Board of Supervisors - Regular Meeting

If I could have everyone please stand for the Pledge of Allegiance and then remain standing for an invocation from Mike Gunnarsson from the City Ministry Network.

I pledge allegiance to the flag of the United States of America.

Good morning, supervisors. Thank you for this opportunity. Our Heavenly Father, I want to thank you for a beautiful day here in Stanislaus County. Thank you for our country and the opportunity to be here this morning and participate in this form of government. I know that not everyone here in our county experiences the same level of health, safety, and financial provision. I ask that you would allow each of us in this room to be part of seeing the needs of every citizen fully met. I pray for peace, for health, fulfilling relationships, and financial provision. I pray that you would bless Stanislaus County. I pray for these elected officials who are here this morning. I pray that you would bless their families, businesses, friendships, and health. May each of them fully come to know your love for them. Be with them today as they address the issues before them. Give them discernment, wisdom, and boldness to serve our county well. I pray this in Jesus' name. Amen.

Thank you, Mike. And if you don't know Mike, he's the one that, one of the folks in charge who always makes sure we have someone here to give us a prayer, a blessing. Thank you. At this time, I'll ask County Council to read the closed session agenda items into the record.

Yes, following the board's agenda today, the board will go into closed session. We have four items to consider. The first is a conference with legal counsel, existing litigation pursuant to government code section 54956.9 subdivision D1. We have two cases to consider. The first is County of Stanislaus versus Zachary J. Maring et al. that's in the Stanislaus County Superior Court, and the case number is CB25010341. The second case is Ellen Mary Foster v. Stanislaus County, et al., that's in the Stanislaus County Superior Court, and the case number there is CB26005832. The second item is a conference with legal counsel, significant exposure to litigation, presumptive government code section 54956.9, subdivision D2 or 3. We have one matter to discuss. The county has received a letter from council representing developers with interest in the Salida Community Plan area. The letter raises concerns regarding the development agreement adopted by the board when the board adopted the Salida Community Plan. This letter is available from the clerk for anybody who cares to review it. The third item is a conference with real property negotiators pursuant to government code section 54956.8. The property and accounting negotiators are noted there in the agenda. The fourth item is a conference with label negotiators pursuant to government code section 54957.6. The agency negotiators and the unions are noted there in the agenda. That would be appropriate for public comment.

Is there any public comment on the closed session items? Seeing none, I'll close the public comment period. Now, I just want to make sure, because it's probably not clear enough for everyone, the reason we read in, we're not adjourning the closed session, but the reason we read it in is due to SB 707, which requires us to have online participation in case something happens with the online connection. We have to pause the meeting, I think, for up to an hour. So this is so that we can continue doing business. We could actually go in the back and continue the meeting. So I just want to make that clear. We are not leaving. We're continuing on with our meeting under the normal premise. OK, the Board of Supervisors continues to invite residents to engage in meetings, including participation by telephone, attending in person or submitting written comments in advance. Instructions are available on the Board of Supervisors web page and in the introductory language of the published agenda. We'll move on to the public comment period and acknowledge any written comments during public comment, which we have none. And we're going to open the public comment. We will now begin the public comment period. This is an opportunity for members of the public to address the board on matters that are not already on today's posted agenda when the clerk calls your name or phone number please state your name for the record direct your comments to the board through the chair and to ensure everyone has an opportunity to be heard limit your remarks to five minutes unless a different time limit is announced the clerk is going to alternate between calling speakers who are and callers who are people who are in the chambers and those who are calling in and If you are on the phone and you only joined in to listen but decided to comment, press star three to register with staff. Please register early to help ensure you have an opportunity to speak. So let's get started.

No one on the phone yet this morning. First in chamber, speaker David Hicks. Mr. Hicks shared information that has been distributed to you on the dais as well.

Okay. Good morning and thank you for letting me address you. Sorry about the misunderstanding on time last meeting, but the cannibal threw up the missionary because you can't keep a good man down. Not everybody likes my sense of humor. California doesn't just have a future water problem. We have a right now water problem. Groundwater pumping has caused portions of San Joaquin Valley to sink dramatically, locally as much as 28 feet. But the greater concern isn't simply that ground sank. The underground clay layers are permanently compressed. we lose some of the aquifer's ability to store water. The US Geological Survey estimates that the Central Valley has lost 158 cubic meters or cubic kilometers of groundwater storage since pre-development. And about 15% of that loss is permanent because of subsidence. That's roughly six trillion gallons of groundwater storage capacity that is permanently gone. Six trillion. A number so large that it sounds like a federal budget deficit under President Gavin Newsom. I see that one wasn't too funny to people either. Okay, I've included the studies, calculations, and calculations with my written comments so you don't have to take my word for any of these numbers. What I'm asking you to consider is pretty simple. How can we use the water we already have more efficiently? Every day we use clean drinking water for showers, baths, bathroom sinks, and washing machines, and then send that water down the drain. That's gray water. Systems already exist that can capture and treat water and reuse it for non-potable purposes such as irrigation and with appropriate treatment in plumbing, toilet flushing, and laundry. Some advanced residential greywater systems advertise reductions of up to 45% in freshwater use. Imagine if the most efficient systems were implemented in all of our homes. But this shouldn't be just about homeowners. I think Stanislaus County has the opportunity to bring cities, irrigation districts, and county government together and look at our water supply as one interconnected system. That's particularly important because agriculture doesn't simply consume water. Turlock Irrigation District says deep percolation of surface water past the root zone is a primary method of groundwater recharge in the Turlock sub-basin. Its own agricultural water management data show that deep percolation from applied irrigation water contributes substantially to groundwater recharge. So when farmers use surface water to irrigate their orchards and fields, they help recharge the system. That's something we ought to protect. After all, last I checked, the ocean didn't need any more water, but our underground aquifers do. So let's coordinate. Let's look at gray water incentives and rebates. Let's look at a pilot program that measures what these systems actually save in real Stanislaus County homes. And let's bring our municipalities and irrigation districts together to determine work. Conservation, service water and groundwater recharge can complement one another instead of competing with one another. If it works here, other counties will copy it. And ultimately, this isn't just about us. It's about our children and grandchildren. In the Bible, King Hezekiah was warned that disaster was coming, but it would come after he was gone. His response essentially was, at least there will be peace in my lifetime. Let's not make Hezekiah's mistake. Our founders thought differently. In the preamble of the Constitution, they spoke of promoting the general welfare and securing the blessings of liberty to ourselves and our posterity. Those two ideas belong together. Without general welfare, without basic things that a society needs to prosper, people don't have much opportunity to enjoy their liberty. Water is certainly one of those basic things. We are not managing it only for ourselves, we're managing it for people who don't have a voice in this room as well. Our moral obligation ought to be to leave our posterity a California worthy of that shining city on a hill, a place where they can prosper. We have the technology, we have the water, let's have the foresight to use it wisely. Thank you and may God be able to bless Stanislaus County in the future more abundantly than he has in the past. Thank you very much. Thank you, David.

Good morning, Samantha. Good morning.

Good morning, Chairman Kiesa, Board of Supervisors, Mr. Hayes. My name is Samantha Bland, 305 Hintz Avenue, Modesto, California. I come here before this board as a private citizen and a resident of Stanislaus County. I have two issues which I would like to speak to today. First is the county 26-27 fiscal budget, and secondly, the big beautiful bill, H.R. 1, and the impacts that it's going to have to this county and the residents of this county. Before I start, let me reassure you that I attempted several times to get a hold of Congressman Klintock's office to absolutely no avail. Okay, no answer in Modesto, no answer in El Dorado, no answer in Washington, D.C. And that is of no surprise because he hasn't held a town hall in 10 years. And quite frankly, he only shows up in the district when he's here to pick up a donation check. So with that being said, I want to get into some of the impacts. I think both issues kind of dovetail at this point. CHIAC, the County Healthcare Executive Association of California, estimates that up to 100,000 residents, 18% of the residents in Stanislaus County, will be negatively impacted by H.R. 1. This does not include the residents that will be impacted indirectly. And what I mean indirectly is emergency room wait times, emergency room visits. We can expect worsening healthcare outcomes. Right now Stanislaus County is above the state average in infant mortality. We are looking at impacts to foster care youth, the most vulnerable, who have gone through so much in their lives. When they transition out, they may very well not be eligible for Medi-Cal or for SNAP benefits. With that being said, these impacts directly attributed to the federal cuts, Tom McClintock voted for H.R. 1. He is damaging and he is harmful to the residents of this county. And by that, this issue has now landed at the feet of this Board of Supervisor. So with that said, that it looks to me that, you know, it's been stated that the county budget is anticipated to be hit with a 10 to 12 million dollar deficit because of the ramifications of H.R. 1. And right now the county budget, 15 percent of it only, is considered to be discretionary funds. And that that question is really out there at this point. Okay, where is this money going to come from? You have an underfunded unfunded mandate with the health and welfare code 17,000 that we are responsible as this county to provide minimal health care to medically indigent adults These are the very same people who are going to be removed off of medical That is a huge impact. So not only does it affect the adult population, but SNAP benefits will be reduced and there'll be other barriers put in front of that. We remember what happened last November when the community had to come together because people lost their SNAP benefits for a period of time. It is shameful. The very foundation of the things that we need to have to survive have absolutely been either eliminated or reduced. This is not the quality of the county that I know that you want for your constituents. And I think that it's time that we really call it the way it is. So again, we're looking at reductions in behavioral health services. We're looking at reductions in other social service programs. And again, statutorily, it lands at the feet for medically indigent adults here at the county level. I have about 25 years of experience in health care. My last, when I retired, I was a senior deputy director at San Joaquin General Hospital. So I'm not speaking from an area that I don't know about. In fact, Supervisor Woodrow, I think you and I spoke about five years ago when we talked about the importance of keeping the clinics and that that safety net was important, but we only have two now. And so, anyway. You know, in 2014, we had ACA, the Obamacare, what we call Medi-Cal expansion that pretty much took the patients that were enrolled in the medically indigent adult program for the county, they were able to enroll in Medi-Cal. But what happened at that point was you had AB 85, which then clawed back the funds from the county, and therefore now those funds are not attainable. So what I'm asking is this is the first year that I know of that this county board has, oh, okay.

Finish your thought.

This county board passed a rollover budget. I have never known that to happen. Okay, I mean basically departments start working on it in February, it should be adopted in June and proposed in July. I don't know if this huge 10 to 12 million dollar looming issue is part of the problem, but I would like to ask the board to direct the CEO's office to do a readout once a month is to the impacts of these, what you're doing about it, how you're gonna mitigate these problems. And I think for the sake of transparency, that's very, very important. Thank you so much for your time.

I will tell you, we're still trying to articulate what those, what they actually mean to us. We're still going through that exercise, unfortunately. Thank you.

Next up, Brian Ebbett.

Good morning, Brian.

Good morning, Supervisors.

Brian Evatt. Anyway, I'm here today to stick up for the seniors, which we're all becoming seniors these days, and protect their properties to protect their kids. I'm finding out that we don't protect them. We don't even teach them. We don't even give them any information on assessments, reassessments, or anything like that. So then what we have is the senior citizens don't know about the reassessments, which can multiply their tax base times three these days. So what they wind up doing is they wind up stealing the houses from these kids that can inherit these homes because they can't afford the tax things. They're tied up in probate for years. I mean, they'll tie you up in probate for years because they don't want to look at simple things like harmless rule doesn't exist because in the days that the older ones they just had to have notarized things but now you have to have two signatures it should be released under a harmless rule but we won't we'll keep you trapped in the same and then we'll turn around and multiply your taxes times three and then you're trapped three or four years so the next thing you're paying five thousand dollars a year for the properties multiply that so the poor person has to come up for twenty thousand dollars their kids do thirty thousand dollars then they have to pray pay propane which is another thirteen thousand dollars to get them out of that so now these kids wind up homeless because they don't have fifty thousand dollars nearly to get it and then they're going to get taxed So we're creating these homeless because we don't inform our seniors in the very beginning through our tax assessor. These are our civil servants that should teach our seniors when they come in and they pay their taxes. If they have health problems or anything else, they need to turn around and get a hold of our assessor and they need to do this. They need to hold their hands. We hold the hands of drug addicts. We give them free Narcan. We do everything we can for these kids that we've created homeless because we've took their parents' house away. But we don't help the parents before this even happens. So how can we do anything to make a better community if we don't work with the ones that leave the community behind for their next of kin? Now, we need to change. How can we have all these social service people that we're paying out fortunes for, even people that sit around and put Narcan out in the stores for free, but yet we won't help the senior citizens? Why do we want to keep creating poor? Do we have to survive on grant money for the poor? We can't even do entertainment. Anaheim brings in one point, our whole budget, $1.8 billion, they bring in from their convention center called entertainment, motels. We don't do that. We're so far stuck behind. And it just makes me wonder why we don't protect this and why we don't find other revenue. You know, there's no other revenue outcome. We should have done this 50 years ago, but we haven't done this. Now, I've been through all this and I'm going through it right now. And you guys are hitting me up for thousands, tens of thousands of dollars. I can't even call a cop to come out on a burglary without the burglar saying that I threatened them and I'm the one that goes to jail because all they want is my money. It's all they want. They'll send me through it. Now I'm a nuisance in this county. This is sent by the board. You are a nuisance. Public nuisance 2.92.1010. This is sent to me. I can't figure out why you guys want to call me a nuisance. You know, because I own a piece of property in an agricultural area that's not occupied, which is A210. It's not occupied, but now I'm forced to get garbage pickup on something where nobody's at. I mean, this is what you guys do, anything. You should be protecting the seniors, not throwing these letters out here, threatening them, putting them in jail, and then overtaxing them. You should be helping your community. Otherwise you're just tearing your community apart and you don't give a shit about us. That's the way I look at it. You don't care about our seniors, but you'll turn around and go for the drug addicts and you'll go for rehabs and the homeless that you created and you'll go for the grant money, but you won't find any way to make your own revenue. I mean, we're working on $400 million that we gotta control this whole county. The rest of that's grant money, of that $1.8 billion. If we didn't have the grant money, we would be failing. And why we'd be failing is because you guys aren't doing your job. You're not training your people. You're not for the community. That's all I'm seeing. Otherwise, you would train it and you would save these people before it even happened, before their kids became homeless. you would make changes to protect your senior citizens because they're the ones that based and built this community. If you can't protect them, you're not doing your job. That's the way I look at it. So guys, straighten up, start looking at what we have to say because you're all seniors now, you know, and you've got to protect the rights for your kids to grow up.

Can I ask you a question on that letter? Is there a house on that property?

Yeah, I have buildings on, but they're empty, not occupied. Not occupied. And it's A210. So I'm going to have... And A210 is...

Rob's going to talk to you in the back right now if there is nothing there, nothing going on there, no business, then you probably can do a workaround, but talk with Rob in the back. Yeah. Thank you.

I'm under public comment.

Okay, there's an opportunity for anyone to speak on public comment. It's still open. Come on up, Ron.

Thank you, Mr. Chairman, members of the board, Ron McMurtry here. I didn't intend to speak today, but one of the speakers, a couple of speakers back, spoke about accountability to constituents. And so I do want to say a little bit about that. I want to thank all of the five supervisors present. that every time I've communicated, usually through email, a couple times, phone calls, that I did get a response, even from assistants, so I'm glad to see that you do respond to constituents. Regarding, my congressman is also Congressman McClintock, so I want to comment that he does his town halls on phones, but I have no idea how someone gets on, gets their phone number registered, they just call you on some evening, I don't even remember what evening, I don't know if it's a regular schedule, but a few months ago he did have one and they call you and if you're available you just stay on the line, but I'm always working because I work evenings, so yeah, that's distressing. And I've had trouble with Assemblyman Alanis, he's my Assemblyman, not even the courtesy of saying we got your message or anything. And I have never been able to reach State Senator Eggman. She's my state senator. So I'm pretty upset with the politicians that are supposed to represent me and can't even do a courtesy. So I don't have a plan. It's not one of my priorities right now, but I'm going to try to formulate something, something that we need to do. These folks need to answer their constituents. Thank you.

So Ron, just call Kiana in my office and I'll make sure you guys connect.

Oh, okay. Thank you.

Anyone else for public comment? Going once, going twice, all right. We're gonna go ahead and close the public comment period. We're gonna move on to the consent calendar before the board takes action on the consent calendar. Are there any comments from any one of the chambers or remote audience on any matter on the consent calendar? The clerk will call registered speakers if there are any. And then I did have a request for B9 and C3 to be pulled. Anyone, anything else? Okay, seeing none, we'll take the consent calendar minus B-9 and C-3.

Motion to move all items other than B-9 and C-3.

Second. We've got a motion and a second. All those in favor say aye. Aye. Okay, B-9, Supervisor Chance of Conduct.

Thank you, Mr. Chairman. As COO Hayes, I was just looking for a general update, just where we're at and all the great progress with our 2030 investment blueprint.

So we do have several of our departments that are working on the efforts here today as well as some of our partnerships. I think as you're aware, the 2030 plan encompasses quite a bit. Is there any particular area of the investment plan that you were most interested in?

Well, I would like an update from BEAM regarding the potential future site. But no, just a general gloss over of everything. If you could just kind of give me a rundown of the progress of where we're at. I know we have a lot to brag about in this. So I want to give you an opportunity to brag.

Okay, there is quite a bit. Then I'll ask Lori Marr to come up and speak to what's happening with BEAM. So thank you very much for the opportunity. So we have routine check-ins. We have an extensive quarterly report here that was attached to our board agenda item. I'm just going to pull it up and kind of thumb through it real quick, all the different areas that are being worked on. One of the first notable areas is around small business supports. One of the things that you can expect coming up here very soon is that in partnership with our workforce development department, we will be launching a one-stop shop for all small business support here in Stanislaus County. So we actually have a presentation that's coming up to the board I think next month. I get a preview of this next week. But essentially we've created an environment where any new entrepreneur starting in our community can go to one location for all the support that they need to help launch their business as well as once their business is operating to try to scale their business up and sustain it as well. So we're very excited for that. Also excited for the ongoing partnership with Nurture in our child care program. We've covered this a few times with the board, but I'll just mention that this is a, for those who are not familiar with the program, this is an opportunity where we are making targeted investments and establishing new childcare businesses here in Stanislaus County. To date, as of this reporting time, which goes through June 30, We had 109 new childcare businesses started in this program. We're very excited for that. That also equals over 870 permanent licensed childcare slots in Stanislaus County. In addition to that, there's been numerous additional trainings that help those entrepreneurs grow their businesses beyond when they first start up. So very excited for that. I'll just touch base a little bit on the efforts that we have in place to connect our manufacturing industry to our local workforce training programs. So our goal there is to ensure that there are no jobs that are going unfilled in our community. So we're ensuring that local workforce development training partners have a direct line to our manufacturing organizations. There's been quite a bit of effort to connect them. And there's a lot we could probably say about that, but I would defer to Amanda if anybody has more questions about that. And then I do recognize that our work with Beam Circular, which includes our efforts around the circular bioeconomy, gets quite a bit of attention. You referenced the upcoming innovation campus. They have identified a location. I'll let Gloria Marsh speak to the work that's ongoing right now related to the innovation campus and anything else that Gloria Mar would like to share about BEAM.

Good morning. Thank you, CEO Hayes.

Good morning.

Good morning.

Any particular question you would like to address?

Just the site primarily. I know we're all anticipating the future site.

The site is going to be in Beard Industrial. We're in the middle of negotiations between both the Council from BEAM and the Council of Beard Industrial. It moved to approval on behalf of Beard Industrial Board, and it's just the details on that. Hopefully, we're really hopeful that in the next couple of weeks we can finally sign the agreement.

Wonderful. Well, that's great news. Thank you so much for the update.

We've had a couple of comments today that talk about, well, we had the HR1 discussion and the individuals that we have on Medi-Cal and how are we going to serve these people. And I think one of the plans of this board that's been in place for a few years here now, and this is what BEAM kind of and Stanislaus 2030 kind of reflects, is to try to and get the number of individuals who require Medi-Cal and require government services to no longer require those. And so the more that we can do to downstream or upstream, I guess is the term, upstream, try to get individuals who have good paying jobs and don't need Medi-Cal, that's the efforts that we're putting forth with Stanislaus 2030. It's all about trying to go upstream and to reduce the amount of dependency. We know how many people in this community, the percentage is large that it require government service and government benefits. So rather than just continue to try, okay, we'll just continue to try to treat those individuals, how about we try to, and that's what we're doing, do everything we can to try to get people to a point where they don't need government services anymore. They're self-sufficient and they have good paying jobs. So when I hear people come up and talk about what are we doing to try to help those individuals, besides trying to make sure they currently have benefits, the goal is that someday they don't need those benefits anymore, and that's exactly what 2030 is about, and I thank you guys for what you're doing. Thank you so much.

And thank you, Chance, for pulling that, because I appreciate us getting a chance to talk about it a little bit. I have just one other, but since we get to talk a little bit about this, one other item that I think's important to note is the board was supportive and we really appreciate the investment of up to $18 million in these two efforts between the total 2030 effort being circular, but I want to reference just as of this report that we've provided today, on the 2030 side, which includes those workforce training programs, small business supports, and childcare, they have leveraged about an additional 6.5 million in funding that they've brought to our community. And on the BEAM side, they've actually leveraged an additional 35 million, which includes 13 million in private investment in our community. They've been a huge return on investment so far, and I know that there are many more proposals in the pipeline that would actually bring more funding to these efforts in our community. Thank you.

Thank you.

Thanks, Glorimar. Amanda, thank you, too. Good things. ARPA funds, $109 million, I think was the number, 100-something, and it was about changing the direction, the trajectory, and you see that these organizations, not just them, but SEP. The money is flowing through the system to help people out, and I would agree with you. So thank you very much. The other item we pulled was C3. Supervisor Condit. Again, Dave.

I know Mr. Ling is making his way up. I also want to give him an opportunity to also brag on all the great work that he and his department are doing out in our county islands with all the infrastructure investments. And then I just had a follow-up question regarding the air base and the $12 million investment there and just the progress being made. Mr. Lehman, good morning.

Good morning, Dave Lehman, Stanislaus County Public Works Director. Good morning, Chair. Chiesa. Board. C.O. Hayes. Council Bows. Just run through them real quick. Topeka Santa Fe's done. Sylvan Coffee, end of October. These are for wrapping the projects up. Valley Home done. Kenwood Star finished in November. Hickman finished in November. Riverdale finished in December. Colorado Rouse, all the ARPA will be spent in October. So we're good there. The construction will definitely bleed into January, February, March with Colorado Rouse. But all the ARPA will be spent. Bret Hart by October and then Parkland is done. And so the Crows Landing Industrial Business Park, we're spending tons of ARPA money out there and that's good. So we're looking like we're good out there. If you go to our website, the landing, it's got a link for construction cameras and you can see the foundation for the tank is poured and all the manifolds for the future pump station are there. It's looking pretty good. So Mozingo's kicking butt out there. And so yeah, we're happy.

Great work, Dave. Hats off to you and the rest of the department, all their construction team, George Reed. I know I got to go out to Park Lawn a couple months back. I got to tour the construction site. It was outstanding. I'm looking forward to coming out to Bret Hart in September, looking at the progress being made. But again, excellent work. Thank you. And if you could just follow up and just elaborate a little bit on the progress being made out the Crows Landing Industrial Business Park. That'd be great.

Yeah, it touched on a little bit. If you go to the live cams, both pipelines are in Fink and the well. I mean, I'm sorry, the tank foundation is poured. The steel tank's been ordered. It shouldn't be long before we're starting to build that building for the pump house. So we're ripping right along.

When do you anticipate all that being ready?

It'll be next spring. So we'll have definitely spent all our money, and we knew this was going to bleed into next year for sure. Just all the ARPA will be spent. In fact, it might already be spent as I sit here. It's one of those things where accounting is always a month behind or a little bit more. But we'll spend all our ARPA money out there very shortly if it hasn't already been all spent.

And we'll look forward to spring of 27.

Awesome. It's going to be great. Thank you.

The two chance polls today were the ones I was thinking, geez, I wish we could talk about that. So that was perfect. And I just want to say Riverdale, I called, we talked about this. I went out and walked Riverdale tract out there and it's just amazing. Like I told Dave, they've only moving dirt and they've widened the roads in essence, getting ready for the sidewalks and the curbs and the gutters. Even if it stopped today and it was just dirt, it looks so much better than it did before and so I just very much appreciate how quick these guys are moving and getting this stuff done and how transformational this is going to be at least in Riverdale I know for sure.

I think in all these neighborhoods I think when you drive them it's been pretty fantastic and so just a preview to next spring after the weather It's nice. I think what Public Works has suggested, let's throw a party for all our ARPA ribbon cuttings. Let's do one big one. My staff doesn't have capacity to do individual ones right now for ribbon cuttings, but I think it would be fun. Pick a central location and let's celebrate our success.

Great. Thank you Dave.

Awesome.

Thank you.

Thanks Dave. Any other comments from the public on this item? Bring it back to the board for B9 and C3.

I'm going to approve B9 and C3.

Motion and a second. All those in favor say aye. Aye. Opposed? Motion carries. Thank you very much. On to item number five.

We need to pause for a minute to test our connectivity.

Okay. We're going to pause for one moment. I'm sorry. Just for one. Actually, everyone can leave. But we're going to test our connectivity just to make sure the phone line is okay. So that's going to require that you disconnect... Okay, so five minute break. I'm going to call the meeting back to order. Today's public hearing to consider the status of vacancies and recruitments and retention efforts in compliance with the government code 3502.3. And Jennifer, no, it's not Jennifer. It's not starting.

All right.

Monica, you're up.

Good morning, Chairman Chiesa, members of the Board, CEO Hayes, County Council Bose, and Monica Correale, County HR Director. This morning, HR is recommending that the County conduct a public hearing pursuant to Government Code Section 3502.3 in accordance with the requirements of Assembly Bill 2561. The purpose of this hearing is to review and discuss the county's vacancy rates as well as our ongoing recruitment and retention efforts. Following the presentation, it is recommended that the board open a public hearing to receive any comments and then bring the item back for the board discussion. This is the county's second year of reporting under these requirements. This law requires public agencies at least once per fiscal year and prior to adopting the final budget to present vacancy-related data in a public hearing. This includes the status of job vacancies, ongoing recruitment and retention efforts, and identifying any necessary changes to policies, procedures, and recruitment activities that may lead to obstacles in the hiring process. Additionally, the law grants recognized employee organizations the right to participate in this hearing to present information about vacancies in the bargaining units they represent. Finally, if a labor organization requests it and if vacancies in a bargaining unit meet or exceed 20% of the total number of full-time positions, the agency must provide detailed information, including the total number of vacancies within the bargaining unit, the total number of applications for vacant positions received within the bargaining unit, the average number of days to complete the hiring process from when a position is posted, and opportunities to improve compensation and other working conditions. With that overview, I will now turn it over to Jennifer Hawkes and Joanna Navarro to present Stanislaus County's vacancy data and workforce efforts.

Good morning. My name is Jennifer Hawkins, Assistant HR Director, and I'll be providing an overview of Stanislaus County's vacancy rates. This information covers the period from July 1st, 2025 through June 30th, 2026, with vacancy data reported as of June 30th, 2026. Since the legislation does not specify a reporting window, this year's report used a reporting period, excuse me, Last year's report used a reporting period of March 1, 2024 through February 28, 2025. Beginning this year, we are transitioning to a fiscal year reporting cycle. This aligns with the county's budget process and other workforce reporting practices. As of June 30, 2026, the county's overall vacancy rate was 10.5%, with 500 vacant positions out of 4,771 allocated positions. The average vacancy rate for fiscal year 2026 is 12.3%. Stanislaus County has 19 bargaining units with 15 represented by employee organizations. This chart displays the vacancy rate for each bargaining unit. As of June 30th, 2026, two bargaining units had vacancy rates that met or exceeded 20%. This includes Stanislaus County Probation Corrections Officers Association at 28%. Excuse me, that's Stanislaus County Deputy Probation Officers Association at 28% and California Nurses Association at 20%. Bargaining units exceeding the 20% vacancy rate decreased from four units last year down to two units this year. Stanislaus Regional Emergency Dispatchers Association and the Probation Corrections Officers Association have both decreased their vacancy rates and now fall under the 20% threshold. The Stanislaus Regional Emergency Dispatchers Association vacancy rate for fiscal year 2025 was 24.4%. To improve this vacancy rate, Stanislaus Regional 911 implemented several targeted initiatives to improve recruitment and retention. These initiatives included launching the Elevate Academy to provide structured onboarding, mentorship, and standardized training resources, streamlining the hiring process by reducing background investigation timelines and removing unnecessary steps in the examination process, and improving training programs by removing administrative barriers and strengthen support for new hires. Together, these efforts strengthened the new hire experience, improved operational efficiency, and contributed to a significant reduction in vacancies within one reporting cycle. For fiscal year 2026, the vacancy rate decreased to 4.4%. While the department has made significant progress in their vacancy rate, it's important to note that many of these positions were filled during the reporting period and are not yet deployable as they are still a number of staff in training. The Probation Corrections Officers Association vacancy rate for fiscal year 2025 was 24.4%. To improve this vacancy rate, the probation department implemented several targeted recruitment and retention initiatives to strengthen its workforce. These efforts included streamlining its hiring process by implementing monthly recruitment cycles with clear testing schedules, expanding outreach through community events, schools, open house, and an enhanced social media presence, and fostering an engaged workforce culture by recognizing employee accomplishments through quarterly celebrations, regular engagement with staff, and employee association leadership, and opportunities for employees to improve feedback that supports continuous improvement. Together, these efforts reduced the Probation Corrections Officers Association vacancy rate to 11.5%. At this time, I'll turn it over to Joanna Navarro, Senior Management Consultant, who will be presenting on the county staffing trends and recruitment and retention efforts.

Now we will turn to the county staffing activity of full-time employees from July 1st, 2025 to June 30th, 2026. These figures give a snapshot of movement within our workforce. First, 379 full-time employees separated from county employment during this period. This includes retirements, resignations, and other forms of departure. In response, we hired 367 full-time new employees into county service. Additionally, 449 county employees were promoted into new roles highlighting internal career mobility. A net of 46 new positions were added to address service demands and program expansions. And finally, 186 vacant positions were deleted including 135 inactive and unfunded positions that were deleted to improve the accuracy and transparency of vacancy reporting. During the fiscal year 2026, recruitment efforts transitioned from rebuilding staffing levels to implementing targeted strategies focused on sustaining a stable workforce and addressing critical vacancies. A series of strategic initiatives were implemented to support both recruitment and retention. Some of these initiatives include extending the employee choice bonus plan for hard to recruit classifications, working with internal departments to streamline recruitments. For example, probation updated their process to include monthly recruitment cycles and clearly defined testing dates and continuing collaboration with departments to focus on hard to recruit classifications and specialized recruitment approaches. These initiatives have resulted in increased recruitment activity engagement during the reporting period. This includes 75 days spent assisting internal department recruitments, the opening of 351 recruitments, the receipt of nearly 22,000 applications, and more than 640,000 online job hits to job posting. This activity indicates strong candidate interest and ongoing progress towards filling vacancies. In addition to our recruitment efforts, Stanislaus County continues to prioritize retention and employee engagement as key components of our broader workforce strategy. Over the past year, several initiatives have contributed to these goals. We have launched the county's updated leadership core four competencies framework to strengthen employee development and leadership at every level. We also continued employee recognition initiatives such as the County Service Awards Program, the Dale Butler Awards, the Unsung Hero Awards, and other individualized department recognition avenues. 533 employees received service milestone recognition in the 2026 fiscal year. Learning and development remains a key component of employee retention. The county continued to expand training opportunities to support employees at all levels. Some of these efforts include expanding the supervisor training academy with an a la carte option added, launching a leadership and management toolkit, expanding crucial conversation trainings, and modernizing the new employee orientation. Additionally, we hosted 115 wellness classes through our Wellness Connect program promoting employee well-being and work-life balance. 1,276 employees have attended these events. The county has observed shifting workforce trends and identified a need to update key policies to better attract, hire, and retain qualified employees. This slide highlights proposed policy or procedural changes aimed to remove barriers and create more competitive supportive hiring process and overall employee experience. First, on March 17th, 2026, the employee choice bonus plan was extended for one year for hard to recruit classifications. Second, a hard to recruit policy was developed to identify the classifications eligible for recruitment incentives based on data-driven criteria. This policy is currently waiting implementation and pending board approval. The county also focused on right-sizing its workforce by aligning authorized positions to operational needs. Approximately 135 positions were deleted, improving the accuracy and transparency of vacancy reporting and providing a more accurate picture of the county's true staffing allocation. Finally, the county identified a need to implement a limited hiring freeze effective August 4th, 2026 to create potential employment placement opportunities for staff impacted by workforce reductions. Countywide guidance and resources on the hiring freeze have been issued to ensure consistency, protect critical operations and align staffing decisions with the county's overall financial strategy. Looking ahead, the hiring increase will impact recruitment and vacancy trends in future reporting periods as the county evaluates staffing needs and aligns its workforce with operational priorities. This concludes Stanislaus County's presentation on vacancy rates and recruitment and retention efforts. We did notify our 12 labor organizations of their opportunity to present in today's hearing. The Deputy Probation Officers Association has responded and pursuant to Government Code Section 3502.3, each recognized employee organization has been allotted five minutes to present. We did not hear from the other labor groups nor did we receive requests for additional information for those bargaining units with vacancy rates exceeding 20%. At this time, we invite the Deputy Probation Officers Association to the podium to present.

Good morning. Good morning. Morning Honorable Board of Supervisors, CEO Hayes, Council Bowes, Brent Davins, Stanislaus County Deputy Probation Officers Association. I currently represent 86 members of SCDPOA. It is my privilege to speak to you on their behalf pursuant AB 2561. First I'd like to thank our CEO for being transparent with the associations regarding the state of our county. I understand painstaking decisions are being made throughout the county and our respective departments. Thank you. I'd like to also thank our honored board members for taking the time to join SCDPOA and our members in the field to observe firsthand the demanding nature of probation work. No single visit can fully capture the scope of our responsibilities. We greatly appreciate your willingness to see the challenges our officers face on a daily basis. Thank you. The staffing discussions cannot be separated from the workload. Our officers manage significant caseloads while at the same time conducting investigations, preparing reports, going after warrants, performing searches, handling evidence, responding to violations, and our primary goal, working to successfully reintegrate formerly incarcerated individuals back into the community. When staffing shortages persist, as they have here, those responsibilities do not disappear or get reduced. Instead, they are absorbed by the officers who remain. Our vacancy rate is very frustrating. I understand that countless hours and significant amounts of money have been focused on recruitment. We have seen the billboards, social media, videos, and extracurricular events and encouraged people to apply to our department. I have communicated with the department through our normal channels, but my responsibility as union president is also to make sure the board understands what our members are experiencing. particularly when the issue involves staffing, retention, workload, and morale. Since assuming the role as SEDPOA president since 2025, I've tracked employee departures within our bargaining unit. During that period, less than two years, 22 officers have left the Stanislaus County Probation Department. Many were experienced officers who took their years of institutional knowledge, training, and that training out the door with them. They left for opportunities with police agencies, other county sheriffs, and state parole and federal parole agencies. Each departure represents not only a vacancy statistic, but also the loss of experience, knowledge, partnership, and county investment in that employee. In September 2025, I reached out to the membership to identify reasonable and practical ideas to improve morale, retention, and employee engagement. They took that request seriously and provided a thoughtful recommendation for the department to consider. However, no meaningful progress has occurred. As a result, there's a growing perception amongst SEDPOA members that their concerns are not being heard. In speaking recently to other union representatives throughout the county, our allied agencies have some of the best wellness programs that I've ever seen to help with retention. This is an avenue I believe we could start with for a point to begin. The question is, are we adequately staffed for the work we are asking these officers to perform? And if not, what's the county strategy for retention, not just recruitment? We believe rather than focusing on recruitment, the county should identify sustainable solutions that improve workload, morale, compensation, and working conditions for the employees we already have. We have a problem. The membership is telling us what the problem feels like from the inside. Unilateral changes to established past practices continue to negatively impact employee morale. The numbers demonstrate that the problem is real. Now we need everyone, the department, the county, the board, and the union to work together. I am here representing what the membership is expressing to me and that it's a current situation that isn't sustainable. I was put in this position by my peers just like our honorary board and was elected by your constituents. I will continue to meet with our chief quarterly. The membership and I will continue to think outside the box to keep our members vested in the Stanislaus County Probation Department. I'm always available to you. We need to stop losing people. Our members are frustrated. They are tired and the morale is at its lowest. We're asking for a very simple question. What's the county willing to do to invest in the employees we have so we can retain them? We acknowledge the recruitment is important as well. Stanislaus County probation officers perform high complex work involving investigations, evidence warrant services, courtroom proceedings, case management, rehabilitative efforts, and significant public safety responsibilities. The question is not simply how to attract more applicants. The question is, excuse me, the question should also be how to attract and retain highly qualified applicants who are prepared for the unique responsibilities of this profession. Our SCDPO members care deeply about the work that they do, the community that they serve, and we believe that Stanislaus County Probation Department does a tremendous job with the limited staffing resources it has, but we can be even better. Our members simply want to know if the county is committed to investing in their employees that it already has. Thank you very much for your time. I appreciate it.

Brent, thank you very much. You've had conversations with HR, or is that internal conversations within the probation department? It's internal conversations.

And like I said, the wellness programs are amazing. I would definitely, for myself and the department, to look out and reach into that kind of as a solution to it.

Make sure the conversations morph over so that the CEO's office or the HR have those. Appreciate all you do. Thank you.

I appreciate you guys as well. Thank you for your time.

And we should start by banning San Joaquin County from advertising in our county. I drive on the freeway and I keep thinking, oh, Lordy. So, yeah. All right, anyone else want to comment? I think we, is this? Oh, no. Yeah, staff recommendation first, and then I'll do public comment.

Okay, with that, we have one staff recommendation.

It's the public hearing report on the status of vacancies and recruitment and retention efforts and receive public comment pursuant to government code 3502.3. We now bring it back to the board for any comments and for discussion.

Okay, questions for staff? Here you go.

Just a quick comment. First, thank you guys, Monica and Jennifer, Joanna. Thank you. Great presentation. We talked about streamline the hiring process, and I'm just, what's like the time period? What's the average time period it takes for us to go through the applications, you know, ask for the applications, go through them, do the interviews, and what is that average time? Do you guys have any idea? Or maybe just expand on streamlining the hiring process a little bit.

Back in one of your... You had 103 days on one, and nurses were down below triple digits.

Was there a schedule for that? I'm sorry.

It was just a couple of examples. Okay. And DPOA, or Deputy Probation Officers, was 103 days.

103 days for a deputy.

And they have backgrounds, but nurses and other physicians don't have backgrounds, so that adds some time. Okay.

Yeah, nurses was about 80, approximately 84 days.

I think that's probably what I hear most often from people I've applied. I haven't heard from anybody. I'm just wondering. I know everybody's busy. You've got a million things going on. But, yeah, anything that you can do to continue, I guess, to streamline that would help our cause, I'm sure, as you guys know that. So, anyway, great presentation. Thank you.

I'll add just a little more context to that last question. So the time for a successful recruitment and placement of a county employee will really vary greatly throughout the organization based on a couple of factors. One are just the requirements of that particular position. So clearly our law enforcement positions will take longer to do numerous things, including state testing, psychological exams, background investigations, all those kinds of things, criminal record checks, and so forth. However, the other bigger impact on how long it takes is whether a department has invested the time and effort and resources it takes to maintain a continuous improvement or continuous recruitment list. So we do continuous recruitments in some of our positions, which means they're always open and there's always a process that's cycling. If there's not a continuous recruitment already in place, then the department literally comes to the HR team and says, now start a recruitment. So now you're going to take a little time to refresh a flyer. You're going to start kind of from scratch. So the same position, whether it's in a continuous mode or in an ad hoc mode, will take longer one way or the other. So that's why it's really difficult for us to look at metrics over time and know whether or not we've been able to successfully improve some of these things. Certainly for those who have had continuous recruitments for a long period of time, you can measure and tell yourself if we've improved some of those areas. And I think our law enforcement departments have gotten pretty good at keeping this as short as possible, but that doesn't mean that we're always not looking for other improvements. But I just wanted to add some context. Your question is very, very difficult to answer without a very long and detailed answer.

So one phrase came out, removing administrative barriers. I think it goes back to that. What are administrative barriers that can be removed? That was as a part of the administration, I mean the presentation.

So an example of that would be streamlining the background process, so preparing prior to opening the recruitment, preparing interview panels, preparing the background documents so that way we can get those all out ahead of time, which we have recognized that's sometimes where our delay lands is trying to schedule the recruitments and the panels and things like that.

Okay. And I think what I find, I don't want to say probation officers are unicorns, they're not unicorn position, but people think of them now, deputy probation officers, as law enforcement because the acuity of the people they're dealing with has gotten higher as AB 9 came around. They act, in some capacities, act more like law enforcement. The pay is less. The requirements, the MQ on education, I think they still require a bachelor's to apply. And so you have a higher bar in some areas that makes it more difficult, and the pay is less than the deputy. The good news is that you don't typically work at night when you're a deputy. You know, you're flip-flopping. You got 12-hour shifts versus standard shifts. So there's a trade-off, but I think if people are, you know, want to want to rotate over once you get through the background and all the other things in probation you're trained up then we end up losing them to the sheriffs that go into the academy and so that's a tough situation to be in for one department competing against another department and then we always have the outside forces of san joaquin county and other agencies some of that we can't control necessarily but It's tough, and when I look at these numbers, they're 28%, and the need is there. That's a tough thing for us. So anyways, I'm gonna stop blathering now, and I'm gonna go ahead, if there's no other comments right now, I'm gonna go out to the public, open the public hearing, acknowledge we do not have any written comments on this, and anyone wishing to come forward, provide public comment on this, Ron?

Thank you. Once again, Mr. Chairman, Ron McMurtry here. I'm always coming up here and trying to educate myself. The county is huge. You deal with a ton of stuff. So I want to ask some questions, just procedural stuff. My first thing is I guess I realize this is a state law that was passed recently since the county only reported starting last year. So one of my questions is can I get a, I don't remember that presentation, so can I get a date of when that presentation was made? The other thing is I would like to know about the intent of the law. I kind of am starting to figure out the ax grinders, so I want to see if I'm characterizing the law correctly. So it's the intent of the law to add transparency so the public kind of knows, ooh, we have an issue. And then secondly, I think it's compelling the county to have a plan for issues with recruitment. And then my third thing, which hasn't been mentioned, are there any provisions for well, enforcement or whatever, compliance, like, is there a point at which, you know, the state has to interfere and say, hey, you guys aren't doing this in the law. And anyway, thank you, Ms. Navarro and Ms. Hawkins for your presentations. Thank you.

So I think the intent of the law was to, and hard to recruit positions, which you can see, it gives the union representation an opportunity to come up and allow the public to know why, if it's pay, if it's working conditions, and it gives them essentially a megaphone, I would agree with. The county takes this seriously and I think you heard from, you know, the president on the recruitment process. It has been continual for years and years. I see our probation chief is up on social media himself and they've got these great commercials and doing things outside of what I consider our ordinary recruitment because it's extraordinary circumstances and and so the state won't step in there's nothing uh and and the county could easily take care of these issues by cutting the positions and making the vacancy go but that that doesn't speak to need so you don't you don't cut positions when there's a need out there and you see the two probation folks left because i'm sure they went back to work and because they they're not going to sit here for three hours so i think it's indicative And so it's good to shine light and it makes us think about what we're doing and how we approach these things. All right. Anyone else for a public comment? Seeing none, I'm going to go ahead and close the public comment period and bring it back. There was one recommendation up on the screen here. First and second, all right, all those in favor say aye. Opposed? Carries five, zero. Johanna, Jennifer, thank you very much. Okay, we do not have any discussion items. Correspondents, acknowledge receipt of correspondence and refer as recommended on the agenda. Are there any Board of Supervisor reports looking from right to left? None. Board of Supervisor reports? None. None. None. I'm just going to report out we had our ribbon cutting at Kenwood Island and Turlock last week. And it was great because we had residents out there. And I love that they got to turn dirt themselves and participate in it. And I would agree with the update from Mr. Lehman. The next day I went over to TID and they had already cut where the curbs and gutters were gonna go in, literally the day after the groundbreaking, and they were just engineering that day.

Also under report out, I had the opportunity to go to the CSAC executive board meeting. We did endorsements for constitutional officers. We had the state controller, the state treasurer, and the lieutenant governor. And all three showed up and had a robust conversation of issues facing our counties.

Thank you for doing that. I appreciate it. Legislative fiscal management report.

I want to acknowledge that we're kind of at the tail end, the very end of the legislative session with the State of California right now. One item that's gotten quite a bit of attention and we have advocated on. is the proposal around reducing wildfire liability for some organizations in California that have been the cause of some particular wildfires. Our concerns are around proposals that would limit our ability to recoup the actual cost of replacing county equipment or structures that are damaged through wildfire incidents so we're continuing to advocate for that and we have joined a coalition and signing on to letters to Keep that position and also want to recognize That if you'd like to hear more from our chair Vito Chiesa He will be kicking off opening remarks this Thursday at noon for the Turlock State of the City address. So You you look surprised by that you are going to be there, right? Okay, that concludes my report. Thank you

Thank you very much. All right. We already read into the record, so we're going to adjourn to closed session.