Remarks by Laura Capps
125 remarks on the record, newest first · Page 1 of 5
“Yeah, it is telling that he isn't here. He's just sort of this humble public servant. And really, Daniel runs a department that does both things of this county so well. It's all heart, and it also has to run incredibly an efficient bureaucracy. And he managed to do both things so well simultaneously. I'd have these meetings with him. I mean, it's such a huge department. serving the most vulnerable on a daily basis. 40% of our county is served by his department roughly and touches our county in such important, meaningful ways, often unseen. And so he runs with such a heart, knowing that…”
“Thank you. I appreciate that. Supervisor Hartman pulled this. I was planning on this as well. And so on this point, are you suggesting a link between the fact that inmates are in the safety cell less time and so therefore they wouldn't require the three visits and so therefore it would be categorized as a fail? Is that what you're suggesting?”
“You said that there's a certain amount of time that they get three visits. But if they're there a short period of time, a shorter period of time, which is a positive thing, are they just not there long enough to require this and therefore they're”
“Thank you. I mean, again, I should back up and say this is reflective of progress and I'm appreciative of uh director hamami's role in in in in monitoring and and the partnership that clearly seems to be working uh that was a new direction um i also want to make sure that the audit is asking the right questions because we find that sometimes it's kind of miss missing and and so if i don't know if this is our audit or um but if it's if you're explaining that it's not quite getting at the essence of i mean if it's a 10 minute late um well check then it sort of misses the point, right? So is…”
“Yeah. And I guess I'll just ask you more qualitatively. Are you feeling as though we're making significant progress in the cell monitoring?”
“Okay, and I want to give ACO Heitman a chance, but I just wanted to make sure, I know staffing has been an issue, so is there a correlation between staffing and these checks happening? You're nodding, so.”
“Go ahead. You finish off. Okay. Just I also see in the materials that electronic medical systems is another area that needs improvement. I know all of us as patients, we all deal with, the shifting of electronic medical records in our own lives, and so I just was hoping to hear what you all are planning to ensure that all of the WellPath staff are up to speed on getting everybody enrolled quickly, because I know that can help with efficiencies.”
“So it really will be helpful. So that's not happening with Marion at this point?”
“But not the nurses? No. Interesting. Okay. Well, thanks for explaining that because, again, I just know how I can imagine how valuable that information is, especially if you're dealing with a patient, somebody who's not able to communicate what just happened to them in the ER, et cetera. So thank you for that.”
“Yeah, thank you. I'm looking forward to hearing from everybody. And I just want to acknowledge, Chair Nelson, how much work has gone into this, how much you believe in this. My first few months or so on the job, I toured ORCIT with you in the truck with my dog. And you showed me the need for the ORCIT library. And so this is a passion project. And so I say that because I do have questions along the lines of Supervisor Hartman. But they don't mean at all to undermine the beauty of what you're trying to do and what this would mean for the community. So along the lines of some questions, all…”
“Okay, so just to be really clear, because we have these yellow signs saying Yes, to the library. I mean, if we say this is a priority today, is that we're signaling that we wanna fully fund it or we just want it to be part of this analysis? I guess we can get to that when we get into deliberations, but I just, in reading the presentation about seven times, it was a lot of either ors or a lot of chicken and egg kind of questions, and I understand that's because staff is really looking for us for directions, but I just don't wanna, I wanna be really clear about what we're committing to.”
“Okay. So along those lines, I did have a question about this again. I want to be really clear. Maybe this is for our budget director, but as I again, really tried to understand. It says staff is recommending the CMAR, which means construction manager at risk, if the board commits to fully funding. So I wanna see, are you recommending that the board commits to full funding today, or are you simply saying that it's the better procurement method if we choose that path?”
“some phase of construction in the future pending any kind of funding decision okay so you're sort of the the funding question is really on us or will that be part of the process of what you'll do the analysis and come back to us with wayne horn assistant ceo thank you uh so to clarify your board is has”
“Okay, and the upsides are obviously less the construction costs are what they are. I have one question on the option B that you just laid out. It seems as though we risk losing, if we delay the project, we risk losing at least one of the grants, potentially the Orchid Library, the Friends of the Orchid Library, the 2.1. 0.25 million donation. Do we know how long that is?”
“Okay. Okay. Okay, I think those are my questions for now. I'm sure I'll come up with a few more. Thank you.”
“Yeah, it's not about geography or need. It's really about information. And I feel a little bamboozled, honestly. I feel like I haven't really gotten a lot of information. So I have some questions for our budget director, if you don't mind coming back up. I just was curious. I feel as though a lot of folks came here today expecting an outcome that maybe they've been privy about for longer than I have. So I was just wondering, has this been part of the five-year forecast or even just a ballpark number or part of our budget hearings? I'm just curious if I missed something.”
“Okay, so sort of the timing for today is, is what, like, what led this agenda item at this juncture as opposed to budget as opposed to when other capital projects come forward?”
“I'm not I mean staff put this forward. It didn't come from d4. I'm just wondering what I would look to judge I don't really under it seems out of sequence to me, and I like to make budget decisions in context We weren't assistant CEO really it's with what Paul specified is we needed to know if we needed to include this commitment your five-year forecast and”
“So that's- Sure, but they're like an impetus. I know we did $10 million for Guadalupe because there was an impetus, there was an emergency. What is the impetus for why are we I'm just curious as to the timing. I understand the need. Absolutely understand the need. I love the library. There's no problem, or I'm very enthusiastic about the project. I'm just really trying to get my, this is a huge number, and I feel as though there's an A or a B, but there's, I feel a little, I want to understand the options here.”
“Absolutely. So I mean, I'm definitely enthusiastic about the project, open to looking into financing options. With the next item, we're going to be talking about the Northern Branch Jail, $147 million. We had years of conversation. This just feels, to me as a board member, like we're presented with a huge, you just said the word, sticker shock. And I would rather have more time for you all to discuss the options and it doesn't feel very clear to me which one you're actually recommending. Maybe Supervisor Hartman has some thoughts on that.”
“But it's definitely not a, you know, a lack of support for the project or a lack of not understanding the needs of ORCA or a lack of support for North County. I don't want there to be any sort of insinuation of that at all. It's really just, wow, you know, this is the first time this is, I know we've given two incremental votes in support of purchasing of the land. Those are quite relatively small. So what we're talking about today. So I hope that my colleagues understand the need to understand more from the staff”
“Yeah, and would the five-year forecast include operating costs? Would there be an operation of the library by that point?”
“I mean, so could we limit the options to option A, financing, option B, financing, and operating costs for both?”
“Yeah, I mean, I certainly wouldn't, I mean, seeing what the numbers would be is what we'd really be voting on today, which I hope your constituents understand that's what the vote is. But that's certainly something I couldn't see any problem with doing that.”
“Point of clarification, does that have operating costs in it?”