Board of Supervisors - Regular Meeting

Welcome to this Tuesday's Board of Supervisors meeting, Humboldt County, August 18th, 2026, just a few minutes after 9 a.m., and we will start with a roll call, please.

All right. Next is the salute to the flag. Sheriff Hansel, will you lead us, please?

All right, here we are. Next is the virtual attendance instructions. Take it away.

Great, thank you. All right, so the first thing we're gonna work on right now is the consent calendar. We have a few proclamations that we're going to read off today. And then we're going to do the meat of the other things. So the first item on there is the proclamation for Constitution Week for Humboldt County, which is September 17th through the 23rd. And here we go. I'm going to read this proclamation. Chair Wilson. Yes. Oh, wait. Something wrong?

Okay, good thing. All right. Great. I will start with proclamation in honor of Constitution Week. Just I could feel it. All right. Whereas September 17th, 2026 marks 239th anniversary of the framing of the Constitution of the United States of America by the Constitutional Convention. And whereas the United States Constitution signed in September 17th, 1787 stands as a foundation. Sorry. of our nation's government and the embodiment of principles of liberty, justice, and democracy, and whereas the Constitution of the United States of America was a turning point in world history, establishing a

Thank you. Is there anyone else that wants to speak to this? That's part of the group. Okay. I think this is our time. I'm going to give you this proclamation, hand it to you right now.

Yes, Supervisor Rex. I think you guys gave us this years and years ago. I thought you brought them, but I kept it and read it all the time. I think your presence at the fair this year was great because I saw people around the booth and finding out what you stand for and the Constitution. Okay.

And I will say that if you're ever in Washington, D.C., the DAR has a pretty amazing building there right on the plaza or whatever. Yeah, it's pretty incredible. Something to check out. All right, let's take this photo of you receiving this, and we'll move on to the next item. Okay.

All right, the next proclamation is brought to us by Supervisor Arroyo, and it is the recognition of August one through seven as breastfeeding awareness and promotion week. Take it away.

Great. Do we have someone here to receive this? Hello. I see some familiar faces. Wonderful. Come on up. Alright. In honor of Breastfeeding Awareness and Promotion Week, whereas August is recognized as National Breastfeeding Awareness Month, and August 1st through 7th is celebrated as World Breastfeeding Awareness Week, and whereas the residents of Humboldt County are deserving of good health and breastfeeding is the biological norm for infants and a proven primary prevention strategy that builds a foundation for lifelong health and wellness, and whereas the evidence of the value of breastfeed

When you mentioned the participants, you forgot to mention the little one. I'm pretty sure that's 50% of the equation. And since I'm taking it for granted, that's a breastfed baby. Look how happy it is. That's the other thing. It brings joy and happiness both to the parent. And to the, look at that, that kid is cute as hell.

Thanks, you guys. And I will say it is important to normalize breastfeeding in all sectors of our society because it's important and people need to be able to do that where they need to do that. Okay, moving on. We have a retirement resolution for animal control officer Robert, Rob Patton. I think Supervisor Bone has the resolution.

Sheriff, get back. Sheriff, this is Rob's time. Get back, would you please? You haven't helped chase a dog down in years. Rob, how are you doing? Are we going to get you back a little bit?

Before I read it, I want to know the rules here.

So come Humboldt County Board of Supervisors resolution in honor of Rob Patton. Whereas Rob Patton has began his law enforcement career with Eureka Police Department and then upgraded and was hired as an animal control and facilities manager for the Humboldt County Sheriff's Department on January 17, 2016 by Sheriff Mike Downey. Whereas on October 23, 2016, he resigned his position as animal control and facilities manager and accepted the position of animal control officer. Whereas Rob Patton has been commended for showing tremendous resolve, compassion, and professional demeanor during his ti

I want to see President Arroyo and then I'll bring you back. Go ahead.

I just so appreciate the work you've done at the shelter and for EPD. It's great to know that you've had a long and meaningful career in law enforcement and on the animal control side. And it's really, I imagine it's often a fairly thankless job and yet so essential. And we've seen more than ever how important it is. So thank you so much for all your service.

All right. Supervisor? Rob, thanks. I mean, and it's not always easy. I know you had to write me a letter one time and said, get your dog licensed, Rex, or I'm going to take him away. No. But I did get a letter. And... But he's done a good job. I think the staff, I'm so appreciative of the staff. I know I got a little goat catcher in the back of the room one day on Walnut Avenue. There were goats running down the street. So it's not just dogs, cats. It's a wide variety of animals below what the livestock people do. So we do a pretty good job with our animals. We've got great staff. when we mak

I just want to thank you as well. The animal shelters, it can be a really heart-wrenching place to work, and it takes special people, and it's so important to the community. I've seen lots of dogs from the shelter up there get reunited, which is really important, and that they've been safe until their owners can be found, which is a key thing for folks too. So congratulations on your retirement, and I hope you get to enjoy your family a little bit more.

Thank you so much I associate myself with all those comments and I'm going to let the sheriff close this out with the most

There you go. One more time. Thank you. All right. Next on the proclathon. Proclamation for support for child support awareness month. And this is brought to us by supervisor Arroyo.

This is our interim director of child support services, Stacy Costa, who's been with the department for some time. So it's great to have you at the helm. Thank you. All right. This is a proclamation in honor of Child Support Awareness Month. Whereas August is Child Support Awareness Month, an annual time to raise awareness about a critical income support program that helps millions of children and families. And whereas many families rely on the support provided through child support services to meet basic needs and support pavements pave the way to stronger parent-child relationships, improved

Okay, bringing it back to the board. Any questions? Supervisor Bushnell.

Sure, so I just want to say thank you to your department. I know several people that have, I don't think otherwise would have been able to get their child support, and it really can be a stressful thing for families, and I know that this department especially has really helped a lot with the process. So thank you.

It's been a common thread amongst people that I love in my life. I was fortunate to not need child support in my particular upbringing, but I've just known so many people who are dear to me who did not have that and really, really struggled to Recall going hungry and recall just not having shoes that fit, not having the basics because they had a single parent who was barely making ends meet. So it's such important work that you all do. I'm sure it is very challenging. at times as well. But thank you for helping. I love the point that the proclamation made about how it's one of the most effecti

All right, supervisor. Thanks for stepping up, first and foremost, and I know you're very respected over there, so it's very well deserved and very well needed, so thanks. Thank you very much. Thanks for everything you do.

All right, rounding us out with a wholehearted thank you, I'm glad we have this aware. I'm not going to go into my personal story around this from my youth, but I want to say that I think the systems are much better now than they were 50 years ago. With that, I think we're good to go. We're going to go on to the next part of our agenda. which is, is there any questions or comments on anything else on the consent calendar from the board of supervisors? And then we'll get to public comment in a minute, so if you're online, get ready. Supervisor Bushnell.

Thank you. I just wanted to comment on item six in the consent calendar, the update on the sheriff's oversight committee and the ad hoc, which is supervisor Arroyo and myself. And we have met quite robustly in the last month and a half and met with Eureka PD and our sheriff Hansel and are making headway and good positive feedback with the sheriff as well. and we're continuing that work. We are asking for a little bit of, we're gonna extend it just a little bit because the work's so important, and we're having just really good feedback from the sheriff and from Eureka PD, and just want, we've g

Our original mandate was to come back in September, and so the updated timeline is to come back in October. So we're pretty close to what we initially said, but recognize that we just needed a little bit more time to have a really good product to bring forward.

I just want to say I've received a few emails from the public about the status of this. So thank you for putting it on the agenda and giving us a report. And I think a little more time is better than having something like this rush. So I'm very happy about that. Is there anything else on the consent calendar that supervisors want to talk about? Seeing none, we're going to go to public comment. Well, okay, back to you, Supervisor Arroyo.

I just want to speak to item seven on the consent calendar and say it's an incredible opportunity to be able to invest in, the theme of today seems to be support for children and families. And we're able through some grant funds to make an investment in children and families through two separate projects. And I really just want to thank the partnering organizations and our staff for all the work in making that happen. It was a really big deal.

Great, bringing it back to public comment, is there anyone online that wants to speak to something that's on the consent calendar?

And thank you for speaking. Is there anyone in the room or is there any more online? Anyone in the room that wants to speak to items that are on the consent calendar, please line up.

Can you tell us what is going to happen down there? What's going to be in the building that I'm so excited about at N Street?

And I want to be clear, this is not your comments. This is a question from a supervisor. It's on the agenda. Pausing the timer.

Okay, then stop it. Rodney, I didn't ask the question. You just run on your own. You look like a genius, okay? He is. We'll keep it between us.

It's amazing. I was going to ask you about that building, so thank you very much for that. You're welcome. Just sitting there has been driving me absolutely nuts knowing what it's going to serve, so I'm glad the staff and everybody was able to help you out on that. Yeah, thank you so much.

Okay, we're gonna try and pull this back on track. Public comment. I just wanna emphasize that the comments that were made were around item seven, so that if anyone wants to look that up online, they can do that.

Glad we could help. Is there any other public comment on, excuse me, on consent items? Seeing none, I'm asking for a motion and a second to approve the consent calendar, please.

There is a motion and a second. Is there any objection to unanimous consent? Seeing none, do we, you want us to do roll call even though there's an absentee? Do roll call. You ready? Roll call, please.

Great. All right. Next on the agenda is public comment for items not on the agenda. And let's go to online. Is there anyone online that wants to speak to public comment items not on the agenda. Anyone there?

All right, bringing it back to the room. This is comments for things that are not on the agenda.

Okay, is there anyone else that wants to speak? Come on up.

All right. Next. Don't be afraid to stand up and get close.

All right, do we have anyone else? Okay, come on up.

That is an interesting story. All right, so we have made it through all of the items to get us to really the main item of discussion for today, which is the review and adoption of revisions to the Board of Supervisors Code of Conduct and Ethics and Rules of the Board of Supervisors. And I'll bring it back to CAO, please.

OK, first thing I'm going to do is I'll hand it over to the one half of the committee that's present. And that is Supervisor Bushnell. So let's hear from you first, and we'll go from there.

Thank you. So I would like some feedback from the board. Supervisor Madrone and myself along with outside counsel and CAO worked really hard and diligent on this item and we concluded last Tuesday after our board meeting and Supervisor Madrone was very satisfied according to his own statement so this statement that he has made today is a bit of a shock to me and I'm looking for guidance from the board whether you would like to go through this item and see if we can get it adopted or if you would like to continue this item and perhaps we can try to reconvene the ad hoc and see what's going on.

Now it's got me worried what kind of nuggets hidden in here that is, my time. But I'm just saying, I'm not so sure we should move forward. I sometimes think this is used as a weapon rather than a learning tool, and I kind of would like to see that. I'd like to see some other things in there. I don't think I was asked about any of it, so I guess this is time we all of a sudden, during this robust conversation and meetings and everything. I'm a big fan, just like the oversight committee and everything else. There's 58 counties in the state, and do other counties have these, and can we follow tho

Through the chair. Thank you. So you weren't asked about this because there was an ad hoc and we couldn't, we couldn't ask you and that's why you weren't asked about it. I don't think there's any nuggets in here and it's a very straightforward policy with some improvements and some some guidelines that were talked about during a couple of hearings that happened at this board. And I think that Supervisor, I know that Supervisor Madrone and I did a lot of work around this and we're very thoughtful and not to have this item weaponized, which was what one of the issues was prior to with the old on

All right, if I may, I'm just gonna process this a little bit, Supervisor Bone. We have currently a policy, it exists, To me in here we have the red line and then and so there that's the suggested changes that came from the committee So and you're right a couple of options for us are to not make those changes. Just keep it as it is Make those changes as they are presented to us Amend the changes as they are presented to us today. We could do that or Reject the whole thing I suppose and or Have it come back I, just for whatever it's worth, I've read through this. I think the changes, I look at

Thank you. I think the bulk of what's in here is really good. I think it's always been interesting to me that our code of conduct has a lot of just process reminders, but also codifies how we do things, how we do or don't direct staff, and how we handle outside commitments, and a number of other things that I think are very helpful in here. So I think the bulk of this is really good and I think it's fairly obvious that what we're seeking to modify is how our complaints handled and how our Obviously members of the public can contact the supervisor that has done something that they wish to compl

The two things that both of you asked, the 2-2, if there is a 2-2 vote, then the supervisor, a supervisor, has an opportunity then to bring a separate item that would be guided by the Board of Supervisors majority vote, which could be three, and that was to be able to get away from that to two or not have any action. So that safeguard was put in there for that reason. And around, it kind of goes around a statement that I said that I don't feel like you're judge and juries and that, with you would need a super majority for a vote of censure, so this gets away from that, but you could bring anot

Supervisor Bone, and then I have a question.

I look at this and think there should be more in it, but again, the point I was going to make is just what Supervisor Bushnell said. You put three people on an advisory committee that our employment depends on the three people that are here, and I don't care what you say, no matter how unbiased they try to be, everybody wonders where the next paycheck is coming and they don't want the majority of anybody being mad at them. With that, I do feel that sometimes, not all the time, I'm going to say this, but sometimes it's used as a weapon and people go out there and say you should file a complaint

Thank you. So the option is to keep the one we have, which there are some issues with it, or to adopt a new one. We did look at other counties and use some reference. We also used legal counsel and brought this new version forward that is takes care of some of the holes that you just talked about, Supervisor Bone, which is including having three department heads and a CAO that work for this board directly and taking that item away from them that yes, everybody is human and it is a sticky situation for them and uncomfortable. They've done it with great integrity and have really followed the pre

I wasn't suggesting. I'm still where I said where I was personally. So I think these changes are reasonable. I think they're an improvement in moving towards an unattainable perfection. And so I'm good with that. I just have some questions around the tie vote stuff. And if I can, I'll just jump into it. Because the language in here is just tie vote around the... Sorry, I'm going to find it in my...

Yeah, it's here, but it's connected to, only specifically connected to the procedure for conduct of a public hearing. So when we're, well, just last couple weeks ago or a couple of meetings ago, we had a tie vote and it was a little bit awkward and I was trying to figure out how to get through that. And so I just, it didn't have anything to do, it wasn't necessarily a public hearing or do we count that as a public hearing? You know what I'm saying?

So like in, in terms of like they could happen in an appeal, it could happen under a budget item, which is I think what this was. And so I would like to have personally, I'd like to have a, you know, pretty, the construct of a type of process here works, but it's only in the, it's only in their subtitle of a certain type of,

You've said it in front of four of us here. I'm sure that we can pass that information on. So I don't need to change necessarily if we're all cognizant of It's in the record of our discussion. I'm okay with that. Hold on one second. So going back to that, I just wanna go through that. So if the vote on a motion is tied, the chair calls for any further motions, any member on the subject, if none or further motions, if none or further motions also result in a tie vote, the chair will call for a motion to declare the board deadlocked. And if someone, so someone would probably do that. And if the

So it's the same as just denying the thing. Thank you so much. We were unclear about that some time before, and now that clears up for me. Great. That answers my only real fundamental question I had of this document. And I'm happy to take it to public comment if it's OK with the board members. Supervisor Arroyo first.

Sorry, I do want to go back to my question around and just get a little bit more thought on that before we get a public comment. Just around the, so this is specific to how to trigger the external legal counsel review. And it's on page five of the non-redlined copy. Just under C, code of ethics violations. It isn't clear to me. It says that the external legal counsel will have sole discretion to determine whether an investigation is warranted I understand that in most instances, but what I'm hoping that we are contemplating, we know that we have folks who weaponize processes in place like this

Okay, that's helpful. I mean, I think, you know, we all experience a lot of, it sounds funny, but I think we experience a lot of hyperbole. Like right now, there's someone saying I'm actively killing kids. I'm obviously not actively killing children. This kind of thing happens all the time. And I'm just, I want to limit the avenue that people have to to really realistic things, so I appreciate that, and I suppose if it is a process that's abused, we can modify this, but yeah, thank you.

I think to cover all the bases, and I think everything that happens I mean, we're behind the red curtain, yada, yada, yada. We do things different. We're different. We've got to be different than everybody else. I think a screening committee, and I mean something as simple as the three that are reviewing it now, and maybe three more, and you draw them out of a hat, they review it. So if somebody says this is black and it's actually white, we have a review committee. Or something before we send it to... We always say that someone's gonna be very reasonable and not bill us, but they're gonna thi

Okay. I'm going to bring it back to supervisor Bushnell and then we're going to go to public comment.

Thank you. Currently, the advisory committee that we have of three, one is recusing because of conflict issues that were brought up, the reason why we're doing this. And I think involving, we all have different relationships with our electeds, equal electeds, and it also would be a personnel issue. And so I don't know how you get around that complaint issue. and not have personnel involved. And that's why we talked about when you get a complaint, it's a personnel issue. It's not something that the whole world gets to know right away because if it's not factual. So last Tuesday, this is why we

Okay we're gonna take the public comment and we'll bring it back to the board. So do we have any public comment online?

All right seeing none online please bring into the room.

Okay, I'm gonna bring it back to the board. Supervisor.

Thank you. I just, around what Supervisor Bone said, I would just like to ask the CAO what her thoughts are around that topic, because we talked about it in our ad hoc a lot.

Supervisor Baum. That is exactly why I prefaced I'm going to vote for it. I don't care what we do. I just thought looking at it, putting a local avenue, whether than sending out our business outside, could easily, for as many times as this come forward, as little as this come forward, I could see a little local preference. But if we want to send it outside, I'm good with that because I don't think it's going to change I don't know, we'll see what happens. I'm gonna vote for it just so we can move on.

I'm gonna make a motion to accept staff recommendations around the code of conduct.

All right, I just, we'll close, I just, if we, the best way for us to limit our exposure to these expenses is to try and conduct ourselves in a way that is in accordance with the code of conduct. And with that, can we have a roll call, please?

Okay. I think that is it for all of the things that we're going to do in this chamber today. We're going to go into closed session. And with that, we'll have our council read us into that, please.

Great. I'm going to open this up to public comment. Any online public comment?

Thank you for that. Is there any more, I'm gonna get through public comment and then I'll have council speak to the timing of these things.

Okay, I'm gonna bring it back to council per our usual request of your estimate which is always spot on the time of how long we're gonna be in.

Two to two and a half hours. So let's see. Two hours would be one, more or less. And so 1.30, somewhere between 1 and 1.30, we'll say. All right. That's our estimate. If we come back sooner, that happens. And I'm not going to, we're not, this is not a promise. This is just a guess. Or later. Supervisor Bushnell.

I asked him to build in 15 minutes so we could have a little break before we go in, if that's okay with the chair.

I did that one. I did my estimate. So, yep, 15-minute break before we head into closed session. I'll see you all in there. All right. Can you report us out, please?

All right. With that, we are adjourned. Thank you.