Board of Supervisors - Regular Meeting

Welcome. Just some housekeeping. I I'd like to ask that we place our phones on either vibrate or silent or shut them off. And uh if you come up on call to the public, please state your name for the record. And you do have three minutes to speak. Uh with that said, uh this time uh we'd like to call the February 4th, 2026 board of supervisors meeting to order. And uh Mr. Francisco Padilla, will you want to lead us in the pledge, sir? To the flag of the stands nation indivisibley and justice for all.

Thank you, sir. We'll go ahead and move on to item B, adoption of the agenda. Mr. Manager, we have some changes. Good morning, Mr. Chair, members of the board. That's correct. Um, on the first one, I'll let Mr. Robert May go over the changes. Well, that was a good punt.

That was lateral. Okay. Uh, Mr. Chair, we're asking that uh, executive session H1 is removed from the agenda as well as the related action items J1 is removed from the agenda. just H1 or H1 and two. Okay. Well, H2 is also being I'm sorry, I'll Okay. Yes.

So, for H2, we were planning on having an advanced version of the of the CDPA document u prepared so we could review it with the attorneys. Um but there was a hiccup re with the attorney review and so we needed to postpone it probably till the next meeting. Okay. Thank you, sir. Mr. Chair, at this time, if we could just remove them and then we'll add them on as when at a later date. Yeah. At a later date when they're ready to be uh placed on the agenda. Perfect. Okay. At this time, I'd like to entertain a motion to adopt agenda removing items H1 and two as well as J1 and allow chair to deviate as needed. So move. Second.

Have a motion in 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. First slip is uh Mr. J. Thompson. Good morning, sir. Uh, good morning supervisors and everybody here. My name is Jay Thompson and I've lived in Rio Rico for 20 years. Thank you for this forum bringing our own community experts alongside South 32 and ADQ. For us, this is about protecting our water quantity and quality, issues we all know are big and growing. And quick shout out and thanks to our engaged community experts, but ADQ's own responses to questions show us the problem. Hermosa's antimony exceeded do meet thresholds for either changed circumstances and new evidence under their ACC regs. Even though the ADQ says it has no plans to reopen the aquifer protection permit right now. This matters because those rules require considering amendments for new information, changed conditions or material shifts in influent quality or treatment performance applied through ADQ's own practice and precedence approach. This comes from our independent experts using Hermosa data, not me. I use my engineering expertise to help explain it. First, changed circumstances. ADDQ defines this as a persistent shift

undermining percent permit assumptions. Baseline antimony was estimated low and narrow, yet real operations show higher levels, variability, and treatment struggles that the original water treatment plant design didn't anticipate. That's a clear structural change. Second, new evidence defined as information unavailable at permitting or altering the risk profile. The discharge limit exceeded plus rising trends contradicts low predictions, exposes incomplete baseline characterization, and shows the plant draining even at partial flows. Third, materiality, ADQ requires that the change meaningfully increase risk to groundwater. Antimony is a toxic regulated metal. A treatment system that cannot consistently meet limits even at partial flow is a material increase in risk. And if this is happening now before full dewatering, the risk only grows from here. Supervisors, the community is not asking for anything extraordinary. We want ADQ to apply its own rules for independent influent influent monitoring, fullflow pilot testing, transparent data review before restarting high antimony wells, and a formal evaluation of these exceedences as triggers under ADQ reg. To summarize, our aquifer needs permits based on real data, not assumptions. Our community deserves a process that responds to new risks, not one that explains them away. Words matter and the responses we are getting are not comforting. We demand protections, not promises. Bigger question is who's going to follow up on our behalf? Thank you.

Thank you. Thank you, sir. Eman, can you place a timer on there, please? Next is Ernie Edwards. Thank you, Ernie Edwards. I live out at Lake Patagonia and I want to thank the board for having these ongoing sessions here. we get to talk about the our concerns. It seems as if every day brings new and unwelcome information that flies in the face of everything we were led to believe. The water treatment plant was not, in spite of what Mr. Risner would have us believe, ever designed to eliminate antimony. Let me deviate for a second. I read the appeal process transcript and the plant designer said it was not designed to treat antimony. That man said that under oath. The other people who tell us that it was designed for antimony or not under oath. Who do you want to believe? Supposedly, antimony was at such a low level as not to be a factor under under consideration when the treatment plant parameters were developed. Lo and behold, antimony is now a major concern even though it was present in the tailings files lee. Where was the oversight and proper engineering analysis that negligently allowed us to get to this point? Metal mobilization.

Not here, said our regulating scientists. There is no proof. However, USGS did in fact tell us it was present and of great future concern, but that not did that did not fit in with the goal of letting the mine proceed. Silence be damned. The DEIS is now telling us of an antimony plume that will remain under our feet for maybe the next thousand years. It is most certainly the result of metal mobilization. You think about our wells diminishing to a point where we are not assured that we will continue to have water to sustain our life and its enjoyments. Water is key to us having a future in this paradise we call home. No no water also means a significant loss of property valuations. Your nest egg and what it means to you and yours is at grave risk. What a nuisance. Nuisance. Nuisance. What do we do? Number one, the aquafer protection permit must be reopened in light of all the data that is now evident. This is not new data, but information that was purposely set aside or not fully investigated. Number two, the community protection and benefits agreement must be set aside until there is a real understanding of what we need to develop protections from. Only when we know the real dangers can we assess proper protections and appropriate benefits in that order. The real community should be determining the the force of any CPDA that hopes to protect our future, not a conflicted group of politicians who in junction with a mine and its overwhelming financial clout puts a community at peril. And third, an independent and thorough analysis of the real impacts of the

planned mine operations should be conducted, resulting in a true scope on issues relevant to a new A. The entity to perform this analysis must be chosen and proved not only by the mind but also the respected group of trained, talented professionals that this community is blessed to have. Until these steps are taken, this community will continue to endure a death by a thousand cuts. Every day brings new light to light. New data is just scaring us to death. Thank you. Thank you, sir. Thank you, Chris. work open.

Morning sir. Thank you.

Good morning uh supervisors audience. I'm Chris Vovven Sonita here to comment on how at the very end of the Hermosa mine state and federal permitting story and Timony mobilization now appears as quote having the greatest potential for impact through water quality that's not my sentence it's the agency sentence already in uh 2017 ADQ issued an proh protection ction permit so AMI could sell the Hermosa mine to South 32 after AMI remediated the site. Remediation included removal of soils already contaminated with antimony that was found leeched by precipitation water from waste rock in legacy tailings piles which subsequently mobilized into soils seven years later. seven years. In 2025, finally, the US Forest Service predicted the formation of an antimony plume in its draft environmental impact statement. When mine tunnels will flood upon mine closure in a recent response to questions during the January 14 BOS meeting, why this kind of mobilization of toxic compound was not part of the A. ADQ stated it will account for this growing knowledge during closure and postclosure. Clearly a more proactive approach is urgently needed. The DEIS, so the US National Forest, um, uses the term mine void refill to

explain that groundwater fills the spaces left in abandoned mine tunnels to leech and mobilize toxic compounds from any exposed mining material as soon as pumping will cease. However, antimony already is found today in service and groundwater as soon as mine workings appear to have penetrated or bodies. To realistically protect public health and the environment, the county supervisors are urged to one demand a reopening of of the ADQA. Two, have an unbiased panel of expert review the public health and environmental threats of mobilized toxic compounds. and three have south 32 reapply for an a soon as an adequate protection has been found feasible. Thank you for your attention.

Thank you Cynthia Co. Good morning, supervisors, staff, and public. Um, my name is Cynthia Colbert and I live on Luna Court in Rio Rico. I come before you this morning to talk about a countrywide issue that will certainly affect Santa Cruz County, and that is the certainty that ICE will infest and desecrate our community. Santa Cruz County needs to be prepared. First off, people are seeing more ice activity around them, and I noticed this in Rio Rico, and it is making them more uneasy and unsure of their surroundings. I have a couple of suggestions that would definitely help. The county needs to step up and use their website and Facebook page to keep citizens updated and aware of what is going on as well as a place for citizens to inform the county of what they see or experience. Also, having handouts available would make people feel more assured about what their options are. And here are a couple of examples. Secondly, the county needs to come up with a plan on what we should do if we are indeed invaded. What should citizens do to be safe? Last but not least, the county needs to take a stand that any ICE or Homeland Security detention center will not be permitted in our county. This will not be allowed to they will not be allowed to buy, rent, or construct any building in Santa Cruz County. We cannot permit this. The Puma County Board of

Supervisors met last night and approved the following. No masks on law enforcement, no ICE allowed on county owned property, and to oppose the detention facility planned for Morirana. Definitely a step in the right direction to protect their county and their residents. Just the fact that Homeland Security Secretary Christy Nom is here in Ngalas today to meet with officials from US Customs and Border Protection, the Border Patrol, and Immigration and Customs Enforcement, also known as ICE, should set off alarm bells. We cannot afford to just sit back and think, "Not here, not us. We need to be prepared before it's too late. Thank you.

Thank you. Thank you, Cynthia.

Pam Lumpky.

Hi. So, I'm Pameli and I live in Tubac and I want to thank the board for putting these study sessions on the agenda and I want to thank Randy Mattis and the staff at ADQ for their timely responses to the questions that were raised at the 121 study session. And I'm sharing my thoughts today as a retired clinician who spent 30 years at the bedside caring for young families. And it bears repeating that public health and safety cannot be separated from environmental health. That's the reason we're really all here. Um so it's important. Um when we failed to protect the environment, we put the health of all of our community members at risk. Since the last study session, I had a chance to review a lot of the documents that have come out from these study sessions and some of the uh documents also from the county about the CPBA. I looked at the responses from ADQ. I looked at the phase one update that was uh given by both the county and Spheros environmental and I looked at the port authorities priorities for 2026 in which they indicated they wanted to have a multimmodal um place here in the county. All of this speaks to the importance of getting a real and meaningful traffic study, comprehensive water study and soil assessment. Because without that stuff, you are going to be not have the resources you need and the information you need despite what Sphere's environmental says about having appropriate markers to make the best decisions for the protections that are needed in the CPPA. That's paramount. And I want to also call your attention to question 20 and the responses from ADQ because it's based on my question about the toxicity profile for antimon antimony and how this relates to public

health. They said it was outside the scope of their governance and they asked us to look at other uh sources of information to answer that question for ourselves. So I took the liberty as a master's prepared advanced practice nurse to find the answer to that question for you. And I look to the uh federal agency of the uh toxic substances and disease registered. The whole toxic profile is 2 and uh 82 pages long. So I gave you the summary report and then I have two asks based on all of this information. I want you to call a uh the emergency preparedness meeting another focus group meeting ASAP because I know from my own participation we're not prepared for an emergency. and please include the county health department. I want to also ask that the county seriously consider creating a group of the local environmental organizations, the citizen scientists, the talented retired professionals in this room that you meet with on at least a quarterly basis throughout the duration of the mind's existence and start talking to them about what they're seeing and hearing. and I'll provide you a copy of this when I get home and clean it up and I'll email it to you. But um so please seriously consider those things. Thanks.

Thank you, Ben Lumi.

Good morning, supervisors. Thank you. and everybody that cared enough to be here today. My name is Ben Lie. I'm a native of Santa Cruz County. So is my wife. We care about the long-term health of the environment and public health, human health. There's two kinds of resources I said last time. Natural resources that are renewable and those that are mined minerals. Now, I'm not against mines. I recognize very clearly that if you can't grow it, you have to mine it. So, we make we need to be sure we can do this safely and protect our community in the long run, especially when it comes to groundwater that moves very slowly. And so, impacts can take a long, long time. Chances are we'll all be gone before we see major impacts, if any, from any mine. And it so please let's consider what the local people here, the citizen scientists, those with knowledge that are going to stay here, that are going to live here, that are going to continue to raise more generations here. Those are the ones that really are the ones your ears should be attuned to because the other ones move on and profit somewhere else potentially at the expense of us like they have in other places. But please consider sustainability the long term. Gentlemen, pe me members of the public. We do not inherit this earth from our ancestors. We borrow it from our children and that is a thing we all need to keep in mind. I know your terms are four years and you may get reelected and

all that but we have to think much farther into the future if we really want to protect our communities from the potential risks. And we need to make sure we are being told the whole truth, not just partial truths. When it comes to water use as defined does not address the whole truth. Dewatering as you can already see is a big chunk probably the major portion of the water issues we will face and are already facing. So we need to concentrate on that not on what other mines in other places use. It's what impacts us here now and into the future that we really need to be thinking about. So when we talk about this community protection and benefits agreement, let's look at some local people, some university people that know what's going on here and not those that are already paid by the mining industry who also sets a lot of influence on those laws that we have to abide by. I want to thank you all, but a lot of responsibility is on your shoulders and that goes for each and every one of us. if we really want protection in perpetuity for our community that we are blessed with. Thank you everybody.

Thank you so much. Thank you Sue Leberty.

Hi, my name is uh Sula and I live in Tubac. Um I have more of a question than than comments and uh it's with regard to um Officer Pñena and his um presentation possibly today. I live in a subdivision with open common area. It's uh not only accessible for those of us that live in that subdivision, but also to the public in general. It's not gated. It's not locked. Um, we have quite an issue with dogs at large, off leash dogs, both on the trails, you know, the Anza trail as well as in within our subdivision. And I my question just is, does animal control have enforcement capabilities or um responsibilities within th that type of a subdivision? Um, it is private property, but it is open. Um, so it's not like county property. Um, the other, um, comment I have is that I would really, you know, I know Santa Cruz County doesn't have a lot of money or a lot of funds for their parks and wreck, but uh, I would really encourage them to um, enhance the dog park, the county dog park at Ron Morris Park. That's one of the comments that you get back from people with their dogs off leash is that, oh, it's, you know, there's no lawn there or there's disease there. So I would encourage that as well. Thank you for your time.

Thank you. Thank you. Thank you, Barney Tri. Good morning, gentlemen, members of the public.

My name is Dr. Bonnie Titri. I live in Rio Rico. I'm going to talk about the county leash laws. I can't walk my dog on the on trail due to other dogs being an off lead. I do have a service dog, but she's very, very protective of me, so I can't even take her on there because if some dog comes running towards me, she will try to attack him. I recently, just last week, had a gentleman that I had a runin with that was running an Airbnb at 25 Camino Olympia and he's been walking his dog off lead. I tried to explain to him that Santa Cruz County has leash law and it's just as much protection for his dog as it is for others. I told him that right now it's coyote mating season and males are extremely aggressive. Also over by where we live, we have quite a few havalas, we have a mountain lion, we have a bear, bobcats, you name it. He proceeded to tell me that his dog has never been on a lead and he always walks him off lead and he will continue to do so. I won't even tell you the rest of what we told me because I can't say it in a government building because it's a lot of fbombs. He said he's here every winter and he will continue to do that. The dog was not even walking next to him all the time. Sometimes it was 50 feet behind him. I talked to the owner of the Airbnb, but I think she's afraid of him, so she won't enforce it or say anything to him. Everyone on my street that owns a dog walks their dogs on a leash. We are all taxpayers of this county. I'm hoping that somebody, anybody, can get this man to stop walking his dog off lead. He walked it the day after I talked to him. He did it this morning. I saw him on the way here. It just is non-stop. Thank you.

Thank you. Thank you,

Carolyn Schaefer. Greetings, supervisors, county staff, and members of the public. I am Carolyn Schaefer, a 30-year resident of Santa Cruz County living in Patagonia. Water is life and must be protected for the humans and all our relations. Four-leggeds, two-leggeds, multi-legged, no-legged, and the winged ones. Patagonia is at the heart of the Madran archipelago containing several major sky island mountain ranges. EO Wilson in his book Half Earth states that scientists recognize the Madrean archipelago as one of the top places in the entire world most in need of research and protection for species survival. Protecting our water and biodiversity will protect our residents and contribute to the growth of our strong nature-based restorative economy. Australian mining company's Hermosa project is projected to have a 50 to 70 year mine life and followed by a postclosure period of typically 50 to 100 years. It is profoundly appreciated and vitally important that this county is part of carefully crafting a community protections and benefits agreement. The final environmental impact statement release date is now March 6th, which is two delays for one month each. There will be a 30-day review period that is not a formal open public comment period like the draft EIS phase. During this review period, the agency generally cannot make a final

decision or take action on the proposal, allowing time for the public to review how the agency addressed previous comments. I have provided the county with the list of 16 organizations and subject matter experts who have read the mine plan of operations and submitted the draft EIS comments. These experts will also review the final environmental impact statement. Please include these conservation organizations and subject matter experts in discussions about crafting a meaningful agreement. The county board of supervisors have heard comments from both South 32 and Arizona Department of Environmental Quality about issues of South 32's response to high levels of antimony. Today you will hear from one of our citizen experts involved in this process. By carefully tracking publicly available data, Chris Gardner uncovered repeated exceedences of state alert levels and raised critical questions about transparency and permit compliance. South 32 has a record of water violations at other mines around the world, including in Australia for unlicensed water drainage. The well-being of the Patagonia Mountains and our water is tied to our economic pro prosperity and health. It is the source of our drinking water, clean air, and the biological dwell wealth that drives our regional nature-based restorative economy. There must be oversight of the industrialized mining activity and mining company accountability to the community to avoid shortsighted destruction of natural resources in pursuit of corporate profits. Thank you.

Thank you. Thank you, Carrie L. Schwarz. Good morning. Morning.

Uh thank you so much uh for having these meetings. I really appreciate that the board of supervisors cares enough about our public health and our environment to make this happen. Um I just want to say that I've appreciated the other presentations. Um, I appreciate uh what the Mine South 32 is trying to do and the technology that they're using to do the mining. I've been on the tour and I appreciate some of those things. I'm a volunteer with Arizona Department of Environmental Quality's program and they're trying to do great things as well. And I think that it's really important that we are all here. But one of the big reasons we're here is because of Chris Gardner. Chris Gardner is a unique individual in the town that I live in, Patagonia. He's got geohhydraology exp geohhydraologist experience. He's um been able to review all the past documents. He's able to go out and um take credible data. He's able to put it together in a research project or program like this and analyze data in graphical form so that we can all understand it. So Chris is the main reason we're here too. But Chris can't do this all the time. I mean the guy has to be under a little stress at this point putting together this stuff. So, so what I'd like to say is, you know, I appreciate what Pat said, Pat Rezner said about um the tox bringing in a expert toxicologist. We spent money on that. Well, we don't need that. That the toxicology for antimony is there. So, what I'd like to suggest is how can we

work together and be proactive towards making sure that our public health is not affected. So I have a couple examples. The Tucson Water had to um treat uh tricloroethylene because they found it in their water. And in 2011 they added to that treatment plant a treatment for 14 dioxane. And in I think 2014 retrofitted that plant and have has been treating that water um since then. And 14 dioxide is not yet regulated. It's scheduled to be regulated. We know about the toxicology of it, but it's not regulated. The other example actually I read this morning um our our state uh is treating PFA PFAS in Globe, Arizona. Um, so Katie Hubs and company got together and I feel like these are really proactive things that if the mind really wants to be a good neighbor, we should really look at doing these things. So I should end there. Thank you.

Thank you. Thank you, Alex Johnson.

Good morning all. Uh my name is Alex Johnson from Patagonia, Arizona. Thank you supervisors for listening to all of us and our concerns. Um they've been wellstated this morning and I'm just getting up to I don't want to go through the whole thing again, but this is our safety and our children's safety and the safety of the future. So I would like to ask the board of supervisors and all the citizens and the towns to require a very thorough and wise approach to this CBPA that's being proposed. Um, I have a couple of papers that were recently uh sent and they they they outline what the progress update is on the CPDA and the timeline. And these are wish lists from the mine, I believe, because there is nothing specific. And when you get down to considering this CPBA, this is a long-term adventure and I hope that you require meaningful specifics and particularly to leave it open for a openended we sign this thing is requiring into the future a responsibility. Thank you.

Thank you. Thank you sir Lucha Partia. Lo, I'm sorry. I apologize.

Good morning and thank you for having these the 101 gov go 101 series. I appreciate it. And I'm speaking today on behalf of family and friends in Tubac, Tumakuri, and Rio area where many of us are experiencing ongoing safety issues with dogs off leash in public spaces and limited resolution despite requested reports. Animal control officers have shared with us that even when complaints are filed, cases are often dismissed by the court. That leaves residents unclear about whether reporting results in is an enforcable action and it places animal control in a difficult position as well. In addition to enforcement, we're asking for clarity on resident safety. When an unleash dog is approaching and the owner refuses to intervene, what lawful options do residents have to protect themselves and their animal in that moment? Can we use pepper spray? Can we take photos if we're able to? video if we're able to. Overall, we're looking for clarity across the system from reporting to enforcement to what happens after a citation is issued and where the gap the gaps are that animal control may be able to address. This isn't about blaming dog owners or animal control. It's about creating a process that works for residents and officers while safely

safety is consistently upheld for people, dogs, and our wildlife and children who ride horseback on the trails in the Tumaci uh Tubac and Rio Rico area. Thank you very much for your time. Thank you, Lra. and Daria.

Good morning everyone. Uh thank you board of supervisors and staff and the members of the community um for your work in putting these meetings together and having a space for us to to come. So my name is Anna Darien. I'm here representing Patagonia Area Resource Alliance. I'm also a resident of uh Patagonia. And so I just want to very quickly touch on the antimony issue and then as time allows the CPBA uh conversation. So thank you again um for putting together these presentations on the antimony and specifically staff. I'm going to call out Chris Young. I know he worked on this uh really hard pretty quickly to get this together probably requiring many people to work over the holidays which is not a good thing. Um but to date we've had two presentations here. So January 7th, South 32 presented here. Um then in between in January 14th Chris Gardner presented in Patagonia and then on the 21st ADQ is here and then on the 28th South 32 is in Patagonia and today we have Chris Gardner presenting. And the reason I list all of these presentations in this order is because what we have had and what has been challenging as somebody who is not a hydraologist or a toxicologist is that a lot of the convers or the presentations have been in response to a prior presentation that might not even have taken place in the same location. And for those of us for whom it's their full-time job to keep up with this, it's been challenging. I know many people, you know, do this a lot in their free time and it's it's just been really challenging and so I think my comments are really on behalf of the average person who's genuinely trying to understand is there a safety hazard for me, for my animals. Um, and so my specific request is Chris Gardner is going to present today. If history is any predictor of the future, South 32 will likely take issue with some of the things that has been said. They are here today. Thank you for your uh attendance

as well. And so if there are further presentations, you know, I would just ask that everybody be in the same space at the same time and that there's actually a question and answer opportunity within that meeting, not as an email after the fact that needs to be forwarded around amongst all of us and we're all trying to make heads or tails of it and potentially misunderstanding it further. So that is my specific request is just as we move forward whether it's this issue or future one we have to have it in the same space because it's just it's caused a lot of fear and confusion for your everyday person. Um and I hear that in Patagonia and with the 30 seconds I have as it relates to CPBA the community really needs to understand how profitability is defined peak operations and specifically with the early actions that are listed in this latest update. It said in Q1 that it's going to be completed and delivered in Q1. What I don't see in that is at any point that this is going to be available to the public to view and to comment on and have any actual um input on. So that is a concern. Um and then with the longer issue of it's unclear to me how profitability will be defined because if the longer actions depend on that that's a really big deal. So thank you.

Thank you. Thank you. Anyone else wishing to come up on call to the public?

Yes, sir. Please state your name for the record. Name and address. My name is Juan Sto. um born in Paragonia, lived in Harshaw and um 589 Harshaw Road is our uh residents uh grandparents homestead that has been transferred over the generations. I'm a fourth generation Haronian is if that's the correct word. Um and we currently own the property myself with my six siblings. Harshaw Creek runs directly through our property and we're probably the closest private property uh to the mine where the where the creek runs through and uh we're currently in discussion with the mine in regards to uh the land order agreement that I know you supervisors you are aware of and thank you for giving me this moment. Um, I'm asking that you please uh the leaders of our county uh take care of us uh be very open-minded. I know uh you have to have a good working relationship with South 32 as we should as as land owners trying to both sides trying to do the right thing. Uh we're currently in discussion with them on how they might uh help us continue. They do monitor our water on a quarterly basis and how this can continue in the future. Uh but I just want to spend this moment uh to ask the county board of supervisors and any other county leaders to please uh keep an open mind in regards to protecting us that live close to the mine because uh we are very close to the mine as a crow flies probably less than three miles. Um, our family has been in the Harshawar

area since around the 1880s. My great-grandfather who moved out there and now we own the land and we want to make sure we're thinking about our future generations because uh, as it was stated here, that mine is going to be in operation for at least 50 years and then obviously anything else that happens as a result of the mine beyond those 50 years. And we want we hope that you will continue to um think about us as land owners there and the wells that we have because uh our well will probably might be negatively affected uh from water level to to changes in the uh chemical makeup of our water. And um now with the um discovery of the continuing increase of the antimony issue, that is something that's new to us as a family and we're we're also looking into it, which is the reason why we're here today because we want to hear Mr. Garner's presentation. Um but I just ask that you um as leaders of the county uh take care of us as homeowners and people that live in the Harshaw area. Thank you.

Thank you. Thank you. Anyone else? Okay, thank you for your comments. We'll go ahead and move on to item D, current events. Supervisor Davis, good morning, sir.

Good morning. So, some of my updates. So Jordan Toyos is the southern Arizona outreach coordinator for Senator Ggo stopped by and I took him to Arizona at work. They did a tour. He met staff. The idea is that he would come again and start like communicating and hopefully one day we can bring Senator Gos to visit here uh at work. I also travel to Tucson to tour the American Rehab campuses. It's a facility that helps people with uh substance abuse. Uh what I saw it was a really good program. They told me that in a lot of places you can only stay up to 28 years uh 28 days here up to five months. So you go through all these program um depending on your insurance and all that stuff. But it was really good. I got to see the facilities. They had pool. They had like a gym and stuff just trying to help people. Uh last Friday they invited me to the Rio Rico Community Center to call Bingo. They said it was going to be easy like not to worry. I know I know uh Mr. Fannon has done that before. I I I I walked in thinking that I was going to just call bingo like with some beans or coins and stuff, but they had a table with all sophisticated stuff. They had a timer. I had to read one and then if you get something wrong cuz I started you you had to call the letter and the number. I think my dyslexia kicked in and and I started saying like like 047 and and they will call you and they have call bells and stuff. You can't make mistakes. So they play 10 10 games. I recommend everybody to go through that experience at least one time. It's it's a lot of fun. Uh Shannon and myself, we also went to the global community uh community alliance. They they're part of the film uh film ready community. They

have a lot of like different environments. So they're already part of that film, but we just went to talk and see how we can promote them and they have like two commercial kitchens and stuff and Shannon has been working with them communicating. So that program is going well. So we're going to feature them very soon on our web page. Thank you, sir. You're welcome, Vice Chairman. Sure. Good morning, sir.

Good morning. Good morning to everyone. Um, thank you, Sue, for Thank you, Sue. I had a meeting with Lisa just a couple days ago regarding the the dog park. So, hopefully we can uh we can make some uh positive changes there. Um, very very uh busy couple weeks. Um before I before I get into what I I did, I do want to send my condolences. Uh the gentleman um who I ran against um in uh in this election um Jesus Heres has unfortunately passed away. I I was told that I could pass that information on. So my thoughts and prayers to uh Jesus Hares and his family. He's a good man. Um my Theo Anel once again uh he passed away this morning. Um, so my father-in-law, my condolences to my family. Um, Port Authority retreat, uh, that that was a 4-hour retreat a couple Saturdays ago. Learned a lot. Continue to learn more about the retreat. Uh, I did have an opportunity to meet with Dan Ericson out in Elgen. Quite a quite an impressive person. For those of you who don't know, I believe I said it last time, I mentioned it that uh he is the small school district superintendent of the year through ASA, Arizona school administrator. So, if you have a chance to see him and talk to him, please uh make sure that you let him know um that you appreciate him. Thanks to the friends of the Santa Cruz River. Um I had an opportunity to uh head out. Thank you, Ben. Um, I know Connie, uh, some other folks were part of that. Had a chance to, uh, head out and test the water, the water level, what was in the water, um, not only behind, uh, uh, Loves and Pilot, but also in the Rio Rico area. And I I I still am astounded by the beauty and the folks that uh,

that want to keep it that way. So, thank you to that group. um educational leadership consortium. If you don't know, all three of us are former educators. Uh we had an opportunity uh thanks Maya. Um thank you to both of you folks for putting that together. That was well put together and very informative. Thank you so much. Um my myself and um deputy uh county manager Chris Young, I think that's his name. Uh we had an opportunity to meet out at Cenoida at the landfill. U very informative. I'm hoping that we can make some positive differences there um in the very near future uh with one of the constituents. Uh myself and Shannon had an opportunity to head out to the Friends of the San Raphael. Thank you, Carol and Linda. Um that was an incredible uh opportunity to learn more about where Mcccleintoch was filmed, I believe. And uh with John Wayne, this was quite a long time ago. They are having a gathering. I know it's on the same is the Mariposa teddy bear um shindig. Uh I think that's April 11th. It's a Saturday, April 11th, and I'm sure they're going to get more information out, but it is well worth the drive. The drive in and of itself is absolutely fantastic. Um what you see up there right now is the meeting that we held yesterday at the uh Elgen Club where um we met with about 21 22 folks and talked about uh issues pertaining primarily to the eastern portion of the county. Um coming back and we're already in discussions on how we can help. Um let's see uh Two Back Festival. Don't forget about the Twoback Festival. I'll be a booth sitter uh volunteering to help those who need a bathroom break or a break. So, uh, anxious to help out with that today. Um, and also this Saturday is the, uh, Santa Cruz Shining,

uh, pickup. Uh, hopefully we we have quite a few folks out there. Uh, thank you, Jesse, for putting all that together. Thank you, sir.

Thank you. I had the honor and privilege, I think all of us did, uh, of attending our, uh, county supervisor association uh, uh, reception with our state legislators last Wednesday the 21st. It was a good good uh, time to mingle and network with our state legislators and talk about our priorities in in Santa Cruz County. Um the following day we had our our county supervisor association board meeting and then that afternoon uh I had a border county's uh zoom call with uh Puma County and in our our border counties uh and one thing that I brought up for a future agenda item is uh the costs that we are incurring uh with uh our federal um court cases. Uh just expenditures that we're uh uh resources that we're utilizing for federal uh inmates and we want to see if if the federal government can provide us a little more funding for that. Um we also uh Mr. Chavez and and county supervisor uh Valdez and I met with uh uh hotel developer Rudy Nabdu. We had a real good conversation. He's looking at uh developing a hotel next to Central. Um we also had a really all three of us had a meeting with uh uh it was a quick email we got from consul Marcos Bis. He

brought in um Senator Karina Ruiz. Interesting uh lady because she is a a senator from Mexico and she was appointed. She is a I believe she's a DACA person. She's living in Phoenix and so she's got a really unique situation and she's uh now in the Mexican state senate. uh interesting conversation. Um I had the honor of attending the food handler certification. I want to thank the health department for holding that. They had uh 20 people there. Um also uh along with my colleagues uh had the honor of uh attending the ed leadership consortium. Maya Carrie, great job. uh Luis uh Ereedelia with uh Senator Kell's office was there and and gave us some good insight on some of the visa issues. Um, we also uh Shannon and I also met with Carrie and uh um Maya because we're we're looking at uh organizing uh two fishing events. One for uh the youth and one for the county. The second one for the county is going to be a a competition for all departments. And so we're we're looking into that right now. Um I also uh tag team with supervisor uh Davis with LPC which is held every Fridays where you basically uh discuss uh policies that bills that are coming

up where we need to oppose or support. There was uh some uh uh crazy election uh bills on there as always uh which we opposed. And uh there was a couple uh uh property um tax exemptions for 65 and older that they're looking into as well. So, um we're we're keeping an eye on those. Uh, and uh, lastly, I want to go ahead and uh, wish Supervisor Davis a belated birthday. He had a birthday on on Monday. Happy birthday.

Thank you. Thank you. Okay, we'll go ahead and move on to manager's report. Mr. Chair, members of the board, I have nothing to uh, update you guys on today. So, I'll have more a report next time. Nice haircut. Thank you, sir. Okay. I don't care what these guys say. I like it. Um, next we'll go ahead and move on to item E, Department reports and activities, finance, cash and investments, expenditures and revenue reports. Miss Maria Martinez, how are you today?

I am well, thank you. Good morning, Mr. Chair and members of the board. For the cash and investment report um for the general fund we have 22,62,158 with an invested amount of 16,667,266. For the row fund we have 5,529,448 with an invested amount of 5,155,245. For the flood control district, we have 3,315,957 with an invested amount of 310,692. For the jail district, we have 7,199,649 with an invested amount of 4,428,154 uh for a total amount of 63,2 I'm sorry 63,25,91 with an invested amount of 28,695,835 with an estimated end of month balance of 9 million. 445,724.

Any questions, gentlemen? Quick question. Just really quick. So, w with the recent activities that are taking place like they said like throughout the nation. Have you guys noticed any changes? Have you can you like see any changes taking place when people like when it comes people coming and buying stuff? our sales tax. Mr. Chairman, members of the board, I I I understand that um we just received a report

from Port Authority that indicated that there was a small decline on on uh um on border uh crossings, both passengers and individuals in walking individuals and in uh and also in vehicles. However, our sales tax that we track, you know, basically I track it on a on a weekly basis doesn't indicate anything that we're slowing down. It it indicates uh an increase in our taxes compared to last year. So, I feel confident that a caution that that that might affect in the future. We're also two months behind. The state uh sends reports two months behind on sales taxes, but I feel confident that our sales taxes are doing well right now and they're tracking well with our budget. Thank you. Thank you very much.

Thank you. Any other questions? Okay, we'll go ahead and uh move on to uh item two, department reports. Any other department wishing to report? Mr. Boss, how are you, sir?

I'm good. I'm good. Thank you. Good morning, Mr. Chair, members of the board, and members of the public. I am honored to express profound gratitude to district 28 residents whose courageous advocacy sparked a critical solution. Through diligent research and outreach, we uncovered a transformative opportunity stemming from an incorrect state reduction rate provided to our office due to the miscommunication a miscommunication between the Arizona Department of Revenue Property Tax Oversight Committee and the Treasur's Office. Little Red's unique type three class classification created a unique scenario. This challenge became an opportunity for growth through determination and teamwork as our office collaborated with Jolene Christopherson, deputy assistant director at PTO, Craig McPike, associate general counsel, Sin Pay, general counsel, and Alexander Kusen, senior economics economist at PTOAC. Together, we reviewed revised tax bills, identified the error, and rectified the situation through collective effort and mutual respect. As a result, District 28 residents will benefit from a larger refund on their 2025 property tax bills, with those who made fullear payments expecting a refund check between March and April. Moving forward, our office and the property tax oversight committee have committed to a new era of collaboration, including sending proofs for rebuilds for their approval prior to finalizing and mailing. And then we strengthened our partnership and this this strengthened partnership will yield lasting benefits for our residents and we will look forward to continued collaboration and progress throughout the year. We have committed to staying connected throughout the year. So, um,

we're definitely looking to take that up and we appreciate your understanding as we seize this opportunity for growth and continue implementing visionary changes in the treasur's office. Any questions? Questions? Yeah. Can you uh um let folks know what PTA stands for and who they are?

Property Tax Oversight Committee. And so they um they're an entity that reviews tax rates and special circumstances like this type three school district to ensure that all laws are followed. Uh the 1% cap particular is the particular issue in this case where the 1% cap was exceeded um and partially because of the miscommunication and the incorrect state aid reduction rates being provided to our office. Um so the new tax bills will reflect the corrected and adjusted rate reductions to help our constituents or residents at district 28 aliate some of that um tax bills amounts of course.

Any other questions? No, I mean I uh I received some some calls when it comes to that situation. Uh I want to thank people for like communicating that with me. I want to thank you because I know it was difficult. I know you've been working on it and if there's a problem that happens in the future like just know that we'll work on it and as we're working things might come up I wish I would it wouldn't be that way but I want to thank you for tackling that situation.

That's why I wanted to start by thanking them for bringing it up to our attention. Really it was the residents who who brought this up to our attention. Um I've stated from the beginning of my term I'm not a past treasure. I don't know what I don't know. And so anything like this that pertains to my office is gladly welcomed. We might not have a res resolution right away. We might engage in multiple conversations and discussions and possibly disagreements. Um but ultimately my my top uh mind is our constituents best interest. And so we will always do our research on our time on our end. Um and that's what this was uh a result of is we were able to meet with the right people that were able to help us um with mutual respect and for greater understanding. So we can uh definitely from myself you have the commitment that this type three situation will not occur in our office again. Um we definitely learned we shared a lot with PTOAC and the general councils and they've actually expressed to us as well that this rare opportunity um also created a bit of a headache for them and it made them come together, strategize and really look into it to make sure that we had the right um rectification done on this matter.

Mr. Boss, I I personally want to thank you for uh a quick remedy. You and your staff and And not only that, for for your true transparency and honesty. I I I personally really appreciate it. Thank you. My pleasure. That's what I came in here for, Mr. Chair. Um, if you guys wanted any more clarification on what a type three school is, we have a superintendent of schools, Maya, that if she would like to get up and describe what that, you know, what what a type three school is because is very specific. Correct.

Right. And one of the things that Alejandro's not the treasur is not mentioning it's a unique unique situation um that we encountered that I saw PTO and his office go through a couple of iterations before they were able to nail down the correct tax rate. Um so that's been remedied and moving forward I don't think this is ever going to happen again. Um but yeah, the fact that Alejandro and PTOAC are now coordinating is is is a great sign that you know this situation will be remedied. Good morning. Good morning.

Chairman Mera, supervisors Davis and Fanning, county management, members of the community. In our county, we do have one type three um school district and that is Little Red. Um it it is a district where the school does or the district does not have a high school in its area. So, Little Red is a K8 school. So, where do their students go to high school? Um, the type three um district allows for state aid to pay uh high schools in the area for transportation costs so that those students can get to the high schools. So, we only have one in our county, Little Red. Okay. Yep. Thank you.

Any other questions, gentlemen? I don't know. I I think it did give me like peace hearing from a county manager that said that they learned from that and it it will not happen again. So that's that's good. That's good to hear.

Yeah. There's been a lot of changes that we're doing with the way tax bills will be processed because our office, which I didn't highlight. I don't feel that I need to keep repeating it all the time, but our office or the treasur's responsibility is to create tax bills based on the information provided to our office from each corresponding school district, fire district, the county included, and then the state aid reductions are applied based on the Excel spreadsheets with no messaging um as to what needs to be applied. And so our office takes the information that is provided to us because it's coming to us after it's been reviewed and approved. Um so it comes to us in forms of Excel and we generate another Excel that generates everybody's tax bills and then we collect on it. Um so just a reminder that the treasur's office does not come up with tax rate tax rates does not create tax rates or levy amounts or budgets. We create tax bills based on information provided to our office. No. And thanks for clarifying that because I get a lot of people thinking that you're the one you're just collecting the information, right? They give you process it and then send it out. Is that correct?

Correct. Yeah. Yes. Thank you. Of course. Uh two more updates if there's no more questions on that. No, no, we're good. Go ahead.

Um the tax lean sale is coming up next week. It's Tuesday, February 10th. The real auction website is open to the public already. There is nine different sections um nine let's just say nine items um with each having about 600 parcels in those. Those will start closing out to biders on Tuesday, February 10th, starting at 8:30 and every hour after that. Um so you can start looking at those. There's a map of the parcel, the parcel number and any parcel information you might have. Um you must register through the real auction website. You cannot register at the treasur's office now before the auction or after as well. You need to register through real auction.com. We don't take enrollment at the treasures office anymore. Right now from the last report I received from our consultant provided to real auction as an updated list um which was reduced from about a 100 parcels from yesterday's list um was 6,867 parcels for a total value of 14,96,8218 um that is delinquent. Um questions on the taxing sale?

No sir. Yeah. Well, not a question. I I look forward and I know I've spoken with you about this and and uh also Sarah Benitar Benitar um I'm looking forward to to seeing what the county can do, you know, for the for that. Yes. I'm hoping we can surpass last year's. Last year's was right under 1 million. Um and I'm hoping that we can definitely get more back into the tax role. Thank you.

This year we did see a lot more uh new biders. We got about 75 new biders that enrolled this year for this particular auction and we saw them from across the state and from other parts of the country as well from other countries also. Um the information that you said like they can't go to the the treasur's office is that information online or can they reach out to Shannon or or the I mean they can always come to our office but we don't register them for the auction there. That has to be done through the website but yes they can contact us uh the office or come and visit guide them

and we can guide them. The delinquent the publication list was published in the Ngalas International last Friday. That's available to them there. Um and then the list is also available on the website once they register. Thank you.

Of course. And then lastly is our bank transition. Thank god we are almost there. Our last step is to transition our warrants. Um we have a Friday meeting with the bank to provide training to finance school superintendent office and NUSD. Um for the last portion which is um protecting our accounts from fraud which is two processes is issuing a file of all the checks issued by our offices and then uh the positive pay and pay verification feature on how to disposition any exceptions that might be presented to the bank. Um once that's finalized, we're looking to transition our warrants over to PNC starting Monday, February February 9th. Um and then after this, the only connection that will remain with JP Morgan is to remain keep the account open to allow for the remainder of the warrants to uh clear. Um but after February 9th, we should be uh 100% operating strictly out of PNC.

Thank you. first. Thank you. Thank you, sir. Morning again.

Since I'm here, can I just continue uh from the out of the superintendent's office, we have a couple of big events, annual events coming up. The first one being the spelling bee, the county spelling bee is coming up next Friday, February 13th. Uh we're changing up the the location of the bee where in the last few years we've had it at the BFW. We're now going to be using school campuses, district campuses. We're going to start with a neutral location, Rio Rico High School. They have kind of the perfect uh setup there in their cafeteria where the the spellers will be able to be up on the stage and I think it's going to be a really nice setup. So, that um event unfortunately is closed to the public. Those those poor little spellers are anxious enough and stressed out enough, but their families are invited, school officials, um spelling be coordinators, their teachers. It's a pretty good crowd. Um, and so we're also changing up the the time of the bee where it's normally in the morning, the bee is now going to take place at at starting at 2 pm um at Rio Rico High School. It will be live on We Love Ngalas if you're interested in watching. And then Rio Rico High School culinary students will be providing a celebration um hamburgers and cupcakes and stuff afterwards. So I know uh Chairman Mleta, it's your turn to be a judge this year, right?

Thank you. and we'll we'll keep rotating for for you guys to be judges. Um in the upcoming years, uh you'll be receiving um an invitation. County management, we hope that you can join us for the be. It really is a wonderful community umwide event. There's going to be 28 spellers this year from across the county. So, it's it's a wonderful event. Um oh, we also have ReadAcross America. So, ReadAcross America is a week in March. It's the first week, March 2nd through March 5th. It's held to commemorate the birthday of Dr. Seuss. Everybody knows Dr. Seuss. Um, and we need upwards of a hundred volunteers uh to go out into schools during that week. At some point, we try to get um a community reader in every kindergarten through fifth grade classroom, all schools across the county. And uh Palama Barasa is in our office. She's our literacy facilitator. She is working the event and um um soliciting volunteers. And you can request the school of your child or you know your alma mater or you know request the day the time that you that you're available. You can take your own book or there's going to be books available there. You can dress up in a costume if you like. Just giving you some ideas. Uh so I do have a flyer and I am going to leave some at the back of the room. Uh if you are a community member that would like to volunteer for ReadAcross America. Thank you.

Thank you. Thank you. By the way, Rio Rico Culinary did an amazing job at your event. Yes, Barbakoa was great and their churros were delicious. Okay. Item F. At this time, I'd like to entertain a motion to recess uh general session and and move into flood control. Move. Second. Have a motion in a second. Any questions, discussion? Hearing none. All in favor? I. All oppose. Motion carries. Good morning, Mr. Sanchez. Good morning.

Supervisor Malleta Davis Fanning.

This is the January flood control report. And I'm happy to say that we did receive quite a bit of rain across the uh county in January. Um most gauges received at least a inch and a half u with a majority u being over the 2 in uh mark. The average rainfall for the city of Ngalas is 0.98 in and our gauge here received about 2.17. Um so what that's done is it's um reduced our severity of drought. Um the western Santa Cruz County is in a D1 moderate drought with the east side being uh a D0 abnormally dry. So we keep moving in the right direction which is good. Uh little housekeeping. The flood uh control district received 153 um flood hazard information sheet requests. 121 of those were in Santa Cruz County uh unincorporated Santa Cruz County, 31 in Ngalas, one in Patagonia. Uh we received uh eight flood plane use permits, seven in unincorporated Santa Cruz County and one in the city of Ngalas. Um um we also did get a couple of drainage complaints uh in the month of January. Oh, before I go on to projects, I did want to mention that um we have opened a satellite office in uh Cenoida. So I'll be over there on Tuesdays and Thursdays of the week. Monday through Friday. Oh, excuse me. Tuesday uh and Thursday over there. Um 8 to 5 and then Monday uh Wednesday, Friday here in in Ngalas. So excited about that. Um moving on to projects. Uh Efron Canyon project. We are moving uh forward with that particular project. Uh this project is moving forward into a

design stage at this point. Um that the design stage will take approximately nine months. Uh we al also are starting um an EPA grant uh application process. Myself and a couple of our consultants are going through some classes right now. So that's the update for Efron Canyon uh Patagonia regional pro uh flood control project. Um there's uh no update there other than the fact that we're uh trying to move forward with some funding. Um Portto Creek letter of map revision. uh the letter of map revision which is a change in the flood map uh has um been approved uh by FEMA uh as of January 6th and it's now in its um technical appeal period which is a 90-day period. Um so without any appeals it would be effective June 4th of of this year. No, Gallalas uh downtown redevelopment and feasibility study. Um our consultant has submitted a draft technical memorandum to us and we have sent comments back to them. Um and it's incorporating some feedback on Monuma Hotel which is downtown uh with the final delivery uh deliverable being uh coming soon. Um, and I also want to let you know that we did meet with some folks that wanted to uh do some improvements on on Monizuma Hotel. I wanted to do some assisted living uh uh quarters there and we had a very productive meeting. Uh they're going to be um looking at some grant opportunities in the future. Um Monte Carlo. So our Monte Carlo project, our consultant has updated the existing conditions flood model. Um there are

multiple locations where the flows are exceeding design capacity. Uh a meeting with the county staff will be scheduled to present existing conditions and possible solutions before commencing the conceptual alternative stage. So basically they went through ran ransom flows through there and and and figured out it was coming over bank in a few spots. Um, so they're going to be looking at some feedback from us uh to just see what kind of design solutions there might be there. Um, town of Patagonia uh did submit a report. It's attached. Um, also I wanted to let you know that um there's a couple of projects that are being um proposed in and around the town of Patagonia from the Nature Conservancy and they're looking into um doing some uh watershed and stream restoration uh downstream of the town around Circle Z Ranch. also upstream around the Harshaw Creek area and then there's another project that they're proposing out in uh Bon Canyon which is a major tributary to the Babakamari Creek. Uh so I'll be having a meeting with those guys tomorrow and u we'll be going over some of the permitting uh requirements that the flood control district would be looking at there. So really excited for this sort of project to be going forward uh and it'll give us some ideas on how to restore streams and so we can be applied to some some other areas around the county. So that is my report for today.

Any questions, comments? Thank you, Al. Thank you very much. I I do want to thank you for for keep working on the Monte Carlo project. Yes, sir. I think a lot of people are going to be happy. I'm gonna maybe meet with you later today so we can call some people and give them some updates and eventually we can find that solution because when me and the county manager uh how many I don't know how many months we went over there and the situation was bad. So it would be key for like to find like a solution that it would help that all that Monte Carlo area. Okay. Thank you. Yes sir.

Any comments from the public? Okay. Thank you. This time I'd like to entertain a motion to adjurnn flood control and and reconvene to general session. I move. Second. Motion in a second. Any discussion? Hearing none. All in favor? I.

All oppose. Motion carries. Now we're on item G, study session one, presentation on antimony findings in water discharge from South 32 Hermosa mind by Chris Gardner, hydraologist, friends of Sumota Creek. Welcome back. Thank you. Had to collect myself out there a little bit.

Morning. Good morning. My name is Chris Gardner. I'm a registered geologist. I practiced hydrogeeology in Arizona for almost 25 years. the peak of my career, I was a senior hydrogeeologist and managed um super fund sites where I interacted with the EPA on uh on on behalf of the responsible parties. Um uh that was a great career until I was diagnosed with type 1 diabetes and I changed careers about three years ago. I um my wife and I moved to Patagonia and uh this is where that's what brought me here today. Um uh today I'm going to be talking about antimony and the discharge to Harshaw Creek and potential mobilization of existing contamination in the Harshaw Creek wershed. This is going to be a technical presentation. I encourage you to um seek a third party a professional to review this information and um ask them questions. Um the goal here is to help better understand the issues and um how can these how can these issues be addressed? You know, you know, I moved to Patagonia knowing full well that the mine was coming and I expected the ADQ uh to help protect human healthy environment. Uh it was to my surprise uh the deficiencies I I saw in the ADQ not requiring a point of compliance monitoring well that that drove me nuts. I I have been involved with so many point of compliance monitoring wells and argued with regulators over little things and having a mine without a point of compliance well on a for wershed was was beyond uh I couldn't I couldn't just sit around and and and you know do

restoration landscape work which is what I want to do. Uh at the end of the slide, I'll have recommendations uh for you for the community benefits and protections agreement. It's going to be the only way we're going to get protections here. The law is not on our side. I also have uh the ADQ responses uh to questions from the last study session. I was provided this as everyone yesterday. I I provided the presentation prior to receiving this. So, um, uh, during the presentation, I I'm going to bring talk about some specifics in this document. So, u, we may be back and forth a bit. Uh, uh, next slide, please. Oh, one more thing. A lot of this is marked draft. That's because I'm I don't have another peer to help me talk this out and work work things through. And this is also a living document. We're we're going to collect more data. Uh the mind is going to be here forever and we're going to need to be collecting data forever to help protect human health in the environment. Uh this slide shows what was presented to the ADQ back in 2017 uh showing antimony uh leeched from waste rock and soil beneath the waist rock associated with the old tailings pile that they they cleaned up. It shows antimony between um four and uh 13 parts per billion uh you know from from the leeching from the waist rock. And in this in this question to the ADQ we asked does the ADQ consider waste rock chemistry similar or different than the bedrock being dewatered? And they responded that based on South 32's assessment, uh it's noteworthy that the geometric mean for each constituent calculated for each of the rock types were all less than the corresponding aquifer water quality standard. You

know, so really do we need treat to treat this water? It it it didn't seem like antimony was taken seriously. Uh next slide, please. Uh in that same 2017 document, it indicated that cybo metals in leech test exceeded um standards uh for antimony, cadmium, lead and nickel. But since contract water within the line repository will be collected and treated, the elevated levels of of metals will not pose an environmental risk. Uh later on in that um same uh application, they said monthly monitoring. They describe their monthly monitoring and they include kadamine, lead and nickel as stated that those are going to leech but not antimony. And then next slide please. Uh this is the uh uh if you could read what was on this this is the criteria the engineers used to design the treatment plant. If you could read the list of constituents, antimony is not considered in in any of those any of those parameters for uh designing the I think that was the first wastewater treatment plant. And and and next slide uh please. The the current wastewater treatment plant also uh indicates that the the highest expected concentration of antimony would be four parts per billion. And it's hard to read there, but it says 0.004 004 milligrams per liter. Just just to orientate you with the technical jargon, uh look at if you see arsenic, it says uh uh the um treatment target 0.050. Instead of saying 0.050 or 0.05 parts per billion, it's easier just to say 50 parts per billion. And it's also easier to say one milligram

per liter instead of one part per million. And so keep in mind when you're looking at uh some of the charts and some of the data I present, if it's uh if it's in parts per billion, it's actually, you know, uh a thousand times less than a part per million. So you you'll sort of catch on to um the jargon. But for example, when I say uh antimony was only the maximum antimony was only expected to be four parts per billion, it's actually it's the same as saying 0.004 milligrams per liter, which is just too too cumbersome to say. But you know what what also I wanted to indicate on here is that um uh that you know the the in this ADQ statement it said that they uh they they they thought it was unlikely that leeching of heavy metals from mine workings will occur post mining and uh uh that is directly uh contradicted by reports in the draft environmental impact statement. ment that show a plume of antimony will extend from the mine post closure. So I don't know where the ADQ comes up with with this that statement. Uh the next slide please. Uh this shows the sources of contamination in in in Harshaw Creek. Um uh obviously the outfall to discharge creek we've seen some antimony issues there. Uh but there's also some naturally occurring uh contamination and keep in mind this naturally occurring contamination is not regulated by the ADQ. It was there before uh regulations that u required the you know A so they're not regulated by the AP. So these are sources of existing

contamination. Uh they include just the the bedrock the um uh uh the bedrock contains um naturally occurring arsenic uh that's that can be very high. There's also uh this explosive um this riolytic explosive volcanic rock uh that's present in some areas and it seems to uh may be uh contributing to existing contamination. And then further downstream of that, you could see where the um there's the green and and and brown uh colored areas um showing where the Christmas gift mine and the elevation group mines are located. Um those mines were identified by the US Forest Service to have issues with antimony, arsenic, cadmium, and a whole host of other heavy metals. And the forest service also indicated that um uh uh you know these areas have a high likelihood of generating acid include concluded that metals have been released into the environment and are present at concentrations that pose risk to human health and ecological receptors. They go on to say that um surface water runoff and erosion as the most likely transport mechanism and surface water pathway most complete for potential exposures. You know, in this uh response that ADQ gave, they said um if commenters are aware of other sources of contamination near the creek, ADQ encourages submission of information to assess these sources. uh there's a source for the ADQ to refer to their own documents uh if they need to further investigate uh potential contamination in lower Harshaw Creek. So the next set of slides, don't go there yet, are are going to follow along. They're going to be a

cross-section along Harshaw Creek from the outfall at the mine all the way into town. Uh next slide, please. So here we're looking at a a cross-section. We're looking at into the fishbowl. Instead of looking down on top, we're looking sideways into the earth. And with the um discharge to Harshaw Creek um is at the top uh upper left hand part of the page. And then um uh Cenoida Creek, it flows downhill uh to the right about 12 miles. Harshaw Creek uh about 12 miles from the out Harshaw Creek uh um enters um Cenoida Creek and um here I'm going to show you the uh potential sources of contamination including the outfall to Harshaw Creek uh shallow stream sediments um between Harshaw Creek, I'm sorry, between the outfall and um this basin fil stream channel sediments. And so essentially what we have is a a bedrock slide from the outfall into a a a bathtub of bedrock where it's where it says that the basin filled um stream channel sediments. Uh that that basin filled bedrock is relatively deep but ends abruptly. Uh just downstream of that um bedrock is is shown um getting close to land surface. So that forces all the water in in that little basin to land surface. And um you could see uh we're at about six miles at about um you know 4,400 ft uh uh groundwater is forced to land surface. That's where we have a perennial section of Harshaw Creek that's been perennial even before mine discharge. Um downstream of that

perennial section, uh the stream channel sediments get get thicker and um uh a water table is uh uh you know within those um uh stream channel sediments and there's there's wells in that those stream channel sediments and then um just beyond Harshaw Creek uh it empties into um some deep ancestrial Senoid Creek channel deposits and um uh So before those ancestral creek channel deposits, there's those um those those um watersheds from those those mines, the Santa Cruz mine, the Christmas gift mine, and the elevation group mine. And what I'm concerned about is the channel stream sediments uh what's going on in those channel stream sediments, you know, near the outfall uh are are are telling a story of what may happen when the um stream channel sediments in the area of the Christmas gift Santa Cruz and elevation group mines. Once those sediments, those potentially contaminated sediments are saturated by the mound of groundwater that's going to develop as a result that discharge will contamination mobilize into groundwater as we are seeing in that that that basin fil stream sediment in the in the upper part of you know closer to um uh the outfall. Uh next slide please. So the the stream ch channel sediment near the outfall uh is is a fascinating area. Uh we'll look at some a well a well that's in the location. But um uh my wife and I are interested in what was going on in Harshaw Creek. And so um uh on the bottom section of this of this cross-section, we've got a a chart which shows um flow and and specific conductivity, which is a probe you stick and it gener measures the amount of

salt, the amount of um total dissolved solids in in the water. And um if we go from right to left, uh looking at the um the line, the light green line with the X's um let's work right to left, left to right. Um, starting at the outfall, we've got about um, you know, two and a half cubic feet per second flowing. A as the water flows down that bedrock slide. Uh, we we measure about the same flow rate uh, until we get into that basin fil stream channel sediments. At that point, we're measuring low le less flow in the creek because water's infiltrating into that basin into that basin. As we start to get out of the basin, um the the flow in the stream increases due to all the tributaries from Saddle Mountain and Indian Head Mountain um until that peak that that peak is at the um at the at the um in the perennial section and then um downstream of that perennial section the stream is losing uh it's it's losing water in into the into the stream channel sediments into the aquifer and uh as that continues. Uh it's going to result in that groundwater mound. Uh uh shown you that about um you know mile 10 downstream. And that groundwater mound is going to develop in the area of those um existing you know where there's some uh existing mines uh that you know that forest service found issues with. Uh next slide please. And so um uh this is data and collected or this is data yeah collected by south 32 in a report to support the draft environmental impact statement and they have two wells in this area that are interesting MW2213 and MW22214.

Um you know I'm a little disappointed is in that the these wells are screened in bedrock. They're designed to sample water in bedrock. uh the discharge is infiltrating into the stream channel sediments. So I don't feel these wells uh 2213 and 2214 uh can possibly uh rep best represent the water that's actually in the stream channel sediments. Um uh but there's also some interesting information from 2213 um they did uh some um leeate studies and in three of the seven samples from 2213 arsenic leeched from the samples uh at above 10 parts per billion. Um 10 parts per billion is the current aquifer water quality standard. It used to be 50. state law changed it to 10 to be consistent with the federal drinking water standard. But throughout the all the reports submitted to the draft environmental impact statement, they they an evaluated arsenic against that 50 parts per billion standard. So if it was less than 50 parts per billion, it wasn't interesting. There was nothing to see there. And I think that was a significant oversight to the draft environmental impact statement. And I asked in comments uh that they re-evaluate all the reports considering uh the 10 parts per billion aquifer water quality standard for arsenic. And that's demonstrated in this chart on the bottom here where um South 32 collected samples from the outfall uh you know to about five miles downstream in in this data set. they they didn't sample at that five miles downstream, but Friends of Senoid Creek uh with the ADQ did collect samples from the perennial location and uh where the you know downstream of the pennial location which

is normally dry but uh there was water there so we collected samples there. Uh this shows that um there was very low arsenic concentration in in in in the outfall but the concentration of arsenic increased with distance showing that there is mobilization of arsenic. The of what what the forest service you know how they determined that there was no mobilization was arsenic. Well they only looked to uh maybe mile four four and a half. They didn't look at into the perennial section or what was coming out of the perennial section. A a significant oversight to to make the claim that there's no mobilization of existing contamination. Uh in the the next slide, uh we're going to look at um the HDW Oh, go sorry. Go back. We're going to look at u domestic well HDW1. Um you've heard testimony from Susan Weatherington. This is this is her well. Um we'll we'll look at that information from her well. One thing to note that there was arsenic in MW22 uh almost double the drinking water standard uh which which is consistent with uh the bedrock uh in the area being high in arsenic. Uh, next slide please. Shows the um evolution of the water quality in DW HDW1 harshall drinking water one um Susan's well over time. Uh she installed she and her husband installed the well in 2009 and you could see that the water quality was was not that great. High you just over the limit of sulfate you know which gives you that egg smell and arsenic um you know 0.0083 0083 8.3 parts per billion. It's close to that 10. So they uh they added a um an RO treatment system to improve their

water quality. Um you know after that time period um South 32 started discharging their test water into the creek. it flowed just past Susan's property and in um uh 2021 um their system became um so uh plugged up with iron that they had to abandon their system. And so you can see over time uh the water quality has changed significantly. Iron has been a big issue. Uh it is now um not an issue. sulfate was, you know, on the border. It became real bad uh in 2021 uh at about 560, but has since um you know, been reduced. Uh and um you know, interestingly, we we see some um stories being told by, you know, the the manganese concentration and zinc. You know, nothing that really has health concerns, but they they tend to be indicator parameters. And and what I find interesting is that at this location and downstream um near the those um you know the mines near the Arizona trail the pH is less than seven which um uh suggests a change in conditions um uh that you know may may mobilize more metals. Um what what I did see uh in in this data and also from um uh uh a well that's that's you know closer to the mine uh associated with the sodos uh is that the general water quality is improving. Um sulfate is is getting better because it's getting uh mixed with the uh low sulfate water from the mine. um you know arsenic is is being reduced uh because uh there's more background arsenic than than in the discharge. Um so general water quality

is are improving uh in in in certain areas um uh next slide please. Uh but you know there's naturally occurring contamination and then there's um contamination from the outfall and um this is sort of what what what we're we're we're here today to talk about. Um this chart shows uh the concentration of antimony in water. Uh the the solid orange line is um the concentration of antimony at the discharge reported by the A. Um the blue dotted the blue the blue line is the discharge rate. Um uh in in millions of gallons per day. Uh their goal is probably to get around six million gallons per day. The highest they've had it is about just over two and a half million gallons per day. So there's a there's a this this plant is probably going to discharge about six times more water than it is now. And um it's it's critical that we have a handle on this antimony issue. Um and and the dash line uh is the water quality in HDW1 Susan's well which South 32's been collecting uh quarterly samples throughout 2025 and and friends of Cenoida Creek uh collected the sample.

Yeah, I think Yeah. Is it turning out black? Yep. Yeah, that's the black with the with the open circles. Um what what the orange line shows with the aneimmonian discharge uh that there's been um problems with antimony and discharge three times since startup. Uh when they first started up in 2024, they immediately uh exceeded the alert level for antimony. They shut down that one bad well. Um in the summer they had another spike of antimony. Um the uh the composite sample submitted for the zippy's permit was 4.81 uh parts per billion. The limit's 4.8. It was just over. I asked the ADQ to look into this issue. Um they said no uh we're not going to look into it. The a grab sample came back just under the alert level. So there's nothing to see here. Um that was pretty upsetting. Uh especially when uh you know saw the October sample result. Um I I I think that if if the ADQ would have addressed u just asked what was going on uh midsummer, we may not had that discharge exceedence. are you know now South 32 is is just active you know uh responding to that to that discharge level exceedence when I think the opportunity to address all that was more than a year ago at least in the summer when this these issues should have been addressed. Uh as you can see the the high concentration in Susan's well correlated with the discharge level exceedence and you you almost see a track of of that spike in Susan's well almost correlates to the shape of the track of the spike

in the discharge and you know I brought this up to the ADQ and the ADQ said there is no evidence to indicate that antimony levels in Susan Wington's well are related to the antimony exceedence and outfall 002 the the the graph speaks for itself. That's I'm really skeptical of that statement. I I thought I was concerned we were going to have to do a tracer dieer study to figure out which wells are impacted, which wells are connected um to surface water. I thought antimony is going to be that that that that tracer. we don't need a die tracer study, but you know, the ADQ says they they have no idea um what's going on. So, um we're going to have to do a die tracer study, and I'm I'm hoping to get support from the public for that. Um uh next slide, please. Uh th this is the extent of um of antimony uh in the drinking water. um HDW11 there, sort of highlighted in green. Um uh has detectable antimony. We don't know what the antimony concentration was before discharge, but now there is detectable antimony. There's no detectable antimony um you know downstream of the perennial section. So it seems that you know discharge from the outfall is impacting a drinking water well downstream of the outfall. And then um uh as we look at the um uh the deep basin, this the stream channel basin where HDW1 is located, we we see um a a lower pH value uh than upstream and um antimony at at at at more than

twice the drinking water level. And I think that antimony is relate directly related to the the outfall uh discharge. Um now there's other components uh in in Susan's well uh arsenic, iron, manganesees and sulfate. And the previous slide we we saw how those um constituents change over time um which is um uh probably uh due to the discharge in Harshaw Creek and and we're trying to better understand that because what happens in that aluvial basin um higher you know closer to the outfall is is is may be an indicator what can happen um downstream closer to um u you know the Tata pentagonia. Uh uh next slide, please. And so, um uh we're going to look into the the area I'm concerned about. Um the uh South 32 has two monitoring wells in that area, which um I'm very curious to see. uh you know if those wells have impacted you know if the water levels in those wells show a mound yet you know what how the water quality has changed in those wells. Uh we do have water quality from those wells from about three years ago that were um submitted into the uh the draft environmental impact statement and and water quality at those locations is is is pretty good. Um arsenic's really low. um you know there's barely anti-animony and barely any antimony detected. Sometimes it's detected, sometimes there's not. It's very low. So if we see changes in in these um cell 32 wells, it would be an indicator that there there might be an issue. Uh we don't have any data from those wells um we we are asking for it. We do have data from um um HDW3

which is at the spirit tree and um uh HDW4 um which is um uh near the location uh of the conceptual point of compliance well. Um if we go on the next slide, we can uh look at some of the water quality. Oh gosh, this didn't show up very well at all. But um you know what what I'm trying to show here is that um the antimony um from the outfall 2 reported the ADQ uh the general water quality at at the outfall uh can be sampled at the uh at Harshaw Creek um in on the forest service just um uh downstream of the outfall. So uh you know those two um water qualities correlate well with one another. Um just downstream of the outfall we we see the water quality from HDW11 that shows that the detectable antimony at about half the drinking water standard. As we go downstream from there to HDW1 that's where we have the the well and those um that deep basin and we've got the antimony at 12 parts per billion. And then downstream of that you don't you don't see any um uh detectable antimony. And so, um, what friends of Snorty Creek is doing, we're collecting samples and monitoring HDW3 and HW4. And as you can see, uh, between those two wells, between um, HW3 and 4, the connectivity, the general salt in the water um, you more than doubles. Uh, which is interesting. um the maganese concentration of magnit magnes increases by 100 and um um the concentration of sulfate almost triples. So there's something going on there probably related to the um uh the old the old mining activities. And so that's an area I would like to have better evaluated as other areas I'll show you in this next slide.

Uh the next slide shows um areas of interest I'd like um someone uh south 32 the forest service and or the ADQ to uh investigate and analyze for the potential sources of contamination which may be mobilizing groundwater. Uh that's the area uh uh you know about midway along Harshaw Creek and then um where Harshaw Creek um u spills into the um uh Cenoida Creek uh stream channel deposits. Um, I'm asking South 32 that they please share all the water quality and water level data from the the monitoring wells M2213 and NW2216, 15 and 14 and that the three other wells that um South 32 has um in or near the town of Patagonia. Uh I asked South 32 to use their on-site lab to better manage their operations and to uh uh maintain the concentration of antimony in the discharge to be less than 4.8 milligrams per micrograms per liter or parts per billion. And that is everyone's goal and you know I'm glad cell 32 is is is do taking steps to address that. Um, we're going to be testing weekly at the outfall to see how well that program is going over time. And I'll provide you that data. But you know, most importantly, you know, I'm asking the ADQ to please, please reopen the A to include daily or weekly monitoring at the outfall, quarterly surface water monitoring and physical shallow and deep point of compliance monitoring wells in the areas of interest, and to update the aquaer water quality standard in the A for arsenic down to 10. It's currently listed as five and the ADQ they don't plan to change that until maybe 2028. So I I think there can be a lot of improvements

as we agree to the A. Uh next slide please. Okay. So you know what can Santa Cruz County do? I hope I've shown the limits of of um what the ADQ can do. And we're counting on the county, the city, and the town of Patagonia to step up and and and and and and cover these gaps in protections of human health. So, I ask the county to use the community benefits, community protections and benefits agreement to you, to make it a single agreement to provide protections to the community, not as separate agreements where protections are promised later. uh use the CBPA to provide protections of drinking water quality which go beyond legal requirements. This may include installation of individual or municipal water treatment system, relocation of water supply wells and a new uh water distribution line for the town of Patagonia and and the surrounding area. Use the CBPA to require that South 32 provide all water level and water quality data from wells along Harshaw Creek and wells in and near the town of Patagonia. Use the CBPA to require South 32 adequately analyze for potential mobilization of existing contamination in the areas of interest along Harshaw Creek. This includes installation and monitoring of shallow and deep monitoring wells and analysis and mo analysis of mobilization of soil contamination. Use the CVPA to require third-party verification that the water treatment plant is properly designed, better managed, operated, and improved. Uh so the discharge of antimony and all their Oh, I'm sorry.

Oh, sorry. Next slide, please.

There we go. Thank you. to require um third party verification that the the water treatment plants uh sufficient and um you know, it's going to keep uh all the contaminants discharged to Harshaw Creek below the permit alert levels. use the CBPA to require third-party verification of potential gaps in the design, operation, and monitoring of the of the mine air water quality air treatment system for potential deficiencies such as assumptions of antimony concentrations and requires South 32 to meet and exceed these air quality uh standards. Um, you know, this is the antimony is example of of of something that, you know, wasn't included in in the the design of the wastewater treatment plant. Uh, you know, is it included in the design or or the permitting of of for the air permit? You know, most concerning is the pathway that antimony has in air. And if it's not considered or not properly evaluated, that that's really concerning. So I ask you all to to make sure antimony is considered properly in the air permit. Use the CBPA to require adequate analysis and impact of potential vehicle trackout of soil contamination. That has this has not been looked at at all in the when people asked the forest service during comments for the draft environment impact statement. The forest service said um oh trackout what's that? We have no idea. Um, so we gave them uh many examples of how to address trackout, you know, from the EPA. Uh, EPA was not included in the draft environmental impact statement as as a major partner. And I I think that was a major oversight.

Uh, uh, I'm asking that the AQ reopen the A to require daily or weekly monitoring of the discharge of Harshaw Creek, surface water monitoring, and point of compliance well monitoring. Um uh and uh POC monitoring wells should be designed to sample water and stream channel sediments in Harshaw Creek in the areas of concern. Um based on uh uh the ADQ's response that there's no um data supporting Susan's wells being impacted. You know, I I ask that um the ADQ support uh the permitting, which will have to be permitted through the Forest Service, permitting of a die tracer study to better understand potential impacts from the discharge to the drinking water supply. Uh well, so now what what's Friends of Snorty Creek doing? Uh well, in coordination with the ADQ community science lines, friends of snow creek will be monitoring discharge from Harshaw Creek monthly, monitoring surface water monthly, and monitoring drinking water quality at HDW1 monthly, and I'll be more than happy to share those reports when available um if it's um something that uh the board of supervisors would uh appreciate. I I appreciate your time and

No, thank you. Do you all have any questions or Thank you, gentlemen. Um, go ahead. No, first of all, I want to thank you for putting all this data together. I know it was like a lot of time, right? It's Ben Llly has been asking for that cross-section for about two years. So, so, so got it.

Like, like I said in the in the first meeting, um, this is something that like we I can't we can't force anybody but I hope nothing like this happens again. I would like to have like South 32 AD EQ uh all the different nonprofits and have a communication channel so when something happens it could be faster. People have said here I I mean like I said we can't force it's just being good neighbors right and they would want everybody to be on the the same date and stuff. So maybe this is the right time to have that infrastructure in place. I don't know what that format would look like, but it's a good way to start thinking so we can communicate faster and all the people that need to communicate if in the future.

I agree and that was something Anna mentioned in in her call to the public um better communications. So I don't know how to facilitate that. Maybe that's something the county can do. I'm not sure. Um there you me I have a few things. First of all, thank you very much, Chris. Um, you mentioned and and I I I looked and I couldn't understand. What is the test that you said you want? You said it at towards the beginning. Oh, dieer study. Yes. Yeah. Can you explain that a little bit? Um, what is how do you say that again? Diecing study. Diet tracer study. Okay. Um,

it's something new to me. I've never done it before, but I've been in communications with some professionals that were involved in the diet tracer study for the mine, uh, the uranium mine near the Grand Canyon. I think that was on park service property. So, there was a real interest, um, from the parks to see, you know, understand how uh, groundwater moved from the mine into their drinking water supply. And uh the die tracer studies show there was a direct connection between the the uranium mine and drinking water. And um I don't think that project's moving forward. I'm not sure because of that. So it is a a a a way a methods that's recognized by the courts to clearly demonstrate um impact. You um you release dye from a certain location. This would be upstream, maybe at the outfall, maybe on private property. I'm not sure how this would go. And um you have uh essentially activated carbon little caches in wells in the stream. Um and uh they just detect the presence or absence of dye. And so you you you go in there, you drop your dye, and then you have you you go in a well and you every day or two or week you you swap out those little satches of activated carbon. You send that activated carbon to a lab and they say there's dye present or dye not present. And so it's a way to you introduce dye to the surface water and you can tell you can find it in the groundwater. It's mainly used in in fractured bedrock environments. So um you know using it in this application in a stream channel luvium would be a new application. Um, but I I have some uh uh some guidance and some some professionals um to help with the work plan and um some of the science to um

do the diet tracer study to the point where it could be understood and you know legally defendable if ever had to come to that point.

Thank you. Um thank you for me, you know, what can Santa Cruz County do? Thank you. It's plain language, actionable items. Um, I'm hoping to bring this up uh during our some of our upcoming CPBA meetings. So, appreciate that. And um hopefully we'll have some answers um you know on on some of these and you know once the uh the EIS comes out, the final EIS um you know we I'm sure we'll be taking a look at uh um I know we will be taking a look at protections you know under the in a microscope. So this information is helpful as we move forward um after that uh study is released. I encourage you to seek professional help and helping it understand that

make sure when you say professional help what kind what kind specific it's it's do it's duly noted thank thank you Chris very informative Chris thank you for your incredibly detailed report and uh I I agree with supervisor Davis uh the communication And I spoke to Randy about it when he was here about making sure we have uh good communication between uh South 32 and in our community and that way we don't have stuff falling down the crack. Yeah, we can use it as a learning opportunity as

Absolutely. I think it was I think it was the red flag was out. People uh were alerted and so I think it's a good lesson for our community and we'll learn from it. Agreed. Thank you for your time. Thank you very much, sir. We we have one one question and thanks for staff too for putting this Yeah. three stations. I know it took a lot of coordination just like what people said. So So thanks for all for all that work. Yes. Yes.

Mr. Chair, can you please have him come up to the podium? Come up to the podium and and State your name just for the record, sir.

Um could have uh die tracing be done five years ago uh when the subject of metal mobilization was on the desk. Sir, can you get closer to the mic? During the app, closer to the mic, please. Okay. During the appeal of the uh A five years ago, metam mobilization was a hot subject at that time. We might have done the tracer studies you were talking about and avoided a lot of Yes. Yes. So, but the first 12 miles,

right? Yeah. It's generally used to to track uh water in in either, you know, limestone, bedrock. Um uh it could have been useful. I'm not saying it was it would be the smoking gun to Right. One one question. Uh why do you think uh the Forest Service picked antimony to do this plume study rather than arsenic or le uh you know probably because the aquifer water quality standard for arsenic was was 50 you know they analyzed it for 50 instead of 10

um the ant the the aer water quality of antimony has never changed it's always been six and so um I think their their analysis showed that antimony was above six and probably our snake was somewhere between 10 and 50 so um they didn't analyze the arsenic. You think the That's just my guess. You think the plume is reversible? Uh, no. Thank you, sir. Thank you. Thank you.

Thanks again. Thanks staff for putting this together. I agree with Supervisor Davis and uh we really appreciate the continued dialogue. Okay. Next we have uh government 101 uh roles and responsibilities of animal control by Mr. Jose Pña and staff. Good morning sir. Hold on. You know what? Let's take a a two three minute break.

of health services. Um the first one I'm going to be talking about is title 11 uh chapter 29 title 11. And could you have the next slide please? Um basically our title 11 uh talks about the powers and duties of the state vet, department of agriculture, department of health services, board of supervisors, uh and it's got part of enforcement. Um and all these pertain to animal control enforcement laws. So you know it talks about the duties the board of supervisor has the uh state v what it regulates and and has the uh the advice to for animal control and what to uh enforce on and serious of of those you know and the enforcement part it's the enforcement part that we can enforce issue uh citations under u and it's a long you know list I'm not going to get into a lot. You know, it talks about handling of animals, talks about uh interfering with our job, it talks about I mean a whole bunch of stuff that you know it's pretty long to talk about. It just includes all that. Um and you know we are able to issue or do enforcement on title 11 um on on various issues on that. Can you go to the next slide please? Now the uh Arizona revised statutes title 132910. This is where we uh able to uh you know have the authority to enforce animal cruelty laws and you know it talks about the interference with working or service animals, the release conditions of animals. Uh so this is where we use you

know mainly the animal cruelty portion of Arizona revised statutes. Uh there's a portion there that we can in actually we can't because we're not uh uh police officers or deputies uh that we can enforce felony uh laws. But the felony laws are in here, the title 132910. Um, and we have used them obviously with the help of law enforcement. So that's what you know the title 132910 is. Next slide please. Uh, right here I'm going to be talking about the uh Santa Cruz County ordinances. City of Ngalis. Not a whole lot in the town of Patagonia. Uh these are the local ordinances that we have. Um and I'll start with the the county ordinance dog at large and hopefully I will uh answer the questions that we had previously and I call to the public where they wanted to know if we can enforce on private property. U in the county ordinance the animal has to be contained at all times. It cannot be loose even on their property. The only way it can be loose is if they have a fenced in area where the animal cannot go out at all, jump out or go through any fencing. Uh so, you know, it's basically dog, it's got to be confined at all times, whether you're walking your animal, it's got to be on a six-foot leash, not more than six foot six feet. Uh and there's there's exceptions to this. Uh and there's five exceptions. Um You know, if uh the animal is part participating in field trials, kenno club events, uh obedience classes while assisting their owner or

trainer in legal hunting or controlling livestock, while assisting a peace officer engaged in law enforcement duties or guide or service dogs. while assisting the legally blind, visually impaired, the deaf and um auditorially impaired or the physically handicapped. And last one is upon the premises of the owner of the dog if said property consists of 36 or more contiguous acres. So it's got to be huge ranch out there. And there are out here, you know, several of them.

Yes. So, so how can we deal with the issues we have? I I know we have we have it on on some of our walking trails. Uh what's the best way to deal with with these issues?

Uh I was going to get into that, but I'll answer that to you right now. I I think the best thing is we need to be made aware of these situations. Um, I can tell you that in TubeBck, and I was going to get into the numbers, um, in TubeBac alone in 2025, we've only received 34 complaints, uh, in the TubeBac area. Out of these, uh, 34 complaints, 12 were only for running at large. So, we are not getting these calls reported. If we don't know they're out there, we can't solve that problem. I know that recently, this past week, we just started getting calls from the uh Anza Trail. There were incidents there and apparently people are um letting their animals run free while they walk on the trails. Obviously, we have signs all over, but irresponsible ownership, you know, they don't, you know, follow these uh lease laws. Uh but they're not being reported. So, we don't know there's a problem out there. You know, we encourage anybody that has these type of issues. Um, you know, it's just this week I've been to two calls uh from the same person that has been on the trails and and has had issues. Uh, and she started talking to me about previous incidents and I've asked her, "Did you call us?" And she's like, "No, we did not." So, we don't we're not made aware of this. So, we need to make sure that we are made aware of these calls. Um because if again we don't know we can't take care of this problem. Uh and you know we basically I mean we can start patrolling a lot more and that's what we're going to be doing in the two back area. Uh but apparently these, you know, incidents happen on the trail where we're going to have to get off and walk trails because um you know

it's that's the only way we're going to you know find this u incidents. Uh again I I recommend that anytime you know you a question was was was come up or came up about can we use you know pictures can we use videos uh yes definitely that you know that really helps us a lot. Uh so it's that's the type of problems that uh we're having right now that we are made aware but you know the calls that we get you know didn't say that until now that you know people are starting to to start walking you know these trails and having incidents. So, uh, I can say, you know, for Santa Cruz County, the total animal surreners, which is, you know, people surrendering animals at our shelter, uh, we had 343 of them and wildlife, 360 calls. So, uh, those are our three top, you know, calls that we get. It's, you know, 88% of them. Um so another numbers we'll I'll be giving you is the total calls for two 2025 was 2539. Um from those uh in our county and I'm talk and it's the you know county I'm talking about outside city limits outside city limits and not in Patagonia. We had 1,225 calls in the county. In the city we had 1,124 uh and in Patagonia we had 190 calls. So those are you know total calls that we have. City of Ngales we basically have the same laws pertaining to you know dog

at large cruelty vicious sales of animals feeding u feeding of animals. city doesn't have it but basically the same thing the city has pedagonia in their own words but they basically have the same thing uh one thing I want to make clear and the dog atlarge issue uh when you're at your dog has to be confined on your property at all times um if it's not if you don't have a fence on your property your dog can be tied up it's a tie out of 10 feet in length it can be less than 10 feet and obviously If you know some if somebody sees something different, they can call us and report and we will go and and check out the the area for that where that animal is at. It's not only has they can't just tie up the dog anywhere. It's got to have shade. It's got to have um it's got to have proper, you know, water all the time. It's and it's got to have enough room to walk around and move around. So, you know, encouraged to call in any any violation of that. So,

Mr. Chair, I have a couple questions. So, on on the area, is it a diameter of 10 feet or No, it's the tie out has to be 10 feet long but there's no guidance on how No, the area that Okay. As long as the dog can move around, get up and and you know, have their exercise space. go over I I want to make sure that what you said is correct. Go over the calls that you're getting when it comes to unincorporated uh county and no gallis. Okay. Uh you mean for like tubec Patagonia?

Okay. the uh for 2025 we got a total of 2539 calls and this is all calls regarding animal control that we received in the county alone which is outside city limits and not including Patagonia we had a,225 which includes Rio Rico, Tubac, Amado Cenoida, Elgen Um and so we got that total for the city of Ngales we had 1,124 and for the town of Patagonia 190.

So so basically the entire the rest of the county and the city there are about the same numbers. I mean slightly less in the city of Nalis. Yes. Correct. Correct. U I can tell you that I mean these are only calls. Uh we also have numbers of animals that we pick up animals number of wildlife that we pick up. Including all that I can tell you it's basically 5050. 50% of our load workload is in the city of Ngalas and 50% in the county uh areas.

That that's uh new information. I thought it would be like drastically difference. Actually, I thought it the county the rest of the county would be much much more. No, at this time it's still the same. It's been like that for quite a few years where we stand at 50% and 50 for the city and the county. Any other questions regarding that? No.

Okay. All right. Next slide. Uh here I'm just going to talk about where we use the uh the the manual for rabies control and and animal bite management. And that comes from the uh there we go from the Arizona Department of Health Services. And basically what we use this is to guide us on what we have to do in case there's an exposure to a rabbit animal to a dog or exposure to a human. Um and those are the recommendations that we go by. Uh and it's a pretty thick uh book regarding all the recommendations the state puts out for you know rabies control. Um, so that's the uh manual we we use for in terms of exposure to uh to rabies. So, you know, we still do uh rabies control. That's part of our job aside from enforcement to protect the public out there from uh the rabies uh exposures. So, that's that's uh the one we we use, you know, we we guide ourselves with. All right, next slide, please. Okay, here I'm going to talk about our organizational structure. Uh I we have our manager which is myself. Then we have a MIA supervisor I'm sorry supervisor which is open at this time and and from there we got six enforcement officers which we have one um position that's going to be open once we open the uh supervisor position. U we have officer Blanca Pñena. We have

uh enforcement officer and records officer Jonah Weiss. We have enforcement officer Brian Gallardo. Also, Jose Rivas, Marco Rodriguez, and Iana Alvarez. And we have a kenno attendant which works uh a part uh temp uh time on the weekends and that's our our structure that we have. Next, please. um our operating procedures, you know, we follow the Arizona Department of Health Services, which I just talked a little bit on, uh and policies that we have in and set right now, which include our adoption, our chemical capture, our euthanasia, uh and several other, you know, policies. And this is, you know, we're working on them on them right now. We should be finishing all that soon and throwing them out to legal. So uh uh so that everything is fine. So uh any of these policies and procedures, you know, anybody can come to our shelter and we can provide anything that they would like to look at. Um on our web page, we have a few of them. our pol our procedures, our uh our uh fee schedule we have at our website and we have other things on our website that you know people can see. We also have at this time u Facebook where we use we started that and officer uh Weiss will talk about a little bit on that. Uh but you know every anybody's welcome to look and come down and and request anything that they would like. Uh we're open on that and we have nothing to hide. We we happy to provide anything to the public. U next uh right now it's going to be uh officer

Weiss talking about the key functions about our shelter.

Hi, good afternoon. My name is Joanna Weise. I am the enforcement records officer for the department. And uh first off, we'll go off and say thank you to the board of supervisors for having us here and to the public as well. So our key functions are as follows. Responding to the citizens complaints is one of the most important responsibilities. Every call received represents a concern from our community. Not every complaint results in enforcement. Many situations are resolved through education, communication, and cooperation. When enforcement is necessary, we follow our ordinance and it is done professionally, fairly, and with respect. Once again, if you don't report, we can't enforce. We encourage people to come forward, take pictures, take video, uh file witness statements so that we can move forward with citations and any other enforcements that needs to be uh taken care of. Remember that we are a small shelter. Uh we are seven officers of two to three officers working per shift. We have two shifts, one in the morning, one in the afternoon. So we are serving the entire county. And I got to say that our officers do an outstanding job at responding promptly to each call. Another major uh function is shelter operations. We care for and maintain the dogs and cats in our facility by providing daily care, medical treatment, and a safe environment. We also provide pet owners the opportunity to obtain a pet licing, pet licing, which licensing, sorry, which is required by the state. It helps reunite lost pets with their families and supports responsible ownership. Okay. So adoptions and rescue partnerships are also a critical part of our work. Social media plays a huge role

in this effort. By posting adoptable animals, lost pets, and success stories online, we increase visibility, reunite families faster and connect animals with rescues and adopters. A simple share makes the difference between an animal staying in our shelter or finding a home. I got to say, the Santa Cruz County does an outstanding job of sharing our post. Shannon Hall, one of our own, adopted a dog recently from our shelter. So, thank you very much. Um, and we'll move on to the uh grants and funding. Through grants and funding, we are able to sterilize pets, reduce overpopulation, and operate a TNR program that humanely manages feral and stray cats in our community by trapping, neutering, and releasing to the area where they were picked up from. This year is the first year we have obtained $5,000 towards our TNR program and have been have started the program since the beginning of the year. Over the past year, our shelter has experienced meaningful and measurable progress. From 2024 to 2025, we partnered with Best Friends Animal Society, an organization dedicated to helping shelters achieve a no-kill status. Through this partnership, $1,000 was obtained. Funding was strictly administered directly by Best Friends and distributed to sterilize every adoptable pet in our shelter.

Expend 100,000.

Oh, 100,000. I'm sorry. 100,000. Uh to sterilize every adoptable pet in our care, expand our TNR efforts, provide critical medical treatment, and purchase essential equipment addressing the root causes of our shelter overcrowding. Before this partnership, our life release rate was approximately 65%. Today, through these efforts and strong collaborations, we are obtaining about a 90% release rate. With that being said, I want to thank the the board of supervisors for authorizing the no kill resolution. Their support provided the the framework needed to make the sustainable humane uh change for our shelter in this community. And uh we encourage everyone to come to our shelter, come check it out. Uh what you see on the status, the the the graph on the side, it is basically our Facebook page views. Um that has been a tremendous help for for the pets in our community. Um that's all I have to say for now. Thank you very much for your time.

Okay. Uh next uh right here I'm we're just going to talk about the hours of operation. We are open our shelter is open from 8 to 5 Monday through Friday. Uh Saturdays and Sundays it's closed, but we do have an an emergency on call officer that responds to emergency calls only. um if it's before or after hours um that somebody needs to get a hold of us. Uh they need to city residents need to call the police department and county residents. They need to call the sheriff's department and our numbers are there. Our service calls for our our shelter is uh 5203757860. The before and after hours and holidays which are office is closed. Uh again, city need the city residents need to call the police department at 2879111 and the county residents at 7617869. That'll be the sheriff's department and then they get a hold of us. Um so that those are our hours of operation. Next slide, please. Okay, I think that's where we have, you know, any other questions.

Go ahead, gentlemen.

Thank you so much. Very informative. Um, you answered a few of the questions that I had written down during during your presentation. Um, one of the things that disturbs me the most is when I see a dog tied up and knowing that 10-foot rule law. Um, that I still hate to see it. I I really I hate it. Um, but at least I'm now aware of of that 10 foot rather than, you know, shorter than that. Um, you also talked a lot. You talked about the enforcement and and I think you answered many of the questions, but I have, you know, um, before I ask this question, I just want to say that I'm people know I'm part of Rio Rico Rotary. We sit in front of Nickels every Saturday. We try to raise money 50/50 tickets for the community. That goes everything goes back to the community. We called one time uh animal control um probably about a year or so ago and I believe it was Mr. Gallardo who showed up. Um not only was he incredibly professional, he did it. He was professional in the way he handled the the dog the two dogs um but he was also he was professional in everything he did. So I want to commend um and I think I've mentioned that to you before. If I haven't then you're hearing it now. But um he did an incredible job and if all of your team, you know, works that hard and treats animals that way, then then I'm a happy camper. Uh one of the questions that was asked and it was asked during your presentation, uh if a dog is charging at you and you have no idea because I have a German Shepherd and she'll run at you and then she'll sniff your feet.

Well, yeah. If you don't know if that dog is going to come and sniff your feet or that dog's going to try to take a chunk out of your thigh. Um so I understand that what uh the pepper spa spray was mentioned. Um you know video camera was was mentioned. Um I love animals. Um I just want to kind of get some guidelines associated with what can a person to do to defend themselves perhaps prior and during you know a dog coming at them. Uh you mentioned the use of pepper spray. Uh that's one of the recommendations we carry it. We're certified. Uh I personally do not like that. Uh being as you got to be careful on the wind. Uh it's either you spray it and it's going to get you. So you got to be careful on that. Not all the time does that pepper spray work. The adrenaline on the animal doesn't seem to work most of the time. Well, we what I personally recommend is uh uh one of those uh loud noise horns that they use in sports uh events. Uh obviously animals do not like loud noises. So that air horn uh if you carry it around it's a to me it's a lot better than the pepper spray.

Okay. And I mean you can you can have a stick to protect yourself. We use a control That's what you know we have to

when that animal sees that control pole, he'll stay away. He'll stay between that pole and me. So that pole, he's not going to come across. I haven't had one dog that has actually come after me and pass that pole and got me. Uh, and so a stick might be okay. If you're fearing for your life, obviously you're going to do anything possible to protect yourself. But those are, you know, items that you can, you know, use to, you know, prevent something that, you know, before you know something's gonna really happen. Thank you, Mr. P. I'm sorry.

I just want to say thank you that are here regarding some of the concerns they have. Oh, you know what the other question is the number there? What is the normal process? They call that number, it goes to the dispatch. And then you send somebody out. Yes. Uh what what happens is they call the sheriff's department. The sheriff's department calls our own call uh cell phone number and we get dispatched that way. Correct.

Did you have a question? Regarding the emergency services

basically what we tell our Jose can you repeat the question and then answer it sure because the mic's okay uh the question was if uh if after hours Uh, what does it take when or you want to come in? I just want to make sure I get it right. Just put you on the spot.

Hello everyone. Again, just a quick question. I just thought it could be helpful if they provide an example of what an emergency would be for us to call after hours or during the weekend because emergency could mean different things for people. I think it would be helpful to know what qualifies under emergency for us to reach out.

Uh we basically tell our dispatchers uh police department and sheriff's department to just give us a call, whatever call it is. We're going to determine what an emergency call is. It's a a bite. It's a wild any type of wildlife concerning rabies, snakes, uh animals attacking. Uh we usually don't respond to stray dogs unless there are situations where might be in the street or on the highway in and out of traffic might you know cause an accident or something like that. Uh any animal cruelty that you know needs to be attended now. Um what else did I say? Uh so the officer on on call and answering that phone call and calling the person is going to determine, you know, if it merits that emergency for us to go and respond to.

Yes. Lif, can you come up to the podium, please? That way it goes on record. My name is Locha Partida Paringer and my question is in regards to um what's the process after the citation is issued? When a citation is issued, what is the process?

Uh the process is we assigned that citation a date. The person has to appear in court and it's actually out of our hands. The judge is the one that's going to determine what if they pay a fine, if they don't, whatever the judge decides, it's it's in her hands. So, it's basically out of her hands once we issue the citation. And also I want to thank you and officer Gallardo who is amazing and I know I talked to you um because for over a year there was the ordinance signed graffitied and I had been complaining for over a year. My husband had even sent a picture of it and it finally got done and I know I talked to you because they didn't know exactly what part of the Anza trail the graffiti sign was on. But yes, everybody's very kind. We just need clarity really. And um and I I just have to say that you do an amazing job because I cannot believe that this is your staff, the the size of the staff that you have for the entire county and I really appreciate that. Thank you.

Thank you,

Jose. I I personally want to thank you, your staff, because I agree with everybody. I I personally have had uh great experiences with uh your staff and cycling. We had some some dogs on Pina Blanca chase people and and Officer Gallardo went out there and he took care of that problem. Uh and others we appreciate it. But I have a a formal complaint. I have a formal complaint and I want you to take note of this. There's a bulldog and the owner that walks around Morley Avenue and we need to do something. They think they own Morley Avenue.

A county manager. Your county manager. He's on a leash. He's on a leash. Six feet. Six feet. So am I. They both have a leash for each other. No, just kidding. Thank you. Something quick, Mr. Pñena. So, two weeks ago, I I visited you, right? Correct.

I was doing like my little tour. I went to Arizona at work superintendent and I stopped there and we had a uh little conversation. So, I went like I noticed like after that conversation, I looked into Pima County and Maropa County and I did notice that they have that donation button. I talked to Juan Balder about it. He said he was going to talk to him, Shannon, something. So maybe I'll have the county manager have Juan Bandera's next meeting and give us an update on on what he found out about that possibility to try to help animal control. Thank you and thank you for everything that you guys do. Thank you.

Thank you again. Appreciate your report. Okay, we'll go ahead and move on to jail district. At this time, I'd like to entertain a motion to recess general and move into uh jail district. I move. Second. Have a motion and a second. Any discussion? Hearing none. All in favor? I I opposed. Motion carries. Item one, discussion, possible action for authorization to fill vacant detention officer position. Move to approve. Second. This is uh budgeted, right, Mr. Chairman? It is budgeted.

Okay. Thank you. We have a motion and a second. Any other questions? Hearing none. All in favor? I. All oppose. Motion carries. At this time, I'd like to entertain a motion to uh adjourn jail and move back into uh regular session. I move. Second. Have a motion and a second. Any discussion? Hearing none. All in favor? I.

All oppose. Motion carries. Action item one was removed. Action item two, discussion possible action to approve cooperative purchase agreement with Sunland Ash asphalt and construction LLC for removal and repair of asphalt projects throughout the county for 2026 in the estimated amount of 942,793. Mr. Manager,

Mr. Mr. Chair, uh, land as well. They're part of the uh they have a JC with another agency. So, we're piggy back on the agreement itself. Uh the projects are there's four projects that we're considering right now and after if you consider and approve it that we'll be able to move forward with the notice to proceed. The first one is Bravo Lane. Uh Bravo Lane serves uh warehouses off it's off of Old Tucson Road. it it's much needed uh uh replacement of the asphalt there. It's been like that for a while. We tried to um we tried to maintain it three or four years ago and with chip seal and just using the methods that we use uh it hasn't held. So I think at this point it's it's prudent to do uh to put asphalt. The other project is A Caponeta and Cay Christina. It's an intersection and that's intersection is is it's in the industrial park. Um it needs addressing. It's it's it has some potholes. We haven't been able to m to maintain it properly. We fill it in and it deteriorates. So that's been a long time coming. Uh the third project would be the parking lot at WA. Um, talking to uh, Deputy County Manager Travis, he said that's something that WA with their funds could pay for. And then the last project, the last project is the area around the county complex. Um, it's something that you guys, all of you guys have mentioned to one of us, um, about replacing or repairing the asphalt. And those are the four projects that currently we're looking at.

Thank you. Those are critical projects that need to be done. What is that? Can you explain a little bit more detail about the county complex? Does that include the the walls? No, this is the asphalt right portion of of the county complex. So, anything that you see parking lots and okay road that's going to be addressed. We also are working on actually we have quotes already to repair some of the walls and eventually look at the county building but that's not part of this. Understood. Thank you for that clarification.

Good question. County manager. So for the first two projects I think there are a lot of like heavy trucks right that go by. So and I don't know about that material you're going to put asphalt. So that's going to hold it like I mean that's going to do it or eventually you're going to have to I mean everything you have to maintain, right? But that's better of what they have right now.

Yes. So right now the what we've been doing for the past 15 years is we use cold mix uh to go and repair and and smooth out the pavement to to even it out and then we go with a couple layers of double chip uh chip seal. It's been proven to be very effective. Right. But it's to the point where we got to rebuild the uh the pavement section. So when you put asphalt, it's a cement and the structure, it has a structure. Chips Hill does not. So that's why we're recommending this point that we go with asphalt instead of our traditional meth. It's more expensive. That's why we don't always get to do asphalt.

Okay. Thank you. Any other questions, John? So, one more question. So, there are four projects and you said that one of them could be covered by work funding, right? So, that's that number is going to change or that's a number already, Mr. Chairman, members of the board, the the full contract of the full four projects is embedded in that price. So a portion of that the funding source is going to be by the WA program that their portion which has already been uh pre-approved by by the grtor. Thank you. Perfect. Any other questions? Okay. I believe we have a motion and a second. All in favor?

I. All oppose. Motion carries. Okay. Item three, discussion, possible action to approve agreement with West Ed for workforce development strategic plan consulting services from January 7th, 2026 through August 31st, 2026 in any amount not to exceed $150,000. At this time, I'll enterain a motion. So move. Second. I have a motion and a second and under discussion.

Sir, I'd just like to comment about this. So, in October, I came to you with the approval for for two RFQS. Uh, one of them was for the workforce development strategic plan and the other one was for the economic development specialist. And so, this we went through the process. I just wanted to describe the process that we went through for the workforce development strategic plan, which is the is what you have in front of you today. Um we there was a executive committee made up of three s school superintendents that have high schools uh here in the county. The county school superintendent Maya Donnelly, myself and Greg Lucero uh from the community college along with South 32. Um and so we received between seven and eight applications. I believe they were evaluated all equally. Uh first um just going through the applications and then the top three we did inter we did interviews. Um from those interviews um basically the the the advisory committee decided that two of them would be acceptable civic solutions and West Ed. And so the next step was for the county leadership to to evaluate those recommendations. And so myself, um, Mauricio Chavez and and Jesus Valdez, we interviewed both Civic Solutions and West Ed. And through those interviews, we decided that West Ed was the best option moving forward. And we're highly confident. I mean, most people already know who Wested is. They're very active locally also, even though they're based out of California. And so, we're excited about what's going to happen. The timetable is between six and eight months. And the the objective of this is so that everybody in the county is on the same page when it comes to what we want to accomplish and what we're doing and who's accountable when it comes to workforce development. And that's the objective of this of what we're doing.

There's going to be a lot of stakeholder engagement by Wested to make sure that we're not only getting data, but we're also getting qualitative information from from the different stakeholders. Do you guys have any questions? question gentlemen. Quick question. So I know that's the workforce development. C can you explain a little bit the difference between the workforce development and the economic development plans or how they're going to over no and how they're going to overlap or not?

So the workforce development plan it's just it's a plan. It's a strategic strategic plan. We'll have that between six and eight months. Okay. Now and that's going to be the guide like I said the guide for everybody in the county to when we go to workforce development. Now, the economic specialist, that's a three-year uh agreement that we have where that person will will help guide the workforce development strategic plan. Okay? But that person will will take guidance from a committee that will be formed um by representatives from Nogalis, Sono, Elgen, Patagonia, all through the county. And we'll decide as a group, as a county, how we want to use this economic development specialist. Um, first things that come to mind, Arizona Commerce Authority has um documents that they send out um saying this industry is interested in this, this, and this. And so there's data that we have to get together as a county so that if an industry is interested in coming and operating in our county, we have the data available. So, so we'll be working on those things and also this economic specialist will be working with current businesses. what are what are we doing to support the current businesses that we already have in Santa Cruz County. So, one's a strategic plan, the other one's an actual entity that will be working alongside us to promote economic development in our county. And just to let you know, we also went through the process for the economic development specialist. I mean, yeah, economic development specialist uh with a larger advisory committee and that committee did not come out with an overwhelming choice and so we've decided to extend that process longer. Thank you for the clarification. Thank you. Any other questions? Okay. All in favor? I. All oppose. Motion carries.

Item four, discussion, possible action to four, board determination of whether an emergency creating a a need to protect public health or safety exists concerning a cattle guard crossing on Harsha Road pursuant to ARS 11-254.01A A and if so, authorize county manager to secure emergency procurement to repair or replace across the crossing and affected road section. Mr. manager.

So, as you know, Harshaw Road just leaving Patagonia uh has taken on a lot more traffic than usual uh due to mining activity, but also the building of the wall. That's the route that they take also. And so due to that, um we've had uh and in working with South 32 um and also Fiser, they they come to the meetings also. Uh we want to make sure that that road is safe for everybody. And so quite a bit of maintenance has been done on it done to it already. This is a cattle guard that we we have we've been monitoring and we've decided that needs to be fixed as sooner than later. And so we do not want to delay it the two months that it usually takes to do an RFP process. We really want to get it done now to ensure the safety of the community.

Any other questions? Yes. Yeah. Um, is there going to be a uh rerouting of vehicles through there? What What is the plan of action? So, that is uh under construction if this is approved. There really is no way to reroute out there. So, the traffic uh plan is that it'll be a one lane. So, you'll have a a high high number of people working on the traffic so that there's just one lane going. So they'll work on one half of the cattle guard and once that's fixed then they'll move over to the other half. And how are we going to get this information out to the constituents so that they're

Well, we'll be working with both Fiser and South 32 and Shannon obviously to let everybody know what how the dates obviously and what the situation is going to be. Yeah, we'll definitely have a lot of communication. Good. That's important because the folks out there I don't want them caught. Mr. surprise

any so there's no alternative route right that's why the one of the reasons this cattle guard is probably closer to 70 years old so it's past it useful life um anytime you do like a single lane uh traffic control you either have a pilot project or you you staff it with flaggers uh it all depends on the on the amount of traffic and the need for or use of that road at that time um but This is something that public works will oversee and and now you know that Chris Young is overseeing public works. So he's the the person to contact with any questions or more information.

Mr. Young, no pressure, but ADOT's doing a project on Ruby. Their contractor did Maricopa in two days. Cattle a full cattle guard.

Okay. So no pressure. and Mr. Chair and the board. Uh the memo goes into a little bit more and documents everything that uh that is required with regards this emergency decision by the board. So the board has to find or board chairman at least has to find that there is a danger to the public health and safety uh and arguably welfare. So if the board finds that there is a danger uh then that uh justifies the vote.

So I I believe have you been out there? Okay. So we do need to Yes, I've been I've been out there multiple times. We've had our engineering crew out there. We've had obviously our road crew out there and we have determined determined that we need to get this done. Okay. I just have another question for Mr. Young. So, yeah, it's clear that that we don't want to have any accidents and we we need to take care of it, but when I was going through the information, it said that the funds would come from from her fund, but then we might get reimbured, right? How's that going to work?

So, there's a we already have an agreement with South 32 as far as a maintenance reimbursement on Harshaw Road. And so, Bob and the county attorney's office will decide if this is able to be reimbursed through that agreement. So, he's not for sure. Well, they'll they'll have to look at it. It most likely will be, but it they'll have to look at it. I don't want to say yes or no. Definitely. Okay. Thank you. Any other questions, sir? I don't believe we have a motion. Do we? Do we? Yeah, we do. Nikki, there is. It's in the memorandum. I move just in case. Okay. No, no, no. We We do. We do. Okay. Thank you. Oh, I'm sorry. She did or she did not.

She did. She did not. Thank you, Nikki. Okay. So, at this time, I'd like to entertain a motion. I move. Second. Have a motion to approve and uh any other discussion? Hearing none. All in favor? I. Thank you. Thank you, Nikki.

Nikki is substituting for Anma today, you guys. And uh we thank you for doing that. Okay. Item five, discussion, possible action for direction to staff following consideration of staff update regarding coordinating coord coordination with the city of Ngalas for a joint meeting with the city council. Supervisor Davis, county manager, do you have any updates? I don't know.

Mr. chair. Uh uh board of supervisors, per your directions, I contacted the city manager to coordinate a joint meeting. Uh I mentioned that the board would like to discuss priorities and and the state of the city and the county. See what how the city and the state some of the the issues that they have. I suggest suggested that we have a joint meeting at a regular scheduled board meeting and another at a regular council meeting. Uh he stated that the council is looking for financial support from the council. Um and his preference is for the managers to meet and develop priorities for a joint meeting. That's that's in an email he sent over. So at this time there is no meeting set up. I I'll I will reach out to him next week uh and see if if we could come up with uh what the meeting date or priorities.

Go ahead. Go ahead. So, but that meeting would take place if it takes place only between the city manager and the county manager or all of us? The initial meeting would be between the managers so that we could decide what you guys should talk about. That's how my understanding of the email is.

I don't know. It's just a little frustrating. It's frustrating because I've seen what Supervisor Davis has has uh gone through. You know, it's it's it's just a friendly meeting. I think in that meeting we can all give you and the city manager uh direction a general meeting like you said for priorities and uh and then from there we can give you direction. I I don't I don't see a problem and hopefully the council doesn't have a problem. Uh and uh we we want to reach out. We want to reach out. I I think we owe it to the public to have combined resources for projects as Mr. Davis has stated before and uh I think just a friendly a friendly friendly meeting to start dialogue. I I believe that's what we want.

Well, I'm gonna go a little bit back like when I when I ran for this position, I would a lot of people would tell me like or or even in interviews, what are you going to do like to work with the city, right? And I don't think it's that complicated. Like it shouldn't be that complicated. That's what people want. That's what the community wants. So basically last week just to give like a little update I sent an email and this is this is the first time I sent an email to the mayor, the vice mayor and and the council, the city council and and this is like the letters asking like that we should meet. Um and I just going to read the first line that says that every meaningful partnership begins with an open and honest dialogue. So basically this is like what I hear people saying. I already got a uh a reply from from uh from the city. They said that they would like to meet too. So in in that letter there's a timeline, you know, like I put an agenda together and I said like if you want to put anything that I'm missing, any any input, do it within the next two weeks. My goal is to have a meeting with like I said I we can't force anyone for those that want to come uh maybe the first or second week of next month. Uh this email got sent Friday, Monday uh hard copy got mailed and I think like I don't see anything I I see everything positive from starting uh having these meetings. My idea is to have a meeting at least every quarter and I really think good things will come up out of this. I mean if there's any misunderstanding that's time to clear it. If there's a project that we can join forces to apply that's that's a that that's going to be the the way to go. If they need help like you and we can help like financially well that's

the way to go. Eventually we're going to have to vote. We're going to have to collaborate and um yeah. So so I look forward to that meeting. Um, like I said, uh, I I think we're going to have good I'm positive and optimistic. I think the people want that and I think we all want that, too. Like I can't talk on on behalf of uh, Mr. Mo and Mr. Fanny. I do want that and I think they also want that. I have a few Yeah, go ahead, sir.

Few thoughts. And I always write my things down so I don't forget. First of all, um, Chair Malleta, I think you said it best when you said we owe it to the public. I think it's incredibly important. Um uh I along with uh I I've lived in this community long enough to hear people's concerns and people's concern is there is a perceived conflict between the county and the city. I'm just going to say it. I want to fix that if that is indeed there. And the only way you can fix that is through collaboration, is through meeting. And if you and and the city manager want to meet, fantastic. I have no problems with that. But that should not be a precursor and mandatory for the city council and the board of supervisors to meet. And as you can tell, I'm kind of adamant about that. I've seen this for two years. One of the questions I asked about three or four years ago at at uh when there was a forum and they and I think I mentioned this last last meeting and um there was folks running for mayor. There was questions that were allowed to be submitted. I submitted the question, what are you going to do? And at that time I knew I was going to run for county supervisor. What are you go and this was city only city said what are you going to do to have a a closer working relationship and a collaborative relationship with the county. That is the only question that got pulled from the group to ask. Now, I'm not going to say whether they answered

it the way I wanted to or not, but I I think we owe it to our community to if there's a perceived conflict between the county and the city to fix it. And the only way to do that is to meet talk through any concerns that we have. Um, so I I I agree with uh uh Supervisor Davis that whether we have the blessing and please understand this is no disrespect to our county supervisor and this is no disrespect to the city u man excuse me the county manager and no disrespect to the city manager. Um we need to move forward whether there's a meeting or not. Thank you. No, I agree. I just want to say just one one last comment. I I got to meet the like in Mexico City, the the the the people from the city from Douglas and the county and the city, they work perfectly fine. So I think times are we're living different times. I mean it's this is a different stage. I was not even here when like I mean if like if whatever happened the public need needs to know that I want to work with the city the doors are open here there's like I want to work with everybody I have talked to most of them I mean they have expressed they they some of them want to work with the some that I have talked to and I think it's time to move forward I mean we're living in difficult times like funding is limited. So the only thing we we need to work together and we need to be united and the time is now.

Bob, thank you Mr. Chair and supervisors. I appreciate your points on this. I think from a the one issue that I comes to mind for me is the open meeting law and certainly any of the agree the gathering should has to c comply with the open meeting law which means that there'll there'll need to be an agenda and items to be discussed. That might be the benefit of the county manager meeting with the city manager to identify what are some priorities uh between the two and then establish and draft uh the agenda and the items to be discussed. Uh so then there's proper notice at least 24 hours ahead of time. Um otherwise the combined group cannot make any kind of decisions at a joint meeting without that. So there is some plus to hopefully a little bit more formed agenda.

I I agree and and I'm a rule follower and a law follower. Um but and I'm not pushing back by any means, but that should not be the end end all beall. That meeting should not be the end all beall. If there is going to be a meeting, that meeting should be set up to talk about priorities um that the supervisors and the city council um can can work through. So, yes, I agree. But after that meeting, it that that should not be the only dialogue between the county and the city.

I agree uh with you, Mr. May. I think we have to follow the rules, everything by by statute, not break any rules. I did when they sent that email, I did send the work in progress agenda as well and I and I asked for their feedback. So I I sent this letter and and and the agenda, right? So yeah. Yeah. I mean everything like I mean we don't want to do anything that is going to be like bring problems, you know, but I mean let's figure out that process and move forward. Let's call it a friendly invitation. Okay. a friendly invitation. Okay? There's no um pointing fingers, no I'm better than you or any of that. Like the mayor says, the county is the city is in the county. The county is in the city. So I agree with the mayor. And uh do do we need to um take action on this, Bob?

And Mr. Chair, yes. Well, you don't need to. It's uh certainly sounds like a sim process, but it certainly is uh a very reasonable action item uh provided by Supervisor Davis. So, that's fine. The board could vote. It gives it a little bit more uh support. Uh and it sounds like actions are already in place. Okay. You guys want to make a motion? So, why don't we make a motion to give uh direction to county manager to talk to the city manager to comprise an agenda and uh Mr. Chair, if I may, um

and it's something that Supervisor Davis said, he he's already set up I with my help right now, he's already set up an agenda and with the letter saying as much. So, that things in progress. I think what if you guys could, you know, as a board could consider is just setting up meeting uh with myself and and the clerk of the board whenever Supervisor Davis gets the information back.

Okay. If if maybe you make the motion, but um yeah, the it's in progress. I guess we they're either going to want to or not. And And some of the discussions that I've had with Supervisor Davis is he wants to have a joint meeting and we're going to invite them and if they show up, we'll welcome them and if they don't, we'll keep trying. That's kind of the but that's up to you guys to discuss. Or if one or two show up, we'll have the meeting, right? It's it's possible. I mean, whoever shows up. Okay. Do you want to make a motion then?

Hold on. If I may, and I I want to make sure one of the things I mentioned during the last discussion was we need to leave our egos at the door. And like I said before, I don't care if it's a county-led discussion or if it's a city-led discussion. I I I don't care. I just want the discussion to be had. I want the collaborative work to to begin between the city and the county. Like I said, at the end of the day, nothing bad can happen from from having this meeting. I I just see it as something positive. That's it. Okay. Do we need Do we have a motion? Do we need a motion?

Uh I don't know that there's a motion. The the board has certainly echoed its sentiments and certainly has given some direction. The direction's already there, right? So, okay, we'll just wait. Thank you. Thank you. Thank you, Mr. Davis. Thank you. Okay. At this time, we'll go on to item K, uh, consent agenda. I'll entertain a motion to approve. I move. Second. Have a motion and a second. Any discussion? Hearing none. All in favor? I.

All oppose. Motion carries. And I believe That is it. Um, madam clerk. Are we done? Our next meeting is February 18th at 9:30. Correct me if I'm wrong. Okay. At this time, I'd like to entertain a motion to adjourn. I move to adjourn. Second. A motion in a second. Any discussion? Hearing none. All in favor? I. All oppose. Motion carries. We're now adjourned.