Board of Supervisors - Regular Meeting

I I was just informed by a county attorney that this meeting has been postponed and we will be hosting it April 31st. Goodbye. So, have a nice day.

Thank you for your clarification, Vice Chairman. With that said, I'd like to first of all welcome you all. And before we get formally started, uh I want to set some ground rules. Just please place your phones on silent or or vibrate. And uh if you do come up on call to the public, please uh state your name for the record and address and you will have three minutes to speak. We'll go ahead and wait one minute to officially start. Good morning. Welcome to our Santa Cruz County Board of Supervisors April 1st, 2026 board meeting. At this time, I'd like to call the meeting to order. And uh uh honorable uh county recorder Moreno, can you lead us in the pledgece

to the flag of the United States of America and to the stands nationy and justice for all. Next, we'll go ahead and move on to item B, adoption of the agenda. Mr. Manager, good morning, sir. Good morning. Uh, there is no changes to the agenda. Okay. At this time, I'd like to entertain a motion to adopt agenda and allow chair to deviate as needed. I move second. Have a motion and a second. Any questions, discussion? Hearing none. All in favor?

I I. All oppose. Motion carries. Next we have call to the public. Uh I have several slips here. First one being uh Mr. Ben Lomale. Good morning, sir. Good morning.

Good morning. Morning.

Thank you. My name is Ben Lameli. I reside at 456 Camino Ramanote in Rio Rico, Arizona. And uh I'm going to use my three minutes as fast as I can because I got a couple things to cover today. Uh I want to first of all thank you for the opportunity to speak today, but also for uh the community water I'm sorry, community wildfire prevention protection plan. That was an excellent product. I am here to support them. They've done a marvelous job. It's complete. It's clear. It's concise. It's accurate. It covers all applicable for factors including social, environmental, ecological, ground level, infrastructure considerations and it's well organized and it was professionally written. I only have a few comments because uh it uh has to be a living document in this world. The only thing constant is change itself. And so things are changing. Uh and so thanks for the members of the public that provided input for the leadership, the fire districts and our emergency services department. Uh precipitation patterns are changing. You will call it whatever you want. Temperature regimes are changing. Uh now we have a year round fire season. There's no doubt about it. It's not just, you know, here and there. Uh the land uses are changing, the population is changing and uh our fire regime is changing and fire plays a very important role in our environment and our economic uh future and all these things affect each other. So we need to be sure that uh we consider these changes and that the plan is a living document that our fire district chiefs and our emergency services and all of us participate in

providing input to what those changes may be that affect our fire regimes. We need to be very careful because uh we need to be able to enforce our our development codes. There's a lot of unauthorized uses out there that pose some fire hazards as well as uh hazardous material, contamination hazards, and all that needs to be considered in this community wildfire prevention protection plan. And uh again, thank you to all those involved. They think they've done a wonderful job and I hope the supervisors and uh all the leadership endorses it and keeps it a living document. Also want to talk about South 32 water because often we only hear how they're using 90% less than any other mines. Those other mines are not here. They're not affecting us. What needs to be looked at is the dewatering. 6.5 million gallons per day. That's almost two million more than all of Rio Rico and Ngales, Arizona use together. And we need to also consider the potentials for contamination from that deatering. It's not just the use, it's the dewatering that we really need to look at. And so let's be very viligent and aware of what's going on there because uh we're getting ready to prepare that plan. Thank you very much.

Thank you, sir. Thank you, man.

Maria Mendes. Yes. Buenos. Okay. sensor the nutrition main

Loses is a program that's uh run through the superintendent in the schools. I want to commend Maya and her staff. Thank you. Susan Phobian. Susan Phobian, 20 Kent Avenue, Rio Rico. Gentlemen, thank you. I have a car. I picked it out. I'm responsible for servicing, maintaining, and any needed repairs. It's my responsibility. A few years ago, there was a seat belt recall by the manufacturer. I took the car in. The issue was fixed. I paid nothing because the manufacturer accepted responsibility for the issue. They acted justly. I wasn't punished for the car choice I made. It was not my liability. I come here seeking justice. I bought a house with a perfectly good septic system. However, my line was placed on the neighboring property approved by you. The neighbor cut and capped it. He is held harmless because it was on his property. I was requested encouraged to complete your form for reimbursement of my expenses incurred during my 4 and a half months with no plumbing. On December 18th, I submitted my form. The total was approximately 10,500. It included the cost of my new septic line. I was scoffed, insulted, humiliated,

and offered less than half. I didn't even include the cost of my destroyed landscaping. I am a 77year-old widowerower, a 26-year resident of Santa Cruz County, and it feels like you're just waiting for me to die. and have this disappear. I am way too healthy. That just isn't going to be happening soon. And I'll need to see justice before I stop showing up here. A verse for you. Zechariah 79a. This is what the Lord Almighty says. Administer true justice. Show mercy and compassion to one another. Do not oppress the widow or the fatherless. Thank you.

Thank you. Thank you, Susan. Kathy Ser.

Good morning. I'm Katie Ser. I live at 37 Santa Trudis Lane in Tumakri, Arizona. and um I am addressing you as the president of the Tubback Pickleball Club. Uh Chairman Mero, Mr. Fanning, Mr. Davis, and staff. Um I'm here today basically to tell you that Tubback Pickleball Club has 130 wonderful members that get up every morning and go to the pickle ball courts that you own and enjoy the heck out of themselves. They get good exercise. They run around. They have a lot of fellowship. we do a lot of um potluckss and fun things together beyond just pickle ball. So, I want to thank you for um allowing us to do that on those courts. Um our 65 plus mix team uh won third place bronze in the states yesterday. So, we represent Santa Cruz County well. Um we are well known, TubeBac is well known for um having great players. So, uh I did bring a short little video clip if we can play that. Something special happens every morning. It starts with a simple sound and before you know it, it becomes something you look forward to every day. A game that's easy to learn and impossible to walk away from. But here in Tombac, it's not just about the game. It's about connection, friendship, and showing up for each other.

Moments shared on and off the court. Yeah. All in a place that feels like home. The two back Pickle Ball Club. Come play with us

in the heart.

It's a visual representation of what I was saying. Um, so I am here to tell you today, thank you so much. Thank you for the lights. Um, they are well used. We are out now able to play in the evenings when it's cooler and we're not all fighting to play between 5 in the morning and 7 in the morning because that's a lot of people hanging out trying to get on the courts. Um, also thank you for the recent um landscaping materials. Uh, we were able and it's really was kind of hard to see, but we have completed a landscaping project with your help. It looks fabulous. People come down from Tucson that play with us and say, "Wow, this place looks amazing. It's comfortable. It's beautiful. And um then they go into town and spend money and and we like that, too. So, it's a win-win. And we could not have accomplished that project without Santa Cruz County. So, we provided the labor, but you provided the guts, and we really appreciate it. And um I've asked I'm going to pass out. We have our annual meeting coming up on Sunday, the April 12th, and we are going to do a ribbon cutting and celebrate the fact that uh we have lights and we have beautiful courts. So, thank you very much. Appreciate it. Thank you, Kitty.

Maya and Carrie are going to take their rackets that day. You, too. Thank you. And congratulations. Super happy for you. Anyone else wishing to come up on call to the public? Okay, we'll go ahead and move on to current events. Supervisor double Davis. Good morning, sir.

Good morning. First of all, um Mr. Worquez and Miss Montell are here. It's nice to see you here at the at the county meeting uh several months ago. We I I had a meeting with Mr. Worquez and we used to have a like a joint meeting pending between the county and the city. So, it's really nice to see you guys here. Welcome. I I had a chance to attend the Circles of Peace screening at Pearson. They they feature the film Shrek. It was well attended by a lot of families and community members. The sheriff's department provided like free popcorn. So that's always good. Um I also got to attend the grand opening ribbon cutting ceremony of for the department for the Arizona Department of Agriculture new federal state inspection office. So I want to congratulate everybody involved in that reaching an important milestone. Also Jordan Toyoso salary Arizona outreach coordinator for Senator Ruben Ggo came down and visit us and we did a little tour and I took him through Nalis. He wanted to get a sense of Nalis and like district one. So we did the one of the first stops was Chucanos Porlaca. Uh we had a good conversation. the county manager was with us. We talked about housing and um it was a very productive convers uh conversation and now that I'm here, I would like to thank county management, especially Mr. uh Colin Colin and Mr. May for working really hard. I saw those emails going back and forth and provide that letter of support for for that project for the for the Baffer Street housing project. So, thanks for that. Now that I'm here, I also want to thank county management, especially Jesus Valdez, Mr. Valdez for also providing a letter of support for Yvandel Galo for the Mocktuma Hotel

project downtown. So like we wish them luck. They're going to apply. They're going to go through this process and we look seeing this projects in the near near future. Um, so on part of that other visit, we we went to the old courthouse and and uh Terry Spring and Francisco Veto gave u Jordan from the office of Senator Gos a tour of the old courthouse and they provide a lot of information on the on the programs they provide to the community and and the different services. So So thanks Maya on that and and all your office. Uh we also stopped with the Mexican consulate and uh the conversation was to talk about like the border dynamic, export, import, trade, commerce and especially education opportunities like scholarships. We also stopped at the Santa Cruz Council on Aging. We we had a chance to talk to uh had a meal with them. Uh

thanks for the invitation by the way. Right, Mr. Chavis?

We appreciate the invitation. I mean, I I told the county manager, I don't know what happened there. I'm going to blame it on Jesus. So, so yeah, it's always good to go to the council on aging, great food, uh your music. We had a lot of conversation with the people. So, at the end of the day, it uh and lastly, we stopped at Losenitos. We I took him to Lositos. Uh that person was really nice because when we we got there, we forgot that we couldn't pay like we needed to have cash. So, and there were some former students of mine. So, we got snow cones and we but we didn't have money. So, the guy was like, I know who you guys are. Uh, come come back and pay us. So, so I mean that felt really good, you know, that trust. So, so at the end of the day, the idea was to bring somebody from Senators Ggo's office to come down to learn about our community to see how it works, the different programs they offer, the different challenges that we have to um and potentially the idea is to bring Senator Gyos down to Nalas and and we're working on that as well as Senator Mark Cali and everyone else. So, those were some of my updates.

Thank you, sir. Thank you, Vice Chairman Penny. Good morning.

Good morning, sir. Um, first of all, I want to echo um Supervisor Davis's uh welcome to uh um Vice Chair Montiel and Councilman Bhorcus. Thank you for being here. Um and also uh Nogala school board member Cesar Lopez. Thank you for being here. Um much appreciated. Also, I wanna uh I just had the fine privilege of speaking with a young lady, Iris from France. Um she is uh she is going after her PhD uh and she is attending the University of Arizona. So, welcome to our neck of the woods and go U of A. Um a lot of things a lot of different things over the last couple of weeks. First of all, the spring choir concert by Challenger School at the 1904 courthouse. Thank you so much for the invite. Um Maya, it was absolutely fantastic. Um we had a uh county uh fishing uh expedition at Pña Blanca Lake and had a lot of fun there and I had a fish on on the line and it got away. I swear that's the truth.

Yeah, whatever.

Um I want to thank uh is uh Ben, I want to thank you. I want to thank uh um CLM and I want to thank Anna as well as Chris, Colin, and Shannon for being part of the three-day growing waters smart um oh goodness. What uh growing water smart uh what's that? Workshop. Workshop. I always get that. Um we talked a lot about water in Santa Cruz County throughout the entire county. Um and hopefully some great things are coming our way, but I want to say thank you to Ben for being part of that. Last week, I did have a meeting with the US Border Patrol uh up in Tucson. It want to thank Under Sheriff Castillo for for being there representing um the county. Um whether you agree with and and we talked basically about the wall that's being built and whether you agree with the wall or disagree with the wall, one thing is for sure is that uh there's a lot of great technology uh that's being put in. So, I'm not I'm not here to say pro-w wall or or or against a wall, but I will say that that meeting opened up my eyes with a lot of uh a lot of uh technology that's going to be used. I want to thank Alma and her crew um for consistently doing some great things uh especially for the uh the uh employee appreciation that we had last week. It was absolutely fantastic. So, thank you to you and your team. Um, also last week I had an opportunity to with along with uh deputy county manager Chris Young and Shannon Hall, we had a chance to uh go to the Ngalas airport and take part in an eco flight. We flew from the Ngalas airport all the way to Amato and back. And if you ever have an opportunity to do that, I would highly recommend it. flying uh parallel with the river. It's it's amazing to see the green that is associated with the river and then as

you further you get away from the river or or water in general um it turns brown real quick. So it was just an outstanding uh opportunity to uh take part in that. Um and I want to thank Mike Quigley uh for setting that up. And that's my report. Thank you, sir. Thank you. I first of all want to start out by sending out my uh condolences and prayers to the Bengham Coronado family. And Benamin Coronado is the father of one of my favorite athletes I coached uh at Ngalas High School. Uh my prayers go to the family. Um

as well as the Breer family.

Yes, sir. Yes, sir. Um I uh want to go ahead and uh uh welcome our partners. We have people from ADOT uh the public schools, Ngalas Unified, uh city council. It's good to see all you guys here. Thank you for attending. Um Shannon, thank you for organizing our fishing event, our employee fishing event at uh Pñena Blanca. Uh it was fun. Not a whole lot of fish catching, but we had fun. Thank you. Chris, also thank you for for your help. Uh Maya, I want to commend you and your staff for the for for inviting us to the Challenger Elementary Choir uh program. It was a beautiful program. Uh they do an awesome job. Thank you. Um Alma, uh congratulations on the employee appreciation lunchon. Your staff has always hit a home run. Roxanna made a ro Leche Tabita killed it with the office uh

feud

family feud game department against department. It was a blast. It was good to see elected officials participating department heads. It was fun. Thank you. What a great event. Um and and uh we also attended uh small counties and our our board meeting uh last week in Phoenix. Uh a lot of lot of bad election bills coming out that we're having to push back on. Um and uh lastly, congratulations to UOVA on a great win and good luck this weekend. Hopefully we can bring in the championship. Yay. Right, freak. All right, Mr. Manager.

Mr. Chair, I'll be brief. A couple things to report. Uh I also want to recognize Alma and staff and everybody who uh put coordinated to put the event together for uh employee appreciation day and also for the elected officials who were willing to donate and make the the event uh exciting with all the prices. So thank you very much. Um also if you notice on the our agenda has changed a little bit. There's a more information on every item. I want to thank recognize Alma for doing the research and putting that on. So if anybody has questions, please uh talk to me after the meeting or Alma and we'll be happy to uh answer any questions. Thank you.

Thank you, sir. We'll go ahead and move on to item E, Department reports and activities, finance, cash, and investments. Mr. Chavez or Maria? I think she said Mr. Did she? Yeah, she did. Good morning, Mr. Chair, members of the board,

members of the community. The cash and investment report, the general fund has an overall balance of 22,671,445 with an investment amount of 16,767,38. The road fund has an overall balance of 5,715,963 with an investment amount of 5,186,189. The flood control district fund has an overall balance of 3,49,649 with an investment amount of 312,557. Our jail district fund has an overall balance of 7,767,591 with an investment amount of 4,454,733. So total for all funds overall balance is 63,961,154 with an investment amount of 28,868,075. We have an estimated end of the month balance of 9,284,52.

Any questions, gentlemen? No, sir. Nope. Okay. Thank you, sir. Do we have any other reports wishing to come up and present? Morning, Colin.

Good morning, Mr. Chairman, Supervisor Davis, Supervisor Fanny, uh, County Management, and all those attending today. Um, my I'm Colin Bishop. I'm the director of the community development department, and I just want to give you a brief update on a couple of items. Um, first of all, yesterday was the conclusion of a grant that we uh, finalized for cuisine tourism up in the Senoa Elgen area. So we worked with a outside consultant kind of feverishly and furiously over the last two months um had a community engagement meeting um with a stakeholder group and the final work product from that will be coming out in the next few weeks on that grant I think everyone in the county will be well pleased. More importantly, it was important. We want that process going forward to be something for the Senoid Elgen community um in terms of them being able to have that as a tool in their toolbox to kind of future vision where they where they would like to go in terms of developing that area. So, we're very excited about that. And so you're aware and supervisor Fanning has been part of that process, but there will be um a public engagement meeting in the next few weeks to kind of roll that out to the community up there in Cenoida Elgen. Um the other thing I want to discuss is the 2026 comprehensive plan. So on the consent agenda today is the facilitator uh contract that we'll be hiring. So we're also excited about that process as well. we've the last couple months and especially want to thank Shannon Hall uh for her efforts in engaging community members um to start that comprehensive plan process. So I've previously mentioned that up here before but that'll be ongoing throughout this year. So once we hire the facilitator, the next step will

be engagement of the technical advisory committees. And we're happy to report that we've had to date um I think 65 people have volunteered to serve on those committees. So, we're very excited as we develop the comprehensive plan that that's communitydriven um from the ground up so that as we vision the county for the next 10 years um we get all the input from everybody that has an interest and all the voices are heard so that we can then develop that tactical road mapap of of the great vision that we all come up with together of how we accomplish that. So, um, that's my update and I'd be happy to answer any questions.

No, I just want to say thank you, Colin. I I thank you. First of all, I already mentioned being part of the growing water smart. Um, your expertise and knowledge base were uh, incredibly uh, it was very much apparent during that entire process. So, thank you. I also want to say thank you not only for the comprehensive plan and reaching out but also the the Senoid Elgen cuisine and tourism. I think including the uh the community that it's going to most affect is incredibly important and in doing so uh solidifies the the positive reaction that that we'll be receiving hopefully. So thank you for uh always always thinking about the community.

Yeah. Thanks. And and like I said before this, I know you were key um when it came for that for that uh chosa application, you and Mr. May, but I know that you were able to come out with a way with this short notice. So, I really want to thank you again for for sending that letter of support in time so they could apply for that project on on the Feer Street. You're welcome. Thanks. Thank you. And thank you for your leadership. Thank you, sir. I personally really appreciate it. We're happy to have you here. I'm most grateful to be here. Thank you, sir. Thank you. Thank you for joining our team.

Uh I failed to mention one of our other partners. Uh Olivia Kramer's here with the chamber. Uh welcome. Any other departments? I I want to before you say anything, I want to thank your department. The finance department does an amazing job, especially when we put them on the spot and have our five o'clock meetings. I know I've been yelled at several times, but thank you for what you do. We really appreciate it. And they're all here. They're all here. Thank you.

Good morning again, Mr. Chairman, um members of the board, uh county staff, and and members of the community. Today I'm gonna um it's a bittersweet moment. I'm going to ask uh Rosie to stand up and and come by my side. We're gonna um say uh farewell for to to Rosie after many years of of county service. And I wrote uh down some um some some points that I wanted to uh emphasize for her. Um, today we honor someone whose presence, dedication, and spirit have shaped Santa Cruz County for nearly four decades. Speaking on behalf of Rosie is both a privilege and an opportunity to reflect on a career that has embodied commitment to public service and unwavering support for her colleagues and community. For over 37 years, Rosie has been a steady and trusted member of our county family. In her work with finance and across departments, she has exemplified professionalism, reliability, and a genuine care for people that she serves. Now, anyone who has worked with Rosie knows she was highly dedicated to cross departmental collaboration. And by cross-ep departmental collaboration, I mean Rosie took her time visiting every corner of the county complex, sometimes for longer than just a quick hello. That's okay.

We all know the scenario. Rosie would step out just for a minute, maybe to drop off a form or check on something, and suddenly she'd be on the Grand County white tour catching up with folks from finance to the treasur's office over to the board and even maybe a detour or two along the way. If steps were tracked back then, she'd be our wellness program champion. But the truth is those visits were part of what Rosie made was so special. She wasn't just doing her job. She was building relationships. She was sharing warmth and connecting departments in a way the county made feel like a family. Those long conversations, those friendly check-ins, they were part of the legacy that she'll leave behind. Beyond the humor, Rosy's professionalism, consistency, and heart made her someone we could always depend on. Whether she was helping process paperwork, coordinating with colleagues, or guiding others through financial tasks, she brought patience and genuine desire to help. Her work ethic and kindness have left a lasting imprint on all of us. Rosie, as you move on into retirement, we hope you enjoy many long and unhurried visits, but this time with friends, family, and urgency to get back to the office. After over 37 years, you've more than earned that freedom.

It's 44. Okay. 44. I stand. Let's get the record straight. 44. Marishia was just testing you, huh? Yes. I'm glad she corrected Russell. Thank you for everything you've given to Santa Cruz County. We will miss your presence, your humor, and your signature departmentto department strolls.

Okay, congratulations, Rosie, and enjoy every moment of your well-earned retirement. And of course, go Wildcats and bear down. Thank you.

Thank you. picture.

All of a

s squeeze that squeeze. Thank you.

I'll just announce it real quick here. M Mr. Chair, members of the board, will you allow us the time to read off uh the the plaque that we have presenting to uh Absolutely. Okay. Thank you.

So, uh Rosie Puon, senior administrative assistant for the finance department. with heartfelt appreciation for your outstanding dedication and loyal service to the county. Your commitment, professionalism, and kindness have made a lasting impact on the team and the community you have served. Happy retirement. Thank you.

Just thank you.

Thank you, Mr. Thank you, Rosie. Thank you, Rosie. Any other departments wishing to come up? Mr. Chair, you have one more recognition. Yeah. Yeah.

We have give him a time out, please. Good morning. Good morning, Chairman Mleta, Supervisors Davis, Fanning, County Management, members of the community.

Uh, quick update from the school superintendent's office. I wanted to congratulate Rosie and thank her for doing the brackets all those years. I hope her bracket hasn't busted. Um, so just a quick update. I wanted to let you know that uh our finance office, our accountant, Francisco Bayester and Carrie Munos, our deputy, continue to work hand inand with the district business managers and Alejandro and Betatina and the treasur's office to improve um procedures and um just working hand inand through the process of the bank transition and so on. So, um happy to report that we have a really good working relationship with the business managers uh throughout the districts. Um, in our grant side of our office, we have some pretty good um, news to share. Couple of grants that are coming our way. I don't know if you recall a year ago we were awarded project felt and that was to um provide literacy hubs throughout the community and it helped fund our Santa Cruiser, our mobile library and in partnership with city of Ngalas and the public library and um the UFA cooperative extension and the family resource centers. We were able to provide more early literacy services for young families. While we were notified that there was no further funding from the Department of Education for this grant, we were then again notified that yes, we will receive under a different grant name, preschool development systems building. We'll be receiving a new contract pretty soon at $100,000 for another year of services. That's great news. We also just found out that we were awarded a National Endowment of the Arts grant, NEA, for $40,000 for the next year. This one is tough because we've been applying for these uh National Endowment of the Arts and National Endowment of the Humanities for a long time and this is the first one that we get. Um so we're very happy about that. We'll be able to continue to fund Armando Moreno, our artist and residents with those free art classes that everybody loves and then introduce three more artists and residents. Joe Wright with writing, uh Nefties with

some rap and poetry, and then um uh Stevan Michichel with uh sculpture. So, we'll have some really rich uh programming going out throughout um the summer and the rest of the year. This is super exciting with National Endowment of the Arts because we are an affiliate of young audiences. We are the only one in Southern Arizona, as a matter of fact. And um we call it Santa Cruz Arts for Learning. And Carrie and I just went to a national conference in Washington for young audiences. And we continue to try to um provide arts education in our community, in our schools. and the National Endowment of the Arts is the primary funer for young audiences. So, that's good news. Uh we continue to try to fund our hub um our college and career access center in the community college. Carrie is hard at work applying for all kinds of different things through um through um excuse me, my watch is making noise. Through uh Helios, through a grant called the Catalyst Challenge. We are trying our hardest as the department of education kind of makes a shift with its college and career readiness grants from the department of ed to the department of labor. We're kind of left in limbo with gear up with TRIO with talent search, but we our our our quest never ends. Uh and then we also have a stop grant that's out that we hope to be hearing um about soon and that will prevent uh violence and risky behaviors um for uh seventh graders. and we are going to focus on charter schools in the downtown area to provide those services for that one. Lastly, it is April, woo, it's April 1st. Um, and that is early childhood education awareness month. It is our 10th annual that we are celebrating and that is why we asked that family to come forward and share a little bit of information um with you all from our Los Padres program. Thank you to Melissa Gyos and Erica Mskita who

are here today and for bringing that family along. Um this month raises awareness for the need of early childhood education ages birth to five. We all know um how important these formative years are in this month and I have calendars to share with you all. We have wonderful partners that we've worked with for the last 10 years. This is the UOVA Cooperative Extension, Mariposa Community Health Center, the City of Ngalis and the Public Library, Child and Family Resource Centers, First Things First, Department of Economic Security, Child Care Resource and Referral, and of course, Head Start, the Child Parent Centers. Um, this calendar, and I will also share lots of copies at the back of the room, has a whole month full of events and activities for the whole family to enjoy. And so, I will leave you uh a big stack in the back, okay? and share digitally for Shannon to share on the newsletter. Any questions?

No, just thank you for all you do, Maya. Thank you, Carrie, and thank you to all your team. Congratulations. Thank you. Thank you. Congratulations. And thank you. Any other departments wishing to come up? Okay, we'll go ahead to go on to item three, recognitions and accomplishments. A recognition of Arizona Department of Transportation for its efforts in maintaining clean and safe highways and for its continued dedication and service to the community. Mr. Davis.

Yes. First of all, I want to I want to say that I'm very happy with the relationship that the county has with ADOT. Like every time that that I email them, Mr. Sanders is not here right now, but they answer within like I mean an like an hour. I'm not exaggerating. Jeremy's here, too. So, that's always good, you know, like they always answer emails. If somebody comes and talks to me, I can I can reach out to them and and I know they're going to like answer really quick. And they have met with me. they have met with constituents and and they're always there to help. So besides that, the a lot of people started noticing the difference in in the highway. Actually, Mr. Arola, he's here. He he noticed that difference because as soon as you come into NAL, you cross the border, you see the the highway different. So, I want to really thank like AOT for their help for keeping the the the freeway clean and safe. So, we have a recognition. If you guys can come up, please.

You want to say anything? I Yeah, go ahead. Go ahead.

I I too want to thank AOT uh for several reasons. Uh number one, the medians the the medians that you're cleaning are are looking beautiful. It it it gives a a great appearance to our community. and my backyard, Ruby Road. You guys have uh are almost complete with a repaving of uh Ruby Road and and I thank you for that because uh there's a lot of cyclists that go back towards the lake. It's it's a wonderful challenging ride to for cyclist and uh so thank you. Thank you for all you do and your partnership more than anything. Thank you. I just want to reiterate um what Supervisor Davis mentioned. Um thank you for being attentive to the needs of Santa Cruz County. I know we're we're a long shot away from the the Maricopa and the Pumas and and those counties, but uh every time that I've reached out to anyone from AOT, there's been um immediate uh response. So, thank you for all you do.

Thank you. So, um you know, my name is Jeremy Moore. I'm the uh ADOT, you know, South Central District Administrator. Um, and like Supervisor Davis said, we've got a great great relationship down here with everyone and and we have a good time, you know, working down here and a lot of friends and and uh good good working relationship, but really at the end of the day, it's it's these three gentlemen and their maintenance unit that's down here in the Gallas that's uh that really does the hard work and takes care of the of the roadways and the vegetation. So, with all due respect, you know, the the congratulations goes to these guys right here. So, thank you guys.

Thank you for having us. Yeah, thank you. Thank you.

Good job, guys. Lastly, we have another employee retiring and uh we hate to see him leave. He's also been an institution. I I'd like to take this moment to recognize Jerry Mononttoya for his many years of dedicated service to Santa Cruz County. Jerry began his career with the county in December of 1996. That's over 29 years ago. He has become actually close to 30 years. Uh he has become an essential part of our operations and public works. Throughout his tenure, Jerry has taken on important roles, including servicing as both the landfill manager and the roads foreman. In each of these positions, he has demonstrated strong work, work ethic, reliability, and deep commitment to serving our community. His knowledge, expertise, experience, loyalty, and willingness to step up were ever needed to make a lasting impact on our counties. Jerry represents the kind of dedication and institutional knowledge that keeps our county running smoothly. We are grateful for his years of service and the example he sets to others. Thank you, Jerry, for your continued commitment to Santa Cruz County. Uh, and good luck and God bless you. Come, can you come up, please?

All right. Your plaque reads as follows. Jerry, presented to Jerry V. Mononttoya in appreciation of your years of dedication to Santa Cruz County, December 30, 30th, 1996 to April 10th, 2026. With heartfelt gratitude and best wishes. Wonderful.

Yeah, absolutely. Thank you, sir.

That's the year I graduated from high school, 1996.

Okay. At this time, I'd like to move into our study session. Uh and the purpose of study session is to receive information, review materials and engage in detailed discussion on the matter presented. Study sessions areformational only. No action or decision will be taken. Item one, South 32osa, uh quarterly update by Pat Risner. Pat, good morning, sir. Good morning. Morning.

Good morning. Morning, Mr. Chairman, uh members of the board, county staff, members of the public. Uh we appreciate as always the opportunity to come in and provide a quarterly update. Uh hard to believe we're already at the second quarterly update of the year. So, uh, time's flying, but we have a lot of information to share and some I'm going to start with just some photos to kind of give people a sense of what's going on at the site. Um, and then cover some of the other topics. So, this is what the construction at the site looks like. I'll just give a few progress updates. Um, the the two shafts, which are the two tall head frames in the background, are are uh progressing well. Uh, we're at 50% complete on one, about 65% complete on the other. Um the under the first mining level underground's been developed and we're still looking for the first shaft to complete in July. So that work's been going on for a couple of years. I think the foreground is where there's a lot more activity going on at site now than maybe six six to nine months ago. That's where we're building the zinc processing facility. You can see it starting to to take shape. Uh we're approaching uh peak construction workforce which will be between 900 and a,000 in total. Um we typically only have about 250 to 300 on site at any given time. Um just a few things we've talked about in the past and you can start to see it visually. Uh we talked about keeping the the footprint or the disturbance of the mine small. That area where the process plant is because of the technology that we're using uh would typically be about double that size. And so it is a quite tight small footprint which is important as we've said uh to minimize our disturbance and our impacts on things like biodiversity, cultural resources, things like that. Um I do have a sort of a rendering of what this will look like when it's complete later in the pack that I'll sort of refer back to. If you go to the next slide, please. This is

just what it looks like from the other side. Looking back at the site, um, all of the primary infrastructure is contained to one block of private land that's about 200 acres. Um, we've talked a lot in the past about how many of the other large mining complexes in Arizona are 10,000 plus acres. I think Morency's about 40,000 acres. So, just to kind of give you something to compare to, but this photo pretty much captures the area most of what where where most of the construction and primary infrastructure will be. So, Harshaw Road's right below you at the bottom of the of the screen and that's the road up from Harshaw Road to the site. That area in the foreground, we're prepping to start construction on two unique pieces of equipment that are also part of what's uh different about what we're doing. So, we'll start building the tailings filtration plant there. That's the facility that allows us to recover, recycle, and reuse all the water coming out of the process plant. Um Mr. Lameli referred earlier to 90% less water use. That's the new technology we're deploying to achieve that. Um we'll also have a facility there that will uh process all of the rock that comes out of the the process plant to take it back underground to backfill the mining areas, which is a big reason why we're able to do the underground mining without surface disturbance. So that part's progressing well. The total construction progress is now beyond 50%. We're approaching about 55% complete with first underground mining set to occur still on track for next year. Next slide, please. This is just uh a photo of the bottom of the shafts if people want to see what it looks like underground as we're sinking the shafts. This is about 1450 ft below the surface as they're lowering equipment to begin development of the the first mining level underground. Next slide, please. Uh so just some updates on permitting uh

both the federal and state side. A couple of state updates. First, if we go back to February, I think my last update to the board was in January. Uh two things happened shortly after that. Uh the air permit that had been there had been a limited reopening of our stateisssued air permit that was issued last year uh to address some reporting and moni and and reporting and recordkeeping issues. So, five issues that had been identified. Uh, those changes were made and it was reissued by ADQ, uh, reviewed by the US EPA, um, and and back in final form. Uh, the other thing we did in February, uh, in the leadup to issuance of the final environmental impact statement, uh, there was a a step we took to ensure Clean Water Act compliance with the the decision that the Forest Service had to make. When the forest service approves any action that results in discharge of water, potential discharge of water into waters of the US, um they have to ensure clean water act compliance. Uh so we applied for a water quality certification under section 401 of the clean water act. um ADQ has subsequently made a decision to wave that requirement because we already have Clean Water Act permits under the surface discharge and aquifer protection regulations. So, one thing I wanted to be very clear about, there's been some rumors and information going around the community that we applied for a waiver and that's how that waiver has been granted. we actually applied for the certification and ADEQ has the option to wave it if they believe Clean Water Act compliance has already been achieved through other means. U so I just wanted to be clear about that. Um that's been out for public comment. Um and that comment period I believe has come to a conclusion. In uh March the Forest Service issued the final environmental impact statement and draft record of decision and the Fish and Wildlife Service issued the final biological

opinion. Uh the thing I want to point out on this couple of things over there on the right in the box just remind everyone what the scope of the EIS is. It's a little bit unusual in this case because the mine itself is located on private land. Um the forest service has to look at just the things and the impacts and the activities on federal land which are limited to the 138 kilovolt power line that Unisur is developing. uh a new primary access road outflux canyon back towards the airport. Uh some water discharge infrastructure that was uh added to the plan based on input for the community to distribute the the uh groundwater management program water sort of more broadly in the mountains rather than sending it all down Harshaw Creek a second tailings facility and some drill pads. So the mine itself is not within the scope of this analysis and it's a really important distinction because uh if you look at the proper the the selected alternative that the forest service uh has proposed and um is intending to approve based on the draft record of decision. Uh there are a number of aspects of those things that actually make the mine better in terms of sustainability because if this were not approved we would just develop the mine from private land. So that's an important distinction. The decision is not to develop the mine or not. It's to keep the mine confined to private land or have some of these activities also occur on federal land. A few examples of that. If we don't have the power line, we're self-generating power using natural gas for the duration of the mine life rather than having line power with lower emissions and no need to transport natural gas to site. So it has a traffic uh approval of this has an improved traffic profile. So reduced traffic counts and also an improved emissions profile. Uh the other important one to note is the the feedback from the community on distributing the water uh

that we're treating on site more broadly in the mountains. We can't implement that unless this is approved. So there's a number of areas where approval of the plan actually results in better outcomes uh than if it weren't approved where we would confine the mine to private lands. That started an objection period for 45 days that runs until the 20th of April. Uh any individual that provided comments during the previous comment period can file an objection. Um and there's 45 days to do that. The schedule right now shows a final record of decision in early Jul July and then a notice to proceed on these activities in early September. One other thing that has come up in review of the final EIS and engagement with community members and lots of Q&A has been around that traffic issue. Um, two things I wanted to note. Uh, there are some traffic count numbers in the EIS. It's important to understand the background behind those. So we have two deposits, a zinc deposit and a manganese deposit. The traffic counts in the EIS are assuming full development of the zinc deposit, full development of the manganese deposit as well as delivery of natural gas to the site. Um so it's absolute worst case scenario. Two things to point out on that. We haven't made a decision to mine or develop the manganesees deposit. So as of right now, those truck counts are are off the you should be taken out of that number. Um, and if we get the power line approved, we won't be hauling natural gas to site. So, the actual number is quite a bit smaller than what's in the document, but obviously from a conservatism standpoint, we would need to look at what the maximum could be if all of that were to occur. And that's obviously been one that's really important for the community. The other thing I would add is you probably saw in the process plant picture where we're building the process plant a lot of those racks that run down the middle of the facility. Um we're doing most of the assembly of that

offsite and then hauling it on site and setting it. Um it's called modular construction and we're doing that because it reduces construction traffic by about 80%. So a couple things there to really note about one issue that we know is really important to the community. Next slide please. So, one thing that's in the final EIS that was not in the draft EIS is there's 135 actions about 135, probably a little more than that uh that we've committed to take uh to mitigate impacts that were not in the draft that are now in the final. Obviously, I can't list 135 on a slide and don't want to go through the details, but we have put some broad categories here, sort of eight categories that capture some of the more significant ones that are things that we know and have heard are important to the community. Um, steps we've taken uh since the draft EIS and incorporated into the final. Uh there's work going on with the Forest Service now to put management plans in place to implement these. So, I'll just touch on a few of them. We moved and redesigned the tailing storage facility to avoid any direct impacts on a endangered plant species called the beardless chinchweed so that we didn't have to mitigate that. So that was an avoidance measure. A lot of the things we've already been doing around seeps and springs monitoring, groundwater monitoring, community well monitoring that have been voluntary measures that we've taken that have been in place for the last four or five years. we've now memorialized and put those as a firm regulatory commitment um in the final document. So extensive monitoring of groundwater dependent ecosystems and things that had not been required necessarily from a regulatory standpoint but that we'd been doing anyway have now been memorialized in the document. We've colllocated the power line and the and the access road to

reduce impacts. Two things on the access road as well. Um, we've added five oversized wildlife and equestrian crossings uh from a wildlife uh impact standpoint and put in some turnouts to enhance recreational use off that road. Uh, I've talked in some previous meetings about using dark skies design criteria on our facilities at at site to reduce light pollution. That has been memorialized um as a commitment in the final EIS. Uh and then we've moved quite a bit of infrastructure to make sure we uh avoid any impacts to culture resources. So there's a lot more than that, but those are some of the broad categories to kind of give you a sense of some things that have been committed in the final EIS that weren't in the draft. Um this one I just wanted to remind everyone. Uh I talked about the air permit being reissued. Um just the QR code there. We are we we are continuing to run the baseline um air quality monitoring network in the community that I've talked about in previous meetings. So we have monitoring points uh along transportation routes east and west in Cenoida out near the airport to the west uh as well as in Patagonia. Um these are the only sites in the county where we're collecting baseline um air quality uh measurements in terms of metals. Um which is something that we've we know is important to the community. It's important to us to understand what the metal constituents in the baseline air quality are before we start operating. Um so this is where you can go look at those readings. The reason I put this is a rendering of what the process plan on site will look like when it's fully constructed. And the reason I added it to this one is a lot of questions about dust management on site. Um, this kind of gives you a visual. One of the things we've done from a design standpoint to maximize

control is everything that handles material coming out of the mine is fully enclosed. So you can kind of see the conveyor structures um the sort of sloped conveyor structures. So everything gets crushed underground. We don't do any crushing of material on the surface. It gets hoisted up the shafts. It goes into covered conveyors into an enclosed storage bin which you see there um on the right side of the screen. Um and then it goes through the plant and enclosed. And then the really tall building in the foreground is where the material, the final product is loaded into sealed containers in a sealed environment and hold off site. The point of showing all this is the material that comes out of the mine is never exposed to the ambient environment. It's fully enclosed in fully enclosed structures uh throughout the uh the mining uh and processing uh process. But nonetheless, um encourage you to go look at that air quality dashboard. We'll continue to run that those monitors once we're up and running so that we have a baseline to compare to prior operations and then we can see what it looks like once we're operating. Um and this is an important step to make sure we don't have uh any impacts on air quality and can comply with our permits. The next one I want to talk through was some of the topics around water and water treatment that have come up. There's been extensive discussions in this forum on this back in January and into early February around some challenges we were having in naturally occurring groundwater coming onto the site um into our wells that had elevated levels of antimony that we had to treat, higher levels than what we had originally anticipated when we designed the water treatment plant. So, couple things just to remember. Um, we have seven wells. They are uh intercepting naturally occurring groundwater, not mine affected groundwater, not groundwater that's impacted by our operations, but naturally occurring groundwater that's coming onto our private land, capturing it, running it through the water treatment plant

because the naturally occurring groundwater in the Patagonia Mountains doesn't meet any Arizona surface water quality standards for metals uh and other constituents. We had two of those wells that had been showing higher levels of antimony, naturally occurring antimony coming onto the site and we had shut those wells down uh last year while we did upgrades to the plant so that we could more effectively treat higher levels of antimony. So we've spent about half a million dollars in two phases to upgrade the plant. Um, I talked in one of my previous updates about the flexibility the plant has to adapt to changing groundwater quality coming onto the site. We're dealing with mother nature. It's not going to be a consistent quality. It is going to vary over time. This is a good example of our ability to adapt to that. These upgrades have been completed. Uh, we've switched those wells back on. We are still seeing higher levels of antimony in the water coming from those wells. Uh but the changes we've made to the plant are working. They're effective. We're monitoring water coming into the plant every two hours, going out of the plant every two hours. Um and we are effectively treating that water to below the permitted discharge limits. And so overall, uh this has been a success. We're going to obviously continue to monitor it, but it does demonstrate what we've talked before about our ability to adapt um to that water coming on site. Just remember all of this water is being discharged right now into Harshaw Creek. We aren't using this water. Um, however, the approval of the final EIS and issuance of the record of decision will allow us to distribute that discharge water more broadly uh based on the community feedback to two other um water courses in the Patagonia Mountains. Next slide, please. So, just shift to update about Centro. So, this is our remote operating center that we're building uh here in Ngalas. where up to 200 of our

team members in the future will work at this site where we will monitor the underground operation uh monitor all the underground autonomous equipment fleets and remotely operate parts of the mine and the process plant. So we now have all our permits in place to do the full construction of the facility. The access road on the north side of the property as you see there is done. Um and with the final permits to build the facility, we've started um construction on the building itself. So, this is on track to still be open and online uh sometime next year as well. Next slide, please.

I've showed this slide in the past, but I wanted to put it up again. Um I talked about 900 to a,000 construction workers. On top of that, we now have ramped up to over 250 direct South 32 employees. Um and we are almost at an inflection point in hiring. Uh later this year, uh we start to hire at a much more rapid rate and in about 18 months we'll be at 600 employees. So it's going to start to happen much more quickly. We've got about 20 openings right now um and have started to hire uh summer interns as well. So still a lot of opportunities for folks that go um to our website there and look at job opportunities. Next slide, please. In addition to that, looking a little further out on workforce and local employment, uh I've shared in the past theou we have with the Santa Cruz Center uh to deliver workforce development and training programs in the county in service to our goal long term of having at least 80% of the workforce be existing residents of Santa Cruz County. Um, we still have lots of opportunities for local people and local employment uh currently, but looking to the future, we want to continue to work on training a workforce. We launched uh the first skilled trades training program in the county last August, an electrical certification program uh with uh an initial cohort that will graduate in August um all local existing residents of Santa Cruz County. The great thing about the electrical certification program, it's our first time through. Uh I think a lot of the experts will tell you on programs like this, especially when it's people going back for training, uh that there can be attrition um and challenges going back to school and learning a new skill. We've had no we've had no attrition at all. Uh every cohort member is on track to graduate in August. So that's great news. We'll launch the second program this fall.

It's going to be an automated industrial technology certificate. is starting to get into some of the skills that'll really be important in Centro. Um again, it will be delivered by Puma Community College, but here in Ngalas at the Santa Cruz Center through the Santa Cruz Center. Um this one's going to be a little more limited enrollment in the first cohort because of the nature of the program. They have to keep each class to about 10 people because of facilities, curriculum, and just the learning experience. So for both of these programs, there will be mult multiple cohorts over time. uh but this is uh launching a new one. So these will be job ready skills that will allow people that have don't have mining experience to go straight into entry level roles. So we'll be pleased to be launching another program this year. Next slide please. Uh on top of local employment, the other thing we've been focused on to try to maximize benefits for the local community from the the development of Hermosa has been to advance our goals around local procurement. So this is working maximizing our work with local businesses. So how much of our spend how many of our our our service and and goods needs are met by local Santa Cruz County owned businesses. And we had we've had to put a programmatic approach into this. Um I'm really pleased that uh Olivia is here because a lot of credit for this goes to our partnership with the Ngala Santa Cruz County Chamber of Commerce. Um, we worked with them on a vendor readiness program to help support local businesses become more ready to do business with us and also make connections and find opportunities for local businesses to work with us. Uh, and so as a result of that collaborative effort with the chamber, um, we've onboarded more than 115 vendors uh, from Santa Cruz County in the last year. And if you look at the chart on bottom um by month and then total for the first

quarter, the black was our local spend last year. So by local we mean Santa Cruz County businesses and the yellow is what it's been this year. So it's gone, it's doubled basically in a year as a result of this work. And I think it's only the start. Um we're in the early days. I expect that number to go up significantly over time. This is important because not only does it generate additional local economic output, but these businesses potentially hire people as well. We've talked about for every one permanent job in a mining operation, it tends to create three to four indirect jobs, and that's very much what this is about. So, thanks to the chamber, our partners, and others for the great work on this program. I think that's it. Yep, that's where we're at. again um just website there for jobs. Uh we've got the office here and in Patagonia. Um and happy to to close there and take any questions. Thank you.

I just have a couple questions. First of all, thanks thanks for the the quarter quarterly report and uh it's very much appreciated. Uh I I just want to see if we can get some dates as to when you plan on completing central uh more or less and uh when those jobs are going to when are you going to start hiring? I I think you kind of mentioned a little bit and and when do you plan on on really ramping up. Uh, is it zinc that you're going to start Yeah. processing? Yeah. And and what what are the tenative dates?

Yeah. I'll probably have to come back to you with a specific online date for Centro, but we're talking about 12 to 18 months of construction. So, by mid next year, um, I would expect us to be con commissioning that facility. We did get started a little bit late with the time to secure all the approvals required, but um by the time we're commissioning the process plant, which is second half of next year, we need that that facility up and running. Um so obviously the roles that Centro commits towards the end of next year. Um but we want to start training for some of those early on. And the real inflection point in hiring um starts from about third quarter of this year through the end of next year. Um the initial Yeah. So the initial development everything you saw is to produce from the zinc deposit. So we still have not made a decision as to whether to proceed with development in mining uh of the manganese deposit that's targeting a North American battery market. Um and so we need to wait and see the pace at which that's starting to develop. That has slowed a bit. Uh but uh we'll be mining zinc underground next year sort of mid year just after mid year um and then later in the year starting to commission that plant to produce the actual zinc product.

Thank you. Thank you Mr. R for for coming and doing your presentation. A quick question that I have. you mentioned that and I don't know if I got this correct that um there was some misunderstanding when it came to the water quality certification versus the waiver offered by ADQ. How does that work? Like

so the feedback we got and what we had seen communicated is that we had applied for a waiver and ADQ had granted a waiver. We applied for the certification. ADQ has the option of granting a waiver if they believe water quality compliance has already been achieved. Remember this is this is a step to ensure for the forest services NEEPA process the is that clean water act compliance is in place. Um we've had surface discharge permits and aquifer protection permits from the state under the clean water act since 2020 or 2021. So, uh, we applied for the certification, but ADQ made the decision to wave it because it would have been duplicative of what's already in place. But beyond that, I think any other questions you you'll have to direct to ADQ. It's it's ultimately their decision. What I wanted to clarify is we didn't apply for a waiver. Okay?

We applied for the certification and the state decides whether to issue the certification or to issue a waiver because it's not necessary. That's not, you know, that's not, you can't apply for a waiver. Any other questions? Thank you. And by by the way, I'm going to I'm going to go and visit the mine this coming Monday and I'm going to go and talk to people that live in Nalis. They're working for the mine just to get their perspective and have that conversation. So, I'll see you guys this coming Monday. That's great. Looking forward to it. Thank you. And also something else. Um, welcome Miss Kramer and Miss Parah and uh Mr. Lopez. He he left already from NUSD, but I just want to welcome you guys. Thanks again. All right, Pat.

Thank you. Appreciate it, man.

I am going to deviate a little bit because our telecommunicators are here and uh if they wish to leave after we present them, uh they're more than welcome. Um, I'm going to go to I uh item 2 D, April 20th, 2026 through April 18th, 2026 as National Public Safety Telecommunicators Week. Uh, I want to thank um the sheriff's department for what they do and and this is a very critical role. We we thank you for what you do. Uh, thank you very much. Uh, and I will go ahead and be honored with reading the proclamation. This proclamation reads as follows. National Public Safety Telecommunicators Week, April 12th through 18th, 2026. Whereas thousands of dedicated public safety dispatchers, call takers, telecommunicators, and telecom communication support personnel throughout the state of Arizona provide dramatic life saving services by t talking to distress callers and calming hysterical crime victims. They make difficult decisions using limited information to save lives or reduce property damage on a daily basis. And whereas the critical functions performed by these public safety dispatchers, call takers, telecommunicators, and telecommunication support personnel, both sworn and civilian, play significant role in the daily lives of over 7 million Arizonans. And whereas the Arizona Department of Administration in cooperation with the Arizona Chapter of National Emergency

Number Association has set aside the week of April 12th through 18th, 2026 to recognize the efforts of these dedicated people. Now therefore, the board of supervisors of Santa Cruz County call upon all citizens of Santa Cruz County and upon all patriotic civic and educational organi organizations to observe the week of April 12th through 18th, 2026 as National Public Safety Telecommunicators Week commemorating public safety telecommunicators who by their faithful and loyal devotion to their responsibilities have rendered a dedicated service to their community. In witness thereof we have here on two set our hand on cause the seal of Santa Cruz County to be affixed this day first day of April 2026 uh Carlos Davis Vice Chairman Fanning and yours truly congratulations and thank you. You want to step up so we can recognize you, please.

Thanks again. We'll go ahead and go back to item two, uh, Santa Cruz County Community F, study session. Item two, Santa Cruz County Community Wildfire Protection Plan by Sa Castro, Emergency Management Director, and Dave Richens, Southwest Policy Advocates Consultant. Thank you. So be we really appreciate your hard work in this effort.

Good morning chair, members of the board and members of the community. We want to thank you for the opportunity for speaking today. After many years of effort, Santa Cruz County has successfully completed the community wildfire protection plan. This is an important milestone in our county. For a long time, we were one of the few counties without the plan in place and today makes a significant step forward in strengthening and preparing and preparing and establishing resilience within our community. This plan represents more than just a document to us. It reflects coordinate coordinated commitment between local agencies, fire professionals, and our communities to better understand our wildfire risks and taking and for us to take meaningful action to reduce them. Most importantly, this this plan is about protecting our residents, our homes, our natural resources, and the way of life. As wildfire risks continues to grow across the region, having a clear local driven strategy ensures that we are better prepared not only to respond but to reduce risk uh before any disasters occur. The work would not have been possible without the contribution of our many partners and the community members who have helped shape this plan. and we appreciate the time and input that they took to help us create it. The following presentation um will be presented um and after the presentation we will be able to answer any additional questions or concerns that the public or the board may have. I want to introduce Dave Richens. Um he will talk in regards to or he will give us a small presentation and provide any detailed information. Chairman, supervisor, staff, thanks for allowing me to come and spend a few

minutes celebrating really with you uh this milestone. U about this time last year, we started uh outreach. We had a lot of uh one-on-one meetings, over 50 one-on-one, two-on-one meetings with key community groups, key community thought leaders, uh fire chiefs. I saw one of our fire chiefs sneak in the back here. Welcome, Chief Adam. uh and we're able to inform everybody what's going to happen, what's coming. And that really helped us lead into the stakeholder meeting section where we had all of our fire districts uh including the city of Ngalas. Um we had combinations of fire districts happen during the process where Nogalis Suburban was absorbed into Rio Rico I think during that time. So lots of stuff happening. Um, fortunately, we had a very tame wildfire season last year, so we were able to concentrate personnel on this. Um, what is a community wildfire protection plan? If you want to hit that slide, I'm just going to run through some of these real quick for those uh in the public that are here. It's really a strategic plan to reduce wildfire risk for your communities. This is important because it has two elements to it that are the the work that the fire service will do itself and the work that the homeowners and general public need to do as well. Um and that and I'll talk about that in just a sec. A lot of collaboration through this. We had over just under a hundred different individual participants, all of our districts, uh the BLM, uh the national uh forest, even despite a couple of government shutdowns. We were able to navigate that. Uh and we had a lot of participation. Big shout out to the uh Coronado National Forest who hosted our stakeholder meetings and uh even provided donuts from time to time. So they were a great help to us. Um we identified uh five key communities here. You guys know who they are. Cenoid Elgen, uh Patagonia, Ngalas, Rio, Rico, and Tubac. Tubac did include Amato and thoughts around that uh area and also

areas to the far west of the county uh that are less populated. We had uh community meetings in each of those. Some of those community meetings were really attend well attended, some of them not so well attended, but we had the right people in the room at those meetings. And so it was helpful getting feedbacks. For example, the Ngalas meeting was not well attended, but we had the school district there and there was a lot of great conversation between the school district and us to be able to understand their needs uh about wildfire, what they might need to do in a wildfire situation, about evacuation and all that kind of thing. So also I wanted to shout out we have one member of the community here got to sit in their home um and talk about evacuation. And so there's a lot of concerns with the that the community serviced in our one-on-one conversations that we were able to evaluate as part of the process. Um the focus really is on that wildland urban interface. So where does the wildfire hit community? Uh this is this plan focuses on wildfire, not structure fire, not the regular things that you might see within your community. It's really where that wildfire starts interfacing with the the community. So each of the five uh target communities were able to tailor their projects to their community. And I'll give you an example of that. So here's Patagonia. Maybe South 32 would be interested in that map later on, but I'm going to hold this up just real quick and keep talking. Um Patagonia really is a kind of a donut with a donut hole. So that was their priorities was really taking a look at uh the the how wildfire comes into their community uh where they are. Whereas a community like Cenoida might uh look at where their key populations, even though it's very rural and very dispersed, you'll have those two. No, it's we don't need to hold these up for too long, but I just wanted to show these as an example of an outcome from the outreach that occurred and how focused each of those individual projects. Each one of these numbered projects uh is uh has a corresponding thing in the wildfire plan

that prescribes what kind of treatment plans need to occur. uh and and and what the priorities should be. Those priorities were set locally by uh our outreach with the local groups and the fire chiefs and their marshals as well. Uh next slide. So when you go Yeah, we talked about treatment plans a little bit. So each of those treatment plans has a goal. And I want to I want to make one comment about uh treatment plans because there's a lot of varied landscape in Santa Cruz County as we know. Uh what a beautiful place. It's been an incredible year for me to be able to come down here and interact with your community and I've just fallen in love with the place. Uh there's a lot of uniqueness here and so each of those treatment plants reflects the uniqueness of each of those communities and what their risks. Uh we looked at historic wildfire and where it went and all of those kinds of things to to really make sure. Uh we got some input from one of our conservation groups about uh one of the early drafts listed uh grazing in some repairarian areas and we got some strong push back saying hey that's not appropriate treatment for that kind of area and so it was that kind of detailed treatment that we got that led to the formation of the plan. Uh lots of maps lots of pictures about 150 pages of data and recommendations. Um the community partnerships, next slide, uh were were really important. We were I was out at Appleton uh city of Ngalas up and down Rio Rico, Tubac got to meet with a lot of folks. Uh the Tubac community was incredible. Their turnout at their community meeting was really engaging. They stood around these maps. They identified their priorities as well. And we were able to incorporate those kinds of things. And so that process was important to empowering residents. There are tools in place like Firewise and Ready Set Go. I think Mr. Ben is here and he's a a practitioner of Firewise and understands it. Uh so each

of those communities will apply that as as conditions require in their individual communities. So really try to be inclusive in our outreach and support. Really try to empower folks. Um next slide. The key takeaways here u I'm gonna the the it's third on this list but it's first in my mind. Each individual homeowner in your county that lives in the urban wildland interface. The WOOI is what they call worst acronym ever ever but the wildland urban interface has to take action to harden their properties. If they do not it begins to collapse your plan. uh those homes will get passed over uh in a wildfire situation. Fire personnel will not deploy where there's a huge uh life safety risk to their firefighters. And if there's a homeowner that has left overgrown vegetation and they're right in the line of fire, it's going to be very difficult to defend that property. So it is absolutely the topline message for you supervisors to give to your constituents that they must harden their own properties particularly on the urban interface. So if they're in that area, they are at risk. They also need to be prepared to shelter in place at at times as well depending on the conditions. So those two actions for your residents uh are to me a very topline message that as you work with Shannon and folks uh that do your communications to help them understand this is a planning document. This is sets priorities for what your treatment plans are going to be. But all of this is is reliant on each homeowner doing their part that lives in that interface. Um this will unlock opportunities for grant funding. So and her team will continue to look at that. So you'll be able to do stuff like communications and individual projects. I encourage you to leverage your volunteer groups in town. Work with your fire districts. We're seeing more communication between the fire districts and conservation groups that want to do

restoration like in the Santa Cruz River. Rio Rico, Tubac, and Ngalas all identify the Santa Cruz River as a key priority. So you got the whole ribbon all the way through the county. Um and and they all uh have to do something maybe just a little bit different depending on their uh jurisdiction. So uh this is really a roadmap for the safety of the county. I'm afraid we're going to have a pretty serious wildfire risk season. It's been pretty dry and so we have this in place. Projects haven't started yet. That's next after the approval of this. But we we need to get to work and roll up our sleeves uh in order to make sure that we engage this plan and that we're able to take the elements of this plan and implement them to the success of the county. So with that, any questions,

gentlemen? Um first of all, thank you Dave. I was able to be part of the Rio Rico meeting that you had. Um, thank you, Soie. Uh, I I I don't think it can be um mentioned enough about the homeowners and and their actions. So, thank you for bringing that incredibly important uh part up. My question s is centered on that. What happens next? Uh you mentioned Shannon. And I think Shannon's going to play a pivotal pivotal role in making sure to get this information out to our constituents throughout the county, especially those that are more rural than than uh than than some. So, is there are there steps that that that we can uh send out to our constituents that Shannon can put out on our our website? uh what what would be the next steps of

so in the plan there are some pretty detailed approaches for what hardening your property and so some of that is going to be some considerations for you in the future about codes and building codes where people can build how they can build what the the setback should look like what your space should look like but in the plan there are uh detailed illustrations those are suitable to be snipped put on Facebook you know, put that stuff out there. Use your Facebook. It's a great way to communicate with folks and it's very portable so they can share it with their neighbors as well. But you'll find those elements in the plan that you can readily grab and then send out. Wonderful. I we need to take care of that sooner rather than later. Thank you.

Thank you. Thank you, sir. Thank you. So, thank you. Next item is one of our item three, government 101, roles and responsibilities of health services by Jeff Terrell. Jeff, welcome, sir.

Uh, good morning, Mr. Chairman, members of the board, members of the community. Uh, our government 101. Do they have it up there? want to talk about public health in the health and human services department. Statutoily we fall under title 36 and as well as title 49. Title 36 is public health. Title 39 of course the environment. Uh under 36 we have a couple that stand out was 182 which establishes the local health department. 36183 to 36192 establishes our authority to set regulations, set fines or violations and fees and stuff like that. And under title 49, we just delegated authority from ADQ for certain elements such as our on-site wastewater systems as well as solid waste. Next slide. Okay, here is our organizational structure. Um, two people I want to point out who are here and that's Jose uh my deputy director and Fernando who is my FEP manager playing a very important role. I rely on them heavily. Um, nine plus years ago when I started here we had like seven people. we are now doubled that up to like 15 thanks to our wonderful pandemic. That started a lot of processes that we wanted to accomplish. Um, under our administration, we have a couple people I want to point out, Elizabeth Beth and Mon'nique, who are very busy right now with our vital records. Um, once we

started issuing birth certificates last July, um, business has been booming, I should say. Um, under our environmental section, um, we have one opening right now. I have three I have two inspectors. I have one tech. Uh, we have an opening hopefully it gets passes today that we can hire. Um, very important, our environmental um, our public health surveillance, which is our disease investigators. Um, I have Isabella who's our epidemiologist and Adriana who's our uh, CDI clinical services. We have a couple openings there. We have fill in right now um providing our vaccines at our clinic. Um so we need to provide we need a couple people to um appoint there once we get uh hopefully get some applications. We have started a program under our behavioral health and harm reduction which we have an epidemiology epidemiologist Kayla and Ramsey's who's our CHW which is community health worker and of course our public health outreach Francis who's been wonderful and our health equity outreach coordinator all that volunteers from our MRC which is our medical reserve corps. Next slide. Some of our operating procedures, we have internal ones for our inspections, plan reviews, cash handling. Of course, we follow AZDHS's vital records SOPs and they are extensive. Um, they're very intense and very, very uh precise because being a closed record state, we have to be very digent in who we can give out vital records to, such as birth certificates and death certificates. Our SOPs are stored on our share drive. We have plenty of guidance documents for the public um on our health services website as well as hard copies in our office if they want to pick those up. Next slide.

I want to touch on what is public health. Okay, public health is the science of protecting and improving the health of people and their communities. This work is achieved by promoting healthy lifestyles, researching disease and injury prevention, detecting, preventing and responding to infections. One word I want you to really focus on is preventing that is preventing and preparedness is what we go for in public health. This is for our entire population. Could be as a state, could be the county, could be the country. And so you have HHS at the c uh federal level. We have ADHS at the state level and of course we have us at the county level. Why is public health important? Public health professionals tried to prevent problems from happening or recurring through implementing educational programs, recommending policies, administering services, and conducting research. In contrast to clinical professionals like doctors, health centers, and nurses who focus primarily on treating individuals after they become sick or injured. Don't get me wrong, there is doctors, there's nurses in public health. There's um we rely heavily on partnerships. So, I'll address that elephant in the room. Yes, Mariposa is the health center. They are not the health department. They are the health center. We partner with them on a lot of things. They call us, we call them. So it's we have a lot of collaboration with Mariposa, Circles of Peace, CEKC, other agencies that we rely on as well. The University of Arizona in fact also next slide. These are our key functions that we do. Of course, our in environmental side, we do the inspections of food service, hotels, motel, swimming pools. some of the places you don't know. Think about mobile home parks. Make sure that

they're in compliance. Food handlers training classes, which we touched on a couple meetings ago, both in English and Spanish. We started back up. We issue the construction authorizations. We inspect. We issue discharge authorations for the septic systems. Our vector program is taking off again starting now because we had such a warm winter. Um, we're starting our surveillance for the mosquitoes. Um since last year we had several I'll just say several uh travel associated dingay cases. We want to keep a vigilant lookout for that. This year again we issue the vital records which is the both the birth and the death certificates. We provide annual reports to ADHS for our inspections and the SFA is our smokefree Arizona act. So we also involved in conducting those inspections. We submit quarterly reports for ADQ Public health emergency preparedness. That's our other part we deal with and that's very important. That's I'll touch on a little bit more. Um we investigate communicable diseases such as measles, COVID, the flu, anything like that. We provide the VFC and VFA vaccines through the state immunization contracts and that's vaccines for children and vaccines for adults. pro provided public health outreach and we've ventured into the opioid and mental behavioral health realm as well. Next slide. Going back to the pandemic, our wonderful time we had um this was our one of our drive-thru testing blitzes we had. Um, thanks to uh, Soie Emergency Management Ray, um, we put on the testing blitz, we had one here at the county complex, we had one at Rio Rico High School, we had one in Patagonia.

Um, turned out to be very successful in those. I mean, Supervisor Malair was out there in the parking lot of Rio Rico High School if I remember right. So, yes, next slide. There's another This is the And again, when we talk about partnerships, we the health department and emergency man ran the testing blitz, but we brought in the National Guard to do the actual testing for us. So, that was very important. Next slide. Okay, this is just one of the one of the pod pictures. There's multiple ones out there. Um, of course, Mariposa was our partner in this. Um, of course the health department and the uh emergency management set this up and ran it on the daily basis. Maraposa was our vaccinators since they were the medical professionals at that time. Next slide. In our behavioral health and harm reduction efforts, this is some of the stuff we have accomplished in the last I would say six months to a year. We offer credible mind platform. It's a platform that you can get um talks about the senior center and the agencies we can use the bridge coalition. Um we have launched it in April of 25. Um we have right now we got 11, 1100 uh users. Um we started the OFR board which is the opioid fatality review board. Um we have um OFR members uh 24 members, law enforcement to EMS um like I said public health, behavioral health, national guard, all those participate in that. Um we've expanded the health department's website to add links to behavioral health, overdose prevention, and again the OFR annual report. Next slide. We are the distributor of overdose

prevention resources. Um we supply resources to libraries, school nurses. We stock Narcan. We have uh places that you can get Narcan, the lock zone and stuff like that around Santa Cruz County. Um we developed relationships with the Arizona Department of Education um for school nursing services, health coordinators. So to supply the schools, we've supplied NUSD with um 24 kits of an arcan for each school's emergency use. Have ongoing community support and collaboration. Um again with the OFR and the Incredible Minds uh mental wellness uh meets monthly um radio segments we participate in Facebook live sessions along with Maraposa and then at circles a piece um the ODO OD2A subcommittee meets monthly um that's uh opioid data to action um we've had a couple years worth of data now we got to put that into action how we're going to support that and supply and stop, you know, hopefully prevent overdose. Um, again, Sosa Consortium, which is Santa Cruz County overcoming substance addiction. So, um, again, they meet monthly as well. Um, next slide. What we hope to plan for in the future, we've set a fiveyear goal of some things we've been talking about. We're kicking off STI testing. We got family planning in the in the works. We're trying to get set up for wellwoman checks, school sport physicals to provide them for the uh for schools for students. Um that hopefully will kick off at the beginning of the actual calendar year January healthy home program. That's something

we're looking at. Um we have received funding um that's called the uh rural health transformation funding and that's one of the things we're going to be looking at to start with that program which is linked to chronic disease which we're also starting with that program. We're also looking at the bational environmental health training with Sonora and expanding our bilingual outreach campaigns on food safety vector and smokefree living. Um, any questions, gentlemen?

Um, I love the fact that you talked about prevention and preparedness. Uh, and and thank you so much for focusing not only on physical health but mental health. And lastly, if I'm not mistaken, and I I credit your department as well as Marty Pulsa with weren't we like number one or number two in the nation with uh we were number one in the state, number two in the nation. That's okay. That's what I thought. And it's a testament to your hard work and your team's hard work as well as Muddy Pulsa. Thank you for having that collaborative nature.

And I want to thank the state because every time I begged, they got me extra vaccine. I had uh partners from Hila County at the time. He was the director. He gave me his extra supply. They weren't going to use it. So, he sent it to us. So, I did whatever I could because everything's based on population. Of course, us being only 50,000. It was extremely hard to get some of the vaccine at first. So, they were very cooperative. Just something really quick like and I said it before in the other meetings. Thanks for the also like the the food handling classes. I've been getting a lot of like good reviews and that helps people like local vendors start their little businesses and help the economy. So, thanks for that to all the department

overall and it's been very successful too in the last in the first three months. So, one class, two classes, right? A month. One class a month. Well, Spanish and English, right? Spanish and English. So, technically two classes. Yes. Yeah. Yeah. Thanks for that. Thank you for your leadership. Sure. I I've seen that health department just grow and flourish. You know, you mentioned how it's grown from seven to 15 employees and I want to thank these two gentlemen sitting here. They they do an amazing job. Um your your staff heavily on them. Your staff is great. Uh and uh yeah, the courses uh just being proactive. Thank you. Yes.

Thank you. And your department. One thing before I go, we have some flyers here that is for a PH app. Um, it gives you alerts for like food recalls. Um, it could be heat excessive heat warnings, for cooling stations. We have a map for Narcan stations as well throughout there on that. So, everybody can take some of these, scan the QR code, and uh have the PH app on their phones. You can have Shannon. is also going to be putting that in the newsletter, this next newsletter. Thank you, Shannon. Thank you,

Mr. Chair. I have one one more point to make. Um, so you guys meet with our our supervisor around the state, one of the challenges in rural areas is healthc care and uh facilities for for uh treatment. Um the county when you look at our expenditures and you look at adult long-term care altech that's kind of how we refer to it and access that's a big chunk of our revenues that come in about close to $5 million. Jeff is department is h all mostly funded by grants, but that's that's a space that maybe we could start looking at. How do we how do how does his department get involved in these facilities like long-term care for adults? Right now, I think, you know, where we don't have room, they go to Tucson or other uh available, you know, clinics and stuff like that. Thank you. Most of them travel most of them are in like Green Valley and Tucson area that they Yes,

that's good. Thank you. Thanks again. You mentioned Shannon. Shannon, I I think we failed to mention something that was uh pulled out at that at uh employee appreciation. Shannon, uh you want to come up here real quickly? Uh we unveiled our our new logo. Um, and uh, Shannon, Shannon, you want to just speak to it a little bit? Thank you. Thank you. Manuel has

the logo. Um, so the new logo for Santa Cruz County, we unveiled it to staff last week at the staff appreciation. Um, first of all, good morning. Sorry. Um, I was focused on the logo. We were going to unveil this next board meeting, but we wanted to give you a sneak peek. So, we we went out and we talked to some people about what they thought was special about Santa Cruz County. And overwhelmingly there was of course the rich history of Santa Cruz County, the culture of Santa Cruz County, but a lot came into play with the landscape across Santa Cruz County and how diverse it was. So we sat down and we talked about we had the mountains, we had greenery, we had rivers, we h or river, we had lakes. And so what they tried to do was put that all together with something that would represent the entire county because in our in our last logo they had an icon from Nogalas which was a great representation a great icon of Ngalas but it wasn't really representative of the entire county. So something that spans the entire uh all three districts is the Santa Cruz River. And so you'll notice that in our logo, the brown, the orang-ish brown kind of represents our desert terrain. The green represents the green, a lot of that they talked earlier, even in the wildfire presentation, he talked about how beautiful and diverse it was in Santa Cruz County. So if you're driving down from Tucson and right about when you hit Santa Cruz County, you'll see that stretch of green that runs along the river and that follows you all the way down to the border. So the green is kind of representative of that. The border around the river, because the S in the middle is obviously for Santa Cruz

County, but it also is representative of the Santa Cruz River. And the border around it is because we are a a dynamic border community. So I think they did a great job at encompassing what Santa Cruz County or I hope they did. I hope what it means to everyone else, but I think it's a great representation and a little bit different from what we've had in the past. But we had a lot of um good feedback from staff, so hopefully the community will agree as well. Thank you. Thank you. So, we're using this one and we we're still keeping the the seal, right,

Mr. Chair? Uh the seal is the official seal of the county that's going to be used for uh for official documents and proclamations. There'll be some some guidance coming out of how to properly use our seal. Um, but this logo, if the board moves forward with it, we'll use it for to put emblems in our vehicles, in our shirts, and and and just to promote the county throughout our state and our our country. Thank you. Thank you. Thank you, sir. Thank you.

Thank you, Shannon. Next, I'd like to entertain a motion to uh re recess uh general session. move into flood control. I move second. I have a motion and a second. Any questions, discussion? Hearing none. All in favor? I. All oppose. Mr. Chair, uh we Angie's going to present uh the report. We have uh our deputy county manager and Allan, our our flood plane coordinator. They're are out. So, and Angie has done this in the past, so she'll do the report for us. Thank you, Angie. Good morning.

Thank you, Angie.

Good morning, Mr. Chairman, board, members of the community. Um, in March, we saw approximately 0.43 inches of rain. That was our rain total. I checked yesterday, but it was trace amounts. It was not measurable. Our usual amount is 0.69 in. As far as flood hazard information sheets, um, he processed 199. In total, 182 were for the county, 17 were for the city of Ngalas. Flood plane use permits, they were processed. We received 11, nine were for the county, two were for um city of Ngalas. We didn't have any site reviews or drainage complaints. E from Canyon. Uh this coming month of April, we expect to see 30% plans. So that's it's moving along. The Patagonia regional flood hazard project at this time they did not have any updates on that project. Potto Creek Lomar. As far as the Lomar is concerned, the letter of map provision was issued on January 6th and it will become effective June 4th. So that's just around the corner. So some people will see some relief in their flood insurance. The downtown feasibility project, there was um there was no updates given on that one. Santa Cruz County phys um ordinance, the Lumpy project and the flood control district review. At this time we don't have any updates on those and Monte Carlo uh area. So there's three basins there, three washes. It'll be the Monte Carlo, Chihuahua, and the Challenger Wash. The

Chihuahua and the Challenger Wash, they kind of remained steady, but however, the Monte Carlo wash, they saw some sedimentation from a half a foot to three feet, it increased. So due to that they have they're looking for alternatives but they have expanded the scope to the north and we're going to be waiting on more results from that. Uh town of Patagonia did submit the letter. I just I think I forgot to PDF it. So I'm very sorry. I have to look at Allen's uh work to get that to you. And we did not have a report from the city of Ngalas at this time. And that concludes the flood control report. Any questions, John? No, thank you so much.

You're very welcome. No, no, I'm just I'm just happy that the Monte Carlo project the study still moving forward. Yes, that is still moving forward. And the Eron Canyon as well and Efron Canyon as well. 30% plans we should be seeing this April. Any public comment? Thank you. Okay. Thank you. Thank you. Have a good day. You as well. This time I'll entertain a motion to adjourn flood control and convene into jail district. I move second. Motion a second. Any discussion? Hearing none. All in favor? I.

All oppose. Motion carries. Jail district. When acting as a jail district, the board will consider items related to and funded by jail district budget items listed under the jail district may include action items when appropriate. Item one, discussions possible action to authorize to fill five vacant detention officers position. These are all bud budgeted, right, Mr. Chairman, members of the board. That is correct. They are budgeted. And a motion to approve. Move. Second.

A motion and a second. Any discussion? Hearing none. All in favor? I opposed. Motion carries. At this time, I'll entertain a motion to adjurnn jail district and move back into general session. I move. Second. I have a motion in a second. Any discussion? Hearing none. All in favor? I.

All oppose. Motion carries. Action items. Action item one, discussion, possible action for direction regarding next steps related to the services agreement with the Nellis Santa Cruz County Chamber of Commerce. um that this item was placed on there. Um not to diffuse, not to uh basically ultimately what we want to do is uh down the road uh take proposals from nonprofits. Uh it doesn't mean uh we're looking to not We're we are going to continue our partnership. We want our partnership. Um ultimately what I would personally like to see is a proposal from our chamber which includes a a quarterly report. our uh uh partner, the port authority provides a a quarterly report. And I I don't think uh and and it's not I'm I'm not here to This is not a pitch session. I want to improve uh our relationship and and and expand it uh communicate further if we can communicate with our our communications department with Shannon. That way we're all on the same page. Uh it would be ideal. Uh and and and that's basically one of that's the major reasons why I I put this item on the agenda. I I want

to improve our communication more than anything. Bottom line. Um gentlemen.

Yeah. I mean communications always always work, right? I mean, I don't I don't see uh nothing wrong with it. I think Channing would would want to work with the chamber in Olivia. The potential I think is is incredible. And I I want to thank you for all that you've done. Um continued that partnership and um just making sure all of our arrows are pointing in the right in the same direction, not in the right direction, in the same direction. Uh I think we get a lot more bang for our buck. So, um, like Pat said earlier today, you know, you've been instrumental in some of the thing, you know, in what's happening out at the mine. So, I want to say thank you to that and just continued our, uh, our relationship and strengthened the relationship, Mr. Chair, just to give you a little bit background um, about all that involved, but we have the agreement here if you want to hear the background, but it was signed in.

Go ahead. I'll say it. Okay.

It was signed in in in the year uh 2023 and it had one year funding with four renewables. Right now we're in the third year funding. Uh there's two more years that are eligible or fiscal years that are eligible. Um some of the things that we discussed in the past or before um setting up a system where um the the board puts money aside for foundations uh nonprofits uh community type of services where uh we look they apply through a proposal. I think that's kind of what you're saying. And and then they get ranked by a committee. Those are the things that we're working on and and that's the things that we're right now entertaining and this is one of the reasons you know the items on the agenda. Okay. This board values our our relationships and our partnerships uh very much and we want to continue these partnerships and and and foster them more than anything. Um We're not here to That's not what what we do. That's not what I do. Uh we're here to improve and foster relationships. That's the bottom line. Um any other comments? No. Maybe uh one time the county manager Chris and myself visit the visit Olivia. we can invite her to come to the county and you know have Shannon with us and have a like brainstorming ideas. I mean because things are changing right in the county overall. So that could be a good opportunity for for her to her to come and the board too. There's a lot of

moving parts right now and uh we all know and I think uh these relationships are big. As a matter of fact, I'm glad the city council is here because we definitely want to include you all in our partnerships and and improve our partnerships. Uh and and again, I know uh Supervisor Davis has reached out to have a meeting with you all and we welcome that meeting and we would love to meet with you all and uh improve our our relationships. Okay. Uh I'm glad you're all here and uh Olivia, did you have something to say? Go ahead. Absolutely.

Well, good morning and thank you very much for the uh for the item on the agenda. I think it's the perfect time to go ahead and expose more of what we do. One of the things that I wanted to just make sure that you understand, we have never been requested to come and give a presentation in person. Uh, but we do submit a quarterly report of what the chamber is doing because it's stated on the contract. And that's the reason why we were just submitting the the quarterly report to you, the supervisors, and the county manager. But, uh, uh, I mean, I'm happy. I'm not the best public speaker, but I can go ahead and do it. public

every every quarter I can come and give the presentation. Now when we talk about transparency I think is great. I commend you for that because I think it's the only way that we could go ahead and make sure that our uh revenues sources funding is is is spended in the right way because it's taxpayers money number one. Number two, I think that um when we say when we talk about collaboration, I've been reaching out different ways and that's why I had invited some of your new directors to come to the chamber so they can see our function, our operations, meet the staff, meet and also to learn what can we do for the county. We are here to work together. The chamber does not represent one agency, one business, one organization. We're here representing the whole community and we're very proud to say that we honor to represent not only businesses, government, nonprofits, and agencies and everybody else. And any any questions that you always have, I mean, Shannon was with with us when we invited the devel community development director because we wanted to introduce ourselves and see how we can work together. Also when um the person that you hired, the consultant that you hired to do tourism, we met with her. Chris has been inviting me to go ahead and participate in different uh meetings and different uh conferences that he has been hosting. We're happy to do it. We never rejected that. We always said we're open to work with everybody, not only with the Santa Cruz County, with the city of Ngalas and everybody else that needs. We're here because we're the hub of a community. if we have a healthy community, we have a great community for everybody. So, thank you for the time and thank you for reaching out to us and um we're happy to go ahead and work with everybody

and consider this an invitation for a quarterly report. Thank you. And I will report but don't make fun of my English. Okay, I'm going to change Sophia Vara to Salah. Okay. We we never have and we never will. Thanks for your work, Olivia.

Thank you. And I just want to say I I I believe this community, this county, doesn't matter where you're what part of the county you're talking about, I I think we could be on the the cusp of a great some great things. But I also think it's going to take the town of Patagonia, the city of Ngalas, the county, the chamber, all of our arrows have to be pointing in the in the same direction. Um and there has to be, in my opinion, more collaboration. Um, and that is I'm not pointing fingers at anybody because I got three pointing back at me if I do. Um, these three. Um, but uh I I I really really want to bring this county closer together.

And I agree with you, Mr. Fanny. And I don't care if the city runs the meeting. I don't care if the county runs a meeting. I don't care who runs a meeting, but I want to I want to collaborate more. And we will we will make it happen. Thank you, sir. Thank you. I agree. And like the county manager says, good is good. You know, like if the county benefits, it doesn't matter the area. Everybody benefits from it. So, thank you, Olivia. Thank you. Thanks, Olivia.

Okay, we'll go ahead and move on to item two, uh, our proclamations. Uh, item A, April 2026 as Arizona County Government Month. No, that's not me. Yes. Do we want to jump any I don't have Where do we have Arizona?

Yeah, sorry about that. You're going to hear a lot of where'ses right now by the way people. Um, okay. The April 2026 Arizona County government month. Whereas Arizona's constitution and statutes establish county governments to implement state policies and programs at the regional level, ensuring effective and responsive services for residents. hand. Whereas county governments play a vital role in keeping communities safe by deploying emergency response, maintaining public infrastructure, conducting secure elections, promoting public health and welfare, and supporting community and economic development. And whereas county elected officials provide dedicated leadership to meet community needs and work collaboratively with local, state, federal, and tribal partners to strengthen and support Arizona's diverse region regions. And whereas counties across Arizona employ thousands of hardworking public servants who are committed to serving their communities with professionalism, integrity, and care. And whereas Arizona's 15 counties reflect the rich diversity of the people, cultures, and landscapes that make our state unique and serve as trusted stewards of public uh resources and community institutions. And whereas National County Government Month provides an opportunity to recognize the essential work of county employees and the leadership of county officials who serve the public every day. Now therefore, be it proclaimed that Santa Cruz County hereby recognizes April 2026 as Arizona County Government Month. Be it further resolved during this month encourages all residents to learn more about county pro programs, services, and initiatives that strengthen our communities and support the well-being of all who call our county home. Passed and adopted this first day of April, 2026. Chair Mleta, uh myself, and member Luis Carlos Davis.

Move to approve. Second. Any discussion? All in favor? I. All oppose. Motion carries. Thank you, sir. Item two.

April 2026 as early child education awareness month. School superintendent. You want to do us the honor and read the proclamation. And uh before she does that, I just want to recognize uh in the second row there, Mr. Poncho Padilla as part of First Things First. And I think he plays a vital role in uh early childhood. So thank you. He sure does. Do you want to read this Poncho? He can read mine. Like I said, there's a lot of wherees.

A lot of where's Okay. Okay. Whereas early childhood years are where the brain grows and develops the most. In fact, 90% of a child's brain develops by age five before they enter kindergarten. And whereas scientific research has shown that a child's experiences in their early years affect how their brain develops. Research has also proven that kids with quality early childhood experiences do better in school, are more likely to go to college, and have successful careers. They also tend to be healthier and demand less from the public welfare system. And whereas the goal of Santa Cruz County School Superintendent Maya M. Donley in 2026 is to raise community awareness about the support system Santa Cruz County has for families that have children from 0 to 5 years of age. And whereas early childhood education awareness month is sponsored by the Santa Cruz County School Superintendent Office. First things first, Mariposa Community Health Center, University of Arizona Cooperative Extension Family Resource Centers in Ngalas, Patagonia, and Rio Rico, Child and Family Resources, Inc. Child Care Resource and Referral, Ngalis, Santa Cruz County Libraries, Department of Developmental Disabilities, Santa Cruz County, Ngalas Unified School District number one, Santa Cruz Valley Unified School District number 35, Patagonia Public School Districts number six and number 20, Cenoida Elementary District number 25, Santa Cruz Elementary District number 28, charter schools, private schools, child parent centers incorporated, that's Head Start, Ngalas, Challenger, Western and Rio Rico, preschools and home child care providers. And whereas during the month of April, informative messages will be communicated to the community via social media, We Love Ngalas, Ngalas International Newspaper, and signage across the county. Other messages will include how to identify and work with young children with special needs, mental health concerns. Some activities during the month include professional development, an early childhood art festival, an early childhood leadership

award lunchon, the Santa Cruz regional partnership council of first things first celebrates the young child community event, the University of Arizona Cooperative Extension Family Resource Cent's diaper drive. Mariposa Community Health Center performing promoting the importance of wellness checks, dental care and vaccines, and literacy activities at the Ngalis and Santa Cruz County libraries. And now, therefore, the Santa Cruz County, Arizona Board of Supervisors does hereby proclaim the month of April 2026 as Early Childhood Education Awareness Month. That was good. Move to approve.

Have a motion. Second. And a second. Any discussion? Thanks for all that you do. Thanks for all that you do. and thanks for everyone throughout the community that deals with our youth. Thanks for all that they do. Thank you. I'm going to place a new agenda item for next next uh meeting. We have a new person to read all our proclamations. All of them. Right. Okay. We have a motion and a second. Any other discussion? Hearing none. All in favor?

All oppose? Motion carries. Item C, April 19th through 25th, 2026 as National Library Week. Oh yeah. Can you read this?

Yeah. Proclamation National Week, April 19 25, 2026. Whereas libraries spark creativity, fuel imagination and inspire lifelong learning, offering a space where individuals of all ages can find joy through exploration and discovery. And whereas libraries serve as a vibrant community hub, connecting people with knowledge, technology, and resources while fostering civic engagement, critical thinking, and cultural enrichment. And whereas libraries provide a free and equitable access to books, digital tools, and innovative programming, ensuring that all individuals, regardless of their background, have the support they need to learn, connect, and thrive. And whereas libraries empower job seekers, entrepreneurs, and lifelong learners to providing access to resource resources, training, and opportunities that support career growth and economic success. And whereas libraries nurture young minds through story time and steam program and STEM programs and leadership in innovative fostering curiosity and love of learning that lasts a lifelong. And whereas libraries protect the right to read, think and explore without censorship, standing as champions of intellectual freedom and free expression. And whereas dedicated libraries and library workers provide welcoming spaces that inspire discovery, collaboration, and creativity for all. And whereas libraries, librarians, and library workers across the country are joining together to celebrate National Library Week under the theme find your joy. Now therefore, be it resolved that we, Santa Cruz County Board of Supervisors, do hereby proclaim April 19th to u 25, 2026 as National Library Week. Be it further resolved during this week, all residents are encouraged to

visit their Ngala Santa Cruz County libraries, explore its resources, and celebrate all the ways that the library helps our community find joy. pass and adopted this first day of April 2026. Rudy Mera Sherman, John Fanning, Sherman, and myself. Move to approve. Second. I have a motion in a second. Any discussion? Hearing none. All in favor? I. All oppose. Motion carries unanimously.

Just just something really quick. Would you want to say some few words? We have somebody from the Nug Library. Would that be okay? Yeah, good morning. U my name is Karina Martinez. I'm the library supervisor. I just want to say thank you for the proclamation and keep inviting all of you, our communities, to visit our library and just just explore what we have for the community. Any opportunities that we can, we are there. Um libraries are more than buildings and more than books. All welcome. Agreed. Thank you. Thank you. Thank you for what you do. I believe we did item D already.

Y

and item E, April 19th, 2026 through April 25th, 2026 as National Volunteer Week. Okay. Whereas volunteer week provides us the opportunity to celebrate the contributions of those who generously give their time and talents to improve their communities. And whereas volunteers promote the positive changes in our communities by our volunteers who give of themselves each and every day. And whereas volunteers are recognized as an important partner with the county of Santa Cruz and providing services to our citizens. And whereas our sheriff's office search and rescue and law enforcement assist team LEA volunteers continue to inspire and engage us through serving the community, assisting those in need and keeping our neighborhoods safe. And now therefore, the board of supervisors of Santa Cruz County call upon all citizens of Santa Cruz County and upon all patriotic, civic, and educational organizations to observe the week of April 19th through 25th, 2026 as National Volunteer Week, commemorating search and rescue teams and law enforcement assist teams who by their faithful and loyal devotion to their responsibilities have rendered a dedicated service to their community and witness thereof. Thereof we have here unto set our hand and caused the seal of Santa Cruz County to be affixed this first day of April 2026. Passed and adopted this first day of April of 2026. Signed by Chair Mleta um Luis Carlos Davis member and myself.

Move to approve. Second. Second. I have a motion and a second. Any discussion? Hearing none. All in favor? I. All oppose. Thank you. Thank you.

Okay. Item passes unanimously. Item three, discussion, possible action to approve contract for special deputy with center for rural American justice by and through Garrett Catchner Kchner for litigation of a pending criminal case with upcoming hearings and trial in the amount of $15,000. want to add anything to that? Uh, are we good, Bob?

Thank you, Mr. Chair. This is similar to one that we did before, except this is a bit more proactive. Uh, so no ratification necessary, but it's uh a contract uh for a specific case. The memorandum goes into a little bit of a detail about that. And uh it is in as a result of uh a deputy county attorney who had left uh I think that was the beginning of this month. So uh or beginning of March, sorry. And uh so it's it's meeting a need uh since the county attorney's office does not have enough attorneys really to cover some of the current case load. You

any other questions, John? No. At this time, I'll entertain a motion to approve. Move. Second. Motion and a second. Any discussion? Hearing none. All in favor? I opposed. Motion carries unanimously. Item three. Consent agenda 1 through 17. This time I I'll entertain a motion to approve. I move second. I have a motion and a second. Any discussion? Hearing none. All in favor? I.

All oppose. Motion carries unanimously. And I believe all we have is item K. Right. Madame clerk. Okay. This time I I'll entertain a motion to adjurnn. I move. Second. A motion and a second. Any discussion? Hearing none. All in favor? I. All oppose. Motion carries. We're now adjourned. Thank you.