Interagency Governance Review Committee for Violence Prevention - Regular Meeting

Good afternoon, everyone. It's, 01:30, Monday, December 8, and we will call the board the legislative committee. Are there any additions or corrections to the agenda? There are none. Thank you. And I will go to general public comments, and, we don't have anybody in the, in the room. Is there anybody online that would like to speak on general public comment on an item that's not on today's agenda? None of the time. Okay. Thank you.

We'll close public comment and, move for approval of the action minutes from, our last meeting on 11/10/2025. Supervisor Leopold, look good to you. Mhmm. Look good to me. Do you have any public comment on regarding this?

No public comment.

Online? K. Well, I think we can probably prove these with consensus on that, and, we'll move on to reports from the legislative offices. I don't know if we have anybody from senators, Padilla or Schiff online, but we'll see if that gets available first. And seeing nobody there, we can move to, congress, congressman Panetta's office.

Do you nobody nobody available?

I'm not seeing anybody

in there. Or congresswoman Lofkin? Nope. Senator Laird?

I'm not

seeing anyone. No. It up? Nope. Yes. Somebody from Revis? Anybody from the speaker's office? Tom.

Hi. Yes. It's, Gilbert Ramos, office of speaker, Robert Revis. Thank you, the board of supervisors, for for giving us the space to just chime in here. As you all know, it's the the legislative, interim, and so, the speaker's been engaging with local stakeholders and those across the state on issues impacting families, including food access and health care services.

You know, we're we're getting it to to the start of the the next year, which is gonna be a second year in the legislative session. So there's it's gonna be a pretty fast January, two year bills. Their deadlines are are January 16 and the thirty first, sixteenth being that they have to be out of policy committee and then the thirty first. Really, the, they would have to be out of that first house, the house of origin. Also coming up in in January is gonna be the the governor's proposed budget.

We're hearing that he's gonna be releasing it on January 9. And so, just wanted to share these, these small updates, and and happy to take back any questions.

Alright. Thank you, Gilbert. Always counting on you and giving a report. I appreciate that. I don't happen to have any questions, not for surprise or Alejo either, it appears. So we'll move on to, assembly member Addis, if there's any, representative from Addis's office. No. Let's see if there's any public comment on these reports from the legislative offices. None online? None. Right. What was that? Thank you very much, Gilbert. And, we'll move on to the federal report. Let's see. Are Maria and Caitlin both on? Or

Yes. We

are both here tonight, sir. And with your indulgence, Caitlin's actually going to present the federal report today.

Alright. Thank you.

Thank you so much, supervisors. As we know, congress reached an agreement to reopen the federal government in mid November. They did this through a Cromney bus, which is a combination of a clean continuing resolution, which is the CR, and then, three federal appropriations bills covering various agencies, which is the omnibus portion. The continuing resolution will fund the government through late January twenty twenty six, and the omnibus legislation provided full year funding for the Department of Agriculture, the Food and Drug Administration, the Department of Defense military construction and family housing initiatives, and then the Department of Veterans Affairs and Congress itself as long as along with its supporting agencies. With the government reopen, representative Grujalva was sworn in as a new democrat, which really paved the way for a vote on the Epstein files.

The White House pivoted last minute, and we saw a vote on those files which passed 427 to one in the house and by unanimous consent in the senate. President Trump signed the Epstein, file release bill into the law on November 19. As candidate filing deadlines approach across the country, midterm races are beginning to heat up. The unexpected resignation of representative Taylor Greene in Georgia will, cause a special election there. And this comes as the supreme court has temporarily allowed the redrawn Texas map to move forward, which is likely to give five new seats to GOP candidates.

The map does remain subject to judicial scrutiny on the merits, and similar challenges are likely to stall the prop 50 map in California. This comes as both parties face tough battles to either keep or win the legislative majority in the twenty twenty six midterms. As for executive orders, there was an executive order on the November 13, which addressed the foster care system in The United States, and this empowered the secretary of health and human services to attempt to modernize the system improve the collection, publication, utility, and transparency of state level data, including issuing, state report scores. And then it also helps them develop an online platform, which will help connect individuals in the system, act assess their current needs, and then access programs and services for which they may be eligible. The other notable executive orders further modified existing tariff rates to reflect ongoing negotiations with China.

In particular, there was one which reduced, a 20% ad valorem rates to 10%, and another order recognized China's willingness to negotiate and suspended the heightened reciprocal tariffs until next November. As for other appropriations, as we mentioned above, there is a clean continuing resolution through the January, and, we expect that congress at this point will pass the remaining appropriations bills in December and January before that resolution expires. We are hopeful that these bills will contain the county of Monterrey's federal earmarks. However, we will, of course, continue to monitor and pry provide updates as this process develops. For federal advocacy in the last month, in anticipation of the upcoming legislative workshop, we circulated the save the date to all of the congressional offices.

And representative Lofgren was in county on November 24. She met with public works facilities and parks and Randy's team there. They prove it or presented updates to representative Lofgren on projects she supported in the past as as well as the ones that she is currently supporting. During this meeting, representative Lofgren took particular interest in the Nacimento Ferguson Road and Halone Road improvement projects, and we're going to follow-up with her office explore potential funding solutions there. Representative Lofgren also confirmed at this meeting that the, earmarks are still in play and that she does not know exactly what to anticipate in the appropriations process moving forward, but the there's there's still hope for these projects.

And with that, our federal bill and issues track is attached for your review, and we'll take any questions.

Thank thank you very much, Kaden. I don't have any questions, but

I got I got one just because it's broke just, like, an hour or two ago. Just on the $12,000,000,000 proposed release for farmers because of the impacts of tariffs and other strains on farmers across the country? Any details on that?

So that's one. I think we're we're all still sorting through exactly what that's gonna look like in implementation and how that is gonna play out in practice. I think there is a great deal of concern about the downstream impact. It's just unclear at this stage exactly what that impact might be. We're expecting that that will become clear in the next day or so. We can certainly come back to you, you know, via email in the immediate future and then, of course, present for the public at large at our next meeting, sir.

Okay. Alright. Yeah. If you if you get more details, at least by email, that'd be great.

Absolutely. I'll make

sure we get that

to both you and supervisor Church.

Yep. Thank you.

Yeah. Thank you very much. I see Jack go to public comment here. Jack, do you have something?

Thank you for the acknowledgment, mister chair. I I have a question for, Maria and Caitlin. I will not say anything about Cromnibus being made up made up word, but I like how you did that. My my question and my really, more importantly, my concern is that there doesn't seem to be very much fidelity, on the recently announced, changes or or really financial cuts to the section eight voucher program, the rental assistance program that gets used, by so many people in Monterey County. In particular, for me, for my interest, it it could potentially impact the HUD VASH, voucher program for veterans.

I've been asking, locally, here at the VA Palo Alto Medical Center if they've heard or seen of any pending changes, and they haven't. But that dealing with the VA in the past, that leads me to believe that they they just haven't come up with a position yet. I'm curious at the federal level if it's been discussed and if there, is in fact going to be an impact to the veteran housing program and also the the broader rental assistance voucher based program for our residents? Thank you.

Yeah. I haven't heard anything specifically about HUD VASH. Now I know that there are never enough vouchers to go around as is, which is a challenge with that program in particular. I my my expectation is with the belt tightening in HUD that that program will be impacted, though. I I I mean, that that and that is, I think, as as you've alluded to, just based on experience in the area, I don't have any there's nothing I could point to in writing to support that. But given the belt tightening with HUD in general within the administration, that would be my expectation.

Thank you. Do have any other, public comments, regarding the federal report? Not very much. Don't see anybody online. Nobody in the chamber. So we will close that and move on to the on to item four, the state report. And we do not have Ashley with us today.

Yes, chair chair Church. Unfortunately, Ashley had a medical emergency and couldn't be with us today, online. Her reports are noted in the agenda, both both for the grant tracking and for the state tracking. So if we have any questions today from anyone, I'm happy to take those back to Ashley.

Okay. Thank you. Of course, mentioned earlier before we started the, legislation is not in session, but there's been a projection. I think as we talked about Right. Right. Dollar deficit.

We'll talk about that. Yep. Yep.

So, I guess, that point, from see, I don't know have any comments.

Yeah. Just just just on two items, just for direction, because we do have our set of staff on here, Gilbert from speaker office. Just on two items. I I think we brought this up last week or last meeting, and that was just to to do a highway memorial signage resolution for following US Lance Corporal Victor Gonzales to grow up in Pajaro. Just so our staff know, my goal is to draft that language this month with along with Javier and my staff, and then also submitted to Santa Cruz County because they are interested in also being a cosponsor as he also was a explorer for the Watsonville Police Department and then submit to speaker office for consideration so they could consider as a resolution to hopefully introduce in the new legislative session.

That was one. The other item, which I submitted to Nicole, it was I I should have sent it earlier, so it could get agenda. This was a meeting with, Clinica de Salud de Valle Salinas, after this meeting. There are they are our local FQHC health clinic that serves farm workers and other low income residents, but they are interested in making a request to speaker Rivas to form a select committee to investigate the ice raids in California with the goal to monitor and compile the data on how the ice raids in our state have impacted our local communities, our immigrant, families, and the state overall. I thought that was a what I think that's a select committee that makes sense in light of of ongoing, enforcement actions in our state, but it could really compile the data, bring experts together, and produce a report that that is based on evidence, because they are the enforcement has been saying that they're going after, people with serious criminal records, but all the data that and the news reports are saying overwhelmingly that that is not the case.

These are people with no records, hardworking immigrants, and it is having a ripple effect across our state. So I just wanted to raise that, and, hopefully, we could agenda this for our January meeting. But just so our our our legislative staff know that it's something that is coming from the community, a request for our state legislators to that thing would be a useful data and information in light of everything that has transpired over the last year in our state. Thank you.

K. Thank you. And I don't have anything in particular. Do have any public comments? Do we see anybody online on the I see none online. K. Thank you. Mhmm. That will close public comment on item four, move to the grant report. And, of course, we do not have Ashley. So is there anything, Nicole, that you wanted to add?

No. I'll just note that the grant report is a is a living document, so that document is constantly updated. We are in the process of circulating that with department heads right now. So it is it's pretty updated today, the the version that you see in front of you today, but just expect more as we get more data in towards the end of the year and more statistics to improve that.

K. Thank you. Mhmm. Pleasure, Lego. We need to cover

it soon. No. I think we're also just keeping an eye on prop four when get Sunday becomes available, that that we we that we'd be just monitoring that so that we could, hopefully draw down as much of those dollars as possible.

We're chomping at the bit on prop four. So we did add that into our legislative program this year that we're gonna focus on drawing down as much prop four funding as we can.

Is there any, timeline when we think but something like that might be

For for prop four? At this point, I don't have that timeline. I will ask Ashley, our our state lobbyist, if she has that. I am not aware of the state giving us a time line on that yet. Okay.

Yeah. Very good. On yeah. Go ahead.

Federal, I started mentioning this earlier. It's not February for next month. It might be a mood issue by then, but, hopefully I just wanted to flag it, though. Maybe we could bring Roxanne Wilson in, Katrina McKenzie from the Coalition of Homeless Service Providers. We just a few days ago, the the the federal agencies just released a NOFO for homelessness service funding for our continuum of care.

They received funds up to almost $10,000,000, right, that goes to a lot of the providers in Monterey and San Benito County. But on the permanent supportive housing that is currently housing hundreds of individuals and families, they have the new criteria limited to only 30% could be used going forward. We're currently using 68% to keep those individuals and families housed, which means that in that category of funding, there's gonna be a shortfall of almost $3,500,000, which if which if which is the new which means, basically, the families are gonna be have nowhere else to go. And I I think in our last leaving home leadership council, we raised that that we I think we need to make put a letter, a one or two page letter, to inform our federal and state legislators that this is an issue that is in an impact their communities, because our coalition of care I mean, our continuum of care doesn't have any lobbyists, and there's no voice for consumers that care across the state. And unless we raise it with our state and federal legislators, no one else is gonna do that.

There is gonna be impact. They give us a really short timeline. We have to do the rankings this month. I think by mid January, we have to submit the projects that we're asking to be funded. Mhmm. And many of those could still be denied under that new criteria and also the one, like, DEI efforts, a lot of other, programs that were state and federal law at one time. Now they're unaligned, and state is conflicting with federal law. But I think we need to some submit a letter, though, to flag the issue, for our state legislators with you know, that as as early as possible.

Okay. Yeah.

And and Roxanne and Katrina are the experts, so I hope we could synthesize Right. Such a letter, that would make sense.

If if appropriate, can I just add I Roxanne did tell me about this issue? We have been chatting about this issue, and she is working on a letter. So would it be appropriate to bring that that letter and Roxanne to the next legislative committee meeting? Okay.

Unless on under our platform?

It it it is covered under our platform.

We could submit something, beforehand because

otherwise Absolutely could.

Because otherwise, by the next meeting, I think we'll be closed, and and we'll we'll be stuck with whatever

Honestly, it is within our legislative platform to send a letter on this issue. We can absolutely do that. So what I'll do is if if you're directing staff to work with other staff to get that letter submitted, I could go ahead and do that.

Yeah. Okay. Yeah. Perfectly fine with that too. K. Thank you. Mhmm. K. Any other comment on the grant report? None on the line. Alright. Very good. We'll close that there and move to final item, which is legislative and grant Alright. Development, and that's you, Nicole.

Okay. So if you pull up the memo attachment, that's what I'm going to be referring to in my presentation right now. So thank you so much for engaging in this process all along. It's been a lot of work the last couple weeks. And I I know it feels a little bit early to begin talking about the legislative program, but as as the speaker's office noted, everything's gonna start moving really quickly in January.

So we just wanna be as prepared as we can and, be able to pivot as much as we can if any ex unexpected issues So as as also noted by the speaker's office, we're in a second year of a two year budget cycle. And so since so much work has been done to the program, we don't have a ton of updates to either program, the strategic grant program, or the legislative platform or program. And at this time, there are no proposed changes to the updates to the 2025 statement of values that this board of supervisors approved last year. So and we purposely keep that very broad, which allows staff to to do things like comment on issues such as you brought up earlier supervisor Alejo, such as homelessness and and issues that are priorities for the county. So that allows us to do that work behind the scenes and do it quickly.

We've also been updating the project and issues within the legislative program, which has required many department heads and staff to update statistics and So I went ahead and noted that in the memo, some of the bigger updates. Just please keep in mind, it's only the end of the year, and a lot of departments receive these this data in January and and December and January, sometimes a little bit into February. So just know that I will continue to work with the departments to make sure that our data and statistics are updated as much as possible before this comes before the board of supervisors supervisors in January. Hopefully, by the January, we'll be ready to go with that. And and if those changes are made, I'll definitely bring those changes back to this committee as well.

And so I noted in the memo also the more significant changes that were made. Please note, in particular, Chair Church, there was language regarding wildfires that you asked for. Can I keep going?

Yeah. I can go up in that data. Oh,

okay. You know, I'll

start with you on that.

Sorry about that. So the language regarding wildfires has been emphasized and referenced multiple times and throughout the document, kind of making it a little bit more front and center as you as you requested, supervisor Church. And supervisor Alejo, I also worked with Jack Murphy to update the veteran portion of the document. Mhmm. So that will be in line with anything that might be requested at the speaker's office this year.

In terms of state budget priorities, we don't have any updates to our project list from last year since, and we'll continue to prioritize the San Lucas clean drinking water project and the Nacimiento and San Antonio dams and reservoir safety project. Please note in Ashley's written report, the state is predicting a worse deficit than last year and worse than we thought it would be this year. The LAO is predicting an $18,000,000,000 shortfall as of right now. So as of such, the CAO's office is recommending that we again focus our prior projects on, that are related directly to public safety since we might not even get a request in there at all. Also, you'll note in my memo, I don't have an exact funding amount for the San Lucas Clean Water project yet.

This is another one of those things that we're we're working on. And that's because we were successful with lobbying efforts last year on this project, and we did get some state allocations. We're just trying to work with the state now to draw down those allocations, find out how much those are, and then, drilling down some project numbers. We do know we didn't get the full project funded, so we expect to have to ask for for more, for another phase of that project. So I will be bringing some revisions to the San Lucas clean drinking project, just the scoping of the project, of course, not the intent or anything else.

Just updating that project. I also wanna point out a typo in my memo. The Scenic Road Protection Structure project is actually 8,000,000. That's noted in the legislative document. I just my apologies. That was my mistake in my memo. And we do believe prop four funding will be applicable for that project, so I'll keep you up to date on that process as it as it unfolds. Cool. I also outlined our federal CPF priorities in this memo as, Caitlin touched upon in her report. And as stated, we don't have an update on our twenty twenty six CPF requests.

Those those are still in flux. We we checked directly with, representative Lofgren, and she couldn't give us any, update on that yet, but they're still there. So we also don't have any idea what next year's federal appropriation project or process will look like. So, therefore, we're we're expecting to have a lot of our projects carry over from 2026 into the 2027 CPF requests. And we've also been, working to refine those requests per the ever changing federal landscape.

A lot of the programs are changing. A lot of the program requirements are changing. And so as such, we're we're working closely with staff to get those projects updated and and make sure that they're applicable for, any federal funds that come up. So I'll I'll go ahead and stop there for now before I move on to the next part of my agenda item, but happy to answer any questions. And there should be a lot of staff online here to answer questions about any particular projects as well.

Just wanna, you know, comment, Neil. Thank you for putting the emphasis on the wildfires. It's a it's a big issue throughout the county, and appreciate that. Squadron, let you know.

I I would just say one of big ones, obviously, is the impacts of HR one on on health care genetics that we had in our health clinics and even our surrounding hospitals that are really struggling financially, including Watsonville. But I think we have the existing language that this broadly city support reform to fully fund comprehensive health care programs, providers, and facilities without adversity, something local economy and businesses, post findings to critical important health and human service programs such as Medicaid, Medi Cal in California, Medicare, and the Affordable Care Act. I think under that, it's broad enough to do that, but I just wanted to point out in light of that stuff, one of those new

I hear you.

Threats as of July 4 that our face that our county is facing and many of all counties in California for that matter. But the line the existing language is adequate and broad enough to Okay. Be able to address that, I believe. So I just wanted for the record to say we are watching that and looking at this a little differently than we did a year ago today. Anyways but thank you.

Absolutely. Any

public comment up to this point? I see no hands raised on the line. Thank you. That's it.

Okay. Great. So so on that point, actually, continuing with what you were just saying, supervisor Alejo, the other thing that we're working on today in here in my memo, you'll see I put a draft agenda for the legislative workshop coming up in February. So I was thinking that we should, the the projects that we talk about at that that meeting, you'll see the draft agenda there. Any changes, let me know.

It's pretty straightforward, pretty broad. But, you know, we would be talking about the protecting Monterey County values again, San Lucas water supply project, the the dams projects, other county safety projects. And then supervisor Alejo, because health care has come up and it's it's such a priority for us, I'm also recommending that we just would that be one of our priorities? Talking about rural hospital issues, Medicaid, Medi Cal?

Yep.

Okay. I agree.

Okay. Thank you.

So we can we can touch kinda get more into that HR one

Yeah.

Discussion at that workshop if you I think that would be very appropriate. Any other changes to the agenda or anything you'd like to see on on the work for the workshop in February?

What page is that on?

It's in my memo. Sorry

about that.

It's just an outliner. Yeah. It's at the end of my memo there. Right up here.

I don't think I have any It's up on the Oh, okay. There we are.

So, again, this is our opportunity for our departments to kinda talk about some of the bigger issues, legislative issues of the county for the upcoming year. HR one health care makes perfect sense.

Yep. Okay. So, yeah, number three.

And if we held our state and federal legislators to three minutes for the past, I'm trying to remember. I don't

I think we've tried to. I don't know how successful we've been with that.

I think they they they they spoke freely. Yeah. I I don't know.

You know, it's it's kind of inconvenient for the chair to sort of Yeah. Come down to three on things.

So I I think we we tell staff. Urge them. We tell yeah. Urge staff, but we don't we don't we're not

Yeah. We don't we don't put a on. We don't throw a line on

because we're glad that they're they're able to join us. Mhmm. Yeah. Some years, we have more than other years. Mhmm.

It's and they come in at different times and sometimes. So Exactly. Okay. That that's about the only thing I see on there.

Okay.

So I don't wanna put the And so I'll

on the logistics.

I'll go with that.

Okay. Great.

And good luck holding supervisors for three minutes, but we kinda we're we we're just trying to be responsible on on this this particular, meeting.

Well, what I'll do is I'll I'll create more of a program or more of an agenda for that, and then that agenda will actually come before the board of supervisors for approval.

Right. So Okay. Yeah. Sounds great.

Okay. But it looks okay in the framework. Yeah.

Yeah. Okay. Yeah. Okay.

So do you need a motion to, recommend the option of the platform strategic services program? Please. All the items listed on number six? And then the agenda. Including the agenda draft agenda. Yes. Okay. I'll make that motion.

Alright. I'll second that. Oh, all in favor? Aye. Aye. Alright. Passes.

That was a lot.

Well, I probably should take all the comments before we voted. Might as well. Yeah. Yeah. It's The right is the The appropriate step. Hope we don't county council is on, I hope.

I am here, but you fixed it. You you fixed it before I had to say anything.

But is there any public comment? I see no hands raised. Alright. Thank you.

Mister chair, this is my last meeting. I think I've been served on this committee for nine years unless Okay. In January, we do committee assignments if we could do some swapping. Otherwise, I just wanna thank all our staff, and it was a a it's an honor serving under, Annette DiAdomo and now under Nicole who's stepped in and is doing beautifully. You know?

And, all our county departments that give us feedback so that we could be a voice for our residents, 435,000 plus residents on legislative matters. Many counties don't have a legislative committee. Many counties don't have lobbyists, and we're fortunate that we're able to see and value that as important and to be able to weigh on local, state, and federal issues through this committee to be basically advocate for our businesses and our families and and our county as a whole. So I just wanted to say thank you. If I could if I had a love to serve continue to serve, I'll definitely try to pursue that. Otherwise, I just wanna say thank you for for the last nine years serving on this committee. It's been an honor. Thank you. Well, thank you

for the nine years of service.

That's a that's a pretty good step. By pretty fast.

Thank you very much. And let's see. Was there

any anything else you had, Nicole, to That was it. Yep. Okay.

So I think with that, we do not have a date for our next meeting, do we?

We don't yet. Sorry about that.

Alright. I just noticed that. So we'll see everybody in January at some point. Alright. Alright. And happy holidays to everybody. Alright. Be as a jerk. Thank

you. And that is