Veterans Affairs Commission - Regular Meeting

Good morning, everyone. Good morning. Beautiful downtown Saint South Lake Tahoe. Most here that are here. We are going to start the commission on a meeting. It is nine what would they need? Two. Two. Mhmm. First order of business is the salute to the flag. Liz, you have our It's right over there in the corner. Are you snorting?

Salute. Begin.

Indivisible.

Everybody feels like safe. Okay. Play ball at this point. The next order of business is to do our roll call, and we traditionally introduce ourselves. I'm gonna do a lot of meetings lately, and we're kind of informal compared to them. But I think it's important for us to at least use our vocal cords to begin with it. And so let's start with reading. And your name and what what position do you have or what you are?

Lorene Sanchez. I'm from the Lake Tahoe Basin, District 5 with my wonderful cohort, Brook Lane.

That's good. That's it. Thank you. And then about Joan. I didn't quite see. Joan Fuquay. I'm the chair. I am a member of the community at large. And yeah.

I'm Julie Bauer, and I am a member at Large.

Hi. I'm John Messina, appointed by the CEO of South Lake Tahoe with Mission, and I also work with

the senior zinc at the senior center.

And you're visiting a gym between I'm

Judy Morgan, and I'm representing the senior center.

I'm Dave Jenkins. I'm a council member, and I'm here on behalf of Keith Roberts.

Jeff Miner. I'm a member of the community, and I wanna give a a presentation at the information time.

Alright. That that would be at the end. Yeah. Great. I'm Tillin James, assistant director of human services.

Elizabeth Powell, commissioner of District 4. Janet Kennewick, special advocate.

Yes. I'm Hitchford, admin analyst with human services. I'm

the program manager of our area agency over aging programs with helping human services agency as well.

Good morning. Denise Ramos. I'm the new program coordinator for the information assistance, family caregiving outreach. Well, that's all of that.

Yeah. In in Placerville, we have

Rainy nun, District 1, supercommissioner.

Go ahead. Chris. Jenna Steady for it. Special advocate.

Bob, hammer out the computer and your representative.

Very good. Well, welcome one and all. This is gonna be really kind of fun and interesting. Very happy. Next order of business is the approval of the, consent calendar, which consists of, the minutes of the last the last meeting, which you all have received, via email, and, approval of the agenda. Assuming you have all read both of these, general entertain a motion to approve. So moved. I'll second. Any discussion? Now at this point, do we have to have individual?

Yes. Yes. Okay. Let's start with Liz.

Well, you've got a list. So you have a list. You have to Oh, we have a list? In your orange binder. Oh. Oh.

Oh, I'm so pissed. Liz. Okay.

Do you want me to use?

Yeah. Why don't you go ahead and do it? For now, we're leaving. I know. On the channel keeping it. I didn't get my own cheat sheets. Claims?

Okay. Julie? Yes.

Let's see he's not here. Joan? Yes. Bob?

What's the calendar? Yes. Here. But

We're we're voting on the consent calendar because we've got commissioners there at Spring Street. And here, we have to do a roll call vote. So do you we have a first and a second on approving the consent. Do you approve?

Approve. K. John? Yes. Raelene? Yes. Elizabeth?

Yes.

Okay. Motion approved. Very

good. Well, our next order of business is a our guest speaker, and I am going to yeah. I'm gonna ask Lorraine to introduce Dave, and you're all about what? Am I out of order? Am I out of order on this?

Okay. I'm probably not you. I get it. You're just slapping.

If you don't do it, she will. So

I'll imagine. What about Susan?

Hey, Loreen. Please introduce our guest.

So as you know, I

have Keith coming in to be our guest speaker on issues that's going on in the basin in Eldorado County, etcetera, etcetera. However, Keith is not Keith is under the weather. Let's just say he's in the hospital. So Dave Jenkins, the other city council member who I admire a lot, is here to take that position. So I'm gonna introduce Dave as our city council with all the no.

With all the no?

I hear no a lot. Well,

as was indicated on our during Heath, he's has gone through a lot. And without going into all the details, he would have loved to have been here. He he was advised that he should just rest a little bit. He's had a very, very hard week. Ten days or so.

And I wanna say that I I'm very I I'm delighted to be in this in this district. Brook Lane was the mayor when I was hired as city manager in 2002. So I said I told Brook I've I've I've told her several times. I said, no matter what you think, it's kinda your fault that I'm here. So and so I retired in 2010 as a manager, and then my wife and I lived here for since since o two.

And we we've loved it and enjoy it. And we've been involved, all of us, start of the Activate. Have a lot going on in our in our city, but there's something that is a special place, I think, for for you. I I would say y'all. Y'all.

And and and that is advocate that that we all think that seniors we all know that seniors are are are most important resource. Senior advocacy is critical at the time so that the issues, concerns, and needs of our senior community do not get lost as we discuss many other important issues. So it it our advocacy is something I ran on. Some people maybe wished I'd run away, but I decided to run on on that as an issue. And I also I've had the privilege to work and be engaged with senior for many years, both city manager also as a member, and I'm very proud of the work that they and all of you are doing.

City South Lake Tahoe is had some interesting times this last year. It's been it's been a time of some turmoil. It's been a time of some reflection, and we but we manage still to continue with services that are being provided. We have a very fine police department. We have a very fine fire department. We have very fine public works. I just wanna see them do more repair on the streets. And I we need we need to give them the resources to do that. And we we are pretty engaged. We have a good team of people.

I was sad to see Joe Urban, our city manager, former city manager, leave, go to Malibu. Poor guy had to go to Malibu.

Oh, because I

I like Joe a lot, and I liked his demeanor. I liked his ability to take in ideas, we don't give directions to come. We give it as a policy body, not as a single members. But he would take it. Well, let me think about that. Okay. That's fair. Sometimes he'd say, yeah. That's something we can do, or sometimes he'd say not. And I always like that about him. Now we're in the process of recruiting for a city manager. We hired a firm, Bob Murray and Associates, which some of you may be familiar. I'm very familiar with them. Mhmm. And we've just had our first set of interviews.

There'll be a second set next week, and we're trying to narrow down to candidates who will, yes, fit car needs as a community who can be an advocate but yet cooperate. It's important to cooperate, but you, you know, but get I used to say getting along is okay as long as we get done what needs to get done. And so our prefer we have a we have a great region here. We have leadership at TRPA who are Julie Reagan, John Ester, they're wonderful. They're the best that I've seen in in the twenty some years that I've worked here.

I think they understand the issues. I think they understand that we have to protect our environment, but also that we need investment. Without investment, you're just a poor place. And without investment, you don't have the money to do the things that you need to do to protect the environment, to keep people employed, and so on. So we're making there's a lot of lot of strides I see in the region.

They're not there yet, but they're working on it, and and we're working on it also. We do have a new council member that was appointed with the resignation of one of our members, Heather Horgan. Heather's very involved in the community and is a ministerial nurse, if you will. She has a great passion for living here, and she she's she's a high energy high energy person. I think she said she met most of the people she needed to meet in about three weeks.

So she's that's that's pretty grovel. Mean, and so I was gonna you may have some questions, but I but I was gonna give you a I write a newsletter, community newsletter, and I've written since 2018, September 19, I think, was my first 2018. I've written a 170. And they're not Pulitzer Prize winning devices. I sent them to the board.

I sent them to people who have asked to receive a copy, and it's a free of charge thing. It's not a but I I try to talk about issues that are both at the local level, issues of concern, whether it's, you know, getting dealing humanely and properly with homeless or or or in our senior communities, making sure that we're being responsive to the needs of our senior community to working with people like and and we you all again. Mhmm. But so I I I try or I talk about sometimes regional issues, like protecting the lake and keeping microplastics out and protecting us from fire. And sometimes in the newsletter, it's repeated because the issue needs to continue to be repeated.

Public safety always continue continues to need to be repeated. Like, I just I'm not sure I've said that right,

but it'll all end up.

The most the most recent issue I've I I was talking about things that are I, you know, I try to be funny. And sometimes I do that at the council meeting because we have some pretty tense we've had some recently fairly tense meetings and people calling people really the names and saying things about them. Really, I I mean, that's alright. But so I I I try to be have some levity and and kinda chirp and add a pat a few zingers, little jokes in there. And, you know, I don't know that it helps, but I feel better about it.

But

there are some major projects, major investment projects that are not bad for the environment. They're they're good for our environment. There's the my wife's just always reading my notes. We've we've we've got some things that we've got a a whole new renovation at Skura Marina. The old that that area there is completely was was gonna be torn down.

They've added new docks and so on. But it's gonna be a public area, two restaurants. They're going to revitalize and make it a community wide attraction for people to go. There's an issue, and that's done by the Suntex Corporation that that runs probably fourteen, fifteen marinas in in California. The Beechery Tree, which is down here, which is now Cyclone Defense, they're moving rapid and have to renovate all the roads.

They wanna make it attractive. They wanna make it attractive for visitors. And and, of course, we had a big discussion about visitors in our communities here. And we understand that our economy is touristy place, but you must behave. If you want to get along here, you have to behave.

Whether it's in vacation homes or it's in hotels, you have to behave. And we've upstaffed in our in our code enforcement to ensure that that people behave. Most people do. It's just the the peppermint person who's next door to you. It could be a permanent resident, but but but so we're we're trying very hard to accommodate both our to accommodate visitors, but also protect our neighborhoods to make sure that our neighborhoods are not turned into into into big party places unless we're invited.

Oh, there's the Margaritaville is is going through a lot of investment there. Margaritaville, if you can upgrade that property. A lot of investment in in the state line area, as you know, with what is it called? Wanna I wanna call it Harvey's, but it's not Harvey's. It's canceled. Oh,

who knows this week?

Yes. Who knows? And that's what it is, actually. But but the good thing about that, that means that there's investment coming in. And then we have a little thing called the hole in the ground. And that hole in the ground has been from our 2006 bankruptcy that that the property owners wanted the city at that time to absorb to prompt to be a prom a note signer on the note. We promised the city that, I don't know. We're not gonna we're not gonna put the taxpayers' money on on that. So that that went bankrupt. It then was sold.

There's new owners. They have they have permits to build build some new facilities there. They haven't moved yet on it. They say they're going to. And as we say, mama's a better. We'll see. We'll we'll we'll find out, and we're gonna it's not our property, so it's not like something we can just go in unless we got 45,000,000, $50,000,000 to buy it. We don't sell our property. So we doing everything. I've been working particularly in encouraging them to to move forward.

The family that owns it, it's the Chan family, and they have roots in in in in our state, and they have some roots in China. David Chan, my namesake. Right, David? In Chinese and Cantonese, it's Daiwi. So but you're gonna call me Daiwi.

I'll call you Josh.

I I I call the yeah. I can call other things. There are some issues locally that I'm I'm particularly concerned with because there's a Nels the old Nels hardware up here. Are you familiar with that? It's a plighted area. It's they're trying to build to to redevelop that into a nice nicer housing and housing in 11 units, and it's single family. And they're getting pushed that you're they're not meeting the letter of the letter of the law. And so I'm I've appreciate that Julie Reagan has agreed to meet. Counsel's agreed to discuss the matter at our next meeting, and we'll see how we can make something good happen. Make progress, not process.

And there's a lot of process as you all know in government. But sometime when you I used to have a a land use lawyer statewide known. His name is Dan Curtin. And Dan used to say, something good, make it happen. Something not good, don't. And and, of course, if we could only agree on what was good and what was bad, then we'd be in good shape. But so that and and I see the role of council member. I see my own role. I can't tell them what they are as an advocate. I see my an advocate for the community.

People don't know how to navigate the system. It's simple to all of us, but to them, it's not because they don't they don't do it on a daily basis. And so I appreciate John Messina coming to the council meeting and and and mentioning things that that he sees and and urging us to do more or less to improve our community. I've always appreciated Brook Lane because of Brook Brook is is just a calm a calm natured person, and she who cares a lot about our our community, and she and she works hard to to serve us. Okay. Let's see.

Did I ask you a question,

Gracias.

Okay. As

far as our community, because I I had to go in different directions for different things that we're doing, and I've kinda not stayed on top of our own community, which is exactly why I wanted Keith to come in because I have questions too. As far as our community, we, as a group, have talked about multigenerational facilities, complexes, housing. Where are we with that?

Well, multigenerational facility has just opened, and it's a it was it was a voter

Not the I'm not speaking that.

Okay. Yeah.

Yeah. Well, that's a it's a it's a whole issue in itself. Yes. It's about, you know, who plays where. And and and, well, the one thing that that I'm I'm committed to is that people who have worked and lived in our community all their lives and have contributed now retired or or they're older that they deserve to make the choice of where where they can be. And that's so let's see. About the multi gym, I think we're I think we're doing a lot, but we're in a lot of areas. You know, we're doing a lot of outreach. We're doing the community survey right now. Surveys are surveys, you know, in my experience.

Some people fill them out. Some if they're too long, you don't. And they can be they can be skewed. And and so give me more specific, like

So what I'm referring to is not not the center, but as a whole, building our community from here. You say we need to develop. We need to make us more attractive, investee. Okay. But on the same hand, with all the changes we're going through right now with Liberty and all this crap, it keeps coming to the service.

That that's why I'm asking all this. Our seniors in our own community are going to and are being affected immensely. What are we going to do as a community to protect that from happening going forward where we could build better housing and better not facilities. That's the wrong word. Better housing and community areas for living rather than the veil for someone. You know,

this for years, you've raised something very important. I've had people say, hopefully, we could just be like Vail. I said, we're not Vail. This is not Vail. The income levels of everything, it's not Vail. We have different needs. Vail's nice nice nice nice place. Never been there. Nice. But but but I assume it's a nice one. It is. And it's a very nice place, but we're not there. We're us. And as far as the Liberty thing, didn't have I was shocked. You know, I I I try to think that I know a little bit about what's going on.

But when when I find out that for five years they've known that Nevada Energy was gonna withdraw electric power to to to do AI in Nevada. And really? When did when did we hear? So I've been asking questions. Sometimes people don't like me to ask questions. I said, well, when did we know? Who did they talk to? Who were who were the people? How was and when did Liberty come to port and say, hey. We got an issue we gotta deal with.

So the council has written a letter, authorized the mayor to write a letter to the PUC, California Public Utilities Commission, and saying, hey. I'm in English. What's going on? How can we what what what is going oh, don't worry. You'll there will be a supplier of electrical by the end of two thousand twenty seven. And the question is at what cost? Exactly. And how is it going to impact the people who live here? Exactly. And so and we want answers.

And for the first time, we had the they call him president. I would call him the district director of Liberty. He came to our council meeting. In the time I've been there, and I can't remember ever even when I was manager, knowing who who that was. Now maybe that was my fault. But they say they wanna engage more with us, man. Okay? Let's but but what are the answers? We we still don't know what those answers are. Because we can't drive everybody out of the community because their electric bills and utility bills are so high, they can't afford it.

Well and and you have to think about this.

This is why I'm bringing it

up because our seniors are already suffering. And they put in these damn smart meters whether you want it or not, and they have doubled in price.

Well, and well, and you're that's another point that thank you for raising that. You're kinda one of my problems. And I and I and I appreciate it. There's people who are very concerned about smart meters for one one, from fire FireEye. Secondly, from privacy. So we've asked the questions. We had the president of the district director of Liberty came to the council meeting, made a very nice presentation. We expressed concerns. We said we'd like to kinda get a feel of where things are going on. We want some answers on these smart meters.

We wanna know because if you don't if you don't allow one to be put in, it's $52 or $53. It's ridiculous. Every month. And and but but in the day after, the district guy for Liberty, well, gentlemen, came to our council, I get a call, and I I assume others get a call saying, there are installing meters right in our house. Mhmm. And they didn't even ask us or did not have an order or anything. That's ridiculous. Mhmm. And so we have to take control of our community, and it takes the I look at the city council as an advocate again for the community. Exactly.

It doesn't mean we're an enemy of anybody, but we're an advocate for our our our I call them our people. Some people don't like using that term. It's our people. People live here. They're our people. And and there's there's there's more stories to be told on this issue with smart meters and so on.

Excuse me. I'm opening, sir. Yeah. And

I do

question is Yeah.

And I and I was gonna make a comment too. For those of you who don't know, I mean, we're most of us not from this area, there are issues

with the Right. I was just referring to guy who yeah.

You're right.

Yeah. And so that Liberty is a provider Power like PG and E would be or Right. Narcissist.

So there there are issues with with that. Yeah. Holding their power. Liz, did you wanna add to As a whole,

the commission on engaging is probably more focused on her original question is housing for seniors in this community, whether they have electricity or you know? Well that's a big issue.

Job as us, then it's an issue.

But I think as a whole, our commission is more focused on services for seniors. How do they acquire their their food deliveries? How do they acquire their housing? And some of the subsidies as necessary. You know? So we're looking at a broader picture right now, but we're focused because we're here in South Lake Tahoe. We'd like to focus on this. So she had originally asked about housing.

Right? Well, housing, you know, there have been housing facilities built. I remember during my own tenure. I I I'd like to claim that I lose credit for it, but it was a whole collaborative of of people. There there there's been housing built. But our focus over the last few years, our resources, our focus, our money has been on not been on senior housing. Right. It's been on other other very low housing. And we've done our we've done our part as a region, I believe, to to do our share. The region now, the Tahoe Region, doesn't have the same rules about share.

I'd like to see more focus on market on on on housing for seniors. I'd like to see more focus, and we have a talented staff, more focus on housing for working families who who live here but can't afford to live here or increasingly not able to live here. And and that's gonna take a shift in strategically in our in our city because we they've been for a few years in in focus strictly on and

I have nothing against They don't

affordable housing. But but but the focus has been different. It has to been shifted. Now when you when you move the cheese, I get sometimes accused of moving the cheese too much. And I and I and I just ask questions. You know? Sometimes people relate it to these kinds of things. And and and I and I'm sure Brooke, because I I know some of her colleagues on the on the cohort. When you when you ask questions that are different than what where they're going I said on Lavko, which I have to go to a meeting next week. Lavko.

And so there needs to be more focus. There hasn't been focus on senior housing again as there was in the early two thousands. There was several projects. I can think it's two, three.

So it's about three yeah. But there's been nothing about for seniors in

the last twenty years. No.

So I think that's one of the things the commission kids as whole can be focusing on.

No. That's my comment. That's what I want you as the council to understand. We can do so much, but if we don't work together, it's not gonna work, period.

I would love to see us work together on housing.

So here's here's the thing. If Jim was here, oh my god. He could give you a presentation presentation that's that is just just freaking freaking golden. Golden. Right. But when I talk about multigenerational living, why are we concentrating on just the low income or the senior? Why don't we pull everything together and make an immunity of goodness for everybody living together? That's my point.

I mean, that is that is Sugarpine Village.

Yeah. Sugarpine Sugarpine is is was a project that took it was a collaborative project with the state California governor actually getting involved on state lands that they didn't wanna let go. But but there there is a mixed group of people, a mixed community of people in the Sugar Pine units. There's 79 units gonna be I think 79 the next phase of that of that project. But but to your so and that is they have resources in

in Yeah. Joe's gonna give a little update on that. You know, they can

go to the drowning. You've got it. Yeah. We do have to do have to

See what happens when you get me here to see.

So, anyway, best direction I want our community to go to because of the seniors and us being developing and wanting to do this, I want more of a collaboration amongst the unity in the community, not just one structure or the other.

They do. I I used

to deliver flowers on Owens Way, all the seniors down in the Bay Area. They really like to live in a little community of their own, people of their own age and problems. When you stick them in with these low income housing, we got some in there now, but they're isolated. They're they're not living in their senior community. Like, the the couple of the few facilities we do have are great, but

we need more of them.

My experience my experience in government going back seven cities were, including this one, is that that is your what you're saying that they and I think our senior community should be allowed to decide what where what they wanna do, where they wanna do it. They've earned that right now as as people who've lived a long life. And so I I wanna be sure that we're sensitive to that viewpoint, Sean, is that but but it's gonna take more direction. It's gonna take three members of the council who agree. We have three people up for election this year.

Three seats, not mine, not to Keith's. I I as I tell people, you have to well, we're here and right. What happens to you? But you still have to deal with us for a couple more years. And the reason I got back into government I'm retired. Right? I'm a retired public employee. I wanna do good for the community, the entire community, and and I think seniors are critical that we we need more of that collab collaborative collaborative, and we need more to listen to the seniors, particularly groups who've been helping us for years, for decades in this in this community.

So we're gonna move on.

Yes. I hear.

But I want you to listen to my little tongue. It wants to give it up there. I want us to aim more towards unity in our own community. I'm tired of living in the veiled persona because we don't need to be there. K? Just go in that way because this is what we represent as a whole in each community.

Okay? It'd just be us, not somebody else.

Did did you wanna wrap it up with something Busy. With the children? Yeah.

I I could agree. It's something you know, my wife tells me that symptoms. Importantly, she's a very smart person. I think there's more we can do for seniors if we all do our share. South Lake Tahoe has done a lot in in end of the apart from what is being done in the county. But South Lake Tahoe has done a lot. It's done its share in the affordable housing. We've done our part. And what if the region would do its share, there was more opportunity then

to Exactly.

So the region has to do its share. Brooke is a supervisor. I I've known her a long time. You know, Brooke's on TRPA, and and and I've been talking to them about and I'll have another conversation next week with them about doing their fair share. And so that so that on on from from from the stand so that we can focus more on on the community part, not doing what everybody else out here wants us to do, but doing what we need.

Now it sounds like word salad. I don't do salad as good as some people, but it's all it's all I don't wanna be veiled. I don't wanna be broken rage. I don't I don't I don't I don't want us to be that. We need to focus on our on our peep on our people's liver, our community. And that's gonna take some leadership, and that'll take some direction hopefully with a new council with we have I'm not saying anything about our product council, but with whoever's elected in November that we can focus our our strategic plan on what you're saying. And, please, here's my card. Contact me anytime you anytime you wish.

And you can Believe me, I've got your number.

Jane, thank you so much. And your wife.

Can I can I

ask No? Well, just hold on. Just just one second. Okay? At this point, we do we are opening it up to community comment. Or Public comment. Pardon me? Public comment. Public comment. Is that I I don't have my

cheat sheet. On the speaker, yes. You can.

And you have to do your spiel on some Please do.

Okay. Now I'm taking public comment on the guest speaker, Dave Jenkins. Individuals will have three minutes to address the commission. Public comment will be taken from those in the room. We do not have any public on the line. So you will have three minutes. Go ahead. Voluntarily state your name for the record.

My name is Trudy Morgan, and I represent Senior Inc. My question is and I absolutely agree with Lorene. We need to have more unity amongst everybody. My experience and some of my frustrations are as things that so much is done down in the Placerville area, and not any of that seems to be generating some sort of help for us in the South Lake Tahoe area. So I, again, would like to see the Commission on Aging work more directly with trying to get more services and things for the seniors in the South Lake Tahoe area.

Okay. Thank you. Any other public comments? Yes. I'm not

quite as good of a public speaker as Dave is, so I'm gonna read this.

Good morning. My name sorry. Go ahead. Your name.

My name is Jeff Miner. I've been living in South Lake Tahoe since the early seventies. In fact, I started Grassroots Natural Foods in 1973, and now I run radon in Tahoe to focus on radon awareness in the Lake Tahoe area since 2004. I deeply care about this community, and I'm here because I believe this senior center, because I'm talking about specifically, not this

The comment has to be related to

To Yeah. What? His his

Oh, I'm sorry.

We have another sec comment later. I didn't know.

Yeah. He did have one. Yeah. I'm sorry. We yeah. We were I wasn't quite clear on that. Yeah. And the any public comment is on the section that we had just been talking about. And then at the very end, we'll open it up to Jemma. Okay. Our neck anymore. Okay. Our next order of business is our spotlight. And I'm gonna read this whole thing. Yeah. We've we've decided that we're going to really, like, spotlight a one of the members of the staff. And so today, we have our one of our newest. Would you like to introduce her? I think that would be great.

I would love

to introduce her. Hey.

I'm the program manager for our area agency. We've had a vacancy on my team since the end of November, so we've been operating without a supervisor and program coordinator over several of our area agency on or critical area agency on aging programs. And we just had the good fortune to be able to bring Denise Ramos on board with us. She started on April 20. So this is she's been with us one month and one day.

I know she's and she's learning very quickly. And so we're still in the training phase of the program. She's got a team that she's supervising, including an extraordinary volunteer. And so we're very grateful to have her on board, but she still is learning our programs, but quickly getting a handle on some of our priorities. But it's nice to have a new team team member.

Well, the okay. This is what this this is what it says you do. Right? Okay. You're the program coordinator for information and assistance. So that is the first call that usually comes to for any of the senior services And and family caregiver support program, assisted assisted transportation, senior health education program, and the senior shuttle. And it you know, that's that's probably plenty for you to do. Yeah. You don't have to repeat all of these things, but please tell us a little bit about yourself and what we can look forward to.

Thank you.

Well, thank you for allowing me to be here. I appreciate every Yvette and everyone here. Yeah. My name is Denise Ramos. I grew up in Shingle Springs, so native El Dorado County. Nice. Went away and was came back home. And so I love being able to be home and to be able to serve my community. That is my heart. I love being able to find a need and fill it.

So if someone doesn't know how to navigate the system or find the resources, that's my heart. I want to make sure that that happens. So, yes, over information assistance. And I'll give you my email, so please contact me if you need anything. I came up here recently and kinda listening to everything.

I want to kinda dive deep into South Lake Tahoe as well to find resources because, you know, with the caregiving, there is not that many caregivers. And so there is a need to try to find that, really come along and partner with everyone here, not just here, but in Placerville, Oro County. But my background is I work for Community Action Agency in Salem, Oregon. So I have homeless roots and grassroots like that and getting out and really getting involved in community and finding resources and linking arms to make things happen. I also work for the Department of Veterans Affairs in Portland and then transitioned to a virtual job with West Texas VA.

So I my heart is for seniors. Just yeah. I just love them. So I appreciate you guys and just just the community in general with welcoming you back back home and just excited to. Well, welcome back. Thank you. Failed you wrong. Do

we have have we talked in here? Yeah.

Well I'd like to introduce myself to you, Denise, because I've worked very closely with the family caregiver support program for over twenty years. Okay. So, anyways, I do the all center support group in town. Okay. I also volunteer at the skilled nursing facility. So I'm very involved with seniors and your family caregiver support. It's wonderful, and I've always been communicating very closely with you. Okay. So you'll be hearing from us. Great. Okay. We might do that. Yes.

We'll do that now because otherwise, I'll give you an email really quick. Okay. Lisa's email.

It's my email, because I always I don't email myself. So so it's Denise, denise,.Ramos,ramos,@edcgov. Is it dot gov? No. Okay. EDC gov dot US. Got

it. Sorry.

Where's the dot? I think

that We know we know where you are. Yes, ma'am. They're shy. Look at me. I ask a question?

No. No. No. I'll ask her to cut you. Yeah. Okay.

Yeah. Moving right along, it is time for health and human services, and that would be them, I think. Mhmm.

Are you doing the chairperson and commissioner reports first?

No. Okay. Not according to my agenda. Health and Human Services. Oh, no. Oh. Oh. Wrong one. Oh, cram didn't hear that. I wrote on it. We're going to be doing our chairperson's reports. Now this is just our our our commissioner's reports. This is just any interaction you've had with the public or the the the people that you're representing. And oh, that's a lot easier to read. And and the people you're representing, just any interaction you've had. So let's start with District 1, which would be Raylene.

Hi. Well, April, I mean, was kinda busy. I've been meeting with the GM of Eldorado Hills to discuss the issues that we have going on here. I have met with them about four times this month. I made a conference call with Greg Barrero, my supervisor who appointed me, to discuss senior legal and other items that we have on our our minds.

And then I testified May 6 to support a CSL proposal in the form of SB ten ninety six that is proposed by Megan Dahl at the Senate Committee on Revenue and Taxation. And this bill proposes to create a new senior tax credit for California tax payments, allowing credit of $1,500 per dependent. It's really intended for those seniors raising their grandchildren, and we know we have a lot of those out there. So, hopefully, it winds its way through things. And then I attended the Cinco de Mayo at El Dorado Hills senior center, Monte Gilmore Center.

And we had about 75 people in attendance, and I spoke to probably 15 of them. And I met a woman who was distraught and looking for guidance, and I provided her with assistance. I submitted a support letter to assembly member Joe Patterson in support of a senator Neilow's office regarding SB one zero zero two, and this happens to be a proposal offered by one of our CSL members. And it is a proposal on telehealth across state lines. We lost that after COVID, and there's a great need for that as a result of folks having found doctors and others to support them with serious issues like cancer and other things.

So, hopefully, that one goes through. And I'm beginning to work on scams with the CSL team, and I'm right now contacting resources to to participate in that. And I'm not sure if Yasmin brought it, but I've updated the stat directory that with Yasmin's help. And I don't know if it was handed out today. But, anyway, that's what I did.

Thank you, Renee. And you She's so You're you spent a lot of time with this. Well, I think of it, Ms. Grange. I'm sorry. Anyway, you're right there doing what needs to be done. We're working on it. That's for it. That's for just

Oh. Alright. I just had to say one thing since your vet is there. The my friend who I recommended, she's so enjoying her work.

Thank you.

We love having her there. She is energetic and excited to be a part of our team, and it's nice to see her really take ownership of her role there. So thank you for the recommendation of her. She's great.

Oh, good. I'll tell her tonight because we're going to I'll see you as deep eating. So I'll tell her. Thanks. But she, I know, is having really enjoy it.

Okay. Thank you, Raelene. Don't go away.

I'm sitting here. I gotta move the mouse.

Okay. Yeah. That's that's District 3, which is Liz. Have you had a name? I'm District 4. 4. It's on the wrong line. There you go. District 3 is not available. I think

we have a vacancy in District. District 4. So district four, I've had both email and personal conversations with my supervisor, Laurie, and she's been very supportive. I will report out on senior year during that part of the I of the judge. Right.

Yeah. You have that's that's the only district that has an an an interesting election coming up. Indeed. So may you be having somebody new there. Lorraine, District 5. District 5. Well What you and supervisor have been talking about?

You know, we've been a little runny busy, but we text back and forth real quickly. We still got the development group going on. The the city's doing their job trying to get information, and we're doing our own on the background for senior projects and senior community involvement, etcetera, etcetera. So those are still going on. Brooke and I are still working with coalitions for senior housing, senior home owning.

I don't know how to explain it because it's a vast variety of information, but I'll give you more information when we get to the other one. But we're just developing and continually working towards the goal for not just Eldorado, but for Tahoe, because the seniors here right now are being stifled in so many ways. It's just crazy. So kinda on a little rampage, but that's where I'm at. That's what we're doing. Plus the, you know, the damn loading going on. So there's a lot on the table, but we're we're not we're not forgotten in our goals and our roles. So that's just what

I wanted to say. Thank you. Thank you. Julie, member at large. What's going on with the board of supervisors?

So, specifically, to the board of supervisors, I went to the supervisor for debate, and I asked them a question about in fact, I have my question here, but basically how they would prioritize and protect seniors' needs with the shrinking budget. So I put that first to the three that were there. Ted Gaines wasn't there. But, honestly, none of them had a really good answer. So that was unfortunate.

It was That was the the district.

In the way of Columbus, District 4. So I went to that one, and I was I was disappointed. You know, it was a little bit about seniors, and then it kind of moved over. It's like, that doesn't really answer my question. So, anyway, I did that.

And as far as other things, I've been handing out information to anybody who will take it on the senior center specifically and seniors services, essentially. I went and handed out and made a little spiel to my book club and also to my mom's and their retired United Employees group that meets once a month. It's all obviously older retired people, and they were very interested. Oh, I don't need people to get this information. It's amazing in how many people don't know that we have a symptom. So

maybe we need to get the word out a

little bit more about that. And I had talked to a friend of mine who's big into Rotary, Cameron Park, about the senior of the year nominations, and so she did put forth someone for that, although they didn't win. It It was an honor to be nominated. I just

wanted And to I think that's it.

Thank you. John, what's going on with the city council? And just specifically, do you have anything to report about the city council getting each other? Not

so much on the city council. I did attend the district fire board meeting. Julie, that was a good question. And, also, guest thing was we've got to go on a tour of the new rec center with the blood and rec and some representatives from county. And I I saw I saw it as very, very positive. It sounds like the only problem they have right now is installing a new freezer so we can move the nutrition kitchen over there. Okay. That's about it. How hard is

it to install? I mean, that brings me to good.

That's a word. Public comments. Space. Old intel space. I think you guys are enthusiastic, but we do have to hold them to the end.

Let's see. Steve is not with us. So any of the community representatives have anything to add? Bob, did you have anything to add just being out in the community? Nope. Okay. I just wanna make sure I'm I with I, as a community representative, have been attending a lot of different every almost so much that it's all kind

of melded

together. And along with the the debate or it wasn't a debate. It was just a forum for District 4. And I I picked up on the same thing that Julie did for her question regarding seniors. So I was very disappointed that it was kind of brushed aside.

I've been I went to the last night, behavioral behavioral health commission. I can tell you that we have we need a lot more presence as far as the seniors. And and take care of that for sure. And then also the affordable housing task force last week. There was a little a little part on the regarding the mobile home park issues.

And, basically, all it was was a description of how many mobile home parks there are in the county. And it just kinda got dropped and went on to affordable housing versus market rate housing and where the where the funds are going to come from to afford affordable housing. So there have been a lot of things. Anyway, I that's that's about it for my being in the community. Anything that will affect our seniors. Now? Yes. Now. Okay. We are now open for public comments. Okay.

Now taking public comments on chairperson and commissioner reports. Individuals will have three minutes to address the commissions. Please voluntarily state your name for the record. Again, this is public comment related to this item only.

Wait. It's Yes, please.

Okay. Mine was for Denise. When we answer the senior inc excuse me. I've got this thing in my throat. At senior inc, The majority of calls are really not related to Senior Inc. It's nutrition, legal, and other. So on the other services, I just have a phone number that I have been sending these people to. I don't even know if I have the right telephone number. And if there's any other suggestions that you would like for us, because we say, if it's about legal, call here. If it's about nutrition, call here.

If there's something other that you feel with what you're providing, then perhaps we should add to our telephone message, please let me know, and I'll be happy to do that. Okay.

That's really good input. Mhmm. I am very interested in what what you had to say. Okay. Area you bet. Area agency on aging. I have a hard time saying.

Triple a, please. Again, I'm Yvette. I'm the program manager of our area agency on the aging. I think it's fairly short report this month, but I do have some volunteer needs for this area that I wanted to share with all of you. As far as staffing goes, we've done a great job bringing Denise on board.

We also brought an employee back as a program assistant that used to work on our team, and he reports directly to Denise. And it's nice to see both of them hitting the ground at the same time and really taking on these programs. So I I do feel personally that the work that's been done in the last month is has really been huge on getting our services back up and running where we had a gap and just one incredible person on our team trying to keep everything going as far as client services. We are getting ready to conduct interviews for an office assistant, which is on our senior nutrition team in Placerville. That position has been vacant for a few months.

You know? And and for a team of around 40 personnel and a 160 volunteers, there's always a lot of work that we're doing every month with staffing needs, with bringing them on board, with having them in background and training and constant recruitment. So this is one of the areas where we really do, you know, look to the Commission on Aging on how can we bring better volunteers in, how can we bring more volunteers in in the area just to let you know what our staffing looks like when we're faced with staffing challenges? For our senior day care team in Placerville, we have a program aid candidate who accepted an offer and is now a background. So we're bringing a new employee on that team, hopefully.

And we have a we're getting ready to run another recruitment for meal site coordinators. We have two positions on our Placerville team. And let's see. And so that's what we have going on in Placerville, but our primary focus right now, we're really excited about the progress we've been able to make in the last couple of months. But for our senior nutrition team, we've had we've been operating with very small staff up here.

We have had a male site coordinator vacancy for a while. We've had a program coordinator, which is a supervisor over at our senior nutrition team. That position has been vacant for a while. We have one food services aide on the team, one cook and one extra help cook. But to keep services going at the same levels, we've been having staff come up from Placerville.

And but the good news is right now at this point, we have two staff members that are in background. We have a meal site coordinator in background. We have our second food services aide in background, so we're hoping that pretty soon we'll be onboarding new team members, which is really exciting for us. And in addition, we are getting ready to possibly make an offer for a program coordinator up here. And that position has been vacant for a long time. So

we're crossing It's never been filled.

It's never been filled since we got it approved by the party supervisor. So we're crossing our fingers that we can get to the finish line with this candidate. We're really excited about the candidate. So, hopefully, I'll be reporting more information back in our next meeting on on whether the candidate has accepted the offer and what that looks like. So we're crossing our fingers because we're really looking for this position to be able to we have pretty good participation up here in our senior nutrition program.

We're reserving for our congregate dining. We're reserving 40 to 50 meals a day, which is pretty good. So we wanna make sure we're keeping this level of services up, but we're also looking at, you know, how we can do better. And so the program and expand the services. And so this program coordinator is gonna be looked at to help coordinate activities and events that can bring more seniors in for congregate dining.

And this person will also be looked at to help with the volunteer recruitment in this area so that maybe we can improve our home delivered meal routes and our ability to provide senior nutrition to seniors at their homes. So so we're really excited that we're making progress on that. The one thing I wanted to share with you primarily because we're in Tahoe, we always have volunteer positions we're recruiting for. Our programs rely heavily on volunteers. And one of the purposes for that is not just it able it it helps us provide more services with less, but it's also a way to reduce social isolation in our seniors.

They're part of our community. They're engaging with people who might be homebound and might need that extra connection with what's going on if they can't get out of their homes. So right now, we have in Tahoe, we have four home meal delivered routes that we're operating. Our program coordinator in Platteville is trying to get one more route out added up here, but she still needs additional driver volunteers. And and the program will reimburse for mileage if volunteers would like mileage reimbursement.

They use their own cars to deliver meals. They would just come to right now, they're coming to the senior center to pick up the meals, and then they will be trained on how to drive the route and deliver that to sites. We're also looking for volunteers up here to help us with packing our nonperishable items. We call it our brown bag. So if there's rolls or tortillas or things like that that get added to the meal for that day, we need a couple of volunteers to come in and help us pack those meals as well as we used to have a volunteer that would check folks in when they came in for dining at lunch, and so it would be helpful if we had another volunteer for that.

So if you know of people in the community, please connect with our senior nutrition staff. Please connect with me. If you have anybody who might be interested or you have a way to get us connected with more volunteers in this area. And then, of course, once we fill this position, that'll be your primary point of contact, and we'll introduce you to that staff member right away when they start. So that's where we're at with that. I'm not gonna speak more because there is an item later, but the fair, Eldorado County Fair, scheduled June 8 to

No. Each twenty first.

July

twenty first, and then we're breaking down on the twenty second. I had a typo on my notes. My apologies. Oh, no. Not the egg.

That's a long fair. And some of the things we're looking at primarily with senior nutrition right now is we've been operating on North County. We our permanent senior nutrition site is at the Greenwood Community Center, and the that's operated by the California Conservation Corps, and we have a facility use agreement for our use at that site that we've not been able to use that site for a few years now because they were completing construction. And we did touch bases with them a few months ago, and it looks like we we plan to have the opportunity to move our services back into that site by the end of this year. We're looking at fall more to come on that one, but the Georgetown library out there has been kind enough to let us use that space, but it really was only intended to be temporary.

So that'll be an improvement to the services that we're offering. Let's see. And I believe it was discussed at the last month's meeting. We're planning on coordinating a move of our senior nutrition program to the multigenerational recreation center center up here. We're still going over the log logistics that's that are needed for that move and the staffing that's gonna be needed for that move because it's a much bigger space that we'll be operating out of.

We don't have any updates on what the timeline looks like, but there's still some items that will need to be purchased and and positions that we'll have to have on staff before we can coordinate that. So we'll keep you updated as we go along. And then I think the last thing I have on my list is also senior nutrition related. Actually, I I still have two things to add. We're still working on updating our facility use agreement, our renewal agreement for the Cameron Park Community Services District.

For any of you that have that district, right now, Lynette and I are looking and Tim and Lynette are looking at scheduling a meeting with the new general manager. I think that we had the unfortunate we were in the unfortunate position as we were negotiating the agreement. They changed general managers. So now we have a new person that we're working with. So it kind of sets us back a little bit that we need to restart some of the conversations that we've already had.

So we're working through challenges with that site with available parking when there's events and and our use of the kitchen. So so we hope to have some good progress to report on that one. And then the last thing I do wanna bring up that's a short term program that we offer every year is the senior farmer's market nutrition program. And it used to be a voucher based program where we would give seniors in the community vouchers that they could just that they could use to make purchases at the different farmers markets in the community. The program changed a little bit last year by the state.

There was a state change. It's it's no longer a voucher based system, but they utilize cards. So they operate just like any credit card. You can make purchases with specified vendors at specific farmers markets. The restriction to wait the way the program is being rolled out right now is that farmers markets, and the farmers at those farmers markets need to enroll for our population to be able to use cards at those farmers markets.

And Denise and I had a meeting with Escape already, and we're gonna then be at a meeting on Friday because right now, the state has only enrolled one farmer's market in this program in Placerville, and it's a Wednesday night farmer's market in Placerville. And and they don't have any farmers involved. So we're gonna be meeting with the state to determine how can we help market to local farmers markets and and communities. I'm sharing this with you because I hear the way it rolled out last year was a little challenging. It was hard to use.

We had one farmer last year that participated. It is not signed up this year. And so we are gonna have to market this to our farmer's markets. We're gonna have to help market this to the farmers, and we're gonna have to really try and find someone who wants to serve the older adults. I think we're gonna have to look for a passion project for somebody that wants to help us serve our community, so we may need your help in in talking with some of these farmers as we're going along.

But we'll find more information out on Friday and see what our next steps are. But I think, beneath and I talked, we really wanna see at least if we can get one farmer's market up here and the one in Placerville. That's the very least we could do, but one in Placerville is not sufficient enough to serve our community because it's gonna be hard to get people over the summit if that's what we need to do. We're exploring at the very least. If if we don't have the time frame to get more farmers, then we might be utilizing the senior shuttle to make an to coordinate an event so we can transfer people so they can that service. We can. Yes, doc.

Was gonna say I'd be willing to

help with that project up here in South Lake Tahoe.

Oh, excellent.

So Okay.

Go ahead and keep me in the loop.

I'll do what I can.

I really appreciate that. That that's what I'm looking for. But it's the state that enrolls the vendors, so we don't know what that looks like just yet. So we've gotta figure out what the next steps are and then forward with the and trying to try and

get better participants. So is it, like, a really difficult process to get the farmers I mean, do they have to jump through a lot of hoops?

They have to negotiate some type of three year degree agreement. Okay. And and I think one of the challenges we've also had is not every vendor that's at a farmer's market, They don't have a point of service. They're not accepting credit cards. They need that point of service capacity. So we need to find farmers that have that capacity that can be at these different markets.

On that, do we just have somebody at that farmer's market with one card reader to do serve a number of vendors?

We can ask what that question looks like. We can ask when we meet

with the state. If 24 seems like it would be

a good

No. I wanna talk I wanna ask about them because they're more of a, like, a stand, I guess. It's a stand, but

they're they have a lot of stuff. They do. And, like, fog dog, but it's smaller, and it's

I don't know that they

have that. K. So I'll

be glad to answer you too. Okay. I'll text it. I have

one plan, but we'll go after the

Okay. What do you have a volunteer age limit?

For volunteers, we have volunteers in their nineties.

I mean, they will No.

But, I mean, younger. Younger. So we prefer volunteers that over eight are over 18. So over 18. And they get fingerprinted. But we do have young adult young teenagers that will come in with family. So they're coming in with somebody that's been fingerprinted. K. Reason I asked

that is because it's unity in the community is what I'm always

about. And

I want kids to give back, and a lot of them want to work with seniors because they love them. But Well, and if

you have a project or an idea in mind, you know,

we can talk about what

that looks like. Yes. Excellent. That's great. Alright. So this is my last

Okay. Thank you. Wait.

How about time is it?

No. It's at Hello? Can I can I just Yeah? No. No.

Oh, it's not public. She's it's her attorney's like,

I mean, we just need to explain that we are not doing this on purpose. These are the rules.

Do have to get that hand?

You have to hit the hand? But I can't

get it to with it. The new one outside,

I can't get it there.

Hello. How are you?

I'm having trouble raising the hand, so I'll raise the hand. And I have a couple things I wanted to ask you about. And first of I wanna tell you that I've had some experience with your a couple of your new staff, and I want to let you know that they're exceptional. We had an ins I had a contact with a individual who was having many issues going on at the same time, very stressed, and the issue came up about Heap and was a kind of a unique kind of issue and connected her to Heap. I got involved, and Eric solved it in, like, ten minutes.

And, I mean, it took some negotiation, some different things that he had to do from his side. It wasn't just enrolling somebody. It was an actual somebody had it, but they needed to change vendors and oh, but he was remarkable. So I want you to know you're doing well and you're hiring as you are with Emily. Now she and I just met this morning, but she and I have been on the phone many times.

In fact, she was involved with the heat issue as well. So keep up the good work getting them there. Now I wanna talk to you a little bit about Farmers Market. We have two Farmers Market in El Dorado Hills. And is there income limits tied to this or getting the hire, or is it open to all

seniors? It's my understanding understanding

that it's senior. It's just an age requirement.

Okay. Then I'd like to work with you to see if we'd have any opportunities because one's at the town center and one's at the CST.

And I

don't if you've explored that or not. Open

We haven't explored any of it yet because we're right now trying to figure out how we get people on board and what that process looks like. But once we have this that information, Raveen, if you wanna work with Denise and I on that, we'd be more than happy to pull you into the conversation as well. I mean, as many as we can get in the community. It's a very small pot of funding. It's just 50 vouchers of $50 each. So it's it's, I think, a lot of work for very little payoff, which is why we're really gonna have to market to people who, you know, have a heart for serving this population.

Yeah. I'd really like to help you with this from the standpoint of El Dorado Hills. Thank you, Ryan. And that's it.

Any other from the commissioners?

Oh, you said there's 50 vouchers. Is that for the county, the whole county?

For the whole county. Okay. It varies.

How many voucher, We have 81 left over from last year. So just Wow. Oh, it can roll over? It can roll over. Okay. So they wanna know how many cards we had. So I think they go up to that one fifty. So 81 plus, you

know, to get up to

the one fifty. We need to give those out.

We don't think of that then.

I don't think. Ruth?

You got

I'm sure you're aware, but there's two organizations that oversee farmers markets in El Dorado County. I just sent this to you. Oh, okay. I just looked it up, and there there's two officials. So some of the markets, you know, they're run by one of the two organizations. There's the El County Certified Farmers Norfolk Association and then El Dorado County Farm Trails. So they're the two that organized all the market then.

Thank you for sharing. That's great information. I didn't even know that.

Corporation. Wow. Well, of course.

With with Templin and health and human services, and then we will break.

K. I'll try real quick. I'm gonna start out with just the the bad news. So sorry. I'll get that out of the way. So I know we spoke last time about the anticipated direction from the board of supervisors regarding senior legal and senior day. So we did receive board direction to explore options for outsourcing senior legal and looking for alternative providers to provide senior day services on the West Slope. That direction, we received it on April 28. We are working closely with the CAO's office. So our first meeting with the CAO's office is next week.

It's on May 27. This would be for if if we were to receive direction to outsource, it would be for fiscal year '20 okay. 2728. So kind of our plan is intending to look at what for senior it would be a little bit different for each one. For senior legal, it would likely be a request for proposals put out to anyone that is interested in providing you know, that can legally provide the services within the county Once we receive responses, if we receive responses to that, we would then evaluate the level of service that we provide versus the level of service that they provide, identify the steps, which we've already kind of done this, the steps that are required to receive approval from CEA.

And then we would go back to board with an overall presentation of if we were to outsource, this is what the whole package looks like, and then we would seek direction from the board. For senior day, it's because that, unfortunately, is not a mandated program. It would be can we identify a vendor that is willing to open a similar service within the Platzonville area? I actually felt like there were some comments from the board of supervisors that they were not super inclined to lean towards closing senior day. So I felt like I felt That's true.

I felt good. I felt good about the comments that came from the board. Now switching to a little bit better news. So I talked about last time part of what's driving that direction is the changes that are coming as a result of HR one to our mandated public assistance programs and the way the state of California is managing any funding that's coming with those. So the state of California essentially is not passing any federal dollars through to the county to implement those h r one changes even though they're all changes that have to be implemented by county staff.

So and we're looking at some pretty significant changes to Medi Cal and CalFresh. Those are the two big ones. We did receive a little bit of money, a teensy bit of money for some of the CalFresh ABOD implementation funding. The May revise, I haven't thoroughly read it, but the May revise gives a little bit more. Still nothing that's going to really cover that gap. So what they're looking at is the general fund that's currently supporting senior legal and senior day will have to switch to support those, the public assistance programs because those are mandated programs that we don't have an option to reduce services in.

Our

on May 6, Supervisor Ferrero and Virkamp, along with our chief assistant director, Jen Diehl, met with assembly members Hadwick and Patterson and also senator Gill to advocate for pass through funding from the state to help us bridge that gap. So there's the hope is that the state does come through with some funding to the county level and that the financial impact to the county is not as significant as as, you know, the advocacy entities, CSAC, CWDA, things like that are anticipating. So it's it's really a lot of unknown right now. In my eyes, that's I think I think it gives us some room. So I I obviously can't say what's going to happen in the future, but we know what how we need to try and what we need to focus on.

Moving on from that, so behavioral health and our housing and homeless division have, our housing and homeless division has moved out of community services and over to behavioral health. The primary driving factor for that is the change in funding at the state level. We have no consistent funding to support homelessness at the state level. Every any of our funding that has supported homeless efforts has been we have to apply for grants every year. So there's nothing consistent that we know we're going to get.

It's primarily been the HAP grants, and the HAP grants are significant on decreasing every round. Bless you. So this HAP six is the round that we're in the process of determining if when we accept it. It's only it's, like, $649,000. That doesn't do anything at a county level. That's anything.

But the

BHSA, which is Behavioral Health Services Act, It's written into there that 30% of the funding has to go to support homeless or at risk of homeless individuals, and that is a stable funding source. So it gives us more stability to serve homeless or at risk of homeless. So that's the primary driving factor for the merger. The last Thursday, the Veterans Affairs Commission voted to grant senior nutrition $20,000 to help supplement our dependency on general fund. And that $20,000 is to support meals that are going to veterans.

So that was a big win for us.

Excellent.

Yeah. Yeah. That was we're we're very thankful for that. The other thing so we were talking a little bit about housing. So a small update. So the El Dorado Haven, which is the apartment complex, I believe it's 62 units that's being built in the town of El Dorado. It is anticipating to begin leasing in June or July of this year, so we're getting very close to leasing up. There are 10 project based vouchers that are awarded to that project through the public housing authority. Actually, think there's 15 because there's there's five VASH, which are veteran vouchers. There's five mainstream, and then there's five housing choice.

So there's actually 15 vouchers for that property. And then also the Sugar Pine Village phase one b, the wait list is open now. And we do have they have 16 project based vouchers through public housing authority for that. So both properties have been working with the public housing authority to receive referrals for those that are eligible to project based vouchers. I don't know if you guys are familiar with the emergency housing vouchers that we received during COVID, but El Dorado County received 70, and the funding was anticipated to support the vouchers through 2030.

And the project and and there's no funding for it anymore. So Okay. We and this is federal funding. So there's no longer federal funding for it. We did receive approval to move anyone that is in a a unit with an emergency housing voucher.

We can move them over to the regular wait list, which means we can also potentially move them into a project based voucher if they meet the qualifications. And we had we had about when we got notification, we had just a little under 60 vouchers that were leased up. So about 60 people or families in housing that were going to lose it by December 2026. We're down to about 40, so we're not gonna be able to move everyone to vouchers, but we are prioritizing that to try and make sure that we aren't actually displacing people and putting them back into homelessness.

That's actually Wow.

Yeah. That's yes. That is I think that's pretty much everything.

And I have one correction to make.

Oh, sorry. Go ahead.

Senior Farmers Market Nutrition Program, I was able to confirm it does have a low income requirement.

Okay. It does. Yeah. I have

a question for you. The Senior Pine Village, is that senior independent living?

It's Sugar Pine Village. Sugar Pine. And it's up here in Tahoe, and it is actually multigenerational living. And it has there's three or four phases. Four phases. And it it I actually I was on the original, like, planning of it. There's gonna be a community area where they have different

Sort of resource.

Resources that can come in. And some I believe some will be there consistently, and others will be, like, a hoteling model to serve. So and there's some low income. There's some not low income.

Okay.

It's a beautiful campus. It really is. And it's it's very neat the way they did it.

K. Thank

you. You're welcome. Question two. The last time that the club or senior day, it was sort of an inquiry from Marshall Hospital to provide some of those services. Mhmm. And that might be something to enjoy with again.

Yes. And that the the senior day is I'm having a hard time wrapping my mind around how we're gonna do it because it's not a it's not a mandated service. Right. We wouldn't be contracting with anyone to do it. It would basically be, okay, board of supervisors. This entity says that they will come in and provide the service. So do we plan on closing when they plan on opening? That so that's part of our meeting next week is how do we begin to solicit interest for that one? Yeah. Because for senior legal, we have very specific county policy on what we have to do. It's not one we know. And then we know you know, we need to show if we bring in a vendor, what's

the vendor gonna provide? And and is that something that's palatable enough for the county, or do we need to look closer at the value of the services that we offer now? And the last time we went through senior legal with the same issue many years ago, and we did contact the California Department of Aging. There are specific steps to go through in order for the county to affect even letting out the the request. Yes. And the Department of Aging

has to approve it, and there's a time delay. Yeah.

So there's a lot of lot of mechanizations that have to happen before they can actually approve anything. Correct. Ask questions.

Not yet. Okay. I'm sorry.

I got a question about you. Sorry. Too hard.

How about this on the board?

Pardon me. Just a minute. May I speak? First, we have the commissioners who can ask questions or discuss with the the person presenting. After a certain packet presentations have been done, then we open it up for three minutes for public comment. Makes us hard when people wanna help people. It does. It makes a very difficult time. Yeah. And I was looking up I I asked before we I I don't wanna, you know, let you guy leave you guys out. Did either of you have or any of you have any comments or questions in

Not at this time. I will have some later.

Oh, okay. Yes. On when you were talking about outsourcing legal, is that in addition to what you have now, or we've always outsourced?

We do not outsource. We currently we're actually the only county in California that still has senior legal in house.

Mhmm. Distinction. Yeah. One of the distinctions of that is, for example, the Sacramento area. With their district or district 29 and their or or they're district court, they count five counties are in their district. Right. And they're high population counties. Right. So it would be impractical for them to have trying to make appointments with attorneys, and they have outsourced it. So you get half an hour with paralegal on the phone once a year.

Gotcha.

So we have the Cadillac in Eldorado County. And because we can focus on our population, the board of supervisors made that decision to become our home district, and therefore, we have to support our own district. And we do that one way by a Cadillac program of having on one to one with our senior living. Thank you. Thank you. Great. Thank you, Liz. That's great explanation. Any other commissioners?

Okay. We have to have a little explanation, and we'll open it up to you.

Okay. Now taking public comment on the area agency on aging directors report and the health and human service Agency Management report. Individuals will have three minutes to address the commission. Please voluntarily state your name for the record and raise your hand. And I see Kathy Oshoom has joined our meeting. Okay. Lovely. So I don't know where you wanna start.

In the room. Well We start in

the room. We we do have a start in November. Okay.

Okay. My name is Trudy Morgan, and I represent senior a. I have a couple of questions. The first one is the majority of calls that we have coming in through the center are stable. And I can't tell you how many recalls I get because they say the number that you gave me, nobody ever calls me back.

And I know it's a long time before they actually do return calls, so there's not anybody who they can just talk directly. The other complaint that I get is I turned in my paperwork several days ago, and I haven't heard anything. So I I think there's a real lack of communication or follow through in regards to the the senior legal that comes up here. And I know that they only come up, like, once a week sometimes. So, I mean, I see a real demand in the calls that I get that would really warrant more more time spent coming up to handle legal matters in the self entitled period for seniors.

And my second question is that I'm also involved with the American Legion, and I'm curious on the veterans meals that you're talking about serving. I I thought that basically senior nutrition gave free meals anyway, so why would they need a voucher?

Okay. I'll go ahead and respond to the comment. I can't I don't have to, but I can't. Sorry. It's fine if I can. Because I yeah. You can. So it's not a voucher for the senior meals. It is we already serve veterans that are seniors through either congregate dining or home delivered meals. We ask for a voluntary contribution of $5 per meal, but it actually costs us a little over $11 per meal to prepare.

So we're supplementing the cost of the meal with general fund. So what we've been trying to do is identify how we can reduce our dependency on general fund by One Avenue is applying for different grants. And so the Veterans Affairs Commission had their they they received it's not TOT anymore, but a TOT grant annually. And during COVID, when everything was shut down, it's, like, $75,000 a year that they receive as TOT money. And during COVID and then they they run a grant cycle through the Eldorado Community Foundation where different entities can apply for funding to support veterans in the community.

But during COVID, they saw a decrease in applications, and so they they had a balance that was accruing. So in order to reduce their balance, they opened a onetime grant cycle for people to apply for funds to support. It's really efforts to support veterans in the community. And so senior nutrition applied, and we were awarded $20,000.

Nice. Thank you. Thank you.

Yeah. You're welcome. Anybody else on

the room? That's okay. Question from Kathy. Go ahead, Kathy. You're unmuted. Oh, you're muted yourself.

Hello. I just got back from a trip, and so I'm sorry I turned in late. But I turned in just in time to hear about the reducing the cost to senior legal and senior day care. These programs, you know, have been so important to our county's most vulnerable for decades. And taking these programs away is an easy way of addressing the budget shortfall.

Not that they're going to, but because I still believe that we need to have a better analysis of the county's administrative part. The it doesn't address the real problem of how administrative costs are applied and and not nor the imbalance of managers to staff. And I don't know what kind of an assessment has ever been done about that, but I think it's super important. You know, we have one of the highest percentages of seniors in the state. And being a rural county, we lack the ability to provide these services via all volunteers and wealthy donors that some other places have.

And I'm interested in when they talk about comparable services for senior legal, exactly what does that mean. And for senior day care, the cost could become so expensive that people can't afford it. We gave a grant last year to the senior day care, and and they've requested us to be able to use part of that grant to help a family that can't afford to go there anymore. So and like I said about senior legal, I'm very interested in what the comparable services would mean. It was like in 02/1718 that we analyzed this, and there was nothing else that could compare.

And I'm glad to hear supervisor Ferrero be concerned about removing senior day care because the people in Eldorado Hills had been promised that it would be up in Placerville. So, anyway, thanks for the report. I appreciate all the information.

Thank you, Kathy. We're going to break. Let's do ten minutes. Let's return no later than 11:30.

Can you hear us now?

We can hear you now. Can you hear us now?

Yes. Yeah.

Do. Raelene, policy and legislative.

Well, we have you had brought the attention. That was the entrance to this. What we have is with the CSM. We're in the process of our proposals that were picked up, which I've shared with you before. They are all in the process.

We are providing support for those. Like I say, I've been testified to legislative hearings for different bills. And so we're in that process of trying to get a senior legislation through and to the end and become law. So we're pretty busy at CSL with that right now. We're gonna be forming a scams committee in June, and I've located a couple of individuals with different issues that, are gonna join our group and, work on some see if we can find anything in leg that we could create in legislation that would be helpful in the way of scams.

So that's about where we are with CSL.

Great. Okay. Any questions? Revenue generating, Gail, is not present, and there was that. Is there are you okay up there?

Yeah. I'm just picking up my mess.

Okay. Revenue, no no report there. Senior of the year. Oh my god. It was incredible last week. Oh. You're

it it was only Tuesday. No. Well, didn't see.

Film so I can

go through it last week. It was like it was last week.

Incredible. Perfect. You Well You have your

your My report out thank you. My report out is that we had a team effort. And Janet here was the kingpin in getting all of that organized. And Emily on the staff at the senior center was amazing taking over for Rebecca in the middle of the stream and pulling it all together and getting all the paperwork. So she made me look good. She felt that time. Yeah. It went well. The the senior of the year was really surprised and thrilled. So it was the highlight of his life.

And I have turned his name over to the powers that be at the Veterans Commission or not commissioned, but the veterans, all the commandant of the veterans group there. And so he will be honored through them as well. Very nice. The years he did. Very nice. So they're done. He goes to the breakfast, and so they're gonna make sure they have a ceremony for him there.

Oh, okay. An entourage.

He did have an entourage. He's been a long time volunteer, and everyone who was nominated deserved the award. Every single one of them. They were all just really wonderful people. And I hope everyone had a chance to go out and speak to each other because they were really, really wonderful people.

Did you get any applicants from up here or no?

Not this year. We had last year, but not this year. John, I

bet you were working

on

It's their fault. All. But thank you. And you Janet

and Gail. Yeah. And Gail.

Her who's yeah. You provided the. Yeah.

Very nice. Is everybody that showed up? Okay. Reileen, I understand you were missed. People kept saying that's really Oh.

Well, I sure missed being there. I would have been there had we not had a home guest for four days, and they just left yesterday. So I certainly did miss everybody and being a part of it again. So

report out on my ad hoc

committee so we can take it off each end.

Okay. Thank you. And great job. Thank you. Until next year.

What was that? Monthly? Okay. TAC report. Tita is not here. I was able to sit in on it. And I I think that the most fascinating thing I heard was what one one I think it's Marin County is doing. You know, mentioned scams. Oh, Braylee mentioned something about scams in terms of what's going on in the state. Sounds like a legislation of some sort.

Well, there and I love this. The the county, Marin County, is doing they do every year or so what they call a scam jam. Love that name, scam jam. And it it it somehow, we have to look into it more, but provide a gathering that provides information for seniors regarding various scams that are going on. And it's really serious because it does fit seniors a lot.

Yeah. Tita's presentation was great. And we did talk a little bit about there was a discussion about senior legal. And, you know, people wanna know how we're how we're doing because of the fact that we're the only ones that still have in house. So that but they're still they're very they're all very interested in that. They had a a presentation, and it was a long afternoon. It

was it

was great. I would encourage did you did anybody else send you that?

Did you I think not on

that one. Okay. I would encourage any of the commissioners just to sit in and listen what the other counties are doing, what the PSAs are doing, because, you know, pick pick up little jumps here and there and maybe implement them in our county. So thank you, Chita. I I did I did print out her her whole I mean, this is it's incredible, the work she does. No. Yes. And and and, I mean, you know, it's, like, three two two and a half, three pages. So she represents us well. Mhmm.

Commission reports, outreach. Julie? So Got anything? Yeah.

I don't I don't have a lot. I did talk to Denise briefly. We were gonna coordinate outreach topics at some point, but Denise is brand new. So we'll figure that out Yep. Soon. We do have the fair coming up, and I see that a an email went out to collect volunteers. I don't

know how we're doing on that.

So,

hopefully, we're getting some names for people to volunteer everybody. And right now, that's really all I have. Okay.

That was oh, Bob, do you have anything to report for financial issues or outreach?

No. I haven't. No. I Joan, I do not have anything to report.

Just just check it with you, and we'll look forward to a a report another time. Thank you. Thank you for being here too. Jim is not with us. The only thing I, you know, I know being on the the it's not a clinic. Being interested in housing was what I had already said about the affordable housing task force. Raylene, do you know anything about housing with No.

I don't have an offer. Okay.

South Lake Tahoe, Lorraine and John.

You guys go ahead and start at all.

Well, I I didn't have anything else to add to that. Don't know.

Have as as I explained before, I've worked with Broken Eye Bowls. Sorry.

Supervisor Lane.

We are working with coalitions, foundations, grant families, etcetera, etcetera. Pretty much it's my project now because she's so busy doing other things. But I have in place the actual trust that I was setting up for funds to land in. That's all done. That was a task, which has everything to do with my vows trust that I set up.

It's only name only because that's why I intended that vows project, not to run anything, not to be the boss. I just don't. It's a trust that the funds will go into that will actually give us availability to do the multigenerational, to do the lacking of what you guys need, etcetera, etcetera, etcetera without the the restrictions that stay over the county or any other government that's on you. So that's what I've been working hard on, which now is in place, and now it's set up to be funded.

Yay. That's I

also threw out a few meetings ago that with all the corrupt exposure that we should grab the confiscated properties, etcetera. Everybody thought I was kind of crazy, but guess what? I'm doing it. I'm working with real estate people who can get in and grab those MLS and property what do you wanna call them? Elected?

Not throwing out the right word. But, anyway, I'm working with a bunch of group of realtors who are in the background finding those properties, which will give us the availability later to utilize some of those and when we purchase them through the grant money that we'll be getting, etcetera, etcetera, etcetera. So that's another win that I've been working on for the last month that I spent the whole day on Zoom with people all across The States. It was kinda crazy, but it was beautiful. So, again, John, I I need you to kinda work with the city.

True to you as well. But I'm all about unity, guys. I'm not about going back and rehashing old stuff. Let's work together. Let's accomplish the goals. Let's get it done for everybody's community, not just our own. That's my goal is it's gonna grow. So if we can start implementing that and me continuing to do the work that I'm doing, things are gonna happen quickly, and they are. And probably too quickly for me to keep up at this point. So if I need to pull in somebody now and then, Sean.

I'm I'm gonna reach out, Timlin, because you're the mastermind of manipulation manipulation.

Oh, what is that all about me?

No. I appreciate your your brilliant mind. You guys beautiful, Drew. I mean, this whole thing for me is such a beautiful thing. I never thought I'd wanna be on an aging commission or anything to do because it's like, oh my god. Another bitch moment. But now it's coming it's coming around, guys, and I'm so excited that you just don't even have a clue of the excitement that I'm expressing. So, yes, at one point, if you get a text from me, you better answer. Just saying. So that's all implemented.

Those are going forward. And, John, if you can help me help Yvette get volunteers into the facility, that's gonna be huge. We're gonna utilize our school resources through the kids. We need to utilize our Hispanic resources through all of those. Everybody needs to unite in this community. It's not just about us or them. It's everyone. So I'm sticking to that. And that's my report. I was so freaking excited. Absolutely.

So if I just tack on, because I didn't during the director's report, I didn't give an update on the multigenerational center. But Lynette, Yvette, and I met with the CAO's office a couple of weeks ago with the analyst that was involved with the original negotiations and kinda went through Yvette pulled together a really nice list of all of the things that the concerns or the needs that we have that we need to make sure that we get addressed before any type of transition happens. And then after that meeting, Yvette coordinated a meeting or a tour of the facility last Tuesday with a couple of our CAO analysts. I wasn't able to attend, but I I don't I think you attended. Trudy and John attended.

And it sounds like it was a really good meeting talking through different storage space. Reserve was one of the concerns. The privacy for senior legal, consistent, dedicated space for seniors, all of those things were a topic. The takeaway from that was that we're gonna have the city and the county attorneys get together and go through the original agreement and what was originally talked about and some of the language in the original agreement as far as dedicated space to seniors, and then we'll go from there. So I think really good progress is being made.

It feels like it's collaborative, we will continue to stay where we're at until we have something that is palatable and and achievable for us to move over.

Thank you. That was beautiful. You're welcome. Right? Great. Yeah. Now let's

go have a drink. Okay.

I I did touch on I I forgot that we had a different item on here, the behavioral health commission. And I I did wanna say that I picked up their their book. It's a book. The report for the the mental health services agency and looked through it. I mean, it was 200 something pages.

Double double. But I did the other day, I went online and kinda looked for what it had for older older Americans or older citizens. And, basically, what it said was see adult services. What was that? Okay.

Oh. Oh. Adult Consult services. And it was basically there was there was it was like there's no recognition in what I saw of seniors in particular issues that seniors are experiencing, depression, loss. So it's gonna be my goal to really impress on them that, yes, we we need more than a couple of lines in there to be included with just adults.

Multiple pages for youth and stuff. Anyway, I'd love some help with that too and somebody else Finding some enthusiasm for that. We, at this point, are open for public comp enlisting more comments. From the commissioners? No. No. From the commissioners. Yep. Nope. Okay. Public comments for the reports that have just been given.

Okay. Now I'm taking public comment on committee reports and commission reports. Individuals will have three minutes to address the commission. Public comment will be taken first from those participating in the meeting room and then from those participating through Zoom. If you are participating through Zoom, please ray press the raise your hand button to indicate a desire to comment. Please voluntarily state

your name for the record.

Seeing that, we'll move on. K. New business. I'm gonna open up a discussion about volunteer active commission activities that the commission is involved in at the fair. And so we are joining Health and Human Services, and I believe also the senior peer counseling is at the same table.

And I you all should have received the the list of opportunities to see to help Bandiboo. And if you haven't and you would like to, let us know.

I just have one update on that. Okay. Is they have used all the fare passes that they were allotted for the move and have all their slots filled at present. And there's there's just one opening if somebody is still interested in that, and that is for Friday, June 19 from 03:30 to 6PM. It's the only opening they still have. So if you go back and look at that email, most likely, you're not gonna be able to access the list anymore because they So they're for one volunteer in. They have Linda Bravaldi has four spots. Someone else wants to do it.

I'm sure Linda will give up whatever. On Thursday.

And he's got it looks like she's got Thursday. Thursday, Friday, Saturday, and Sunday. So she's on there for each day. I believe Tita has a spot that she signed up for.

Am I on here anymore?

I don't see your

name. Yeah.

I don't see my name there either that I signed up.

But you signed up when did

you sign up for? Thursday.

What time?

All day. Essentially yeah. It was actually, like, one is open noon. So it was, like, first one.

Okay. Am I gonna have to make some case for you?

Just whenever Miguel's there, you know,

I initially preached. Okay. So Thursday afternoon. Yeah. Well, we've got Miguel

on here for Thursday at 06:30 to 10PM. No. That afternoon. So that's with Kelly or Morris. I'm assuming

that's Who's happening?

What's that?

It says Kelly slash.

And the house? Well, that's.

Oh, I passed earlier with with Kelly. Who who's earlier? On Thursday?

I don't see your name. But bear doesn't start till, like

No. Yeah. No. Thursday or something.

That's your meeting.

And it's also the meeting date after the commission?

Sure.

So you would not be able to start before Yeah. One. You would

get there as soon as

you can come to camp.

So that's what you wanted? When to what time?

Whatever.

Well, 10PM?

Unless we could.

Eight nine 01:00. Make that work as information and assistance.

What time did you sign up for Joe?

I think probably said it

was with

them the the first kinda first shift.

So maybe you're working with them, or you're planning on having

with Kelly. And Is

that your name is

Your senior peer counselor? It may not have appeared on here.

Okay. Okay.

I will contact That'll

be plenty.

Elizabeth Peters who's coordinating this to

Well, there are no free tickets now. So Well, they're

not hands free. Just hang

your hand. You can see my hand. Oh, okay.

Oh, I just closed up my

And then just as a reminder, Friday, 03:30 to 6PM based.

And I have a question for stuff like tacos. Do you have anything any festival up here that's the equivalent of what we do at the fair that we should be considering staffing? That's a good question.

That's a very good question. Yes.

I plan on being at the Earth Day next year. It's passed for this year. It was on the same day as the opening for the rec center. Oh, okay. So I couldn't do both. But I am coordinating having

a booth there next year.

Excellent. Yeah. We have resources Yeah. For you. Right. You know, from the commission as well as What from

about through the chamber?

I'm joining the chamber. So Well I'll be able to give

you more information on that soon. Yeah.

Just didn't know the

Designated festival or or something.

No. That's true. Yeah. We we lack good festivals. So we

don't have fairs. Alright. But there

are places where I hope we we will be able to have boots. That's that's the. Thank

you, John.

Okay. Moving right along. We are looking into an ad hoc ad hoc committee and looking for participants. We have a vacance we have two vacancies, one for community representative to really wouldn't first, it's my goal, but to see if we can get somebody from somehow from the North County or South County. We're, you know, we're pretty well taken care of on the 50 Corridor.

And so this would be kind of a a membership committee to explore an interest in joining the commission. Any ideas? Anybody interested in exploring this? In the

past, we've had a process whereby he has and and has to put out a publish an opening through the county. Right?

Like, the press release. The press release. It goes into the

county's well, into Lori's website and whoever else has things like that. We encourage them to post it. It's like trying to recruit for senior of the year. It's the same thing. Right. Right. But it's it has to be published for a period of time, and then we try to get it. What I think you're looking at is somebody to go do outreach in North County South County to announce that there are some things. Yeah. And then, hopefully, they apply apply through the incision listing. And then our membership committee takes those applications and reviews them and interviews.

Right. Right. So and then the other opening is with the district three, and that is up to the to the supervisor. Yeah.

So maybe, Julie, you could contact because your direct from the from the board of supervisors is get hold of district three supervisor and remind that person that there is a a need to have someone appointed from this.

Who's the district three person?

You're in an app?

Oh, okay. Yeah.

So we usually have three people on this ad hoc committee.

Okay. Is this also the selection committee when we get them in?

Yes. So we'll work together to create a press release. It has to be approved at our time level and then work together to set up interviews. When do we want this opening? And now different things like that.

How long do we want it

to run? So that's what we need by committee. And then they make the recommendations.

And, unfortunately, we we're still we're missing, you know, a a few members, commissioners today. We

can table this to next month.

I think think we better do that. K.

And so we need a motion in

a sec. Oh, no. We'll do a roll call. I vote should we table the issue of the membership committee until next month when we have more commissioners present. Second.

I second. Okay. Any more discussion? Well, please read the roll. Yeah.

Okay. For those of you over at Spring Street Conference Room, we are taking a vote on tabling the creation of the AdHop Committee until

the June meeting when more people will be present.

So first off is Julie. Yes. Yeah. Okay.

Joan? Yes. Bob?