Economic Development - Regular Meeting

To, call the, follower economic development committee here for November, thirteenth. Can we have a roll call, please?

Yes. Supervisor Alejo? Present. Supervisor Church?

Present.

Norm Grupp, absent. Katherine Steadman, absent. Keith Suberson, absent. Clarke, absent. Janine Villier?

Present.

Heather Gardner? Present. Ida Chan? Present. Nicholas Kite? Present. Beth Babinski? Present. And Janine Chikarat? Present.

Via Zoom.

We'll take some questions. We'll need to ask her some questions.

Okay. Go ahead.

Miss Chikara, are you a peer in under Just Cause?

Yes.

She did contact us before. I believe she's not feeling well. Miss Chikara, is there anybody in the room with you that's above the age of 18?

No. By myself.

Okay. If somebody does come into the room that's over 18, please let us know who they are, and please keep a camera on during the

meeting.

No problem. Thank you. And with that, we do have corn.

Very good. Thank you very much. Are there any additions or corrections to the agenda?

There are none.

Great. You. That will go to a public comment period for any items that are not on today's agenda. Is there anybody in the room who would like to speak on any non update's agenda? Yes. On board, Jordan.

Good morning, everyone. Chair and commissioners, my name is Jordan Caliello. I serve as the procurement counselor for the Monterey Bay Apex Accelerator, a program of the county's DSA partner Monterey Bits Honey Business Council. Our Apex Accelerator helps local small business navigate and compete in the government contracting contracting space, whether that's learning to register in sam.gov, preparing a capability statement, or connecting directly to procurement opportunities at the city, county, state, and federal levels. During the first quarter of this fiscal year, July September 2025, our Monterey County clients secured $33,600,000 in federal contracts representing 38 total awards and 247 businesses served.

Among those clients were 55 women owned, 66 Hispanic owned, 56 veteran owned, and 33 service disabled veteran owned businesses. These are real local entrepreneurs creating jobs and strengthening our regional economy through access to government procurement opportunities. Our impact spans every corner of the county from District 1 where clients won over 516,000 to District 4 with nearly 6,800,000.0, and District 5, which led more than 26,000,000 in contracts awarded, included, the handout that you are receiving. While there is still room to grow participation in District 2 And 3, our team is actively engaging the business centers in those communities to help prepare and compete for future opportunities. It's also important to note that our Monterey Bay APAC Accelerator serves multiple counties, 14 in total.

This regional reach allows us to serve leverage partnerships. We're proud to be part of the county's broader economic development strategy, one that focuses on inclusion, capacity building, and measurable results. Thank you for your continued support, recognizing the importance of connecting our small business to the billions of dollars of government contracting available each year. And just to note, we had a successful second annual Central Coast, procurement expo, which super supervisor Alejo was a a guest of and and introduced the event, where we had local government agencies and prime contractors We're able to connect with business owners and explain opportunities that are there. And just for clarity purposes, we do not have the contracts.

We simply help local businesses understand the process. We provide free counseling, and we're happy to be part of the VSA, and thank you for your support.

Thank you. Do you have anybody else in chambers that would like to speak? Do we have anybody online?

None on one.

I guess we'll close public comment, and we're going through approval of the minutes for August 7. Is there any corrections anybody sees in the minutes, or do we wanna make a motion to approve them? So moved. Second. If you should ask for public comment in case there's anybody that's about comment on this matter.

None on one.

Okay. We have the first and second.

And real quick, supervisor, we did get a couple of comments from Keith Severson prior to the meeting via email, and we'll make sure to get those included in the revisions to the minutes.

Okay. With those with those changes. Yes. Okay. That's alright. The the white makers. We have all those in we have to do roll call actually with Janine on. Sorry about that. So we'll do a roll call for the minutes.

Okay. Supervisor Elihu?

Aye.

Supervisor Church?

Aye.

Janine Bouillet? Aye. Heather Gardner?

I hate to see it because I wasn't here.

Ida Chan?

I can't see.

Nicholas Kite?

Aye.

Beth Klabinski? Aye. Janine Shigarap? I'm seeing.

So that is 123. That's. Yep.

Thank you.

It is carried with the 677741 extension. But that will move to 2 extension. Extension. I'm sorry. I missed that. Okay. 2 extension. So 6 and 2. We'll move to the regular agenda items then, and we number item two is to receive reviews from applications for our bacon, labor, and education.

Give me just a second. I will share my screen. I have a short PowerPoint for you all And begin with deliberations and discussions. All right. And so this item is to receive and review the economic development ad hoc committee recommendations for the labor and higher education applicants that came in.

And just to give you a quick overview of what took place to refresh everyone's memory, On March 22, we received an approved resignation of Jonathan Brown for our labor committee seat. Along with along with that, the committee formed an ad hoc to review and recommend the qualified applicants to the EDC. The ad hoc was consisted of supervisor Church, Ida Lopez Chan, and also Norm Group. On August 7, we received a second resignation from Dan Ripke for the higher education seat and moved on, and the economic development staff worked with our county communications team to advertise these vacancies countywide. We also reached out to several nonprofit organizations, several of our business associations, and direct to our development set aside organizations and others to get the word out there as far and as wide as we could to garner applicants for both of these vacant positions.

The ad hoc committee received seven applications for the labor sector and 11 applications for the higher education sector. The ad hoc convened for a total of three meetings and qualified two of the seven labor applicants to this economic development committee and 10 of the 11 higher education applicants to this committee. And just to give you a brief rundown of the procedure for the nominations, So for all of these nominations, the office of the clerk of the board of supervisors was notified and posted the vacancy in accordance with the Matty Act. The ad hoc was formed and was pointed to review the qualifications of any nominee presented in accordance with this procedure and forward all eligible applicants onto the committee for consideration. And we are currently at that step where the committee shall make the appropriate recommendations to the Board of Supervisors.

So for our qualified labor applicants, there's a total I mentioned there's a total of seven. Two were qualified by the ad hoc committee, and those two are Cesar Lara and Jorge Valenzuela. And wanted to go ahead and provide you with this is all within your packet and online via the agenda, but wanted to provide you with a brief overview of all of the different points of or the different categories that were included in the application that came in by both of these applicants. Second to review that. And it's also as I mentioned, it's also in your presentation as well or in your packet as well.

We have all the applications and resumes. Okay? And second, much longer list for the qualified higher education applicants. So as I mentioned, there's a total of eleven, and ten were qualified by the ad hoc committee. I'll go ahead and list off those names for you, and you can find those within your packet as well.

Fernando Ansaldo Sanchez, Fernando Deepavelis, I believe. Sorry if I'm butchering the names. Gail Pittman, Jenny Kwan, Jose Pablo Dundore Arias, Moafiq Alanazzi, Paige Viren, Seth Gustafson, Seth Pollock, and Vanya Quinones. And we did the exact same for this group of applicants for the higher education, provided you with their name, district, residence or employer district, their ethnicity, gender, and their occupation. And with that, we are requesting that the Economic Development Committee receive and review these submittals for the vacant labor and higher education seats that were screened by the economic development ad hoc committee, and provide recommendations to the supervisors for both of these vacant seats.

So I think we should take the labor one first. It's the the shorter one here. I know I see Cesar here, so I would like to give an opportunity for anybody who's an applicant to speak. I could don't Don't have much. Don't if we have a time right now. We can always talk about three minutes. That'd be great. Cedar, go right ahead.

Morning, everybody. I'm actually the director of workforce and economic development for the California Labor Federation. I ran the moderate Bay Central Labor Council for seventeen years, eighteen years. I've been involved in economic development for my whole career, and, actually just left the convening of the Selena's inclusion economic developments. Committee have been involved in, many initiatives in the area and also been involved in contract negotiations with unions, including agriculture and hospitality, and, view this opportunity, as as an opportunity to really work with you all here to really look at the how can Monterey County be a beacon for economic developments?

We have a couple opportunities that have been spelled out on initiatives like California Trust First and Regis Advising Together and and others. And, as a labor person, I have to say it's important to have worker voice at center, but also having worker voice at center also has to be with jobs. And so growing the economy is good for workers. It's good for the community, and it could be done well in Monterey County. We have a lot of struggles.

You know, hospitality and agriculture are two thirds of our economy. There's room for growth there with the economic opportunity for the workers there, but we also have op opportunities in upcoming industries like aviation and Joby and others, that's been spelled out in the California First. I was part of the California Jobs First team that put that put that plan together to look at economic development and also was, one of the lead people when I worked at building healthy communities around the Alliso Vigrant City Plan. So looking at economic opportunity is important. This committee is crucial to it. I was a fan of it being started back many years ago, and happy to be considered to be part of the committee. Thank you.

Thank you. And is Jorge available online or anywhere?

No? So I'll just add the pop up.

Yes. Andrew? Andrew Henson?

Yes. He is. It looks like he is online. They promote him to panelist,

Yes, Jorge. If you'd like to say anything in July during three minute period.

Jorge Valenzuela?

Yes. Hi. Good morning. Not sure if you can if you can see me.

Yeah. We can see you and hear you.

Okay. Okay. Wonderful. Well, yeah, thank you. It's a pleasure, to be here with all of you, this morning.

I actually only found out about, me being a being a competitor, just last Friday. But but, yeah, just a little bit about my experience. I've been with the labor movement for about sixteen years, with, United Farm Workers organizing in the Pacific Northwest, dairy workers, and and farm workers. And as part of being a regional director in the Pacific Northwest, I actually had the opportunity to work in the committee with for labor and ag with the governor of Washington state at the time in which we were able to successfully negotiate, $15,000,000 for farm worker housing. And that brought me back to, Salinas, California where I was with, Teamsters Local eight ninety, and worked with them, for eight years.

I rose, in the ranks, became a vice president, working closely with, you know, with a lot of the ag partners in the Salinas Valley, including, you know, Taylor Farms, Organic Girl. And, I know firsthand, the impact that having, the voices of farm workers of labor, the importance that that is for growing a business and for growing, you know, successful endeavors in the community, you know, especially for with jobs that have decent pay, woodworkers can then take that can take those wages back out into the communities, into the grocery stores, you know, wherever they it is that they shop. And so it would be my pleasure to serve in this committee, and be able to, really, maybe be the connector between the voices of the labor, movement and the importance of economic development in the Salinas Valley. And it's not only with farm workers that we worked with the team I am now with SEIU five two one where we represent county workers, city workers across five regions. And with that, yeah, thank you again for the opportunity, and it would be a pleasure to serve.

Thank you, Jorge. Before coming to the board, I'm just gonna see if there's any public comment on these two nominees, anybody in the room or online.

None online. K.

Cool. Let's probably comment on that. Bring it back here to the board if anybody wants to add questions. Well,

my questions, comments, first of all, I think we got two two really good choices here. Jorge is great. Put his work in on the different positions in different labor unions. I personally reached out to Sesap only because I've known him much longer. Right? He's he all the labor unions know him because he served as executive director for almost two decades and served on numerous boards in a collaborative manner, workforce development board among others. And now being able to be a representative on on workforce issues for the California Labor Federation. I think we have a local person that is serving in a statewide leadership role willing to serve on this committee. I think that's great. It would be great if we had an alternate position, right, for Jorge.

That's not even possible. We don't have alternates on Right. Yeah. That and that's that's the only unfortunate situation because he would also serve very well. I speak wanna speak highly of him as well, but just because of of, the different roles that Cesar has played, I think, he's best suited for us to, serve on this on this committee, but I hope that there's an opportunity down the road for Jorge as well because I think, he's willing to step up and and serve our county in this capacity, and I think that's that's very valuable for us as well.

Anything else? The board here or the comments or thoughts here? I mean, I I will I will say again. I mean, I think they got two highly qualified people, which is is almost really a coin flip, frankly, or almost is a coin flip. Feel really would find find it hard to to choose between the two of them, but before we go, I I know Caesar.

I I don't know Jorge as as well, and that's probably what's going to influence my vote on there, and it has nothing to do with the qualifications to be one. It's more just the one personally, and so I would know that should gradually help in in that regard. If there is none

It seems okay. I I I'm familiar with the the work that he's done and have worked with him on labor issues and but also and I did read the other candidate, and he

was like, oh my gosh.

How do you choose Brooklyn? I think as supervisor said, Cesar holds a position and has influenced that what I feel would be beneficial to the to the county in terms of the labor organizations. And so that's kinda how I decided which one to put up the

So do we have a a motion?

I'll move that we appoint assessor Lara to serve the labor position on this committee. And we have a second. So moved. Second.

And we'd love to

do that. I'll vote call.

We'll have to do a roll call.

Supervisor Lehoe? Aye. Supervisor Church? Janine Beyang. Aye. Heather Gardner. Aye. Aida Chan. Aye. Nicholas Kite. Aye. Beth Pawlinski. Aye. Janine Chukura. Aye. Passes.

The man who spoke there, and Congratulations. And and, Jorge, thank you for applying. This is really a difficult call, and and I really appreciate you putting your name forward.

We gotta find another role for Yeah.

Thank you for thank you for your time.

Just a moment.

Appreciate it.

This is a recommendation to be able to put on board as the president's agenda for appointment. Okay.

So we'll still go to the full full board. Yes.

Full board. You. Yep. With that, we'll move on to the higher education appointee, Janice.

And just to make a a quick point to everyone. So we do have three individuals that were given the ad hoc's recommendation through this process. And so I just wanna go ahead and read those out. So those three would be Jenny Fwan, Vanya Quinones,

and

third, and Page Biren were the three that were recommended or given a recommendation by the ad hoc committee.

Okay. I was on the ad hoc committee, and I can't remember that. Were you speaking in again, please? Yes.

Jenny Kwan Right. Vanya Quinones, and Paige Biren.

And Paige Biren. Thank you. Well, first, I'd like to see if anybody in the you know, any of the other any of the candidates for the higher education commission would like to speak, I'd like to give you as well as three minutes. If anybody's in the room, please come forward.

Yes. Go ahead.

Hi. I'm Jenny Kwan. I am a professor at CSUMB, and thank you. I just wanna thank you all for including me in this process. I'm an economist.

I lead the Institute for Innovation and Economic Development, the IIED, in the business school where I'm I teach entrepreneurship and strategy as well as nonprofit management. And yeah. And I, know many of the other CSUMB candidates, and they are all great. So you cannot go wrong with that, and I will not take it personally, if you go with one of them because I I they're really great. And I'm really heartened actually to see so many CSUMB people step up for, you know, the higher ed position.

So it's really I think it's such a great, sign. At the institute, in in my research and and teaching, we study and care a lot about entrepreneurship. I my background is in engineering, so I'm a former manufacturing engineer. And I'm really excited to be working with, you know, aspirationally with colleagues in the college of science, especially in the new mechatronics program. So wanting to bring, you know, like, companies, encouraging our students to start companies, bring new technology, and things like that.

So those are kinda things that excite me and that we're hopeful about and getting our students, you know, trained and educated and opportunities for them and creating opportunities in the county. So that's kinda what is super interesting to me and, yeah, and just hoping to be useful. My research is in how nonprofit organizations can help launch new industries, and these are surprising. Like, they're kinda hiding in plain sight. So, I'm an economic historian, so I've looked at, how the venture capital industry got started, and it was cooperative, like, which is shocking, you know, back in the seventies.

Also, the fabulous semiconductor industry, which is now, like, taking over. Right? So NVIDIA's worth $5,000,000,000,000. It's a fabulous semiconductor company, and it was faltering in the nineties as as recently as that. So, anyway, so these are things that are, like, possibilities and exciting and, you know, kind of my interest and hopes and for the county. So, anyway, thank you so much for, yeah, for for for including me in the this process.

Thank you, Jane. Is there anybody else in the room that would like to pitch? Is there any any time?

There are a couple of candidates online. Seth Gustafson.

Hi. Seth, would you like to say a few words about yourself? Give you three minutes as well.

Sure. Hi. Good morning. Thanks very much for having, for having me. I know I wasn't one of the three recommended candidates, but I, I did wanna just say, that I agree with my colleague, Jenny, about the CSUMB folks who've, who've put their names in the hat. I'm just very proud actually. Wait to have, several, of my colleagues put their name in for this role. And, yeah, that's really exciting to me, but it's not surprising either. I think, CSUMB has got a lot to offer, and that's one of the reasons why I wanted to, why I wanted to volunteer for this role. I've got a lot of experience internationally, before living here in Monterey County.

I saw how universities and public partnerships in The UK and Germany worked, really well for the benefit of, local communities, big and small. My own professional interests are in building sustainable communities and what it takes, to achieve that across a variety of sectors of the economy. And I think that there's a real, some real potential here for universities and the public, but oftentimes that potential goes untapped. Another reason why I wanted to volunteer for this, position was because, of my role on the frontline with our students, many of whom come from Monterey County. And they are desperate to stay in Monterey County, and people who come from across California to see us, UMB are also desperate to stay.

But, of course, it's, employment and housing that are the really big concerns for most of our students. And so my, my vision for my role on this committee would be really with my students in mind, helping them to ensure, that they can stay and make a life here, especially after, CSUMB and the rest of the community invests so much in their success while they're here, on campus. So thanks very much, for your consideration, and best of luck.

Thank you, Seth. And we have some you say one more?

A couple more. Paige Biren.

Okay. Paige, would you like to say a few words about yourself here?

Yes. That would be great. Good morning, everyone. Like my colleagues, I'm so proud to be at Cal State Monterey Bay and see that so many people are willing to step up. The university is really a great resource in our region, and I think it could be, you know, a bigger source a bigger resource, and I think our involvement can can be part of that.

So I'm doctor Paige Veeran. I'm the executive director for the sustainable hospitality and tourism management program. It's a program in the College of Business, And our college is a little bit unique, and Jenny is in our college, which is great. But our college is unique because it really brings together programs in both agriculture and hospitality, two of our county's, you know, cornerstone industries. So, it really allows us to educate students at this intersection of business, community, and sustainability.

So, I also play a role in kind of preparing students to become leaders in responsible business, helping them understand how thoughtful management of our of our resources, natural and cultural, can strengthen the local community. I serve on several other boards, the US Travel and Tourism Advisory Board, which advises the secretary of commerce on national tourism policy, and workforce development is really a part of that. And I think more emphasis on developing future leaders who, like my colleague Seth said, can actually live here, make a wage where they can live and thrive here. And, you know, a nice place to live is a nice place to visit is something I always like to say. I'm also in the Monterey County Hospitality Association, representing the hospitality industry in our community.

And I really want to serve, I think, because I do see higher education as really a key driver of equitable and resilient growth, economic growth. And by connecting not just Cal State Monterey Bay, but our local colleges and universities with policy and planning can really build stronger pipelines for that workforce development, innovation, entrepreneurship across the region. My research brings to the table, you know, kind of strategic planning, education, and sustainable community based development. And I've been here for four years. I'm really committed to the community and, you know, being able to give.

I'm I'm a servant leader, so being able to give to the community is important as well. So I'm eager to help shape strategies and ensure we continue to thrive. So thank you everyone for your time, and my feelings aren't hurt. Any of us are great candidates.

Thank you, Paige.

Gail Pittman?

Yes. Gail, please, get a few words about yourself if you like.

Sure. Thank you so much. Good morning, everyone. My name is doctor Gail Pittman. I am the vice president of institutional equity effectiveness and Success at Hartnell College.

And even though my name was not among the three that were recommended, and of course, I have very high respect for the three colleagues from CSUMB who were recommended, I think you can't go wrong with any of them. I do wanna make a pitch for Hartnell College specifically to be at the table on the economic development committee. Over the last couple of years, we well, in a couple of years ago, we conducted a pretty comprehensive environmental scan, both of our college as well as of our service area, which spans as far north as Moss Landing, dips into Prunedale, and then goes down into South County, down to the border of San Luis Obispo County. And we discovered a number of things that I think are important to be aware of in the economic development space. One of which is not a surprise to anyone here, I'm sure, which is that when you look particularly in the southern part of our region, economic or rather educational attainment rates are unbelievably low.

Roughly between 1012% of residents in South County have a college credential of any type. And I think that Hartnell College plays a strong role in terms of being able to reverse that trend. The other thing I wanted to point out that we discovered in our scan is that, the Salinas Metropolitan Area, and so this isn't necessarily counting South County and North County, it's just looking at the metropolitan region, has the largest racial and ethnic wage gap in the region. And that's compared to cities like Charleston, South Carolina, Hartford, Connecticut, other mid sized metropolitan areas nationally. And of course, when you get into areas of our county that have lower levels of educational attainment, we, see much higher levels of poverty.

Hartnell College is an active partner in the economic development space. We have a strong mechatronics program that's growing. We are partnering with Reservoir Farms and other industry partners to grow the ag tech sector in the region. We're very active in the advanced air mobility sector, and we're also active in the health care sector, growing those opportunities. We really work hard at Hartnell to educate our students into prosperity and not into poverty. We evaluate our programs based on the return on investment that's baked into our program reviews. And being in the economic development space helps our programs to be as strong as possible, ensure that we're educating our students for viable jobs in the region. Thank you.

Thank you, Gail. Do we have anybody on it?

I don't think I see any other news on the That's okay.

Very good. Before we go ahead to put the executive board through then, I'll just see if there's any public comment on it if there's anything more online.

None online.

K. Close public comment on that and bring it back here. Just from my perspective, we we've had four people get presentations. Am I correct on that? Three online and and then one in so so we had Seth Gustafson, Jenny Kwan, Gail Pittman, and Paige Brown. I just just for the simple fact that they're here, It's just there was my choice down to those four. I think, obviously, attendance is a plays an important role. Right?

Don't we know?

And you're showing up in intention to wanna come to the and give a presentation, then Okay. My shortlist as it stands right now. Walk through there. I you know, before I go over rest of forms, I just have one question for each of the of the four of you. And I know as as educators, you can sometimes you can move around a bit. I'm just just curious if if I get a answer from the four of you. Just how long you've been in the Monterey Bay Area?

Yeah. So

I started at CSUMB in 2019.

2019. Okay. And for either the three of you online?

I got here in 2021. So I've been here a little over four years. I was in San Francisco at San Francisco State for three years before then. So in the CSU for seven.

This is my fourth year at CSUMB, and I was in, I was in England for six years before that.

K. And

I started at Hartnell College in April 2023. I was living in Santa Cruz County and Sacramento County prior to that.

How long in Santa Cruz County?

Starting it was off and on, but I lived there in the early nineties, and then I came back in 2009 and was there, gosh, for eight years.

Thank you. Alright. I'll also hear to my colleagues. Anybody has any comments or questions?

I just think it was so impressive, the list that we got. Yeah. Yeah. I mean Yes. I sat on the committee, and it and it was really challenging. I mean, any one of these individuals is more than qualified to serve on the committee. But if I have to give a support to any anyone because we have to make the tough decision and recommendation, I would say Jen.

I'd like to second that. I was impressed with her background, representing research and development, being in engineering, and her connection to the mechatronics program at CSUMB, which I also support. So I second that.

Any other supervisor? Yeah. I I agree. We have a lot of great candidates, great backgrounds, great experience to bring into the table. I like the fact that, Vanya Quinone is applying, but I know that she's very busy.

Right? And we do have challenges getting quorum, but it would be great to have the president of CSUMB sitting at the table with us, one of the the engines of the Monterey Bay region. But what speaks to what makes me feel comfortable is that we got a lot of great applicants that are part of the CSU and be that wanna step up and be part of this and help us advance the goals that this committee, you know, focuses on at each of our meetings. I didn't wanna speak up for miss Pittman as well because, obviously, I represent Salinas in having, Hartnell College continue its efforts. It's they've been a partner on many of these efforts.

I think I just wanted to speak to her, and I'm leaning to support her as well. But I I I I'm very impressed with miss professor Kwan. I think she brings a lot to the table, and I it's hard to not see her as as a top contender here. But for me, it's miss Kwan and and Gail Pittman as my top two. But I'm hearing where my colleagues are, so I'm I'm comfortable with that as well.

I've seen doctor at several events and working on several committees. And almost everything I go to, she brings her students there to attend all the events. She is such a on the Monterey Peninsula, that doctor Barron is really a staple in that, and I see they're working really hard. And she's formed a committee, both at CSU and the students, and I see them really, really working hard for the students. So she would be my vote for sure.

And I think I was right there with doctor I'm sorry, supervisor Alejo with. I don't know to say his last name. But I think having the president of CHO be on this. I don't know if she started at the beginning of meeting or if she or if she was ever on, but our meeting did start late today. So I don't want, you know, her nonattendance today just to be a a major factor, if she can truly commit to come to the meeting. She put her name in the hat, so I'm hoping, you know, that she would be able to attend. So my my votes would be, if I had to pick two, would be for, Anya Canonis and Paige Vernon? Barrett? Barrett.

Those would be two

connections. Yeah. And we'll give you the rest. Kinda give it some well

Janine has her hand

raised. Janine, I'm sorry. I forget you're on.

That's okay. That's okay.

About that. I feel like I'm on The Voice, and I we're in a battleground, so we got, like, the two two of the you just don't wanna pick one of them. I I feel conflicted here. And and to everybody's point, fantastic applicants. I mean, it's just I I think whoever we choose, we can't go wrong.

I was just gonna comment that I I serve on a a California Hotel Lodging Association foundation board with Paige Varen with doctor Varen, and that is a that our foundation board is what gives scholarships to students throughout the state of California that are in the hospitality sector. And ever since Paige has been on the board, we've been awarded $58,000 in scholarships for students at CSUMB. This year alone, she was able to get 12 students that were qualified and able to get to get the scholarship money. So, you know, from a from a working on a board with her, she she's she's not someone that just sits back. She's someone that's that's active and and and wonderful.

But, honestly, listening to all your stories, I do feel like I'm on the voice, and and it's it's it's not it's hard to pick any of you. And and, you know, I I love the fact that there's someone from, you know, Selena's raising her hand, Gail. I think that's fantastic too, and and I don't think we can go wrong with any of these candidates. So thank you.

Well, I I would say the same thing is that I think, you know, these are all great candidates that even the ones that didn't show up, but I'm, I'm definitely locked into that. If you're if you're able to appear either online or in person here, it it says a lot. I we've had troubles in the past with having a forum, if you can't if you can't make it during a meeting where you're gonna be appointed, I understand everybody's busy, then I I have concerns about other attendants. So I'm really, really these are, you know, top four candidates in my view. I there is a question how long the these these candidates have been here.

I understand in this profession, sometimes bounce around a little bit, but I think it's important as to have some kind of knowledge of of the area as much as possible to to understand some of those those those needs out of that. So mine, I mean, at this point, either towards Gail Pittman or, or Jamie Kwan with this, which just throws in more of a mix into this because we're pretty well badly divided at this point. On a yes. I guess, But I just

wanna let the committee know that you can make multiple recommendations, and those multiple recommendations will be submitted to boards to supervisors, but

that's at discretion of the committee. Okay. Very good. Thank you for that. So, I mean, I really really see we're kinda split here, and I don't know if if we wanna do multiple recommendations to board of supervisors and just kick it to them, which I think it'll be some. I I hear

the top maybe if I'm wrong, but our to our council, Paige Viren, I think, grows to the top, Jenny Quan, and miss Pittman. Mhmm. And that's who can recommend recommended three. And but we would we forward all the applicants to the board of suits, and then we'd say that we did here, the top three for the committee

are these three persons.

You would just forward the recommendations from this committee. So, for example, we have 11 applicants. We'd only forward three or four, whatever you choose.

Oh, got it. So the board full board will only see the three top three.

Correct. Correct. Okay. Is that a motion? Yes. Motion for those the three? Yes. Okay. Second. Second from Nicholas. Okay. Any other comments on that? Alright. We'll put that to a vote then.

Yes. Supervisor Early Hill? Aye. Supervisor Church? Aye. Janine Bee? Aye. Heather Gardner? Aye. Aye. Kite? Aye. Beth Babinski? Aye. Janine Chikurov? Aye. Motion carries.

And those applicants should probably show up on Zoom or in person to the next meeting. That

would help. Alright. Well, I 'd to thank everybody for applying and for attending here today as well. And you don't want to talk, love me if not doing it too bad, I guess, considering you started late. So we'll we'll we'll forward both the labor and the higher education Mhmm. That would consent to the board, which has probably be on probably noted that separate amounts. We'll we'll check with

the clerk of the board to determine what what agenda think we'll

be able to do a meeting going on the ninth and tenth because I don't know what I hear. So No. I'm just gonna find one one of those bills to do that. We'll see. So we move to item three, which is an email presentation from the Monterey Regional Airport.

Yes. And I believe online, we have, Chris Morello, the executive director of Monterey Regional Airport, providing us with the presentation.

Good morning, everyone. I hope you can see my screen.

Yes. Yes. We can.

Awesome. Thank you for allowing us to come and present, this morning. Sorry I can't be there in person, and we are dealing with the back end of the shutdown and the reduction. So good news is that we are in the back end. I'm gonna walk you through a little bit about Monterey Regional Airport, and I am just starting with who we are.

Most people, I think, in the room probably know, but not everyone understands that we are a public agency formed in 1941 as a special district, and it is a bit unique for airports. Most airports are owned by cities, counties, or states. So to be a public airport that is a special district has some unique avail opportunities for us. We are fully self sufficient enterprise fund operation, generating all of our revenues through fees and charges for on airport activities. So if you come use the airport, that's how we're sit sustaining ourselves.

And currently, we have a reserve of $17,000,000 and our balanced budget typically putting about $2,000,000 into our reserves. And I'll explain why that's really important as I get into our projects. And we are responsible, like a city or county, for all the public safety on airport property, including our infrastructure maintenance, property management, police, and fire protection. And currently, we have our police contract contract service with Delray Oaks and our fire contract service with the city of Monterey. Something, as I'm listening to all of your discussions on business and economic development, that is how we see ourselves.

You know? Yes. We move travelers. We move tourism. We move you when you need to travel or have family come visit, but we also provide a lot more as it relates to economic development and services to the community. We provide medical services. We're open twenty four seven, and Life Flight is so we're here for that opportunity no matter what. We provide evacuation. And as I'm looking at the rain outside my window, I know in the past when we've had all of the washouts on Highway 1, we have provided goods and services to VCSR via helicopter. We provide firefighting relief and urgent relief with supplies and deliveries.

We with that contract with City of Monterey, we also provide fire support off airport as well as on airport and to the 68 Corridor. And we are a business amenity to the region. We provide, you know, the opportunity for ag and construction to house their corporate jets here or the work in Salesforce that need to support those are traveling out of the airport at all times. And we also see ourselves as an alternative to re regional vehicular travel. A little bit about our air service just quickly.

We have 30 total combined arrivals and departures on commercial service every day, nine nonstop destinations with one stop connection all around the world. For commercial airlines, Alaska provides service twice daily to San Diego and once to Seattle. Allegiant provides twice weekly service to Vegas. American Airlines provides three or four daily service to Phoenix and one to Dallas Fort Worth, and United Airlines currently provides twice daily service to LAX, San Francisco, Denver, and soon a new route to Chicago that will start in May. And it will be, first up, seasonal, But they've guaranteed us as they look at it that they believe it will go to daily.

Community marketing support, and I think this is important for you to understand that we really do look for the community to help with supporting Monterey Regional Airport. We don't bring people here to come to the airport to do anything at the airport. People come here to be part of the community, to experience all the lovely things that we have. And when you look at and work with Sea Monterey and visit Carmel in securing and sustaining our air service. And it's really not just about landing that route like Chicago.

It's keeping it and making it viable. And we invest in in every direct air service market through ongoing campaigns is what SeaMonterrey and Visit Carmel do help us with. And that Chicago service was garnered with the help of federal dollars. We have a a grant, something we've not typically had. It's called a minimum revenue guarantee grant.

So the airline will be able to backfill their revenue if it doesn't and isn't supported initially. And that's why United want to start slow. They wanna tease out the market until they get all of their aircraft deliveries in place so that they can go daily and then have this minimum revenue guarantee to give that service time to establish itself. And just from, Sea Monterrey's perspective, this is where they do market to the community to all of our fly markets. So this really does help sustain, that air service that we have Because we've seen it in the past, if people aren't using it, we will lose it because we are competing with every other airport across the country.

And our passenger leakage, and this is where it gets to that vehicular traffic amenity. In 2023, you can see that in the blue, we had about 32% of the travelers to this area coming through Monterey Airport. In 2024, as we've been able to add that service, a second Denver flight, a second San Diego flight, we are at 37%. So we've grabbed 5%, four of that from San Francisco and 1% from San Jose. So the more we can have air service, the less vehicles we will have on the on the roads trying to travel to our community.

So we still have a ways to go. There's still 63% of travelers coming to our community, coming to San Jose and San Francisco, but that Chicago service will really help us gain some more back, we believe. And now to get into the airport master plan and our what we've been doing. So safety is always our first priority here, and we are looking to ensure our compliance with our federal safety standards. This project, it's called the safety enhancement program.

It is part of our master plan, but it is a specific program that has had a number of related activities to be able to get us in compliance with our safety program. It's a 200,000,000 investment. It's funded through federal grants and airport revenues. It has a very comprehensive sustainable initiative, and I'll show you some of those components. And to date, we've received a $130,000,000 in federal support as well as put in $20,000,000 of our local match, and yet we still have $17,000,000 in that reserve.

The ultimate project goal is to move a portion of our main taxiway. So we're really a one runway airport for our commercial service and our large corporate. We have a small GA runway that supports light general aviation. But and our main way to get from east to west from either on the runway to off the runway is Taxiway Alpha. And in front of the terminal, which if you can see my cursor right here, this is the terminal building.

In this front of the terminal, this taxiway jogs closer to the runway. And FAA has asked us to look at solving an issue that we have in that we can't have a large aircraft on the runway and a large aircraft on the taxiway with specific wind span wingspans at the same time in this location. So it is an added component to what air traffic has to manage. And to be able to get and move this 1,850 feet, 52 and a half feet further to the south to increase that that separation, we've been embarked on a number of associated actions. First up, we started building in 2020 with our first grant the ramp and civil infrastructure on our Northeast corner.

Anyone that knows where the airport this is our parallel runway, our small runway. This is where Navy Flying Club used to be. So we did the civil infrastructure in 2020, and then we started constructing a replacement aircraft rescue and firefighting facility as well as constructing the replacement hangars that were both relocated in 2023. This is our art facility over here, corporate hangars, and our general aviation hangars. Just a piece of our sustainability is that this is the old before aircraft rescue and firefighting facility that used to sit on the south side of the airport.

This is the new beautiful aircraft rescue and firefighting facility that is LEED's LEED Silver certified. Phase two was then once we had these tenants, we provided a home to replace these general aviation tenants and these corporate tenants and this ARF facility over here. Once we were able to move them in 2023, we started demolition of the south side of the aircraft rescue and firefighting facility, the hangars, and relocating our long term parking for as temporary and a little bit of what it looks like. And then we started constructing our commercial ramp, which is where our new terminal building will be and where the aircraft will be parking. Currently, today, this is what the ramp looks like.

We did finish this, and this is a little close-up look of you can see that this is where we sit today with our aircraft right here. This will give more depth so those aircraft will be sitting further away from that taxiway. And this area with the rectangle here and here are the areas that are for the new terminal. Part of the commercial apron ramp, sustainable components. There is another besides LEED, there is a certification you can get to Envision, which is for for civil work, and we have a goal of silver.

We are putting the process together right now and finishing touches on submitting that application. But we some of the ways we got there is we that that that ramp was a 168 cubic yards of earth cut that all stayed on airport property. It was we used 308,000 gallons of rainwater to use as dust suppression during construction. We diverted 12,000 tons of construction waste from landfills, and we were able to install a carbon cured concrete, which had 5% less carbon to that 10 acres of concrete that we put on. What is the new terminal gonna look like?

So this is a look at the front building. So that rectangle I was showing you with the dirt, here's that footprint, and here's that arm that's gonna go off here. You will see we will be five gates like we have today, and but we will have jet bridges, which is different, but it does provide much better access for passengers with reduced mobility. There will be zero steps from the time people park their car to the time they get on their aircraft. It is similar to today.

You'll have arrive you'll have departures over on the East End, arrivals on the West End, but the curbside will be much better. We will have three dedicated lanes for pickup and drop off, two for shuttles, MST, and taxis. And we also in this corner inset, you can see that we are doing improvements with a roundabout at the Garden Road, Fred Cane Dive Olmsted Intersection. From the inside, transforming how passengers will travel, it will have what's called common use ticketing and gates, meaning we're providing the infrastructure that will allow for airlines to be flexible. It can be any airline at any gate or ticket counter at any time.

Kind of the look is really a feel of the redwoods and the greens, the forest that we live in, as well as daylight no matter where you are in the building. So there's clear story everywhere you go. It is a LEED Platinum certified goal, and right now our contractors are on on pace for that. And as I said, five passenger boarding bridges. And common use, so more of a lobby rather than sitting at a gate.

Although there will be some seating at the gates, really, idea is sitting here in a very comfortable atmosphere with a food and beverage opportunity. Again, one concession that we have right now will be Woody's for in the cockpit, we'll move over. The public facing restaurant will stay in the existing building as will administration staff, so that building is not going away, and Woody's is not going away. But he does have the opportunity to move over the cockpit, which he has today with a much better facility, and we will have the ability for one other retail shop. And when I was talking about that $17,000,000 revenue that we have today, so this is how it's being funded.

We currently have 40 over $40,000,000 in federal dollars to support this building. We will be borrowing dollars from two sources. One is through a the TIFIA program. It's a federally funded low loan program. And because we're considered a rural community, it's half treasury interest rate.

And having that money in that $17,000,000 provides us with the ability to both show the banks that we can afford to pay back our loans, but we also can get a really better interest rate on the loans. And we will be doing some bank financing all by our revenues and putting about 6% of funding into it from our gen our reserves. So to wrap it all up, it is a similar footprint in this new building. We are retaining the outside courtyard that we had before, more accessible, sustainable, and convenient, a net energy ready building with much better flow through it so it'd be more flexible. Two contractors are on board right now.

We have auto construction and Hensel Phelps who are procuring and using local skilled workforce. And our project completion date and our tagline at the moment is open for the open, meaning that we plan to have the building open in May 2027 in time for the next US Open at Pebble Beach in June 2027. With that, I will take any questions. Thank you.

Thank you, Chris. Just curious because I know the the reports expanded a lot. Do you have any rough numbers on since the last since 2000, 2010 in terms of how many more passengers have been or or or flights coming in?

So, yes, let me just speak to that. I'm gonna stop share. So currently, let me give you a little history quickly on our numbers. So Monterey Regional Airport through 1972 was air station naval air station Monterey Bay. And at that time, we had about a 133,000 aircraft activities.

Let's fast forward to 2017. In that year, we had about 99,000 aircraft activities. But in 2023, we've had about 56,000 aircraft activities. So activities as far as aircraft are down, primarily based on more efficient aircraft. Use, for example, the San Francisco flight that used to be six aircraft a day on 20 seaters now has two aircraft a day with 76 seaters.

So we are doing a lot more passengers, and I'll go back to twenty seventeen passengers was about a 183,000 in planements. So double that, you know, people getting on or often getting off. This past 2024, we were over 320,000 employments with less aircraft. So we are at about 600,000 passengers every year, but really doing that with much more efficient aircraft, little bit larger, but more efficient and with less activities.

Thank you very much. Janine, I see you have questions.

Yeah. When when people or other regional airports have put in new terminals, what has been the I mean, it would has it helped to track additional flights and routes into that destination, or is there what's the impact of of putting in a

new terminal?

That's a great question, Janine. And, yes, what we've seen I'll use two examples locally, San Luis Obispo and Sonoma County, have both in the past ten years, put in new air terminals, and their air service and their passengers and their routes have grown. Not why we're doing it. As I showed in the beginning, it's a safety enhancement program. It is a similar, but because we'll be more efficient currently, way with the way our apron and our taxiway sit so close together, if you're on an aircraft, you're pushing back and you're pushing back onto that taxiway, and you are essentially stopping everything from moving until that aircraft is able to taxi on.

This will be we will not be doing that. It'll make it more efficient. So I think it'll be more desirable for for airlines to look at us because they will be able to operate more efficiently. They won't be sitting there burning gas, waiting to pull into the gate because another aircraft is going through its safety check to be able to taxi off. And today, we can only, park simultaneously two seven three seven mixed aircraft. The rest are the smaller regional at the terminal. At the new terminal, we'll be able to park for simultaneously. So it really will make us more attractive, we believe, and more efficient.

Thank you.

Thank you.

Any other questions, comments? Alright. Go out to the public if there's anybody in the public that has a question or comment about this.

None online. Online? Alright.

Oh. Thank you very much. I

do have a hand raised now.

Did you say a hand raised?

Yes. Rob O'Keefe.

Okay. Yeah. Rob, I'm gonna, give you two minutes. General public comment, if you'd like to go ahead.

I appreciate that, supervisor. I'll try to keep it in to even less than that. I just wanna thank you super both supervisors and the committee for the work that you're doing here, and I wanna just express some appreciation for what Chris is doing and been doing. We've worked with the airport for many, many years on air service development and maintaining service, which is very, very important. And the funny thing is, Jeanine asked the question that Chris answered, I just went on a trade mission with the CEOs of both Sonoma and SLO, and we are the envy of the Central Coast and beyond with the plans that we have.

They did gain much from what they did years and years ago, but that was years and years ago. Although they're still getting dividends, Sonoma just secured Southwest Airlines, which is a big deal. Anyway, I think this is really important for the reasons that Chris stated, so I don't wanna belabor it too much. But I will say to reinforce the value of the flying visitor is is very, very high. They tend to stay longer, spend more, do more.

We get that one more night and then some, which is really critical to us. Traffic mitigation is a big opportunity for us. Obviously, then we also have to talk to MST, which our board and our team is doing. We've talked about the thousand new rooms on the horizon. Well, 300 of those new rooms open in January.

And you

might have seen some press about another 300 rooms that are coming soon to Seaside in the next couple years with the Grand Hyatt. This air service is vital to our for us to flourish as a tourism destination and just for the people who live here. So I'm really excited about this. I appreciate the opportunity, and I appreciate the investment the county makes for us to be able to invest in maintaining these. It takes consistent, sustained investment to keep these planes full. It's not just getting the flights. It's keeping them, and we'll keep working with you to do it. Thank you very much.

K. Thank you, Rob. Anybody else?

Yes. Moira Lamountain.

K. Let's see. Well, I guess the name, but please go right ahead.

Moira.

Moira. Moira. Moira. Yes. You have a few minutes.

Hi. I'm Moira Lamountain with the Monterey County Film Commission. I wanna just say that I think the work that Chris is doing is terrific. We've worked with the airport over the past year. We have a a art display about the history of filmmaking in Monterey County. And all of the activities that the airport is engaged in to build a hub, It's it's not just a place that people come and go. I mean, I know she doesn't wanna be a destination, but there's a lot of fun things to do there. And I think that they make it a very welcoming place to come, and I go for dinner. I really enjoy Woody's. So thanks, Chris, for all your hard work. It's really gonna pay off for everyone in the county.

Thank you. Any other public comment?

No other hats. Right?

Well, close

the public comment. Just from board members. Yes. I just wanted to say thank you for the presentation. It's it's really exciting to see the major investments happening primarily for for safety reasons, but at the same time, you can't help. This is gonna help draw more, visitors,

to our area because of

the enhancements at the airport. When we talk about economic development, a key part of that is improving our transportation systems regionally in the area. So this this is very exciting. I always preferred this is my number one airport because I could get there so quickly, and I could park in the long term parking, walk in, go through security, and be on my plane. It I've done it in twenty minutes. Right? You can't get that at any other airport. Sometimes And these small regional airports are much, much easier to get in and out of. When I go to LA, I go to Long Beach. But how can you just explain the parking?

Are we are we the is the parking gonna remain the same number of parking, or is that when when it's all built in built out, or will there be another area too for because already the long term parking was kinda limited where where it was at. So can you just, like, answer that question on how will the park will will it be as as easy and as efficient as it was in the past?

It absolutely will be as equally as easy and as efficient as it was. It'll be a straight shot. We will have premium, and then we'll have the long term. You'll see that we really are working on that right now. Currently, is our focus is starting to work on that infrastructure. We will be able to have some more parking spaces. We'll have about 430. I think before, we had about 330. So we are adding about a 100 additional parking spaces to it, but it will be probably even less steps than you had before to get from long term to your to your gate. And that is what we try to say is, you know, the easy and convenient it's a travel, especially air travel, is anxious for a lot of people.

And I think what makes it makes them anxious is the unpredictability of so many of the components of it, whether it's driving, parking, TSA lines, all of that. And I think that's what we really can say for the community is that we do try to take one of those variables out and make that that the first leg of your trip predictable. But thank you. Appreciate the time and the opportunity to talk about what we're doing to help the region.

Thank you very much. Fifteen

minutes. You can you can listen. Yeah.

This is just presentation. I'll see you the comments. So we'll, you know, thank you for your presentation, Chris. Very informative, and, yeah, glad you're able to had the opportunity to give this to us. I do wanna note that it's 11:43. I know we're probably gonna lose a forum about twelve, so we got two presentations to go. We we can ask the presenters to try to Yeah. I I mean, shorten their presentations. Or we have to hold one off for a future meeting. Yeah.

But the the next item up is and that might mean, you know, core could the last presentation could be the one that's get get short cut out of this. But we have the California jobs First Catalyst Brands presentation.

Yes. And we have Alexander Francis here with us, director of innovation technology for MBEP, and he'll be

providing us with a quick presentation.

Sure. Great. So I'll make sure to try to keep it try to keep it short as well.

I think I some privileges. Yes.

Yes. I promoted you to panelist. If you can just accept. I got a decline from you.

I'm not receiving any.

So thank you members of the committee for letting me speak to you all today, and thank you to Richard and Isata for inviting me here as well. Right now, as Richard previously said, my name is Alex Francis. I am director of innovation technology at Monterey Bay Economic Partnership. But I'm also gonna be speaking on behalf of another organization that we are also kind of a part of as an organization called Uplift Central Coast.

So

here, the way we're connected is that Monterey Bay Economic Partnership serves as the Northern Central Coast's regional convener for Uplift Central Coast. Uplift is made up of two of three total economic development organizations that go that stretch all the way from Santa Cruz County all the way down to Ventura County. As you'll see here, this part right here that's highlighted is the main scope is the main scope of the three counties that we kind of convene for and where we kind of control the general, funding for involvement or catalyst projects. The Central Coast as a whole is marked by wide socioeconomic disparities. And as we found in our own research that over 1,000,000 residents or 45% struggle to make ends meet, meaning that their incomes do cover a basic cost of living.

And Uplift as a whole is here to kind of help address those and kind of help prepare, citizens across all the entire Central Coast for the economy of the future. I'll speed past this one for the sake of time. But just in general, we kinda wanted to highlight how the way we kinda chew chose which Catalyst projects are kind of help talk about or the ones that we kinda help decide which ones would receive funding and kinda how we help in that respect. It's all community and data informed, and it started out as first us as three organizations, developed a broad coalition that reflected the the Central Coast's general diversity. We all of our research and our own regional plans were developed using regional data.

We consulted the community as well through various interviews and panels. We consulted industry leaders and employer interviews as well. And from there, we also kind of we leveraged that those community voices to help develop regional plans. All of that ultimately informs our own catalyst programs that I'll share in a moment. This one is just very quickly, based on the insights and data and input that we received from the community and from consulting others, we made our own regional plan, which kind of bases our strategy around various priority levels.

With these ones, very quickly, I won't go too into it, but we have certain target sectors such as advanced air precision manufacturing and advanced air mobility, including other more traditional ones such as hospitality, tourism, agriculture, and health care. We base on a lot of certain economic mobility strategies and diversity of helping sit of helping people, move up in terms of economic mobility. Climate resilience, and community development strategies were also pretty big factors in how we kind of helped inform our Catalyst program. So the Catalyst to go into the Catalyst fund itself, for some background, the state of California through California Jobs First invested up to $9,000,000 per region. And so our region being the entire Central Coast, received about 2.5 or excuse me.

It received part of it. Monterey County itself ultimately received about 2,500,000.0. But these, per these were all, invested in per region for projects that were labor labeled as exploratory or last mile. So these were all projects that were ready to go right now, and that kind of needed that extra push and were unable to receive capital funding through other means. And this is just a way to kinda help them get over the line for that last bit.

Bit. After all, it's a these were also projects that were that had to align with California Jobs First priorities for equity, sustainability, and, quality jobs. And after receiving Kyle's funds, these projects were also eligible to receive additional funding from other sources. So to go into this, this is just kind of a quick breakdown of the projects per county. You'll see a different number in the next slide.

But here, it says 13 is in Monterrey itself. These are 13 projects that are operating in Monterrey and kind of have some sort of footprint. As you'll see in the next slide, there are 10 that are headquartered in Monterey itself. So with that, yeah, right here, ultimately, about 3,455,000 kinda goes into Monterrey. 2,500,000 of that is headquartered here in Monterrey as well.

So this is just kind of a broad overview of the three counties that we work in that I mentioned before, which includes Santa Cruz, San Benito, and Monterrey County. This is just a very quick overview of all the projects that, that we have and that we're working on across all three counties. And this is more to highlight the diversity of the kinds of projects we're working on. These take a larger broad approach to economic development and take into account not just, you know, one or two primary sectors, but also go through the whole expanse to diversify economies and also to help fund diverse ways that communities themselves are helping to are helping to move up in terms of economic mobility. So to go into Monterey County itself, of the 36 projects funded through Uplift across Central Coast, 10 of them are located in Monterey County, so about 2,500,000.

And these projects all involve various strategic sectors that are very important to Monterrey's health, which include agriculture, workforce training, and the increasingly growing drone industry. And all of these are kinda based on their own local solutions. Won't go through all these, but I do kinda wanna highlight a few of these that are some of my own personal favorites for the for the sake of time. Although, these are all my favorites because I manage them all. So but there but there are certain ones here that I do wanna highlight.

So for example, up top with Hartnell Community College, they received about half 1,000,000, which help which is funding that help fund Reservoir Farms, which a lot of you may be aware of and help build kinda help build that last the AgTech hub and to kinda move it into that last step in order for it to open earlier this year. Other ones that I wanna highlight here are, you know, of course, the UCSC drones uplifting Central Coast, which helps which helps certify other people in the in San who are students who are going to UC Santa Cruz and others who operate in the rest of the set Central Coast to help certify them for drone certification, which help on a various other uses, including public safety, commercial uses, etcetera. You have the Futura Cooperative Incubator, which helps, which helps fund Futura. It could be a co operative incubator that is that is operated by Ventures, which helps transform low wage industries such as food, agriculture, childcare, and climate, and helps them with their own shared ownership structure, all which is all of these industries which become very important sources of capital for families involved. And just to kinda go on to the next one, just a few other last ones that I wanna highlight as well, include the Rancho Cielo, which received a 175,000, which, helped expand their vocational training program for underserved youth and work on a variety of industries such as ag tech, manufacturing, transportation, mechanic streams, and certifications as well.

And then within California Jobs First, a requirement was for all all regions to work with an indigenous tribal group. And our partner in this venture was the Ashland tribe of Monterey County, and 50,000 was they received about 50,000 to help them with proclaiming and restoring ancestral lands local to here in Monterey County. So with that, I'm happy to go ahead and stop for now, and I'm welcome any questions that you may have. Thank you.

Comments, questions? Anybody from the public here?

None online.

Online? Nobody in the chambers? Well, thank you for the presentation. Hope nobody else has anything else to to share today. It's sorry for we don't have a truncated version on two of them because of or some of these projects that look really interesting and would like a a little more elaboration on, but we have your contact team so we can reach out to you on that too.

Yes. And I very much welcome that. I'm happy to do this at a much larger level if you want

as well. So thank you.

Thank you. Well, the thoughts in, Thank you for the presentation. Thanks for the work. Leaves us here with We

have five minutes, but if you'd like, we can ask if Cora and her, I believe she has one other individual that's helping with the presentation, if they're available for our next maybe the first item on

our next meeting or however you'd like to to make, but I'm gonna have a quorum here in a few minutes.

Sure. And then I'd like to mention, I think it was Norm to request that he was.

Norm's not here in his number. Yes. So it would actually be another recent work to to to go live there. Yeah. With that then, we checked the cards. Or did that work okay for you? When's our next meeting?

Sometime in the New Year, unless we call a special meeting.

Alright. That would be January then?

We can't really We can't hear you, Cora.

Her mic is off, but you can't hear her. Her mic her mic is on, but it cannot.

Yes. Yeah. We can't hear you at all, but you'll I can circle back with Cora if you like. We'll yeah. Rachel will just reach back to you then. I guess you can hear us okay. Thank you, Cora. Sorry for that with the wait. Yeah. With that, we'll just see if there's any announcements anybody has. Anything around and stuff, and we will adjourn. And I'll see you next year. Thanks.

Happy thanks