Board of Supervisors - Regular Meeting

The meeting is called to order. County Board of Supervisors meeting. The time is 9.09. Please join me for a moment of silence, silent reflection or silent prayer. Thank you. Vice Chair Deng, would you lead the pledge, sir?

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.

Madam Clerk, roll call, please.

Thank you, Chair. Supervisor Gert... Sorry, Supervisor Gardea? Present. Supervisor Canepa? Here. Supervisor Ding?

Yes.

Chair Dhaliwal?

Yes.

And for the record, Supervisor Rickman is absent for the vote, or for the roll call.

We have two recognitions. Board members, can you please join me?

Thank you, Chair. Our first recognition this morning is of retiring Human Resources Director Jennifer Goodman, who I would like to invite to the podium. And I would also like to invite County Administrator Sandy Regalo to join the Chairman in the presentation of a plaque. Retiring Human Resources Director Jennifer Goodman began her career with San Joaquin County in a part-time role July 1997 and was hired as a personnel analyst in 2000. Director Goodman has served as a Human Resources Director since February 27th, 2023. On behalf of the Board, I would like to congratulate Director Goodman on her retirement and express our deep appreciation for her dedicated community public service to the residents of San Joaquin County. Chair Dhaliwal and County Administrator Rogallo. OK.

I guess I will start. So I won't even look at you because I don't want to get all emotional. I'm just clearing my throat. I'm not getting emotional. Did you want to say a few words? We'll save you for last, maybe. Or what would you like?

I can go first.

OK, you go first.

Well, let me just, I'll go first. You kids go second. And then they can. All right. So I just want to, I am so excited. I want to congratulate you, congratulate your family for this. It's finally come, and you've been talking about it. And I was like, no, wait, wait. When you finally set your date. We were like, OK, can we move it? No, Bruce will kill me, so I can't. But I just so appreciate the guidance. You've been here for me since I started here. Literally, I was supposed to go get my drug screen. So I'm coming down, I get here, and my drug screen was in Stockton, and I forgot my form. I was supposed to take, oh my goodness, I haven't even started, I'm going to get fired. Jennifer was my principal analyst at the time that was in charge of my My recruitment. Sorry. Thank you. And so anyway, I'm very nervous because I didn't know I was going to have to speak. But here I go. And so I came. I called her. She ran. I was in my big truck. I ran out the door, or I didn't run out the door, I rolled down the window, she ran out the door to give me the form, and I started county service, so it's been wonderful. We've had a wonderful relationship, a great friendship built through these, now it's going on 13 years. I am better knowing you, and so I've learned a lot from HR, and I'm just really sad to see you go, but I know we will continue seeing each other, so congratulations.

Good morning, Chair Dollywall, members of the board, County Administrator Regalo, and Council Kiernan. Thank you for taking time on a busy day to provide this recognition. Here with me today is my husband of 36 years, Bruce, my beautiful daughter, Elise. my grandson Emmett, who I get to spend more time with, and two of my five siblings, my sister Margo and my brother George. My parents couldn't be here today, but they are watching from Dublin. Hopefully, if the link I sent my mother worked. I would not be here today without my family's support and understanding. So as I'm preparing to retire, I am proud of my public service career and know that my efforts made a difference for the county employees, county's departments, operations, and helped provide a better life for the constituents we serve. For those of you who know me well, the decision to retire has been a hard one, and not because I don't have interests outside of work, but because my career with the county has been so wonderful. I started my career with the county in July of 1997 working at the Manteca Municipal Court and as my daughter was entering kindergarten. In December of 2000, I joined the HR division as a personnel analyst and went to lunch at a downtown restaurant, Chinese restaurant that's probably no longer there. I received a fortune and a fortune cookie and it read, your work interests will bring you the highest level of status and prestige. I kept that fortune taped to my keyboard along with a picture of my husband and my daughter to always remind me of why I came to work every day, to help support my family and also to fulfill my own professional goals. I took every opportunity that was provided including being a trainer for PeopleSoft when we implemented it, designing the annual seniority review process, being the county layoff coordinator during the great fiscal crisis. I implemented our online applicant tracking system. I joined labor negotiations. I was selected for the Google government innovation lab, and I served on the retirement board as well as many other projects. Those opportunities helped me build a strong technical foundation and helped me build relationships across the county. I was even on the work group that came up with the motto, greatness grows here. Greatness does grow here, and I believe I'm a great example of that. I know that there's many others in this room who have other stories of greatness to share. I am so thankful to the county for the investment you made in me. I hope you found that there was a good return on your investment. I also want to thank you for showing me grace for the times when I fell short of your expectations. I am grateful for the support of this board, our county administrator, our county leaders and the countless employees who are a part of my career. I know the relationships developed were the foundation of my success. My proudest accomplishment is the contributions I made to the HR division. It's been my honor to serve as the director of HR and I'm so proud of the HR team. I'm grateful for their hard work and their commitment to San Joaquin County. I know that the HR team will continue to strive for excellence in their service to the county and the community. I will truly miss you all. Thank you.

Jennifer, myself, and Supervisor Gardea, we have known you about a year and a half because we are the two new members. But it's been a wonderful experience. In any organization, HR is the most important department and is most difficult too. It's very hard to make everybody happy. There's always someone who's going to be unhappy because of the decision you or your department made. But that's life. I wish you well. I wish your family well. Enjoy their retirement. God bless you.

So I will say this, when you retire from a job that you love, this is your toughest day, because it's emotional. And I will say, as being a past union president for Stockton Firefighters, I dealt with many HR directors at the city of Stockton. And it was a blessing to come being newly elected and being able to work with you, a true professional who really cares about their employees, but also cares about the well-being of the county. So I just want to say thank you for all the hard work you've done. And congratulations and good luck for your future retirement.

Thank you. I'm plotting how to get Bruce to kick you out of the house after three, four months and come back and help us out. But I don't think that's going to happen.

I've already told him that all this boss energy is going somewhere, so I could end up back here.

As a supervisor, You know, all you can do is count on people you rely on to be rocks. You know they're doing things for the right reason. You know they have the integrity and the commitment and the knowledge to do their job, and you've been that. even when I say, why blah, blah, blah, blah. And you say, well, we were doing that because, and then I have to pull the Rosanna, Rosanna, Dana, nevermind. So I'm sorry to see you go. I'm very happy for you and Bruce and the family and you will be missed.

Thank you. Wow. It's finally come. And now we're here. friend, Bruce, they live around the corner from me. So when I got this job, I'd always call and pick her brain and I'd always call and complain. And you always were there for me. So thank you so much for that. The other thing, your professionalism is absolutely amazing because life has thrown you a few curve balls the past few years and being the neighbor and getting to know you guys better. you always kept that separate and you kept the county always first and the work you did professionally without a hiccup. I commend you for that. I commend your family for what you guys went through, through those difficult times. That's what we're going to be missing is that greatness grows here, And we're missing some historical knowledge, and it'll be hard to fill your shoes. So as a neighbor and a friend, God bless you and your family, and thank you for what you've done for San Joaquin County.

Thank you.

Try to hide that. Next, please.

Thank you, Chair. Next, we have the proclamation of June 19th, 2026 as Juneteenth National Freedom Day in San Joaquin County. And I would like to invite Bobby Bivens with the NAACP and Minnie Diallo from the Lathrop Council to the dais as we read this proclamation, which states. whereas the Emancipation Proclamation was issued by President Abraham Lincoln, freeing slaves in Texas on January 1, 1863. However, slaves were still held until Major General Gordon Granger announced the end of the Civil War and slavery upon his arrival into Galveston, Texas on June 19, 1865. And whereas while the people of Texas began celebrating Juneteenth in 1866 with parades, prayer, concerts, cookouts, music, and other traditions, the recognition and celebration moved slowly through the United States as Texans moved to other parts of the country, bringing the celebration with them. And whereas on January 1, 1980, Texas became the first state to officially make Juneteenth a holiday, 45 other states and the District of Columbia have followed suit. Now, therefore, be it resolved that the San Joaquin County Board of Supervisors does hereby proclaim June 19th, 2026 as Juneteenth National Freedom Day in San Joaquin County, commemorating the end of slavery in the United States. And we encourage everyone to celebrate our freedom for all. Presented the 16th day of June 2026. Chair Dollywell.

Thank you, Rochelle. Mr. Bivins, Councilwoman Diallo, thank you so much for being here as we celebrate Juneteenth, one of the most historic days in the history of our nation. Mr. Bivins, please.

Well, I'll let the elected officials go first.

Ladies first. I'll make it short. I'm just very grateful that the county is recognizing Juneteenth. To my colleagues, thank you so much for bringing this at the forefront for the residents within our county. And I always tell people, Juneteenth is not just black history or African-American history. It's American history. So thank you again.

On the behalf of the citizens of Stockton, African American ancestry that we've had and being here, because we represented money, we represented strength, we represented knowledge, we represented all types of vehicles and tools that this country has enjoyed and endured since 1865. And that's not when we came, that's when the folks in Texas were told that they were free and the war had been over two years before that. So I want to thank the Board of Supervisors on behalf of the African American community and the community of Stockton and certainly the benefits that we've been able to contribute as NAACP, as elected officials, and this country cannot be measured. So thank you for the acknowledgement. Thank you for the work that you do and recognizing what we do. Thank you for paying attention to those issues that are important to the entire community that may have to be brought up by the NAACP, because that is what we do. Thank you.

Thank you, sir. Supervisor Gaudia.

We're very fortunate to live in a great nation, but we definitely have a past that is not so, it was very, very wrong. And just something that we changed our flag policy months ago at Juneteenth and it raised the flag on Friday. So I wanna remind everybody at 7 a.m. on Friday, we will be raising the flag for Juneteenth. Please come out and share that moment.

Good seeing you again. It's not just Juneteenth. It's every holiday around, every historical moment. These kids, us adults, we've got memories that are so flippant short. It's nice to be able to bring this up so we can explain what exactly it is, because if we forget history, history will repeat itself. So thank you.

Yes, thank you for coming today for this proclamation. And I think it's important because our community is so diverse and we have people from everywhere here. But it's also important to figure out that we need to appreciate those that sacrificed for our country. And this country was built on the backs of a lot of labor. And that's what I think needs to be honored is the folks that do the work um tirelessly and come and give and don't ask for a lot so it's important for me that i think we not only you know glorify this day but the diversity that we have in the community that makes san joaquin county such a great place so thank you for coming and i appreciate the support from everybody here so thank you great to see you both uh

Sorry, I was late this morning. I had a doctor's appointment, so my voice is gone. So I just want to say thank you guys for watching. If it only could happen, Supervisor Canepa. But again, thank you for what you guys do for our community.

I'd just like to say one quick thing. There's a... story, and it's called, What Would America Be Without African Americans? I'm suggesting to you that everybody read it. You can get it on Google. It's short, about five minutes worth, a little more. But it's also a very brief and significant story of America's history. And we wouldn't be here talking through these microphones or many, many, many of those things so that I'm suggesting to our non-knowledgeable people that this is a quick lesson and a quick truth about black history and learning about black history and the luxuries that we have in America because of black historians.

Next, we have a ratification and continual continuance of the local emergency due to Medline warehouse fire in Tracy, California. I'm going to turn it over to County Council Karen.

Yes, after the posting of the agenda, the county became aware of the severity of a fire in Tracy that began on June 11th. at the Medline warehouse and the need for additional services, personnel, equipment and facilities beyond those possessed by Tracy alone. Consequently, on June 13th, 2026, a proclamation of local emergency was declared by the county, which shall expire in seven days unless confirmed and ratified by the governing board of the County of San Joaquin. Accordingly, I'm asking that this board making a motion to add as an urgency item ratification of that declaration of local emergency. This this request is made pursuant to section five four nine Let me start again. It's five four nine five four point two B two Which reads in relevant part as follows the legislative body may take action on items of business not appearing on the posted agenda Upon a determination by two-thirds vote of the members of the legislative body present at the meeting Or if less than two-thirds of the members are present a unanimous vote of the members present that there is need to take immediate action and the need for action came to the attention of the local agencies subsequent to the agenda being posted as specified in Subdivision A. Subdivision A is the way in which things normally get on the agenda requiring 72 hours notice and posting of the agenda, et cetera. So using my sixth grade math, that indicates to me that we need a four-fifths vote of this board since everyone is present to add this as an urgency item.

Thank you, sir. Board members, any questions for staff? On my right, on my left. I'll just make a motion to approve when you're ready, Chair. Do we have a motion to add it to the agenda as presented?

So moved.

Second. We have a motion and second. Before we do that, let me ask for public comments. Anybody from public want to speak on this item? We have a motion and second call for work, please. Motion passes five zero. Do we have a motion for ratification?

I move.

Second. Motion and second. Any public comments? Anybody from public? Thank you. Call for a vote, please. Motion passes 5-0. Next is public comments. Now is the time for public to comment on matters that are on the closed session agenda, on the consent calendar, or within the jurisdiction of the Board of Supervisors. Please fill out a card and address the Board. No personal attacks, please. The first speaker is Ms. Haney.

Good morning Board. I'm Karla Huni and I am a citizen of San Joaquin County and the United States of America. I'm not happy to be here today because once again, I come to you with some disturbing news. So this is the fifth election in a row that the election office has messed something up and cost taxpayers money. So if you don't know the endorsements, half of them were left off the original sample ballot. And so we have 410,000 registered voters approximately, and all of them got this. How much does that cost? I have FOIAed that. I have not got that information. They're still in the middle of finishing up the election. But how long are we going to go through this, guys? I can't give you a total right now how much the elections office has cost the taxpayers over the budget. So are you going to be OK with that? Something needs to be done, and somebody needs to be held accountable. So then also, we've talked about how much the budget is tight. And once again, I will bring up the drop boxes in the vote by mail program or state mandated program. You need to stop pushing and saying, if you're not gonna fund it, we're not doing it. That is where the country is trying to go. That is where most of the fraud is, especially in the vote by mail. Everybody gets one. What we had, I don't even know what the total of the ballots that we got back yet. but it was a fraction what got sent out. So we're wasting money yet again. So we need to take a look at that because we can't afford to waste money. Thank you.

Thank you. Molly Watkins.

Good morning. All right, couple observations from the election. One was a new law, and it affected all of you, that blinds all elected officials. Did not know that. The election code is 580 pages long, so it's understandable that we didn't know that. But what I find ironic is that it came through this department, or the election department, the ROV's office, And how come we didn't do a news release? How come we didn't tell the candidates? I have a candidate or an elected official that lives in my house, and he really didn't understand. And he went down there to vote and was told, oh, sir, you're not on the list here. You can't vote. You have to have this provisional thing and put this in this envelope. What are we doing? How much money did we spend on media to get people to vote, and then we couldn't explain it to the people that typically vote? Come on now. So disenfranchised is the hot button word, right? Everybody's disenfranchised. We have 130 polling places in our county. I visited 11 of them on election day. I drove from Tracy to Ripon to Escalon to Manteca to Lodi and then back to Stockton. So there's two of them that kind of struck me as being odd out of the 11 that I went to. I didn't go to them all. I'm sure there's other anomalies for disenfranchising. And one of them is the one at UOP. So I did not attend UOP. I'm a citizen in this county and I've been to events, the church, the chapel, the sporting arena. Do you know where the polling place was? You had to use GPS to find it. And then when you got there, you couldn't find a parking place. So who voted there and that's called disenfranchised. Could we not have it near the chapel so you could find it? Could we not have it in the back where the athletic stuff is that we all go or the theater? But the best one was the last one I went to at the D. Young Mortuary and Crematory. We had a polling place there. on shoreline in Stockton. Yes, you're laughing. It was frightening. You want to disenfranchise people? A church is different, but a lot of people don't do death well, and they don't want to go to a mortuary, but we had a polling place there. Why? Have a good day.

Jody Graham.

Good morning, board. It's time for more information on our county's 27 ballot drop boxes. Some results from election season are in. In our county, approximately 49,000 voters use the U.S. mail service to deliver their ballots to the ROV office. Only 21,000 or 30% of vote by mail voters chose to use the ballot drop boxes. Now to the cost of these boxes. According to the ROV's presentation, the ballot drop boxes cost $238,000 per election for wages and security costs, or $8,800 per ballot drop box. Our county pays the post office 51 cents per ballot for mailing. That total for 49,000 ballots was 25,000. For our last election, the cost of each of these 21,000 ballots placed in a drop box was $11.32 per ballot. Keep in mind that California state law requires our county to have only 14 ballot drop boxes. We have 27. So once again, I implore you to get rid of 13 ballot drop boxes. Our county citizens do not choose to use them. It makes fiscal sense. Last I checked, 51 cents is a lot cheaper than $11 and 32 cents. Our county has spoken. If a voter wants to use a box to get their ballot to the ROV office, they choose the United States Postal Service over the county ballot drop boxes. It's time to pull the plug on this experiment and reduce the number to the state mandated 14 ballot drop boxes, saving the county $8,800 per ballot drop box for a total of $115,000. Thank you.

Next, we have Scott Sorensen.

So I'm going to defer to later on to the proceeding.

OK. Ebony Carvalho.

All right, good morning. Juneteenth is an adopted federal holiday to commemorate the day troops arrived at Galveston, Texas to announce the end of slavery on June 19th, 1865. As of now, Juneteenth is recognized symbolically here in San Joaquin County, but we need to respect the workers and adopt this as a county holiday. Just like the federal government, plenty of neighboring counties in Northern California. This will help with retention and staffing because we workers feel respected and acknowledged at the job, they're more inclined to stay. This is the right thing to do, plain and simple. This is a diverse county and just as we celebrate other cultures, we should uplift our African American community. This has been years long fight since county workers and community leaders like the Juneteenth Foundation have been calling on San Joaquin County to adopt this holiday. The time is now.

Consuelo Chavez.

Good morning. My name is Consuelo Chavez and I'm speaking on behalf of my sister, Eva, whose life was cut short because of a series of preventable failures at St. Joseph's Hospital and an out of county facility that she was transferred to against our will. I am here because what happened to her should never happen to any other patient. Eva entered St. Joseph's seeking medical care, but instead she experienced abuse, a violation of rights, medical mistakes that no human being should ever endure. She was medically fragile and in need of specialized treatment. Her doctor initially discussed transferring her to Stanford. where she could have received the level of care that she required. Without any explanation, that transfer was denied. No clear medical justification was provided to us. Instead, after failed surgery at St. Joseph's Hospital, She was sent to an out of county facility that was not equipped to care for her complex condition that the doctors at St. Joseph's created. At St. Joseph's, Eva was treated with indifference and disrespect. She was confused to the medication that she was receiving, fentanyl, and she was extremely frightened. Staff dismissed her symptoms, ignored her suffering, and treated her as if she were a burden rather than a patient deserving dignity. When I tried to advocate for her, I was removed from her room more than twice. The out of county facility in Modesto made the situation even worse. Eva was overdosed and she had to be revived with Narcan the first 30 minutes of her arrival to that facility. She was subjected to more abuse and neglect. She cried out in pain and no one listened. She became weaker and more afraid. These are not isolated incidences or errors. These are systemic failures that are being caused by poor oversight and a disregard for patient safety. Do I stop? I spent eight to 10 hours at both facilities trying to protect my sister's safety. there were cruel and inhumane conditions at both sites. I'm asking this board to take seriously the pattern of harm that's occurring in this county's medical system. And I'm asking you please to examine hospital transfer practices, especially when higher level care is needed. oversight of out-of-county facilities that are receiving San Joaquin County patients, how families are being treated when they're advocating for their loved ones, how complaints of neglect abuse and medical errors are being handled. I filed complaints with every single agency available. The Medical Board, Public Health, Joint Commission, over 40 state departments, 12 elected officials, including Governor Newsom. And I contacted over 100 plus lawyers. Two and a half years later, there has been no accountability, no transparency, and no meaningful action. When oversight bodies fail to respond, they become part of the harm. My sister deserved lawful care and basic human dignity. This county must act so that no other family is forced to fight as hard as the way I've been fighting just to be heard. Eva was only 69 years old. I'm close to 80, and with every breath, I will continue fighting for my sisters' justice and accountability. Thank you for hearing my testimony. I hope it leads to meaningful oversight, accountability, and changes in this county. Thank you. Thank you.

Jose Avistida.

Thank you. I just wanted to try it out, the desk here. Board of Supervisors, thank you for having me here today. I just wanna start out saying that I am, it's an honor, my name is Jose Abastilla and it's an honor to represent the county workers that we have here. As you can see, we have county workers in purple and some of them not in purple as well, I got you. So with that, I just also wanted to say, we live in the greatest country in this earth, we really do. But we do have some history that we need to acknowledge. I thank you for recognizing Juneteenth, but we need to take it a step further. The county workers have been asking for Juneteenth to be recognized as a holiday for over five years now, and I think it's time to listen to them. We have worked really hard, and some of the people that you see here today are here to tell you that as they support this movement. I implore you to listen to the workers, to continue the great work that you're doing, and to also listen as we move forward with this campaign. God bless the United States. Thank you.

Thank you.

Monique Baca.

Good morning. My name is Monique Baca. I work for San Joaquin County and I'm a proud SEIU member. I just wanted to come and speak today. First, thank you all for acknowledging Juneteenth. It is an important American holiday and I was really proud to see my County Board of Supervisors have such a beautiful display and acknowledge that. So we really do appreciate that. But one of the things one of my colleagues just spoke about, about the fact that it has not been adopted. And one of the things I'd like to talk about as a supervisor for the County, gosh we have over you know we keep having turnover and we're losing people and we're losing people to other places and it's really hard god it's so hard to just keep going and try and do the great work that we do as county workers and and take care of our communities and one of the things that we really do believe that with retention which is i know important to you guys because you guys are tasked with the responsibility of oversight of this county with the retention being able to Tell people that this county did the right thing and acknowledge such an important holiday and actually adopted that holiday would help with that retention, because simply when people are shown that they are cared about, that they are respected and that they are seen, they're just generally happier. And if they're happier, they'll stay. And if they stay, then we can continue to do the great work that we do as county workers for San Joaquin County. So that's short and sweet. But thank you guys so much for listening to me. Have a good day.

Desiree Collins. Good morning, Board. Thank you for having us.

I'm going to apologize, I get a little nervous with public speaking, so I'm not even going to look at my notes, I'm going to speak from the heart. As a chapter president for San Joaquin County SEIU Local 1021 and the area representative to the executive board for Local 1021, I come to you on behalf of the members that I represent in my elected capacity to urge you to adopt Juneteenth as a regular holiday for the San Joaquin County employees. We've been coming to this board since it became a federal holiday, asking for this board to do the right thing, which is to adopt it as a holiday. While we respect and appreciate that you do the symbolic recognition, our community members definitely appreciate this. It's important to our community. We respect it, but we also want you to take a step forward and be the board that does the right thing on behalf of the county employees that you are here to represent as well. We're your constituents, we're also your employees, and we deserve that acknowledgement in the appropriate level as a regular holiday for the county employees, not just a symbolic gesture. And we know you have it in you to do that right thing. We're calling on you to do that. Thank you.

Angela Redford.

Good morning. So I am here too for the same reason that we all are to ask for you to not just have a symbolic showing of Juneteenth. We would like you to adopt the holiday and show us that greatness grows here. Show us that greatness includes me. Show us that greatness includes us all. So please adopt Juneteenth as actual holiday.

Hold on. Here we go. Thank you, Mr. Chair, Board Members, Frank Farrell, Chief Policy Officer, DeGrader, Stockton Chamber of Commerce. I'm here to thank you for appointing me to the Veteran Advisory Commission and thank you, Supervisor Rickman. I won't let you down. Fighting fifth, right? There you go. As part of that job, I take very seriously in helping all the veterans here in our community. We have several different things happening at once. But first, I'd like to extend an offer to all the supervisors. We have an all armed forces military ball happening on July 11th at the Hilton Stockton to celebrate not just our armed forces, our veterans, but the 250th birthday of our great nation. So invite y'all to come, you know, get a ticket and come to it and bring a friend by a table. I'll be a sponsor if you like. But I think it's a good opportunity to attend the only gala, the only ball for our birthday in our county this year, this 250th year. So thank you for that. We also have put together an app. Another app out of passion. My friend and I put together one called the Veteran Access to Offers and Resources in San Joaquin or valorSJ.com. It's online right now and it's going to list all of the veteran discounts in the whole county, all the veteran-owned businesses, all the veteran events and all the good veteran services that are available to our vets here locally. and state and in the federal side as well. So thank you for what you do. I hope to see everyone there and have any questions, please. You all know how to find me, so thank you.

Thank you, sir. Mr. Stenson, would you like to speak now or do you want to wait?

I believe Supervisor Reitman's gonna call me when my item comes up.

Okay, which one is that? OK, you're going to pull it. OK, good. Anybody else want to speak under public comments? Thank you. Let's move to approval of meeting minutes. Regular meeting May 13th, 2025 and June 2nd, 2026. So moved. Second. We have a motion and second. Call for a vote, please. Motion passes five zero.

Chairman.

Yes, sir.

Before we jump to consent, can I say something real quick on this presentation? I just want to say, you know, Jennifer Goodman, apologize. I missed you this morning. I did have a doctor's appointment, but I want to say congratulations. Thank you for everything that you have done for this board and the county as a whole. And we're going to miss you. God bless you and your family. Thank you, Chairman. Thank you, sir. Do I need to get a note since I was or no? Supervisor didn't bring up a good point. Didn't even think about it.

I want to mention that we had last week, we had two fires, one in French Camp, second one in Tracy. You've all seen on the news the damage that was done. FRENCH CAMP FIRED, THERE WERE SEVERAL AGENCIES THAT CAME FOR HELP FOR MUTUAL AID AS FAR AS MODESTO. CHIEF CARNILSON AND HIS TEAM DID A GREAT JOB AND THEY WERE ABLE TO PROTECT THE STRUCTURES AND ESPECIALLY THE VA HOSPITAL. THANK YOU, SIR. THANK YOU SO MUCH. AND THEN THE NEXT DAY, We lost Medline building in Tracy, but the work that our firefighters did, I heard there were at least 20 different fire districts that came for help. They were able to save FedEx and surrounding buildings. So thank you. May God bless our men and women in uniform and our first responders. And Supervisor Reckman, would you like to add anything, sir?

Thank you, Chairman. You know, you said it correctly, and, you know, I was out on the scene when it first happened, and, you know, I just want to extend my sincere gratitude to all the firefighters, the teamwork, the dedication among the county employees. I mean, we had firefighters from Alameda, Stanislaus, Cal Fire, you know, everybody here from San Joaquin County, law enforcement, Tracy PD, our sheriff's department, And also emergency services, emergency services. And it's refreshing. You know, we never want to see something like this happen. But the individuals that we have here in San Joaquin County are just amazing. awesome in the way they work together and you know what could have been even bigger disaster was confined just to Medline. So thank you all very much and God bless you all and stay safe. And thank you, Chief, back there. I want to give a shout out to Chief Bradley, who was the incident commander out there. You know, he did a heck of a job. I mean, just they all did a great job, so. Thank you, Chairman, for giving me the opportunity to say a few words.

Anybody else? Anything? No. Supervisor, any comments?

I do want to commend everybody for the responses and keeping it to where it was, just seeing those pictures of how it started. And I mean, you hear all these different rumors, so obviously that needs to get fixed. But when I don't know how many square feet when you see that building and what one million square feet and it's all burning in the ash and what it does to a community needs to be looked at and how that doesn't happen again, I think is important. So, I mean, you see all the videos of people and where it started in the warehouse and it seemed like not something big and, you know, think would be contained, but I'm not a firefighter, but thank you for all those people that did put their lives on the line to protect the city of Tracy and San Joaquin County. So, and all the other agencies that backfilled, that's just huge when you have an event like that. So I'm glad to see that it was contained and They're further damaged and nobody lost life. So thank you for the work that you did.

Thanks. So what was the good deal?

Yeah, I just want to come in. I've been on some big, big fires, but I will say this probably that million square feet. I don't think we've ever had in this county a million square foot building catch on fire and burn out of the ground. So I will say that our mutual aid system is designed to for big big emergencies like this um you know i just want to say thank you to all the neighboring communities that gave their did their fair share of helping out and also backfilling because all the other calls that come in on the daily basis that still have to be uh called out so uh you know that our mutual aid system is critical to what we do uh in all communities but especially when it comes to, you know, uh, over the years, uh, down staffing and things like that in our county has grown and not a lot of new fire departments have been brought up. And so that still say that our mutual aid system is, uh, working really well. Uh, and I'm sure there'll be some after action, uh, after this, you know, we, no matter, you can be the best football team in the world, you could always get better. And so I, I feel like we did a great job and I just want to say thank you to everybody. Thank you, sir.

Why share any comments? Thank you Sir. Next is consent calendar board members. Any item needs to be pulled.

It's number one for me number one.

11 yes Sir. Anybody else? Okay, so what was again about number one.

I just had one question for director so cool. The lease agreement with standard arrow. I remember back that we had the one person that live, I think in sunny's district was complaining about the noise. Um, from one of the tenants at the airport, I was just curious to see if this was. The one that was the one that tests the engines or whatever. So has that problem been addressed and is it just that area and that tone for that person or is it noise pollution for the whole area? And does this lease need to be checked into for that reason? because quality of life issues obviously do matter, and people that are constituents also matter. So I just wanted to ask that question.

First of all, let me say that I'm not aware of anyone that's been from off the airport complaining about noise. There are issues with noise, and most of those complaints come from the airport itself because of the separation of distance. So I'm not aware of anyone living nearby that's been complaining. I haven't talked to anybody about that.

Dr. Sokol, I think the complaint that Supervisor Kanapai is referring to, that's within the jurisdiction of City of Manteca, not at the airport. It's more a laundromat. It's across the street from our house on airport. Oh, it's a laundromat? I thought she said it was the airport.

But Standard Aero does test their airplane engines, and that does create a lot of noise, and it does cause a disruption. There's ongoing dialogue with Standard Aero to address that issue, and we're trying to create a long-term strategy and plan with them so that they can create what's called a hush house. It's a multi-million dollar investment, and we're trying to work out an arrangement where they can make that long-term investment to mitigate the noise.

Okay, so this is only a one-year extension then, so I mean...

It's a one-year. Just before the company was sold to Standard Aero in the previous management, we've been working on one-year extensions trying to get them to look at the big picture, the long-term plan for their facility. They occupy a bunch of small buildings at the airport, and it's a very inefficient operation for themselves. and we're trying to convince them to put in deeper roots here in San Joaquin County and make a long-term investment, the Hush House would be an integral part of that.

Okay. I just had a question. I thought that she was talking about the airport and that they tested those turbine engines because the one lady that... My mistake. I'm sorry.

It's okay. No worries. The business she's complaining about is also located on Airport Way.

Oh, Airport Way. Okay. I apologize. So I thought that she was saying that the noise from that...

But I wouldn't be surprised if what folks are concerned about the noise.

It's very significant All right, so this is only for an extra year and then it'll be addressed there obviously we want to have good tenants But I mean for $60,000 if it's creating quality of life issues Then I don't know what other amounts they're generating for income in the county and jobs and things like that So obviously those things need to be waived

This is a one-year extension. Standard Arrow was recently engaged in new real estate advisory company, and we've begun conversations with them on behalf of their client to see if they can put those deep roots into San Joaquin County that would include the Hush House.

Okay, thank you. Thank you, sir. Thank you, sir. Okay, number two and 15, go ahead.

Well, first of all, Director Sokol, I know that You got a retirement coming up and I want to congratulate you on that. I'm sure we'll have the opportunity to address that in the future. But I want to say the reason why I pulled this and I appreciate the memo I got back from you. It really answered a lot of my questions. I just want to make sure that, you know, I believe that this that the improvements that we're doing to the airport are vital to the future of the airport, the fueling station, and that makes sense. I just want to caution that moving forward before we invest more money into the airport that I want to make sure that the master plan is complete so that as you leave and we get a new director that we're on the same page so that we could we could refer back to the master plan and say hey this is why we did what we did with the money that we're investing into it and so i just want to move that forward uh and let my colleagues know where i kind of stand on it you know in the sense that I want to see the master plan first, but I understand that these projects are already in the queue and your your memo did address the master plan. And when it's coming in the near future, one of the things that I feel like the airport is vital to our our our community But one of the things that I feel that it should be sustainable, it should be self-sufficient to itself. It does take away, it does get general fund money. We do get some tax breaks on property taxes and it goes back into the investment in the airport. But in the future, I would like to be, the county should be in a position with that it pays for itself. I'd rather invest money into our parks and infrastructure and things like that And I feel like at some point the airport needs to generate enough funds to to sustain itself. And that's why I pulled this item.

Thanks, sir. Supervisor Rickman, number 11.

Thank you, Chairman. And this is just an approval of the supervisor district funds. But I know we have a few folks here that would like to speak. And we have Scott Sorensen from Knights of Care program. Thanks.

Good morning, sir. Good morning Chairman Dahl, Vice Chair Deng, Supervisor Rickman and members of the board. My name is Scott Sorensen. I'm the Executive Director of Knights of Care and I want to thank you Supervisor Rickman and your staff for bringing this forward and thanks to the board for considering Knights of Care through the District 5 Fund. I also want to thank Vice Chair Deng. for his initial support when he came to our community meeting him and Scott Tyrell and a lot of their staff from the board members as that initial funding helped us to go forward. We are now fully operational and pushing forward and the funds that you will be reviewing will help us to do that. Our mission is to go to the people to help provide seniors and veterans safe, secure transportation at either no charge or a minimal charge. We're also branching out to also include pets possibly for some of these folks to get them to the vet to get them to the care that they need. Knights of Care began as an idea in September 2025 as I was pastoring a group of ladies at Lodi Commons Senior Center. Shortly after that I met with Scott Tyrell whose support, patience, understanding, and guidance has brought me here today to thank you number one for all your support and to bring this forward and it's actually helped to bring Knights of Care to fruition. In less than 90 days, we've given over 75 rides to seniors within the county touching everyone's district. I go from Lodi to Tracy to Escalon to Manteca. As I was preparing these comments, I double checked and verified I've been to everyone's district and either picked up or dropped off there and continue to do so. So I want to thank you for your initial support. Right after our initial kickoff meeting and we were in the Lodi newspaper and on Channel 13, I was reached out to by Fresh Start Charities who donated a van to us. And that's been our vehicle at this point. And a lot of the funding is going to help upgrade. It's a 2010 Odyssey, so it needs a little TLC, but it's coming along nicely. It's fully wrapped now and it's made delivering these rides to seniors much easier. But as we've grown, as people have heard about us, as people contact us, I've found that there's a lot more need. First of all, a lot of seniors need help in just their scheduling. So that's a project we're going to work on. But also people need to go to Stanford. People need to go to UC Davis. People need to go outside the county. Although I'm focused strictly in the county right now, these funds and our future growth, We look forward to being able to take those who need to go to Stanford to get top notch cancer care or top notch care from Stanford or UC Davis or veterans who need to go to these outside sources is where we're looking to grow and support and eventually I hope to hire some of these retirees such as our retired veterans, our retired first responders to be my drivers to help build this as a network. I see San Joaquin County being the kickoff of something where we can fully support and fully transport our over 10,000 seniors in here and get them to where they need to go safely and securely. So I thank you for your time. I thank you for support. And I thank you for everything that you've done for Knights of Care and the seniors of the county.

All right, thank you, Mr. Sorenson. And thank you for the work that you do. It's a pleasure to be able to help out nonprofits that do make a difference here in our community. So thank you and God bless. Thank you so much. And through the chair, we have one more, Annie McManus from Southside Community Organization. She made the trek all the way from Tracy to get here. She got here before me. Man, it's brutal up here.

Good morning, everyone. I'm here today with our treasurer, Kevin Poole, and my husband, Dan McManus, who is a pillar of the Southside Community Organization. Thank you. Thank you so much. We are so grateful to be able to receive these funds that will help with much needed updates to our building, which it was built in the 1950s. Funds will also be used when serving our weekly meal to those in need. We serve approximately 170 to 150 meals weekly. Again, thank you for always supporting our organization. Your presence and support is much appreciated. Thank you, Board of Supervisors. Appreciate you.

Thank you.

Great. Thank you, Annie. And thank you, Kevin. Thank you, Meredith, for being here on time. You know, it's a pleasure to be able to, like I said before, to give nonprofits, mostly the South Side community organization, have been a staple, not just in the South Side community of Tracy, but to the, you know, the community at large. So thank you. Thank you all very much for the work that you do. And God bless. Thank you. Thank you, Chairman. Thank you, sir.

So, Rosgardia, number 15.

We've got to have Director Goodman come up. She's not quite retired yet.

Retired but not retired.

So I pulled this and I just want to, I just want to, bring to everybody's attention the the increase of our health care costs and us county being a self-insured organization and I and I had some questions and same thing I got a really good memo back and answered a lot of my questions uh really the only questions I I have is you know from looking at the numbers we have two to three years left before our balance is is at the rate that we're going if we have a 30 increase for the next couple years uh what's our what's the plan b

when we do run out or if we do run out good morning through the chair supervisor Gardea well the hope is that we will not run out part of how those funds are balance are fed is through the rates that we charge and so As costs of insurance increase, our rates to our employees will likely increase as well, and to the county as well. The county pays 80% of that. So some of the things that we're doing to try to make it more sustainable, one thing we have issued an RFP, and one of our hopes is that we will have some fully insured plans. We'll submit some bids so that we can consider actually sunsetting the self-insured plan and go with a fully insured plan. even with a fully insured plan our rates are likely going to increase so there may be some opportunities in the future the next hr director can work with the county administrator team on in our labor groups on maybe some plan design changes so that um you know we could we can only address certain components if our plans if we don't change the plan design itself so the cost of services are increasing the volume is increasing the number of high value claims is increasing and the rates themselves, the premiums are increasing. So they all work together. Unfortunately, it is something that, you know, it's not a new situation. It's something that health care in this county and the country has increased really for decades now. And so we would hope that we can find through the RFP some options that are a little bit more sustainable for the county, but it likely will continue to be one of our higher cost benefits that we provide to our employees.

Yeah, and I just want to say thank you for thinking outside the box and looking at, you know, different opportunities to bring the costs. I mean, our employees, they're paying 20% and the county's picking up the 80th. You know, just an example, I believe Sutter went up 30% here in the city of Stockton. So it's something that all municipalities are going to be dealing with in the future. And we're looking ahead to try to get ahead of this moving forward because ultimately it comes out of the county's pocket and also our employees' pocket. So I want to say thank you.

Yeah.

And I will just also note while our health insurance our dental our vision insurance all those costs are going up our other self-insured plans are also being impacted so our workers compensation our medical malpractice our general casualty and so those are things that really we're asking all county departments to try to manage those costs manage those situations so that this board doesn't have to make decisions about settling litigation at very high cost because all of those things are impacting our experience, the premiums that we're being charged, and it's a true impact to the county departments when those rates continue to go up.

Thank you.

Thank you.

I just have one question, and thank you for putting out the RFP. That's huge, and a step in the right direction. On the dental side of it, are they all doing that now where they're making you pay and then they're billing it? I know that can be a hardship because some of these dental bills get up there and a huge cost and the people are living check to check. It makes it more difficult when you have 13 $2000 dental bills and you have to pay it and wait for reimbursement. Is there anyone is? Is that just because? The dentists aren't getting paid or what's the cause of that?

Yeah, so Supervisor Canepa, through the chair, the cause is issues with the dental providers being reimbursed by the insurance carrier. And so there are many dentists who are charging employees up front. and then the reimbursement would go to the employee instead of to the dentist. So that is unfortunately, you know, there are certainly some providers out there who aren't doing that, that are just having people pay their part of the cost. But there are some dentists who will no longer bill the insurance carrier. They're making the employee pay the cost up front.

Yes, sir. I should know this, but do we offer like an HSA account?

We do, so some of our health plans do have a high deductible and a health savings account as well.

Thank you. Thank you, Jennifer. Thank you. Anybody, any more questions? Do we have a motion? So moved. Second. We have a motion and second. Call for a vote, please. Motion to approve the conception. Motion passes 5-0. At this time, we're going to recess the Board of Supervisors meeting. The Board will be acting as the governing board of the In-Home Supportive Services Public Authority. We will convene as the In-Home Supportive Services Public Authority meeting. Board members, any questions? The item is approved the in-home supported services public authority interagency agreement with the county of San Martin for fiscal year 2026 2027. Any questions. Anybody from public. Do we have a motion. We have a motion and second call for work please. Motion passes five of 40. We will adjourn the in-home supported services public authority meeting and reconvene. As the board of Supervisors meeting. Next is. The 2026 2027 budget overview, Jennifer.

Good morning, chair, members of the board, county administrator, county council. Jennifer Van Stein, chief deputy county administrator, here to provide a brief overview of the final budget before we open the public hearing today. As you saw two weeks ago on June 2nd, the proposed budget totals 3.3 billion. That's an increase of 258.7 million from the 25-26 adopted budget. It's funded by 2.6 billion in departmental revenues, 502 million in general purpose revenue, and 215.7 million in the use of non-general fund balance. We do have one recommended adjustment to the proposed budget that will be presented in the general government functional area and then again at the end of the hearing for your consideration. This table presents the total budget by functional area as compared to the prior year. The general fund budget totals $992.8 million. That does include $5 million in appropriation for contingencies. It's supported by $490.8 million in departmental revenue and $502 million in general purpose revenue. The decrease here is largely due to the transition of the Human Services Agency and SJ Health Center budgets out of the general fund. General purpose revenue is used to support the net county cost or general fund contribution for departments. 502 million in net county cost is distributed here by functional area with law and justice using 61% of the total. The proposed budget includes a decrease of 57 full-time positions, primarily in the human services functional area. Each year, departments may request supplemental funding for initiatives or programs beyond their base budget allocation. We refer to that as a supplemental request. This year initial request totaled 44.3 million. The County Administrator's Office did approach its recommendations cautiously given federal and state funding and uncertainties on upcoming labor negotiations. And as a result, 27.2 million is recommended and included in the proposed budget. After meeting with the County Administrator's Office, all but one department withdrew its remaining requests, totaling about 14.8 million, and then subsequent to publishing the proposed budget two weeks ago, the last request for 2.3 million was also withdrawn. All of the supplemental requests will be discussed in detail during the final budget hearing in each functional area. We reviewed this also during the proposed budget two weeks ago. The multi-year budget outlook is intended to provide the board a preliminary overview of the county's finances beyond the current budget year. The outlook is for the general fund only and focuses on net county cost over which the board has the most control. Estimates are based on the best information we have, including the labor agreements that are in place today. While variables can change, making it difficult to project outcomes, the forecast assumptions do include growth of our largest source of general purpose revenue property taxes. In this analysis, it's projected to slow to between zero and 2% growth for years between 27, 28, and 30, 31. Departmental revenue is projected to grow by 3% annually. Labor costs. related to negotiated contracts are included in the model. Upon each MOU's expiration, an assumption of 3% annual wage growth is used. And then finally, other costs are projected to grow by 7%, consistent with recent experience. So with all of these assumptions, projected deficits in fiscal years 27, 28 through 30, 31 will require the board to consider strategies to address those deficits, including reducing costs, increasing revenues, or utilizing reserves. Okay, so mechanics of the final budget hearing. CAO staff will provide an overview of each functional area, highlighting staffing and supplemental requests. The board may ask questions after each presentation. And after functional area overviews, we have one department who will also make a brief presentation. At the end, there will be an opportunity for the board to provide policy direction and review one recommended budget, pre-prepared one budget adjustment. After the county budget hearing, the board will conduct the special districts public hearing. And then finally, at the end of both hearings, will ask that you adopt the 2627 budget with any modifications as directed by the board, as well as adopt the 2627 special districts budgets, proposed service charges, special assessments, and engineers reports. And if you choose to recommend items for additional funding, that typically comes from the contingency provision budget. So CAO staff and I are available for any questions that you have. prior to opening the public hearing.

You do? Yeah, just the one on the capital improvements, the capital maintenance. Not yet.

I'm sorry, through the chair. So this is just any questions on the process before she opens a public hearing, before we can open.

Thank you. A little ambitious there, I apologize.

Anybody on my left? Okay. The public hearing for the 2026-2027 final budget is now open. Overview of general government contingency provision. Sarah?

Good morning, Chairman Dallow, all members of the board.

Good morning.

Hmm?

Good morning. Sarah Sickler, senior deputy county administrator. At this time, I will provide the board with a budget overview of the general government departments. The general government functional area comprises of administrative, financial, and support service departments, as well as other non-departmental budgets listed on this slide. Overall, the recommended appropriations for the 26-27 general government budget total approximately $153 million, an increase of approximately $5 million from prior year, primarily due to salaries and benefits adjustments. General government comprises of the various budgets shown on this slide, The largest budget is the assessor recorder county clerk at roughly 18% followed by operating transfers at 13 and then the auditor controller also at approximately 13%. The next chart shows the various sources of funding. Funding is provided by general purpose revenue at 38% followed by cost reimbursements at approximately 33% and the balance from various other revenue sources as shown on the slide. For the 26-27 staffing is recommended at 597.3 full-time equivalent or FTE positions. The proposed budget adds a net of six full-time positions and an increase of 2.8 part-time positions compared to the prior year. These positions are included in the department's base budget and are not supported by supplemental funding. Net staff changes by department are shown on the slide. I have two general government budget highlights to bring to the board's attention. First, the Board of Supervisors discretionary funding allocation has been reduced from $250,000 per supervisor to $150,000 per supervisor for fiscal year 26-27. Second, following the acceptance of the 2627 proposed budget, the assessor recorder county clerk withdrew its $2.1 million supplemental request for the historical records restoration and scanning project. The department is also requesting a budget amendment to remove the 2.3 million in fund balance appropriation within the recorder's modernization budget for the same project. The CAO's office would like to again express its appreciation to all county departments and elected officials for the continued fiscal stewardship throughout this budget process. We'll now turn to the supplemental requests for general government. Supplemental requests for general government total $900,075,226. all of which are recommended. The Board of Supervisors is requesting one-time funding of $45,000 to support the state of the county event and travel expenses. The Register of Voters is requesting $54,226 in ongoing funding to cover increased costs for the election information management system, the warehouse lease, and fleet operations. ISD is requesting one-time funding of $876,000 to implement a countywide trusted electronic record system. This concludes my presentation for the General Government Functional Area. Department heads and I are available to answer any questions you may have.

Sarah, can you go back to the second slide? That one. The second from the bottom, economic promotion. Can you explain that?

Actually, I have Kelly right here who has economic promotions. Okay.

Can you repeat the question again, please?

Can you explain what do we do under economic promotion?

Yes. So the economic promotion budget is funded by transient occupancy tax. That's the main revenue. And it funds three basic economic development contracts. One is with the San Joaquin Partnership. One is with iHub of San Joaquin. And the third one is with San Joaquin County Economic Development Association.

Okay, thank you. Supervisor Ackman?

Thank you, Chairman. On page 15 in the general government supplemental request, the ISD service fund $876,000. Is that an ask of $876,000? Yes. And that is for trust electronic record system?

Correct.

Over the last few years, I know we have, and correct me if I'm wrong, I guess it would be a question to our CAO. We have given, would you say tens of millions or millions of dollars to ISD? So why does it just seems like we're continuing every year to more and more funds to one department?

Well, through the chair, to answer your question, yes, I will say this board has supported. various increases for ISD for different projects, one being the ERP, one being the new equipment for this. This particular one, and here's our IT director, but this will help other departments, namely our records division with the assessor who's in support of this because it's for the electronic records system. And I believe it's, talking to our purchasing director yesterday, I think it was gonna alleviate us having to. 1,300. 1,300?

1,200 boxes.

2,200 boxes. I thought that's what it was.

So, cases, but. Which is great, but I mean, if it's every year, is it something we're gonna see from ISD every single year, more and more funds for different projects or?

so through the chair um that's a great question so without saying that we typically do have increases in some of the licensing's we have for some of the uh technology such as microsoft uh 365 things like that but this one as as noted specifically is for this one-time fund i don't see uh that much of an increase typically they they stay pretty uh stable because we usually do a pretty aggressive pricing for them. So overall, I don't have the historical record only being here for only nine months. Uh, but being my tenure as a CIO and other places, uh, we do, you know, if it's new project, you see that uptick on there, but once it's in maintenance operation, you kind of see it just kind of stay, uh, pretty much stable.

No. And I hate you're doing a great job. I know you're, um, anytime I need you, I mean, you're right there. So, you know, I appreciate your, You and your teams, willingness to help. But no, the red flag for me is just, hey, over several years, you see one department, and it's not just like $55,000, and we're talking tens of millions of dollars or millions of dollars. So of course, we have to start asking questions. So that's it. So again, thank you for your time. And CEO, thank you. And thank you. And thank you, Chair. Thank you, everybody. Anybody else? Thank you. Appreciate it.

Anybody else from board members? Any questions for staff? Anybody from public? Let's move on to environmental protection overview.

Thank you. At this time, I would like to turn this over to Kelly Cabello, senior deputy county administrator, to provide the overview for the environmental protection functional area.

All right, good morning. At this time, I will provide an overview of the environmental functional area, which includes the budgets listed on the slide. Overall, the recommended budget for environmental protection totals 43.8 million, which is an increase of 2.3 million over the 25-26 adopted budget. The slide shows the percentage share by budget unit, including the community development department at approximately 40%, agricultural commissioner at 30%, flood channel maintenance at 17%, and a combined 13% for the remaining budget units. The fish and game propagation budget includes $2,500. However, due to rounding of the percentages in the chart shown on the slide, it appears as 0.0% of the budget. But I just wanted to assure the board there is a budget for that. It's $2,500. The $43.8 million recommended budget for environmental protection area is funded by general purpose revenue, or net county cost, at 45%, cost reimbursements at 17%, intergovernmental revenues at 17%, and all other sources totaling 21%. This slide shows the overall net position changes in the environmental protection function area, which is a net increase of 5.3 full-time equivalent positions. The Ag Commissioner is adding one new Ag Biologist Standards Inspector 4 to assist pesticide use enforcement with reviewing and closing investigations. In addition, one new Geographic Information System, or GIS, analyst is being added to design, configure, and deploy the New Environmental Systems Research Institute, or ESRI, platform to replace the discontinued California Department of Food and Agriculture Caltrap system. This position will also develop GIS applications to support both weights and measures and pesticide use enforcement programs. These positions are funded by unclaimed gas tax and pesticide mill assessment revenue. The Ag Commissioner is also increasing part-time extra help by 3.4 full-time equivalents. The Community Development Department has a slight decrease in extra help of 0.1, and the proposed budget includes just over $148,000 in centrally budgeted data processing charges to fund the addition of an Information System Analyst 3 that will be allocated to the Information Systems Division, but will be dedicated to community development to assist with resolving system issues related to the permitting software, Acela. This position will be funded by increased permit fee revenue. Lastly, the flood channel maintenance budget provides funding for the personnel and equipment needed to maintain over 300 miles of levees and flood control channels. The proposed budget includes the addition of an equipment operator foreman position and the deletion of a vacant senior engineering aid. The Director of Emergency Operations is requesting supplemental ongoing funding in the amount of $28,600 to cover increased vehicle and equipment operating costs. Maintaining these vehicles and equipment in a state of readiness is essential to ensure effective emergency response and sustained operational capability. The 2627 proposed budget includes the $28,600 to address this request. This concludes my staff report for the environmental protection function area and department heads and I are available for any questions.

Board members, any questions? Just one.

Go back to where all I heard is It will be paid for by increase in fee and license or permit. Since we as a board voted not to increase any fees, permits, I just want to make sure I didn't misunderstand.

Yeah, this is not due to a new fee increase. This is just fee revenue that's coming in for permits.

INCREASE IN THE PERCENTAGE FROM THE ALREADY EXISTING FEE INCREASE IN THE PERCENTAGE FROM THE ALREADY EXISTING FEE INCREASES. INCREASES.

THERE WAS NO FEE INCREASES. THERE WAS NO FEE INCREASES.

ANYBODY ELSE? ANYBODY ELSE? YES, SIR. YES, SIR.

IS THIS HELP WITH THOSE FOLKS IS THIS HELP WITH THOSE FOLKS YOU WERE LOOKING FOR TO FILL YOU WERE LOOKING FOR TO FILL THAT GAP? THAT GAP? I REMEMBER LAST YEAR YOU WERE I REMEMBER LAST YEAR YOU WERE SAYING THERE'S CHALLENGES AND being able to do that and have we fixed that with these changes that you've made?

Good morning, Chair, members of the Board, CAO, and County Council. Kamal Bagri, your Agriculture Commissioner and Sealer of Weights and Measures. These particular positions, especially the GIA analyst position, we were seeking help in our pest detection program because CDFA, California Department of Food and Agriculture, they have let go of their Caltrap program, which was an electronic program for... detection of invasive pests. So we worked with Napa County and Assessor's Office, which I'm really thankful to Steve, to get that ESRI program going, but Assessor's Office cannot support full-time paying attention to the Ag Commissioner's program, so that's why we are requesting a position for GIS analyst. For agriculture biologist and standards inspector four in our pesticide use enforcement program, we have a backlog of two years with investigations. And we need help in reviewing because the regulations are increasing, so the burden on the department has increased. because of those new regulatory requirements, and we are getting behind on our cases. So one of the supervisory positions, which is Inspector 4, can help us with that, you know, moving forward. These positions, again, we are hoping that under the mill assessment, which is from Pesticide Use Enforcement Program, we receive funding under mill assessment program. So that would cover the cost of the Inspector IV. And for GI analyst position, we are requesting funding from California Department of Food and Agriculture because they are the one who want us to move forward with electronic books. because whenever there is a pest find, it makes sense to get the data really quickly if you're using electronic programs versus using handwritten notes and books. That's why we are moving forward with that.

Perfect. Thank you. Thank you, Chair.

Thank you, sir. Supervisor Gardea?

Through the Chair, I got a question on community development.

Good morning, Jennifer Jolly, Community Development Director.

Good morning. So I got a quick question. Are our permits up or down this fiscal year?

Generally, I would, through the chair, generally, I would say that we are staying pretty consistent. We have not seen a big dip in permits, but I wouldn't say we've increased at all.

Is that something we track? Yes, it is. If possible, maybe share with the board if there is an increase, how we've increased maybe for the last five years just so we could kind of track the progression of permits?

Absolutely. We can share that information. Since COVID, we've been tracking it very closely because we kept anticipating a big drop off on permitting. We're pleasantly surprised that that has not happened and we continue to have a lot of projects coming through the county.

Yeah, and I think that gives us a little bit of a tool when, you know, speaking to the assessor's office, you know, as we speak about dips in development or whatever, if we're able to see the true numbers and the data, then I think that helps us out for the future. The other question would be on Stella. How's the Stella working out?

Acela continues to create some issues for us. I will say we are making progress through the new ISD director. He's been supportive of looking at solutions, which is one of the reasons we have this new position that they're going to be adding to their budget that's going to be dedicated to our department. I have high hopes that this position will create a lot more efficiencies for us and to address what Supervisor Ding had said, we're not increasing fees but we are always hopeful that becoming more efficient allows us to process quicker and allows us to collect the revenue quicker and it just helps in general to keep the department moving smoothly.

I have one more question, and we can go back to Estella. It's kind of part of it. Are we tracking timelines now for permit processes?

Yes, we are. We need the program to work correctly in order to run the reports. We're making some progress on those as well. One of our SMART goals is to decrease the processing time for specific types of applications that shouldn't take very long, such as lot line adjustments and zoning compliance applications. So that is one of our SMART goals.

Thank you. Thank you. Jennifer, whenever I meet with ISD director, the first question is, how's the cell functioning? And he assures us that things are getting better. And I'm glad that you confirmed that. And the second is, that I haven't had any complaints from businesses lately that CDD is taking too long to issue permits. So kudos to you and your staff.

Thank you. I appreciate that.

And keep up the good work, sir. Anybody from public? Let's move on to overview of human services. Kelly?

You still get me. I will now present the staff report for the human services functional area, which includes the budgets listed on this slide. Most of this functional area is under the Human Services Agency and Director Chris Woods, with the exception of the Veteran Services Office, which is part of the Healthcare Services Agency, the Employment and Economic Development Department and Community Services Budget Unit. The Community Services Budget has historically provided funding to community-based organizations, fostering collaboration between the county and the community at large. The 26-27 proposed budget does not include an allocation for this program due to funding constraints. Overall, the recommended appropriations for the 2627 human services budgets total 669. And are comprised of the various departments seen on the slide with the largest budget being the human services agency at nearly 87%. Followed by operating transfers to human services at nearly 9%. Employment and economic development at 4% and the veteran services office at approximately 0.3%. Effective July 1st, 2026, several budgets within the Human Services Agency are being transitioned from general fund to special revenue funds. The operating transfers to human services budget is new and will be used to transfer general purpose revenue to these newly established special revenue budget units. Appropriations for the Human Services Agency are decreasing by a net $23.5 million, which includes a $25 million reduction in the Human Services Administration budget, primarily due to the deletion of 40 vacant positions, contract reductions, and programmatic changes in Child Protective Services, Adult Protective Services, and In-Home Supportive Services. Intergovernmental revenues, comprised of state and federal revenues, fund 80% of the $669.3 million proposed budget. General purpose revenue, or net county cost, amounts to just 9% of the total funding for this functional area. This slide shows the overall net position changes in human services, which is an overall decrease of 48 net full-time equivalent positions. The Human Services Agency has a net deletion of forty seven point nine positions, primarily due to the deletion of 40 vacant positions in the administration budget to offset increased salary and benefit benefits costs and to more accurately align with projected revenue estimates. Aging and Community Services is decreasing their part time help extra help by five point nine full time equivalent and neighborhood preservation is realigning positions with program needs. The net decrease of two position includes the addition of one business analyst to and one administrative assistant to and the deletion of four vacant positions. Veterans services and employment economic development have slight adjustments to their part-time extra help. Ongoing funding of just over $174,000 is requested by the Director of Healthcare Services Agency. to offset the loss of cost reimbursement revenue from the Mental Health Services Act community services and support funding in the amount of $160,000 and the projected deficit in California Department Veteran Affairs or CalVet reimbursements and subvention funding in the amount of $14,117. The proposed budget includes just over $174,000 to address these requests. CalWORKs funding received through the California Department of Social Services funded part-time staffing at each of the eight community centers, funded the summer aquatics program at the Kennedy Community Center pool, and the youth enrichment program through fiscal year 24-25. The Human Services Agency Director requests supplemental funding in the amount of $495,773, which is a decrease of approximately $389,000 from the $885,000 approved this fiscal year. Funding of $258,000 is requested for the eight community centers to continue to operate with part-time staffing at 4.4 FTEs and to cover utility costs. Funding of just over $146,000 is requested to continue the operation of the summer aquatics program at the Kennedy Community Pool, which served 3,897 swimmers in 2025, which is an increase of 1,787 over the previous year. Funding of 91,000, or just over 91,000, is requested to continue the operation of the Summer Youth Enrichment Program, which offers youth aged 10 to 14 a variety of educational, athletic, and recreational activities. In the summer of 2025, 58 youth attended the four-day camp at the end of the program. The 2627 proposed budget includes the $495,000 to address these requests. Ongoing supplemental funding of just over $25,000 is requested by the Human Services Agency Director for the Concealed Weapons Detection and Screening System that will aid in maintaining safety for our employees and our clients, which was approved by your board on February 10th. In addition, one-time supplemental funding of just, of approximately 11.4 million is requested to maintain current service levels for protective services, including child, adult, and in-home support. These funds will be leveraged to draw down additional state and federal revenue. Since 2021, salaries and benefits costs have increased annually between six and 3% as a result of negotiated cost of living adjustments. increasing costs by a net of $37.5 million between fiscal years 21-22 and 24-25. The 26-27 HSA administration budget includes $11.4 million to address these requests. At this time, I will hand the presentation over to Chris Woods, Director of the Human Services Agency, to provide additional information related to the Human Services Agency and their supplemental requests.

Good morning, Chair Dhaliwal and members of the board. I'm Chris Woods and it is my privilege to serve as your Human Services Agency Director. This request is not simply about maintaining staffing levels. It is about preserving critical services and leveraging significant state and federal funding for San Joaquin County residents. This one-time funding of 11.4 million preserves nearly 29.2 million in services and supports 249 currently filled positions. Approximately $3 million is needed to address increased county costs associated with administering CalFresh. HR1 reduces the federal share of CalFresh administration funding, increasing the county share of costs from 15% to 22.5% for existing staffing levels. This request leverages nearly $10 million in state and federal revenue to support 129 currently filled positions that administer CalFresh benefits for more than 125,000 county residents. The remaining 8.4 million supports children's services, adult protective services, and in-home supportive services, and allows the department to leverage 7.8 million in state and federal revenue. In total, this request generates nearly 17.8 million in outside funding and preserve services to support vulnerable children, older adults, individuals with disabilities, and again, more than 125,000 CalFresh recipients in San Joaquin County. Without this general fund support, the department will need to eliminate 249 currently filled positions, significantly reducing the department's ability to serve vulnerable residents throughout San Joaquin County. This request is being driven by several factors, including federal policy shifts, which increase the share of costs for CalFresh administration. At the same time, negotiated salary and benefit cost increases and inflationary pressures continue to increase operating costs. A significant change is that state realignment revenues have not kept pace with workload or cost growth. Historically, approximately 27% of HSA administration costs have been supported by 1991 and 2011 realignment revenues, primarily in support of child welfare services. While realignment was intended to provide a dedicated funding source for programs transferred from the state to counties, those revenues are not tied to local workload or actual program costs. As service demands, salary costs, and program complexity have increased, revenue growth has not kept pace. Counties have limited ability to seek financial relief from the state for realigned programs due to statutory and constitutional protections that were built into the realignment structure. As a result, counties throughout California continue to face growing pressure to sustain critical social service programs that protect vulnerable children, adults, seniors, and families. The department implemented a series of mitigation and efficiency strategies to reduce its projected 25-26 deficit. The department paused hiring efforts in most classifications, delayed technology and facilities projects, reduced contracted services, and significantly reduced overtime expenses. 25-26 overtime expenditures are estimated to be 1.1 million less than 24-25 and 2.8 million less than 23-24. These efforts have proven effective. The department has reduced its projected deficit in the current year from 12.4 million at mid-year to approximately 5.8 million at year-end, a 53% reduction. Over the last four years, state realignment revenues have supported 27% on average of the HSA administration budget's cost, again, primarily in support of child welfare services. Cost of living adjustments have significantly increased salary and benefit costs. As an example on this slide, the above chart demonstrates that salary and benefit costs of social worker five have increased 34% in just four years. During that same period, realignment revenues have not kept pace, The department utilized available realignment trust balances to offset rising costs, but those reserves have now been exhausted. While not reflected in this chart, HSA has returned approximately $44 million in savings to the general fund between 2015-16 and 24-25. Beginning in 2026-2027, HSA budgets will transition to special revenue funds, providing a clearer picture of total program costs, dedicated revenues supporting those costs, and the fiscal impacts of state and federal policy decisions. Workforce stability has been one of our greatest successes. Child welfare, social worker turnover has decreased by nearly 77% from 52 departures in 21-22 to just 12 this year. As staffing stability improved, compliance with federal child welfare outcomes improved in seven of eight categories. Stable staffing leads to safer children, stronger families, and improved permanency and well-being outcomes. At the same time, case complexity continues to increase and court petition filings to remove children from their caretakers due to abuse and neglect are on pace to reach a record high of 536 this year. Before requesting additional support, HSA reduced its proposed budget by 25.7 million compared to 2526. Contracted services have been reduced by 16.1 million to achieve a general fund reduction of approximately $2 million for 2627. 40 vacant positions have been deleted, reducing costs by $5 million. Technology and furniture costs have been reduced by 2.6 million and overtime pay has been reduced by 1.3 million. These cost saving efforts are partially offset by negotiated salary and benefit costs increases of 1.3 million. The supplemental request is not to expand programs It is intended to preserve critical services for vulnerable children, older adults, individuals with disabilities, and families who rely on the county's safety net. Approval will allow the county to leverage significant state and federal funding, maintain service levels, and continue the progress we have made in workforce stability and service outcomes. I appreciate the support of your board and the county administrator's office. Thank you for your consideration, and I am available to answer any questions.

Supervisor, can?

Yes, I just have a couple questions. So the supplementals that they've shown in the one chart at the beginning, it says the general purpose revenue is 60 million is 9%. Is that included or do those not?

Is this the slide?

No, it was the pie chart, the beginning, that one. So is that general purpose revenue 60 point, is that inclusive of the increases, the supplementals?

Yes.

It is, okay.

Yes.

And then my second question is, why are parks and community centers under human services and not parks? How long has that been that way? And I don't know if that makes a lot of sense to me, but it sounds like a parks and recreation kind of thing and not a human services kind of thing.

So in my 28-plus years with Human Services Agency, community centers have always been aligned with HSA. I believe part of that is... When the Aging and Community Services was a separate department at one point, it was folded into the Human Services Agency, and along came the community centers with that. And they've been there ever since.

OK. And I'm glad to see the metal detector. Is it in place? I mean, because that was kind of a concern. employee safety over there. So I see that. So I'm glad to see that's in there.

It will be installed on the 22nd of this month. We've had some challenges with delivery and we've made accommodations along with the help of general services to accommodate the equipment that will be installed. So we'll be up and running on the 22nd.

That's nice to see. So thank you. Thank you, sir.

Thank you, sir.

So what was it? Thank you, chairman. And thank you. Um, for the report by other question, uh, on your, on your supplemental request for 11.4 million. How was that not foreseen or prepared for? I mean, I understand you have, um, unfunded mandates and some of the stuff that you mentioned before. I mean, so does a lot of other departments. So, and this isn't, you know, didn't this happen last year also at the end or now, because. I mean, that's a big chunk of change. So my question to you is, how is this not being foreseen or prepared for or taken into account throughout the year when you prepare the budget so you don't come back here for a big chunk of change?

Supervisor Rickman, through the Chair, absolutely fair question, good question. So we did not have a deficit last year in a supplemental request for the HSA admin budget. In the current year, we had concerns looking as we began the fiscal year 25-26. There are significant challenges in timing I began mitigation strategies early in 25-26. Again, we exhausted the available realignment trust revenues that were in the trust to cover costs at the end of 24-25. And the state, we won't know our allocations from the state to run our programs until October, sometimes early November. So we try to work very diligently in the beginning of the year in anticipation of what may occur, but oftentimes we're surprised that we don't have that funding articulated to counties until October.

All right, thank you. Yeah, what I would ask, I mean, I understand that portion. But again, a lot of other departments do too. And, you know, if we can get a better idea, if possible, so we don't run into something, you know, like this, you know, again, but you know, unfunded mandates, I know this board is looking and ready to take action on unfunded mandates. And that's something I was going to mention at the end of this. But again, thank you for the job that you guys are doing. I appreciate it.

I appreciate it.

Super Rosa Gardea. Through the chair, I just want to say that you have a really tough job and, you know, predicting the future, the unknown future is really tough. And but I do have a handful of questions for you. So you mentioned in 2016, 40 million dollars were given back to the general fund. What can you explain that?

So since 2015, 2016, during that period of time going to 24-25, the Human Services Agency was under budget by a collection of $44 million over that period of time. So we closed out the end of the year and returned general fund in each of those years for a combined total of $44 million.

And so is that maybe this through the county administrator? Is that something that like a reserve put aside for a reserve or is it just in the general fund?

So through the chair to answer the question. So this budget used to sit in the general fund as a general fund budget. And this is why through our analyst, Kelly. had said we need to move this into a special revenue fund. If it was a special revenue fund, it would not have dropped to the general fund. It would have been in that specific fund dedicated to HSA. So what Chris is explaining before, and we're just doing that this year for 26-27. So since 2015, salary savings and any type of savings, it fell into the general fund. So where all of the savings, if it's a general fund,

budget it will fall into the general fund all right thank you next question is community centers is our is is health services in charge of it due to like a funding source

So Human Services Agency, and Supervisor Gardea through the Chair, does receive CSBG funding to fund the most significant portion of the operating costs for the community centers. The community centers cost roughly $3 million, a little north of $3 million to run annually. And we're funding most of that with outside funding.

If you're gonna throw a percentage on that, what would that roughly be?

So outside funding, we're asking again for... the 258,000 of the approximately three million to run the community centers.

Yeah, and you know, and you've heard this from me before, I think that's a, you know, anytime that we have the ability to invest in our youth is a positive across the board, and it saves us down the road, so I commend you for that.

And if I could just add on, so, when the department met with the county minister's office about this budget challenge, and one of the things was, what can we do to secure outside funding? And although small, I think this represents the spirit of what we're trying to do at the Human Services Agency. The aging community services team actually secured donations in the amount of, We're looking at $17,000 coming in to support the Summer Youth Enrichment Program in particular. And I think that speaks to the spirit of what we're trying to do and support the program.

I appreciate that. And then the other question is the one-time supplemental request. Is it really one time? Or are we going to have this conversation next year?

This is the one time I'm back for the second time. In regards to the aging community services. So I think these programs are very worth providing youth opportunities and running the pool. Again, we used to provide funding to the community centers through a CalWORKs allocation. Unfortunately, that funding is no longer available due to the increasing cost for core business in determining eligibility to CalWORKs and job training, and that's why I came to this board last year for this funding. In terms of the administration funding, I can't tell you that, my intention is that this is one year. And there are a lot of policy decisions that are being handed down by the feds and by the state that we have. We don't know the ultimate outcome of those decisions, along with the state budget outcomes and the advocacy that has occurred. The two party, the legislative legislatures. The budget that was presented yesterday to the governor is very favorable to human services programs. I'm hopeful that that budget will ultimately be signed and we'll see how that relates to funding for human services agency in this county. So there's a lot of unknowns. I'm hopeful this is one time. And I will certainly be in communication with the county minister's office as to how that funding rolls out to HSA.

You're not retiring next year, are you?

No, I know I look very old, but I have at least eight to ten more years to go.

I apologize for even saying that, but I'm trying to lighten it up a little bit. The other I got a couple of more questions for you. You might have already answered them, but the vacant positions that were budgeted, those were how many vacant positions do we have now currently with this current budget?

So I currently have, right now, I think 159 vacant positions. And those vacant positions, I have been accumulating over this current fiscal year prior to, at the end of last year, I think I had a vacancy rate of 8%. That vacancy rate has significantly grown since that period of time because we're trying to address these mitigation efforts. And I did not delete more positions in anticipation of advocacy efforts at the state level materializing in additional funds for the county, but there is no county share tied to those positions if the funding materializes.

I appreciate that and my is more of a comment. You know when you're out and about and you're around some of our city elected so you know they think the county has a just a unlimited amount of money and a lot of this money is passed through money as you know that we're just the caretakers. At some point you know As a county, to provide these services, it's going to wear on our general fund money. I believe that this board and through our PIO is start educating the community that a lot of our services that we provide may be cut in the future due to the state and the feds. And that there's only so much money in the pot. and we have to deal with what we have. So I appreciate being honest with us. We have a lot of challenges, and I appreciate the hard work that you put into this presentation.

Thank you, sir.

Is that it? Supervisor Rickman?

Thank you, Chairman. Veteran Services Office. My question is, I know I received something ASKING FOR, TO USE OUR DISCRETIONARY FUNDS. YOU NEED TO GET LIKE A ROLLER SKATE ON THAT THING. I GUESS YOU KNOW WHERE I'M GOING WITH THIS. THERE WAS AN ASK FOR DISCRETIONARY I don't know what, imagine I wasn't the only one, to be used by the Veterans Service Office, informational items, pamphlets, business cards and stuff like that for our district representatives. My question to you would be why isn't that in the budget? Isn't that something the department should be budgeting for? all you're doing is you're taking money from one area and putting it someplace else. I mean, it's still taxpayer dollars, so why isn't it being funded through your... Yes, sir.

Through the Chair to Supervisor Rickman, Genevieve Valentine, Health Care Services Director, speaking on behalf of Veteran Services. So typically, those items are budgeted within a department's budget. As we have dived into some of our budgeting practices in the past with health care services, there are some discrepancies and transparencies that we are trying to clean up. One of those things was in this current fiscal year, not this upcoming fiscal year, those things were not budgeted in order to maintain some of the veteran service VAC duties specifically. So the discretionary funds were a one-time ask as we clean up some of our budgets at large and some of our policies and procedures and bylaws for our boards and commissions. As you know, with veteran services, there are many community events that our veterans and the veterans BAC want to attend. And so those are activities where I do not have the authority as the department head to ask for those funds because they are deemed sponsorship or other outreach activities that are not within my jurisdiction, which is why specifically for veteran services, we have come to the board multiple times for certain support in terms of making sure our veterans are highlighted in those events.

But if we're doing outreach by the VSO's office, do our district reps, how is that not covered in you know, those funding, meaning that, I mean, I think it's a great idea. Isn't that one of the reasons we have the Veterans Service Office is to reach out to our veterans community? So isn't that exactly what you're doing?

Through the chair to continue, Supervisor Rickman, those were not funded based off of the VAC specifically. Some of those things were earmarked for our VSRs, our veteran service staff. And so there is an admin policy that allows for volunteer reimbursement. So things that are mileage and so forth that we have the discretion to do based off of the admin manual. But if, for example, a VAC member wants to go and attend one of the pancake breakfasts at one of the posts or have certain things, those items in this current budget were not budgeted because those were not things that we were historically aware of that needed to be done. And there were other ways that those things were paid for historically that were not part of the county budget.

Well, can't you, since we're here today, I mean, you're talking of what, $5,000? I mean, five, 10,000, I don't know. I mean.

Through the chair, I believe it was $2,500 request, $500.

Okay, well, that's even better. I mean, can you, we're here today, so couldn't you ask that to put, I mean, that's 2,500 bucks or 5,000, whatever it is, the total is.

So through the chair, back to Rickman, the ask was for this current fiscal year? because they were not part of the 25, 26. Everything that is necessary for 26, 27, we believe we have budgeted fine and so forth. There may be an ask at some point where we come back asking for permission to use some of those funds for sponsorship things like moving wall, veterans, memorial luncheons, and so forth, because we do not have the authority to use county funds for those items, but they would not necessarily be appropriation increases that we are aware of as of right now.

In short, let me get this straight. So in this budget that we're talking about today, you have the funds available that you can get informational items, pamphlets, business card for a district rent. Is that correct?

That is correct, sir.

Well, there you go. Thank you. Thank you.

You are welcome.

Supervisor Canepa.

Director Valentine, do we have a move-in date possibly for... Our VSO?

I am going to defer to Matt who is working on that with the health plan of San Joaquin.

Do we have a sign budgeted from Supervisor Gardea over here?

Yes, we're looking at hopefully by the end of July. I just got a message from Health Plan of San Joaquin. They're still waiting on permits. We had some last minute changes due to them finding some of the foundation under where we're going to build bathrooms. So we had to make some changes, but hoping for the end of July, possibly a little bit later, but very soon.

Okay. And to his point, the signage somewhere that's going to clarinet digs.

So through the chair to Gardea and Canova, actually we had a signage meeting yesterday on exactly what type of signage we want in front of the building, being able to make sure that we have the appropriate military flags and so forth. So it's not just signage for the Veterans Service Office, but to actually honor all of our veterans. So we actually had a meeting yesterday and should be prepared when we move in at the end of July with an open house tentatively scheduled for September.

Exciting. Perfect. Thank you, Chair.

I just want to know who she kicked.

Through the Chair. I am a auntie who will sacrifice her body for her five-year-old niece, so I fell down the stairs holding her.

Supervisor Gardea? Just to clarify the sign, there's been a request by multiple veterans just to they would like to see a sign at the current one that they're moving so that they don't show up and it's no longer there. So maybe a sign as soon as possible to say, hey, when we have a move-in date. And I'm sure there's somebody here that can help you out with permits if permits is holding things up.

Through the Chair to Supervisor Gardea, as soon as we actually have a tentative date, we will put posting not only at the current location, but we will also do mailers. There's a whole distribution process that occurs once we have a tentative date.

Thank you.

You're very welcome.

Thank you, sir. Anybody from public? Any questions? Let's move on to overview of health services.

Thank you.

Thank you, Kelly. Thank you, Chris.

Well, good morning, Chair Dollywall, members of the board. I'm Adam Brucker, Senior Deputy County Administrator, and at this time, I'm gonna provide an overview of the Health Services Functional Area. The Health Services Functional Area includes the Healthcare Services Agency, except for Correctional Health Services and the Veterans Services Office, which are presented today, as the VSO just was, with other functional areas. Also included is the hospital, San Joaquin Health Centers, the three public works budgets listed on this slide, the first five program, which is under human services, environmental health, operating transfers to healthcare, and now the SJB well construction project budget. The recommended budget for health services totals $1.3 billion, an increase of 129 million, or 10.7% from 25-26. This slide illustrates how the 1.3 billion is allocated to the various budget units, with the hospital at 44%, behavioral health services at 30%, and San Joaquin Health Centers at 6%. The 1.3 billion recommended for the health services functional area is funded by hospital special revenues at about 34%, intergovernmental revenues at 25%, and charges for services at 14% among other sources. General purpose revenue or net county cost funds just 3%. 26-27 staffing for health services is recommended at 3,693 FTEs. Of this, 3,020 are full-time positions, and this represents a net decrease of 16 full-time positions from the prior year, which is a .5% decrease. Changes in staffing by department are noted on the slide. All proposed position decreases are vacant positions and none of the added positions are funded with supplemental funding. The decrease in staffing for the healthcare services agency includes decreases of 17 positions for public health and 12 positions for whole person care For part-time and extra help, a net increase of 249.1 full-time equivalent positions is led by the hospital with 242.2 additional FTEs presented in more detail on the next slide. The recommended San Joaquin General Hospital budget includes the addition of one full-time management analyst two position and a net increase of 242.2 FTEs for part-time extra help at an increased cost of 35.4 million. It also includes an increase of 10.8 million for overtime costs And these increases reflect the hospital's actual staffing levels and are really just an adjustment due to the under budgeting in 25-26. To address staffing cost increases and in response to the growing concern about the sustainability of state and federal revenues, the hospital executive team and the county administrator's office have identified the need to launch a comprehensive staffing review. In collaboration with Human Resources, this initiative will analyze how well the current staffing structure aligns with patient volume, regulatory requirements, and financial realities. The goal is to develop a flexible, sustainable staffing model that ensures San Joaquin General Hospital can staff appropriately to meet patient needs while operating within fiscal constraints. As of March 31st, 2026, the county has received opioid settlement funding and associated accrued interest for a balance of 22.6 million. 14.6 million is program for use in 26-27 for the items listed on this slide. The largest portion is the 13.8 million in the SJB Well construction project budget and that's for the behavioral health continuum infrastructure program grant funding program match. The remaining balance of opioid funding is unbudgeted with the majority reserved for the SJB well campus in the opioid, excuse me, as identified in the opioid settlement strategic abatement plan, which was approved by your board in August, 2023. The recommended San Joaquin Health Center's enterprise fund budget is an increase of 39 million, primarily due to the consolidation of the agency's operating budget, which was previously approved by your board separately and not a part of this county budget. Effective July 1st, the budget will transition to an enterprise fund, Enterprise funds are used to account for the operations that are financed and are operated similarly to a private business enterprise. This change is expected to improve accounting transparency and reporting. The San Joaquin County Clinics Board approved the budget at its regularly scheduled meeting on May 23rd. Also included in this budget are one-time transfers out of 9.8 million to support the SJ Bewell Campus Construction Project. This funding contribution will directly support the FQHC Same Day Clinic Opioid Clinic that will be operated by San Joaquin Health Centers in Building A. Now to Public Works, the Foothill Landfill will be closing in summer 2026, and Public Works will consolidate operations at the North County Landfill, which will result in a $1.4 million reduction in contract services costs in 26-27. The consolidation will improve operational efficiency, optimize staffing and equipment use, support regulatory compliance, and extend landfill capacity for the next 10 to 15 years. Supplemental funding requests total 1.3 million were received and are recommended for the health services functional area. The public guardian conservator requested about 1.2 million for additional support of probate conservatorship for individuals that are incapacitated due to a major neurological disorder who do not have alternatives to conservatorship. And the Office of the Medical Examiner requested $152,422 to support an increase in cost for specialized janitorial services for their new facility. Chair Dollywall, members of the board, this concludes my brief overview of the health services functional area and department heads and I are certainly available if you have any questions.

Thank you, sir. Board members, any questions for staff?

Supervisor Rickman? Thank you, Chairman. As Mr. Woods mentioned, I know the initial state budget approved last night headed to the governor, starting at 12 days of final negotiations. With that being said, most of the health services are hospital, indigent care, and so on. How do you get preparing for that? I mean, depending on what the governor does. I mean, as of right now, the governors may revise shifted federal and state costs to the counties. And that's something we've been talking about for months. So how are you guys prepared to handle that? Well, I mean, again, I'm not asking to look into a crystal ball or anything like that, but knowing that it may come up. Knowing our governor, anything's possible.

So I would just say that certainly the staff from our various health services departments presented on the HR1 impacts that could impact the county. You saw some of that Director Wood's presentation. In public health, there are some reductions. that I could go through with you if you're interested, specifically to public health. But in general, some of those reductions are not hitting us in the 26-27 fiscal year. And in terms of directly to your question about what's in the proposed budget and what was approved yesterday but still being negotiated, as far as I'm aware, none of that has been included in the proposed 26-27 budget because we just don't know what that looks like. I would invite,

No, if I'm correct, it's January of next year it would hit us, correct?

That's the first, yeah, some of the regulations will start January of 27. But just to add to what Mr. Brecker is saying through the chair, sorry, Supervisor Rickman, we have, so the CAO's office has, we've already started a work group with our health and human services departments to talk about just that. What would be the impact if, because we don't have an indigent health program, we need to figure out what those costs are. So the departments are looking right now, collecting a bunch of data to figure out what that might look like, because it would be county specific. And so, but we have, we are looking at that in a work group, and then going back to slide, 39, it looks like. With the hospital specifically, we are working on a comprehensive staffing review to make sure that we have the correct staffing and that might help us in going forward.

Yeah, again, I just pretty much, you know, lay that out there. Everybody in this room and watching knows what could happen. We just don't know. And that's what the scariest thing is, is, you know, dealing with the state and how they run their government and it's something that we're gonna have to possibly deal with. So thank you, sir, appreciate it. Thank you.

So what was the kind of problem?

So my question was towards the hospital and County Administrator Regalo, the enterprise fund, where is that at? Can you kind of explain that or who wants to take a bite of that apple?

through the chair, I would ask, yes, thank you, CEO.

Because we always hear about it, oh, the enterprise fund, the enterprise fund, the enterprise fund.

It isn't an enterprise fund if you're looking, are you asking for the balance, the cash balance or the fund balance?

Yeah, because it's been there and I don't know how long and it was kind of bigger and it keeps kind of dwindling. So if you could kind of say what it was and where it's going and how we're going to address that would be greatly appreciated.

On the cash balance.

So the cash balance is predicted to be a negative 23 million at the end of this year. It does fluctuate with the different large outlays that we have. I've rolled forward a prediction of cash to the end of the next fiscal year and we're basically flat at that point in time.

So that's the that's the balance?

That's the cash balance. And did you want to know what the projection was?

No because we always were in Mr. Castro, I don't know if you, I mean, we talk about the enterprise fund and the enterprise fund, we always would dip in. So sometimes when we go and don't have the money for certain spots during the year, you guys put stuff on the agenda and it comes from somewhere, bless you. So those are the things that I kind of wonder during the year, because it's like this endless pot of money that I don't think is endless.

It is not endless. So we did at one point in time have a higher cash reserve, but that's been utilized over the last several years. So we are at a point now to where we're basically breakeven on the cash. Sometimes we dip into a negative cash balance, which the county actually supports, and then we get our larger supplemental payments, then we put it back into the cash account.

So that's what the labor, looking into the labor is going to address that. Because I know you guys have done an amazing job of using the power of economy, you know, buying things. But, I mean, obviously you can only do that for so long, right? And then where does the extra money come from?

And so for this year, we've reduced the amount of capital requests. The county's been very generous over the years to give the hospital $15, $16 million. to buy capital equipment over the last several years but this year we can't completely do without capital because things break at the hospital and we have to get them repaired to be able to do services but we've cut that down to a little over nine million dollars request with two percent of that being in contingency that the CAO's office has to approve in emergent situations that weren't budgeted for.

And if I may add through the chair, this is another department. So we are working with the hospital, our CAO office, and we're digging into the finances to really understand the cash balance versus their accrual balance.

That's part of the reason why the SJ health clinics are going into their own kind of subcategory to like HSA. Is that the goal?

So those would be specific to, yes. So special revenue fund. But this is an enterprise fund, but we need to, because as Sam has stated, we have gone, we've seen that deplete. It was just a few years ago, it was a lot higher. And so we are meeting with them, and we'll try and get you some more information.

Perfect. Thank you, Chair.

Thank you, sir. Supervisor Gaddier?

Just at what point did we start dipping into our cash reserves in order to stay afloat?

Well, I went back to 2018 and looked at over through 2018 through current and you'll note in around 2022 there was a larger dip in the cash balance from 2022 to 2026.

I'm sure that'll be a question later. Yes. But just knowing that it goes back.

And I have some detailed schedules that I can share with you guys.

Excuse me?

I have some detailed schedules that I can share with you guys over the period of time, what happened on the balance sheet.

OK. Thank you. Anybody else? Jennifer?

Genevieve Valentine Health Care Services through the chair to Supervisor Canepa. I just want to make sure for the record there is a clarification on why the health clinics are actually getting an enterprise fund. So as it was previously started out with Adam talking about how the health clinics did not have all of their operating costs within the county system so the health clinics had outside of county auditorial control fiscal budgets so this is actually allowing us to realign all of our operating costs all of our outside accounts under the purview of the Board of Supervisors, the SJCC Board, so that way there is more transparency of the operating costs for the health clinics. In doing that, the request was made that the health clinics' budget was under an enterprise account as well, which I am sure Isaiah can also give a little bit more information on, but it's in order to have transparency and alignment with the clinic's operating costs.

Isaiah Lilly, Healthcare Services Deputy Director for Finance. And yes, so what she was mentioning and what was mentioned earlier is that the way the accounting structure was, we initially had it in a general fund and we had a special fund that we reimbursed to the general fund. So this is removing that process. And so it's setting the fund separate kind of similar to the hospital, where it's separate and operates kind of like its own business, in short.

And one further question. So the quip money, we were always battling over who gets what percentage of quip, and good thing Mr. Castro sat down so that he doesn't have a chance to stir anything up about the quip money.

Oh, good, I don't have to answer that? What was the official question? I'm sorry. I heard quip in my brain.

Between the clinics and the hospital. Quality incentive program, right, is the acronym, which I hate. But did we figure out a happy medium for it?

So through the chair to Supervisor Canepa, We are working on updating the MOU for healthcare services, the health clinics and the hospital. So our work hopes that sometime in the near future, that MOU will realign with what is accurate service delivery in both departments. And then we'll also be addressing the percentages for QIP. I can tell you for this fiscal year, we are maintaining the percentage agreements based off of the current budget that is being proposed.

Thank you. Is that a lot of people? I mean, that's been a battle for getting the sj health clinics back because once it got split off but thank you for all the work and the due diligence of bringing that back and the mou set and everything else so thank you for your efforts in that that category thanks anybody else anybody from public let's move on to overview of capital maintenance and improvements okay great so yeah this time i'll just turn it over to josh bronco

Talk about capital maintenance.

Thank you.

Thank you, Adam. Josh Bronco, Senior Deputy County Administrator. I'm here to present the overview for the capital maintenance functional area at this time. This functional area includes the, whoops. There we go. This functional area includes the budgets listed on this slide. General Services Administration, Facilities Management, Capital Projects, and Air Park 599. Overall, the proposed budget for this functional area totals $194 million, roughly 30% increase from 2025-2026. This slide shows the percentage share of the overall functional area by department, including capital projects at 83%, general services at 16.5%, and the air park at 0.3%. The $194 million proposed budget for capital maintenance is funded primarily by fund balance at 71%. There's also cost reimbursements at 18%, transfers in at 6.5, and use of money and property at roughly 4%, which is typically interest revenue. This slide is showing the expenses for capital projects within the public improvement budget and the energy related capital projects budget units. So just those two budget units. You can see there's a total of $139.6 million budgeted for capital expenditures in those two budgets. And 92% will support the law and justice functional areas, parks and recreation, and health services. Law and justice is at 61%, parks and recreation at 17, and health services at 14%. Turning to the staffing, there's 92.9 full-time equivalent positions that are recommended in 2026-2027. This consists of 89 full-time and 3.9 part-time positions, represents a net increase of 1.6 FTE. For capital projects, one position is being transferred to the General Services Administration budget. We're also recommending the addition of one accounting technician two that will be offset by deleting a vacant energy manager position. Within facilities management, there's a transfer of three positions to the General Services Administration budget to establish a centralized finance division for that department. And within the GSD administration budget, there's an increase of 5.7 FTE, primarily due to the transfer of five positions from facilities management, capital projects, and the parks budget to establish that centralized finance function. The proposed budget includes $84.8 million for the planned construction of several new facilities. The list on this slide is not exhaustive, but it's representative of some of our largest and perhaps most interesting projects We have listed here $50 million for the sheriff's office training facility, $15.7 million for the EMS replacement facility, $10 million for the demolition of the old courthouse building at 222 East Weber, and $4.5 million for the design of the probation youth recreation complex. There's an additional $45.5 million that's been included to support capital improvements at existing county facilities. Again, there's many more projects that are not listed on here. We've just highlighted some of the larger ones. These include $8.5 million for the miniature golf course at Mickey Grove Park, 7.2 million for the third phase of the security camera project at the Sheriff's Office facility. 4.5 million for the Juvenile Justice Center roofing replacement projects, 3.6 million for improvements on the east end at Mickey Grove Zoo, and then 2.5 million for tenant improvements at the new office for the Assessor-Recorder County Clerk at 322 West Elm Street in Lodi. We did receive several supplemental requests from the Facilities Management Division, and the ones pictured on this slide are recommended for funding. They include $1.35 million for maintenance projects at the AG Center, Hazleton Complex, and 400 East Main. There's approximately $522,000 to support increased security costs at 3737 North Wilson Way, approximately $141,000 to backfill a decrease and build revenue from the ROV and auditor controller's office. An additional $129,000 for fleet services and GSD admin costs. Approximately $81,000 to purchase a new van for the downtown maintenance district. And finally $62,000 to support increased taxes and assessments on county properties. This concludes the capital maintenance overview. Department heads and I are available to answer any questions you might have at this time, and I believe we have at least one. Supervisor Kemp. Page five.

Thank you, Chair. Through the Chair, is that all right? Yes. My question, my overambitious, why was that a negative 3.6 million in that chart? I don't know if we went over that.

Okay.

So the general purpose revenue? Yeah, well, yeah, capital maintenance. Yeah. It's the only negative on that chart.

Right, so this is related to the cost reimbursements that fund the facilities management budget. They're funded primarily, did I get it right? No, five.

The one with the big blue line in the middle.

I think this is the one that you're asking. The general purpose. My slide deck. I THINK THAT'S WITH THE NEXT I THINK THAT'S WITH THE NEXT FUNCTIONAL AREA. FUNCTIONAL AREA.

COST OF 502 MILLION. COST OF 502 MILLION.

OKAY. OKAY.

AND I'M SORRY, WHAT WAS YOUR AND I'M SORRY, WHAT WAS YOUR QUESTION THROUGH THE CHAIR?

QUESTION THROUGH THE CHAIR? THE CAPITAL MAINTENANCE IS THE CAPITAL MAINTENANCE IS DOWN 3.656. DOWN 3.656. FOR GENERAL PURPOSE REVENUE.

FOR GENERAL PURPOSE REVENUE. NET COUNTY COSTS. NET COUNTY COSTS. THANK YOU. THANK YOU.

SORRY.

so that's that's related thank you that's related to reimbursements to the facilities management budget through the cost allocation plan so they are actually it results in a negative net county cost for that department and it's related to those reimbursements in plain english what does that mean IT'S REALLY HARD TO PUT IN PLENTY.

THE RENTS ARE RECHARGING RENTS, SO WE'RE CHARGING OTHER DEPARTMENTS?

THEY'RE EXPENSES FOR RENTS, MAINTENANCE, ALL THOSE THINGS, THEY'RE REIMBURSED THROUGH THE COST ALLOCATION PLAN, AND IT'S RESULTING IN THAT NEGATIVE YOU'RE SEEING ON THE CHART THERE.

OKAY. SO WHEN YOU ASK FOR A SUPPLEMENTAL OF WHATEVER THAT IS, THAT'S NOTHING TO DO WITH THAT, RIGHT?

SO THEY ACTUALLY HAVE A NEGATIVE NET COUNTY COST TARGET BECAUSE OF THOSE REIMBURSEMENTS, AND SO THEY'RE ASKING FOR ADDITIONAL FUNDING. So they still actually have a negative net county cost target but it's less negative than they were originally allocated.

That's about as clear as mud. I understand, sir.

No offense. So each, let me try again. So each department has a target of net county costs. Theirs happens to be negative. And any time you ask for funding over and above that target, it's a supplemental request. And so it's the same process for this department. The one oddity is that theirs happens to be negative, again, due to the amount of cost reimbursements they get through the cost allocation plan.

Okay, so how negative is it usually? I mean, what's our goals? I mean, we throw in a dart or what do we?

It varies widely from year to year. Their target was roughly negative $5 million this budget year, so they've asked for supplemental funding beyond that. All right, thank you. Yeah.

Supervisor Gaddia.

Right, by no means is this a shot at Mickey's Grove because I was there this weekend and the park looks beautiful.

It's a great- America's favorite small town.

I don't know about America, but- So with miniature golf, $8.5 million, and I drove by there. It used to be a little mini amusement park and it's been vacant for many, many years. Between the park and the zoo, it's about $12 million. What does Mickey's Grove generate in revenue versus general fund impact?

They definitely do not generate. They receive a significant general fund contribution. I can find the exact number for you and give that to you. I don't have it in front of me right now.

I didn't expect you to have. I was just, you know, it's a big, big hit. I mean, it's $12 million. And I'm not saying that it's not needed. And I think it's all about timing. You know, what we're talking about, we're talking about funds depleting. You know, I think these are nice to have projects. And I'm not speaking for the zoo, because I don't know if the improvements are in order to maintain, you know, licensing or the health of our animals that we have at the zoo. So I'm not questioning that at all. But, you know, the miniature golf project, is that something that our board would consider maybe putting, putting, putting it, uh, kicking the can down the road, I guess you could say, uh, when the timing is right, um, with, you know, we have, we have Oakmore that, you know, we, there's a lot of uncertainties with Oakmore of what we're going to do with that property and, um, other needs of, of, of the County. And, and by no means, I don't, this, I enjoy that park. Family's been going there for, my family's been going there for generations and, uh, It's a beautiful park, and I'm just throwing that out there.

Thank you, sir.

So through the chair, if I could.

Actually, hold on. Thank you. Parks are not meant to create revenue. You know, it's just like, you know, there's very few parks, actually, since we are the county board of supervisors, most of the parks that we've been funding are actually in the city of Stockton, and they're not meant to generate revenue there to to enhance quality of of life, the the miniature golf course. But I do have some questions on on on the cost of it. And I was going to get into that. as well we're we're i i was trying to figure out how come 18 holes cost more than redoing the zoo i i was i was a little i need to be able to explain why does a miniature golf course cost eight and a half million dollars in a zoo that i get complaints about every week because it looks like crap is only three and a half million dollars and i know a lot of it has to do with we're waiting on the accreditation and in the program, but in sixth grade English, we need to do that. But this has been something with the miniature golf course, Pioneer Village, just years and years and years of no attention out there. It is a diamond for business development, tourism, giving kids something to do, families that come in for tourism, for winery tours. And to see America's favorite small town, Lodi, as listed in Parade magazine coming out, you know, some some extra benefit because tourism dollars, you can't you can't just be all wineries. And so that's why, you know, with the historical museum and the miniature golf course and pioneer village. Um, it's really been a vision that we've been working on for years, but I did want to understand a little bit more about. So I can explain why a miniature golf course costs eight and a half million dollars in a zoo costs 3 million.

Sure. So if, if I could through the chair to supervisor Gardea, just to answer your first question, and then I will answer yours as well, supervisor Dean. This year's budget, it's about $12.9 million in general purpose revenue, so that would be the general fund contribution to parks and the zoo together. And as far as their charges for services, which would be people paying to go use the facilities, it's about $2.2 million. And those budgets, their total expenses are $17 million, just to give you a bit of an idea of what we're discussing. To your point, Supervisor Ding, and it's a good question, this is a number that we HAD VALIDATED I WILL SAY WITH THE THIRD PARTY COST ESTIMATOR AND I SHARED THE SAME STICKER SHOCK AS I'M LEARNING IN THIS ROLE OF CAPITAL PROJECTS THINGS OFTEN COST MORE THAN YOU MIGHT THINK ON FIRST BLUSH BUT LET ME BREAK DOWN WHAT'S IN THAT $8.5 MILLION FOR THE BOARD AND FOR THE PUBLIC. ABOUT $1 MILLION IN THAT ESTIMATE IS FOR THE BUILDING THAT WOULD BE IN PLACE TO OPERATE THE FACILITY. So within that building, that would be the entrance to the facility, concessions, restrooms, staff office, break room, storage. There'll be a covered patio area, mechanical room, janitor closet. And so to the extent that we want to bring that number down, there may be some opportunities to reduce some of those costs. Of course, we're gonna need a minimum viable building to operate the facility, but there could be some wiggle room there. $5.8 million is for the direct construction costs. So if we were to go out today and build the golf course, that's what we think it would cost to build. So the rest is really things that have been included due to either expected markup from the contractor that's ultimately going to construct the facility, project contingency, design fees, design contingency because the design is not complete at this point, And we also have a very healthy 7.2% escalation factor to account for the fact that we are not constructing it today. We would be constructing it sometime next year is the plan to start. And so it is a large number, it's an estimate at this time. We are preparing to go out to bid to get proposals from design build firms to see what the costs would be. If there's a desire to reduce the cost or to come in under that 8.5, which I'm sure there is, we can look at opportunities with that solicitation to as opposed to requirements so that we could adjust based on what the proposals come back as. I will also say we have this $8.5 million in the budget but the board is not approving the project today. It will come back to the board for approval with the actual proposals that we receive and the board at that time would be able to say yes, we wanna move forward or no, now is not the right time based on your direction.

that helps i i mean i do understand i mean it's kind of like the bathrooms we just built in your park for you know 360 000 or whatever you know it it gets expensive so i i get still just move a porta potty out there i still get a little shocked there but it but the project hasn't been approved so it'll still come back to the board uh for all of us all right thank you thank you sir supervisor

I commend my colleagues on advocating for their districts, and it is a beautiful park, and I'm not discounting that by no means. It's not a dig by no means, but you mentioned that our community parks are within the cities. They're in unincorporated areas that the county is in charge of, so they are not city parks. Unlike Lodi, Tracy, Manteca, Manteca-Lathrop, THOSE ARE GROWING COMMUNITIES WHERE YOU HAVE THESE BIG DEVELOPMENTS THAT BRING IN PARKS, NEW, NICE, NEW PARKS. WELL, DISTRICT ONE REALLY HASN'T HAD ANY DEVELOPMENT FOR MANY, MANY YEARS, SO WE HAVEN'T HAD THE ABILITY AND THE LUXURY OF RECEIVING NEW PARKS, AND THAT'S WHY I'VE BEEN ADVOCATING FOR THE MAINTENANCE OF OUR PARKS TO GET BACK UP TO SNUB. YOU KNOW, AND I THINK ABOUT THE REGIONAL SPORTS COMPLEX. It's a regional sports complex. It's very similar if you look at it as an economic driver for sports and the ability to create revenue through tourism and all that. And I only bring... It's $12 million total to enhance the Mickey's Grove. And I think that's a positive. I just I just want to bring to light that there are other projects within our community that definitely need help. And so that's why I brought that up.

And I appreciate it. And I, and I do support supervisor, all of your work you've done in your district with your parks. Um, we, we have to remember that in, in my district, um, you know, I don't have overlapping governments, you know, Stockton county. I mean, I've got eight communities that I am technically, you know, the mayor, the governor, the supervisor, they, they have no other government to go to. with all of my other communities. So I get defensive when I hear somebody mention a project in my district. I mean, are you running for Senate too? I mean, I was trying to figure out why are you mentioning a park in Lodi? So I appreciate your attention to it. We're on the same page.

And no, I do the chair. I want to be a good supervisor first before I even have any thoughts of running for higher office and good. I appreciate that. I just like I said, my commitment to our parks is it's obviously known and I appreciate you.

Supervisor Canepa being I think it's important that we do have that because And if we are going to do it, do it right, because we did the one at Swenson Park and we had these grandiose plans and it didn't come to fruition like it probably should have. So I think it's something that you have as a destination. So, I mean, to start cutting it and doing it halfway, I don't think does. I mean, parks are something that, you know, it's a quality of life issue. And during the bankruptcy at the city of Stockton, we didn't spend a lot of money on it. And you could see the outcomes because when you do that, there's nowhere safe, there's nowhere clean for people to go and have fun outside of it. So like you said, it's a big investment, but I think it's something that's going to be worth it and that we could be proud of. But the zoo, I do get a lot of complaints about the zoo, so we need to kick that up a notch too. Because everyone says one of the complaints where you go online if you want and you can see a bunch of beautiful animals on your phone instead of seeing dead animals at the zoo and some of the comments. But going there as a kid and seeing the seals and now that's all changed and everything. And the poor blind bald eagle, I don't know if it's still alive out there, but you know most of those animals are been in captivity I mean and I don't know it's great to keep them in captivity but if we could make that better I think it's a better place for people to go and be with their families or whoever they want to be with and go and do things and I think it's important that we do support those because if we start nickel and diming of what district we're in or how we're going to do it then we're not going to have anything nice so we're going to have a bunch of half done projects that You know, don't don't make it nice and something for people to go and enjoy. So I support that also. So because it's been I think we even came up with there was a competition to have a name. So I don't know what the name finally came out, but I think it's been in the works long enough. And I know money's tight. But I mean, when you do do things and I think you project it that, you know, I think you need to follow through. So I'm in support of it.

And just one more comment, Chairman. Thank you. And I'll piggyback on what you I was so caught off guard. I forgot what my original question was. My original question was with with the complaints we've been getting. Is maintenance out there trimming weeds and cleaning out those pins? Is that a matter of we don't have the worker to do it or there's another problem? I know we're in budget, so I don't want to get into authorizations and programs because we're talking about money here, but I just want to make sure that's not the reason I've got school teachers calling me up and saying they had to walk through looking for animals in these weeds.

Yeah, so through the Chair to Supervisor Deing, that's really more related to the parks and recreation functional area that we'll go over next, but to jump ahead a little bit, that would be a function of the park maintenance staff. We do have someone who is assigned part-time to the zoo specifically, and then I know that they'll supplement as they have capacity to, but if we are still getting those complaints, that's something I'm sure that we can look at with the department It might be that the part-time staff was not enough to take a different approach. So that was something that was added in the 25-26 budget was at least a part-time person to be there three days a week.

Supervisor Dickman?

Thank you, Chair. And to Supervisor Ding, to help out Mickey Grove, I have a squirrel keep eating my pomegranates, so you can have that thing. If you can catch it. I'll take your squirrel if you keep your fires. But, you know, it's just interesting when you talk about parks. Hey, I'm a huge park guy when I was mayor and stuff. But every few years you get the same conversation about the need for parks, the cost of parks. And all you have to look back, and it hasn't been that long, is COVID, right? And, I mean, that was one of the very few places that families and people could go and the quality of life and you know entertain themselves so i mean with that being said i've always been a huge you know fan of parks and we all talk about district parks it just it just must be nice to you know looking at my colleagues and they have regional parks you know south county you know still does it but hey i appreciate you guys recognizing you know that and you know helping us out and we all work great together i think we all um have the same vision so

that's it thank you sir thank you sir anybody from public county council what's the direction it's up to the discretion of the board but we do have a closed session we have outside counsel who is here um and so

To the extent we want to avoid paying outside counsel to sit around, it'd be good to take a break.

And Chairman, if I could, my plan was to do this budget and head out. So, I mean, outside counsel, they should be able to wait.

And there's no problem with waiting.

I'm just letting you know. Because if not, I'm not going to be until the end of this.

Yep.

Let's continue then. Should we recess to close session or continue?

No, it's up to the discretion of the board, but there is no reason we can't wait. Plow on through.

How long do you anticipate the closed session?

With all the matters we have on, I'm thinking it'll be at least an hour. The thing for which, though, the outside counsel here is for would be quick. So if you wanted, you could break up closed session.

Supervisor Rickman? Well, first of all, our closed sessions are never quick. You know, so I think everybody in here that waits for an agenda item is, you know, we have a whole room full of people who are waiting on us to do this budget.

If I may, Chair, just to let you know, we're about two-thirds through, so we may have about 30 minutes, depending on any questions from the board, but we probably have about 30 minutes left.

Why don't you just say Supervisor Canepa? That's fine. Tell him to be quiet a little bit. Is that what you're referring to? No. No?

I'm just letting you know where we're at.

We're at about two-thirds. Don't get anybody mad.

Chairman? Yes, sir. I just wanted to be clear. You asked about, we have a number of, you asked how long a closed session would be. I'm thinking it's at least an hour, but the outside counsel matter should only take 15 minutes at most so that so I just throw that out there in case you wanted to do that so then we can recess and deal with the item where we need the outside counsel then come back and then we can end with the closed session that's correct now we would go through the rest of this and then go back to closed session when when we're done with everything that's what we could do that okay

15 minutes, closed session, then we come back.

So what you're asking for, Chair, is to do outside counsel, then come back here to finish the rest of the budget, and it should be, what, 15 minutes or less?

And then we come back, deal with the remaining budget items, and then have the rest of the closed session at the end. whatever the board wants.

Is that cool? I'm cool. Fifteen minutes. But like I said before, a closed session, it never it's never quick. So let me have a whole room full of people.

OK, let's recess to one second. There's a speaker. You you want to speak? No, no. OK, let's recess to closed session and then we'll come back.

Ready? Ready?

Are you guys ready? Ready? We will reconvene after the closed session. County Council, is there anything to report?

Can you set the clock back 10 minutes?

Regarding Durrani versus the County of San Joaquin, the motion was made by Supervisor Rickman and seconded by Supervisor Canepa to fully resolve that case by a vote of five to zero. The terms and conditions of that settlement of that entire case will be available upon request once all parties have signed off on the settlement documents. That's the only reportable action.

Thank you, sir. THE PUBLIC HEARING IS STILL OPEN. WE'LL CONTINUE WITH THE BUDGET. LET'S START WITH OVERVIEW OF PARK AND RECREATION.

THANK YOU CHAIRMAN DOLLYWALL MEMBERS OF THE BOARD JOSH BRONCO SENIOR DEPUTY COUNTY ADMINISTRATOR HERE TO PRESENT THE OVERVIEW FOR THE PARKS AND RECREATION FUNCTIONAL AREA WHICH INCLUDES THE PARKS AND RECREATION BUDGET AS WELL AS THE MICKEY GROVE ZOO BUDGET AND THE CULTURAL SERVICES BUDGET. the budget for parks and recreation is approximately 17 million dollars this is a 23 percent decrease from 2025-2026 just want to note this decrease is primarily due to one-time funds that were included in the 25-26 budget we have not actually reduced the ongoing funding for parks and recreation This slide shows the percentage of the functional area by department. You can see most of it is in the Parks and Recreation and Mickey Grozy budgets at 95%, and then the remaining 5% is allocated to the Cultural Services budget. The $17 million proposed budget for the Parks and Recreation Functional Area is funded by general purpose revenue at 76%, charges for services at 13%, transfers in at 9%, and cost reimbursements at 2%. There are 69.5 full-time equivalent positions that are recommended for 2026-2027. This includes 44 full-time and 25 and a half part-time positions and represents a net increase of 2.8 full-time equivalents from the prior year. The 26-27 proposed budget transfers one accounting technician two to the general services administration budget and deletes one park fee coordinator. That was a vacant position. These reductions are offset by the addition of an office technician coordinator, a park planning and development coordinator position, and 2.8 FTEs to the Parks and Recreation Mickey Grove Zoo budget for extra help. There are several supplemental funding requests that are recommended for the board's approval within the Parks and Recreation functional area. The General Services Department requested $579,000 to support ongoing costs of the landscape maintenance and medical service contracts for community parks and Mickey Grove Zoo. Approximately $76,000 for increased motor pool and GSD admin costs. in approximately $21,000 to support ongoing operational costs associated with maintaining aging equipment and park infrastructure. These are all recommended for the board's approval today. That concludes my presentation. Department heads and I are available for any questions.

Thank you, sir. Any questions for staff? Anybody? Anybody from public? Let's move on to overview of law and justice.

With that, I'd like to introduce Mohitev to present the law and justice functional area.

Thanks, Josh. Good afternoon, chair and members of the board. Mohitev, senior deputy county administrator. At this time, I will be giving an overview of the law and justice functional area, which is comprised of approximately 60 budgets and includes requesting approval of the state COPS expenditure plan. Overall, the recommended appropriations for the 26-27 law and justice budgets total approximately $670 million, an increase of approximately $25 million over last year, and are comprised of the various departments seen on this slide, with the largest budget being the sheriff's office at 43%, followed by probation at nearly 25%, and then district attorney at approximately 13%. The next chart shows the various sources of funding. Almost half of the funding is provided by general purpose revenue at nearly 46%, followed by state and federal funding at approximately 38% and the balance from various revenue sources. Switching over to the general fund, of the 670 million in expenditures, approximately 550.5 million of the expenditures are for budget units primarily funded by the general fund. The pie chart on the left shows the breakdown by expense type, Of the 550.5 million, about 70% of the costs are salary and benefit costs. The bar chart on the right shows what percentage salaries and benefits comprise of the expense total for each department's budget. For instance, for the first budget unit in blue, salaries and benefits costs comprise 82% of the expenses for the district attorney's overall budget. 74% for the Sheriff's Office in green, and so on for the remaining budgets. The next slide shows major overall net position changes in law and justice, which is an overall decrease of 16.5 net positions. Major departmental deletions include a net of 9.4 positions in the district attorney, primarily due to the deletion of vacant positions in the public assistance fraud budget, and 4.3 positions in correctional health primarily due to a decrease in part-time help. While there is a net increase of 1.3 positions reflected in probation, the department is proposing to eliminate six vacant senior office assistant positions. And this was offset by the addition of two new positions and an increase in part-time help.

Can you go back to that?

Sure.

So 16.5 full-time position decrease, right?

full-time equivalent so both full-time and yeah the part-time and yet our budget is 25 million more than last year yes where are those increases there are salary and benefits costs that's the primary driver of the increase in the overall budget compared to last year okay thank you We now turn to supplemental requests for law and justice. The total law and justice supplemental request amount recommended for approval is approximately $7.4 million. Of this, the Sheriff's Office is requesting approximately $4 million. Correctional Health Services is requesting approximately $1.7 million. The DA is requesting approximately $1 million. Court assigned counsel is requesting $500,000. And the public defender at the bottom of the list is requesting approximately $105,000. So I'll go over each one. The Sheriff's Office has requested supplemental funding of approximately $4 million which is primarily comprised of $2 million for fleet expenses and $1.2 million to backfill lost state grant funding. Another $563,000 is for inmate food service costs with the balance of $64,000 in one-time rent costs to cover rent at the downtown Stockton location on Main Street and a technology subscription request of $58,000. Moving on to Correctional Health, the Director of Healthcare Services requested supplemental funding totaling approximately $1.7 million. Ongoing funding of about $1 million and one-time funding of $500,000 for a total of approximately $1.5 million was requested to offset a projected revenue shortfall due to a previously overstated Medi-Cal revenue and a reduction in PATH grant funding. Additionally one-time funding was requested in the amount of a hundred and fifty thousand for contract medical coding support to ensure completion of documentation and efficient building billing The district attorney has requested approximately 1 million of which about four hundred and seven thousand is for fleet expenses another two hundred and sixty thousand to maintain costs associated with expert witness services for high-profile cases and $191,000 to backfill lost state grant funding, and the balance to cover one-time South County operation costs for the new facility. Also, security camera infrastructure at the Family Justice Center and access control system costs at the new DA office space located on El Dorado Street. Moving on to court assigned counsel, the proposed budget recommends $500,000 in additional ongoing funding for the court assigned counsel budget to address increasing costs for attorney fees due to increased workloads and expenses. And lastly, the public defender requested approximately $105,000 in funding to maintain the law clerk program, which provides employment for student law clerks during the summer and fall and has served as a valuable asset for recruitment. The county administrator's office recommends funding this and the previously highlighted supplemental requests totaling approximately 7.4 million for the law and justice functional area. Chair Dhaliwal and fellow board members, this concludes my presentation of law and justice. At this time, both myself and the public safety departments are present for any questions. Thank you.

Thank you. Board members, any questions for staff? Anybody from public? Thank you. Let's move on to overview of education. Question?

Go ahead. Thank you, Chairman. This is for our public defender's office. I mean, you're seeing in other counties and what the ratio between public defenders and, I guess, clients. And how does that look? for us here in San Joaquin County.

I didn't quite catch the question.

Public defender versus their caseload, you could say. And I remember reading something, not in this county, of course, but in a separate county in which some of the public defenders were upset because of their caseload is so high and the court is mandating expedited service even though without additional resources. Is that something? Do you hear that?

Yes, I'm aware of what you're asking. In several counties throughout the state and throughout the country, actually, there has been an issue where the caseloads are increasing and the amount of work that goes into each case is increasing. Now that we have a lot of electronic data, you're looking at body-worn cameras, surveillance cameras, cell phone dumps, we're getting information out of cell phones. We are looking at... So a lot of data across the board, the amount of work that it takes to prepare a case and be ready for trial is increased substantially. We are looking at ways to try to combat that through the use of new AI technologies. However, it still requires a lot of human hours to go into every case. In addition, the number of filings have gone up. In the last year, it has gone up substantially. We are looking at, we do have a need for additional staff. I think that would help with retention purposes. However, right now, what we've been focusing on is filling those vacancies that we have. And we are utilizing the law clerk program in order to help us do that. We are now down, I think, just about two vacancies left in the attorney positions. um but there is an issue we do need additional attorneys we do need the additional staff we're making do with what we can but as the caseloads continue to grow as they have every year and the amount of work into them continues to grow it's going to be a continuing issue we are managing it right now but it is something we have about a year ago we did have to not take certain homicides for a period of time because we did not have the manpower to do so luckily right now we've been able to get our caseloads back down to a manageable uh impact and unfortunately the result of that is gone down to county council where county council now has to ask for supplemental funding because of the fact that our caseloads got so high we could not manage it and so it does have an impact on all areas of the county budget when that occurs but we're not in bad shape but some of these other We are not as in bad shape as some of the other counties right now. I do see it being a need that we did discuss the need for additional staffing with the CAO's office and HR. We are making the best that we can right now but it is a future need that is going to be hopefully not come to head anytime soon but it is a concern of mine.

Yeah, that's just something I read I wanted to bring up here in this forum. And I mean, hey, you know, we talk about the district attorney's office and, you know, a lot, but... And I would say that with the increased caseloads, caseloads are lasting longer as well.

So it's not just the fact that there's more filings. but it's taking longer to resolve. The cases are going, it's resolving later on in the game. Instead of an early resolution, we're seeing them resolving closer to trial or we're seeing more cases going to trial. And when a case is going to trial, that increases the cost as well. So I do want to make the courts aware of that, or you guys are aware of that, that all of these parts of the court system is going to have an impact on our county budgets.

I just want to make sure our constitutional protections and our due process and so on has been, you know, upheld here in San Joaquin County. Absolutely. Thank you. I appreciate it.

You're welcome. Anybody else? Yes.

I thought you left me too soon. I misunderstood your question because when I heard your question, it was the same thing I was thinking. I'm not worried about overspending you can't have a strong district attorney's office without a a strong public defender's office too and i think a lot of people look you know at the at the da's office and they don't understand that balance and i mean i'm looking at this you know funding law clerk program i mean the the da's photographer probably makes more money than that So I just want to make sure that we have the adequate resources we need, because it does. It affects prosecutions and so forth. And you're such a good public defender. I thought you were getting defensive. And you thought he was trying to cut money. Do you have what it takes? I mean.

Honestly?

Yes. Honestly is always a good. When you're an attorney, it's always a good policy.

Yes, we need more. We need more money for experts. We need more money for attorneys. We need more money for technology. There was a lot of things that I'm looking at and I'm trying to put together where the priorities are, where the money is going to land. We do need more. I don't think that we're where we need to be right now. We are making do. We understand that we are in a tight fiscal situation right now. We're trying to be fiscally sound and good stewards, but yes, we need more.

I'm looking for some input from the county administrator.

Sure.

Honestly.

OK. I'm honest. So let me just look. So I will say, through the chair, and we have asked all of our departments, and I do appreciate the public defender, We've asked them not to expand. We're not in a time of expansion. We do realize that, of her caseload, we did talk about the caseload, and as she stated, we're at a manageable, could they use a lot more? Yeah, I'm sure they could use a lot more resources. But we did work with them, and we are funding this valuable program of of what her request is. I wanna say, because I don't, she did ask for.

It was five positions.

It was five positions.

About $1.4 million.

Yes, it was $1.4 million, but we did not recommend that due to the constraints and overall County messaging of not adding positions. We did not add any supplemental positions for any of our departments. And so we worked with Ms. Viato and she did go ahead and withdraw, which I very much appreciate. I appreciate all of our departments. But, and we will look at this. We'll look at this in the future. We do know that she does have a demand. She needs resources. But as she just mentioned, she does have a manageable caseload for her attorneys. Could they use it? Yes, she asked for five.

I just wanna make sure. I mean, I don't look at, you know, public defender, DEA, everything else is, you know, separate states, separate, I mean, it's all one, you know, could there, I love our district attorney. If he's listening, I want you to hear that. I'm not trying to pull anything, but I'm wondering if, is it balanced? Are there resources that we're spending in the district attorney's office that might be able to get scaled back between vendors and what have you and shifted? I just wanna make sure at the end of the day, it's balanced.

And that is something that we would look at in the future. Is it balanced? So maybe before bringing other items forward, let's say for the two departments, we would consider looking at those things for the public defender and their caseload.

Thank you.

Thank you.

Supervisor Canepa.

I just have one. So the grant funding for the family justice, is that going to be ongoing or is it just a hiccup or is that? We're seeing in a lot of departments that this funding is going away, and what was the funding that they were relying on that went away?

At this time, the recommendation is ongoing. I believe they did come forward last year and ask for about $107,000. That was one time. These charges, they have submitted for a grant, and I'm sure the district attorney can come and correct me, but I believe they submitted a grant, and the request for the supplemental is for centrally budgeted charges, which is not a permitted cost of the grant. So that $195,000 is for the centrally budgeted charges.

Just like a backfill?

Yeah.

Thank you. Thank you, sir. Anybody else? Anybody from public? Okay, now we can move on to overview of education.

Good afternoon, chair Dollywall and members of the board, Ashley Reinhart, deputy County administrator. I will provide an overview of the education functional area, which includes County library and the university of California cooperative extension. The recommended appropriations for this functional area totals approximately $12.3 million, which is an overall increase of $796,249, or 6.9% from the 2025-26 adopted budget. As shown on this chart, the library represents 92.2% of this functional area, while the UC Cooperative Extension represents the remaining 7.8%. This slide shows the sources of funds that support the $12.3 million budget and appropriations. It is anticipated that the various funding sources will both cover appropriations and add approximately $4 million to the library special revenue fund. As you can see, tax revenue is the largest funding source at $14.9 million. The county library budget provides the county's share of the cost of the city county library system, which is operated by the city of Stockton through an agreement. The library system serves the cities of Escalon, Lathrop, Manteca, Mountain House, Ripon, Stockton, and Tracy, as well as unincorporated areas of the county. Appropriations for the county library total approximately $11.3 million, which is an increase of $557,208 from the 2025-26 adopted budget. The 2026-27 budget includes $174,174 of new planned expenditures consisting of the items shown on the screen. Of that total, approximately $161,174 is projected to be ongoing. Please note these items are not supplemental funding requests as they are included in the library's base budget. The University of California Cooperative Extension or UCCE budget provides the county's share of the cost of the Cooperative Extension program governed by education code and a memorandum of understanding with the regents of the University of California. UCCE brings research, innovative solutions, and educational programs to San Joaquin County growers and communities delivered by university professionals and trained volunteers. Appropriations for UCCE total $962,719, which is an increase of $239,041 from the 2025-26 adopted budget. Appropriations represent the salaries and benefits for four staff members and other operational costs. The 2026-27 proposed budget includes an ongoing supplemental funding request of $8,616 to cover increased vehicle operating costs to support farm advisor travel for field research, grower outreach, and site visits that directly contribute to the county's strategic priorities. This concludes the overview of the proposed budget for the education functional area. Department representatives and our team are available for any questions you may have.

Thank you, Ashley. Any questions?

What's the main scope of the cooperative extension?

They provide various programs for the county. So they have the farm advisors who extend science based information on topics like production practices and pest nutrition management, irrigation. They have a master gardener program. They provide food and nutrition education. So different programs for the community. And I believe there is a representative here. Yes, thank you.

Perfect, and it warrants 25% increase. Is that what it is? What's the increase? 200 and something? 234?

239.

239.

Good afternoon. Michelle Weinfelder-Miles, Director of UC Cooperative Extension here in San Joaquin County. Cooperative Extension delivers the programs that were already mentioned. I am serving as a director for UC Cooperative Extension. I'm also one of the farm advisors. Our farm advisor team goes out and does research and educational programming with the grower community to serve the board's strategic goals related to water management and economic development as it relates to agriculture. We also have several volunteer programs, as mentioned, Master Gardener Program, Master Food Preserver Program, 4-H Youth Development. So we're serving communities not only in the agricultural sector, but also communities throughout the county.

Okay, perfect. That's huge because we need more people to get involved, young people, and especially in agriculture because there's a gap now where we're seeing the gaps getting wider and wider. People aren't as involved, and the crops that we grow here are more challenging to grow. So thank you.

Thank you.

Anybody else? Real quick question. I'm not taking a shot at the libraries or anything else. I'm just, it's kind of like $8 million golf courses. $11 million for the county library, is that, I mean, they don't have that many employees, is it? What costs $11 million? Is it, well, I could guess that. And I'd probably be pretty accurate. I was just wondering, can't be rent.

Thank you. Representatives of the library, you're here to answer that question.

And I mean sixth grade level cliff notes for me.

Email to Arroyo, city of Stockton. So the... The county libraries have about 45 full-time employees in addition to part-time.

Okay. That answers my question. Okay. Sorry. I just, you know, the only people I see are the two people at the desk. So that was my question.

Okay.

Thank you.

Thank you.

Anybody else? Anybody from public? Let's move on to overview of roads and facilities.

Good afternoon Chair Dhaliwal, members of the board, Susie Sayers, senior deputy county administrator. Next is an overview of the roads and facilities functional area that is comprised of approximately 18 budget units. The next slide here highlights the proposed budget of 183.7 million which is an increase of 24.5 million from the 25-26 budget. The budgets are grouped by program within this functional area, and public works represents approximately 93%, while the airport represents about 77%. The next slide shows the sources of funds that supports the appropriations. As you can see, intergovernmental revenues make up 39%, fund balance is 21%, taxes at 18.5%, cost reimbursements at 7.5%. The other sources of funds are portrayed along with their corresponding percentages of those budgets, those total budgets. The next slide shows the total FTEs of 259 with an overall net decrease of 0.9 within the roads and facilities functional area. This change includes an increase of 0.10 of part-time extra help in the public works administration budget and the addition of a one full-time position in public works as road maintenance. These increases are offset by a reduction in 2.0 part-time FTEs in airports. Rows and facilities includes 21.7 million in the construction budget for 10 federal and state funded projects, which include bridge replacement and repair, new traffic signals, intersection widening, pedestrian improvements, and new bike paths. Also included is a 13.3 million in the engineering budget for the preliminary design efforts of 24 projects within the county. This concludes the roads and facilities overview and the department heads and I are here to answer any questions you may have.

Any questions for staff? Just praise. Just praise.

Anybody else?

Anybody from public? Let's move on to special district. This item on the agenda It going to need a separate vote by the board of supervisors. So I'm going to open the public hearing.

Okay. Next is a public hearing for the special districts budgets. The 25, 26, 27 budget includes special districts governed by your board, which provides funding for parks, maintenance, street lighting, water, sewer, storm drain, flood control, storm water, pollutant prevention, and hazardous waste collection. The 26, oops, thank you. The 26-27 budget also includes 2.5 million supplemental requests to support the design and environmental approval to consolidate the waste water treatment facilities serving CSA 44 zones E and G. The total appropriations for these services amount to 65.7 million. The purpose of this public hearing is to adopt the budgets for the special districts for 26-27. Public notices were published in newspapers and posted within districts with copies of the budgets, assessments, and engineering reports available for review through the clerk of the board. Presentations will be made by Parks and Recreation and Public Works for the districts they manage. It is recommended that the public be invited to provide comments following each. Presentation. At the conclusion of the public hearing, your board will take action on all the special districts budget at one time. Attorney Dhaliwal, the first presentation is regarding the county service areas for Parks and Recreation. I would like to invite Ashika Lal, the Parks Administrator, to provide a brief overview of this item.

There we go. Good afternoon, Chair DeHollywold, members of the board, CAO, Asha Galal, Parks Administrator. Today I'm presenting the proposed fiscal year 2026-2027 budgets for the eight county service areas managed by the Parks and Recreation Division. These county service areas support neighborhood parks throughout San Joaquin County, including Boggs Track, Madison, Garden Acres, Eastside, Dos Reyes, Ramos Village, Taft, Large Clover, and Woodbridge Community Park. The proposed budget totals about $301,000 and supports the ongoing operation, maintenance, and upkeep of these community parks. Also included with this item is the annual engineer's report for Woodbridge Community Park, which continues the existing assessment structure that supports park maintenance and operations within CSA 48. The Woodbridge Community Park assessment structure remains unchanged, and the engineer's report continues the existing assessment mythology and rates. Parks maintenance staff will continue caring for these sites, supplemented by contracted landscape maintenance services, volunteers, and alternative work program workers when available. That concludes my presentation, and I'm happy to answer any questions.

Any questions? Thank you.

Okay, next one. Next, I'm going to invite Alex Chetley-Down, Deputy Director of Development, to introduce an item for the Flood Control and Water Conservation Districts.

Thank you, Susie. Good afternoon, Chair Dhaliwal, members of the board, Alex Chedley, Deputy Director of Public Works. Item currently before you is related to the flood control and water conservation district budgets. including for the budget for the district itself, along with budgets for district zones two, nine, and 10, the San Joaquin Area Flood Control Agency Assessment Fund, the Flood Construction Fund, the DWR Flood Maintenance Assistance Program Fund, and the McCollumy River Water and Power Authority. These budgets fund flood hazard mitigation, levee maintenance, and water resources activities that are described in the board package and presented today for your consideration. Key activity areas in the flood hazard mitigation include updating the county's flood resilience ordinance to maintain national flood insurance program eligibility, administering three state emergency response grants totaling approximately 1.1 million that will enhance the county's ability to predict and respond to flood emergencies, developing the next phase of the Acampo Area Drainage Innovation Project, utilizing $2.25 million of state funding. Coordinating with Sajafka to advance the lower San Joaquin River flood risk reduction project. Identifying the highest priority flood risk areas in the county and developing flood risk reduction projects to mitigate and diminish flood impacts. and identifying cost-effective opportunities to improve our community rating system to increase flood insurance discounts, which are enjoyed by approximately 2,800 flood insurance policy holders in an uncorporated San Joaquin County. Excuse me. Levee maintenance priorities include completion of the state grant funded deferred maintenance program to repair pipe penetrations through levee facilities and maintaining active status of our levees in the federal PL 8499 program which provides federal funding to rehabilitate storm damaged levees. So on the water resources front, implementing Sustainable Groundwater Management Act requirements will continue to be a primary focus. Along with other groundwater sustainability agency partners, we will continue to implement the Eastern San Joaquin Subbasin. Thank you, thank you very much.

I'm short a server, by the way.

We will continue to implement the Eastern San Joaquin Subbasin Groundwater Sustainability Plan and the Tracy Subbasin Groundwater Sustainability Plan. Other high priority efforts that I'd like to highlight include working with local partners to continue developing the county's amended McCollumy River water right application. continuing to assist local partners with the delivery of projects funded by a $7.6 million Sustainable Groundwater Management Act implementation grant, and $6.5 million in a integrated regional water management plan grant, which was secured by our water resources team. working with North San Joaquin Water Conservation District, Stockton East Water District, and the City of Stockton to further efforts related to the McCollamy River Conjunctive Use Program, or MICUP. You may recall I was here about a month ago to talk about MICUP. And that program aims to take available water off the McCollamy River and put it to beneficial use Exploring stable funding streams to support state-mandated water-related regulatory compliance activities. And finally, continuing advocacy for the county's interests in the Sacramento-San Joaquin Delta, including opposition to the state's Delta conveyance project. These activities are all consistent with the goals set forth in the strategic plan to meet water needs, which was adopted by the Board of Supervisors in 2015. Chair Dhaliwal, board members, this concludes my presentation for the flood control and water conservation district budgets. Staff and I are available to address any questions your board may have. Thank you.

Thank you, sir. Supervisor Gurdia.

I just got a question on the supplemental request for the $2.5 million. Can you explain that?

Yes. So included in the budget is a supplemental request for $2.5 million for county service area or CSA 44 zones E and G for a wastewater treatment facility project. This is one-time funding that we are requesting for the design and environmental approval, which would consolidate the wastewater treatment facilities for county service area 44 zones E and G into one packaged treatment plant. the existing facilities of each that reach the end of their useful life and require upgrades expensive upgrades to meet current regulatory standards so this proposed solution is a new packaged new package treatment plant which would consolidate the treatment for both those zones into one plant. Right now, it's kind of split between the two, which is less than ideal. The supplemental funding will also support the preparation of the required environmental documentation. That could include like EIRs and mitigation measures.

And what district is that in?

That is in Supervisorial District 5, just outside the city of Tracy.

The best district?

Drinking the Kool-Aid too, or what?

He's my buddy. I've always said he was our best chairman ever.

Anybody else? Anybody from public? Let's continue next one.

Okay. I just want to make more of a comment. As I've gone on in this little supervisorial career here, I want to thank Public Works for the work that you guys do for these districts. You never really realize how much there is and then how few dollars there are for these districts. And a lot of them, they're districts of people paying for their own stuff in their own areas. And I want to thank you guys for doing a good job. We just had a hearing the other couple of weeks ago and laid everything out for a water district. So that's important that you guys represent these folks and do it wholeheartedly with, you know, pride. And all the questions were answered and the transparency was there. So I want to appreciate Public Works for doing a good job. And this is just a part of it and the groundwater sustainability plans and all that. So thank you so much.

Thank you, sir. For those comments. Supervisor Canepa, I believe the special districts, the utility districts is part of the next presentation, right, Susie? Yep.

Supervisor Rickman?

Yeah, I'm just going to agree with Supervisor Canepa. I was going to, you know, what I was willing to do, I was seeing if your office wants to go in half and get a plaque for Najee Circle and Tracy, that roundabout. Just let me know.

or a fire extinguisher.

They're even trying stuff for the the the what they call the side shows trying to do creative things to stop that. So kudos for that, too.

Thank you, Susie. Continue, please.

OK, so next we have Cheyenne Raymond, engineering services manager of public services, introduce the items for the lighting districts, maintenance districts and county service areas that Public Works administers.

Chair Dollywall and members of the board, I'm Cheyenne Raymond, an engineering services manager with your Department of Public Works. The item currently before you is related to county service areas, maintenance districts, community facilities districts, and lighting districts budgets, and includes consideration of more than 100 special districts. These districts provide services such as water, sewer, storm drainage, street lighting, household hazardous waste, and other special services to properties within the respective district boundaries. The proposed special district expenditures total $38 million, which is approximately $100,000 greater than the 2025 through 2026 fiscal year budget. This is primarily due to the development of new capital improvement projects. The proposed appropriations of 31.3 million reflects the $38 million in expenditures and includes $6.7 million in cost reimbursements. A net county cost of $2.5 million is included in the proposed budget through an operating transfer associated with the design and environmental approval to consolidate the wastewater treatment facilities of County Service Area 44 Zones E and G. Each special district is funded through one or more service charges depending on the particular services provided, which are paid by benefiting property owners. Property owners and districts previously approved multi-year rate increases or annual adjustments for 106 service charges. Of these 106 service charges, 17 of the service charges are fixed scheduled increases, 59 service charges are proposed to include a fraction of the maximum inflationary adjustment, and 30 service charges are proposed with no rate increase. The proposed rates were determined by evaluating operations and maintenance costs along with current reserve levels. Providing cost-effective service within small districts continues to be a challenge, primarily due to the limited economies of scale. Developing long-term financial sustainability continues to be significant for a few districts. given increasingly strict regulatory requirements, particularly for water and sewer services, and the property owner approval requirements for increasing rates under Proposition 218. To help ensure financial viability, several districts are being considered for rate adjustments during the next several years, the timing of which will depend on the duration and outcome of outreach efforts to affected property owners. Note that due to the success we've had in recent years securing property owner consent for rate adjustments, rate increase proposals in the coming years will primarily be inflationary adjustments. Staff will work with the board member regarding outreach strategies that are tailored to each district's demographic and the nature of the proposed increase. We anticipate completing the process for eight additional districts in the upcoming fiscal year. We currently expect most districts will achieve financial health by 2027, with six districts anticipated to recover over a longer period. Funding for planned capital improvement projects is proposed within 36 districts, totaling approximately $11.6 million. These projects are listed in attachment C to the board letter and include repair and replacements, enhancements to improve service, or reduced costs, such as installing water meters. Funding for these capital improvements needs is provided from capital reserves within the respective districts funds or secured outside funding. Chair Dhaliwal, members of the board, this concludes my presentation. Staff and I are available to respond to any questions your board may have.

Thank you, sir. Any questions for staff? No. On my left side. Anybody from public? Thank you.

Okay, this concludes the presentation of the special districts. Departments and the CAO staff are available to answer any other questions if there's any other questions.

Thank you, Susie. Thank you. Does the board have any policy direction or budget changes for staff?

Excuse me, Chair Dhaliwal, you have to close the public hearing for special districts. You got to do that gavel thing.

Here we go. It's closed. Now let me ask the same question. Does the board have any policy direction or budget changes for staff?

Yes, Mr. Chairman, I do have one. Go ahead, sir. Can we bring up the next slide, or do you want me to do my introduction first? The only thing I wanted to bring to the board's attention, and hopefully we can make one additional change, I've always had Um, not always. That'd be a lie, because I didn't think about this when I was in the sixth grade, obviously about budgeting and government reform. But anyway, since we've been working on the IMD cap, you know, the 16 bed cap that I probably talked about nauseam. I never realized that it in 2022. Uh, it actually affects the Stockton Children's home. Um There are again unfunded state mandates that are come down onto the children's home things that we are required to do a strip funding that are mandated but not paid for. To me there's a there's a huge difference between a non government agency who that is created to. take care of adults that have made poor decisions and we need to get in there and help those individuals. But my God, we're talking about, these are our children. These are wards of the county as far as I'm concerned and I've never quite understood why they are considered an NGO and not part of the county anyway. So what I've, is it up there yet? It's what I'm asking for is a two hundred and fifty thousand dollar supplement over to the Stockton Children's Children's Home for their their. After, actually, I was going to bring is Janelle here, Joelle, why don't you come up here? I'm just I don't know if I'm still stuck on Mickey Grove Park or I'm tongue tied. Can you please tell us exactly what this Funding that I requested is four.

Absolutely. So thank you, Vice Chair, Dean. And this allocation would actually support our transition after care program which traditionally actually the the county has supported in the past for our short-term residential therapeutic program which remains the largest strtp in in the county and as you stated through the continued care reform and then the imd it has of course has limited capacity So our foster youth, we only have our 16 beds. We're trying to, of course, fight that IMD exemption so that we could have more. But we are providing our foster youth with critical care. These young people come to us with extreme behaviors. They need the utmost care when they're with us for up to six months, sometimes longer, because there are fewer placements I know our director, Chris Woods, could speak to this as well, that there are fewer and fewer placements. There are no now any longer out-of-state placements. Children's home being the 16-bed placement, there's only one other six-bed placement in our county. Transitional aftercare services. is not just after they leave children's home. It's also while they're with us. It's actually activities, case management, assessment, substance abuse, education. It's all of these things that they're provided behavioral health care services when they're in our care.

Thank you, that gives me a, and I know Supervisor Rickman, you're not feeling well, so I'm gonna speed this up. If you take out just the moral obligation we have and you just put pen to paper, this move actually saves the county money down the road, and I think Chris Woods would attest to that through homelessness and outreach and mental health services and so forth. So I have a pretty easy ask, and that's for the board to decide. approve this budgetary shift for $250,000. Make a motion. I'll second that. Second.

Question?

So our set aside is the typical $5 million, right? Correct. So that would make it $4.7250 or whatever.

In new math, yeah.

Yeah. That's correct. This is our only ask.

How do we handle this? Well, I've got a first and a second.

I'm ready to run the vote. Let me just input the first and the second.

Well, I would look to the board through the chair if that's the only board direction. Are there any other changes from the board members? Before we... And go ahead, Jennifer.

I'd like to also just recap the budget adjustment that our office is also proposing so this what's being displayed right now is inclusive of the 2.3 million decrease in the budget for the recorder equipment automation fund that we discussed in the general government presentation and it's also inclusive of if your board votes the adjustment that was just brought forward, the $250,000 increase in the operating transfers budget for the children's home. If adopted, that would reduce the contingency from 5 million to the 4,750,000 that you're seeing here. So both of those adjustments would result in a total appropriation of 3,278,000 643, 648.

Billion is in B, right?

What's that?

Billion, right?

Billion is in B. Did I say million? Sorry. Sorry, sorry.

Sorry about that. County Council, my question is, do we need a separate vote for the adjustment that Vice Chair made or can we Can we vote all together as adjusted?

If it's the only change that's going to be made, you can do it. The motion could be made to make that amendment and approve the budget with that amendment. If you can have a series of proposals, I would suggest handling them piecemeal. OK.

So I will amend. my motion to pass as amended.

OK, before we do that, let me let me close the budget hearing. The special district hearing is closed. Do you have a question? Do you have a question? Supervisor Kanepa?

No, I was just going to make a comment.

Go ahead. Go ahead, make a comment. Genevieve, go ahead. Thank you.

Genevieve Valentine, Healthcare Services Director. I just want to make sure that we are clear on what we are doing. This $250,000 technically for transparency to behavioral health to the state would be something that should be in the behavioral health budget. And so rather than it being an operating cost, we are required by state law due to Prop 1 to have full transparency on what we are doing with behavioral health driven services. And so I just want to make sure that we are very careful on where this money is budgeted or if it should be actually reallocated under BHS. to change the contract of children's home for behavioral health services, which is not, this is not something that we can get reimbursed for and so forth. So I just want to make sure from a state transparency and our requirement to show now with Prop 1 every single dollar that we are using for behavioral health services. It's in one budget and we are not opening ourselves up to other budgets being required for transparency from a behavioral health perspective.

So through the Chair Genevieve, hold on. So are you, because I appreciate the guidance, so are you saying that it should, the 250,000 should go through Behavioral Health's budget

My recommendation is if this is approved, the funding that this is getting approved to would then be moved over to BHS because BHS does not have this budgeted, nor we have the ability to actually do this because it's not a reimbursable service. So wherever this money is coming from would then be moved over to the BHS budget for their children's services. Then we would then be the holder of those funds for the contract for this piece of the service for transparency of this being a behavioral health service. And you would be making the payment to children's homes? Correct. We would modify our contract.

So through the chair? Yes, sir. I'd recommend that we take a brief recess and reduce this motion to writing, which is actually consistent with government code 29080. Just a few minutes to put it in writing, make sure we've got all our T's crossed and I's dotted, and then we can come back and

You need a five-minute or ten-minute break?

Why don't we say ten, and if we can do it in five, that will do so.

We'll take a ten-minute break. The board will reconvene after the break. I'm going to reopen the public hearing. Jennifer.

Great. Thank you. Thanks for allowing us a little extra time to work it out. So after discussion with the department heads, The recommendation is to adjust the Human Services Agency budget because these funds would specifically be designated for foster education. So in agreement, what you're seeing on the slide in front of you now is what you saw before with the addition of an adjustment to the Human Services Agency administration budget as well. So although you are seeing the $250,000 here twice, it's to recognize that it needs to be budgeted as an operating transfer out from the general fund to the human services agency budget. And then it would be budgeted in the human services agency administration as an expense and an operating transfer in. So. I just want to make it clear that even though you're seeing it twice.

So your spouse is just using the other checkbook. That's all it is. You're seeing it twice here. It's done.

But it's only going to, it's really just the $250,000. The rest is accounting. budget mechanics type work.

And you could see on the left hand side that it's only the $250,000. Coming out of the contingency. Out of contingency. So are we ready for a motion? Through the chair.

Jennifer, does that conclude?

Please don't close it though.

I'm not.

Yeah, so this, what you're seeing here represents the, what we understand is the board directed final budget adjustments.

And so much the public hearing is still open. Anybody from public want to speak on this item? You can do so now. Anybody.

And then and then I just have one comment which is for the record pursuant to government code two nine zero eight zero subdivision D This has been put in writing and has been presented to the clerk of the board Who because you can see the writing on the slide and that's all I've gotten The public hearing is closed do we have a motion and second for the final budget motion to pass as amended second

We have a motion and second call for board, please. Passes five zero. Do we have a motion and second for special district budget?

So moved.

Second. We have a motion and second call for board. Passes 5-0. Vice Chair Ding.

Yes. First off, I want to note the time. Sacramento County took 11 hours to pass their budget because they had to do a lot of cuts in public safety. Placer County took a little over seven hours because they had cuts to make. So we're under five hours. And the reason for that is just phenomenal staff work. you got all the work done early and you met with all the supervisors and we worked out all the bugs and you know i i talked a little bit earlier about jennifer being a rock we we've got them in every department and and you have made this we were laughing we're having fun up here today because you did the work early and i just want to say thank you thank you sir sandy

yeah thank you thank you chair um thank you supervisor ding for those comments and i really appreciate this board because we have come to you we came to you early to kind of let you know that what we're going through we we did go out to the departments very early as well to um to help us, we knew what we were gonna be facing. We still don't know all the impacts, but we knew we were gonna be facing some hard times. And so I just wanna thank this board for supporting us and certainly the department heads, their fiscal staff, and especially my staff in the County Administrator's Office We work hard every day working with our departments and we just really appreciate that we have a balanced budget. We have some in reserves to hopefully help us through some hard times and there's more to come. But we do appreciate the creativity from all of our department heads and I just, I really love working for this county. Greatness does grow here, thank you.

Sandy, we enjoy the good times together and we will face the hard times together. I wanna thank the staff for the hard work. It makes everybody's life easier. Supervisor Ackman.

Thank you, Chairman, RCO, Sandy. So who do you appreciate the most up here?

But my board members equally.

No, hey, I want to say thank you and your team for this budget here today and all your hard work that nobody ever sees, the late hours that nobody ever sees. And you can tell that you guys really, really care about this county. I love this place that we call home. And to all the directors and our other elected officials that aren't up here, Thank you for your help. It takes a team, and as Supervisor Dean mentioned, we go to all these different meetings throughout the state with other county supervisors, and you see what other counties are going through, and it's scary. They're making cuts, laying off people, and just hundreds of millions of dollars. Some counties are hundreds of millions of dollars in debt. that's not us here in San Joaquin County. It's because we have people who are directors like you who, you know, work as a team. And I know it's, you know, it's not easy. You know, when you have wants and you have needs in your departments that, you know, can make it more efficient and, you know, help you out, but you're doing the greater good for the county as a whole. So again, thank you very much. And, you know, we talked a lot about unfunded band-aids and we're all most of our departments are getting beat up by you know the state of California they can't pay their bills so they're pushing their bills down here to the county and I can tell you all of us up here I think are on the same page and we're going to start we are going to push back we are going to be the tip of the spear here and the state of California and you know that's something that we will be looking at and hopefully we'll have some ALL DEPENDS WHAT WE FIND OUT, HAVE SOME NEWS LATER ABOUT. BUT AGAIN, THANK YOU ALL VERY MUCH. WE'RE VERY FORTUNATE TO BE IN THIS POSITION TO HAVE GREAT EMPLOYEES AND DIRECTORS LIKE YOU THAT LOVE HOME. SO THANK YOU GUYS AND GOD BLESS. NEW SPEAKER THANK YOU, SIR. SUPERVISOR GARDIA.

I kind of feel like we should have a budget hearing every meeting because this is the most I've seen in this crowd at the end, getting towards the end of the meeting. So I appreciate you guys being here. You know, sometimes we look out and there's only a few left and it's good to hear. It's good to see that, you know, you guys are obviously staying in tune with what's going on. But I think the biggest thing is, and you've heard my colleague Rickman talk about a team and there's gotta be a quarterback or a coach and Sandy, you're doing a phenomenal job of leading this county. And to the directors, you have a tough job and I appreciate it. And I think this community appreciates everything that you do to support our community. There are a lot of challenges throughout the state And obviously we're dealing with our challenges, but we're very fortunate that the decisions that were made in the past have put us in a position that that's benefiting us now. I really, truly believe that tough times are coming and we'll deal with it as they come. I just want to say to my colleagues, you know, even though we joke around and sometimes don't always agree, but I appreciate them staying professional. And by at the end of the day, we're all trying to do best for our community. So I just want to say thank you.

Thank you, sir. Supervisor Panepa.

Yeah, I just want to thank Mama Sandy over there. She is the politest person at saying no that I've ever met in my life. And the way that she does it is tactful. And I appreciate what you do because it builds trust. And I think in our organization, it's about compromise. And it's about meeting people halfway. And I think you do that. And I think the staff trusts you. And that's why we're where we're at. I want to say thank you to everybody for making sacrifices and doing the right thing for the county, because I know it's not always easy, but I think we put the taxpayer and our constituents first, and I think that's the most important part. Obviously, we saw that with Jennifer and you say to see somebody go, but hopefully there's enough people behind that could pick up the slack and do a good job. But I just want to thank everybody for taking it off and the assessor's office for taking off their 2.3 million dollars for their you know project that he was going to come and push for but i think it is about the compromise and the honesty of everybody knows where everybody's at and and i think we're all in it together um because we do you know represent 8 000 people and going forward how we do that and i this is our fourth budget so i'm proud to be here i'm proud to be a part of it THAT'S WHY I AGREED, BECAUSE THOSE LITTLE LAST-MINUTE ONES, AND I DIDN'T KNOW ANYONE ELSE WAS GOING TO DO IT, BUT FOR SUPERVISOR DING, HE'S BEEN WORKING ON THAT 16-BED CAP, AND FOR ME, IF WE CAN PARLAY THAT 250,000 INTO GETTING RESULTS TO WHERE WE'RE SPENDING MILLIONS OF DOLLARS ON FACILITIES AND WE CAN ONLY DO 16 BEDS, THAT'S WHY I'M WILLING TO DO THAT FOR SUPERVISOR DING, BECAUSE IT'S TEAMWORK AND THE AMOUNT OF ADVOCACY THAT HE'S DONE IN D.C. AND THOSE THINGS speak volumes. So sometimes the investment I mean, obviously, we don't want folks coming at the end of budget process and asking for dough because then we're going to have a line out the door. But at the same time, how we leverage people's passions and their power and their abilities to get things done. And Genevieve's done it. We've seen it back in D.C. and with HUD and everything like that. And Najee and everybody kicking it up a notch. And, you know, our Ag commissioner and all the other law enforcement folks, D.A., public defender, and all the other departments that I'm not mentioning, thank you. Thank you for putting up with us. And we do take our job very seriously. And I think the outcomes are positive because we just saw that. I think Sacramento had $100 million swing and it gets contentious. And I think keeping the employees happy is huge. And thank you to you and your staff for doing a great job. So thank you.

you sir i want to say thanks to county council and rochelle thank you so much for your guidance it makes a little easier for me to navigate through the process so i really appreciate the help genevieve get well soon we need the challenges are huge and we need a stronger and faster genevieve jennifer goodman she's all ready to leave Wish you a happy retirement. God bless you and God bless each and every one of you. Meeting is adjourned to one more thing. Go ahead, sir.

I just want to congratulate my successful colleagues on their election. Elections are very tough and I'm sure you're glad you don't have to do it again. But I just want to say congratulations to you guys for all your hard work.

And through the chair. Yes. We will probably have something report at a closed session. So don't adjourn. But I don't think we're going to be there very long.

OK. We are going back. We are going back to closed session.

I'm sorry.

We're going to recess to closed session.

Recess to closed session. Exactly.

The meeting is recessed to closed session. OK, we will reconvene after the closed session. County Council, do we have a report?

Yes. Supervisor Rickman was ill and was absent for closed session. The board dealt with the eminent domain lawsuit. San Joaquin County versus Buckman Partners, and a motion was made by Supervisor Kennepa, seconded by the chairman, and by a vote of four to zero, the board approved resolving this eminent domain suit, the terms and conditions of which will be available upon request once all parties have signed off on the settlement agreement. That's all the reportable action.

Thank you, sir. The meeting is adjourned to June 30th at 9 a.m.