Veterans Affairs Commission - Regular Meeting

Good morning, everybody. All meeting the order. It is 09:34, and we have joining us online, Raveen and Nancy. Rebecca. And Rebecca.

And we have Everyone's

This order of business will be the threats that you feel. You know? I

pledge allegiance to the flag of The United States Of America, and two republic make it a sense, one nation under God, indivisible, liberty, and justice.

Okay. The next quarter of Christmas, you'll see a document agenda and the approval of the consent calendar. I'm assuming the agenda and the minutes. Chair, indicating emotional. Any corrections, officials, changes? Not

a question. Since I'm a representative of supervisors, am I still commissioner? Yes. Yes. Because I gave up my they had to fill my spot. That's why I questioned him.

But yeah. Yes. You're the commissioner, and you have the right to vote.

What do mean you gave up your spot? Yeah. Who was stupid or were you before?

I wasn't for. Okay. So weird. Yeah. So now you're I mean, I'm here to think very much anything. So somebody else would take your spot that you don't Yeah. That's why. Okay.

We'll get you straight down on that. Guess you wanna can hear you. I'll hear you. Please indicate by Sam. You have post? Extensions? Alright. Brilly, welcome. We're it's been in our thoughts and prayers. Thank

you so much. It's great to be back and getting back into the groove again. So good to see everybody and look forward to better months ahead.

Glad to have you with us. So let's start with you. And, well, we've already started with you, Raeleen, but let's go to Julie. Sure. Sure. And you're you're as?

A member at large.

Well, let's do for Carolina. Say who you are

and what you do. Thank you.

I'm sorry.

Oh, I'm still Julie. I'm a member at large. And I'm Brittany Young, the food service supervisor for Eldorado Pharmacy Nutrition.

Welcome, Brittany. Glad to help you there.

Thank you, Glad to hear.

I'm Emmett Winke. I am the program manager over our older adult program that puts me in the role of director of our area agency, Austin.

So we're

in group show programs for Demeter for,

you know, health education, and

I think a lot of us can use what he provided. Mhmm. This is. Just I don't know. Community representative at member at large.

Yeah. I can't wait

to know if somebody out with it. Oh, Bob, representative. B. Shirley, city of Placid.

Roger Berger, Brown Deer County, district attorney.

Yale Loman, community representative. Linda Gurvalvi, District 2.

Super.

Supervisor representative. I'm supervisor. Jasmine

Hitchborn. I am admin analyst and support for the Commission on Aging. And I'm so the reason I'm doing this.

Thank you. So who else do we have on on Zoom? Rebecca

Johnson. Yeah. Rebecca Johnson with community services program coordinator for some senior programs, the LIHEAP program, community action council, and Ariana. You are not alone.

I love that one. I think that's so great for what we do for a scene. Okay. And then, Joan

Joan, we do have one person joining us here. Do you want that person to introduce themselves?

Go ahead. Howdy.

This is John Massino. I couldn't make it there today in person. Sorry.

Okay, John. I'm gonna make you a, panelist so that you'll be able to speak. I won't have to unmute you. So

Okay.

Watch your background there, Dawn. So we have John and Raylene, with us virtually, and we do have a we're good to go for today. What's up? Pardon me? Oh, wow. Yeah. Okay.

Oh, we have one one more person. Do you want this person to themselves? Please.

I don't think she can hear.

C. Frank?

I was just watching your video.

Oh, okay.

Yeah. I

will put you on mute. Please raise your hand then when it's time for public.

Thank

you for being with us. Before well, this has changed. Our first order of business is to introduce our guest guest speaker,

and

that is speaker. Brittany. Brittany, we've been trying to get you here for a few months, and we we're very glad to have you here. Why don't you tell us a little bit about what you do, a little bit about you? And the whole purpose of this is rather than having the whole group go into your office and find out what you do, for you to kind of get us all at the same time? Yes.

The agenda actually has Rhoda going next as the guest speaker.

Rhoda's going next. Thank you. I'm sorry.

I'm gonna be on first because of this gets

Do you need to go first because of your schedule?

It's okay.

Okay. Thank you. Rhoda. Yeah. Let's hear about hi cows. Okay.

I I need to get closer to this.

And I guess I'm gonna work with you, Yasmin, to make them go forward back. Hold up. There you are.

Okay. Right.

Right. Now I also need to do something else.

Chair me screen.

You can oh, no. Okay. Go ahead, Broda. You wanna do the big one?

Yes. Just a

minute.

Okay.

Victory. Am I gonna tell you to change the slide, or can I push a button?

No. You can tell me, you know, Change it.

Okay. Good morning. I really appreciate the opportunity to talk to you about health insurance counseling and advocacy program, which is I am the regional coordinator for that program. And first, the main one of the big reasons I wanna make sure that you have some idea of what we do is because you're our community awareness vehicle. So the more you guys know, then theoretically it spreads out. So it's one of our ongoing challenges, so I I appreciate it. So first, a little terminology. There's lots of things confusing about Medicare. This is only the first one. So I'm hoping you'll get some idea of the confusion that all our constituents face when they come forward into Medicare.

So the first one is the name of the program. SHIP is the state health insurance assistance program. It's a federally mandated program to help people understand Medicare, and HICAP is California's SHIP. It's just like Medicaid is the national program and in California, it's Medi Cal. Same thing. So when you see from the feds anything that talks about SHIP, they're talking in California about HICAT. K? So HICAT stands for health insurance counseling and advocacy program. And just for our preference, Hi CAP was here before SHIP. So we started it.

We kept our name. They decided to change their name or to start with a new name. So it is a nonprofit program designed to provide free unbiased counseling to help people manage Medicare issues, including assisting beneficiaries to decide which health plan is best for their individual health care needs. And it's administered in California. In El Dorado County, the the HiCap is administered by Legal Services of Northern California, which is funded by grants from Area four Agency and Agent.

Thank you, Yvette. And HiCap is not associated with any insurance or insurance product. That's what people are particularly interested in. Next. So in Eldorado County, just to get some concept of our program, the High Cap office is located in the Placerville Senior Center on Spring Street. Our staffing is rather humble, one regional coordinator, and six state registered volunteer high counselors. They are outstanding. They go through a lot of training. And in fact, your person in the audience, Raeleen, is one of the peer of the high cap counselors, and she actually founded the program in El Dorado County. So thank you, Raeleen.

The services we provide are available year round. Many people think we're only here during open enrollment, which is now October 15 to December 7. But people turn 65 all year. They change jobs, lose their insurance. There are all sorts of reasons that people need to better understand Medicare throughout the year. So we're here all year. The appointments are made in the appointments can be telephone, South Lake Tahoe is kinda far away, and in person more often. They're usually one hour appointments, and we try to keep the wait time within two weeks. During open enrollment, it gets longer because there are significant challenges and requests, but it's usually within two weeks. Next.

Okay. So the goal of our program is that people are informed and make timely decisions. This becomes a big deal because some of these decisions are one way, and they can't go back. So the relevant issues are most decisions regarding Medicare plan choices have designated time frames and penalties if time frames are not met. Out of pocket costs and the network of providers are the biggest and most significant variables among the Medicare plans.

So when people are looking at all their choices, these are two of the biggest issues that they may or may not be aware of. And the pros and cons of Medicare plan options are different from one county to another. So the problem we run into is we have our plans available, but they talked to their sister in Los Angeles who has a whole bunch of different plans that they love, and they want that here. And they just have to understand that we have a select number of programs. We have beautiful vision. We have beautiful views. But in exchange, we have lesser resources. I had a lady come and talked to the other day who said, why don't we have everything? Well, it's kind of a hard answer to question to answer. Okay.

So the top your target population for high cap is all current and pending Medicare beneficiaries. Now we're all everybody is pending, but particularly those just coming into Medicare as well as those that are ongoing in Medicare. And a particular focus on low income population, hard to reach population, and those particularly vulnerable to aggressive marketing. I'm sure you're all aware of aggressive marketing. We'll talk about that a little bit later, but this is our real focus in terms of clients we're trying to be aware that we're available.

So this and you're not gonna understand all of Medicare in twenty minutes, but I just want you to get some idea so you can if you want, you can come to us. So these are the four pieces of Medicare. I'm just gonna kind of give you a very brief summary. So and this is true everywhere nationally. They these pieces are there. What's in them is different. So Medicare a and b is national. Medicare a, you might be familiar with. There's no cost for Medicare a if you've worked forty quarters in your life, and it covers mainly inpatient services. Medicare b in twenty twenty five is a $185 per month.

The feds haven't really released the 2026 numbers, but we expect it to be around 207, 208 for Medicare b. If you're on Social Security, that comes out of Social Security. If you're not, you pay it. The big one of the first problems you run into with Medicare a and b is people don't even know it. I mean, people have never been 65 until they get there, and then they don't know that they need to do something.

So that's one of the first issues. The problem with staying with just a and b I mean, it's sort of there's a myth that Medicare brings to our populace, and that is, you know, Medicare is gonna take care of me when I get older. Well, the big problem with just having a and b is the one on the right. No out of pocket limit for co pays or coinsurance. Medicare is a big coverage, but it's not everything.

The biggest problem with Medicare comes with the 20%. The the general summary is that Medicare covers 80% of your medical costs, and you you're responsible for 20%. And twenty percents add up fast. 20% sounds small, but if you got a big number, twenty percent's big. And if you only have a and b, there's no out of pocket limit in your potential cost.

So if they just have a and b and something bad happens, they're at high financial risk. That's why people need to know what what they can do to bring that risk down. So there's two basic roadways from Medicare a and b to cover what Medicare doesn't cover. One of them is Medicare supplements and drug plans. That's one way.

And another way is Medicare Part c Medicare Advantage plans. They're not an advantage. They're just a different way of covering your potential out of pocket costs. So and they're sort of one way streets. Well, the one from Medicare a to Medicare supplements is pretty much a one way street in that if you decide to to choose a Medicare supplement and you most people make this decision when they first come into Medicare around 65, they can go to supplements.

And then anytime after that, they can switch over to Medicare part c advantage plans. But the reverse is not true. If they come in to Medicare and they go to part add part c and they stay there till, you know, five years, they were really healthy, so they thought that was great. And then they get sick around age 70. Now they want they wanna go to specialists in UCD or Mayo Clinic or whatever.

Well, Medicare Supplement, you could do that. If you're sitting in Medicare c, you can't jump over to Medicare Supplement unless you have a life changing event of some kind. So that's the first problem is there's these one time decisions. When you're 65, you might not even be in real position to grasp that the results of your if your decision to go to go Medicare c at 65 prevents you from going to supplements later. It's these kind of one way decisions, windows that open and close that people aren't aware of.

Medicare supplements, the big advantage is there's an open network. You can go to anybody, that takes Medicare. You can have your heart attack in South Dakota or Florida, and you'll get the same level of access to medical care as, if you're sitting, at home. Medicare supplements don't cover medication. They're prohibited from covering make medication. So if you go Medicare supplements, you pick up a Medicare Part d, and then that covers you for your medical needs. Okay. Alternatively, instead of going to Medicare supplements and Part d, some people like to go to Medicare Advantage Plans. Sounds good, and it's usually cheaper. That's one of the biggest advantages of Medicare Part c is your upfront costs are cheap.

If you get sick, it might not be so. So Medicare Part c in El Dorado County, we have these five, and I'll talk a little bit later about the fact we used to have 12. Now we've got five. Okay. So just that's this is the big pieces and the roadways you need to choose when you're 65. So next, I just wanted to get some grasp of how complicated it is. So this is just an idea of this is from your favorite book, Medicare new. Everybody gets it. And this is the, chart that shows you the different supplements. If you're gonna go the supplement route, that's the first choice.

Then which one do you choose? And the difference in supplements is just how much of the co pays your supplement covers. You can get them all almost all covered with a g supplement, and it's the most expensive. And then a supplement is one of the least expensive and then everything in between. That's the first kind of confusion they have to look at. Okay. That's supplements. You also have to pick a drug plan. Right? So you've chosen your supplement. Now you pick a drug plan. You have to go to the computer. The only way if you're on any medications, the only way you can pick your best drug plan is by going to the computer. So you go to medicare.gov, and you choose your plan. So in 2026, we have 12 stand alone drug plans.

You pick them up in connection to a supplement. And in most cases, Medicare beneficiaries who do not enroll in a drug plan are subject to a late enrollment penalty if they decide to roll into a PDP later. So the saddest thing is when someone comes in and says, I was really healthy. I didn't take any drugs, so why should I need drug plan? That's typical.

But the late enrollment penalty applies when they finally get sick, and they need and it gets and they need drugs, and it gets greater as they get older. And then the coverage can be obtained the drug coverage, you can get it stand alone with a supplement or by joining a Medicare Advantage plan. So one way supplements drug plan. Alternatively, you can get a Medicare Advantage plan. And this just shows that, we have these five.

The numbers with the stars are what medic how Medicare has evaluated the quality of each of this the Medicare Advantage Plans we have. In our area, Kaiser is the outstanding plan based on Medicare's evaluations. AARP UnitedHealthcare is the is the next, and then Imperial is the last. And there's lots of issues related to choosing among these Medicare Advantage plans. The big issues about Advantage plans is they come with restrictions, and these are the restrictions that make the news a lot, like the denial of care based on prior authorizations.

There's no there's almost no restrictions in the in Medicare supplement plans. You're in a in a Medicare Advantage Plan, you're going into networks. They were we only have HMOs, health maintenance organizations. We have no PPOs, preferred provider organizations. We did we do this year.

We don't next year. But the other thing is when you go into these advantage plans, these are not charities. They're all businesses. So, you know, they're gonna make decisions based on their concern for profit. So, you have to be aware that if you're in a Medicare Advantage plan, you're looking at potential prior authorization, which means it's your decisions regarding your health care aren't just between you and your provider, but also on the next layer of whatever Advantage plan you're in and their decision whether you really need whatever it is your provider thinks they thinks you need.

So it's those kind of restrictions that you run into. And in an HMO, you can only go to the network that they have, and that's the difference among the HMOs is the different networks. Now if you get live in Sack County, we've got five. In Sack County, they got 20. Well, it sounds better, but the difference is you have to know of those 20 which one your physician is today and wants to be in, and then you have to sit with them at least a year and then go to the next one.

So it's not like a whole bunch is a big advantage. It's just you have to know what's there and what's gonna work for you and kind of the impact of your decisions. Okay. There's a lot of activity right now because of this. So in 2026, seven Medicare Advantage plans are leaving El Dorado County, which affects thousands of our residents.

And in addition, in 2026, several of the Medicare Advantage plans are increasing their monthly in premiums by more than 15%. These two issues create chain trigger changes for us. These changes trigger special time limited guaranteed issue rights, which means the one way street to the supplements that you had when you were 65. Well, now that you're 70 or 80, in El Dorado County, if you're in almost any of the Medicare Advantage plans that are here now, you do have a sudden opening to switch over to Medicare Advantage I'm sorry, to Medicare's supplements because of these changes. So you you and if you don't you aren't aware you know, we have people in their seventies that come in and said, gee.

I really wish I'd gone into a supplement because now I'm sick, and I can see how much I want it. Well, usually, they can't. But because these seven plans are leaving and because most of them have also increased their premiums, they suddenly have the ability to go to a Medigap plan if they want. So they have to understand what that means. So the other so the first variable is all the choices.

The second variable is what's influencing our community regarding their decision making. So you need to kind of understand why you're seeing why you're getting all that mail, why you're seeing all that media stuff, all that. Insurance agents have agreements with one or more insurance carriers to enroll clients into specific insurance plans. So different agents and brokers have agreements with different plans. K? Maybe some, maybe all. Insurance carriers pay commissions to agents based on which insurance plan the agent enrolls a client into. So what you hear is clients say, hey. He's free. You know, he did they didn't pay anything.

So, know, you it's great. Okay. For $20.26 in California, the maximum commission for initial enrollment of a client into a Medicare Advantage Plan is $864 per enrollee. So when you see those little deaths and the guy say, hey. I can tell you about the advantage plan and everything.

They're getting eight six first $864 for every person they enroll. They can't. Nationally, the Part d plans, if they enroll in one of those, it's a $114 per enrollee. And if they're going to a Medigap plan, they enroll in one of those, it's roughly it's 22% of the annual premium, which roughly is $264 per enrollee. So the Commonwealth Fund has kinda summarized this.

Given that agents and agencies commissions are set and regulated differently across Medicare Advantage and Medigap, it is important to consider whether there is a material financial incentive for agents to enroll beneficiaries in a Medicare Advantage plan versus traditional Medicare Part d and Medigap plans. So so that's kind of the the outline of the base of information that people would be better informed to make decisions on. So in terms of community awareness of the availability of our services, first, we've got the Medicare and you in handbook on the back. I mean, it's as prominent as they can make it right here, and it depends on what your ZIP code is, where they're sending this, what this number is. But for those in our county, the the 800 number gets to us.

So we can talk to them. We can make an appointment. No problem. About I mean, I'm maybe 5% of the people I talked to have seen I mean, they every household gets one of these every year, but they you just don't see it. They don't read it. So it happens sometimes, but not others. The other way we do it is in terms of community awareness is we have an institutionalized presence. What that means is, hopefully, as staff turns over and it turns over in Social Security and Medi Cal, that they're aware that when they see someone who's a Medicare eligible person, they refer them to high cap. That's in the Social Security office as well as in Medi Cal office. That's again.

So it touches base. Social Security touches everybody. Medi Cal touches low income. And then we also have a monthly newsletter in the senior times that has a Medicare article every month that includes reference to the high cap program. So kind of the outcome and where we are now is the outreach outcome.

In 2024, the Eldorado County HICAP ranked number six among all 58 California counties in population penetration, which means the percentage of the Medicare eligible population that was served by the county high cap program. So we're really proud of, you know, the 58 counties. We're doing pretty good in terms of community awareness, but it's an ongoing challenge. People are turning 65 coming in. They all have to be reeducated or educated.

Yazzy. I'm sorry.

Okay. So that's kind of a summary. I really appreciate the opportunity to talk to you about it. If you have any questions, please ask. But what I really would like is that people are aware that when they see I mean, you know, it's always kind of heart singing when someone calls and says, I I called the number on the television, and I got enrolled in this, and now they can't change. And, you know, we can't change the rules. So They

wrote if she get a veteran that show up, and I didn't see any mention in TRICARE For Life and Right. Right. And so that.

Mhmm. Veterans. So, yes, we do have veterans. There are there's Medicare. There's parallel systems. VA is one of them with TRICARE, and they don't really talk to each other. So what happens is, VA requires, VA certified counselors to talk to their people. So we don't talk to veterans about VA. We send them to VA to talk about. But they do have the option of enrolling in Medicare a and b.

Again, it's a it's one of those things when they first come into 65 and they're veteran, they you know, VA might take care of them, and they have to decide if they're gonna go into Medicare or not. So they're gonna pick up part b mainly. And if they don't, then they turn 70 and they're out of middle of nowhere where they can't get to a veteran's facility. They can't pick up Medicare then because there's that late enrollment penalty. So we do talk to them.

We send them over. Hopefully, if we catch them at age 65, we can say, hey. This is the impact of your of your choice, but they have to pay to join part b when they're 65, and they may or may not need it. I mean, the time you really know what you should have done is the day before you die. That's about I mean, you don't. It's it's a gamble. It's a question of risk. It's your comfort with risk. That's really what you're buying to lower your risk.

Just my experience with Medicare or the A and B, TRICARE for life Mhmm. Really is

Nice. Supplement. Nice. Really? Yeah. I mean, it's, like,

zero co pays and whatever Medicare Mhmm. A and B does. It got TRICARE for life.

Right. Right.

Literally. So I'm not a youngster anymore. And No.

But veterans with with TRICARE are really privileged, but not not all veterans are eligible for TRICARE.

That's the problem.

You know, what has gone through my mind a number of times is with all this aggressive marketing Yes. Are these veterans who are eligible for TRICARE For Life? Are they being sucked in one of these plans that they don't need? It really tells me.

Mhmm. It happens.

If they are eligible for TRICARE For Life and are signed up for a and b when they're 65, I mean, it virtually covers major, you know, major illnesses. Yeah. Fully immune to treatment.

I think what's nice for TRICARE is I think they can find out about it and join anytime along the way. Not true of Medicare.

Yes. That that that is true.

May I follow-up on Sure. Bob's question? I do have TRICARE For Life. Do you advise or do you have information on, you know, one advantage to advantage is vision, dental, supposedly hearing. Do you with an HMO, you don't have a choice of where you're gonna go.

So I personally am considering dropping into that and just going to straight Medicare. But do you have information and advice on the other programs like vision and dental? K. Do you do you advise on that?

Sort of. What what what Jean first advice is Medicare itself does not cover vision, dental, hearing. It was in their original legislation, so it's not covered by original Medicare or the Medigap supplements. Okay? The only way Medigap's play is if pay is if Medicare pays. So if it's dental, vision, hearing, Medicare's not paying. So if you have a Medigap, you've gotta have other insurance. But part of the bells and whistles of the Medicare Advantage Plans is they know what people want and what they're missing. And gee whiz, all of them offer. I mean, your list of promotions, vision, dental, hearing, you know, everything, which is true.

But, again, you have to look at the small print, you know, when they offer dental particularly. At least most of them will mean at least preventive care, which is something, but no restorative care. It just depends. And, also, you're talking HMOs, so you're talking networks of dentists or providers. So you have to go to those people. And even if you can find them, the wait time might be significant. So it's a whole beyond we try to restrict our information to what Medicare does and doesn't do and the the Medicare Advantage plans, what they do, don't do. We don't go beyond that scope.

Do you have brochures available?

Or Yes. I should have brought some. Mhmm. I will defer that. Yes. Yeah. Sorry. Thank you.

I've got a an HMO Medicare Advantage Plan through Kaiser, which it's been excellent. We had basically had Kaiser since I was 18 years old. The Advantage plan has progressed so far that now they they they have added a dental plan, but it's $25 a month, which I've enrolled but haven't used it. And as far as vision, eye testing, eye surgery, everything in that, it's all covered. You find out you know?

One thing you have to understand, when you get an HMO Advantage plan, your co pays are different with every plan. I happen to have a good one between the fire department. My co pays are $5. I've seen people coming in and do the same thing I'm doing that are paid $50.60, $70.80 dollars as a co payment, so you wonder what plan they signed up for. So that's another thing too is when you get the advantage plan, make sure for me, it was managed through Kaiser, which was through the fire department, you know, which, you know, a fire department works. They provide just about everything you get.

Well, I think you bring up a good point that I didn't mention is the populations we don't deal with very much are veterans that they're going just with VA. And if you're in a retirement package because if you're in a retire an employer based package, that employer has their own unique contract, co pays, etcetera, with Medicare. So it's quite different. So if someone comes in and says, you know, I have my retiree health plan with Kaiser, but it's through my my employer, then we have to send them back to the employer because we don't know what the contracts are, and co pays are often the big difference and drug scope of drug coverage.

I had my heart attack and my bypass surgery. It wasn't even done at Kaiser. It was done with dignity, and ambulance tried everything. Nothing. It's great. Yeah. You we You gotta be careful when you check these

plans. Exactly. Yep.

I thought Kaiser had a geographic limit.

You're right. That's right. And I should have mentioned it. Thanks, Elizabeth. So we have five Medicare Advantage plans on the West Side Of El Dorado County. Beyond East Of Placerville, there's no Kaiser. So they have three options, which is really two different companies. So it really depends on where you live, what your options are. And they just have to understand that. And, yeah, when you watch the television, it looks beautiful. But they need to be informed what it means for them in their county and our resources.

When I when I first moved here, my Kaiser plan said it wasn't covered up here. So through '65, I said, well, I'm gonna go to the fire department, and it was covered. It wasn't. For a while, a Kaiser substation there in Diamond Springs, and Kaiser now is connecting up with Marshall and UC Davis. They're clinic they just opened up and inside the bottom of the hill of around. Kaiser is also connected there too. So things are changing for Kaiser.

They're changing for the whole health system. So that's just true. What's true this year might not be true next year. Resources are changing. So that's why you need to come check with us every year. Yeah.

You mentioned that this is an opportunity for people to change this year because

Right.

Yes.

So is there is anybody communicating that out to the public in a way? Or

Well, everybody I mean, the laws look really good. They really are trying. And so letters have gone out, and I've seen them to all those HMOs that are leaving, to all the members, and told them, we're leaving and here are your choices. It's all in writing, but, you know, a lot of people just don't read it or it doesn't make sense to them. So, yeah, you're right. Community awareness is a big challenge for various reasons. I think the laws have tried to to make it happen. The letters have gone out, but we have plenty of people who have no idea. It's just challenging.

So why are all these Medicare Advantage plans leaving?

It's like most of them are leaving.

Why is Back to the fact of business. Okay? So we have we have fewer people. I mean, if you're a business, you gotta have people coming in. And El Dorado is a semi rural county, so they can make more money one place than another. We're lucky, I guess, to still have five. And there are counties in Northern California. They don't have, you

know, have, like, one. So we do have some, but it's limited. It's reasonable quest one other question. So what is the best age for somebody to come to you and talk about this? Somebody who's maybe 63.

Yeah. Because we don't at 63 in two years, then everything could change. Right. So we prefer to see them within three months of their 60 birthday or within three months of coming into Medicare because there's other ways they might come in. Okay. Three months in. The three months is really determined by Social Security. They do Social Security does the entrance into Medicare. We do all the counseling once you get in. But to get into Medicare, you go through Social Security, and they won't talk to you until you're within three months of

your six. Alright.

That's Hello?

Hi. Okay. We have questions from Rainey.

From John.

Hello. Yes. I'd like to just talk about a couple things considering what Rhoda has done a fabulous job explaining our program and the system itself. And we're sitting here as commissioners, and we have several veterans. And I would so like to encourage our veterans to promote this.

I know we've talked you were talking about TRICARE For Life. Several years ago when there were drug plans being pushed outside, they would have tables outside of CVS and others selling programs. Our people are very vulnerable to this. And I had a woman as a client come in. And because he sucked her into buying a drug plan, she lost her TRICARE For Life.

It took me three months to get it back for her. So as veterans, the more you can get out there and kind of let people know about that they've got the best it's not gonna get any better. I think that would be helpful. And I think we, as commissioners, have a real obligation to take this on and promote it as best we can in all of our areas where we are. And, for example, I posted on net Nextdoor the open enrollment because people were asking about a lot of they've been all affected by the change.

And so I posted on Nextdoor information regarding high cap. There were 1,200 hits on that. So people are wanting to know. And that's why I say all of us could do something like that and pick it up and help get the word out. It would be wonderful.

Thank you. I agree.

I've got a question from John. Go ahead, John.

Yeah. Two comments, actually. I have a lot of experience with Kaiser, so a lot of my friends are in it. Their dental plan is Delta Dental's worst plan, just so you know going into it. Their eye care plan is excellent.

So but what they call a dental plan is is not worth getting, actually. Also, you're you're talking about the veterans. My uncle was in the Navy and stationed at Moffett Field and got his medical through through the military until they closed Moffett Field. And after that, he had to to commute all the way to Fairfield for any medical services they need. So I think the the vets need to look into that kind of thing if it's still an issue. Thank you.

Thank you, John. Any any any else?

We have no public No public comments?

Okay. No public comments and no public.

You have no public comment? I

I think Medicare is an absolutely clear understanding. Could

Well, thank you so much. Thank you. Thank you all. I'm with Kaiser Advantage.

Guess that I got a

letter from Kaiser.

Want me to

know if I'd like

to sign up for the Medicare Advantage plan.

Okay. Next order of business is to hear from to hear from our commissioners who are representatives of one of their Right. Right. No. Well, the next thing on my list is to the chairperson's. Brittany, do you have to leave?

No. I'm okay. Okay.

Thank you.

Okay. Do you wanna leave?

Yeah. We buy health insurance. Let's go ahead and go with I don't know. Is my is my cheat sheet the same as your Yeah. Okay. Let's go ahead with the Raelene, are you do you have anything to report with district one? Any conversations with your your supervisor?

Yes. I've talked to my supervisor on probably two or three occasions. He and I told us he called and wanted to discuss how I was doing. And so we've mostly been on a more discussions of, nothing of importance about, the county's business. Been more of a personal nature. Okay.

The dad has left the building. You had any discussions with

I talked with Kathy here on the public hearings. Just talked about what's going on in District 3. The progress on that facility they're building there on Pleasant Valley Road is coming along very well. There is another proposed site that is gonna be senior housing. It's been proposed off of Pleasant Valley. Seemed for some reason, won't live in Diamond Springs. I don't know why. But and there's another proposal. If most of you probably don't know, but if the y were Pleasant Valley and Motherville Connect, there used to be motor homes sitting there in trailers and all kinds of stuff. Okay.

They're another facility to be built there. So things are progressing in Diamond Springs Parkway. If you've driven up Missouri Flat Road, you know what it looks like. They've already sprayed the grass, and they've done everything except asphalt to Deep perimeter. And they're predicting 2027, it will be over. And just a little side note, there will be another signal. If you think Missouri Flat Road enough right there before the overpass bridge, will be another sitting right there.

Because there wasn't enough before.

Yeah. It wasn't enough before. They've already had they've added three, so now they're certainly a four one. So they call the 20 pass? The Diamond Springs Parkway. Park. Yeah. Fancy name. Mhmm. For a shortcut. Okay. If if you if you understand the traffic pattern, if you sit on the if you sat at that gas station right there according to Zurich 5 Road and Pleasant Valley Road None. The cars would come down that road on an average of 30 to 35 cars every fifteen minutes in the morning and coming back down in the evening. It's a madhouse. Yeah. And, supposedly, this is gonna stop that craziness.

Sure.

And then maybe he'll pay the bill to make it smooth again.

This. It's it's gonna happen. It'll be back with us in action. Okay. That's good news.

We'll have a direct line to the city. Perfect. John, anything going on in South Lake Tahoe that we need to know about in the city?

Yeah. But I don't know all of it because I'm not being included in the meetings. Currently, there was a meeting between Keith Roberts, Lorraine Sanchez, and Brook Lane on the future of our senior center. And all of these meetings, they're excluding me and the Senior Inc. And I wanna remind you, Senior Inc is the the ones that came up with the idea, the implementation, and followed through on the creation of our senior center, and yet they're being cut out of all of the discussions about what's gonna happen to it.

I think they need to be included. Nothing conclusive has come out of it. Apparently, they've already signed the the ninety six year agreement on the lease to the city. I'm working on that. I'll I'll get more details on that later. But I think there should be more inclusiveness in these these discussions of our future. So thank you.

Hey, John. We need to talk

to senior centers. Are talking about the old buildings? Yeah.

You talk to Yes. Yes. Yeah. The

new building is a recreation center. Yeah. Is the senior center. Thank you.

Thank you, Sorry about that. That finally happened. Okay. Any of the other commissioners, large, or you've got anything from the board of supervisors that you know of? Well, I've I've been out

of town for almost a month. Okay. So I actually went to Japan and on a sister city exchange program and also to visit my son who lives there. But one of the things that I I that I did when I was there is I kinda asked around. It's like, what do you do with your you know, the older population that maybe needs some help and whatnot?

It's obviously completely different culture. They a lot of people, even though when they only have, like, you know, one or two children, it's multigenerational in their households. There's a lot of that. But I was asking, well, what if, you know, you work and, you know, your mom or dad needs help during the day? And they have a, a system that sounds, very similar to kinda what we have here where, you know, the bus will pick you up.

And then, during the day, there's activities and whatnot and meals, and then they bring you home at, you know, 06:00 or or whatever it is. I was trying to figure out kind of how much that is, and they're like, I don't know. It's equivalent of maybe a thousand dollars a month, which doesn't sound horrible. But yeah. So as far as, like, medical insurance, I know they when you turn 65, you just pay a flat 10% co pay.

And before that, it's a 30% co pay, but their insurance is there are no $100,000 bills over there. It's, you know, it's very, very reasonable. So there's not the burden on the, the population for medical expenses that we have here. Let's see. That's probably about all I have. So That's great.

Yeah. You too. Mhmm.

That's you know, I I kind of I wasn't anticipating, you know, a report from you, but I think it's great. Yeah. Feel great.

I tried to get as much information out of people as I could because I know there's there's one gal that I've I met her ten years ago, and now she's she's got dementia. And it's like, you know, what is happening there? And, know, you a lot a lot of it, kind of like we have here, but family steps in really to help and all of that. And they do have, you know, centers where, you know, like, for people, but it's I have not personally visited one of those. So, yeah, it's just a whole different system, but it's interesting. I'm always looking to see what do other people do and how can we take some of that if we possibly can and, you know, apply it here.

Any other commissioners at large? I guess that's what we call have anything that is not part of another report?

Participated in an Alzheimer association event in El Dorado Hills a couple weeks ago. And it was really surprising because I brought up the services that the county has, and there was probably 30 people in that room. And I can't think of one that knew the programs that I was bringing up. Least is the day care program. And it just and those were people that live right there in Albright Hills. And I just thought, really, our outreach, we really need to be aware of how we're not getting the word out because they were people our ages and looking for help. They were just so desperate, you know, for information.

Thank you. That would be that would be a

great organization too to tie into because they're doing so much up here. What was the organization? The Alzheimer's Association.

Wait. Did you go ahead? Sorry.

I have my hand raised. Since we do a lot of outreach in Eldorado Hills, It's very interesting with the folks there. We attend many events. Mhmm. And we are there at the senior center for events that they have providing information.

But one of the things that's very interesting is they don't seem to latch on to the information until they need it, and then they don't know what to do. And I think that is a huge issue probably throughout the county because, like I say, we have great coverage here of, presentations, of, being at different events. And we have a lot of people who come up and talk to us, take the brochures. But then when it's come time to really need it, they don't have it. So I understand what you're saying because that happens often with us when we do presentations.

This event was at Holy Trinity, really. And so I don't you know, maybe there's a tie in to our local churches that maybe we need to be aware of.

And I think that's great. We can try to do that as well. So maybe we can talk about it. Gail, would you be willing to talk about it?

Absolutely.

We'll talk. Okay. Okay.

Yeah. One additional thing for all of us to recognize the veteran of the year, James Foster, was honored. Think it looked at

I'm just happy.

Yeah. That's why I burned my my cover. I typically don't wear military stuff unless I'm at a military function, but I felt it was apropos to wear this today because it was just Veterans Day. They they they snuck up on me on Halloween, and one of the guys that runs a couple of veterans, they'd asked me to go outside and talk to him. We were having an event there. I'm dressed up as a, sheriff, old time sheriff. You know? Oh, you do? Yeah. So he wants to go outside. I said, you know, at my age, when a man asks you to go outside, it's not a good thing. You know? And he goes, no. No. He goes, this is good.

Trust me. And I had no idea. And so he takes that fight. He said, we've been talking, and we're we have named you the twenty twenty five county veteran of the year. And it it it was a shock. It was a shock. Because you do what you do every day, and you don't really think about that. You just kinda keep your head down and keep going. Somebody recognizes it's it's really like I told them in my speech, this award motivates me. Do more to help veterans and and a number of things.

You know? So, yeah, it was a great thing. So and and I must say, the the BMW one zero one six five that I belong to, this is a three P. I'm the third person. The commander in my, last year was Veronica. So I'm the third. We some really heavy hitters in the one zero one six five. Right? That was one of the reasons why I got it is I volunteered, and you guys were were in there. There there was a list of things.

I didn't know what they were doing, but probably six months ago, somebody I know called, and we were talking. And he said, I wanna ask you a question. And and I know him really well. I said, sure. What do you got? And I could tell he was asking me about kind of things I did. I said, where's this going? He goes, well, can't really tell you that right now.

Okay. K?

Didn't think anything more about it. You know? So they have stuff. Yeah. Can find a few things, but I was proud that I'm a part of this for this long. Thank you.

Great. Actually, I was gonna go last. Oh, sorry. So I'm gonna undo that, but I'm trying to do this. Took took you you took one of my things off.

Did did everybody get a chance to hear the my acceptance speech? I brought a couple copies if you wanna read it. It it was well well received. So the

Are you guys We

got a YouTube? Or

No. No. My daughter There. Filming. Well, it was it's on it must be on YouTube. It's on something. KLM too. Because they film the whole ceremony every year. There's a guy with a camera and stuff. Mhmm. And I know the democrat was there too. He talked. Yeah.

Okay. But if not, let

me know, and I will send you a copy in writing.

You can read it. It's pretty good. I think thank you.

Yeah. Well, I have, I guess, everything. Okay. I have just a couple of things to say a cup about a week or week and a half ago. I returned from the c four a conference in Orange County and it's the conference on aging.

I I personally was a little disappointed because I didn't get out and meet a whole lot of people. I went to every workshop there was. The best probably one of the best things that happened was I got to know the the vets, evets and Lynette. Lynette. The three of us went down together, and we had an opportunity to kind of start thinking about, you know, where we're going as a commission.

And there were some things that I know that Tina was able to listen in on the AAA presentation, I guess it was, in the very beginning. She has things to to to say about that. I was just I was so overwhelmed. I was just sort of taking in things here and there, but I remembered some of the things that that you had talked about. In the interest of time, let's get to that at a later time. Are there any any any public at all? No. Okay. Well, then moving right along. Britney, about about I'm getting this.

It's your turn. Please enlighten us about who you are, what you do, and how we can help you or, you know, work together.

Thank you for having me. Good morning. My name is Brittany Young, and I am the food service supervisor. In my role, I oversee all food service operations on the West Slope as well as the kitchen in South Lake Tahoe. I'm responsible for setting goals, procedures that ensure our program runs efficiently, safely, and full compliance with regulations.

I manage ordering, menu planning, all resources, allocations to make sure we provide nutritious, cost effective meals that meet needs of our senior community. I also oversee inventory control, purchasing, and vendor relations, and I ensure that all of our facilities meet strict health and safety standards. I supervise a team of 12 staff members, four cooks, six meal site coordinators, two food service aids, and we have 15 kitchen volunteers. Our cooks prepare high quality meals for senior nutrition clients on a typical day. We serve 360 to 400 homebound meals and about a 150 congregate meals and prepare about a 175 frozen meals a day for our weekly distribution.

We served around a 183,000 meals last year. We cook, portion, and package meals, maintain clean sanitary kitchen operations, handle equipment safety, store and rotate food, and help train others in proper food preparation procedures. Our meal site coordinators operate seven congregate dining sites, including one in South Lake Tahoe. Their day starts around 7AM preparing cold bags for home delivered clients, packing ice chests for roughly 31 volunteer driving routes delivery routes. Sorry.

In assisting and assembling hot meals. After morning deliveries, they travel to their assigned dining sites, Pioneer Park, El Dorado Hills, Greenwood, Cameron Park, Pollock Pines, Placerville, and South Lake Tahoe, where they set up heat and prepare and serve lunch to the dine in seniors. Our two food service aides support the cooks with food prep, cleaning, meal service, helping keep the kitchen running smoothly. Christine Lindstrom, our food service aide, has been with us for forty five years. And the Commission on Aging should contact me with any questions or concerns related to food safety, meal quality, congregate site operations, or anything that affects effectiveness and safety of our senior nutrition food service.

We'd also love for you guys to come join us for lunch.

Brittany, what?

It is.

And we wondered it was very much needed, and we're gonna do everything we can to make sure that it doesn't yeah. I I just got a little quick question. What What is your I mean, you obviously have to know something about food prep, but also management, what kind of what is your background for doing something like that?

I started off as a cook and gained experience on how things work in that aspect. I still used to cook and help supervise at the Sly Park Environmental School for Sacramento office of education. I've been

in the field about yeah. And you know every aspect of it intimately. Yeah.

And I'm very passionate about what we do, and we all love our jobs and what we do.

That's one of our best outreach sources, actually. I and I think that the the best thing about the home deliveries is not only are they being provided food, but they're also being checked up on and have communication with somebody else outside of their home. Thank

you so much. Thank you for having me.

In the new recreation center, have you been involved in any of the planning on how the meals are gonna be Are you talking about Tahoe? Yeah. Tahoe. That's gonna be prepared up there. Are they gonna be prepared there, or are they still gonna do the same thing? And then deliver them to the recreation center, or do you know?

Not fully. I mean, Britney is not part of the planning phase. She has seen the site, so she knows what she has to work with. The move over into the new multigenerational recreation center would mean that her staff are moving from the current senior center, which is where their permanent employment is. They would be moving to the rec center.

So all the cooking would take place at the new site. And then the way their structure works, they have a kitchen downstairs, and so they would do their primary cooking up there. And then they have the serving kitchen up in the room that they want to move us into for congregate dining, that would be more of a warming station because of the way the foods would be transferred. So it would it would mean cleaning two kitchen areas every

Is there an elevator?

There is an it's a big elevator.

I met with Brittany last year to do our survey for the commission and was very impressed with her and saw quickly how many hats she's wearing. But one thing that we talked about was staffing, and I'm just wondering if you have been able to add people or how your staffing's going.

We're finally fully staffed, and each congregate site has a meal site coordinator that's able to go out and provide them lunch.

Oh, that's awesome. And how about the volunteers? Because I know that was another area.

We have a lot of volunteer drivers. Sometimes we can use some if somebody needs to go on vacation, but we are and we need some in Tahoe.

We always need more because they're rotating in and out. This this time of year and over the summer, there's a lot of vacations that they take. So we are trying to pull in additional drivers.

I think one of the other areas we talked about was the wait list for the program. So is that improving at all?

Yes. That is improving, and we're working on adding more home delivery clients, and our congregate sites are starting to double in dollars.

What what does the wait list what is it right now, Dean?

Handled by a different supervisor.

That's Andrea.

And and I will say if if you've not come in to see dining at the Placerville Congregate Dining site, there are days where we're realizing we might even need a wait list for congregate dining at the site, because she is filling the room right now. It's We're about set 60 to 60 to 70 a day. That's pretty good.

I only started off with maybe 10.

Did invite all of us to go, and I think that's a good idea. You know what? Another good idea, and I did it. It's amazing, is to do a ride along with drivers that deliver. And it's I An unusual experience. Yeah. Well, you know, that's endearing. And, you know, this is part of who we are. So it's part of our. And Steve?

What's a good question? We do anything at the senior center for Parkinson's?

We don't currently have any workshops for Parkinson's, and I don't know if Jordan has information in community where we have It's

just our support group, and we we do have support groups, a list of support groups for Parkinson's groups. That do me. IT.

There's a lot of things that are going on internationally. Incredible amount of research to speak that I'm involved in pilot project, but that's what I have to do. So But they they keep mentioning the senior center

and things that they were doing.

Had Who?

Who was mentioning?

People were. Okay. People. The group.

Not the people.

You don't have a specific Parkinson's support group. Family caregiver support would obviously support Parkinson's for the respite care education referral. So when someone's calling on a one on one basis, we are able

to Oh.

In that aspect.

But not, I mean, not specifically to Parkinson's.

No. I just wanted to thank Brittany and her staff for doing an excellent job in Tahoe, and they have extra obstacles in doing it with the snow and the roads and things up there. So I really appreciate your your help.

Thank you. We love giving it to you guys and being able to do that for you.

Oh, No. You didn't. So

on food costs, your raw materials, have you noticed it going up?

There is on certain items, there is an increase. Like, proteins are increasing a little bit. Not too crazy,

but it's getting up there. Sure.

Prior to COVID, we had you guys remember, we had liaisons. Each meal site had a liaison, and I was the actually liaison for. So I would go up there a couple times about have dinner or lunch with everybody, and I would bring stuff. And the first couple times, it was a little rough, but they figured out who I was. And then everybody knew who I was. I would talk to the coordinator and sit there at a table. It was kinda like, you got eight questions, so I need to come see me. Is there any do we still do that? If not, is there any thought about reinstituting that at our meal sites? Is this something that we can do that we plug right in?

And talk about outreach, you know, I mean, that you got a commissioner sitting there. It worked really well. I thought it was good. But then I moved from Pond Pines. After twenty years, I'm down at Diamond Springs now. So but I think if we don't do it, I think we should.

Jim, I think that's a a great thing to add to our conversation in February. Oh, yeah. Yeah. And definitely.

Yeah. Because COVID just wiped it out. Nobody and it just didn't come back. I noticed I have everybody talking about it. So

You don't have to wait till February. I'm I'm taking notes here. Oh, they will.

It happens. I I

anybody that, like Gail mentioned, outreach, outreach. The outreach team is here to get your ideas and figure out the best way that we can get there at whatever venue, organization, whatever, that we can provide information. And Jordan has also been so instrumental in teaching us where the county already goes and what types of information they they can provide. So if it's a new venue, we're super excited because and then we we do work with health and human services for them.

Great. Okay. It is 1045. Actually, 1046. I should we go ahead and do your reports? Oh, thank you. No. No. No. Yeah. No. Okay. Should we go ahead and do your reports?

I can do my report. Yeah.

Sure. And then we'll after that, we'll take a break.

Okay. Thank you. And and

I also wanna commend Britney on the hard work she's done. She's got a great term team that's really positive, very hardworking. But when she came on board, she came on board as a cook, and she was one of four people in the Placerville kitchen. So she went from a very small team to a very large team. And so there's a lot of hard work that went into building that up, and I really have to give her the kudos.

So We thank you

so But, anyway, so my first talking point is, you know, where I love to start is we talk about staffing. We still have several open recruitments. South Lake Tahoe is the one senior nutrition site that we're working on getting staffed fully. We have been carrying vacancies up there. We have two two candidates in background, one for a permanent meal site coordinator position and one for an extra help meal site coordinator position.

We've in the last month, we've experienced a big uptake in applicants for these positions, and I can't even count the number of times Britney's been scheduling interviews, but there are days where she's had 11 applicants that they're interviewing in one day, which is a huge improvement because it felt like we weren't seeing a lot of activity on those positions for a while. We still have a food services aid position that we've been interviewing for. We haven't made a job offer at this time, but we would be in a reference check phase for, the recruitment or the interviews that were completed recently. We still have the program coordinator position up there that's vacant. That would be an on-site supervisor position up there, which would move some of the staffing from Britney to that team and allow her to focus more completely on the West Slope and then coordinate activities with the other supervisor, up there.

And the supervisor up there would have different responsibilities as well, not just senior nutrition. They're looking we we're looking at activities as well. So it'd be slightly different function than what Britney does, down here. Let's see. We are in the process of discussing the possible coordination of a job fair up in South Lake Tahoe for the vacancies.

And right now, because the activity we've had in the last month, it would look like we're primarily looking for that program coordinator candidate up there. When we met last, I talked about our two vacant program assistant recruitments that we have down here in our Placerville senior center. One is family caregiver support, the other one's working in senior activities and would be they're both reporting to different program coordinators here. We recently conducted interviews, and we're in the process of conducting reference checks for those positions. And for senior day care, and this one is of the areas where I'm starting to get a little excited, is we have onboarded in the last month one new permanent program aid, and we just had an offer accepted for second program aid, which means we just have one program aid vacancy remaining once we get the second candidate on board.

So it's a good solid team right now, and we're growing and training, and it does give me confidence that we'll be able to hit some of the targets that we need to hit for that program. I also wanted to share that our donation page is finally live, so it's public facing. I'll have Yasmin share the information with all of you so you can see the page. Our next step will be to improve some of the links and connections to other pages so that it's more easily searchable and it's available or visible on each of our program information site. So I've been trying to do Google searches and see how I'm finding it, and I think we need to do some improvements in that area because it's not coming up at the top of my searches like our other programs do.

So so we'll work with IT on that and make some slight tweaks to that, and then we're gonna pull that information into the brochures. So that's our next phase in the process. One of the things that the website also mentions is that the volunteer opportunities, but that because that helps offset some of our costs. So you'll see a list on different possible opportunities there. I know Joan at the last meeting wanted me to talk about more about our volunteer recruitment, which is we have more volunteers that we work with than we have staff.

So there's anywhere between a 160 to 200 volunteers that we're working with at at any given time. And and the hours, we put a value on the hours that they provide. We track it, and then we use that as part of our match requirements with our funding agency for the area agency on aging area plan funding. So there is a benefit to our programs to show what we're bringing to the table to deliver services. And it's not just critical support that they provide, but it's also a way to reduce social isolation in seniors.

We're getting them involved. They're contributing, and so it's just providing more stimulation for those who maybe spend more time at at home or and are trying to figure out what they're gonna do in their retirement. I think the areas that I'm focusing on right now as well as Jordan is we recently purchased a minivan for the transportation program. This replaces our old, outdated giant van that we've been driving around for a while to operate as our senior shuttle. This will also mean that we can improve the transportations that we're that we're providing to maybe help more with groceries, appointments, medical, to meet some of the needs of our area seniors, especially those in rural area that may not have a driver, may not have transit opportunities available to them.

And Jordan is looking very actively for additional drivers. Right now, we have one driver for the shuttle, one volunteer driver. So if there's any volunteers in the community, we need senior shuttle drivers to be able to help expand this program further. And we could also use additional data entry support. If somebody is good at entering information in databases or is a good typist, you know, we could use some help on getting some of our telephone log logs entered into our database to better track the information on the services that we're providing.

So those are two critical points, but if somebody has unique talents and skills, we are welcome to accept any help a volunteer is able to offer. So so if somebody has an idea we haven't already thought of, we're willing to entertain that and see where we can put that into action. We do have Annika on our team right now, and she's working on focusing on senior volunteer development. So we'll have better coordination on how we bring our volunteers in and move those applications forward. One of the other things I wanted to break up bring up is, at the Health and Human Services Agency, we have a strategic plan that we're working on right now, and I believe Lynette has mentioned a little bit about it at our prior meetings.

I wanted to share with all of you that I am currently working with another HHS manager because we're looking at streamlining processes for HHS committees and commissions and the HHSA staff who clerk those meetings. So I've already started conversations with Joan about some of our processes and procedures and bylaws and where we want to make improvements or areas that we wanna focus on. So, you know, please share any information or thoughts you have with Joan, and she and I will be working together on that as we go forward. But I did wanna let you all know that we anticipate being able to pull together something that we can implement to just make those processes look cohesive for all the committees that HHS handles. So you'll start seeing changes in 2026 related to the work that we're doing on this committee.

And then the last thing I wanted to bring up and before I turn it over to Jordan is with sincere sadness, this is the last meeting, and I'm sure all of you have heard or most of you have heard at this time that this is the last meeting that Jordan will be attending as a representative for the area agency on aging because she has accepted right? She has accepted a promotion to a social worker in the in home supportive services program. So she's staying with HHSA. She's just going into another role and continuing to work with seniors and disabled populations. And we look forward to the great work she's gonna do in her new role, but we're incredibly sad to see her go and incredibly grateful for all the work that she has done for these programs and and how far she has taken these programs in life.

Jordan Jordan who? Jordan.

I know. I already forgot. So

I'll turn it over to Jordan with that said. I also wanted to mention that Lynette regrets that she's not able to attend, so we won't have an HSA manager report after.

I just got one question. Since the closure of Eldorado Hills, has there been an increase in people that have been coming up from Eldorado Hills to Placerville?

Or

We still have a shuttle coming up from El Dorado to Hills to Placerville. I think right now, we have some CSBG funding allocated to us, so we need to increase our marketing throughout the community. So that's one of the areas that we're really gonna be we're really targeting right now and getting the marketing materials coming forward. So we do have some participants that are coming up from the Eldorado Hills area. And then we also we're working with Eldorado Transit. We have a Placerville shuttle as well, and we're pulling together data. But so we have continued participants from Eldorado Hills.

Is there way or are you keeping track on how many are actually coming from Eldorado Hills?

We have the information. I don't have it in front of me to answer that question, but we do have that information. And I can walk in there because I was working down in Eldorado Hills for many months and pinpoint the people that are still coming up. And I'll you know, I think when I was there yesterday, I saw at least four or five face faces that we were serving down in Eldorado Hills. Is there a

wait list, or is this are the slots all

It's my understanding that the wait list that we have has been exhausted, so people are moving off the wait list. We are still actively needing to fill some of our slots. And we do currently have two different financial assistance opportunities. So we have CSBG funding that can offset the enrollment fee and provide some respite days, and we have friends of seniors funding that can provide some days as well as family caregiver support program that can provide days. So we're really trying to market that to bring more participants in because we do need more participants in the

how many spots? I mean, not exactly, but, like You know what I mean? Five? I mean, I don't I have no idea.

I think that's where I wanna start right now because every participant can choose the number of days that they're participating in the program. So if we have a bunch of people that only want one day, we need more referrals coming in. So we need to boost our attendance. I think right now, I'm looking at at least trying to get 35 families in there, and that should get us to the place that we need to be to operate with a full staff and full participation. So we have a lot more work to do.

We're pulling together a new wait list. We're working with Mountain Democrat right now. They're gonna come in, and I think, Janet, you may have been part of that. I'm not sure. But we're working with Mountain Democrat to have them come in and feature an article as well as publish in four different local papers.

And Andrea, who's not here today, she is actually the program coordinator that works side by side with Britney in Placerville. She has been helping us out with the the club while we have the supervisors out until January, and she's been boosting up the media campaign. If anybody's seeing Facebook, there's been some really great posts that she's made with a lot of activity. One, I think there was about last time I looked, there were 68 reactions and 16 shares and a whole bunch of comments. So so I think we're we're making improvements.

We're on the road, but we still have a lot more work to do. We are just at a final proof of a new brochure. So we have a new brochure we're we'll be delivering for, those programs as well. So it's all hands on deck. My supervisor, who's the HHSA deputy director, is helping out with the assessment so we can bring in new members. And I think we have one that we're starting next week. So we're on our way. We we still have a lot of work to do.

Lot of work. Busy busy lady. She hasn't

been. Jordan?

Hello, everybody. I'm doing my report. We have I think, as you know, we lost Laurie Carter, family caregiver support. She retired. And in that process, I am now training Beth. We're pulling Beth from Outreach. So she will be mainly in her desk five days a week doing intakes for family caregiver support, supporting our transportation grants. Right now, we have two running transportation grants. We have the CSBG transportation, which is income based, and then we have the friends of seniors. And then we have just an assisted transportation through the AAA.

So we have quite a few transportation options, and then the senior shuttle as well. So for those transportation options for seniors, so those friends of seniors, CSBG, and our assistant do take a little intake, a little paperwork, a little documentation data, service orders, billing. So those do take some time for us to do. So she will be focused in on that during my transition. Out of that office, obviously, from this busy lady over here.

And that's what basically, I think it's gonna be business as usual as far as those intakes. It seems like it I've been hitting the phones, and our phones are ringing for family caregiver support. I think just in the last week and a half, we've done about nine intakes. You've seen them come through for CSBG and home care and transportation and family caregiver support. So we Anika, we have billing coming in for rebuilding together, working for fall prevention.

I'm excited to teach Anika who is very analytical. It's been nice to have her in the desk. She's able to kinda see things, so I'm very excited to take her through the billing process. I think that she's gonna do fine as far as intakes and our fall prevention, which is ending in March. So we're working through I think as our last pipeline from our provider, we're probably around 60 people that we've been able to do since August, which is pretty pretty good for us, again, entailing all the billing and the the data that we have to collect for that.

So and then my exit, I am very honored, very lucky to have done the job that I've been able to do, the positions that I've been able to take on, the trusts granted to me by my support staff, my supervisors, this program, these programs at AAA. I didn't know they existed before I started with HHS and Adult Protective Services some time ago. I came over here from Adult Protective Services to mine resources. And I feel that that has been done, and I'm very with my team, with my supervisor support, and with you all. Being able to mine and guide and get into the community, do assessments on what the community needs, and ask always for your guys' support in all of this.

So I appreciate it. I'm now going back as a social worker to take these resources. And like Jim said it, where the rubber meets the road, being able to really long on going support people in their homes and solve problems as I do in a one on one basis with people and make some progress in that sense. So I'm very excited and very sad at the same time. So thank you, everybody, for your hard work. It's inspiring to me. I will be on this condition one day. You probably guarantee it.

There's there's a lot of us here that remember when she came. And there's well, a few of us who remember looking at each other and going, she's not gonna be here for long. And so I just have to say, I I'm thankful that you stayed with us as long as you did.

We didn't take you through

that long.

This has been it's been fun.

Thank

you. Thank you.

Jordan. Right?

Yes, sir. Are

you moving over to Off 40?

I'm off of Brew Brew Road. Yeah. Yeah. Up Brew.

Yep. Yes. You wanna find her? I'm gonna I'm gonna work there.

I got a house over there.

Why have you say that it's been hotter working with you?

We have Rebecca. Rebecca. I don't Oh, wait. It's okay. I gotta get over there. Oh, Are you trying?

I'm gonna leave it here.

You're not done?

No. I'm done.

Oh. Yes.

You're Oh, I I are we through? Yes, please.

Oh, no. I'm up to Tahoe right now. Yep.

I got some things to close-up up there. So thank you, everybody. Wait

a minute.

You're going now?

I'm going now. Okay.

Well, hold on just a minute, please. You got cheese? Hold on just a minute, please.

You gotta stay one more minute.

Because,

on behalf of Outreach, I was wanting to make this little statement on behalf of all of you as well as Outreach. And, it is with much sadness that we're saying goodbye to you, and you're moving on to social services, which you'll be a gift to them as you've been a gift to us. You've been amazing for our seniors, and, you've taken on so many roles in the effort to ensure the services that are available to our seniors are provided to them. You've done it with passion. You've done it with commitment and enthusiasm.

Any new opportunities, you jump at them in a minute. And so it's been a privilege for the COA to work with you. Therefore, in appreciation of our committee, the outreach committee, to our seniors and for all of your outreach, the COA outreach team would like to present to you a thank you from the team. And so Joan is giving you our little token of thanks with a personal note.

I was gonna leave. I was gonna leave.

I wanna take the outreach. Really put in

this stuff. Thank you, everybody. I'm shaking.

Helpful.

Thank you, Jordan.

You're it says Jordan, many thanks to commission outreach team twenty twenty five. Thank you. Thank you. I am always here for you, and you'll probably be hearing from me on community needs quite often.

We need to hear from you.

I'm gonna consider y'all. So thank you. Thank you. Everybody. Car too. Okay. This is

my office got me today too. This is one this was just oh, you, everybody.

Do I have to read this out loud?

No. No.

No. Thank you, everyone. Thank you for your good work. Passionate. I've just met you guys where you're at. That's all I all I

feel like I've done. So I appreciate it. Thank you. You're the Every one of you. Every one of you.

You. Thank you. And you. Thank you. You go.

Great. I gotta go.

Bye, everybody. You know I love No. Thank you. Thank you, Jordan. I'm so grateful. I'm grateful for you all.

Oh,

there's the outreach program. I promise. We have one more report from Rebecca. Rebecca, are you with us?

Yeah. I'm still here. I'm here.

Hi. Sorry.

That's okay. No. That's okay. Good morning, everybody. Again, Rebecca with community services program coordinator. Before I do my report, I just wanted to answer Steve's question regarding Parkinson's. The senior center did have a Parkinson's group before COVID. After COVID, they figured out a different location. But if anyone in the community is looking for any Parkinson's resources, really linking with the Parkinson's Association. Gold Country Community was wanting to start a Parkinson's group.

So there may be others in the area, but, reaching out to the Parkinson's Association will be your best, for any resources or support. So just wanted to give you guys that update. I have a few things that I wanted to inform y'all about. Our Heap and weatherization programs. We're waiting for funding for our next year, so those are on hold as far as providing services.

The Yana program, you are not alone. We did have a new volunteer starting about two weeks ago. So right now, I'm good for volunteers. But if I do have any interest, I'm welcome I'd I'd welcome those as well. And so a reminder, those are those check-in morning calls for participants who are seniors, Eldorado County residents, and homebound.

Our community action council, I did forward a email to Yasmin this morning. Joan, you had asked for a brief description of our community action council, so I forwarded that to Yasmin. So, hopefully, by the end of the day, or next week, you guys will have that information. We are seeking two community based members for our council. And a quick reminder, the community action council is a council focusing on the low income needs in our community.

So the low income community needs. And and then the other, our senior activities, we are doing great. We have line dancing that started a few weeks ago, so it's a really good a good group. We had line dancing, the two sections. She does the first forty five minutes of a slower pace and then the next forty five minutes of a of a very different fast pace.

So if you're into line dancing, I love hearing the music down the hall. It's good. And then I did wanna touch base on our senior times. We have tried to slim down some of our senior times just to be a little bit more cost effective and focused on our distribution. So we've reached out to our businesses that are reaching some of the community with the senior time.

So we're not sending out as many as as we have been to some of the businesses. And so if you guys our goal in that is we really want a business to have the senior times where community members are actually reading it, and they're knowing that it's there. So we with INA's support, we did some research, and some of the businesses that we're receiving, the senior times weren't utilizing it. So we're trying to maximize that resource as much as possible. And I did wanna connect with you guys as a commission.

We do value your support in the senior times. I've had some really good articles from you guys. And so the last few months, we haven't had any, which is fine. But I do hope that in the new year, we could kinda work on a schedule so that way we can still maintain your contribution for articles. You guys are the seniors in the community, and you guys are knowing what what's out there as far as, like, issues or interests.

And so I really value your participation in submitting an article. So I hope that in the New Year, with you guys, we could do that. And then I don't have any other, things to to add unless you guys have any questions on the programs.

Well, the only question I have is when is the next community

action? Community action.

Yeah.

And our next community action meeting is December 10. Typically, the community action meetings are on the fourth Wednesday of the month. But due to the holidays, we December 10 what is that? Two weeks now? Three weeks? So it'll be December 10 at 10AM, and we have a Zoom meeting. And, also, we meet in Placerville off of Fairlane in Building A, Conference Room A. I can send you that if you are really interested. Or if you just go online to the board of supervisors with the agenda and minutes, you can find our agenda there and get the Zoom link and all that information there as well.

I'd like to encourage As many of you guys can at least go online and observe what they're doing. Thank you for your participation.

Yeah. Tita, you had a question.

So did you say LIHEAP funding has all been spent?

Yes. We were no longer processing twenty twenty five applications, so we're waiting for twenty twenty six grants to come through.

Alright. So if people come and seek help for, like, paying cocaine or whatever, what happens then?

Currently, right now, we're not able to process those, so we're denying our applicants. People can turn in stuff, but we just we don't have funding to award them. So if there's a need, there's very minimal resources in the community. So if we have clients reaching out to us, we will refer them to whatever resources we have, other community businesses or nonprofits. But right now, we're not as LIHEAP, we are not able to assist.

And so the grants that you're waiving for, when when do you think they'll be processed, or how what is the time frame, I guess?

That's so I I wish I had better answers. It really is dependent on what's congress doing and everything. We know we've had some movement there, but the state department relies on the federal government's decision, and then the state department receives those, and then they administer to us. So there's a few steps before we even receive any kind of final contract material. On a typical or historical, we would be receiving contract by November, and it takes about a month to two months for everything to get dialed in.

And then, you know, we'd start in the new year. So I I don't know. I mean, our hope is that by January, we'll be able to start administering the contract. And so it it just kinda depends on things out of our control.

Just one final question. How many families did you serve last year?

In 2024 or 2025? Gosh. What did I say that last meeting? It was almost about 2,000, I I feel like, families. And every family receives a range between 500 to $1,000. The emergency families may receive up to 1,500. I can get those numbers to you, Tita. I can email you later.

That would just be I mean, it just helps us understand the impact when the budgets are tied up and you're waiting for grants to get processed and the fact that we've got, like, maybe a sixty to ninety day period where we have to tell people we don't have stuff for them. So I I really appreciate that. Thank you.

Yeah. Yeah. You're welcome. Thank you, Rebecca. You're welcome, everyone. It's it's time now. Let's take a little break. It's a fast ten minutes. If we can get back sooner, let's do it. So each is warm.

Welcome back. Let's move on with committee reports executive committee, which has my name by it. I wanna thank everybody that has participated in the executive committee this year, and it was Liz and Ray and Bob. And, yeah, we we talked a lot about putting the agendas together, and I have really appreciated the support, especially from you, Liz. Liz Brown had.

And, anyway, I got the end of my report, policy and legislation. Whichever you

Speaking of?

Yep. I'll give the report.

Mhmm.

I can give that. Our CSL, we recently held our annual meeting in October and came away with our 10 proposals that CSL is sponsoring this year, and, they were voted on and approved. Subsequent to the meeting now that was in October, now we're, CSL teams are beginning to contact their legislators to arrange for meetings to discuss the proposals, hoping that a legislator will pick up our our bills as proposals for them. So this process will take us into January. And, currently, these kind of meetings are on Zoom with, usually staff from a legislator's office.

This year, of course, several of the proposals that we have are the same as prior years. CSL doesn't give up. And one of the proposal that has gone around again, and has been forwarded several times, it's, of course, great importance. It's a personal need allowance for Medi Cal individuals in a nursing home where they get the P and A of $35, which they've had since the nineteen eighties. So, last year, the proposal was picked up, but it didn't make it.

So we're gonna try again, and we'll see. That's how CSL does go, but we did have a success, which from our last last year, which allows me to now sit here and talk to you as a a participating member. So that, was very much involved with the CSL was very much involved in getting that done. So that's kinda where we are.

Okay. I had a question. One of the and two of you possibly might have the answer. But the one that came up last year that was approved for the being able to do business online. Mhmm. You know what I'm talking about? Right. And what what is what is the result of that? Did it pass?

Did pass. Right. It has passed.

And so what is the net effect of that? I mean That

I can sit here today as a participant where before I couldn't if I wasn't at the meetings.

Was that something that

was that something we had is in during COVID that allowed us to participate, and then it expired. So now this is back in place again.

Do you have a vote, and you've kept the core? As far

as I know. Yep.

Really?

As far as I know.

It's not in effect yet.

Not in effect yet. Okay.

When is it in effect?

I think after January. Yeah.

Okay. So

it's getting close, but that's the main thing that's gonna come out of this that we were instrumental in helping get that through.

Great job. Tina? So

Pat had a joint meeting at the C4A conference in November. It was a joint meeting of the California Commission on Legions. So that's the statewide body of commissioners. And then TAP, of course, is the local body of commissioners, of which I'm a member for El Dorado County. And what was there were some interesting takeaways from that joint meeting.

They did go into the master plan on aging, and they said, okay. We're at the five year mark. So now they're focusing more on how do we actually do implementation and some of the areas of focus on long term services and support. And, basically, they want to be able to make navigation easier for a new client to be able to see you know, regardless of where you live in California, do you have access to long term services and fee supports? We're also trying to understand the gaps between Medi Cal and non Medi Cal clients.

Some of the issues right now are workforce availability, the training of the workforce, both for paid and nonpaid, service workers. Because, obviously, a lot of family members are doing long term services and supports that they're unpaid. We do want to provide them the appropriate training because it is tough to be a caregiver. The other thing that they've been trying to explore is how can we possibly provide some financing options for the general population to explore. Because long term services and supports, it's really not covered by Medicare.

So so it's kind of a big eye opener for the general public. They become medic Medicare enabled. They think some of these services are covered and they're not. So they're trying to figure out, are there any types of financing opportunities that can be provided to the general public? And that's that's kind of out there as far as the horizon as far as it's not gonna have that's not gonna happen in in in any real time soon.

But they are exploring what the options look like and modeling potential types of how to find. The California Commission on Aging for the 2026 focus, they're looking at nutrition as just the basic needs, also because it also is a service from that has been mandated from the Older Americans Act. So that's one of the focuses, nutrition. And then another big thing they're trying to get into is housing. Housing both from an affordability aspect and also from accessibility.

And one of the things that they recognize is in order to be able to influence policy on housing, aging advocates need to be at the table. So they're trying to figure out better engagement with legislatures, legislative policy to make sure that housing for older adults, both affordability and accessibility, is getting more mindshare. They're also looking also at, you know, the old question of how to age in place. So what services need to be in place? What type of policy to be to allow seniors to age in place, you know, are are needed.

So, anyway, that's gonna be a couple of their focuses, the 2026. The other thing that was presented at this meeting was an amazing presentation by Justice in Aging. If you want a part of their email list, get on it. They just have amazing webinars and different types of kind of training sessions that are available in newsletters that are relevant for older adults. But what they had a presentation on that was just so primed, it was the impacts of HR one.

So, basically, they talked about Medicaid cuts, the impact of SNAP not being available, and they also went to a whole piece at the end of the presentation of how to advocate at the federal level. But there was takeaways from that where you could also use it for how do you advocate within your local community. Anyway, I found that presentation just quick. And, again, Justice and AJ, they're just one of the organizations that really tries to provide you with the tools of what do you need to know and then how do you how can you work within the community to get people's awareness, you know, as to how they are aging and what things are impacting their quality of life. The one thing that I I I did like from the commission that was kinda like an operational thing, and I I think we can adopt it for our commission was they said there was somebody that spoke, and I forget who, but was how do we operate?

And she says, we operate the four p's. So the four p's is pretty cool. It's we partner. We participate. We promote. We persist. Anyway, I wanna do twenty twenty six, the four p's. I mean, personally, I I really like it as a p.

Anyway, that's my book.

I think the the one thing that that they seem to be really watching as much I'm I'm any of the the seminars or workout session work sessions was they need narratives and and about how how people how people's lives are being affected by what's going on and what kind of felt we're not getting. So if you, you know, if you have any stories, narratives, they really you know, those they felt like I I had something you can think of that. They felt like that was powerful. Yeah. That's that's the you know, along with everything else we could do, the narratives are what are they gonna sway the powers, hopefully.

Okay. Anything else? Tina, thank you. You summed it up. Okay. I was there, and you did a great job, me what was you said. Outreach. Brittany, you're still here.

I'm here for a bit, and I just thought I can cover the outreach. We've had a few hiccups these last few weeks. Of Tita and I were scheduled to do Trunk or Treat in El Dorado Hills, which is one of our favorite events we've been doing for years, but we couldn't attend because of our health issues. But this is kind of like one of the events that, usually has about 1,500 kids attending, which brings and, like, 1,500 kids attending, bringing along their parents and their grandparents, so we have a great opportunity to discuss our programs with them. So it has proved to be a great opportunity.

And but the thing we do is supply the treats. But since we were set to go but couldn't make it, I took the 1,700 pieces of candy that I purchased to the CSD to distribute as they wanted. So it'll be going to the seniors and the teen center. But, it's these kind of events that, when we can reach out to individuals, provide them our brochures, talk to them about our programs, it really, gives us that outreach opportunity. And I know Liz, she's been active, so I'll ask her to cover her activities. Liz?

I've been out I think I recorded last month that we spoke to the local home park Garden. And this in December coming up on the second and the fourth, Linda has arranged that I will be speaking to the Glasgow Police Department during their shift changes about senior activities. You bet it'll be there to to fill in the blanks that I forget. So that's a new opportunity for us. We have spoken with the sheriff's department, but now we're gonna be.

They have had in their cars our senior services brochures. Linda had distributed those when she first came on to the commission, and they continue to carry those in their cars as resources. But if they need explanation of how to implement those things and what kinds of situations they may run into that they can use those with and how to make the referrals when they run through those situations. So I will be talking to them as well. And we didn't have it on the agenda before, but it has come up since, if I may, Joan talked about the community assessment at First Medical.

The Right. Has to do an ample community assessment. I participated in it when I was a employee there, but a part of their life insurer that in their strategic plan, they have to do this community assessment. And they've asked their volunteer to mention my agent because they

are not aware of us. So we've got multiple people who are

willing to do that, and so

you don't want to do something about finding somebody. After all these years, Marshall's found you.

I'm sorry? This is Marshall? Yes.

And after all these years, they found you recognized? No.

Actually, Roberta was on this date 2017

Yes.

Quite a while.

And thanks to all

of his efforts with the auxiliary there. They they cut up

the chain and become a quite which they're aware of.

Were you were you interested in in?

I think she'd be a great versus the state of.

She speaks well.

Well and she kinda what she's talking about. Her side is partial. You know, there's a lot of She checked a lot of box.

I I I I received the information the other day. You asked me about it, but I didn't have a chance to call in and find out what it was about. So I'm glad that you're feeling. I'll speak with her back. Okay. That's okay. Anything else in Outreach?

Well, Liz, is that it? Yes. That's a lot. Thank you so much. And I will just say that, unfortunately, she's not here to tell you what she's been doing, but she has been really out there once again. She's going to go to the school. But, unfortunately, she's sick today, so she can't give her report. But, anyway, Gedda is busy out with the churches and, done a lot with churches. She's working now with the school. So, we're working on making some different avenues for us.

But one item we do need to address before we meet again, and that is the COA's monthly article for the senior times. As Rebecca was saying, we have been we came up short without articles the last of the year. But if we wanna go forward, we do need some authors for January and February. So, I guess I'll leave it for discussion as to whether we wanna continue, and if so, who would volunteer for January and February. The rest of the months, we'll follow-up with our form when we get together in February.

Okay.

Rebecca has her hand up.

Rebecca.

Sorry. I didn't mean to cut Raelene off. I just thought about, senior of the year, and I do need to request that item for the board in January. So with you guys not meeting in December, I was hoping I don't know if the outreach committee usually discusses this, but I just kinda wanted to put the bug in your your ear that we do need to reach out to the board of supervisors in or actually the clerk of the board in January to secure the senior of the year. So I don't need an answer now. I just wanted to make sure that we can work on that so that way in January, we're prepared.

Great. Thank you. Raelene, anything else?

Well, I guess that brings us back to the issue of the the, senior times. Because if we don't have two people sign up, then by the time next time we meet, we will have missed both January, February.

Sacred. But we're we're Raelene or maybe need to put

it to Rebecca. When is the when are the articles due? Like, it's the

It'll be due. The the

June by?

It is gonna January is gonna be due by December 10. February is gonna be due by January 10, a month ahead.

Do you have topics that you're wanting to have?

Whatever you whatever you think is of interest from your experience out in the community, where are their interests, and what can we write about that may be helped in in this wide open door. It can be whatever, issues that we see as a necessity to to write about.

And and just to help the length of the article, it's about a page and a half of, single space, 12 font. So it's not it's not too long, and and that's that's all that we need. So it it's it doesn't have to be I'm not looking for five pages here.

No. It's grateful to Rebecca for editing. I've

done of those. One one She had it sold. Eight by eight and a half by 11 sheet. I've done it on my computer.

I'll do one.

Okay. Ray, which would you like?

I can do I can try to get the let's see. Is it January what what is

when is January?

December 10 for January.

I probably could do it. I'll do the February one.

Okay. Great. Oh, that'll be great. Thank you guys so much, and I look forward to seeing your articles. And then we'll have the other sign ups when we have our

Well, I'll do March, so let's get that covered.

I'm sorry?

I will do March.

Oh, perfect. Then let's that's great. So we have January, February, March. Perfect.

Wanna do later in the year because of the mission to honor. So oh, that would be good. Yeah. I'd love to do August.

Okay. Well Alright.

She signed up for August. Perfect. Thanks for asking me specifically. Okay.

So let's see. We've got let's see. We've got Ray for January.

Back here for you, Julie.

What? Write an article about

Anything you wish. I can do something later

in the year. Let's let's go with September.

Celltech September. Sure. September.

I can make it in a hall recording

on eight.

Okay. I better make a note

of that. No. Okay. So Joan, help me make sure I've got tell

The article will be due the July 10. The September article will be due this August 10. Mhmm.

Liz, what month did you take?

March. March. June.

Okay. So I have that's great. We have January. We have February.

Right now. We got

a couple of oh, and I wanna tell you guys, if if you wanna be like me, I did a couple of them, and I cheat. I I have a a purpose, an idea, like, own, you know, fall prevention. And I go online, and I find an article about that size. And then I I may not do the whole thing, but I will do that, and then I will give the credit to the author where I got it online. It's a great article, and you look how to fix all this stuff up.

That's a very good point. There's a lot of stuff out there that we can borrow. So that's great. I think it's frozen.

Hello?

Are we still connected, hon?

They we lost connection with them. So

I think so. Well, then I'm gonna check out anyway. I've gotta meet

Me too.

Open appointments. So, anyway

I'll see you later.

Thanks, hon. Thanks so much for bringing up the subject of the senior times.

You're welcome. You take care.

So you too.

Thank you.

You're welcome. Bye bye. Hello,

Liz? I see that. Oh, well, thank you. But we've but got the most important thing in at the last there who's gonna do senior times. So that's oh, Kim, would you send that to me? And then I'll put it on the our schedule, and then we'll I'll fill in those blanks. And then the other month's people can fill up in February. So I think this is a great start. Okay. Well, I have to go to my doctor appointment anyway, so I'll I'm not sure how to leave it. But so you too, hon. Talk to you soon. Mhmm. Bye bye.

University of communications, we were driving cattlemen. Since you see all that development, there has not been a new hospital built in years with this increase in population.

Where? Anywhere. There's three of them in Folsom.

They're gonna close down.

Those have been there for a while. We're talking about new construction of a hospital.