Board of Supervisors - Regular Meeting

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Before we get started, I want to set a few ground rules. Uh, out of courtesy, we we just ask that you please place your phones on silent or shut them off, whatever is easier. And, uh, if you come up on call to the public, you will have three minutes to speak. and please state your name and your address for the record. With that said, uh at this time, on behalf of Santa Cruz County, we welcome you all to our January 21st Board of Supervisors meeting. And uh I know you're walking in, but Carlo, you want to lead us in the pledge, sir? United States of America and to the stands one nation under God indivisibley and justice for all.

Thank you. That was good timing. At at this time I I I don't I don't believe I officially called the meeting to order. So I I'm calling the meeting to order after the fact and I apologize. Uh Bob, will I get in trouble for that? Okay, good. We'll go ahead and move on to item B, adoption of the agenda. Uh Mr. Manager, good morning, sir. Mr. Mr. Mr. Chair, uh there's no changes to the agenda. Okay. At this time, I'd like to entertain a motion to uh adopt the agenda and allow chair to deviate as needed. I move.

Second. I have a motion and a second. Any discussion? Hearing none. All in favor? I. All oppose? Motion carries. We'll go ahead and move on to item C. Call to the public. Um, I have quite a few slips here. We'll go ahead and start out with Chris. What's Lehovven? Workovven. I'll get it one of these days, sir. I apologize.

Will not be the last one. Good morning supervisors and attendees. My name is uh Chris Wovven from Cenoida and I'm here to comment on how ADQ has allowed antimony mobilization to remain unressed in the Hermosa mine water permit. The Hermosa site has a long history of contamination. Former owner Asco went bankrupt in 2009 after paying a billion dollars to clean up dozens of toxic sites nationwide, including this one site. In 2015, Arizona Minerals, AMI, bought the claims, promising to remediate three tailings piles and a mine tunnel, probably leaking assets for over a century. In 2017, ADU issued an aquifer protection permit, A called for this remediation. The application already showing antimony mobilizing from waste rock into local soil. This permit also allowed so-called exploration which may have encouraged South 32 to acquire AMI and its liabilities in 2018. Since 2021, South 32 was granted significant amendments by which it was allowed to expand tailing storage and build a high volume water treatment plant appropriate for the first 10 years of full mine production.

An upcoming environmental impact statement, EIS, may allow for a second much larger tailing spile on public land for the next 20 years of production. None of these permits listed century long antimony mobilization as a sightspecific factor. ADQ ignored 2012 and 2020 University of Arizona and USGS reports showing metal mobilization from their discharge point downstream in Haro Creek. In my 2022 appeal, ADQ claimed evidence to the contrary based on its hydraologist simply walking the creek. Continuing decades of neglecting serious metal pollution assessment downstream from the Hermosa site. In the recent draft environmental impact statement documents, did SA 32 admit an antimony plume will form after they stop pumping around 2,100 due to leeching in mine tunnels? That's the question. Sorry. It is claimed

is mobile toxin. Your your time's up, sir. Okay, last thing then. We therefore ask ADQ to reconsider the validity of the South 32 A granting and consequently react to DIS as long as serious metal mobilization challenges have not been addressed properly. Thank you. Thank you, sir. Thank you. Susan Phobia.

Susan Phobian, 20 Kent Avenue, Rio Rico. Gentlemen, thank you for your time. As you'll recall, I spent four and a half months with no plumbing after my neighbor cut my septic line. After your predecessors approved my line being placed on the neighboring property. During those months, the neighbor proceeded with the project that was the genesis of the issue. He wanted to move excavated dirt to the edge of his property to enlarge it so that he could place a wraparound deck structure and insert an above ground pool into it. Mission accomplished. Also, simultaneously, the county had ordered a new survey so that when my new septic line was created, it would not be on his property. I received and paid for my own septic line. As the new survey made its rounds around the county, it was discovered that the new structure did not conform to the county setback requirements and yeah, that it was partially on my property. I sought assistance from the county to help me resolve this. I was nicely advised that it wasn't a county issue, it was a civil issue. Be advised that Santa Cruz County is a wash with criminal attorneys and next to no civil attorneys. I found an attorney. He has sought documents from the county that would assist him and me, but they're not forthcoming. I've lived here over 25 years. I thought this could be my last house, but now I have no idea what further the neighbors or anyone could take from me. Santa Cruz County has nothing to offer its elderly. No protection, no assistance, and I'm just not going to die terribly soon. They took my plumbing. They've taken my property. Where can I turn for help? I asked the surveyors to please use the

standard fluorescent spray paint to mark the new survey lines. I would pay for that service. I was told that that was up to the county if they could do that. After the lines were drawn, I could have a new fence put in that conforms to the property lines. The surveyors and everyone else said have to get permission from the county. No one ever got back to me for a process that I would pay for. If it was legal for my neighbor to cut my septic line because it was on his property, is it then legal for me to destroy the structure that he built that's on my property? I'm not going to do that. Can anyone help me? Can anyone protect me? I understand some things may have not been able to happen because the neighbor's dog is labeled by the county as vicious, but please, I'm an elderly widow begging for justice and accountability. Do we have any laws? Isaiah 11:17. Learn to do what is good. Pursue justice. Correct the oppressor. Defend the rights of the fatherless. Lead the widow's cause. Thank you.

Thank you. Can we look into this, Mr. Manager, Mr. Chairman? Yes, we will. Thank you. Thank you Beni. Good morning. Good morning, boardman supervisors. Nice to see you again.

Good morning to everybody here. I want to thank everybody for showing up, for caring enough to be here this morning. Uh, I don't have any notes. Usually, I have some very scientific notes to share with you. I'm going to speak from the heart today. I was born and raised here in Santa Cruz County. So was my wife. Um when it comes to my training from the UVA, my 50 plus years of experience with Department of Interior as a hydraologist, my training in natural renewable resources, I have to speak up because there are a lot of challenges we're facing here. And it's important to realize that when it comes to natural resources, there are two kinds. Renewable natural resources that we can grow and harvest and non-renewable like minerals. So when you mine minerals, they're gone once they're you take them out. They're nonrenewable. They're finite. There's no such thing as sustainable mining. You may be mining for s helping sustainability, but once those resources, those finite mineral resources are gone, they're gone forever. We have to protect our soils, our water, our air. We all deserve as human beings clean food, clean water, and clean air. So, let's make sure we protect those resources. It's not fair to have profit take away our future. What kind of economic development are we going to have if we don't have clean air? If our streets are not passable and

many of our county streets, huge chuck holes, erosion, sedimentation. We want to attract growth, but what kind of growth? more population growth or more economic growth. Gentlemen, there is a big difference. Economic growth is what we need. We have a lot of potential here. We have a lot of talent. We are blessed with beautiful geology, beautiful ecology here that we need to protect for our future. It's very important to realize that just bringing in more people isn't going to do it. We need to attract people with clean air, clean food, clean water, a good, viable, sustainable economic uh conditions here. We have to be sure that we think farther into the future than just shortterm profits. I thank you all for caring and uh let's look forward to a very healthy environment here in Santa Cruz County. It can be done if we pay attention now. Thank you all very much.

Thank you. Thank you. Have a nice day. Robin Lucky.

Good morning, supervisors.

My name is Robin Lucky. I'm president of the Calabasas Alliance and I live at 1377 Camino FAHA for the past 20 years. I want to thank you know our board of supervisors in the county. I want to thank ADQ and I even want to thank South 32 for your recent presentations. We also look forward to hearing from Chris Gardner, our hydrogeeologist in a couple of weeks. Transparency and community engagement matter and gatherings like this show why. We want to focus on what South 32 said on January 7th and what ADQ is presenting today. Words and context matter. First, South 32 described the antimony exceedence as a minor one-time event and stated they fully complied with reporting rules, but ADQ appears to be presenting a different picture. The South 32 did not properly notify ADQ after the initial exceedence that the required report was timed for the retest rather than the original result and that there was another there was another reporting failure a year earlier. Next, South 32 attributed the exceedence to a natural geologic variability in the wells being dewatered and said they proactively shut down wells. ADQ, however, seems to tie the exceedence directly to a treatment plant efficiency shortfall, one that is still being addressed. These contradictions matter because they point to a deeper issue. Realw world operations have already shown higher antimony levels, treatment challenges, and exceedences that the original design did not anticipate. And every time the story shifts, public trust erodess further. The aquifer protection permit itself appears to have built been built on limited baseline data, a snapshot that underestimated how variable antimony levels really are. And we've already seen the consequences. A

permit based on incomplete, overly optimistic assumptions and a treatment plant struggling to keep up. So we have to ask, what happens as dewatering ramps up to full capacity? more exceeded, more reporting disputes, more erosion of trust. Do we keep patching this permit with upgrades and clarifications or do we step back and do what many experts say is necessary? One, collect trusted comprehensive data from all wells and the under drain pond which is what feeds the water treatment plant and share what all metals what all metals are found there. Two, conduct independent pilot testing for antimony removal at full scale flows. Three, open the entire process to meaningful community review before any further amendments or restarts of high antimony and wells. Our aquifer and our health deserve more than temporary fixes. We need a foundation of trust built on accurate data, transparent reporting, and a process that the community can understand and believe in. Thank you for your time.

Thank you, Wendy. Jay Jay Thompson. I'm going to switch gears just for a second here. Good morning, supervisors and morning fellow citizens. I'm Jay Thompson, a 20-year resident of Rio Rico, and today I'm raising concerns about unsafe and illegal hunting in our rural residential areas, an issue that we've discussed here over the last 10 years. Over the past weekend, activity was especially intense. Multiple hunters drove roadways, hunting from vehicles, walking roads with bows in hand, and parked for long periods, blocking traffic while scanning in the canyons. all very close to homes. Residents with children and pets felt unsafe just going outside. This is all over the county. I mean, we've had we've had it not only in our hills, but on both sides of the interstate. There with you, I've distributed maps showing quarter mile radius around homes in our Rio just in our Rio Rico ranchet areas. As you can see, there's no land on our hill outside that safety zone where discharging a firearm or bow is legal without homeowner permission. Arizona law prohibits dischar discharging a weapon while taking wildlife within a quarter mile of an

occupied resident without residents without consent. Road hunting, shooting from or across, or using vehicles to pursue game is also illegal. Hunters often claim while armed they're on public land or just viewing wildlife and we are harassing them. County property records show most property is private. There's a map in there on that, too. And both in hand suggest otherwise. We appreciate the sheriff's department and Arizona Game and Fish for their responses. We've reported incidents including suspicious fresh deer carcass apparently dumped right along a road near a rental property where occupants were scanning with high powered scopes possibly betting predators. Now I'm personally I'm not anti-hunting. I come from that world. Responsible hunting is fine further out but lazy unsafe hunting in residential neighborhoods risks tragedy and residents don't feel safe. So to prevent this, number one, let's hold a joint study session with Arizona Game and Fish Sheriff deputies and residents to clarify and educate everybody and discuss what we can do. Two, let's put signage up at key entry points warning of hunting in residential areas in the quarter mile radius rule. Third, consider video cameras or increased patrols and hotspots for better documentation and deterrence. Now, we've been patient, but safety demands actions. Please prioritize this before someone gets hurt. Thank you.

Thank you, J.

Ernie Edwards. Uh, thank you. Appreciate you having this opportunity for us to give questions to ADQ. Ernie Edwards, Lake Patagonia. I know that you're here to make a presentation today and what we would really like for the ADQ to make notes of all the questions that come from the community and please answer them. Those are what is most important to the people here, not not your your canned presentation. Arizona Department of Environmental Quantity sounds like something the people of Arizona should be happy for. Yet right now we feel as if no one is watching out for us citizens and the environment which are under threat from Hermosa mine operations. An A was issued with little regard to what would happen to all the people in the environment downstream from the plant. Is it the intention of ADQ to disregard impacts of permits? I hope not. A water treatment plant was built which was designed to clean up the effluent. What could go wrong? What went wrong is the plant was never designed to handle antimony. the plan's designer builder admitted this under oath when the A was being appealed. This wasn't deemed to be a problem because supposedly there was no antibbody. The judge ruled in favor of the mine dismissing the appeal. It is now apparent that the appeal had merit and we're now dealing with the consequences of antimony coming out of deep wells. There was antimony in the existing tailings which were a product of prior mining in the same location. Whatever made ADQ think that there would be no antimony coming out of the new mining activities. Maybe a dose of common sense would help. I ask you, is it time to review the AT and take into account everything that is now known? Surely we would have to agree that the current

situation is not protecting the environment as you're tasked to do. Let me ask when the A is reviewed as evidence dictates it must be, please consider this before you allow pumping to continue. If your family and children lived here and drank this water, would you allow a new A, much less the existing A to expose your loved ones to the dangers all the people of this community are now facing? This is not theoretical. I want an answer to that question. Also, can you please disclose to the public all sources of input to each water treatment plant at Hermosa with their lab results? Also, can you please disclose to the public if inputs originally slated for water treatment plant two are being diverted to water treatment plant one then being discharged under less stringent standards. We'd like to see all of the input data and all of the output data where it's going to what was originally slated for each treatment plant and make sure that that's being adhered to. No, no diversions to hide the antimony situation. So anyway, thank you very much,

Alex Johnson. Good morning all. My name is Alex Johnson. I'm from Patagonia. Thank you for uh doing this meeting. Um, and I'm I'm I'm I'm speaking towards what we all I think uh recognize is our responsibility to the future. Uh when I was young, I didn't care about that. When I had children, I started caring about that a lot. Now that I have grandchildren, I care about it a whole lot. Okay. The future is what we are trying to protect here. And we need to do it by paying close attention and specifically make sure that all of these uh rules and regulations that are supposed to protect our environment are happening that that that that we're fulfilling our obligations. Uh the first that come well the history so far has been obscuration that it's not transparent things change all of a sudden oh well we didn't realize that or something we can't allow that because it just continues on and on and on so I'm asking the board of supervisors and all of us the towns the county to to hold the organizations responsible who do not value perhaps water as we ought to. We don't value the water as we ought to. It's a limited

thing and we all depend on it and first of all we don't want to waste it. Second, we don't want to make it poisonous and horrible for the future. Thank you. Thank you, sir.

Chris Gardner. Hi. Hello. My name is Chris Gardner, a five squirrel tail lane near Patagonia. Thank you board of supervisors for these study sessions. I'm concerned about the general lack the general pattern of lack of curiosity concern for human health in the environment in the Patagonia area. Today's example is the concentration of antimony in the discharge to Harshaw Creek. South 32 has verbally confirmed that the concentration of antimony in Susan Weatherington's well is now above the federal drinking water standard. This impact of Susan's well occurred at about the same time South 32 was less than transparent to the ADQ about concentrations of antimony in the discharge. Why does antimony appear out of control? Based on documents submitted to the ADQ, concentrations of antimony least leeched from wa waste rock exceeded the standard of six parts per billion. But don't be concerned. Antimony and waste water was going to be treated. However, that same document suggests the issue with high concentration of antimony and wastewater was not provided to the engineers who designed the first water treatment plant. A question for the ADQ. Was the current was the current wastewater plant uh specified and designed Question for the ADQ. Was the current wastewater treatment plant specified and designed to treat for high concentrations of antimony? And if so, to what concentration and flow rate? What are the specified concentrations and flow rate for antimony in the current modifications? The technology to treat high concentrations of antimonyian water is demonstrated by the three kings water treatment plant in Park City, Utah, which has been operating for about one

and a half years using a titanium dioxide absorptive media. Can the ADQ investigate using absorptive using titanium dioxide absorptive media for the treatment of high concentrations in antimonyian water. Now that discharge limits to Harshaw Creek have been exceeded and the drinking water supply has been impacted, I ask that before increases to the discharge rate to Harshaw Creek, can the ADQ reopen the aquifer protection permit to do the following. Evaluate current treatment technology plants versus available technology to treat antimony. Increase to daily monitoring through the design rate of the plant, then weekly monitoring upon demonstration of compliance. require the installation and monitoring of shallow and deep points of compliance monitoring wells along Harshaw Creek and add surface monitoring along Harshaw Creek. Questions for the ADQ. Is anyone responsible for impacts to the Weatherington well? Is the impact to the drinking water supply something the ADQ is concerned with? Is anyone responsible for the potential mobilization of existing contamination such as near the Arizona Trail parking lot where there's a potential for a water level rise of about 60 ft along Harshaw Creek into potentially contaminated sediment sediments? Can the ADQ please help us understand who is responsible for what impacts to the drinking water supply so the county, city, and town know what to include in the community benefits and protections agreement with South 32. I appreciate your time.

Thank you, Chris. Thank you. That is it with the slips. Is there anyone else wishing to come up on call to the public? Please state your name and address for the record.

My name is Rebecca Myers. I actually live on Harshaw Creek. I own a quarter mile section of the creek. I'm not a very public person and I didn't really come prepared to talk, but um I'll speak from the heart. Ben did. I moved to Harshakree. Um not anticipating that I was moving to an area of contamination. The um the time period that um Chris has so elegantly demonstrated the um elevation of antimony and also to a lesser degree arsenic in the creek that flows through through my backyard is the time when my horses got sick. And um I'm particularly disturbed with the um flippency with which South 32 dismissed the possibility of toxicity to livestock from drinking this water. My horses drink this water. And um since this was dismissed as a possible issue, I actually as a retired cancer researcher and and doctor looked into the data upon which um uh they're claiming that elevated antimony levels are not toxic to animals. And the data is based on um really shoddy research because it's such an unusual topic. A lack of data is not the same safety and um and there is no data out there showing that I can confidently watch my horses and now my three-month old puppy drink this water without worrying that maybe it's going to make them sick. Um I I live here. My horses drink this water. My puppy drinks

this water. And I would really like the the county and the company and for heaven's sakes the department of environmental quality to make it possible for me to live where I live without worrying that I'm making my animals sick. I really appreciate the opportunity. Thank you Rebecca. Thank you.

Anyone else? Okay, we're going to go ahead and go to item D, current events. And before I do, I want to recognize Ruben Rees who's here with Grihalva's office. Welcome, sir. And uh Dr. Davis, morning, sir.

Good morning. So, here are some of my updates. So yesterday I got to go to the one year uh Senator Go one year in the Senate celebration. I went with Maiso Chavez and and myself. He spoke on immigration, housing, energy. So it was a really nice event. I also got to we received Mark Sander from from AOT. He got to speak to me, Mr. Fanning as well. um and we were able to communicate to him some of the concerns uh and we're going to try try to find ways to collaborate on that. So, it was a good meeting. I also last week I got to go to and have a slice of pizza with the emergent leaders. They had a they had a presentation all day here on the second floor. So, I went at 12 during during lunchtime and I got to meet everybody, say hi to everybody. uh they were like working really hard. So this is always good to see the youth working on their future. Uh when it comes to that film ready program that we that we started um Shannon has been really helpful and there the country band Midland did a video on District 3 and they came out Marboto man. It's really beautiful. Uh so Shannon was really helpful. I ran into Mark the the lead singer and uh yeah we talked briefly on on that music video so you guys can go online and see it. You're going to see Sonita. Have you seen it Mr. Penny? It's beautiful. It's very cinematic. I also got to go to uh at the provisional college last week as came and Mr. Lucero was there, Chris, um, Olivia from the Chamber of Commerce, a lot of people. So, it's just on different programs that could be

implemented. They're brainstorming possibilities, opportunities. So, that was also like a good meeting. Would you want to add anything else, Chris, or anything that how you thought the meeting went? I think the the meeting went very well. Obviously, we're at a shortage of secondary education here in in the county and so uh for ASU to come down and and talk to the provisional community college was a big deal for us. So, it was nice of them to come down. So, those were my updates. Really agree. Thank you, sir. For the record, Chris is the only Denver Bronco fan in Santa Cruz County. I wonder why. Just kidding. Just kidding.

But but it's true, right? That's true. Vice Chairman Fanny, good morning, sir. Good morning. Thank you. Um, I too want to uh say um the Wister family um out in Cenoida area. Um they're good people and I did have a chance to watch the video. Um I believe the song is called Marboral Man.

Yes. Um, and it it yeah, it tells a story, but I think also it shows you that the absolute beauty of our uh of our area. So, that was fantastic. Congratulations to Midland. Um, I had an opportunity to meet with Mark Sanders as well. Um, as Supervisor Davis mentioned there, you know, we have some concerns and we want to work together to to help with those. this morning. I uh even reached out back out to Mark um and I know it can't be done in the near future, but I plan to see to to I know that bicycling is is real big in this area. Um and uh asked him about widening or putting bigger shoulders on 83 82. So, we'll see if that gains some traction. But uh um thanks to Mark for coming on down and meeting with us. I hadn't the chance to be uh the pronouncer for the Santa Cruz Valley Unified School District spelling be. Um that was a joy. Always a little bit nerve-wracking when you have to uh um say the words and some of those words are rather difficult. Um so that was fun. Um had an opportunity to meet with our health department. Um a lot of a lot of good work is happening up in the health department. if you have an opportunity to go up there and and meet with those folks. They're they they're top-notch. Um I had a chance with uh with Robin and Jay and uh Anna um to meet with the governor staff to talk a little bit more about water. Um one of the things that I mentioned, we mentioned a lot of different things, but the uh the point that I really tried to drive home was the comprehensive water study for entire county. Um, so we're hoping that that also gains some traction, gain some legs, and um, see where that leads. Uh, I think it's important. Um, also I'm part of the, uh, newly formed um, Department of Public

Safety Sex Offender Management Board. We had our meeting. Uh, it was very very uh, enlightening. A lot of good work being being done. Um, you know, with uh, the bottom line is is protecting the victims. Um but uh that was uh eye opening for me. Um had an opportunity to take RILA students which is Rotary Youth Leadership Award uh students uh up to Aina Road to get take a bus up to Prescat for their uh annual RIYA um conference and then I had an opportunity to pick them up on Monday evening. Um and uh we have some great great kids whether they're from uh um the eastern portion of the county, Ngalas, Rio Rico, we have some great kids in this area and they learn quite a bit. Um we had a Hawk platform meeting and I'm looking forward to uh hearing um what these wonderful folks in front of us have to say. Um u and I plan on I'm hoping that you give the dates for the Hawk watching. Um if that's not part of it, then uh I'll look on my because I have it on my my calendar here. Um, congratulations to the uh, Rio Rico High School wrestling uh, the cleanup. Uh, they had an opportunity to work with the Anza Trail Coalition to clean up uh, parts of the water uh, the the river. You see them here. Thanks to coach uh, and to the team. Um, I we received this information from athletic director Chris Laughlin. So, real proud of all uh, that they've accomplished. Thank you, sir.

Thank you. Thank you. Busy couple weeks. I I I first of all want to thank the community for all your input on on these water issues. Uh we really appreciate all your input and want to continue this communication. Um that way we don't have any flaws in our communication. Um, I I had the honor of uh attending uh the WIA uh board meeting briefly uh last week. I want to congratulate uh and wish good luck to Bernice Aayano, our chief probation officer, who was sworn in last Friday. I I couldn't attend, but I want to congratulate Bernice and wish her luck. Um, I I want to take this time also to thank ADOT because for years and years, uh, we've been asking for them to clean the medians and they started cleaning from Ngalas up and they're doing a great job. Uh, I was I had that conversation with our county manager and and hopefully they can continue all the way through Rio Rico and Tubec because it looks beautiful.

Go back to the galleries.

Yes. And it's good to see that the Ngalas area is clean because when people show up to Ngalas, they see it nice and clean. Um, and I too attended. We we had to split up yesterday. Uh, Supervisor Davis and and uh Mr. Chavez went to the Ggo uh meet and greet and uh uh our county manager and myself attended the Senator Kelly's meet and greet. So, they were both at the same time. So, we had to split and go to different uh events and and we thank our our our senators for for their communication, continued communication and what they're doing for our state. Um, and today we're heading up to Phoenix. We have uh a reception with our state legislators. Uh CSA, our county uh supervisor association is putting that together. So, we get to meet and greet with our state legislators today. Um, and tomorrow we we have our our monthly board meeting. Um, and that's all I have to report. Uh, Mr. Manager, good morning, sir. Mr. Chair, members of the board, I got one item to report. Um, if you guys recall that in in fiscal year 2024, I'm sorry, 20, yeah, 24, the legislature awarded uh the county 8 6 million for the I19 uh furniture road projects. Um that same year we also got a a three 3.25 million um a smart grant that's to advance the project. Um so right H the ADOT runs the program for us in the project. They're currently on stage two which we have a cost estimate for the frontage roach which turns into

they're phasing the projects. They're at the two traffic interchanges, the Ruby Road and the Rio Rico Drive uh traffic interchanges to modify. That's going to be a later phase. The initial phase they're looking at is extending the West frontage road so it could for its terminus right now on Galavasas so it could be uh punched through all the way to Yavapai Drive. And the other project they're looking it's on the east frontage road where they want to make that section that currently one way two ways. Our cost estimate that HDR prepared is $27 million. Um the reason I'm bringing it up is the the county wants to apply for build a bill grant. We're going to we're going to apply for it for the whole amount. And I just want to let you know in the public that that's one of our plans. This project has been we started in 2016 if you can believe that. And it started with the project assessment and from there we got some uh we got some um different alternatives of what it could look like. Right now, like I said, they're in the phase where they're going they want to improve the French roads and it's a a price tag of 27 million. Right now in our coffers, we have about $2.1 million for construction purposes for that project for that project. However, it could be utilized. It's going to be and depending on on the area of the project, it's going to need some additional rightway. And those are those are the costs that we're looking uh for grants.

Where are we at with the bridge? Uh the Ruby bridge,

it's it's getting the clearances and it's in its final phase. So, we'll know exactly I would tell you uh probably in two months we'll know a cost of what it's going to take to construct that. Thank you. Any other questions? Okay. Thank you, sir. We'll go ahead and move on to awards, recognitions, and accomplishments. Uh first we have a recognition of crossroads Ngalas mission for its outstanding efforts in organiz organizing the second annual holiday miracles event which brought joy and essential support to community members and for its continued commit commitment to providing vital services year round including daily lunch and dinner for those in need. This with Special acknowledgement to Alejandra Martinez. Can you please uh come forward

to the podium? Daisy Sto Martine Gi Felix for their leadership and dedication. Supervisor Davis. Yes.

So I known Alejandra since since high school. She she's actually my my best friend. I know Daisy. I know Martin. I know they've been doing a really good job. Uh, Crossroad Mission is like a little jewel, hidden jewel in Ngalas. They do so much good. Alejandra, I've been able to help. I've been able to go and feed. Even before I was a supervisor, when I live in Tucson, we brought food here to Nalas when I could, and I and I try to go and help. But what they do, it's just incredible. I I was able to take the county manager, the deputy county manager. You were able to attend to that last um event. So for those that haven't been there, I encourage you to go and help if you can donate. I mean, they're doing just amazing. And during this last year when it it was really critical with with all the food stamps and all those programs they it's amazing how they provide lunch and dinner every single day. I'm I'm gonna have and they do a lot of more a lot more stuff. They have a thrift store. Actually, this tie is from there. I I put it today because I mean it's it's really good. But I'm going to have them explain a little bit more on the program they have and everything they do.

Well, thank you very much. Good morning. Um we appreciate this uh recognition. It's our pleasure to provide these services to our community, especially our needing and um hurting community. Uh we are more than a shelter. Uh we provide a shower program. Uh we have emergency food boxes. Uh we have alcoh al alcoholic anonym narcotics anonymous that we just started as well. Um we have our shelter program that Martin can explain a little bit more of that because he's the one that uh runs that program. Uh but we really appreciate um this recognition because it does not just take myself takes a whole village to run uh the shelter. Uh we need we need volunteers. We need our donors. So, um, you are more than welcome to stop by and for a tour or just to volunteer. We really appreciate any kind of help even with your time or anything like that. And, uh, I'll leave it to Martine so he can explain a little bit more of our program. So, thank you.

Thank you.

Thank you for the for the award. We do what we do with the heart without expecting anything in return, but we welcome any recognition as well too. Um my role there as the director, I work directly with the people uh that are struggling, that are unhoused, that have substance abuse issues or mental health problems. Um meeting people where they're at. Um basic needs, water, snacks, food, shower, clothing, jackets right now with the weather and stuff like that. Also planting seeds. Hopefully one day if they want help get diverting them into treatment as well too. or people coming out of treatment, they don't have a safe place to stay. Um, they're able to stay with us and we work with some with them directly. Hopefully get them back in their feet, house them, and once they get a job and able to support themselves, they could go with themselves. Everyone's welcome if they want to do a tour as well too. We have 20 beds for male. We have a house as well too for the females and with kids. Um, also for the domestic violence program as well too. We work directly with them as well too. and just give them a safe place to stay as well too. Um, we work magic with donations and with the thrift shop as well too. So, any help is welcome either volunteering or donations as well too is welcome as well. And I don't know Daisy's going to add something else.

No, I I just wanted to say thank you for the recognition and it takes a community to help us out at the shelter. So, thank you. Thank you. So, I'm going to read u what it says here. Crossroad Ngal's mission for its continued commitment to providing vital services year round including daily lunch and dinner for those in need with special acknowledgement to Alejandra Martinez Desto and Martin Felix for their leadership and dedication. So you guys come here.

Thank you. [Applause] very

we are located in downtown. The address is 338 North Mley Avenue. We're exactly next to Davis uh David's Where's Where and you can also uh you can get our information, our contact information in our website. It's called uh Crossroads Nala Mission. You're welcome. Our pleasure. Thank you. What about the thrift store? Oh, we have a thrift our thrift shop is located at 516 North Proto Avenue in Ngalas, Arizona. We're just in front of the public library and then we have a smaller uh thrift shop that is located at 529 North Bay Verde Place uh that is next to the Border Light Church. So, and we have really good deals and really good offers. Thank you.

Thank you. And nice ties, by the way. Thank you. Thank you. I'm very proud of you guys. Thank you. I I had the honor of attending the holiday event and It was amazing to see how many people were involved and uh the abundance of food. They had so much food. It was uh How many people attended Alejandra that event that day everything was free. So, so thanks.

Thank you again. Thank you for what you do. Next is another wonderful group. Um, it's an honor to recognize the Jesus M. Gordova Memorial Foundation for its outstanding efforts in organizing successful tournaments in memory of his officer Jesus M. Gordova who gave his life in the line of duty in Santa Cruz County in city of Ngalas and for its continued commitment to honoring his legacy and fostering community engagement with special acknowledgements to President Garlo Garcia and uh Wes Ree. Thank you for what you do. Uh for their leadership, uh and and you know, their their leadership's amazing. You know, they I've known these guys since high school. I I had them as students, incredible students, incredible athletes. And uh it's good to see him stay in this community and give back. And one of one of the things that sparked me to bring him to this meeting today is about a week and a half ago, I was on exit 12 and uh there's about four or five border patrols helping th this man move a truck and guess who was there? Carlo. You know, a lot a lot of times our our border patrol gets a bad rap. And for me to see them doing stuff like that in our community means a lot. And uh I want to thank you and thank you for what you do, for your leadership more than anything. Um also included are Cynthia Munoz. If you guys can come up please. uh

uh Garcia, Aneli Garcia, Andres Garcia, Oscar Pñena, Mr. Everything, thank you for uh being involved, sir. And Pakita Pakita, thank you. Pakita Salasar. And uh Hi. Do do you want to say a couple uh words, Carlo? Carlo and and and Wendy don't just have fundraiser events. They help with other fundraiser events and they give uh I believe they give a lot of scholarships to our our kids in our community. They also help like I said with all kinds of other events. I'll let them speak a little bit to

Good morning board advisors and good morning community members. Uh it's an absolute pleasure and honor to be here. Uh we've been working hard at this since April 27th of 2018. Uh Wes was actually there. He was the one that pulled the act the shooter pulled the the person that took officer Cordova's life. He's the one that found him. So from there, he had the crazy idea to do a softball tournament that turned into getting permits and uh turned into 36 team tournament that the county helped us with. Didn't charge us a single penny and that now grew into a golf tournament that we do that raises a lot of money that we give out. $12,000 in scholarships possibly this this May. We've have partnered up with other nonprofits uh from 4 that we helped out sometimes to uh Mckin Vento. We helped families going through financial crisis and now possibly Crossroads. Maybe we can partner up. Um so we do a lot everything stays within Santa Cruz County. But none of that is possible without the people from this community. Just like you Crossroads, you guys find a lot of people that have big hearts. We're a very small community, but we I think we all believe in doing the the the right thing. So on behalf of the code of foundation, thank you. I know Wes, you want to share a few words?

Like Mr. Mleta said, I'm just proud to stay here in Ogalas and bring all the support and all the help to Santa Cruz County. Um, and then thank you the community. We could also use all the help every year. Um, if we can get more scholarships for our high school students, we give out scholarships to every single high school in Santa Cruz County. So without your help, it's not possible. So, thank you guys so much. We appreciate it. Sorry. Sorry. Thank you.

sideways. Squeeze it. Squeeze it. Squeeze it. Thank you, sir. Yes, absolutely.

Good morning everybody. My name is Andres Garcia. I'm part of the foundation and I want to thank everybody here today that spoke on behalf of the water issue that we're having. I didn't know about it. The reason I stayed quiet is because I need to process everything that you guys were saying out loud. I was born and raised here and never left and I don't see myself going anywhere. Um, I myself have tasted some water that's not very good and I won't I'll refrain from saying any profanities about how it tastes, but I thank you all and I really hope that it is taken serious because my future is here. My children's future is here. are our animals. My brother has horses, so I understand. I have a dog that won't drink the water unless it's from a bread of purifier. So, she recognized that something's not right. Um, I just I just wanted to let you guys know that I heard and I'm listening and I'm I'm part of that future that you guys are talking about and I thank you very much for letting me know about what's going on. And I really hope and we will grind towards something like that. if there's anything that I can do uh from a generational standpoint. This is my first meeting that ever been I've ever been to and I hope it's not my last one and considering I'm here for recognition on behalf of the foundation. Um I couldn't sit there and stay quiet. So please keep doing what you're doing. We owe it to our county. We owe it to our community, to my children, to your grandchildren to keep on doing what you're doing. Gracias.

Thank you, sir. [Applause]

Hey, Carlo. I never gave you your certificate. Your certificate reads as follows. Certificate of recognition presented to Jesus M. Cordova Memorial Foundation for its outstanding efforts in organi organizing successful tournaments in memory of officer Jesus M. Border who gave his life in the line of duty and for its continued commitment to honoring his legacy and fostering community engagement with special acknowledgement to Carlo Garcia, president and Wes Reese, vice president for their leadership and dedication. Thank you sir. [Applause] Thank you again. At this time, I like to go to item E, Department reports and activities. Item one, finance, cash, and investments, expenditures, and revenue reports.

Good morning, Mr. Chairman, members of the board, members of the community. We have two reports today. It's the uh um normal cash and investment report and also the the revenue and expenditure performance report. Miss Martinez will go ahead and and present the uh cash and investment report.

Good morning, Mr. Chair, members of the board. for the cash on investment report. Um, for the general fund, we have an overall balance of 22,828,641 with an invested amount of 16,667,266. For the row fund, we have 5,770,427 with an invested amount of 5,155,245. For the flood control, uh we have 3,340,815 with an invested amount of 310,692. For the jail district, we have 7,527,159 with an invested amount of 4,428,154 for total of 63,700,13 with an invested amount of 20,695,835 with an total estimated end of month balance of 10,825,00 245.

Thank you, Maria. Any questions, gentlemen?

Thank you, Mr. Chairman, members of the board, uh members of the community, midcycle year. This is uh the the the midpoint of our fiscal year ended December 31st. So, what we do in our department, we analyze uh our our major revenues. We analyze all the revenues that that are that are projected that are going to come in and and we analyze what type of percentage we've received and how they're trending. And we also analyze the expenditures um from the general fund all the way to all the funds that that we have. I'll go over um the major revenue sources that we have. This is midcycle and where we're at on our our property taxes. We've collected about 55% of our of our property taxes, which is very that's normal on the collection um from from from our range. Our vehicle license tax, we've collected about 52% of that and that's a year-to-ate increase of 2.6% from compared to last year. So, we're doing better on on that uh on the vehicle license tax. our county half cent sales tax revenue. That's our local sales tax. We're we are at 55% of what we were we budgeted amount. Uh but this is the u the the the good part about this this particular line item. Our year to date has increased 21.6%. So compared to last year, we're doing much better. What does that mean? That means that our retail sales uh are are are higher this year compared to last year. So, we're doing really, really well there. And then our state shared sales tax, we're a couple of months behind on that because the state is always a couple of months behind, but we're trending in a in a good manner there as well. I just wanted to give that overview that overall all our general fund collected to date is about

51%. Which that makes complete sense. That's where we want to be. We want to be at the 50% mark. So, our our our assessments are are or in our projections are doing well. They're trending well on our expenditure report. The general fund also we're looking at how we're trending on our expenses and some departments might be a little bit over the 50% and that's mainly due to certain expenses that might have to come up front but they won't be done in the in the second part of the year. But overall, we're about at 38% of expenses for the general fund. So, I feel very comfortable in knowing that all our departments are keeping up with their with their um expenses as budgeted. Whatever you know, the budget that you approved as a board. Um the rest of the report provides all the funds that were that that that we have which we have u plenty which includes federal grants, state grants, and any type of allocations or anything of that. But everything in this report trends well. We're doing well at our expenses and our revenues. And I'll entertain any questions the board might have.

Gentlemen, really quick. So that's good that we're doing better than last year, right? The sales. I just have a quick question because um so we've been working really hard to try to recover most of the money right from the investment and also we have been put place uh things in place. So could you please provide like an update on the on the external audits?

Absolutely Mr. Chairman, members of the board, members of the community. Of course, the board has been very proactive in and you authorized a cash handling review which that has been done and has concluded. We are in that in the stages of evaluating that so we can provide a report to the board. What h what happened there? We, you know, the board hired a CPA firm to come in and provide uh and analyze what type of cash handling procedures are in place currently at with the within departments that handle cash. So, they've have concluded that and we'll provide some recommendations and we'll come to the board at that time when we finish analyzing and and give you the the report uh on that. And then uh on the uh treasurer side, the board also um hired and provided a contract to a CPA firm that will analyze the reconciliation process of the treasurer itself only. That's like an external um auditor that's going to come in and review that and provide a report to the board. We have we just got him on board. So he's currently working on that and analyzing that and as soon as that's uh ready to um any report be provided will come to the board as well.

Perfect. Thank you Mr. Chavis. Thank you for the updates. Really appreciate it. Yes sir. Okay. Any other departments wishing to come up and and report at this time?

Madame recorder. Good morning. Okay, we'll go ahead and move on to item F. We're going to go ahead and jump to number two first. Um, Arizona Department of Environmental Quality uh update regarding South 32 by Randy Matas. Good morning, Randy, and thank you for uh coming uh to report, sir. Uh good morning Mr. Chairman and members of the board. Thank you for having me today. Um as you heard earlier uh in the call to public uh some of the themes in those conversations uh were around that words matter uh context matters, transparency matters. I couldn't agree more. Um that was actually some of my um thoughts when actually preparing this presentation. uh is that's super critical in such confusing situations that we have that level of clarity and transparency. So how that'll manifest itself in this presentation. Uh my apology is a lot of bullets, right? Generally when I present I don't like to have a lot of bullets. I like to make it a little more engaging and I've got bullets to lay things out specifically chronologically so we can all understand. Um, additionally, um, at the back half of the presentation, um, I responded to, uh, questions and we can have a conversation about questions from the last, uh, study session you all had, um, so we could address those here today. Um and then with the questions that we received that you received today um about this uh specific instance um I would like to take the time to respond to you all in writing so you can have uh responses to those questions and then we have time to uh make sure that the you know the words and the context are well thought out instead of me just up here uh blabbing on and maybe getting something wrong. So um I'll respond to you uh you all and make sure that you're up to date and you can answer any other

questions you receive. So, so we'll go you'll respond to us via email and then we can share it with our public then. Absolutely. Okay. Thank you. All right. So, jumping right into this. Um,

all right. There we go. Uh, just quick introduction into the issue. I'm sure everybody in the room is aware, but just in case, I wanted to start at the 10,000 foot level. So, uh, there was an antimony exceedence at Appfall 2 at Harshaw Creek from South 32. Uh in response to that, ADQ took a deep dive into the A permit and the data uh to fully understand the issue at hand uh what the genesis of it is and to be able to accurately and completely respond to questions about the exceedment. So that's what why we're here today. Uh that's what we're talking about uh is this specific is issue. Before we dig into kind of the chronological what happened and and where, I wanted to talk real quick about three important things in the permit. um one is a discharge limits, one is alert levels, and the last is aquafer water quality limits or AWQLs. Essentially, these are the regulatory thresholds in the permits. Um they're each slightly different, and they each have slightly different um responses that need to be taken if they are exceeded. So for example, a discharge limit is a limit that uh regulates the discharge of a uh pollutant to the surface of the land or to the aquifer. Um that's like an active, so it's the actual discharge. Um because of that, if there's an exceedence, it requires a five-day notification to the department. There needs to be an investigation to determine the cause, corrective actions as necessary, and then of course a 30-day report to uh summarize the investigation related to the antimony incident. This is uh the type of limit that was exceeded. Um the other two, alert levels and aquifer water quality limits are actually in the aquifer. So that's in the groundwater. The alert level is a level that is um more protective. that is more restrictive than the aquifer water quality limits. It's kind of your check engine light before you have main big problems, right? It lets you know in advance that things are trending in the wrong way.

So, what it requires is immediate investigation to the cause, corrective actions, and then a 30-day report. Um, if you actually exceed the AWQL, um, then you have to conduct verification sampling to make sure that the lab report, the the analysis is correct. Um if that is confirmed then they have to or they do not perform verification sampling. It gets into accelerated monitoring and investigation and taking corrective actions as necessary in a 30-day report kind of like the alert levels. So those are kind of the three different levels uh we have in play uh for the antimony uh it is the the discharge limit. So with that jumping right into the antimony limit exceedence. So uh South 32 exceeded uh the antimony DL discharge limit for 6 micrograms per liter in October of 2025. Uh their result came back at 6.23 micrograms per liter. Uh so it was uh uh not a not they didn't blow the roof off of it but they definitely exceeded their number. Uh the data was reported via electronic self-monitoring report form or Smurf as a lab error with no numeric value entered. A five-day report was not completed at this time. Um the sample was reprocessed in accordance with permit requirements. They had the exceedence. They can reprocess it to ver uh validate that or not. Uh the reprocess results received were 6.47 micrograms per liter. So it was a little bit higher even than the initial sample. Um those were received by South 32 on December 3rd and submitted to ADQ via Route 5 Smurf on December 9th. Um and then in response to those results, South 32 reached out telephonically to ADQ to uh lodge a five-day report on December 4th. Um so the report submission time frame was based upon the date of the reprocess

the fiveday report uh submission time frame was based upon the date of the reprocess sample and not the original sample result date as required by the permit. So that five-day report should have been uh delivered to us back in October when they got the first exceedence. Right. Um, South 32 was able to submit the 30-day report on December uh 24th as required uh by the permit uh based upon the the rerun dates. So, um that is where we are with that. Based upon uh their analysis, the 30-day report uh that South 32 submitted to us uh indicates that the cause was due to increased suspended solids high in metals combined with uh the clarifier at water treatment plant 2 not operating at full efficiency. So they've got a water quality issue and then the clarifier plant not operating at full efficiency. Um they they believe the duration was limited. composite samples show a result of 5.73 micro uh grams per liter on the same day and a sample from uh October 13th was 4.8 micrograms per liter. Um I think these these are the things that led them to believe that there was a lab error uh that there was a substantial change from the previous sample and then also uh the composite sample showed a lower result. Um of course for the aqua protection permit it is a grab sample. It's not a comp that it's not an average. It's not weighted in any sort of way. It's just what it is at the time it's grabbed. Um wells five and six have background ammon present. Uh we know this, you know, this is a a highly mineralized area. This is something uh everybody knew going into it that antimony was present in that groundwater. Um and what they've done is they've shut down those wells until um their improvements to the treatment wastewater treatment plant uh are

online. Um they have begun installing uh treatment to that wastewater treatment plant and a turbidity measurement is being installed to allow for fauulent adjustments in real time to flock that out, drop it out of suspension and get it out of the water. Um additionally, pH adjustments and buffering is being tested to ensure optimization of the plant uh to be implemented by March 2026. So that's pretty much a summary of the antimony discharge limit exceedence. We've got a situation where um exceeded uh a five-day report was submitted, though late a 30-day report was submitted uh as expected. Uh the exceedence was verified. It wasn't the lab error um at South 32. And the uh 30-day reported the actions that they took in response to the antimony limit discharge limit exceeds

questions before I move on. Questions? I'll wait. till the end. Okay, perfect. Thank you.

All right, the next one I wanted to talk about as uh ADQ went through all the records uh again at the beginning of the presentation, I talked about how we wanted to go through um all the records to truly understand the situation, make sure we understood all the analyticals that have been submitted. uh we identified an additional uh issue for gross alpha exceedence and the point of compliance well uh sampled in September of 2024. It's important to note that this is a uh groundwater sampling point at a point of compliance well on the other side of the facility. This doesn't discharge into Harshaw Creek um and is uh unrelated to the antimony exceedence in that manner. So the lab report uh indicated that a result of 30 uh pico curries per liter. Uh the permit action level is 12 and the AQL is 15. So again the action level is your early warning sign and your AQL is your uh do not exceed uh limit. The sample was reprocessed um due to belief that it was uh not accurate. Uh the Smurf was submitted on this one in a similar fashion to the antimony exceedence where there was a lab error indicated but there was no numeric value entered in the smurf uh for this. Um of course on this one and the prior uh entering those numeric values are important uh that is data that we use to track these sort of things. So uh we have that issue there. the additional sample uh test uh resulted results showed um that it was uh sorry I got my bullets out of order here. So long story short, they reran the sample. The sample was uh still high. So they investigated what's going on and what they determined was that it

was matrix interference due to uh the sample. So they changed the test method to an appropriate method and reran it again and that would that those results were submitted on January 30th and they indicated the gross alpha was at 7.3 which of course is below uh the permit limit uh both the AL and the AQL. Um they submitted the 30-day report uh in March uh which was outside of the permit time frame. They submitted it uh on the 26. Um, this is not a uh discharge limit exceedence, so it does not require a five-day report. Um, so it's just the 30-day report, but they were late on that. Uh, the 30-day report describes essentially what I've told you here, that the initial test results are inaccurate due to the test test method not being appropriate due to the turbidity. Um, they used a more appropriate test method and uh were provided an accurate test result and they'll be utilizing that test method moving forward. All right. Um, so here's where I'm going to jump into uh some of the questions that were raised uh during the last study session. Uh, how is data submitted? You know, questions related to ensuring accuracy, transparency, timeliness. Um, uh, data is submitted electronically to ADEQ. um uh and uh it definitely was a problem in this instance where um we needed to have the actual data entered not just a blank cell. Uh so to that end we're developing training uh on actually utilization of those digital tools to make sure that it is uh readily apparent that uh the correct way to fill out the forms is to enter all data and to not leave blank cells regardless of whether you believe the data is suspect or not. uh use the correct flag. Uh the lab

error flag is fine. Uh use that flag but enter the data. Um also uh working on training to ensure that there is clarity that the reporting time frames are based upon the data of the initial results. Not waiting until you're weeks or months down the line with uh investigation to uh report things. You can always submit additional reports. You can always uh update reports but the report dates are based upon that initial discovery of a problem. uh util utilization of lab error code. Uh there was some conversation around that. That is the appropriate code. That is an acceptable code to use. The issue here was not the utilization of the code. It was the failure to enter the data into the cell and leaving the cell just blank uh as if there was no data collected. Uh questions related to grab sample versus composite sample. Um Oxford water quality standards are to protect groundwater. That's what we use to set the limits. um and as such are grabb samples. Um as these are designated to predict designated uses of surface water um and are generally composite samples. Uh both grab and composite samples are accurate for their specific purpose. Um the grab sample actually is more uh conservative in this instance. Uh for example, if we looked at the data uh on the antimony exceedence and applied the safe drinking water acts uh test methodology G for the uh drinking water standards, it would not have exceeded that standard because the averaging of the data would have concealed uh that spike in the uh antimony in the water quality. So u we believe that the grab sample is appropriate. uh it's doing what it should be doing. It's alerting us of issues um and allowing us to investigate them and deal with those issues uh instead of averaging them out.

Um and two other questions. One was related to ADQ website updates. Um I'm happy to uh inform you that we updated our permits of interest page on our website uh to include both lab reports as well as 30-day responses. So this is all self-service at this point. um nobody has to come to us to ask for anything. We're going to continue to update uh lab reports to this file. So, um your communities can have direct access to this information and and don't have to uh take the extra step to ask for us or to wait for those. It's just ready to go. Um and then permit updates. Uh there were some questions about uh next time we update the permit, whether there'll be additional clarity in reporting and communications. That's definitely uh part of the plan and our uh conversations with South 32 that um we can optimize these communications. It can be more clear. Um uh so that absolutely is something we are considering with our uh when our next amendment comes around for this permit.

Gentlemen, Well, first of all, I want to I want to thank again staff, community members, ADQ for coming and and doing these study sessions. So, you said that you wanted uh the questions in writing, right? To to answer them so we could have like something in writing, correct? Uh uh I'm good. Uh this is recorded. Uh so we can do what we did last time and we'll just pull the questions right out of the video. Of course, any of the individuals who um had questions during the uh call to the public are more than welcome to approach me after uh the meeting. I'll give them my business card and they can email them to directly to me as well.

Okay. And also, I mean, would it be possible maybe we can work with Mr. Young and to make sure that all the questions that community members have like just be able to communicate them so so that all the questions get answered? Would that be a possibility? Absolutely. Okay, sounds good. That was the first one. So, go ahead. Oh, go ahead. I have to go back and look.

Okay. I I I just want to reiterate a couple of the the sentiments that were that were asked today during the call to the public. Um, first of all, I just want to confirm Wells DW00005 and 006 are shut down at the present time. um plan to be open in March of March of of 26. Correct. Uh that is my understanding. Okay.

All right. Um I know that when South 32 presented um they they presented information regarding livestock, drinking water and so forth. And I know that um one of the people today asked about that. I I would like more information from South 32 as well as ADQ if that's within your you know within your parameters um just because it seems to be popping up uh on a regular basis. Maybe not today but in in in the answer that you give u I think I think that needs to be uh addressed more. Like I said I know South 32 talked about it last meeting but I think it it deserves a little bit more um information. Um, I would like more information regarding the and I know I'm going to but Susan, is it Wellington? We um her well um and and what are some of the issues uh surrounding that? And then lastly um uh regarding Ben uh human health, water quality, and quantity. I just want a little bit more information on what we're going to do to make sure that the people that especially that live in that area are uh their their drinking water is safe and there's an abundant amount.

Gotcha. I will uh I will do my best.

I I too want to thank staff for for putting these meetings together, these study sessions. I think they're really important. I uh I think this red flag is is good because it's going to improve communication. It's going to improve transparency overall just uh better communication. Uh I I know there was a a hiccup in between the the procedure when uh uh South 32 went to call and give you information and no one answered and they I believe they said they left the message um in the time frame.

Is is there any way we can um make that procedure not just a phone call maybe an email with the information on it? That way that is uh that that's the timeline you know you send an email the email is going to get there and you'll have a timeline along with a phone call. Uh kind of you know I'm pretty sure you you have your procedures but uh if we can improve the communication uh and and I appreciate what you've done with your website uh uh you guys putting information updated lab information on there will be great for us and our community as well. I thank you for that, Randy.

Absolutely. Uh Mr. Chairman, members of the board, that is one of our goals is to improve that um process. ADQ of course is uh more than open to receiving uh fiveday notifications or other notifications via email. Um uh we very much um also want to make sure that uh telephone calls result in positive uh communication. Uh messages are uh great. Uh but as you call in, you know, you go to a phone tree. Um whether folks are navigating to the right place or not in the phone tree uh uh always um could be in question uh if we're not having that actual positive personto person contact. So, uh, we very much, uh, are pushing for that, making sure that in the future, um, those calls, uh, are successful, even so far as, uh, they're welcome to reach out to me directly, anybody at the agency, right, uh, to make those, uh, direct notifications.

Yeah. So, it was along the same lines. So, at the moment, I mean, if something happens and South 32 would like to communicate to you guys, it's only uh, through phone. There's no like a like an email or other ways.

Sorry. Uh yeah, Mr. Chairman. Um they can reach out to us uh in a myriad of ways. They can call us, they can email. Um well, I guess that's the main ways, right? I could use mail as well, but uh call and email would be the the primary ways. Um it's really about getting that positive contact to make sure that the message that's sent is received, right? Um and I think that's where the step was missed um in that there wasn't that conversation um that that conversation just wasn't had. Thank you. Well, thank you. Thank you, Ren. We really appreciate it.

Thank you. uh he he can go ahead and meet with you guys uh after the meeting. And uh ask a question if I may. So we can respond to them. Uh, Mr. Chairman, members of the board, certainly for the ones related to this specific incident that are um where the information is ready readily available. Yes. Uh some of the other questions uh brought up related to um groundwater contamination at unregulated private wells uh adjacent. Um those are tough questions to answer. Um and um I can't speculate when we'll be able to get those answers. I don't know what date is available um out there for those sort of things. So, but certainly for uh questions related to this specific incident, we can

Thank you, sir. Thank you. Okay, last one.

I just have a quick question. who work in maternal child. I would like the county to prepare and all the parties involved in this to respond to what the profile of. These numbers are rather abstract, but this is a potent community. And what we really need to address is what happens if somebody with one of these contaminated wells on a day when the profile shows that we exceeded the alert levels. If somebody makes a bottle, a formula for an infant, what's going to happen to that child when they're fed? What's going to happen to the chemo patient who drinks from that day? These are the important issues. The numbers may sort of obscure what we're looking at here. And as a clinician, I just want to call everybody's attention to that. And I want the county to look at that and I want start putting out there publicly why we care about this.

Thank you. Okay, I'm going to go ahead and recess for about two, three minutes and then we'll come back to uh item one, the conservation Santa Cruz County River habits and tubac by Seth Obel and vice vice president of tubac nature center.

You want to introduce him? Why don't you introduce him? Okay. If we can grab a seat, please. your attention please. Thank you.

Oh yeah. Yeah, that's right. Thank you, Kathy. Okay, we'll go ahead and uh go to item one. Uh vice chairman, go ahead and introduce our guests.

Uh I' I've um had the opportunity to meet with the Tubac Nature Center folks on two different occasions. Uh three different occasions, I believe. One was actually out in Tubac. Um one was prior to then and then one was just yesterday or the day before. They're doing some incredible um things uh for the Tubback area. Um and uh I'm hoping that uh what we discussed earlier this week uh comes to fruition and that would be a a hawk uh um what's the word I'm looking for? Hawk Hawk

platform. There you go. Um I'm hoping that happens. Um we're we're going to work together to to see if we can make that happen. And uh I'm very excited. um the middle of March here, the the first or second week in March for the Hawkw Watch to head on down there. Um one of the pictures that was shown yesterday on your computer. Um I didn't realize uh that it was that packed. Um I saw at least 50 people in that that photo. I believe there was probably more than that. So, I'd like to introduce Seth. And if Seth, if you'll introduce uh your team and um and thank you for all you do. and thank you for having me here. Uh really appreciate it. So, uh I'm Seth Alville, vice president of the Tubac Nature Center. Our president is Mikey Dunn right over here. My wife Mary, I think, step up in the back. She's one of our premier hawk watchers. I'll talk a little bit about the hawkwatch, but mostly I wanted to focus on conservation of the Santa Cruz River, which is an area that uh the Tubac Nature Center has done quite a bit of work recently and we hope to continue it in the in the coming year. So, next slide, please. So, just a little bit about the nature center. We're uh 501c3 all volunteer. Uh there's a lot of stuff that we do uh and I'd encourage you to go to our website and go to that URL. We have an annual report that is still uh pretty much up to date and it has uh quite a bit about what we do including a roughly one-page summary of the conservation program which I will talk about. So I think it's a very convenient resource. Next slide. So before we get into conservation, I'll talk a little bit about the hawkwatch. This is sort of our biggest event and it

is uh one of the many reasons to conserve the Santa Cruz River. Uh and that is that migratory hawks and in fact many species of birds use that river as a migration corridor and its vital habitat, resting place, feeding place, place with water. the birds are attracted especially as they migrate north and south. Um the hawk watch is a spring event and we've been doing it for uh about 14 years now. This will be the 14th year. We now have an organization Hawkwatch International which is a fairly large uh national scale organization that has a lot of Hawkwatch sites throughout the western US. uh and they now are engaged and are providing professional hawk counters for pretty much the entire spring. It starts April 15th. Uh sorry, it starts February 15th and ends April 30th. The peak of the migration is in March and in particular mid-March. And there's a photo of the star of the show up there. That's the common blackhawk. It is a very unique bird in the United States. There are only about 250 nesting pairs in the entire country. Mostly they're in Arizona. Uh at the Hawkw Watch, we've had over 500 birds in a season. So that's a pretty good chunk of their population that is passing right through our area uh pretty much every year. Uh we have a big festival March 13th to 17th. You can go to our website. We have a web page that describes the hawkwatch and has a full schedule of activities for the festival. There's a lot that goes on. Uh obviously there's hawk watching. There are various vendors. There are we have a nonprofits day. Saturday the 14th is a family day with

lots of children's activities. We have talks and bird walk bird walks and uh live raptor shows. So there's a hell of a lot that goes on. uh we attract a couple of thousand people over the course of the month. So pretty popular event. I'm ready for the next slide. So moving on to conservation. Uh the big picture is that um we're quite hopeful we can have a national wildlife refuge that includes uh much of the Santa Cruz River corridor throughout Santa Cruz and Puma counties. Um there is a uh a coalition that has formed to help foster that. We've been engaged in that and I think the signing of theou by both puma and Santa Cruz County is a major milestones. It it shows us that you are engaged and supportive and recognize the importance of this river to uh the entire county. Um, so we've tried quite a bit to bring a focus uh within that partnership uh to Santa Cruz County. Uh, Pima County, there's a lot going on, a lot of people involved. We're a lot smaller, so we do need voices. So, if people are interested in engaging with the Santa Cruz River Coalition, it's open to pretty much anyone that is uh interested. Uh, another thing that's important is the work that we're doing on the ground in Tubac is the kind of work that will make uh, preservation of that land as a wildlife refuge uh, much more attractive to uh, uh, something like the Fish and Wildlife Service or any other organization that would be interested in preservation because we will be doing projects that actually improve the environment there.

I'm ready to move on. So, uh, here is the land that we're focusing on in TubeBac. Uh, this is just an approximate boundary of the land. There are two Santa Cruz County parcels that are involved. It's not the entire parcel. It's, uh, pieces of those parcels. Uh, it's about 140 acres. In addition to the riparian or river forest, it includes the river itself and the Anza Trail. So it's already uh pretty heavily used for uh passive recreation, wildlife watching and so on. Uh and quite importantly, the land owner wants to preserve this land. The land owner is Gary Brasher. He's the managing partner of Bakaflat uh Land Development Limited and he has been extremely supportive of our work. He wants to engage uh as we move forward with any project. We we engage him ensure he is supportive of it. Ensure he's he uh wants us to move forward and we also talk to the adjacent communities particularly the barrier dubac which is noted on the slide there. Okay. Next. So uh as I think is the right way to go. started out with a conceptual plan. What do we want to see uh on that land? And so in 2023, we prepared or released that plan. It was developed by a panel of experts led by the National Park Service and we had a community workshop. So I think we have substantial community support for our vision for that land and that basically is to have a nature preserve that emphasizes both uh passive recreational and ecological values. Uh so on the

ecological side we basically are moving forward. Uh the plan identified three uh ecosystem components that are in need of restoration and those are wetlands, grasslands, and the riparian. Riparian means river, forest. Um and we've gotten uh some grants to do that work. We're at about $120,000 now. Uh and this the plan itself is guiding those efforts. So, we're doing the things that have been sort of we've engaged with the community on. They know about it. The the uh experts have said these are the types of things you need to do. We're following up on that. And we think uh you know, whoever owns that land in the future hopefully would also use this plan as a blueprint for uh what that land would look like. Next slide. So um one of the ecosystem components is the tubac borrow pit which is a wetland. Uh it sort of a happy accident. Um the bar pit was excavated for fill for adjacent development and they hit groundwater and a wetland formed uh and wetlands are very rare and ecologically valuable habitats in southeast Arizona. So, um, we're sort of lucky in a way to have it. Um, and unfortunately, it has degraded over time, particularly by filling in with things like cattails, uh, and invasive species such as tamarisk. I'll talk a little bit more about that later. Um, so our goal in the restoration is to have a variety of habitat components. One important one is open water. And in order to have open water in the long term, you need to have enough depth. You need to have about four feet of water depth. Otherwise,

cattails will ultimately just grow in and choke the whole area out. Cattails are fine, but we want to have a mix of components, not just cattails. So, uh, another important goal of this is to put more water in the pit. The more water the better, pretty much. And one way to do that is to do storm water improvements in the adjacent land. And there are a couple of components of the project that would do that. There's a potential to mitigate some monsunal flooding that has occurred on adjacent properties. We think we can do that. Uh and in addition, the water will be beneficial in the pit rather than backing up in a neighborhood. Um so what we're doing now is actually monitoring the water levels that are in the pit and that is both groundwater levels and there's also a treated effluent discharge from the Bakaflat wastewater treatment facility. Uh we need that information in order to know to what extent we can meet our goals especially for open water. Once we do that we'll move towards an engineering design and then the next stage would be construction. We would hope in the coming years we could have that all done. I'm ready for the next slide. So, the other two important habitats of the riparian forest and the grassland. We just recently completed a plan for that. And I should mention that the Tucson Bird Alliance has been working with us. We've contracted with them under our grants to do these plans. Um, so the cottonwood willow forest is a very valuable ecosystem component and it's also a pretty unique and beautiful place to recreate. People love the trees and the shade. You don't find a lot of it in uh southeast Arizona. Uh, and we see people out on that trail all the

time. Um, unfortunately, and this is true in many uh riparian corridors in southeast Arizona, the young trees are not recruiting, meaning they don't grow and reach maturity. And there are a number of reasons for that. It's a really a host of sort of natural and um anthropogenic factors that are causing that. I've listed a few of them there. Um so what we've done in the plan is uh identify areas where we think we can make a difference and restore both the river channel and the riparian forest by extension. So there are certain types of projects what once we um if we move forward on those we'll have to start pretty small scale. You know it's not likely we could just in one fell swoop protect the whole forest. It's not likely to happen. But there's also a lot of work going on on Cenoida Creek and we can use that as an example. See what they have done that's successful. Um the grassland area west of Ron Mars Park we believe it can be managed for native grasses and wild flowers and that would provide an additional very valuable habitat. And the underpinning of all of this is that controlling invasive plants is really crucial here. Um, and it also helps reduce wildfire risks to do that. So, we'll move on to the next slide, which is control of invasive trees and grasses. We just got a grant with the Arizona Department of Forestry and Fire Management. And we again have the Tucson Bird Alliance out. They have an invasive plant strike team and they have they they are coming out and uh removing invasive plants uh to control their their distribution. Um this is a

three-year project. Uh so we will have quite a bit of time to do that and the focus of the work will be in the borrow pit to control tamarisk which you can see on the upper left. Tamarisk is a non-native tree. It's uh from the Asian subcontinent and it uh uses a lot of water and it releases salt into the surface soils. It prevents a lot of native trees from growing. So it is quite a job. Three acres doesn't sound like a lot but to remove a threeacre thicket of uh tamarisk and prevent it from regrowing is quite a substantial task. So uh there are also a number of grasses that uh are a problem. The biggest one is Johnson grass. You see it looks a little bit like a corn plant. There's a photo on the upper right. Uh and it uh basically grows and chokes out native vegetation. So uh there's there's work to be done to control that. There's quite a bit of it around Tubac. Um we do have monthly work events uh to uh educate people and to help control invasive grasses. So, we've been out every month on the third Wednesday at 9:00 am. In fact, there was one this morning that we missed because we're here. Um, and Tucson Burn Alliance leads a team of volunteers to remove invasive plants. So, people who want to sign up, go to our website. There's a page that will tell you how to sign up. Um, I I I'm pretty much done with my presentation. I did want to thank uh Chris in particular Chris Young and Shannon Hall. They have convened uh nonprofit groups from around the county to discuss river conservation and to promote the wildlife refuge to organize

our thoughts and it is a great thing and it provides us a lot of opportunities. So, thank you for that. I'm happy to take questions.

Any questions, gentlemen? I uh I saw the work that was done, you know. Um and when you say it's a monumental task with the tamarisk, I saw it. It is. And I want to thank you and all the folks that have been uh part of that. Um you know, with that those events that are cleaning out that that area, um I didn't expect to see what I saw with the uh with the borrow pit. Um it was pretty incredible. Um knowing that at one point I think you mentioned that it was uh much deeper back in the day. Yes.

And uh we need to we need to continue to look at that. I also love the fact that uh um we want to keep it um we want to preserve that land and I think we're we're taking steps to make sure that happens and and I know Gary's heart is in the right place there. So I I applaud him for that. Um, and thank you for include during our meeting in here, it was evident that you're including all stakeholders because questions came up about, you know, will the residents that live there, are they going to be okay with this? Are they going to be okay with that? And coming up with plans um on how to maybe um approach the uh TUBAC citizens uh council board and then present to the entire team. So, I think you have your your ducks in a row. We're actually briefing them on March 9th.

Perfect. It'll be probably more detailed in this presentation. Perfect. Um, so I I just want to say thank you and thank you to all all the folks that are part of that. Um, when is a good time between I have it on my calendar. I think it was March March 13 through 17th. What's the best time of the day? You told me about 9 or 10 in the morning. If people who want to see hawks come in the morning because the hawks uh many of them roost in the cottonwood trees and when they take off usually late morning could be anywhere between 8 and 9:30 roughly uh they uh take off and they fly very low. So you really can get quite a show. It really can be a spectacle.

And they should bring their chairs and their binoculars. Bring a chair. Bring sunscreen. Bring a hat. Bring water. typical things for Arizona. The lastly, um you mentioned is is this part of the your newsletter, Shannon, about the nine o'clock the third Wednesday of every month? If not, can can if you Seth, if you can reach out to Shannon and make sure that's part of it, that the the more word we get out, the better chance of having one more person show up. Sure, we we can we have done that. We can do that again and make it a regular thing if Shannon wants. Also, I did want to for the Hawkwatch Festival. So, we'll get you something on that. And thank you.

Thank you. Thank you, Seth. Thank you. Thanks for all that beautiful work.

Next, we have uh item three, government 101, a roles and responsibilities of human resources, presented by Mr. Premier Romero. Morning, sir. Good morning, gentlemen. Good morning.

Good morning, county management, uh, fellow county employees, members of the public. My name is Steo Romero, and I have the good fortune and privilege of serving as your human resources director, and it's my pleasure to be here to share some information regarding our department and uh, what we do. I'll start by mentioning that the uh statutory authority for uh what we do is covered in uh part in Arizona by statute cell 23 38 and 41. Uh 23 covers things related to employment practices and working conditions just as an example. Title 38 to compensation, leaves of absence, payroll deductions and the like. And then title 41 covers the Arizona Civil Rights Act, which of course uh I'm sure I don't need to mention is extremely important uh to everything we do uh with regard to making sure that uh we are always mindful of the protected factor uh protected factors that cover our work. Making sure that everybody's being treated fairly, that there is no discrimination of any kind, uh which is something that of course we are all uh firmly committed to. As far as our team, uh it is comprised of uh three individuals. Uh Claire Horton, our human resources analyst, uh Roxan Melles, our human resources assistant, and uh myself. Uh and our focus is on moving us forward in any way that we can with regard to anything and everything that's related to human resources. And before I continue with operating uh procedures, I do want to mention that I'm grateful to county management for its support. When I first took on this role in October of 2023, it was only a twoerson team. And uh it's considered a best practice, a good practice to have one human resources professional for every 100 employees. Given the fact that we have a little over 300 full-time employees and just shy of 100 part-time

employees, uh it put us in a much better situation to provide a better uh level of service. So again, uh tip of the hat to county management for its support. As far as operating procedures, we of course are governed by the Santa Cruz County Personnel Policy Manual, a 182page manual. Uh and uh that was recently or actually amended or implemented fairly recently in January of 2024. And of course, we also have our departmental uh standard operating procedures manual which uh provides uh more u uh detail in terms of the specific work that we do within our office. So, I'm a firm believer that it's important to have uh policies that things be reduced to writing. I think it's helpful to everybody and I think it uh uh mitigates risk for the county. Something of course we can all agree is very important. As far as our key functions, I won't read all of these things to you, but what I will do is I will uh just cover maybe two or three of them uh in terms of what we do uh when it comes to recruitment and employment advertising. Uh on today's agenda, as you gentlemen are aware, there are two positions for your uh review and consideration. If you go ahead and approve those uh positions, one is to backfill a position. The other one is to create and fill the position. Then what we do is the very same business day uh is we go ahead and we open a recruitment, right? We do either an internal or an internal and external recruitment depending upon what the hiring manager has asked us to do. Uh the point there being that uh we we don't procrastinate. We don't waste time. We make sure we get the information out there as soon as possible. Uh as far as consultation, I'll mention that it is not uncommon for supervisors, managers, department heads, and even elected officials to reach out to our office whenever there are questions uh involving the personnel policies uh when people uh perhaps need uh some guidance or direction or

basically just want to use us as a sounding board. We're happy to provide uh our non- attorney uh opinions uh with regard to various matters and uh as far as uh equal employment opportunity uh pursuant to county personnel policy uh I serve as the person who oversees equal employment opportunity uh which to me is obviously extremely important and I take that uh role very seriously. Uh so I want you to know that uh I am fully committed to doing whatever I can to make sure that we as an organization are always mindful and compliant uh with everything around equal employment opportunity. I want to cover just briefly that uh we of course have a web page that we take a great deal of pride in. We update it regularly. Uh it lists uh the various uh benefits of working for Santa Cruz County. on the far left. Uh my thinking is, you know, uh what if I were uh looking for work and I came across, you know, uh the county's web page. What would I want the information to say? I would be interested in knowing what the benefits are, of course, what the specific uh jobs uh are that are available, who I can contact in case I have any questions. Uh we have the link to the county's personnel uh policy manual, of course, where people can find us. And I will mention that we take a lot of pride in being easy to find. That to me is is very important and we're fully committed uh to making sure that uh people are getting answers to their question whether or questions whether it's an employee or a prospective employee. So this is the uh the portion of the page on our web page that lists the various jobs that are available. So people can go uh online, they can access the uh the full job description for the position. Uh we also have postings for the various positions available outside our office outside of room uh 108.

As far as new or expanded services, as I mentioned previously when I first took on this role a little a little over two years ago, uh you know, we've uh we've made some changes as as you might imagine uh despite the uh the fact that my predecessor had done a great deal of good work uh in terms of where we were uh from a human resources perspective. Uh I'm a firm believer that uh you know there's always room for improvement. One of the things that we did again with support from management is we moved out of room 10 uh 119 and we were able to find a space in room 108. That was very important to me because I believe that uh employees deserve uh privacy, right? Uh when I was working out of room 119, uh as happy as I was to be working out of room 119, uh it's it must be very awkward for people who have questions to to go into the board of supervisors office. And uh so, you know, respectfully, I think it's a better setting for us. And I'm very happy that uh we're in room 108. We also created a new employee orientation, something that the county did not have before. Uh so we facilitate that uh once a month and we're happy to provide new employees with what I think is important information. We are also making use of uh SharePoint uh through Microsoft and I'll provide a slide on that uh briefly uh and uh share some additional information on that. Uh as far as professional development, uh I think that uh my fellow uh directors and managers can attest uh that I'm a firm believer in uh professional development. Uh I believe that uh through uh professional development that's appropriate and relevant, we can uh become better as an organization. So, it's not uncommon for me to be sending out information regarding uh various professional development opportunities uh for review and and the consideration of uh of my colleagues. Uh as far as performance management, it's another one

of those things that I've been uh encouraging people to do. And uh I think we we're making some progress. Uh maybe not as much progress as I would like, but we are making some progress. uh more people are being evaluated uh getting feedback in terms of their work. As far as risk mitigation efforts, uh our office does have a uh a riskmanagement component to it. And again, for the reasons I mentioned related to professional development, uh we're always looking at what can we do to mitigate risk uh to always protect the county to the extent that uh that that is possible. I already touched upon our focus on efficiency be it in the uh posting of jobs and processing of of paperwork and I also touched upon uh the pride we take in being available and in assisting everyone to the best of our ability. So in terms of SharePoint, this is information that is available to every county employee where they can go to the human resources portal and our goal here was to be in a situation where employees could go to this portal and get answers to probably 95 98% of their questions. Right? If uh and I know that uh my fellow employees uh are independent like I am and if you know you want to find the answer yourself uh it's there. It's out there. You know all you need to do is just look for it. It doesn't that they can contact us if that's what they prefer to do. They can call, they can stop by, they can email us. That's not a problem, but they also can access this information through this portal. So, as you can see, we have uh various folders uh that we're updating uh regularly with all kinds of information regarding retirement systems, the employee assistance program. Uh we have all kinds of forms for employees. uh forms are uh you know connected to our personnel policies, tax forms, information around health and wellness, insurance and so forth and so on. And then when you click on uh as an example the folder uh for the forms for

our personnel policies, you come across all these documents, right? So if you have a situation where somebody uh needs the the form for a briement leave, you go uh on the site, you bring up the form, you complete it, you submit it. It's as simple as that. uh if somebody is seeking outside employment, there of course is a form for that too. So again, the information is there. As far as some statistical information, uh as of January 1st of this year, the county uh employs or employed uh 339 full-time uh individuals, 64 uh part-time employees, 43 employees in all. As far as our turnover rates, in calendar year 2024, we were at 23.5%. And in calendar year 2025, uh we dropped down to 18.9%. So that was good to see because my understanding is that uh most organizations uh see a turnover rate of anywhere between 20 and 25% per year. So I think we're doing uh we're doing well and it was good to see that uh uh that the percentage actually dropped from one year to the next. I also want to share just to give you an idea as far as how many applications our office processes. We processed uh in counter year 24 65 applications per month and in calendar year 25 uh we processed an average uh of 74 applications per month. Uh as far as new employee orientation in calendar uh 24 we had 75 employees go in. We started in April of uh of that year. So if you prorrate it, we were looking we'd be looking at about 100 employees who would have gone through that uh program. And then uh last calendar year we had 102 employees go through it. Uh promotions always good to see promotions. Calendar year 24 we had 28. In calendar year 25 uh we had 29. So I hope you find that information at least somewhat interesting. It is interesting to me but

then again I do the work and I enjoy the work. So I hope I didn't put anybody to sleep. But I'm I'm happy to entertain any questions you may have. Gentlemen, go ahead.

So to when I got into the county, it didn't take long to know that you were like somebody fair um caring and like like and it didn't take me long to know that. So it's good to see those numbers. Also, um, you guys have done a really good page when it comes to the on the web page when you when people go and search for jobs. It's very clear outside of your office. You also have the papers so people can look for jobs. So, I just want to thank you. You have a really good reputation. Keep that going because it goes a long way. Thank you. That's very kind of you and I appreciate the compliment.

I have a couple things. Um, congratulations on the turnover rate. That's fantastic. to a 5% drop. That was impressive. Um the portal, I've gotten on it more than once and it's given me all, just like you said, it's given me all the information that I needed to know. Um so that's that's incredible. Your professionalism is outstanding. Your team is is the same. And then lastly, I worked at the district office in Santa Cruz Valley and I worked right alongside HR, the three folks uh from HR And I know based on being in the cubicle next how uh hard um you folks work. So thank you so much to you and your team not only for your professionalism but your work ethic.

Thank you. I appreciate your compliments and your comments. They mean a great deal. Thank you. Thank you for your professionalism. I agree with my two colleagues and uh thank you for cleaning up and and uh making the portal more user friendly and we really appreciate that. Well, thank you and credit to it. I see that uh Juan Balderas is in the audience. Credit to him for introducing me to it and uh making me aware of the great opportunity that existed there. So, it's uh it's a solid team and I'm privileged to be here. Thank you, gentlemen. He

he's going to be hosting happy hour on Friday. [Laughter] Just kidding. Thank you, sir. Thank you.

Okay, we'll go ahead and move on to action item G. Uh, one discussion possible action two for directions to staff regarding coordination with the city of Ngalas for joint meeting with the city council. Mr. Davis, yes,

the the mayor of Ngalas, um, Mayor Maldonado always says that the city is within the county and the county is within the city. And I couldn't agree more. uh for my district, especially for district one, it's basically the city of Ngales, a little bit of of district two. So since I started working here, I knew I knew it was very important to work with the city. I heard a lot of stories and but I think as I kept going, I hear a lot of people asking and wanting to collaborate to work together. Um and I couldn't agree more with them. There's a lot of opportunities that if we collaborate, we could apply for for different programs, grants, and I think the time it's here that we need to collaborate. And I would also like like to hear your thoughts. You you've been here longer than me, M uh Supervisor Fanning, because I do want to work collaborate with the city. I would like to have one strategic plan if possible, not two, one that we identified all the all the needs. I mean, by statute, whatever we can work on because I think getting together, we're going to be able to do much more. Of course, that's what I want. And I have met with with a lot of the councilmen. Past two weeks, I met with the mayor of Nalis uh and vice vice mayor. they they would like to also work together based on our conversation and I would like to have a meeting within the the city and the county al all together and uh I know that I think in the past they try to do that but I want to try it again and do that. I would like to see not only one meeting because it's not just having a meeting and then everything fade away. I would like to

see a meeting at least like each quarter with a plan. So, I mean, what are your thoughts? I don't know.

Mr. Manager, do you have his address? Can we uninorporate him? I'm just kidding. I'm just kidding. Just kidding. No, I I I really love your persistence and and and I agree with you. I agree with you 100%. I think we need to keep trying, keep um plugging away to try and work with the city. Um and and and we do need to have a consistent meeting that's scheduled quarterly or we we do need to meet. Uh and I'm sorry for my joke. Uh you know, but it's been equally as frustrating for me as it has been for you. But I don't think we should stop. We should continue. uh because it's we owe it to the people of Santa Cruz County. We owe it to the city of Ogalas to work together. It's it's it's vitally important and and I agree with you uh 100%. I I I fully agree with you 100% and I think we should move on and and and have this meeting and and and put some items that we feel are are critical and key and uh and and focus on on those items.

Vice Chairman,

I agree. I wrote something down. Collaboration and honesty over time builds trust. And when you have trust, you can move mountains. Um It's true in a lot of aspects of life, whether it be um a teacher, an administrator, a coach. Um but it's also true at the county city level. I know that Puma County and Tucson did it and they're much larger than we are. Um so it can be done. Um so I want to you know what whatever has happened in the past I'm not aware of. Um I don't know if it was egos that got in the way. I really don't know. But like um Mayor Maldonado said, you know, Ngales is in the county and the city is in the county and the countyy's in the city. So um and I would also agree if not quarterly, at least twice a year, um that I'd like to see this happen. So um I I don't know what it's going to take to uh to make this happen, but I I think you have three folks up here plus probably everyone in the audience that that wants to make this happen. So I'm all for it. Thank you.

I I have has been open from the day I came on board and you know it's it's been frustrating but uh we have met and I I I want to continue to uh to try and meet

well well the feedback I got like from Mr. Borquez Maldonado Mr. Doyle, Miss Lopez, everything and everybody that I that I spoke to has been good. Uh they want especially the people in the community, they they want us to work together. And like I said, I don't know what happened in the past because I wasn't here. Maybe I was in I don't know, England doing like a certification on something else. But I mean, at the end of the day, that's what matters. So, uh, county manager, if you could, uh, if you could contact the city manager, explore, come up some with some dates that we can do. And like I said, not maybe not only one, like uh, every quarter and come up with the with the plan so we can start coordinating to me. Uh I would like and if you can in our next meeting in two weeks from now if you could please provide me like an update.

Mr. Chair, members of the board, um I will reach out to the city manager um I will ask him if there's any topics that they would their council would like to discuss with our board um immediately and see if I could uh schedule at least two meetings. Is there any topics that you guys as a board would like me to inform on?

I think what's key is to at least the first step would be like to sit down and if there's some misunderstanding I mean sit down because that's the only way we're going to be able to communicate sit down and and see what they have in mind see what we can work uh by statue you know like see how we can like join forces and explore all those possibilities. when I met with them with most of them um they all had like like like a different angle or priorities right uh like I said I have met with everybody I think I still I just need to meet with Miss Modell um my doors are open so just explore that whatever we can do let's come up with a plan something solid on paper and let's move forward

Mr. Mr. Chair, members, if if there there's one obvious uh um flood control

issue that we could speak to and that's the flood control, right? So, in just for your information, in 2004, the city advocated their responsibilities to the county as it comes to flood control. What that means to us is that we don't go out there and maintain their washes that we don't their water courses or what the intent every community that's part of the national flood insurance program needs to be a member of this program. Um there were not there was a they had some issues that were not they were out of compliance. So that's why they advocated. There seems to be when I speak to uh council members or the mayor or or just people that work for the city a misconception of that we're not there to take care of their infra infrastructure. We do help and we do want to continue to help. Um I think that's an issue that that has to be clear. What we are there for is to make sure that moving forward that they're compliant and they're able to uh take advantage of the discounts for the residents on flood insurance. Um so I think that's an obvious one. Uh the second one maybe this is not the meeting for it. There's obviously economic development that's always been a big factor and then but that's I'm afraid that's a meeting that would probably for a whole day if not a whole two days. Um I would suggest the immediate meeting would be to talk about flood control and maybe uh uh existing IGA. So one of them is the two of them that we have right now that are current is uh library services and animal control is the other one. So, if we can maybe limit this meeting for those three, I I that would be my suggestion. But if you guys want to go a different route, I'm open to that, too.

No, I mean, I think that would work, but also I would like to to hear their opinion, right? Like mix both both and see what you come up with.

I personally feel it's a good start. keep it simple with three items that are pretty much critical and then uh listen to people and see what uh ideas are out there and where this can take us. Uh like uh Supervisor Davis mentioned uh maybe joining forces on on on applying for grants or whatever it may be. just just basically uh start simple and and work towards uh working together on on big projects. I have I may have a different opinion. Um I I believe those are all incredibly important. Um but I think it's going to take baby steps to be very honest with you. The fact that there hasn't been the cohesiveness between the two entities, it's not going to be I don't think as easy as people might think it would be. I think I I wrote down some things. Um state of the city address state of the county, you know, what what's happening at the county. They can tell us what's happening at the city. We tell them what's happening at the county. Um priorities. Um what are our priorities? What are their priorities? Especially as it pertains to the two um entities working together. Um anything that focus on focuses on strengthening our relationship I think is incredibly important. And I think that groundwork Without a solid solid foundation, I I go back to how my parents raised me. Without a solid foundation, I wouldn't be where I am right now. And I think a solid foundation between the two um entities, I think, is is critical if we're going to move forward. Um I don't know the laws associated, but I do agree with the economic um development, library, flood, um and those things. I do agree with that, but perhaps maybe having a different type of meeting prior

to that so that we can get any differences out of the way. Um, I don't know the laws associated with with this. Bob, maybe you can help me out. I know at the school, maybe this is just a school district thing. Um, but we used to have workshops. Um, I I don't know what the laws associated with a workshop, you know, open meeting law. I certainly don't want to don't want to break the law. I want to stay within the guidelines, but I don't even know if that's that we can, you know, maybe look at maybe it's not the first or second one. Maybe maybe the foundation has to be laid first. Yeah. No voting

and uh Mr. Chair and and uh supervisors, I think it's going to depend on how it's organized and because you have a a few different ideas. Certainly, open meeting law is going to have to be complied with depending on especially if any kind of action is going to be taken. But uh depending on how it is uh organized, we can evaluate and certainly with uh Mr. Valdez meeting with the city manager is a good start that there's no uh risk I believe with any open meeting law violation there and then going from there and setting up quarterly meetings probably proper notice uh then especially if you're going to have the town council and the three of you present

Mr. Sure. Uh, supervisor. So, if you guys are open to it, just so we're all clear, uh, I'm going to reach out to the city manager and the discussion is priorities and as supervisor Fanning said, state of the county and state of the city and start the dialogue. Is that's the direction you guys want to give me and set set a try to come up with a date for a possible meeting so so we can have a meeting. Uhhuh. Explore that idea. Thank you.

And I have no problem where it's at. I that one of the things that I sense don't have a exact um egos. Everyone has to leave their egos at the door. So, I really don't care if it's here or at the city to be very honest with you. And maybe uh Mr. Manager if you could invite uh Mr. Borquez or or the mayor because when we spoke I said would you go go to one of our meetings. So reach out or maybe reach out to like more than one. I mean use your judgment and and see if they could come and just when you provide an update.

Mr. Chair, members of the board. So, next next board meeting, unless things change, and it'll be the following, I will come up with an update hopefully with the date and some of the topics that we they want to discuss and and see how it was received. Um, I just want to clarify when I said egos left at the door, I meant the county and the city. I I wasn't talking about one um in particular. Did you hear that, Chris? [Laughter] Just kidding. All kidding aside, do do we need a a motion uh bomb or can we just direct uh our our manager?

That's a good question. I I don't know. I didn't see whether there was a memo or any kind of motion. If uh certainly if the board is just providing the county manager with uh some direction, it's Yeah, that's probably sufficient. Uh why don't we just to but if you vote, you can do a vote. Yes. At this time, I'd like to entertain a motion to um give direction to our county manager to set up our our our meeting with the city. Move. Second. Have a motion and a second. Any questions?

Yeah. Yeah. So just just to summarize this, when I met with the councilman, it has been good. I do think they want to collaborate and work together. And when I ran, I promised the people that I was going to work really hard to work together. And I'm going to keep my promise. Thank you. Thank you for that. And we're going to join you. Thank you guys. Okay. Um any other comments or questions? Hearing none. All in favor? I I All oppose. Motion carries. Thank you. Thank you, Supervisor Davis. Okay. Item H, consent agenda. At this time, I'd like to entertain a motion.

A move to approve. Second. Motion and a second. Any discussion? Hearing none. All in favor? I. All oppose. Motion carries unanimously. I believe all I have is item I, Mr. Manager. Right. That's correct. Chairman like to entertain a motion to adjourn. So move second a motion and a second. Any questions, discussion? Hearing none. All in favor? I. All oppose. Motion carries. We're now adjourned. Good meeting, fellas.