Board of Supervisors - Regular Meeting

Thank you all. If everyone could filter and take your seats. Good morning. I now call the September 1st, 2026 San Diego County Board of Supervisors meeting to order. We would first like to take a moment to acknowledge the land we call home. There are communities in the San Diego region that face unjust conditions and circumstances related to that environment in which we live. The tribal nations of the San Diego region are an example of one community that has historically faced such injustices. We acknowledge the harmony that existed between the land, nature, and its original peoples, who have since endured displacement, persecution, and systemic oppression. We pay our respect to the unceded territory and homelands of the 18 tribal nations in our region, the most in any county in the United States, from four cultural groups, the Kumeyaay, Digueño, the Luceño, the Kupeño, and the Kiwaya. We aspire to learn from indigenous traditional knowledge and experiences in undoing the injustices of the past. Andrew, please call the roll for today's session.

Thank you, Chair Lawson-Riemer. Supervisor Anderson. Supervisor Desmond. Here. Chair Pro Temegheri.

Here.

Vice Chair Montgomery-Stuff.

Here.

Chair Lawson-Riemer.

Here. Okay. We now have Reverend Dale Suggs, who will deliver the invocation, and Eric Freund, who will lead us in the Pledge of Allegiance. Please stand.

Well, I am the Reverend Dale Suggs. My pronouns are he, his, him. I do live on the ancestral homelands of the Kumeyaay peoples, and I also enjoy the rights, privileges, and boundless blessings of living in San Diego County. I'm the pastor of Beloved Way, a community of the Christian Church Disciples of Christ, director of Beloved Compassion Network, a nonprofit dedicated to compassion education. You may know Beloved Way because we are the prayer chain people. You will find us at mental health walks and other gatherings where those who have been marginalized by church might come together and write a simple prayer on a piece of paper, and then we make chains out of them. This particular one comes from the Pride Festival just this past summer. On behalf of the Christian Church Disciples of Christ in the Pacific Southwest region, and on behalf of Beloved Way Christian community, I'm honored to lead you in prayer. Let us pray. Oh God, our beloved, we are servant leaders entrusted with the care of the people, the institutions, fiscal and natural resources of San Diego County. We have gathered here in these hallowed halls. Our weighty agenda is set before us. Challenge upon challenge upon challenge awaits our mindful and heartful consideration. But before we engage our work this morning, we intentionally pause to ask for your companionship in the journey. We know that every decision we make and every step we take is in answer to your invitation to walk with you. And we know that we will need your persistence, passion, and perseverance to walk your way of healing, wholeness, and peace amidst a hurting, fractured, and conflicted world. But you have shown us the way of the beloved, and if we long to follow your lead, you will guide us. You have shown us how loving others is the beloved way to healing. You have shown us how justice making is for others, for others is the beloved way to wholeness. You have shown us how learning, teaching and embodying compassion is the beloved way to peace. And yes, you have shown us the path that if we long to walk the beloved way, oh God, You will walk with us and you have equipped us for the journey. In each of us, part of our original equipment is a core self deep within filled with grace, inclusion, and compassion waiting to be released into the world. This compassionate core is that part of us that is ever connected to the source of all things from which flows an infinite and an inexhaustible river of compassion capable of connecting us to our true selves and to one another. Help us, oh God, our beloved, to recognize that it is within each of us this deep, innate potential for love, compassion, hope, Peace. This within us may have been covered up by layers of pain buried under levels of unfulfilled longings entombed in vault after vault of ancient and aching wounds and marked with epitaphs naming the gifts we never got to share with the world. Still, it is there within us and within every other person on this planet. It is what makes us human. It is what makes us yours. So help us, O God, our beloved, to ease the pain, embrace the longings, heal the wounds, and welcome the gifts of all those who have been entrusted to our care. Help us, O God, our beloved, to listen and to speak and to discern, to decide and to act in ways that confirm our commitment to your invitation to make compassion a way of life here in San Diego County and beyond. For this is our prayer, oh God, our beloved. And we know that you hear us and will help us for you are the beloved one who from your compassionate core names us as beloved as well, claims us as your children. And yes, even despite ourselves, the lights in each of us always shine.

Please place your hand over your heart for the Pledge of Allegiance. Ready, begin. I pledge allegiance to the flag of the United States of America and to the republic for which it stands, one nation, under God, indivisible, with liberty and justice for all.

Oh my god. Okay, thank you. We now proceed with the proclamations. The first proclamation will be given by Chair Pertamagiri honoring Millionaires HQ. Accepting the proclamation is Christina Flores. Thank you.

Come on up, guys. Hi, hi. How are you doing? Good morning. Okay, good morning, everyone. Buenos dias. As we observe Barber Appreciation Month this September, along with World Barber Day on September 16th, we take time to recognize the incredible heritage, artistry, and vital cultural role that barbers play in our daily lives. Today, I have the privilege of recognizing a truly special business and community partner in our region that exemplifies this meaning. Millionaires HQ, its founders, its barbers, and the entire team that has helped build this incredible place. Millionaires HQ began in 2023 with a simple but powerful idea that the people behind the chair deserve to feel valued, supported, and empowered to build something bigger than themselves. and bigger for themselves. And I love the meaning behind the name millionaires because for this team, being wealthy isn't just about how much money is in your bank account. It is about being rich in relationships, knowledge, opportunity, community, and the belief that something greater is possible. That vision has grown millionaires from a barber shop into an entrepreneurial and creative hub, bringing together barbers, braiders, nail and lash artists, makeup artists, embroidery services, and other small businesses under one roof. But what makes Millionaires HQ especially worthy of recognition today is what they've chosen to do with that success. They have partnered with local community-based organizations to connect entrepreneurs with financial literacy, mentorship, and resources. They've provided free haircuts to hundreds of local families every year through their annual barber battle back-to-school giveback. And importantly, they're creating a place where young people can see themselves as entrepreneurs, creators, business owners, and leaders. In our conversations about youth justice, we spend a lot of time talking about what we want young people to stay away from, but we also have a responsibility to build the things we want young people to move toward. Toward opportunity, toward mentorship, toward economic independence, and toward places they're reminded that their future is bigger than whatever challenges they may be facing today or may have faced in the past. There's also something powerful about the barber chair itself. A place where conversations happen, confidence is built, advice is shared, and sometimes a young person hears exactly the encouragement they need. Millionaires HQ has never forgotten the community that shaped them, and as they build their own success, they continue reaching back and bringing others forward with them. So it is now my privilege to read the last part of the proclamation, which states, be it proclaimed by Chair Tara Lassen-Reimer, myself, and the rest of the Board of San Diego Supervisors on this first day of September 2026, that we commend Millionaires HQ for their outstanding service, leadership, and commitment to the citizens of San Diego County, and we do hereby declare this day to be Millionaires HQ Day all throughout San Diego County.

Good morning, everyone. First, I want to give a huge thank you to the County of San Diego Board of Supervisors, Emilio, Supervisor Aguirre, correct me if I'm wrong, and her entire team for recognizing Millionaires HQ and our barbers. This community is the reason we continue to give back. It is the same community that has supported us, believed in us, and helped build Millionaires into what it is today. So receiving this proclamation for something that means so much to us is truly a blessing, and we are incredibly grateful. I also want to thank my husband, my daughter, my in-laws, and my little sister for believing in me and supporting a vision that sometimes probably sounded crazy. I lost both of my parents to cancer, so having such a strong support system behind me has meant more than I can put into words. Thank you for giving me the confidence to keep building something we haven't really seen in our community before. And to my barbers, I am so incredibly proud of you. We started with our very first barber, Angel Arellano, and today we've grown to around 16 barbers. Every person who has been part of Millionaires has contributed to our growth in some way. Our annual give-back began with an idea Angel brought to us. Since then, it has continued to grow with our most recent give-back, hosted alongside our barber Ernesto and Anthony, a former Millionaires barber who has now gone to open up his own shop, A-List Barbershop. This is what Millionaires is about. We want people to come through our doors, grow, support one another, and eventually accomplish something even bigger for themselves. Seeing our barbers recognized today makes me incredibly proud, not because we do this work for recognition, but because they give so much of themselves to our community without expecting anything in return. And today, they get to see that their impact is truly felt. To the families here supporting our barbers today, I hope you're proud too. There are more than just barbers. There are mentors, entrepreneurs, and people making a real impact in our community. Thank you to our family, our clients, our partners, and everyone who continues to support us. Millionaires is here because of our community, and no matter how big we grow, we will always remember where we came from and continue giving back to the community that built us. Thank you.

Let's take a picture.

Thank you.

Thank you very much. The second proclamation will be given by Supervisor Anderson honoring Russia Shana. Accepting the proclamation will be Jeff Schindler.

I actually think we have a bigger group than this. I told them, follow me. I'll take you to the boardroom. And then I was late, and they followed suit. It's good to see you. Thank you. Also, I'm very excited to hear that one work.

Thank you.

Good morning, everyone. I'm honored to be here today as we celebrate Rosh Hashanah. And I'd like to thank our County Assessor, Jordan Marks, and all of our Jewish community leaders for joining us here today. Rosh Hashanah marks the beginning of the Jewish New Year and the High Holy Days. It's a time for prayer, reflection, repentance, and renewal. For more than 175 years, Jewish residents and organizations have strengthened San Diego County through their public service, education, healthcare, business, philanthropy, arts, and culture. One of those pioneers was Louis Rose, who arrived in San Diego in 1850 and became the county's first Jewish supervisor. His legacy remains part of our community today through places that you know, such as Roseville, Rose Canyon, and Rose Creek. Rosh Hashanah is an important opportunity not only to celebrate a new year, but also to reflect on the values that bring communities together, including faith, family, service, forgiveness, and hope for the future. I'm honored to present this proclamation honoring Rosh Hashanah, and I'd like to read the last paragraph right now. Jordan, I'm going to have you hold it in the interim so we can get a nice look. Be it proclaimed by Chair Tara Lawson-Reamer and all the members of the County Board of Supervisors on this first day of September 2026, that we commemorate the Jewish community of San Diego County for their contributions to our region in who here do proclaim the 11th through the 13th of September to be Rosh Hashanah throughout San Diego County. Shana Tova. Did I say that right? Okay. I have a hard enough time just with English words. Jeff, I know you have some kind words to share with us. Would you like to come up?

I'm going to call rabbis. Come on over this way. We got room over here. Let's go. Come on. You guys move over here.

Riley, we need your son.

He's watching, making sure. He's taking notes. Okay.

Good morning. I'm Jeff Schindler. I have the privilege of serving as the board chair of the Jewish Federation of San Diego. And I'll tell you, it's wonderful to see all of my brothers and sisters here. And thank you so much for coming. Thank you very much, Supervisor Anderson and Assessor Marks, for inviting us to be here and for making this very special proclamation for the Jewish community. Imagine a dedicated time each autumn to pause, look back at your last 12 months, and reset your life. That is the true heart and meaning of the Jewish High Holidays. This very special time begins with Rosh Hashanah, the Jewish New Year. Not to be celebrated with loud parties or midnight countdowns, rather it is a time for quiet introspection. We eat apples dipped in honey to symbolize hope for a sweet year ahead. We also blow a ram's horn called a shofar, which there is one right here. Its sharp, piercing blast is a wake-up call for the soul, urging us to remember what truly matters in our lives. Rosh Hashanah begins a 10-day period of reflection that leads to Yom Kippur, the Day of Atonement. This is the holiest day on the Jewish calendar. We fast for 24 hours, some for 25. We focus entirely on the spiritual instead of the physical. We spend the day in prayer, openly admitting our mistakes, and actively seeking forgiveness, not just from God, but from our friends, our families, our coworkers, and others we may have hurt over the past year. The Jewish High Holidays teach a universal, beautiful lesson. No matter how badly you may have stumbled last year, change for the better is always possible. Thank you.

Oh no, please do, please do. Jordan does an incredible job, and he's helped script this. And I was looking for leadership.

So thank you for that leadership. And I know Supervisor Lawson-Reamer, you know, it's Shana Tova. Would you join us down here?

Actually, I'd like to invite all my colleagues.

Yes, I think we should.

Who doesn't like to celebrate New Year's Eve?

Good morning, Chair and members and Board of Supervisors, Rabbis, community leaders, friends. We'd like to wish you a Shana Tova, a happy Jewish New Year. I first want to thank Supervisor Anderson and the entire Board of Supervisors for recognizing Rosh Hashanah and celebrating the Jewish New Year throughout the County of San Diego. And what an incredible representation we have here of the community. More than 30 Jewish organizations here from across San Diego County. Thank you all for being here. We have rabbis, congregations, organizations that educate, empower, and protect and strengthen our Jewish community. And just as importantly, these organizations also help us all fulfill the most important responsibilities that we have in our faith, giving back and making our community and our world a little better than we found it. That's the idea and the heart of living a good life. I especially want to recognize Supervisor Anderson. Supervisor Anderson represents East County. Some affectionately call it God's country. But Supervisor Anderson doesn't keep God's goodness confined to East County. He does an extraordinary job shining the spotlight on faith and the incredible diversity of faith and communities throughout all of San Diego County. I really want to say this. From Rosh Hashanah to Ramadan and so many celebrations in between, Supervisor Anderson consistently brings together people and reminds us that our different traditions don't divide us. They add to the richness and strength of our region. And so Supervisor Anderson, thank you for being the tip of his spear. Thank you for today's celebration and asking me to partake in it. But as a leader in the community, I also want to especially give a shout out to my colleagues on the Board of Supervisors for the work that you do in the faith and community organizations throughout the year. These partnerships matter, and they strengthen every fabric of our community in San Diego County and remind people that everyone has a place here. So thank you very much. Rosh Hashanah is, of course, a celebration of the new year. It's a time for reflection. We look back at the year behind us and ask ourselves some pretty important questions. What do we do well? Where do we fall short? Who did we help? And what can we do better in the year ahead? And that brings us to one of the most important recognizable traditions of Rosh Hashanah, that is sounding of the shofar. So on behalf of Supervisor Anderson and the Jewish community, it's an honor for me to welcome and introduce Jared Ahrens. Most of you might know Jared as the witty and, I'm told, good-looking anchor from 10 News. I know him as the guy that blows the shofar at my synagogue. And so the shofar is an ancient and ritual tradition, but its message is as relevant as it's ever been today. Its sound is intended to wake us up, to awaken our spirits, to call us to reflection, and remind us that each of us have a responsibility to do good in our community, to care for our neighbors, to stand for one another, and to give back, and to do our part to make San Diego County a place where every family can live, worship, work, and thrive. So as Jared sounds the shofar this morning, I hope it reminds all of us what this new year can bring, something wonderful, another opportunity for all of us to do better, to give more, to love more, and to bring a little more goodness into this world. So on behalf of the San Diego County Jewish community, I wish everyone a happy, healthy, peaceful, and of course, sweet new year. Shana tova umetuka. And Jared, take it away. We're going to take a picture right in front here.

Thank you.

Now this young lady gets the java. Let's go for it.

Jordan. Jordan. Thank you. Thank you.

Thank you.

Alright, I'm alright.

Joey's the wind. Oh, okay.

Hey.

Good to see you.

Good morning. Good morning. Yeah.

This is cool. Now, what is it now?

We appreciate you stepping up and helping do it. Okay, good. So are you going to start the video? I'm going to give it to you. Okay, that's right.

Yeah, yeah. Okay. Okay.

Yeah, wherever you want to be. Yeah, sure. I don't know. She'll tell you. What's that? Are we good? Yeah, yeah.

I'll hand you the plaque here after...

Well, I'm almost done. I'll hand you the proclamation. You can hold it, and then we'll get some pictures.

Thank you so much. Yeah, yeah. They got the video all set up? I know, I know.

You need a horn. You need a horn. And then you guys can just stay here.

Thank you. Very good, very good. And we're okay on this side together? Oh, yeah.

Whatever works. Okay. Well, good morning, everyone. Supervisor Jim Desmond here, and I have the honor to proclaim the Hope on the Hard Road proclamation here today. So good morning, everyone. It's my honor to recognize Eric and Kristen Freund. They're co-founders of Hope on the Hard Road Incorporated. So thank you for being here today for this tremendous difference that your organization makes, not only just in the lives of children that have special needs, but with the families who care for them. Since its founding in 2019, Hope on the Hard Road has been guided by a powerful message. Families should never have to face the journey of raising a child with special needs alone. Through educational programs, community events, and support groups, Hope on the Hard Road empowers parents and builds a supportive community where families feel understood and encouraged. This organization was created by parents who understand firsthand the joys, the challenges, the uncertainty, and the strength that comes from raising children with special needs. They have taken their own experiences and turned them into opportunities to help others, to help other families find answers, have resources, strength, and hope. And today marks a new chapter for the organization as they open the doors to their new Hope Center in Escondido. So congratulations on that. The Hope Center will bring families together to learn, connect, and to know that they are supported. by a caring community and that you do not have to walk the road alone. We proudly celebrate your service to our community and look forward to your successful programs facilitated at the Hope Center. and just a little bit off-grip. This is one of the beautiful things that I've been able, serving as county supervisor and working with different people in different communities, is when you recognize problems, you go out and you solve them, and you see other people are struggling, and you don't always come to government to fix it. Sometimes we'll make it worse, but anyway. But we've got to, you know, it's just really heartening that you see a need and you step up and fulfill it, and I see that a lot in my district and I'm sure throughout the county. So I really want to say thank you for this. But whereas the county of San Diego, we're committed to recognizing and honoring those organizations and individuals. that are dedicated to the best ideals of public service and hope on the hard road is one such worthy organization. So therefore, be it proclaimed by myself and all the members of the San Diego County Board of Supervisors on this first day of September 2026 that we commend Hope on the Hard Road organization for their outstanding strength, service, and support to the residents of San Diego County and do hereby declare today to be Hope on the Hard Road Day throughout San Diego County. Congratulations. So Kristen, she's going to make a few remarks and I guess we have a short video.

Thank you. Before we begin, we'd like to share a short video.

found out about Hope on the Hard Road, it was such a relief. There were other people like us, other people that understood the isolation, the difficulties that we face day in and day out, and just the resources that have been available to us through Hope on the Hard Road.

Creating community is so important, and it's not only about the individual with special needs, it's the entire family.

Yeah, it feels like you're in a community where everyone understands you and it's normal and it's just like we're all helping out each other like a big family.

You know, I think she likes being around people and like anybody else, you know, she's just being herself really inspires me to be a better brother every day.

One of the biggest issues that moms who have children with special needs face is isolation.

You know, it does get a little emotional, I guess you could say, because a limited amount of people that know what we're dealing with on a daily basis. To see other parents dealing with that and actually being able to help and support and understand goes a long way.

We spend all our time caregiving. It's important that you invest in the marriage and invest who you guys were before you had kids.

This group has been amazing to our family. Feel like you're not walking alone in this, to feel like you're not the only one, and to have a community to lean on.

Good morning. Thank you. Thank you to Supervisor Jim Desmond and members of the board. We are incredibly grateful for this honor today. One in six children is diagnosed with developmental disabilities, including autism, cerebral palsy, and Down syndrome. That means that when we look around this room, each one of us likely knows someone impacted by this. A friend, a family member, a coworker, Eric and I founded Hope on the Hard Road, Inc. in 2019 with one goal in mind, to help families like ours thrive in the midst of their circumstances. As parents of two neurodiverse adult children, one of which who will continue to need lifelong care, we understand that parents are too often overwhelmed by daily schedules filled with therapies, doctor's appointments, and the search for resources to be able to spend meaningful time together, while siblings are quietly making sacrifices well beyond their years, and families are altogether isolated.

Life can be difficult, there is no escaping this reality, but we want families to know that while the road can be hard, there's always hope. Through resources, education, and community support, we walk beside not only the individual with a disability, but the entire family to help provide a roadmap forward that will provide hope for these families that they're searching for. In our almost eight years of service to the community, we have seen parents learn to advocate, marriages strengthened, siblings supported, and families laughing once again. Where there once was isolation, now there is connection. Where there once was despair, now there is hope. And with the opening of our Hope Center today, we are incredibly excited for the next steps. Please join us in our mission as we continue to help bring families hope for the road ahead. And if you're interested in participating in our Hope Gala on September 12th, please go to our website for more information at hopeonthehardroad.org. Thank you.

All right. Thank you. Thank you so much. Thank you so much.

This is wonderful. Do you want this? We'll do a picture here.

Beautiful.

Thank you all so much. Before we begin this meeting, I'm gonna take a moment to remind everyone here of our house rules. Public engagement is the cornerstone of a transparent and accountable government, and these Board of Supervisors meetings are a primary venue where all Sandy Goons can and should be able to make their voices heard. I will first remind us of our Board's rules. Under our Board's rules, speakers may not use loud, shouting, threatening, impertinent, slanderous, profane, or abusive language to any member of the Board, staff, or the general public. Second, all remarks and questions must remain on topic during the duration of your speaking time. Third, all remarks and questions must be addressed to the board and board members, not to county staff. Any speaker who engages in comments that breaks these rules will be issued a warning. After that one warning, you may be asked to leave the chambers for the remainder of the meeting. Finally, speakers threatening violence will be reported to law enforcement and removed from the meeting immediately. This is a space for community engagement deliberation and not for harassment, violence, or hate. We now proceed with non-agenda public comment. This is an opportunity for the public to address the board on subject matters within the board's jurisdiction, but not on our meeting agenda. The only action we may take is a referral to the CAO. Speakers may speak once per meeting for non-agenda public comment, either today or tomorrow, but not at both sessions. You may select which session at your convenience. Today, we only have how many speakers? We have 12 speakers by phone, so we will hear all 12 speakers at the start of today's meeting. Additionally, In order to ensure timely completion of today's agenda, for any discussion items with 10 or more speakers, individuals have one minute to share their opinion. According to Rule 4A, members of the public that are non-English speaking and need interpretation assistance receive twice the allotted time for their comments. And a final reminder, audience members shall not whistle, clap, stomp feet, or do anything that disrupts the meeting. Again, as a reminder, if you violate these rules or you disrupt the meeting, you will be given a warning, and after that warning, if you disrupt the meeting again or violate these rules again, you will be directed to leave the chamber for the remainder of the meeting. Andrew, please call the speakers.

Thank you, Chair Lawson-Riemer. As you indicated, we have 12 requests to speak on matters not listed on the agenda, all coming by phone. For those that requested to speak by phone, please dial into the conference line using the instructions that were provided to you. When it is your turn to speak, you will be unmuted and you will hear a recording that will tell you to begin your comments. And we will begin with our first caller.

All bold. Let's talk about what us taxpayers are paying for. The July 4th party was bust as predicted. It seems people left and packed the playground. Not sure if your supervisors were even there. I didn't see you. At least one potential sponsor was turned down for not signing the pledge to uphold the county's values. The party was short on funds to set it up, and it showed. United, we stand. Divided, we fall. Cut off a leg, and we wobble. Labor Day goes better. On February 10th, you proposed the declaration of independence party, but amended the agenda to accept any donations adhering to your views. Sounds a bit like a witch hunt. It reminds me of the 1950 California Loyalty Oath controversy. California Constitution, Article 2, 20, sorry, Section 3, the Oath of Office adds that no other booth, declaration, or test shall be required as a qualification for any public office or employment. UC made its employees take an extra oath to not support an organization that advocates the overthrow of the U.S. government. Then there was McCarthyism. Such loyalty tests were rejected over and over again. I do not think we want to go near that slippery slope again. Yet this sounds like a loyalty test. America was founded on tolerance, whether there are bumps in the road, like government violence. Thank you. We'll hear from the next caller.

Consuelo. So today I'd like to just remind the people There are generations and generations of people who have been hurting, traumatized and enduring more pain and suffering than any other species on this planet. And this isn't just happening within our county or state or country. It's happening all over the planet. The one thing we can all acknowledge is the common factor. So much of human suffering has been caused by governments. From wars to famines to genocides, the greatest atrocities humanity has ever endured have been carried out by government. Within our county, we see no difference. Our local government loves to gaslight, manipulate, and instill fear in the people. They continue to sell scarcity when we live in abundance. They continue to divide us. They continue to have the help of the media, which has become another racket in assisting in their web of deception from KPBS, emphasis on the B.S., to Fox and everyone in between. So much of what people are being fed is entirely propaganda, with the media deciding what they want people to focus on and what they want us to believe. I want to remind my fellow San Diegans, if we continue down this road believing that people like Scott Peters, Todd Gloria, this County Board of Supervisors, or the next governor are going to save us and fix everything for us, then we are giving our power away. And when we willingly continue to hand over that power, we become part of the reason this all continues. It truly is insanity. It is incredible to witness, and it is beyond sad to see the horrific things taking place.

Thank you. We'll hear from the next caller.

Hi, it's Pam. Well, Monica, at the county meeting on Wednesday, August 19th, 2026, quote, I think the personal attacks are crazy, unquote. Quote, we did not sign up to be abused, unquote. Well, Monica, Tara, and Paloma, neither did the children under your watch. sacrificed by abortion in your sanctuary county every day. Neither did the young mother who was reportedly sexually abused in a youth transitional center with her one-month-old baby present on August 22nd, 2026. Neither did Katie Osorio, victim of a fatal hit-and-run allegedly perpetrated by county employee Asma Elliott, a deputy director with the county's self-sufficiency services on May 22nd, 2026. And reportedly, Director Nadia Prevara was terminated because an employee allegedly made racist comments and hurt someone's feelings. According to the County News Center data, August 26, 2026, quote, the county anticipates additional... standard of accountability, unquote. Well, as for the county standard of accountability, given the 100 plus lawsuits, terminations should be in order at the Polinsky Center. The entire staff on duty at the time of the alleged sexual assault at the youth transition center should be terminated instead of some spokesperson just pandering with a statement. That's not our philosophy. Any management staff of self-sufficiency services on duty at the time of the alleged fatal hit and run should also be terminated. millionaire hq is a great organization but everyone beware of what paloma did not say she did say it doesn't matter how much is in your bank account what she did not say is the women on this board are coming after you for more and additional taxes pay attention to the november ballot joel you forgot to mention the taxpayer funded free services to illegal immigrants provided by some jewish groups and not clean americans first i respectfully request in the name of your word equity the Thank you.

We'll now hear from the next caller.

As we clearly see, you guys work for the ACLU and the NGOs, much like 1982 fraud. which is allowing you to basically attempt to kill Andrea Eby. There is no question about that because you guys filled out the paperwork and knew about the coils in her head and then scheduled her for an MRI. An attempt to kill her. I do not understand that. Are you willing to go ahead and protect fraud, and then the people committing that fraud, you're willing to go ahead and protect? Is that what's going on? First of all, the case right before that, you guys purposely misspelled her name so that you cannot connect it, right? I don't understand this. I don't understand how the same fraud from 1982 is still happening today, and you guys, Tara, you promised me you were going to look into it. Instead, you gave me a restraining order, in which this is probably going to be the last time I'm allowed to talk, because you guys can make up any fucking thing that you want. You can go in and say, yes, this is for the people, but when reality is just for the NCOs. your stakeholders, the ones that got you elected, because if you went to the people, fuck no, none of them would elect any of you guys, because your people would sit. And from this point forward, I'm going to, you can't understand normal thinking. Acronyms for that, if you guys are all cunts, including Summer Steffens, our district attorney, is the biggest fucking cunt I have ever seen in my entire life.

Could you please pause the speaker's time? I'd like to just get some guidance from County Council. Is that kind of profanity when it's directed at a specific individual such as the District Attorney, Summer Steffen, sufficiently considered disruptive behavior for this meeting?

Thank you, Chair Lawson-Riemer. It is not only disruptive, but it also does not pertain to any matter that's on the agenda today or anything within the jurisdiction of this board.

Okay. So to be clear, A reminder that your comments must be, when you're speaking on non-agenda public comment, must pertain to a matter within the subject matter of jurisdiction of this board. Those comments are not within the subject matter jurisdiction of this board and are disruptive to this conduct of this meeting. That is one warning. The speaker forfeits his time. Thank you.

No problem. Matter of fact, let's go ahead and talk.

Thank you. We'll hear from the next caller.

Barbara Gordon.

The county should not move forward with the cannabis program due to the health, safety, and environment impact marijuana businesses will have on the residents and the community. The county has not addressed the environmental consequences of marijuana commercialization. Growers use pesticides, fertilizers that contaminate the soil and sources. preservation requires significant water resources, often exceeding that of traditional crops, leading to a strain on local.

Speaker's comments. Ma'am, the cannabis item, which I think you're saying, it does not go on non-agenda public comment because it is actually agendized. So we are hearing the cannabis item on consent on our land use docket tomorrow. So if you would like to speak on another matter within the board's jurisdiction, please go ahead. But if you are intending to speak on cannabis, please come back for consent tomorrow so you can speak and we can consider your input when we consider the item. No, thank you.

Thank you. And we'll hear from the next caller.

Hello, good morning, supervisors. My name is Madison. I wanted to acknowledge California leaders for moving forward with Assembly Bill 762, which would prohibit the manufacture, distribution, and sale of disposable battery-embedded electronic cigarettes in California. Disposable vapes have created a serious problem at the intersection of loose addiction and environmental damage. These products are designed to be used briefly and thrown away, yet they contain lithium batteries and potentially toxic materials. They are increasingly littering our streets, parks, and beaches, while also creating a fire risk when damaged or crushed in trash and recycling facilities. The scale of this problem is staggering.

There are estimates that approximately 500,000 disposable vapes are thrown away every day in the United States.

And the environmental issue also goes along with the youth health issue because vaping remains the most prevalent tobacco product among California high school students. These devices deliver highly addictive nicotine and young people are being exposed to products whose long-term health consequences are still not fully known. As a mother, I find it especially concerning that we have allowed an entire category of addictive products to become both easily discarded and so common in the environments where our children live, play, and learn. AB 762 recognizes that manufacturers should not be able to create products with embedded batteries, toxic waste, and fire hazards, and simply leave communities and taxpayers to deal with the consequences. I hope California continues to prioritize policies that protect young people, reduce nicotine addiction, and hold industries accountable for the environmental costs of their products. Thank you.

Thank you. And Chair Lawson-Riemer, that concludes requests for non-addendant public communication for this session.

Okay, thank you all very much. The next item on our agenda is approval of the minutes and statements of proceedings for the sessions of August 18th and 19th, 2026. Is there a motion to approve? So moved. Second. We have a motion and a second. Andrew, can we please vote?

Chair Lawson-Riemer, that motion passes unanimously with all supervisors being present and voting aye.

Okay, thank you so much. We now proceed with the formation of the consent agenda. This is items one through 12. As a reminder, all items in consent are routine and will be acted upon with one motion. Individuals can comment on the consent agenda items after any of my colleagues make any comments they'd like to make or pull any items they'd like to make off the consent agenda to put on discussion. Do any of my colleagues have any items to pull? Vice Chair Montgomery-Stebb.

No need to pull any items. I have a few comments for item number two, item number three, and item number five. I just want to note how important it is that outreach is being done in a thoughtful manner to ensure the community members who are not currently aware of the service that is in item two are being reached. I want to thank staff for taking our concerns and then bringing this item back. Certainly, we discussed publicly the outreach that Supervisor Anderson brought up to rural communities, so geographic outreach is extremely important. Also, demographic outreach is important as well. We want to ensure that communities of color throughout the county, and particularly some comments we heard from the black community about accessibility to this program, that those are being honored as well. We want equitable access to this service and I look forward to hearing more about the updated marketing plans to ensure that. I also appreciate county staff commitment to ensuring that a documented grievance procedure and fully staffed phone line are put in place to receive feedback directly from program participants and that county staff will be regularly requesting grievance information. My office would like to be kept informed about issues that are brought up over the next year through that grievance process. For item number three, I just want to take a moment to say this is the Child and Family Strengthening Advisory Board. that I currently serve as chair as we have this funding discussion and proposal was discussed at our last meeting at the end of July. We had a very thoughtful discussion about whether or not to terminate pre-petition legal services, and I was glad to see it is still included in the funding proposal that is before us today. So thank you for that. Lastly, for item number five, this is the grand jury item. There are a couple things. One, just publicly want to say I will be supporting this item, but the $1.3 million that we did have to send back is concerning to me no matter what. I know there are reasons for that, but anytime we... see something like that. It is concerning, so I just want to put that on the record. I also want to touch briefly on the probation's response to the grand jury recommendation. The recommendation was to equip all San Diego County probation officers with body-worn cameras. I know that there has been some resistance to this, but we have also seen this recommendation come from CLRB, our Citizens Law Enforcement Review Board, and other community partners as well. So I do think that we should take another look at this and incorporating body worn cameras in concurrent policies within our detention facilities and not sort of just leave it where it is, which is to wholly disagree. with the recommendation. So again, I will be supporting this, but I wanted to put those things on the record. And with that, Chair, I will move the consent agenda. Thank you.

Thank you for comments. Thank you for the motion. We will turn to Chair Pro Tem Aguirre.

Thank you, Chair, and I'll go ahead and second. I want to speak briefly to item number five, the probation department's response to the civil grand jury's recommendation regarding body-worn cameras as well. I recognize the work that probation has done to expand and upgrade fixed camera coverage at both the Youth Transition Campus and East Mesa. I also recognize the department's ongoing work around de-escalation care teams, reducing the use of OC spray and bringing community-based partners into our facilities. But I am also concerned about the department's decision to wholly disagree with the grand jury's finding and conclude that body-worn cameras are simply not warranted. The grand jury did not ignore our existing camera system. It specifically acknowledged the value of CCTV and then identified its limitations. Fixed cameras may not capture the full interaction between an officer and a young person, particularly during close contact incidents when the view may be obstructed. That distinction is important and for me this is not about suggesting that body worn cameras are the perfect solution or that we should implement them tomorrow without considering youth privacy, confidentiality, cost and other things. Those are also legitimate issues but Those are also reasons to conduct the thorough analysis, not reasons to close the door completely. So I do look forward to continuing this conversation. And as stated, I'm not pulling the item, but I do want to be clear about this being an ongoing conversation. And I look forward to us exploring all the options available to us. And with that, I conclude my comments. Thank you, Chair.

Okay. Supervisor Anderson?

Thank you, Madam Chair. I want to thank county staff in Jewish Family Services for taking into consideration Potrero and other rural communities where they didn't have access to this program in the past, and I appreciate their commitment to giving them access now and tracking that access so we can better meet the needs of all of San Diego County. The second is I'd like to pull item six, please.

Okay, Supervisor Anderson has pulled item six. Supervisor Desmond.

I have no comments and no items to pull.

Okay, thank you very much. I have no comments and no items to pull. We will now go to public comment on consent.

Thank you, Chair Lawson-Riemer. Before we begin public comment, I would like to note for the record that Agenda Item 4 on the General Legislative Session Consent Agenda seeks approval of amendments to employment agreements for the Chief Administrative Officer, County Council, and Chief Probation Officer. Pursuant to Government Code Section 54953D3A, prior to taking final action, the legislative body shall orally report... a summary of a recommendation for final action on the salaries, salary schedules, or compensation paid in the form of fringe benefits of local agency executives. The amendments revise certain severance provisions of the employment agreements. Additionally, the employment agreement for County Council makes an adjustment to the relocation reimbursement. There are no other changes to existing fringe benefits and paid leave applicable to these positions. With this statement in the record, these items may remain on consent for approval. And moving item five from consent to discussion. Six. Sorry, item six.

Six, item six.

And with that, we have 19 requests to speak on items on the consent agenda, seven in person, 12 requesting to speak by phone. Again, item six has been pulled from the consent for discussion. Any individuals that requested to speak on item six, please hold your comments until the board discusses that item. We'll receive public testimony separately on that item. For those that requested to speak by phone, please dial into the conference line using the instructions that were provided to you. We'll begin with the in-person speakers. As your name is called, please come forward and stand on the arrows until it is your turn to speak at the podium. You will have two minutes to address the board, and I'll ask you to begin by stating your name for the audio record. Also, when speaking, please identify which items on the consent agenda you are speaking about. I'll call forward the first three speakers, so please listen for your name. I'd like to invite forward Kayleigh Levitt, Ryan, and allegedly Audra. I've called your name, please come forward.

Good morning, Kaylee Levitt with Jewish Family Service. Thank you so much for considering the approval of additional funding to restart the no-cost senior transportation program. We're deeply grateful for the county's partnership and investment of the last two and a half years for the program. And thank you so much for Supervisor Montgomery-Sepp and Supervisor Anderson for your comments. We're looking forward to continuing to engage with the county and AIS on how to improve this program overall and expand its service. I want to just quickly tell you about one rider who was served by this program, Ben. He tells us that rides are the key to his sovereignty. When he could no longer drive and could not afford other transportation options on his fixed incomes, he felt his independence slowly eroding away. Everyday essentials, getting groceries, medical appointments, and participating in social gatherings became increasingly difficult. No cost allowed him to regain access to these necessities and the ability to schedule on-demand rides when urgent needs arose. These rides helped him retain his dignity and independence. His story is not unique, and this program is a lifeline to so many San Diegans. And we look forward to being able to continue to serve. It's the difference between accessing health care or delaying that health care, and between remaining independent or being isolated at home. We also really want to thank the board and the county staff for recognizing that today's action not only supports restarting this critical service, but recognizes the importance of sustaining it into the future through the competitive solicitation process. We urge the county to continue to identify funding opportunities to ensure older adults like Ben can maintain their independence access critical services, and remain connected. We are grateful for our county's Board of Supervisors for the continued commitment to the health, dignity, and well-being of older adults and many other San Diegans across the county. Thank you very much.

Thank you. Next speaker. As the next speaker is coming forward, I'll call the remaining speakers in person. Jennifer Fox, Derek Nycaza, Sonia Avery and Sarah Johnson. Call your name, please move forward and line up in the arrows. Thank you.

Yes, this Proposition 64 grant program funds for the sheriff, and this is a public health and safety-related project that this is going to be funding. I'm wondering where they're going to get this information and be telling people about health effects of this. I don't think that the sheriff is equipped to be doing public health things, so I don't think they should have this money. And with Schedule 3 coming down the pike of, you know, making cannabis a Schedule 3 drug, you guys really need to be following that because all this money you're spending to manage drug dealers potentially could go into the hands of pharmaceutical people. Jewish Family Services trafficked unaccompanied alien children across the border who have gone missing, so I don't think they can be trusted with trafficking people. They also did it with just adults. And this three-year Children's Trust Fund funding proposal. This is supposed to be for child abuse and neglect prevention and intervention. I'm wondering why Polinsky is still open. San Pascual, all of the juvenile detention centers that are abusing children that you guys have many lawsuits regarding. So would that money go towards stopping that or the abuse on young girls like Arabella McCormick, the children that you take from their families and put them into foster care and they wind up dying like Delilah who was three months old and four pounds. Right? Is that the kind of stuff? Or do those children not matter? I mean, you guys want to rip babies apart, so it's like, what about them? That's child abuse. Wondering if that is a prevention or intervention that you would get involved in.

Next speaker, please.

Good morning, members of the board. My name is Jennifer Fox. I am the president of the Probation Officers Association. Regarding the department's response to item 5, the grand jury report, I do want to be clear. The Probation Officers Association supports the use of body-worn cameras. As we have shared with the members of the department's executive team many months ago, years of experience in other public safety agencies have demonstrated the benefits of this technology, which include reductions in the use of force, reductions in complaints, greater transparency, and more efficient investigations. For that reason, we were surprised and disappointed by the department's response. We recognize that implementing body-worn cameras would come at a significant cost, and we expected that to be the legitimate concern. But given the intense scrutiny our department currently faces, this is not a time to shy away from transparency. This is time to demonstrate that our department is what we know it to be, an organization of highly skilled professionals committed to protecting public safety. This is the time to demonstrate that we do not fear accountability, we welcome it. However, our support comes with a caveat. For years, the association has advocated for solutions related to critical staffing issues that still remain unresolved. Our officers continue to face mandatory overtime, high turnover, and significant staffing shortages. We cannot in good conscious support funding a new initiative if it comes at the expense of addressing those fundamental problems. Transparency and adequate staffing should not be competing priorities. They are essential to a safe and effective and trusted probation department. Neither problem will resolve itself. Building public trust and addressing our staffing crisis will require more than words. It will require a meaningful investment, decisive action, and a sustained commitment from both the department leadership and this board. Thank you for the opportunity to speak.

Thank you. Next speaker, please.

Good morning. My name is Derek Nakeza, and I'm a director with the Probation Officer Association. Body-worn cameras are more than equipment. They're a vital tool for accountability, transparency, and protection for the youth, the public, and our officers. The frontline staff wants this transparency, and unfortunately our department leadership does not. We are facing a deeply concerning pattern where leadership continuously refuse to meaningfully work collaboratively with the union. Instead of partnering with the very officers who keep the facility running, management has repeatedly shut us down. We have tried addressing these critical issues regarding the shift schedules our officers want, the actual amount of staffing needed to keep the facility safe, and just a general lack of teamwork. Time and time again, our input is ignored. And furthermore, our leadership continues to approach completely fails to incorporate the Probations One Team model that prioritizes workforce collaboration. In an already critically understaffed department, every officer removed from the floor increases the burden on those who remain, heavily contributing to exhausting mandatory overtime. Body-worn cameras provide an objective record of what actually happened, and the research shows that drastically reduced the complaints and the use of force. Fewer unnecessary incidents mean fewer injuries to both youth and staff. We need leadership that will work with the association to address these problems before they become full-blown crisis. Thank you.

Thank you. Next speaker, please.

Good morning, Board of Supervisors. My name is Zanya Avery. I work at Edgemore. I've worked at Edgemore for 14 years. I'm here today to speak on item number four, which includes an amendment to CAO Ebony Shelton's current employment agreement. As the board considers this amendment, I would like to take a moment to speak on... behalf of the employees who work under the county administrative office. Many of us have been following the recent news and concerns involving Edgemore and the psychiatric hospital. Some of the information that has come forward has been a surprise to some, while others have been aware of these concerns for some time. Regardless of how we got here, I believe we have an opportunity to move forward in a positive direction. Changes are needed with the within behavioral health to help ensure the employees have a safe, respectful, and supportive workplace. When employees feel supported, they are better able to provide the care and services our residents, patients, and communities deserve. So today, I would like to extend an invitation to the CAO, Ebony Shelton, and members of the board to meet directly with employees at Edgemore and the psychiatric hospital. We are not here just to identify problems. We want to be part of the solution. Employees have firsthand experience and valuable ideas that can help improve our workplace and the services we provide. At the end of the day, we all want the same thing, a safe workplace, supportive employees, and a quality care for the people we serve. Thank you. Thank you. Next speaker, please.

Hi, my name is Sarah Johnson. I'm a licensed vocational nurse at Edgemore Hospital. I've been there for 23 years. I'm here today to support item four, which is Ebony Shelton's current employment agreement. And before I start, I would also like to say that me and Zanye have similar ideas, so I don't want to repeat. This being said, there are issues that directly affect the workers under the CAO and community members in San Diego County. Recently, there has been negative attention from the media in regards to the BHS department. In my career, I have seen the good, the bad, the frustrating, and the downright ridiculous, but I have also seen compassion, dedication, teamwork, friendship, and some truly good people doing truly good work. Many changes over the years have occurred with leadership, policies, co-workers, residents, and the way we do our job. Though one thing needs to remain the same, the people who come through the doors and the importance of the work that we do. We do request a positive change to behavioral health services so that we can continue to serve the residents in San Diego. We're requesting to be able to speak directly with Ebony Shelton in our current worksites about current issues without the fear of retaliation. It would definitely be a good starting point. Management needs to be held accountable to handle issues should they arise. These simple steps would be a great start in ensuring that the County of San Diego has the best workforce ever. Thank you.

Thank you. We'll now hear from the individuals that requested to speak by phone. When it is your turn to speak, you'll be unmuted and you'll hear a recording that will tell you to begin your comments. We will start with our first caller.

Five grand jury reports. The responses to the first two reports are apparently only to one or two selected items from each report. We deserve to know what the complete report was. The response to the investigation of adult and juvenile detention facilities says nothing about adult detention facilities. And you need body-worn cameras because of the lying officers. SHARP now has seven bonds for SHARP. SHARP Hospital routinely overcharges patients, in my case, increasing the level of service that a CPT code costing me thousands of dollars. SHARP already got $1 billion in bonds approved three years ago. The interest payments are a burden that taxpayers should not have to shoulder. Just say no. Four, contract amendments. Which I could say the CAO looks good to go, but paying a year's salary to an employee terminated after being convicted of moral turpitude or abuse of their office is wrong. But I'm glad that the CAO and probation chief don't lock in a 30% raise during an economic downturn. But no to paying for a criminal employee. Approve three. Approve three-year children's trust fund. The children's services are failing their children. Child abuse cases keep cropping up. Adopted kids keep dying or being abused. Families like Andrea Ebbing's or Evelyn Lopez's have been ripped apart for no solid reason. Things need to change. I think that even the baby on the supervisor's lap on August 18th may have been.

Thank you. We'll hear from the next caller. Next caller is Consuelo. Your device might be muted.

Amen. Paul the Bold. Consuelo here. To approve the three-year children's trust funding proposal. Okay. So, yeah. Question. What exactly are we funding when our children's services are failing our children? We continue to see children abuse cases, adopted children dying, like Paul mentioned. Arabella McCormick and Or being abused and the families being ripped apart. The fact that we pour loads of money into a system that tears families apart instead of contributing to and incentivizing families to stay together speaks volumes. It's sick. It's twisted. It's so fucked. Over 150 children were recently found in Florida, and the fact that something like that barely made mainstream news is disgusting and very telling of the system we live in. This board, you guys, continue to ignore the obvious. It continues to contribute to the revolving money door of big pharma and the medical monopoly, which has no incentive to truly heal or cure anyone. A patient cured is revenue lost. This board continues to be irresponsible with our money, and it's becoming more and more obvious that the reason, the only reason you need to have these proclamations is to keep the people who aren't paying attention believing that government is here for them. It's such a waste of time, the people's time and money. The system is a freaking racket. It's being exposed. I mean, for God's sake, there are GoFundMes that create millionaires within 24 hours while government can't seem to do anything but take its portion of the money that other people donated to someone in need. It's that sick. It's that twisted. It's retarded. So truly, that's all you guys do. Thank you.

We'll hear from the next caller.

Pam, number two, no. Single source lends to speculation of favoritism and there should be routine invitations for RFPs from other providers who wish to help senior Americans or other Americans in this county, not San Diegans. Other services provided by JFS have not been in the best interest of this county by chance. Do you recall servicing illegal immigrants allowed in by the Biden administration with our taxpayer dollars? And did you have any influence or part in the unaccompanied minors that were locked in the San Diego Convention Center? So no, no, no. Okay, number three, you got to be kidding. We just talked about this on my non-agenda. Per this item, the county continued ongoing efforts to support prevention of and response to child abuse and neglect. Where is this money going? Let me remind this board of the poor record of caring for all children in their charge. Abortion sanctuary, 100-plus lawsuits against Polinsky Center, the young mother who was just allegedly sexually abused in the Youth Transitional Center, and let's not forget Arabella McCormick, an 11-year-old adopted girl who died from severe starvation and torture at the hands of her parents and maternal grandparents. Are any of you on that board, the attorney, I don't know your name, sorry, is it Damon or Damien? Ebony, all of you on that board, who's accountable for these wrongdoings? These are not errors. Let's see, number seven, no taxpayer money to Sharp or other medical corporations. Taxpayers are continually burdened by entities who have the money to make their own improvements, and many Americans living in San Diego don't even use Sharp, so no. let's see uh and number four is no and uh never mind five yes body worn body uh worn cameras are good i don't remember where you put number five sorry thank you and we'll hear from the next caller

I do want to apologize for offending anyone. I do not think that was right for only giving me one minute for doing that. That kind of sucks. So let's go in and recognize the fact that people working in your departments came over there and basically said to you, hey, look, we understand that we're getting a bunch of bad crap, but it has nothing to do with us. Could you please talk to us instead of funding these groups? I mean... I'm paraphrasing a little bit, but we all recognize that these groups are the ones committing registration voter fraud, falsely filling out registration cards, much like... Can you clarify which item on the consent agenda you're speaking to and ensure that your comments are germane to that item? Yeah, I am talking about Jewish Family Services. The group that commits registration voter fraud in order to get you guys elected? The ones able to go ahead and control our politicians through the registration drives? I'm talking about that. I'm talking about why you're giving them more money. I mean, can everyone understand that? They're committing fraud in order to get you elected, and you're protecting them. You promised you would look into it. You refused to do that.

the speaker's time. The item on the consent agenda is regarding a competitive solicitation for no-cost transportation for older adults. That solicitation would go to Jewish Family Services as well. So just, again, you can go ahead and continue speaking, but please make sure that your comments are relevant to the item. Thank you.

They are relevant to the item because of the NBRA, which basically states that anyone getting services also gets registered to vote. That is what I'm talking about. How hard is it for you to understand that? If you call yourself a super, that is pathetic. It really, really is pathetic. Seriously, you really need to look into that. As seen in 1982. Also 1980 in Orange County. What was that, legal women voters? I mean, these groups constantly commit fraud and you refuse to look at them. Refuse.

Thank you. We'll hear from the next speaker.

Hello, can you guys hear me?

Yes, please go ahead.

Hello. Oh, cool. I've been trying to get in for the last three to four times. I'm trying to figure it out. I wish you guys would go to Zoom and it makes it a lot easier to communicate with everybody. But all the consent agenda items are it'd be better to break them down like two items at a time because there's so many of them on the board. And I would like to comment on the one down in the border thing, the cleanup of the sewer problem down in the Tijuana River. I think you guys should all go up to...

If you're speaking, if you're calling to comment on either of the items regarding the Tijuana sewage crisis, those items are in discussion, not on consent. So please comment on the consent agenda or return to make comments on the Tijuana River items when those are up for discussion. Thank you.

Okay, sorry, I was looking on the website. I couldn't figure it out. Okay, see you then. Thanks.

Thank you. For the record, that speaker was Hector Oh. We'll hear from the next caller.

Barbara Gordon, item one. As a public health advocate, I strongly urge the board to support Prop 64, the Public Health and Safety Grant Program, with strong emphasis on protecting youth from cannabis access and exposure. If our county is going to regulate cannabis, we must have resources to enforce those regulations effectively. Grant funding can support enforcement against youth access, strengthen prevention, and education, expanding public health outreach, and protect our community from the environmental hazards. Our young people deserve to grow up in a community where cannabis is not easily accessible or normalized. Strong enforcement, education, prevention are essential to keeping cannabis out of the hands of minors and reducing the risk to their developing brains and their futures. Support this program means putting emphasis on health, safety, and the well-being of young people first. Thank you for letting me speak.

Thank you. We'll hear from the next caller.

Hi, my name is Madison, and I'm speaking in support of Item 3, approving the three-year Children's Trust Fund funding proposal. This is an important investment because the best way to protect children is to strengthen families before a crisis occurs. This proposal puts over $5 million over three years toward services that help families remain safely together, support relatives caring for children, and connect families with legal, educational, and community resources. The results already look compelling. The Family Connection Hub is operating at full capacity, and in 2026, 95% of referrals received initial contact and 99% were assigned a navigator within one business day. The program has already supported 190 children and developed 143 family well-being plans, which is awesome. This proposal also recognizes that kinship caregivers need practical support, emergency assistance, case management, between a stable placement and a family crisis. These investments prioritize low-income families, families of color, and underserved communities while helping prevent unnecessary entry into foster care. This is prevention, equity, and accountability working together. I urge the board to approve it. Thank you.

Thank you. We'll hear from the next caller.

Peggy Walker, thank you. I'm going to speak in support of the Prop 64 funding to the Sheriff's Department to increase public health education related to cannabis and intoxicating hemp products. This is important to allow the Sheriff's Office to engage in activities that advance equitable public health, safety, and environmental outcomes so needed to combat the negative outcomes of marijuana commercialization. It's important because the Sheriff's Office will prioritize debit-driven Enforcement approaches that focus on large scale illegal operations. Serving these operations will improve our county's situation with cannabis businesses. These efforts are important for public health and safety, and I urge your endorsement and approval of this program. Thank you.

Thank you. We'll hear from the next caller.

Good morning. My name is Becky Rapp, and I am here to speak about the Proposition 64 grant money being accepted for cannabis enforcement and public safety, and I support this grant. $5.9 million will provide important resources to the Sheriff's Office, including funding for enforcement, overtime investigations, environmental cleanup, youth education, and community outreach. These are all worthwhile public safety priorities, and I support putting these funds to work where they are most needed. But I also believe we need to look at the bigger picture. At the same time, the board is accepting millions of dollars to deal with a public safety crisis of cannabis, and the county has made a significant decision to expand cannabis opportunities into our backcountry. The backcountry is not the same as an urban environment. It is spread out, difficult to patrol, and includes rural communities, agricultural areas, environmental sensitive lands, and areas where emergency response can already be challenging. If cannabis activity is going to expand substantially in these areas, then the county needs to be honest about what that could mean for law enforcement, fire protection, environmental enforcement, roads, water safety, waste, and the safety and quality of life of the community. $5.9 million may sound like a lot of money, but spread over five and a half years and across an entire county, it's relatively small when compared to the potential scale of what is being presented. In fact, the grant should be viewed as a warning. Before expanding cannabis further into the backcountry, I urge this board to make sure that adequate long-term funding and staffing are in place to protect the communities that will bear the consequences. Please use this grant money aggressively for public safety, but also recognize that grant funding is temporary.

Thank you. We'll hear from the next caller.

Hey, it's True Tonics. Whatever item Monica was talking racist garbage about, I do not support. Item two, note a multi-million dollar sole source contract with human traffickers, Jewish family services, who are Jewish in name only. Item three, how do we ensure that this $5.8 million does not go to nonprofits like Just In Time and their fraudsters, Rashay Cuevas, or to county-funded child centers like the one that was broken into by a rapist? And of course, no to Damon Brown. No, Damon Brown does not deserve $380,000 a year when he can't even answer basic questions about jurisdiction and free speech. And why is Ebony's contract a sloppy looking copy with no salary amount listed? And why does Ebony sign most of these board letters? Why doesn't she sign most of the board letters herself? I would love for Ebony and this board to visit their disgusting Edgemore facility full of sex offenders on county drugs because the people running DHS are the ones who need behavioral health. Item five, in one grand jury report, the county admitted to implementing a failed United Nations AIDS program. In another report, this board shows its hypocrisy when they expect ICE to use body-worn cameras, but refuse to equip probation officers with body-worn cameras to protect children. There's a pattern here of not protecting children. But the grand jury is a joke with their punny report titles like, how do we sell hope? Ironically, the grand jury sells false hope because it's people like myself that have single-handedly brought more accountability to this board than they ever have or ever will. Item 7 notes $420 million in debt for Evil Sharp to profit off their harm. Item 8, $30 million in bond debt so some corporate developers can get rich in Fallbrook. Well, when is the county going to fix South Mission Road? It's falling apart. Item 11 noted down short of the Treasury Committee for an indefinite term. He's another rich white man pushing racist equity at the San Diego Community College District. Item 12, Tara shoving faux transparency into the communications back door is not real transparency. It's akin to your political theater act. You perform every meeting as the actor commie you are. And for Andrew's record, thanks for adding the text updates to the call-in system. I also appreciate the HTML links in the agenda.

Thank you. We'll hear from the next caller.

Good morning, Board of Supervisors. This is Ann Riddle. I came in to speak to item five, which I have a question about, and to add my support to consent item one. My concern regarding consent item five were that each of these responses that were made to the grand jury report I felt deserved a wider hearing and should have been more part of the regular discussion. Of particular interest to me was the response that was given to, that was on attachment four, And it mentioned that attachment four came from PH. I assume that might be public health, but nowhere on the document does it tell you what PH stands for. We need people to be better informed with better titling on what the amendments, the attach amendments really are about. Three or four more words would have done it. Very discouraging for people who care about the counties. And I also called in to add my support for item one, the sheriff receiving that $5.9 million grant that will assist them, and they mentioned specifically using data-driven approaches with large-scale illegal marijuana operations. And then they described what these operations could look like in the community. But somehow or another, we seem to have a disconnect because data tells us that for every legal permitted activity, there are twice as many illegal activities. It would lead one to the conclusion that where you have permitted activities, you have even more illegal activities. Perhaps the problem is with the permitted activities, not with the multitude of illegal, unpermitted activities. It goes on to mention that that they will use great prevention education for our young people. And data tells us . Thank you.

And we'll hear from the final caller.

Thank you. Good morning, Board. My name is Kathleen Mippet and I'd like to comment on the entirety of the consent agenda. Agenda items under consent are determined to be routine, acted upon in one motion and not open for discussion. Often these items are not at all routine, but a significant interest to the public that wishes to discuss them. Consent items are an excellent expedient way for the board to dispose of items quickly with a single minute for the public to respond. the advisor montgomery steps speedy recitation of the consent item belies their significance to the public thank you for letting me speak thank you and chair lawson reamer that concludes public comment on the items in the consent agenda

Okay, thank you so much. We have a motion by Vice Chair Montgomery-Stepp and a second by Chair Pro Temagiri. Seeing no further requests for comments, please vote.

Chair Lawson-Riemer, that motion passes unanimously with all supervisors being present and voting aye.

Okay, thank you all very much. I'll give everyone a moment. I'm going to talk a bit about the schedule for the remainder of the day. Before we begin our discussion items, I'd like to note that Sheriff Martinez is only able to attend our meeting until 3 o'clock today, so we are planning to hear our sheriff-related items before she leaves. Those are items 6, 18, and 20. Again, Sheriff Martinez is only able to be here until 3 p.m. today, so we need to hear items 6, 18, and 20 before she has to go.

I'm going to go through everything right now.

So my plan, unless there's concerns, objections from any of my colleagues, is to take these items in order, which would be item six, which Supervisor Anderson just pulled. Then we do items 13 and 14. then we would do item 15, and then we would do items 18 and 20. However, that does make it likely that item 15 may be after lunch. So Supervisor Anderson, you did pull item six and item 15 is yours. So I am giving you professional courtesy. Do you want, if you have a preference on ordering.

You know, if you want to do it last, I want to make sure that we get through the items. This is not a big deal.

So the question is simply, would you prefer to have item 15 before or after lunch, if we have a chance for it?

After would be fine.

After lunch is okay? Okay, then we're going to do item 6.

15 is which one?

15 is your item with Supervisor Montgomery's step on El Capitan.

Supervisor, what are your thoughts? I know we have a lot of speakers.

I would say maybe do six, 18, and 20 back-to-back after lunch. Great, happy to do that.

Okay, so we will then start, and this is for my colleague, we'll start with 13 and 14. Then we will be able to move on to 15 so that we can get through 15 because we have a lot of speakers here for 15. Then after that, we will take a lunch break. And then we will do our three sheriff related items back to back after lunch so we can finish those before the sheriff has to leave. Again, trying to take account all the needs of all of our speakers and being able to maximize public participation. So I will repeat that one more time. We've just finished consent. So we'll go to items 13 and 14, which is next in any case, then we'll go to 15. So we're going to stay in order. Then we'll take a lunch break. Then we will take item six, 18 and 20 back to back after lunch, because those are all our sheriff related items. Any questions from my colleagues? Okay, great. Um, that being said, uh, Chair Pro Temo, would you like to kick us off on 13 and 14? Yes, Madam Chair. Thank you so much. Thank you.

For 60 years, the people of the South Bay have been promised a fix. The skepticism in my community is not just understandable. It's been earned. So I want to speak directly to that skepticism today because this item is about more than a treatment system. It is about who can be trusted to deliver. Here's what I know about trust. You don't rebuild it with words. You rebuild it by showing up, doing what you said, and being honest about what comes next. We have shown up. When the air turned toxic, this county put purifiers into thousands of homes. When Saturn Boulevard became ground zero for hydrogen sulfide, we took emergency action instead of waiting for someone else to. We expanded air and water monitoring so families could see the facts for themselves. We did what we said, and today we take the next steps. First, we need to address the hotspot at Saturn Boulevard by advancing the design of a shovel-ready box culvert bridge. This project will finally resolve the deteriorating infrastructure at Saturn Boulevard and immediately help reduce H2S levels. Second, we have to also launch a capture and cleanup initiative to collect and treat the polluted river itself here on our side of the border. Not another study of the problem, but an actual long-term solution driven by the county. And here's the honest part. This is phase one of three for the capture and cleanup initiative. It will take dedicated funding, real partnerships, and years of work. We'll keep working with Washington and Mexico, but we will set the pace and we won't wait on anyone else's timeline. That is why this item also turns our ad hoc subcommittee into a standing committee of this board. Every phase comes back to us in public with a community at the table. We are building the accountability into the plan itself. It is imperative to stress that the capture and cleanup initiative is an iterative three-phase process designed to address the root of the problem. Throughout each phase, participation from this board and the public will be essential to ensure our region maintains a strong, solutions-driven voice that guides long-term outcomes. The reality is simple. We can't control what happens across the border. We can control what we do on our side of it, and we can be held accountable to it. I'm asking my colleagues to support these two critical steps of fixing the hotspot and beginning phase one of the capture and cleanup initiative. Thank you, Chair Lawson-Reimer, for your partnership and your leadership. And to the South Bay, I say, you've earned this. We intend to earn your trust back. With that, I'll turn it over to you, Madam Chair.

Thank you so much. First, I just really want to thank my colleague for her fierce leadership, ongoing partnership in ensuring that this issue, this crisis, this public health crisis, this environmental justice crisis that has faced and plagued our region for so long remains centered and at the forefront of our policy agenda here at the county and across San Diego County because We've all suffered far too long and especially the residents of her district who deal with this public health crisis every single day. But the reality is that this is a public health crisis and an environmental justice crisis that affects all of San Diego County. It is a embarrassment that our county is dealing with this sewage and toxic waste crisis in our beaches and that it's been going on for decades. Everywhere I go in San Diego County, and I'm including all the way in the northern part of our county, all the way up in Carlsbad or Oceanside, and in the farthest east parts of our county where I go hiking to the center parts of our county. Everywhere I go, someone has an opinion about how we need to move more quickly to tackle this crisis because our beaches and clean water and enjoying our beautiful outdoors is a big part of what makes San Diego such a special place. I was talking to a fisherman the other day who lives in East County and his concern was that the migratory fish that swim right off of our coast, that their population has been decimated because of the toxic sewage outflows that have plagued our beaches for so long. There's people who cannot go to the beach, who cannot swim in our oceans, and we have to continue tackling this crisis with urgency. And that's what these items are about today. The Saturn Boulevard item, I think it's a very important item near-term step that we can take immediately that should bring immediate relief to people who are breathing in toxic fumes and who can't sleep at night, who can't play outside because there's toxic fumes in the air that are impacting people's health and well-being. The other initiative, the other item, I think is really important. This is our capture and cleanup initiative because for far too long, we have just been forced to wait, wait for the federal government, wait for Congress, wait for Mexico to do something for our community, but we cannot wait any longer. It is up to us here in San Diego County to take action to bring bold leadership to tackle this crisis that faces our community impacts our 3.3 million residents. So this item today is about getting moving on the pre-construction and pre-planning process so that we actually have a shovel ready project that we can then figure out how to get funded and how to get built because we can't wait. We can't wait for anyone else. We need to make the investments here to tackle this crisis and to make sure that everyone in San Diego County can enjoy clean water and clean air because we all have a right to clean water and clean air. I think it's very important for us to think both near term bring immediate solutions, but also think long-term to acknowledge that Tijuana will continue to grow. It's projected to grow by 40% in the next 25 years, and we need solutions that are forward-looking so that our kids and our grandkids are not dealing with the same crisis that we've been dealing with for a generation. So I'm very proud to bring this item with my colleague today and look forward to hearing comments from the public.

Oh, hold on. Would you like to make a motion?

I'm happy to move. Okay. We have a motion from the chair pro tem and I'm happy to second.

Thank you, Chair Lawson-Riemer. And we'll be hearing public comments on items 13 and 14 together. I'll note for the record that we have 18 requests to speak, eight in person, and 10 requesting to speak by phone. Also note that we, on item 13, received 189 e-comments, 169 in support, nine in opposition, and five neutral. And for item 14, we received 13 e-comments, eight in support, four in opposition. For any individuals that requested to speak on items 13 and 14 by phone, please dial into the conference line using the instructions that were provided to you. We'll begin with the in-person speakers. As your name is called, please come forward and stand on the arrows until it is your turn to speak at the podium. Because there are 10 or more speakers on these items, you'll have one minute to address the board. And please begin by stating your name for the audio record. I'd like to invite forward the first three individuals, Maria Ortiz, Sarah Davidson, and Eric Syverson. If I've called your name, please come forward.

Good morning. My name is Maria Ortiz and I'm a graduate candidate in the Conflict Management and Resolution at the University of San Diego. I'm here to urge support for advancing infrastructure at the Saturn Boulevard hotspot to reduce Tijuana River Valley pollution. Clean air and water are basic necessities, yet our community continues to suffer without consensus. My USD classmates and I have studied social action campaigns around the TRV, and today we stand here not just as students but as engaged citizens. I am especially encouraged by the military collaboration in this effort. I am a spouse of a 30-year veteran and the mother of an active duty naval officer, so protecting those who serve and their families is personal to me. Years ago, while stationed in Italy, water toxicity reports emerged in the area that we lived in, and the Navy moved our family within days, so I know that swift action is possible because I've lived it. Let's work together to protect our military, support our families, and ensure that everybody has safe air to drink, safe air to breathe, and clean water in our estuary. Thank you.

Thank you. Next speaker, please.

Good morning, Chair Lawson-Riemer and board members. My name is Sarah Davidson, and I manage the Clean Border Water Now program at Surfrider Foundation, as well as co-lead the Tijuana River Coalition. I speak today on behalf of both. Thank you, Chair Lawson-Riemer and Pro Tem Chair Aguirre, for your persistent leadership in addressing the worsening public health crisis resulting from contamination in the Tijuana River watershed. Today marks 1,728 days that the county's southernmost beach has been closed. That's nearly five consecutive years and counting. We used to think that someone had to get in the water to be exposed to the toxins flowing through the river and risk illness. When we came to understand that the contamination was being transferred from water to air, we realized that all it took was breathing in the harmful gases to be exposed. It's now becoming clear that you don't even need to experience direct exposure to toxic air and water to be impacted by this pollution crisis. I'm running out of time, so I'll simply say that we strongly support these two solutions. Thank you very much.

I'd like to invite forward the next three speakers, Charles Reilly, Courtney Baltiski, and allegedly Audra.

If I've called your name, please come forward. Thank you. My name is Eric Syverson. I reside in unincorporated D5. Mr. Desmond, I appreciate your leadership. I'm a local of Imperial Beach. I grew up there. The county's asking the poisoned, the people who have been poisoned, to pay for this. That's what they're asking. We already paid for it. There's $600 million in a 100% solution proposed. apparently didn't hold the news conference at Saturn because it's dry right now and there is no sewage water going through those pipes, that the hydrogen sulfide levels have not been spiking because the Trump administration has convinced Mexico to turn on diversion and is drying out the valley. This is true. the way the news has portrayed this with flowing water and the way those pipes at Saturn look today. Beyond that, it's illegal. You are proponents of a proposed sales tax in the fall. Nevada County has already been found to be a violation of the EPA.

Thank you, sir. Your time is up. Your time is up. Thank you. Thank you. I appreciate that. Thank you.

I appreciate one minute for two items. Sir, your time is up, thank you.

One minute, two items. A billion dollars. Next speaker, please.

Sir, this is your first warning. Please do not disrupt the meeting. Thank you.

Good morning. My name is Charles Riley, and I'm speaking on behalf of the San Diego chapter of the Sierra Club. For decades, the people of the South Bay have been told to wait, wait for Mexico, wait for Washington, wait for the next agreement, the next project, or the next promise. But our communities cannot wait. This is not simply an environmental problem, it's a public health crisis. Untreated sewage and polluted water continue to enter the Tijuana River Valley, contaminating our waterways and beaches and exposing residents to dangerous pollution. The county has already undertaken public health studies because residents are reporting real and persistent impacts. For years, San Diegans have been told it is not as bad as it seems or that we are close to 100% solution, yet beaches remain closed, residents can smell and feel the issue, health issues remain. We absolutely must continue pressing our federal and binational partners, but we also have to recognize the reality. We cannot make our public health dependent on whether someone else acts. That is why Sierra Club San Diego supports both the local capture and cleanup project and the Saturn Boulevard hotspot solutions. Thank you both, and thank you to the whole board for your leadership.

Thank you. Next speaker, please.

Hello, honorable supervisors. Thank you to each of you for your commitment to the Tijuana watershed and addressing the pollution crisis. My name is Courtney Baltiski with the YMCA and a partner of the Tijuana River Coalition. At the Y, despite the odds against operations and consistent beach closures, we persist. Last summer at YMCA Camp Surf, we welcomed thousands of campers and staff from around the world. This includes 818 youth from Chula Vista Elementary School District and 219 from San Ysidro School District. Many had never been to the beach before. Many came packing inhalers because of chronic respiratory issues. We welcomed everyone to one of the only global overnight campsites to the beach, only to have kids board a bus and travel to open water. Despite the lack of revenue, we took on the expense for kids to travel hours on the bus through the heat. But we know that these experiences, first-time boogie boarding, surfing, and learning about the outdoors is priceless. Thank you so much for bringing forth these items, and thank you for sustainable solutions.

Thank you. As the next speaker is coming forward, I'll invite the remaining speakers in person. Leslie Masland and Tiffany Curry. I've called your name. Please come forward.

Figures you would kick a victim out that has firsthand experience and knowledge of all of your bullshit. Talk about embarrassing. And you're sitting here, you guys have, intend to earn trust back. How are you doing that? And how are you working with Mexico? Keep working with Mexico? How about start working with Mexico? Instead, you guys are doing MOUs and a bunch of nonsense, gaslighting the public and saying that you were forced to wait, and now all of a sudden you can't wait anymore. Were your hands tied? Someone have a gun to your head and say, you better not do it, right? Because we need this commerce from Mexico, so we can't hold Mexico accountable. We're going to let these people suffer and say our solutions are working when we're giving them faulty air purifiers and testing their health effects. It's fucking ridiculous, the things that you guys do. And people come in here and want help because you guys do make empty promises. And then when it's in your face, what do you do? Kick them out.

Next speaker, please.

Hello, I'm Leslie Ann Massland, a CIU 221 vice president and librarian with the county library system. We strongly support item 13 in the Tijuana River Capture and Cleanup Initiative. This is an important step toward finding real long-term solutions in the pollution crisis affecting our South Bay communities. Our park rangers and other frontline county workers work in and around areas affected by this pollution. County workers should have a voice in this initiative. We have delivered air purifiers and see the impacts of this crisis in our work and can bring that experience to the conversation. This pollution crisis has gone on too far long. We need long-term solutions that protect our communities, our environment, and the county workers who serve these areas. We urge the board to support item 13 and keep moving towards a real long-term solution to the Tijuana River pollution crisis. Thank you, Chair Lawson-Riemer and Pro Tem Chair Aguirre for bringing this item forward.

Thank you. Thank you. Next speaker, please.

Good morning. My name is Tiffany Curry. I'm with Outdoor Outreach, a local nonprofit connecting youth to the transformative powers of the outdoors. And I'm also honored to speak on behalf of the Tijuana River Coalition, a coalition built of community organizations, businesses, researchers, nurses, doctors, and public agencies. Today, I'm speaking in support of both items 13 and 14. And I want to thank the board for your continued effort and attention to addressing the pollution crisis. I'm urging your vote yes on both items today because the cost of not stepping in where we can is far too high. The cost of businesses closing, missed schools and work days, and increased doctor visits for community members, thousands of days of beach closures, and the mental and physical harm that's being done by this crisis are all costing us every day far too much. and solutions benefits everybody. We all benefit when local economies and ecosystems thrive. We'll benefit when... This is solved. Thank you.

Thank you. We'll now hear from the individuals that requested to speak by phone. When it is your turn to speak, you'll be unmuted and you'll hear a recording that will tell you to begin your comments. We will start with our first caller.

So you want to spend $1.8 million on a project without a plan or a fixed timeline? Another political cleanup? This isn't punting someone else. But another delay, this time for 18 months. So you have the tools to find and contain the pollution right now. Handheld monitors, holding ponds, dredging and all. And while this planning phase involves a lot of good research, it needs the cooperation of both Mexico and San Diego. All you mentioned is our research, our standing committee, and our contractors, and by the way, our failed air purifier stuff. when it is clear that transporter cooperation is needed not sure why we should trust you to plan another delay for our kids um and on item four thank you we'll hear from the next caller

60 seconds for two items. That's how much your government cares about what you have to say, people. Pay attention. And again, this is to fix the reputation of these board members, to keep the Stockholm Syndrome believers still believing in their empty promises. Here we go. We continue to foot the bill for no actual solution, and there are plenty of people with solutions, but unfortunately, thankfully, actually, they're not in any way, shape, or form connected to the racket of government. So they won't be used. But, you know, actually, I just want to use this time to say a reminder to my fellow San Diegans that there are plenty of people who are getting kickbacks from this issue with the Tijuana River sewage crisis. So put the word crisis on an issue and watch it stay forever. Wake up, people, seriously. And Paloma is a big fat liar when she says that we can't control what happens across the border. The fuck we can't.

Liar. We'll hear from the next caller.

Pam, 60 years, no to both items. Two of you weren't even born. before this all started. Anyway, no to 1.8 million for the, we don't know what the design will be, how it will work or where we'll get the money. This building of an infrastructure of the county's own sounds like the California high-speed train to nowhere bleeding out the taxpayers. Paloma stated, we aren't waiting on bureaucratic red tape. Paloma, you were mayor of IB. You controlled the red tape. You made the promises. As always, promises to resolve and be the hero, but wanting more and more money in the meantime. Number 14, $4 million within the unlocked reserve framework for the environmental review, permitting and design of a Saturn plan. Doesn't sound like it's shovel ready. And why are you amending the contracts for more money and the remaining for your term to complete design and construction support services? Nowhere does it say that it's going to be built, what it'll cost to be built, just nothing. We want the money.

Thank you. We'll hear from the next caller.

California has the railroad. San Diego has the sewage crisis. I do love how that money doesn't really actually go to that or, you know, a portion of it does. Of course it does. But then the rest of it goes to fund the programs that gets cut by federal government because they don't trust these organizations doing what they said that they're going to do.

Yeah, no, I definitely agree.

We need to go out and give as much money humanly as possible so we can go in and divert that money to, you know, all these health programs, right? It's not about being honest with the people. It's about tricking the people, right? I mean, that's why we have two lawyers that used to work with the ACLU that helped create the NVRA and who only defend only half of those regulations. The other half, they protect the criminal aspect. That's amazing. It's amazing. You can go in and take a look at every single...

We'll hear from the next caller.

Good morning, chair and board members. My name is Mira Mendoza and I'm speaking on behalf of the 2000 businesses represented by the San Diego Regional Chamber of Commerce. The chamber strongly supports item 14 to advance infrastructure at the Saturn Boulevard hotspot. Mitigating the transboundary pollution across our binational region is a longstanding priority for the chamber. We have consistently We strongly advocated for federal, state, local, and binational investments that advance solutions to protect public health and our environment while supporting tourism, economic prosperity, and the wellbeing of our binational community. This project represents an important investment of the Saturn Boulevard hotspot and provide meaningful relief to surrounding communities by reducing air contamination and improving water quality. We thank Chair Lawson-Reimer and Supervisor Aguirre for bringing this item forward and respectfully encourage the board to support this important effort. Thank you for your time and consideration.

Thank you. We'll hear from the next caller.

It's truth. Millions of junk air purifiers doesn't build trust. Neither does combining two totally different items to silence dissent. How come Manny and Tara never consulted with IB groups like Stop the Stink, Stop the Poop, Citizens for Coastal Conservancy, or even the mayor? When Mexico loyalist Manny says she has a $10 million plan with zero details, it's because she wants to benefit her NGO grifters like Wild Coast and Sierra Club. The news says this money goes nowhere without more states of emergencies. Well, that's been working great for six years, right? How could the county fund an operated treatment system when the feds can't even get enough funding for it? Is that to justify terrorist tax hikes? What happens when Mexico breaks that one, too? Until Mexico has a sewage system, this is all fake.

Until they have a working sewage system, we are going to continue having an ongoing battle on this issue.

Shut the border down because IB knows Manuela Ploma has increased sewage more than any other politician in history. She's a single-handed reason why there is more sewage than there has ever been. We can't keep it clean until she's gone.

And we'll hear from the final caller.

Hi, my name is Diamond Brandon. I'm speaking on behalf of S&S Furley Ranch, a three-generation black-owned family ranch in the Tijuana River Valley. We strongly support items 13 and 14. My papa was stewarding our land here decades ago alongside a community that's been organizing and fighting to protect the valley for generations. For too long, we've been treated out of sight and out of mind, and we're grateful to finally have representation in Supervisor Aguirre that matches the activism and urgency that's existed here all along. Our families deserve clean air, clean water, and safe access to land we call home, and our community has been fighting for this valley for generations. We need our government to fight alongside us. So please do support items 13 and 14. Thank you so much for all that y'all do and the chaos that you have to listen to all day while you're doing it.

Thank you. And Chair Lawson-Riemer, that concludes public comment on items 13 and 14.

Okay. Thank you very much. I turn the floor over to Vice Chair Montgomery-Stepp.

Thank you so much, Chair Lawson-Reimer and Chair Pro Tem Aguirre for bringing this item forward. Chair Pro Tem, and really the chair, have been very persistent and consistent in your advocacy around this issue, and I want to thank you for that. For decades, communities in South Bay have waited for outside agencies to fix this crisis. While billions of gallons of raw sewage polluted our beaches and sickened our residents, this action lays the groundwork to build a locally controlled treatment system. On the San Diego side of the border, we can no longer let our environment and public health depend on another government's timeline. I appreciate your advocacy in stepping up and building, pushing this board to help be a part of the solution in building the necessary infrastructure. So I support the local capture and cleanup along with the Saturn Boulevard project. Thank you very much.

Okay, thank you so much. Chair Pertamagiri. Thank you, Madam Chair, and thank you, Vice Chair, for your support.

I just want to address some of the comments that I heard. I always think it's interesting that people think that we're omnipotent and that we can actually force another country to do something that they may or may not want to do. All we can do is pressure, push, advocate, even continue to demand that Mexico step up and invest more resources and reduce the amount of sewage and industrial waste that's flowing freely into our communities. since the beginning of the century, so that we could have clean air and clean water. Now, that being said, the agreements that have happened under the past administration and under this administration are good. They're signals that we are working towards a shared binational solution. Is it fast enough? Absolutely not. The people that elected me to office decisively gave me a very clear mandate because I was not timid about what platform I ran on. This was my number one priority because it is the number one priority for the district. And yes, there's impacts to beach closures and beach access. We heard 1,700 plus consecutive days. But we also have to take into consideration the economic impacts that are happening, not just to Imperial Beach and Nassar and San Ysidro and Coronado, because Hotel del Coronado, let's be very clear, their beaches have been closed also for almost as long. What we need to take into consideration is the impact the health impacts that people on a daily basis are suffering. Because yes, the estuary is almost at the verge of collapse. Yes, hundreds of dolphins have been scientifically identified as having died because of sewage pollution. And yes, it's a beach access issue. And yes, it's an economic issue. But at the end of the day, it's about people being able to breathe. It's about the dozens upon dozens of people that I meet constantly that have walking pneumonia, that have chronic obstructive pulmonary disease, that have allergies, that have asthma, that have irritable bowel syndrome. We have heard from pediatricians. In fact, a letter signed by over 20 of them saying they're seeing significant increases in children IBS and many other symptoms. Now, like I said, can we continue to demand Mexico do more? Yes. Did this administration in the past one let us down? Yes. Doesn't matter if you were Republican or Democrat. The Biden administration could have moved forward with the option to divert and treat, which is option number three in the NEPA process, and they did not. They decided because it was too costly, they were gonna go with let Mexico fix it. Now, when you hear that there is the current Trump administration talking about the 100% solution, That is a 100% upgrade and fix to the International Wastewater Treatment Plant, which treats sewage from Mexico and treats zero flows coming through the river. Zero. Zero. So when they talk about the 100% solution, they're talking about waiting for Mexico to fix it. And I have never in my entire life heard of a body of government depending on a different country to bring health, safety, and welfare, which is our responsibility to our constituents. So I know the arguments are coming about let's hold Mexico accountable. The Trump administration has a 100% solution. We need to continue to hold the federal government accountable. At the end of the day, the tens of thousands of constituents in South Bay that are suffering all of these illnesses that are listed that are not even half of them, are the ones that cannot continue to wait. And this is our opportunity to take the bull by the horns and to not just talk the talk, but walk the walk. So I urge my colleagues to support this item. Thank you.

Okay, thank you very much, Supervisor Desmond.

Thank you, Madam Chair. Appreciate it. Ultimately, I would like to see Mexico stand up and finally fix the source of this issue. I think we all would. And we've been waiting decades for that to happen. And unfortunately, it hasn't. But I agree we should do anything we can here within reason to provide relief for San Diegans and San Diego County. This is Mexico's fault. And if anything, a treatment plant should be built on their side of the border, not on our side of the border. We've already built one to the tune of $650 million, and that's just the cost of it. The operating costs are a million dollars a year as well. But putting this money towards exploring and constructing a new treatment plant to capture the untreated river flows, I think is a good use of the reserve dollars. But we cannot let up pressure on Mexico. We have to be willing to put, I know nobody likes sanctions or tariffs or those types of things, but we've gotta be able to force Mexico's hand in dealing with this thing. This is air pollution, it's their sewage, and we're having to ultimately deal with it. So I would hope, though, in the next 18 months, which this is projected to go over, the projects that have been outlined in the agreements, an agreement made between the Trump administration and Mexico that Mexico meets certain milestones within those 18 months with minute orders 328 and 333, those potential projects or projects that have been agreed to will be completed. But however, we've seen a track record of that not happening. And I think it's good to be prepared. I don't want to spend, it's probably the next treatment plant's going to be a billion dollars on our side of the border. However, I think we should at least plan for the worst-case scenario and moving forward, and hopefully Tijuana builds the infrastructure that they've been promising. But I almost think if they see us planning another one, it's like, why should they build one? I mean, it's kind of a double-edged sword here we're walking into. I believe it's worthy that we should pursue this at least if we've already committed money for a short-term fix there at Saturn Boulevard. So I agree we should not be the ones that have to finish the job, but we should at least have a plan B in place if Mexico doesn't fulfill it. But we've got to be able to come up with pressure on Mexico and be willing to enforce it to stop the flow of sewage into the United States. This is awful. It's terrible. I'll be supportive, but hopefully we won't have to build this plant and Mexico does it ahead of us. Thank you.

Supervisor Anderson.

First of all, I want to thank Supervisor Aguirre for her leadership on this issue. I know that you know all these answers, that's why I'm asking you. But why hasn't the state of California declared an emergency? Why haven't they engaged in any level? Those state legislators that represent that area, are they championing this or what's the status?

Through the chair.

Our local delegation has been incredibly supportive, as well as the entire legislature. Every single assembly member and senate member in the entire state signed a joint resolution calling for a state of emergency. Senator Padilla, his bill just was recently approved yesterday, I believe, to set hydrogen sulfide standards, which by the way, we don't have health standards for hydrogen sulfide because nobody should be breathing in that toxic gas. So our state delegation has been supportive, and I haven't been timid about stating this. Unfortunately, our current governor has decided that this does not rise to the level of an emergency, which is unfortunate because we could have a subsequent federal one issued, which would expedite things and fixes and efforts. However, we have secured commitments from the next government, whoever that may be, to declare one, so.

Then, part of my concern on this is the item 13, I really think it needs to be, I would feel better supporting it if the cities impacted were part of a coalition that was doing it. I don't believe that we should be going alone. IB should be participating. San Diego should be participating. Coronado should be participating. And maybe even some of the communities along the coast further up who have had their beaches impacted. Without that regional support, I'm uncomfortable moving forward with it. As far as the second item, the... the Saturn Boulevard, I'm totally supportive, and I'm happy to support that. And, you know, in some of these meetings, I've participated not nearly to the level you have, but I know Otay Water District sells a lot of water to Tijuana and Tijuana residents. I believe it's a big portion. I'd really like to see that coalition talk to them about withholding the water. If you're going to send it back to us polluted, then we're just not going to give it to you to start with. And I think that that would be, I think that focal point is our real leverage because it's hard to grow Tijuana if there's not enough water to grow Tijuana. But then I don't want to say the wrong numbers, but I believe that we're giving them a substantial amount of water. So, you know, if you wanted to come back with that coalition, I'd gladly support it. But we're going down a route on our own. We're going to spend $1.8 million that could lead to billions. And the county just doesn't have that kind of money. And it shouldn't be the county's responsibility. The state and the feds and everybody else should be involved. And certainly the region benefits from all of it. But if you're willing to bifurcate the vote, I don't know how we're going to do this vote. I'd be happy to vote for item 14 because I do believe that that's more our lane than putting the plans in order to build a sewer treatment plant.

I just thank you so much. I just want to clarify something regarding your comments and item 13. The intention of this item is absolutely to build the kind of coalition that you've mentioned to bring this forward, but we don't want to wait. We need to do this initial pre-construction scenario planning so that we are then able to have three to five concrete options that we can then go get feedback around, talk to all the various different cities. I'm certainly intending to talk to the cities in my jurisdiction, which includes the city of San Diego, the city of Encinitas, the city of Solana Beach, the city of Carlsbad, and We have a colleague on the board who has very deep relationships with another city who's heavily impacted. So all of them in her district. I don't want to speak out of turn. But the intention here is absolutely, you know, to talk to the state, talk to the federal government, talk to the other cities. And that is actually pretty clearly outlined in... the charge of what we'll be asking the consultant to assess and to come back with options that can include regulatory and financing partnerships with other jurisdictions. But I do, I just wanted to say that on the record that that is important. But at the same time we can't wait. And I know that unfortunately too often the need for collaboration ends up with everybody walking in a circle and not making any progress moving forward because everyone's waiting for sort of that perfect agreement from all stakeholders. And one of the things I think I've really learned in the last, I guess, six years in elected office is the importance of having a vision moving forward and then inviting other people to the table. And I think we could look at San Diego Community Power as a really compelling example of that. Now, there are just... the San Diego Community Power covers the vast majority of rate payers in our region. But when it started, we at the county weren't part of it. Coronado wasn't a part of it. Chula Vista wasn't a part of it. There was basically the city of San Diego and the city of Encinitas. um and they said you know they came together they said we have a vision we're going to build something great and guess what as soon as we could we signed up and joined because it's a lot easier to assess whether you want to be a part of something when there's some meat in the bones of what that something is so really what we're looking at here is being is bringing leadership to this issue and putting together some options so that then we can go around and build exactly the kind of coalition that you mentioned, because that will be, I think, is significantly preferable. But I will say, and my colleague has said this time and again, it is unconscionable that we have people who are breathing in toxic air and swimming in toxic water, polluted with not just sewage and biocontaminants, but industrial contaminants, heavy metals, industrial waste, here. Here, it's like a crisis like a Flint, Michigan level crisis and it's here and we cannot wait for all our little cities and all our counties and everybody to agree before we act. So we will definitely be voting on the motion in two parts because it is two items and you're happy to choose to support 14 and not 13. I just wanted to say I am very, very strongly in support. It would be significantly better if we can have the federal government, the states, all of our cities all working together. I personally pledge to put the work in to try to make that happen. But I also pledge that we're not going to slow down and we're not going to stop if people... don't want to work on this because it's too important for our community.

Chair Pro Tem. Yeah, I just wanted to add, thank you, Chair. Just wanted to add some context to my comments earlier. So when the EPA does their NEPA process, which is the National Environmental Protection Act, It's kind of our sequel, right? They go out and consult with all the stakeholders. All of the stakeholder cities, when these options to bring forward were considered, were consulted. They were part of that process. I was part of that process. We were all part of that process, even before Minute 333 was signed, which I was also part of. So it's not that we are acting in a silo. This option has been discussed at length. It wasn't spearheaded, like I said, because it was, I guess, not the most cost effective in their view. But now we know that the option that was selected is not helping us breathe cleaner air, nor is it opening our beaches. Now, I'll say that Everybody back, even 10 years ago, joined into a lawsuit. It was City of Chula Vista, City of San Diego, the Port of San Diego, the state, with the exception of Coronado. But most of the cities in South Bay have always been on the same page. Now, to the chair's point, this will launch that effort so that we have to do it collaboratively. That is not even an option. Because let's say that if and when we're able to build something, we're going to have to formally create something coalitions and join powers of authority and work together regardless. So to that, I would say that. And then to the concern about resources, I get it. I understand. And if you decide not to move forward with it, it's okay. But if we have the ability to consider $3 million to fund a launch project, ramp for boating recreation, I think 1.8 to begin the process to take the bull by the horns so that people, kids, seniors, people who are immunocompromised can breathe, go to work, go to school, and live a normal life. And, you know, I think we can have money for that. Thank you. Thank you so much.

I post it again.

Yes, Supervisor Anderson. Thank you for raising your hand.

Thank you. I My concern is this is not our lane. And once we start going down the Fed's lane, the state's lane, there's always things that need to be done in the county that aren't our lane. And I've opposed being outside of our lane, no matter what the project was, if it's not our lane. In the board letter, The sense and the direction I got was not even to look at using the leverage of the water that we sell. And I get it. That's Otay Water District that does it, not us. But we're not even taking into consideration. We're already committing to $1.8 million in a long-term strategy without taking in all the consideration. See, if, and I agree with my colleague, All those communities are quite familiar with this and they've been working. So it's strange to me that they're not all on board part of a JPA or part of some sort of collaborative effort Right now, in this, I think that, yes, we want to take it on. We don't want to lose time, but we're getting out ahead of all the stakeholders, and that means we're reducing the number of options that we have. To me, I'd rather spend that $1.8 million buying water from Otay not to sell it to T.J., enforce TJ's hand because I don't think they can survive if we cut off their water. Because I believe that water amount, and I'm sorry I don't have the numbers in front of me, but I was staggered when I found out how much water we sell them. And I think that that would really change the level of participation. So I appreciate the hard work. I appreciate the need. There's a lot of need in my district as well, but it's not our lane, so I'm not pursuing those items because it's a federal or a state issue. Thank you.

Okay. Thank you so much. Any further comments from any colleagues? Okay, so we have a motion and a second for both items 13 and 14. We will vote on them separately at the request of Supervisor Anderson so he can register his support for one and his opposition to the other. We will begin with item 13 and then we'll move to item 14. Andrew, please call the vote. This is item 13.

Chair Lawson-Riemer, that motion passes with Supervisor Anderson voting no, all other supervisors being present and voting aye.

Okay, thank you very much. Now we're moving to item 14.

And Chair Lawson-Rima, that motion passes unanimously with all supervisors being present and voting aye.

Okay, fantastic. We're moving on to item 15. Let me turn it over to my colleagues who brought this item. Vice Chair.

Thank you so much. I believe that we're going to allow for public comment. Supervisor Anderson, is that what you wanted to do? And then go back to Supervisor Anderson.

Okay, great. So we'll go to public comment and then we'll return to the authors of the item.

Thank you, Chair Lawson-Riemer. We have 11 requests to speak on this item, five in person, and six requesting to speak by phone. Also note for the record that we received 154 e-comments, 146 in support, two in opposition, and one neutral. For any individuals that requested to speak on item 15 by phone, please dial into the conference line using the instructions that were provided to you. We'll begin with the in-person speakers. As your name is called, please come forward and stand on the arrows until it is your turn to speak at the podium. Because there are 10 or more speakers on the side, I'm going to have one minute to address the board, and I'll ask you to please state your name for the audio record. I'd like to invite forward the first three individuals, Keith Corey, Thomas Lowery, and Robert McGargle. If I've called your name, please come forward.

Good morning, chair, members of the board of supervisors. My name is Keith Corey and I'm here to speak today on behalf of the city of San Diego regarding the boat launch ramp extension project at El Capitan Reservoir. This project reflects a valuable city-county partnership built on a shared goal, expanding safe, year-round recreational access to El Capitan Reservoir. Serving 1.4 million water customers across the county, El Capitan is a city-owned and operated reservoir that plays a critical role in our region's water supply. To support the water supply system, water levels at Al Capitan have to fluctuate. And when those levels drop, the existing boat launch ramp becomes unusable. Extending that ramp will allow boaters and anglers to keep access in the reservoir even during lower water conditions. To date, the city has completed planning and preliminary design, initiated CEQA review, and permit applications for the project. These steps are anticipated to be completed by December 2026. We've just begun procurement of a consultant to prepare the final design. Construction can begin, looks like I'm out of time. Thanks for your consideration.

Thank you.

Next speaker, please.

If I've called your name, if you could please line up on the arrows. Thank you.

Chair Reamer, Board of Supervisors, good morning. I'm Tom Lowry and I lead the efforts of the Friends of the San Diego Lakes. We are thrilled and very grateful to have item 15, support for El Cap, before you today. El Capitan Reservoir is one of San Diego County's premier outdoor recreation and fishing destinations, serving thousands of county residents and city residents each year. Approval of this item will ensure uninterrupted entry into El Cap Reservoir for boaters, anglers, our families, and by mitigating the impact of fluctuating very low water levels. In addition to enhancing recreational activities at the reservoir, this will absolutely increase visitation and generate positive economic impacts for both the city and the businesses that are located in the county surrounding the reservoir. We urge you to vote yes to improving this investment that means so much to so many. And I want to thank Supervisor Anderson and STEP for your leadership on this. Thank you so much.

Thank you. I'd like to invite for the remaining speakers in person, allegedly Audra and Peter Graves. If I've caught your name, please come forward.

Hello, Supervisors. I'm Rob McGargle. I'm here on behalf of the Friends of the San Diego Lakes. I would like to give a shout out to Supervisor Stepp and Supervisor Anderson for championing this cause. Thank you for the leadership and collaborative work with the City of San Diego to protect public recreation at El Cap Reservoir. LCAP is a cornerstone inland resource for East County and our entire region. For families, anglers, boaters, outdoor enthusiasts, having safe, reliable access to the water provides healthy recreation, community connection, and quality of life. I strongly urge you to vote yes today and approve the funding to move the launch ramp extension forward. Extending the ramp is a lasting, practical solution that ensures low waters won't shut the public out of the lake. A yes vote cements a vital regional partnership and protects public access for today and future generations. Thank you for your continued dedication in preserving the community's outdoor services. Thank you.

Thank you. Next speaker, please.

Good morning, board. My name is Peter Graves. I've been fishing the San Diego Lake since 1968, and I've seen a demise lately, not just the Velcap, but in general. If you remember, there was a newscast on Channel 10 where the board that's that's in charge of our water, our water authority, said we have excess water in San Diego. That was less than six months ago. We don't have excess water. We've never had excess water except in 1978 and 79. The lowering of our water and selling our water, whether it's to Mexico or our biggest customer is Riverside County, is putting our ramps out of water. As a retirement, my goal was to continue fishing El Cap. Thank you, thank you. Okay, thank you. Next speaker, please.

How ironic that we sell water to Mexico and they give us back their shit. How cool is that? There's nothing we can do. Just keep selling them our water so they can give it back to us once they have put it through their systems. I'm wondering how this is fitting into your health and safety for wildlife when gasoline is super toxic to fish and the reproduction of them. And just the wildlife that it's... coming into play with. And then it gets given back to us after you guys fluoridate it. How cool is that? It's good for our teeth, right? It's not a neurotoxin or anything. The runoff from fertilizer. It's okay. It's just a way to get rid of it. You know what I mean? It's like when they get rid of bodies, they put it in McDonald's. I mean, you gotta find a place for something. You know what I mean? You can't have those piling up. You guys are so toxic. It's great.

We'll now hear from those that requested to speak by phone. We'll start with our first caller.

I agree that I'll call the vote. I agree that the county should support increased recreational opportunities, but I'm not sure if this is the best way to do it. Paul, we are really having trouble hearing you on this end.

It's very broken up. I don't know if you're walking or if you're in a place with bad reception, but perhaps you could either go off speaker or stop walking and we can see if that works a little better.

Yeah, I don't know what the problem is. Sorry. Anyway, the land use group didn't mention the boat launch ramp extension. While the extension would enhance recreational opportunities, I wonder if the increased number of boaters on the lake with a smaller volume of water or the result in more pollution is the water supply from earth fuel and things like algae, parasites. Clean water supplies.

We'll hear from the next caller.

I'm Swallow, and I don't know what's going on with the phone, the lines, because everything is being received choppy. So I hope you guys are hearing like what Paul just mentioned. But if you didn't, I'll repeat it. Interesting that the land use group report did not mention a boat launch ramp extension, while the extensions would enhance recreational opportunities. I wonder if the increased number of voters... on a lake with a smaller volume of water would result in more pollution to the water supply from fuel and other residues and a clean water supply is the main reason for the lake how much we got a minute how long do we have a minute or two minutes one minute one minute please Andrew okay then I'm done Govern me harder, Daddy.

We'll hear from the next caller.

Pam, yes on 15 for fun. Enjoying the outdoors and any recreation is mentally and physically healthy, but most importantly to the sport, it aligns with the county's San Diego 2016 to 2031, I mean 2026 to 2031 strategic plan initiatives, which includes the regional Live Well San Diego Vision. So this should be affirmed unanimously. And wow, nothing like consulting Americans living in this county on items 13 and 14. We can't wait for our little cities. If we can spend $3 million on a boat ramp, we can spend $1.8 million on this. Joel, thanks for opposing. Jim, can't believe you voted yes and left us with the high-speed train to nowhere.

Thank you. We'll hear from the next caller.

So it is clear, in fact, that you can go in and spend money on pet projects and all that stuff. That's awesome. Curiosity. We do have other issues that require money that could actually fund itself. I gave you a proposition that would support Julian Brown and could actually generate money to help our infrastructure quite easily. It can also pay for the gas that you guys go ahead and purchase at an absorbent rate. We could go in and recycle the plastic and basically fuel the county fleet, reducing the pressure on the money that you have. But why don't you go ahead and look into things that actually help us? Why is it that every once in a while you throw out of the bone and say, hey, look, we're doing something good for you, but in reality you overspend on these projects so that you could go in and stipend the rest of the money and throw it into your pet projects? I mean, not your pet project. Thank you.

We'll hear from the final caller.

It's true. This is the city of San Diego bailout number 150, costing backcountry communities another $2.5 million. San Diego wouldn't even transfer responsibilities. They had to dictate their plan for county residents' tax dollars. Meanwhile, county residents can't even get properly paved roads or working storm infrastructure. But where is Imperial Beach's bailout? Why hasn't Maine suggested help for the most negatively impacted city who's done nothing wrong, unlike the city of San Diego who's done everything wrong? Why is there regional coordination here, but not from any fake sewage solutions? Why can't San Diego just put some boat parking meters in with a special event price of $50 an hour to recoup their own mismanagement? At this point, reservoirs need water and dam infrastructure repairs, not recreation. So here's my response to this bailout. And Manny's only been consistent in her phoniness. She doesn't know IB at all, and it shows. Please, ICE, deport her as soon as possible. Thank you.

Thank you, and Chair Lawson-Raymond, that concludes public comment on this item.

Okay, thank you very much. To my two colleagues, Supervisor Anderson, do you want to start?

Sure, I'll be happy to. I want to express my sincere appreciation to Vice Chair Montgomery-Stepp for partnering with me on this item. and to our previous El Capitan board letter that started this whole process. The El Capitan Reservoir is a very special reservoir. Not only does it provide some of the best boating, fishing, and recreation in the county, it is a vital part of the City of San Diego's water supply. It's owned by the City of San Diego, but is located near Alpine in the Unincorporated. It is used by thousands of residents in my districts and throughout the county. Because it's such a key piece of the city's water supply, the water levels continually fluctuate, and over time they have decreased to below where the boat launch ramp now rests. which has rendered it unusable and has removed a key recreational resource from our region. I'd also like to point out that during COVID, the reservoirs were one of the few places families could go to get outside and to enjoy recreation. Today's action will allocate $2.5 million to the City of San Diego so they can extend the boat launch ramp enough to make it usable no matter what the water level is in the future. This is a long-term solution that will allow our county residents to enjoy the lake any time of the year. In addition to Vice Chairman Montgomery Stepp's partnership on this item, I'd like to thank Mayor Gloria and the City Council and his team and their team for their great partnership in working with us to make this project a reality. This project is yet another example of how county and cities can work together to provide great improvements to the region. And lastly, most importantly, I want to thank the friends of the San Diego Lakes for their tireless advocacy on this issue. I've been working with them for close to six years on these projects, and I know how important it is to our community. They usually keep to themselves. They're not a big, loud lobby, except for on this issue. I think you would all be surprised at how many of them live in your district. They're not unique to East County. People who love to fish are all over the county. So with that, again, I want to thank my colleague, and I want to ask, make the motion to move this forward, and I ask all my colleagues for their support. Thank you.

Okay, thank you very much, Vice Chair.

Thank you, Chair. And I will start off by, of course, thanking Supervisor Anderson for your partnership on this board letter, but also this issue, which, of course, as you mentioned, we had a board letter in October of last year. I also want to thank county staff for all of your hard work in working with the city of San Diego. per our direction last year. And so that brings us to this point. Thank you to the members of Friends of the San Diego Lakes for being here, for your advocacy, and all the community members who took time out of your busy schedules to be here, and also to call to make a public comment today. We know that the El Capitan Reservoir is a treasured recreational resource for East County residents and visitors, and as Supervisor just mentioned really for regionally, this is an asset for us regionally residents across the region. So I have a few points that I won't repeat here, but I will just say that I'm hopeful that the city and the county will be able to bridge that gap. This is $2.5 million. There is additional funding needed, but I think that this will really, really show the county's commitment and also get us across the finish line. I know that community advocates have fought for years to protect water recreation. And this project rewards that dedication with real hard-earned results. Keeping the reservoir open gives families and neighbors a reliable place to gather, connect, and enjoy the outdoors together. Low water levels shouldn't lock us out of our own public park. East County residents and all region-wide residents deserve top-tier recreational spaces. I want to thank, again, the city and county workers that will make these continued recreation activities possible. And thank you to community members for all the work that you've done to bring this issue to the forefront. I would ask my colleagues to support this item today and second the motion. Thank you.

Okay, we have a motion and a second. Any other comments from anyone? Okay, seeing none, please vote.

Chair Loftus-Riemer, that motion passes unanimously with all supervisors being present and voting aye.

Thank you all. Please don't clap. I don't want to have to kick you out of the meeting, but I'm very glad that we were able to pass this today. So thank you very much. We are going to take a break for lunch. It is 5 till noon, so we'll come back at about 5 to 1. We'll see you all in a bit. Thanks.

Board is in recess until 1255.

We'll be right back. Thank you.

Thank you.

Okay, thank you. We're now back in session and we'll begin with item number 18. Is our sheriff here? Yeah, I'm here. Hi. Okay. Thank you. I was looking all over the audience.

Hi. You've already got yourself all organized. Okay. Yeah, thank you. Good morning, or good afternoon, Chair Lassen-Riemer and members of the board. It's been my priority as the sheriff to improve our county's jails, and I told this board and our community that I would provide updates on progress made, challenges remaining, and future plans, so today's presentation is in alignment with that promise. As background, the sheriff operates seven jails in the San Diego region. These jails house about 3,900 people per day currently, and about 50,000 individual bookings occur each year. The jails vary in age from 14 years to nearly 50 years. When I took office, I inherited longstanding operational challenges that consisted of lawsuits, a lack of transparency, staff shortages, and a whole host of other issues. In this presentation, I'll share our responsibility to community concerns and litigation. I'll share our response to reducing custody deaths and measures to ensure preventable deaths do not happen. And I'll talk about the actions we've already taken and the actions still needed. As you know, we have faced intense scrutiny and scathing reviews related to in-custody deaths in San Diego's jails. In 2022, the day I became the acting sheriff when Sheriff Gore retired, the state audit report was publicly released. The California State Auditor reviewed our practices and found us lacking in several key areas, which included suicide prevention, in-custody deaths, and insufficient medical and mental health care treatment. In 2022, a lawsuit was filed, Dunsmore v. San Diego County. This lawsuit involves nine different causes of action, more easily understood as requirements. To date, the county has come to a settlement agreement and four causes of action. These include the Americans with Disabilities Act, or ADA, mental health, medical services, and dental services. We've implemented processes and policies to ensure our compliance with the agreements and made great headway in each area. We are regulated by several entities. Three of the more robust oversight boards are the Citizens Law Enforcement Review Board, or CLRB, the San Diego County Grand Jury, and the Board of State and Community Corrections, or BSCC. One of our priorities was to review the healthcare system within our facilities. We needed to ensure that we were identifying medical needs more quickly and accurately. Once a condition was identified, the care needed to be received more, was received more quickly, and we needed to ensure that our healthcare staff were seeing everybody in our custody to identify and respond to treatment needs. We needed to identify individuals at intake or soon after who need withdrawal treatment and mental health services. Our providers need to talk to each other to ensure needs are understood, communicated, and treatment is appropriate. We knew that technology could help in all of these areas. In short, we needed a modernization of our system. One of the most impactful changes made has been to place physician level of care at intake at all three of our booking facilities, the San Diego Central Jail, the Vista Detention Facility, and the Las Colinas Detention and Reentry Facility. This change has resulted in faster identification of acute and chronic medical conditions, earlier stabilization on essential medications, and timely hospitalization of those who come to us in need of acute care. One area which was always desired but never fully focused upon prior to my administration has been to seek and successfully obtain national accreditation via the National Commission on Correctional Healthcare or NCHC. This body is nationally recognized and evaluates medical and mental health practices and policies in a custodial setting. These are impartial and unbiased experts dedicated to recognizing and fostering improvements to the correctional field. In November of last year, we procured the consulting services of NCCHC Resources, Inc., or NRI, who have surveyed all of our seven facilities. Each facility must meet accreditation standards independently, and we anticipate our first facility meeting this milestone in January of 2027, and that'll be the Las Colinas Detention and Reentry Facility. Our work in correctional health care is simultaneous with medical and mental health care improvements. We know there is a need to create more programs focused on restoration of competency, medication compliance, and providing those with mental illness the same type of reentry opportunities and communication with community-based organizations and as the rest of our population. The Early Access and Stabilization Services or EASS program quickly identifies people who are incompetent to stand trial and begins providing services with nurses, mental health clinicians, and case managers while they await housing in more stable environments. The Jail-Based Competency Treatment or JBCT program involves robust programming and education with nurses, mental health clinicians, and case managers while they await housing in more stable environments. In 2025, we restored 76 individuals to competency, utilizing this process. We've created an extensive partnership with County Behavioral Health Services, or BHS, and these efforts brought clinically trained staff working side by side with sheriff's personnel in specialized units, such as the outpatient step-down or OPSD unit. County BHS clinicians working alongside sheriff's personnel identify individuals with serious mental illness who may require intensive community-based services upon release. We've strengthened continuity of care by building a coordinated network of behavioral health partnerships that begin inside the jails and extend through release to the community. These clinicians also actively screen for community assistance, recovery, and empowerment, or care court eligibility within custody. We also work closely with the county conservator and BHS's forensic evaluation unit, providing access to assess individual's clinical needs, determine eligibility for conservatorship, and coordinated care transitions. This approach ensures the treatment for people in these programs does not end when they leave the jail, but continues seamlessly to community treatment. We're proud of and appreciate these partnerships as they create an integrated behavioral health system that supports individuals across all phases of incarceration and reentry, aligning clinical care, legal pathways, and community-based treatment to promote stability and reduce the likelihood of crisis and reoffending. So talking about preventing jail deaths, every death is a tragedy, and the preceding slides have articulated some of the ways in which we have worked to prevent deaths in our detention facilities. Some deaths, unfortunately, are not preventable, and I do not have the broad control to release people who are facing terminal illness. We do everything we can to provide individuals with the health care they need and the treatment options for every illness they may face. We have had instances where individuals are in custody for very serious crimes, are awaiting sentencing or transfer to prison, who I cannot release, but nonetheless have a terminal condition and serve their custody time in the hospital. These cases are still reported as in custody deaths by me in order to be fully transparent. This information is available, all the information about in-custody deaths is available via our public reports and is regularly updated on our website. That data is current as of today and reflects in-custody deaths within detention facilities. We're continuing to find ways to help the incarcerated population and best leverage government resources. One of these initiatives is the CalAIM program. We are pursuing implementation of CalAIM for September 30th of 2026, and we plan to monitor and report back via memo on our assessment of cost savings. This will be provided within six months of implementation. The population in the jails disproportionately experience substance use disorder. Because of this, there is an enormous desire to smuggle drugs into the facilities, and we were heavily criticized for not doing a better job of interdiction and prevention related to drug trafficking and use in our facilities. Since 2023, we have instituted a number of programs to stop drugs getting in. We have taken an approach of education, interdiction, enforcement, and harm reduction. We are among the few agencies that have instituted the wide distribution and use of naloxone across all our facilities. Everyone in custody has access and the ability to deploy this life-saving medication. We instituted all-encompassing programs to interdict drugs. This includes the CNET team, the VPED team, random and regular facility searches, employee screenings, mail processing center, and intelligence-led investigations. Additionally, every suspected overdose is met with aggressive investigation to identify the source, additional users, and other follow-up. I'm proud to say that today we are highly successful in finding the drugs before they get into the facilities. We have worked with the DA's office on better prosecutions of these cases and have highly successful prosecution rates. We have increased our treatment programs centered around the medication assisted treatment or MAP programs. We believe one of our flagship programs is our reentry services. We know that we have opportunities while people are stabilized for periods of time in a custody setting. People who are sober, receiving supportive services, and who have access to programs can make life-changing choices. People have the opportunity to get documents, IDs, birth certificates. They can get high school diploma, job training, college classes, substance use treatment, counseling services, family reunification, and many other resources that will carry them into the future after incarceration. We truly believe a criminal history does not have to define an individual. They can make choices that changes their trajectory. When I took office and before that as the undersheriff, I recognized the lack of technological capability in our jails. I was told that the wireless projects and investment was on hold for the Vista Jail to be rebuilt and several other reasons. It was clear that we needed better camera systems, body-worn cameras on our deputies, glucose monitoring, better healthcare tracking, and streamlining of processes. Frankly, our detention's deputies and staff were not receiving the same level of support as other operations in the organization. That's changed. Significant investments have been made, and we have completed the body-worn camera project, outfitting all deputies with BWC. We are in the process of upgrading the video systems. We are implementing continuous glucose monitoring. We are piloting biometric monitoring. We have instituted CQI modeling and have created a handheld app that places jail system information at the deputies' fingertips. In August, we began the rollout of system-wide smart tablets for the incarcerated population. This includes 600 smart tablets being distributed at the Rock Mountain facility in early August. These tablets will be used by people in custody to do the following. Commissary ordering, education apps, entertainment, games, internet, radio, TV, and movies. There'll be a digital book library with over 75,000 free e-books. Information which is internal control of content such as bail agency list, facility handbook, rules and regulations, resources, et cetera. There's a law library, messaging, phone calls, and a personal calendar. Future capabilities will allow people in custody to fill out forms for purposes of asking for medical care, filing a grievance and other communication. Previously, those forms were paper forms and relied upon staff delivering them to the correct department. They will now be instantly emailed to the appropriate department for more immediate action and tracking. So what's next? We have been in the process of recruiting a chief of psychiatry. Currently, the sheriff's office has a chief medical officer that oversees all aspects of our medical services, but we have no mental health equivalent. The chief of psychiatry will be that equivalent of our mental health services and provide the necessary clinical executive leadership and oversight. We are completing our assessment for medical personnel and staffing needs, and we have mobile applications in the works for the smart communication tablets. In conclusion, we have safer jails for deputies and staff. We are more transparent and accountable. We are developing more therapeutic and healthier environments with a focus on rehabilitation and people-centered care, and we are exceeding standards. Before I conclude my presentation, I'd like to share a quick clip of a video produced by Correctional News on our MAP program, which exemplifies how our compassion and care lead to the success of our participants.

It is not the absence of struggle. Recovery is a decision to keep showing up while struggling.

I owe it to the MAP program for opening my eyes and helping me realize there are people who believe in me. Because of that, I will be a better person and I will succeed in whatever I decide to do.

I watched each of you sit with your feelings you once ran from. I watched you trade numbing for honesty. Isolation for connection, excuses for accountability, and that's not weakness. That's the bravest thing a human being can do.

You guys are part of the best program that I believe in the entire county of San Diego. And you're in it. You're in it with us. You're in it with Deputy Cardenas, myself, with Deanna, Ms. K, day in, day out. And I congratulate you guys for keeping doing what you gotta do. I congratulate these gentlemen right here for accomplishing what others can't. And I hope with their help, they reach out to others. There'll be more accomplishments on the outside. And it'd be thanks to these guys. And as well as you, when you graduate from here as well. Leading the example right here. Thank you.

Recovery is not the absence.

Sorry. Chair Lawson, members of the board, this concludes our presentation today. Subject to any questions, of course.

Thank you very much. This is a receive and file, but it would be helpful if anyone had any questions to ask them now, and then we can go to public comment. Any of my colleagues? Okay, Supervisor Anderson.

Thank you, Madam Chair. Sheriff, I just want to thank you for the hard work. When I first got elected, our numbers were astounding. You've reduced them substantially in terms of deaths. I get you can't control everything, but clearly you're controlling something. And it's the right trend in the right direction. And kudos to you and your team. Keep up the good work.

Supervisor Desmond.

Thank you. Sheriff, I want to say thank you and to all the deputy sheriffs as well for a job well done. Like Joel had mentioned, we're seeing better trends in a lot of different areas. So you gave out 600 iPads in one of the facilities? Is that it?

Yeah, everybody in custody will eventually have an iPad that can have them as far as from a safety standpoint. And it's actually dropping bad behavior incidents, you know, assaults and things like that. It's keeping people occupied. It's helping with efficiencies. It's also giving them a way to access different resources that they don't currently have.

Oh, okay. And you plan on, was this like a pilot program at one facility? You're going to try to do that throughout, I guess, for every jail that we have?

Yeah, every jail will eventually have them. It's just a little bit of a rollout. So we are working with Smart Communications on that project.

So do you take Wi-Fi complaints or anything like that? If my cell isn't getting a good enough signal or something like that?

I don't know if we've had that experience. Yeah, go ahead.

Yeah, thus far we haven't received any complaints on the Wi-Fi, but we did go through a Wi-Fi infrastructure upgrade process in the last year. So our Wi-Fi system has been elevated, and we haven't received any complaints on the smart guidance.

Well, good. I was just on the phone with my provider the other day. But I wanted to say thank you very much, and I know you need resources, and these jails are not cheap, and I know the Vista Jail is very expensive, you know, high on the list, but it's going to take a lot of money to redo that. And they're way overdue, but I'd appreciate all, you know, you're doing the best you can with what you got. Thanks.

Chair Pro Tem and Geary. Thank you, Madam Chair, and thank you, Sheriff, for the presentation. I also want to thank our deputies for all the work that you guys have been doing, and I do want to recognize the efforts that you all have been making to reduce in-custody deaths. It's quite stark, the difference. Obviously, we're trending right, and we want to make sure that we continue, hopefully, to zero. That should be all of our collective goal. So I just have a question related to... metrics and outcomes. So, you know, what types of indicators would you say we can focus on so that we can ensure that the downward trend continues and is sustainable, right? Because you talked about, you know, improvements in intake, medical care, mental health services. So how can we ensure that the outcome continues to be what we're striving for?

Yeah, I appreciate that. We know that the trend is a direct result of the work we've been doing, but I appreciate, and along with you, I want this to be foundational, that it's sustainable and that this is the way that we operate going forward. I think we've changed our culture in the facilities as well, just the investment in our people, the investment in the jails themselves. It comes from the top down. Assistant Sheriff Lopez has been phenomenal, and Commander Johns and the other two commanders that are working in detentions. But there will have to be more investment made as far as medical care. We know that. And to be able to provide the medical care and to sustain that, we also need deputies to be standing by those medical personnel while they're administering the care. So we are identifying those needs now. We're looking at that. The chief of psychiatry will be a huge improvement for us. They'll be able to look at our system with an eye towards that industry and that profession that we don't currently have. And they'll be able to really analyze what the needs are and if we've got our resources in the right places, if our policies are on point, all of those things. We're not the experts in that field. We've never had this position before. So we're in the process of recruiting someone for that position. And I think that's going to be be a big piece of it.

Yeah, and I appreciate also obviously the efforts of us working with CalAIM and recuperating those costs because that's going to help us a lot in those efforts too.

Yeah, that's going to be a big point and the billing component is where we're struggling right now is getting that contract going so that we can actually take effect with the CalAIM billing starting in October. So we're working with our county counterparts and trying to get that contract done so that we can go live in October.

That's great. Great to hear.

Thank you. Thank you.

Vice Chair Montgomery-Stepp. Thank you so much, Chair, for being here. As you indicated at the beginning of your presentation, something that you promised the public and the board, so thank you for being here. To go to just piggyback quickly off of the CalAIM question, are we on track to get that rolling in October? I know we discussed that the last time I think you were here with regard to the administrative care contract. So I just want to know if we're on track for that.

So as I said, the hiccup we're having is getting the billing component. We'll have to do the billing. The sheriff's office will have to do the billing if we can't get that contract signed. It's AmeriChoice, if you recall the conversation about AmeriChoice. We're working with county council and with TPC. on that right now. If we get that signed, then we'll be able to move forward with the billing component. If not, we'll have to do the billing ourselves. It's completely our goal to get it online October 1st. We understand the component of being able to reimburse for those funds. Do you have anything else to add, Commander?

Just again, just briefly, are we on track with that, though, by getting everything done so that we can bill by October 1st?

So the services will be provided. The internal services that we are mandated to are by the state initiative, the statewide initiative. Those services will be in hand and active on October 1st. Again, just to reiterate what the sheriff is saying, we're still in the process of finalizing and executing the contract with AmeriChoice. And I think some of the concerns that they have are just basically like the overages of the cap and who encumbers that. So we're working out the final details with that contract, and our hope is to have AmeriChoice onboarded by October 1st.

Okay. I know we're in a little bit of a time crunch, so I have more questions about that, but I'll just leave those for now. And I generally like to just get the public's input before, because I have, as you all know. I have questions and then I have comments. But I'll just go ahead and go through some of these questions. And certainly I want to begin by acknowledging the very stark graph that you showed us with regard to fewer people dying in our jails. As you said, every single life matters, and we don't want anyone dying in our custody. But it does show meaningful progress, so thank you for that. Certainly, the reported decline deserves recognition. I also just want to point out within today's presentation, it was woven in the fact that a lot of, you know, this has really been a collaborative effort. So the state's audit findings, club recommendations, board actions, public advocacy, costly litigation, enforceable settlements are all different ways of looking at the system, but they've all combined to get some sort of progress. So, you know, what I want to say, I think it's all a part of accountability. And certainly that is not an attack on progress. It's just making this progress durable, making it sustainable over time. And I think that's just going to continue to be my focus. I know there's a lot going on in the news. And I just want to reiterate to the public that our sheriff, independently elected, controls day-to-day jail operations. We can't touch it, right? That's the sheriff. We don't manage operations. We don't do any of that. We do approve public funding, certain contracts, settlements, establish funding oversight. So, you know, there's a responsibility there, but certainly those day-to-days, we don't, we have nothing to do with it. So with regard to, we're talking about resources, right? Identified needs for jails, certainly, and we'll probably have that conversation, ongoing conversation. The thing is, as far as the metrics are concerned and what you will be presenting to us in the public, I think when we are talking about those large amount of resources, it's really important that we see data that reflects the need and the progress, right? So, for example, The provider change, what we discussed a few months ago and this board voted on, I did not support moving forward without sufficient insurance that the change would improve care rather than primarily rearrange administration. I think moving forward as is that benefit based on what you said the change would be as that becomes more clear. I would like to see that. So if it's being claimed that contractual control or workflow is is now more beneficial or that has changed for the better. I just want that distinction to be stated plainly. Administrative efficiency is valuable, but it's certainly not the same as demonstrated improvement in patient care. So I just want to make sure that when things come to this board and those claims are made, that subsequent reporting shows us what those improvements are. That's one thing. The other thing that I wanted to ask was really just about the relationship with CLRB. I think CLRB would say I think there's a good relationship now, but in their April 26th report, they said that limited data and denied requests severely constrain their work. I just want to know how you're reconciling those two different accounts. Like, how are you seeing the relationship? Do you see that there can be improvement? Are there still denials based on some data requests? Or how are you seeing that?

Would this be the data from the report that clerk produced

So in their independent April 2026 study, it does say that limited data and denied requests for certain data severely constrain their work. It was April.

We're now, you know... Yeah, I think that was a report that Clerb contracted out for that one, and it was a lot of the information that was withheld was HIPAA-related data on patient-specific issues, and then they were given the ability to complete CPRA requests, and then we were corresponding with them via CPRA for that independent report. It wasn't necessarily the relationship that we have with Clerb. I think that that relationship has... and I think it's a very positive relationship right now. We attend monthly CLRB meetings and are available to answer questions. And I know for myself, I receive emails frequently from members of CLRB and answer them as quickly as we can.

Okay. I think they would say the same, but I just wanted to make sure there was clarification because that study is out there.

Yeah, I appreciate that.

Okay. I think I want to just hear public comment, and I'll come back to a couple more questions that I have. But again, I appreciate the report and the progress. Thank you.

Thank you. First of all, I just am glad you're here with this report. It's obviously a really critical issue and really important to keep not only the board updated, but the public. because this is something I hear a lot about and has been an issue for a long time. Just had a couple questions. I think the focus on the improvements is super helpful. I also know that one of the findings from the clerk report that I found really particularly upsetting and was wanted you to talk a little bit more about what else we could do to address this was that over half the deaths are occurring for folks that have not been convicted of any crime. They've been detained, but they may not have done anything and they're just there waiting trial. So what could we do to keep folks who are I mean, everyone should be kept safe in our jails, but this is particularly concerning that over half the deaths are from people who have not even gone to trial or been convicted of anything.

Yeah, thanks for that. One of the highest risk times for any individual coming in jail is the first 10 days or so, especially if they're withdrawing from drugs or from substance use or polydrugs. We've identified ways with having someone at emergency level care at intake to better identify some of those cases. We do consent of urine screening so that we know if they've got drugs on board. We have ways to better assess them for withdrawal protocols so that we can capture them during that time period. And we are instituting a way to put people, especially fentanyl and meth use combined. We've got a way that we will be implementing soon where we can put more people into withdrawal protocols sooner because that is really the highest risk time those first 10 days. And then, as I said, I don't have a lot of control over who's in my custody or how long they stay. That's all predicated by judges and the courts and who gets booked. And so we do the best we can to identify folks and their medical needs and administer care as quickly as possible. But what point they're at in the judicial process is really not what we take into account. It's their medical state.

I'm just wondering if there's any work to be done with the DA to think about how to, it's really, I mean, this is like a very specific population that isn't, you know, they're in your custody, but they've not yet been convicted.

So the only thing that we've been able to work with is compassionate releases. And that's if someone's got a terminal illness, they're near death, and then we go through the judge, the presiding judge and the district attorney to see if charges can be dropped or if they can be given new court dates so that they can be released from custody for medical care. Beyond that, the DA doesn't have a lot of control over it either. It's really something, you know, everyone who's unsentenced, you know, we just had the Qualcheck decision in April. Some more unsentenced people are There's a presumption of freedom, and so more people are being released with affordable bail and things like that. So those are all things that are beyond the control of the sheriff and beyond the control of the district attorney. That's decided by case law in the courts.

Thank you. Okay, we'll go to public comment.

Thank you, Chair Loftin-Riemer. We have nine requests to speak on this item, one in person and eight requesting to speak by phone. Also note for the record that we received one e-comment in support. For any individuals that requested to speak on item 18 by phone, please dial into the conference line using the instructions that were provided to you. We'll begin with our in-person speaker. I'd like to invite forward Allegedly Audra. You'll have two minutes to address the board.

So I understand you guys got some monitors. It's like a watch. Is that at Las Colinas? Does everybody have it, or is it select? Select. And how do you select that is the question, because if there are certain people that would need it, you know, would you go to somebody who may have medical issues, or is it randomly selected? If it's offered to people who are on the road, they're offered a lot of Las Colinas, and then our high-rate people Okay, thank you. Okay, that's good. Can I just pause?

Thank you so much for being helpful with your really helpful responses. Please, if you ask me the question, I can ask staff.

but you won't is the problem. So anywho, it's interesting because I feel like it's a dangerous thing to conflate behavioral health and people in jail because you guys are ill-equipped to deal with that type of a population. And it seems to be the de facto mental health facilities because our mental health facilities are not able to sustain it either. And so it's being put into your guys' play. And it's very concerning because if you already have complaints about things that are happening, this will just add to that because you don't have people that are necessarily equipped like a psychologist and psychiatric doctors to be able to understand these types of behaviors. I mean, we already have problems in the mental health facilities. And it's just unfortunate because it's like there's a shortage of psychiatric doctors and things like that. So how does that leave you guys up to blame when you're not going to be able to deal with these types of people? And I'm finding that's what's happening with the behavioral health they've talked about this need for behavioral health workers for years, about needing more staff than that's in the county staff already. And so I just feel like this is going to add something to your guys' plate that's going to come down and be really bad because, again, you guys just aren't equipped to deal with that kind of, you know, people. It's unfortunate.

Thank you. We'll now hear from those that requested to speak by phone. We'll start with our first caller.

Paul Bold, I hope you can hear me. One interesting note on page three is about the early identification of, page three of the board letter, sorry, is about the early identification of both chronic and acute health conditions. Unfortunately, the staff needs to do something about it. Just ask Aaron Bonin. Oh, you can't, because he was diagnosed as needing a special diet, but died because he wasn't given one. Or Andrew Ebbing, who was jailed with a usually fatal brain condition, and it apparently took a month or over to be recognized as something that jail medicos couldn't handle. On the same page, it boasts about specialized housing units for individuals with serious mental illness. This is part of a 2023 audit with mental health settlement being in July of this year. However, the sheriff has been active in updating and reforming the department, so I am very hopeful about the future and increasing the pace of these reforms. Unfortunately, one thing that seems to be an issue is the behavior of the officers themselves. There seem to be a number, not that many, of course, but several baddies in the department who just do weird things. And I'm hopeful that there'll be some kind of special effort to monitor those and hopefully...

Thank you. We'll hear from the next caller.

Amen, Paul. So, yeah, Anderson, you mentioned something about control, and the only control that's happening is to keep the racket going. And the entire system is just a big, giant racket, and there's no care in any of it. And all these programs mentioned for aftercare are benefiting from this lucrative racket. Again, just like big pharma, there's no incentive to fully heal anyone. And then to identify the source, Kelly stated, well, Kelly, you can't truly identify the source because the system is the source of all our problematic issues. Just offering more Band-Aids to gunshot wounds here and all to keep the racket going is The establishment continues to supply the perpetuation of the system until we kill ourselves off. If the majority of society is already dead and numb inside, you will get little pushback. Like helpless leaves in the wind, society continues to believe and go along with it all. Again, to reiterate, there is no incentive to have a strong, healthy population. A weak, traumatized, fearful, and docile society is easier to control. But guess what? There's a plot twist. People are becoming fed up and awakening to the racket as we speak. And those of you who are part of keeping our county down will be held accountable. Get right. Get right quick. And remember who you are. You don't have to go along with just working for globalists and keeping society down. I mean, honestly, it's getting old.

Thank you. We'll hear from the next caller.

Thank you. Good afternoon. Thank you for letting me speak. Oh, shoot. I thought this was item 19. My apologies. I meant to open call in on item 19. I'm so sorry.

Thank you. We'll hear from the next caller.

I have a recording. I'm going to go ahead and play you guys. This is coming straight from the prison. Okay. Playing it now.

Hi, this is Andrea Ebbing. I have firsthand account knowledge and information on these programs. Not only is Summer Stephan, our district attorney, trying to weaponize these programs against me, saying that I'm incompetent to withstand trial to defend myself against Anthony Warner, the SDPD officer who attempted to murder me in front of 40 children on March 21st. But here I sit in Las Colinas... as a category four offender for reporting my opioid dealer child-abducting, county-contracted, behavioral health rehab owner X, who you have paid $6 million, County of San Diego, to participate in human trafficking with Summer Steffen through these diversion programs. Prop 36 defendants in my housing unit 3F, I am in very high-level felony because they thought that would put fear into me, but instead I made a whole bunch of very high-level felony friends who are all going through this same process And I've been put through it. I have 20 years of executive leadership, no history of crime, violence, or substance abuse. And my friend, who is unable to read or write and does not know what the words incompetent or competent means, is being fed through the system with two strikes over her head. Why? Because when the system works the way that Rico Summer Stephan wants it to work, it looks like she took a criminal threat off the streets. She didn't. She took a vulnerable individual who needed help and put her through trial with no context and wants her to go in front of a jury and lose. But she doesn't want to be embarrassed by somebody like me who will tell the truth, like her using a dope-dealing psychiatrist named Prakash Bhatia, who was a DEA convict...

Thank you. We'll hear from the next caller.

Good afternoon. My name is Becky Raff, and I support this item and appreciate the Sheriff's Office commitment to improving conditions in our county jails, particularly the investments in mental health care and substance use treatment. However, I am concerned that drug prevention does not receive enough emphasis. Treating addiction with someone after they are incarcerated is important, but we also need to do more to prevent substance abuse and the flow of dangerous drugs into our communities and into our detention facilities. Drug abuse and mental health are deeply connected. If the county wants to reduce incarceration and improve outcomes, we must address the underlining mental health and substance use crisis before people reach the jail door. That means investing in prevention, treatment, and early intervention. not simply relying on the jail system to manage the consequences i encourage the board and the sheriff's office to make drug prevention and mental health intervention a priority for reducing incarceration and improving our public safety thank you thank you we'll hear from the next caller

It's true. I did not appreciate the propaganda video that was played where everything was just so happy, full of rainbows and sunshine. I'm sorry. The history in the jails is not, that's not how it's been going. I don't care if you've had approval. It's still not like that. I've read plenty of closed session cases to have a nice idea of reality. So I'd like to know, how can we force Kelly to be more like Chad Bianco, to be more transparent and less secretive with unicorns in the eyes like progressive on the board? Kelly, how can we get you to be more proactive in preventing death instead of waiting for lawsuits to force changes in the jail? How can we get the two progressive hypocrites to care about the facilities under their watch as much as they pretend to care about the facilities under the federal government's watch? And the Dunsworth class action filed in 2020, the county entered into four settlement agreements to resolve all of these claims, including that's how the chief of psychiatry nonsense is coming into being. With medication-assisted treatment prescribing things like Suboxone, a.k.a. Naloxone, which assist people in jail to die faster, which would, of course, be enabled by more Medicaid fraud. more taxpayer dollars, because rehab would keep them alive and change their lives forever for the better. But I guess you're not interested in that. And until deputies are screened for contraband and drug use, the breaches and negligence are going to continue. The screening of inmates for conservatorship potential reveals the real agenda. How many deputies have been added since 2016 to match your chart? Is there more or less? How many deputies have been punished for allowing people to die like what happened with Elisa Cerner? Is this all an excuse to keep up the Medicaid fraud and the overfunding of the inflated behavioral health system? Because Bergman escaped accountability from that racist department, didn't he? Nadia and Ellen were just bald guys. This board was already ordered by a judge to speak to victims. That's the best thing that ever happened.

Thank you. We'll hear from the final caller.

Hi, Natalie Raschke. I don't know how equipped the Sheriff's Department is on judging behavioral health. I don't know Andrea Ebbing, but she sounded pretty... competent to me right there and seemed to eloquently state what was happening to her. As a person of lived experience being unhoused for almost three years in the city and county of San Diego, I know what that does mentally and emotionally to a person, which I never having any mental disability, nor has my husband. But watching a man try to take care of his family, becoming unhoused due to COVID, which we all know now, was set in place by some fraudulent people that are connected to our federal government. And so that mentally, I've watched him deteriorate. And we did have interactions with policing. And I wouldn't say that they are the best judge in deciding who is mentally unstable when it comes to a mental illness or being tired and hungry and socially and economically abused by its community. Take it very seriously. It's affected me. It's affected my family. And I didn't have a mental disability. So I think that We need to have some training and some clarification on what mental disability is, what it looks like, and who decides. Who gets to say that they're incompetent? And if everybody has a connection within the city or the county and they're working together, I don't know that I can trust who is saying who's competent because the person I just heard speaking sounded really... intelligent and well spoken and that she's being um medicated or not medic thank you and chair lawson rumor that concludes public comment on this item okay thank you very much uh turning back to vice chair montgomery step okay thank you again everyone just um want to pick back up um and clarify um

The board's role for the public in particular, and then just go through some questions. So when someone dies in custody and also when there are bad conditions in the jail, of course, residents understandably call this board. And the public deserves that clarity. The independently elected sheriff operates the seven detention facilities throughout the county. The board cannot... direct a deputy clinician or jail commander, nor manage the sheriff's daily operations. However, this board is not powerless. We control appropriations. We act on certain contracts and settlements. We fund independent oversight, we request reporting, and we use public hearings to demand answers. A judge's recent request that two supervisors participate in a settlement conference reflects the county's financial and settlement responsibilities, but it does not transfer operational control of the jails to this board. I will continue to use every lawful lever available to this board while being honest about where operational authority resides and who must answer for jail conditions and the quality of life provided to every incarcerated individual. So as we, my understanding is that there's a quarterly report. Back, right? Okay. So with that, anything that you want to answer now, please feel free to do, but it's kind of quite a bit. So I want to check your temperature on being able to provide quantitative measures for some of the conclusions that were made in the report, such as the... this statement that the change in physician staffing reporting directly to the San Diego Sheriff's Office significantly expanded the level of care. I would like to see certain things quantified like before and after physician staffing. and coverage hours by intake site, median and 90th percentile time to physician assessment, time to resume existing medication, chronic conditions newly identified. Just what is it that, what do we mean when we say significantly expanded that level of care? That's what I would like to see in some of the quarterly reports.

Thank you for the question. It was complicated and there's a lot going on with that. So I can just do, I'll try to briefly describe our CQI process. So this is something that we started about a year ago and it's continuous quality improvement. So what we're able to do right now is we're limited in our capability to draw data out of some of our older systems, whether it be our jail information management system or tech care. There's limitations in what we can draw out and how we can pull that data. So some of the data that we've put on the public website are measuring timeliness to care, access to care for each discipline. So we go into dental appointments, we go into psychiatric appointments, mental health clinician touches, MD sick call appointments. And then as we're growing that process, we're realizing that the way that we measured might have been inefficient or inaccurate beforehand, so we're changing processes. There could have been duplicative efforts in the beginning when we started measuring, and we were measuring the same standard in two different areas. So we're trying to fine-tune that quarterly, and you can expect that report to grow every quarter as time goes on, and we're able to draw more information out We also work collaboratively with NavCare for the build of tech care to expand the build of tech care so that we can draw more information out. And that's all the meaning that we have with medical services division executives saying, hey, what do we want to measure now? And then we've been able to implement processes and changes in either policy or procedures by evaluating and assessing some of that. So whether it be where do we put our resources? Is there a better time to conduct sick calls? All of that information is evaluated based on that report that is done quarterly.

Okay. And all I'm saying, I think we're on the same page. When we make the broad statement that the level of care significantly expanded, then, you know, you say it's on the website now, good.

Yeah, we can send you a link to that or your staff.

And in the quarterly report. Sure. that it would just be good to link that with the progress. So we were saying that level of care has expanded significantly just based on the data that you're now pulling that you've been able to organize. It would be good to just see that progression through the data.

Okay.

Appreciate it. I also just want to know specifically how you all determine that CHP contributed to reduce death risk, right, when it comes to our medical providers. Was there risk-adjusted evaluation or external clinical review or is that statement kind of based on a year-by-year annual analysis?

So just trying to clarify, the question is you want to know how we know CHP made an improvement in our care?

Yes, just a little bit more data around the statements. I guess just when there's some generalized statements, right? And just kind of digging into the data a little bit more. Yeah, and I apologize.

Most of the generalizations were in interest of everyone's time. But if you want more specific data or longer presentation, we can do that as well. But as far as CHP, we can address that a little bit right now.

Yeah, so when we carved CHP out of the... larger comprehensive contract, we were able to have CHP put their physicians at intake as opposed to people requesting to see a doctor or nurses flagging somebody to see a doctor and then only initiating a doctor touch point when that occurred. Now, every single individual that comes in through the intake process is assessed by a physician. And as a result, we're able to identify the highly acute medical issues that are happening at the time of arrest as well as the chronic conditions for people that might not have seen a doctor for years. And as a result, our ED send outs are up. Our emergency room send out and referrals are up because that touch point occurs within that first 24 hours of someone coming into custody. Year to date, we have over 1,800 emergency room send-outs, and that's because the level of care that that individual needs, it exceeds our capability inside the facilities. So when we say that it's an improved access or improved access to care, it's because now we get everybody. So if we only saw 50% before, and now we see 100% of the people that are going to be staying in our custody, it's evident that everybody's getting an improved care model.

Okay. My last question is about the MAP program. Thank you for the video. Just want to know, based on the relationship with Behavioral Health Services, about continuity of services post coming out of the institution.

Yeah, it's been a great partnership, and we have about 3,000 persons, individuals a year who are have that continuity of care model, the warm handoff, so to speak. We're at over 1,700 thus far this year. So it's been working well. We're continuing to expand that. The other area we want to expand, we have about 400 people who identify as homeless in our custody at any given time. So we're trying to build more resources that are at the door as people are released to offer resources. We don't currently have sort of a center where they can go and receive those resources. So we're having some of our partners in the community actually wait at the gates and the exit of the facilities to offer resources at the time of release.

Okay, thank you so much for being here and answering all those questions, and yes, I just, when, I know generally, you know, you're cognizant of our time, but I do like to see the data that supports the qualifying statements, right, in the report, and so, because I think that, you know, there's some good data there, and I just want to make sure, like I said, this is all about progress, and the only way that we sustain it as we just stay on top of that data and culture shift as you mentioned.

Yeah, I appreciate that and everyone's always welcome to come to the facilities themselves and see for themselves.

Thank you very much.

Okay, Chair Pro Tem. Thank you, Madam Chair. Just a follow up question to clarify. It has to do with the case that we had recently settled because of the person who didn't receive the insulin and died. Are you familiar with that one? So when we have somebody that's diabetic or critically ill, or they're unable to express that they need that care, how do we go about not checking them off as refusing medical attention? Is that to do with what you were just saying that everybody's just sent to the ED? How do we qualify that?

Thank you for the question, first of all. So if you want to reference that particular case, we've made many changes as far as the services that we have for our diabetic population. So if somebody comes in with an insulin pump and it's broken, we fix it immediately and then give them a temporary insulin pump. We've expanded with continuous glucose monitoring, and we offer that to our type 1 diabetics who might not want to wake up in the middle of the night. They might be refusing finger sticks for their diabetic reads. in the middle of the night. So to make that easier, we offer the continuous glucose monitoring system so that nurses can just be in the vicinity of the individual that's wearing the monitor and be able to get a read on their blood sugar. So many changes have occurred as far as our policy and the way that we assess and treat the diabetic population? And I hope that answers the question, or was there a spinoff?

Yeah, I was curious about the changes that have happened and what safeguards we have to ensure not just people who have diabetes, but that are sick or confused or incapacitated or unable to express that they need help or advocate for themselves. How do we ensure that we just don't check them off as medically, refuse medical attention, and that we actually do provide that attention. You gave a great example that's very helpful with the insulin pump. Are there other examples that you can point to?

Yeah, so there's, I think overall care of the incarcerated population boils down to interventions and engagement. And we support all of our staff and encourage all of our staff, whether it be deputies that are working the floor, nurses, clinicians. We've actually established a multidisciplinary group that goes through at least once a week in every single facility and conducts wellness checks. So those wellness checks, we have individuals from all those disciplines that I just discussed walking by every single cell and offering services, whether it be counseling and somebody might be acting erratically inside of their cell. well, now we can offer services for mental health and make sure that they're followed up with mental health. Or if there's a medical issue that needs to happen, we've also started to roll out primary care models for medical, which means there's a nurse that's assigned to each housing floor so that when a medical issue arises, regardless of how small or large it is, there's somebody there to treat them immediately. And then that creates consistency in who's assessing the patient every single day. so that they know, they're familiar with the patients. So there's multiple touch points and interventions that we've created over the last four years, and it also supports the culture change, and hey, if you see something, say something, get people involved. And I think the communication that we've built with the collaboration with our sworn staff and our professional staff, whether it be clinicians on the mental health end, or doctors and nurses on the medical end, has improved tremendously.

Okay. No, that's great. Thank you. I appreciate that response. Thank you. Thank you.

Any other comments?

If we need a motion to receive the report, I will. No.

I don't think we do. Am I correct, counsel? No. Okay. Yeah. It's just a receiving file. Okay. Thank you so much. We will now move on to item six. Thank you very much to our sheriff and our whole team. Thank you all for being here. We'll move on to item six, Adopt an Ordinance to Amend Rules and Duties for the Citizens Law Enforcement Review Board. This item was pulled by my colleague, Supervisor Anderson. If you want to explain why you wanted to pull it and what you want to discuss, then we can go to public comment.

Let's call it public comment, and then I'll be happy to.

Okay, we'll start with public comment.

Thank you, Chair Lassen-Riemer. We have eight requests to speak on this item, one in person and seven requesting to speak by phone. I'll also note that we received three e-comments in opposition. For any individuals that requested to speak on item six by phone, please dial into the conference line using the instructions that were provided to you. I'd like to welcome our in-person speaker, allegedly Audra. You'll have two minutes to address the board.

Thank you, Andrew. CLRB, what's the point of all these boards? There's like 80 boards that have no authority, just give recommendations. Make it make sense. You know what I mean? It's just a bunch of busy work. We're probably going to bring in five more of them. We brought just another one in recently. And, you know, Clerb is interesting. When I got beat up by Nick Gonzalez, who's super proud of it, they said that I should have known that I was being arrested because he was wearing a badge. That's a little weird. These guys are wearing badges. Does that mean I'm under arrest? Should I get on the ground? Put my hands behind my head? Is that... You know what I'm saying? It's like we have people telling people that when there's a video... clearly of him dragging me out of this room right here into that hallway, slamming my head into the ground, twisting my arms so bad I have nerve damage. It's great. Back damage to my spine, dislocated ribs, bruising on the bone. It's good. And then he gets exonerated. How cool is that? That seems like some real good discernment, right? Just like you guys. You're like, we care about people. Only if you're not Audra and you're not, you know. If it was somebody else, imagine if it was an illegal. And the funny thing is, it was in a room full of people talking about ice. Good God, if I just identify as an illegal alien, could you imagine the kind of money I could get for that? Dang it, I don't check those boxes. You guys would care if I was, huh? Maybe I should just go into Mexico and see if they'll care. I don't know, I'll be a Mexican if I go in there, just like people come here and they're American. You know what I mean? It's so cool living in an inverted world. It is, because it's like a comedy show where all these people gaslight people and say they care. Good job.

We'll now hear from the individuals that requested to speak by phone. We'll start with our first caller.

Yes. In the actual ordinance, there are two changes which seem to be pretty nefarious. Section 340.7C, which sets the number of clerk members to best motion, our proposal is a majority of a quorum rather than of the members. It's It needs one quarter of the members, not one half. I mean, the whole purpose of CURB is to get a good recommendation, not a half decision. I mean, you know, it's like a reputable body actually ruled against me on the basis of one quarter. You could bet I'd sue. Second, Section 340.9H authorizes CLIRB to inspect adult jails annually, but not juvenile jails, which, you know, given what has gone on and still goes on there, sounds really suspicious. especially since the Attorney General is still investigating the juvenile facilities because juvenile testimony is often regarded, they need special attention. This could get you in real trouble with liability and all. You know, and I don't know how these things get past legal counsel, but the amendment should be rejected. I mean, curb, frankly, doesn't give me much confidence in justice. And to follow up on what Audra said. Thank you. We'll hear from the next caller.

The next caller is Consuelo. And welcome back to Consuelo.

Go ahead. Okay, here we go again. I got another one because this is right up her alley since she's being imprisoned by you guys because you don't want her to talk. Here's the recording.

Hi, this is Andrea Ebbing at Las Colinas regarding CLIRB. Number one, let's pretend that we had a CLIRB that actually had the authority to do anything. Unfortunately, they too are under the same restrictions and same Suppression tactics Summer Steffen and her Bermuda Triangle of injustice from her federal judge husband Dana Sabrow and sister Raina Steffen, city attorney who handles misdemeanors, all have run throughout the county of San Diego, putting people in fear of finding themselves in a ditch in Tijuana like the three Union Tribune journalists who got too close to her purse. Let's talk about CLIRB. CLIRB is supposed to be an independent oversight committee, but unfortunately, they can't actually do anything about anything because they don't want to be murdered, like federal U.S. Attorney Andrew Hayden, who was found hanging in a federal building. when he has been the prosecutor on two cases in which Summer Steffen has $100,000 investments related to. One is Riverside County Chad Bianco, who is running for governor. Summer Steffen on SDVote.com, campaign finance tool public portal, has invested $100,000 into his campaign before he tipped off the feds on the Ferrari ghost gun case and Cynthia Bichotte was the judge. And the other one is the Leo Hamill-Marco Garmo case. Marco Garmo was set to become the sheriff of San Diego, but unfortunately had to go to prison for three years and lost everything because Leo Hamill paid Summer Steffen $90,000 to avoid jail time and didn't. So, while I sit here in high felony since May 13th, two days after I launched Eskyrico.com, which has been down since Andrew Hayden's murder, that was not a suicide, let's be honest. Right, Summer Steffen? Let's be honest, your husband was involved in his...

Thank you. We'll hear from the next caller.

It's true. So no to yet another ad hoc secret conspiracy to implement something nonsensical like having activists, because that's what they are in CLIRP, activists, bad activists too, to inspect facilities. They don't even have proper certification to inspect. It's kind of like... Tara and Manuela Paloma thinking they're qualified to visit an ICE facility when they can't even keep the local jail facilities in safe conditions. People are literally dying, and yet it took lawsuits for you guys to pretend that you care. And then I was looking at the summary of these changes. I don't like it because it's not transparent. Why wasn't an attachment labeled as the strikeout version specifically? There's clean. There's a summary. It doesn't say strikeout. You've got to look for it. Section 3.5, members can now hold more than one office. You can stick around for more than two years in a row. What could go wrong? No quorum on, sorry, no number for a quorum requirement. Just the majority of two required. Or maybe it's one, right? One person shows up, they voted, bam. It's just now the rules under CLRB, right? Wow. Can't even remove a member when they no-show because apparently no-showing is just fine now. I guess that's what we can expect from Tara Drunk on Power Loss and Reamer, who started this meeting over 20 minutes late from the lunch break. Lunch break wasn't long enough for you, huh? An hour? You had to take an hour and a half. Nothing about attesting under perjury of penalty anymore. That was removed, too. So you can see there's a lack. There's a huge lack of accountability. But I suppose that's what we can expect from a very, very, very corrupt board who does nothing but pretend to care about issues. When it comes to putting their money where their mouth is, they never do it. You know? It's really outrageous. I can see why this was pulled, because there's actually a lot wrong with it. And it's very little things that add up to a bigger picture of just full-blown corruption and a lack of transparency under the current majority

Thank you. We'll hear from the next caller.

It's getting juicy. Consuelo here. Yeah, amen to every single person who crawled in and who spoke. Yeah, I have nothing to say, but just rewind and wake up, San Diego, wake up. A new day is dawning and people are fed the fuck up. I'm done.

Thank you. And Charleston Rima, that concludes public comment on this item.

Okay, thank you very much, Supervisor Anderson.

Thank you, Madam Chair. So this is a board that consists of 11 members. There are two members that come from each district, all five districts, and there's one seat at large. The concern I have with this is we're now reducing the standard where Two districts could control all the policy coming from this. The whole purpose of coming from each district, I believe, is to have better representation and diversity on the board to represent both the coastal communities and the inland communities. And yet, this change would allow just two districts to set all the board policy. The other issue is it removes, so if we're having a problem appointing people to this board, we shouldn't lower our standard because we haven't referred enough people from our district. We should close that gap and make sure that we're referring people for the appointment and it shouldn't fall that we're not paying attention. CLRB is a very serious group. Some of the stuff that we have is important, but very few are as important law enforcement review board and that's why the citizens review board I believe should stay at six not be reduced to four for the majority I don't I didn't support it when LAFCO moved in that direction and I certainly don't support it today but I wanted to make sure that you all understood the construction of this board and that how important it is that we have participation from all our districts, not just two districts controlling the whole thing. The other part that while this board is not nefarious, we don't know who's going to replace us on this board. And you could have a situation where people are slow rolling the appointments. There's ample people to be appointed but they don't want the influence of having board members from throughout San Diego County. And as a resort, we're giving them the formula to make that happen. I want to disincentivize that and I want to make sure that we're as inclusive as possible because the nature of this board is so important that it deserves to have our full attention. So I'm not going to be supporting this today and I hope that BRINGING THIS TO YOUR ATTENTION MAY HAVE YOU RETHINK YOUR POSITION AS WELL. THANK YOU.

THANK YOU. DO ANY OF MY COLLEAGUES HAVE ANY COMMENTS? ANYONE? DO YOU HAVE ANY COMMENTS OR JUST WANT TO MAKE A MOTION?

I WANT TO THANK SUPERVISOR ELLISON FOR THAT. analysis, there's just two quick things. One, I kind of looked at the slow walking the other way around. The people can purposely like not show up to stymie progress of the board. One, and then the other thing is, I think the board is a reasonable board just based on our appointments and the CAO's appointments. And they did agree that these are changes they are bringing to us as a board. So I'm going to go ahead and honor that and I'll move the item.

Thank you very much. Supervisor Anderson, go ahead.

I forgot to include. So right now, it takes 54.5% to pass something on the board. So you have a board majority. This will reduce the standard to 36.4%. And it would require, for someone not to show, it would require that five, that six members don't show to stymie things. So I get it. It's a difference of opinion, and I'm good with that. Thank you.

Supervisor Desmond.

Thank you, Madam Chair. And Supervisor Anderson, you bring up a good point here about, I do remember at LAFCO we had a similar, I don't know if it was the same one you were talking about, but You know, here, even if we have a majority, it still takes three votes to pass something. Even if the majority is here, I understand that we don't just, if three people show up, two people can't make a decision. So this is kind of going to that minimum. And quite possibly, I don't know if you'd... except a friendly, well, I guess there's already been a motion, well, not yet, but if we made the minimum vote, instead of four, make it five. That way, to pass anything, I guess, because right now, you'd only take four votes to pass something. If six people showed up, that's a majority. And then if you had four votes, if we may raise that to a minimum of five, that way it at least wouldn't be that you'd have more people voting on it or something just wouldn't pass.

Right now they can't even hold a meeting if they don't have the quorum.

But I don't know if that would be something you'd consider or something that you might, at least that'd be a little bit more of a bar that has to be met other than the bottom that it's at now as being proposed. Sure, I'll make a motion that we go ahead and pass item six. It's your item. Or no, you pulled it. Item six, but allow that the minimum number of votes to pass an affirmative would require five votes.

We have a motion on the floor. You do?

I didn't see it. Didn't have a second.

No, I was going to second. I was just waiting for... She was being polite and waiting for Supervisor Desmond. So we have a motion and we have a second. So we have now substitute motion on the floor from Supervisor Desmond, seconded by Supervisor Anderson. So I just want to be very clear so everyone knows the content. So the motion made by Supervisor Montgomery-Stepp and seconded by Supervisor Aguirre is adopt the item as currently written. The substitute motion keeps the item most as written but changes the voting threshold to four. To five. To five. Okay. Does any... Go ahead.

One of the issues with this is unlike other committees, we have given them extraordinary power. We have gone back and and really empowered this committee to do investigations, to do other things. In lowering that standard, I don't know that I would have voted to give them more teeth and more ability if I knew the goal was to lower the standard so that simply two districts would have the authority to use the teeth that we gave them. And I want this to be a powerful committee, and I don't want to take away from it, So that's my concern. Unlike the other committees that they described, those committees don't have any meat on the bones. They don't have the authority that this committee has. And I was good with supporting that additional authority because I always thought it was going to be evenly distributed. APPROACH THAT YOU'D HAVE TO HAVE AT LEAST THREE DISTRICTS IN SUPPORT, AND THAT TWO DISTRICTS COULDN'T DO IT ALONE. SO I JUST WANT TO MAKE SURE I EXPLAIN THAT THIS ISN'T THE SAME AS THE COMMITTEE ON WOMEN AND CHILDREN. THEY DON'T HAVE THE SAME POWER THAT WE GAVE THIS COMMITTEE. THANK YOU FOR THAT, AND THANK YOU FOR YOUR KIND CONSIDERATION.

I'm going to call myself, who I put in the queue. Is there anyone from CLRB here who could speak to this? Brett. Please, if you could come up. I think I need to better understand from clerk's perspective why y'all kind of moved this recommendation forward, what the rationale was behind the voting threshold you proposed in the first place, and then kind of, yeah.

Yeah, I think there's some confusion on what our request is by having this particular voting pattern, which... Chair Lawson-Reamer, A74 sets the rules for how voting should be done on boards, commissions, and committees. And if you look at A74, you need a quorum to have your meeting. And then the voting is a majority of the quorum. It's not a certain number of votes. It's just a majority of the quorum that is present. That's written right into A74, which is exactly what we're proposing here. So if 9 of 11 show up at a meeting, you still need five votes. If seven showed up at a meeting, it would take four votes. You'd still have to always have a majority of the people present. What has happened in the past is that when we have been low on members, and then we have to have a majority of those members, and a couple people leave, we have no room for any dissent. even if it's just one person. And what we found more often is that just continues to delay the review of the cases. And in our case, we have a Peace Officer Bill of Rights rules that we have to finish our investigation and administer our findings within one year of discovery of the item. And so pushing that back could eventually hurt CLEAR by not being able to present the findings in time.

So just talk us through a little bit about how the change you propose would operate differently than the alternative presented by Supervisor Desmond.

So Supervisor Desmond, I think you're saying the number of votes would always be consistent. And I would say that that is not what's written into Robert Rules of Order, nor in A74. And the reason being is that We have, say, we have six of our 11 members show up at a meeting, and we do have quorum. Under the old rule, all six would have to unanimously vote to put any motion forward. Under the new rule, we need four, four of the six. That may not happen very often that we're down to six, but it may happen from time to time, and it makes it very difficult for us to get anything done when we have to have a unanimous decision every single time.

What's been the pattern of how many you need to have a quorum?

We need six to have a quorum. It's the numbers appointed. So say we lose one member, member retires, and that seat isn't filled for a period of time when we have 10 members. In that case, we'd still have to have six for a quorum. Five wouldn't be enough. And so we'd have to have six. So we're still in that same position where we would have to have six votes to pass any item. As you go down, those numbers are going to potentially drop a little bit. If you have nine members, you've got to have five. If you have seven, you have to have four. If you have six, you also have to have four. So it's not necessarily a specific number. It can be anywhere from four to six, depending on what we have in the room for each meeting.

Do any of my colleagues have any questions or comments?

I guess I just want to clarify with the statement I made earlier. Andrew, do we have to have, we have to have three votes to pass something in the affirmative here at this board? Yes, charter requires three affirmative votes for any actions. We have that, yes. So we have to have three votes. You can't, if you have three people show up, you can't have two votes and it passes. So I guess that's kind of the rationale I was using for this one. Well, I guess one of the things we could do is, from CLRB, if we've got a vacant seat, we've got to know about it right away and hopefully fill those vacant seats. And if we've got people that aren't showing up, maybe we have to put some curbs on. If you're not going to show up, we need to put somebody else on these boards. And this is a very important board. You've got... you yield a lot, not just power, but influence. And, you know, you're looking into some things that most of us don't even, you know, don't even see. And you've got access to places that most people don't have. And so because of the weight of your decisions, I'm more comfortable of having a higher THRESHOLD LIKE WE DO AT THIS BOARD AT FIVE. BUT IT'S NOT REALLY A DEAL KILLER, BUT WE NEED PEOPLE. IT'D BE GREAT IF WE HAD PEOPLE SHOWING UP. AND YES, THERE'S ABSENCE, PEOPLE ARE ABSENT, YOU KNOW, PEOPLE GET SICK AND PEOPLE CAN'T MAKE IT, BUT WE'VE GOT TO HAVE A FUNCTIONING BOARD AS WELL.

I HAVE A QUESTION. WHAT IF YOU ONLY HAVE SIX MEMBERS SERVING? HOW MANY WOULD YOU NEED TO HAVE A QUORUM?

We'd have to have a majority of those appointed. So every time we would have to have four. Even if four was quorum, out of six members, for example, four would be quorum. We'd still have to get every single vote. You'd have to be unanimous each time.

Explain that.

So say we had six members appointed. In order to have quorum, we'd have to have four show up. So only two we could have not show up. But because there are six appointed, we'd have to have a majority of those appointed, which also equals four. So it's always going to be the majority of the amount of positions that are filled. And I would say that right now, we are doing pretty well. six months, we've had some people that were added to our board, which has been wonderful and we're doing pretty good. But we still have times, given our meetings are once a month in the evenings, it's not always, I can't think of a time where we've had all 11 show up.

But just to, I'm just trying to be very specific. So we're talking about the difference between what you all put out and what Supervisor Desmond put out. The difference between if we have six people appointed, you need four to pass something. If you have seven people appointed, you need four to pass something. And if you have eight people appointed, you need five because eight's a majority. So the only time where you would only need four instead of five is if you had less than eight people appointed and serving at any given time. Have we had... any times in the last few years where we have less than eight, not eight, but less than eight, because that's the situation we're talking about, right? Like, I just want to make sure we're not getting ourselves all distracted. We're talking about there have to be less than eight, because if there's eight, you still need five to pass something. So have we often had less than eight appointed?

I would say in my two years, probably five or six times, we've either had six or seven members present.

Not present though, right? We're not talking about present because you just said that if you have eight appointed, you need a majority of those appointed. Am I correct? Not a majority of those present?

Currently correct, yes. And so the lowest number is probably, we got four added at one time. So we were around six or seven for a short period of time.

Supervisor. Mr. Klein, and now we have 11.

We do have 11, yes.

And these are rules. I know that this board is a bit different. It's in the charter. It was voted upon by the people. But generally speaking, it's still an advisory board one. And then you're saying this language is consistent with A74.

This is exactly how it's written in A74. We followed A74 in writing this particular revision. And it's also taken strictly from Robert's Rules of Order.

Okay, thank you.

I certainly appreciate when people don't show up or people don't get appointed, but that's where the focus should be. It shouldn't be lowering the standard of representation. You know, right now we have a board that gets along, that is of good nature. What if the next board majority decides the club's not important and they simply don't make the appointments, and then only two districts, four people, vote for the 11th? and control the direction. If we hadn't empowered them with additional, and I don't remember off the top of my head, maybe, Ebony, you can share with us the additional authority that we've given them, but I believe that they have a lot more power than they had before. Unlike any other committee, they have more power. So, you know, if you wanted to come back and say, look, if you missed three meetings, you get removed automatically. And if we put names forward, it's incumbent upon us to put names forward for our district if we want district representation. You know, we submit names, CLRB reviews them, and then they decide on the person that moves forward. I think that's the process that we go. We don't just directly appoint. But I think the last go-around, I submitted like four or five names so that there would be no downtime going. But to lower the standard when you have lives in your hands, And I just think that we shouldn't lower our standards, that our offices need to increase our commitment and keep the pressure on staff to process these people. So you're not going and only six people are showing up when 11 people should be appointed. And I get if one or two people are in flux because two people could quit at the same time. But raising the standard of who can be on it is the direction I'd be willing to support. I am not comfortable giving them. And, Ebony, before I finish my comments, maybe you could just explain real quickly, what is the authority that we most recently gave them? Because I can't remember off the top of my head.

Through the Chair, we gave Clerb expanded authority to conduct inspections of our medical service providers. in general. That's the most recent one that I recall and I'll let Brett to speak more directly since he is the one who made the recommendations for this work.

Well, I would defer to District 4, as they were the one that put that particular jurisdiction forward. But in custody deaths, we now have the ability to review the actions, technically the potential misconduct of the health care providers in that in custody death. It's limited to in custody deaths only. And so right now, we only have about a dozen cases in which that would actually apply.

Now, do you have subpoena power or what? Because you didn't have that before. That was a huge step. We've always had subpoena power. I thought there was more to it. Monica, you had a whole deal in Supervisor Montgomery's stuff. I mean, I liked it, I supported it, but I knew that we'd have a full board reviewing it and that, you know, it'd take three districts to actually pass things.

Yeah, technically, well, let me go back. Yes, there was a list of things. Mr. Kalina covered, I think, the meat of it. A lot of the other stuff is around Pobar. He mentioned that's something that we added to this additional authority, reporting back to this board yearly, but also having the one-year requirement and meeting up with the Pobar staff standards, which is where they're, I think, from his comments, kind of running into some issues. We did put that extra kind of burden on them. So with that additional influence that they have and certain powers that they have came with that extra responsibility that I think most of this is they're trying to meet the timelines and deadlines for aligning with Pobar. So I don't know from listening to this conversation, I don't know how much we will run into just two districts kind of making the decision that may happen. Frankly, I'm not going to say that it won't ever happen, but it sounds like we have a full board. It sounds like, you know, CAO has... done due diligence to make sure that our recommended appointments get through and hers get through and that we more than likely will not run into this and I would just like to pass this based on what that voluntary board is going through and asking us to do but even have additional conversations if we're somewhat uncomfortable with some of the other requirements or maybe other changes that we'll see. I just don't, my main thing is I know that they kind of work real hard on this to make it work based on the requirements that we put on them and that the public has put on them. And I understand your point. I just don't want to continue to tie their hands when they're really trying to meet our requirements. So that's all I would say.

How many times have you ever had some investigation that elapsed over the year and or whatever the time period was and you weren't able to address it?

Fortunately that hasn't happened for a couple years and I know that that happened during the COVID time in which... Oh, that was weird. Okay. Yeah, it was also an issue of the particular cases, especially the in-custody deaths that were not getting done in time. And part of that was the difficulties of getting...

So the last time you actually, I guess, one of these lapsed, it was during COVID.

And what we're seeing now is that when we do have these meetings where the quorum is very small, say we have six, one dissent, and then we have to push it off at least for the next month, potentially two, depending upon our time frame in which we have the next meeting. And the concern would be that we miss that probate, you know, that po-bar date because of maybe one vote.

But you haven't yet?

We haven't, well, we've had it deferred. In fact, we have multiple cases sitting on our calendar right now that were deferred to future months for that exact reason.

For that reason, but you haven't, but my question is, has a case lapsed because, okay, we ran out of time?

Not yet. What's the minimum quorum number? So quorum would be six.

It can't ever be less than six, even if you only have six people appointed? No.

If we had six people appointed and those weren't filled, it would be... According to our rules, it's the ones appointed. So there's still some wiggle room there if someone decides to quit and they were still appointed. How long is that going to take effect? Is that really an appointment or is that now an empty seat that has no appointment? And so it may cause a little bit of confusion. But if we had, say, six people show up, then we would need four of both.

I understand that. I'm asking a different question. You're saying you want to go with the majority of the people who show up. So I'm trying to understand what's the least number of people that you could have show up. If you have 11 people appointed, it's six. That's clear. I don't think we have a confusion of this. The question is, but we're not talking about, we're not problem solving for when you have 11 people appointed. We're problem solving for when you have like seven people appointed, right? Because we're not problem solving when you have eight, because then you're in the five bucket anyway. So we're like, you're saying, what do we do if we don't have enough people appointed? So what's the lowest number of quorum we would ever have?

Well, that depends upon the numbers appointed, and that's why we want to move this to who's present and not who's appointed because we can't control all of that. And so in the case here, we have 11 people. If six show up, again, we have no wiggle room at all for a dissent.

Okay, thank you. This is super helpful. So let me just kind of, first of all, I appreciate Susan Anderson flagging this. I think it's valuable to remember that this is an incredibly important board with real power that makes real decisions, and it is important to have, you know, broad countywide representation. For me, it's a question of incentives and who's best positioned to, like, solve different parts of the problem. I think the, I actually am inclined to support, to just move forward the way with Claire framed this, I agree it would be better if we have like more people there and we don't have just a few people voting on these things. The issue though is that CLRB is not well positioned to make sure that those positions are appointed. and that people attend the meetings. That's on us, those are our people. So if we wanna make sure that people are showing up at the meetings and voting and we don't have a situation where we have a small number that constitutes a quorum or a few people attending the meetings, that's gotta be on us to get our folks there. So I actually think it makes sense. We shouldn't hold up the review of these cases because the people we've appointed aren't showing up. That's on us. That being said, I do think it would be very helpful if you could institute some kind of more like regular and visible communications to all of our offices if our people aren't showing up or you don't, you know, on a regular, on any basis, not just on a regular basis, so if they don't come, You know, we should be told in like a much more aggressive way. And if we have a vacancy for you to hound us a little bit to get it filled, I think that would be helpful so we can do our part. Because I do think we need to make sure folks are there. Ultimately, we need you guys to review the facts and make decisions in a timely manner. I will not be supporting the substitute motion, but I do think it raises an important issue. I just think that it's not quite a lot. The incentive structure needs to be on us to get our people there.

Seward or Anderson?

You're up.

If When I do this stuff, I'm not thinking about this board. I'm not worried about this board, but I don't know who follows us. We have to confirm every person that goes on CLRB. If somebody wanted to hold up that confirmation... because they liked the direction and they didn't want the direction to change. I just don't want the process to be politicized. And I appreciate where everybody's coming from. And I just want to tell you, you know, thank you. And look, we all vote our districts. And I agree with that because we were elected to represent our districts. But to me, it's not about us. It's about a process that a nefarious person could undermine. And I just want to make sure those protections are in place when we're dealing with people's lives. And so thank you, Madam Chair.

Thank you, Supervisor. I want to note that that's also my concern, is sort of nefarious people, not current members of the board, undermining a process. And I would worry, what if someone doesn't want to fill their spots because they want to slow roll things so they don't appoint people. So the approach you outlined would allow if you had one or two board members who really didn't want this board, the clerk to function to undermine the function of clerk by like not appointing their people. So I think that the point that I'm making is that these are, this is a valid concern, but ultimately we all have like democracy requires that we do our jobs.

Let's see though. You'd still have the board majority. You'd have three people producing six people. and the CAO, a district-wide person, that would give you seven people. So even if two people decided they're not going to do their appointments, the process still would include the board majority of the votes passing. And even today, under the circumstances of six, it's a board majority that passes it. It can't be done with just two districts' appointees doing the work. It takes more than 30... What did I tell you, 34%? 36%? It actually takes 54%. So I always feel like if 50% plus one, you're safe, that you've represented the majority of the county. But under this circumstances, the majority of the county would not be represented. Because if, let's say, District 1 and 2, their appointees are caught in a car accident and can't make it, and the third district voted against it, districts four and five could still pass it and put it out, and then you have to wheel it back in or you have to address it all. I just think that we should have a board majority of this board on that board making the decisions, just like we have the board majority here. And look, I've talked it to death. You've heard my arguments. I'm done. I'm trying to be fair, but I want to make sure that I'm crystal clear because I'm going to get calls from my district. Now, what were you saying? So thank you very much.

Okay. Just to remind people of the procedure of where we're at, there is a motion on the floor by Supervisor Desmond, seconded by Supervisor Anderson. That's a substitute motion, and that substitute motion puts the voting threshold at five. And prior to that, there was a motion on the floor. Okay.

So just a quick clarification, as I understand comments from Clerk's representative, the intent is to ensure that there's a majority of the quorum who are currently present at that meeting. I think the language is currently stated, states that the vote would require a majority of the quorum, but not necessarily a majority of the quorum present.

I think we all understood that in this conversation.

I just want to make sure that the language was consistent with the intent or everybody understood that the intent was not to set the vote count at a majority of just the quorum meetings, a majority of six, but a majority of all those who were present. That would constitute a quorum.

Okay. Okay. So again, we have a substitute motion on the floor. The prior motion that this is serving to substitute for was from Supervisor Montgomery Stepp, seconded by Supervisor Aguirre, and that would adopt the item as presented and written without any amendments. So we will first take a vote on the substitute motion. Andrew, please call the vote.

Chair Lawson-Riemer, that motion fails due to the lack of required affirmative votes with Supervisor Anderson and Supervisor Desmond voting no, all other supervisors being, voting aye, all other supervisors being present and voting no.

Okay, thank you very much. Now we'll return to the initial motion on the floor to adopt item six as written. Everyone please vote.

And Chair Lawson-Riemer, that motion passes. Supervisor Anderson voting no. All other supervisors being present and voting aye.

Okay. Thank you all very much. That was very interesting and helpful. And thank you for all your service. It's really important. Great. So now we are moving on. Again, we're sticking with the items regarding the sheriff and community safety and law enforcement generally. And so that's item 20. And this is protecting community safety, prohibiting wearable electric shock weapons. Turning it to my colleagues.

Yeah, go ahead. Thank you, Madam Chair. Colleagues, today we're asking this board to take a very simple position. There's no place for wearable electroshock devices by state, local, and federal law enforcement agencies operating in California. We're talking about gloves that allow an officer or agent to deliver an electric shock simply by grabbing or touching another human being. not by drawing a taser, not through a clearly visible deployment of force, but through something worn directly on the body that can be activated during close physical contact, used repeatedly, and be far more difficult for witnesses to even recognize as force. And we should not wait until someone in San Diego is seriously injured or killed before deciding that this crosses the line. California has spent years telling our law enforcement agencies that force must be necessary, proportional, accountable, and grounded in de-escalation. Our local agencies have invested significant time, training, and resources into those standards. So introducing a weapon that can secretly deliver pain through the palm of someone's hand moves us in exactly the wrong direction. And I want to be equally clear, this standard must apply regardless of the badge. If we don't believe that San Diego Sheriff's Office, Chula Vista Police Department, National City Police, or any other local agency should be using an electroshock glove on members of the public, then we should not accept ICE using one either. And for communities along our border, that distinction matters tremendously. Communities in my district, families in San Isidro, Otaime, Satchelavista, and Pearl Beach, and throughout this region are already living with tremendous fear surrounding immigration enforcement. They're seeing masked agents, they're seeing aggressive arrests, they're seeing federal enforcement carried out in our neighborhoods, workplaces, parking lots, and public spaces. Now the federal government wants to spend up to $20 million equipping officers with gloves capable of electrically shocking someone through direct physical contact. We say no. We should not allow our residents to become test subjects for a new weapon whose risks remain poorly understood, and we should not allow our border communities to become testing grounds for ICE. If this weapon is too dangerous, too difficult to monitor, and too inconsistent with our use of force values for local enforcement, then it is too dangerous for ICE as well. California can draw the line now. San Diego County should help lead the way. That's why I'm proud to support AB 2760 and the work of Assemblymember Lachey, Dr. Lachey Sharp-Collins, and I urge Governor Newsom to sign this law. With that, I want to turn it over to my colleague and co-doctor, Vice Chair Monica Montgomery-Stump.

Thank you, Chair Pro Tem, for your leadership in partnership on this item. Chair Lawson-Riemer, thank you for accepting this late docket. State elected officials are in their final dash to the finish line for this legislative session. I know we're all getting texts. I think they're almost done. But I want to thank Assemblymember Lachey Sharp-Collins for her leadership in protecting our communities by authoring AB 2760. Equipping ICE with electroshock gloves does not make community members safer or ICE agents better at their jobs. It's simply another tool for ICE to use to harm and intimidate our communities. This technology leaves almost no trace on the body while delivering significant pain even when shocks are administered dozens of times. This creates a significant lack of accountability and transparency when trying to evaluate possible misconduct after use. AB 2760 challenges this federal administration's newest, extremely inhumane approach to immigration enforcement, and it guarantees this dangerous technology will not be used by state and local law enforcement officials operating in California. It is so important that the county does what it can to oppose dangerous use of force technology from being incorporated into practice before its safety and accountability risks are addressed and guardrails are established. We need to try to prevent possibly tragic instances from unnecessary and excessive force before they actually occur. I hope the rest of our colleagues will support this item today. Thank you so much.

Okay, we'll now get a public comment.

Thank you, Chair Lawson-Riemer. We have 18 requests to speak on this item, three in person, and 15 requesting to speak by phone. I'll also note for the record that we received 191 e-comments, 181 in support, five in opposition, and two neutral. For any individuals that requested to speak on item 20 by phone, please dial into the conference line using the instructions that were provided to you. We'll begin with the in-person speakers. As your name is called, please come forward and stand on the arrows until it is your turn to speak at the podium. Because there are 10 or more speakers in the siding, we'll have one minute to address the board. I'd like to invite forward allegedly Audra, Cristoforo Gomez, and Clint Carney. If I've called your name, please come forward. And I'll ask you to please state your name for the audio record.

Under the Supremacy Clause of the U.S. Constitution, you can't regulate what the federal government does. So this is going to open up lawsuits against California if this even gets passed, and you guys trying to enforce that. You can do it with local law enforcement, but you can't do it with federal agents. So it's like, who's going to enforce this? All this stuff, you guys are like, you just want to support it, of course. But it's like you don't have any enforcement behind it. And that's the thing is you don't want the federal government getting into your pockets or backyard or cutting things. But you're willing to go in and dictate what they do when they're actually following the law outside of things that they're doing that are potentially abusive. They are going and... trying to protect our border, which you guys facilitated an invasion and the trafficking of children and adults. And now you fucked around and you're finding out what that looks like. Good job.

Thank you. Next speaker, please.

Good afternoon, Supervisors. My name is Chris Olfato-Gomez and I'm an organizer with the San Diego and Imperial Counties Labor Council. I want to applaud Supervisors Aguirre and Montgomery Stepp for bringing this forward, for being proactive on the issue and supporting this bill. We do not need to wait until the violence materializes to put a stop to this technology. We don't need to wait until the inevitable lawsuits come and we definitely don't need to wait for our most vulnerable communities to be used as a testing ground for this tech. I'm happy that this bill covers the totality of law enforcement and hope that any funds that could potentially be used here locally are instead directed towards community-driven solutions. So we urge your support. Thank you.

Thank you. Next speaker, please.

Hello, supervisors. My name is Clint Carney. I'm with Survivors of Torture International here in San Diego and also the San Diego Immigrant Rights Consortium. Thank you for supporting AB 2760 and the ban on electroshock gloves. These gloves are weapons. They are absolutely instruments of torture and have no place in California, in the United States of America, or anywhere. The discussion after AB 2760 might be talk about penalties and penal code sections and increase charges for anyone who does use those. They may show up in the civilian population. One example is near fatal strangulation can be prosecuted as torture. It's not choking, it's torture. There are other examples. I know Riverside County prosecutes that as torture. So it's something that could be looked at in further discussions on this. Supervisor Anderson has a lot of good experience on divestment from businesses that work with bad actors, and this company that makes these maybe is a bad actor as well, so that could be another issue. Thank you. Thank you.

We'll now hear from the individuals that requested to speak by phone. When it is your turn to speak, you will be unmuted and you will hear a recording that will tell you to begin your comments. We will start with our first caller.

This is like a no-brainer. Electroshock can be fatal. I didn't hear Glove or whatever. It's even more likely to be uncontrolled. But this is a blank check for legislative resolution. And we all know what can happen with blank checks in legislators. I hope that the final resolution represents the wishes of the entire county is, in fact, what you voted for and is all legal. But by the way, how many days are left in the California legislative session? I mean, is this just a waste of paper and... whatever money you spend on staff time and effort. Thanks.

We'll hear from the next caller.

Okay, so I propose that these gloves be placed on the seats of the supervisors on the dais And every time they lie, a little jolt they're given. Yeah? Can I propose that? As a tax-paying citizen, can I propose that? So in other words, you're not liking that. You'd rather them be shot and killed, Monica, Paloma, Tara. You don't want the shock of the glove. You'd rather them be just killed. Got it. That's what you're saying. In other words, the population. That's what's happening. So again, with my first proposal of having these gloves be on the feet of the supervisors, and every time they lie, they're shocked.

We'll hear from the next caller.

Hi, this is Pam. I did not hear those in favor express concern for the thousands of unaccompanied minors disappeared out of the San Diego Convention Center in 2021. Where are they? Anyway, cooperation with federal law leads to safety in the county. These gloves would not be necessary with cooperation from the county. Self-deportation is safe and effective. We all know that term is always true. And the county should encourage this action if this board truly cares about safety. Illegal immigrants have all broken the law and thousands have committed more than one crime. They need to be exited out of America. ICE arrested nearly 2,000 people in this area. They are not San Diegans. They are not new Americans about suicides. 60% of those arrested in July had no criminal convictions or pending charges, but had entered the US illegally or overstayed their welcome. This means 40% had criminal convictions or pending charges and you protect these people.

Okay, thank you. And we'll hear from the next caller.

so curiosity what weapons is okay for you to buy that would totally fuck us up like military grade weapons because you guys spend a lot of money on military grade weapons now because they want to use shot gloves you have a problem with it oh no it's ice but you have no control so what are we doing wasting time money resources Exactly. What about those sound weapons that you bought? I remember you testing them right behind the Registrar of Voters building. Those things will fuck you up. What about the other weapons that you guys were looking at? I mean, you guys have an incredible lot of weapons that could totally screw over a lot of people in mass amounts, right? Oh, you don't want to tell the people that, right? You just want to go ahead and make a political statement. Why? To go ahead and reduce their security? Because that's what our supervisors are. They're not here to help us out. They're here to help out the illegal immigrants.

Yeah, we'll hear from the next caller.

Good afternoon. My name is Felicia Gomez. I'm the campaign director at the California Immigrant Policy Center and a lifelong resident of District 5. I'm here to express my strong support for item number 20. And I also want to thank Supervisors Aguirre and Montgomery Stepp for your leadership to introduce this important board letter. AB 2760 by Assemblymember Sharp Collins responds to the emergence of wearable electroshock devices, including gloves capable of delivering an electrical shock through direct physical contact to prohibit law enforcement agencies from using these devices in California or purchasing this equipment with state dollars. San Diego County border communities already experienced significant federal immigration enforcement presence, making it critical that California establish clear limits before this technology becomes normalized or deployed in our communities. These concerns are especially urgent as DHS quickly moved to acquire wearable electroshock gloves for federal officers, given their bloated budget of $240 billion. San Diego knows that we should not deploy these into our communities. State resources should be used for service.

Thank you. We'll hear from the next caller.

Good afternoon. My name is Eddie Maya. I'm a senior policy advocate with the ACLU of San Diego and the Puro Camp. We strongly support the board letter in support of California Assembly Bill 2760. This bill would temporarily prohibit state and local law enforcement agencies from purchasing, possessing, or using case or gloves and substantially similar wearable electroshock devices while requiring a study for their safety and community impact. The possibility that this technology could become another tool used during immigration enforcement only heightens the need for California to act before it becomes normalized. Let us be clear. There are no circumstances that justify giving law enforcement a device that allows an officer to inflict severe pain through a simple touch. Our communities should not become testing grounds for a new weapon whose risks remain deeply concerning. We respectfully urge the board to vote yes on item 20 and score AB 2760 through the throughout the legislative process.

Thank you. We'll hear from the next caller.

It's true. This item is proof that there are full-blown union trolls on the dais. Trolls that want illegal aliens to die by banning defensive trolls to leave ice with only lethal weapons. Trolls that are so focused on federal jurisdiction that they fell to see that their own jurisdiction is falling apart. You guys won't even ban LRADs, which leave no trace of damage.

The sheriff in our state capitol saying Thursday that the gloves are not only necessary, but life-saving.

The Department of Homeland Security spokesperson said, quote, sanctuary politicians attempting to ban our federal law enforcement from any safety equipment is despicable and a deliberate attempt to undermine and endanger our officers, adding that...

Plus, Manny admitted this. For the record, none of this resolution we have jurisdiction or power over. So all of this resolution is messaging.

We have absolutely zero jurisdiction. Someone told me Manny likely broke her arm from patting herself on the back and that the sling will be best suited over her mouth.

You will hear from the next caller.

Good afternoon, all. This is Melanie Bennett. For those that think wearable electric shock weapons would be a benefit to society and are those who think they will never be used on them, I would just ask you to consider thinking about the actual person who is expected to use these gloves on another human being. We would be asking them to do something cruel, and inhumane and that person will feel the effects by becoming inhumane themselves perhaps even suffering from ptsd and later perhaps die by suicide which happens too frequently in the military that newly damaged person not only could become detrimental to themselves but also our civil society thank you so much this this is This is so important. A no vote on this would, of course, be a stain on your record. So I can only imagine that item 20, banning wearable electric shock weapons, will be passed.

Thank you. On to the next caller.

Hi, Natalie Raschke. I'm just amazed by this even being a thing. And What makes this not lead us, like everybody else said, to something that's greater than using it to people's eyes? When does it then come to the general population, which, you know, addicts and other immigrants are part of the general population, but what about the homeless population? I'm about to become homeless again. So my husband seems to get a little bit out of tact or out of order. Potentially he'll be electrocuted by gloves because I don't just see these being used in ice detainment. Where do we draw the line on what's humane and what's not humane? And then if they're using these in front of children, how traumatizing is that? Is anybody thinking about these children? And what if they touch a children with these?

Thank you. We'll hear from the final caller.

Patricia Mondragon, Regional Policy Manager for Alliance San Diego. Wearable electric shock gloves are a new and largely untested weapon. Our community should not become the testing ground. We know immigrant communities and black and brown people are most likely to bear the risk, including students. We've heard the less lethal argument before. Pagers were promoted the same way, yet direct contact electrical shocks have raised serious concerns about excessive force, torture, health emergencies, and accountability. The danger is not hypothetical. A reported death in Kentucky is alleged to have involved repeated use of the... of these gloves we respectfully urge the board to support the board letter and formally support ab272760 now that it has passed the legislature legislature and is headed to the governor's desk we further urge the county to send a letter to governor newsom calling on him to sign ab2760 into law the county should use its voice at every state thank you and charlotte's rumor that concludes public comment on this item

Thank you very much, Chair Pro Temohiri. Thank you, Madam Chair. I just want to add a few things. So for anybody who would make the argument that AB 2760 strips law enforcement of critical non-lethal tools, I would just remind folks that officers will still have access to tasers, OC spray, batons, and de-escalation tactics. This bill went through its due process, legislative process. It went through the Senate Public Safety, local government, and appropriations committees. advanced to the floor for a vote and now as I mentioned earlier has passed and is just awaiting our governor signature. I also want to mention that some of the groups that switch from opposed to neutral include the Peace Officers Research Association of California, the California Peace Chiefs Association, and the California Association of Highway Patrolmen. So I ask for a yes vote. Thank you.

Was that a motion? Okay, we have a motion. We have a motion on the second. Supervisor Desmond?

Thank you, Madam Chair. I appreciate it. My understanding from my staff and their research is the state bill was a gut and amend measure that was just amended 10 days ago in response to a news article. So I don't think it was, I don't know. This is an effective lawmaking. And the bill aims to restrict federal, state, and local law enforcement from adopting this de-escalation device. I mean, they sound creepy to me. They absolutely do. It sounds like something I would not want to have used on me at all. But this is less lethal, and it's a de-escalation device. You know, we had the meeting the other day on restricting ICE from using our facilities here. I think more training and more tools that allow them to use without having to pull a gun. Even with the taser guns, I've seen a couple of cases across the country where an officer said, sorry, I thought I had my taser and it happened so fast and I really had pulled my gun on this person. And I think any tool that can be used as a de-escalation device or a device that can be used before you'd have to pull a gun is worthy. So we already know that the state has no authority to regulate federal agencies. And if passed, the federal law enforcement portion would be struck down immediately. I think this bill has, with no federal enforcement, and I just... I'm just not ready to give up on this being a de-escalation device, something that can be used prior to pulling a gun, I think is a better effort and better cause. So I will not be supporting. Thank you.

Vice Chair? I just want to address the Guttenman that is accurate. However, this assembly member, Sharp Collins, was working with my office to provide greater jurisdiction for Inspector General's offices to include animal services and also probation departments. So what happened was our state association of counties had additional feedback than we thought in order to make the law more robust and to make sure that we are covering all the different areas that were reflected in the code, that she decided to pull that back. So I just want to say that it was, I think, to say that it It was not effective governing when the office has really been working with us as a county to address our local needs that we also find are statewide is extremely important to just put that on the record. Thank you.

Thank you very much. There's a couple layers here. First of all, the notion that this is creepy and terrible, but we should support it because it's less lethal. What would be less lethal is if we didn't have ICE roaming around our neighborhoods trying to kidnap people. Just last week, there was an entire armed tactical unit that invaded a mall in Encinitas for hours. Everyone was terrified. Because that's, why are they there? It's completely inappropriate use of taxpayer funds, but also incredibly damaging to our communities. So to my view, if we would like to be the less lethal, they should leave us alone. And the second thing I just have been really thinking about this is that I was really thinking, you know, where did this idea come from? This is nuts. I mean, really, like, just at a visceral level. And I closed my eyes and I'm thinking, God, this actually feels familiar. This came from somewhere. And I don't know if you all remember, you know, I think we're all, at least a few of us, it's the same generation, remember Star Wars. Who had electric shock black gloves? Darth Vader. There's only one person in popular culture with electric shock black gloves who can kill people with their bare hands using electricity. So anyway, I'm against Darth Vader black gloves. So I'll be voting against Darth Vader in our community. Thank you. It's creepy. Yeah. They weren't black gloves, though. Okay, we were calling the question. We have a motion and a second. Please vote.

Chair Lawson-Riemer, that motion passes with Supervisor Anderson and Supervisor Desmond voting no, all other supervisors being present and voting aye.

Okay, thank you so much. We're moving on. So now we're trying to get back in terms of the order of the agenda. We had jumped ahead to take care of some of the public safety and law enforcement items. So now just looking for the remainder of the agenda, we have item 16, item 17, item 19. Then we'll have adjournments in memory. comments for closed session and then closed session. Okay, so moving on to item 16. This is an item that I brought forward and we can start with public comment.

Thank you, Chair Lawson-Reamer. We have 14 requests to speak on this item, five in person, and nine requesting to speak by phone. Also note for the record that we received four e-comments, three in support, and one opposition. For any individual that requested to speak on item 16 by phone, please dial into the conference line using the instructions that were provided to you. We'll begin with the in-person speakers. I'd like to invite forward the first three individuals. Because there are 10 or more speakers on this item, you'll have one minute to address the board, and I'll ask you to please state your name for the audio record. I'd like to invite forward, allegedly, Audra, Leslie Masland, and Cristoforo Gomez. If I've called your name, please come forward.

Talk about tit for tat. It's just like governments wielding their power in the ways that they can against each other for things that they've done to each other. Tara, you realize that you guys facilitated an invasion, right? And that you guys incentivize this. They should actually blame you for the abuse that's taking place because you guys made a lot of money off of them coming in. Why weren't you carrying them when they were getting raped and murdered on the way to our country?

Can you please pause the speaker? Yes. We're on item 16. Okay, but you're speaking currently on the previous item. So this is your first warning. Please stay on topic on item 16. Thank you.

Talking about federal cuts, the Trump cuts. This has nothing to do with electric gloves, electric shock gloves. There's nothing about that. But you are concerned about ICE invading a mall when we had our nation invaded. And that's why these cuts are happening. You continue to wonder why you misused our funds. Everything that you said, it's damaging to our community. What you guys did was damaging. And now the people are suffering because of it. It's your fault. Take ownership for it and quit blaming everybody else like Trump.

I'd like to invite for the final speakers in person, Heather Russell and Sheikha Bansal. If I've called your name, please come forward. And again, if you could state your name for the record, please, thank you.

My name is Heather Russell, and I am a mom of a medically fragile special needs child with a rare diagnosis. My son, Ethan, has endured 29 surgeries, five heart surgeries, a heart attack. He has cerebral palsy. He's nonverbal. And yet one of his biggest challenges he faces is not knowing whether Medicaid and Medi-Cal will be cut, which determines if he lives another day. My Ethan lives with all of his medical emergencies each day with a smile on his face saying hi to everyone he meets. Sorry, I get emotional thinking about him. And spreading joy. He has an abundance of love for life. Medicaid and Medi-Cal funding programs like IHSS and home supportive services helps families with medically fragile children remain in the home safely with care. IHSS workers struggle getting health care coverage for themselves, like my husband, who's battled cancer five times. This is why opposing cuts matter, and this is why increasing the budget matters. We need to stay healthy for...

Thank you.

Thank you. Thank you.

Thank you.

Among us in the community and society... Ma'am, ma'am, ma'am. We really need to be consistent on our rules, but you can come back, okay? I will cede you some of my time. The vice chair will invite you back up to finish your comments. Yeah.

Thank you, vice chair. Thank you. Next speaker, please, if I've called your name. Leslie Maslin, Cristoforo Gomez, and Chica Bonsall.

Good afternoon Madam Chair and Supervisors. My name is Chikha Bansal. I have lived in San Diego County for nearly 12 years and I am a proud UDW member and an IHSS provider for my daughter. Becoming an IHSS provider gave my family something we had been missing for years, that is stability. It allowed me to provide my daughter with consistent care, supervision and safety she needs at home. It also transformed the caregiving I have always done as a mother into meaningful support a family can depend on. For families like mine, this isn't like theoretical, but when home care funding becomes unstable, people with disabilities may lose the support that helps them remain safely at home, while caregivers are left wondering how they will continue caring for the people they love. Today's resolution opposes these reckless cuts and calls for immediate release for Medicaid funding owed to California. The county did not create this crisis, but San Diego families will pay the price if nothing is done. I urge you to pass it.

Thank you. Next speaker, please.

Good afternoon, my name is Cristoforo Gomez. I'm an organizer at the San Diego and Imperial Counties Labor Council. We represent over 130 unions and 200,000 workers, including the EDW workers in the room. These Medicaid cuts are going to result in real harm, real preventable harm, plain and simple, to the most vulnerable people all of your communities. So we must do everything in our power at a local level to protect these constituents and setting San Diego's strong opposition to these cuts alongside the other funding plans that the county has put forward is incredibly important and just a start to that protection. So we urge your support. Thank you.

Thank you.

We'll now hear from the individuals I requested to speak by phone. We'll start with our first caller.

Ah, another no-brainer. It must be political posturing error. I mean, I really have a hard time thinking who would actually oppose Medicaid. I mean, who would actually want Medicaid cuts? I mean, you know, would you want your neighbor or whoever to be someone in the community whom you like or don't like or respect to be cut off from medicine. I mean, that's cruel and unusual. You know, I mean, again, you know, it's a no-brainer. So, I don't even know why we're wasting money on this. But, you know, have fun. Thanks.

Okay, we'll hear from the next caller.

Hi, this is Pam. This is a waste of our time. The resolution you send will have no value or teeth. The new law imposes new work reporting requirements, requires more frequent eligibility checks, restricts eligibility for certain lawfully present immigrants, and makes other significant changes to Medicaid financing. In other words, making truly ineligible individuals accountable and responsible for their lived experience of poor choices and stopping the freebie to illegal immigrants. The children of these loving mothers, they are deserving. And there's other people that are robbing them by fraud and by pretending and claiming they're entitled to what they are not. So many people, groups, NGOs, abuse assistance, and the taxpayer. This mess began under President Biden and HHS Bastera, and the women on this board applauded the chaos. And now they want to look like, ooh, we're going to be the heroes here. The new requirements are necessary for fairness to those truly in need.

You will hear from the next caller.

Obviously, you need more medication, more money for your rehab centers and all that stuff, because clearly, Andrea Ebbing, who talked today, was incompetent, right? Like, couldn't make sense, couldn't figure out things that happened years ago. She's sitting in a jail cell, and she's able to recite all that stuff. But you need to medicate her, right? You need her to forget about these things. Yeah, no, definitely. We should go ahead and move as much money as humanly possible because we need to silence the people that have grievances with the county. How else are we going to have this utopia, this socialist utopia that Tara Lassenheimer is going for? I mean, she works for the ACLU still to this day. She does their bidding. She does not do the bidding of the people. Otherwise, she would have answered my question instead of filing restraining order.

We'll hear from the next caller. The next caller is Consuelo. Your device might be muted. And we'll come back to you, Consuelo.

It's true. Darth Vader is real. CDS is real. Medicaid fraud is real. County corruption is real. Terrorist political theater is not. Because what about that Somali woman in Minnesota who was arrested for Medicare fraud? Other headlines include healthy California seniors trapped in fake hospices as $3.5 billion Medicare fraud scheme exposed. A 2022 state audit found dozens of hospice agencies in the same buildings. This is a California problem, U.S. Attorney Bill Asele said. I call California the kingdom of fraud, and Newscum reigns over this kingdom. Facing Medicare fraud allegations, California changes the subject. Newscum's political antics do nothing to resolve Medicaid fraud, costing taxpayers billions every year. HHS withholds $867 million in Medicaid payments to California as part of crackdown on fraud. Fraud is real, so this item is a gross misuse of county resources. Exactly as expected from the spoiled brats on the diet. Somebody changed their new scum, provided dirty diapers. Order another duplicate claim and provide her kickback. Long live Vader. As crazy as Tara. That's all I'm doing. Thank you.

Thank you. We'll hear from the next caller.

Hi. Natalie Rash, please. I am kind of confused on all of these cuts, Medicaid, Medi-Cal, all of it. I think we need a group that has a group of leaders that just stands down and nobody does anything. Every time we move forward and vote on these things, it's just like I'm getting slapped in the face left and right every day. Every day. How about we just do nothing and say no? No, you're not making discussion. We're not showing up to work. People pull their kids from the school. Nobody go to work at the university. How about everybody just stand down and let the people take the power back because it's getting way out of control. I'm tired of it. People are getting tired. The bill is starting to be lifted. People are starting to show faith. What's happening? Corrupt. Everything is corrupt. And people are getting by by embezzling money. I'm reading about the, oh, I can't think of his name. In Florida, $10 million. Not even, no response.

Thank you. And we'll hear from the final caller.

Amen, Natalie. So, okay, Big Pharma, the conveyor belt of healthcare. So let's just, okay, I want to just talk about something that deserves far more scrutiny than it receives. Big Pharma and the medical industrial complex.

Bye, love you.

We have created a healthcare system that has become a, be careful, that has become a conveyor belt of Sorry. From the childhood vaccination schedule to the nonstop prescribing of synthetic pharmaceuticals, we have normalized a system that often manages illness rather than asking a deeper question. Why are so many people becoming sick in the first place? And I'm not saying every doctor is corrupt or that every medication is unnecessary. There are medications that save lives. There are doctors who generally care about their patients, very rarely. And I want to talk about those medications being after the big pharma has screwed up the patient system. Thank you.

And Chair Lawson-Raymond, that concludes public comment on this item.

Okay. Thank you very much. I'd like to make a motion to adopt this item and then turn the floor over to the Vice Chair.

Thank you so much, Chair. I just had a question for Ms. Russell. I wanted to just see your perspective as you were speaking about how this is impacting you, your family, and others. So if you could come back up to the mic and complete that. Thank you.

Thank you. I appreciate you having me back up here. Do you want me to just answer, continue the little bit I have to read?

Just complete your...

Yes, so the most fragile and vulnerable in our community need to be protected. My son Ethan lives strong and brave every day because he has no option. There are those who cherish his life and those who wish to risk it, devalue it, and endanger it. If you ever wonder who the unspoken heroes are, it's those who protect children with no voice. If you have children, Be thankful your child is healthy and you don't have to worry if they take their next breath or their heartbeats once more. If cuts are made to Medi-Cal or Medicaid, it doesn't affect a number on a piece of paper. It affects my Ethan and so many more. And it is a matter of life and death. So thank you.

Thank you very much. Chair, I will second your motion. Thank you.

Thank you so much. Before we get into board discussion, I want to make a couple of remarks about this item and why I brought it forward today. We've been speaking for nearly two years now about the threats posed to health care in our region by the Trump administration and the cuts to Medicaid. And for the most part, we've been talking quite at length about H.R. 1 and the impact that H.R. 1 will have to San Diego County. This was signed last July and the combination of massive significant red tape and really increased burden on our eligibility workers, in addition to changes in eligibility rules, threatens to leave about 150 to 170,000 additional people in San Diego County without health care. Again, 155 to 170,000 people who currently can see a doctor will not be able to see a doctor. if we don't take really aggressive action here in San Diego County. And that's an astonishing number. In a civilized country where we have people who make millions and sometimes billions of dollars every single year to have people dying of preventable diseases because they can't get in to get a cancer screening, they can't get in to see a doctor for a tooth infection, they end up in our emergency rooms when it's too late, or never end up seeing a doctor at all and just end up in the morgue. And that's the reality of what we're looking at. And that's for the folks who are on Medicaid. But the impact is going to be felt by everyone here in San Diego County, not just those who are on Medicaid, but everyone across our region. who are not going to be able to see a doctor, who are going to see increasing wait times, cuts, sometimes significant cuts to staffing at our hospitals, clinics closing, hospitals facing potential shutdowns, key services, especially for neonatal services for children and for maternal health services. are very likely to be shuttered. That was what was already happening. That's the backdrop. On top of this, we are now looking at more than $2 billion in federal Medicaid funding that has been withheld from California as retribution. This has nothing to do with H.R. 1. This is an addition to the policy changes that are already coming out of Washington. These are just cuts. to California that single us out and target us for politics because we don't agree with the direction that Washington is taking this country. $2 billion in federal Medicaid funding withheld from California. This threatens the safety net that serves more than 840,000 San Diegans. It's 840,000 people who are on Medicaid, and this includes nearly 300,000 children. This is the situation that we're in. And to make it very clear that this is and should be a bipartisan issue, this should not be a political issue, this should not be red or blue, that this is a bipartisan issue around access to healthcare, around ensuring that people in our community get the care that they need and deserve, that healthcare is treated as the fundamental human right that it is, The most recent rounds of retribution on Medicaid funding withholding has been targeted at in-home care, at the folks that serve and work with our community members who need care every single day. and are not able to care for themselves and need a caregiver. And we have an extraordinary program called IHSS who cares for these caregivers, I mean, excuse me, who cares for these individuals who need care. And our caregivers are now getting targeted. Our caregivers are being targeted for providing care. So that's what this resolution is about. It's about standing up and saying we need and deserve healthcare in San Diego County. That every member of our community has the right to see a doctor when they are sick, to get treatment when they are sick. and that access to healthcare should not be a privilege, it should be a basic and fundamental right. So with that, I would be very hopeful that the board could support this resolution today, and I look forward to the board discussion. Thank you so much, Supervisor Anderson.

Thank you, Madam Chair. I'd like to offer a friendly amendment that reflects our county's takes on misuse of public funds seriously. And I think that I have it here if we could post it. And I was thinking that we could either replace paragraph 10 or put it in after paragraph 10. I'm flexible on that. But with all the brouhaha, I don't want to have any confusion about over where we stand on fraud and at the same time how our constituents are in need and their needs are our concern. So it's not a big difference, but it would make it easy for me to get to yes.

And where exactly you wanted to put it? After which clause?

Either in lieu of paragraph 10 or after paragraph 10.

Okay. I'm gonna look at it and we'll think about it as the maker of the motion. And in the meanwhile, Supervisor Geary.

Thank you, Madam Chair. And thank you for bringing this item forward. I also want to thank all the speakers. I know how difficult it is for you guys to take time out of your day, especially if you're caring for a different abled child or a different abled adult. I know that almost 80% of our older adults age 65 and up live in a multi-generational household, and that's always a challenge. When you take away the paycheck for these in-home care providers, You're hitting them on both ends. You're hitting them on their income and you're hitting them on their ability to put food on the table, keep a roof over their head and making things even more difficult in an already difficult situation. My district has one of the highest percentages of adults aged 18 and up with limited ability. So this is an important matter to me. And I would say, yes, you are the unsung heroes. Those of you who care for for different abled child or adult. So this action that this administration is just completely callous and cruel and unnecessary because I do agree with what the chair said. This is going to impact us on the front end and on the back end in the form of impacts to our emergency departments, in the form of people falling off of their ability to access health care and ending up on the street. And this is costing us, all of us as a society. So I just think that we should continue to push back on this administration. This is completely unprecedented. And I've said this before, but generations... Since we implemented these safety net programs, we've all been putting money towards them and nobody ever believed that they could be taken away. They're fundamental. And now we have somebody that's willing to do that just for political points. It's absolutely ridiculous, callous, cruel. And I think through this resolution, we send a very clear message to D.C. that we won't stand for that. Thank you.

Thank you very much. Supervisor Desmond.