Board of Supervisors - Regular Meeting

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It's too early. I'll be out of here. What is this about?

Are we supposed to say anything?

OK, cool. Ready?

Good morning, everyone. Welcome to San Joaquin County Board of Supervisors meeting August 4th, 2026. Time is 9.04. The meeting is called to order. We will have a moment of silence at this time. Please join me in the memory of Brian Beckman, who passed recently in July. Mr. Beckman was the district maintenance and construction superintendent responsible for preventive maintenance and repairs for Sheriff Complex and Juvenile Justice Center. Thank you so much. Supervisor Rickman, would you lead the pledge, sir?

I pledge allegiance to the flag of the United States of America and to the republic for which it stands, one nation under God, indivisible, with liberty and justice for all. Thank you, Chairman.

Roll call, please.

Thank you, Chair. Supervisor Gardea.

Present.

Supervisor Canepa. Here. Supervisor Ding.

Here.

Supervisor Rickman. Here. And Chair Dhaliwal.

Here. Next, we have public comments. no we have recognitions first yes sorry i'm going too fast board members please join me

Thank you, Chair. Our first recognition is of our retiring Stockton Metropolitan Airport director, Richard Sokol, who came to San Joaquin County in February 2023 with over 25 years of previous experience working for three different airports. Mr. Sokol possesses a master's degree in business strategy and a bachelor's in transportation marketing and is also an accredited airport executive with the American Association of Airport Executives. On behalf of the board, Director Sokol, we wish you the best in your future endeavors. And I'll turn it over to Chair Dhaliwal on the board to present you with the plaque and hear a few words from you.

Good morning. How are you? Thank you for everything you have done for our county. We wish you all the best. Wish you a happy retirement. Would you like to say a few words?

Thank you. Good morning, everyone. Just a couple words. On my way out the door, birds, bees, butterflies fly naturally. People do not. We have had to design complicated machines and infrastructure so that we could take advantage of flight. We've had to build a team of folks to manage that infrastructure. and we've done that very well here in San Joaquin County. I'd like to just take a minute to recognize the many members of the team here in San Joaquin County that all work together so that we can take advantage of the economic benefits of flying. Mike Cosgrave and Nick Gutierrez are supervisors in our Operations and Maintenance Group, and they are led by Deputy Airport Director, Ellen Uspalmer, and they work with a large group of partners. I just want to mention a few of the partners that they work with every day. They work with San Joaquin County Sheriff's Office, Montezuma Fire District, the FAA, the TSA, and with the Airport Advisory Committee, among many other partners. Aviation does not come naturally to man. We have to work hard at it every day. We have to work hard to make it safe and secure every day, and our team does that very well. I'm very proud of the safety record that we've had here during my tenure. And I think you are well served and should be very proud of the team that you've built here. Finally, I just want to mention that wherever I am and wherever I'm doing elsewhere or in the county, I just want everyone to know that I always wish every member of the San Joaquin County community, blue skies and happy landings.

Thank you, sir. Board members.

First off, congratulations on your retirement. And, uh, I mean, just over the time that I've been here, the growth of the airport has been good. and the advocacy trips that we do in Washington, DC, and how we grow the one runway and new control tower that we've been working on. It's all works in progress. And I want to congratulate you on getting us to where we are now and look forward to taking it to the next step. So thank you for doing all that you've done.

congratulations sir you know uh we have a diamond in the rough and and over the last two years i've seen your vision and uh how our stockton airport uh san joaquin county airport can grow and the opportunities that we've have out there for not just passenger flights but also freight flights and things like that so i just want to say thank you for your commitment to san joaquin county thank you

I just wanna say congratulations. What I appreciate about you is your fortitude, your drive. I mean, running a little airport where you're constantly trying to recruit and being told no over and over and over again, and you just never stopped. And I just wanna tell you that I see that, I appreciate that, and you've been a benefit to San Joaquin County.

Thank you.

Sir? Yeah, thank you for everything you did. And, you know, putting the airport in position to grow in advance. And, hey, we just had a meeting here last week or week before on some of the accomplishments that you had and what's going to happen here in the future. And we appreciate everything. We appreciate you coming with us to our trips in Washington, D.C. Those of you that haven't sat down with them and talked about, you know, airport and how to run an airport and everything aviation, I mean, my God, man, you're just a plethora of knowledge, and we really appreciate it. But most of all, you know, enjoy your retirement, enjoy your time with your family, and, you know, take it easy. And, hey, we'll always be here. If you're not doing anything, getting lonely, come back and visit the board. Again, congratulations, and God bless you, and God bless your family.

Thank you. Please join us. Next, please.

Thank you, Chair. Our next recognition is brought forward by Supervisor Deing of the 4th Supervisorial District. And this is the recognition of Welcome Home Heroes Foundation that is brought as part of the Chair Dolly Wall's celebration of our nation's 250th anniversary. I would like to invite David Radjkovic to the podium as I read the recognition presented to Welcome Home Heroes Foundation. in honor of an all-volunteer organization comprised of Gold Star families, Blue Star families, and local veterans, whose mission is to provide assistance and support to the United States veterans and their families in need. Through its unwavering commitment to serving those who have served our nation, the foundation exemplifies the values of patriotism, compassion, and community service. Its dedicated volunteers work tirelessly to ensure that veterans and their families receive the support, respect, and recognition they deserve. With sincere gratitude, the board proudly recognizes the Welcome Home Heroes Foundation for its outstanding service and lasting contributions to our veterans, our military families, and the community. Thank you and best wishes presented this fourth day of August, 2026. Chair Dollywall and Supervisor Ding.

Thank you, Rochelle. Sir, thank you so much for everything you and your team is doing. On behalf of my colleagues, we really appreciate it. And thank you. Thank you.

David, we've known each other a long time, and you just never stop. And I appreciate that. There's so many organizations out there, and you wonder what they actually do. If you're donating, does your money go to where it's supposed to be? David, with your organization, there's no doubt. because you're kind of a cheap ass so we know you're watching you know every single penny and i appreciate that let me tell you a cool story real quick i got a call from from tennessee and the lady in tennessee said i've got this uncle who lives in lodi and he's a veteran and he's very proud and he's not going to ask for help but there's 10 buckets in his living room because water is pouring through the roof And so with David's help and a few other organizations, raised the money, went out there. Mike was very instrumental in this. And we re-roofed his house. And that's service. And that's something that hits our community. I'm very excited about the 11th and 12th. I get to be reunited with Vince Nostro once again, who put on our air show back in. I'm not even going to try to remember the date, but it was the salute to Bob Hope, AG Spanos air show back in the day. But we're going to do a salute to veterans out at the airport with a smaller version of an air show. And I hope everybody shows up. David.

Well, thank you. Like you said, I'm David Rakovich. I've been involved with the Welcome Home Heroes here for quite a while. I was here six weeks ago and I presented on the Stockton Maritime Museum the plans that we unveiled about us moving our historic ship to the downtown Stockton waterfront.

But I'm here today to talk about the item that are more, excuse me,

What I'm more passionate about than history is our local veterans. Welcome Home Heroes is a benevolent nonprofit, 501C3 based in San Joaquin County, created to identify, assist, and support our local tri-county returning servicemen and women who served primarily in Iraq and Afghanistan. We're a homegrown 501c3 nonprofit made up of Gold Star, Blue Star families, as well as local veterans. The principles of the program are still the same as originally founded, and that's being Mike Anderson and Vince Nastro. It began in 2007. All donations, this is what I love about the organization, every dime goes directly to the organizers. There is no overhead, no paid employees. It is all volunteer operated. All these funds go to veterans and families of the US military and their transition from active duty to private life. Veterans are typically referred to the foundation from both the Palo Alto and Livermore offices of the VA and the local vet center. And I've referred veterans to them that I've met as well that are in some sort of hardship and able to get them assistance from the Welcome Home Heroes. We continue addressing the needs of OIF and OEF veterans by helping to bridge the gap between the time the veterans is evaluated by the VA and compensated by the DOD. Welcome Home Heroes Foundation goal is to help cover the gap between the VA and DOD so veterans do not lose homes or collapse to unbearable debt and stress, in addition to handling the consequences of injuries resulting from service in the military. We help them in their transition home with existing financial loans, moral support, and integration with the local county veterans service organization and federal veterans administration. We operate on a case-by-case basis, The foundation provides assistance to the VA and the Department of Defense to help expedite the wounded's application, evaluation, and veterans benefits process. It has been an honor, the Welcome Home Heroes Foundation to have stood tall and be able to distribute hundreds of thousands of dollars during the Thanksgiving and Christmas holiday seasons to veterans and their active duty military personnel who are in true need of support. We have also had success with a working dog program and meeting more of the needs of our local service member. Supervisor Ding, you mentioned earlier the Lodi veteran in need of a roof. With the discretionary funds that you allowed and assistance from your staff, we were successful in completing his venture and giving back to a family that served this country with honor and distinction. The Green Beret no longer has plastic sheeting covering his house. To commemorate the 25th anniversary of the tragic terrorist attack on our nation on 9-11, we're hosting a free event out at Stockton Airport on September the 12th. This is a Saturday event which does not compromise the current commemorative ceremonies put on by our local veterans organizations on Friday 9-11. There will be F-16s, F-18 Super Hornets flying in for their static displays along with other military craft. We're happy to have Lodi's 101-year-old Sergeant Frank Wright, World War II Marine Corps veteran, as our keynote speaker, and you will also be making some addresses from the podium. This promises to be a spectacular event. Thank you again, Supervisor, for your time, consideration, and recognition of the welcome home heroes. Thank you.

Next, please.

Thank you, Chair. Next is the proclamation of Laura DeForest Gordon Day in San Joaquin County, presented by Supervisor Deane of the Forest Supervisorial District. And I would like to invite Elaine Dasher and other representatives with her today to the podium as I read this proclamation, which states. Whereas Laura DeForest Gordon was born on August 17, 1838, and as a young lecturer on spiritualism, developed the exceptional public speaking skills that she later used to champion temperance, women's suffrage, and social reform throughout the United States. And whereas inspired by suffrage leaders Susan B. Anthony and Elizabeth Cady Stanton, Laura DeForest Gordon dedicated her life to securing voting rights for women, eventually settling in San Joaquin County, where she lived in Lodi, and worked in Stockton while advancing the cause of equality. And whereas Laura DeForest Gordon, together with Clara Shortridge Foltz, successfully advocated for the inclusion in the California Constitution of 1879 of a provision prohibiting discrimination in lawful occupations based on sex expanding equal opportunities for women across the state, while continuing to inspire Californians through her tireless advocacy and powerful oratory. And whereas establishing an annual Laura DeForest Gordon Day provides an opportunity to honor her enduring legacy, celebrate the achievements of strong women from all backgrounds, and reflect on the ongoing pursuit of equality and justice, now therefore be it resolved that the San Joaquin County Board of Supervisors does hereby proclaim August 17th as Laura DeForest Gordon Day in San Joaquin County, reaffirming our commitment to recognizing our community's strong women and the contributions they've made to the county we love today. Presented this fourth day of August 2026. Chair Dhaliwal and Supervisor Ding.

Thank you, Shel. Thank you and welcome, Supervisor Ding.

Thank you. First off, I'd like to thank Jennifer Mello and Veronica Miley for bringing this to our attention. If Laura DeForest Gordon were around today, we'd consider her one of the bad girls. Yeah, she was right there. But rather than listen to me talk, because I get tired of hearing myself talk, why don't you tell us who Laura DeForest Gordon is?

I would love to. May I use that? Laura DeForest Gordon was born in 1838 back east in Pennsylvania.

She had only a grade school education. She had to drop out to help support her younger siblings.

Now, what would have been typical at the time for a young girl would be to take in washing or mending or maybe go live with another family to be a cook or a nanny, but not Laura. Laura realized she could speak to the dead. She started trance talking and giving seances. She was so good at it that by age 15, she was going city to city on the lecture circuit. And that's how in 1854, Laura DeForest Gordon met Susan B. Anthony and Elizabeth Cady Stanton. And suddenly, the spirits had a new message for us. Women need the right to vote. Laura determined she would carry that message west to the people of California. She began working her way across the country. In St. Louis, she met and married a dashing Civil War doctor with a Scottish accent. They kept working. Laura gave well-attended lectures in mining camps. And I like to imagine, what would that have looked like? So at the end of the workday and a fire and the men sitting on stumps and logs, Laura in her big Civil War dress giving them the what for about women's rights and anything that came into her head, because lectures went on for three or four hours back then. They loved her. Everything I read about Laura DeForest Gordon was how beautiful she was with her radiant chestnut curls. The miners carried her on their shoulders so that her feet wouldn't touch the ground. They paid her in gold dust. By the time Laura DeForest Gordon landed in Lodi, California in 1870, she was a skilled orator. In 1871, California women didn't have the right to vote, so Laura ran for state senate. Outrageous that a woman would speak in public like that. The local papers refused to write about her, and she lost in a landslide. So three years later, Laura DeForest Gordon became the first woman in the United States to edit and publish a daily newspaper. In 1878, Laura filed for divorce. Why? She had received a very detailed letter from Scotland from her husband's other living wife about the children he had abandoned. Bigamy, yes, she got her divorce. California had divorce law. But it left her in legal jeopardy. At that time in California, under the American system since 1850, it was better for married women under the old Spanish system. Under the American system, when a woman said, I do, she lost more than her last name. She lost her ability to have money and property. On her wedding day, everything was given to her husband. If she earned wages in her life, they went to her husband. If she inherited property, it went to her husband. So yes, Laura is divorced, but where does that leave her financially? Can she get a job, keep money? Very murky. Laura had a good friend in San Jose, Clara Foltz. Clara and her five young children had just been abandoned by that husband. So again, is she married, not married? Can she have money? Unclear. The two women put their heads together. They said, we've got to figure this out. They went to Sacramento, and they were instrumental in persuading first the state senate, then the state assembly, then the governor, And they got it into the California Constitution of 1879, long before Ruth Bader Ginsburg, that no Californian will be denied lawful employment on the basis of sex. We have had that here in California since 1879. And while they were at it, they made it so the legislators would allow women to attend college and get good educations. So the two women said, now that we can get educations and hold good jobs, we see how the world works, we're gonna become attorneys. They entered Hastings Law School, but they were asked to leave a few days later because the rustling of their skirts distracted the male students. The two women sued Hastings Law School under the new constitution. It went to the California State Supreme Court, and they won. And in 1879, Laura and Clara became California's first two female attorneys. In 1884, Laura became president of the California Women's Suffrage Society. That is a position she held for 10 years. Unfortunately, in the mid-1880s, Laura was a very loud voice in California's anti-Chinese movement. Yes, she said some very unpleasant things. In 1887, maybe my favorite strategy of Laura's was the married women of Lodi and Stockton asked each other, why is it only the men are getting rich on the California real estate boom? Laura knew the law. She said, what if we formed a corporation and we were the only shareholders? We could buy and sell in the name of the corporation and keep the profits. She was right. I have held in my hands, my gloved hands, the bylaws of the Woman's Land Syndicate. There's all their names. Those women were on fire. They bought and sold property from the foothills to Fresno. Laura owned a lot of North Lodi. How could we have forgotten that? She had a big, beautiful house on Lockford Street between school and Sacramento. What kind of a lawyer was Laura? You know she was excellent. She had to argue her cases in front of all male juries because women weren't allowed to serve on juries then. After the Hastings Law School fiasco, she continued with self-study, and Laura DeForest Gordon became the second woman in the United States qualified to argue in front of the US Supreme Court in Washington, DC. In time, Union Pacific was her client. And they were so grateful for her work, they gave her a lifetime pass on the rails, which she used in 1893 to ride to Chicago to the famous World Columbian Exposition, the world's fair that changed everything, where she lectured for two months on women's rights and silkworm cultivation. She was starting a silk industry in Lodi. Laura DeForest Gordon died in 1907 in her Lockford Street house. She had been giving seances all the way through. That is the true ghost story of Lodi. Her last words to us aloud were, never procrastinate. Because as she's dying of pneumonia, a last legal client comes in needing signatures. She's scrawling her name, says never procrastinate, and dies. But that's not her final message to us. In 1879, the people of San Francisco buried a 100-year time capsule. And in 1979, we opened it up. And of course, they had asked the famous Laura DeForest Gordon to put something inside. It was a booklet that she had written, California's geysers and how to find them. Such a wide-ranging intellect. Inside was a little handwritten note to us. And I would like to recite it as Laura. To the people of California, if this little booklet should see the light after its 100 years of entombment, I would like its readers to know that I was a lover of my own sex and that I devoted the best years of my life in striving for the political equality and the social and moral elevation of women. Thank you. You're all invited on August 15th.

Thank you, Chair. Next is the recognition of Mountain House's Serving Hands organization for their outstanding youth leadership presented by Supervisor Rickman of the 5th Supervisorial District and I would like to invite the students and representatives from Serving Hands to the podium as I read the recognition which states, This is in recognition of your hard work and efforts to found and lead Serving Hands, a student-led volunteer nonprofit operating out of Mountain House. Between May 4, 2024 and February 21, 2026, your organization ran 57 documented events across seven US states and delivering 32,000 meals and 4,600 clothing items to homeless and food insecure individuals. Primary recipients included the Modesto and Lodi Salvation Army Branches, Stockton Family Shelter, Tracy Interfaith Ministries, Sacred Heart Community Shelter in San Jose, and the Coalition of Tracy Citizens to Assist the Homeless, with 1,214 total volunteer engagements recorded across the period. Based on verified data from Census Bureau, USDA, Feeding America, and California State Auditor, your volunteer labor would be valued at a minimum of $48,730. Meal deliveries at more than $134,000. and clothing between $34,000 and $57,000 for an estimated total economic impact value of over $217,000. This economic output produced on a total operating budget of $15,314 funded through a combination of community fundraising events, small business sponsorships, and in-kind donations from individuals and local organizations in the Mountain House area, including SSBAOSP, Digifusions, Crafty Cat, Prescient, Insace Solutions, HOH, the Mountain House Chamber of Commerce, and the Office of Mountain House Mayor Andy Hsu. Impressively, Serving Hands mission has been expanded nationwide through 20 registered school-based chapter members across seven states. Your hard work, dedication, and successful efforts reflect great credit upon yourself, Serving Hands, and the Mountain House High School. Congratulations on an honor well deserved and keep up the great work. Presented this fourth day of August, 2026, Chair Dhaliwal and Supervisor Rickman.

Thanks, Rachelle. Thank you so much for being here this morning. Mountain House youngsters are doing amazing. Now we know why District 5 is the best. That's right. Here you go, sir.

Thank you, Chairman. Hey, thank you guys for being here. You guys have school today? You guys back in?

Thursday.

Oh, okay. Well, that means you can stay here for the whole meeting. Now, hey, thank you guys for what you're doing. And before I get into it, I'm going to turn it over to you. And I'm sure you have a few words, and you can introduce everybody.

I appreciate it. Of course. Hello, everyone. My name is Ayush Deshpande. I'm the international president of Serving Hands.

Hello, everyone. My name is Shuang Kumar Das. I'm the vice president of Serving Hands.

Hello, everyone. My name is Anirudh Jayaraman. I'm the logistics manager of Serving Hands.

Hello. My name is Anurag Hanamachi, and I'm the regional outreach director of Serving Hands.

Hi everyone, my name is Sourj Bukli, I'm the International Vice President.

Hello everyone, my name is Diti Palli and I'm the Treasurer of Serving Hands.

Hello everyone, I'm Parthiv Mopuri and I handle social media for Serving Hands.

First off, I would just like to say thank you to every single one of my officers, because without them, none of this would have been possible. None of our efforts, none of our donations, and none of our drives would have been possible without the consistent effort of our officers showing up to every meeting, every event, and communicating with all of our different volunteers. And that leads me to my second point. I'd like to thank every single one of our volunteers across the seven states. in the United States, including our international chapters in India and Hyderabad. I'd like to thank them as well as they're doing great work out there. And finally, I would like to thank all the parents and the support system in our organization, like my mom right here. We would not have shown up today without her. So obviously, without their continued support, none of this would have been possible. And I would just like to give a brief story about Serving Hands. So this organization started in 2023. from one of my close friends and he's a year older than us and he graduated so he handed the organization off to me and I've been a member since my freshman year in high school and I've seen the consistent effort that he's been putting into this, giving food back to the homeless, collaborating with different shelters and overall being a positive good force in the community. And I felt like I could channel that positive energy to myself by being a part of this organization, which is why I initially started off as a volunteer my freshman year. And I learned from him and the other different officers of this organization how it runs, how to expand it, and what we could do moving forward in the future. And throughout that entire process, I was able to assemble my current officer team filled with my friends and close colleagues to – expand serving hands from initially just two states when i joined which was california and texas to now including new york washington uh sorry new york washington and uh alabama as well so i would like to once again thank every single one of my officers my members all the volunteers the different shelters that we collaborated with and our awesome support system back home in mountain house thank you so much

You guys thank everybody else, but I want to say thank you for what you do, not just for Mountain House or San Joaquin County, and you heard it here, but throughout the region, the state, the country, what you guys are doing is outstanding. The great thing about San Joaquin County, the great thing about the community of Mountain House is that we take care of each other. If there's a crisis, if somebody's down on their luck, you know, we step up and help those individuals. So, you know, you look at leaders, you know, who's going to take over when us old folks, you know, retire, you know, we're in good hands with folks like you. I want to say congratulations to your mother too, for raising such a young, fine man. And again, thank you guys for what you're doing and God bless you. If you could join us up here at the.

Of course. Thank you so much.

Thank you, ladies.

We appreciate you sharing that with us, and we will be reaching out.

Now is the time for public comment on matters that are on the closed session agenda on the consent calendar or within the jurisdiction of the Board of Supervisors, but not listed on the agenda. Members of the public attending in person who wish to speak are requested to complete a speaker card and provide it to the clerk. If you are participating remotely and wish to speak during public comment, please raise your hand by pressing star five. Please address your comments to the board. No personal attacks, please. First speaker is Philip Connell.

Good morning. Philip Murillo with the San Joaquin County Historical Museum. And we have Dr. Tejpal Vainawal Singh, also with the San Joaquin County Historical Museum. We just wanted to briefly take a moment to invite the county government to our next exhibit opening on August 22nd at 10 o'clock. We are opening our long awaited exhibit, The Sikhs in America, Faith, Resilience, and Power. This exhibit was put together three years ago with Dr. Vainawal and I. and first debuted partially at the Smithsonian Folklife Festival a couple of years ago before heading to Wing Luke Museum in Seattle and UCLA. But we're really excited to bring the entirety of its exhibit to the county historical museum on August 22nd at 10 o'clock. Going to have a great exhibit opening. Talks about the national significance of the Sikh diaspora in San Joaquin County and the various facets in which they contributed to the county. We have some invitations and also Dr. Bainawal is going to share a few words about the exhibit.

Good morning, Board of Supervisors. Yeah, just like Philip was saying, we are excited to have this exhibit celebrating the long history of the Sikh community here in San Joaquin County. But this exhibit is not only going to share that history, the rich history there, but also how important the institution was to the national South Asian community, but also the international community. because we do get thousands and thousands of visitors from across the world who come to visit our site. So now we're excited for this opportunity to share their history with the local community. So we look forward to inviting all of you guys and having you guys join us on August 22nd.

And thank you and hope to see some of you guys there. Thank you. Thank you so much.

Good morning. How are you all? It's been a while. Good morning, Board of Supervisors. My name is Carla, and I'm a citizen of San Joaquin County. I'm once again approaching you to ask the election office not to process, count, tabulate, or touch any ballots received prior to 8 PM on election night. The priority of the ROV office is to promote heavily vote in person at polling places. Your vote gets counted immediately, and it does not have to go through a signature verification and be delayed. nor can somebody put in a vote by mail ballot for you and then you're unable to vote at the polling place. The safest and easiest way to vote is to vote in person. You may take your vote by mail ballot filled out, you check in and you scan it and you leave or you can go check in fill out a they'll print out a ballot there and you scan it and you're done. And those are what gets counted on the second count around nine or 10 o'clock on election night. I will say again, vote by mail and drop boxes were put in place for COVID and our state mandated program. They're not being paid by the state anymore board. They need to go away and go back to voting in person in the absentee program. And then we won't need surveillance cameras. As long as we have drop boxes, the cameras need to remain in place. And that is the recommendation of the San Joaquin Election Advisory Committee. Thank you.

Thank you, Carla. Next speaker is Lauren Cardinale.

In the name of the Father and the Son and the Holy Spirit, amen. A reading from Isaiah 51, exhortation to trust in the Lord. Listen to me, you who pursue justice, who seek the Lord. Look to the rock from which you were hewn, to pit from which you were quarried. Look to Abraham, your father, and to Sarah, who gave you birth. When he was but one, I called him. I blessed him and made him many. Yes, the Lord shall comfort Zion and have pity in all her ruins. Her desert shall make like Eden and her wastelands like a garden of the Lord. Joy and gladness shall be found in her thanksgiving in the sound of song. Be attentive to me, my people. My folk give ear to me, for law shall go forth from my presence, and my judgment as the light to the peoples. I will make my justice come speedily, my salvation shall go forth, and my arms shall judge the nations. In me shall the coastlands hope, and my arms they shall await. Supervisors illegal criminal acts of under the color of the law regulatory abuses have taken place in San Joaquin County. I have given official notifications to the United States Coast Guard and every person with operational jurisdiction in this county. senator rand paul exposed the malevolent and malicious professional willful conduct of one anthony fauci sitting in this room today renee sinceri jenny valente are also guilty of the same professional willful misconduct No local, state, or federal person in the United States of America has the ability to use lethal force in an emergency situation, not in a grant agreement called the Public Health Emergency Preparatory Agreements. For 25 years, your feckless, worthless, spineless cowardice has caused children and the elderly to be murdered by medicine. Senator Shannon Grove has given me the number. Medicare saved $390 billion by murdering the elderly just like the Nazis. The global corporate socialist Bill Gates is in Geneva facing charges. Nothing you can say is worth anything. You failed the California Emergency Management System two-way communication. The minute the first person died, the interim health officer, Maggie Park, was a criminal. For six years, you have allowed people to poison children. Dr. Gray-Wallsworth in your district was right. She didn't have to inject people with poison. You guys figure out how to clean it up and call a stop work.

Emilio Flores.

Good morning. Good morning. My name is Emilia Flores. I reside at 3735 Turnpike Road, And I hope I can get some kind of guidance from the board. I had somebody come and tell us that the back of our empty lot was his. The man did not provide any maps. He didn't bring me anything. The next thing my husband and I know, we go in our back, And he stored down our fences, took our plants, everything he liked, he took, he planted it, and everything he didn't want, he destroyed it. I went in the back, I talked to his worker, and I said, please tell him I need some paperwork. I need him to show me something. nothing was done the next day we go in the back he built a six foot fence okay got machinery in the back nothing has given it to us i don't know if this is how it works i thought if you own something you have to prove to the person that you own that property. Here's a map, here's my permits, here's how this is done, but no, nothing has been, we feel threatened by this person with this much authority. My husband and I live by ourself. We elderly, and we don't know if this is how it works now, that somebody just come in your backyard and say, well, this is mine, and I'm taking it, and I'm building, and I'll prove it to you later that it's mine. That's all I'm asking you. I called Mr. Gardini's office. Nobody got back to me. I'm trying to get the legal system to help me. I have a contractor right now that's gonna get me an architect to come and look at that. And you know what? We're just afraid. My husband and I are afraid of this person. We don't know where he comes from. We don't know who he is. We don't even know his name. So I hope somebody here can tell me, okay, this is not how it's done. Thank you.

Ms. Flores?

Yes.

We have your contact information. Someone will contact you either from our office or from Supervisor Gardea's office. Thank you. Thank you. Mary Nicholson?

Is it possible that Loretta can come up as well?

Yes.

Why don't you speak first?

Well, okay. I have a song. I'm not gonna talk. I'm gonna let them talk afterwards. Here's my song and I hope you can hear it.

The French camp is sore at camp. Welcome to French camp. Nine, five, two, three, one. Where San Joaquin County's story first begun. From dusty roads to dreams that still stand tall. A little town with a mighty heart for all. Since 1857, healing hands have stayed. San Joaquin General's where history was made. EM's is ready every night and day. Helping neighbors when life calls our way. We're country strong. with a hometown soul holding on while the future rolls past the prison side by side french camp is our pride love french camp nine five two three one where the heart of san joaquin first begun love french camp yesterday today building tomorrow in the old hometown way with a word standing hand in hand proud together across this land love french camp not five two three one there's no place we'd rather call home the sheriff's here protecting every mile keep a family safe with a friendly smile good old country living in a growing land where neighbors still reach out a helping hand the post office knows your face and name around here we're all family just the same A skip and a jump to the city's bright light. But home is where the stars shine every night. Love, French camp. Nine, five, two, three, one. Where the heart of San Joaquin first begun. love branch camp yesterday today building tomorrow in the old hometown way with the world standing hand in hand proud together across this land love branch camp nine five two three one there's no place we'd rather call home French Camp School since 1850, standing proud and true. Teaching generations everything they knew. River Mills still shines from 1873. A treasure place for all our family. Ivor brings tomorrow with clean energy. French Camp Max speaks for our community. unity district three together we'll always stand building brighter days across this land final camp oh nine five two three one we're saying walking county first begun we'll preserve history while reaching for the sky keeping our traditions alive yesterday today tomorrow we'll stand Working together hand in hand, Love Branch Camp, 9-5-2-3-1. With a heart of sand walking, Love Branch Camp, 9-5-2-3-1. With a heart, with a soul, with a future. love french camp now five two three one french camp forever love french camp now five two three one french camp forever yesterday today tomorrow

Hi, I am French Camp Municipal Advisory Council President. We have our, we're here to announce that we have our first ever National Night Out and we appreciate the participation of the board and the support of the board, the supervisor board. We had a request for some funding and we really are hoping that you can help us. Do you want to say anything else?

No, it's handled. I just appreciate you guys. And I come all the time talking about French camp and making it beautiful. And as you can tell, we're not giving up. This is our anthem, this song, and we're doing a whole lot more. We're doing what we can, and we ask that you do what you can. Yeah.

So, but just to remind you, French Camp existed before Stockton existed. So please give an honor to our historical community of French Camp. Thank you.

Thank you so much. Next, we have special meeting minutes. Board members, any comments, questions?

Chair Ghaliawal, before we do, I just want to get in the habit, although we do not have any public speakers via telephonic, I do want to make sure that we pause at the end of public comments to ask if we do, and we do not at this time.

OK. Thank you. Chairman, I'll move to approve those minutes. We have a motion to give a second. Motion and a second. Call for a vote, please. Motion passes 5-0. Next we have, did you get the count? No, it did. It did earlier than it kind of bounced back. CONSENT CALENDAR. BOARD MEMBERS, ANY ITEM NEEDS TO BE PULLED? ANYBODY ELSE? 15. ANYBODY ELSE ON MY LEFT? We are going to pull item number 10. County Council, can you explain that, please?

Yes, government code section five four nine five three in conjunction with five. I'm sorry. In conjunction with three five one one point one requires that with respect to certain employees, an oral report providing a summary of salaries and compensation paid in the form of fringe benefits be read orally into the record and the item number 10 will impact some of the employees for whom this requirement exists.

Is item number 30 going to be pulled? I think district attorney is here.

Through the Chair, Consent Item 30 is pulled off the calendar and it'll come back later. It is not pulled for discussion.

Okay.

But Consent Item Number 10 does need the oral report from the Human Resources Director.

Thank you so much.

Robert? Good morning, Chair Dhaliwal. Members of the Board, C.L. Regalo and County Council Kiernan, Robert Bonner, Interim Director of Human Resources. In accordance with government code section 54953, section D, subsection three, I will provide a summary of the recommended compensation for the department head classifications included in this item. The recommended action to adopt resolution for the unrepresented units will result in the following estimated annual base salary and benefits for classification subject to this code. Agricultural commissioner, base salary of $242,136. Total benefits of $176,856. Assessor, recorder, county clerk, $277,869. Total benefits, $202,928. Assistant county administrator, $304,645. Total benefits, $229,373. Assistant County Counsel, $332,522. Total benefits, $229,131. Assistant Director of Health and Healthcare Services, $263,054. Total benefits, $199,866. Auditor controller, $277,869. Total benefits, 215, $222. Chief Deputy Director Behavior Health Services, $253,032. Total benefits, $137,797. Chief Deputy Director Public Health, $235,603. Total benefits, $227,826. County Council, $379,803. Total benefits, $262,126. County Probation Officer, $267,508. Total benefits, $344,576. Director of Employment and Economic Development, $214,976. Total benefits, $195,193. Director of Healthcare Services, $348,524. Total benefits, $149,631. Director of Child Support Services $256,616. Total benefits $183,360. Director of Community Development $268,706. Total benefits $192,511. Director of Emergency Operations, $182,278. Total benefits, $131,336. Director of Environmental Health, $219,901. Total benefits, $200,010, $622. Director of Human Resources $263,055. Total benefits $140,502. Director of Human Services Agencies $300,711. Total benefits $253,577. Director of Public Works, $278,506 total benefits, $218,949. Director of Purchasing and Support Services, $216,955 total benefits, $134,666. FQHC Project Director, $238,598. Total benefits, $136,580. Hospital Chief Financial Officer, $384,188. Total benefits, $154,236. Hospital Chief Nursing Officer, $324,422. Total benefits, $128,866. Information Systems Director, $263,055. Total benefits, $120,948. Public defender, $316,339. Total benefits, $267,669. Register of voters, $211,060. Total benefits, $141,862. Treasurer and tax collector, $277,869. Total benefits, $215,222. Additionally, due to a recommended equity adjustment to the sheriff, the estimated annual base salary will be $247,062 and an estimated benefit will be $252,490. As a result of this adjustment and in accordance with the elected exempt resolution, Section 4.1.1 for the classification of district attorney, the estimated annual base salary will be $285,239 and an estimated benefit will be $140,944. As a result of implementing section 4.1.1 for the district attorney in accordance with the employment contract for the county administrator, the estimated annual base salary will be $515,086 with an estimated benefit of $277,494. This concludes the required oral summary under the government code for section five, four, nine, five, three section D subsection three.

Thank you, sir. Any comments, questions through the chair? Yes, sir.

Maybe my hearing's just bad. I'm sorry. Um, What was the amount for the sheriff, the salary?

The salary for the sheriff is $347,062. And then for the district attorney? The district attorney is $385,239. Thank you.

I must not have heard correctly. I'm not trying to. I just want to make sure it was accurate and I probably heard it incorrectly. Thank you.

Item number 15. Supervisor.

Thank you. I pulled this item. I don't know if anybody here else seen it, but yesterday me and my wife went out to dinner, and we saw a big header in Calaveras County. And for some of you that don't know what a header is, it's a big plume of smoke that you can see from a long, long, long ways. kind of a firefighter term but uh just knowing that that big fire is happening uh in the hogan area uh knowing how our oes and you know not our oes well maybe our oes but how oes systems and mutual aid systems work for the for for you know the benefit of our citizens and so i pulled this item to allow allow give the opportunity for our oes director to talk about this proclamation

Sure, so Emergency Management Awareness Month is new. Last year was the first year that it was brought up nationally. The board approved it last year and I appreciate you having it again this year. One of the things that we really do is rely on our partnerships, whether it's through formal mutual aid systems or with our community-based organizations, our community partners and our agencies around the county. What this really does is highlight the work that we do, being able to have those coordination, that collaboration with those partners, because we can't do it ourselves and our agencies can't do it alone. So there's really a big partnership in that. And that's what we want to highlight this year is the agencies that we work with, the community organizations that we work with, some of those that really do big, bold work in our community that we can't necessarily do as government. But we're really here to support those needs with knowing what's happening in Calaveras right up the hill from us. All that smoke is blowing right down into our community. So what are we doing and being able to make sure the community knows what's available to them, where clean air centers are, things that they can do to protect themselves and their family members as we move forward. So we're really here to make sure that the community knows what's available to them and how we can support them in that process.

Thank you, sir. Anybody else? Item number 16, Supervisor Kanapath.

Yes, I just want to commend staff. I mean, Supervisor Gardea, we started the ad hoc committee and OES has stepped up and Hillary from the CAA's office and Public Works and all of our support staff for this emergency. And I think it's important because what we've done is now they're coming out and they're going to do a tour next month. And we're talking about budget meetings that we're being involved in and i think it's important that we did do the emergency and i want to commend the board on doing the emergency because now san joaquin county is now a player in the golden muscle um and our partners but you know that have been part of it um thank them for everything that we've done and how san joaquin county has been at the forefront of the golden muscle at least in the conversations and possibly budget um parts of it and bringing other folks out to see the impact not only to recreational folks but uh intakes and storm drain discharge and farmers and how that affects San Joaquin County because we do have two-thirds of the delta in our eight cities. So thank you for OES and if you want to say a few words.

Honestly I just want to thank our team because you know our staff works their butts off too. You know the golden muscle issue is something that we that we have in place that I think a lot of people don't understand how big this is and how much money this is gonna cost our citizens across our state. In the beginning, there was thoughts it was just a recreational issue, but it's grown way more than that. until you see it for yourself and see the pictures of the damage it does to our infrastructure and how it threatens our farmers in creating more costs for them to do business. And, you know, and ultimately it's gonna cost us, the consumers, more money. So, you know, I'm proud of our team. I wanna say thank you to our board for giving us the support of the ad hoc committee and the multiple of volunteers that are working on this with us. So thank you.

Can you hand to speak to what OES has done since we declared the emergency?

Yeah, so in the last couple months, we've been trying to really pull in some of those impacts. What does that look like for not just us as government and to the floodplain issues and the industry issues, but what is it doing to our community? Our farmers, we're seeing a major impact. We've been working with the Ag Commissioner's Office and the Farm Bureau to try to collect some of that cost so maybe we can get some kind of reimbursement or some support for those community members. Same with some of our businesses out in the Delta, the boating, industry and the recreation especially this summer what have they been seeing what have they been facing and what are they needing to be able to continue being part of the ad hoc committee and joining some of the calls that the state has been doing being able to advocate for us as a county along with the four or three other counties now that have proclaimed and working with those to make sure that we're getting the same resources here in the delta and that it's not just preventing the spread to fresh water bodies but it's really here at ground zero what does that look like and how can we get that support for our community

Perfect. Thank you. Thank you, Chair. Thank you, sir.

Thanks, Steve.

Thank you.

Board members, do we have a motion, item 1 through 38, accept item number 30?

So moved.

Second. We have a motion and second. Call for a vote, please. Motion passes 5-0. Next, we have public health under public health services conduct public hearing and approval of the proposed amendment to the public health services laboratory fee for fiscal year 2026-2027. Staff report, please.

Good morning. I'm Renee Senseri, public health director, and I have with me our subject matter expert, Harmeet Kaur, our lab director.

Good morning, everyone. Good morning, board.

So good morning, Supervisor Dhaliwal, Board of Supervisors, CAO, and County Council. We're here to talk to you about the lab fees for the hearing that we're returning for to just tell you a little bit about our lab and why we made the request originally. So the purpose here today is, again, to give you some context and justification for why we're requesting some adjustment to our lab fees. As you know, the hearing a few months ago had a blanket statement of denial of some of the fees across the board for the county. And we want to ensure you guys get full information on what our lab does and the changes that we're proposing. First and foremost, before I get into the details and the ask, I would like the board to know that the lab ultimate responsibility is to be fiscally sound. and be a steward of the dollars that we receive. We also aim to provide efficient customer service, support our healthy community by building our infrastructure to respond to disease. One of our main goals is to make sure that we're preventing spread of disease, protecting our county, but not just our county San Joaquin, but actually the region. This lab is a regional lab that supports nine other counties, including our own. And we just added Merced this last year. And they rely on us heavily to help detect and prevent disease. Some specialty services that we perform, and actually of note, we don't actually serve humans directly where we're taking a sample from a human like their arm. we actually receive specimens from humans, animals, and the environment. So what we're receiving every day is usually in a tube or a vial, and then we test it for very specialized items that are not run in a normal lab. So when you go to the doctor and they run a blood test and you're looking at your results to see, you know, hey, what's going on with my health, what our lab is doing isn't that. It's actually listed here what we do, and I won't go over each bullet, But basically, we're looking at some emerging diseases that the labs around you, like Quest, cannot run. We also can have the capability of doing bioterrorism type testing, like anthrax. We also are looking and monitoring outbreaks. And just a quick story. Recently, we had a very well-known provider office call us frantically saying that they thought there was someone for exposure of a baby to a very highly contagious communicable disease. They called us really nervous, worried that everyone in the waiting room, all the babies were exposed and asked our lab to help them find out if in fact the disease was present. We turned around that test less than 24 hours, less than 12 actually. If our lab wasn't here, that specimen would have to be mailed out outside of the county, wait in line with all the other tests to get tested.

Then we have to wait for a report back.

And then we would report out. And by then, the contagious disease could have spread. So we were able to actually tell the provider that the disease wasn't present. of calling the office down the parents down the child and it actually it was not a communicable disease but we had the capability to turn that around fast enough if it was to be able to protect that office and those children that were exposed so why update our lab fees just to let you know we're we are a lab that doesn't make a profit we try to break even Every year and we try to make sure that we have full cost recovery so that we're sustainable without general fund dollars Our goal is to always reduce our reliance on general fund we also cover our indirect costs our main essential services and We are experiencing experiencing rise rising operational costs as well a Big consideration to the board And a big highlight I want to note is that our fees are not charged to the public. The public has a right to get their labs tested. And it's not just, again, human labs. It's animal. It's environmental for their safety. And some of these labs are by title not chargeable. The cost is something that occurs from our lab to the agency or the provider ordering the test. And again, the Medi-Cal recipients, Medicare, and those with insurance do not experience any impact on their charges. Here's an example of our workflow. The provider ordering the test, the lab receiving the specimen, and then billing back the provider for services. No client is ever turned away for their ability to not pay. And by the time we get it, the test is already taken from the client. So I did want to highlight that because I know that was a concern for the board, is are the people experiencing a cost increase by our lab fee changes? And they are not. So the proposed adjustments and what you should know goes into making the decision about a fee increase are the demand for the test, the supplies that go into the test, the operational costs like manpower and time. We also decreased some of our fees this year. because we have more efficient equipment. So we invested in good equipment to turn around quickly and be able to make sure that we are responding like we are supposed to. So we're constantly doing updates. So we now have efficiency gains. Also, we add new tests. We always add new tests because if there's a new disease or a new specimen or something in the environment or something in an animal that needs to be tested, guess who's saying, yes, we'll do it? It's us. So we always want to be on top of those emerging threats and diseases so that nobody else has to worry. It's really something that we take on. Overall, kind of looking at increases, decreases in new tests, we do have a change in our lab fee request. We kind of already went over this. I want to get right to the point. And that is a projected increase of $15,000 approximately. We can't predict what people are going to order this fiscal year. But based on prior years, we can estimate with our changes, we're looking at a small increase of about 15, which we are hoping our lab will break even with. There is also no impact to our state reimbursed programs. This doesn't offset any other costs. It's very specific to the lab. So at this time, we are requesting a reconsideration for our lab fees for this fiscal year 26-27 with the context provider. And I do want to thank you very much for letting us return today to tell you a little bit about our lab. We will stand by for any questions or technical questions if you have them for our lab director. Thank you.

Thank you, Renee.

Supervisor Rickman. Thank you, Chairman. Great to see you both. Thank you very much for being here today. I mean, it's great that you're here, because I think, I know I won, I know Supervisor Ding was one opposition to it also, that anytime we're gonna raise any type of fee, we need to have an explanation and the reasoning for it, and where is this fee coming from, and where is it coming from? The state, fed, services, and so on. We need to know that. So I think the days of, You know, you bring it to the board. Hey, this needs to be raised because of whatever it may be. Days are done. So if I mean, this is for all our departments and stuff, if you're going to raise something, you better have a reason and you need to bring it to this board and explain. So I just want to confirm the reason the fees are being raised. And again, it sounds like it's very minimal, correct? And we're also decreasing some fees also, but because of higher service and supply costs, and that's something that's out of control, out of the control of the county. Shipping and tariff surcharges and this stuff that has to do with, you know, the world and what's going on in it and personnel costs and overhead costs. But two quick question. Do we charge? outside agencies say hospitals or cities or other counties that want to use our services i know you're saying we don't charge some entities but if a government entity or private industry or private any like a hospital wants to do we charge them yes we do and the other counties um are also being charged You know, and, you know, we talk about public safety a lot and, you know, I think the board has, um, a great, great track record, uh, on public safety, but public safety is just, is it's more than the sheriff's department district attorney's office and, you know, office of emergency services. And you kind of, you know, hit the nail on the head, you know, when people think of public safety, they don't think of public health. And it's great that we have something here on our own backyard here in San Joaquin county. So. God forbid there is some crazy virus or disease that we find here in our county, we can have a quick turnaround so we can get it tested, so we can notify the public, so we can save lives. So that's great news, and I appreciate it.

Thank you.

Thank you, Chairman. Thank you, sir.

Anybody else? Mr. Rosicam.

I, too, want to commend you on bringing this forward and being transparent. I just hope it didn't cost us more than $15,000 to do this report today. So that's one of the other questions, right? That it's such a minimum minimal increase. But I appreciate the work that you do. And as I've been on the board, the the critical things that you do in our community to you know not only help patients but do outreach and now with the whole behavioral health transition and and the work that you guys have stepped up to do so i appreciate that thank you anybody else open the public hearing anybody from public want to speak on this item may do so now

If you are participating remotely and wish to speak during public comment on this item, please raise your hand now by pressing star five. Anybody from public? Hearing none, close it and get back to the Board for any further comments, questions. Do we have a motion?

Motion to approve the amended fee schedule. Is there a second?

We have a motion and second call for vote, please. Motion passes 5-0. Thank you so much. Next is Ag Comp Crop Report plus 2026, Economic Contributions of San Joaquin County Agriculture. Come up.

Good morning, Chair, members of the Board, CAO, and County Council. I'm Kamal Bagri, your Agriculture Commissioner and Sealer of Weights and Measures. With me today, I have Dr. Jeff Langholz and Fernando de Paulis, and we are here today to present Crop Report Plus. Every year, Agriculture Commissioner's Office presents a crop report that provides a snapshot of agriculture production over the past year, but it only tells part of the story. Crop Report Plus shows agriculture's value extends far beyond the farm gate. Every dollar generated by agriculture creates additional economic activity throughout San Joaquin County. It supports food processors, irrigation suppliers, veterinarians, equipment dealers, mechanics, restaurants, and countless other small businesses, creating ripple effect that strengthens our local economy. Dr. Langholz will be presenting on the Crop Report Plus and will be here to answer questions. Thank you.

Morning.

Chairman Daly-Wall and one of the board of supervisors.

Chair Daly-Wall, if I may. Oh, thank you. I'm sorry, it's easy. There we go, I wanted to make sure your mic is on. Press it again. Is the mic on? There you go. Yeah, I just turned it off.

I had it on. Put the red light on. Put the red light on. Now it's on.

Is that it? Yes. All right. Good morning, Chairman Dhaliwal and honorable board of supervisors. I'm Dr. Fernando de Paulis, a senior researcher at the consulting company that Commissioner Bagri mentioned, and the co-author of the economics study she described. Although I grew up in Argentina, I consider myself a Californian, earned my doctorate at UCLA, and have lived in California for more than 30 years. In the next few minutes, my colleague and I will provide a summary of the key findings of this report. After that, we'll be happy to answer any questions that you may have. Just a quick caveat before we start. As you probably already know, the field of economics is often called the dismal science, and economics is a dismal science for a good reason. All those facts and figures and formulas can get pretty dry, and you probably have enough numbers already this morning, so we're gonna try to keep this to a minimum and make it less dismal. Also, I will read my remarks because as university professors it's challenging to keep us from talking too much. As you know, all California counties are mandated to report the value of their agricultural production every year. Commissioner Bagri mentioned the two legal mandates in the report and I'd like to dive a little deeper into one of them Section 2279 of the California code, the latest crop report for 2024 was shown earlier. But now, thanks to more refined economic tools, we can fulfill that mandate on a whole new level. We can go beyond simply documenting agriculture growths, production value, and we can also quantify local food processing, multiplier effects, employment, and the overall economic structure of the county and the role of agriculture in it. The previous slide mentions the concept called multiplier effects and I would like to clarify what that entails. And here we can see that there's two types of multipliers, indirect and induced effects. The first one, indirect effects, refers to business to business spending. This is the money that agriculture producers and processors spend within the county on supplies and services. They buy vehicles and fuel and seeds. They purchase insurance, veterinary services and banking services. They pay for fertilizer, chemicals, contract work and dozens of other items. The second multiplier effect is called induced effects. And induced effects are the dollars that the employees of ag companies and their suppliers spend within the county. They buy groceries and health care and housing. They purchase utility services, clothing, transportation. They pay for education, entertainment, and many more items. But the key point of this slide is whether you're talking about indirect or induced effects, it means that every dollar of agricultural output creates economic ripples throughout San Joaquin County. If we add all the many puzzle pieces together, the total contribution of San Joaquin County agriculture for 2024, which is the latest year for which we have complete data, was about seven and a half billion dollars, and 7.49 too. And that consists of about $3.1 billion in farm production value, about $2.3 billion in local processing, and about $2 billion in multiplier effects. Remember, all those spending by companies and their employees involved in agriculture. These figures are imposing by any measure or comparison. The ag production of many counties in California looked like a rounding error when compared to San Joaquin's. Agriculture total contribution works out to about over $20 million a day. Now, in addition to agriculture economic output, there's also employment effects. And here we show the value of San Joaquin County agriculture supporting almost 36,000 total jobs. And this is consisting of 24,000 jobs in direct food and production processing and another 12,000 full-time equivalent jobs in multiplier effects. At this point, I would like to turn it to my colleague, Dr. Langholz, to discuss other aspects of the county's economy.

Thank you, Fernando. So far, not too dismal, hopefully. That love French camp song was a tough act to follow, especially with an economics presentation. But I'd like to finish with just one more topic and that is economic diversification. We've all heard that old saying, don't keep all your eggs in one basket because if the basket drops, you might lose all the eggs. And that definitely applies to economics and particularly to the agricultural industry. Agriculture faces a lot of threats, price drops, disease outbreaks, new regulations, for example, trade policies like tariffs, new competitors, price spikes, COVID pandemics, and so on. And economists have ways of measuring the level of economic diversification. It's called the Shannon Weaver Index. And when we crunch the San Joaquin County numbers, we come up with an index of 0.63. And that number, just so you know, is extremely high. the level of economic diversification in San Joaquin County within the agricultural industry is among the highest in the state. And this provides critical economic resilience within agriculture and arguably to the wider county economy. And the news gets better from there. This extremely high level of economic diversification in the agricultural industry has held steady over the course of the last decade. This stands in contrast to what we see in many counties that have become increasingly dependent on one or two crops. So I'll head for the finish line here, then we'll be glad to turn it over to Commissioner Bagri for any final comments as well as your questions. The three main points to remember are this. San Joaquin County agriculture has an extremely large economic output. When you drive around the county, you can't help but to notice that ag must be pretty important to the economy here. Well, it's a lot larger than we probably realized. second it has significant employment almost 36 000 jobs and a strong level of economic resilience to price shocks pandemics and other things that throw wrenches into the system with that thanks for your attention hopefully the dismal science wasn't too dismal i'd like to turn it back over to commissioner bagri

Thank you, Dr. Langholz. So again, I would like to point out that San Joaquin County is very fortunate to be one of the most agriculturally diverse counties in California. I believe this diversity is one of our greatest strengths. It helps sustain our agriculture economy, creates opportunities for innovation, and demonstrates the resilience of our growers as they adapt to changing markets weather, water availability, past and evolving regulations. I would like to thank you for this opportunity to present this report and for recognizing the essential role agriculture plays in our region. Today is not just about numbers. on this crop report. It is about recognizing the people behind those numbers, the families, businesses, and workers who make agriculture one of the strongest pillar of local economy and our way of life. And I would also like to invite all of you today to the Agriculture Center at 4 p.m. for a reception. And our agriculture industry is the one who's supporting it. And I would like to thank you. Molly Watkins for it and our Farm Bureau for it. So I'm here for any questions.

Supervisor Rickman.

Thank you, Chairman. When you talk about economic shocks, did you look at other states versus California when you talk about the regulatory? Because one of the things that we always hear is that you know, especially the family farmers, people with smaller farms, you know, are dealing with dozens of agencies, regulatory agencies in the state. And, you know, one person can't do it. I mean, so what usually happens, you have to hire staff or a consultant, which corporate farms and big, you know, these big corporate farms can't do without a problem because they have the, you know, the funding behind them. But for, you know, the small farmers, I mean, that, it cuts into their bottom line. So what are you seeing in regulation versus here in California versus the rest of the country?

The research we've been doing is focused just on California, and in particular on quantifying the economic contributions. We haven't analyzed in depth the cost of regulation, for example, and especially how that would disproportionately affect the smaller family farms. But it's an interesting point.

All right, thank you.

Thank you, Chairman. Thank you, sir. I just have a couple questions. So the .63 is a good number compared, I mean, compared to what? So we're being able to pivot or we're not able to pivot? Because in Supervisor Ding's area, they're pulling out, you know, grapes, like, you know what I mean? And then you see the trauma of peaches and closing, you know, things. So is that what this 0.63 is a good number compared to?

Yeah, great question. First of all, most California counties have a very high score compared to the rest of the country, where they're dependent on one or two major commodities, corn or soybeans or wheat or something like that. So California counties tend to be much more able to withstand these shocks. the shocks come and go that's for sure and i'll give you one example during the pandemic of 2000 when crops were going unharvested in fields around here and grocery store grocery store shelves sat empty california ag declined a lot overall the state was down three percent for that year 2000 one county was down 51 in their annual crop report but you look at san joaquin county it wasn't down 3% or 51%, it was up 15.8%. That's because 20 crops dropped because of the pandemic, but over 30 crops increased that year. That's the value of not having all your eggs in one basket.

So the 0.63, what's the bad side of the schedule? Down or higher?

Down is bad. It's a logarithmic scale, kind of like the Richter scale that measures earthquakes in California. If you have a 7.2 earthquake versus a 7.4, the numbers look close by, but the 7.4 is twice as bad as the 7.2 because it's an exponential scale. Same thing here. It's a one-point scale. So a 6.3 is way higher than a 0.61.

The scale goes from zero to one and the advantage of having a high value is that it's extremely unlikely that the shocks will happen in all crops at the same time. One or two may be impacted but you always have a large variety of options to keep the county going and that high number shows that ability to withstand shocks that will happen in isolated crops but it won't hit the entire county. A much lower number, I don't know, .45, it means that one or two crops may take the entire industry down because it relies on much, much smaller set of crops.

Perfect, so resilience is the word we're looking at, resilience. So then can you basically talk, what's our dollar amount? Because I mean, that's always the number that we do. And then the top five crops, how are they been doing

It depends from year to year. So the diversification is what helps us to sustain that overall value of the crops. You know, if one crop is down and the other one is higher, then the average could still be higher. So that's what we look at from year to year. It depends.

Because I think last year was 3 point something billion, correct?

I will be bringing last year's crop report next month. Okay.

Thank you. Thank you, sir. Supervisor Gaddier?

I appreciate the invite just a little scheduling if we could schedule that in the future not on national night out because we're going to be all of us are going to be running around all over the place so just a heads up for next year if we could do it on a different date.

Anybody else. Anybody from public. Molly.

Good morning, Molly Watkins. Thank you gentlemen for your report. I guess I want to say from the Ag community as a farm wife who lives and breathes agriculture on a daily basis that our Ag Commissioner has kept us all in this realm where we can exist. She's fought for our pesticide issues, weeds. She's working with the RCD to give us some money. She gave us two nutria. We stuffed them and we're gonna show you what they look like. and try to get rid of that. The other pest she's been working with is at Costco. All of those things affect our fields, our daily lives in the orchards, in the vineyards, in the row crops, whatever it is. So it's a team effort, and without a good person at the top of the Ag Commissioner's office, it does affect how we survive. Sacramento can cause much more havoc, but it's great to have Kamal on our side. She's eager to help. If you pick up the phone, she comes, she helps. And she's good at enforcing because even though we have some bad neighbors and sometimes they need to be hit on the head and she'll come behind us and she'll put them in their place and follow the rules that are set before us. So we all have to work in the same realm. And so I think that's nice numbers. I hope you can come this afternoon. I cooked all night. I was up at 4 o'clock. So we have all 10 commodities on the table for a little snack. Farm beer is bringing you some beer and wine. Have a little glass before you go to that night out. Thank you.

Anybody else? Andrew?

Thank you, Supervisors.

First off, I want to thank you for your support of agriculture throughout the years. You guys always do a great job. Golden Mussels is just kind of the most recent, but I appreciate your support there. We have a great base to the economy of our whole county here in agriculture. A lot of people working, making their living, feeding their family, putting their families through schools. You have the next generation, the following generations moving on and doing some great things. So I appreciate your support. that helps us do that. Thank you to Commissioner Bagri. She has been awesome to work with. She has an education-first mindset when it comes to enforcement, making sure people understand what they're doing. But if you screw up, you're gonna get hammered, like Molly said. She walks that line of making sure that people are educated, they understand what they need to be doing, and enforcing where we need to. So we appreciate her and all that she does for us with this report. It just kind of exemplifies everything that this county is based on, everything that this county, the economy is based on. We appreciate your support, but we look at the issues we do have. We are very diverse right now, but the problem I have is when people come to me and say, hey, I'm pulling out my grapes, what do I plant? And there's no answer right now. Everything's just kind of down. The last two years, our crop report has been lower than the year previous. So while we are diversified, we are protected from the big shocks and just one individual commodity. Everything's kind of down. We're working with ever increasing restrictions, ever increasing regulations. But we appreciate the support here in the county. I know we don't always get on the state or federal level, but in the county where we're really blessed to have supervisors who support us the way you have. So thank you.

Thank you, sir. Anybody else? If you are participating remotely and wish to speak, please raise your hand by pressing star five. Do we have anybody? No? Okay, let's move on to the next item. Thank you so much. Approve the Supplemental Progressive Design Build Contract with HMH Joint Venture for the SJ Beeble Campus Project.

How come that wasn't in the Fringe Camp song? What's up with that? We need to work on that. We need to add that.

Through the Chair to the Supervisor, it's already on my to-do list.

Thank you, Chair Dolly, all members of the board. My name's Josh Branco, senior deputy county administrator, and I have with me.

Genevieve Valentine, healthcare services director.

And we're here to present this item before you today related to the Be Well Campus project. Up on the screen, you can see the items we're going to review with the board. Before we go through those items, I do wanna acknowledge our partners, I'm gonna try and remember everyone, I'm sure that I'll forget someone, but just wanna acknowledge that you have Genevieve and myself sitting before you this morning, giving you this information, but there are so many more people that are involved in this project, starting with community development and all their work they're doing with the permitting for the project, Public Works, very similar, our ISD team, General Services, the hospital, I do wanna acknowledge French Camp, the French Camp community, including the Fire District, French Camp McKinley Fire Districts, and the Municipal Advisory Committee, as well as other members of our county team, including AECOM, our construction management firm, Ashurst, our outside council, LSA Environmental Consultants, KSN Civil Engineering, of course, would be remiss if we did not acknowledge, I know it keeps going, Supervisor Canaba, there's more, our design build team, including HMH Joint Venture, as well as KMD, our architect, Sandys, Civil Engineer, TCOM, Mark III, Capital Engineering, Greenlight Engineering, Herrick Steel, a local company here in Stockton, and Gate Studio, who is our landscape architect. And last but certainly not least, I'll include our Board of Supervisors. This group has been very supportive of the project, of the mission of the project. And one of the things that I appreciate most about what we're working on is that it is so closely aligned with the Board's strategic priorities, including making investments in healthcare infrastructure, prioritizing a wraparound approach to service delivery, and maintaining fiscal responsibility and promoting organizational innovation. There's a lot of innovation that's going on as a part of this project. And Genevieve can talk a little bit more about some of the specific objectives we're gonna achieve with this when it's done.

The SJB Well project is being designed to increase accessibility, promote coordination, and integrate the behavioral healthcare system. not only for our county residents, but also those that are oftentimes not seen or heard. The behavioral health services provided at the SJ Bewell campus will include crisis services, rehabilitation, recovery, respite, full wraparound outpatient and inpatient services, and supportive housing. This campus will not be just for and with behavioral health, but under the Healthcare Services Agency Public Health and the SJ Health Clinics will also be there to increase access to care for those on that side of our County. We are expected to reduce services and reliability in the emergency rooms and divert individuals from our local jail. This will also expect us to reduce out of County placements for our residents also reduce out of County contracts and transportation costs that oftentimes impact our EMS system. At large, when this campus is fully operational, San Joaquin County Behavioral Health Services will expand 210 new beds. So those that need our services will have those services.

Thank you, Genevieve. This slide right here is going to introduce the original phasing of the project. You can see it was conceived in two phases, just based on the geography of the site, south first and then the north phase. we have made one change to how we're delivering the projects which shown here on this slide that change being building a is now being delivered as part of what we're calling scope 2 even though it is situated on the south campus it's going to be delivered as part of the north campus scope of work That was really due to the design of that particular building. It's not quite as far along as the other three on the south campus, B, C, and D. Reason being general services, healthcare services, county administrator. We took some time to evaluate some options for the healthcare services administrative team possibly locating them on the campus or locating them in another county facility downtown in order to get them out of their existing lease where they're at currently. And so because we went through that exercise we need to spend, we need to play catch up with building A so it's gonna be part of the scope too you see here on the screen. The project schedule overall is going very well. It's very much aligned with the original schedule that we presented to this board at the start of the project. You can see, first and foremost, Building B, our temporary occupancy, is expected in the beginning of April. That is important because we do have a grant funding deadline for that particular building. We need to have a head in bed by June 30th in order to meet, the beach at brown five grant requirement which is providing 11.6 million dollars for that particular building going on we have building c temporary occupancy scheduled for the end of 2027 one of the things we've been working on with hmh is reviewing the schedule to see if there's any opportunity to deliver this particular building faster and it does look like we will be able to save some time and bring that building online a little sooner. So certainly appreciate those efforts and we're looking forward to doing that because that is one of the buildings that's going to be a revenue driver for the campus overall. So that's the reason for the urgency behind that one. Building D, we're expecting to receive temporary occupancy beginning of 2028, which is very close to what we planned at the start of the project. Schedule-wise, these next two months, there's going to be a lot going on at the campus. By the end of October, it's going to look much, much different than it does right now, so a few things I'd like to highlight. For Building B, which is the first one in construction, the exterior skin is being installed, and it's very close to being done, if not done already. Next month, they'll be starting the interior framing of that building. Building C in August will have structural steel going up. So at that point, we'll have two buildings in construction on the campus. And then building D, also in August, we'll be pouring the slab for the foundation for that particular building. With structural steel to follow in October so by the end of October we're going to have three buildings in full blown construction and when you drive by on the freeway you'll see three buildings, instead of one so so very, very exciting a lot of great milestones in these next few months.

In addition to that, I wanna make sure that people did not miss what Josh said. We started this slide. In a short 11 months, Building B will be open so that we could provide crisis-based services for this county. That is miraculous in terms of county construction and county work.

Also considering our groundbreaking was September, I believe, right? September, yes. So definitely moving along at a quick pace. So jumping into one of the main recommendations we have before us here today, this slide is showing the guaranteed maximum price for Scope 1. So this is buildings B, C, D, as well as the associated site work. You can see here the price we have negotiated with HMH is $239.8 million. This also includes things that were previously approved by this board, such as the pre-construction agreements for $22 million and the early works packages that total about $132 million. This GMP, we went through a very detailed review of the cost estimate. Line by line, it is based on actual subcontractor bids. And the only scope of work that has not been bid out to this point is the signage. And so we have really good numbers to work with for the remainder of the project. One thing I do wanna point out is just to make sure we're speaking the same language, this price does not include Building A. The next slide, we'll talk a little bit more about the price for Building A. So with the recommendations here today, the total project budget for the South Campus will be this $334 million. It does include approximately $30 million of funding toward the design and construction of Building A. It also includes $64 million in soft costs for the entire project. You can see that the net from our original $261.8 million is about $72 million. 67 million of that are design and construction costs and then there's a small increase in the soft cost budget The soft cost increase is largely due to what we're calling allowances. So these are scopes of work that we might need to do, but we feel like there's a good chance we won't need to authorize HMH to complete them. So one example would be the original design included a water feature. And so understanding where we're at with the budget and trying to prioritize things that are related to service delivery on the campus, that's an item we more than likely won't move forward with. So we've pulled that out of the GMP. That way if we don't need it, it's in our county budget and we can use it for something else on the projects in the future. So this slide is summarizing the sources of revenue that are going to support the project budgets. You can see here there's about, well, there's $72 million in funding. 3.3 million was included in the 26-27 budget that was approved back in June. And then there's about $69 million in additional funding sources. One item I will call out is the capital reserve. You can see we're expecting to use up to $20.8 million from that reserve fund. That's going to be our funding of last resort. We wanna protect that to the extent that we can because those are unallocated capital funds. So they could be used for any project that the board approves. I will also point out that in the 26-27 budgets, we are expecting to transfer as much as 15 million dollars from the public improvement budget into that fund and so we are expecting to backfill a large amount of that number One other item to note is the opioid settlement funds are making up a large portion of the revenue sources for this project. And it sounds like we might have some additional opioid settlement funds in the future that could support potentially this project or others. Did you want to expand on that a little bit?

That is correct. So we regularly get emails of other settlements connected to the opiate lawsuits. received emails that there was another lawsuit that settled. And so the opiate settlement funds will be able to absorb these new settlements so that that $3.2 million will increase once those funds are received. This board in 2024 approved a opiate settlement plan that stated that 75% of the opiate settlement funds will actually support the Be Well Campus and any and all expansion and operations. Our hope is as these funds increase, we will be able to continue that streamline of funding as it comes in. In addition to that, I do want to assure this board that the Healthcare Services Agency under Sabrina Parker with our administrative department is still looking for additional grant dollars and funds in order to offset any and all costs, specifically the capital reserve. I do want to thank our CDD director, She met with us yesterday to get rather creative on a grant that we are looking at regarding unincorporated counties and how this property is part of our unincorporated part of the county and how to draw in additional grant funds. So we're going to try to squeeze every dollar out of the onion humanly possible.

Yeah, so just to kind of put numbers to what Genevieve is talking about with the effort from their team and getting grant funding for City Council Chambers, This project for for scope, one the grant funds are equal to about $168 million, and so, certainly, this is a large commitment from from the county's perspective as far as the money that we're seeing on this screen, but the largest source of funding are those grant funds that Genevieve and her team have gone out and and solicited and received. Moving on to scope two. So again, this is going to be the north campus and then also building A. One of the other recommendations before the board today is to approve a pre-construction phase contract price with HMH of approximately $7.1 million. This will support the programming, design permitting, estimating and developments of the future GMP for scope two. We're also recommending a small, relatively small amount of money of about $700,000 for accounting contingency and any accounting costs that might come up during the pre-construction phase for this scope of work for scope two. We are working with HMH as well as AECOM, our construction management firm, on some preliminary estimates for this scope of work. You can see on this slide we have a range that we've identified of approximately $130 to $170 million. A lot of that range is due to the fact that we still do not have a design. As the design progresses, we'll have more information, and you'll see that range is going to shrink. I'm expecting it will also decrease the bottom line. And these estimates also take into account different types of construction. So like the high range is going to include construction with structural steel and fireproofing and things of that nature. If we decide that we're able to do perhaps wood construction or just modular construction, things that are a little bit more cost effective potentially based, but still gonna meet the needs of the department, you would see a GMP that's closer to the bottom of that range there. So we're working with our team to understand where we can value engineer and save costs to make sure that we're delivering a project that is reasonable and makes fiscal sense for the board to approve. So with that, I will turn it over to Genevieve to talk a little bit about the operation of the campus. Her and her team have done a lot of great work to understand what this is going to look like once it's built and it's up and running.

Thank you, Josh. In 2024, in partnership with the Health Plan of San Joaquin, Behavioral Health and Healthcare Services put together a feasibility study. So not only was it feasible to build this project, would we be able to operate and sustain the project? We were required to have a feasibility study when we applied for our Prop 1 BCHIP dollars, which is where we used the 2024 numbers. In recent weeks, we've updated this feasibility study to meet the needs of the impacts of HR1, the state budget, and current forecasting at large. I am happy to report that we are still going to be in a good place now. You believe in God, please pray, just in case other things change. But with that being said, the SJB Well Campus will actually employ approximately 600 individuals in that first scope. This will actually be a hybrid between community-based partners, nonprofits, and county staff. From the county perspective, there will be 161.65 anticipated staff to fill those needs of those first four buildings. We will be needing approximately 147 FTE. That is new. We have been holding positions in order to move them to the Bewell campus, as I mentioned. in a short 11 months we will be operational when we are looking at this staffing thank plan we are looking at it in a phased approach just as we are phasing the buildings this fiscal year later on this year we will be asking for approximately 50 more FTEs in order to fully operate building B which will be a hybrid model in that building there will be both County operated programs as well as A COMMUNITY-BASED ORGANIZATION OPERATING THE CSU AND THE PUF ON OUR BEHALF. BUILDING C, WHICH IS NOT ON HERE, WILL BE FULLY OPERATED BY A CONTRACTOR AS COUNTIES DO NOT OPERATE MHRCs, MENTAL HEALTH REHAB CENTERS, JUST BY THE NATURE OF THE LOCK PLACEMENTS. THINK OF IT AS OUR OWN SMALL NAPA STATE HOSPITAL. which we will be asking for approximately 19 FTEs in fiscal year 27-28. This will be a hybrid model as well in that building. It will be substance abuse residential and substance abuse outpatient. The county will operate the outpatient programming and we will release an RFP for the residential part of that building. Building A, which as Josh mentioned, we are still in the design process, but we will be asking in fiscal year 28-29 for that building approximately 79 new FTEs. What's incredibly important about that number, a large part of that number is specifically to those that are going to maintain that campus. So housekeepers, those that are going to be able to maintain FROM A CRAFT WORKER PERSPECTIVE, NOT ALL 78 FTEs WILL BE THOSE THAT ARE CLINICALLY PROVIDING SERVICES. WITH THAT BEING SAID, THE OPERATING BUDGET FOR THE FOUR BUILDINGS OR THE FIRST PHASE AS OF TODAY IS $48.4 MILLION WITH AN ESTIMATE REVENUE OF $51.6 MILLION WITH A NET MARGIN OF $3.2 MILLION. the next slide does show where our team is trying to get creative on other revenue opportunities not just simply medical reimbursements and the allocations that we get with bhsa or realignment we have already started conversations with contracting with other counties on them being able to reserve treatment beds we will obviously have first right of refusal but Our partners to the north and the south are already anxiously wanting to have conversations. In fact, we will have a meeting with Stanislaus later this month. In addition to that, there is a possibility for federal grant support based off of the fact that we have our SJ Health Centers, our FQHC lookalike on this campus with potential HRSA funding similar to the Lodi Access Center funding that was awarded to our clinics. This will allow for additional infrastructure and integrated health care access and qualifying capital expenditures. Last on this slide is medical administrative activities. Historically, our behavioral health department and other departments within the health care services agency did not have a good mechanism to track our administrative activities with the county being good in their foresight. Workday will allow us. to have project coding so that we will be able to have the ability to track administrative activities which will allow us to bill the state for eligible administrative activities, care coordination and so forth that would benefit our Medi-Cal recipients. Just on the behavioral health side, when we launch this program, we should be able to bring in over an additional million dollars annually just to offset our administrative activities.

We are very close to the end. I do want to circle back to this particular slide talking about scope two before we wrap up the presentation. So in the board letter, we did call out that we are currently identifying funding for this scope of work. So just want to make sure that was brought up during this board meeting today. We have several options to support The design and construction costs, those include any savings that we might have from scope one. Some of those allowances I mentioned at the start of the presentation. Any value engineering that we do to reduce the cost of the design and construction. Pending grants that Genevieve did already mention. Of course, interest revenue. We have a significant fund balance, which is helpful with that. community or county facility fees and opioid settlement funds. So those are some of the options we're looking at to make sure we're able to complete all of the work that we have set out to do for this board and this community.

Please keep in mind that we do have $30 million already set aside for part of building A. That was part of the BCHIP round one dollars. And we do have an award of $38.2 million in round two for that construction. So we do have over $68 million towards this based off of BCHIP round one and round two funds.

Now that we've gone backwards we can go forwards. So the last slide before we kind of summarize the recommendations. We are recommending that the board approve an additional task order for our construction management partner, AECOM. This will take them through the construction of scope one and also the pre-construction phase of scope two. They have been a huge part of our success. They've been a huge reason why we have been able to perform the type of cost estimating and cost reviewing that a project of this size and scope really needs in order to be successful. They've supported both the county and HMH which with reviewing the project schedule and seeing if there are opportunities to deliver things quicker and just making sure that what we're here presenting to the board is has the entire scope of work that's necessary for the project and setting us up for success the last thing I will I will mention it sounds like a small thing but helping us to review payments and processing those timely. The pay applications for this project can be several hundred pages. And for our team, we do not have enough staff to review those. So they are supporting our efforts as like a first pass. So they are not duplicative. They have very separate scope of work and responsibility from HMH. They're part of our county team, and I do think that we require their services in order to be successful on this project.

In addition to reviewing the invoices, they are making sure that the invoices and all backup documentation allows us to be audit defensible, because at some point the state will come to the county to make sure that we had our fiduciary responsibility to those BCHIP dollars, and we use them the way that we said that we are.

So to summarize the recommendations, we're recommending the board approve the supplemental progressive design build contract with HMH. Also approve the guaranteed maximum price of $239,759,760 for scope one of the SJB World Campus. Approve an appropriations increase in the project budget from 261.8 million to $334 million. approve the pre-construction phase contract price of seven point one million dollars for scope to approve a seven point eight million dollar project budget for a pre-construction phase of the North Campus approve the task order with a ecom we just mentioned as well as increased appropriations in the 2026-2027 sjb well construction budget by approximately 72 million dollars funded by the offsetting revenue we had shown on that earlier slide and then lastly to authorize the use of approximately 38 million dollars in county facility fees for this project so with that um we are ready and available for any questions the board might have

Questions? Anybody? On my left. I just have a comment.

Please. More congratulations than anything else. This whole process has been amazing. I mean, you from from groundbreaking, you know, all the way through our partners, you know, engineering firms, Stockton Steel, even though they're providing the iron for the Raiders Stadium, which I don't appreciate. But other than that, it really is, we're on the cutting edge here. And I think there's gonna be more to come. And I just wanna say congratulations. You should be very, very proud, both of you, of the work you've done. Thank you, sir.

Supervisor Kennan.

Yeah, I too wanna commend the leadership because when we started this, I mean, it was road trips down with Supervisor Ding to Orange County and then we went to Riverside and government time, you know, all the doubt there was so much doubt at the beginning and to get this where the shovels were ready and into the ground and where we're going to be and where we're at. And it's just the ownership of the project because I mean a lot of people say, well, why don't you ask more questions, because you guys do such a good job of briefing us before. We get up here on the dais which I appreciate and those questions, so the first one, and it was super chair dolly wall myself and I don't know who won the battle, I mean. Our county administrators catching a number and her and josh are back and forth on what it is and right in our little presentation. But it's that little bantering, because that's how much interest you take, and it's just the minute, you know, kind of looking at the details, the small details that make the difference and all the other county agencies that have stepped up because there was a lot of doubt at the beginning. Oh, they can't do this and we can't get there. And so. i want to commend number one you guys and i want to commend all the other partners and agencies in the county that have got it there and health plan you know for doing the original uh water and sewer uh you know take on it and getting us there so i think it is it's one of those proud papa moan and it's like oh my goodness we're waiting for the birth of our child right and then uh and i think everyone feels that same way that you know what i mean this is going to be life-changing for humans in our in our people in our um ALL SERVED AREAS BECAUSE OF THE PROXIMITY AND FRENCH CAMP. SO YEAH, WE NEED TO WORK ON THAT AND GET US INTO THAT FRENCH CAMP SONG AND PUT BE WELL IN THERE BECAUSE I THINK IT'S GOING TO BE SOMETHING THAT WILL BE IN HISTORY. SO THANK YOU. NEW SPEAKER THANK YOU, SIR.

SUPERVISOR GUARDIAN. NEW SPEAKER I AGREE WE NEED TO BE ADDED TO THAT SONG BUT THEY GOT TO MAKE A LITTLE BIT SHORTER. because it was pretty long uh you know what it's been mentioned uh team and i know you guys have a great team but i just want to say uh thank you to both of you uh you know i know what you guys are dedicating to uh getting this project going and and i want to thank your family because i know what it takes you know to be all in on this and uh You know, you guys are putting your heart and soul into this project. And this is the only thing on your plate. You have a lot of other things on your plate. And I just want to say thank you. And, you know, we've had presentations in the past. And I want to say that you guys have stepped up very professional, given us all the information before this meeting to answer a lot of the questions and just keep up the good work. I want to say thank you. Thank you. Thank you, sir. Anybody from public?

If you are participating remotely, please raise your hand by pressing star five. Do we have anyone? No. Board members, do we have a motion? Motion to approve.

Second.

We have a motion and second call for vote. Motion passes 5-0. Thank you so much. Thank you so much.

You all don't have to leave. We still have more agenda items.

The Registrar of Voters. Provide direction to the Registrar of Voters regarding surveillance cameras at vote by mail ballot drop box locations. Olivia.

Good morning, Chairman Dollywall and members of the board, Madam CEO, Olivia Hale, San Joaquin County Registrar of Voters. We are here today requesting board direction regarding the continued use of surveillance cameras at the county's official vote by mail ballot drop box locations. This presentation is intended to provide the board with objective operational and fiscal information so you can determine whether this discretionary program should continue for future elections. Today's presentation has three objectives. First, to review the county's current surveillance camera program. Second, to present both the operational and fiscal considerations associated with the program. And finally, to request policy direction from the board regarding whether the program should continue moving forward. The Registrar Voters Office is not advocating for a particular outcome. Our office is prepared to administer elections securely, fairly, transparently, and in accordance with the law in light of today's decision. For the past four elections, surveillance cameras have been deployed at each of the county's 27 official drop boxes. The cameras operate throughout the legally authorized drop box period, providing continuous recording and are live streamed on the Registrar of Voters website. The Sheriff's Office is also provided with access to the monitoring platform, allowing them to view live feeds or review recorded footage when necessary. Video is retained consistent with election record retention requirements. The cameras provide several operational capabilities. They allow our office and the sheriff's office to monitor ballot dropbox locations in real time and review recorded footage if an incident occurs. If vandalism, theft, or another criminal act were reported, recorded video may assist law enforcement during an investigation. The public livestream also provides an additional level of transparency by allowing members of the public to observe ballot dropbox activity remotely throughout the voting period. The estimated cost of the surveillance camera program is approximately $241,000 per election. That cost includes installation and removal of cameras at all 27 locations, equipment rental, cellular connectivity, continuous live streaming and recording, technical support, video hosting, and long-term retention of the recordings. While a portion of these costs may ultimately be recovered through the county's election billing process, the recoverable amount cannot be determined until after the election when final election costs are calculated. Earlier this year, the Election Advisory Committee reviewed the surveillance camera program as part of a broader discussion regarding election security. The committee reviewed the operation and cost of the program and also received information regarding the many other security measures already in place within the Registrar of Voters Office. Following that discussion, the committee expressed concerns regarding the cost of the program as it relates to other election security priorities. There are several considerations for the board. Surveillance cameras at ballot drop boxes are not required under California law. The program represents an estimated cost of approximately $241,000 per election. Continuation of the program requires the county to determine whether this discretionary expenditure remains the best use of available election resources. Ultimately, this is a policy decision for the board. Previous deployments of the surveillance camera program were funded through a combination of election security grants, state reimbursement funding, and available departmental budget savings. Those funding sources are no longer available for this purpose. Accordingly, today's discussion is intended to determine whether the board wishes to continue the program, and if so, the department will monitor expenditures throughout the fiscal year and return to the board if necessary. I also want to emphasize the surveillance cameras are only one component of our overall election security program. As you determine today's decision, I want to note that our office will continue utilizing numerous security measures, including ballot tracking, documented chain of custody procedures, Dropbox 123 tracking technology, secure ballot transportation, warehouse and facility surveillance, fire suppression systems, inspection procedures, and tamper evidence sales. Those practices will remain in place regardless of whether surveillance cameras continue. Before I conclude, I'd like to briefly mention a technology that recently has become available. This is not a recommendation today, nor are we asking the board to make a decision on this. We simply want to make you aware that as an election technology continues to evolve, there may be additional options available in the future. Manufacturers have begun developing a new generation of vote by mail ballot drop boxes that incorporate many security features directly into the drop box itself. As shown on the slide, these systems can include integrated cameras, ballot scanning, signature verification technology, barcode capture and images of the ballot envelope as it is deposited. Our neighbor jurisdiction, Sacramento County, is scheduled to deploy this technology beginning in the November 2026 election. If at some point in the future the Board wishes to explore alternatives to deploying temporary surveillance cameras each election, this may be a technology worth evaluating. Again, this is simply informational and not part of today's requested action. The Registrar of Voters is prepared to administer elections securely, fairly, transparently, and in accordance with all applicable laws, with or without the cameras. Today's item is presented solely to obtain board policy direction regarding the continuation of this discretionary program. The board has two options before it today. keep the cameras or discontinue the cameras. The Registrar of Voters Office will implement that direction. Either way, our office remains committed to conducting secure elections for the voters of San Joaquin County. Thank you for your time, and I'm here to answer any questions you may have.

Thank you, Olivia. Vice Chair Ding.

Thank you. I'm not sure if I can. I think we need to have a broader. I'd kind of like to get a sense of the board on not just the surveillance cameras, but, you know, again, we're we're talking about out of pocket costs that aren't being reimbursed by the state. And that goes back to the number of drop boxes, too. And I think we've discussed this a little bit that the state pays for 16.

Through the chair, Supervisor Dean, the state does not reimburse this for anything for any drop boxes, but they do require to have 16 at this point, yes.

Okay, another unfunded mandate for Supervisor Rickman. Yes. At some point, I don't know if it's... this conversation we can have it or or not but the the cost going into those extra boxes that some of them have gotten to be kind of laughable um whether we want to reduce that down to the mandatory cap that we have to do rather than taking you know additional funds i mean you know we're making such great improvements on our parks and and everything else i just think there's a better use of the the dollars. And then on the surveillance cameras, have we had any pits, any actions, anything criminally that has come off of did we get a bang for our buck?

Through the chair, Supervisor Dean, to my knowledge, there has not been any investigation that was a result of being able to utilize the camera footage. We've had a couple of incidences of of graffiti, but our staff is very diligent about inspecting the boxes and keeping them clean. So outside of that and then law enforcement, there was no action taken. I mean, we were able to see the face of a of a young person, but it wasn't enough for them to push it any further. But that's that's all we've captured, to my knowledge.

Thank you. Thank you, sir. Supervisor Ken.

So, yeah, that's the question. Could we sell our old ones to buy new ones? I mean, and then do those new ones, would they possibly need power? Because I'm thinking if we're going to invest two hundred fifty thousand dollars to monitor the boxes we have and it's five hundred thousand for the new ones and seventy five thousand dollars would have the same capability annually. I mean, sorry, I know we're not supposed to get into that, but that makes sense. I mean, if we're going to do that.

Through the chair, I'm happy to answer that question, Supervisor Canepa. So those, what you're referring to, those boxes are like an ATM, so it just snaps a picture of the person's face when they actually put a ballot in instead of the live surveillance is what it is. So we would make arrangements if this board desired, we would go ahead and look at how we could repurpose the old boxes and possibly sell them. That was something I thought about. There are many counties that use the same style of box that we currently use. And that new technology, it'll be nice to watch what Sacramento County does with that and how purposeful it is and how that works out for them. So we are keeping eyes on that. And if the board would like us to look further, we're happy to do that.

So the $75,000 annually goes towards what? So the?

So the boxes are, they are solar powered with battery and it goes through the annual system as a software. So to maintain the records and everything is $75,000 a year versus the, yeah. Either way, I don't want to appear that I'm persuading you to do either or that is the difference in the cost though.

Well, that's what I'm just thinking of. What's the best deal going forward? Right. Because if you have this and then how do you know? So one of the questions is ballot stuffing. Right. So then it only allows one at a time when you do take that photo. And so what's the safeguards possibly of that?

That is correct. So when the ballot goes in, the technology takes a picture of both sides of the envelope and a picture of the person's face who submitted it. And then they are working on the technology for that information to be transmitted back to our office. So in the event that there was a fire or something with that box, we would know who placed about what ballots were in that box, not how they voted, but just the envelope that was put in place because the barcode does identify the voter.

Sounds like a pretty good system. So SAC's doing it now or going to do it?

Through the chair, yes. From my understanding, they've already purchased those boxes and are rolling out, I believe, a fleet of more than 100 boxes. I don't know if they're doing them in phases, but I do know they're rolling them out beginning in this November election.

Yeah, I'm with my cohorts. I mean, that's a lot of money not to be reimbursed a quarter of a million dollars. And then if it's not being utilized, Yeah, I don't know where I'm at on this one, so. Thank you, Chair. Thank you, sir. Supervisor Gardea?

I just want to, just to make it clear, the Election Advisory Board, or Advisory Committee, it was recommended to keep the cameras?

Through the Chair, Supervisor Gardea, that's a great question. We had two different conversations, one in February of this year with the Advisory Committee, And at that time, they did support the cameras. We brought the item back to the Board of Supervisors. At that time, we had a conversation about the cost and asked that I return after the June election to discuss further. And then April, we went back and shared all of the details of the security we have in place. And the Advisory Committee did agree that the cost was high and that they thought those resources could be used elsewhere better. So we kind of went back and forth with the Advisory Committee in those two meetings.

Yeah, I mean, the cost is high, but when we're talking about two hundred something thousand dollars to make sure that our our our elections are secure and we just talk about how many millions of dollars that we're spending for other things. So it's it's a cost of doing business. And I think the value of keeping our elections secure are valuable. But my other question is, so we're required to have 16. And we have 27 at those 27 locations. How many are already being their surveillance provided? Example City Hall is the city of Stockton have surveillance on. On their facility that would capture any type of wrongdoings on a drop box.

That's a great question as well. And so yes, some of the city halls do have surveillance already. There became an issue when we were installing drop boxes of the preference for us to have the cameras ourselves to track that. But I do think there are a couple of places where cameras are already present. Especially city halls. I know like in Manteca where the movie theater is there's surveillance there So there are some boxes that are under surveillance, but there are some that are in more Residential areas like some of our community centers and stuff that don't have that so I mean my recommendation if we're gonna discuss in the future Maybe going with the required 16 to know what those facilities already have surveillance cameras so that

You know, it might make more sense to have a camera at a city hall versus out in the middle of Viaggio parking lot as an example. To me, it just makes more sense. I think that's the only really question I have. Thank you, sir.

Supervisor Rickman. Thank you, Chairman, and good morning.

Good morning.

Good to see you. Hey, I think we need surveillance. I agree with Supervisor Gordilla. And I believe the U.S. Election Assistance Commission, the EAC, recommends surveillance cameras also in conjunction with, you know, the steel and all that stuff. And at the end of the day, it's a deterrence. know a misconduct you know just because nothing's happening now i mean you know that's possibility is due to people know that they're being watched right so um i think this year i mean you saw i can't recall where they were at but um drop boxes being set on fire right or ran over or busted and and um the content stolen, you know, thank God we haven't had anything, at least then I'm aware of here in San Joaquin County. But if it does, we have surveillance for that purpose, you know, purpose. And, you know, you look at, you know, as supervisor Kerr Gardea mentioned, you know, the public confidence that our elections are being secured. We are going to be spending money. I mean, um, Voting is one of the most important things that you can do as a citizen of this country. And it should be secure. The public should have the confidence that, you know, when you, you know, put something in the drop box that it's going to get to the location and who's putting it in there. And again, being transparent as possible. Right. Is that you want to see what's going on? Look, it's there. And for anybody in this county or in the world, they can look and jump online and check it out as to the new technology. Hey, I'm all for that. If you have new technology that's cheaper, they can have the same effect of deterrence. And by all means, let's look into that. So that's all I got, Chair. Thank you.

Thank you, sir. Through the chair, Supervisor Rickman, if that's something the board desires, I'm happy to bring back information on that new technology. I would be more comfortable as your registrar seeing how the program prevails in Sacramento County and bringing that back after if that's something that the board desires.

and chairman if i could real quick and you know what other counties you know are doing around us you know i i don't care i mean i mean you look at some of the stuff that you know we have done here at this board or the county hey not just leading counties around us but leading you know the state of california of the 58 counties absolutely we're the tip of the spear so i mean hey i think being a leader being out there first and um doing what we need to do is I'm gonna keep going the same direction.

Sounds good, thank you. Thank you, Chairman.

Thank you. Supervisor Gerdia? A quick question. Have we already budgeted for our next election for the cameras?

For the cameras for this next election, we're prepared to absorb that within our budget that's already set for the election. And if there is a concern, if we're not able to cover that cost, we would come back to the board.

So is that a possibility? You would be coming back to the board for, money to cover the cost of the surveillance camera?

Our department's going to try very hard not to come back to the board, but in the event that it's needed, this could be something because of the cost. Looking at things right now, it looks like we can absorb the cost, but because that's a moving target with the way election billing and reimbursement works, we would know that indefinitely as we get closer and after the election billing is submitted. At this time of working with the county administrator's office, it looks like we can absorb it for this year. Yes.

Thank you. Yes. Through the chair, if I could just add, yes, we did not include any budget adjustment. And we do feel that the department can't absorb the cost.

Vice Chair? Can't absorb the cost. Guys, I just want to keep reminding you, you better watch your pennies and nickels. It's only a quarter of a million dollars. It's only half a million dollars. The cameras have yielded nothing. If if someone's going to do something, you're right. Maybe they won't put the ballots in the drop box because there's a deterrent. So they'll use one of the 200 mailboxes. I mean, you got to remember, there's what, four ways of voting or three ways of voting. We're going to spend a quarter of a million dollars to protect 20 something places they can put ballots, but you're not thinking about all the post office boxes, everything else. I mean, it's just, it's a quarter million dollars that I believe in my humble opinion, we could spend in a different way.

I just had one question. So the intention of the drop boxes is for basically more rural areas, right? I mean, Is that the intention of folks that possibly don't have mail in their area? I mean, so the the presiding reason why we have them right is because I mean, some of these places are very close in proximity to post offices. You know, I mean, we have one right behind Lincoln Center, and if there's no cameras or anything on that, you could go and stuff that all day long if you wanted to. But then is it a federal crime? Is that what it is? Or as opposed to is it a federal crime if you mess with a drop box?

Through the chair, Supervisor Canepa. From my understanding, whether it's one of our official drop boxes or the U.S. postal box, it would be a federal crime to tamper with an election. So it's a federal election that would be impacted in both ways.

Okay. So back to the rural one. So the regional reason of the drop boxes is for folks to have access or just convenience?

Well, and through the Chair on that question as well, Supervisor Canepa, we are required to have drop boxes and then if you go further into the Elections Code and into the California Code of Regulations, it requires the election official of the county to look at townships and rural jurisdictions and highways and how that could impact rural voters. And the idea is to ensure that rural voters are getting the same voting experience as those that may live in more suburban or urban areas. But the drop box program itself was something that was rolled out by the state coming out of COVID.

Thank you. Thank you, Chair. Supervisor Rickman. Thank you, Chair. Yeah, I think that's something that we need to look at. If it's right next to, you know, U.S. Post Service or something, do we really need one, you know, right there? But as to the fiscal responsibility, we're one of the most fiscal responsibility counties in the state. I mean, look at our budget. And as for cameras, I mean, we only have control over what we have control over. Right. If somebody is going to commit a crime someplace, you know, someplace else that's not in our jurisdiction, say at the U.S. Postal Service, you know, again, we can't control that. We can only control what we have accountability over. And that is the drop boxes. If we're going to put those drop boxes out there, then we should have the accountability. And how do you have that accountability and surveillance? And, you know, is it a deterrent deterrence? Yes. And you know, um, the argument of, well, somebody can go commit crime someplace else. So what do you do? Do you just pull out all your safety measures because there's a possibility it could happen someplace else. So again, that's, you know, my, my thought is, um, the surveillance it's, it's a deterrence and just because something doesn't happen. you know, it doesn't mean we remove it. Could you imagine if we have it there now, we don't have an issue and then we pull them off and something happens, you know, we're going to have people up here, you know, telling us, why did you take those off? You guys knew it was working and now look, and we're going to be right in the same position and, um, ask them to put it back in. Vice chair.

Sorry, I was just going to tell the honorable supervisor from Stockton, even though the Wells Fargo Pony Express stopped delivering mail out in Woodbridge in 1861, we still have mail and mailboxes, you know, throughout the North County, you know, that we ride our little donkeys up to when we're fetching water out of the river. Thank you, sir.

Jody Graham.

Good morning still. Great discussion. I think my comments will help you out. So to bring the new board members up to speed on the ballot drop boxes, they were acquired during COVID through a grant given by CTCL or Mark Zuckerberg, who made it a mission to pepper the country with insecure ballot drop boxes. Our county is now on its second set of boxes. The first ones were small, portable, and located inside businesses and county buildings. The second iteration are very large drive-up boxes located in parking lots. Security cameras are necessary to prevent malfeasance. Over the years, our group has made the following recommendations regarding these boxes. None of them have been enacted, but tenacity is a virtue, so here they are. Number one, reduce the number of the drop boxes to 16, which is what the state mandates. We have 11 too many. Place them inside fire stations, police stations, and city halls. That way security cameras are not needed. They are already there. And taxpayers are already funding the stations, so why not get more bang for our bucks? Yet here we are again, speaking about these boxes and their costs. There is no need to have 27 of them. Residents of San Joaquin County are proving that they actually trust the United States Postal Service more than these boxes. We did not have any ballot drop boxes before the 2020 election and the excuse of COVID. COVID is over. I understand that the state mandates this ridiculousness, but we can be smart, reduce the number, and put their mandates inside police and fire stations and city halls and get rid of the expensive security cameras. Do not let the ROV tell you that placing the boxes inside the police and fire stations will disenfranchise voters. Who would be disenfranchised by walking into a fire station to place your ballot in a secure box? If someone is afraid to go into the station, they have the option of placing their ballots inside any of the 56 United States Postal Service mailboxes or go to any one of the 25 USPS offices located in San Joaquin County. However, if you vote against saving the county money and the boxes stay as they are, the security cameras are absolutely needed in their current state to monitor the unsupervised boxes located in the middle of parking lots. I hope you make the right decision. Thank you.

Molly Watkins.

Well, accountability would be what we're talking about here. You're going to put the boxes out there, so we need to have the eyes on the boxes. We don't need that many boxes. Let's do 16 boxes. Let's put them someplace where somebody else can look at them. I will tell you that in the course of the six years that we've had these silly things, the sheriff has looked at a couple things that we've requested as citizens that were off. Unfortunately, one of them, the way that the cameras were set up, we got one minute intervals for 24 hours. So if you went to look at the tape, you pulled your hair out by the time you got to the end of it. And we couldn't really come to a conclusion that we could do anything with it. In another case, the sheriff had some suspicions, but we couldn't see the face of the person and we couldn't see the vehicle. So then we were back to square one again. So to say that they were never looked at or nothing was ever done with the tape, that's not true. And I can tell you I could name off 10 people that had spent some time when they were live feed looking at them just for curiosity's sake. So we have done all of those things. Do I think we need them? Yes. If you're going to have a box, you need a deterrent, just as you've said. Do I think we need 27 of them? No. I think that's ridiculous based on what Jody just said about all the other places you can put your ballot. And I would still like you to take your money and consider telling people to show up in person and run that thing through the scanner, whether they fill it out on site at a polling place, at the funeral home, or whether they take it in there and run it through there. Then we're all done. We only had 27,000 people, 26,000 people vote in person. Let's get that number up. We had 160,000 that voted total in this election. Let's work on that. Then we don't need drop boxes. That's my two cents.

Thank you. Anybody else? Do we have anyone remotely?

There's nobody online.

Please raise your hand by pressing star five if you would like to participate remotely. Nobody. Board members, do we have a motion? We have a speaker, Supervisor Gurdia.

So I just want a little clarification, are we voting or are we voting on keeping the cameras on existing boxes for this election or are we voting on how many boxes we have?

It's going to be entirely up to you as the board to give direction to register voters here.

Just through the chair, although what is agendized is whether we have cameras. There's been discussion and it's relevant, but I don't see that we've agendized reducing the number of boxes. If that's the board's intention, I would recommend agendizing that for a future session. What is agendized today is whether or not cameras should be utilized in this next election.

So I'll make a motion. One second. On that, I'm a little confused, counsel, because what I was thinking about, maybe you are too, Supervisor, was kind of a compromise. you know, put the cameras on, the state's paying for 16, let's just put the 16 out there and we get rid of the Viaggio box and some of the wasted ones. But we're not voting to spend money, we're just voting to give direction here. Why can we not, as a board, say we would like the 16 boxes distributed with cameras? What's the difference?

What has been agendized is giving direction to the ROV whether or not to have cameras on the drop boxes. There's been discussion, and as I said, it's relevant discussion, but there's not been agendized the issue of whether or not we should reduce the number of drop boxes. If it's the board's inclination to do that, you could give direction to... We could re-agenda. You could give direction to have cameras on 16 drop boxes and then agendize bringing us back with the intention to also give direction at a later point to reduce the number of drop boxes to 16. I would recommend if you're going to do that, you just re-agenda as a whole thing for the next board meeting and you can take care of both issues simultaneously.

OR TO MAKE THINGS EASIER, WE COULD VOTE TO APPROVE 16 CAMERAS TODAY AND TWO WEEKS FROM NOW PUT IT ON THE AGENDA AND TALK ABOUT THE OTHER 11 THAT WE'RE PAYING OUT OF OUR POCKET FOR.

SURE, YOU CAN DO THAT.

I just feel that obviously we're going to have to have a presentation on where those drop boxes, the decision on where those locations are going to be, being that the next election is so soon. I don't think it would be wise of us to. I don't think we have enough time between now and November to figure out where those cameras are. And I would like to have our staff actually go out to a firehouse and see if they have cameras because there's I can name many of them in Stockton that don't have cameras on the outside. Putting a drop box inside of a firehouse. I don't know if that would be feasible. I think in front of a firehouse or police station would be. Um, you know, every time somebody wants to drop a ballot, they're going to knock on the firehouse door to go in to drop off a ballot. I don't think it would be feasible for the firefighters. And if they're not in quarters, they wouldn't be able to drop off a ballot. So my thought is that I think we're running out of time, um, to have that discussion. And I feel like I would feel more better suited to make a decision and be an educated one of those drop boxes. And I do agree that 16, if we're required to have 16, I'm good with that. But locations for me is the big question.

Just put them all in your district. Everything else is already there, so add some more.

Supervisor Ackman. Thank you, Chair. But at the end of the day, what we're talking about today is surveillance, regardless about how many numbers of boxes we have or will have. The question is, do we continue the surveillance camera program? And that's what we should be a motion should be on. And then, you know, we can provide direction for ROV to bring back, you know, as soon as possible if, you know, the board is so inclined to do so, the number of boxes and, you know, where they're at. So I'm prepared here today to... SECOND OR MAKE A MOTION OR WHATEVER IT MAY BE ON WHETHER TO CONTINUE THE SURVEILLANCE CAMERA PROGRAM. THANK YOU, CHAIR.

THROUGH THE CHAIR, IF I MAY, SUPERVISOR GARDIA MADE A VERY GOOD POINT. WE ARE VERY CLOSE TO THE NOVEMBER ELECTION AND BEING BETWEEN A PRIMARY AND GENERAL ELECTION We do our best to try not to make any changes if possible, including precinct changes and things of that nature. And so as your registrar, thinking quick on my toes here, I would say it would be wise to potentially make an adjustment to the amount of boxes post-November. But I'm happy to bring that back in December or right away the first week of January when the first meeting is. So that would be just something I'd like the board to know. Thank you.

Thank you. Supervisor Canepa.

Yeah, I mean, at first I was kind of on the fence, too, but I think we do do that. Get through this one and then figure out in the future where we're at, how many people are using which ones to the most effective way to do the 16. Right. And then possibly buy the better boxes so that everyone feels better having the 16 out there. And then it's way less seventy five thousand dollars a year as opposed to two hundred and fifty thousand dollars. And then we secure it there places that are going to be utilized. So, you know, I mean, we don't have eight ballots dropped at a location that we're spending whatever percentage it is. And I think I think that would be the way to go. So I'm willing to agree to the two hundred fifty thousand dollars because I think we secure this one. And then going forward, we get back to the number. where they're most needed so that we can get the people to go out and vote in person. Because I mean, the machines are there. So if you have questions about, you know, reliability, you can put your own ballot into the check to the reader. And I think having all those tools together make it a safe place for people to vote in San Joaquin County. So my being on the fence is now being on the side of precaution to make sure that what we do and for transparency in San Joaquin County would be to agree to that. the two hundred fifty thousand. So that's where I'm at.

Thank you, sir. Any more questions, comments, board members? Do we have a motion?

I'd like to make a motion to move forward with surveillance cameras that are drop boxes.

I'll second. We have a motion and second call for a vote, please. Motion passes 5-0.

Thank you very much.

Thank you, Olivia. Now we will recess to closed session. County Council, can you please read the items?

Yes, we're going to close session to consider item number one is labor negotiations, giving direction to our labor negotiator. Item number two are to deal with a number of cases, the first of which is Michelle Del Rio versus San Joaquin County, the second of which is Jose. Regaler versus Remus. Remus, I should say, R-E-M-U-S. And the third is Mienlik versus Unger, or Ung, I'm sorry, A-U-N-G. And then finally, there is an employee evaluation of the agricultural commissioner.

Thank you, sir. Good afternoon, everyone. Board will reconvene after the closed session. County Council, is there anything to report, sir?

There is on two matters. The case Del Rio versus San Joaquin County was approved for settlement. Vice Chairman Supervisor Ding made the motion. Supervisor Gardea seconded it, and by a vote of five to zero, settlement of that matter was approved by the board. Similarly, the case Bean Lake versus Ung, A-U-N-G, was approved for settlement. That motion was made by Supervisor Kennepa and seconded by Vice Chairman Ding. uh by a vote vote of five to zero that was approved for settlement both uh settlement matters uh will be available for inspection once all parties to the litigation have signed off on the settlement agreements and that's all the reportable action thank you sir we have two public hearings uh first one is public hearing to consider the planning commission's recommendation to approve general plan map amendment and

Zonery classification number PA-2400417 and administrative use permit number PA-2400361 regarding Dylan and Murphy, care of Joe Murphy. Staff report, please.

Good afternoon. Corinne King, Deputy Director of Planning. I have Stephanie Stowers here to provide a presentation, and then we're available for questions.

Good afternoon. This project is comprised of two applications. A general plan amendment and zoner classification to redesignate an approximately 14 acre parcel from general agriculture to agricultural industry and an administrative use permit to develop the parcel with a truck parking facility.

We're gonna switch out the PowerPoint real quick.

Oh.

I know, I just read the good part. I saw my name, I thought I was gonna go. The project site is located on North Cherokee Lane, 620 feet south of East Kalamirna Road. The parcel has a general plan designation of general agriculture as well as open space resource conservation and a zoning classification of general agriculture. The surrounding land uses are agricultural with scattered residences to the north and east. There's residential located west of State Route 99 and west of the project site, and agricultural industrial to the south.

Sorry, I stopped. Yeah, I'm really confused. Are we discussing which one are we discussing? Because you just said the planning commission. Denied when you started and my agenda says public. Planning Commission recommendation to approve.

Through the chair, maybe we'll just start over. We'll just start again with our general plan and rezone administrative use permit. We'll start the presentation over from the beginning. Okay. And that way, yeah. Sorry for the confusion.

Let me make sure I'm at the beginning, okay. So this project is comprised of two applications. It's a general plan, map amendment, and zoner classification to redesignate an approximate 14-acre parcel from general agricultural to agricultural industry and an administrative use permit to develop the parcel with a truck parking facility. The project site is located on North Cherokee Lane, 620 feet south of East Kalamirna Road. The parcel has a general plan designation of general agriculture and resource conservation and is zoned general agriculture. The surrounding land uses are agricultural with scattered residences to the north, east, and east of the project site, residential to the west, west of State Route 99, and ag industrial to the south. This is the site plan for the underlying project submitted by the applicant. The area proposed for development is outlined in orange. It's just that top corner of the project site. And this photo was taken from the west side of Cherokee lane, looking north towards the project site. So for some background, uh, the 14 acre site is currently developed with the residents and accessory structures, which are proposed to remain. The project includes a map amendment to change the general plan designation and zoning from general agriculture to ag industry, which will allow for the proposed underlying development of truck parking operation to be established. The Department of Public Works has reviewed the project for traffic safety concerns, ultimately based on the available site distance, low traffic volumes, recent and upcoming planned improvements in the area, and the operational analysis required as a condition of approval, Public Works has determined that the project is not expected to increase the potential for traffic safety issues. Public Works staff is available for specific questions regarding traffic safety. In order to approve the general plan amendment and zoner classification and administrative use permit, several findings must be made in the affirmative. These findings are included in the board packet and staff recommends that they can be made in the affirmative. So it is recommended that the board approve the project with the recommendations shown on this slide and included in the board packet. I apologize for the confusion.

I'm easily confused.

Any questions for staff? Anybody? Motion to approve. Wait, wait, wait. You're going too fast. Three times money. NO QUESTIONS?

JUST TO CLARIFY. OF COURSE. WE'RE WAITING FOR SUPERVISOR DING TO BE AT THIS ONE. SO WE'RE WAITING FOR YOUR HIGHNESS TO GIVE US TWO CENTS. SUPERVISOR, PLEASE.

YOU GOT THE FLOOR.

THAT WAS WHAT I WAS ASKING.

Since it was waiting on me, I decided to speed it up because I felt bad.

I'm going to open the public hearing. Anybody from the public want to speak on this item?

I'll make it quick. I'm Joe Murphy with Dylan and Murphy representing Perry and Helen Hergesil. Perry's been convalescing from an automobile accident and a surgery or he would have been here if he wanted to be here. I, for one, am appreciative of community development and Planning Commission and the board's recent approvals of some of these AI rezones. I think it's Doing a lot of good. It doesn't go unnoticed. I drive to work pretty early in the morning and the days of seeing trucks scattered all over on the side of the road seems to be dwindling. So I think it's a good cause and these projects are well needed. I'm glad to report that CDD didn't receive any negative letters, only letters of approval of this project. I think there were 39 mailings and to my knowledge, no one in the neighborhood or no one for that matter was opposed to it. So that's always a good sign. It's another indicative or indicator that these are needed uses. I know the last meeting, Supervisor Rickman was a little bit concerned with the circulation and safety and so forth. And I passed out two handouts. and I'll be brief. The first handout that doesn't have the red shading is pretty much what you talked about last time. It shows the truck turn, truck simulation, the auto turn software that proves that you can stay in your lane is kind of the gold standard. It's what Caltrans accepts and this depicts the trucks safely turning in and out of the site. That particular road is a long straight road so vision is good and like I say the computer simulators proves that it's a safe pattern. The second of the handouts highlights where our parcel is. And it's pretty reflective on traffic patterns. Cherokee Lane is pretty much just a connector from Collier to Cheyenne. And what this is trying to depict, if you're north of our project and you're getting on the freeway, you're probably going to continue north to get on the freeway. If you're south of us, you're probably gonna go south to get on the freeway. So very little traffic should cross our frontage to begin with. So the risk to T-bones and that type of collision is very, very minimal. So hopefully that responded a little bit to some of your concerns. We were proud to get a unanimous vote from Planning Commission or recommendation from Planning Commission. Hope to have the same support here today. And if you have any questions, I'd be glad to try to answer them.

Any questions? I do have one more comment.

Comment, yes. Sure. You should have just not stood up and then we'd just go 5-0 and we wouldn't go through this. So, and I don't need a response, Jennifer, but the amount of phone calls I've gotten over the last three or four weeks about converting, you know, Ag 40 for truck parking, truck parking, truck parking, um everybody's trying to find alternative uses we've talked about expediting uh you know the the rewrite of a new uh general plan you know all the more reason so just wanted to plant that bug because i've got about 10 of them i get to talk to you about and it seems to be that's just the fallback position right now so anyway thank you thank you anybody else from public

And Chair, there's nobody online.

No remote?

No.

Okay, public hearing is closed. Any further comments, discussion, questions? Do we have a motion? Motion to approve. Second. Call for a vote, please. I did. Motion passes 5-0.

Great job.

Public hearing number 2, public hearing regarding an appeal by Jordan W. Jones and Cal Solar of the Planning Commission's denial of conditional use permit number PA 2600027. Staff report please.

Thank you. Corinne King, Deputy Director of Planning. And I have Stephanie Stowers here to provide a presentation and then we're available for any comments.

Let's do this right the first time this time. Good afternoon again. This project is an appeal of the Planning Commission's denial of an approximately 10 acre utility scale solar facility. Yesterday on August 3rd, staff received an updated project description and site plan proposing a smaller scale project occupying 6.8 acres of the project site. The project site is located at the southeast corner of Harold Avenue and Lemon Avenue, southeast of the city of Escalon. The site is currently developed with a single family residence. The property has a general plan and zoning designation of general agriculture, and the surrounding land uses are primarily agricultural with scattered residences. This is a site plan for the project. As I noted previously, CDD did receive an updated site plan and project description yesterday which reduces the project area from the 10.59 acres shown here to 6.8 acres with approximately the southern half of the parcel shown here removed. This photo was taken from the west side of the street looking at the project site. The project proposes to establish a previously 10.59-acre solar facility. During review of the application, staff received over 30 letters in opposition for the project as well as one petition. The Planning Commission heard this item at the May 21st, 2026 meeting, and after considering all testimony, the Commission voted 4-0 to deny the application based on the inability to make two findings, finding three relating to site suitability and finding four relating to the compatibility with surrounding properties. The applicant then appealed the denial on June 1st. To provide a summary of the comments from the appellant, they stated that the Planning Commission's determination was not supported by evidence and effectively reverse engineered findings to support a denial even though the site was suitable for development. The planning commission is the approving body for all conditional use permits, and the commission must make necessary findings in the affirmative findings three and four, which the commission could not make allow for discretion. The planning commission reviewed all of the information provided by staff, the applicant and the public, and ultimately utilize this discretion to determine that the project site was not suitable for the project. And it was not compatible with the surrounding neighborhood. As a result, the application was justly denied. The appellant also stated that the Planning Commission improperly considered public opposition, aesthetics, and property values in denying the project. They also state that the denial will cause economic harm to the applicant. The project opposition raised concerns relating to property values, aesthetics. However, the Planning Commission determination was based on the ability to make the necessary findings. The Commission's comments and discussion during the hearing reflected consideration of the project's compatibility with the rural character and agriculture operations surrounding the project site. Further, economic benefits of a project do not override the necessity to make the required findings in the affirmative. The appellant also stated that there were procedural issues during the Planning Commission hearing, but the Planning Commission hearing was conducted following the standard practices and consistent with the applicable county procedures. As a result, it is recommended that the Board of Supervisors deny the appeal with the recommendations shown on this slide and included in the packet. If the appeal and the project are approved, it is recommended that the Board amend the draft conditions contained in the Board packet to reflect the reduced project size of 6.8 acres, consistent with the updated site plan and project description received yesterday. Thank you.

Thank you. Any questions for staff?

is through through the chair i have just one one thing i want to call to the board's attention which is under our code uh the board has the option of sending this back down to the planning commission in light of the fact that the project has been modified by the applicant so that's one that's one you don't have to but that's an option you have to allow the planning commission to consider the project as it now is proposed Stephanie

Which modification took place? The reduced size is a recommendation, but has it been agreed upon?

Through the Chair, the information that I talked about with the reduced size, we just received that yesterday. So the Planning Commission is not aware of that reduction, nor are the members of the public who are in opposition of the project.

So from 10.9 to 6.8? And the applicant, they agree with it?

The applicant proposed it to us. They proposed it.

OK, thank you.

Chairman. Yes, sir. You know, so this just came out yesterday, so the neighbors aren't aware of it or anything like that. Yeah. I mean, procedurally, I would like to see you go back to the planning commission to have them have a look, you know, hey, we're going to use this process, you know, let the process play out before we make you know the decision and um but before that was my recommendation but before we do that is the i have a question for the applicant is he or she here yes can you come up real quick through the chair if that's okay i just have on your appeal statement um appeal statement number two you know you say that the Planning Commission improperly considered factors such as public opposition. Explain your reasoning behind that.

So from a facts versus emotions standpoint, basically that's where that comment came from. From a... authenticity of the letters and the points that they were arguing, many of the arguing points of those letters don't apply to this condition and to the land that we're proposing to put this facility on.

But don't you think the folks that live there, like the neighbors, should have a say?

Oh, absolutely. We're not saying they don't have a say. In fact, part of our concession is in response to what they have to say. So it certainly doesn't reflect that standpoint at all.

but then one of them reading some through some of the opponents and what they had to say about property values and so on. I mean, did you guys do a study or that this facility wouldn't affect their property values or surrounding property values?

No, sir, did not do a study on that.

So then how could you say that it's improperly considered? I mean, if you're saying that's not a fact, you don't have any facts to say otherwise.

Um, I think, I think we have, we speak to that in our, um, in our information.

I see. I have it here. Um, and then on your appeal statement, number three, you say the opposition record was defective and that the hearing process was unfair. due to alleged procedural issues. What procedural issues are that?

You bet I can speak to that. So in my presentation, I was remote using Teams to perform. There was a question towards the end of the hearing that asked how many properties that the Jones brothers had if they were putting solar farms all over the county, et cetera. I attempted to raise my hand and I did answer no in the chat and was it recognized to offer that feedback and then the vote was taken soon after. Respectfully, we did file a supplemental package on the appeal. We've removed that completely. I have a statement in there that says, you know, we're nullifying that request there. In addition to that, the original appeal hearing does show the system size reduction when we filed the appeal. So it's on there. It's been out there since June 1st.

Knowing that this, I mean, hey, a team's available and that's, you know, you're more comfortable with that, but... Knowing that it's going to go to the planning submission, imagine you had due notice of that. Why wouldn't you show up?

So I represented, and I'll let Mr. Jones, this is Jordan. Before we talk to Mr. Jones, I mean, are you a lawyer? So I'm not. I work for the company. I'm the vice president of operations.

So why are you here now and not then?

So military, so I'm also in the Army Reserves. I live in Alabama. It's the state I live in, so I hybrid work. Roll tide. Go ahead. It hurts my heart just a little bit. But anyway, so I had a military obligation that didn't allow me to travel. I'm also in the Army Reserve, so that's why. Thank you for your service.

I feel bad now. Hey, no, I like Alabama. Roll tide. Katie, you know, who's our... I'm one of our employees, a Georgia fan, so she might think different of Alabama. Are you an Alabama fan?

Woo pig, baby. Arkansas. Hey, I'm Arkansas, too. Woo pig. So I learned not to say that when I'm in Alabama because unless it's basketball or baseball season, I can't speak up. But, yes, I grew up in Arkansas, so I'll speak to that as well.

Who was – was anybody – for the project present at that meeting?

No, so I would love to let him speak on why he wasn't here. He owns the property.

Yeah, hi, I'm Jordan Jones, property owner. Also one of the two owners of Cal Solar as well. We have our offices are in Ripon, California there. I was actually in the hospital at the time, so I couldn't make it. And so that's why he took over and gave the presentation. I didn't wanna add to your guilt, but sorry.

I mean, why didn't you guys just, they could have continued it, correct? I mean, I'm just saying.

Yeah, we didn't know any of this.

So you guys didn't know any of this stuff. So I mean, yeah, that's just one of the questions. But you had two projects. One project got approved, and this project didn't. I mean, is this the type of business that you guys are in? I mean, solar, I guess, right? So how does this work? Do you guys buy property around here in San Joaquin County?

and look for to put solar on it? So normally I'm actually on this side of the fence for my customer. This is a rare for me to be on this side as the customer and the property owner. So as you mentioned, the first one did get approved, almost a carbon copy of the one that we have here earlier in that meeting that we were just discussing. But no, normally we do this for other customers. We do it for wineries, we do it for dairy farmers,

all kinds of different folks all right um yeah i just wanted to see where you guys are coming from during your your statement from number two and number three but you know you know we are accommodating here in san lincoln county if you have to work for your military service and my god if you're in the hospital for some um ailment you need to let us know so i mean our staff sure can push this you know we can continue meetings so we can continue the meeting so you know, like you said, I mean, you wouldn't have these arguments. You can go before and planning commissions and give them your side of the story. I mean, even, you know, just with that, um, additional facts, I mean, make my wanting or my case even better is that this needs to be rep or remanded to back to the planning commission and, um, let them have a, another shot at it with, um, the changes and the applicant going before them before it comes to this board and we make that decision. So thank you both very much. I appreciate it. And thank you, Chairman. Thank you, sir.

Any second.

Anybody else?

Anybody else? No. OK. I'm going to open the public hearing. Anybody from public want to speak on this item?

So can we speak to why we want it to be heard today or a decision that we made? Is that acceptable here? Sure. Okay, excellent. So we would love to present the reason why, and maybe it may not need to go back to the planning commission for another hearing. Definitely would like to present our slides and what we have here. So I'll start off. Good morning or good afternoon now, Chair and members of the board. My name is Robert Chandler. I didn't get a chance to introduce myself, but I am here on behalf of the applicant, Mr. Jones and Cal Solar, his brother JJ also. And just want to talk quickly about my background so you understand kind of my perspective and why, you know, sometimes I'm remote and work hybrid. But I'm a retired fire captain and paramedic. I spent much of my career relating to infrastructure and resilience of the grid. I transitioned out of my fire service into a nuclear power plant. And so got a lot of chance in operations, fire protection, et cetera, to understand impacts to the grid from that perspective. But additionally, my time, as I mentioned in the Army, I'm Lieutenant Colonel with the 350th Civil Affairs Command out of Pensacola. And what we do is go into communities, countries, et cetera, that have been, you know, ravaged and whether by, you know, weather storms impact or you know conflicts and help rebuild from the ground up. So understanding the impacts of the infrastructure and how its importance certainly is something that's near and dear to my heart and areas I know firsthand. Before I begin, I do understand this is a quasi-judicial peer. I'll try to be as brief as I can, but if there is comments and opposition, I would love to have a chance for rebuttal after. The heart of this really appealed and the reason we came to this is that your professional staff, your planning staff, reviewed this and approved it. They approved all the findings, all seven, and recommended approval on our behalf at this meeting. The Planning Commission then denied it on just two findings, number three and four, but the record never says what about this site is physically unsuitable or what about this site is incompatible. And I think that that's important. In fact, the commissioner who made the motion to deny said on the record, and these are her words, there's no legal basis to reject this project under planning law. And really that's the heart of our appeal is that there was a decision to reject first and then we had to figure out what findings fit that decision afterwards. I think we have information that will give you a very clear and well-supported basis to make the two findings and see that there could have been a misstep in how they were gathered and ask you to approve the permit. And since the commission sharing, as we've already discussed, that our position's only gotten stronger by the reduction in size, which was noted in the appeal and some other, a couple of nuances that I think are important. uh to be heard as well so um i won't uh jordan introduced himself but i do want to add a little bit more on his behalf so uh he got married several years ago went away uh on a only to recently go away on a honeymoon and left his honeymoon early uh to come back to be at that hearing so um i don't think his wife was very happy with him and i don't know if this contributed to the fact or not but he arrived on the day before of the hearing and uh and was taken by ambulance that night. So to get prior notice, we really kind of were at the 11th hour of that occurrence and us being on the actual owner end of this, not familiar with the process and understanding that a continuance might be the right step. So that kind of is a reason why we didn't ask for that. So a couple of things. Three things on the record that the Planning Commission didn't have at the time. First, as I mentioned, we cut the system size in half. As you guys can see from the slide, it went from 4.2 megawatts to 2.1 megawatts. Substantial gain in property area there compared to the footprint. Then This is the, you guys didn't see, you saw the original system size on the slide when the staff was making the presentation, but this is what it looks like now. So again, considerable amount of remaining agricultural land in the area. And then probably another site that really supports our case of, you know, if the findings say the site is incompatible, it really doesn't have anything to do with the system size. It's the use on this piece of property. And so Advanced Geo gave us a independent look, looked at the site and put into writing, and it's part of our appeals package. And I did submit it to the board and it's in the package that I gave you guys. But they found no basis to include that this property is physically unsuitable. for this type of development. So one other point that we'd like you to consider and to hear is compatibility with the area, the local area. So comparable ground mounts already exist in the area. If you'll look within a mile of this property, same district, same county, there's a system that's, and this is just by rough estimation, but it's approximately a third of the size of the system we're putting in. And as you guys can see, it's ground mount systems right next to an almond orchard with flourishing canopies of crops right next door within 15 to 20 feet of these panels. So from an impact to agriculture in the area, from an impact to the land use, it's already there. And then in other areas, there's two or three other ground mount systems within a mile, almost 20 rooftop solar systems within a mile. They're all over the place in the community. So as you see it, The agriculture and the solar already exist here. So we're not introducing anything that's unique or a first time ask to put it here. It's fluent in the area already. As a local independent clean generation supplier, local family owned, company based, right here in the county, right here in the district, it's kind of a local energy that this board actually spoke to in one of your hearings not long ago or at least a gathering not long ago when you guys pushed back on PG&E and called for more local options. And even PG&E, when they reviewed this project, said, yeah, the grid needs this power here. There's a gap, and this system can help fulfill a gap, and that's a need for the county and for the district. It puts the solution back in the community's hands, back in your hands, with local generation that's close to the load, more reliable during outages and heat events. and the land still returns to farming once it's done. In addition to being farmed while it's there, it returns to pristine farmland once the life cycle is complete, we remove the components and it's part of our conditions of use is that we return it there when the project is complete. I do want to address the letters, because you mentioned, Supervisor Rickman, that you had several letters in opposition. Have we talked to neighbors and assessed property value? And I do want to speak to that just quickly. I know you guys read, and there are several complaints. We certainly take those seriously, and it was a factor in our decision to reduce the size of this system. Finances were a part of that. But certainly we heard what the neighbors had to say during that presentation. We live in the community, so we feel the same way about concerns on development and making sure it meets the county's and the district's requirements, et cetera, et cetera. So we heard that. But I do want to address a couple of things. First, the Williamson Act, which a lot of the letters address the Williamson Act. This property is not part of the Williamson Act. And that's very key because if you look at the number of letters that reference that, that's a significant portion of the letters you receive said, Williamson Act property, we shouldn't use it. Even though the Williamson Act allows you to use as a conditional use utility solar on that property. So even if it was, it could be authorized. On the farmland, as I mentioned, nothing's permanent. The piles are driven straight into the ground. There's no concrete, there's no paving, and a binding condition requires use in full removal and restoration to agriculture, as I mentioned before, backed by a decommissioning plan and our financial guarantees that we will do that. on the concern that the rest of the land cannot be farmed. The reduced layup leaves a large continuous block that keeps water access. We have no storm or runoff concerns with the property as already been reviewed by Public Works. And we'll accept the condition confirming that continued agriculture use and water to that retained ground exists. Couple other quick ones and I'll be brief. Wildfire, glare, noise, traffic and drainage, those were all addressed in the letter. Each reviewed and conditioned with habitat protection through the county's multi-species plan as part of our declaration. Fire design that the deputy fire warden found compliant. Anti-reflective low glare panels and a quiet unmanned facility with setbacks. minimal operational traffic, and stormwater, as I mentioned, reviewed by Public Works with no issues. The staff found that the project creates no nuisance beyond ambient conditions. That's finding number five and it was made. On fire specifically, as I mentioned, I've got a lot of expertise in that ground. This design is about as sound as it comes. 20 foot perimeter of access road around the facility, multiple gates, remote shutoffs, remote monitoring, alarms, all of those things provide defense in depth that allow us to maintain situational awareness and respond quickly in the event that something was to malfunction in a fire or a fire hazard were to occur. Flat ground outside any fire hazard zone, no risk related to either of those. But the bigger worry underneath those comments and one that we don't take lightly is approving this system, this farm, this utility opens the door to paving over farmland. And I certainly understand that sentiment. This project is the opposite of that though. This is not a subdivision. These are not houses that are going here. It's not a permanent conversion. It's a reversible use that keeps about two thirds of the parcel in production and restores once complete. And then finally about how it looks, about property values and who owns the land and how many pieces of land they own. I do wanna be respectful of that because I mean, the feelings are sincere and I certainly understand them. But this is the important part about my presentation, okay? This decision should be made on the law and not in motion. At the planning commission, your county council instructed that a denial must be made and identify which specific finding cannot be made and why. The commissioner who moved to deny said that she was bound to follow the planning laws regardless of her personal feelings and that she found no legal basis to reject this project. The board has recognized the very same principle in your own findings in recent appeals. that a quasi-judicial decision like this one is bound by the law and the findings and not by feelings. Property values and aesthetics aren't the legal criteria, and your staff said so on the record. Final note, and I want to be clear and fair about this, the minutes show that the motion to deny was made first. They wanted to vote no and then seek help on how to get there. and the findings could not be made. I don't fault council or staff, they're doing their jobs, they were providing the verbiage and the support that they're obligated to provide, but the finding came after the decision was already made, not before it. Findings are supposed to flow from the evidence and not be chosen to fit a conclusion that has already been reached. And that is exactly why findings three and four are not supported by substantial evidence. The full sequence is in your packets and I've provided that to you guys. In closing, staff report tells you that if you grant this appeal, you should state the basis for findings three and four. We've handed you guys that language. So I respectfully ask that the board considers and grants this appeal. Find all seven findings, including findings three and four can be made on the affirmative. Adopt the mitigated negative declaration and a monitoring program as written and approve the permit with all the recommended conditions consistent with our reduced 1.5 megawatt plan. The staff has found every criterion was met. We've reduced the footprint, kept the farmland, and confirmed that the site is suitable. We'd be glad to answer any questions that you guys may have.

Thank you, sir. Yes, sir. Anybody else want to speak on this item? One second.

When you mentioned rooftops, can you clarify that? Yes, sir. Rooftop solar systems throughout the area.

So just residential or is it? Yes.

Well, there are a few commercial in the area, a lot commercial in support of, and I don't know what, I mean, I looked at what they were originally, but there are some commercial use, but not commercial utility scale projects. So those are not there. So there are both residential and commercial types in the area. Yes, sir. Thank you, sir.

Ma'am, you want to speak on this item? No. Anybody else want to speak on this item from public? Any remote participants?

There are no remote participants.

OK. I'm going to close the public hearing, bring it back. Further questions, concerns, comments?

This was opposition. That was opposition.

We're in opposition. You can speak regardless, either support or you want to speak? Okay, I will reopen the public hearing. Please step forward. We do it every day.

My name is Frank Bellino. I live in Escalon at 27850 Owens Road. I had a whole big speech written here. I'm going to change it. I'm a farmer, third generation, right across the street from their property. Never met the Jordans before, but they seem like pleasant people and hardworking, maybe business people. And we're all entitled to make money in our business. That's what we do it for, make a living. And I make a living farming. I don't have four businesses or other businesses, I have one and I farm. And our farm ground is precious to us, as it is to all of you up there, I'm sure. We don't build new farm ground, we lose farm ground. So we can't make farm ground out of cities or industrial properties or anywhere else. We have to preserve what we have. There's other areas of our county, like landfill, I believe, up in Farmington, just closed down. Beautiful place for a solar farm. Not on our farm ground. In our backyards, in our neighborhoods. It's an eyesore. There's lots of issues, and no one wants it. Property values. I have several small partials, just like the one the Jordans bought, that are small, high value for residential, right? Everyone wants to live in the country. What does that do for my property values if someone wants to build a house on it, and now there's a solar panel farm across the street? I don't believe anybody wants to live across from it. I don't think the Jordans are going to live on this property, and I don't blame them. The other solar farms that the gentleman mentioned up there on the map, not one of those is commercial solar panels. They're not commercial. They're privately owned for people's own personal farming business. I know them all. The rooftop ones are residential. I have one at my house. They have a great use. But there are no other solar panel farms out there like what the Jordans want to do. Those one that he said, those are for farming for their own private use. Does that make sense? Okay. So I'm not here to tell anybody up there, your board, what to do here. I'm asking for support to keep our farm ground what it is. I know change happens and sometimes change is gonna happen. But we're trying to preserve where we live and keep it what it is. And it's farm ground. Let's not lose another piece of farm ground to this project or any project like this in commercial. I know they're going to say that it's going to be put back. There's no guarantee of that happening. This project, I promise you, and they probably won't deny it, will be sold in time. The Jordans won't own this project down the road. If you look at commercial projects that go in anywhere else, they get sold off to another company, and then someone else owns it. Are those restrictions or are those guidelines going to be held by the next generation of people that owns it? 30 years is a long time to have something out of farming. I don't see it going back. And I'm sure you guys have your own opinion on that, but I don't see it going back into farming. So I'm asking you to... keep our farm ground farm and support the decision of the planning commission who said no to this project. They have a position just like you guys do. And they made a decision just like all of you do. It shows to me a lack of disrespect to say that those people didn't know what they were doing. I believe they do. Thank you for your time and consideration. Do you have any questions for me?

No, sir, thank you. Thank you. Anybody else, either in support or opposition?

Good afternoon. I'm Alexis Munoz, 19522 South Harold Avenue. I'm 10 acres away from his property. Thank you for having me. And first of all, if you guys can see this, you see the book, it says Escalon, correct? This is my house. I have a Victorian historical home. I'm 10 acres away from this. And as of right now, this is the first time I'm seeing this man. He says he's part of the community, but he is not part of the community. He lives in Stanislaus County. And as of right now, none of our neighbors here have had him come out to us and tell us what he was doing. And to say that this isn't emotional, yes, it is emotional. I moved out here. My mom and my dad purchased this property in 1996. We purchased this property because we love Victorian homes. But we also thought of building a business. But we weren't allowed to have a business there because we were denied by the county because it's agricultural. This is not agricultural. This is commercial. So if I can't have a business to have weddings, then he shouldn't be able to do this here. And first of all, here's another thing. It's not one petition. I have 385 petitions that we have signed. Our neighbors, we do not want this here. We do not want this. This is not going to help us. This is just basically for PG&E. I don't know how many of you guys have PG&E here, which San Joaquin County has, San Joaquin has PG&E. I pay $1,900 during Christmas, during the winter season. Right now I'm paying $500. Am I going to get back on this because he has solar? No. You guys don't even know that the neighbor that lives, he lives right next door to this property. He is a soldier. He has PTSD. He doesn't sleep. And with this thing that's going on there, can you imagine how he's going to be? He's going to be worse. His wife just passed away. We have children. We have grandchildren that live there. And to be opening your doors and seeing this project, it doesn't matter where I go in my house. I can see this from the downstairs, from upstairs, or from outside. And I love my house. I love my property. I love my community. And this does not belong here. He just bought a property on Lone Tree with 20 acres that were on the Williams Act. Why can't he go put the rest of his solar there? This is not the only property that he has purchased. He also purchased one on River Road as well, we understand. And the panels that you guys are talking about on River Road, that's for personal use. The houses that have panels, that's also personal use because we have PG&E. It's expensive. And I'm guessing all of you guys know PG&E is expensive. And I'm going to ask you guys, but you guys aren't going to answer, how much do you guys pay for PG&E? Yeah, I don't think you guys pay $1,900 a month, do you? This does not help us, and we do not want this here. See? So please, take into consideration we are a community that we live out in the ranch. We love where we live. And doing this, it's horrible. You know, there's other places where he can put it. I know in Turlock, they're putting it on the canals for the evaporation. That's a place that they can put it as well. It conserves our water and it helps. At the schools, at the Costco parking lot in Riverbank, there's another place that you guys can put it as well. But not where we live. It's... We pay more to live out in the country. And for this person to come and devalue our properties and for our insurance companies to go up because from what I understand, Escalon, the fire department, doesn't have the ability to turn this off. We're in prime season of almonds right now. They tend to dry the trees off. to distress them. So if this catches on fire, we're the new paradise in California. We're not going to be able to turn this off. There's ranches and ranches of almond trees. And this place does not belong on Harold and Lemon Street. If I am not allowed to put a business because it's agricultural, he should not be able to put one. And just like he said that he couldn't make it because he had personal reasons that he had to go to the hospital, I'll let you know right now. My birthday was last week. I had plans to go to Italy for my birthday. I canceled them to be here because this is how important this is to us. And I'm asking that you guys deny him. This is horrible. And you guys say not to be about emotional, but this is horrible. That you guys are allowing this man to put something where it shouldn't belong. There's places where it should be, but not there. He just purchased a property on Lone Tree, which you guys took off of the Williamson Act. And that's protecting farmlands. This property that he purchased was part of my property before. This house here is 159 years old. This used to be part of my property. It's part of our community. It was under the Williamson Act. When it was sold, I don't know when they took it out, but this used to be our property as well. And to see that he's getting away with this, it's horrible. And just because he downsized from 10 to six, it makes no difference. He hasn't even gone to the neighbors to ask. This is the first time that we've all seen him. And he hasn't even apologized or concerns. So I'm just letting you guys know that we're asking you guys, please don't allow this to happen. And Mr. Robert, you're part of Escalon there. Please, please help us. Help us keep our community the way it is. And I said, it's not one petition. I have 385, and there's more people that are signing the petition as it is right now. where do i give these to you guys thank you so much for listening to us and um like i said please help us for this not to go through because this is a community and frank didn't even tell you his daughters couldn't come today because they're out there in the ranch Other people couldn't come out here because they're farming. Other people couldn't come here because they're working a regular job from 8 to 5. So take in consideration all the neighbors that live there and can't be here because they have a normal job. And that they're out there doing what they do. Farming. And this is not farming. And if you're going to allow him to put this, this is commercial. It's not farming. His property should be commercial, and we're in a farming land, and it shouldn't go there. So please, I ask all of you guys, please pay attention to what we're saying, because it's a quality of life. And we've been there for many years and for this person just to come in at the last minute and change everything for us and not even face us because he, he couldn't even talk. He had to have somebody else talk for him.

The council, excuse me for a second. I'm sorry. I just have a question just in fairness cause I want to make sure, you know, we already had an applicant that said that the planning commission hearing wasn't fair, he got cut off. But aren't we supposed to have a timer five or any, okay. I just want to make sure that it's complete.

Yes, I understand what you're saying, but he didn't have a timer as well.

If I may, it's my understanding that because it's a quasi-judicial hearing that people need to have the opportunity to speak their claims for or against the property because they can only use that if it ever goes to court. Is that correct?

Thank you. No worries. Thank you, Mr. Dean. But like I said, please, please pay attention to us because this is Escalon. You know, let me put it this way. If the people in Escalon, if the farmers didn't exist, Escalon wouldn't exist. And Escalon is a city of farmers, of ranchers. And that does not belong there. Thank you so much for listening to us. And I hope you guys do make the same decision that the other board made, please. Thank you.

Thank you. Anybody else, either in support or opposition?

My name's Adam Borsino. I live 180 feet from that proposed solar farm going up. And I can't say... enough what they just said. All I want to say is farmers, we work in the dirt. That's what we do. And dirt and electricity are not compatible. We are not compatible.

I just want you to know that we are not compatible with them.

We are not compatible. Excuse me for my outburst, but we are not compatible with them.

One second. Please address the board, not them.

But I want them to listen because they haven't listened to anything in the past.

They are listening.

No, they're not. By what they've said, they've not listened at all. They have not taken... are in considerations of anything they've done. I've never met any of them. Like the lady have said, none of us have met anybody over there. They just want to overcome, overrun us. And it's not right. And we're not compatible. That's all it is. We're the dirt people. We work the ground. That's what we do. So I just want to leave it at that. We're not compatible with them. We don't want to be, we want to be left alone. Thank you.

Thank you, sir. Anybody else?

Good afternoon, Supervisors. My name is Ernesto Rancagno, 19-522 South Harold Avenue. I wanted to thank all of you for some time to listen to us. There's a couple of things that I just wanted to shed some light, maybe even bring to light here. As Mr. Chandler was saying, they said that they had lacked due process. I didn't see that. I was present at the last Board of Planning Commission. They had their time to speak. They spoke. Mr. Chandler was on the phone. Whether Mr. Jordan was here or not, I think it's irrelevant. It doesn't really matter. But they had their due process at that time in that place. There were no inconsistencies there. There is one thing that I'm not very clear on. The notice that I saw from this board says that the property is under the Williamson Act. And the prior notice that I saw from the county also said that it's under the Williamson Act. So I don't know whether that's a typo, I don't know whether that's a misrepresentation, but I would like to seek some clarification about that because both notices from the county do say Williamson Act on it. At some point in time, I think maybe the Planning Commission indicated that it wasn't, but I think that's an important issue. Secondly, the reduction in size, it makes no difference in terms of the same arguments opposing it. I think that reduction in size does not affect the findings two or findings three in the Planning Commission's decision to deny the project. I agree with the people who have spoken against it, that there has been no attempt for any discourse, any attempt to talk to the neighbors to say, this is what we're thinking of doing, this is what we'd like to do. There's been none of that. Now I'm told that there's been a reduction, but no prior notice. In fact, as far as I know, there's been no prior notice of their change in their plans. And I know, Supervisor Rickman, you spoke to that. due process would think that we would then have to reconsider the reduction. As you've heard today, the opposition doesn't, it makes no difference whether or not it's 10 acres, six acres, three acres. The point being is that the prior commission felt that it was inappropriate use, did not meet the specifications. They felt that findings two and three were not met. And I asked the board today that you follow the recommendations and deny this project. Thank you very much.

Anybody else?

Hi, my name is Sarah. I live on Lemon. I have lived there my entire life. I have never seen him, never met him. My kids are now growing up on Lemon. This might be a little bit redundant because everybody has kind of said their piece and we all agree. Escalon is about family and farmland and we choose to live here for a reason. This project isn't just changing a field, it's changing the heart of our neighborhood. And we're not against solar, there's just a place for it. And it's not here, it does not belong here. The Planning Commission spent countless hours reviewing the project, listening to residents, and they denied it unanimously. And for them to say that they didn't do their job correctly the first time, it's ridiculous. In just the past few days, we have gotten over 300 signatures to oppose this and I feel like if we got that many signatures in this short amount of time, how many other Eskalon residents would also sign this petition with us? We were not directly notified about the project and then again, not notified about it being reduced, which does not matter because it is the same. Same reasons why it should be denied. Once the farmlands converted, it can't simply just get it back to where it was. And it's gonna be stuck in here for at least 25 years like that if you let them do this. I want my children and maybe my grandchildren to be able to ride their bikes down these country roads and see orchards and fields and open farmland and keep Escalon family and farmland and a community. Thank you.

Anybody else in either favor or opposition?

Good afternoon. My name is Jonathan Jones. I'm the brother of Jordan Jones. I'd just like to say a few words. Thank you guys for your time. Just want to point out some interesting facts that I feel like are not being shared very well. This property is not under the Williamson Act, and as Chandler said, it wouldn't matter if it was or not. That doesn't really seem to be a factor here. Number two, the people who are against it say that they don't want their want to see it or it's going to be emotionally heartbreaking for their families or whatnot. That's obviously an emotional response and that's what we're talking about. Those people themselves have solar and when they moved into the community in 1996, I'm not sure if she introduced herself to every single one of the person in the community or asked if she could start a business. But normally, people don't do those types of things. We're trying to create a respectable energy generation. I'm sure you guys all know that California just exceeded 50% renewable, just solar alone. That only helps it. As my brother stated, the PG&E grid is kind of hurting in that area. This will stabilize it completely. I'm not sure how many brownouts and blackouts they have experienced, but I do know that affects their businesses when it does. If this solar generation goes in, it's almost a guarantee that they will never have that. Again, each one of these people, they chose what crop they would like to farm. We're choosing to do two things. We're farming traditionally, and we're also farming the sun. You know, contrary to popular belief, this is not our business model. We put in solar for the last 15, 17 years for other people. And as you guys know, the solar industry is changing. As of right now, there are no tax credits. We'll see what happens. But this is our opportunity to create a solar farm for ourselves and our families. And we do live in the community. I own a residence in River Islands in Lathrop, and I also own one in Ripon. So to say that we're not a part of the community, no, I am not their neighbor. And I probably have never seen them in Ripon. I've never seen them in Lathrop. but they are a part of the san joaquin county and i know that and i respect that again i don't tell them what to do with their land i'm not sure why they're allowed to tell us what we can do with our land but again as stated the commission originally approved all seven counts So in the hearing, those two counts were obviously denied. But again, if you read the minutes, you would hear council members saying that they want to move to Escalon and that they have similar concerns as they do. They don't want to move to a place that has a solar farm. But I would like to point out that MID has a much, much larger solar system right there at Ladds and McHenry Road. just on the other side of Escalon. One of the richest neighborhoods in that county is Del Rio, right next door to it. I don't think that those people really are concerned with the look of a solar farm or whatever in that respect. So again, I think to some of the things that they're saying, I guess you can understand it. If you're in an emotional state, you could understand that. But again, by the law and by what these, what other people have done, I don't see how you could deny it again. Thank you. I appreciate your time.

One second. I'll wait. I'll wait. I'll wait. Go ahead, please. Go ahead, please.

My name is Ines Muñoz. I live in Harold, 1952. For 30 years, I live in that house. And for 30 years, I see the blooming of the beautiful trees. Now, I'm asking each and one of you, and I'm asking him too, would he put the solar panels in front of his house? Would you like to wake up in the morning and see that? I don't. I don't. Please, help us. Help us to maintain the land to when it is the way it is. Again, the question is, would you like to see that in front of your house? Would you like to wake up and see that? That is my question. Thank you very much. Help us. Help us to keep the land the way it is. Thank you so much.

Thank you, ma'am. Anybody else? Sir, you want to add something we heard from you?

Yeah, just like they did briefly.

I'll make it quick. I promise.

Two things in response to Mr. JJ. The MID project, I don't know if any of you have seen it. It's on McHenry. It's a 120-acre project that MID put in and owns. The property is owned by Jim Sabraja. The only house that can see that solar farm is Jim Sabraja, the property owner. The big homes in Del Rio, you couldn't see them from the top of their house. You couldn't see that project because there's 150 to 200 acres of almonds all the way around Del Rio. You can't see it. You can see it going down the road. So poor example of that. The other thing, emotion. This is not all emotion. I make a living doing this, like I stated last time. This is not something that I take lightly when somebody comes in, takes farm ground away from us, and wants to convert it to something else. If it can be done next door to me, it can be done anywhere. It's about my livelihood, just like theirs. So it's not all emotion. It hits our pocketbook. Thank you. Thank you, sir.

I'll have rebuttal now or do I need to wait?

Briefly, please.

Yes, sir. It'll be brief. Just want to address a couple things. First and foremost, we still hear them. We don't discredit anything they have to say, but I do want to speak to just two or three facts real quick. PG&E says there's a need here. That's why we're putting it. That's one of the decisions. We can't just put a solar farm anywhere. There has to be a study done, and it's a very comprehensive and costly study done to say that, yeah, there's a valid need in this area for utility-scale solar, and we need it here. All of these folks I know love to have power in their homes. We can't just push power endlessly down the line. You have to have other power supplies in the area, as you guys have recognized, and said, you want this auctioned locally. in Ripon, in the community, in District 5, and we're giving them that opportunity to keep the lights on. I want to address money and finances. The money generated per kilowatt per megawatt is way less than the retail and the money that the other owners in the area are generating and benefiting from their solar systems. And so although we are producing more in total, the percentage and the money that we make on that or that's generated on that is way less than is made from a typical residential system that's offsetting their own power costs, whether it's for a farm or a shop or a house. I do want to speak on the EMF and just because I'm a military guy myself and I have several battle buddies that have dealt with the same thing. This system, the study shows, does not produce any measurable increase in heat, sound, vibrations, etc., etc. The studies there, it doesn't do it. PTSD can be triggered by a number of things, but to say this system is directly gonna impact that, there's no evidence to support that. And then finally, I would ask the staff to confirm that in the appeal that was filed on June 1st, does it state a reduction in system size in the appeal? I would ask them to confirm that and also to confirm originally this project was stated to be part of the Williamson Act. They have corrected that record that it is not. I would ask them to support both of those statements, please.

Please.

Would you guys like me to address that? Oh yeah. So it was incorrectly, this parcel is not under a William Snack contract. It was incorrectly said that it was during the initial referral. So it's not under William Snack contract. And then in reviewing the appeal, I see one spot in the multiple section appeal that says that it's reducing to six acres, but no revised project description and no revised site plan was received until Monday.

So, yeah, I want to make sure we're looking at the same appeal because it's in there. I do want to address a secondary piece of that. This was just approved for interconnection with the utility as of, I believe, Thursday of last week. So, you know, for a project description and all, we couldn't provide that until that's done. Probably some folks know that's a lengthy process to work through. And as soon as we got it, we turned it over. doesn't change the use, doesn't change the applicability of this facility, this utility in this area, doesn't change any of those findings. Thank you.

Thank you, sir. Anybody waiting remotely? No? I'm going to close the public hearing, bring it back to the board, Supervisor Ackman.

Thank you, Chairman. And I just want to confirm, are we talking a solar facility? We're just talking solar panels or are we talking batteries?

Through the chair.

Or are we talking both?

This application is just for solar panels.

Okay. I just wanted to confirm that. And I just want to clarify something. You mentioned one of the planning commissioners, and I see it here in the minutes, that no legal basis to reject a project under planning law. you know, what that planning commissioner said, if that, you know, I'm not going to, well, I'm not putting words in their mouth, it's here in a minute, is incorrect because, you know, incompatibility is a valid and common ground for denial of a discretionary CEP. So, you know, take that with what it's worth. So you can use incompatibility. And I've seen it here before. The incompatibility was used to deny a discretionary CEP. And, you know, looking at the minutes, looking at the record. You know, and it's not just a resident senator here today, but it's also I know, um, executive director of the San Joaquin County Farm Bureau spoke out in opposition that there was some, um And I'm not going to go into it that much in the minutes of the planning commission record, but At the end of the day, this is a quality judicial, you know, and, you know, looking at the due process side, looking at, you know, the record here. And I just want to confirm that there is, is there an application on file to reduce the project? Is that, has that been received?

So through the chair, the first time we found out that the project was being downsized was Monday morning. An email was sent over the weekend, I believe to the clerk of the board with like a revised description. We hadn't received any information before Monday morning. Okay, but we have it now.

You know, so, I mean, I'm going to, I mean, it's not going to make anybody happy, but that's not, again, this is a quasi judicial. I just look at what's here in front of me and what's on the record is that, you know, I would like it. And my course of action would remanded to the planning commission for a re hearing based on. The proposed changes.

Is that the motion. I'll make that motion to send it back to planning commission correct second. We have a motion and second call for a vote please. Motion passes 5, 0. Board members, any comments before we adjourn?

Well, I had one, but he's not here. Who's you looking for? Where's Gavin?

They're getting ready.

He runs off and gets engaged and then he doesn't have to show up to the meetings anymore? JD, yeah. Oh, he got engaged? Yeah, I was going to congratulate him, so harass him when you see him. Wish him well.

Congratulations.

Congratulations.

Yeah, oh, go ahead. No, go ahead.

I just want to say, oh.

Go ahead.

Is there something else? No, go ahead. No, the other items that were on the agenda for obviously National Health Center Week that we didn't pull was one of them. And then the Child Support Awareness Month was another one that we didn't pull.

The proclamations. The proclamations.

And I just want our employees to know that we see you and we hear you and that it's important that we bring these things forward in our community so that we bring awareness. There he is. He walked in because you shamed him. There he is. I'll go ahead, Supervisor Dean.

Can I?

Yes, you have the floor.

Mr. Klein.

Speaker, microphone. Can you approach the board, please?

He's blushing. Can you? This I'm putting a time limit on. Can you take a couple minutes and tell us what you've been doing this weekend?

Yeah, thank you, Mr. Chairman, Supervisor Ding, Ward. This past weekend, I was engaged, or I proposed, sorry, to my girlfriend. We had to do it in the best district in San Joaquin County, District 4. Sorry, Supervisor Rickman, but no, I appreciate it. It was a very exciting time and looking forward to it.

congratulations thank you supervisor he didn't tell you what district he lived in she did say yes and she said yes she did say yes thank goodness congratulations thank you i appreciate it chairman congratulations and then on one more note um supervisor ding and i did attend the naco conference i just wanted to clarify that so we were there and supporting san joaquin county and making partnerships and making sure healthcare and the things that are so near and dear to our hearts in san joaquin county are heard on the federal level so thank you supervisor dean for attending and showing some expertise and where we're at and where we're going nationally and genevieve was also there and nicole and genevieve has a vote on the health care council for naco so that's important so san joaquin county is uh advocating nationally on your behalf, and I was glad to take part in it. So thank you.

Thank you, sir. Supervisor Gardea?

I GOT TWO THINGS. I MAY MENTION ABOUT OES EARLIER. JUST GOT A REPORT THAT STOCKTON SENT A RIG UP THE HILL FOR STRUCTURE PROTECTION. SO IT'S PART OF THAT. NEUTRAL AID DOES WORK. SECONDLY, HOPEFULLY EDA IS LISTENING. SHE'LL BE GOING OFF ON A NEW ADVENTURE AND A NEW CAREER SOMETIME THIS MONTH. Sad to see her go. She was vital person as part of the team district one. But I'm real happy and I'll introduce my new teammate next either next and one of the next two meetings. Thank you, sir.

So what was it, Rickman?

Thank you, Chairman, since we're talking joyful things here, you know. Engagement, congratulations, but Maria Venezuela my board aid birthday was on Friday so I know she's watching in the back room so happy birthday um congratulations or best of luck to all the all the students are going back to school I know most of them are well I guess some started last week I think majority of this week and we mentioned it today tonight is national night out and it's all across you know San Joaquin County so if you don't know what it is look in the paper it's when communities come out and you know COMBAT AGAINST CRIME OR TAKE A STANCE AGAINST CRIME, GET TO KNOW YOUR NEIGHBORS AND PROTECT YOUR COMMUNITY. AND IT'S I THINK EVERY CITY HERE. I KNOW MARIA IS GOING TO BE IN ESCOLON, SCOTT'S IN RIPPON, I'LL BE IN TRACY MOUNTAIN HOUSE RIGHT AFTER THIS MEETING. SO CHECK IT OUT AND GO OUT AND IT'S A GOOD TIME. SO WITH THAT, CHAIR, THAT'S ALL THE TIME I HAVE. THANK YOU, SIR.

THANK YOU, SIR. AND BECKER GOT ENGAGED ABOUT FIVE YEARS AGO. CONGRATULATIONS.

I HEARD YOU HAD A BABY TOO.

Thanks, everyone. If we could close on behalf of the In-N-Out Burger employee that was shot from Stockton, if we could close on her behalf.

That's very sad news. There was, I'm pretty sure all you guys know, there was a shooting at In-N-Out in Idaho and one of the victims were, she was from Stockton, Ashley Grebe. Rest in peace. Our condolences go out to her family. The meeting is adjourned to August 18th at 9 a.m.