Board of Supervisors - Regular Meeting

Test test. One, two. Test test. I don't need

ago, our board decided to have a quarterly 5:30 meeting and uh this 5:30 meeting was supposed to be held on May March 18th, but March 18th we have our small counties meeting in uh Phoenix. So that's why we moved the meeting up to today. And and I know there's a conflict with us having the meeting, the city of uh Nogalas and and Patagonia all having it at the same time. Unfortunately, it worked out that way. We didn't do it on purpose. It just so happened. Um, and before we get started again, we would like to ask that you please place your phones on silent and if you do come up on on call to the public, please state your name and address for the record and you will have three minutes to speak. Um, and uh I will wait a minute and a quarter to get this meeting started. Thank you for your attention. Can you sit down, Chris?

You're supposed to raise your hand. I'm just kidding. [laughter] [snorts] We need more water. No, no, we're good. [laughter] You didn't ask Maria. You good? Yeah. You want one? You sure? I'll even give you a drink of my diet.

Cappuccino. All right. Well, good afternoon. Welcome to our March 4th, 2026 Board of Supervisors meeting. At this time, I'd like to call the meeting to order. And uh Mr. James Ward, do you want to lead us in the pledge, sir? Raise your hand for it stands nationism.

Thank you, sir. At this time, I'd like to move on to item B, adoption of the agenda. We have a few minor changes. Mr. Manager, Mr. Chair, uh there's one change to the agenda. If we can move item number three from the consent agenda.

Okay. Two action items, please. Okay. No further changes. Thank you. And uh I am going to remove item three F3A and B because the um young girls couldn't come uh today. They will be uh visiting us at a different meeting. Uh we will be recognizing our spelling B um first and second place. Um okay. Okay. At this time, I'd like to entertain a motion to approve agenda with item three being moved to action items and removing F3A and B.

They move. Have a motion second and a second. Any discussion? Hearing none. All in favor? I. All oppose. Motion carries. Okay, we'll go ahead and move on to item C. call to the public. Our first slip is Pam Lumpky. Good afternoon.

Hi, I'm Pam Lumpky and I live in Tubac and I just want to start by thanking you for um moving on approving these early actions. I know because I've been in the emergency preparedness focus group how important it is to get started on some of these things and I'm glad that we're moving forward with that. And then I want to ask you to consider now that we are having these um things approved that before you really get involved deeply involved in trying to negotiate the protections, now that we have the environmental impact statement out, can we please ask for a independent water assessment and an independent soil assessment? I know some of you guys know Ally Alvarez and I've been working on a little anamony video with her and we discovered that if little kids sit in contaminated antimony soil they can get sick. So we just really want to take better care of people and then in the future if we have a study session or something that pertains to the issues that are so important to so many of us that show up over and over and over again for these things. Can you please make the item on the consent agenda at a different meeting so that we have a little time to process what's been said and get back to you with our concerns instead of just trying to second guess what they might be during call to the public.

Thank you. Thank you. Thank you, Pam. Chris open.

Yep. [clears throat] Well, uh, anyway, good evening, uh, supervisors and everybody here. My name is, uh, Chris Veroffen from Soya, and I'm speaking against the so-called South 32 investment plan. [clears throat] This plan is not actively uh protecting or proactively protecting people's livelihood and health. It's only distracting from already approved pollution. History shows that such undue harm leads to electoral consequences. What harm are we facing? First, Hermosas air permit allows concentrations of lead compounds in our air to rise 30 times higher up to 40 times when properly included in the proposed expansions of the DEES. This increase uh of risk on neurotoxic illnesses uh will increase indeed until community-based air advisory networks can step in to demonstrate the exceedences that I was talking about. The plan does not fill gaps like this. Secondly, the Clean Water Act 401 waiver ADAQ is pushing suggests enough measures are in place to safeguard our aquifers. Yet, even stock market analysts know about South 32's failing treatment plant causing safe standards exceedences of antimony. You heard about it a lot lately. And now also steadily increasing selenium levels.

Hermosa's engineering can't handle metals leeched by water and air from rock exposed in the enormous mine shafts currently lowered deep underground. That's the conclusion. It's unclear how much drainage seeps directly into our aquifers. U it's yeah but the DIS openly details a fast and timony plume in such situations. The plan does not include remediation of what seems unavoidable. Newspapers will keep covering air and water issues causing tourists to stay away residents to leave because the area becomes more unsafe every day. There is no confidence in current leadership to turn this around. South 32's non-essential investment plans will only amplify this, not prevent. I asked the supervisors to enforce Adat's 2003 corridor management plan for the Patagonia Seno Scenic Road. area stakeholders already agreed to reduce truck traffic to enhance road safety and to protect the nature-based economy built successfully for over six decades. Thank you very much for your attention.

Thank you. Good evening, Ernie Edwards. I live at Lake Patagonia. Here we go again. Our heads are spinning as we see this collusion between the mine and our various groups of elected officials to have simultaneous meetings to vote on an agreement not previously given to the public for their scrutiny. [snorts] As done before, Hermosa is handing out cash like money to drunks to hide behind the glow of adoration from our elected officials so the harms that are coming our way will be overshadowed. As if trees and parks and Christmas decorations will ever make up for the depletion of our well levels and degradation of our health. Have you no regard for the people who elected you into office? It seems as if the mind is your absolute priority. Facts be damned. You have opened this forum upon your solicitation to presentations of scientific evidence of grave concern to the public welfare. Yet you bob your heads up and down as if you're very concerned, but never do anything of significance for the consequential good of the people. The bright and shiny objects you so willingly accept from the mind will never amilarate the true harms the community will endure for decades, if not longer, to come. You must do your jobs right. Instead of trinkets, work to understand the learn long-term effects we need to be protected from. Don't sell your soul to the devil so easily. With that knowledge in hand, you can then proceed with negotiating benefits that are in proper compens.

Now, we have the just today seen the newly released EIS from the Forest Service. Lots of new surprises. When will you be reviewing the impacts that will now befall your constituents? You need to listen to the people. You can still make this good for all the citizens of Santa Cruz County. Thank you. Good evening. Uh, my name is Darla Seander and I live at Lake Pardon me.

Oh, it always happens. That's okay. No offense taken. Um, I live at Lake Patagonia. For the past few years, I've been following developments regarding the Hermosa mine project. I'm sure you are all aware that easy research shows that South 32 owners of the Hermosa mine have disastrous impacts on all their areas of operation worldwide. This should raise a red flag to all. It has gotten to the point that I feel very compelled to come forward and voice my grave concerns. First, let me say that we the people are very fortunate to have concerned, ultraqualified scientists in our area that monitor the situation at Hermosa Mine. They have time and again brought to light serious issues with the mine's operations. These scientists have impeccable and impressive credentials of which would be impossible to question. But yet, their findings are continually ignored. It has been recommended to our government officials that independent qualified studies be performed on the findings that these scientists have brought to light. Why should there be any resistance to this? One would think that our government officials would have been the first to demand [clears throat] unbiased independent studies. Why are you willing to risk the irreparable destruction to our health and environment? Also, if there are not real credible issues, Hermosa mine should have should welcome an independent study if they're so wonderful. Besides concern about the irreparable damage to the mine um the mine will have on our health, environment, and dropping water levels and water quality in our wells. I'm also concerned about the lack of protection from our elected government officials. Decisions that have been made are always to the people's detriment and in favor of the

mine. The people voted for you, not Hermosa mine. Public trust in our elected officials is meaningless. Further, it makes me question what is in it for our elected officials that they can ignore these serious issues. A few jobs, Hermosa mine contributions. What a huge p price to pay for damage that can't be undone. regarding the community benefits program seems like a no-brainer. How can anything be written and agreed to when it is not understood what to fully protect against? How many times have concerned citizens spoke out and yet we see no action from our government officials. Enough time has passed. You need to show us what serious meaningful steps are being taken on the people's behalf. Therefore, I I implore you, get the independent studies and no community benefits agreement until all dangers are understood and brought to light. Do your job and protect the people. Thank you.

Thank you. Thank you, Wendy. East.

Thank you, Chairman Malera, board of supervisors and chairman. Thank you for that statement that you made. With that said, I do still have issue um with the fact that simultaneously this evening as we speak, three government entities are voting on an important early action community investment funding agreement. Um I don't believe in coincidences. I'm I'm pretty sure many some do, some don't, but I think they're very debatable. So, in my opinion, um, somebody somehow somewhere made this happen. Um, while I don't oppose the agreement, I do take issue with this process and I recognize the very poor optics this presents and my guess is that you can likely see it as well. This involves a controversial topic, a very hot topic for our community. The trifecta vote can easily be perceived, rightfully so, as an exercise on how to censor constituents because we all know we cannot be at three places at the same time to ask questions, share our concerns, and so on. This is not an example of transparency nor a way to give or to earn, excuse me, public trust. So, I'd leave you with that. how um and continuing. So, as we heard earlier today, the US Forest Service released the notice to respond to the final environmental impact statement. Um and those who have already made comments do have a 45day window to uh make a response and I do look forward to reviewing your official response and I do hope that you make one. Um, I want to say also that I appreciate that the funding agreement states that the party's desire to ensure the protection of water and air resources, conservation of land, opportunities for recreation, and preservation of the rural character of the area surrounding the project. And I do request and urge you to include independent water and air testing as a part of the infrastructure

building. Please do not wait for the CPDA. Please take this action. Now, I do have some questions regarding the funding agreement. Since it is a study session item, and we have not had an opportunity other than several days to look at it, I would like to request that each statement of work be presented at future board of supervisor meetings for the board and the public to review and provide input. If this does not happen, how can the public stay aware? Who will be who will be reviewing and signing off on each plan and what will the review consist of? If a project is underfunded, has a review been completed to ensure that we have the funding to cover any shortfalls in uh funding. Will updates on these projects be provided to the pro to the public regularly at each board meeting or at a minimum quarterly as this is something I would like to request. Will the funding have its own line item on the county's published budget? What checks and balances will be put in place? I have one last statement if I may go over. Uh we will we all appreciate knowing what accountability measures will be implemented as we are still reeling from $38 million in theft and one year ago you did announce that the potential alleged theft from the county attorney's anti-reketeering fund uh took place and I'm hopeful that we can get an update. Lastly, I would just like to hopefully re um state that I thank you for your commitment uh to hopefully reinstituting the call to the public call in. So, thank you so much. I appreciate your time.

Thank you,

Susan Fian. Gentlemen, thank you. As useless as my call Oh, I forgot my address. 20 Kth Avenue, Rio Rico. As useless as my calls to the public appear to be, I will continue to pursue justice. Webster defines justice as fairness, being righteous, rightfulness, do justice, to treat fairly. Two quick stories regarding my issue. I know no one in this building is disturbed by the fact that my neighbor has built on my property, but I am. I ventured over to the sheriff's office. I was greeted and I said that I had a complaint that my neighbor had built on my property. I was asked what law had been broken. I said, "I didn't know the name of the law, but surely it was illegal to build on someone else's property." Nope. If one can't sight a law, a complaint cannot be moved. Then in my search for an attorney, as the county has required of me [clears throat] in order to be paid for the expenses acrewed during my four and a half months without plumbing and the cost of the new septic line. Many attorneys have said that the county is liable, but the submitted total was approximately 10,500. The cost of litigation is a minimum of 7,500. And I agree that even if I amend my cost to include my destroyed landscaping, which I previously did not include, it doesn't pencil out. Probably five offices in this building

told me that I needed to get and complete the notice of claim form. I asked why to be reimbursed. For what can I be reimbursed? No one knew. Not one person. And I am accused of submitting nonconforming expenses. As afraid as I am to continue living in Santa Cruz County, a place with no protective laws, I cannot sell my house because my property is encumbered. And again, Isaiah 11:17, learn to do what is good. Pursue justice. Correct the oppressor. Defend the rights of the fatherless. Plead the widow's cause. Thank you. Mr. Jay Thompson.

Hi, Jay Thompson, 30-year resident of Rio Rico. Good evening, supervisors, county staff, and community members. I'm speaking for others and myself on the early actions community investment agreement with South 32 and the government entities. The early action agreement offers numerous needed things to governmental entities. Also more studies to add to the other studies we've had before. Good for the those getting done too. Good for the stuff. Take the money. Where are the needed community protections addressed? In a protections roadmap that's another year out. by who? We know this is fundamentally unbalanced. Benefits and planning coming before any thorough impact assessment or rail protections against the risks. Production gaps are stark. No enhanced monitoring of Harshaw Creek discharges. No safeguard against predicted groundwater downdraft or mounding that could dry up springs. No binding fixes for contaminant mobilization. And no independent oversight for well impacts. Instead, one-sided willowner contract shift the burden to residents, letting South 32 decide causation and remedies. This echoes the ADQ's 401 waiver, which claims permits in quotes, ensure protections, end quote, yet overlooks recent violations again unress mobilization and cumulative impacts downstream on Cenote Creek and the Santa Cruz River. At least 80 eq 80q admits there are loopholes in the rules we could address in all this. The forest service now has finished as others have said the final EIS. Nothing fundamentally new in it to protect us but it underscores a major failure. The lack of comprehensive regional implect on the front end that was recommended two years ago by me and others and any EIS leverage disappeared a year ago.

That chosen middle ground path they're taking includes a new main access road coming through the pristine area routing around Patagonia, a new tailings facility, overhead power lines, and a direct release of treated water into Gold Bloom and Maui Wash. On top of what's being released today, just the roads alone raise serious unressed regional impacts. The new road will obviously bring increased traffic past Patagonia Lake to remind them regularly why their wells are dropping and one through Ngalas. [snorts] This will create new hazards, disrupt scenic drives, harm tourist business, and create safety issues with no tie-in to regional mitigation upgrades or offsets in any of the agreements I've seen. This is with the punted CPA negoti negotiations now without real community input on risks and final federal outcomes and it lets South 32 especially in this coming end of the quarter claim community support in their PR while delaying balance protections on water security traffic and broader impacts. Thank you.

Thank you.

Thank you sir. Karen Riggs Karen Riggs. I'm from Elgen and I am here on behalf of the Patagonia pool which is built on the school grounds of the Patagonia High School. It was built in the early 80s um with the help of the Arizona Land and Water Conservation Fund which works out of the Arizona State Parks. Uh the initial partners were Patagonia school districts, the town of Patagonia, they were the main signers. Um also in the early days, Elgian School and the Little Red School contributed to the project. Um at this point in time, the Patagonia pool survives and it is the only public pool in eastern Santa Cruz County. It serves Patagonia, Cenoida, Elgen, and all the eastern part of the county. It survives because of a nonprofit 501c3 organization called the Patagonia Regional Aquatics Center. I am a member of that nonprofit and the treasurer. Um, another member is speaking to the city or the town of Patagonia tonight. Um, and I have given the board members a letter from our board president. And what I'm here to ask you is for the pool to be included in the nature-based restorative economy and recreation portion of the community infra funding act. Um I have

recently signed up to be on to be a part of the technical committees for the comprehensive plan review. So essentially my organization with very little municipal help. Our municipal help right now comes from the town of Patagonia and it's about three and a half% of our annual budget. Um so everything else comes from grants and other fundraising. So, we have been looking at a way to ask the county for help in supporting this pool. It is open to the public. Children 12 and under are free and we raise $100,000 a year to keep it functioning because we're open from April through November.

Um, so anyway, thank you very much for the time. I hope you'll give me the opportunity, our group, the opportunity to be a part of that um restorative recreation economy part of the agreement and would be um glad to help however we can in doing that. Thank you. Thank you. Thank you, Karen. Anyone else wishing to come up on call to the public? Okay. Go ahead and move on to item D, current events. Supervisor Davis, good afternoon, sir. Good afternoon. Nice haircut. Thank you.

Jealous.

Thank you. So we are all of us attended went to uh Washington DC for the Niko conference and I I'm sure both of you will talk about it but I'm just going to tell you guys that I got a chance to visit the the Spanish embassy. Uh I was able to make a meeting Mr. Chavez uh went with me and we're talking about potential projects in the future like through the through Spain and and uh Santa Cruz County. I'll hope I can bring some updates soon when something is more concrete, but I I think the meeting went very well. Um it was very productive. So, like I said, hopefully we'll bring some good news for for everybody at the county. Also, I attended the love a reading week at Mountain View this this Monday. I got to read two books to a third grade class. Um, it was really really really happy. Remind me when I was a teacher also like I I try to read my kids books every night. Um, so that was really good. And I'm going to go back Thursday to another high school in district two or three. Um and today I went they invited me to Lincoln Elementary School to speak to different different classes about careers. So it was really interesting because a little student took me she gave me like 20 minutes in each class. She counted she took me to the next class and I visited like I think like eight classes and it's always really interesting. That's part of my passion like students and education. So, it was a lot of fun. They they said they're going to invite me for during the year for another event. So, I I guess I did good.

It wasn't that bad. So, I always look forward working and and and still working with students. So, those are some of my updates. Congratulations, Vice Chairman. Good afternoon, sir.

Good afternoon. Um, thank you. Yeah, I'm not going to go into great detail about the uh the NATO legislative conference as well as the meeting with the congressional delegation uh and federal agencies. Um but I I personally felt that uh um we brought our agame. I'm I feel uh cautiously optimistic that uh we will some of our ask will come to fruition. So uh hopefully that'll um that'll be happening hopefully in the near future. Um Monday, uh went out to Cenoida for the community check-in. There was about 10 15 people there. Uh thank you Shannon for accompanying me out there. Um had some great conversations uh about what's happening in the county, specifically on the eastern portion. Uh but it it has to do with the entire county. Um we talked a little bit about uh the discussion that we had in DC. Uh I also took part in Read Across America. I want to thank Miss Tabler and Miss Olivaria class at Patagonia. It was an incredible uh I always have a incredible time. And the book that I I always read is Oh, the Places You'll Go by Dr. Seuss. My philosophy is that you can read that to a kindergartener, you can read that to an eighth grader, you can read that to a high school grad or a college grad. Um so, uh I I I always have a lot of fun with that. So, um very happy to do that. Wish I could do more. Um I want to thank I know he's not here right now to um took part in the vector solutions training. Uh so I want to thank the HR team for for uh um suggesting and pushing that uh that we that we take part in those uh trainings uh related to our positions. Um I want to congratulate Jess Octavio Kajjo. Um she is a sophomore or junior at Rio Rico High

School. She is a a wrestling state champ. Um so congratulations to her. Um we are hoping to have her here sometime in the near future. Uh her brother was also a state champ uh some time ago. So um congratulations to her. And lastly um congratulations and thank you to my loving wife. Uh tomorrow will be 32 years. I'm a lucky fella. Thank you. Congratulations. I want to go back to where I started because one month ago uh as a chairman I sat down with Alma and reviewed the agendas. I personally specifically changed that date because of the conflict and and and being accused of collusion is unfair is really unfair because this board has been nothing but transparent. Look at the meetings we had recently. We brought ADQ. We we brought Chris in here. We do everything possible to be transparent and to be accused like that is unfair. I'm sorry. It's really unfair. Okay. I I said my piece, but I want to go back to my report. I want to wish uh our county recorder had a fall and she broke both her wrists and and I I want to I I hope she gets uh she heals fast and and we need her to come back and and and and and do her

she's probably doing her job from home and uh we we just want to wish her well and uh again we did go to Washington DC and uh in the last three years, we've brought back close to 1520 million dollars. Uh so it's this trip has been really successful in the last couple years. Uh we meet with our congressionals, we talk about our priorities. I don't think we mentioned any of our priorities, but uh a couple examples were our uh Ngalas Wash has lost some panels. So, we met with uh IBWC and uh we're looking at at probably uh we asked them for several million dollars to replace some of those panels because our our uh IO is underneath that and it's compromised. Um other asks were uh uh exit 12 and 17 we with a joint effort with uh our port authority and city in Ogalas and everyone involved. We we want to make sure we get uh both frontages going uh uh north and south. Right now, we don't have a good throughway and we've got schools, we've got trucks, and it's a very dangerous uh intersection there on exit 12. Um, let me see.

Wash. Also wash is also uh another item we talked to uh IBWC about um infrastructure and and we also mentioned the we took the letter that our our our friends from TubeC put together where we don't want that uh that um checkpoint checkpoint to be uh permanent. So we took that to our congressionals. So the message is there. Uh what other priorities did we have? Huh? Deconini.

Deonini. Deonini is a a huge uh it's like a two billion. Is it one or two billion dollar uh um estimate to reconstruct the whole u deconini? But it needs it. It's the next port in line. Yeah, we also talked to game and fish. Um, so it was a busy busy week. Busy week and and I want to thank my two colleagues because uh and our our staff for organizing those meetings. Um, lastly, I I want to congratulate the uh superintendent of schools uh Maya and and Carrie for putting together Read America Week. Uh I had the privilege of uh attending a first Miss Via's first grade class which was super uh organized and uh Mr. Rodriguez's uh fifth um fifth grade class. That fifth grade class is in in in my uh and I was a a former teacher. We're all former educated educators is one of the most mature classes I've ever been in. And my uh kudos to Miss Rodriguez and I will be reading at Calabasas tomorrow. Again, Carrie Maya, thank you for organizing this wonderful event. And that's all I have. Mr. Manager, Mr. Chair, members of the board, just to give you some [clears throat] updates from the Washington DC trip when we met with our congressmen and senators. Uh so we submitted for the we submitted the projects for the uh the direct what is it called the direct uh funding that they have for appropriations. We also uh are in the

process of of submitting uh the interstate I19 Rio Rico frontage road. It's a build grant. We're requesting uh $25 million. We feel like we're in a good position because we have a quarter about a quarter of the funding available. Um and and [clears throat] our benefit cost ratio is high. The other project is very significant. We got on the s we got uh the Santa Cruz uh project the was placed I'm sorry the NAS wash was placed on wastewater infrastructure project which is short for word. um that that that gives us the funding is not secure, but it places the project on the act for $30 million. It's just a little bit of updates of what has transpired. I forgot one two items in Shannon Hall and a couple of us have been working on on a fish a couple fishing events. We have uh a staff competition March 21st where we will challenge all the other departments. You hear that Jeff? You hear that? You guys. So, we're challenging all the departments uh on March 21st to see who pulls out the biggest fish. Freak you can fish. [laughter] And April 25th, uh, The Forest Game and Fish in Santa Cruz County are are putting together a wonderful event, a family event at uh, Pñena Blanca Lake where they're going to do hiking, um, motocross, uh, biking, and fishing obviously. So, we should have a fun family day, uh, April 25th.

and we'll pull as soon as we get that flyer. We're going to go ahead and put it on our website. That's all I have. U sorry about that. Uh at this time, I'd like to entertain a motion to um recess general session, move into flood control. So move second. I have a motion in a second. Any discussion? Hearing none. All in favor? All oppose? Motion carries. Uh Mr. Sanchez Primo, good evening. How you doing?

Gracias. This is the flood control report for uh a period February 1st through February 28th. Well, we did get some rain. Uh not a whole lot. It was below normal. Uh normal rainfall for the uh city of Ngalas is 0.92 inches and we re and we received uh 0.12. Um however because of some of the existing uh rainfall uh that we had in the past the drought category for western uh western Santa Cruz County and eastern Santa Cruz County has uh gotten better. So um eastern uh Santa Cruz County is no longer in a drought and western is in an abnormally dry condition. Um the flood flood hazard information requests uh this month uh was up a little bit. We had 219 uh 202 of those were in the in unincorporated Santa Cruz County, 14 in Ngalas, three in Patagonia. Uh we received seven flood and use permits. Um along with four of those being in Santa Cruz County, three in in town city, excuse me, city of Ngalas. Um and we did receive a couple of drainage complaints. Moving on to projects, uh Ephraim, uh we have an update there. Um we're working on 30 our our consultant is working on 30 30% design stains plans are underway and uh the county is working with uh Department of Environmental um emergency management to extend the schedule. So that's the update for Ephrom. Porto Creek. The Porto Creek letter of map revision

has been approved uh by FEMA. Uh and we are in a 90day uh 90-day um technical period uh for appeals. Um and so as a result of it being approved, um it we're like about 60 days into that period. Moving on to Monte Carlo in the city. Um, our consultant CMG has performed an existing conditions analysis. Uh, we met we met with our consultant uh, Supervisor Davis Davis and other staff members on February 10th and give an update on our progress. Several requests for additional confirmation were made by the county to check the functioning of the current Monte Carlo Basin and other structures that were built upstream of Baffert Drive. Uh those structures being Challenger Basin and Chihuahua Basin. Uh so that's a couple of different areas where we might be able to do some improvements to reduce some of the flood uh through the through the subdivision there. Um, also, uh, we're taking a look at the, uh, box culvert that's underneath Baffford Drive, um, and making sure that, you know, the slope's good there and things like that, so it's not backing up sediment and maybe being part of the cause. So, um, that's that's the other thing that we're looking at. And, um, you know, once once these things have been, uh, analyzed, then we will, uh, look for, um, some different drainage improvement options through there. So, um, moving on, uh, the town of Patagonia did not submit a report this time and, um, also the city of Ngalas did not either. So, that's my report for this month.

Any questions? No. Thank you. Just thanks for keep making progress in Monte Carlo. I appreciate that. Nice to hear that uh, we're moving in the right direction with the rainfall. Yeah, we're going to get hopefully we'll get a little bit more rain now and and this hot weather will go away, but we never had a winter. [laughter] Not very was 31 this morning in my place. So, but yeah, it would be nice if uh we got a little bit more rain. Thank you. Yes, sir. Thank you, sir. Okay, at this time I'll entertain a motion to adjourn foot control. into general session.

Move second. A motion and a second. Any discussion? Hearing none. All in favor? I. All oppose. Motion carries. Um item one, finance, cash, and investments, expenditures, and revenue reports. Yeah. Good afternoon. Good afternoon, uh, chair and members of the board.

Uh, for the cash and investment report in the general fund, we have an overall balance of 24 million 397,172 with an invested amount of 16,720,15. In the road fund, we have an overall balance of 5,590,934 with an invested amount of 5,171,588. In the flood control, we have an overall balance of 3,283,221 with an invested amount of 30 um 311,677. In the jail district, we have 7,847,438 with an invested amount of 4,442,192. uh with a total overall balance of 65,286,978 and an invested amount of 28,786,85 with an estimated end of month balance of 10,693,827

questions. No sir, thank you. Thank you. Any department updates?

Good evening. Good evening,

Ma. Supervisor Davis and Supervisor Fanning County Management. I am Karina Guerrero, program manager with Title One WA. I am here on behalf of Sida Bustamante, our director. I am here uh to give you an update of our agenda. We're currently working with the Nogalis Unified School District and the SER program. We currently have on the agenda a contract with SER and so we are currently working collaborating together to uh work with the automotive SCTTE program at the Ngalis Unified School District and we're hoping that we are able to provide and support 10 of our students. So with your permission I am presenting Mr. Aruro Bas.

Thank you.

Thank you. Thank you. Thank you. Thank Thank you, supervisor. Thank you for inviting me here. Thank you. Appreciate it. My name is Art Basorto. I am the internship coordinator for Ngalas Unified School District for career and technical ed. I've been an educator for over 40 years and administrator. So, I'm here 30 years, 20 years. That's that's pretty good. uh but uh my job is focused on business and industry here in Noales and how to expand that by venturing off and doing this this particular start off with automotive technology. We have a lot of great success stories for that. Seven of our uh of our Nogala students are actually going through a Ford asset program at Puma College. There's only 41 of them in the nation which are paid for by business and industry which they receive an associates degree in automotive technology and then they get their senior master technician status. So they go from 60,000 to 120,000 in two years. So, this is a two-year program that they do and when they complete that, which we have seven of them from Noales completing this May in the automotive program, we want to keep it going. We just interviewed them again and we're selecting the next group that that are actually going up for that. But I guess the partnership expands more than that. You know, working with our youth here in Noales for in school and out of school is really important. Noales high school has 18,000 students, not all of them are going to college. A lot of them has chosen their career path because we talk about career paths and the career paths they decided to go into. Uh we need to really look at our kids here in Noales to help them with their path and I'm here to do that and help you do that. Um I'm really excited

about that program. Uh I know as a coordinator we're we're actually doing 15 right now which ventures off into automotive um culinary arts uh the building trades and fire and service. In fact up to this meeting I need to rush over to the to the city one because we have six students that are going to be starting there in fire and service. Uh we want to expand that for more for next year. I know they have an academy that's coming up for that and putting money into our youth right now is so important. Uh I've got to see that I worked actually in Pima County one stop uh for several several years over 30 years as a internship coordinator for uh all the school districts in Puma County and by far as an educator I've been to every shop in Puma County and by far no Gallas is the best. What we have here is a gem. It's a gem and people want our students and they're going to give back because it's not about just going there and getting it done but it's coming back to their community and servicing our community here in so uh thank you for allowing me to speak and if you have any questions um I'll get to that. Well, we we met this week, right? So, we had a really good conversation. As you guys know, I graduated from Ngalas High School and my heart is with the youth, not only in Ngalas, Rio Rico, throughout the county.

So, I will [clears throat] always support those initiatives. You know, I I I know that place. We we tour that place, the automotive class. It's a nice facility, really beautiful. some of my students did that program. So, I'm very happy that we're supporting those 10 students and hopefully, like you said, we can keep expanding, invest in our youth.

Yeah. I've been coming to uh Nogalas for the last five years and we've had business and industry in Tucson pay for a lot of the equipment that's in that particular program right now. We had Royal Automotive, Jim Click Automotive, Toyota, uh Chapman, they donated money to our program here in Noales to help us out with that and they did a great job doing that. Uh, one of the biggest things is again providing that that where the students don't have to pay for their college. You know, that's, you know, when you talk about trade schools, they're very expensive up in the 60 $70,000 range. And if your dealerships are allowed to do that, because we have some in Horn right now, we actually have some in Horn here in Noales and they're me one of their students that came from Noales High School. Uh here coming in the new cohort. It's cohort number three and it starts with 20 students and one of them is coming from Horn to become a master technician. Yeah. It's really exciting what's going on. I I know that when I went to school, the push from my parents was go to college, get a four-year degree, and took me five and a half, but that's okay. I got there. Um, but uh nowadays nowadays it's trade schools, you know, and it's CTE and it it opens up so much for our kids. And if I'm not mistaken, the at Ngalas High School, the automotive teacher was the teacher of the year from that from the high school. So that's correct.

There's a lot of great things happening, not just in that automotive program, but throughout the county with CTE. So thank you, Mr. Lopez. Yes. Yes. Joani Lopez. Thank you, thank you very much. Thank you. Thank you. Really appreciate what you do. We're all former educators, so it's obvious that we we enjoy what you're doing and and we we we really value what you do because we have great kids here in Santa Cruz County. You do? I really do. And something else really quick, Miss Guerrero, I don't know if you could make a some updates on the on the job fair. They had that it was very successful on the tripaa. They came down just I mean that you guys did a great job. Can you if you could say something?

I will.

Excuse me. We we held aaa job fair uh AAA landscaping. They came down to the office. We held them there Thursday and Friday uh February. I don't remember the name. I'm so sorry the dates, but we it was very successful. They took 20 of our community um they hired 20 people, I'm sorry. And they're coming back March 19th and the 20th for another 20. So, we're very very excited. We It's a lot of work, but we're there for them and support our community the best that we can. It's very exciting to see. I don't know how to express this, but when you see people that are looking for employment that are really struggling and they come in and they walk in there and they get interviewed on the job on the on the moment and they get approved, it's very very emotional to see them walk out of there and have a lot of faith and say, "I have a job. I have something to support my family." It's just it's breathtaking. It's Awesome.

Yeah. Thanks. Thanks for everything. Thank you. So, when we get the new information for the the one that is coming, we'll push it out for everybody that is looking for a job in our community. March 19th and the 20th. Okay. Thank you. 8 o'clock. Thank you. Thank you. Thank you.

Good evening, Mr. Bus. Good evening. I wish we could be saying good morning instead. We all do. [laughter] All of us.

Mr. Chair, members of the board, county management, members of the public, just a few updates. Uh the first one is our auction has been completed and done and entered into our systems. To give you an update, we advertised 6,953 parcels that are delinquent. Um 338 of those ended up not going to sale due to payments received. Um we have a total of 420 registered um investors or participants. From those 420, 80 of those were qualified bidders that participated in this auction and we had a total of 741 parcels that were bidded on. Um and a total of 2700 bids that were placed for this auction. Um the total that we were able to sell this year was 698 parcels. U with back taxes for a total amount of1,205 20,524 um which was about $150,000 above from prior year and an increase in bidder registrations as well from prior year. So it's looking like the trend is going upward and we're hopeful that in the years to come we will continue to sell more. Um so that is for the auction. The other update I wanted to provide is I was also able to attend the legislative conference. You guys were not aware of this, but I did sneak out to meet with uh the Gria's office and team as I'm now joining the NLEO organization. So, the National Association of Latino Elected Officials and we were able to have a meeting around the census that this administration changes to the census that this administration is trying to input. Um, specifically, it caught my interest because we our funding comes from the census as well, some of our funding. So since we are a high Latino community, it could really impact us. So um just letting you know that I will be

definitely joining that uh and partaking with those meetings with NLEO in DC and the legislation. So we can possibly have some impact on that and make sure that our community is not impacted um when it comes to funding due to the current administration's craziness. Um the last is a recommendation. Um I from every meeting that we're having and we have these called to the publics. I'm also hearing it from outside or some of our constituents. My recommendation is to reach out to some native born and raised Santa Cruz County residents to get their input on the mic. Um, I hear everybody's concerns and I appreciate them because we all reside here, but and we can continue to look into all of those implications or impacts that it'll have, but we also want to see Santa Cruz County grow. And so the Santa Cruz County born and raised natives, local people um should also have a say in an input um into what is going to happen and how it's going to happen. So just a recommendation if we can try to do some additional outreach to our community um so that we can also hear from them.

Let me make a quick comment on that. I will basic I I'll try to visit the people that work for the m that live in district one. I requested to talk to them and see their what they think. So and I've been going out to the community, but that's going to be one of the efforts that I'm going to be doing in the coming weeks. the the most common theme I'm hearing is yes, they're concerned about the impacts as long as they can be worked out, but they know that the impact there could also be great impacts and positive impacts to the county. Um, and so I think we should just hear more from the natives locally, born and raised Santa Cruz County residents as well. Thank you. Thank you. Thank you.

Any other departments? [sighs] Sorry to Jeff. Sorry to put you on the spot, but the the the health department has also been doing a really great job doing the the food handling class. They've been doing some in Spanish, some in English. I mean, is there any way that you can provide like a little update like cuz or Yeah. Anybody from the health department because you guys have been doing really really good. I personally visited one one and and and I want to commend your your office.

Uh yes. Um um as been mentioned uh our office recently restarted providing the food handler certification course. Uh that was something that we did on a monthly basis uh since my since I started here uh which was uh about 15 years ago. Uh but due damic we stopped providing the course obviously because of some of the restrictions uh etc. And uh uh with the availability of a lot of online certifications because of the pandemic um that was one of the only options that we we and lack of staffing as well that we were doing it in person again. But um due to demand and and something that we felt it was important to provide to the community, we we restarted that program. Um provided an exam too. We made it um you know it's a little bit stressful for the participants because uh previously they just can't set for the course. Um but now we we are uh administering an exam. So that that is something that uh to ensure that food handlers are adequately trained and they know the material. uh because when we go out and do these compliance inspections at all our food establishments, uh we want to make sure that the people working there are handling food safely uh for the community. Uh but it's been a great um these past two months have been, you know, really well attended. Um each course each class is, you know, 20 people have been registering. Uh Chairman MTO was there at the first one, uh gave some words uh for for everyone, but it's it's uh promising and we're just going to continue to do that. Uh we might be looking into exploring a manager certification class which is a little bit more in depth uh because the code does require a uh manager on site. Uh that's something that we might explore uh depending on the demand but um yeah it's successful and uh we're excited.

Thank you. So so that day somebody came in wanted to join that class and it was full and and he came and talked to me. So I went and and spoke to Jeff and they were kind enough to to give him a space right later like he emailed me and said like he was very happy because he passed that exam. So so thanks for everything that you guys are doing. Thank you. Thank you. Anyone else Shannon? Is there any update on the button [laughter] on the or Jesus on the what animal control? Animal contribution button.

Okay.

Gary, you're next. [laughter]

Greetings, Mr. Chairman, Commissioner Dave or Supervisor Davis, Supervisor Fanning. Um, for those that don't know me, I'm Colin Bishop. I'm still I'm not a native Santa Cruz County resident, but I got here as fast as I could. So, um, it's my pleasure to serve as a community development director. And over the last few months, we've had been able to engage the community at at high levels and and other levels. And so, the big thing on the docket this year is the comprehensive plan. So, we hear a lot of the conversations are going on in the community and I think the good news is from a positive standpoint, the comprehensive plan is going to give us an opportunity as a community to rally around all the things that are important to people. And it's a way to look at it high level, envision it, and then set those goals for Santa Cruz County's future. So, we're very excited about that process. As part of that process, we felt it was very important to have it be a stakeholder process. Um, so the first step we're in the process of finalizing hiring a facilitator for that public engagement process and then in the coming months we're going to have uh first there'll be uh public rollout meetings around the county to all the different areas so that people have an understanding and the public does of what the comprehensive plan is and what the roadmap is for it. And then following that will be technical advisory committees where the different goals of the plan. So if people are enthusiastic about housing and the issues there, there's there's an opportunity there. Uh water we know is a big topic. So water is going to be one of the goals of the comprehensive plan. You know, transportation, infrastructure, um anything related to what goes on in our county will be part of that plan. And of course, we're statutoily required to have that plan. Um so once we come out of that with the technical advisory

committees um then we'll again have another round of public engagement and and again the whole goal of that is to make sure that we get the plan right in terms of visioning where we want to go as a county. Um that will then lead to changes in the zoning and development code. Um there's some needed updates with that. It's been 10 plus years since that process has taken place and people have a lot of strong feelings and opinions which is which is of course welcome um about you know buildings, housing, structures, commercial development, you name it, you know wildlife corridors um all the above. And so again, we have a great opportunity to figure out how to stitch all that together in a meaningful way so that we can attract not only the type of people and families that we want here, but the type of of development that we want to see. So we're we're heavy into that process at this moment. Um I'm also part of one of the grants you'll hear tonight that's on the consent agenda, the recompete grant. So I'm involved in that process um with the wildlife corridors. Um and then we also have a number of other initiatives going on right now. So

thank you. Thank you sir. Mr. Chair, also like to say Colin has a very a background of very technical on waste water treatment and water treatment. So he's helping us out on Oslo Canyon and some of the other endeavors that we have. He's taking a look at the tube uh park entrance park and see if maybe that's something that the county can undertake. So, he's he brings a a lot of knowledge to our team. Thank you.

Okay, why not? Let's be here all night. [laughter] Just kidding. Uh good evening, chairman, chairman, um members of the board, uh county managers, and of course, community members. Uh my name is Carrie Moses. I come from you to I'm the chief deputy at the Santa Cruz County School Superintendent's Office. A couple of things I'd love to talk about. Uh last week we had a great uh family resource night at Ngalas High School. We had over a hundred uh kids uh seniors and uh families and uh the whole community was invited. Uh we had over 50 uh community resources there for kids and we gave out four scholarships and bunch of door prizes. Um tomorrow night, please come and join us. Uh we will be at Rio Rico High School uh tomorrow night for family resource night in Ogalas High School. This is actually our fifth annual the Gear Up team uh doing the family resource night. So we're excited about that. I'm sure you've seen it all over social media. Um we also have um thank you so much for participating in ReadAcross America. I know uh you gentlemen did as well and some of the u uh employees at the county were able to go and read. um that's going to be finishing up this week. And I'd like to uh kind of point out uh Paloma Paras did that whole organization and it's not easy because you're working with all the schools and all the volunteers and every single classroom. So um that's a great great event that we do every year. Um then of course we have our literacy bus at the uh road to 250 um that the city of Ngalas is putting on on Friday all day. Um so we'll also be there with our literacy bus. Um, and we're also taking Boys and Girls Club members. Uh, the Santa Cruz County School Superintendent, Maya Donnelly, is um helping with the bus transportation for the Boys and Girls Club members to join that event. It was really hard to get all the schools there because it's early release

that day, the day before spring break, but a lot of schools uh we made sure to invite all the schools. Um, that's about it. Of course, you know, we we have grants going on, too. We're trying to get we just um uh um let's see there's a grant that we're trying to get for our internship program. Um so that's something that we're looking forward to and there is new uh gear up funding coming in 2026 that we will be applying for. Okay. Thank you. Thank you. Thank you. Thank you.

Good. Good. Good. Anyone else? Okay, we'll go ahead and move on to item three. I I believe I I heard from Mr. Munoz Edgar Munoz is over at the city meeting.

Yes. So, he will not be here. We'll go ahead and save that one as well for the next meeting. Um and we'll go ahead and move on to item G. Study session. Item one, early action community investment uh agreement with the city of Ngalas, town of Patagonia and South 32, presented by Chris Young, Deputy County Manager. Good afternoon, Chris.

Uh good evening, Mr. Chairman, Supervisor Fanning, Supervisor Davis, uh county leadership and public that's here tonight. Thank you for the opportunity to speak towards this. Um before I start this presentation, I'll just answer a couple things that were asked in the call to the public that were mentioned. Um first of all is asked if we could give updates. I have no problem with you guys or providing updates during future meetings about this process. Uh that's perfectly fine. Um, as far as sharing the scopes of work, everything we do in the in the meetings is by consensus. So, I'd have to run that by the the other signatorries. Um, one thing that Pam said that I agree 100% with was we got to get these things going. It's about time. So, in my opinion, we're actually behind schedule as far as getting this stuff going. So, if you want to go to the next slide, [snorts]

I'll start off. All right. So, so this agreement is an important first step to a broader collaboration uh between Santa Cruz County, the city of Ngalas, the town of Patagonia, and South 32. As it says up there, this is not the CPVA. Okay? The CPVA will be completed once we have the once we have the uh final environmental impact statement and the biological opinion by the federal agencies which I hear today was scheduled to come out on Friday but once that comes out the focus is going to be protections and analyzing that. So that's what that's why we want to make sure we get this out now. This agreement focuses on early action investments that address immediate community needs while the larger process continues. The main purpose of the action items in this agreement is to improve the quality of life for the citizens of Santa Cruz County. If you look at these action items that we're going to go through, the focus is to take away barriers that a lot of the people in our community have. Okay. We must ensure that the decisions and investments are guided by data-driven strategic planning. The early action projects included in the agreement were directly created from the 2025 University of Arizona regional gap analysis and also the topic specific focus groups. These two items identified key areas where our communities currently face challenges including emergency services capacity, community health infrastructure, early childhood education and child care, housing, and

other community services for the county. And I I would say this for all signatories, but I'm only speaking for the county now. There's three main priorities. First of all, the protections. Environmental protections remains central to all discussions related to development in our region. Number two, the town of Patagonia. Patagonia is located close to the mine and therefore it is essential that planning and investment consider the needs, infrastructure, capacity, and character of the community. And number three, planning. We want intelligent countywide strategic planning. The projects included in this agreement focus on studies and strategic plans that will allow local governments to make informed decisions. So go ahead and go back to that the slide previous to this. If you look at the agreement which is online, you'll see that the basic format is the same as the other funding agreements that both we have and so does the town of Patagonia. Okay. And one thing that important to mention as I mentioned protections is the most important part for the signitories. This actually ensures we wanted to make sure that we got this in the agreement. and it ensures the funding to to exercise the the protections roadmap. Go ahead to the next slide. And once again, these are the areas that the UOVA gap analysis identified where we have large gaps in our community. And once again, these are focused on the barriers that we need to remove to make sure the people in our community have the have opportunities to be successful. Next slide, please. So now when we get

into the early actions, the first one on the list is the protections roadmap. Okay? And and I won't go into detail about this because it's been online for quite a while at the CPBA website. So if you want to look at what the road map is, I invite you to look at that link and and spend some time reading it. Next slide. Emergency services. Um, I believe some people in this meeting were in the were in the uh topic specific focus group that dealt with emergency services. And the first thing that came out is we need to do an assets analysis. We need to know what we have before we decide what we need. And so the first thing up here, what you'll see is the independent emergency services audit, the expand fire and EMS infrastructure. Um, that's for the volunteer fire department there in Patagonia. And I'm not going to talk towards the ones for Patagonia as much. I'll let them speak for themselves. I'll mostly speak about the countywide ones. Um let's go to the next slide. Um as Pam mentioned or Miss Limy, sorry I don't know if I can call you Pam. Miss LMKY. Um community health was a huge one. And what you'll see the common thread through these are we have a health access problem in our community. It's amazing the amount of medication and just health supplies that Mariposa Community Health Center delivers to people and they're still short on vehicles and things like that. So this is designed to help that. Also you'll see two items for mobile to support mobile health units. One of them is to support Marapos Mariposa's health mobile health unit so they can get out to rural areas and homebound people. The other one is to support our local health department here with Mr. Jeff Terrell the director uh so that they can also get a mobile health unit to provide

vaccinations and other needs for our community. One interesting one and this is Patagonians but I just want to mention it that very [clears throat and snorts] last one that's a big deal. They have they just have one small clinic out there in Patagonia and if you look at the numbers in the agreement there's a pretty big sum of money to to expand that and provide better services out in Patagonia which is a big win for that town. Next slide please. This one as everybody knows is a very dear to my heart. Um and this is just to create a strategic plan for child care in our community. Um, it would be very simple to just copy a plan. For example, PEEPS that Puma County uses, if anybody's familiar with that, it's a wonderful program, especially it's driven through the WA program or the workforce development program. It'd be very easy to uh just pull a program and bring it down and start funding it, but we want to make sure that that's what this community needs. Obviously, it works in Puma County. It may not work down here. So, we want to study it and we want a strategic plan for child care. Next slide. This is a big one and this title is very long and cumbersome. Um, and it will be refined, but it's been mentioned a couple times tonight, I believe, as far as the nature-based restorative economy, and this goes right along with the protections. Um, as Colin mentioned, we're going through the comprehensive plan. That's going to be a big part of our comprehensive plan. One of the one of the most amazing characteristics of this county is our beautiful natural resources, our mountains, our open green spaces. We want to preserve those. And so we also want people to enjoy them. And so that's what what this study is also going to do. And and it has a CIP. That's a capital investment plan.

All fairness, Supervisor Fanning told me to spell that out like 50 times and I never did. I apologize for that. But that's a capital investment plan. So it creates the that's going to put the plan of what things need to be purchased, capital investments that that need to be purchased in order to make that plan happen. So for example, maybe it's improving gravel roads for gravel cycling. Maybe it's clearing trails. There's some amazing one thing that you notice working for the county is you you see all the amazing separate initiatives that our community does. So, for example, out on Elgen, you have the initiative for led by Robert Proctor, um, Tom's Trail that they're doing out there in Sonoa. And so, people need to know about that. They need support. And so, this will create the plan to help those types of initiatives and continue the successful ones that already are are ongoing. Next slide. Um, obviously housing is a big gap nationwide and so we currently have a housing strategy 22 to 27. This needs to be updated. It also needs to be uh be a little bit more defined and we really want to focus on professions like teaching. If you noticed in the healthcare one, there was one for Mariposa. That's for them. So, I'm not going to talk towards that, but they have a residency program and one of the main problems that we have for teachers, for doctors, for a lot of professions that can't maybe starting off they can't afford their own house. We need to find a way to get those people in houses if they want them. Next slide. And this last one is is for Nogalas. they have a situation with their sewer and I won't talk to too much about that. So, those are the early actions. I believe there's 16 of them total. Um, what questions you have for me?

Uh, thank you, Chris.

I uh I take part in the CPBA meetings myself as well as Chris. We represent the county. Um lot of discussion takes place um regarding uh what what we see here tonight. Um I want to reiterate that protections are our number one priority and I will continue to focus on that and I really am looking forward to taking at look at the FIS um and moving forward with protections. But this right here uh and and I would say I would argue that there's items in here that deal directly with protections in some form or fashion. Um, [snorts] as has been mentioned many times tonight, I come from the uh the um background of an educator and as a principal um administrator for the majority of my career and looking at test scores and looking at data, datadriven decisions are incredibly important and I think this is based on data driven decisions. Um, there's a saying that I used to have up in my office, without data, you're just another person with an opinion. So, I thank you and I and I thank the University of Arizona. They're reputable. They're respected. Um, they did a wonderful job. Um, taking a look at our county, I know they reached out to to many people. So, this is data driven. As far as uh um folks being involved in this situation, um I know there's at least two people in this room that were part of the focus groups. Uh and and I I certainly thank them. Uh there was a lot of discussion and a lot of thought put into who should be part of those focus groups. [clears throat] when you have law enforcement, when you have uh uh fire chiefs involved in the

when you have uh others that have backgrounds with uh anything dealing with the health uh emergency services, they needed to be on there and they were. Um I would say the same thing with education. If I'm not mistaken, there were super uh superintendent uh that were part of that. Um I don't know if there was anyone from the county school superintendent. Um, but I I know that uh I sit on a board with uh Poncho Padilla, First Things First. I know that he was part of this and that's going to continue to be my focus. Um, but uh I I want to thank all the folks that were part of the focus groups on this. So, I'm very comfortable with this. Um, I I am happy that we're moving forward. I look forward to the the fruits of of our labor. I know that the majority of what we saw this evening is um bringing in uh studies to take a look. Uh I I someone in the audience, I can't remember who it was, mentioned that, you know, there there's some information that's already out there and I want to make and and I talked to Poncho Padilla this morning and they have some of that information. So, I want to make sure that that we continue to reach out to folks that have that information um as we move forward uh with this. But, you know, the uh the studies that are going to take place, the audits are going to take place, that's going to be a lengthy process in in and of itself. You know, perhaps six months, perhaps a year. So, we're not even looking at um any of this coming to fruition until 2027, right? the many of the things that were mentioned tonight. Um, lastly, I want to reiterate how I started this this uh talk and protections are our number one priority and now that the fees fis out, I look forward to delving into that, taking uh information from the community, the folks that are here

tonight and um once again making data driven and decisions. Thank you. One thing I do want to mention, I'm sorry, um that I didn't read here. Um I know a lot of people are concerned about, you know, the CPBA process and I just want to emphasize that it will be a different process. There will be community engagement for the CPBA process and we are looking at it. It's going to take a while and that's why the urgency we have to do these things here because like supervisor Fanning said these this stuff takes a while and so we got to get it going. But the CPBA process will be a different process and it will have community engagement. What is the next step

for the early actions? No. No. Moving forward, we all get a get a very large cup of coffee and read the FIS. That's the next step. No, I just I just want all of us to know where where we're headed. The whole process period.

Yeah. No, of course. the the next process the next step is we start working on the on the actual CPVA and that starts with the protections part of it um like I said the road map it's there on the website so we're going be going through the steps of the road map um as far as the early actions um depending on who owns the early action um there's a question about funding so it'll we'll go through a reimbursement process through the county uh for the ones that we own so for example surprise surprise Vice Collin will be doing the the housing strategy study and so we'll go through the entire process for that. Uh but so we'll be working on we'll be working through the road map as a group and then at the same time we'll be working through the through the early action process.

Okay. [clears throat] So Mr. Young take me back a little bit. So the early action like th this committee right how were the who was involved from and how were they chosen from all the from from the county town of Patagonia the city. Sure. So the signatory group, so the representatives from the town of Patagonia, um the city of Ngalas, South 32 and the count and us um South 32 didn't obviously didn't choose the early actions, right? Um it was between the three entities focus groups or how

the people who are representing the signature like myself. Yeah. Later I'm going to ask about the focus group. Yeah. the the like you and Chris. Okay. Who was involved from the different ones from from the town of Patagonia, from the county and the city? I guess I'm still confused for choosing the scopes choosing the early actions or choosing the people who were on the early actions. Early actions. So is the representatives from each entity, the signatory groups. Yeah. But who were they?

So it's supervisor Fanning and myself represent the county. Um, usually it's the mayor from the city. He's the one who usually goes, although Councilman Bonius has gone before. Um, and then from the town of Patagonia who are there every time is Mayor Wood and and the town manager Ron Robinson. Okay. So then you you guys did that study with the UVA, right? Yes. gap analysis and the who were part of that local topic specific focus groups.

Oh man, the list the I can't remember is I believe it was during the summer when we did it but there was maybe five different groups and they were chosen by the signitories and we need those names now. [laughter]

It's about so there's about 10 people in each group. I can honestly tell you that each one of the signitories um thought about it and and they did their very best to invite those people who have the background in the in the uh topics that were discussed today. For instance, like like I said earlier, the uh emergency management, you know, Pam was part of Go ahead, Pam. I was participate but they were also invited to myself.

Right. that emergency that emergency specific group was pretty pretty quick to to come up with stuff and that's why we're starting with the assessment because that was the first thing and most important thing that was mentioned. So I'm sorry I don't have the names of everybody. It was about 10 people in each group. I believe there's four or five different groups. Um but yeah, how they describe the process that's how it was. So I see all these early actions, right? [clears throat] And I only see one for Ngalis. Is that correct?

So, what I will mention is, and I'm not going to speak for Ngales. Um, but what I will say is that everything that says countywide on there, uh, for the most part, we're the ones who are going to own those studies, but they will include the town of Patagonia and Nogalas. But as far as the specific actions for Nogalas, I I don't I can't speak towards those. So based on that gap analysis, [clears throat] Ngalas got the reimbursement for the sewer and the water engineering study. Yes, that's that's the one specific one for just Ngalas.

Okay. Correct me if I'm wrong. Ngalas kind of lacked participation a little bit. Um the mayor the mayor attended most meetings. I will say that the mayor did attend most meetings.

Mr. Chair, um members of the [clears throat] board, I had a question during uh the gap analysis that UOVA performed for for the group was that the gap analys identify uh gaps in the city of Gals. Do you recall that? So the the there if you it's online and so you can it doesn't it does recognize different gaps for different regions. So you can go look at what was identified for the for no gallas. Yes. But a lot of them were similar kind not all were the same and they are ranked in priority. Um but but a lot of them were the same like housing. So so based on that study they could have been more items here or no? If they would have wanted to put more things we definitely would have listened. Yes,

but only based on the study. Yeah. Well, and the topic, the focus groups. I'll go ahead. I was just going to say, Mr. Chair, we need her to come up so she can

come up and state your name just for the record, please. Um, I was just going to say in the emergency preparedness group there was a general consensus because we really reached consensus pretty quickly because we're all trained to kind of think the same way and communicate the same way in addressing these sorts of issues. Um, the the GAP study that was done didn't even begin to really address what the needs were with our particular uh area of focus. And so that's why we recommended the things that we actually recommended. It was my understanding that uh all the signitories when they looked at it were a little unhappy with it. At least that's what we were told. And we were told in our group even that South 32 was also unhappy because they didn't feel that those that thing that they spent $450,000 on really began to address the problems that needed to be addressed. They wondered who some of these people had been talked to. Um, I mean, I'll just use this as an example. One of the first things that we all discovered when we all got together is that there's two 911 systems in this county. And so, what that means is that calls get transferred and there is a delayed response to emergencies and that is just untenable.

You know what? That's an issue we need to take care of. uh if if we ever get to meet with the city uh I I think that's something that needs to be taken care of. I I I there were people from the city and so that's why we actually suggested due to the communication difficulties and whatever has allowed this to exist and compromise the safety of our residents that we suggested you bring in somebody independent to um assess it. Um, you guys know Ry from emer I mean there's a lot of people on there. You can get a list. There was somewhere between 10 and 20 people.

One one of the things before Jay uh speaks is I think you you said something important Pam when you said that the University of Arizona you wondered who they had talked to.

Okay. That's why it was so important for us to make sure that the people in those specific topic areas were part were were able to meet and discuss because you can get these studies and I like I said I support I respect their reputable University of Arizona. They did a great job but unless you're on the ground or live here sometimes it can the issues can get lost in translation. Thus, the importance of having local folks that that have a pulse on emergency management, they have a pulse on education, they have a pulse on um you know uh um the the uh uh recreation um restorative economy. Um so I just want to kind of piggy back on what you said

things like traffic studies like we all got together like one of the things that happened is fire and um He's talked about not just emergency preparedness, but and he's got a great trucking background. He can fill you in, but we talked about what's going to happen if there's an accident because we already know what happens in terms of collaboration with other agencies. You know, sometimes when we have a big truck accident in this county, it takes all of our resources. We can't really afford that if we have a mining accident involving a truck. So, there's a lot of studies that need to be done. And um I know more about healthcare than I do water, but please get a water study, too. You bet.

Go ahead, sir.

Yeah. Thank Yeah. Yeah. I was involved with the emergency services focus group and which was for me it was a little bit of a odd placement from one standpoint but recognizing that there's going to be a lot of risk primarily with transportation we all um I was w I welcomed it because I've I've owned lots of trucks and there's going to be fatalities there's going to be big big big problems from that regard and that's a risk we don't need here in the county from a basic standpoint I would agree with Pam and what some of the others said too in in that the UOVA study. You know, there were lots of questions about it going in and it was and again when you do look at all the people who did participate in it um there weren't any community people to speak of involved in it. It was all governmental people which is fine and and of course it was all it was mostly AI generated. That was some of the issues that really came out from the beginning. You got to engage with real people to get this stuff done. Period. I'm a planner by career. So, this is just wrote stuff. And so, the thing that really impressed me with this particular group was not what I had to bring to it or anything else. I just took what I heard and put it in a planning process. And that's what I you all saw it. I mean, because I put it out to everybody. Um, and those are and there were a lot of contentious points made about the lacking issues around that study. And we agree we agree when you look at the people that that they tasked at UVA to do it. That was part of what uh was intimated in that meeting that South 32's disappointment was in it is that it wasn't a good inclusive study that really addressed everything to meet. So when you heard me before at these meetings say they're gaps in the gap study, that's what it is. period. It's

as simple as that. What I must say though too is the people in that meeting there, and you can go through the list on them, there were wonderful county and city people that were truly pouring their heart out on the on the planning needs for what their impacts or what their issues were. So, it goes off to starts off again with impacts, protections, and how do you move from there? And so I will give that group all the credit in the world and they should be listened to in detail because they have the solutions that's needed to go into this stuff here that we're talking about today that I don't see.

Thank you. What I will say is when we do that study and we identify the stakeholders, we will use the people that were in at least some of a lot of the people that were already in the focus groups because they're the ones that brought it to our attention.

So I just I just want to conclude conclude with this. So if if this gap analysis was one of the ideas is to remove the the barriers for the some community members to be successful. I hope that it's it's good that it's really starting, but I would like to see more of of of that in the in the for district one. It's to me it's a little bit disappointing to me. I'm not blaming anybody. I know that everybody has worked very hard. I I think the county will do good. The town of Patagonia is going to do good. Uh I wish I could see more items for for district one in the future. That's just that that's just me. So my recommendation would be you know the the document allows for more items to be uh added so that we can do more early actions and so maybe at the meeting on I believe it's March 11th is when the meeting is with no gallless maybe that can be brought up.

One more question go ahead and come up and or or if you want to make a statement. Yes. Um I saw uh your uh [clears throat] my name is Chris Woff. Yes, sir.

Um I saw your uh pretty empty table of protections, right? And your statement that you want to wait for the uh [clears throat] final ES. My suggestion is that you should look can look at what happened already in the DIS and the commands people gave on what they think is missing in the EIS as submitted by our governments. Right? Basically, [clears throat] you will find a lot of subjects that are very critical to the environment and the health of the people. There are many subjects in and the EIS is basically a rubber stamping of what ADQ produced in the past years on air and water. That's that's all it is basically. So when you look at those permits you will find very easily what is missing there caps so to speak what is missing there in the water the control of the contamination of the water how it's being calculated same holds for the air you can find in the air permit all the information you need for your protection opportunities I'm I'm very happy to help you with that if that's needed. Thank you.

Thank you, sir. Thank you. And this this is a work in progress, right? The this agreement so this agreement can be added to or taken off, right? Um the scope of works have to be created and they have to be consensus by all signitories.

Okay? That's why if you look at it the under the template for the scope of work there's a signature for all four. Um so in that sense it is a it is still in progress in that sense but the legal the legal part of it and the agreement that's that's done. The only thing that may be adjusted would be the scopes of work and if one or more early actions want to be added, we'd have to talk about that also. But where the work is going to the majority of the work that's going to happen now is going to be towards the CPBS or the CPBA, sorry. Yes, I I I personally want to thank all involved and and and I want to thank everybody for continuing to um just provide dialogue and uh and interest and we are listening. Thank you. And Chris, I I really want to thank you because I know this is a very big project and very challenging and and I know that you have worked like so many hours in this [clears throat] when when I come I always see you like working on it. It it's it's challenging. So, but I do appreciate everything you're doing and trying to get all this information. I know there's a lot of opinions, there's different perspectives, but the work that you're [clears throat] doing is very valuable.

Thank you. I appreciate you saying that and I appreciate the support from from you three. I I appreciate the support from Mr. Supervisor Fanning being there. Uh he always keeps us on the on the straight and narrow and making sure we're we're focused and I appreciate the the county leadership for the support also. And also, I mean, the town of Patagonia has has really been a driving force in this. Um they have really done a great job and so I want to commend them also. Thank you. and and thank you, vice chairman. Thank you for your involvement. I we really appreciate you. Okay. Thank you.

Thank you. Thank you. Uh item two from Insight to Infrastructure, Santa Cruz County Health Priorities and Measurable Path Forward 2025 2030. We're gonna have to reschedu that because our consultant is like two, three hours ahead of us. So, we're gonna have to reschedu that. Okay. Sorry about that. No problem. We'll we'll address it early next time that way.

Okay. Thank you, sir. Uh I believe we have item three government 101 roles responsibilities of uh public fiduciary Cecilia Mahia and staff. Hi how are you? Hi no staff me. Okay

good evening Mr. Chairman members of the board members of management and members of the community. Uh for those of you who don't know me, my name is Cecilia Mahia. I am the director for the public fiduciary department. Um I've been working with the county for very long time. I've been working with the county for 35 years. 25 have been with the fiduciary department and eight have been as director. Um, and just to add that when I was asked to do a presentation and to do a PowerPoint on the duties of the fiduciary, I'm like I I was confused. I didn't know how to do it because I practice. I do my job every day, day in day out, but to put it in writing and present it, it was very difficult for me. And I learned that this department uh it serves the community, the our elderly in the community and it's uh it's actually a very re rewarding position to serve our elders in the community. Okay. Uh next slide please. Uh so just a couple of stat statutory authority. Uh basically the public fiduciary uh it's it's guardianship. Uh it's the title 14 is a guardianship for all. It could be for adults, minors. Uh that those are the most statues that we work with. Um the 5602 pretty much gives us the duties of what

we have to do to perform as a fiduciary and then the 145651 basically talks about the licenses. We do have to have a license uh in order to perform our duties as fiduciaries. Uh and I'll talk a little bit more on that on the other slide. uh our organizational structure uh it's a it's a small department there's only six of us in the whole department uh I have a deputy fiduciary the senior secretary and then the three case managers are the uh employees that are out in the field that are actually out in the communities doing everything that needs to be done to help the the ward that We've been appointed to um the employees in our department have been there over 10 years except for uh Dulce Ramos. She's our newest employee. She's only been there about a year and a half. Uh she came on board after uh the retirement of one of our other fiduciary uh case managers. Okay, next slide. and some of the uh procedures that we go through. Um I'm not an elected official. I am appointed by the board. Uh like I mentioned that we do have a license. We're governed by the Arizona Supreme Court. Our license, we have to renew it every two years. Uh we do go to trainings with a fiduciary association which is statewide. Every county fiduciary and has to have that license.

Uh and we do have credits that we have to abide and present in order to renew our license. uh we do get credits like for ethical and some other um things that we have to abide by. Um that's basically it. Okay, next slide. So one of our key functions is the fiduciary is a courtappointed uh healthc care decision maker. We are courtappointed, guardian and conservator. The conservator of course handles all the financial part of the uh of the appointment. We do receive refer in order to get appointed. We do receive referrals. we have to go uh present it to the judge and then once we get appointed then we start our process as a guardian and conservator. Um the public fiduciary is appointed guardian for vulnerable adults and capacitated persons. Um and then of course and it's sad to say but our once we get appointed the ward when that ward um dies then they become the descendant and then that process turns into a personal representative. So once we open the case as guardian and conservative we have to close the case as uh as personal representative for that

ward. So our once a ward is appointed we have to go through the whole process once uh from opening to closing of that person and everything's filed with the the court system. Okay. Next slide. So this are just some of the duties that we do. Um, one of the things I do want to talk about and point out is the uh the annual accounting report. Um, everything everything's courtappointed by the judge. So, we have to respond back to the judge as to what it is that we're doing for that ward, which means how are we handling their finances? What have we done with that ward? How many times have we visited? And we have to file it in the annual date of when we got appointed guardian. So, it's a set of whole bunch of paperwork that we present to the judge. The judge actually um reviews the whole case and if they have any questions or if there's an expenditure that you know raises a red flag to him he will call us and and ask us to clarify what was this expenditure for. Um our office we save receipts for everything. We have accountability for every penny that is spent on that ward. Uh we do have paper trays uh for every expenditure. Uh we do have uh you know we have to report also to the county uh finance

department on a yearly basis like with bank statements. They get a they review all the bank statements. They also have uh uh questions if anything that u raises any questions on any of the expenditures. So there's a lot of paperwork, a lot of things that go into how we handle the the funds for the ward. Uh we do pay other uh bills, utility bills, rents, uh insurance premiums, uh anything that has to do with that ward, we take care of. Um again, okay, next slide, please. Um so we service the wards that we service are it's a variety of elderlys with dementia. We do service the u uh disability population as well. We do become their guardian. Uh SMI the severe mentally ill. We do have clients with uh mental illness, traumatic brain injury. So, it all depends on the case and how once we get appointed, how we we service and and help that ward. Okay, next slide. Uh we do work with a lot of different agencies throughout the community. Adult Protective Service is our number one um referring agency. Adult Protective Service will are kind of like your frontlininers. They're the ones that are out doing their investigation. If they see that there's nobody uh family members or anybody willing to serve, they will appoint they will call

us and and refer the case to us. Adopt protective service sees a lot of uh financial um financial abuse, not so much physical abuse, but a lot of financial abuse and it could be either from family members, neighbors, whatnot, but we do get a lot of cases from them. Mariposa Community Health Center. A lot of the doctors will also call our office and refer cases to us. Seagull. Seagull is the agency that uh provides home health care. Uh and actually uh the case manager for SECO is inside uh my department but they're not a a county uh employee but we do share uh services like they can refer cases to us or we can go to them and ask them if uh if this person will qualify for their services. So, we help each other out with the services that they provide as well. Dependable home health services. Uh dependable is it's actually an agency. There's other agencies in the community, but again, they as well go out and serve the uh the ward, the ones that are living in in the homes that need the services. uh senior living apartments. Um that's the housing. We do have um wards that are living in different housing around the community. for example, Bowman U, Las Casittas, Santa Cruz, um th those are the kind of the housing

uh we work very close with their managers to make sure our ward is is you know well taken care of and and other needs are being met. the Santa Cruz training program. They have uh those are like the DDD population, the the disability disabled clientele and then hospice services. We work very close with the hospice agencies. Um, so it's just a lot of communities, I mean agencies out in the community that we work in conjunction with to to serve our wards. Okay, next slide. That's pretty much it. Um, any questions?

Question, gentlemen. I have a statement and a question. Um, first of all, the statement is thank you. Thank you for all you do. It's incredibly important. Um my my question is it says accepts the the responsibility of an incapacitated person. What is your ca what is your normal case load of of folks that you uh take take care of? Uh right now we have a case load u about 53 wards that we have, but they're not all here in in Santa Cruz County since we're so limited in resources here. Uh I I do have a lot of wards placed in nursing homes in Puma County.

Okay. But we still go and visit them and with a with a small staff. It's very impressive all that you do, especially for our most needy folks. And I know um Supervisor Davis, you know, has has an incredible working relationship with our elderly elderly. So I I know that you do great things. Yes. Thank you.

I I too personally want to thank you for you and your staff for what you do because uh it's unfortunate but these people are abused a lot in in many manners and you've witnessed it and uh I personally thank you for what you guys do. Yeah, it is sad to see that there is a lot of abuse financially exploitation. Oh, there is a lot of it's awful. Yeah. Thank you. We got to take care of our elders. So, yes, I know it could be challenging at some point, but but thank you for everything that you do.

You're welcome. Thank you. And and like earlier, we were talking a lot about the schools and the uh youth and the community. Well, I'm here to talk about the elder population. [laughter] Um, but yeah, that that's pretty much what we do. It's Thank you. Thank you, Mr. Chairman, members of the board. Um, Cecilia, is there is there any uh hospice facilities here in Santa Cruz County?

Yes. Yes, there is. Um, there's one in particular, uh, Solistic Hospice. They're very good. They're they're local. They're out of Tubac. Uh the other uh dependable the dependable agency also has hospice uh and they're local here in in

Ogalis. Mr. Chairman, members of the board, I just wanted to make a comment as well. Uh every year our finance department has to go through an audit and we are um we need all the all the bank accounts, all the financial accounts, savings, checking accounts of all the different departments if they have any. And uh Cecilia and her team, of course, she's dealing with, you know, right now 53 bank accounts. I just want to make a comment that she's always on time and they're always balanced and they're always reconciled. So she's really good at what she does and with her staff. Thank you for that.

Thank you. Thank you. Um like I mentioned the uh uh it's it's very important to me that we're dealing with other people's lives and also with other people's funds, their social security benefits. A lot of our wards don't receive very much uh they don't receive big amounts of social security, but what they do receive, we work wonders with it. And and receipts and accountability, that's very important to me. Thank you. Thank you. Thank you.

Okay. At this time, I'd like to entertain a motion to resist general session, move into jail district. So move. Second. A motion and a second. Any questions, discussion? Hearing none. All in favor? I. All oppose. Motion carries. Uh item one, discussion, possible action for authorization to fill two vacant detention officer positions. Budgeted. Right, Mr. Chairman, members of the board, they are budgeted. Thank you. Entertain a motion. I move second. Have a motion and a second. Any discussion? Hearing none. All in favor? I I. All oppose. Motion carries.

At this time, I'd like to entertain a motion to adjourn jail district and move into uh general session. I move. Second. Motion in a second. Any discussion? Hearing none. All in favor? I. All oppose. Motion carries. [clears throat] Uh item I action items discussion possible action to approve early actions community investment agreement with city of Ngalas town of Patagonia and south 32 for community protections and planning and authorize the county manager to sign the agreement. At this time I'd like to entertain a motion. A move second.

I have a motion and a second. And I want to thank Chris for the presentation and your hard work as well as uh our vice chairman and our volunteers. Thank you for your service and continued uh work. Any other questions, discussion? Hearing none. All in favor? I. All oppose. Motion carries. Okay. We have item two, discussion, possible action to approve proclamation declaring 2026, March 2026 as Santa Cruz County government employee appreciation month. Want a motion? Yes, sir. I move second.

I have a motion and a second. I personally want to thank all our employees, all the department heads, elected officials, everyone that does an amazing job in Santa Cruz County. Any other boards discussion hearing? None. All in favor? I. All oppose. Motion carries. And we have item three from consent agenda. Right. Mr. Manager removed. No. I don't know. Yeah. Yeah. Okay. That's correct.

Discussion possible action to approve professional service agreement with STR jobs for progress of Southern Arizona, Inc. to provide work experience services from March 5th, 2026 through May [snorts] 29th, 2026 for a total cost of $49,499.82 or a cost per participant in the amount of $4,949.98 for WA. At this time, I'd like to entertain a motion to approve. I move second. Motion and a second. Any discussion? Hearing none. All in favor? I

I. Motion carries unanimously. Okay. Item J 1 through seven. I'll entertain a motion to approve consent agenda. I move. Second. Motion a second. Any discussion? Hearing none. All in favor? I. All opposed. Motion carries unanimously. I believe all we have is a German, Mr. Manager. That's correct, sir. Okay. Uh, this time I'll entertain a motion to adjurnn. I move to adjourn. Second. A motion, a second. Any discussion? Thank you, Nikki.

Thank you, Nikki. All in favor? I. We're now adjourned. Thank you.