Board of Supervisors - Regular Meeting

All right. Good morning. I will call to order the April 13, 2026 meeting of the Santa Barbara County Board of Supervisors in the first day of budget workshops for the fiscal year 2627. Madame Clerk, please call the role. Supervisor Lee here. Supervisor Caps here. Supervisor Hartman here. Supervisor Lavanino here. And Chair Nelson here. Please stand and join us in pledge allegiance to our flag. Ready? Begin. I pledge allegiance to the flag of the United States of America and to the republic for which it stands. One nation under God, indivisible, with liberty and justice for all.

Our first item of business is the CEO's report. Um, Madam CO, do you have a report today? No. Besides the big one? All right. Moving right along to the clerk's announcement. Madam clerk, are there any announcements or changes to today's agenda?

Chair Nelson and members of the board, I have a couple quick announcements this morning regarding public participation. Members of the public wishing to address the board will have the opportunity to provide comments at the conclusion of each functional group presentation. If you are registering to speak via Zoom, please indicate the specific functional group you wish to comment on during your registration. And lastly, for information on the board of supervisors methods of public participation and instructions on how to provide public comment on items listed on today's agenda or during general public comment, please refer to page two of the agenda. Individuals that would like to provide verbal public comment may do so via Zoom by registering in advance via the link available on page two. If you have any questions, please contact the clerk of the board's office at area code 805-568-2240. Again, that number is 805-568-2240. That concludes my announcements for this morning.

Thank you, Madam Clerk. And um just information for for the general public that may be watching or wanting to participate. Um at each functional group, there'll be a threem minute public comment per person. um if we end up having too many speakers, we may go down to two minutes, but I'm going to try to keep that three minutes just since it's covering such a large amount of area of of um categories of county departments, but just want to give a heads up. Um if there is a significant amount of public comment, we may reduce that um to potentially two minutes, but I will try to keep it at three moving throughout the week. So, with that, um now it's time for members of of the public to speak on items that are not on today's agenda. Madam Clerk, are there any requests to speak on general public comment? J Nelson and members of the board, we have one request to speak from the public on general public comment today and we are going to zoom with Anna Garcia.

And before we go to Anna, I'm going to go ahead and close general public comment, please.

Anna, hello. I am here today um to address the fact that we are looking at a $66 million deficit. And what I believe this board is doing is playing a dangerous game of priorities. seriously considering gutting social services by $30 million and public health by $24 million while the sheriff's office treats the county treasury like a personal ATM. Let's be real. The sheriff is currently blowing through $20 million a year in overtime. Much of it gamed by staff using personal vacation time to run into overtime requirements. That's fraud and theft of our tax dollars. There's no permission or necessity on Bill Brown to even worry about asking about this money because he knows he's just going to have a blank check signed off to him as it has every time. So, I'm here to remind you all that when we underfund the safety net that prevents people from going into crisis, uh, we manufacture the perfect circumstances for crime. We know that when people are pushed into survival mode by housing and food insecurity, our brains and bodies literally physically change. Despair leads to crisis and violence. You are stripping the very resources that prevent crime only to hand that money over to the department that has demonstrated zero respect for our processes and our community.

Bill Brown also seems to be fully in support of the ICE activities that are happening in our county. at best and at worst is colluding to support all of this happening. We are in a cycle of failure. We are overfunding the police to manage the poverty that we are creating by underfunding social services. I'm done waiting for fiscal responsibility to apply to everyone equally. Stop coddling the sheriff's overspending. hold the line on the $5 million cut to his department and put that money back into the social services uh social workers and health professionals who actually keep this uh community from reaching a breaking point. Fun fund the people, not our incarceration. We are out of time for anything else. I will have more to say on Wednesday as we discuss the sheriff's budget, but it is important to keep in mind giving the sheriff money while gutting these services is creating the perfect dynamics for all of us to get incarcerated, which is the plan.

Thank you. And that concludes general public comment for today.

Thank you, Miss Garcia. And just for future general public comment throughout the week, um general public comment should um pertain to items that are not going to be on the agenda. Budget items um are going to be what all we're talking about this week. So, it's probably more appropriate if you're a public commenter to speak on one of the functional groups um since they're all fairly con connected. Um as as far as the budget, if you want to talk about an item not budget related, then that's when general public comment would be appropriate this week. Um but just having Miss Garcia as the only public commenter, I wanted to give her that liberty to finish up and um we'll hear from her again on Wednesday and others. So with that, um that brings us to our first day of budget workshops for fiscal year 2026. I will now turn it over to our CEO, Mona Masado.

Good morning. Thank you, Chair Nelson. Good morning, board members. Um before I begin these week of workshops, I just want to thank our public for being here. um our department directors, this has been a year-long process of budget balancing. Their uh chief financial officers and chief administrative officers, their staffs and their executives teams for working on this for the throughout the past year. Um specifically, I want to thank my team led by budget director Paul Clemente whom you know, and principal principal budget analyst Katrina Fernandez, as well as the entire budget team. And I want to introduce them. If the board doesn't know them or hasn't seen them, we keep them in the back. Uh so Steven Ye, Bruce Hos, Daniel Williams, Chantel Ding, and Charlotte Mack. So thank you very much. Also for the auditor's office, the auditors in the back of the room, and sitting up front is Nick Knocker and Danny Forner. Thank you for Thank you for being here. So as we know, uh these workshops give us the foundation before we provide a recommended budget to your board and an early look at department's budgets, their major efforts, and the challenges shaping this next year. But before we start, I want to show first uh the first video in a series called Your County, Your Services. This highlights the work our county government does every day and the breadth of our services to the public. It's a good reminder of who we are and what we do. So, we are going to start the workshops with that. Welcome to Santa Barbara County. Let's explore what the county does for you. Your county, your services. Santa Barbara County is home to eight cities in a large unincorporated area that stretches from the coast to the mountains. Some county services support the entire region. Others focus specifically on the unincorporated communities where there is no city government. In unincorporated areas like Orchit, the eastern Gita Valley, Isa Vista, Monaceto, Summerland, Quuiama,

Vandenberg Village, Los Alamos, and the San Valley. The county provides many services a city normally would. That includes maintaining local roads and parks, overseeing land use and building permits, animal services, and providing public safety. The sheriff's office serves as the local police. And county fire provides fire protection. But much of what the county does serves everyone, no matter where you live. The county delivers critical health and human services that create a safety net for our community. This includes public health clinics, mental health and substance use treatment, food assistance like CalFresh, child welfare and foster care, and services for seniors, families, and people experiencing homelessness. The county also protects public health by monitoring restaurant safety, drinking water, ocean water quality, and disease outbreaks. The county also coordinates housing and community services that support residents countywide. This includes affordable housing programs, rental assistance, and homeless response efforts like outreach teams, encampment cleanup, and tiny home villages that provide safe shelter and supportive services. In addition, the county operates animal services, arts and culture programs, and outdoor recreation from trails to campgrounds. The county also protects the region's agricultural economy through inspections and enforcement that safeguard crops, consumers, and local farms. In public safety and justice, the county operates the local jail system and provides countywide services through the district attorney, public defender, probation, and coroner. These services ensure consistent justice standards, provide support to victims, and help keep communities safe across Santa Barbara County. The county also coordinates emergency preparedness and disaster response, including wildfires, floods, and storms, and manages flood control and wershed protection. During emergencies, the county serves as the central hub for coordination, recovery, and access to state and federal

assistance. And there are essential services you may not think about every day. The county runs all elections, maintains property and vital records, assesses property values, and collects property taxes. In some cases, cities contract with the county to provide services like law enforcement or animal services because it is more efficient and cost-effective to do so regionally. All of this work is overseen by the five member board of supervisors elected by voters in districts that cover the entire county. Each year, the county operates with an annual budget. More than 35% of that funding comes from state and federal sources. When those funds are reduced, it directly affects the services the county can provide, including health clinics, food assistance, homeless programs, and support for vulnerable residents. and those core community services in the unincorporated areas like maintaining roads and parks, public safety and emergency services. With more than 4,700 employees across 22 departments, the county of Santa Barbara works every day to protect public health and safety, support cities and communities, and ensure a safe, healthy, and prosperous place to live. Because in one way or another, the county touches every resident's life. So, thank you.

So, thank you, Kelsey Batita, for creating this and we look forward to this series over the coming year. If you could give her a hand.

Can I just say something? Sure. I I think all of us up here, one of the hardest things about the job is explaining what does county do and how are counties different than cities. So this is extraordinarily helpful. Thank you so much for doing it. Thank you.

Thank you. We made it evergreen so we can continue to show it. So thank you. So as we begin this week, we enter a period of real uncertainty that we all feel. Federal and state cuts combined with rising costs. Um costs rising faster than revenue means deficits are upon us. And this week is about a cleareyed discussion, tough decisions, and our shared commitment to a sustainable future. But before we dive in, I want to offer some perspective. After 12 years in this role, I've come to realize certain truths here and across California counties that help frame the challenges we're facing now. So the first you see on the screen is that we county government really sit at the intersection of mandates, expectations, and great complexity. And we are always balancing truths under that uncertainty. And that is definitely what the board does every Tuesday. Next slide. And over the last decade, financing has become more complex. Mandates have increased while expectations have risen. We did grow over the years, but became more constrained and complex at the same time. Next slide. And since I've been here, we've shifted from just recovering from the Great Recession and planning and managing long-term structural pressures. Um, we've we've recovered from the Great Recession to managing these long-term pressures from saving for a new jail to now addressing extraordinary costs like jail medical that we didn't plan for. and not just responding to disasters, but adapting to them as regular occurrences. And we never have enough resources to do everything we want or even everything we need. Budgets are about tradeoffs, not maximizing services. And the hardest decisions we face are about what to stop, not what to start. And every new project or commitment we take on is for the betterment of the community. But it locks us in also to making um it makes downturns more difficult, squeezing out other priorities. We are an arm of the state and must also carry out federal mandates and requirements of state funding. So the

discretion that you see in county government and that the board makes is real, but it's narrower than most people may assume. In effect, we car we carry local accountability for decisions that are often shaped at the state and federal government. And much of our work is about prevention and risk avoidance. Often our success is when nothing bad happens. And that invisibility makes it hard for the public to see, measure, or even appreciate at times. And we all know our systems are interconnected even when it may not be obvious. And this week week you'll hear about reductions in both the social safety net and public safety. And the reality is a strong safety net supports public safety. A strong public safety system supports the safety net. And the question really becomes how much can we sustain and what tradeoffs are we prepared to make. That's why we can't solve problems in silos and everyone needs to be aligned towards a common mission to make progress. But none of this means we can't serve our community with with um that we can't serve our community with excellence, dedication, and results because we can and we do. So before we get into the workshops, I want to take a moment to appreciate the work county government does and our county employees do every single day. Work that is often invisible, constantly changing, frequently overburdened by state and federal mandates, but keeps our community safe, healthy, and moving forward. Because behind every chart, every number you see today, every bullet point, there are people serving our community. So with that spirit, let's turn to the roadmap for this year's budget workshops. So this week we'll review the preliminary budget, which involves review of overall trends, department budgets, and special issues. And each day, as you see, is focused largely on functional groups of departments. We may have some outliers just to um accommodate schedules. These workshops, as you know, give the

board an early, transparent view of departmental budgets and provide a forum for departments to outline their needs, pressures, and performance. Just as importantly, this week allows the board and the public to ask questions about what's in the budget. Your guidance now is essential for us to finalize the recommended budget, which will be released at the end of May ahead of the final budget hearings on June 16th and 18th. And I want to note something important that's not on these slides. Most departments presenting this week, you'll know, have proposed reductions to balance their budget. Some are requesting partial restorations, and many are not. And just because they are not, I just want to make sure the board knows it doesn't mean that they don't need those resources or would like to have the resources. It's just that they can still meet their core responsibilities and it may be more difficult, but the restraint reflects a clear understanding that our long-term structural challenges demand ongoing discipline. Next slide. So, we're in an operating environment of national uncertainty and inflation pressures, state deficits, federal changes to our major safety net programs, and continued local pressures like housing affordability and workforce retention. These trends influence revenue demand and our cause for caution. They're not the whole story, but they shape our responsibility to plan conservatively. Next, and I want to spend some time on HR1. HR1 represents one of the most significant shifts to the social safety net in decades, moving major federal safety net costs onto states and counties. And according to the California State Association of Counties, SEESAC, and that's their information on the right, counties statewide face up to 9.5 billion annually in new costs, which is far beyond what counties can absorb without state assistance in backfill. So without state action, service cuts will ripple across the entire state of California. And I've listed some of the things here. Coverage loss. Roughly 1.5 million Americans will lose medical coverage,

indigent care. Counties are legally responsible for pro providing basic indigent care. And with HR1's rules, we expect many will fall off insurance and rely on this program. For Santa Barbara County, the cost is estimated to be over $10 million a year. And to fund it means making cuts in other general fund programs, which is what you're seeing uh this week. Hospitals and ERs there are fewer people with health insurance may mean longer emergency room wait times. County costs so new medical and CalFresh rules have increased administrative workload while while federal support decreases and behavioral health higher demand and longer weight times may result as more individuals fall off of coverage. In short, these holes are left in our safety net. counties have are having to find general fund dollars and other dollars to or make cuts um that extend across core county services. Next slide. So, just what does this mean for us? You'll hear a lot this week about our health and human service departments and what they must do to make reductions to absorb these impacts and balance their budgets. You'll hear significant detail from them, particularly county health and social services this morning, so I won't repeat them other than to note that many of the cuts people are rightly upset about. And we have many public testimony and information coming through stem directly from these changes, particularly HR1, as well as the state's response to HR1 and reduced state funding. An important clarification that's not on the slides that I do also want to note. These departments, social services and county health particularly receive very limited general fund support. The reductions therefore they are taking are mostly in their non-general fund programs because those are the areas hardest hit. And for county health, this is not about whether we value clinics or the services. It's about making targeted adjustments now to avoid deeper, more disruptive cuts later. because choosing not to act does not avoid the reductions. It only delays

and magnifies them. And I also want to say the department faces a longstanding structural deficit. KPMG, one of our consultants that reviewed all the departments in 2019 found clinic operations were in the red because of low utilization and a need to align operational and functional goals. and savings from this 340B pharmacy program which was a a program where we had deep discounts and we could save the savings helped to cover that deficit but state changes in 2023 reduced that that savings and that's why you see uh more transparently the structural deficit and I just want to com commend and you'll hear from director Hamami who came to the county in 2023 he and has team he and his team have been working to address this issue that's that was identified many years ago and he is the first really to grapple with this reality. His goal and your goal is to keep the clinics open and stable at a time with massive federal change and not to reduce services unnecessarily. Because ultimately, if we do not adjust the current model, we risk facing larger, faster, and less controlled reductions in future years. And this is the state situation. And the state faces a 2.9 billion deficit but expects to balance the budget um helped by higher thanex expected uh revenues but their deficits remain ahead and are projected by the LAO's office. No state backfill is currently proposed in the governor's budget regarding HR1. We'll know more when the May revise is presented. But one critical note that's not on this slide is our best path forward for relief is strong legislative advocacy. We need the legislature to help protect Santa Barbara County safety net services. I know our delegation understands this. Uh the legislature have had hearings already on HR1 and we stand ready to continue to provide what whatever information they need as the state budget process moves forward and the legislature becomes more involved.

And the federal budget proposal was released on April 3rd. again shifting funding priorities um um meaning boosting defense spending while making deep cuts um to non-defense programs. For counties like ours, the most significant impacts are in the safety net. The proposal tightens eligibility or adds cost sharing for medical, calresh, and other core programs. It eliminates key housing programs like CDBG home and the continuum of care and restructures homeless funding into a short-term emergency grant model. It also reduces support for several healthcare programs. All of this could likely increase demand for county services amongst us and our county partners at a very difficult time when federal support is also being challenged. Our staff will be monitoring the changes and future financial forecasts will need to account for the long-term sustainability of the safety net services. And so again, this is why we are saying it's important today to reserve funds for the following year because we don't know if we face even deeper safety net cuts in the near term. On the positive side, this chart shows that locally our funding has been stable. Our largest general fund revenue is property taxes and the property value trends show that we um had moderate growth as you see the chart shows in the 2627 that the property value trends was about 4.5%. This is a reminder that while we are facing challenges now, next slide. There were while we're facing challenges now, we've made major long-term commitments that have been successful and successfully ful fulfilled or on track, including funding for the Northern Branch jail and the eventual opening of it, deferred uh fire service, deferred maintenance, uh ensuring healthy strategic reserve, providing enough debt for new capital projects, uh closing our retirey health program, and uh curbing costs on pension payments. These decisions stabilized us and they

also have shaped our flexibility in the future. Despite these pressure, the county pressures, the county continues making progress on major initiatives from crisis facilities to the enterprise resource planning system from public safety infrastructure to solar agreements and charging stations. The departments will provide descriptions of these initiatives over the week. But I just want to highlight this because we are not standing still even in this time. All these initiatives advance your board's priorities of coordinated service, the strengthened safety net, criminal justice improvements, sustainability, infrastructure improvements, all with a foundation of financial and organizational excellence. Prudence is still the key. We've recommended a two-year financial strategy and we'll continue to monitor state and federal impacts, look at phasing and prioritizing of projects, and continue to evaluate further reductions in the future as needed. These recommendations reflect difficult but prudent choices to ensure our long-term sustainability. And I'm recommending that we preserve our preserve a reserve we had set aside for the deficit that we know is coming in 2728. that we make no program expansions unless there's revenue to offset it and that restorations be limited to those protecting core safety net services next year. I also recommend the board continue considering future revenue measures, including a sales tax. These decisions are hard, but they give us the best chance to remain stable, not just next year, but the year after. Finally, I'll close with this thought that reflects our theme for the year, which is responsible stewardship today, resilient, sustainable tomorrow. The county is really like an oak tree growing ring by ring. We're shaped and guided by careful and thoughtful choices. We carry a weight that is often unseen, yet we're deeply rooted enough to shelter the generations that will

follow us. So, with that, I'll hand this over to budget director Paul Clemente. Thank you, Mona. Good morning, chair and members of the board. Today, I'll walk you through the preliminary fiscal year 2627 budget overview and how it fits into the broader strategy that we've been discussing over the past several months. What you'll hear reflects a continuation of the board's direction from December and March, trying to balance near-term constraints while positioning the county for longer term stability. Just to orient where we are in the process today, we started with the 5-year forecast in December, updated you in March with the preliminary budget outlook, and now we're here at workshops where we're looking at department specifics for the 2627 budget. Your direction this week will directly shape the recommended budget that we release in May ahead of adoption hearings in June. At a high level, this is a contraction year. Departments made about $71 million in reductions and other balancing measures to align with available resources. Departments were asked to plan for essentially no growth in general fund contribution except where it was a necessity. Things like jail medical, indigent care costs, inhome supportive services, and debt service for upcoming jail construction. After those reductions, we did receive about $12 million in restoration requests, mostly concentrated in safety net and public safety departments. As I'll get to later in the slides, the CEO is recommending restorations of $7.4 million in county health and social services. There are no expansion requests in this budget. This year is focused on retaining critical services where possible, not adding new programs or services. Additionally, continued uncertainty as Mona just spoke to exists uh around state and federal budget impacts.

This slide captures the core policy direction we received from your board on March 3rd. Instead of solving just one year at a time, we are taking a two-year approach, addressing the current year while mitigating the projected fiscal year 2728 deficit. This includes targeted restorations in the current year to protect critical safety net services and preserving a $9.5 million set aside to reduce next year's general fund deficit. We would also consider funding for custody deputy positions to help alleviate staffing issues and overtime in the jails if additional funding becomes available between now and June, but that is not in any of our recommendations this week. The following slides provide further details on revenue and expenditure trends. We're projecting overall operating revenue growth of about 1.2% which is modest within the general fund. Discretionary revenue is stronger about 5.8% driven largely by property tax toot and sales tax. But that growth is partially offset by declines in intergovernmental revenue, especially in departments like social services, which is why total operating revenue growth is so much lower. So even though overall revenues are slightly growing, the mix of revenue is shifting in a way that's creating pressure locally. Countywide operating revenues are increasing about $19 million or 1.2%. While this represents a slight increase in growth over the prior year, uh total operating revenue growth remains subdued because growth in areas like tax receipts is being offset by declining state and federal revenues. Drivers of the declining state and federal revenue include CalFresh revenue decreasing $9.7 million compared to the 2526 adopted budget due both to HR1's decrease in the federal funding portion of the ratio as well as lost leveraged funding due to the related increase in the local share of costs by $2 million next year which

the department did not have enough local match to cover. State and federal funding for child welfare services is also decreasing $3.2 $2 million in the preliminary budget, which like CalFresh funding represents dollars the department can't draw down for lack of local matching dollars. In the general fund, total operating revenues are growing at about 4.8% around $28 million, showing modest improvement in growth over each of the last two years adopted budgets, but still lower than earlier years where we were seeing high growth in tax revenue. The preliminary 2627 increase is primarily driven by growth in discretionary general revenues which I'll touch on in the next slides. Discretionary general revenue is projected to be $431 million next year, a growth of 23.8 million or 5.8% over the current year. This is driven mostly by growth in property tax, sales and transient occupancy tax and interest revenue. Property taxes make up almost 80% of the total discretionary revenue. It is mostly derived from the secured tax role and taxes in lie of vehicle license fees but also supplemental taxes, delinquent payments, unsecured property taxes and more. Overall, we are seeing revenue growth in this category of 5.7% which is consistent with prior year budgeted growth and driven in part by current year actuals coming in higher than budgeted by about $4 million. That 2526 estimate serves as the base that we apply our growth assumptions to for next year and result in overall growth of 18.1 million between uh current budget year and next budget. Here we see our local sales tax in blue which is fairly flat the past the the past three years um but showing growth of nearly 9% or $1.4 million next year. Our TOT revenue in orange has been flat

in prior years but increased substantially with a voter approved rate increase from 12 to 14% with fiscal year 2526 representing the first full year uh full fiscal year that budgeted at that new tax rate. Increased hotel stays in the unincorporated area continues to drive growth with an anticipated increase next fiscal year of about $3 million or just over 13%. This slide shows how that discretionary revenue is both generated on the left and then allocated. On the use side, you can see heavy concentration in public safety at just about half of the total. Health and human services isn't a large portion because they are mostly supported by state and federal dollars, but those discretionary dollars they do receive often serve to cover mandated local matches and help draw down additional external funds. So when we talk about trade-offs, we're really talking about uh reallocating within a fairly constrained revenue pool. At the bottom right, you will see the roughly $7.4 million unallocated that's available for restorations. I'll be discussing on coming slides. This slide just reframes that same information in a uh a more digestible way. How total discretionary revenue translates to a per household per day basis. Broken down this way, the county's discretionary general revenues are about $7.71 per day per household with about half of that around $4 a day spent on public safety. This is our county's total operating expenditures comprised of salaries and benefits, services and supplies, and internal service and other charges. Before balancing measures, total operating expenditures in fiscal year 2627 would have grown 1.3% over the prior year to about 1.71 billion. After the reductions we've seen in the preliminary budget, uh it's coming in at

1.64 billion, about 2.9% decrease over the prior year. So this is a notable contraction in overall county operations with the bulk of these reductions in county health and social services. Funded positions are down roughly 9% in the preliminary budget from over 4,700 FTE to just over 4,300. Although our recommended restorations would add close to 150 FTE back. At the same time as we're seeing FTE reductions, cost per FTE continues to rise due in part to increasing health care costs as well as cost now being averaged across a smaller FTE count. We see here the cost per FTE rising 7% next year to almost $190,000 each. IT rates and general liability rates charged to departments were together almost flat this year with growth of only 1.7%. IT rates themselves actually saw a slight decrease. This is a welcome change from prior years as we see here where we saw double-digit increased growth in every year on the trend chart. Given the overall county budget situation, both risk management and IT made every attempt to keep their rate increases as low as possible while still being fiscally responsible to their operations. Deferred maintenance funding remains at $6.5 million next year with no increase from the 2526 budget. While it's up 42% from the 11.6 million it was funded at at the beginning of this chart in fiscal year 2223. This funding source has been relatively flat the most recent four fiscal years as budgets have become tighter. Now shifting to the longer term view and this is where the two-year strategy u becomes critical. The updated forecast, which I have in more detail on the following slides,

shows improvement compared to December. In fiscal year 2627, we are projecting about $7.4 million available for restorations, largely due to holding GFC or general fund contribution flat during budget development and all departments making bud uh budget reductions to balance within their existing resources. This also preserves the existing $9.5 million set aside for use in fiscal year 2728 where we still see the largest general fund projected deficit about $12.5 million which we can see in the third row of the second column there that 12.46 number. That deficit falls to a more manageable $3 million with the use of the remaining set aside of 9.46. The health and human services departments are also showing an additional shortfall next year of $6.6 million. Beyond that, structural gaps do persist in the three out years as well. This is the detail for the updated 5-year general fund portion of the forecast. Um, I won't go through every line here. We we've discussed this extensively in December, but a few things improved uh the 2627 outlook from that December forecast. Holding GFC flat meant none of the 2627 growth in GFC was expended on salaries, pension costs, or health benefits. GFC was only allocated to necessary areas such as the uh IHSS maintenance of effort increase in social services at 2.3 million and debt service towards jail construction at 8.9. This allowed us to retain the $7.4 million seen at the bottom of this chart for restorations as well as keep the 9.5 million in reserves for release in the second column, fiscal year 2728. This slide is the Health and Human Services forecast with updated 2627

information where in December we showed a roughly $23 million projected deficit that now shows balanced but only because of the reductions the departments needed to take in order to submit a balanced budget. Much of the impacts projected in the fall related to operating deficits, declining state revenues, and impacts from HR1 and the state budget materialized as expected and forced cuts to balance. There are further impacts expected in 2728 totaling an additional $6.6 million which when combined with the $3 million general fund leads to the $9.6 million deficit we see at the bottom of the 2728 column. The next slides are arranged by functional group and show where the $70 million in reductions occurred and are followed by restoration requests from a handful of departments. You'll be hearing about all of these in more detail from each of the departments during their presentations this week. The majority of reductions, about $55 million, comes from social services at 197 FTE and over 30 million and county health at 129 FTE and $24 million, reflecting both funding reductions and program adjustments. Child support services also had to unfund close to 5 FTE due to their ongoing flat revenue from the state. behavioral wellness and first five were able to use a combination of revenues and fund balances to avoid having to make reductions to balance this year. In community resources and public facilities, the community services department took most of their reductions in the parks division totaling 6.75 FTE and about $1.7 million. Planning and Development unfunded three positions and made some other reductions totaling just over 650,000. A and excuse me, a and uh public works also made some reductions but did not

unfund any positions for balancing purposes. Public safety reductions total about $9.4 million and include staffing reductions across all five departments. The majority of the reductions came from the sheriff at 30 FTE and $5 million. This includes the ISI Vista foot patrol as well as a variety of of administrative and support positions across the department. The DA reduced two positions as well as a variety of other cost reduction measures for a total of $1.3 million. Probation unfunded 10.5 FTE but restored three and a half of those using available fund balance. Those reductions, plus other services and supplies changes, saved $2 million in that department. The public defender unfunded four positions for just under $800,000. And fire reduced one emergency manager position in the general fund OEM unit. The reductions in the general government and support functional group total five FTE and about $1.7 million. And I my apologies on this slide. I have to point out the um $1.1 million total we see at the bottom failed to include the 633,000 from ITD. So this total in this group is more like 1.7 million, not the 11 one there. Uh reductions in ITD general services and the clerk recorder assessor were achieved through adjustments to services and supplies and some extra help and overtime. An auditor reduced three vacant positions for about 450,000 while HR and treasurer tax collector reduced vacant positions in benefits and veteran services respectively. And finally, the policy and executive group totaled four FTEE and $1.1 million in reductions, mostly through the cutting of three positions in CEO, as well as the reduction of a position in

county council and other adjustments to position classifications to um sorry, and council also made adjustments to other positions, downgrading um the expensive positions to achieve savings there. Uh the board because of reductions to salaries and benefits due to the OPED changes as well as a lower charge from general liability uh was able to balance within their existing funding. So we see at the bottom of this table over $70 million uh and almost 400 FTE in reductions. Around 277 of those positions were currently filled at the time this information was compiled. However, as I'll discuss in the next slides, the CEO's recommendations would restore about 150 of those. Community services is requesting to use $522,000 of their 18% maintenance funding rather than new ongoing general fund dollars to restore four parks maintenance positions, which perform maintenance on buildings, equipment, and park infrastructure. The CEO is recommending this restoration. County Health's $2 million request is largely for 16 medical assistants to maintain a 1 to 1.5 physician to medical assistant ratio plus 2 and a half animal shelter attendance to keep shelters open six days a week instead of four. The CEO is also recommending this restoration. The district attorney's request is for restoration of both positions they unfunded to balance their budget and planning development is requesting restoration of one of the long-range planning positions they cut. The sheriff's office request totals $4.1 million across 25 positions with the largest component being restoration of the Vista foot patrol 12 positions for $2.6 million. Other requests focus on restoring the various administrative and

support positions that were reduced throughout the department. Social services is requesting $4.9 million to restore 125 positions primarily in child welfare and calresh eligibility. The child welfare request restoring 47 positions is tied to ensuring response times for emergency cases are met. and the $2.9 million requested will help leverage an additional 3.7 million in state and federal funding. The CalFresh request restores 78 positions and ensures applications and renewals continue to be processed in a timely manner. And that $2 million requested would help draw down an additional $7.4 million in state and federal funds. The CEO is recommending these social services restorations. Just to recap the prior slides, the CEO is recommending $7.4 million in targeted restorations focused almost entirely on core safety net services per the direction and concern we've heard from the board since this fall. As I mentioned on the previous slides, we're recommending granting the restoration requests from social services and county health as well as restoring two service contracts in social services for um resource family evaluation and emergency shelter beds in child welfare services. The department did not request this. You won't see this on their restoration requests, but upon review by CEO, we are recommending these two contracts. We are also recommending allowing parks to shift their 18% funding towards four maintenance worker positions. These restorations uh will expend the entirety of the unallocated $7.4 million and restore 148 positions while continuing to preserve the $9.5 million for the larger general fund deficit anticipated in fiscal year 2728. These restorations are about preventing

the most severe impacts while recognizing the general fund cannot fully backfill the level of state and federal funding impacts that we're seeing in the safety net programs while simultaneously trying to put us on a more stable footing ahead of a more difficult fiscal year 2728. We do have about $12.5 million identified in one-time general fund dollars available. staff is recommending $10 million for capital projects because no new CIP projects were funded next year as we were developing this budget, but we do recommend waiting to allocate to specific projects until we have more clarity on northern branch jail costs. $2.5 million can be reserved for additional one-time safety net stabilization, potential indigent care costs exceeding our estimates, contingencies for possible department overages next fiscal year since salary savings will likely be much lower in many departments. So, we're losing that buffer or put towards other board priorities. There's also about $780,000 in cannabis revenue which the board can allocate, but consistent with policy, we don't recommend putting any of that towards new ongoing uses. The board will be talking more about this revenue during the special issue on Wednesday. So, just stepping back, the county is entering a period of fiscal constraint. This is a challenging budget and these reductions are real, but we've approached them in a structured and forward-looking way. And because of your board's prior fiscal discipline, and because of departmental efforts to make do with less, we do have some capacity to restore some of the most critically impacted safety net departments. The difficult trade-offs will continue, especially as external funding becomes less certain, but preserving the $9.5 million will give us greater flexibility to address issues in the second year.

Looking ahead, additional strategies may be needed, included temporary use of 18% funding towards other general fund needs. Continued efficiency efforts and consolidation. One item the CEO's office is exploring this fiscal year with behavioral wellness and county health is an integration of their administrative functions. Uh pursuing labor cost controls at the bargaining table. further evaluation of general funded discretionary services that may need to be curtailed or eliminated and potentially discussing a sales tax measure again in the future. None of these are immediate decisions today, but they frame the choices ahead in the coming years. Over the next three days, you'll hear from departments on their budgets, their key issues and risks, and further detail on proposed reductions and restoration requests. We'll also have special issue discussions on artificial intelligence, cannabis revenue, pensions, and jail housing options. At the end of the workshops, we are looking for your direction in four major areas. Which restorations to include, how to allocate available one-time funds, uses of available cannabis revenue, and direction on jail housing options. That guidance will directly shape the recommended budget. After receiving your direction, we will finalize the recommended budget and release it by the end of May. Then we'll return on June 16th and 18th if necessary for final adoption hearings. We'll reiterate the recommended actions at the end of workshops on Friday, but they're really about receiving information this week and providing your input and direction. This is a planning stage discussion, not an adoption hearing, but your input this week is critical in shaping the final budget that we'll bring back in June. Thank you.

All right. Thank you, Mr. Clemeni. Questions from the board? Supervisor Caps. Yeah, Chair Nelson, just a process question. The way that this was just presented is these decisions will come at the end or per department. What what what would what do you advise

supervisors? During the departmental discussions at the end, you can also during the discussions ask questions um give comments. We note all of that and then we would come back on Friday to to repeat what we heard and that's where the board then can get their um deliberations more and we can get some clearer direction. But I think you're free to make your comments, make your requests throughout the hearings. We'll take note and then bring that back to you on Friday and then sort of summarize at the end. Yes. Okay. Excellent. Thank you.

Right. Thank you, Supervisor Caps. Um, I have a couple of questions and or comments. Um, if we can go back to slide 36 for a second here. So, my my question has to do with the temporarily re redirecting ongoing 18% maintenance funding. And that's a it's frames a future budget balancing strategy. It's actually a current budget balancing strategy. Correct. Supervisor Nel Chair Nelson. The you're you're speaking of the CSD piece, the 522,000.

Actually, just three different things. General services. We're already mining deferred maintenance the general services last year and it sounds like we're going to do that ongoing for a second year. Is that correct? I I believe general services is using uh some of their funding for positions as well. They those may be more along the lines of capital project manager as their sort of deferred maintenance backlog funding got larger um to to manage those projects as they got more money for that. Um but yes, I do believe they're using some towards positions. Okay. So that's happening general services and then we're looking also potentially do that this year. Those funds would normally be paid with regular general fund, but since that's not available now, they'll be taking money from deferred maintenance to be uh funding that.

In in the case of parks and their their request this year, that's certainly the case. I I I'd have to ask with general services and check with them whether it was a new position they added with that funding to do additional work. Um I I don't know that they shifted funding over like parks is this year. And then, you know, the last part is that we're looking at $7.35 million of unallocated general fund revenue here, but we did not allocate any of that to maintenance this year, deferred maintenance per the deferred maintenance policy. Correct.

That that's correct. We didn't take the 18% um off of that piece really because it was generated through holding the general fund flat versus coming out of growth. But yes, so I I guess my it's the framing of this that that might be a future strategy. I think it's a current strategy. And I guess, you know, one of my questions and I will submit a a board acquiry form about this is um do we anticipate our deferred maintenance backlog to grow over this next year based on the funding that we're providing to address our deferred maintenance? And

supervisor, we'll definitely work with the departments to get you that information. I think the difference from what Paul had on the slide regarding future diversion is right now the 18% money is calculated and it's sent to the departments for deferred maintenance needs and as you heard um departments are using it to try to to do their best to maintain what we have and prevent further deferred maintenance. What Paul is talking about the slide is something actually more aggressive than that because I think sending it to departments to work on their needs is important. Temporarily redirecting I would say would be saying having the board change their policy and say we're not going to send it to the departments. We need some of that general fund for other uses. Um and so I think it's a more aggressive strategy than what you're talking about just for full disclosure that you take some part portion off the top for other general fund uses and send the remainder to the departments.

But we run the risk at that point of our deferred maintenance backlog continuing to grow. Yes, that's correct. Okay. Thank you. But we're also saying, and you'll hear the presentation um on Friday from SB Serves, we expect a a if all things hold equal, we would have a savings in the general fund and all the funds in 2031. And at that point, as I've said, I think publicly or to the board, my recommendation at that point was the board put a lot of that money into capital and deferred maintenance. Thank you, CO Miato. Uh Supervisor Caps.

Yeah, thank you. Uh thank you to you both. I mean, uh, CEO Mias, that was a masterclass in setting the stage, uh, of what we're up against and what we're all facing as a county together. Uh, I have a timeline question because you really did a a excellent job of describing how HR1 affects the state, affects us. So, I know that we come back in June and that's when the final decisions are made. How does the May revise play into this? and you spoke to the fact that um the county association of governments is really lobbying and working hard to get some restoration. Tell us or explain perhaps to the public how um you know could this alter this much or do we have any optimism that some of this could change at all?

Supervisors, I think what's being discussed um it's a good it's a great question and one we're grappling with as well. If the state comes in and says we can backfill y then we would come back at the June hearings if that's in the governor's proposed budget uh or if it looks like it's happening we could come back at the June hearings and say okay there's because this is mostly the general fund that we've been the $7 million we would ask the board then do you want to use that if there's some restorations would you want to use some portion of that for other uses it also is looking at whether this is ongoing or not so it's really trying to establish whether the reductions that we're seeing in this the safety net are going to be ongoing or one time. I know I think CESAC is just asking for two years of funding. Is that correct? Correct.

And so they're not asking for ongoing funding from the state, but I guess the bottom line is we would come back in June and talk about what we think is more certain and then um if that means additional revenue for the board or if there's other reserves you want to put or it could be worse. We're not sure. Right. The the other thing is if this if the if the May revise and the June budget doesn't reflect that and sometimes the there's trailer bills at the state, we could come back at mid year. So we can come back after June, come back in July or we can come back in the fall. When I say we, I don't mean we as you know what I mean. But um someone can come back in the fall and and and bring that update for the board for further action.

Okay. And my my second question u Mr. chair is just a another um somewhat of a process question just because again Mr. Clemensy that was an excellent presentation. What would be helpful going forward is um a sense of p percentage on your charts or for the departments because some of our departments are 200 million some are 400,000 so a cut of 5 million is different than a cut of 1 million uh here or there. So, I just was I think I mean I we understand the proportionality, but I think it would be really helpful that a $5 million cut in a $200 million department is different than a $1 million cut to a $20 million department. I just think it's helpful uh as we're going forward. Thank you.

Thank you, Supervisor Caps. All right, I think that takes us now to our first functional group and go ahead and move forward with uh health and human services. And I think we'll kick it off with Katrina Fernandez to do a functional group summary.

I'm going to do some Thank you and good morning, chair and members of the board. I'm Katrina Fernandez, the principal analyst for the CEO budget and research team. Throughout this week's budget workshops, we'll start each functional group presentation with a short video summary of services followed by a brief fiscal overview to provide budgetary context for each department relative to the county as a whole. We'll start this morning with health and human services. The Health and Human Services functional group focuses on supporting the health, safety, and well-being of our community, especially our most vulnerable residents. This group includes the county health department, social services, first five, behavioral wellness, and child support services. Together, these departments provide essential services that help people live healthy, stable, and productive lives. The county health department protects community health through health clinics, disease prevention and health education, emergency medical services, environmental health and animal services. Social services provides health coverage and food assistance, child and adult welfare services, and financial and job support to individuals and families. Behavioral wellness delivers mental health and substance use treatment services. Child support services helps establish parentage and ensure children receive financial support. First five supports early childhood development and school readiness. Together, these departments provide essential services that help people live healthy, stable, and productive lives. The Health and Human Services functional group represents 35% of the total county operating budget and comprises 37% of county FTE. However, because these departments are funded primarily through state and federal sources, this group only receives 8% of the county's general

fund contribution. The five-year trend of operating revenue and GFC highlights changes in revenue over time and how ongoing operations are supported with general fund dollars. We see that GFC allocated to Bwell and county health has remained relatively flat over the 5-year period. The social services GFC allocation shows increases in fiscal years 2526 and 2627 primarily related to a growing local share of inhome support services maintenance of effort costs. Operating revenues in Bwell and social services increased significantly in the first three years of this 5-year period due to increases in medical related to behavioral health payment reform, state and federal assistance program revenue and grant funding in fiscal year 2526. Bwell's grant realignment and mental health services act funding decrease slightly. However, revenue is expected to resume its upward trend in fiscal year 2627 with significant increases in medical and behavioral health services act funds. Social services revenue saw flat growth in fiscal year 2526 primarily due to declining state and federal calresh and medical administration funding. Further decreases primarily in state and federal revenue for CalFresh and child welfare services are anticipated in fiscal year 2627. The increase we see for county health revenue in fiscal year 2526 was related to a 6% CPI increase in clinic revenue and growth in medical pharmacy revenue in 2627. clinic, pharmacy, and federal grant revenue are anticipated to decrease significantly due to state and federal changes that will affect client medical coverage and clinic reimbursement rates. Trends in operating expenditures largely match the operating revenues and GFC trends from the previous slide. Be well is the exception in fiscal year 2526 with budgeted growth and expenditures related to increased mental health bed placement costs and service contract

costs supported by $19 million in fund balance. We see increases for social services in fiscal year 23 24 largely due to additional staffing for protective economic assistance and work for devel workforce development services as well as increases in cash assistance payments in fiscal years 2526 and 2627. Social services reduced operating expenses primarily in staffing and contracted service costs due to flat or declining local, state, and federal revenue sources. Similar to social services, county health has reduced staffing and other operational costs in fiscal year 2627 to balance costs against decreasing ongoing revenue sources. Turning to FTE, we see stability in first five over the 5-year period and a steady decrease in child support services over the past three years due to flat state and federal funding. You'll notice that BW's FTE count increased in fiscal year 2324 primarily due to the addition of 17 FTE in support of Cal AIM implementation. And in fiscal year 2526, Bwell staffing increased by 10 FTEE primarily to support mental health outpatient services and behavioral health services act planning and administration. In 2627, four vacant FTE will be unfunded in bewell. Social services saw increases in FTE count with 48 FTE added in fiscal year 23-24 to expand various protective and economic assistance services and 71 FTE added in fiscal year 2425 to support an expansion of the CalFresh program. In fiscal year 2627 the department proposes the elimination of 197 FTE in administration eligibility and child welfare services due to the revenue shortfalls mentioned previously. County Health is also proposing a significant decrease of 129 FTE in

fiscal year 2627 due to flat and declining revenue sources. Here we highlight the major challenges and initiatives of the functional group. Major challenges include reductions in federal and state funding and continued uncertainty regarding future regulation, reliance on fund balance for ongoing expenses, and growing case loads and service costs for HHS programs. Significant initiatives include preparing for increased indigent health care program demand due to impacts of HR1 and coordination of Cal AIM pre-release services for individuals leaving custody. Next, we'll provide a highle summary of each department budget using a SAN key diagram. These diagrams show how various funding sources support specific programs and activities within each department. Most of public health's revenue is generated through charges for health care services at $46 million, which largely consists of medical reimbursement for services and supports operations in its eight healthcare clinics. Intergovernmental revenue is also a major source at just under $29 million and primarily supports public health services including disease prevention, nutrition, maternal, child, and adolescent health. Here we see that the majority of first five sources come from state tobacco tax funding at $2.5 million and is used primarily for core investment and program support services. In social services, the majority of funding comes from intergovernmental revenue at $26.5 million, which includes realignment as well as state and federal dollars for economic assistance and protective services programs. Most of behavioral wellness funding comes from charges for services at $17.9 million, which is largely comprised of medical revenue, and intergovernmental revenue at $95 million, which consists of realignment dollars and behavioral health services act funds. These sources

primarily fund the department's mental health, outpatient, and community services. Lastly, we have child support services whose primary funding source is intergovernmental state and federal revenue which funds the department's core case management and collections activities. And that concludes the health and human services functional group summary.

All right. Thank you, Miss Fernandez. Any questions from the board before we move on to specific departments? Actually, I have a I do have a question on on this. Um, you know, we were talking earlier about we're trying to deal with um as a state association, California state association of counties on some of the the challenges ahead of us. Um, so actually this last week I was down in San Diego meeting with uh supervisors throughout the state on addressing this, but something came up. I was just kind of talking about our county wos on some of his finances and I was it was should have been obvious to me but I I didn't know but you know most how much each county spends on general fund on health and human services varies. Um sounds like some counties don't spend any general fund on health and human services. I was just wondering if the CEO or or is is is there is this just all by tradition per c per county or um is that a could you could you comment on that because you know it it was kind of an aha moment as I was sitting around a table doing some workshopping with some other counties that um you know we stick a lot of general fund dollars into health and human services about $25 million is that I I was just looking at there and I think the public goes well you know that's you You only care about health and human services based on that percentage of the number. But the fact of the matter is there's other funding sources for these things and it's not necessarily traditional that those things come from general fund based on current state funding. Is that correct? That the county adding general fund is is while that's done in other counties, it's not necessarily the um design of how counties deliver these services. Chair Nelson, I I think that's probably correct that it that there is, you know, it does vary by county and it is sort of the c counties need to provide local match for certain things. There's maintenance of efforts and things like that, but the state really kind of the 91 realignment

revenue in a lot of these areas is is what is also used for local match. So, it could be that some counties are saying, "Look, we we solely use 91 realignment. That is our local match and whatever we've got, we've got." and they don't provide any additional um there may be other counties that that provide more general fund than than we're doing, but um I I suspect it probably is something like a county bycounty basis.

Yeah. And I just thought that was helpful. You know, it was an aha moment for me. I've been in the county now for this is my I think 14th budget and um you know, I just hadn't thought about that before that there isn't a actually standard necessarily. It's it's by tradition um or culture each each county. And I think that's important for us all to know as board members, but also for the public about how we navigate this space. So, thank you for clarifying that for me. And so, I think um based on that, I think our first department up it would be county health director Hami. Good morning. Thank you, Mr. Chair, supervisors, um today I present to you one of the hardest tasks as a public servant is our recommended budget for next fiscal year. And of course, none of this would have been possible to do without the due diligence and the time that our team has put into getting us where we are today. And I would like to introduce some of them here and of course all our team members that are at their desks right now. Gus Ma is our chief financial officer. Lindseay Walter is our deputy director for clinical services. Dr. Josephine Prrisiado is our chief medical officer. Lars Ciphert is our deputy director for operations. And of course we have Dr. Henning Ansorg who is our health officer. Um the budget that we are presenting today had a lot of hard decisions that we had to make. And it took into consideration, however, preserving our services as well as putting our patients first. And this was our priority in everything that we

wanted to present to you today. And while we do not make light of the challenges nor of the magnitude of what we are facing, we look at this as well as an opportunity to realign, to refocus and maybe work smarter and be more efficient and innovative as well. Oops. Are you driving?

That's okay. Um these reductions were as stated necessary because our operations have been costly and they are exceeding our revenue and we needed to address the deficit that we have been experiencing over the years. But we also needed to address the changes that we are facing from the state as well as the federal changes in the reimbursement as well as who qualifies for medical coverage. So while these changes have contributed to a massive reduction in our revenue, then we also wanted to make sure that we are looking at what impact it will have on our services and how do we maintain our services that are provided to those that need them the most and mostly the most vulnerable. That was our priority in addressing that. And while the majority of these reductions happen at the clinical health centers, it does affect all of our programs across the department. So we wanted to make sure that we are looking at more all efficiencies that we can across the department. And uh as mentioned, we tried to have the minimum impact on services as well as what uh these reductions are going to produce. And while um we tried our best not to affect any of the services, there will be some minor services that are affected specifically such as the pharmacy as well as specialty care at the Santa Barbara Health Center. Our operating budget is close to $99 million. There is a one-time uh general uh not general onetime fund balance supplement of almost $4 million that we

are using to minimize these the effect of the reductions. There are no capital projects. The general fund contribution is at 10.7 million. There are um general county program uh transfers of 3.2 million. Our full-time FTEES is being reduced to 420.3 FTEES. We are proposing or recommending reductions of almost $24.3 million with a restoration of $2 million. There are no expansion requests. These are our major budget programs under administration. This is where the majority of our operation and strategy and our human resources are at $13.2 $2 million. The healthcare centers are at $40 million. This is where our primary care, the five health centers and as well as healthcare for the homeless. At community wellness, these are the children California children's services as well as the Cal AIM and uh the jail health monitoring and that is at 5.7 million. Public health services is where disease control, nutrition, wick, lactation consultants, and maternal, child and adolescent health is at 20.7 million. Our regulatory programs including environmental health, emergency preparedness and emergency medical services is at 11.6 million and animal services at 6.5 million where the three shelters and animal welfare happens. These are the general county program transfers. $100,000 goes into our cannabis education and prevention as part of our tobacco prevention and cannabis education. This is uh this supplements a work where we focus on education in youth and pregnant individuals. We work closely with the community as well as communicate with

the states and updates on policies and and uh uh things that are related to cannabis. the 242 uh 242,000 are for a one FTE creating one FTE that is going to help us in uh planning and supporting the indigit care program that uh we are mandated to stand up as part of uh the the state uh mandate for the county. 2.9 million is from uh the tobacco settlement allocation committee that goes into a lot of our programs specifically operations and other functions. Our net decrease in staffing. We we have had a increase of middle of last year and that was due to several grants that we got. Specifically, seven positions increased from a state grant that we created for the care hub that we can talk about in in uh other slides. and also 4.3 positions due to the path three that is going to help with the justice involved calim and the justice involved. Uh the net decrease from last year is 123 FTEES. The majority of the uh positions that are proposed or recommended for eliminations are in the healthcare centers. However, there are uh positions as well in each of our programs that we are recommending to eliminate. Our operating budget is also decreased. Uh the recommendation uh would have a decrease in our health center budget of 13.2 million. This is due to our cost uh outpacing our revenue but as well as uh

the changes in reimbursement for from the state that uh is going to effect in July as well as projected loss of coverage for the medical population due to HR1. There is also a decrease of 8.5 million due to the consolidation of our pharmacy operations. We currently operate threearmacies, one in Santa Barbara, one in LMPoke and one in Santa Maria. We are recommending to consolidate the three into one. And that would give us a 8.5 saving in in cost and um uh that's part of of the cost reduction mitigation strategy that we are proposing. There are also decreases in public health in community wellness in the administration unit as well as in animal services of a total of 3.1 million and that is due to the loss of federal funding as well as some uh uh ARPA funding that is sunsetting as well as some of the state uh grants that are uh ending and a lower realignment revenue as well as fixed general uh fund contribution. While it's been a challenging year, we were still able to accomplish much and I'm very proud of the team and the effort that went into that. Of course, the highlight of last year was us becoming a hundred year old. And while the celebration was truly a celebration, it was also a reflection on the challenges in the past 100 years and learning from what we have gone through and also understanding that resilience is part of our fabric as a department. And that would give us hopefully another hundred years where we would look at this and say we have survived 2026. We have also launched the carehub. The care hub is one of our newest case

management portals where it integrates cal aim enhanced care management as well as a grant that we received from the state for three years and it is social care case management where those that need the most of navigating our services within the county but also across the county. How do we help in finding solutions for them? This is part of the vision that we have for Cal AIM. But it also take it beyond those that are only uh that only qualify for Cal AI as medical. This is to help everybody in the county to find help and find help is the tool that we are using as a closed uh uh loop system where we can refer for services. We also have launched Cal AIM and the justice involved. uh literally in two weeks uh two weeks ago the probation department started uh the Calahan justice involved and that is one of the proud achievements that we have worked uh uh together on on um our disease control and uh uh prevention team has been busy in in uh making sure that our uh public have the information it's needed by developing dashboards but they also partnered Ed with our correctional health team and establishing a uh quality control uh project where now there is better screening for disease communicable diseases for everybody in the jail and specifically those that are at intake uh uh being assessed. Our environmental health has completed a drought resilient plan and uh that ensures that our uh water systems are reliable for drinking water as well as our animal services not only has expanded the foster uh program and

providing better animal well-being and boosting adoption but they also just recently last week opened five uh microchip uh stations as well as uh we have Currently we have finally and thank you for the board we have a veterinary on site and and and uh that is providing clinical services to our animals and to our communities. While our uh clinical operations have been challenged that did not prevent us from expanding we are providing currently implemented the IPAX tele medicine program. Thank you Dr. Pricado for leading that effort and this is a tele medicine AI program that would screen for diabetic retinopathy and it would detect early damages to the retina at our centers. We have it uh uh the Franklin Clinic was the pioneers in implementing that but we are currently expanding it to all other centers. We continue to focus on our strategic priorities and uh one of the most important one is to continue to support our community and we are working on the accredititation. I know you have heard about the accredititation for quite some time but I am happy to inform you that we have submitted the full application this month and with the accredititation it is not just that we want to have a certificate to say to say that we are accredited with accreditation comes quality control there's a strategic plan there's a community health needs assessment plan there's a community health improvement plan there's a workforce development plan and there is also a continuous quality improvement plan So we look at accredititation as a practice to revisit all our policies and to revisit all our processes and to redesign some of the workflow to make sure that we are operating at the full

and optimum level. We continue to enhance our communications internally and externally. We have implemented uh we want to implement a synrobing surveillance system that the public can use and have uh uh alerts for any public health threat. And we also uh uh are working on a portal that um anybody can look at environmental health inspection and access uh permits and and uh find out the quality of inspections that we are doing. We continue to promote equity by serving all and that is still something that we are going to do at every service level at every department as well at every program at at every clinic. We welcome all and we will serve all. And finally, we want to make sure that we are using datadriven and data managed approaches to all of our uh efforts and all of our programs. One of the uh highlights is to establish a tri county regional data repository for the EMS emergency medical services to track trauma patients. As uh CEO Mi Assado mentioned in 2019, KPMG came and looked at our department and they recommended four priorities. Two of those relate directly to the clinics and these are the ones that are in progress and in fact these are the ones that we relied on mostly in uh our recommended budget. So the first one was work uh clinic workload and workforce management and the recommendation was to adjust staff to provider ratio and establish monthly visits uh targets for the healthcare centers to increase productivity. This is exactly what we are proposing. In fact, the reductions in the health clinics are right sizing to match the uh standard

industry standard ratios of uh provider to staff. And uh in addition, we are looking at uh we have developed a five-year plan that is in progress to look at productivity where we need to ensure that we are producing enough revenue to support our clinical operations. The two other recommendations that KPMG recommended have been implemented. One is to use Epic for managing and this is where we have now dashboards that help us manage better that we can implement uh any changes as we see fit. Also a completed one was the animal services workforce and fiscal management and much of that is uh uh accomplished and many of you and our public receive monthly reports of our animal services including all the data that is needed with the challenges. We are aware that we need to still be fiscally responsible and we need to closely monitor our operations. We need to make sure that we are living within our means but we are also supporting how we need to operate and that is where the majority is going to happen in our clinics to make sure that we are generating enough revenue but we are also spending as much as we generate. We need to continue monitoring what is changing both at the state and at the federal level and how that is going to affect us and what threats we might be looking for. But we also need to monitor our reliance and we have been guilty in relying on our fund balance which I call it our saving account that is not going to last forever. And this is why we are very uh careful in in how we want to use that fund balance. And if we uh didn't take those measures that we are recommending

then our fund balance will be depleted completely by this year. It would still be short for next year but we are keeping some for rainy days as they say. Uh we have done a lot over the years and we continue to to set targets for us that are both reasonable but also achievable. So our some of the uh proposed uh uh targets are within our programs specifically in tuberculosis where we uh have set a 95% uh of uh treatment for those that are diagnosed with TB are uh rabies that uh vaccine that save or and protect our animals as well as our residents and other as you see on this slide and we continue to look at the quality of service that we provide and both at our clinics and our environmental health and all that we want to continue to achieve a customer satisfaction level of 85% if not higher. Uh let's dig a little deeper into our balancing measures and what impact it might have. So as mentioned the healthcare centers have the highest cuts as well as the highest reductions in FTE. We're looking at 97.5 FTEES of which uh 72 are filled. This will give us a reduction of 13 or saving of $13.2 million. This is because as mentioned because of our cost outpacing our revenue but also due to changes in the reimbursement as well as the federal medical coverage. Uh we are asking for a partial restoration of 16 FTEEs. These are mostly MAS and we hope that this would establish a pool that we can rotate between locations but also to

accommodate for leaves as well as vacation time and make sure that our physicians are supported to be productive and to meet the demands that we have for our patients. There will be no direct impact on the level of services that we are providing. None of the clinics will uh will be closed. We will still maintain the same schedule. However, as mentioned, we are suns setting some of the specialty care services and uh uh keeping only four specialty care services that have the higher volume as well as the higher payer uh uh mix of uninsured versus insured. In animal services, we are uh requesting a reduction of 4.5 FTEES, of which 3.5 are vacant. This will give us a reduction of $431,000. However, that is going to impact our shelters by reducing uh the days that we are open from 6 days to 4. And therefore, we're requesting a partial restoration of 2.5 uh FTEEs. So, this way we can keep our shelters open 6 days a week. The only two positions that we are not uh going to fill are field officers. The impact might be a little bit of a delay time in answering some of the calls or some of the services, but we believe that that impact is going to be minimal. In pharmacy, we are uh reducing nine FTEEs of which seven are filled. That would give us a saving of $8.4 million. This is through the consolidation of the threearmacies to one. Currently, one of ourarmacies fills prescriptions for the two centers that do not have pharmacy services. These are Carperia and Franklin and we will continue to do so at the Lumpoke uh location uh with the

consolidation. However, we want to also look at whether this central location can also now serve the patients in Santa Barbara and in Santa Maria. We are still not sure how that is going to happen, but we definitely want to explore that. The impact of reductions and the consolidation of the pharmacy is going to mean that those that currently can get their prescriptions filled from our pharmacies from our clinics are no longer able to do so. However, we do have contracts with retailies where people and patients can still get their prescriptions filled. It just means they have to go across the street or somewhere else. We do have a lot of information on our contracted pharmacist. We are providing those to our patients to find the best location of where they can get their discounted drugs because that agreement with retailies does mean that they get the same discounts as the ones we get. There are also other programs where we support those that are unable to pay or do not have insurance and those programs would still be offered and we will still coordinate for those even although we are consolidating the pharmacies from 3 to one. Other reductions are in public health services um uh 10.9 FTEEs of which 8.9 are vacant and that would give us a reduction of $1.4 4 million and these are due to some of the eliminations of CalFresh funding and and healthy living as well as the uh ELC grants. Those those were uh during COVID and we no longer have those as well as some of the lower realignment revenue. Um in administration we are reducing seven FTEEs of which seven are vacant and that would give us a reduction of 780,000. Neither one of those two reductions is

going to have a significant impact because most of these functions are vacant and they have been absorbed by others currently and we will continue to do so as we move along. As mentioned, we are asking for a restoration of 16 uh MAS and 2.5 animal shelter attendants with a total of $2.2 million. I leave you with a little bit of wisdom from Bob Dylan and uh I know we have a lot of pain but I do believe that we are going to see something beautiful that comes out of this. So behind every beautiful thing there has been some kind of pain. Thank you.

Thank you director.

Questions from the board. Supervisor Herman. Um yeah, I have I have a number of questions. Um let me just start in order of your presentation. Um the Tri County uh EMS, could you expand a little on that? I I think that that's really innovative. I'm glad to see it. That gives us data that can feed back into changes. Uh so please expand. I'm excited about that. I I'll let Lars does does more justice in explaining it, but it will basically look at data that is uh analyzed through the three counties and look at how we are tracking outcomes of ambulance services as well as trauma patients.

Yeah, supervisor Hardman through the chair. Uh just to add on to uh what director Hammy said, uh this is really an effort uh to look at our hospital system is not just Santa Barbara County. Our hospital system treats deals with patients across the tri county. There's movement of patients. There's movement of of care. And so we're what we're doing is we're hoping to work closely with EMS agencies in our partnering neighboring counties uh to identify uh trauma patients specifically the high higher risk or higher QD patients their outcomes is a matter of that treatment and uh response and uh have that data available to look at is there ways that we can work with hospitals to improve uh care and outcomes clinical outcomes as part of that uh evaluation. I hope policy outcomes are are part of it. I I saw a you've probably heard this before, but a demonstration in slow county where they had a heat map of accidents and and they learned, for example, that uh seat belts weren't being worn, uh car seats weren't properly um so having that kind of actionable information about trauma um would be extremely helpful. So I hope you keep that top of mind. really

my my second question uh has to do about productivity and uh I guess I want to preface it by saying that um the changes you're making many of them were identified by KPMG and and your department has been running on fund balance and really needed to be adjusted and you're in the painful role of now having to do that and Uh I so um I I think sometimes people blame the messenger and I I'm here to say I'm standing with you. Um this isn't easy and it's fallen to you and you you've shouldered that. Um I did want to know though about a couple of things that I've seen in my medical experience outside uh your clinics and that is the use of physician assistance. um that that is screening lower level and and helping the doctors focus more on the higher level and also um technology so that um so much time isn't spent writing this done much more quickly um those are maybe more cutting edge but I just wonder how you're thinking about those kinds of innovations once you've got this right sizing finished

right uh these are great points and and a great question we uh definitely definitely are looking at it. It is not that we are going to reduce staff or or that's the savings that we are going to do. We have to do things differently with this and this is why I said there's an opportunity for us to redesign how we are delivering care. There's an opportunity for us to make sure that everybody is working based on what they should be doing not because of what they had to do. So when we are talking about clinical care then clinicians should only do clinical care. The MAS should only do clinical care in the exam room. They shouldn't be doing administrative stuff that front desk staff should be doing. And these are the things that we are now making sure that everybody whether it's the physicians or the providers or the staff at the front desk are understanding that it is no longer business as usual. We need to redesign many of the workflow. One of the things that we when we talk about productivity is our high no-show rates at the clinics. We are at almost 20% no-show rates. And if we look at our cancellations and cancellation can happen 5 minutes before a a visit, we're at 45% cancellation rate. So it is it it is naive to assume that we can schedule only eight patients. If two are not going to show up, then maybe we need to schedule 10 patients. Maybe we need to schedule 16 patients. So these are some of the things that we are now making sure we keep an eye on and do things differently in order to increase that productivity. If we are working at full capacity of our clinics, we will never have a deficit and that is what we are now making sure. Some of the things that we are looking into, for example, is centralized scheduling. So many of us have physicians or or providers that work in different locations and you

probably call and say I would like to see Dr. So and so and they say well he or she is not at the office in this location but I can squeeze you in in a different location. We operate the five clinics separately. So why can't we say we do not have any opening in Franklin but you know what Carpentia might squeeze you in. And this is some of the things that we are going to experiment with as centralized scheduling. And I centralized scheduling will take away lot of the functions of the front desk and it will make it an independent centralized call center that can fill schedules without anybody interfering with how often we schedule patients or who is managing that. So these are some of the things that we are definitely

and I I just I had an opportunity to tour the LMO Health Center and uh was very impressed recently um and that 45% um no shows and cancellation. I know we have reminders, we have transportation, we're we're we're not just accepting that we're doing everything we can to get people to show up. Yes.

So um let's see. I I guess there's two things that I uh three things yet. Um cannabis education that occurs both in your budget and be well budget. We're talking about consolidation. Um I guess I don't want to put you on the spot, but maybe maybe our CEO or whoever could speak to that. Um, do we do wouldn't it be better to combine that and then just have one set of administrative costs? It's not that much different, I wouldn't think, in the two different programs. So, supervisors, um, we're having that conversation on Wednesday. Well, if you're not the first to bring that up, but they do have different uses, and I think the behavioral wellness, um, most of that money is contracted to nonprofits, but we can still have that work. We can still have that review. Um then I guess that brings me um to another consolidation issue and I I know that there's um discussion about uh be well and county health um administrative functions being combined. I wonder uh if if someone could address that. I I think um just to put my cards on the table, I think over the long run these departments really need to be integrated. Um whole person care is where we're going and that means you have a single care plan. You have uh shared records diagnosis and followth through you have earlier intervention. I mean I think from the perspective of the patient that's really important. I think of be well as being sort of the more extreme and and county health is already dealing with um mental health in the mild to moderate and at least as I understand it people kind of vacasillate

between so it it it just doesn't make sense to me and um so uh I think um I'd like first of all to explain what it means to start combining the administrative functions but where I'd like to head is um direction that we begin to move forward on that and I'll talk more about that on Friday but um I wonder if you could elaborate a bit someone about the administrative function piece of it.

Sure. Um so um you're absolutely right supervisor we have been uh working closely with be well and and having our teams have been meeting to coordinate care and transition and specifically as you said we do the bridging from those that are not at the level of severity that would require services through uh be well um we also have expanded our behavioral health services at our clinics we currently have a telesc also a major player in bridging for that care. Um the whole concept of working together on Cal AI and the justice involved and especially those that are being released is also something that we are working together in in uh collaboratively. Uh I believe the administrative functions that we believe or we're exploring is definitely something that can make us more lean and more efficient. So rather than each department has contracts and HR and technology and and financial and all that then combining both as a start for the in future integration what might be the lowest hanging fruit where we can look into that and we are exploring this uh and and looking at the structures and what efficiencies can come out of that and how the two departments can operate with a central administrative function.

Thank you. Um I'm very supportive of that. I so my final um issue to explore right now is really indigent health care. I think that that's the elephant in the closet and we really need to bring that out. Um, I have been mystified by what the system used to be and what exactly our obligations are. And and so I I did a little research and what I understand is that this obligation of the county to treat indigent people goes back to 1946, the Hill Burton Act and the Social Security Act. And then California implemented those with the welfare and institutions code section 17000. So this is unambiguous. Counties shall relieve and support all incompetent poor indigent persons and those incapacitated by age, disease, or accident. So it's not discretionary. A county can't ask to opt out of it. And um it reminds me a little bit of our sheriff's overtime. The obligation exists whether or not we budget for it. So the bills can simply arrive unfunded. So I I've got that right. So um I'm I'm really concerned about how we pull all of this together that we we're starting to set aside some money. I know that uh uh Chair Nelson is involved. I know that CEO Miasado is involved looking at the state level. Um we have today our president of Senal here um Marina Owens and and I wonder if you would be willing to come up. I've cleared this with the chair and just tell us from your perspective because

you're overarching. You're the one who knows who's on medical. You have kind of a sense of the numbers here. uh what we're looking at.

Welcome Miss Owens,

Chair Nelson, members of the board. Um I wanted to share additional information uh that Senkeel has in support of your upcoming discussions and planning efforts. And over this past several months in Cal Health working in close partnership with health management associates uh has been developing an uninsured model and Santa Barbara County calculator for uh Santa Barbara County's use um in your planning and budget workshops. These tools are designed to help us better understand what lies ahead with the significant state and federal policy changes that phase in beginning this year and through uh 2028. What makes this work particularly valuable is it isolates each policy changes of which there are dozens um and models the local data and sinkel health's expense trends uh and statewide projections to support your board. Uh the intent is not to predict the future with certainty but to give um your team shared uh informed information as a starting point for this local planning. And importantly it's a high level exercise and we'll define the assumptions together going forward. But what we're seeing, and to your question, um, at a high level, the model suggests a significant increase in the uninsured population in Santa Barbara County over the next several years, approximately 25,000 individuals in 2027, growing to 43,000 in 2028, and then reaching over 50,000 at the beginning of 2029, uh, resulting from HR1. And this represents the worst case scenario and we are all actively working to mitigate it through local outreach, navigation and enrollment efforts. Our shared goal is to retain as many individuals as possible um on health insurance. Sinkell Health currently

provides health insurance to one in three Santa Barbara County residents. The goal is to mitigate at least half or more and the best case scenario is to help many individuals in partnership with your social services department uh maintain their medical eligibility. At the same time, we've modeled potential county indigent program enrollment. Uh and uh this would grow to 2400 individuals in fiscal year 27 and up to 4,000 uh in 2028. The cost considerations uh are of relevance and using our cost experience and our rate development data we estimate indigent care costs could range from 9 to 10 million annually. And one important note is that 1 million or so of that cost is primary care. The majority of costs are driven by services outside the county clinics through our hospitals, specialty care services, imaging, oncology, and other high-cost expenses. And so this just reinforces that this is a systemwide financial and delivery system change challenge. Um, in parallel, Sincl meaningful resources to the community. So this year allocating 13 million in community reinvestment, 60% or approximately 8 million dedicated to Santa Barbara County and we anticipate having conversations about investments in 2027 and beyond. And this just ref uh represents and reflects the broader commitment to reinvest locally. That's eight times the state requirement. Uh so wanted to to thank our board of directors for their recognition uh that u this is a time um of health policy need uh and so I wanted to also mention their finite resources of course and we must use them thoughtfully and as CEO um Mona Mosado mentioned

following the state may revise and your budget workshops sel stands uh uh as a support uh if there are larger gaps uh anticipated and the board's prepared to revisit. So by way of pathways forward uh to to the points made earlier, there's the county-led approach expanding and redesigning your indigent care programs which you've initiated. There's also partnership approaches uh with SAL health uh as a partner to administer and share risk and that combines the contributions um of any operational capabilities you choose to leverage as your county organized health system. And then lastly, there's a communitywide potential solution uh which is albeit the most ambitious of the various models but similar to what this community achieved 15 years ago with the healthy kids program. And this is where local community partners come together to create a local coverage program pooling our resources for the uninsured collectively and doing our best in addressing as many of the needs as possible. Each of these options will require further modeling and discussion, but they reflect the spirit of collaboration that's already underway uh through the HR1 program and the medical executive policy group. So, the closing thought I I have and willing to answer any questions you may have is that we're just entering a period of significant change and uncertainty. Uh, and we're not approaching it alone. locally, many of the partners uh in the healthcare um community and county health and our work with HMA have produced the data tools and and we have the partnerships that allow us to plan proactively to act locally and support those that are vulnerable in our community. We look forward to the conversations um and know you have

difficult decisions ahead. So, um I others may have questions for uh Miss Owens, but I I just wanted to summarize. So, the changes in medical eligibility along with the ACA increased costs um mean people are dropping out and then uh people with unsatisfactory immigration status are at least a certain percentage is dropping out in in California. So this is going to put a lot of stress on our systems and and what was interesting in what you said is that the clinics are going to see a small percentage but you expect a lot of it to be emergency room. I naively thought oh that's a hospital cost but what I realized in researching it is that cost comes back to the county. They can bill the county for that. So, so these are this is a really huge issue facing us and and I really commend you for getting ahead of it, trying to bring people together, trying to put together models. Could you describe what San Mateo did, what San Mateo's board did? Absolutely. Uh there's a few examples of local partnership models. One is in uh San Mateo uh and San Mo County asked Health Plan of San Monteo, their county organized health system to support the administration uh of the uninsured um population as opposed to having a full medical program benefit. Someone has in smaller coverage benefit. They still have a San Mato card, but they do contribute towards that program. $14, $20 a month, etc. And that gives them an access to a wider a wide um uh sort of set of benefits uh

and streamlines the administration for the providers like the hospitals and the clinics etc. And so there's examples like that that exist um albeit um not full insurance. Uh there's also healthy San Francisco uh which is um an an attempt to do the same uh that administered by the health plan uh in in San Francisco providing um opportunities to really reduce the number of uninsured. What we're seeing is a doubling of the uninsured rate in the county.

So we have a lot of uncertainties still facing us. We don't know what the legislature is going to do. And we're uh grateful for Chair Nelson and and our CEO. They're working hard, as I know you are as well, to try to get the legislature to backfill. But at this juncture, the county has to make some decisions about its budget in the face of not knowing what might be coming in in the face of this pretty certain growing financial obligation. So, I'll just say from my perspective, I think it's really critical that we not obligate these monies now that we've that the CEO is uh proposing in her recommendations, but that we hold until we find out more. I would also be very interested in having this board give uh make a recommendation or ask Senkeal to continue leading this coming back with models um because we want to get all the partners together and you're very good at doing that to figure out what's the best that we can do. how do we all contribute um to to really create a a floor at least for people who who aren't covered? And I like the idea if there is a a card that people have. I think I wasn't here then, but I think the county healthy kids program maybe Supervisor Lavanino was here for that.

I was here and I don't think you want to ask me about it. All right. Well, maybe we maybe we need I thought I had some serious issues at some point. But but we need to develop something. Uh and I don't know exactly what it looks like, but maybe we can learn from that experience what not to do and what we should do. Um but um so what kind of direction from our board would you be how should we frame what given what I'd like to achieve? Um, what could we ask of SenCal

supervisors? We are obviously Marina has been an wonderful partner and we work closely and um, even of last night sending information back and forth and we appreciate all her work. We'll continue to work with Senel. I don't think we need any board direction. Our interests are aligned in trying to figure out how we can do this. Our job this week is trying to figure out the financing of it. Um and so she's given us a an independent consultant review of what we think that cost will be which we have um funds set aside for this coming fiscal year but not the next. It's just part of our deficit in the in the upcoming year. So I don't think we need any clear direction right now. We know we will continue to work with SenCal looking at different models, looking at different um ways. And at the same time, uh I'm working with a group of California counties and our advocate groups to see if there is a proposal that we could come up with that would meet the legislaturator's um needs or uh for them to advocate. It's still in process of review. Uh but that would affect all counties. So there's different we're we are moving in all different directions to get to the same goal. So I don't think we need any further direction this week.

Okay. Well, um I was intrigued by what San Mateo did uh actually getting their board uh invested in this. But um I will hold off on asking that. But I I do think that um it all of these uncertainties have a big impact on how our board will um consider the budget this year and thank you so much for being here and there may be others who have questions. Thank you.

Yes. Thank thank you Miss Owens. Um but I just want one point of clarification about um couple actually two points of clarification. one um I know it's a state it's a county mandate but it comes as as a state mandate that came down the counties and it was a funded mandate so typically the way that these are funded mandates from the state but the state has now taken that money and redirected somewhere else that state responsibility has not gone away they haven't budgeted for it but it has not gone away so that's where there's this this pressure that's going on is that you know we have um when the state pass an unfunded mandate there's a certain responsibility ility for them to fund it. This one's a little odd because they did fund it, then they took it away because it the need was gone and now it's coming back. So, I know one of the discussions is happening is potential litigation with the state over that on the test claims side of things because that's one of the ways to potentially do that. Hopefully, the counties don't want to get there because again, this is something that is the state mandated on counties, but they provided the funding and just because it went away temporarily doesn't mean that that that they are relieved from that responsibility. And I think that's the position of SEESAC. All 58 counties are unified behind that concept that the state has a responsibility to fill this. Now, they aren't yet in the governor's proposed budget and that's why I really appreciate our CEO and our budget staff of taking the responsibility on our shoulders because at the end of the day, we still have that legal obligation. This budget reflects that. It is a painful part of this budget is to do that, but I think that's one of those things that we need to continue to monitoring. This is a quickly evolving um situation and um you know typically we go through these budget hearings and we have kind of things wrapped up almost after this week. I think this is going to be one of those one years that we're we're going to probably be you know going down to the last day of of workshops and even beyond that into the new fiscal year on resolving some of these issues. So I just wanted to kind of add that to that part of the conversation. The other one is you said

in your comments that you didn't want to allocate the money for engine care. Were you saying you support where the what the CEO is doing right now and and reserving that? Yes. I I don't want us I want us to hold that aside and not allocate it to departments because we may have to pull it back. It would be much easier in the budget hearings to allocate that money if we know we have it. Fair enough. I just wanted a clarification on where you were going at with that. Uh Supervisor Lavinino.

Thank you, Mr. Chair. My questions are for Director Mummy. Thank you for being here, though. So I want to go let's I kind of want to get into the basics of the clinics themselves because that's what's getting the most uh attention and can you just for the sake of the public so we have five healthcare centers you want to name off where they are so we we currently have five centers one is in uh Carperia one is in Franklin one is in Santa Barbara one is in Lumpoke and one is in Santa Maria but we also operate what we call uh shelter clinics. So these are I I think we are now up to four uh Santa Maria

Santa Maria and in Bridge House and Lumpoke and is it safe to say that the model was unsustainable before we ran into HR1 and all these other issues? That is correct. Yes, we have been for the past 5 years or or postcoid 2022 is where we started tapping into the fund balance because of the structural deficit and the structural deficit is exactly what it is. We are spending more than we're bringing in. Exactly.

It's easy. Yeah. So, so that's been going on for a number of years and I appreciate the fact that we're going to continue to we wanted to burn through that fund balance because we want to provide as many services as we possibly can, but that there comes a day when we can no longer make that decision and that is today. So, I appreciate that. So, you talked about that we're your your plan is still to keep all of them open. Yes. And we would eliminate some specialties. Can you run through what those are?

Yeah. So um we are keeping so so just for reference specialty care is the only only provided at the Santa Barbara clinic. So we do not provide specialty care outside of Santa Barbara. So anything else at any other clinic is just is primary care primary care and it's all via there's is it drop in? It can be drop in or it can be

uh mostly you have to have an appointments. There is a level of walk-in accommodation at at some of our clinics. We also have the ability to switch some of the visits to tellahalth and that is something that we are especially for those that are last minute cancellation then we try to switch them for for a telealth. Uh so for specialty care at uh Santa Barbara we are keeping surgery we're keeping orthopedics we're keeping endocrinology and infectious disease HIV and what we are uh ending by end of June is going to be uh urology neurology um help me guys

gastroenterenterology Okay.

And the way and the way we are approaching this um first of all we did a thorough analysis of again the the fiscal uh cost of this um each one of those lines is in deficit. So we are again not producing revenue enough to support holding these clinics. those that we are uh suns setting by June are eight hours a month. The total patients seen for example gastroenterology total patients seen are 50 per year of which 85% are insured. So we're not truly abandoning patients nor we are dumping them on others such as emergency rooms or others. There is ample specialty care in Santa Barbara and the way we are approaching this and we have been working closely with SenCal as as a great partner in mapping out the providers that are going to be able to support those and see them. Now with that we cannot deny that there will be some that might not be insured and they will have to struggle and this is where again something like the indigent care program or or or plan would support those Okay. So, you know, like I I think we we we had a broken system. Um much like I also feel though that almost the entire health care system is broken. I regardless of what side you're on, I had a relative that was in ER for seven hours this week and you know it. So, we talked about centralized scheduling. Mhm.

Has there been any talk anywhere about centralizing care public and private so that when somebody whether they're entering an urgent care, you know, this idea of no closed door or no wrong door that they come to one of our clinics or they go to an urgent care that's private or they go to one of the hospitals and there's a 7-h hour waiting or a 5 hour waiting period. They're it just doesn't see it seems like everybody's in a silo of nobody's saying well you could be seen at as you said with one of our other clinics. Any conversations heading in that direction?

Not yet. However, we welcome any conversation that might improve how we operate altogether. Um, of course it has to be uh equal partnership where we not only are benefiting our patients but we're also uh putting our resources together. Right. Question two about the pharmacy. So um threeies now will be combined to one in LMPoke that showed a $9 million savings. Is that it was only seven pharmacist. So I'm assuming it's that's a lot of capital costs consolidation medications as well. medications,

paying for medication. As mentioned, we lost uh the savings four years ago. So, our medications are a big capital cost as well as um we are projecting more deficit because now the federal government has this renegotiation for Medicare priced medications and they started with 15 I believe this year. They're expanding that to 34 next year. So we will be getting less money for those specific medications from Medicare and that's going to put another 700 to a million in deficit for in in the pharmacy operation.

Well, that's great news. And then uh how does that relate to also jail medical? Is that included in that jail pharmacy? Um we currently do not provide anything. Okay. But part of Cal AIM we need to so this is another beast to and how does this affect at all um this restructuring that we're talking about that's going to happen anyways how does that relate to the puff pharmacy or is that separate separate okay um okay that's all my questions for now all right thank you lean you know I got some questions but I'll I'll hop first. Thank you.

So, how's the morale in your department? Is everybody understanding? Are they upset?

Uh, well, it's not a surprise that it's not the most uplifting news that we had to deliver. However, um, we have been as transparent as we can be. We held constant town hall meetings as well as delivered messages that we are all in this together and that it is going to be a shared sacrifice. I do believe that our team uh do understand the challenges that we're facing and they have been encouraging us to make the right decisions um everything that we do would have the benefit of the community as first and as much as it is hard for our team members to bear that sacrifice if it means better services and still being able to have our doors open and serve everybody with the same quality of care, then let it be.

Thank you. I saw you last week providing food to your staff for multiple locations. So, I really appreciate you doing that. I do have a question about animal services. the the services that you have contract with the cities it will be renegotiated in the yeah I believe next year is uh for the starting in 2728 would be the new uh five-year contracts or contracted uh period moving forward so next year is the final year final year of the 5-year contracts so what could that mean is it lower costs from us from the general fund or is it something different

we're we're hoping that we can renegotiate where everybody is paying their fair share for services. Okay. Finally, I just want to com commend you on keeping the health clinics open. Those are incredibly vital and that you see that as a priority and that's very important to my district and the community overall. So, thank you. Thank you, Supervisor Lee, Supervisor Caps.

Thank you, Chair Nelson. And uh thank you to your whole department. And uh I do think I agree with Supervisor Hartman that you have made a lot of tough decisions and you're willing to uh sometimes make the unpopular decisions. Uh to that end, I'd like to ask about the the outreach that has occurred up to this point. I know that the providers get together often. If you could just speak to the conversations that have been happening. I see some of them in the room and I know we'll hear from them soon. But as has been explained by Miss Owens, the more that we're all working together to face these headwinds, the better. So, can you speak to that, please?

So, there are several uh gatherings that are happening all at once. Uh we after November and the recommendations from the board, we established a community working group. These are mostly community organizations such as my cause um and others that are meeting regularly. And part of what we are discussing is what are some of the alternatives out there that we need to be aware of as we are getting more and more challenged. So um this uh working group is also looking closely at another working group that is led by Senal where we need to ensure that those that have coverage are not losing their coverage. So, whatever it's going to take for renewals, for reminders, for within that 30-day or 90-day reinstatement, all that, this is the core function of what SAL and and other community uh organizations are leading. We're tying the two groups together because um it makes perfect sense for all of us to be aware of because these are are community members that probably work with my or work with cause and all that and they need to be aware of some of those challenges. So, so that is one group we we are working on. Um, we are also uh maybe not as frequently and not as officially communicating with all our health partners. We uh were uh hosted by cottage health uh back in November I guess and we discussed some of the things that we are facing. We had also our partner FQC's, Indian Health and Family Services as well as neighborhood clinics and we did talk about the specialty care and and uh discussed the numbers and and some of the things that we're doing. Um just on Thursday I sent the whole group a note that this is what we are facing and we're going to be presenting and uh we would love to meet

after this uh workshop to update them on what does it mean when we are reducing our uh budget by $24 million and reducing our staff by 120. So um some of this information is shared already. We're talking about consolidation of pharmacy. We're talking about sunsetting some of the specialty care. But we also want to make sure that we are not uh uh ignoring things that we we can improve and and be better.

Thank you. Uh follow up to that uh related to productivity, do you do you all talk about or do uh rate uh sort of patient per hour? Is that an area that you've been focusing on? Yes. Yes. So um the industry standard for uh CMS is for a primary care clinic or primary care physician is to be able to see very comfortably two patients per hour. And I'm sure if you go to your own doctor then probably you don't have the luxury of more than 20 minutes max.

Sure. Um uh unfortunately we are not reaching that two patient per hour and part of it is as we mentioned no show or cancellation but we have 34 providers only onethird of our providers are seeing two patients per hour or more and it's basic math if you see two patients per hour then this is how much you can build and this is how much you can contribute so um I think we're improving we're looking at workflow We're looking at more efficiency. Dr. Pricado and our chief physicians and our providers are looking at this uh very carefully and we're trying to uh as much as we can make sure that we are increasing our our uh visit rates because visits translate into revenue and that's basically what it is. So just to repeat that out of the 34 just two say can you say that number again out of the of

30 34 providers one third one third yes okay and the the main reasons you believe are no shows and other other okay yeah that seems like a a big area um lastly on the outreach most importantly how will how will patients be uh communicated with about these changes

uh there aren't going to be much about the way we operate that uh is going to affect patient care or or services except for the specialty care and specialty care we are working on a transition plan and reassigning some of those that we see for the specialties that we are no longer providing. So that is uh similar to how we wanted in the past address assigning them to new providers. We now have the names of the physicians and who is able to see them and all. Okay. Thank you, Dr. Hermami.

All right. Thank you, Supervisor Caps. Um, I'm going to try to roll through a couple quick questions here. So, before we take a little break here for our translator, um, animal services, do we actually have a number on what we're subsidizing the cities at right now? Yes, we do, Supervisor Nelson. Uh, currently the way the budget is submitted, um, it's about 338,000. It's a it's a preliminary estimate. Just wanted to point that.

Okay. Just wanted to get that number out there. And I know you went through this with Supervisor Caps and others um about just this efficiency that you're looking for. So, and I I just want to kind of go over one last time um just the way I understand it so the public can understand it because I think it's really important. So, we have 34 providers across across our clinics. These are doctors, PAs, and nurse practitioners. The majority are physicians. We do have uh several nurse practitioners and a couple of PAs.

Okay. So, that's our providers. And we're only a third of them see two patients or more an hour. So the other ones are less, maybe as low as one an hour. And I and I'm not saying that's anybody's fault. Sounds like a scheduling systems uh efficiency thing that we're going to be working on moving forward. But your budget you're building is based on kind of the two patient per hour model. Is that what we're hoping that we get here? Yes. Okay. And then the other portion about the cuts in your budget is how much support staff for those um providers. And if I understand correctly, right now we provide about 3.8. So there is

staff members per the uh provider to staff ratio. Um there are several references. For example, the AMA, American Medical Association, say for a primary care clinic, you need 1.5 staff to provider. That 1.5 includes MA, nurse, and front desk,

right? Um others there there's a study that was published by the uh um society for family care uh medicine um say that the more physicians you have the less support staff you need and that ratio is close to 2 2.1 um when we looked at our ratio and KPMG uh numbers as well um it varies across clinics we have clinics where it's 4.5 and we have clinics where it's 3.8 eight. So on average we're 3.5. So what we are doing is we're readjusting our ratio to have 1.5 MA.25 RN and 75 AOP front desk. And that would give us a ratio of 2.5 per provider.

Okay. So that's just kind of right sizing the support staff here. So it's still going to be a robust staff and we're still not going to close clinics. Yes. But these are the efficiencies that you're proposing in these cuts moving forward. Okay. Just want to make sure we got that. Um, also I heard right that specialty services are only available in the South Coast. Is that Yeah, correct. Okay. So, for those people out there that always hear me make a big deal about that, that's just yet another one of those areas where things are different. Um, although it might not be for for long. Um, so right sizing and so again, no health clinics being closed under this proposed budget at this point. I want to make sure that gets out there. That's a headline that this is about efficiency. still providing the same level of primary care services across all our health centers.

Okay, thank you. All right, that's the questions for the board. Um, we're going to take a five-minut break, give everybody a breather, let our our translator take a break, and then we'll get right back um I believe with social services.

All right, welcome back everybody. If we can take our seats, please if we can if we can take our seats. We're welcome back. We're coming back from a break. Today is the first day of the of the April 13th. I I won't be able to read

budget workshops for the fiscal year 2627. We've just completed a presentation um on the functional group of health and human services and then our actual department of uh county health uh for aging management purposes. Um couple couple things here. We'll go ahead and do social services. Many of you here are to speak about these first two departments. So, we're going to uh take public comment specifically on those first two departments after uh social services and then we actually will be breaking for close session and then we'll come back and do the additional three departments in health and human services first five behavioral wellness and and child support services after close session. Close session is anticipated being about an hour. I want to let you guys all know thank you guys those that have been here but I won't let you guys leave if you need to come back to speak on those items. Um, and in your public comment after social services, please keep it specifically to county health and social services. Okay? If you veer into the sheriff department at this point, I'll probably ask you to come back uh later on um in the meeting to discuss that, but we need to keep this moving along. Um, we have we have some timesensitive information um moving forward. So, with that, Director Nielsson, welcome.

Good morning, Chair Nelson and supervisors. With me today are our chief financial and administrative officer Maria Gardner, assistant directors Amy Krueger and Rachel Litman, and workforce development board executive director Luis Cerine. We begin the coming fiscal year with structural bet with a structural budget problem that has been worsened with HR1 implementation, including shifts shifting more program costs to the county for the administration of CalFresh and creating more work in the eligibility determination process in both the CalFresh and medical programs due to additional administrative requirements such as shortening of eligibility periods, requiring more frequent redetermination, s and adding work requirements as a condition of eligibility. This is a volatile time for social services as we are continually faced with new federal or state impacts to try to mitigate, including policy changes that push greater work and more costs to the county. We find ourselves focusing our efforts on what work we can do with our remaining staff resources and prioritizing the highest needs such as emergency response, court-ordered services, and access to benefits. And I will just point out at this moment that while we're focused on next year's budget and the adjustments that need to be made for then the department has downsized by 100 FTEES in the past 12 months um by people leaving and us not having the money to be able to refill those positions. So we're already in a place of of mitigation and prioritization. We can only do the work that we do because of our dedicated staff. Our staff are resilient and have been flexible with the imp implementation of creative strategies such as embracing reassignments to other program areas where there is available funding. The

inter agency policy council is working collaboratively to share ideas across health and human services departments to ensure as much of the safety net remains intact as possible. The department's operating budget totals $224 million with $56,300 allocated from one-time funds for ongoing operations representing onetenth of 1% of total revenue sources. We do not have a capital budget this year. The department is budgeted for 604 full-time equivalents based on balancing measures totaling $31 million in federal, state, and local funds. This represents a 30% reduction in FTEES compared to this time last year and a 25% reduction from our adjusted current year budget approved in November which was at 801 full-time equivalents. The department is requesting restoration of 125 positions requiring $4.9 million in general fund. Since this presentation was prepared, the CEO has indicated in her board letter support for our restoration of an additional $400,000 for two essential child welfare services contracts, bringing the restoration requests to $5.3 million. Now, expansion requests have been included in the budget for the fiscal year. This chart reflects the programs and services in our three budget areas. 85% of our staff provide direct services to our community and the remainder support those staff in completing their duties. The Department of Social Services serves the poorest and most vulnerable among us with life-saving services in the form of food assistance, medical insurance coverage, and protective services. Our work allows children the food they need to grow healthy bodies and focus on

learning while in school. Our work allows children and adults to access medical care, which keeps them in school and in the workforce and able to thrive within their family units. Our work helps families with children avoid abuse and neglect, recover from the impacts of trauma, learn healthier behaviors, and develop protective capacity in order to find a new way forward as a family. or in situations where that is not possible, the children to find new forever homes with people who can appropriately love them and provide for them. Our work is what saves seniors from abuse and neglect and supports them with the resources necessary to maintain dignified lives in their homes. The department is also responsible for the mass care and sheltering of county residents in time of disaster. Time and again, our staff go above and beyond in service to the residents of Santa Barbara County. Under the heading of general county program transfers, we have $91,400 for the human resource manager in the department who is assigned as a lead to the countywide ERP project. This chart reflects our staffing levels for the past four adopted budgets and our proposed staffing level for fiscal year 2627 if our restoration is not granted. On November 18th, the department eliminated 57 vacant positions for a current year adjusted budget of 801 full-time equivalents. The balanced budget includes a reduction of 197 FTEEs across the department, 23 in administration and support, 91 in economic assistance and employment services, and 83 in protective services for children, adults, and the disabled. The reduced staffing staffing levels were necessary to meet anticipated funding.

Our operating budget for fiscal year 2627 totals $224 million, a decrease of $13 million from fiscal year 2526. The net decrease in operating budget is comprised of a reduction in salary and benefits of $16.5 million, a reduction in services and supplies of $4.4 4 million and an increase in other charges of $8 million primarily due to an increase in cash assistance payments, mandated client supported services, and an increase in charges for liability insurance. In spite of our financial challenges over the past year, the department has still been hard at work doing many great things. And on this slide and the next we would highlight like to highlight some of our achievements uh for the past year. Each year each month the department serves over 179,000 county residents including 64,000 children ensuring broad access to lifesaving safety net services and strengthening support for vulnerable families across the county. As your board knows, the past year has been especially challenging with the department's budget. And we engaged the services of a Department of Social Services financial expert to help us as assess our fiscal operations to update our practices to align with our changing monetary climate and improve our fisc financial resiliency. We continue to automate our processes where possible and have integrated an estimated $3 million have generated an estimated $3 million in staff sa time savings with digital workflows allowing eligibility staff to redirect time toward direct service delivery. This improvement was the direct suggestion of line staff. We have completed all community first choice option funded inhome supportive

services reassessments on time avoiding significant fiscal penalties and ma maintaining compliance with program requirements. The department engaged with approximately 9,200 community members during 29 community sponsored events to connect residents to essential services such as CalFresh and medical. Pathway Home 2 provided individuals currently incarcerated in Santa Barbara County jails with a variety of resources, including access to educational opportunities through our local community colleges and worked to connect them postrelease to additional resources and job readiness services. The program enrolled 266 individuals over the course of the grant period, assisting individuals with reintegrating into the community. Lastly, we also increased initial placement of children with relatives by 71% over a 12-month period, helping more children remain connected to family and community by embedding a kinfirst approach. Some of our goals and objectives are list for next year are listed on this slide and the next slide. Due to upcoming state and federal program policy changes, we will update our resources, train staff, and ensure timely implementation of the multiple regulatory changes in the CowWorks, medical, and CalFresh programs. We will successfully launch a new statewide automated child welfare system by October of 2026, which will involve many tasks to be completed before and after go live and will eliminate separate standalone systems that are currently needed to augment the system that we have today. As other departments have already done, social services will be implementing a comprehensive printer optimization initiative that is expected to save $122,000 and this will be completed by September. We will continue to work with critical county partners to serve the justice

involved population through the county's calim efforts to ensure our mutual clients have timely access to medical benefits so their medical needs are met without delay upon release from custody. The department will continue to fight food insecurity in the county by participating in outreach events and collaborating with community- based organizations to ensure families and individuals who qualify for CalFresh have access to food assistance. We will fully implement California's new permanent foster care rate structure which shifts payments from a placementbased to a child focused assessment driven model supporting the youth specific needs and reducing reliance on congregate care. Lastly, we will continue to embrace automation and will enhance customer communication through digital outreach tools, enterprising, enterprise messaging platforms, and expanded online services options, ensuring a variety of doorways, physical and electronic, are open to access information about our services. All four of our operational review priority recommendations have been completed or our ongoing efforts such as developing new outcome measures as program rules and fiscal realities change to improve efficiency and workforce alignment. Related to these efforts, the department will conduct an updated review of the administrative and support budget program area to ensure essential staff support needs are being met at the highest possible level within the available administrative staffing resources. This slide lists several items that we need to be watching in the current fiscal year. And as I communicated to your board by way of a memo on March 27th, these are current year fiscal issues that have come to our attention. The first is one that you were told

about in the beginning of March by uh the county budget officer Paul Clemente related to the IHSS program, which is a uh $569,000 problem in our current year budget. Uh this is uh a problem this year because it was not identified and incorporated into our budget when our budget was created in January of 2025 and it's associated with a wage increase that had happened during that prior time. We also have a problem with interest charges uh for negative cash balance now that we don't have fund balance. Uh we have a cash flow problem and our estimate for the current year is that we're going to have an additional $34,000 above budget um for negative interest uh with the auditor's office. um our Cowsaw's um Joint Powers Authority um estimate of cost for the current year was underestimated by $42,000 because we mistakenly used an old rate in making that calculation. In child welfare services and the adoptions program, we are projecting currently to be over budget by $86,000. Uh and the components of that are primarily attrition. We planned our budget anticipating uh a 3.96 uh vacancy factor um for the people working in that area and it has actually only been about 1.9%. We have um overtime which is very tightly controlled uh within the department. We have overtime occurring for after hours workers. These are the the staff that are going out after hours to do investigations. Um and then we also have an issue with how we built our budget. uh anticipating work in certain areas with different funding sources, but the need for emergency response and the hours that are associated with that in the time

study are driving up costs there. in the cash assistance payments in the adoption and foster care area. This is something I spoke to your board about um last year um in April and again over the summer and again in October talking about our structural imbalance. Um our costs for foster care uh payments and adoptions uh continues to go up. When we recreated our budget mid year this year, we increased the dollar amount plan for that expense and we're estimating that it's still going to go over that budgeted amount by $714,000. So, we will be returning um we um have additional time study information coming in for the third quarter, additional revenue and expense information coming in on a monthly basis. So, we'll be reassessing uh this potential gap and coming back to your board uh before the end of the fiscal year with more solid numbers um to u show where we're landing regarding fiscal issues to watch for next year. This slide lists several um issues for us to watch literally in the coming days and weeks and months. The January governor's budget proposal to shift additional IHSS cost the county has been been met with intense scrutiny and we're very hopeful that that will not end up uh continuing to exist in the May revise. And this was the um idea that the counties would start paying more for the IHSS benefits if they were awarding hours above a state determined average. The medical program is fully funded by the state and federal government, but the state implemented a four-year freeze on annual increases two years ago. So, we're currently operating in the current year and will be operating in the budget year with the same level of funding for that program that we had three years ago. In 1991 and then again in 2011, the

state realigned programs to create dedicated funding streams for the state share of expenses going directly to the counties. When queso growth occurs, case load growth is provided to the counties months or even years later. We are still owed 1991 realignment case load growth in the amount of $532,000. And we are now owed case growth for fiscal year 2425 in the amount of $678,000. At some point in the future when sales tax receipts increase, uh we will get paid back that money. HR1 may impact future funding in the CalFresh program, requiring states to pay a portion of the benefits that have historically been 100% federally funded. This will be based upon the state's per payment error rates. At this moment, California does not have a mechanism to pass along those costs to Santa Barbara County, but that may change. Lastly, as you have seen, over the past two years, the foster care and adoptions categorical aid costs have continued to grow. This slide highlights some of our per Oh, I'm sorry. Will continue to grow. Have continued to grow. Period. Thank you. Um, this slide highlights some of our performance measures. If the staffing reductions in the balance in the balancing measures is implemented and our restoration grant request is not granted, these performance targets will have to be recalibrated. But we do believe if our restoration request um is supported by the board that we will be able to meet these target measures for the coming year. Due to the limited availability of local funds, realignment revenues, general fund contribution, and fund balance to fully leverage allocated state and federal funds, the department has eliminated reduced or deferred expenditures where

possible. The department's balancing measures total $31 million in federal, state, and local funds with $1.5 million of that being local funds. In the area of administration, we have reductions totaling $5.4 4 million and includes the elimination of 23 full-time equivalents, nine of which are filled, four of which are unfilled, and the reduction of training contracts, leased property, computer refresh, and replacement vehicles. Although these reductions will impact internal operations given the county's difficult budget circumstances, the department has chosen to prioritize only the most critical client-f facing programs. So the department is not requesting restoration in the administration area. in protective services for children, adults, and disabled. Reductions total $13,833,000 and include the elimination of 83 full-time equivalents, and the reduction of child welfare service contracts and the adult and aging network, funding for the area agency on aging, and funding for the coordinator of the Kuyama resource center. The department is requesting restoration for 47 full-time equivalents in child welfare services in the amount of $2.9 million, which leverages $3.7 million in state and federal funding. If granted, this would still result in the elimination of 35 positions and the service contracts and community supports listed on this slide. As noted at the beginning of this presentation, the CEO's office is recommending funding for this restoration plus an additional 400,000 for two child welfare service contracts and suggests alternate funding to potentially restore the contractor on payroll for the C Kuyama Family Resource Center.

In the area of economic assistance and employment services, the reductions total 11.6 $6 million and includes the elimination of 91 full-time equivalents and a reduction of the district attorney welfare fraud service agreement. The department is requesting restoration of 78 full-time equivalents in Calresh for $2 million, which leverages $7.4 million in state and federal funding. This would allow us to maintain our current staffing levels in this program area and fully mitigate the impact of HR1 on the local share of cost to the administration of this program. What isn't specifically listed on this slide is the elimination of a long-standing $50,000 match from the county for the area agency on aging to draw down state and federal funds for senior nutrition programs. I am not advocating for this restoration, but I am aware that at least one community partner is applying to be the new area agency on aging entity for Santa Barbara and San Los counties and is requesting with the help with the administrative match in the amount of $55,900. On this slide, I want to highlight the interconnection of the two areas for which the department is requesting restorations, CalFresh and child welfare services. The public social safety net is integrated and comprised of dozens of programs that are intended to work together to keep people safe and meet basic needs. Santa Barbara County has one of the highest poverty rates in California. In our report to the board on October 7th, we shared that both the overall poverty rate of 16.3% and the child poverty rate of 21% in Santa Barbara County exceeded the state rates of 11.8% and 4 point 14.6%. and 6% respectively. Without cash and food assistance benefits, the poverty rate would be significantly higher, especially for

children. In a 2023 ped pediatric study published in the Journal of the American Medical Association, they found that access to food assistance reduces child abuse and neglect investigations. For these reasons, we see both restoration requests as extremely urgent and important to protect child safety in Santa Barbara County. This is our service level restoration request slide. Significant reductions to the CalFresh and child welfare services programs. Both mandated programs were included in order to submit a balanced budget taking into account the available general fund contribution and realignment leaving both of these program areas without sufficient staff to meet mandated performance standards. So we are requesting restoration for the positions necessary to have functional programs. On the eligibility side, medical does not have a match and cow works has a maintenance of effort at a fixed amount leaving Calresh as the only program in this service area to reduce bringing costs in a line with available general fund contribution. CalFresh has a local match requirement that allows the county to only draw down as much state and federal funding as the available local match allows up to the allocation limit. The need for this restoration is a direct result of HR1 which increases the county share of Calresh administrative costs by 50% effective October 1st of this year. In order to maintain a minimally functional CFresh program, ensuring applications and renewals are processed timely, the department is requesting restoration of 78 FTEES. Similar to CalFresh, child welfare services does not have an maintenance of effort, which means that the service level is ultimately at the discretion of the board. Realignment revenue, which is a critical funding source for mandated programs, has experienced inadequate

growth and has not kept pace with escalating costs. In addition, the recent trends of increased categorical aid growth has required that realignment and general fund be redirected to meet this need, reducing funds available for staffing. In order to maintain a minimally functional child welfare program prioritizing our emergency response services, the department is requesting restoration of 47 full-time equivalents, which is $2.9 million in general fund. We did not select all of the positions in child welfare services even though they are all truly important and valued and instead focused on the number of positions needed for program viability. Combined, the service level reduction request is for 125 positions and $4.9 million in general fund to bring our staffing level back up to 729. This is our quote. Overcoming poverty is not an act of charity, is an act of justice. And our quote reflects the truth that overcoming poverty and all of its ills associated with it is achievable and it is what is required to establish a society that is equitable for all.

Thank you. All right. Thank you, Director Nielsen. Board members. Supervisor Lee. I do. I have a question about Calresh. So, I just want to make sure that your proposed restorations would maximize our funding match for CalFresh. Is that correct?

The proposed restoration would allow us to maintain our current staffing levels in that program area. Um there um is additional um state and federal money available if the general fund were even at a higher level, but we have not um asked for that. We're just asking to maintain um at our current level uh and to have the board mitigate the impact of HR1 that hits us on October 1st. So, how much restoration would you need to maximize the match?

Um I'm going to turn that over to our chief financial administrative officer, U Maria Gardner, because I'm sure she has that at the her fingertips. supervisor, through the chair, we would need another $860,000 to maximize the CalFresh allocation and that would draw down several million dollars more and allow us to restore the remaining eligibility worker positions. Thank you for that. And I want to touch on Kuyama. So I have a couple questions about the balancing measures that you have for the Kuyama Valley Family Resource Center corner position. So what does that role do? Can you

um yeah, super supervisor through the chair um assistant director Amy Krueger will go into the details of that. Um the reason that that was um cut as our balancing measures is I took the chair's admonition very seriously last fall of of coming to the board with anything that wasn't mandated uh gone, right? And and so it's not that we don't think it's important, but um it was part of what was not mandated. So, uh, Assistant Director Krueger can speak to the specific activities that the person out there is undertaking.

Thank you, Supervisor Lee through the chair. Um, our contractor on payroll, uh, Martha is the staff to the family resource center in Quuiama. And that is um primarily to work with kids and families doing case management to help organize services to come out to Quama such as um uh food assistance deliveries weekly, uh senior nutrition, health services, um immigration services, other kinds of community events to prevent like school readiness, social connection, uh civic engagement, Um she also serves kind of as the hub for all our disaster re response services when there are emergencies in the Quiamama Valley.

Thank you. Yeah. So the reason I bring it up is that that position that role is so crucial to the Kuama Valley that I will support the restoration of that position for Martha because she is incredible member of the community that they need her to to do their best. So, and as you know, Kim is one of the most under served communities in our county. So, I just want to put that out there. Thank you. Thank Thank you, Supervisor Lee. Supervisor Hartman.

Um, let me start with something positive. Uh, the 71% over a 12-month period of uh the the uh Kin First program. Could you des I mean that's a huge number. How did you achieve that? It it is a huge number. supervisor through the chair and I'll let Assistant director Krueger get into the specifics of that.

Thank you, Supervisor Hartman, through the chair. We are are very pleased with that effort. Um the Kinfirst efforts, we have a one-time funding that became available uh to us for technical assistance, training, um and uh strategies to help support our staff to identify how to connect kids with kin earlier in the process. We've had a fairly high number of kids placed with KIND. Um, typically I think we've been about 50% recently. Um, which is up from probably 35% a few years ago, but we've really focused on the first placement. So, um, that takes a lot more um, resources up front to get kids placed immediately rather than going maybe to a foster home, emergency shelter home for a day or two. Um but really figuring out how can we get them placed immediately with Ken.

Well, congratulations. That that really jumped out at me. Um I I uh we have a letter uh that we received from Lisa Bravo at the family service agency talking about this um AAA funding. And I just wanted to highlight uh that for um 55 really $56,000 uh we really get a lot of leverage from that. And it's uh it's homed delivered and congregate meals, inhome support services, transportation, health and wellness, benefits counseling, uh information and referral, and to help with um people taking advantage of elders and for caregivers, respit care, training and education, support groups and counseling and information and referral. And anybody who's cared for someone who is declining knows that that is um really invaluable. And then it it also provides a long-term care ombbudzman program um to to monitor people in long-term care which uh is very important. So I think somewhere we have to come up with that match. I think that slow county, am I correct? Slow has already agreed to do their share.

Supervisor Hartman through the chair. Yes. U they have they had pre previously told me that they were moving to uh an inind rather than financial last year, but now yes, they have responded to that request. Um, if I may, I would just point out that the um deadline for entities wishing to respond to the state's RFP uh to run the AAA, I believe, closes next week. And so, um, there could be other entities also applying to become the provider for the two counties. Um, but I would expect that whoever wins uh that RFP with the state that their request be similar in that ballpark.

Thank you. So I I just I think that that is really important. We can't let that fall by the wayside. I also um have spent some time in Kyama and uh if that comes from the equity fund or somewhere I think that that is a really key position to keep going and um w would you talk more about child protective services? your performance measures don't really reflect um a decline in service but you have so many FTEEs fewer um even with the restoration where does that leave us

I I supervisor Hartman through the chair I'll start the answer and then turn it over to assistant director Krueger for the fine points but um you know all of us are clear that those people currently working in child welfare are important and doing good work. Um, when the CEO's office invited departments to submit a restoration request a week after we submitted our budget requests, uh, my executive staff and I uh, sat down and, you know, looked at, okay, what do we have to have to be functional moving forward? And we have always been very mindful that we're part of the county family and that there's other county departments that also face challenges and and we're going to be facing financial things. So we did not make the case that we could have made uh based upon you know the value of additional work of those people. Um but it is um you know it it it's just kind of where we had to draw the line in the sand from a financial standpoint to make a request that we felt we could strongly support. Uh but if assistant director Krueger could speak to u that more fine points.

Thank you. Uh, Supervisor Hartman through the chair. In terms of the performance measures, we have um historically been at a target of 100% u for our safety measures. So that's our um timely investigations and face-to-face contacts with uh children who are in out of home care. And so we have um lowered those to 90% um for the budget year um in line with what the state standards are. We've always exceeded those. we've always been close to 100% um because of our prioritization of safety. Um so I think that's why you're not seeing the huge decline. Um and that also represents our plan to really shift all of our resources to emergency response should we um need to have the reduction in the staffing levels. Um it it's really it really becomes um working with priorities and figuring out what what can we do to ensure safety because that's the bottom line is really safety. So um that's why you won't see the decline in those performance measures. However, on the back end, we're going to have impacts, big impacts as far as um time frames, our ability to do case management, to return phone calls for resource families, to finalize adoptions, to get court reports filed timely. I mean, there will be a lot of impacts uh at that staffing level.

Thank you. That's what I feared. Um final question is uh about the farmworker resource center and and I we have grants but tell me what is proposed for that over the next year. um Supervisor Hartman through the chair if um executive director Cervin could address because uh the grants do come and go and um he's been a master um administrator in his ability over the past years to um have them come and go and to shift focus slightly here or there based upon what the grant required and at the same time maintain a core staffing group um that really connect with the community being served. D and and keep the services happening. So Luis, if you could um address that.

Hi, good morning Supervisor Harmon through the chair. So that is correct. Uh if you all recall when our original grant ended about a year and a half ago, we were very aggressive in going after competitive grants and at that point we we had a really good problem on our hands, which was that we were actually granted most of the grants that we applied for. So we were granted the Employment Development Department farmworker advancement program. That was an 18-month grant which actually ended in March. We were also granted the uh GOP uh grant of $300,000 that allow us to do a lot of engagement with this farmworker community. And we also got a little bit of funding from from Senkall. In addition to that, we actually received a 4-year grant from Department of Labor. So, we are currently in in the second year of that. So even though the first three grants already ended right now we have we're in the second year of this uh uh um uh federal grant and we have been continuing to apply for more grants. One of the grants that we just applied for last month was the second iteration of the farmworker advancement program which we are very optimistic um hopefully uh they're all very competitive at this point but we are very optimistic because of the wonderful work that the staff have been doing. We're optimistic that we're gonna potentially receive that grant again.

Thank you. Another bit of good news and congratulations. That really shows leadership on your part. Thank you, Supervisor Hartman. Supervisor Caps.

Thank you, Chair Nelson. Uh thank you, Director Nielson, and to your staff. Uh it goes for the previous department as well, but I just want to acknowledge the stress that your department's been under um facing these cuts and also so much of the population you serve is of mixed status. It's just a very terrifying time. So I just wanted to acknowledge that. Uh I have three questions about um Calresh, a program I'm very much a champion of. First, the math. How does uh I was pleased to see that the CEO is recommending restoring 2 million. So how does that ex elaborate how does 2 million pay for 78 positions? How how do you leverage? Just explain that out please.

Um I I will start. Um so the the um currently the uh match for the um CalFresh the local match for the CalFresh staff is 15% approximately. Y um and that's going to increase by 50% in October. So the u bulk even then the bulk of the staff is being paid for by state and federal funds. Yep. Um, do you want to give the specifics, Maria, or or the more further breakdown? And and and I will also say that, you know, that's a combination of of line workers and supervisors and clerical staff that are all in that mix of getting that work done,

right? Um, so it's not, you know, everybody at the same pay level, but thank you sup supervisor through the chair. The CalFresh match changes October 1st, so we have um a a hybrid situation. So annualized the match this uh budget year would be 20.63% um to be able to you provide that match and then you get the matching state and federal dollars for that. So it really does stretch a dollar quite far um but without having additional general fund going into the budget. We had to operate within the 15% match and it didn't stretch as far and so that's why so many were in harm's way. So these dollars just pay for a portion and then the the the match comes in.

Yes. And then similarly, do we have a number for how much money the program brings in? Not for us, but for the recipients. Sure. The um the benefits are spent here locally. We issue over 11 million a month in CalFresh benefits. 11 million a month. Yes. And the economic um multiplier for that is it is estimated that for every dollar spent in benefits, another $1.54 is created in local economic activity. Great. And I assume a large proportion of that goes to children. Yes.

Um okay, those are my two math questions. Then my second question, you included in the chart um a statistic or uh from um from the Journal of American Medical Association about how access to food assistance reduces child abuse and neglect investigations. Can you just elaborate on that? How it impacts the rest of your departments as well? if there's if people are fed the most basic thing you could probably imagine uh how does it impact the rest of the work that you do?

Well certainly supervisor caps through the chair um you know for all of us you know having the food we need to eat when we're hungry just makes us be more stable calm and focused and able to focus on the rest of the work. So um the same thing would apply for um clients in the cowworks program that are trying to work on on developing their skills um clients that we have um in every other depart part of the department um in terms of having if they're eligible um and now u moving forward the eligibility requirements for students um have been right loosened u so we're going to probably see more students um in the program hopefully um that uh really have that need but in the past have have had a lot of limitations in terms of access. Um, so it it's, you know, true in child welfare, um, and true in terms of helping families have greater stability to, um, not have as many stressors related to child welfare, but also true for all of our population as a whole in terms of of not having and and and the amount, you know, I I want the public to understand that, you know, the amount of CalFresh benefits a family is entitled to and who's entitled is very constrained. Um, so basically, you know, people have to be um, you know, living on an adjusted income at or below the federal poverty level to to qualify and then if they do have income from other sources, then that lessens the amount of CalFresh benefit that they're able to get. Um, so it's uh, Maria, do you want to reference the example I asked you to be ready for?

Sure. Thanks, Daniel. Um, so the statistic is that for a Cal Works or I'm sorry, a CalFresh family of three, um, they would qualify for CalFresh if they make less than $2,800 a month for their gross income. But through a series of questions, we also have to determine that their net income does not exceed federal poverty level, which would be $2,200 per month. And then they would have a maximum benefit of $118 per month if that is their income level. And so someone working 40 hours per week would need to earn $185 to minimally qualify for Calresh in that situation. Wow.

Yeah. I can attest to the college students uh just UCSB has done so much with your department in the past several years. Uh the the getting Calresh enrollment. We've been to those events uh where there students lined up out the door. So it's incredible. So uh you know my last question just has to do with our participation rates. Um because I know it's hard to get people to sign up. It's arduous process. I mean there's been a lot of articles and books even written about CalFresh is a very they the government doesn't make it easy to get this program. You have to really prove that you need it. And um as a result, I think uh prior to me becoming a supervisor, uh I would, you know, would watch the numbers and we were pretty low as a county uh relative to the rest of the state um in terms of participation rates, but now we've made great strides and so I I just worry that if we don't restore these cuts uh as the CEO is recommending that we could fall. Can you just speak to how we're doing participation wise?

Thank you. Yes, supervisor. through the chair. The um California Department of Social Services has a CalFresh dashboard and so if you um access that website, you can click on any county and compare counties to counties or to statewide. And so uh Santa Barbara County did um uh recently achieve a 70% participation rate, but it has fallen in the last year. Um and uh it is delayed measurement. So uh the the number that you'll find there for 2026 is now at 57.7%. Okay. But it's based on 5year average data. So it goes back to 2021. So it's not an instant data point. Yeah. And again, I know it's hard. I mean, the state average, I think, is around 70. And yes,

whereas other states, Oregon, Washington are close to 100. So it's just a again, I I I that number 11 million a year a month is pretty remarkable. And the fact that it's spent in our grocery stores also means jobs and other things. So anyway, thank you. Yeah, I I if I could just add on supervisor capture the chair. Um you know sometimes when we're dealing with clients that all they're getting is CalFresh and their dollar amount is so small they have a hard time seeing that it's worth it. Yeah.

Whereas the clients that we're dealing with on other program areas like maybe they're on medical or they have other services then it's kind of like they're engaging with us anyway so they might as well put forth the effort right to to have all of everything that's available. And so that's part of our challenge as well in addition to um issues of pride and things like that. For sure. Thank you. Thank you. Thanks, Chair.

All right. Thank you, Super Caps. I'm going to jump in here. Um I was pretty disturbed by what the cuts to child welfare services looks like for our county. And I I think um Miss Krueger might have been a little modest in her um description of where we're at now and where we're going to be going in the future with either the cuts or the cuts even with the restoration. And so I just kind of wanted to dive in a little bit more if if I if I could. Um you know, prior to any of these cuts, are we already fully staffed there? I mean, or is there a is there a backlog already under the current budget that we're at today?

Chair Nelson, we are starting to see impacts because of the positions and vacancies we've been holding for the last year that Director Nelson referenced. So, our case loads are increasing. Um we do have uh some backlogs in our resource family approval process um that are starting to show up and um our we're prioritizing our emergency response but we have seen a big increase particularly in our after hours activity. So it's starting to show and it is starting to wear on our staff. We're starting to see increased leaves of absence and uh you know secondary traumatic stress from staff having to try and manage the workload

and we're also having difficulty following up. I mean there's a there's case management that needs to be take place that that's not necessarily happening on the the frequency that we would prefer on is that correct under the current where we're at today because of our case loads. Yes. I mean, we are meeting our mandates in terms of seeing kids face to face, ensuring safety, but we are starting to struggle with getting court reports filed and then all of the secondary, you know, case management type of administrative tasks and follow-ups that need to happen, you know, to to stay in compliance. And when you say delays with our resource families, you're talking about placement in foster care, adoptions, those those timelines get a lot longer.

Yes, that's correct. And that causes additional stress and impacts on on those families and children that are impacted by that are in the system. It does. It causes stress on the families who are having to wait and it causes kids to be in care longer than they need to be in care. So it's a it's a double impact in that way. So then if we go to just our balancing exercise where we make all these cuts, this is prior to restorations. We're looking at just able to do emergency care at that point. So we're not doing the follow-up. We're not talking to we're we're we'll talk to resource parents as we can, but a lot of that comes kind of at a screeching halt. Is that is that a yes somewhat accurate?

Yes, Supervisor Nelson, if we're talking about the cuts without any restoration without any restoration, that is a minimal functional able to respond to emergencies only at that point. Okay. Yes, that's make sure the public heard that that we all heard that that's the level of what we are under this balancing exercise. with the restorations, we can get up to a certain level of minimal care in these other areas. Is that what you're how is that what you're describing?

Uh yes, Supervisor Nelson, as Director Nielsson mentioned, um with the restorations, we have 35 um positions still in adult and children services. Um we have a mixture of staff. We have social workers, six social workers still who are cut. We have um case our case aids are 12 case aids cut who provide a lot of the um support to social workers allowing them to focus on social work um instead of the administrative tasks transportation documentation um visitation primarily court-ordered visitation. So there will still be impacts but we will be able to function at that level but that level is still lower than we are at today. Yes. Okay. So just to

that's 35 less positions.

Right. So when we talk about cutting the fat, you know, um the way I describe these cuts is if we go down to the balancing without the restorations where it's an amputation and if we actually make these restorations, it's just cutting into the bone, which we all know how that's advised as well. So that's how I would describe it. So it's a huge priority area for me. Um I'm I do not like to spend general fund in these areas. Um I rather the realignment funding that comes from the state to be adequately to um solve these problems. But you know the governor has other priorities and so that's why we're not why we're having to um these aren't HR1 issues. This is this is re alignment growth and projections from the governor's office. HR1 issues hit next year. This year is strictly the state of California's mismanagement. And so um I don't want to do that. But I also see child welfare services as part and parcel to public safety. And you know, it's the whole reason why we have a a a um a safety net in the first place. It's for our most vulnerable. It's our victims which are protected by public safety and it's our children who are protected by child welfare services. So this is an area that I'm deeply concerned about. Um I was so concerned that I you know these restorations I actually looked at maybe we just take the calresh restorations and we send them over there. But what I've learned from Miss Gardenardner is that that has other downstream impacts. And if I'm if I'm right, if we did that, those impacts would just be um because of the the amount of uh the cost allocation that that $2 million that we're asking for on CalFresh would completely disappear and be an additional cost burden on the rest of the department and so there would be actually no net impact positive impact on additional FTEES if we move those dollars around. Is that correct, Miss M. Gardner?

You are in the ballpark. there would be a slight uh increase in FTEES for child welfare for that. But but they with the um Calresh positions being reduced, then Calresh would no longer pick up most of those overhead costs and the remaining programs FTEES would pick that up, including child welfare. Yeah. So that $2 million would get us maybe five more positions, which is not a good value. Exactly.

In the scheme of things. Okay. So I'm I'm I'm off that now and and supportive of both. So, I was going down that staff knows I was going down that over the last uh couple weeks was I was trying to find more money for child welfare services because I am I'm deeply troubled by that. That's something that I think is one of our first areas of of restorations we should be looking at as we move forward as a board. Um it's it's um you know the amount of stress that not only those children have but those families that are um stepping up to serve and to to taking into a child into their house that's not their own is is a big deal. And being in limbo and not having the support from the county who has the function and responsibility to do that is very disheartening. I I know for a lot of these families, I've heard from a lot of these families. I've had personal experiences. And so it's an area where I um hope that we can do better and that we can do more. And again, I I'm not blaming the county for this. Again, this is a state issue that we're, you know, we're getting dumped on um with this. And so um again, those are where some of my advocacy is still at the state is that they should be funding this in a greater amount. Those realignment dollars should be covering this. Um and it's an area that I think that we should continue to invest in. Um, one last question moving back to CalFresh. What do we have any projections on the impacts of HR1 on Calresh on, you know, we're we're suspecting that's more people will not be applying for services.

So, after HR1, you know, we're seeing that on on the healthc care side. How does that roll down into the CalFresh case load

for social services? So already effective April 1st there was a change in who was eligible for Calresh where HR1 caused um certain groups of asileles and refugees to no longer be eligible and then I believe it's June 1st is the additional um work requirements hitting and I can have Maria speak to that more specifically. Um, one of one of my concerns, um, beyond people falling off because HR1 saying you're no longer eligible or falling off because they can't meet work requirements or can't navigate the paperwork to prove it is um the fear of uh, a year from now in 2028 um, when the when the federal government um is threatening to have states have a share of cost of the benefits because right now all the benefits are 100% federally paid for and the federal government saying, "Okay, in 2028, the states are going to start paying part of the benefits based upon your error rate." Uh, which is also part of why it's so important to me to maintain our current level of eligibility workers because if we're going to have any shot at, you know, working on error rate over time, it's it's not going to happen by reducing the staff that do that work. Uh right now there is no mechanism for the state to push that additional cost to the counties but they have a whole year and a half to figure out how to try. Right.

But would you address more specifically?

Thanks Daniel. Um Chair Nelson, the um impacts for HR1 are estimated to um mainly be around the additional work requirements for clients. So the uh work requirements have been uh waved in California for several years now. So that is new work for the counties because we haven't done that for a while. So that comes with some administrative training staff and those kinds of things. But also the requirements were expanded. So the uh the program uh that it refers to within CalFresh is Abod or ablebodied adults without dependence. Well, HR1 now says if your dependent is 14 years old or older, you now need to work. So, so even that the, you know, the naming conventions are different. Um, and it expanded the age range. So, people, it used to be up to 64. Um, I mean, people between 54 and 64 were exempt from the work requirements and now it's expanded up it up for that additional decade of of people. and also other groups were protected previously, former foster youth, uh veterans, homeless, and they are now in in that mix. So there is an estimated 17,000 people on the CalFresh case load right now that if they don't comply with the work requirements could be off aid and what that means is they would only be eligible for three months of CalFresh in a 36-month period of time. So then we would, you know, be looking at um other uh indigent issues if people don't have access to food and and those those kinds of things that that would plague the county.

But the unintended consequence is it would potentially be less of a a workload in Calresh at some point. Well, the irony here is that the workload is expected to increase even though the population served would go down because there are these um additional requirements. Yeah. The additional data requirements and Okay. Yeah. And Chair Nelson, um, to add on to that, so at the current point, the state is telling the county directors, "Well, we think it's all going to even out. Your decrease will, you know, and so we're not planning on giving you any more money for CalFresh. We're still knew some math." Yeah, I know.

Yeah. And and we're still, you know, pressing the point on that area, but also uh medical, which we think we'll have a stronger chance of having something additional show up in the May revise related to that. Last question I have is on IHS are how well are you know that's driving some of these costs. I know that we just recently increased the pay for IHSS workers and for most IHS's workers you know that's it's a it's a nominal amount for the overall responsibility but how are we doing on like audits in that space to make sure that we are keeping the fraud and those that may not need it but are using it um in check.

Right. So we have audits that happen to us, but we also have our internal compliance people. So we have um currently two people in our compliance unit that work on the IHSS program with kind of like real time in the current world monitoring uh for things like that to make sure that fraud isn't occurring and that all the rules and the regulations are are being uh complied with. My my memory is fuzzy on in terms of the most recent external audit related to IHSS. Um do you remember Rachel or Maria? We I'd have to get back to you on that. But there are external monitorings from the state which is part of why the counties are so upset with the state because when the state's saying to us we're going to make you pay start paying part of the benefits if you're if you award hours above a certain average which is what they're threatening in the January governor's budget. We're saying, "But you you come and audit us. You come and look at our compliance. You're the ones that has the hearing officers that decide when we reject somebody's hours and it goes to a hearing officer at the state, the hearing off, you know, if they award it, you know, like what control do we have over that?"

Right. Okay. Thank you. And I'll probably submit a biff to ask some a little bit more about the HS um moving forward. Great. Sorry, Supervisor Labanino.

Thank you, Mr. Chair. So, I'm just curious. I'm sure you're part of a statewide organization where you talk to all the other directors routinely. Um, what's everybody else doing? I mean, are they how many are going? I don't know how others are set up, but I mean, this is kind of our first foray into cross-pollinating with general fund. Is that common in other counties? Um, Supervisor Levanino through the chair. So, as referenced earlier by um Paul Clemente, there's a variety across the state. So, there are um counties that I'm familiar with that uh have a larger share of general fund as a part of the social services budget than than we have historically or even that we would have with with this restoration there. I I was speaking to a lady from a small county a few weeks a few months ago at our uh statewide fiscal meeting and she and her county was exactly what Paul described earlier which is they say you're not getting any general fund. You have to use your 91 realignment to to cover all of your local match. So there's this wide array. Uh there's also a wide array. Uh I don't know what's actually playing out but two months ago um you know some of the directors about 50% of the directors sitting around the table because we meet monthly in in Sacramento about 50% said that their county boards of supervisors and their CEO's offices were planning on backfilling related to Calresh um because they understood you know like we need to maintain the level of staffing we have and then the other 50% it was somewhere from anticipating nothing to something but not the full amount, right? So, it it it very much fluctuates county by county

because while I support this and I think uh you know I think we're all looking at this saying these cuts are obviously we have to do something and we've got to back fill in some of these areas but you know what's the saying if you touch it you break it you fix it you own it kind of thing I really feel especially if other counties are making this move if you're at the state level you're looking at that I mean, they can hand, you know what I mean? This is this is what governments do. You push it down to the guy below you and if they're able to cover it, the funding all of a sudden starts getting leaner and leaner. So,

Supervisor Le, you know, I 100% agree with you. I see it happening from the feds to the state and from the state to us. It's happened historically. It's happening now in the January uh governor's budget uh related to the IHSS program. Um, you know, it that's exactly what's happening. Um we meet our so it's the county welfare directors association which is an affiliate of SEESAC and so we meet once a month the the director of the California Department of Social Services comes and meets with us in person so we can have discussion about what she's seeing from her angle and what we're seeing from ours and press our points. Um but in the current um cycle um budget cycle at the state um you know the the association's focus the past weeks has been primarily on legislators educating them um with data and you know local impacts. Um two years ago the the May revise that the governor put out um was going to be very harmful to our department and to services statewide. between the May revise and the final budget. The legislators took the whole discussion in a different area and we ended up with much less harm to us in that cycle. So, um as you know all the moving parts um but we're very focused right now on impacts and on saying to the state no it is going to cost us more for this calresh changes. It doesn't even out and here's the numbers right and and we're doing that on all fronts.

All right. Thank you, Supervisor Lavanino. All right, at this time we're going to go to public comment on these two items. Um, so those of you that are um here to speak on one of these two departments, um, we're going to make public comment available for you. We're going to start with those here in Santa Barbara. Then we'll be going into Santa Maria, then online. Um, one change in the order of operation this morning is we will after public comment we will briefly hear from first five because of some afternoon scheduling reasons before going into close session. So that's just a a small change here. So with that um madame clerk and just also to remind the public if we're going into other topics outside of these two departments I'm going to ask for you to come back at a at a future public comment or even later this afternoon. Um we do have some time-sensitive um close session items that we have to discuss. Chair Nelson, members of the board, thank you. We have uh 23 requests to speak from the public on the health and human services functional group. I do have a note from a few members of the public on which individual departments they wanted to speak on, but if I do call your name uh to the podium and you do not want to speak on either county health or the department of social services, please indicate um that and we will go take up your public comment later on the agenda. We will begin with Mike Stoker to be followed by Dr. Lee Heler. Mike Uh thank you, Chairman Nelson, honorable board members. Um the good thing about these budget workshops is is let you give direction to staff and they come back and at your your budget and in hearings in June, you're 97% there. The downside is when you read a staff report on a Friday morning for an item that's going to be coming up at 9:00 a.m. and it has red flags in it, you don't know the answers to it. um you get confused

and you it can get there can be misunderstanding. Uh when I read the report on Friday morning and saw 106 positions being eliminated from the uh county clinics, um red alarms went up. This is a personal issue to me when I joined the board in the 80s. We had the mess that you talked about, Supervisor Hartman, where the the emergency rooms were overflowing where the county was getting the very very substantial costs incurred from having to reimburse those the the providers. And that that's when we really went down the road for county health clinics, which I was very very supportive of. Um, and so with that background and saying you're almost removing 80% of the FTEEs, my experience as a former supervisor, uh, and my experience with county government and other capacities, generally when you're eliminating about 80% of the folks that are working a program, that means you're almost eliminating or you're you're s significantly gutting it. Um, I want to thank you, Supervisor Lavanino. I worked with your staff on Friday, especially Corey Banelon. We got a lot of additional information, but I we never got an answer in terms of what does this mean in terms of county health clinics. And so I had to assume some worst case scenarios uh given my past history what an 80% cut in FTE means which is why on Saturday I sent out an email folks a lot of people asked me to keep them aware of what's going to county. You need to be concerned if you care about our health clinics. Um fortunately last night chairman Nelson called me up and said no health clinics are being eliminated. uh which is the first I heard and that's great news. Uh but I would say two things. Um I going forward with 80% cut of FTEES I think you have to have a very open transparent process with the stakeholders as you transition. Um and and kudos to you if you can provide the same quality of care and do it in a much more efficient way. Um, I would I do have one concern that I would throw out

at you and maybe one of you could do a budget uh inquiry request. I'm not I'm not an expert on on on medicine. Uh, but when I hear five services are getting eliminated, I would question first, how many people went to the clinics in the last year that were involved with one of those five services that you'll no longer offer? Secondly, I would ask, are those the kind of services that if there not being provided in the clinic, they're going to back it? they're gonna end up back at the emergency room and then we're back to that vicious cycle. And the third thing I would ask that you know your doctors and your staff I'm sure can answer and healthc care providers in Santa Barbara can as well. Um if it's not provided at the clinic, is it something they just don't do at all and it could lead to catastrophic illness that could have been dealt with in preventive care if it would have been at the clinic level? And I'm very very very concerned about that. So, I urge you to be thinking about that as you go forward with this proposal. Thank you.

We will. Thank you, Mr. Stoker. We will now go to Dr. Lee Heler to be followed by Stacy Brer. Lee, thank you,

Chair Nelson and members of the board. I know that you know that I know what a difficult place you're in having to figure out how to impose the least injury on county programs in this grim budget climate. Deepest gratitude goes to all of you and to Dr. Hermami and his staff for trying to make lemonade out of very sour lemons. As for animal services, and you know why I'm here, I'm going to ask you to go a little further if possible with the partial restoration and to keep it at status quo level or as close as possible for this year only. Dr. Dr. Hermami has come up with the best possible solution with the proposed restoration, but those cuts still have consequences in reducing mandated services provision because ACOs's enforce state and local laws. The reason I ask you to make it for this year only is because we have a sustainable plan to address this budget gap, but we need this year to implement it. Thanks to Dr. After her mommy's idea to hold a fundraiser last year, the $200,000 netted by Tales of Hope is being leveraged to do the license canvasing we've been talking to you about for two years. License revenues have already doubled, but it takes time to get us to where we were in 2019 when that program was generating $400,000 above license sales were without targeted outreach. City contract fees will be up for renewal next year and that will be a chance to push for full cost recovery. I have lots of confidence in Miss Aguilar's ability to bring the cities along this time because she's giving them the kind of value for money that they did not feel they were getting previously. Finally, we are kicking private fundraising into very high gear. There will be another Tales of Hope with celebrity MC's again, but we can't bring in that additional $200,000 till September. The foundation is upping its game around major donor cultivation and we are writing grant applications at a frenzied pace. We will get there, but we

cannot do it in time for this budget cycle. If you cannot see your way to finding $100,000 to keep even one acco position filled, please retain the positions as unfunded in this year's budget so that we do not have to go through the additional delay of reauthorizing them once we raise the funds. Thank you so much.

Thank you. We will now go to Stacy Bratcher to be followed by Leo Dassus. Stacy, I thought I was taller than that. Hi, Stacy Bratcher. I'm senior vice president and chief legal officer of Cottage Health. Um, first of all, thank you. This is really hard work. Um, we've all heard about HR1 and what you're doing in this room is where the rubber meets the road. Um I was very happy to hear that there will no not be closures of health clinics. That was something um as Mr. Stoker said we were very concerned about. However, it's hard to imagine how a reduction in 100 FTEEs doesn't lead to a reduction in healthc care services and in particular Dr. Hamami mentioned that all of the ology clinics will be closed. So for those of us who are not clinicians, gastroenter gastroenterology is digestive disease, neurology, people with strokes, uh MS without those clinics, those patients are going to end up in emergency rooms in our emergency rooms and we are already very full. So if there is not another provision for these patients to get specialty care, we are all as Santa Barbara residents going to be impacted by that. We want to emphasize and appreciate Supervisor Hartman's uh suggestion that SenCal take the lead in coll forming a collaboration among providers and other stakeholders in the community. Um I feel like we did have some early efforts with that with uh the county health department, but they were not fully executed. Um otherwise we wouldn't be here today expressing our concerns about the budget and the impact of these cuts on healthcare in Santa

Barbara. um especially as um uh Miss Owens noted that we're anticipating an increase of 2400 to 4,000 new indigent patients as a result of the new eligibility requirements and cuts to HR1. So I know you all are aware of that, but uh wanting to just let you know that Cottage is here to partner with the health department and we want to preserve health services here for our community. Thanks. Thank you, Miss Pratcher. We will now go to Leo Dasses to be followed by Laura Robinson. Leo.

Good morning, Chairman Nelson and honorable board. My name is Leo Deasau, uh, representing county workers with SEIU Local 620. I want to thank the board and staff for working hard to put together this budget presentation and the future ones that we will be reviewing. Um the direction given over the next couple of days and months throughout this budget process will touch the realities the uh families throughout our county from Carperia to Santa Maria from the coast to our valleys. Not only does our labor union speak today in support of the requested restoration funding, but we challenge the board to go further beyond that and to identify and allocate additional funding for programs in need of these restorations. These requests reflect what departments need to maintain safe, effective, and legally mandated programs. Every layoff we approve reflects a service not provided. The burden is transferred to the remaining employees which increases burnout errors and the reduced quality of service. Let me be unequivocal in our stance. We cannot afford a single layoff. You cannot eliminate jobs and tell us that everything is going to be okay because it isn't. Looking forward, we generally oppose the suggestion that the county look at controlling costs um through labor negotiations for employees who are already struggling to make ends meet. Their wage increases and benefits are critical to their livelihoods. We also urge the board to reconsider local revenue solutions, including the sales tax measure. The county is already below the local benchmark and this local revenue solution will help mitigate the serious financial consequences of layoffs and service reductions.

Thank you for your time. We will now go to Laura Robinson to be followed by Andrew Wyman. Laura,

hello Char Nelson and the board. My name is Laura Robinson, executive director of SEIU Local 620 representing county workforce. I want to be very clear. The proposed workforce reductions in our social safety net programs will have profound and lasting consequences for this county and for the community you serve. These are these cuts are concentrated in public health and social services, the very departments that hold up the safety nets when families are in crisis, when seniors need care, when children need protection, and when our most vulnerable neighbors have nowhere else to turn. We are not in a time of stability. We are in a time of crisis. And it is precisely in times like these that services are needed the most. The proposal to eliminate publicarmacies and laboratories is especially concerning. These facilities serve residents who cannot simply go somewhere else. If they close, people will lose access to medication, testing, and treatment. Our already limited hospitals will be overwhelmed. Emergency rooms will absorb the fallout, and the county will face far greater costs down the line. These employees are essential workers. Their services are utilized because they are needed. Removing them does not eliminate the need. It only eliminates the county's ability to meet it. The root of this crisis is the elimination of state and federal funds. But this is temporary. And although the county has a long-standing policy against using one-time funds for ongoing costs, if there was ever a time to make an exception, this is it. This is the definition of an emergency. The community cannot absorb these cuts and the workforce cannot absorb this level of loss. You also have other options. Funds currently allocated for the North County jail expansion can be redirected now to the immediate needs and the bond can be funded when we are in better financial times. That project can wait. These services cannot. And finally, I want to urge you to review the separate written public comment submitted by Local 620 on behalf of our memberships. In their own words, they describe the critical nature

of their work and the hardships that their families will face if they are laid off. Their voices deserve to be heard. So, I urge you to use every available tool, including onetime funds to prevent these layoffs, protect protect essential services, and keep the community whole. Thank you. Thank you, Laura. We will now go to Andrew Wyman to be followed by Ramona Winer. Andrew,

this is the first time I've been here. You'll have to I have to apologize. Uh uh my wife and I moved to Santa Barbara to take uh advantage of an opportunity uh to spend more time with family during our Golden Pond years. Unfortunately, that um hasn't happened the way I thought it would. Uh on three separate occasions uh I have um had to call the co co-response unit uh the sheriff and the mental health personnel because we had a emotional crisis in our family. I happen to be a retired psychiatrist uh and I have worked with criminal justice programs at other places in California. We

Yeah, Mr. Mr. That's why we were just hoping to keep the public comment specifically to public health and social services. Well, that's what I thought and I I wrote this down when when I was I don't know why I'm called now. Okay. Well, we we'll get to you later. Thank you. Please. Yeah. Appreciate you though. Please stick around.

Thank you. Apologies. And just a friendly reminder to all public here in Santa Barbara, in Santa Maria, and on Zoom. Um we did ask the public to sign up for the Health and Human Services functional group. We're going a little bit out of order and taking public comment on county health and the department of social services. So, if you are not speaking on either of those two departments, um, please indicate that once you get to the podium, we will now go to Ramona Winer to be followed by Leonardo Marcus. Ramona, is Ramona here? All righty. We will now go to Leonardo Marcus to be followed by Tom Franklin. Leonardo here.

I I believe Tom's left as well.

Uh oh, excuse me. They signed up for behavioral wellness. Um we will now go to Santa Maria for Linda Greco to be followed by Steve Hernandez. Linda, hello. And um interesting day today for sure. Uh my name is Linda Greco and I'm the president of the Santa Barbara County Animal Care Foundation. Thank you for the opportunity to address you during this important budget workshop. Our foundation exists to support and strengthen Santa Barbara um animal services in a way that directly benefits the residents of this county, both human and animal. Through our partnership in the past, we've funded critical medical care, life-saving equipment, spay and neuter programs, emergency response resources, and enrichment that involves um improvements to quality of life for animals in the shelters. These are not extras. They are essential services that elevate the standard of care in our community and help ensure humane, effective outcomes. We are proud to have a history with animal services in creating a compassionate and responsive system and it is an example of how public and private partnership can stretch resources and deliver real impact. Animal services plays a vital role in Santa Barbara County. Beyond sheltering animals, it protects public health, supports public safety, reunites families with lost pets, investigates cruelty and neglect, and serves as a safety net for most of the vulnerable animals in our region. These basic services extend beyond what is mandatory yet are foundational to a healthy and humane community. We recognize and respect the difficult financial decisions before you. However, we

respectfully urge you to avoid reductions to the animal services budget this fiscal year. Maintaining current funding levels is not simply about preserving the status quo. It's about providing a critical window of stability. Stability that allows animal services to continue operating effectively. Stability to allow our foundation alongside the county to actively pursue additional funding opportunities. and stability that gives us the time needed to develop both temporary and sustainable solutions that strengthen the system for long term. Reductions at this moment would risk undermining progress, place additional strain on already limited resources, inadvertently increasingly increasing expense in causing unpopular choices. Conversely, maintaining funding allows us to build on what is working and move forward thoughtfully and collaboratively. The foundation stands ready to continue doing its part, engaging donors, expanding partnerships, and investing in the programs that enhance the county's services. But our work is most effective when it complements the stability and rei reliability of public foundation. In closing, we ask for your partnership in protecting this essential service by maintaining funding of animal services. You are investing in public safety, community wellness, and humane treatment of animals across Santa Barbara County. Thank you for your leadership and thank you for your time.

Thank you, Mr. Greco.

We will now go to Steve Hernandez to be followed by Daniel Ibara. Steve. Uh good morning. Uh my name is Steve Hernandez and I'm here to speak about the proposed layoffs and the very uh the very real human cost it could carry. Behind every position you're considering cutting is not just a line item, it's a lifeline. These essential workers are the people who answer crisis calls, connect families to housing, ensure seniors receive care, and help our most vulnerable neighbors navigate systems they cannot manage alone. When you reduce staff, you don't reduce the need. You increase weight times. You delay services and you push people who are already on the edge further into crisis. A missed appointment can become a lost home. A a delayed response can become an emergency. These aren't abstract outcomes. They are predictable consequences. I understand the fiscal pressures you're facing, but balancing a budget by cutting essential services doesn't eliminate costs. It shifts them. It moves them into our emergency rooms, our law enforcement systems, and our streets where the human and financial costs are far greater. Social workers, eligibility workers, and career- employment specialists are in the trenches every day. We experience our clients hardships alongside them. Serving those who rely on us as one of their last resorts. For children and families, cuts like these put safety at risk. Services meant to protect our children will become more strained, delayed, and unavailable. The consequences of that can be devastating and irreversible. for basic benefits. This means longer lines, longer wait times for benefits to be issued and people going out with going without the necessities required to survive. When basic needs are not met in time, families fall deeper into crisis, not

out of it. And fundamentally, these cuts contradict the very mission we are sworn to uphold to ensure our community is safe, supported, and self-sufficient. We cannot claim that mission while dismantling the workforce that makes it possible. Every worker in this system plays an essential role. We are the front lines. We are the ones holding the line for families trying to break cycles of poverty and instability. Cutting off these services does not solve the problem. It deepens it. I we urge you to consider these layoffs because what may look like a financial decision today will become a human crisis tomorrow and our community is ultimately judged by how we treat those with the least power and the greatest need. I ask you to stand with us today. On behalf of our union 621 union members, please accept this petition expressing our support for efforts to minimize workforce reductions. Thank you.

Thank you, Mr. Hernandez. And before we proceed uh to Daniel, if you can please provide that petition to Yenya there in the hearing room, that would be greatly appreciated. We will now go to Daniel. I I already did that. Perfect. Thank you so much. We will now go to Daniel Ibara to be followed by Winona Mounts. Daniel,

good morning board of supervisors. My name is Daniel Ibara Nunes. um one of the few social workers left um here in our county's North County Santa Maria office um child welfare division um for the assessments investigation unit which is referred to as emergency response. Um I have something written which I will share today. Um my I wanted to share that I'm here to urge you to adopt the department of social services budget that prioritizes child welfare services staff both the social workers and the support staff who make the work possible above all others. Our department has already observed deep cuts to contracts and services. What really remains is just the staff. Further reductions to child welfare staffing will directly increase the risk to the children. Child welfare services team, especially your county's team, provides 247 life-saving services. Social workers respond day and night to emergencies with law enforcement and hospitals to conduct in-person safety checks. meet strict meet strict legal deadlines. Often completing detailed court reports within near or less of 48 hours of a child's removal. When children are taken into protective custody, especially in sibling groups, it takes multiple staff to transport, care for, medically clear, and safely place them. At the same time, they support the staff that are essential to the process. They handle critical documentation, coordination, and administrative work that allows social workers to meet court deadlines and remain present for the children. Without our support staff, the entire system slows down and deadlines, safety, compliance are put at risk. This work cannot be delayed or reduced without consequences. Without adequate staffing, we risk failing both our legal obligation and our duty to protect the children while accilerating staff burnout. As you make difficult budget decisions, I ask you to prioritize child welfare services. A reason for this is because adults seeking assistance can

often advocate for themselves or find temporary support. However, the children we serve, many of whom are very young, nonverbal, or living in fear, cannot. They rely on us every hour of every day. I respectfully urge you to make their safety your top priority. Thank you. We will now go to Winona Mounts. Then we will go to Zoom with Jean Silva. Winona.

Hello. Good morning. My name is Winona. I'm an eligibility worker too at the benefit service center. I've been with the county since June of 2023. Since I've started there, we've always been behind. Uh we are already short-handed with the staff we have. We currently have 3 to four hour wait times almost daily on the phones. Our division alone takes between 6 to 7,000 calls per month and we still have those weight times. Uh we continue to be behind on medical cases. We've caught up since I've last spoke with you guys and we're at July of 2025 for our medical renewals. With less staff, this will only make things worse, increasing weight times and falling further behind on processing. We ask for a zero layoff budget.

Thank you. We will now go to Zoom to begin with Jean Silva to be followed by Kendra Duncan Okconor. Jean.

My name is Jean Silva. I am a volunteer with animal services and a retired county employee. I know how hard it is to find resources and to prioritize the needs of those depending on many vital county services. I would like to offer my congratulations to the county staff who produced this budget document and excellent presentation. I'd also like to thank Dr. Hamami and the board for considering a partial restoration of the animal services budget. Even so, the proposed reduction in animal control officers in the field means their response times will be delayed due to travel times or conflicting service requests. For example, someone with a rattlesnake in the house, a sick or possibly raid raccoon on the property, or a dangerous dog in the neighborhood or a pet at home and at risk in a fire will expect and demand service, which just may not be possible. So, I ask your board for a full restoration of the animal services budget. Contract negotiations with the cities will begin with the 2627 budget and service levels as a starting point. The unrestored 2026 27 budget understates the cost of adequate services and is a poor starting point for city negotiations for a time when county ser finances are projected to further decline. If the county cannot fully or partially restore funding, there is an option. The Animal Care Foundation will continue to raise money and staff will continue to work to increase license revenue. To preserve staffing levels, I ask you to authorize

animal services positions at the 2025 26 staffing level. Even though some positions will be unfunded and vacant, it is our hope that fundraising and license revenue increases will allow animal services to fund and fill some positions during the during part of the 2026 27 fiscal year. Thank you. Thank you, Miss Silva. We will now go to Kendra Duncan O' Conor to be followed by Lynn Carile who is our final speaker on the county health and department of social services presentations. Kendra.

Hi there. Good afternoon, Chair Nelson and supervisors. I've been a volunteer here at County Animal Services for nearly 30 years. I was very frustrated to read about the proposed reductions in staff and shelter hours for animal services. Animal services is currently underststaffed and underfunded. Shelter staff rely on hundreds of volunteers who spend thousands of hours a year assisting with animal care and welfare. Local rescue partners contribute hundreds of thousands of dollars and volunteer hours to help fill the funding gaps. I'm unaware of any other county department that has such a large volunteer base donating time and money. Yes, people actually do pay to work here, to work and volunteer. That's how important animal services is in this community. And approving the budget as it is will cause delays in reuniting pets with their families, fewer adoptions resulting in longer shelter stays, delayed officer response time to bite or cruelty investigations, delayed veterinary care because officers transport animals in need. Less day fostering outings for dogs to have time away from the shelter. Fewer options for community members in need or in a crisis that can result in animals being dumped. Employee burnout and compassion fatigue. These are all real problems. Sarah Aguular and shelter employees and local partners have been working diligently to find solutions to this budget deficit and they are almost there. Another year is needed to continue to implement program changes that are already increasing revenue. Animal services is so very important as we heard earlier from ch. It's always seems to be the children and the animals that get cut first and that's hard to understand that you know in many local communities in uh California animal services departments are part of the sheriff. Maybe that's what we need to do because then we know we nothing will be cut. Thank you for your time.

We will now go to Lynn Carile who is our final speaker. Lynn, good afternoon. Chair Nelson, supervisors. My name is Lynn Carlilele. I've served as the executive director of the Quama Valley Family Resource Center for the past 12 years. I'm here to speak about recommended cuts to the Department of Social Services. I appreciate the hard and likely heartbreaking work each department and yourselves are undertaking in this budget process. As you consider funding for the Quuama Valley Family Resource Center, I'd like to offer three critical points for your consideration. First, the Quuama Valley is home to three of the eight county designated disadvantaged unincorporated communities, Quama, Newama, and Venticopa. The state recognizes the entire valley as disadvantaged. These designations are based on income and lack of resources. By cutting support for the Kuama Valley Family Resource Center, a major resource for the community, the entire valley will be fully will be even further disadvantaged. Second, in 2012, the county led a public private partnership to establish a purpose-built facility in Newama for the Quuama Valley Family Resource Center and the Quyama Library. We opened in 2013 and it has become an essential hub for the community and for the county. This county-owned facility vastly expanded our ability to host multiple meetings, workshops, events, and programs from a weekly food distribution that feeds roughly 25% of LA residents to the maj the majority of whom are families with children to all of our programs as able described by assistant director Krueger. Further, our program manager works with multiple county departments, for example, the office of emergency management and other agencies to get the word out about evacuations and to offer resources during disasters. If staffing support is cut, we will be forced to reduce hours that this county owned family resource center can be open. And finally, our program coordinator is the only case manager or social services navigator in the entire valley. There is no redundancy. If this funding is cut, all

of the people who come to our door every day looking for assistance and connection to services, most of them extremely lowincome families, will need to drive to San Maria to get help. In every other community in the county, connection to child welfare, CalFresh, and multiple services is available to residents within a few miles. If this position, which has been serving the valley for the past 26 years, is eliminated, residents will be forced to travel 50 plus miles to get the same services that are far more easily accessed by residents everywhere else in the county. The stressors caused by poverty that Director Nelson mentioned occur in Quuama just as they do in other areas of the county. And by restoring funding for the Quuyama Valley Family Resource Center, the board will be ensuring truly equitable access to resources across the county. Please consider the many recommendations to restore support for the Quyama Valley Family Resource Center. Thank you.

Thank you, Miss McClo. And that concludes public comment on the county health and the department of social services presentations. All right. Thank you, um, public for your participation. We're going to go on and do one additional department first five before we break for close session. So with that,

welcome.

Thank you. If I'm looking a little windblown, I was flying back in here. I tried to give a heart rate down. So I appreciate you accommodating me so I can get out here and get uh get on my flight. So I appreciate that and I will I will make it as quick as I can. So I don't want between you and your lunch. understand all that. So, good afternoon, Chair Nelson and members of the board. Wendy Sims Motton. I am the proud director of First Five Santa Barbara County and I am pleased to present our 2627year budget. The budget is balanced and it is aligned with our strategic strategic and fiscal plan. This presentation is a result of great teamwork and I would like to acknowledge the team that has made uh made this possible. Here in the room with me is Michelle Robertson, our assistant director. Liliana Martinez was not able to be with us here today, but she's very, very integral in getting this presentation to today. Um, also online that's probably watching is Sarah Gonzalez, our commission clerk, Brianna Dunn, our communications manager, departmental PIO, and Lexi Brener, our community engagement specialist. And if you don't indulge with me for that 90 seconds, always want to make sure what's the for foremost thought in our mind. It's our children. This is about 90 seconds or less. And this might be one of those things you might want to refer back to as we continue to work through these difficult challenges and budget hearings that we're hearing today. So please, Michelle,

every study out there is going to tell you that play-based learning is the right thing to do for students. When kids are playing outdoors, they're actually setting themselves up for the foundations of learning. Just what we know about brain development and children's developmental stages, that hands-on learning is is key to all of it. Research will say that students who are outdoors and interacting with each other, they'll use more language. They problem solve more often. They're they naturally explore and discover things on their own

when you're outside, not just listening to a instructor telling you things and you're actually being able to put that those concepts into practice. That's what the benefit of the outdoor space is in terms of school readiness and also academic achievement. Learning isn't just between our four walls, but it happens all around.

If we want kids off of technology, we need to provide them something else and reintroduce them to natural play. So, we want curious, eager learners who are just excited to come to school and are inquisitive in the whole process because all of those skills are the skills that are building kids up to be capable and competent learners when faced with a fifth grade math lesson on fractions. If there is an opportunity to help children be physically healthier, emotionally more stable, socially engaged, and is supporting them academically. Why wouldn't we do that? Thank you.

Every study out there is going to tell you so good we want to do it again.

Yeah. So, if there's key takeaways I want to really just focus on is that we're not defined by the revenue decline that Prop 10 is just inherently important to do. We really want to be defined by the results that we continue to sustain throughout the community. Making sure that we're working with the community to make sure that we're making this a community where our kids can grow and learn and thrive to that. So that's we do that by making sure that we're consistent with our long-term uh fiscal plan which is strategically allocates revenues advance to advance outcomes for children and families prenatal through age five and through operational efficiencies and ongoing monitoring and proposition 10 revenues first five Santa Barbara County maintains a fund balance sufficient to support and approve expenditures a budget summary the operating budget typically if it's trending about five six7 years it's 3.4 4 million, not really. Sometimes more, sometimes less. We have a one-time use of our operation, but it's always a planned release based on the conversation that we have with our commission and the revenues that are coming in and the expenditures we hope to achieve. Operating budget by major services have app uh excuse me, administration and support. We also have a 15% uh administrative fee that is by uh ordinance and also by our policy not to exceed 15% of our cost. Measurement is also our evaluation which is a mandated u space that we have to have through the ordinance of prop 10 and we have about a half.17% measurement u ft toward that and most of the dollars that we have and coming in are invested in the investment and program support through the community. These four areas are mandated by Prop 10, which is improving family support, improved child health, improved child development, improved systems care. All 58 counties are required to have these areas in their counties. As you can see, our staffing summary has pretty much stayed the same between 75 and 8 and seven and consistent basically the basic bottom line, what we need to

make sure that we're able to achieve the results we want to do with regards to the needs of other children and our families. our operating budget, which is only increasing about $247,000 this year in terms of over what we're sending out into the community as well as reflecting any additional costs that had to come with county costs and just a decrease in revenue. So, we were able to balance that and still be able to um get money out into the community. One of the things I'm really proud of that the things we launched our 25 29-year uh children and families commission. became uh our fiscal plan strategic and fiscal plans. We came last year. This is the first year of that plan. Uh one of the things we're excited that came out of that plan is to launch the aligned leadership um results for cohort. We went about inviting 35 cross- sector leaders to work together to align around results for children. what we want to see in this community. We have four county departments that's participating in that cross leadership so that we can align and how we need to work together because we know in first five with us in order for us to achieve the 70% making sure children are ready we're going to need the community to help us as well and so we're very proud of this and we're in our fifth se cohort of that I invite you to come along and see what we're doing as we become a community of practice. So on our administrative support, we continue to be present at the county communities. In fact, I'm leaving to go to Sacramento this afternoon to make sure that we're being represented and also enforcing policy across the state. Uh making sure the voices of our children are being heard. And we continue to strive for equity and inclusion for every child, every family, and every member of society by supporting our first five Santa Barbara statement of social justice and racial equity commitments. Measurement, as I said, is our evaluation plan. how we're doing to how we meaning to look at that and measure uh how we're doing well in the community. Um this measurement we work with UCSB has been working with UCSB for quite some time and so we're starting to look at what we need to do

now and what we need to meet for our our needs of the community and of our granters going forward. As I said, our largest investment is in investment in programs where we're continuing to working with school districts because we know that that's our anchors in terms of beyond first five. How do we make those systems stronger? As a result of having conversations and collaborations with first five, also with health clinics and early childhood centers, we continue to port support the early care and education and pediatric health and family services workforce in their professional development. And we continue again to collaborate across the community. Our fiscal issues to watch. We continue to monitor Prop 10. Our long-term fiscal plan considers a natural decline and we adjust accordingly across the early childhood sector. If you've heard throughout the time today, presentation today, how HR1 really impacted us, not necessarily our funding directly, but the obviously the folks that we collaborate and provide direct services to our children. So, we are in conversation hopefully any partnerships that may make sure we can sustain a strong system for kids. And these are our performance measures how in terms of kindergarten students ready to go across multiple years. um children meeting the cognitive uh ready knowledge across multiple years as children meeting social emotional readiness across multiple years and we've adjusted this where we had to make where it makes sense that we could actually track what that performance measure is and the balancing measures again our annual view of FTEES we look at that do we still need the level of staff that we need also in terms of the classification as you'll notice we did uh reclass reclassify a position to make sure it still meets within our needs and also allow us to uh move forward and keep our B budget balanced. There are no restoration requests. And this quote, I heard this quote about two months ago and it has stuck with me ever since uh with regards to Conseria and get said, "How are the children?" This is from the Masai warriors who come in, when they come out from war, when they come in, they go to villages that

they do, how are the children is their greeting, not hey bro, how you doing? How was that? It's like, how are the children? And we know that that says whether you have children or not. You know, if your if your children are strong in your community, your community is strong. And the response to that is all of us who are providing services for children, all the family services that we provide, our response with regards to that is all the children is well. Everything that we're convening, things that we're talking about today, the discussions that we have to have across our departments, what is the well-being of our children? We're working toward doing that. So, I appreciate that. I appreciate your time and I'm open for any questions. Hope that was in my 10 minutes I needed to do. Somebody told me. So

you you did you did great. Thank you Sims Mountain. Uh questions from the board. Supervisor Lee Wendy great presentation. Can you just remind myself and the audience what Prop 10 is and how you fund it?

Yes. Prop 10 Prop 10 um was incorporated by taxes 50 cents increase on tobacco products in 1998. Um, so what that did was dedicate to 58 counties dollars for early care and education, early brain development, knowing that how critical early years are. So the voters passed that. Thank you. And repass it when we got challenged and it increases that and it's divided by birth rate throughout the 58 counties to make sure you're doing as I said those four areas that we have to be divided in. But um, always excited to talk about that Prop 10. We have dedicated dollars to that to to to make sure that our kids have the best and strongest start that they can. Thank you. Thank you, Supervisor Lee. Supervisor Caps.

Yeah, I think uh just thank you for that video and just to take a breath and remind us. I know we all feel that we're doing, you know, kids are front and center with everything that we do, but it's uh we can never say it enough. We never and you always do that for us. So, thank you, Miss S. Motton uh for doing it so eloquently and and thank you supervisor Lee for that refresher because you know just to you know the the person the visionary behind Prop 10 just passed away not too long ago very tragically so we do have to uh pay tribute to that and the funds that have just changed lives. So my question u to you would be as you're transitioning and I love that you have this can do spirit with the funds that are going down which is a good thing on the one hand because people are smoking less. Yes. um which is a good thing but it does mean that you need need to be transitioning uh and then you also are transitioning as well with uh TK and and so if you could just speak a little bit about that I know it's complicated but um just give me an update from my schoolboard days if you can give me an update please

yeah it's complicated and it's not you know it's in in terms of the the transition from childcare and I'll ask Michelle to speak to it even more directly because she's into it but we are working on the TK and how important that is the earlier in terms of transitioning from the development of our children to TK being having being ready because that was a universal want to make sure that universal access to um kindergarten y and we had to transition to be able to because it is a transition and even developmentally it's it's a transition to do that but I'll have Michelle speak more directly with regards to what that actually means in transition.

Uh Supervisor Capsu the chair thank you for the question. Um, one of Rob Reiner's other legacies, of course, was to try to get universal uh, preschool uh, through. Um, transitional kindergarten was the compromise to that. Um, so we're happy to see that realized. Um, but it it threw a wrench in the whole child care early education sector. So, transitional kindergarten under uh the Prop 98 system needs a little bit of support even though TK's been around since 2012 now. It's been around a while. Um really kind of rose to the top over the last few years. So, First Five has found a a support role in that. So part of our strategic plan is to get at least one model TK classroom in all 20 of our elementary school districts um as a way that districts can then replicate that. So that's been our work

see the future. Yeah. Okay. Thank you. Thank you, Supervisor Caps. Um I have a question just about the just budget operating budget 3.4 4 million use of one time ongoing for on ongoing operations. So I I wasn't clear what is the anticipated new revenue ongoing in this year's budget. There is an additional new uh revenue for Prop 10. I'm sorry. Um what is the this year's Prop 10 amount? Um for our allocation is about 2.58. 2.5 Mhm. based on our birth rate. It's a two-year lag because it's based on the birth rate. So it could you see it kind of go up and down but average has been about two $2.5 million with additional dollars.

So we're using all 2.5 and then we're we're also adding an extra $900,000 of reserves. Yes. As planned with regards to that to make sure that it's just not like it's one time. It's it's an ongoing plan depending on the amount because sometimes we're not that we may get a bump in the revenue that we're anticipating or we may get additional interest. So the amount that we may be pulling out of our reserve may be less depending on those issues. So that begs the question, what is the reserves? Our reserves is about 4.2 maybe 3.9. I have to look at that. Almost 5 million. Almost 5 million because uh we had money that we didn't spend. We have some we had some grantees that didn't spend. So it falls back into the fund balance to be then reiterate toward those programs. So we're at a four or five year spendown. Is that what you're anticipating?

Potentially unless there's other dollars, there's other collaborations that we also have public private, you know, partnerships that we have. Don't necessarily then rely all on Prop$10, but yeah, we have that to do. um way back now 26 years ago, this the commission at the time said, "We want to make sure we stay here all the way in and when we're in, we've given everything we had to do out to the community." So, it's about four years, four or five years, but that depends if something should change. Okay. Thank you for that clarification. Any additional questions? Yes, Supervisor Hartman.

Uh I'm I'm interested in kind of what other counties do in terms of consolidation. I I understand First Five has its own board and decision making, but um some counties locate it for HR, uh finance, IT within other county departments. I guess public health is most common. Just wondered if you could comment on that. Is that would

Sure. We're always thinking about how we can make sure that we preserve funds that go to out to the community. Certainly it's a conversation that we've had we've had with our commission as well with regards to other um commission depending on if they're independent some are independent you know outside the county structure some are quasi um within the county so it depends on the structure it depends on what we're doing and certainly the discussions that we would have u with our commission as to what makes sense I know there was some time back how we could be in a department uh as a division and so that's not something that's outside of our conversation we certainly want to be a good partner uh in making sure that we are when being good stewards of our dollars, although that we're not necessarily relying upon the general fund, and nor is the general fund relying upon us. But we certainly want to make sure that uh whatever the structure we ultimately make and have with our discussion with our commission is the one that keeps making sure that we keep the needs and our mission, making sure our children are ready for school in the community as well.

All right. Thank you. Well, thank you, Miss Sims, for that. Um so, that will conclude this item. Um, we are going to go ahead and recess for close session. Um, I believe we're anticipating about an hour of close session. So, um, before I have CEO or sorry, um, so we will not be back earlier than 2:30. Um, so for the general public that are watching and wanting to participate, madam county council, can you please read u in the record uh what we'll be discussing in close session? Thank you, Mr. Chair, members of the board. In close session today, the board will consider one public employee appointment for county executive officer. And as you said, the estimate is about an hour.

And and for the public, we'll be taking um behavioral wellness, then child support services immediately after close session. And then we'll be opening it up for public comment on on first five, behavioral wellness and child support services at the conclusion of those two items uh this afternoon. Thank you.

Welcome back everybody from uh to the April 13th, 2026 meeting of the Santa Barbara County Board of Supervisors and our first day of our county 2627 year uh budget workshops. We're just come back from close session. Madame Council, will you please report out from close session? Thank you, Mr. Chair, members of the board. The board met in close session on one item, public employee appointment for county executive officer and the board took no reportable action.

All right, thank you. Now back to our health and services uh functional group and we will go ahead and start with behavioral wellness and director Navaro. Go right ahead.

Good afternoon, Chair Nelson, supervisors, CEO, Miaado, and county staff, Tony Navaro, director of behavioral wellness, also known as Bwell. Joined today by Bwell's chief financial administrative officer, Chris Rivero, and Bwell's assistant director team, Jamie Husting, Dr. Katie Cohen, and Laura Zites. I want to start off by acknowledging with sincere respect and appreciation all the staff involved in the collective work of this budget and its dages. The effort led patiently, diligently, and relentlessly by Chris Rivero, Bwell fiscal manager, Jose Sanchez, and Bwell's chief of strategy and community engagement and public information officer Suzanne Grimacey. So in tribute to CEO Mias's final budget workshops this year, Bewell is going to bookend our presentation with quotes this year. So our first quote to start us off as proverbial statement of optimism and resilience. Um both of which definitively represent Bwell's foundation and intention for this uh 2627 fiscal year budget. When life gives you lemons, make lemonade. Since 22 fiscal year 22 23 Bwell has been intentionally and strategically strengthening its overall operations and programs in order to best as possible meet the expectations and maximize the benefits of California's innovate initiative to advance innovation in medical also known as CALIM and to complete the Proposition One behavioral health transformation by July 1, 2026 in partnership with the consulting ing firm of KPMG. From the spring of 2023 through the fall of 2025, Bwell focused on the review and evaluation of its crisis services and overall outpatient clinical programs. We developed a host of data and accountability tools and

strategies. And these have resulted in higher in a in a number of gains across the Bwell system of care. These include consistently larger volumes of calls directly to our 247 access line for crisis and potential and program referral services. Overall reduced weight times for both crisis intervention response and program appointments. Reduced client no-show rates in some programs this year as much as a 24% reduction in no-shows over last year. At the same time, we also have uh evidence significantly improved staff utilization rate rates that have resulted in the most significant medical revenue gains for both Bwell's specialty mental health programs as well as its psychiatric health facility or PUFF in at least the past decade. So now Bwell has an organizational foundation that is more solid and adaptable to carry it into what is likely to be the most challenging couple of years yet for behavioral health transformation as we head into the unknown of the behavioral health services act under Prop 1 and prepare to navigate and miticate the impacts of the significant changes to medical at both the federal and state levels. Bwell's proposed budget for 2627 is robust, expanding slightly over last year and without service level reduction. The general fund contribution, which constitutes 2.7% of the Bwell budget, provides the additional resources necessary to maintain the long-term residential needs for those county residents most impacted and disabled by chronic, severe, and persistent mental health conditions. It's important to acknowledge that the success of the Bwell system of care, which underlies our budget presentation today, is the result of the collective efforts of Bwell and its positive

collaborative partnerships among its provider network of care. Over the same past few years, Bwell's community-based contracted organizations have initi also initiated notable operational and programmatic changes to adapt to the new requirements of accountability and performance under Calaim payment reform and the behavioral health services act. Similarly, Santa Barbara County's med man medical med medical managed care plan senal health has been an excellent partner coordinating with bewell to realize the calame vision of a seamless behavioral health experience for medical members in our county and actively participating with bewell on the behavioral health services act goals for our collective collaboration on data sharing in order to establish and maintain a responsive comprehensive countywide system of behavioral health care. BUwell consists of five functional groups, what we refer to as branches, and they're listed on the next two slides. These branches collectively execute the three primary roles of a California county behavioral health department. As a legislatively regulated behavioral health plan, Bwell ensures the provision of medical specialty mental health services and drug medical substance use disorder treatment services across all levels of need for persons of all ages enrolled in medical and or Medicare in Santa Barbara County. Be well may provide the services it offers throughout system of care to those who are under or uninsured to the extent that there are resources available. Among the services, Bwell provides a 247 access line for all county residents in immediate or urgent need of crisis intervention or behavioral health referral regardless of insurance status.

As a behavioral health plan administrator, Bwell is responsible to establish and maintain an accessible and responsive network of care with a level of staffing that is identified by the state as adequate to meet the needs of the county's medical membership. Currently, Bwell maintains and oversees an extensive provider network consisting of over 70 organizations with over 900 providers representing both mental health and substance use disorder specialties. Beeswell is responsible to ensure compliance with all regulatory requirements via staff vetting, professional credentiing and myriad monthly, quarterly and annual reports with regard to fiscal quality assurance, quality improvement as well as operational and programmatic performance measures. Finally, Bwell is also a direct provider of services and provides approximately 60% of the specialty mental health services delivery within its system of care, contracting out 40% to community- based organizations and and provides approximately 10% of the substance use disorder um organized delivery system with 90% of those services contracted out. All right. This year's sole capital project is for the ongoing technology that allows for be well to document, collect, and report client billing and data requirement information. General program transfers for 2627 um provide valuable cannabis education for youth and perinatal populations as part of uh expanding a part of our prevention network in substance use organized delivery system. All right. Staffing additions over the past five years have focused on building critical infrastructure support and were necessary to ensure BWwell could and can

ongoing successfully and efficiently execute all of its county behavioral health plan requirements, maximize fiscal benefits, timely achieve the expectations of CALAM, and have minimal impact to core services in the transformation from the mental health services act to the Behavioral Health Services Act under Prop on. This year, Be Well is seeking to delete four vacant positions that have been long left unfilled in the system of care. The elimination of these positions will not impact direct service capacity and result in no service level reductions. The fisc year 2627 operating budget is a 4.4% increase over current year. The growth is largely accounted for by the salary and benefit costs and increases to contracted service provider costs. The primary funding streams for Bwell include 1991 and 2011 realignment, the behavioral health services fund, formerly the mental health services fund, and fed federal financial participation funds paid to California county behavioral health systems for the administration and provision of medical specialty mental health and drug medical services. To a lesser degree, we are funded. Bwell receives funds paid for um uh the delivery of specialty behavioral health Medicare services and a smattering of grant awards from both federal and state sources. Bwell's previously mentioned extensive engagement with KPMG brought Bwell in full alignment with the state department of healthc care services delivery and federal funds match expectations. Consequently, Bwell has demonstrated significant medical revenue growth the past two years. And this current year,

for the first time, Bwell's charges for services are its largest single revenue source. Medical revenues in the current year are on track to be 94% greater at $84 million than the medical revenue actuals in fiscal year 2324, which were $43 million. Medical revenue actuals in 25 2425 were $63 million. Bwell's ability to maximize the leveraging of federal funds through improved staff utilization and service delivery allows for sustained staffing and service levels in fiscal year 2627. Even with significant program programmatic funding allocation changes occurring under Prop 1, Bwell's system transformation ensures that core services will be maintained at current levels as well as will a variety of programs that Bwell provides in partnership with county partners including co-response diversion services for justice involved individuals and long-term care services for the county's most intensive need behavioral health care recipients. Moreover, as we begin to realize the impacts of HR1 and the state level medical changes, Bwell's maximization of medical revenues will support its ability to provide services as needed to those who are underinsured or uninsured as well. All right. So that is the the the primary anticipated accomplishment listed on this slide. But other of be well's anticipated accomplishments listed here uplift the commitment to collaboration cross departmentally as well as with community partners and the public at large. the recognition of Santa Barbara County by the governor's office recently as a top 10 community

assistance recovery and empowerment or care act champion reflects that that commitment is countywide and be well is proud to play a part in the county's success. Fiscal year 2627 department goals and objectives focused on focus on system stability through targeted service expansion and maximizing fiscal opportunities. Leading with decisions that center the needs of those we serve and seeking to collectively leverage resources across partners including general services, community services, county health, department of social services, the sheriff's department, probation, and the public defenders office increases the likelihood that Bwell's objectives will be met. So the 2019 KPMG uh performance priority recommendations, there are four listed here. Three of the four um recommendations have been completed. And the fourth recommendation is in progress as part of the behavioral health um transformation under Prop 1 and is set to be completed by end of calendar year 2026. So this next slide is uh unofficially uh subtitled Lemons to Lemonade. Um, the primary fiscal issue to watch for Bwell is the year-over-year increases in the utilization and costs with regard to long-term subacute care for conserved individuals. Costs for these services are not eligible for medical reimbursement, nor are they able to be funded with behavioral health services act funds. Bwell's use of fund balance some county general fund in addition to its 1991 realignment resource are not sustainable in the long term. The second fiscal issue to watch behavioral health services act fund. It

is a tax on personal incomes over $1 million in California and has been identified by the state legislative analyst office as the most volatile funding stream in the entire state budget. The fund, formerly known as MHSA fund, has historically demonstrated swings in some years of as much as 35 30% since it was implemented in 20 uh 2004. The new reduction via Prop One of five buckets of the possible funding utilization to now three makes the potential impact of volatility more problematic and will require expert fiscal monitoring and management to ensure stability for both a department and the community at large. While many of the significant HR1 medical adjustments will not apply to clients actively enrolled in county behavioral health programs, persons in the senal level or mild to moderate level of care in need of mental health services may be impacted and that gap in exclusion to as of now may have implications for Bwell's funding consistency over time. Bwell's proactively and collaboratively planning activities to address the issue. The commonality in the key fiscal issues to watch is that they are outside the department's control. Therefore, proactive datadriven solution focused decision-making along with transparency and consistent communication from bewell will serve to mitigate impacts as much as possible and appropriately level set and manage expectations with our partners um county staff and the public. So here we've highlighted three performance measures from uh and they're all from Bwell's crisis response system of care. Each measure tackles the issue of improving access to acute care beds in some way. While the current year shows an increase in the inpatient

outofcount bed days over last year, B-roll further drilled down on this data and has subsequently made adjustments to engagement and communication protocols and we maintain that the target of 3,000 bed days or less will be met in fiscal year 2627. Finally, in its second year of mandate of uh in the second year of the mandated mobile crisis medical benefit, crisis response teams continue to exceed the response time expectations at an average time that is significantly less than half of the state standard which is 1 hour. Over the past four years, BW has undergone second order change in order to ensure this department's stability, viability, and sustainability. Oh, sorry, I missed a missed missed a slide. There's no balancing measures that we're doing. So, we're going to get to the end here. All right. Sorry. Um All right. So we we've we are um uh underwent this second order change in order to ensure the department's stability, viability and sustainability in the changing behavioral health landscape. To date, the transformation has been successful and the collective mindset of the Bwell leadership is optimism and resiliency. Bewell's role as a behavioral health plan as well as a behavioral health service provider allow unique operational and revenue opportunities that give our department some sense of control and predictability in an otherwise unpredictable time with regard to safety net services funding. The timing of Bwell's transformation has been serendipitous as we are heading into this particularly fragile fiscal time for the county. It is imperative that be well be depended on effectively to address and be a support to partners to the extent as is possible in providing behavioral health services to

not only medical and Medicare recipients but also to those who may find themselves newly underinsured or uninsured. Bwell's maximum leveraging of federal funds also ensures the continuation of various programs primarily with our public safety and justice partners that would otherwise not be able to be funded under the behavioral health services act such as co-response and our diversion programs. Of course, none of what I just discussed gets done without a robust and committed workforce. I want to give kudos and express the sincerest appreciation to all of the staff of Bwell for their accomplishments this past year. And Bwell would also like to recognize the leadership right now of director Christy Schmidt and her HR and her county HR leadership team. They've provided invaluable partnership this past year in helping BWL to stabilize and enhance its recruitment, hiring, and ongoing HR operations. So, thank you to Christy, Ivonne, Carolyn, and Nikki for literally everything. And finally, in fiscal year 2627, Be Well will walk the work of acceptance and commitment therapy and the recovery model. Specifically, we will take it one day at a time. We will be mindful, keep the mission of be well and the value of public service top of mind. We will accept that the only way to get through this time is to go through it and every day we will just do our best to be our best. To that end, our quote for the upcoming year comes from fellow UCLA Brewan alum Arthur Ash via Supervisor Joan Hartman in a meeting that we had just a couple months back. And that quote is, "Start where you are, use what you have, and do what you can." And that concludes our budget presentation.

Thank you, Director Naro. Questions from the board. Supervisor Hartman. Um, can you elaborate on the integrated behavioral health plan? What what is that? The integrated behavioral health plan is what is now the um the behavioral health service act comprehensive report.

Okay. So every three years and starting this year um there will be a plan that goes out three years with projections that we will have to date from um the uh fiscal analysts at the state level as to what our revenues may be in those three years. And we then we plan our system of care to meet the allocation requirements and the programmatic requirements of the behavioral health services act which is prop one. Um, so that integrated plan will come back to you all for final approval in June. So, um, let's see. Congratulations on the Care Act being one of 10 counties. Congratulations.

That That's really an extraordinary achievement. Um, I I mentioned this before, but it can't be overemphasized that your department used to be the one that we would all be most nervous about what was going to happen at these budget meetings. And so, you've really uh you and your team have managed a tremendous organizational turnaround. And uh I I mean I can't thank you enough uh for that given everything else we have to deal with. I'm just anxious though. Is there a shoe that's going to drop? Are are we going to find ourselves like county health? Are we are

given what's forces outside our control that can really

turn us on our head? Well, so so I under thank you for the question and I understand the concern especially given since um even this first this these last two years of the significant medical revenue gains has been a shock to some of our system leadership that have been with this department for over a decade. That that is actually the way that county behavioral health works in a healthy and functional system. Um and we now finally have the right tools and uh accountability uh strategies to get it done. So I think that what we have set in place in terms of how we do the work and how we engage folks that will maintain what is the of course unknown issue are the impacts to um medical uh uh eligibility and um participation by our county residents. Um it is true that there are certain uh things such as work requirements by annual um uh certifications that will not apply to persons if they are enrolled in the specialty services um programs of be of behavioral health. However, once they step down and they're more stable and they as of right now and they go into the mild to moderate level of care, they they may be impacted there and that's when things may start to get uh rocky for them. And so they may end up dropping their medical, maybe uh relapsing of whatever conditions um they previously were in treatment for and coming back into our system not with medical um but they will be able to get back on medical if they're eligible, right? And those for those who are eligible, we'll just have shortened time frames. So again, I think that the strategy of be well that has been standing for the past four years is to be able to stand up and look far ahead enough down the road to know what these potential cliffs and detours and and uh

obstacles may be and planning as far ahead as possible to mitigate them. And that's really where we are today. And if I heard you correctly, you seem to be optimistic about our ability, your department's ability to serve the underinsured and the uninsured going forward or could you that's what I thought I heard. I think my experience has been and again prior to the affordable care act in county behavioral health in California, we did serve those who were uninsured and underinsured as well. how we serve them effectively in our system so as not to overt tax our budgets. Was to provide modified services and making sure that we had extensive provider not provider networks but partnership networks in our county that provide these level of service on sliding fee scale as well and that we knew how to stabilize people quickly and then hand them off to um the the partners that we had identified and were working with. So I think again it's a big systems change and you're right we are focusing on being optimistic. We know there will be challenges ahead. Our biggest concern as I noted was the potential of uh the long-term care costs continuing to outpace our fund balance. And so um we are looking at some ways of course the the increased utilization of crisis stabilization services here on the south campus. Um really excited about the uh two crisis residential treatment the funding we received and those should be up in congratulations later than 2020 hopefully by the end of uh calendar year 2028 but I mean I mean 2029. Um so we again those are a little bit farther down the road but in the meantime we are already working with SenCal working with the department of social services to think about ways to mitigate um the potential problems of medical uh lapse um for for our members and how we might modify programs to

address those needs ongoing. Well done and thank you. Okay, not seeing other supervisors I'll jump in. Um, public health went through a process with their clinics and the providers on just really evaluating the utilization. I understand your revenue is up, but are you guys doing something similar where you're making sure that your um your therapists are seeing x amount of patients an hour? What's that look like?

That's how we got to a 94% increase in our medical revenue this year over 2324. We actually began that process two years ago and um last year in the budget workshops, you know, we had some dire forecast of how many uh reserves we'd have to dive into, but I stood here before you and I made a promise that it would not be as bad because we had just kicked off some really um clear accountability strategies. So, um, the state has a clear expectation for what they expect for budgeting for California behavioral health and for us as a as a program that they have a standard of billable services and ma leveraging federal funds. It's it's it's been our responsibility and we started it last year to set those things in policy to set those protocols in place and to hold our staff accountable to them. You know, when we had our first follow-through last summer, we had 67 counseling memos that we gave out to staff who were not meeting the minimum standard. And just recently, um, we had our latest quarterly review of people's hours, and we have no letters of concern, no letters of reprimand, and no letters of concern.

Well, congratulations. And do you anticipate to see some additional growth there over this next fiscal year? I'm sorry. you see do you congratulations but do you also expect to see some additional growth yes over the next year yes that

yes because we're only at the at the minimum standard there's room for growth we already see in this current um and just some some data points that I've seen from the this recent month from some of our clinics and our and our service providers that they're already exceeding the minimum that we said we needed to hit and they're well on their way to hitting the standard. So we we think we will see some growth and and how that comes to us in the new payment reform is through increased medical revenues come back to us as patient care revenue and then we're able to distribute those and use those in other programs that wouldn't otherwise be funded and um you know to the extent resources are available is what that pot of money is for. So you're using that for program expansion, not necessarily instead of cost.

We're using it to maintain programs that we currently provide now that are not mandated and otherwise covered by now BHSA starting July 1. So all three all four of the co-response um clinician teams are fully funded by Bwell. The the clinician side is fully funded by Bwell as well as our um co-response teams with Santa Barbara PD for at least one more year. um the services that we provide in diversion programs with our justice partners, those are not mandated and those are additional services that we provide. So the ones that are not funded by other grants, we're able to provide them because of this patient care revenue. All right. And then we use it, of course, to cover costs for

and and also to potentially reduce your one-time funding as well that you're using in your budget. Like last year, you said that you wouldn't use it all. This year this year, you have 12 million. Yeah, we actually thought we were going to use about 15 million in our fund balance last year for clinical programs and we ended up using less than three. Okay. And this year you you've budgeted for $12 million. That is because again just kind of wondering about Chris, I'll let you speak to that. Um what your what your concerns and your and your cautiousness is around that 12 million.

Yeah, Supervisor uh Nelson. So the 12 million is around 10 of that is to cover the IMD the long-term IMD costs and those are the costs that can't be funded by BHSA. Um the rest of it is is a combination of grants ending or other kind of one-time programs. And as we transition within BHSA to all the new programming that it kind of allows us to a little bit of runway to ramp up programs or ramp down and then and then with the amount of reserves that we do have or restrictive fund balance in in um in our BHSA fund um we'll be able to manage that um you know growth or expansion uh ahead of time because I think the ramping up period for the um medical programs and patient care revenue um it takes a little on the front end and you know you're going to kind of um have lower productivity and lower kind of program uh efficiency in the beginning. And this kind of gives us a little bit of uh leeway to to maybe ramp up slower or you know and it may be again like this last year where um that may not be needed.

So what kind of fund balance are we looking at after this year within our um mental health fund? Um assuming we use the entire 10 million. Um so at the end of the current year we'll have about 12 million left at the end of fiscal year 2526. So we'll use about 10 million of that. Um or the budget requests 10 million. So we'd have about two left after 2627. In MHSA there's around 35 million um within the restricted categories of you know innovations and other grants. So, isn't that a little alarming to go to go from 12 to two year-over-year?

Yes, it's it's a concern. Um, at this point, I won't I I'm not going to use the word alarming. I am It is a concern and it is our primary fiscal um uh responsibility this year is to uh again maximize our revenues to create systems that minimize and reduce the utilization of acute care beds if need not be. So, really maximizing the utilization of our CSU. We have eight locked beds now on the South County campus. On any given day, we're averaging about two to three a day. We have eight, right? And what that does is that keeps the puff open. Um because it's the outofcount bed costs psychiatrically that are more of the drain, right? and the long-term IMD beds. We're really looking at ways to work with our long-term care teams um and looking with local partners um to help people move through the system and to lower levels of care as needed in a more strategic and intentional way.

Okay. And the last thing I'm going to ask about is the general fund contribution. What is that matching or where's that what's that going towards? The 91 realignment requires that we uh provide a local match um which is around 800,000. Um so it's a required amount in order to for the department to receive that 91 realignment. Um the other um 5 million or so covers essentially those IMD costs. It's been uh those are yeah essentially that those that's the amount of costs that are incurred that are not funded by medical. uh you know they're non-medical health services and can't be funded with behavioral health services act.

Okay. So if IMD numbers could be reduced those costs could go down definitely we could recapture potentially some of that. Okay. Y excellent. All right those are my questions.

All right not see any other lights on. Thank you very much for all of you for your report. And last but surely not least, child support services in the uh health and human services category. Once we are complete with uh this department, we will then go into public comment um for the first five behavioral wellness and child support services. So just one for the public out there. Your opportunity to be able to comment on those departments will happen at the conclusion of this item.

Mr. Richardson.

Good afternoon, Chair Nelson and members of the board. I am Meta Richardson, director of the Department of Child Support Services. With me today is our managing attorney Justin Arnold, our assistant director, Victoria Tuttle, and our child support managers, Maria Agula and Jennifer Diaz. I am pleased to be here today to present to you our fiscal year 2627 requested budget. I'd like to start with a brief budget overview. We have one source of funding which is our state funding allocation. Our fiscical year 2627 funding allocation is anticipated to remain the same as our current year's funding allocation. Despite flat funding, our department continues to increase its effectiveness and community impact through technological and customer focused innovations to offset increased salaries and benefits costs. most notably a 6% bargained equity adjustment for child support officers effective July 26th. We are eliminating 4.75 vacant positions. We had intentionally left these positions vacant in anticipation of increased costs and flat funding. Our fisc year 2627 operating budget is 10.8 million which funds 64.05 05 FTEES with no general fund contribution and no service level reductions. We've implemented balancing measures totaling 542,000 which include the reduction of the 4.75 positions discussed previously. Our services include assisting parents with opening child support cases, establishing parentage, developing fair

orders for financial support and medical care, and enforcing those orders. Our program is highly mandated and complex. Our 34 child support officer or excuse me, child support case workers manage a total case load of about 9,000 cases which averages to 257 cases per case worker. Average collections per case worker last year were 832,000. Over the same period of time, our three dedicated dedicated attorneys appeared in court about 2,000 times. Our budget includes 64.05 FTEES and 89% of our funding is used for salaries and benefits. The department maintains a high level of service and performance despite varying staffing levels due to our highly qualified, engaged, and innovative employees who have an average tenure of over 17 years. This slide expands on that the past slide and it shows a more complete overview of the department's staffing trend. The reduction from 120.8 FTEES to the budgeted 64.05 FTEES represents a 47% decrease in staffing since 2000. This decrease is largely the result of flat funding over the same period of time and has occurred through voluntary attrition, primarily retirements. Statewide and county child support case loads have also declined over this period of time for reasons not entirely understood. As mentioned previously, the department's state funding allocation of 10.8 8 million remains unchanged for fiscal year 2627.

Our accomplishments include collecting and distributing 28.3 million in child support. We achieved the highest ranking seventh out of 47 California local child support agencies in overall federal performance measures in the department's 26-year history. We collaborated with the courts to implement the second phase of sweeping federal and state legislative changes intended to increase compliance with child support orders. This second phase requires consideration of 14 factors including age, transportation, county of residents, local job market, education, employment barriers, and health as part of the order setting process. when income information is unknown. We've expanded our parenting court pilot to Santa Barbara and by the end of the year we will have completed about 16 technological and customer focused innovations. Some of our goals for the upcoming year include implementing the e review and adjustment or RNA process which will expedite the process by which customers request modifications to their child support orders by enabling them to request and submit the necessary the necessary information online. We're developing and implementing a new facilitated negotiation program called Talk, Agree, Parent, or TAP to assist parents in reaching mutually acceptable child support agreements without needing to attend court. We're expanding the use of technology and data analytics, including the use of Tableau dashboards to improve program monitoring and performance. And we're developing new collaborations and partnerships to improve county

department and statewide outcomes, including a collaboration with the public defender to assist participants who are experiencing barriers to finding employment and subsequently paying child support due to prior criminal convictions. Next, I'll briefly discuss our progress in responding to the recommendations from the KPMG operational performance review. In regards to county department and court collaborations, we expanded the parenting court pilot to Santa Barbara in January 26 and we collaborated with the department of social services or DSS to implement a warm handoff to our department for eligible DSS applicants. In regards to targeting marketing and outreach efforts, we utilize QR codes and other means to capture engagement and impact data from our numerous outreach events this fiscal year in order to inform future marketing and outreach events. Additionally, we are collaborating with the state and with other child support agencies to promote child support services regarding identifying opportunities for targeted intervention related to child support arars or past due balances. We've increased a rear's collections through a specialized team and focus locate and other efforts and we are assisting the state with testing the accuracy of their new arars algorithm which was designed to help case workers focused on past due amounts deemed to be most collectible. And finally, in furtherance of exploring data sharing opportunities with other county departments, we're also a member of the county's data sharing committee. And we also meet with other county child

support agencies to brainstorm best data sharing practices in light of the child support program's strict security framework. We have some fiscal issues that we're keeping an eye on. These issues aren't specific to our county, but rather are statewide. Similar to other county departments, we're experiencing salary and benefits increases, but historically our funding has not increased to the degree necessary to fund those increases. Another issue is a declining CA statewide case load for reasons that aren't entirely understood. We are making every effort both as a county department and as a state program to ensure that county residents are knowledgeable about the services we pro provide and that they know how to access them. The performance of all child support agencies is continuously and extensively monitored through a number of federal performance measures or FPMs. Shown here are our main FPMs. Our department continues to excel and exceed the statewide averages in all measures of performance. In order to balance our budget, we eliminated 4.75 vacant positions as previously mentioned, which resulted in cost savings of 492,000. We also continue to realize significant savings from our right sizings in previous fiscal years. We've reduced our Santa Maria footage by 61% and our Santa Barbara square footage by 82%. Going from a total of over 23,000 square ft to just under 6,000 square ft, resulting in hundreds of thousands of

ongoing annual savings. We've eliminated conference rooms in both locations and instead we reserve county-owned conference rooms when needed. And this year we implemented a space management software called Sketa to ensure optimum use of each of our cubicles and offices. And finally, we've identified other cost savings throughout the department resulting in approximately 50,000 in cost savings. We have no service level reductions and no restoration requests. And I'd like to conclude our presentation with a quote from Kretta Scott King. The greatness of a community is most accurately measured by the compassionate actions of its members. Thank you.

Thank you, Miss Richardson. Questions from the board? Not see not seeing any. Uh, good job. Or Supervisor Hartman. Well, I I think your department is performing extremely well and we can't let that go unremarked and the thing that jumped out at me was that 17-year average tenure. Uh that says that something's very healthy, something's very good in your department. Thank you. I think we're very proud of that. Thank you.

Yes. And and thank you uh Miss Richardson on on the cost-saving measures that you guys have proactively taken for your department. I think it really speaks to the sustainability of what you guys do um by you guys being so proactive and staying on top of these things and it really obviously paid off on on a budget that it has minimal impacts to clients or your um staff. Thank you. Thank you so much.

All right. Thank you. That officially concludes the Health and Human Services uh budget functional group. At this time, we'll go ahead and open public comment for uh three departments. again first five uh behavioral wellness and child support services. Um I'm using my chair's prerogative to let additional speaker who will be speaking briefly on animal services as well. But let's please keep our our comments specific to those departments if you would so that we can move on to our other our other very deserving departments. Madam clerk,

thank you chair Nelson and members of the board. We will begin with Molly Trope to be followed by Margaret Benell. Molly. And that is via Zoom. Hi, can you hear me? We can, Molly. Thank you.

Great. Thanks. Um, hi, my name is Molly Troop or Good afternoon, Chair Nelson and supervisors. My name is Molly Troop and I'm a resident of the city of Santa Barbara. Um, I'm speaking on um animal services. I was my name didn't get called earlier. So anyways, um my family and I have been fostering dogs through Santa Barbara County Animal Services since February 2025. Since then, we have welcomed six dogs into our home. Our current foster dog, Socks, has been with us for 5 months now, and due to the current budget cuts, we are currently purchasing the food for him instead of the county. I'm speaking today because I'm very concerned about the devastating consequences that will occur if the county's animal service program budget is cut by $500,000. I spoke last year at several BOS meetings on this topic and two main points from a year ago that are still relevant today is first animal services is already without cutting the budget further significantly underresourced and second the licensed canvasing program has a great capacity to generate revenue which is desperately needed. to allocate the a year of status quo budget to give the project pets safe program an opportunity to flourish. Thanks to the money raised last year at the animal care foundation tales of hope fundraiser which was able to go to this program, the county is already seeing license sales significantly increase since the program relaunched in January. And additionally, there will be another fundraiser in the fall which will help further close the budget gap. With these two promising sources of money, please do not reduce the services at this critical time. As you know, the animal services provides critical care to hundreds of animals at any one time. This care for living is for living beings who through no fault of their own end up in the county shelter. The welfare and life of these animals depend on the public to be able to access the shelter in order to both foster and

adopt animals. Reducing services at any level is sure to have devastating consequences which means fewer adoptions, higher numbers in the shelter and consequently higher euthania rates. Please do not reduce the budget and if not a full restoration, please do support the partial restoration. Thank you so much for this opportunity. Thank you, Mr. Troop. Next, we will move to Margaret Bennell to be followed by Claire Monigan. Margaret.

Hello. I am I'm gonna defer to Claire because I was going to speak on her be behalf. Thank you very much, Superers and Chair Nelson. Thank you, Margaret. Claire Monigan to be followed by Gloria Sodto. Claire. Hello. Can you hear me?

Yes, we can. Please proceed. Good afternoon board and everyone. Um, my name is Claire and I'm here as a deeply grateful mother and I want to express my appreciation for the collaboration of the Santa Maria Police Department and the hospital with their co-response team. My daughter is dual diagnosed with a serious mental illness and substance abuse. She's had multiple interactions through the years with both your Santa Maria jail system and your co-response team. And I want to stress my conviction. The jails convict criminals, but co-response offered her treatment. My daughter was struck by a car in the streets of Santa Maria in October 2025 in a near fatal car accident. She had a lengthy and miraculous physical recovery at Marian Hospital in Santa Maria. She's now conserved and receiving lifechanging treatment at the Crestwood Champion Center in Lomboke. aptly named. She will no longer be on the streets draining our already strained resources. The co-response diversion team truly prevented the cycle of endless revolving doors of the streets, hospitals, police departments, and jails to a mental facility that properly is treating her. My heartfelt thanks to the Santa Maria co-response team, the sheriff's department and Marian Medical Center, and you, the board of supervisors. I I am very grateful Darth,

take your time. No, I'm just very grateful. Okay. Thank you. Thank you. Thank you, Gloria Stoodto. And then we'll return to the Santa Barbara Hearing Room with uh Ren uh excuse me, Ramona Wy

Gloria. Gloria,

thank you. Good afternoon, Chair Nelson and supervisors. My name is Gloria Sto and I have the privilege to serve as the executive director of Future Leaders of America, a nonprofit organization based in Santa Barbara County. I'm here in strong support of behavioral wellness. I want to start by acknowledging that Be Well funds a full continuum of care from prevention and early intervention to treatment to crisis response. All of these pieces are critical and our community depends on them. At the same time, prevention is where we have the greatest opportunity to change outcomes early. And that's where my story comes in. I was once an FLA youth participant supported through Bwell funding. Through that program, I learned about substance use prevention, not just in theory, but in practice. I participated in compliance efforts, including undercover buys, to ensure local storefronts were not selling to minors. That experience shaped my leadership and my commitment to this work. It showed me that prevention is most powerful when young people are trusted to lead and protect their own communities. Today, I now lead that same organization. Through our partnership with Be Well, we are reaching youth before crisis, equipping them with the knowledge, confidence, and leadership skills to make healthy decisions. And this investment doesn't just support at Filet. It's it sustains a broader network of community-based organizations delivering culturally responsive prevention services across the county. I I hope you can continue to sustain and also build upon these prevention investments recognizing that they are essential yet not sufficient on their own to meet the needs of more than um hundred thou a 100,000 youth across our county. Thank you so much for your leadership and your commitment to our community. Ramona winner to be followed by

Andrew Wyman. Ramona, thank you.

My name is Ramona winner. My journey with my son's mental illness now spans two decades. My son is now 40. When he was in his 20s, calling the police for his difficult behavior was a scary thing to do. People nationwide were reporting situations that escalated to abuse or killing of individuals with mental illness. Today, because of the education of our local sheriff's department personnel has undergone over the years, that fear in our county has dissipated. Five years ago, my son walked onto the Pueblo High School campus. He entered a classroom, introduced himself to the instructor, and asked to be enrolled. What could have been a scary incident was beautifully handled by the sheriff deputies and the co-response team through behavioral wellness. My husband and I reside in Galida. We were surprised when a motor traffic sheriff's deputy knocked on our door asking if we were the winners parents of our son Bobby. He informed us what had occurred and asked that we follow him to a spot outside Pueblo's high school property. When we arrived, the deputy introduced us to his law enforcement team and watched as the co-response team pulled up to the curb. My son was not agitated, stressed, nor was he scared. Those officers present engaged him in conversation and he in turn um entertained the deputies with a snappy rap delivery. My son was treated with kindness and respect by all present. He was ill enough to warrant hospitalization and was taken to the cottage ER. My family is grateful for the training of our local sheriff's deputies have undergone as well as the well orchestrated care provided by behavioral wellness co-response team. This was a sensitive

occurrence that was handled in a manner that kept everyone safe. To discontinue providing this service level of service would be negligent and harmful to our community. Uh we're very appreciative of uh the progress that has been made uh by behavioral wellness over the 20 years. Um our services are impeccable at this point. Thank you so much. Thank you. Andrew Wyman to be followed by Leonardo Marcus.

I'm going to try again. Um, my wife and I moved to Santa Barbara about a year ago to spend more time with family. Uh, I'm going to speak both professionally and personally about the co-response team and its importance. Uh, as as it turns out, uh, I was in contact with the co-response team on three different occasions. Uh my family member had a severe mental decomp decompensation and eventually on on the third try they were there on three separate occasions. We got her briefly hospitalized. Uh I was impressed with the team's approach to the whole issue. They worked fast, efficiently. They were very responsive to me and my family and they're very helpful with my daughter. Uh the other part of this that's important from my point of view is that there are really three takeaways here as I see it. Um one is that the the co-response team is not something that's nationally well known. Uh there are a lot of them developing around the country but they are critically important in terms of saving money for one thing. Also preserving freedom of individuals to walk the streets as long as they're capable of doing that. The last thing and that's useful for that is that in each of these instances both the correctional officers and the mental health personnel have an opportunity to increase their skill levels by learning from each other and I was very impressed particularly with the the correctional officers in my instance. Another important aspect of this is that the co-response team is part of a larger community effort and it's critically

important that the co-response team network the rest of the correctional and mental health teams. Lastly and most importantly and I think in in terms of what I've heard today is uh efficiency is marketkedly important. These teams have to be as efficient as they can be and the only way to do that is that the entire system needs to be from my perspective better integrated. There are a lot of silos in the mental health system in this community from what I've seen. Attempting to get those services to begin with when we first moved here was not easy. Eventually, we were able to recruit those services and to to be able to have the team under one umbrella in some way with a a commissioner or a ZAR or somebody who can integrate the entirety of the mental health team in the community. I think would save you a small fortune. Thank you.

Thank you, Mr. Wyman. Leonardo Marcus to be followed by Tom Franklin.

My name is Leonard Marcus. Uh I'm just here to thank you for the co-response teams. Uh I'm a success story. My son was uh served by the co-response teams a number of times, kept out of jail. He didn't end up in the puff. He had a quite a serious mental illness which uh was drug induced. He's no no longer uses drugs. He's not drinking. He's back in school. And uh I think through co-response it was a a real success story. So I just want to thank you all and be well for what they managed to do for us. So thank you. Thank you

Tom Franklin to be followed by Maria Valencia

Chair Nelson. Members of the board, um, I'd like to start by thanking you and the CA CEO for all the work you guys put into the these budget hearings. And you have some really difficult choices to make. I know that I think you've heard my story about a million times. Um, and I'm a huge supporter of the co-response team. Uh, have a lot of firsthand uh, experience with co-response and CIT trained officers. Um, but today I really want to thank the behavioral wellness department and director Navaro for all the work they've put into uh putting together their half of the co-response team and all of the work they put in every day for all of their programs because while you might hear some bad news from all the departments PE speakers who come come up and complain about things from all the departments. I don't have one complaint about be well and I have a lot of experience with them. Um, and they could come up here and tell you that. So, my family member is a frequent flyer. Um, I've said over and over again, if there's a sheriff's officer who is assigned to the Sanz Valley where I live and they don't know my address, then they must be new. So, I just appreciate all the work everyone puts into this and how uh how far the behavioral wellness department has come over the last few years. Thank you.

Thank you, Tom. Maria Valencia to be followed by our final speaker, George Kaufman.

Good afternoon, Chair Nelson and supervisors. I'm the chair of the Santa Barbara County Behavioral Wellness Commission, fifth district, a NAMI member, and a family-to-f family teacher. At last Tuesday's board of supervisors meeting during the departmental agenda item on co-response, I observed the wonderful collaboration between Sheriff Brown and director Navar and felt extremely hopeful that perhaps sustained funding is a common mission after fiscal year 2027 for the co-response teams and the um crisis intervention training academy for all law enforcement officers is a possibility. ility. I want to emphasize a couple of points. Crisis co-response teams have the confidence of the community based on NAMI's relationship with hundreds of families through the family-to-f family courses that we we've uh as teachers have taught, support groups, etc. They tell us they plan to continue to call 911 in mental health crisis where they feel endangered or concerned for the life of their ill loved one. We also share and distribute information about Bwell's access line and the mobile mental health crisis benefit for non-violent situations. This brings me to something I want to share. During these critical calls of uncertainty as a potential risk of violence, threats or weapons that could be present, it is unfair to expect a family member to triage a situation before calling 911 or the BW access line. Having co-response allows the dispatcher and deputy on the 911 call or or access line to triage and determine the risk of violence, thus relieving the

family from the this burden and sending a co-response to the crisis situation. It would be a complete disservice to the community if we didn't have co-response as a resource, which is a more humane approach and proven as a best practice that more than likely results in deescalation and avoidance of arrests and incarceration of people with possible mental health conditions. We commissioners recognize the value of having the community resource.

Go ahead. crisis response tailored to a person's individual needs and circumstances. Which is why we need to continue to retain crisis intervention training academy for all law enforcement officers and co-response as well as the mobile crisis mental health as service options available to our community. As always, we thank you for your continued support and look forward to collaborating with you all. Thank you, Miss Pencia. And for our uh final speaker, George Kaufman.

Supervisor Nelson. Super supervisors. Thank you. I'm I guess I'll add my voice to the to the praises that because all this is one time where you're not going to hear us ask for money. Okay. So, probably the only time. Um, but we have something more important to ask for, I think, or as important at least. And that is that I would love it if we could could kind of share this moment and use this moment where we've got a great collaboration going presently between our behavioral wellness department and the sheriff's department particularly and use this as an opportunity to find a way to make this program corresponds sustainable for the future. And I I think it there's a way to do it, but I think it might take your direction and leadership to get that done in this next year, assuming we're making a big assumption that everything goes well and that we have at least three of the four teams funded. And as you heard just a few minutes ago, the potential for a fourth one to be funded. I hope uh we'll talk more about that on Wednesday. But I I think the key issue here is that I think we're recognizing that there's two levels of crises that we're dealing with in this county. One, and this is sort of an the way they look at it nationally as I've looked a little outside our area. One is folks that are truly high-risisk, and this means that there's either suspicion of weapons present or violence or threats. And as you heard Maria say, sometimes it's difficult for us as family members to distinguish, you know, whether those things are present or not. So all we want to do is have us together as a county create a crisis response system that prioritizes

that high-risk uh crisis response. Uh not that not that other that don't meet those criteria shouldn't be responded to, but the priority should be um those individuals who are at the most ill that uh behavioral wellness ever sees at the time that they're most vulnerable and when they sometimes potentially present the greatest danger to themsel or to others. So we just ask that um somehow we find a way and I I'm certain that it can be done to number one get the departments to find a way to measure the activities of all these different kinds of responses and then use that data over this coming year that we have to determine what the balance is that we need between services for those high-risisk folks which is co-response for in most cases or if co-response isn't available certainly a CIT a deputy or police officer we'll talk again we'll talk more about that on Wednesday but uh I think the the thing the only thing that we're asking for here uh is to seize this moment of collaboration that we have and let's work together to make sure that uh we make these services sustainable. Thank you.

Mr. Coffman, I have a question for you if you do you mind staying there for a second? I have a question for you. Uh you said you guys aren't asking for money, but you're interested in that fourth uh crisis response team, right? Is that are you taking Well, we will we will be addressing that on Wednesday. Yes. But not today. Wednesday because it's a sheriff it's a sheriff's department. We I mean Yeah, we would love to see that fourth position. Just want to get some clarity there what your ask is. Okay. Okay. Thank you. Thank you. I I didn't want to blow it for Wednesday, so thank you. Okay. All right. Well, that concludes this functional group. Can I Oh, sorry. Go ahead. Supervisor Leavino. I just want to thank the crew that's leaving.

Yeah.

Um, we rarely get anybody that comes in here and says things are working right. We appreciate it. I read when I was traveling and I was kind of going through the budget workshop thing and Mona's um slide that said our job is to make it so that we avoid crisis and 90% of the time if everything is going okay nobody gets any credit people are just like oh something bad didn't happen today. No one ever comes here and says we appreciate that. So, and especially coming from your group that has been so outspoken, but this is the way change happens, right? And us continuing to get that input from you is really um I felt had moved the needle, but hearing it from you, it makes me feel a lot better about the whole program. So, appreciate you coming in today. So,

yes. Thank you. Thank you, Supervisor Lavanino. And thank you all.

All right. At this time, we'll begin the um to hear from our community resources and pub facilities functional group. And we'll go ahead and kick it off with Miss Fernandez again. There you are now. Thank you members of the board. The next functional group presenting today is community resources and public facilities. Again, we'll start with a short video summary of services.

The community resources and public facilities functional group focuses on building, maintaining, and protecting the places where we live, work, and play. This group includes public works, agriculture and weights and measures, planning and development, and community services. These departments help ensure our infrastructure, environment, and communities are safe and convenient for the public. Public works maintains roads, bridges, and flood control systems, manages water resources, and provides services like trash and recycling, agriculture, and weights and measures, supports and protects agriculture, and ensures fair business practices. Planning and development guides land use and responsible growth through development review, permitting, inspections, and energy project oversight. Community services manages parks, libraries, housing programs, homeless services, arts and culture, and sustainability initiatives. Together, these departments help build and maintain a safe, sustainable, and vibrant community. The community resources and public facilities functional group makes up 19% of countywide operating expenditures, 13% of total county FTE, and receives 7% of the county's total general fund contribution. Looking at the five-year operating revenue and GFC trend, we see that GFC makes up a relatively small share of operating revenue for this group and has remained relatively flat for all four departments. The operating revenue decreases that we see in CSD in fiscal years 2526 and 2627 are related to ending state and federal grant revenue in the housing and community development

division. For planning and development, we see growth in fiscal year 2627 driven by increased permit revenue. Public works saw steady steady revenue growth between fiscal years 2223 and 2425 due to greater intergovernmental revenue for highway 101 parallel projects and federal reimbursement for disaster recovery projects. Growth leveled off in the current fiscal year and decreased slightly in fiscal year 2627 largely due to the conclusion of intergovernmental funding for specific transportation projects. Looking at operating expenditure trends, we see the A commissioner and planning and development holding relatively flat over the 5-year period. The pushes and pulls we see in community services expenditures are mainly driven by changes in one-time pandemic relief, homelessness, and affordable housing funding. As previously noted, you will notice that while in the prior slide, public works operating revenue held flat in fiscal year 2526, operating expenditures increased due to a carryover of transportation projects from the prior fiscal year that were funded withdrawals from fund balance. In fiscal year 2627, overall operating expenditures in public works decreased largely due to changes in the volume and scope of planned capital projects. Pivoting to FTE, we see that the A commissioner and planning and development have remained fairly stable over the 5-year period. The decreased FTE for community services in fiscal year 2627 is primarily concentrated in the parks division due to flat GFC funding. Steady growth in public works FTE in the first three years of this 5-year period is primarily related to increased activity in the transportation and resource recovery and waste management divisions. We see that growth leveling off in fiscal year 2627. Here we highlight the major challenges and initiatives of the functional group.

Major challenges include cost reimbursement for storm recovery efforts, sustaining critical housing and homelessness services with limited term grant funding, meeting the requirements of new state housing laws, and changes in international export certification requirements. Major initiatives in this functional group include implementation of the 2331 housing element update, completion of the recreational master plan, and leveraging technology to streamline processes. Next, we'll provide a highle summary of each department's budgeted sources and uses of funds. The largest share of public works funding comes from charges for services at $87 million which primarily funds resource recovery waste and waste management and Lagona sanitation district activities. Intergovernmental revenue is also a major funding source at $62.6 million and is comprised of regional, state, and federal funds which primarily support transportation projects. The use of fund balance at $68.8 8 million is primarily used to fund capital projects and equipment in resource recovery and waste management, Lagona sanitation district, and transportation divisions. Most of a commissioner funding comes from state and federal intergovernmental revenue at $3.8 million, followed by GFC at $2.3 million. Funding primarily supports agricultural programs that include pest prevention and pesticide use enforcement. Here we see that the majority of planning and development's funding comes from permit revenue at $19.5 million generated mostly from building and land use permit activity. This funding is largely used to support permitting, inspection, and compliance activities. GFC is another significant source at $5 million and primarily funds long range planning activities.

Lastly, we have community services whose greatest source of funds comes from intergovernmental state and federal grants totaling $22 million which support homelessness and housing projects. General fund contribution at $15.5 million and charges for services at $12.1 million are also significant sources of revenue that fund parks and community support services. And that concludes the community resources and public facilities functional group summary. Okay, thank you. We'll go ahead and kick it off with public works and director Sin. Good afternoon, Chair Nelson, members of the board. Kristen with public works and I have Heather Fletcher with me, our CFAO, as well as our deputies and staff if you have questions later. And I I want to note that um Heather started in mid January, which is a terrible time budget-wise to get started in our department. And so, um kudos to her and her team for uh picking that up and getting the budget together. And I also want to thank Paul and Katrina and Charlotte for helping Heather get up to speed and get everything together. So, thank you. Our key takeaways for Oh, thanks. Our key takeaways for uh this upcoming year are that we have an anticipated almost $80 million in capital projects planned which uh Heather will be showing some examples of and we're also looking at um some potential slowdowns and advancement of projects depending on how things go with funding delays from FEMA reimbursement. And also we're keeping an

eye on the uh infrastructure bill that's supposed to come out from the federal government which could have some impacts on our projects. We also have some increased regulatory compliance and permitting um requirements that cause projects to take longer in project development and may ultimately cost more. So that's something we'll be working on. On the positive side, we're improving efficiencies. Um we've been doing some targeted in-house shifts um particularly on the operations side as well as the technical side to find efficiencies and um adapt to the changes in in how we do what we do. And then finally lever leveraging technology for public facing platforms. So I'll be touching on those in a couple slides as well. At this point I'm going to turn it over to Heather to take you through the budget. Thank you. Good afternoon, Chair Nelson and members of the board. Our proposed operating budget for next fiscal year is approximately $214 million. Our capital budget is $45.8 million. However, the overall capital total budget is approximately 77 million because 31 million is included in the operating budget. This is the due to the way we account for some of our capital costs. The general fund contribution is 5.4 million and transfers for our 18% deferred maintenance in certain capital projects total $11 million. We have 322 full-time equivalent staff and our balancing measures are $132,000. We are not requesting restoration. Here, here is our operating budget breakdown by major service area. Our services

range from maintaining roadway infrastructure, flood protection and water quality, managing waste, treating wastewater, and performing surveying services. This is a list of some of our capital projects that are included in the budget for 2627. The first dollar amount is the amount that's budgeted for 2627 and the amount in parenthesis is the total project cost. This is a summary of general fund monies we included in the budget for deferred maintenance and certain capital projects. We did have one position that was funded during during the current fiscal year and are requesting a small increase to another position to make it a full full-time equivalent. There is no general fund impact. Changes in our budget are due to fluctuations of construction project timing. Also, we had a larger budget in fiscal year 2526 due to a backlog of projects that were delayed from the 2023 storm response. We are anticipating finishing many of them by the end of the fiscal year. I'm going to turn it back over to Director Sneden now to talk about accomplishments.

Thanks, Heather. So, if you recall last year, one of our goals was to complete our technology modernization plan. So we did that and this year we've been really in full swing implementation on it. That includes developing dashboards, GIS systems and other decision-m tools that we can use as well as communication tools with the public. We also were able to with the help from your board's 18% general fund contribution keep on track with maintaining the base level PCI of 57. At Laguna Sanitation, we completed two water recycling projects. One that will be delivering water soon and one that has another phase that we'll be working on this year. In resource recovery, we're able to still say that we're one of only four agencies in the state that's able to achieve the 75% diversion for mixed organic waste. And we we also in parallel were able to complete the landfill liner project which will help with our goal of keeping Tahigos operational until 2038. Looking forward to this next year again we want to always try to maintain at least a base level of 57 for the PCI. We'll be expanding our targeted use of in-house uh operational and technical resources where it's appropriate, where we can realize those efficiencies and cost savings. And we'll be performing fee studies for cost recovery, particularly updating our survey or fee study. And we'll be looking at some of the resource recovery fees to make sure that we're balanced across the rateayers.

At Laguna Sanitation, we have several projects to continue the modernization of the wastewater facilities and meet all the requirements for regulators and permitting and also to continue to prepare orchid for its future. Excella development. We've completed the implementation and now we're moving on to kind of the fine-tuning and streamlining um improvements that we're making, trying to make better customer service, try to be make it better interactions with other departments and collaborating. And then we'll also be working to comply with a new and ongoing regulations and permit requirements. These are the KPMG or operational performance review priorities. You can see them woven through the slides. Um I'll just note that although most of them are completed or in progress, we're really looking forward to on the technology ones the ability to implement AI. Uh we feel like there's a lot of opportunities to make really big leaps in all of the technological areas we're working um for all the things that this performance review is focused on in terms of efficiency, streamlining, better customer service. For fiscal issues to watch, we mentioned the FEMA reimbursement. We're still grappling with that. that continued delays on that could have um impacts or will continue to have impacts on project delivery and flood control and transportation. The state requirements are continuing to have impacts as well. We've been working with other counties across the state and advocating at the state level to try and

get some rules and guidelines made that allow us to get the work done that we need to do to protect people, but also to uh look out for the habitat that we're managing as well. And as always, we're looking for sustained adequate funding for pavement preservation and deferred maintenance and asset management. Our liability and litigation costs do remain high. However, we've been working closely with county council on um both sort of programmatically making improvements to reduce risk and liability, but also their um litigation teams are really good at limiting our liability and claims. So, we appreciate that. The volatility of the com commodity market is another thing we're keeping an eye on and um we're working with Marberg as a partner who's got incentives to try and find markets for our commodities. So that we have new contracts with them that will help do that. And then full cost recovery I mentioned the studies we're doing. Another thing I'll mention that isn't on this slide is the um global events may have impacts on uh oil prices which kind of directly relate to our um asphalt and other materials that we use in construction. So that's a emerging issue I guess I would say. These are some of the performance measures we use to track the various goals that we just talked about on the on the previous slides. For balancing measures, our surveyor's office is going to kind of shift their focus a little bit to focus more on billable work from um some

of the nonchargeable work that they do to balance. And then in project clean water, we've been taking advantage of these um opportunities to leverage in-house resources and reduce our contracting and our consulting work. We have no restoration requests. And our quote this year is from Helen Keller. A bend in the road is not the end of the road unless you fail to make the turn. And with that, thank you and we're happy to answer any questions that you have. All right. Thank you, Mr. Sn. Questions for the board.

Supervisor Lee. So, how can we help you? Cuz you're one of the we get a lot of compliments about your department and how responsive you have been and just I want to help you us help you do better. I mean, what can we do? Supervisor Lee through the chair. I I appreciate the question. I mean, I think your board has shown uh dedication to managing the assets that we have and keeping people um safe and keeping them giving them the resources they need to get around and do the do what they need to do with respect to public works. So, we appreciate that.

Good. And I was hoping that your quote you were going to do a build up like you did the last year because that was hard to tell. But great job. Thank you. Thank you, Supervisor Lee. Supervisor Herman, could you expand more on the FEMA reimbursement, how much money and and from which disasters and um how that would affect us? Sure. And if we should I mean with with the super um El Nino predicted uh there may we may have big costs coming up. So just just help me understand that more from public works perspective.

Supervisor Herman through the chair. Uh there's actually two things in in your question. Uh the first part is with FEMA I think we're we're looking at about $40 million in public works. The county has other costs as well. Um and it's I think it's 25 and um about 25 in transportation and about 15 in flood control I believe. Uh and uh we we we've been pushing really hard. We have great resources that we're working with through the CEO's office. There just seems to be this well FEMA has had a lot of uh difficulty doing anything this year and there's a lot of um it's really kind of hard to find out what the status is. So we we press a lot but we don't hear back a lot. Um so so that's been an ongoing challenge but we're we're you know really con consistently working on it. Um in terms of where it comes from it's predominantly the 23 and 24 storms. There is some outstanding balances on the 17 and 18 uh storms but those are those are down to you know sort of manageable amounts. the impacts are on um transportation. Part of how transportation did this work was through a loan from the general fund that needs to be paid back. So, as we get as we get that money in, it will go back to the general fund. And if it doesn't come in, then that kind of limits our ability to to do work with the um the the what those other funds in transportation were set aside for. In flood control, it's the same thing. It doesn't have a loan, but the flood control um balances are relatively low compared to historically. So, we

wouldn't be taking on like a big another big like lower Mission Creek type capital project probably until we figure out how we're getting resolved on this. Um, the other piece that was in your question was the upcoming potential strong winter. And I think we're going to be having to do some pre-planning for that because I don't think we're going to be able to count on the same level of services from the federal government that we've had in the past. That is sobering to hear.

Yeah. And something we haven't other than our um emergency fund, we we haven't really set anything aside for that. Right. Uh Supervisor Hartman through the chair. There there are some balances but not for any kind of major magnitude type storm. Thank you, Supervisor Arman. Since we're talking about FEMA, so those reimbursements, we're getting we've gotten some reimbursements, but not to the totality of our claims. Is that right, Chair Nelson? That's correct. It's a it's a relatively small percentage, but we have gotten some.

Okay. Looking at your um slide right now, one of your goals is to keep the pavement condition index at a 57. I know it's dropped over the last couple years. It was at 58 there for quite some time. We were able to hold that, but it dropped, I think, a year or two ago. Um, do you anticipate the amount of funding that you're receiving for road maintenance and deferred maintenance is going to be able to keep that flat in 2627? Uh, Chair Nelson, I think I guess the the answer is time will tell. Uh, the the big sort of

You're an engineer. Come the big the big well the big unknown for that is is as I said the impact from the global events on oil prices which is directly can have huge impacts and we've seen these in the past on the cost to do the work. So, um, we've been able to we've been able to keep pace with, um, you know, as if we if we're matching revenues to the pace of increase of cost, you know, we should be able to hold steady. If one of those goes up or down a lot, then it becomes much more challenging.

Okay. Um, do you see the potential like I know that there's an opportunity especially on those you talked about the variable costs um that looks like asphalt might be able to be sourced locally here again. Do you see that impacting your ability to um further address the road maintenance challenges? Chair Nelson, if there if there was a local source that made that was, you know, made the prices more competitive, it would it could potentially help.

Okay. Great. Thank you. I I know in years past you had been able to give us a number that you felt comfortable with maintaining, you know, as part of a budget expansion, the PCI, and so you're not going to give us a number this year. As far as a budget adjustment or uh restoration or expansion, um Chair Nelson, we're we're relatively comfortable that we can get through this year and see how it goes. Um and just remind me so when when pavement isn't maintained it usually gets more expensive in the future to maintain right so it gets expensive for two reasons one because we just talked about costs going up and two because it's further detrad or degradation right so both those things are true in our system

chair Nelson yeah yes I I think I I think the other way to look at it is you have two two sort of really components. One is the PCI and one is the backlog and you can hold the PCI but still have your backlog go up. So in those terms our current projections are that the backlog will probably increase I think it was 7% over the next year or so. Okay. Thank you. Supervisor Hartman. I just had a quick uh shout out for Mustafa. My constituents have placed um big demands on you these past months and you've been gracious uh and and forthcoming and it's much appreciated.

All right, Supervisor Caps, I'm just going to follow suit because it's so fresh, but the the fast uh response and uh repair of the Maria Agnosio bike path has just been huge. Um, I have I've heard from so many people about it. So, thank you.

Any other questions or comments? Well, I just have to say that I know that Miss Fletcher is new to your department, but she's hardly new to the county governance and so I'm sure she was a a quick study and we're seeing that here. So, welcome to the team, Heather. All right. Well, thank you, um, uh, Mr. Sten. We're going to go ahead and move along to agriculture weights and measures. And kicking things off will be Mr. Chang. Good afternoon, uh, Chair Nelson, members of the board, Somi Asato, Coun County Council, U, Budget Director, uh, assistant CEOs, um, county staff, members of the public, Jose Chang, agricultural commissioner, sealer of ways and measures. With me today are Assistant Agricultural Commissioner Lori Martin as well as Deputy Agricultural Commissioner Matthew Mton and financial professional Anthony uh Estrada uh Anthony Pon Estrada. We are here today to present our 2627 annual budget. Uh these are some key takeaways for next fiscal year for the eye commissioner weights and measures office. We expect to see the impact from changes in export certification requirements. We have a dog handler going to the national a national detector dog training center in Georgia on June 1 to be paired with a new K9 partner to

support our pest exclusion high-risk uh program. Our county currently leads the estadian exotic invasive pest detections. Despite fiscal constraints and budget uh reductions, we remain committed to the to maintaining our pest prevention programs at the highest operational standards to protect our local agricultural and natural resources. Bless you. Our budget summary shows our our operating budget at $7.7 million. Our general fund allocation is just under $2.3 million. We have a one-time transfer fund of $50,000. We have a 36 uh FTEES positions and our balancing measure amount is just under $400,000. Um the commissioner's weights and measures offices is broken down into three core service areas. Number one, agriculture consists of two divisions. One is the environmental protection division which is responsible for regulating pesticide use and ensuring safety for workers, the public and the environment. And our plant health and pest prevention division is responsible for enforcement of plant quarantines, early detection and eradication of invasive pests and inspection of incoming plants and certification of agricultural exports. Our consumer protection division which is the weights and measures is responsible for inspecting all commercial and weighing devices to maintain market integrity and ensure pricing and measurement accuracy for all consumer goods. This division also

administer administers the organic and certified farmers market programs which regulate organic produce and verify that growers sell only what they grow at certified farmers markets. And finally, our administration and support service area delivers missionritical administrative services including fiscal management, human capital operations, and comprehensive customer support to ensure the operational success of all departmental programs. We have a one county program transfer of $50,000. Our staffing level remains at that 36 FTEEs. Our preliminary budget for fiscal year 2627 reflects a decrease of approximately $150,000 compared to the fiscal to the current fiscal year. This reduction is primarily driven by a decrease in phytoanitary export certifications resulting from shifting regulatory mandates alongside a contraction in our cannabis licensing workload. Uh this slide highlights a few of our accomplishments for fiscal year 2526. We are very proud to report to this board that our county currently ranks first in the state with 360 intercepted invasive pests. A testament to our rigorous efforts in safeguarding local agriculture and the natural environment from devastating pest and diseases. Additionally, we achieved a 10% increase in online payment adoption, increasing customer convenience, and our weights and measures program successfully

resolved 40 consumer complaints, upholding fair competition, and ensuring the highest regulatory standards for our community. The following are a few a few department goals we would like to emphasize for the next fiscal year. In the community outreach front in partnership with the county farm bureau, we will host a Spanish language spray safe event to ensure critical safety protocols reach a broader segment of the agricultural workforce. Resource development. We are developing triilingual fuel worker safety cards to distribute in the field. On the fiscal efficiency, our target is to increase online payment adoption by an additional 10%. And on the consumer protection, we will visit 60 business locations to conduct retail package inspections to ensure consumers are receiving the full quantity stated on the package they are paying for. And we are very pleased that we have completed all of our KPNG recommendations. We reorganize our departmental divisions to streamline services and better serve the public. We're also using constant contact in our Facebook page to share information and expand our outreach. We currently reach over 3,100 people and businesses. Our supervisors conduct bi-weekly one-on-one meetings with the staff complemented by newly developed program manuals designed to consolidate and maximize efficiency. Notably, our pest prevention manuals has gained regional recognition with other

counties requesting it as a foundational template for their own programs. And lastly, our office developed an online payment portal for it for easy use by our customers and we enhanced our website to be more user friendly and these are these are several uh fiscal challenges that remain on on our horizon. uh the export certification. We are closely monitoring shifting international mandates that may further impact our phytoer sanitary export program. We are tracking potential contract reductions from state and federal partners which could affect core service delivery specifically within the high-risk best exclusion and glassy wing sharpshooter programs. The transition toward vehicle and machinery electrification remains a long-term risk to our unclaimed gas tax funding allocation. And as always, we must maintain fiscal readiness for emerging pest infestations which pose a significant threat to the local agricultural economy and natural environment. Uh this uh slide outlines our key performance measures for the current fiscal year. These are some of the highlights include we are on track to to achieve 100% inspection rate for all 7,000 permitted commercial weighing and measuring devices across the county. Uh we are also meeting our target to complete 440 pesticide monitoring inspections ensuring the safety and regulatory compliance of all local applications. And the department balanced its fiscal

year 2627 budget by strategically holding positions bacon to generate salary savings. And we have no service level restoration request. And lastly, um, our quote is from Dolly Parton. And storms make trees take deeper roots. And with that, we are happy to answer any questions you may have. That's great. Mr. Chang, questions from the board. Supervisor Lee,

I do. Can you talk about the cannabis enforcement program? What kind of work does your department do with that money? Yes, Matt, would you mind? Supervisor Lee through the chair. So, our department's role in that is we're part of the licensing part of the of the cannabis program. So, we have a role like there's six other departments. uh we we're part of the licensing where we go out we we we verify what's on the license application with what's at the site and there's a process that we go through and a checklist and then we do our part then we send that to the CEO's cannabis office

so and supervisor uh Lee through the chair in addition to that we also do of course you know if they have weighing if they have a scales for commercial use we also regulate them if they are using any sort of chemistry countries uh instead of the green houses we also regulate them uh any uh worker safety related to pesticide use it is also something that it's uh regulated and then as Matt uh deputy agriculture commissioner mentioned there are other additional requirements that we we check on them but that's primarily it's weights and measures and pesticide use and permitting as well they they they do require to have a permit for both weights and measures and pesticide is. Thank you, sir.

Right. Thank you, Supervisor Lee. Supervisor Hartman.

Um I often have agriculturalists tell me how um pleased they are with your department's work in um proactive pest response. And now I see that you're number one in the state. That's that's really quite extraordinary uh and just deserve to be underscored. I also appreciate your work on protecting farm workers and neighbors from pesticide use and uh I I'm learning every time you come for our meetings uh all the work you're doing on consumer protection that I think I certainly never appreciated before. So uh you're a department that's just um firing on all cylinders it seems. Thank you.

Thank you.

Thank you, Supervisor Hartman. And I would just concur with that comment. you know, um, the view of the county by agriculturalists have a lot to do with the interaction that they have with the front line, which is your department. And that's a great relationship, and I think that that goes a long way to making all of our jobs a lot easier here in the county, especially as supervisors, and especially in an agricultural county. So, again, thank you on behalf of my constituents and and the entire board on the hard work that you guys put into um building those relationships, but also keeping the public safe. You know, I think that it's often lost that pesticide use and pesticide exposure are not the same things and I think you guys make sure that happens and and you're able to really educated people on some just really false narratives that are out there about the agriculture industry and I think that you guys are a big part of of um bridging that gap. So again, thank you for that.

All right, Supervisor or sorry, Supervisor Levanino.

Yeah, I just want to touch on the other part of it too. First off, do we have more pests or we just better at catching them? Um, Supervisor Lavanino through the chair. Um, I I think it is a combination of uh the two. Uh, we have definitely, you know, uh, more pests, but I but I do think that in our office we have a a great group of uh, individuals that are, you know, looking and and they are inspecting every single every single day. So I I I think it is more of us, but I I I also think that, you know, there is um more pests coming into our uh county. And then I I also just wanted to touch really quickly because I don't think the public really pays too much attent attention to it or doesn't really understand how much inspecting you do in weights and measures in your department of every scale of every you know and and I'm sure he does the same with you. But um I meet regularly with Jose and he tells me all the time about um different things that are going on in different department stores of you know massive now this idea of pricing where it could be um it's almost like they do with Uber. It's like if if you know if you're at the wrong place at the wrong time, you're trying to get out of the Santa Barbara Bowl, the pricing goes up. Stores are now possibly moving to this type of um constantly changing pricing on items. And the way that they're going to have to be able to try to track that and make sure that people aren't overcharged or undercharged is going to be a herculean effort. So, um I don't think a lot of people understand when they go get a gallon of gas, your department makes sure that they're getting a gallon, right? Not threequarters of a gallon. So, um, you're out there on the front lines protecting everybody and and I I also want to commend you just on the I think

it's the the attitude that your department has even though you're a regulator. You're a regulator, but and and I've seen some of the fines that you've given out rightfully so, but it's a regulator with a heart too and a brain that is not just looking at these are the laws, but this is why it is and this is how we educate our farmers of how to um how to do things the right way. So, just really appreciate everything that goes on your department. Well done. Yeah. Thank you, Super Glavin. You know, see Res Hartman, when you get the dog, will you come and introduce it? Yes, you guys will be the first ones to to see the dog. That That'd be great.

Okay. I I figured out the system, though. Okay. So, you put out the thing and the dog finds the right one. But what if you have something in every box? See, this is what I want to find out next time. I'm not sure that dog is is really as good. I want to see the demo a little bit closer.

Magic trick. And I wanted to um just piggyback on, you know, the weights and measures not only pro protects the consumer but also protects the business. There's sometimes some of the businesses are giving away a lot more of their product and you guys come in and and help them realize that they might be off on the other direction. So, it's not it's it's both sides of that of that coin and I think that's where the real value comes in that permit fee that you guys charge. You know, there's a lot of times that when you're charging a um something that's being regulated a fee, it's usually to protect the general public, but you guys are really an opportunity where you're protecting both sides of that, which I think is is really um com commendable and appreciated. Right. All right. Well, that concludes uh the agricultural commissioner and Weatsson measures department. And moving right along, we're going to head to planning and development. and we'll get started here in a moment with director plowman and but for those of you who are wanting to speak in public comment on this group um after planning development we have community services and then we'll get to public comment on this functional group which was public works through community services. So with that director plowman floor is yours. Thank you, Mr. Chair, members of the board. Uh, today I'm Lisa Plowman, director of planning and development, and today I'm going to be presenting the budget for planning and development. I have Drew Rura, Elise Dale, and Jeff Wilson here at the table with me, and staff that are in the audience if you have questions. To start, uh, I'm going to go over a couple of the key takeaways from our budget. We balanced our budget this year without using fund balances, which is,

um, the first time we've done that in a few years. So, I'm proud to say that we were able to accomplish that. Overall, we are going to be proposing to reduce uh, our budget by three FTEEs. Two of those are in planning and development, long-range planning division. uh and one is in petroleum. Um another note is that the board approved our fee schedule um changes uh and our cost recovery is estimated to increase pretty significantly in in the different divisions uh where we charge fees. Our budget summary. So our department has a budget of about $27.2 million. Uh we have a capital budget of 24,000 roughly. Uh general fund contribution of about 5 million. Um we have county program transfers around 632,000. Uh full-time equivalents uh of employees will be 109.75. That's the reduction. Uh the balancing measures total about $660,000. and we have a restoration request of $134,000 and that's in the long range planning division. Next slide. This next two slides um depict how our staff and our budget is allocated across the major service areas for the department. And that includes administration and support where we have about $5 million, permitting which is 17 million, um code enforcement which is 1.2 2 million, coastal mitigation, which is about 380,000, and then long range planning, which is 3.7 million. The general county program transfers

include roughly $147,000 to long-range planning for planning consultants that we're using uh for the streamlining of our code. $40,000 is a reimbursement for cannabis appeals. Uh $356,000 is for cannabis enforcement and code enforcement and $90,000 to support for the housing element implementation and other state mandates. The staffing summary shows that we've we've been pretty level in our staffing. Um we are, as I mentioned, proposing to unfund uh three positions. We have left them vacant. So uh we are we are in a position where we would have to lay people off. So th those would total the three positions that we are would be removing from our um current budget. The operating budget. So our operating budget has fluctuated some. We're at uh slightly down this year because of the of the um service level reductions. Um we are increasing our permanent revenue um which is helping us to replace our fund balance. uh and limiting our reliance on that. And then um as I mentioned, we have those service level reductions. The anticipated accomplishments for this fiscal year include um that we launched our new division, which is the permit resources division, and the permit resources center, which is essentially the public counters that work with the public. We successfully implemented phase two of uh the Asella upgrade and we have begun to transition to e-ermit hub which is another Asella product which is helping us in our plan review across multiple departments. We expect to approve at

least 2,000 new housing units 4,000 building permits. 1,500 of those are ondemand permits where an applicant can get on the computer, put in their information, and a permit is printed out. Um, we've approved two major agricultural commercial projects which include Pantel and Farm Con uh FAM Con, excuse me. And as I mentioned earlier, we completed our comprehensive fee study update to improve cost recovery. We also launched the pilot program for the ISA Vista rental housing inspections uh in July of 2025 and we expect to have completed inspections for 850 units by the end of that program which ends on June 30th of this year. We completed the ordinance streamlining and housing accommodation amendments that the board heard uh only a few months ago. We launched the pre-approved ADUs. They are now available on our website for applicants to utilize. And the board adopted the environmental justice element. The department's goals and objectives for next fiscal year. As I mentioned, we we launched the permit resources division and the permit resource center and we will be working on consolidating the public counter operations, crossraining our staff, um increasing the ondemand building permits that we currently have, uh improving our website, which I think um will be will go great be a great step for the public. Uh we are working on the third phase of our ordinance streamlining efforts uh that the board approved a couple of years ago and that is to bring forward more ministerial permits and we will be at the board for a briefing on that on May 12th for the board to give us uh

direction and confirm that we're moving in the right on the right path. Uh we will continue to improve the enterprise permitting and implementing our um e- permit hub through Asella across the um reviewing departments and this will help us expand our management tools and create um dashboards. Um we are enhancing cannabis enforcement. Um we've been proactive and in the field um taking measurements for odor uh to ensure that the efforts that the board is make are making a difference in the community. These next two slides um talk about the KPMG um priority recommendations. These are the capstones that we're working with the CEO's office on. And the first one um is related to the adoption of the online permitting system as which we accomplished and went live with in 2023. These these other items that are listed on this slide are enhancing that. And as I mentioned, we're transitioning to e-ermit hub. We're increasing on demand permits. We launched the new division. Um and we're improving public information. Uh the next uh capstone item on here is the development of service level agreements. So as part of the Asella program, we worked with all the reviewing departments and identified review timelines and developed these agreements between those departments and planning and development to help keep projects moving through the process. Next slide. Um, we fully implemented the electronic plan submitt which was a building and safety specific recommendation from K KPMG and we're continuing to improve review times and reduce re-reviews where possible. This is an area where we're hoping that AI can help um the

department as well. Uh we are in the process of moving to paperless hearings. Uh currently we have two planning commissioners that are testing it right now and we expect to expand that um to all commissioners in 2026 2027 fiscal year. The fiscal issues to watch include the lack of grant funding opportunities for the state mandates which has increased the department's dependency on the general fund. Um the loss of the two vacant positions in long range planning can result in some delays in work. That's our our board priorities as we discussed at the long range um work program item last week. Um ongoing mandates to comply with new state housing law continue to increase the workload for our long-range planning staff. We've also struggled to hire uh plancheck engineers in building and safety and that has resulted in reliance greater reliance on consultants to assist with that which has driven up some of our operational costs. And then of course like the rest of the county we're facing rising costs uh in insurance, utilities, IT, etc. And those do impact our budget. This slide identifies some of our performance measures that I wanted to highlight for the board. I'm going to talk about three of them. Uh the first one is uh issuance of incomplete letters for discretionary applications. They're required to be issued within 30 days and we've mostly been doing that in previous fiscal years, but this year we hit 100%. And we expect to stay at 100% um uh through the rest of the fiscal year. We also complete building inspections within one business day of a request.

We're we are at 99.8%. Um and there there are a lot of requests that come into that um division. And then one that we're working on and making improvement but can still make more improvement is completing the first plan check review for grading applications that are less than 1500 cubic yards. We try to complete that review within um two weeks and we were around 43% last fiscal year. We're almost at 70% this fiscal year and we'll continue to work on that. The balancing measures as I've talked about in the uh previously in this presentation is un uh unfunding two vacant positions in long-range planning, one vacant position in petroleum. Um decreasing um contract dollars to align with actual expenditures across the department. And then we had a 10% reduction in department training and travel for next fiscal year. Uh as I mentioned, we are asking for the restoration of one position in long range planning to further the board's priorities. Uh I do recognize the challenges that the board is facing. Uh so it's I I you know I guess what I would say on that you can go back to that slide. I guess what I would say here is I recognize that we may not be able to do this, but I do want to mention that we are seeking a $300,000 grant for our safety element. We expect to know that by the end of May. Uh and it could substantially reduce, if not cover, the cost of the restoration of that particular position. And so we'll work with the CEO's office on that. And lastly, this is we were really hoping that Chris Snedden would come out with another Dolly Parton quote,

but the rest of this functional division is stepping in for him. So, in in recognition of his true passion for Dolly, uh we have a quote that says, "If you don't like the road you're walking, start paving another one." And not only does it does it pay tribute to Dolly and Chris, but we believe that it aligns with our goals of improving our process for the public and and streamlining our permits. And with that, I'm happy to answer any questions. All right. Questions from the board.

Nope. Okay. I I think I have um I guess maybe a comment or qu maybe it's a question and a comment. Um you know I think I'm seeing kind of revenue and operating expenses be fairly flat despite fees continuing to go up which signals to me is that the fees are actually reducing the amount of activity in part because how expensive it And that's what I'm hearing from the general public about how, you know, now that we have the highest fees in the state that that's having a chilling effect on people even want to even call to ask to do something. And so, you know, I know that I know the reason why. I know the direction that you guys have gone. I know that the board has supported that to this point. But I do think that we're actually seeing that in those flat revenues despite everything else going on and those um fees going up. what I think might be helpful for the board and I I don't know if I probably can't get that done this budget cycle, but to actually start to look at the improved assessed value when planning does work. You know, I think we could start to dive in with the assessor and actually see what that looks like so that we could actually see where we get money because I, you know, my whole argument all along about this has been we put all that expense on the applicant and we just kind of close our eyes and close our ears and don't think about that we're actually potentially increasing property tax value throughout the county, which you know, um, services might go up too, but maybe we can take a look at that as well. to have that is another piece of the of the puzzle. I think that's something that we as a county should look at to see, you know, is there an equation there and that also helps us making some decisions in the future on what those fees look like because if we know that we maybe lower that bar, increase development activity, which increases jobs, creates more revenue that maybe we'll be more enticed not to have that 100% cost recovery

that's so expensive um and really chills uh anybody wanting to get a permit. Um, and so, you know, I I think that that's going to continue to be a challenge until we kind of figure out a way around that um, in the future. So, I guess that's more of a comment than a question. Maybe a highlight for for budget staff to in the future look into a way to maybe start to try to get an um, an idea what that actually looks like for us financially. So,

thank you, Mr. Chair. I think what I would um I understand your comments and and agree that it's a real challenge. Um I will say that my hope is that when when we work with the board to create more ministerial permits, it's going to make it less expensive for some of your the mom and pops that come in and want to make changes to sort of smaller structures or build single family homes to make that a little bit easier for them. It doesn't change the the structure for the larger projects. I recognize that but it is it's it's one step forward.

Yeah. No, I I mean I I appreciate the efficiencies that have been going on throughout the whole in development process. You know, planning development and other departments have been working together on some of this to be able to streamline it so we actually have some accountability and know where things are at. I think that's, you know, daylighting that is good for the process. Um but I do think we got a long way to go still and and all of that. So, look forward to hearing more. Seeing any other lights, thank you very much. And now we'll be moving along to our fourth and final department and this functional group, community services. And we kicking off with directors.

Thank you, Chair Nelson, members of the board. Jesus Armis with the community services department. I want to first um acknowledge really an extraordinary team at CSD led by a variety of division managers and and assistant directors. Joining me today, we have Andrew Mang, who's our our administrative and uh fiscal officer. We have Garrett Wong, head of the sustainability division. Uh Jeff Lingren in charge of parks. Joe Desvonic, everything related to housing and Sarah Wong, Sarah Wong, excuse me, Sarah York Rubin, our arts zar. So, we we appreciate that very much. It's uh my third year with the county and every day I really appreciate what an extraordinary organization this is led by by the board and of course the CEO. Today, what I'd like to do is uh provide an overview of our department, give you a a snapshot of the remarkable things that take place in our department. As you know, we have quite an eclectic collection of areas of responsibility involving parks, housing, sustainability programs, libraries, arts and culture. Really a variety of things that touch everyone's life on a daily basis. The photograph that we have here is um showcasing Polo Village in Bullet Bulletin that was uh you can see the ribbon cutting earlier this year. Some key takeaways to share with you. The department has been focusing uh very forcefully on dealing with our financial situation. We obviously have to deal with some matters that affect us long term, not just in the upcoming fiscal year. Secondly, we've also uh recognized that as we address affordable housing and homeless, we need to uh figure out a way

to go past the simply one-time allocations that seem to be the primary method in which we're able to support this effort, but it's something that we're looking at very carefully. In the area of parks, we've seen some decline in some of our activities there. uh some have characterized it not so much as a decline but a return to levels that were precoid we saw a huge boost in in the co years but we're now seeming to re uh return to a more level playing field uh we believe however that there are opportunities for growth there and certainly with the substantial investment that the board approved at Lake Auma we'll be able to uh realize some uh significant uh advances there. The next and item on our slide is something that really prepares us for a longer term vision for our county and that's the rec master plan. It affords us some opportunities to look at our services to the public in the not only in the passive area of trails and open space, but also to look at some opportunities for active recreation uses in selected areas. Our budget summary, as you can see, we're at slightly more than $58.6 million, which is a reduction of about 4 million from the current year. We're also seeing some reduction in staffing from the 99.3 that is in effect this year to slightly over 89 uh excuse me, 99 uh proposed and 89 in the current year. We are also proposing of course uh to use 485,000 in one-time fund balance to support ongoing operations. We do think of course asum a number of you have expressed to us the importance of looking uh at this from a sustainability

perspective revenue sustainability perspective not just relying on one-time areas. The department of course has uh multiple divisions. U couple things to highlight here in our parks and open space. The photograph that's on the screen is um of the new lights that have been installed up at the Orchet Park community park. This was when uh our contractor was making sure that they were working. So um they're um soon to be fully operational and the field is has been restored after sustaining some impacts because of the construction activity. Housing and community development uh is showcasing in this photograph a factory built module associated with a Peterson Patterson Point uh project that the housing authority led. And then in the next slides our community services. This is a crosswalk that Sarah has really been instrumental in bringing forward the funding from the Bloomberg uh foundation. Uh if you have a happen to be downtown, you will have seen some activity already taking place this morning. They were painting that uh that intersection. And then uh lastly, of course, our sustainability division has done remarkable work. Not only did the board approve a couple years ago the climate action plan, but we've been making some good progress in that area. We presented to you a report earlier this year on the accomplishments of the uh 3C REN. We've had a substantial subscription and have been able to assist uh our residents in making a variety of uh of improvements that lower their their costs and have energy efficient operations. Our capital projects for next year that we'd want like to highlight um include the RCON uh beach, the side accessways, beach

accessways and the um Isa Vista area uh stairways that have been damaged over time and seem to need restoration every few years. The Lake Kachuma area needs some continued attention on the infrastructure f uh front. uh we kind of been doing it on a peacemail basis and at some point we're going to need to uh bring to the board a larger discussion of how we make investment in that infrastructure including water and wastewater to really uh make sure that it's both sustainable provides the right environment and the right experience for the users and does not uh compromise the viability of that water source. Our transfers encompass the areas uh depicted here. We'll touch on one area a little later, but we are uh asking that the board consider a slight shift in the uh maintenance funding associated with the 18% policy to reduce some of the otherwise uh necessary uh reductions. couple of areas that we'd like you to talk uh give us some direction on a little later um are in the racial equity grant arena and we did provide uh some information to you in response to a request that we received. Our staffing summary as you can see was largely flat and next year is proposed to be slightly reduced. We are um in the grant-f funded area keeping one uh position u vacant in sustainability and two in the housing specialists. Those are not positions that have been really used for a number of years. I think in the case of the housing area, they appeared on the organizational chart but had not really been deployed. So we thought it best to update our presentation there. On our operating budget, you can see that uh

there's some slight reductions. However, um of note and of concern to us is the general liability insurance that uh our department and a number of other departments have seen uh some significant increases and uh the need to really pay attention to our revenues in our parks uh area. We are in the midst of a wholesale fee review that we hope to present to you in the next uh couple of months. And we also um are optimistic that with the uh reinvestment in in the RB at at the park at Kachuma, we'll see some uh robust return uh to uh rentals there. Uh Supervisor Nelson, you'll recall, asked that we take a look at whether we might have a a differential between incount and out ofount residents, and we will be coming to you as part of our our fee review with a recommended action there. some of our anticipated accomplishments. Uh this uh the picture is of the Manning Park tennis court and pickle ball. So, if you look very closely toward the back, you may see Supervisor Lee warming up uh to to launch a a pickle ball uh the residents have the residents in that area have been very appreciative of the the board's willingness to fund that project and it's really made a big difference already. Um there was a recent uh ribbon cutting that uh garnered a lot of support. So we appreciate the board's support for that over the years. Anticipated accomplishments for the next year. We have a lot on the housing front. I I think we're especially proud of what we're been able to do. And you can see on this slide a variety of projects that have come online over the

last year. some significant funding for our homeless fund uh efforts. And um in a matter of of weeks, we're going to be coming to you with a recommendation on a development team to pursue the affordable housing project at the current probation building site, asking you to consider selecting one of the development team with which we with whom we can negotiate a long-term ground lease. Again, as I mentioned, sustainability division has done a great job, has done uh provided a lot of training to professionals, has reached out to uh um apartment uh residents to be able to utilize appliances that they might not otherwise have been able to obtain before. Our goals on and objectives uh for next year, I think, are impressive. We're very excited about being able to um make some headway in our uh management of our fee activity at the various parks to both for security and to better manage uh assets. Going toward a cashless system for camping is one way of doing that and it also of course helps us understand what kind of volume and connectivity we'll be experiencing there. Uh, one area that I'd like to highlight in our PL in our parks division is um, Mr. Lingren's crew has been paying a great deal of attention of deploying Planet Geo, which is a software that allows us to capture some really useful information and tracking the condition of our trees, our playground equipment. E every time there's work on a playground equipment, there is an inspection of that equipment to make certain that it is safe and it doesn't have any uh doesn't represent any potential risk to the users. Beyond the use of the software, we're also

going to begin to more aggressively track um activity at associated with each of the maint maintenance functions at each of our parks. So we're going to track uh better what it uh kind of time requirements are associated with mowing lawns, mowing lawns, picking up uh debris and the like. And we also want to factor in travel time because that when you think of the size of our county in both the north and the south, uh geography has an impact on available hours, employee hours since they are traveling from point A to point B. and in the busy uh uh tourist season that can impact our our productivity. So more to come on that but it's something that we will be paying attention to. As you can see here we also have some additional objectives working very closely with general services and the planning on various aspects of the housing element. Uh we hope to come to you soon with an announcement around the homekeep project propo family home key project proposed up at uh Cay Realel. And then uh we have some uh anticipated um funding application for SURF uh five I believe. As you can see here we've utilized over 8 million in prior SURF allocations and we've had some success there. Uh kudos to Joe and his team for the work in not only the San Maria riverbed, but they're paying a fair amount of attention right now to the Sanz River. And we're looking to create a a partnership with the city of Lumpoke to continue to pay attention to that and mimic some of our success in the Santa Maria Riverbed in the Lampoke area. Sustainability has some major initiatives that are uh coming to conclusion uh this year that we may be

able to continue into a subsequent year. Some operational reviews are shown here. I'll I'll uh spare you all the details in the uh in recognition of the time but are available to answer uh questions on the fiscal issues. Um park infrastructure is an important one that we want to just put on your radar. Uh the cabins and the other equipment at our camping facilities will need some attention in the coming year. The uh federal and state funding is a really a significant element for for us to again bring to your attention. The president announced last week in his proposed budget significant cuts to HUD uh in the form of our CDBG and home allocation and if uh successful would really dramatically alter what we can provide in that arena. And of course, last year the Trump administration proposed some modifications to um the COC effort and that could also adversely affect what we're able to do here. We are going to uh need to identify and and hopefully uh target uh replacement funding for the cleanup work that's done in the various uh encampment locations because those uh if we don't clean it up, it it really means that we haven't made a whole lot of progress. We obviously uh first and foremost want to serve the needs of the individuals but we also need to be mindful of the environment. A variety of uh performance measures shown here. We uh would note that as you can see on the the last entry there we have a a fair amount of participation in our energy efficient efficiency and retrofit program. uh county parks is continuing to see a a good number of

visitors but largely flat in the last couple years. So we do need to uh focus on that. Some uh serious um balancing measures presented to you including um uh leaving vacant for um excuse me um two vacant park ranger positions and a three/arter assistant naturalist. We are requesting that uh the board approve the use of 18% money to avoid the additional cuts in the parks maintenance uh personnel. We're also uh noting that the library uh area is in need of some attention as has been mentioned before. The library advisory committee and the library directors worked with us in bringing forward a suggestion of a reduction in the per capita rate from the present $942 to $9 uh representing about a 4% cut. We also wanted to highlight for you some additional balancing measures for you to consider and to provide some direction. For some time now, the county has been funding fulfillment grants. And again, in in response to the board inquiry, we've outlined an itemized listing of those allocations. They've been in place for some number of years that I think most people have forgotten that they were even uh allocated. Um you did ask when the racial equity grant was before you whether uh to bring that management inside into county operations and we've brought forward a proposal that allows that to be considered. And then lastly on the human services commission uh we suggest that for the 2728 year uh that that million dollar allocation be considered. uh we we put it in the outyear in recognition that for some

time the the board has been allocating those funds on a two-year cycle and many of the organizations have developed that with that time frame in mind and lastly as I've already discussed we do have a restoration request as presented here Mr. sueden is really embraced by everybody in our functional group. And so CSD wants to join the parade and say, uh, Miss Barton contacted us directly the other day and say, why don't you share with Mr. Sneden that you'll never do a whole lot unless you're brave enough to try. So Mr. Snedden, thank you. With that, we're available to respond to questions. Thank you, Mr. Armis. I got to ask a quick question before I turn it over to questions from my colleagues. Um on the slide 17 there, the human services commission for a million dollars, isn't it usually about 1.3 because there's also some allocation the um the staff that manages that?

It's been closer to 1.1. It's only been $100,000 because it's isn't it been a full staff member plus benefits? Uh uh no, it gets distributed among various staff people. So it isn't one FTE%. Okay. I just thought the administration of that those dollars were higher in years past. So maybe has been able to curve that over the last couple years because I'm pretty sure it was 1.3 for quite some time.

Uh let me take a quick look because I made note of that and I'll get back to you momentarily. Was there another question, Mr. No, I just want a clarification on that number because those funds went away then that additional staffing that it takes to to manage those funds might you would imagine might go away as well. So maybe may Mr. Mong can you just correct that information just so we're clear? Chair Nelson um the correct amount is the $1 million that's what's budgeted for the whole human services commission.

Okay. So, it's a million dollars in grants, but then there's staff that manages it and that was part of the allocation in the past when this was up. It's been 10 years before this has been on the chopping block, but 10 years ago when this is on chopping block, it had the million dollars plus the staff that was utilized to manage that and I think that it was a couple hundred,000 and that's what I was trying to get. So, currently um that contract is that the human services commission is managed by our HCD division and that's just absorbed. Um so the amount being allocated to the various providers are a million dollars. Okay. Thank you, Mr. Um Young. All right. Questions from my colleagues.

Well, then I'll stay on my questions. Um Mr. Armas, you said uh Kachuma, you you were mentioning that you might need to come back to the board again. I know we've on that and I guess that that kind of got my attention because we're we're putting two$ two and a quart million dollars this year into it. We've put a lot of money over the last few years and it sounds like there's more needed.

Well, I I think uh Chair Nelson, what that underscores is that we have an asset that we haven't been able to reinvest in for many many years. And as the the systems age and deteriorate over time, uh we're be able to apply a band-aid here or there, but we don't address the fundamental condition. And that's what I'm alluding to with respect to the the wastewater and and water systems in particular. We've investing a lot though over the last couple budget cycles in the Kachuma. So I guess I'm still

the um investment that was made most recently of course is in the RV park as a way of trying to uh in increase and grow our revenue. Sure. the uh the infrastructures that I uh referenced had a price tag approaching multi-million dollars and I I don't believe that that was um front and center of the department or or brought to your attention. Okay. I guess that's some concern about just the peacemail approach to this. You know, it would have might have been a different project if we would have had the whole picture all along. Um but

I don't think you're alerting us to some future concerns. Um, I do appreciate that you beat me to one of my questions on the two-tier fees structure. So, that's great. I'd written that down right away. Um, but you beat me to it. Uh, deferred maintenance. Uh, do you guys uh are you guys tracking your deferred maintenance backlog at this time? Jeff, are you able to speak to that?

Yes. One second and I will pull those numbers up. Sorry. Uh, yes, Chair Nelson, we are always have good backup. That's an important thing. Um, our deferred maintenance at this time is around 76 million and about 30 million of that is related to asphalt roads and parking lots within our parks.

Okay. Do we expect that to grow over the next year? We have that chair Nelson. We expect that the overall D deferred maintenance number will shrink once the U RV park at Kachuma is completed. There's a lot of deferred maintenance buried in that project. So that will substantially help our overall deferred maintenance number.

Okay, that's good news. Thank you. A couple other small comments. Um, what's cheaper than encampment cleanup is never letting it get dirty in the first place. Staying on top there with enforcement, I think is a is a huge key to solving that problem long term. I would love to see encampment cleanup dollars go away because we have encampment enforcement to begin with. And I know that's not all on your department. That's I think a countywide responsibility that we should be all um committed to knowing that if we don't, it will cost us more in the future. Uh could you remind me again on the library funding of how much are we subsidizing um city libraries with um the allocation for city residents?

Yes. specifically to the libraries that are municipal libraries as opposed to the branches that they operate on our behalf basically. That's correct. Um it's approaching um $4.5 million. Okay. All right. Thank you. So, I guess my um I guess I'll have a couple of other comments, but I'll go ahead and let some other staff or other colleagues have some questions. Supervisor Hartman and then Supervisor Lee.

Sure. Um well, first of all, um I'm glad that you identified the fulfillment grants. I think at $190,000 going out to chambers um and and visitor bureaus, I I I think this is a time where we really need that in-house. Um, and I so I would be supportive of um not sending it out but using it internally in some way. Uh, I also um I I think uh combining racial equity grants with human services. I think that would be $40,000 and we do that on every two-year cycle. I think that's another good idea. And I think um using the uh 18% for the form maintenance I think is um I think you bring the parks department below a certain level and and it really compromises what we're able to do there. I mean we've got to maintain trees. We've got to maintain fields so there aren't gophers. These are examples where if we don't um one, it'll cost us more and two, there's potential liability. Uh and the same with with some of our trails and equipment. So, I I think that that's a really good strategy and over time will um at least keep our deferred maintenance from from getting a lot worse. And I hadn't realized uh but chair Nelson's question about the uh Kachuma deferred maintenance and that that's gonna so I think taken as a package I'm very supportive of for a couple of years letting you use that money for park rangers and I I I feel very strongly about that. So um that's about what I had to say.

Thank you supervisor Hartman. Supervisor Lee. Good. So I discussed with your office about a couple times about gas power leaf blower ban in Monosto. Is that something that you can fit into your work plan in next year's workload? Chair Nelson to through the or excuse me supervisely through the chair. If the board um would concur with evaluating that option, we're happy to do so. We think we can do that in concert with some consultation with a couple of other departments to make sure that we um fully analyze any operational implications.

Okay. I'm interested. This is something specific to Monosto and not anywhere else in the county. So just want to make that clear. Thanks. All right. Other questions from any of my other colleagues? Yeah. I'm sorry. I'll go to Can we go back? I I it's getting late and I didn't fully track what what just transpired.

U Supervisor Lee, as I understand it, would like an evaluation performed to determine whether gas leaf blowers can be um replaced by some other powered electric presumably and has asked that we examine it to limit it to the essentially the south coast. Would that be for our staff or for the general public?

It would obviously if if um we're asked the general public, we want to be able to honor that as well so that we're adhering to that process. Supervisor's le request as I understand it is to have a regul regulation in place internal and external. Okay. I just want clarification what being asked. Okay. Thank you. Did I get that right, Supervisor Lee? Yes. Okay. Thank you, Supervisor Caps.

Yeah. Thanks. I know um a lot of our departments are very um much driven by grants uh external and I think with all these budget cuts, it's even more timely to elevate them. So, I know we have good news in my in uh Vista. Maybe you can just share that please. You'll recall that last year uh you authorized an application that uh the sustainability division brought to you to oper uh to get funding through the PUC for micro grids. One in the IV area and two in Kuyama. The IV is under the uh service area of Southern California Edison. The other two are in PG territory. We got word late Friday, I believe, that our grant has been approved and SC Edison will be earmarking slightly more than $15 million for use in the IV area. We're obviously pretty excited about that. it becomes really a kind of a proof of concept for us and to be able to have a backup in the event there is a service interruption is going to be critical not just obviously in IV but if we're successful in in the PG territory especially important there

so really excited about that and kudos to uh Garrett and his team for putting that together. No, it's great. And uh thank you. And I know that sustainability team in particular um does a lot leveraging grants. How much is that department leveraged by grants? Approximately 90% of the cost of the grant of the division is supported by grants. So we have a 10% general fund support.

Thank you. Congratulations. Getting back to that on sustainability um division, are those grant matches or is that just the county providing a general fund allocation? It's in some cases it'll be a match, but it's principally the county allocation.

Okay. I think I'll probably do a board inquiry form to to tease that out. Both what's coming in grant and versus general fund contribution there. And that kind of rolls into my my my comments. you know, um you have a lot of discretionary programs um in our county that have some big ticket dollar amounts in them and I know they're all things that we enjoy. Parks, um arts and culture, library funding, um you know, some of these other programs that are there. So, but you know, I think us as a board as we look to June, I mean, those things are going to have to be in competition sometimes with child welfare workers. And so, you know, I think that that's something I'm going to be looking at, look, moving forward is, you know, is it more important to subsidize a city's library services or to hire child welfare workers, you know, that we need to to protect that safety net or some of the other programs. Um, you know, I I I know these are highly desirable things. Um, you know, but at the same time, if we can't do our minimal level of service and protect those that most vulnerable in our county, you know, you can't do the extras. you know, it's if you can't put food on the table, you're probably not donating money to the food bank. And I think that's where we have that kind of conversation that we need to have up here on making sure that we're delivering a minimal level of services. So, um, just highlighting that those will be areas, um, in some of my comments on Friday and moving into June as we try to balance this budget and deliver the services that we need to for our constituents. If I may, uh, Chair Nelson, just in a in a larger context, because park is obviously our largest division that and a division that has a fair amount of discretionary activity, I would just share with you that about uh 3/4 of its operating costs are funded by non-general fund dollars. So, we have a pretty good ratio of non-general fund to general fund.

Sure. Thank you. All right, not seeing any further lights. That concludes this functional group. At this time, we will be going ahead and opening up uh public comment on the functional groups of public works, agriculture, weights, and measures, plan, development, and community services. Madame clerk, do we need a small break or Okay, we can go right in there. All right. So, um at this time, do we have any public commenters on this functional group? Chair Nelson and members of the board. Yes, we have six requests to speak from the public on uh the community resources and public facilities functional group. We have heard that a few members of the public I believe have left, but I'm still going to call names just in case.

We are going to begin on Zoom with Karina J. Then we will go to Santa Maria with Lwanda Lions Prit. Karina.

Good afternoon, uh, Chairman Nelson and members of the board. My name is Karina J and I am with the Santa Barbara Asian-American Pacific Islander Solidarity Network. Our organization was a past grantee of the Racial Equity Fund. The county support allowed us to develop events that brought the community together with pride, visibility, and acknowledgment of our history and culture and belonging in Santa Barbara in the aftermath of a particularly dark period of hate and violence directed at our community during CO. And for that, we are very grateful to the county. The role of the Fund for Santa Barbara in making this possible cannot be understated. They have the capacity to work with grassroots community efforts in ways that county staff may not be able to allocate time for. And like most nonprofits, they are able to do it with lower administrative costs than large government entities. county's investment in these funded groups is enhanced by a continuing relationship with the fund that may include retreats, trainings, and networking opportunities. Additionally, as someone who served on the city of Santa Barbara's human services committee for a decade, I'm familiar with the process of granting CDBG and human services funding. And it is necessarily more transactional and the funds go to wellestablished organizations with dedicated fund development staff that smaller grassroots organizations may not have and may need more support. The racial equity fund as administered by the fund for Santa Barbara supports community building in a time when it is

critically needed. Please continue to support the commitment made as it was intended. Thank you. We will now go to Santa Maria with Lwanda Lions Puit and if Dennis Appeal is there or anyone else who would like to speak after Lwanda. Lwanda.

Good afternoon Chair Nelson and members of the board. Uh I actually thought I needed to do something here. So that's why I was hesitant there. Lwanda Lions Puit representing the Santa Maria Lump branch of the National Association for the Advancement of Colored People. You know us as NAACP. I and other community members set before you many times in the wake of George Floyd, Trayvon Martin, Micah Brown, and you all heard us when Dr. Bundo Renoso and Santa Barbara County helped presented you with a resolution which you adopted declaring racism is a public health crisis. You then allocated what I believed and others believe to be 500,000 to the racial equity fund which is now grant 275,000 was deposited into fund administered by the fund for Santa Barbara at a 15% administrative fee. The other 225,000 there has been no accountability, no transparency. Yet every year, every grantee of this fund has been has been um has been required to submit a report which I know that you all review uh and I have no problem with that. Today there is interest in having the human service commission administer the fund. My question is why is that to eat up the other 275,000? Why are we going to that process when it

was working with the fund for Santa Barbara? Admittedly the NAACP has been a recipient each year of the grant. One thing that we've done, we hold assemblies at Lumpoke Valley Middle School and Bandenburgg Middle School where 1,34 seventh and eighth graders are given presentations on respect, discrimination, racism, use of the nword, which is really bad, bullying, etc. Last year we brought in live from Denver the play at the table with Dr. King. Now I am not surprised that the racial equity grant would be number one on the chopping block because historically that has always been the case in marginalized community. It's hurtful. It's painful. But I've been the recipient of it before. And I'm here to tell you as an example, I cite the Voting Rights Act. I f site Brown versus the Board of Education, which we fought tooth and nail before that was implemented. Rolling back the racial equity grant aligns with the Trump administration to roll back diversity, equity, and inclusion. We ask you to honor your original 500,000 commitment to equity funding. And if it is not coming from cannabis funding funding as we thought it was, then we ask you to make it a lasting commitment. I will leave you with these words. Those who expect to reap reap the

blessings of freedom must like men undergo the fatigue of supporting it. Lastly, unto justice rose down like waters and righteousness like a mightest spring as from that great drum major Dr. Martin Luther King in the book of Amos. Thank you. We will remain in Santa Maria if Dennis Appeal is there. He's not. Okay. Thank you, Lwanda. We'll return to Santa Barbara with Patricia Solario to be followed by Lauren Trillo.

I think Patricia left, but I think she gave the board and submitted for the uh clerk a letter. Great. Thank you. Lauren Trillo, who is our final speaker.

Hi. Um, good afternoon, Chair Nelson and supervisors. My name is Lauren Trillo. I am the executive director for the Santa Barbara Public Library Foundation. It is clear that this is a difficult budget season and that every department will feel the strain. We understand the weight of these decisions and that the cuts here are are necessary. Um I'm here today though to remind you of the unique and growing role of our county libraries and the role that they play in our entire ecosystem. Libraries have always done a lot with a little. But in times like these, their impact expands even further. As other departments and critical services face reductions, more people turn to libraries, not just for books, but for access to technology, job support, safe spaces, and trusted guidance. Libraries become a frontline resource, a quiet but essential safety net for our most vulnerable community members. When other services become harder to access, the library is often where people go next. Thank you for your continued support for our public libraries and for recognizing their critical role, especially in a year like this. We look forward to keeping you informed about the power of the libraries in our community and in our cities. Thank you. Thank you.

And that concludes public comment on the community resources and public facilities functional group. All right.

Well, that brings us to our last department for the day and that will be coming in from policy and executive. Are we doing a presentation on that or we just going to Okay. Just for those that are are watching, um typically we we'll have a briefing on each functional group, but to accommodate various schedules, we'll we'll move things around. And so we're we're going to um hear from Miss Van Mullm, County Council.

Thank you, Mr. Chair and members of the board. I know it's been a long day, so I'm going to be as efficient as possible. My name is Rachel Van Mullum. I'm your county council and with me is Amber Holderness, chief assistant. My standard quote for budget is, "If you got a problem, I got a problem." Well, this year we have a problem. We are seeing an increase in litigation, increase in advisory work, and an increase in costs. And the increase in workload is primarily because of the impact of federal regulation. These changes have required reorganization of our staffing and assignments, monitoring of over 300 cases nationwide, review of our federal grant applications, and initiating litigation against the federal government. This is in addition to all of our advisory work for county departments and our ongoing litigation such as child welfare, employment, land use, and personal injury cases. Our operating budget is approximately 13.9 million. Most of that is general fund. Despite our increases in litigation, we are keeping our outside council budget the same and reducing our staff by one. We are doing more work inhouse and being aggressive on our litigation. And this approach saves the county money. A few examples of how we've helped save the county money this year. We resolved 82% of our damages cases with no county payout. We fought cases to the very end, including a recent federal jury trial last month. And just one trial would cost 2 to3 million if handled by outside counsel. But with our number of cases that we handle, that translates into significant savings, especially since our attorneys handle a lot more than just one case a year. In addition to the litigation I've already highlighted, um we did prevail

in six out of seven our dependency appeals, did really well in our land use cases, and then handled other significant litigation, including our support of the assessor's office for property tax assessment appeals, which protects county revenue. Next year, we anticipate doing more of the same. More litigation, more advisory work, and supporting the county departments and your board, the CEO and county officers and our special districts for fiscal issues to watch. Again, it's our increase of cost of litigation. Um, we can only absorb so much in house, so we're going to continue to do our best, but I do want to put that on your radar for future years. And also the impact of federal regulation on county funds. for operational changes, which is back a few slides. I'm going to combine that with performance measures. Um, our new case management system is almost completely implemented. So, it allows us to better track our cases and workload and we did really well in our performance measures this year. Um, I'll just highlight our savings goal where for financial resiliency. That $389,600 is work that we did inhouse on one case. We got that particular case was handled by outside counsel. We got an estimate for a part of the work that we felt we could do in house much more efficiently and that's the hourby- hour savings that we had on that one case. I do want to thank the um CEO's office for assistance this year throughout the budgets process, especially our analyst Charlotte Mack. And before I conclude, I want to give a special thanks to all of our staff at County Council who are so talented and hardworking and really care about the work we do. I'm happy to answer any questions.

Questions from the board. So, I guess I just have a little bit of you're talking about some of this outside council work and and the increased uh um spending on various cases that you know that the board and this um chooses to challenge especially with the federal government. Uh what do you see as a prioritization there? um you know there's a lot of things to to spend money on in these areas and the board has a diverse amount of priorities on um in related to the federal government. Um do you have a recommendation at all from your staff on on the best approach there because I I mean we can't fight everything but maybe there's you know things that we should be fighting that maybe protect our funding and other things. So could you speak to that?

Sure Mr. chair. So, we have prioritized initiating litigation where state of California is not already doing so. Um, that's one of the reasons we're tracking all the litigation. We do want to make sure that the county's funds grant programs are protected. Um, so we've been efficient in that manner. And I would say going forward, I mean, we need we we need to defend any cases that are filed against the county, right?

Proactive litigation is a a choice for your board. And I think um as we go forward, we just need to look at that as a priorities and just to see which funding we need to go after, what's the state of California and other jurisdictions doing just to make sure that we are being the most efficient that we can. And right now you you believe you have a s um sufficient amount of funding for moving into 2627, but are you highlighting for us that this might be something that you might have to come back to the board with later in the year if these uh um if additional litigation continues to increase? Do you see that as on the horizon?

Mr. chair and members of the board. I mean, I'm hoping I don't need to come back mid year, but I am highlighting that um with the increases and going down in staff, I'm not sure we can go much smaller and still handle um all of the litigation and priority advisory work that is so important to your board and to the county departments.

Okay. Well, thank you. And I think I know we all on speak on behalf of the entire board. We value that advisory work and the advice that your department does and um I often will say that you know the the best law firm in in the county works for us. And so um you know we we firmly believe it. We know the quality of of your attorneys and the product that you guys produce on the behalf of not only this board but the taxpayers of of Santa Barbara County is is well appreciated and valued. Thank you, Mr. Chair. All right. So that concludes our presentation from county council. Um we have to go ahead and open up public comment on this department. Um madam clerk, do we have any public comment on county council presentation?

Chair Nelson and members of the board, we have no request to speak from the public on the uh county council presentation. All right, before we adjourn, I turn over to CO. Any further comments before we break for Wednesday? No, we appreciate your board hanging in there. Uh, and so we will see each other see everyone on Wednesday at 9:00 a.m. Okay, we are adjourned to Wednesday, April 15th for the second day of the Santa Barbara County budget workshops. Thank you.