Thank you. Yes, I mean, thank you everyone who made comments already, and I look forward to hearing what Tom and Dave share because you guys have a great perspective, too. I think this point about so much is shared across the regions, And, Supervisor Ramos, you've done a trip, so you know this, too. But also, what are things that make us unique? I mean, first of all, a wonderful takeaway is just to be reminded how well regarded Napa County is and how people look to us as innovators on lots of different fronts.

So I think that's an important message to bring back to the community. And it was great to meet industry partners around the world. We talked to an economist who's studying how you set your price point on tasting fees, right? And that kind of research is really important for all our local wineries. And another conversation I just wanted to flag was talking with someone from the New Zealand wine community and comparing notes on how you reach out to your visitor community after a disaster to say, Hey, please still come to this part of our region and please help support this other part of the region.

I know we've had conversations about that. So that was great. And then I think another place where I think, to toot our own horn a little bit, Bordeaux was incredible, so steeped in history, and was fun to visit those wineries. And also, I came back realizing that I think Napa is unique in valuing its farm workers and being able to tell the story of the work that happens in the vineyard. So great to connect with people and great to realize, be reminded again of what a wonderful thing we have here.

Okay, thanks. Well, I am not left with much to say here. But I will say one of my big take homes is that Napa operates on a much smaller scale than a lot of other wine industries around the world. This was pretty eye opening to me. My background is not in the wine industry.

And so I learned a ton about how we function at this super high level without having nearly the land area that so many other major wine regions do. And I thought that was really interesting. And I think that it kind of underscored to me how the nature of the land itself and the way that we arrange things in space with our planning processes determines what's going to work in one community and what might not work there, because there were a lot of differences in the things that might be allowed in a place that was developed for horses and foot traffic and is much more spread out over 10 times as much space that don't work as well here. And I could really see that being in a place where those things were so apparent. And the two things that were highlighted in the opening ceremony were challenges of a changing market and challenges due to the climate emergency.

And I think that those were super relevant for us to hear about. And something that I noticed that I thought was interesting is that with the places that I was able to visit in Bordeaux, a lot of locals attend events that are run by those wineries. And it kind of left me wondering if I mean, it's not the board's job, so boundaries but left me wondering if perhaps there is a way to have better relations between the industry and our locals and get them engaged a little more, because that was something I saw that was very successful there. I had conversations with people from at least eight different countries. They were fascinating.

There were so many little details there. I had some really interesting conversations about wine genetics and things that people are doing to edit genes in grape varietals to adjust flavors and make them more resilient to the climate expectations that we have. That was pretty wonderful. And just to underscore that NAPA is absolutely a leader in our marketing approaches, in workers' well-being, in farming methods that are very responsible, and I think also in productive government industry relations that change through time as needs change. And all of those are really positive.

So thank you so much. I think that's all of us. Let's get back it.

Could I ask one question? Do you want to mention 2027? Oh,

yeah. Yeah.

Yes. And so, you know, we're we're happy to announce that Napa Valley will be hosting the annual general meeting and conference in 2027. Dave will know better than I. I think it's been since 2012 was the last time that we hosted here. And so as I say to my team, we've had, we've gone to everyone else's house for dinner.

It's time, for us to invite them here, and so we will happily be, putting out the welcome mat for the other 10 regions and really relishing the opportunity to put Napa Valley, very prominently on a global stage as part of this program. We will be forming a working group, a host committee very soon to unpack the details of that and we're going to need the support of everyone throughout the county to help us with that program. That's the announcement.

Thank you. All right, that's wonderful. Are we? Here we are. Public comment. Is there anyone in the room wishing to make a comment? We welcome that now. Mr. Wimmer? Yeah.

You'll have three minutes whenever you're ready.

Thank you, Chair. Dave Whitmer again. I was honored to be part of the original NAPA delegation when we began to to become a part of the of the Great Wayne Capitals. And I attended ten years in a row about 2004 through 2013. I my primary responsibility was in the judging of the of the awards, and and I found that to be really an interesting part of the process.

One of the and and I wanna underscore what I what I think I heard CEO Alsop mention. If Napa is not the great wine capital of of North America, there there are a number of other regions, you know, here in in the North Bay as well as Central California as well as Oregon and Washington that would step up in a heartbeat and say, yeah. You know, we'll do this. So I think that's one issue. I also think that, you know, one of the reasons that we got involved in the first place was there is a very small investment for a huge payback.

And the huge payback comes to, on all of the issues that you mentioned in terms of the collaboration, the understanding of what happens in in all of these places. We share so many issues, labor, housing, transportation, you know, kind of the marketing and the and the kind of how we host people at wineries, how we make land use decisions based upon all of that. Some of these things, we have the ability to learn so much from this collaboration. There's a term that was thrown out fairly early on when I got involved, and it's and I haven't heard it this morning, so I'm gonna say it. Rex Stoltz would be probably angry at me if I didn't.

It's called coopetition. And this is a classic case of coopetition. Right? These are all our industry's competitors in the rest of the world, but we are meeting with them in a cooperative kind of spirit and one of sharing. And I think that's something that continues from the way that NAPA operates.

The cooperation within the industry here to make everybody better is really, you know, I think one of the things that makes us a a very incredible wine region. And I'll just say relationships are everything. It all starts with relationships. And the relationship that I was able to build through Grapevine Capitals helped us to eradicate European grapevine moth in Napa. And that in and of itself is huge. Thanks for your time.

Thank you, Mr. Whitmer. Welcome. We have another comment. Good afternoon.

Good afternoon. Tom Davies again from Vizatouille Winery and I have to say I was very proud to to be a part of the delegation to Mendoza in 2022. You know, think of it as a you know, I'm a I'm a vintner grower, and, you know, we're we're working in our own businesses. But to be able then to represent the Napa Valley. It's kinda like an NBA player, you know, going into the Olympics or something.

So you now really finally get to represent something that you believe in. And, you know, the Napa Valley has been my home. This this will be my forty seventh vintage at Vissatouille coming up this year. So I've been doing this for a while. And we have something so special here that makes Napa Valley wines some of the best in the world.

And and often why I take the time to be a part of these groups is that I just wanna make sure that we this that we can sustain our success. And what better way by networking with other great wine regions that that only exists in a in a very small part of this world and to be able to share ideas with them. And so to be able to look through my eyes with with some of the things I learned in Mendoza was just crazy. The you know, one of the very first things I saw is that and I think I mentioned this earlier that the the Argentinian government takes a really active role, with private businesses in promoting the wine industry and and giving the flexibility that businesses need. And, you know, and then I also saw that the people of Mendoza in Argentina, they they really embraced the wine industry.

And I think you were just made you know, mentioning that, chair Manfrey, that, you know, maybe that's missing here. Well, maybe if we all worked together a little bit better that we would, you know, be able to to build on those partnerships and that that other people could feel that they're that they're really that the wine industry is a part of who they are. I also learned about, you know, seeing a shift in demand of, you know, how wineries go about selling wine. And, I think there's some people who think all you're gonna do is make wine and it'll be sold. Well, it's not that easy.

And even in and I've been to many of the great wine regions. Having a tasting bar is not enough these days. You know, we saw in Argentina, and I think I've you all of you have seen, there's a growing demand for wellness programs, agrarian centers that connect the land to food products, even the rise of Nolo, which is the no and low alcohol wines. We discussed technical innovations and fungus resistant grapevines that could eventually limit the need for some fungicides. And and in Argentina, Mendoza, they're in their tenth year of drought.

And, you know, and so we, you know, we even went up to the reservoirs and learned how they're, you know, adopting new mitigation measures. And so I, you know, I could just go on and on. So, basically, the investment we make in this network basic gives us a seat at the table, you know, that we can be a part of this and to give this up. I mean, I heard many of you visit and go on, you know, whether Yosemite or San Diego, networking with people. Well, this is just the same thing, but now we're, you know, networking with with people that do what we do. Thank you.

Thank you, mister Davies, for those comments. I don't see anyone else in the boardroom. Is there anyone on the phones? No? No one on the phones to comment? Okay. Thank you. Are there any further comments from the board? No? Okay. Thank you for your presentation for the recap. And we're going to move on from item 9A at this time. Okay. I have a request that we go ahead and charge through this agenda. How are we? 12:40? I'm seeing a yes. I'm seeing some Yeah. Think two of these are appointments to boards or commissions. And then Yeah.

Okay. Okay. We're going. Okay. So our next item is 9B, appoint one of the following three applicants to serve on the first five Napa County Children and Families Commission for a position whose terms of office to commence immediately and expires 01/01/2027. I welcome a staff report from Clerk Hoskins.

Thank you, Madam Chair. You summed it up for me. The board can decide today to accept the first five commission's recommendation to appoint Joseph M. Carrillo to the first five vacancy or to pick one of the other members and not accept the recommendation. So

move the approval of Doctor. Carrillo.

Second.

Okay. Are there any public comments on this item? I don't see any. So I have a motion from Vice Chair Alessio and a second from Supervisor Gallagher. All those in favor? Aye. Any opposed?

All

right. That passes unanimously. We're moving on to item 9C. Reappoint Molly M. Adams for a second term to represent the city of Napa and choose one of the following three applicants to represent the county of Napa on the County Library Commission with terms of office commencing immediately and ending on 01/31/2029. And it looks like there are three three applicants, and we're considering appointing Molly Adams. Clerk Hoskins, any is there any additional report on that? Or

Well, we'd ask that I that you do this in two separate motions. If you could if you want to reappoint Molly Adams, that'd be one motion, and then to choose a secondary

Oh, okay.

Yep. Position. Yep. Picking from one of the three, and you can accept the library commission's recommendation to appoint Margaret Woodard or choose another applicant just like the previous item.

Okay.

So if we could please do two motions, that would be great.

Thank you. Thank you. Alright. Is there any public comment on this item? I don't see any. Is there anyone on the phones? No? Okay. Any questions from the board or deliberations discussion?

No. But I'm happy to move the reappointment of Molly Adams for a second term.

Second. Second.

Okay. So that's a motion by supervisor Cottrell, second by supervisor Gallagher. All those in favor of reappointing Molly Adams? Aye. Okay, that passes unanimously. And may I have a motion to appoint Margaret Woodard to represent Napa County Library to represent to the Napa this is written to the Napa Library Commission.

So moved. Okay.

So I'll take that as a first by Supervisor Galessio and a second by Supervisor All those in favor? Aye. Okay. Passes unanimously. Thank you very much. Moving on to item 10 a, which is a resolution increasing rates by 18% effective 07/01/2026 for solid waste services and garbage zone 2 in conformance with agreement number 7996 between Napa County and Berryessa garbage service. Good afternoon, mister Letter. I welcome a staff report.

Thank you, chairman and members of the board. If Neha can pull up the 25 slides that I no. Just kidding. I I am literally just going to hit the the highlights here. Key key things here. So we're bringing forward a proposed rate increase for Berryessa Garbage Service or BGS. The Gomez brothers are with us in the back. Also, Dave Briggs, who's our our staff member who oversees this. This is known as Zone two, which is garbage collection, which is garbage and recycling in the Lake Berryessa area, essentially, from the Highlands North. It doesn't it does not include all the way up to the estates, but otherwise, it's it's the lake area.

The company is actually allowed by our franchise agreement to request a rate increase on an annual basis. They have not actually requested a rate increase since 2018. So this is their first increase in eight years. If you look at CPI from 2018 to today, that would be 24%. Their request is actually 18%.

So it's a hefty number because they haven't requested an increase, like I said, in eight years, but it's actually still smaller than what CPI would have been over that period. We the county does have a franchise agreement with BGS that doesn't expire until 2036. So we will be partners with the company for some period of time. And with that, I'm happy to answer any questions.

Okay. Thank you, making notes. Are there any questions from my colleagues? Supervisor Cottrell?

Yeah, I just have one question. Thank you for walking us through what CPI would have been and that it's been quite some time since any increase. I'm wondering what the public education outreach has been on this. Are people aware that their rates may be going up?

There is a requirement for public notice, which which we've done. We didn't do a a broad outreach campaign, frankly. We just did the the public notice that was required.

So that's not necessarily a letter. Is it something in the newspaper? Is it something that goes out with a monthly bill?

It's in the newspaper and on the website.

Okay. So people will likely be surprised by this?

I suppose it's possible. Although I will say that Supervisor Manfrey and I have had a number of public meetings up there pretty much around the rate increases for around NBERD. And I did bring it up at every one of those meetings. And nobody actually had any negative comments back to me about it.

Got it. Thank you.

Yeah.

Thank you. I'm trying to look up a date here. I don't see anyone else in the queue. So I do have a couple questions. So let's see. I am concerned that we also just adopted a fee for water infrastructure in various highlands. And that's already an economic strain on a lot of our residents out there, I expect. And so this is going to be an additional charge. And I'm wondering if there's any potential to do some kind of programmatic discount. And I don't know how we would offset that.

You know, like I'm just coming to this today asking if it's if we can find some kind of way where if people qualify, for example, for PG and E low income entry into their discount program, if we could maybe find a way to offset costs even if it's temporarily. I've door knocked in that community. I'm thinking about families where they're having six people per house, they're already paying like $400 a month for their water bill. And they're going to have that increase dramatically in their property taxes additional hundreds of dollars a year. So it's a very real economic burden for residents out there.

And I'm just asking us to think about finding a way to do some kind of offsetting for people who qualify for other assistance programs.

So if the board is interested in pursuing that, it is something that staff could evaluate. We're actually looking the city of Napa has that program currently, and we're looking at a similar program in the Upper Valley area. The difference is in the Upper Valley area and, frankly, the the city, they have both general fund and franchise fees to back that up. We can't do a discount program such that one customer pays for some other, pays for another customer. So in Zone 2, we don't charge a franchise fee.

We never have. And, that's because we've always tried to keep the rates down, out there as as much as we can. So in order to implement a program like that, we would either need to implement some sort of franchise fee program or the board would have to make up that difference through the general fund.

So

those would be the options because we don't have any other way to pay for it.

Yeah, understood. Okay, thank you for that very clear response. And then I was also wondering, my understanding is that there's no compost collection for the BGS service area. And I'm just wondering if there's any possibility of that, especially considering how high the fees are relative to other fees for users who do get that service in the community.

Yeah, no, that's a good question. And I would have covered that on slide 27. Thank you. So SB thirteen eighty three, which you're all familiar with, requires jurisdictions to implement a compost program, essentially a three can program. You probably all get that service here. Thirteen eighty three also allows for a rural exception program. So for, in rural areas that are not dense, you can apply to CalRecycle for an exception. We did that. So we do have an exception, for that area that expires, I believe, at the '27. It's five year exception.

We have the ability to apply for another exception, and we would probably get it. But one thing we are going to do is ask the company for a cost estimate as to what it would cost to implement that program. And then we can look at that cost, we can come back to the board. And then assuming that we're not forced to do it, assuming that we have the exemption, then it becomes a policy decision, which is, we willing to raise the rates in order to cover the costs to do that program? So we are going to make that request for a cost estimate.

We'll evaluate it. And at the appropriate time, we'll bring it back to the board to, like I said, to make that that policy decision. It well, I don't I don't wanna hazard too much of a guess as to what it would cost. I mean, it's we already have garbage trucks that are making runs, and we have recycling trucks that are making runs. So if we have a, essentially, the compost would be a third stream, a third set of trucks that would also be making those runs. So it's reasonable to assume. I mean, are certain amount of fixed costs, but it's reasonable to assume third, third, third that it's gonna be a pretty significant impact on the rates. But we do want to evaluate it.

Okay. Thank you. That's really helpful to have all that information. I don't see any oh, go ahead. Supervisor Alessio?

Thank you. So as I'm looking at the increases, we have some items that it looks like it's 100% increase because maybe there wasn't a fee prior to. Contamination fee, it shows there's a fee now from zero to 50, so it's 100% increase. Propane tanks these just seems like difficult items. Refrigerators, items with Freon.

Appliances, that's a bit of a jump, scrap metal. Does box springs, mattresses, all those things? So what I want to make sure, and to what Chair Manfrey is saying, is that folks just don't start dumping these things because they can't afford to have them picked up. And then what happens to those items? Are they contained at the property of Gomez Brothers with landfill? Or what happens to those items? And then, again, to what chair Manfrey was saying, the last thing we want is people not to utilize the services of the Gomez Brothers because of the the cost on some of these items.

Yeah. Ill illegal dumping is always a challenge. It certainly is a challenge throughout the entire county, frankly, no matter what your rates are. And I say that because there are certain things like mattresses, like paint, you can literally get rid of for free, and yet we still end up finding them dumped by the side of the road. So cost cost is a factor, but it it's frankly, it's not the only factor because, like I said, there are things you can get, you know, get rid of for free, we still find them illegally dumped. So

So maybe if that was included with their with their bill, as was mentioned before, a list of maybe the Gomez brothers would be willing to do this because they're the ones sending out the bills, a list of items that that can be disposed of at no charge?

Yes. One the things that we do and again, Dave is in the back is we do run public education programs on public information on programs that are available and try and encourage people to use them. We don't want people dumping motor oil for motor oil particularly around the lake. Mattresses there's a mattress program. You can dispose of them for free.

Paint can be disposed of for free. Batteries can be disposed of for free. White appliances, the typical most of them are white appliances, in many cases, can be disposed of for free. So we do try and educate the public on those programs.

That would be great. I think the more education upfront, the better. And I do think that in the bills that people receive, that's really they're going to be opening that. They're not going be dismissing it. They're going to open that. So if there's a way to do that work together and continue to provide that education, that would be great. If there was an identified need that was seen in a year or so, if we could come back and the board can be updated on that. In terms of a secondary, whether we do some kind of care program for low income families or low income individuals. If there's a need for that, please let us know.

Yeah. Well, I do think there's I'll just say in the city of Napa, about five percent of their customers are on that program on the care program. Obviously, every demographic is different, but I think that's sort of an informative number.

Thank you very much.

Thank you. Really helpful presentation. Okay. I don't see anyone else on the board in the queue. Is there anyone in the room wishing to make a public comment? I don't know if we have any members of the public remaining in the room. We have staff. Thank you for being here. Is there anyone on the phones? No? Okay. Then may I have a motion to adopt the resolution? Chair Manfred? Yeah. For the record, I think I heard you open a public hearing and GREGORY close it. GREGORY Oh. GREGORY Just to be clear, this is a public hearing. DELL: Oh, yes.

This is absolutely a public hearing. And I consider it still

Okay. I'm not sure what I said. But Okay, thank you for the clarification. So may I have a motion and a second to adopt?

I'll make a motion to close the public hearing and to adopt the recommendation.

Oh, that's what you Okay, sorry. Have a second. Okay. That was a motion by Vice Chair Alessio and a second by Supervisor Cottrell. Thank you. All those in favor? Aye. That passes unanimously. And that concludes public hearings for today. Okay. I'm not sure how many oh, wait.

Motion, but not a motion to actually

I did. Made a motion to close public hearing and to approve the recommendation staff recommendation. I did. It all in one fell swoop.

Just wanted to make sure.

I am it has been a long morning, and so far afternoon. Okay. So at this time, we will take up item 11A in closed session. Take a recess. We'll return to adjourn the meeting after that. Thank you.