Board of Supervisors - Regular Meeting

Good morning, good morning. Good morning. Thank you very much. If everyone can please take your seat. Please take your seats. I now call the September 15th, 2026 San Diego County Board of Supervisors meeting and Fire Protection District meeting to order. We first would like to take a moment to acknowledge the land we call home. There are communities in the San Diego region that face unjust conditions and circumstances related to the environments in which they live. The tribal nations of the San Diego region are an example of one community that has historically faced such injustices. We acknowl

Thank you. We now have Reverend Melissa Tucker, who will deliver the invocation, and Casey Strang, who will lead us in the Pledge of Allegiance. Please stand.

Thank you so much. We now proceed with the proclamations. The first proclamation will be given by myself honoring Hunger Awareness Month. Accepting the proclamation will be Casey Castillo. Colleagues, today I'm proud to recognize September as San Diego Hunger Awareness Month. In a region as prosperous as ours, no child should go to bed hungry. No seniors should have to choose between groceries and medicine. And no working family should have to wonder where their next meal is coming from. But too many San Diegans face that reality. And new federal cuts are making it even harder for families to

Okay, thank you very much. The second proclamation will be given by Vice Chairman Greenstep honoring Andrew Strong. Accepting the proclamation will be Andrew Strong.

Well, good morning, everyone. Today, I am truly honored to recognize Andrew Strong and his contributions to the County of San Diego before he sets sail for his new chapter, next chapter. We celebrate Andrew who is departing from the county after more than 18 years of service, a career that began fittingly with service to country as a Navy Corpsman. Andrew's journey began as an intern with the county and from there he rose to some of the most significant roles in county government. Chief of Staff to the Chief Administrative Officer, the county's first Director of the Office of Equity and Racial

I would just ask the supervisors to come down for the picture if you can. And if you want to say anything.

Yes, you both should stay up there because the third proclamation is being given by Vice Chair Montgomery Stepp and Chair Pro Tem Paloma Aguirre honoring Latinx Heritage Month. Accepting the proclamation will be Cristina Juarez, Emilia Castillo, Liz Ramirez, and Daniela Perez.

You can line up here, too, if you'd like. I don't mind. There we go.

Buenos dias a todos. Thank you for being here. I am incredibly proud to recognize Latina Heritage Month here in San Diego County. I also want to thank Supervisor Monica Montgomery-Step for partnering with us on this proclamation and on the beautiful reception we hosted this morning. As a proud Latina myself, this celebration is deeply personal to me. It was wonderful to begin the day by bringing together community leaders, organizations, and partners who contribute so much to the well-being of our communities. In District 1, Latina heritage isn't just something we celebrate once a year. It's b

Thank you so much, Chair Pro Tem. I'm really honored to be standing alongside you this morning, this September, as we celebrate Latinx Heritage Month here in San Diego County. And the inclusive language is the point, right? Because this month embraces identities across gender expansive, indigenous, Brazilian, and non-Spanish speaking communities. As the chair pro tem said, it is extremely inclusive and that's why the language is so important. This month didn't happen by accident. It exists because Congressman Edward R. Roybal and Henry B. Gonzalez and Representative Esteban Torres spent career

Muchas gracias a mi hermana. Gracias. Por lo tanto, se proclama por la presidenta Tara Lawson Reamer y nosotros, todos los miembros de la Junta de Supervisores del Condado de San Diego, en este día 15 de septiembre del 2026, que reconocemos y celebramos la historia, la cultura, el liderazgo y las contribuciones de las comunidades latine en toda nuestra región y por la presente proclamamos el mes de la herencia latine en todo el condado de San Diego.

All right, we're going to take the floor, OK?

Okay, thank you all very much. The fourth proclamation will be given by Chair Pro Tem Paloma Aguirre, honoring Cetus University. Accepting the proclamation will be Dr. Fernando Leon Garcia. And if we could please be quiet as we exit the chamber so the Chair Pro Tem could give the next proclamation. Thank you.

Okay. Today we honor the 65th anniversary of CETI's Universidad. What began in 1961 as a single campus with a visionary goal in Mexicali has transformed into a world-class university system, expanding across Mexicali, Tijuana, Ensenada, and into a global campus that connects students across borders, oceans, and cultures. At its core, education is the single most powerful engine for upward mobility. By opening doors to advanced skills, critical thinking, and professional opportunity, CETES does not simply educate individual students. It uplifts entire families, transforming their long-term econ

Okay, thank you all very, very much. Thank you. The fifth proclamation will be given by Supervisor Anderson, honoring Biodiversity Month. Accepting the proclamation is Nadine Lemberski.

Thanks for coming up. This is the other half of the room. Good morning, everybody. Today, it's an honor to recognize the San Diego County Biodiversity Month at a time to celebrate and reaffirm our duty to protect the incredible natural biological diversity of our region. I'd first like to thank our Vice Chair, Montgomery Stepp, and her team in District 4 for all their help in coordinating this well-deserved recognition. I'd also like to thank Nadine Lamberski, I'm sorry, it's a slow morning, Makeda Okolo, Okay, so far so good. And Sarah Sulkin with the San Diego Zoo Wildlife Alliance, as well

Thanks, Nadine. Hold it. No. If only I could read that small. Be it proclaimed by Chair Tara Lawson-Reamer and all the members of the San Diego County Board of Supervisors on this 15th day of September 2026 that we commend the San Diego Zoo Wildlife Alliance and all its conservation partners for their outstanding service, leadership, and commitment to the citizens of San Diego County and here do declare this month to be Biodiverse Month throughout San Diego County. Nadine, I'll take that from you, and I think that you want to say a few words.

I think they want us to come up here for a photo. If any of my colleagues would like to join us in the photo, we would welcome to have you. Every one of our districts has a unique aspect. Supervisor Desmond has the desert area. I have some of the mountains. And of course, many of our colleagues have the beach areas. So come on down if you'd like to get in the photo.

The final proclamation will be given by Supervisor Desmond. Supervisor Desmond, where are you? Okay. Supervisor Desmond will be honoring San Marcos Prevention Coalition. Accepting the proclamation is Casey Strang.

Well, good morning, everyone. It's my honor to welcome and recognize Casey Strang, Executive Director of the San Marcos Prevention Coalition. Four years ago, when unfortunately fentanyl was wreaking havoc on our communities and throughout the country, and still is, but we called it out what it was, and it was poison. And this board of supervisors, along with the DA and the sheriff, all took action. Since then, overdose deaths have fallen 36% from their peak in 2021. Fentanyl-related deaths dropped from 802 in 2022 to 340 in 2025. Still way too many, but the program is showing progress, and pro

Okay, thank you very much. Before we begin the meeting, I'll take a moment to address our House rules. Public engagement is a cornerstone of transparent and accountable government. These Board of Supervisors meetings are a primary venue where San Diegans can make their voices heard. Under our Board's rules, speakers may not use loud shouting, threatening, impertinence, slanderous, profane, or abusive language to any member of the Board, staff, or the general public. All remarks and questions must remain on topic during the duration of your speaking time. All remarks and questions must be addre

Okay. Thank you very much. Thank you to all our speakers for participating. We now move on to the approval of the minutes. This is for the session of September 1st and September 22nd and September 2nd, 2026, as well as the minutes for the concurrent special district meetings of the San Diego County Fire Protection District for June 24 and June 25. Is there a motion to approve? Thank you. Is there a second? Okay, we have a motion and a second. Please, Andrew, call the vote.

Okay, great. We now proceed with the formation of the consent agenda. This is items 1 through 15 and fire protection item 24. Items on consent will be acted upon with one motion. Does my colleague, Vice Chair Montgomery-Step, have anything to pull or any comments to make?

No need to pull anything, just a couple comments on item number 10. The approval of bonds for the promenade apartments in Hillcrest that will be built in District 4. This, I think, is a phenomenal project that unlocks $40 million in private capital to build 94 affordable homes for families in a high resource area under the criteria of the California Department of Housing and Community Development. What sets this project apart from most affordable housing developments are the amenities and services included, such as the Life Steps program. The program will consist of on-site financial literacy,

Okay, we have a motion on the floor. Chair Pro Tem.

Thank you, Madam Chair. I'm not going to pull any items, but I do have a few comments. Happy to second. I just want to take a quick moment to recognize the tremendous work that has gone into, this is on item three, into updating the emergency operations plan. And I want to thank the Office of Emergency Services, our county departments, our community partners, and regional agencies who contributed to it. For those of us representing District 1 and 4, the January 2024 floods were deeply personal. We saw firsthand the devastation they caused for families and neighborhoods across our communities,

OKAY, THANK YOU SO MUCH. SUPERVISOR DESMOND.

Thank you, Madam Chair. I'd like to pull item 13, please. Has there been a motion already?

Yes, there's a motion and a second on the floor. Okay. Thank you very much. We'll go to public comment.

Can you please stop the speaker's time? This is the consent agenda. So you can speak on any item in the consent agenda. Please clarify which item you're speaking to and make sure your comments are on topic.

Sir, we're not responding to what Truth said. The speaker's time is forfeited.

Please pause the speaker's time. Just a reminder that your remarks need to be relevant to the matter on the agenda. Those remarks were not relevant to the matter on the agenda. You can continue, but if you are speaking off topic, you will forfeit your time.

Okay. Okay. Thank you very much. We have a motion by Vice Chairman. Can we step in a second by Chair Partemagiri? Item 13 has been pulled. Please vote.

Okay, thank you very much. We now move on to item 13. This was the item that was pulled from consent. This is the second consideration adoption of the ordinance to amend the rules and duties for the Citizens Law Enforcement Review Board and approve updated rules and regulations. We can begin with public comment.

This is your first warning. You need to stay on topic for your comments to be relevant to the item to which you're speaking. If you are off topic again or speaking to board staff as opposed to the supervisors, you will be asked to leave the meeting. Thank you.

And you guys take care left about our election. This is your first warning. If you're off topic again, you will be asked to leave the chamber for the remainder of the meeting.

Pause the speaker. Sir, this is your first warning. Your comments need to be on topic. These comments are not relevant to the clerk item. Thank you.

Thank you, Madam Chair. I don't need a presentation. I'm happy to, if we move to the vote.

Okay, thank you very much. Vice Chairman, can we stop?

Thank you. I'm going to go ahead and move staff recommendation.

I'll second. Okay, we have a motion and a second on the floor. Please vote.

Okay, thank you all very much. We're now moving on to item 16. And let me, before we do that, let me give a little bit of a preview of the remainder of the day. Our hope was to be breaking for lunch around noon at the conclusion of this item. And then after that, we will... We hope to get through the majority of this meeting or the remainder of this meeting by around five o'clock, 5.15, and then we'll go to closed session. So that's, I'll keep everyone posted as the day goes on, but we're looking to be pretty well on track this day. Okay, so we now move on to item 16. Unless has received the p

Thank you very much. I have some comments, certainly. But if my colleague has anything she'd like to say first. I have comments as well, but I'll save those until after public comment.

But I do have a quick question on your hypotheses regarding the property valuation in Imperial Beach. I thought that was very interesting. Obviously, Imperial Beach is... without the sewage, one of the last affordable coastal communities in the entire state. But what did you base that theory on or hypothesis?

Since you talked about taxes, have you seen, did you look at sales tax as well?

Okay, okay. Well, definitely look forward to the full report once it comes out. And I'll reserve my comments for after public comment. Thank you very much.

Okay, thank you. I just have a couple comments right now, and we'll be interested in what the public has. First of all, thank you. And also, just thank you for being responsive to come and bring us a preview. This is obviously really disturbing. I mean, it's, I think, something we've known intuitively for a long time, and certainly seems pretty obvious, kind of... you know, off the top of your head. But to put some hard numbers on this, I think really illustrates how detrimental the sewage crisis is for our region economically. And, you know, from my perspective, the public health impacts and

Okay, this is not the speaker's time. This is the second time this meeting that your comments are off topic. You will be removed for the remainder of the meeting. Thank you.

Okay, thank you. I'll turn the floor to Chair Pertamagiri.

Thank you, Madam Chair. I just want to thank again you guys for producing this report and for all the work that went into it. But I want to speak to what I've been seeing for years. Everybody knows that I've been working on this issue for a long time, but I personally have had to have these conversations with business owners who continue to tell me that every weekend, less and less, on a Saturday and a Sunday in front of their businesses, they have their parking spaces empty because nobody's coming to the beach. I've had conversations with Airbnb owners that have seen a significant decrease in

Thank you very much, Supervisor Desmond.

Thank you, Madam Chair, and thank you very much for the presentation. It's good to have these numbers at hand, and I guess the final presentations are going to be coming next month. So, you know, the Board, we commissioned the study for the cost study here, and for that cost, we've learned that, you know, the vague range of the economic losses annually are anywhere between $100 million and $500 million. It's quite a range, and I realize you're still doing a deeper dive on this, but that's huge for this region, and it's really hurting us not just not able to use the beaches, but our businesses

Okay, thank you very much. Do we need a motion or is this just a receiving file? Receiving file, okay. I just again want to reiterate how much of a call to action this report is. I don't think it tells us anything. We don't know intuitively, but it's helpful to put hard numbers on something when you're looking at a crisis at this magnitude and this scale. I think that there are some opportunities that we have to invest in a solution to fix this Tijuana sewage crisis permanently. I think we should seize those opportunities and to me this is Just one more piece of evidence of how important it wi

Yes, I'd like to, thank you. Thank you, Madam Chair. Supervisor Anderson and I led the Ad Hoc Subcommittee on Fiscal Transparency and Accountability to help ensure taxpayer dollars are spent wisely and in ways that benefit local residents. In support of this effort, our staff reviewed health and human services contracts and found two nursing service contracts that should be brought in-house. County staff will directly train and supervise the nurses at both these sites, which will improve both the quality and consistency of care being provided. The South Region Public Health Center is currently

Okay, I'll turn the floor to Supervisor Anderson.

Thank you, Madam Chair. I'm very excited to bring this board letter forward with Chair Pro Tem Aguirre, as it highlighted the hard work that we accomplished in the Fiscal Transparency and Accountability ad hoc subcommittee. We have been working with staff to take a hard look at our contracts to find efficiencies, reduce redundancy, and realize cost savings. This board letter today is an exciting step towards that goal by saving the county an estimated $1.8 million by insourcing these two contracts. I appreciate the work of our HHSA and county nursing staff have done to ensure that the services

Okay. She didn't make a motion, but she can. You did. Okay. I heard her. Okay, me and Andrew missed it, but we have a motion on the floor from the Chair Pro Tem, a second from Supervisor Anderson. Any additional comments? Okay, seeing none, please vote.

Okay, thank you all very much. We will aim to be back here in about an hour. It's 10 to 12 right now, so we'll be back here. We'll give ourselves an hour and five minutes. We'll be back here at 5 to 1. Thanks.

We now have a night flying firehawk based here and ready to respond around the clock. And we have this air attack base ready and able to defend our communities.

CAL FIRE HAS BEEN AN ESSENTIAL PARTNER FOR THE COUNTY FIRE, PROVIDING JOINT FIRE PROTECTION AND EMERGENCY SERVICES FOR MORE THAN 1.7 MILLION ACRES. SINCE CAL FIRE'S CREATION IN 2008, THE BOARD OF SUPERVISORS HAVE INVESTED OVER $1 BILLION INTO FIRE PROTECTION AND EMERGENCY MEDICAL SERVICES.

Okay, we'll now reconvene and begin with item number 18. This is strengthening wage theft enforcement to recover stolen wages and protect working families. And this is an item presented by District 1. Chair Pro Tem, would you like to present the item? Or we can... We could also start with public comments if you prefer. Okay, we'll begin with public comments and then we'll turn the floor over to Chair Pro Tem after public comment. Thanks.

Okay, thank you very much. I turn it over to Chair Pro Tem.

Thank you, Madam Chair. I have some short remarks. This item didn't start in a vacuum. It starts from a simple principle. If you work, you deserve to be paid every dollar you earned, period. Wage theft is a crime. It is a worker putting in the hours, doing the job, holding up their end of the bargain, and then having an employer decide that their labor is somehow free. And the people who are most often forced to absorb that loss are the people who can least afford it. Low-wage workers, immigrant workers, women, workers of color, and people working in restaurants, construction, janitorial servi

Thank you, and thank you, Chair Pro Tem, for bringing this item forward. We know that wage theft is not just a paperwork issue. This is about income that workers have earned but never received, and it can determine whether a family can pay rent, buy groceries, or obtain health care. More than $29 million in unpaid wage theft judgments has accumulated in San Diego County since 2017. A legal judgment means little to a working family if no one can successfully collect it. This proposal strengthens the county's ability to investigate violations, recover unpaid wages, and reach workers who may not

Thank you, Madam Chair. Appreciate it. You know, this Office of Labor Standards and Enforcement is already a function that the state is supposed to be providing. So I disagree with the county duplicating the work of the state. This is a state and federal responsibility and not something that we should be directly involved with in enforcement. If anything, we should push the state to do better and better resource and enforcement within their own regulations. I've not heard from any of my constituents or from the Office of Labor Standards and Enforcement the need to expand the department and the

Thank you. Just a couple of comments. First of all, I appreciate the work of my colleague bringing this forward. It's really important to continue strengthening Olsay, and this is a really useful and valuable measure, and I appreciate the work of Brandon Butler and the team in leading Olsay. I remember back in 2021 when we established this office, it was just a vision, and it was a hope, and It was the outgrowth of a lot of community voices who had come together demanding that we needed local enforcement around wage theft and around fair labour standards and just fairness in the workplace gene

Thank you, Madam Chair. I have just a couple questions. So when reading the board letter, How is this going to proceed? So staff's going to put together some new plans. And then will we be coming back to the board to let us know what those plans are? Or will we immediately move forward with those plans? In the past, we've always come back to the board with the plans.

It's your item, go ahead, Supervisor Geary.

Yeah, so there is a report back written into the board letter. And if Brandon, if you'd like to expand on that. The report back will be basically in the form of a memo where you'll have the opportunity to provide input and elaborate on potential concerns or questions you may have, Supervisor Anderson. But if you'd like to elaborate, Brandon.

I actually voted for it the first go-around, so I'm not opposed to wages being paid to people who have lawfully earned them. And my only concern is I just want to make sure that we're not pursuing these new policies until the board is aware of what those policies are. I've worked in this area in the past, and the vast majority of people who have been shorted their wages deserve the justice that we're delivering, but there are some employees who weaponize it who don't deserve them because they never worked the hours, they simply claimed it. So I just want to make sure that as we're moving forwa

And let me preface it by I want to get to yes. I'm not trying to get to no. I want to get to yes.

So you're only looking at enhancements for people that already have a judgment?

So over the last five years, we've never had an employee tried to do anything with malice. They've always tried to enhance and do a better job but sometimes the conclusions that staff has come up with have not been aligned with best practices and I get we're on the cutting edge. I want to be part of knowing what's going to go on before it goes on. And the other issue I have is, and what I'm concerned about is, someone goes to the labor board and the labor board says they lost the case. You shouldn't have double jeopardy where they get to come to us next and rejudicate their case when the labor

That's reassuring to hear because so often in government, the left hand doesn't know what the right hand's doing. And I'm not saying that in a nefarious way. That's just big business. Is there a reason why the board shouldn't know what you're implementing before you implement it?

I like everything you're saying, but my question was, is there any reason why we couldn't know about it before it's implemented? And what those policies are or those changes? I'm not, if the person has a wage, again, that they need to collect, I'm totally for it. But why wouldn't we want to tell our constituents we've taken these additional steps to protect employees inside our county? I don't understand why we can't know about it before it's implemented.

Can I just ask, as a matter of process? I'd like to know what the enhancements are. Yeah, so is there anything in this board item that would prevent you from sharing that information as it develops?

You know what? Let me help you with this because I still don't think you understand what I'm saying. It's on me. I haven't explained it well enough. When I first got elected... the county would send questionnaires into my Arabic-speaking community in Spanish. That was their go-to. That was their default. And then they said, well, we sent out 1,000, and only three people responded. Well, if I send out 1,000 questionnaires, I get a lot more than three people. But I also know who my target is, and I'm targeting them in their language. If I don't know what those enhancements are, you're not going

Well, I think written in the board letter, there's a report back within 120 days that will be distributed to each of the district offices. Now, in addition to that, Obviously, part of this is also ensuring that our communities, just like your district, my district, we want to make sure that our workers are getting paid and that we have culturally competent outreach information, that we work on methods to ensure that we are I don't want to use the word promoting, but educating the community, educating constituents that are experiencing wage theft or may be suspicious of wage theft, and also the

And my issue is if they move forward on this and they go out into my district, It may ignite a bunch of calls to my office that could have been avoided if we just knew what was happening before.

That's what I'm asking. Yes, of course. And that's why I'm asking Mr. Butler to address that specifically.

I'd just like to add that any employees in District 2 that were failed to be paid, those companies do not belong in District 2. They're from other districts. Just saying.

Okay, thank you very much. I'm going to turn the floor back to the chair pro tem. It's her item. No, you're good. Thank you. Okay, we have a motion and a second. Please vote.

Okay, thank you all very much. Thank you so much, Brandon. And thank you to all our advocates who have been such incredible partners in putting Olsa together in the first place. So thank you guys for being here as we continue moving it forward. We are moving on to item number 19, taking deceptive retailers to court for marketing motorcycles to kids as e-bikes. This issue I think is a really, it's a really sad issue. And unfortunately, even just this past weekend, there was a death in my district from a kid, a 14 year old who was killed riding an e-bike. And I've been hosting e-bike trainings a

It's just more crap. Please make sure that your remarks specifically relate to the proposal that has been made in item 19. So far, your remarks have not been pertinent to item 19 and to the proposal made. This is your first warning.

This speaker has forfeited their time and their ability to speak for the remainder of the meeting. Thank you.

Please pause the speaker's time. Your beginning remarks were relevant, but this item is not about cannabis, so please confine your remarks to the topic, which is item number 19. Thank you.

Thank you, Madam Chair. I appreciate it, and I appreciate you bringing this forward. I do believe e-bikes and e-motorcycles have caused quite an uproar in our communities. I see these kids popping wheelies in the middle of the street and going really fast, and it's just kind of scary. And public safety is our first priority, and I do think we need to ensure... The safety is keeping up with these new technologies. However, I believe we would be jumping the gun by pursuing litigation as a first step. SB 1167, which you mentioned in the board letter, is a bipartisan bill that addresses many of th

Chair Partem. Thank you, Madam Chair. I also want to thank you for bringing this item forward. It's very important and I also want to uplift some of the concerns that I have heard from my residents in Bonita, my constituents in Bonita, and people in communities all throughout District 1. They've raised concerns about e-bike safety. This is a fast-moving and evolving issue and I want you to know that it is top of mind for me. I believe parents should not have to become vehicle experts to keep their children safe. Marketing electric motorcycles as bicycles conceals a serious risk for families, a

Thank you very much. We have a motion on the floor, but no second. Any further comments? Okay. We have a second from the Chair Pro Tem. Any additional comments? Okay. Seeing none, we'll take a vote. Thank you.

Okay, thank you all very much. We now have item 20, which is receive a presentation on the County of San Diego's El Nino and severe weather preparedness and take action to strengthen community preparedness. We'll turn the floor over to the staff team. Thanks. I'll kick things off. Thank you.

Okay, thank you so much. Before we have board discussion, we'll go to a public comment. Thanks.

Okay, I'll turn it over to the Vice Chair.

Andrew, I know the one thing that you will miss in retirement is these meetings. Thank you so much for the presentation. Thank you for everyone that is participating. Just, you know, I was about a month into this job when the January 2024 floods happened. And I just won't forget that experience. I won't forget the devastation. I will not forget seeing and being with people who had lost everything in a matter of hours. We have no idea, right, what this weather pattern will do. We don't know that. But I think that from my perspective, I've been through that, and so I'm going to have a real sense

Okay. Okay. And that was something instituted from the after action, like looking at our lessons learned from 2024?

Okay. On slide number eight, it has the Regional Emergency Coordination. What I recall about this last time is that the buck didn't stop anywhere. I just remember that we were kind of going round and round trying to make decisions about how we were going to mobilize resources on the ground. So my question with the operational area coordination with the county and 18 cities, the tribes and other partners, I remember sitting in a room also with Cal OES, where Who makes what decisions? Like, how do we decide who's in charge? Because that was a major issue, and we wasted, frankly, a lot of time th

Okay. Thank you for that. Let me just make sure that I have no other questions through the slides really briefly. So this is the last one, I think. For getting information, I know that you all are working on a specific landing page for El Nino. I did see it this morning. I think some of the links still need some work. But what I... I'm thinking about here, is there any, would it be 211 that people call like in the event that there is no, you know, cell phones are down? Would we go to a landline at that point? Like what is the alternative to like internet being down, cell phones being down?

Yes, because I know right now we have a lot of information on the Internet, and then we have the text alerts that people can sign up for to get the information. I think if there is a disaster that impacts people's ability to get that information, what is that next step? At least we can share that with people now.

Okay. All right. And we'll just discuss that a little bit more later because I do want to know, this is one of my questions, when we talk about partnership with CBOs, what does that mean when the disaster hits? That was one of the major issues we had last time because nonprofit organizations were filling in the gaps for at least two weeks before we can really step in. And so the partnership is, again, good right now because the agreement sounds like they're getting the information out to community members, right? That's cool. What will they, how will they be able to assist us in the disaster a

Thank you. And again, just to reiterate, these were these. were areas that were on a list that we had already identified or close to. We had already identified those two years ago. So the last thing I'll say before I have a request, I know we are receiving the report, but there is a recommendation after that. So I will move that recommendation and ask my colleagues to support some additions that I have. The last thing that stood out to me is the 72 hours, 24 to 72 hours that we are kind of giving ourselves to mobilize resources, particularly to stand up a resource center. And I know we had a f

Okay, we can come back to you, Vice Chair, once those recommendations are there. Andrew, Andrew, will you let me know? Okay, thank you so much. I'll turn it over to Chair Pratamangiri.

Yes, thank you, Chair. And yeah, looking forward to seeing those, Madam Vice Chair. And I just, the comment, you know, that you made about having it be difficult to forecast. I just wanted to mention quickly that Imperial Beach has been a pilot study site for Scripps Institutional Oceanography as far as a predictive model for coastal flooding and coastal hazards that has proven to be extremely effective you know, productive and beneficial when we do coastal flooding management and proactive measures to prevent the flooding. And I was just thinking, and happy to talk to you about this offline,

Yes, I appreciate hearing about the coordination with the teams and their response as well. My next question is, for residents who don't own a vehicle or that rely on public transit or need accessible transportation, what is the actual plan to get them to safety if flooding interrupts their usual routes? We saw that happen with the 2024 Orange Line and some other areas. Who coordinates that assistance across jurisdictions? How do residents request it? And how are we ensuring transportation is available before conditions become too dangerous?

Okay, I appreciate that response and your work, Director. Thank you. So I just want to add some remarks. Right now, a strong El Nino, as we know, is forecasted for this fall and winter. In my district, we don't need a forecast to know what that means. It's been mentioned before, January 2024, one storm put water into homes in National City, in Chula Vista, in San Isidro, in Tijuana River Valley, of course. But in Shelltown, families along the Chollas Creek watched their homes fill with water in a matter of minutes. In the Tijuana River Valley, that water carried sewage into yards and onto our

Are you ready, Andrew? Okay. Then we'll go to Supervisor Desmond.

Thank you, Madam Chair. Appreciate it. And thanks, county staff, for your presentation and all the hard work on this. I'm really happy to see the county getting ahead of this. And actually, you were ahead of it last time as well. I know now it's the Super El Nino. Last time it was the Atmospheric River. Most parts of the country call it weather. But with us, it's kind of extreme. So I'd like to applaud the efforts to strategize and proactively prepare. Our residents can be assured that we'll be there for them. with our emergency response team standing by in case of weather-related emergencies

Okay, to Andrew and Vice Chair Montgomery-Stepp.

Okay, thank you so much. Appreciate that. Thank you everyone for your patience. I'm just going to go ahead and read it. Add this recommendation number three, direct the Chief Administrative Officer to return back to the Board of Supervisors on our next meeting, October 6th, with the County of San Diego's plan to prepare for El Nino in the unincorporated areas that were impacted by the catastrophic flood. on January 22nd, 2024. The plan should include the following information, a one-page summary of what the County of San Diego learned from the flooding in January 2024 and what changes were mad

And I'll just say that was my experience last time, that there was not waiting. And I think some of what I've heard today shows that we're trying to mitigate for some of the issues we dealt with last time was just kind of Who's going to do this? There was a lot of burnout. I was there for all of it. I certainly don't believe that we were just kind of sitting on our hands doing nothing. What I just want to try to push for is that our plans are so well thought out that it won't take that long. Like, we can... push go and then we are ready, right? Because we're dependent upon that plan and we're

Okay, seeing no other requests for comments, we can go to a vote.

Okay, thank you all very much. We'll now move on to items 21 and 25, which we'll take together. This is about enhancing emergency ambulance transportation services in the Grossmont Ambulance Operating Area. Again, we're going to take items 21 and 25 together. That's the Fire Protection District item and the PSG item. Do we have a staff presentation? Or we can just go straight to public comment. Okay, great. Thank you.

Okay, thank you very much. We'll go to public comment.

Madam Chair, I don't know if you all received this letter from the chief, but he made four points in it. He's gotten to almost all of them. Is there any, at some point, may I ask him questions about the other two points? Because I think they're germane in our decision process.

Yeah, right now we'll continue on with public comment as per protocol. And you're very welcome to invite him up when it's your turn to speak to ask additional questions. Thanks for your time. Thanks.

Okay, thank you very much. Do we have any questions or comments? Why don't we begin with Supervisor Anderson and feel free to call up our Fire Chief.

If the Fire Chief wouldn't mind coming back up. I just wanted to hear the rest of what you had to say. I wanted to make sure. that we understood your concerns.

Thank you very much for that. Madam Chair, if I may, I'd like to ask Director Collins to address the four issues of if that would work out.

Sure. Sure, and Jeff, do you need them reiterated, the four issues?

Do you have follow-ups, Supervisor Anderson?

Yeah, I'm good now. Thank you very much.

Thank you. Do my colleagues, this item obviously pertains to items Districts 1, 2, and 4. We've heard from Supervisor Anderson. Do my colleagues in Districts 1 or 4 have any questions? Please, Vice Chair.

Thank you, Chair. Thank you, Director Collins. Thank you, everyone, including Chief Lawler. Thank you for your involvement in this process thus far. So just for the number three, I just want to make sure that we are kind of saying the same thing. This is around... I'm sorry, number three on the letter, Chief Lawler's letter, about the... the... training and oversight funding, ensuring that that is, you know, working for our partners and not, I guess, bringing in, working with the existing local system. I think that's my, I would like to see that if that's possible.

I would like to see us work to strengthen the existing local system with this this possible funding, right? I think you went over it, but I just want to make sure, I think what I'm hearing from you is the, in principle, like we're on the same page. We just need a little bit of fluidity to, to make sure we're making the right decision as we do outreach, you know, as we gather more information through the process.

ANY QUESTIONS? OKAY. DO WE HAVE ANY MOTION ON THIS ITEM? Do you want to move this forward? I'll move this forward. I will move staff recommendation. You'll move the staff recommendation? Okay. Okay, we have a motion from the vice chair and a second from the chair pro tem. Any further comments? Okay, please vote.

Okay, thank you, and thank you so much for joining us today. Really appreciate it, and it's very helpful, and sticking around to answer all the questions that came your way. Thank you. Okay, we will move on now to item number 22, receive an update on the Aging Roadmap, San Diego County Regional Plan, fiscal year 2025-2026. We do have a staff report on this item.

Okay, thank you. I do have a couple questions. Just really interested in the IHSS component. If you could just talk a little bit more about how that plays into our strategy and specifically what challenges, if any, that we're facing in the IHSS program.

No, it's all related, so that's interesting and useful. I think I just, I know that this IHSS piece is a huge part of the Aging Roma, and I just was hoping you could elaborate, so this is helpful as well.

Do we have a sense of how many folks will or might lose eligibility due to the lower asset threshold for Medi-Cal eligibility? I know that previously I think there was no asset threshold and then it went down to like 130 and now it's I think going to 26.

Yeah, that would be, I think it'd be really helpful to better understand, you know, how many folks are potentially going to lose eligibility either because of red tape with Medi-Cal, you know, needing to reapply every six months. Clearly they're not going to lose eligibility because of work requirements because they should theoretically be exempt because obviously that's why they qualify for IHSS is because they're on disability. So that's not an issue. But I'm actually interested also as well in this, in the kind of intersection with the state rule changes regarding Medi-Cal asset requirement

Okay, thank you very much. And do we have any challenges at all with folks who are eligible, but we can't find caregivers for them?

Thank you. Are there questions for many of my colleagues? Okay. We'll go to public comments.

Thank you so much. I don't think we need a motion just to receive the report. Thank you for the presentation. There's a lot of work that goes into serving all of our constituents, but particularly our Asian population. Just a couple observations that I would maybe like to see in the future. The report does indicate that our aging population is increasing, and by 2032, approximately 865,000 folks above... I believe it's 60 in the County. I would like to know based on the numbers of like the level of service and the people that we're serving, like how is that looking sort of year to year or over

Thank you. Any other comments? Okay. Thank you very, very much. This is very important, especially as our region ages. So glad we are looking at this. Next, we have item 23, authorization to apply for the Community Resilience Center's implementation grant with PANA. And I think this is a D4 item. Okay, please, Vice Chair.

Thank you so much, Chair. I really appreciate you accepting this late docket board letter. You know, we try not to do this, but certainly as my colleagues will read in the board letter, there is a time constraint here. So this item authorizes San Diego County to enter a co-applicant partnership with lead applicant PANA for the California Strategic Growth Council's Community Resilience Center's Round 2 implementation grant. The grant application period closes prior to the next Board of Supervisors meeting. The opportunity to partner with the community organization to potentially secure up to $1

Okay, we have a motion and a second. We'll turn to public comment.

Okay, thank you very much. I'll just make a quick comment. I'm happy to accept a late docket because I think this is just such an important project and I'm just so impressed with the work of the community coming together and the visioning process and the coalitions that have been built and frankly, the sort of long determination that everyone has shown in moving this project from conception, inch by inch, day by day, a little bit closer to something real. I think it's an incredibly cool, inspiring, amazing project. And I'm just really looking forward to it becoming a reality. for San Diego. An

Okay, thank you all very much. We will now move on. I think we're at comments for closed session. Actually, this is a request. We had a request for board committee reports. Are there any board committee reports?

The Bayshore Bikeway Committee did not meet in District 5.

Okay. Thank you, sir. Any other board committee reports? Okay. Closed session public comment.

Once they've been removed, they're not counted anymore.

Okay. Thank you very much. We will finish our non-agenda public comment.

Okay, thank you very much. We have one adjournment in memory today presented by myself and the chair pro tem. We'll just begin. This is an adjournment in memory of Gloria Steinem. I'd like to adjourn today's board meeting in memory of Gloria Steinem. Gloria spent her life fighting the idea that women had to choose between family and work, between motherhood and leadership, between caring for others and having a public life of our own. She exposed the exploitation of women in the workplace through her undercover reporting at the Playboy Club. She co-founded the generationally influential and tr

As chair, I try to carry that work forward every single day.

And I'd like to turn the floor over to the chair pro tem.

Thank you Madam Chair for those beautiful words. I want to echo your sentiments and join you in requesting that we adjourn today's meeting in memory of Gloria Steinem. Gloria's impact was felt across the country, but she also had a connection right here in San Diego. She visited San Diego State University several times, including on International Women's Day in 1984, where she spoke with students about equality and the work that still needed to be done. As a Latina, a woman, and an elected official, I know that none of us gets here alone. We stand on the shoulders of women and elders who came

Thank you all. With that, we will adjourn into closed session and see everyone back here tomorrow at 9 a.m. Thanks.