Board of Supervisors - Regular Meeting

officially. If you uh would please either uh silence your phone or turn them off, that would be greatly appreciated. We'll call this meeting to order. The Santa Cruz County Board of Supervisors calls this meeting to order on May 13, 2026 at 9:30 a.m. in the Board of Supervisors meeting room 119 located at 2150 North Congress Drive, Ngalas, Arizona 85621. At this time, would you please join me in the pledge of allegiance? And I will ask Miss Alma over here to please lead us. United States nation indivisible with liberty and justice for all.

Thank you.

Adoption of the agenda. Mr. Manager, are there any changes or deviation from the Mr. Chair? There is no changes to the agenda. Thank you, sir. At this time, I'll entertain a motion to adopt the agenda as presented, giving the chair the ability to deviate where necessary. So move and I'll go ahead and second that. All those in favor or any discussion? Hearing none. All those in favor, please signify by saying I. I. Opposed.

Motion carries unanimously. Call to the public. Um just a reminder. Um and I'll go ahead and read this. This is the time for public to comment. Members of the board may not discuss items that are not specifically identified on the agenda. Therefore, pursuant to ARS 38-431-01H, action taken as a result of public comment will be limited to directing staff to study the matter, responding to any criticism or scheduling the matter for further consideration and decision at a later date. And with that, let's um when when I call your name, if you would please state your name, your address, and um you will be limited to three minutes. So with that, Miss Susan Phobia.

Thank you, gentlemen. Susan Phobian, 20 Kent Avenue, Rio Rico. Gentlemen, thank you. Still an elderly widow seeking justice. My neighbor cut my septic line because it was on his property because you approved that it be there. I lived without plumbing for four and a half months. I couldn't shower. I couldn't wash a dish. or my hands. At your request, I submitted my expenses for reimbursement, including the cost of my new septic line. The total was about 10,500. I was laughed at. I was given a deadline for acceptance. I requested extensions to the deadline and then I was told that uh the insurance could be built, but it likely wouldn't be paying anything. I requested the insurance be built. I am still waiting to hear the disposition of the claim. At the time I did not include a quote for the demolished landscaping. Since you have delayed payment, I am now ready to submit that since my claim is evidently still open. I have provided each of you a copy of my claim and your extremely ex offensive response to me. I honestly don't know if you've ever seen it. If you write to a constituent, please don't be rude or offensive or condescending. We don't like it. Do unto others as you would have them do unto you. Thank you.

Thank you, Susan. Thank you.

Greg, good morning. Uh, my name is Greg Benoy. I'm a resident of Rio Rico. I'm also a precinct committee man for Pet Canyon 21 for the Democratic Party. Um, quickly I want to just mention that a couple weeks ago, uh, the Democratic Party went out and did a cleanup on SR83 between mile 6 and 7. Uh, they are the adopt a highway uh, owners of that section. Um, a lot of it was uh, glass and furniture pieces and and just normal things, but uh, I did notice personally that it seemed like there were a lot less cigarette butts. So that's a good thing for health. there were a lot less cigarette butts than normal. So that kind of indicates that people are smoking less which is a good thing. Um we also circulated petitions and then there was uh snacks and stuff available for that. Um there's other events coming up so if you want to uh pay attention to social medias for the Democratic party you'll be able to participate in those. Um, the other thing I wanted to bring up is that uh the county has been improving drastically with the new administration and and getting progress on new projects and existing projects completed. The issue I see with the county though is there's still a lack of accountability at all levels. And when I had issues dealing with code violations for building on a construction site, nobody wanted to take up the mantle. You call into the building department and they say it's not their problem. You call in because there's issues with the boundary and the building inspector says he's not interested in it and he's just there to look at the plans. So, we need to have better accountability throughout every

level of the county before we really really have trust in the county again. Thank you. Thank you. Thank you, sir. With with that, we'll move to uh section D, current events, and I'll turn to my right, Supervisor Davis.

Good morning, everyone. So, here are my updates. Uh so we traveled to Washington DC to meet with members of the Arizona delegation to seek funding and support for Nugalis for the Nugal Wash the Deonini port of entry and other Rio Rico initiatives. During the trip we met with Congresswoman Alita Halva, Senator Mark Cali, uh Senator Ruben Ggo and Cong Congressman Juaniscoco Mani. We secured a commitment of 2.9 million for the peg canyon roundabout project through Congresswoman Grihala office. I served as a judge at for the Mexicio student portfolio project reviewing 13 pro student projects r uh ranging from third grade to 8th grade. Uh I was very impressive impressed with the students presentation and they did all an astounding job. I I also serve as the judge for the NHS senior project. It's always good to go back to the to the high school. I participated with community leaders who dedicated their time and support for students. I I was invited to speak with students during the career day at Guatimundi Middle School in Rio Rico. The students were engaged, as thoughtful questions, and showed great interest in learning about my career and life experience. Uh and the last item I have is that we also had the opportunity to visit the set of a ten nolla visa univision production that noa is calledos courageous brothers. It's a remake from the 70s. It's currently been filming in the region. Justin the owner of the production company took us to two sets. They gave us a tour and the information that I got, they're shooting um like 80% in TubeBck of this Nolla. Uh it was a big crew. A lot of people were out there. Uh this is one of the reasons that we're

proud to be part of the Arizona Film Ready program community initiative. And maybe next meeting that we have, we can h I can have Shannon uh tell us how much money they spend, how many people were here, and the impact like big productions have in Santa Cruz County when they come and film like a like a ten nolla or or a movie. So, those are some of my updates.

Thank you, sir. Um, a few of the things going on, it's been a little bit longer um since our last meeting. Um we all had an opportunity to u present to our emerging leaders. Um I'd like to thank Dr. uh Morales Martinez for all that he did there. We were also part of their graduation. Um and uh they they are going going to do some wonderful things. Um great great representation from our students throughout the community as well as across the line. We had some students from Mexico as well. So that went absolutely fantastic. uh took part in Rio Rico Community Days. That was a lot of fun. Um for those of you who have been and lived in this area for a long, long time. Um we used to have that event 30 plus years ago. Uh and it was run by Rio Rico Rotary in this time. It was Rio Rico Rotary. Um the county I I know had a an incredible presence. Um and I think Marty Pulsa, I think there were some other um folks there, but it was it was a lot of fun. Um, I want to thank Mauricio and Maria. Um, took part in quite a few of your uh, budget meetings and uh, incredibly professional and incredibly well-run um, as we move forward with the budget process. So, thank you for allowing me to be part of that and congrats. Keep up the great work. Let's see. I was uh, part of the science day. I don't know. I think it's called steam day in Santa Cruz Valley Unified School District. There's a game that's called 24. It's a numbers game and I was the MC for that. Had a lot of fun. Uh also took part in the Continental School District. Those of you know that uh I I put a lot of emphasis in education and was able to be at their A+ school of excellence in Green Valley. Uh part of the Rio Rico

High School top 5% that took place I think a week or two ago. I'd like to congratulate and our our cohort here or our compadre here um Mr. uh Louis uh Supervisor Malleta is not here today because his son is graduating from ASU. So we want to wish him the best and I also want to say congratulations to my son who graduated from GCU and my nephew who graduated from ASU just recently. Um, lastly, uh, I want to thank, uh, the Santa Cruz County School Superintendent's Office for allowing me to be part of the, uh, teacher of the year judging, uh, portion. Always great great to see what all our educators are doing throughout the uh, throughout the county. So, thank you for for that. And well, lastly, um, I'd like to congratulate Chris Laughlin, athletic director at Ngalis High School. I got had a chance to take part in the time to fly awards. Um, and that recognizes athletes, coaches, parents, uh, for all that they do for the athletic program at Rio Rico High School. And with that, I'll turn it over to the manager. Mr. Chair, members of the board, uh, two updates. I participated in a a round table with work, what is it, Wes, uh, to discuss work for work workforce development. It's uh West Ed is the company that's going to help us develop our workforce plan for the county. Um the also I attended the produce association annual meeting. Uh it's always nice to hear what they're up to and and some of the things that they're pushing with legislation and and project wise. Um I also want to recognize Chris Young for uh getting the paving done in front of the complex. Uh there's still a couple two more projects that are need to be completed and just

for the public uh we'll have press releases and information that Shannon will uh disseminate. Thank you.

Thank you sir. At this time we'll move to uh section E finance cash and investment expenditure and revenue reports. And I believe I'm going to defer to Maria. for the cash and investment report. Um, for the general fund, we have an overall balance of 26,862,993 with an invested amount of 16,819,47. For the road fund, we have an overall balance of 7,889,5001 with an invested amount of 5,22,33. For the flood control district, we have an overall balance of 3,594,160 with an invested amount of 313,529. For the jail district, we have 9,196,574 with an invested amount of 4,468,575 with a total overall balance of 73,297,881 and an invested amount of 28,957,773 with an estimated end of month balance of 13,871,048. Thank you so much. Any questions, sir?

Thank you, Maria. Mr. Chavez, M.

Mr. Chairman, members of the board, members of the community, I wanted to provide a a quarterly update also on on revenues and expenses as far as the general fund is concerned and the uh overall all the other funds for the organization. The report that you have before you highlights all the revenue streams that we have. I'll touch on the major ones unless you have any specific questions on others. We'll go over um to date which is the third quarter which ended on March 31st. Okay. Real estate taxes which is our property taxes. We have collected 11,696,656. That's up to March again March 31st. However, I I did uh review what we've collected as of May 8, and we have a total of 16,340,773, which is about 91% of our uh of our uh of our budgeted amount, which is a really a good job that the treasur is doing in in collecting the uh property taxes from from the constituents. Our vehicle license tax, that's the uh uh that's based on many different factors. That's the uh tax on um vehicles that are registered on an annual basis. Our collection to date is uh 1,877,449, which is about 85% of that right now. We're supposed to be at 75% of that. So, we're we're collecting well there as well. Our county uh halfsent sales tax revenues is at 3,411,918 which is 85% uh out of our budgeted amount. And then our state shared sales tax. Now this involves two different funding revenues there. It provides the revenue for the the regular sales sales

tax from the state and also for the public fiduciary that pays for the altex and the access programs. That's uh at 5,248,685 which is at about 74% which that's normal for that as well. For our local sales tax, I wanted to emphasize that we have a a substantial increase and it's due to the again I mentioned it last time that it's due to the contracting prime which is related to the border wall that's being built. any project that's being built in Santa Cruz County, regardless of where they buy their uh their their goods, we take uh we benefit from those tax rates or that tax revenue. Currently, right now overall, our overall local sales tax is up about 26%. Okay. Want to be cautious though that it is due to that that border wall. Our retail has been remaining the same as last year. We haven't had any increases on the country. It's it's been decreasing a a little bit and uh our transient lodging has also been decreasing which is unusual because we see that all the uh hotels are filled up here in Ogales. However, we see a 4% decline compared to last year. Uh state share sales tax is up about 19.9% which is very significant. And uh I mentioned the vehicle tax, that's up 3.4%. Our highway user revenue fund, that's the HERF, that's the road fund, that's actually down 7.3% compared to last year. And then our overweight fees are pretty much remaining the same as as as last year. The rest of the report that I have provides the expenses of all funds, including the general fund. I just want

to go over the general fund and emphasize that overall the general fund is doing well at about 56% of of expenses. We, you know, we could be as high as 75, but we're at 56%. And we have a breakdown there if you if you will need for me to go over each department, but that breakdown uh clearly identifies where each department stands right now. I'll take any questions uh from the board. President Davis. No, I I just thought it was interesting that the lodging has a drop of 4% compared to last year, right? That is correct. Even though I've seen like correct. Yes. Just a comment. I have no comment at this time. Thank you so much.

Thank you. Thanks. With that, we'll go ahead and move to E number two, department updates. And we'll start off with Shannon presentation and community induction introduction of the new logo for use across all public facing communications. And so with that, I'm going to turn it over to uh director of communications and community relations Shannon Hull.

Good morning, uh, supervisors, board, staff, and our community. Um, I'm excited today because we are finally going to be able to introduce our new logo to the community. We've been working on this for some time. Uh we did a soft launch to staff back at our staff appreciation where we brought it out. We got some positive feedback and then last month supervisor Mleta mentioned it briefly during a meeting. So the information is trickled out but today is the official uh introduction to the community. Can you go to the next slide? So why did we update the logo? We wanted something more modern for the county. But the real reason we could we wanted something that represented all the districts one, two, and three. We wanted something that reflected our community. And we didn't feel like a building or or one specific landmark represented all of Santa Cruz County. So we started down a path to to update that to hopefully reflect the community. Next slide. So how is it developed? Um we formed a small committee and met with um a company called Davidson and Bluso and we talked about what is in what how do we envision our community? What what is Santa Cruz County to us? And so we started having conversations among the committee. We reached out to the community. We did a drive where we asked the community to submit photos for uh about what they thought was representative of Santa Cruz County. So, a lot of the key themes were that came kept coming across in conversation and in photos were history, culture, community, and landscape. Next slide.

So, what that's what inspired the design was our diverse landscapes. uh our our nature, our culture, um our community events, all of that went into the design. Uh it seemed that moreover, more than anything, people kept talking about how diverse the landscape was across the county. So, you could go to any part of the county and feel like you're in a different part of Arizona. We have so many different areas. Um we have Cenoida Wine Country. We have the quaint little town of Patagonia. We have a lot of greenery along the Santa Cruz River. We have lakes. We have Patagonia Lake, Parker Canyon, Pina Blanca, um mountains, hills, grasslands, border, like we just we have everything across the county. Next slide. So, that's where that's what poured into the design of the logo and our tagline. Um, you can see the S in the middle. It's the S. The curves are inspired by the Santa Cruz River, which is very important part of Santa Cruz County, very important part of Arizona in general. Um, conserving and preserving um our waterways. Um, the, as I mentioned, the colors uh reflect the grasslands, the mountains, the desert. You see the white on either side of the curved S, and that represents our border community. So, we really tried to incorporate everything into one logo so that every community in our county could feel like it represented them. Um, our tagline, the place of amazing places, that was also because of all of the diverse landscape, all of the amazing places we have. We have film companies coming here. We have our tourism is is

ramping up, birding, hiking, cycling. Our events are getting bigger and people are starting to recognize Santa Cruz County. So, we're really proud of the logo and the tagline. Uh, next slide. So, for as far as implementation, like I said, we soft launched it to staff. Um, we spent the next the last month getting the guidelines together. We have a communication guide for staff. We have guidelines for the seal. We're going to sunset the old logo, the blue round logo. We're going to sunset that by the end of the year. Um, we've given staff guidance on the use of the seal. We're going to push the seal into a more official capacity um for ballots and things of those nature. Uh, things of that nature. Uh, we're going to update our county assets. So, signs, vehicles, public facing um, uh, representation of the county, that'll be updated. their vehicles will be updated this year. I think they were they were going to be updated anyways. H and Micio uh decided to wait because he knew the the logo was coming so we could save some money and only update once. So, we're trying to be fiscally responsible and only update items as budgets allow. Um and then the departments will start updating their forms, their flyers, uh websites, emails. So the community will start to see that. We've already started transitioning social media pages. So the new logo is there. Uh our website is due to update by the end of the day today. So you'll see that change. Uh, also something that we were fortunate that every three years our vendor provides us the opportunity to do a refresh at no charge. So, we're able to incorporate the logo into the

refresh. Um, questions on that on the implementation. No, next slide. So, the the my favorite part. So, I told you we reached out to the community and we asked people to submit photos of what they thought represented Santa Cruz County. I was a little overwhelmed with the amount of photos that people supplied to me. I was sincerely grateful. Um, I told them we would put together a photo collage of everything that represents Santa Cruz County, the best of the place of amazing places. And so, I just want to thank those folks. There's a lot of there's a lot of groups, a lot of individual photographers, uh, organizations. Thank you to them all. They are listed at the end. Um, I think went over check, double check, recheck, make sure we didn't forget anyone to say thank you. Um, I won't try to mention them now because there's too many, but if Alma will turn off, we'll dim one of the lights and Emmanuel will play the video and you'll see what people submitted as Santa Cruz County, the place of amazing places. Santa Cruz County is quite the place all because of the places within its borders. To the north and east lie Madera Canyon and the famed wine country of Cenoida. At the center sits Patagonia with its popular lake and state park. To the west rise Sycamore Canyon in Montana Peak. And to the south stand the historic Tumacari Mission and the vibrant city of Ngalas. A bational city sharing the border with Mexico where heritage meets harvest and a thriving produce industry delivers farm freshness to tables across the nation.

Santa Cruz County is widely admired for its rich blend of natural beauty and history. the blessings of mother nature and father time. Most notable are the sky islands, the county's four mountain ranges surrounded by a sea desert and grasslands forming a biodiversity hotspot, a vital wildlife migration corridor, and some of the finest ranch land in the country. Connecting it all is a network of vibrant communities. Tuvac, Sonoida, Patagonia, Rio Rico, Nogalis, Elgen, Amato, and Tumacakari. Each playing its own yet collaborative role in making Santa Cruz County one of the most culturally rich, historically significant, ecologically diverse, and economically dynamic counties in Arizona. Tourism is taking off, drawing visitors from around the world. Hollywood location scouts, filmmakers, cast and crew are discovering it, too. Education and public safety are excellent. Civic pride is blossoming. Small business is thriving. Population is growing. And with it, opportunity for all, whether visitor or resident. So, if you're looking to raise a family, pursue a career, enjoy a weekend, or live a higher quality of life, Santa Cruz County is the place with the places to do it. Santa Cruz County, the place of amazing places. So, those are a lot of the the you can't the lighting in here does not do those photos justice. So, grateful to the

people that submitted those photos and we live in an amazing county. I it to sit there and look at all the different places across the county, see everyone represented it, it was it made me emotional. So, so any questions?

Great job, Shannon. So, all this week I've been traveling like around the county. Yesterday, like for example, I was with the county manager for like five hours. Start starting district one, two, and three. And it is the place of amazing places. It's just so beautiful. Like, and it changes so drastically from one area to another. Even in the distance, you can see like like a really green area and then you see the desert within the mile, you know. So, I mean, you just did a great job capturing this and thanks for all the people that send all the pictures, you know. Uh, no, this this is this is amazing. All of those photos are in Santa Cruz County. So, yes,

by people who live in Santa Cruz County. So, amazing places and amazing people, photographers. So, and and something else we had, we we got a chance to give a hat to Senator Mark Kelly and he wore it like he he really liked it. So, he has one of those hats and once again, good job for everything. Thank you. Yeah, I want to post that on our Facebook.

All inspiring. That that's that's the word that came to mind. Um and it truly is the place of amazing places. Um let's keep it that way. That's uh you know, it's a double-edged sword. Do we want to let people know what a great county, what a great community, what great people we have here? Sure we do. But let's keep it that that uh the same culture and the same climate that we have. So, my hats off to you, Shannon. I I've worked with you for quite a long time, and you continue to uh to do incredible things. Should we share the video or not? Thank you to the public. I I hope so. Yeah, it's on our social. You don't want people to know, right?

She's within Santa Cruz County, don't know. Yeah. It's funny because I shared the video with Carrie Mos and she said the same thing. She's like, I really love it, but please don't share that with anyone. I don't want anyone to move here. So, uh, incredible. Thank you.

And thank you so much. The fact that every single thing, every single part of that, uh, that new logo means something. Um, so very special. Thank you. Uh, at this time we'll continue with department updates. Do we have any other departments that would like to get up and speak? We'll start here and then we'll Thank you, sir. If you'd go ahead and, uh, introduce yourself and what uh, what department you're representing.

So, good morning, Chairman Fanning, Supervisor Davis. Good morning to the county management, and good morning to the members of the community. Good morning. My name is Ian Pig. I'm with Department of Economic Security serving as a disabled veterans outreach program specialist and a local veteran employment representative. I am a veteran myself and I served um with the Army and active duty as a tanker and continue serving as an Army reser. So, let's start off with my disabled veterans outreach program specialist role. I provide intensive indivi individualized career services to veterans with significant barriers to employment such as disabled veterans, unemployed veterans, homeless veterans, economically disadvantaged veterans, and eligible spouses. For the past few months, I was able to place six veterans into employment. And we utilize the veteran toolkit, which is a grant the state gives, so the veteran could be able to get uniforms, tools, anything so they could be ready for that job they just got. The focus is on long-term employment, stability, and retention. We also work on housing assistance. I have been able to assist two homeless veterans and secured them in stable housing. And thankfully from the direct partnership from Primar Foundation, they're really great. So what they do is basically it's like a three-day process and after that three-day process they put them in a hotel and from a hotel to an apartment paid up to six months and after they put with HUDVASH and they paid half of the bill for a whole two years and then after I also mentioned to my veterans about all the resources available around us there's a lot of resources a lot of this goes like no one sees them but one of them is VA benefits

how to utilize their GI bill for education. Premier Foundation, Arizona Department of Veteran Services, Boulder Crest Foundation up in Sonoita, Hilton Honors Militin program, and there's plenty more. There's basically for anything a veteran might need, there's a resource for it. And I also collaborated with the military. So, I've been able to get all six branches to to come to our office and place like pamphlets and all that. and I know all the recruits themselves as well. And I basically did that for anybody who's interested in joining the military service. It's a great experience. I I love my service to my country and serving the army. So I want other people to join as well and do the same. And also I want them to join the proper way, have the all the information they need so they could join the right branch and the right job so they can have also an amazing experience. So, veteran uh workforce development increasing awareness of the title 2 adult education construction trades program out in our Arizona work office. I'm trying to get the veteran community to be part of it and know that there is those programs for them so they could get into that kind of career field in construction. And I want to thank some community partners that have been able to help me such as the VFW, the commander David Reese. He's helped me with major things and always uh support them as well. Baja Guns with Susan, she's always provided me many veterans that could assist and many other partners as well. And the community impact from all this will be supporting veteran employment and stability, reducing veteran homelessness, strengthening local vet um workforce development, building partnerships between employers, community organizations, and veterans, and expanding long-term opportunities for veterans and eligible spouses. Now, to

my local veteran employment representative role. So the main thing I do, I conduct outreach to local employers and business associations, advocate for veteran hiring, increase job opportunities and place placement services, ensure veterans are connected with highquality positions, and I also like to educate that employers could when they hire a veteran, it's tax credits. I could get a little a little more onto that later. And then from March through April, I was able to generate 5 53 new job orders, 53 new job positions, provided job shopping services, matching qualified veterans with employer requirements, collaborated with employment counseling team. I assist my team for even the non-veterans. I assist them so they could also help people who are nonveterans get employment as well. And for hiring events, we've been able to organize seven hiring events in the past few months. One was with AAA landscape in March which resulted in 20 placements. And with wholesome family farms, we did two and it results in 31 placements. And we have an upcoming one with Trident, which is actually tomorrow. I would highly recommend you guys come out, check it out. It's going to be great. They're coming all the way from Alaska and or Seattle and it's going to be a great for the community. We're projected to to secure 40 plus placements with that hiring event. And um with my employer outreach, I keep ongoing outreach to develop new employer partnerships, strengthening existing employer relationships, and then expanding veteran hiring opportunities throughout Santa Cruz County and surrounding areas. And the continued goal is to ensure

veterans and eligible spouses receive support, resources, housing assistance, and employment opportunities needed for the long-term success and stab stab stability. And that is all I have for today. Any questions,

no, more than anything, I I I think that Arizona at work is is a little jewel that helps so many people. So, every time that I go and visit there, you're you guys is always busy helping a lot of people. I knew about this program. Um, I know about the the the recruiting people to work. So, Sida, you've been doing a really good job. That's why I like to go at least once a week and just visit you guys. Um, no, keep it up and everybody should help spread the word so more people can benefit from it, you know. But, yeah, it's like I said, it's a little jewel in our community. Yep. Thank you. Thanks for everything, for your service and and for working at Arizona at work as well. Thank you.

Thank you for your while you were in the service. Thank you for your service. You're still in the service. Thank you. And thank you for all that you do for those who have been in the service. Very much appreciated. Thank you. Thank you, Abigail. Thank you, Sid. When is the the triple I know, not AAA. Why what's the name of the company from Alaska?

Trident. Trident Seafoods. And I just want to reiterate that Elam is with Arizona um Arizona at work. He is with the jobs um for veterans grant. Um it's a grant through the uh federal government. And tomorrow we have the Trident Seafood hiring event which we have been mentioning for the past couple of months. Um it is a great event. We see more than 120 uh job seekers that go out there for the opportunity to get hired. A lot of people ask why we're bringing a company from Alaska. Why not too? Um, these people are are stationed in Alaska. They're not spending their money. So, when they come back, they spend it here. So, that that's a great opportunity for us. And it's mostly seasonal workers that go. So, we see a lot of people who are being laid off right now from produce. Uh, so mostly these individuals go to Alaska. So, they're not unemployed. They're not receiving unemployment, which is good. Less unemployment. Um, for the for the um county of of Santa Cruz. But yes, it's tomorrow. It'll be a great event. We have OB99.1 that's going to be there as well. Um we're going to have a table there as well. We're going to be doing outreach. Uh so please come and visit us. Come and see us. Great event. And again, I like to mention it. We change lives. That what that's what we do and that's what Edam has been doing for our veterans. Thank you.

Thanks to you and I'll see you tomorrow. I'll be there. Thank you so much. Where? Oh, great question. This is This is going to be at 610 North Morley Avenue. It is right across the Hotel Americana. All right. The event starts uh from 8:00 a.m. to 4:30 p.m. Yes. So, we we hope to see everybody there. And I think it's it's the community's responsibility department head's responsibility to know this information so that they they can forward it to their constituents, to any family members, to anybody who is in need of of employment. Thank you. Thank you so much. Of course, treasurer pause.

Good morning, Mr. Chair, Mr. Davis, County Management, members of the public. I have quite a bit of updates as it's been quite some time since I've been up here to the podium. um which I prefer. But let's go ahead and give you I have four updates for you and we'll start with district 28 and the rebuild. Um just yesterday we got the confirmation from the property tax oversight committee that we have met all requirements that we're at the 1% or below. Our tax bills are good. So, we've provided approval to the printer to mail out the final rebuild for district 28. That should be going out um by the end of this week or next week. I'm still waiting for the printer to confirm on the exact mailing date. Um, with that though, we do have an update in connections with the property tax oversight committee. Um, prior to the special meeting, excuse me, the prior to the spe special meeting that I held for the public where we disclosed the uh, corrected rate that needed to be applied for the rate reduction turned out to be incorrect. That came out in our conversations when reviewing our rebuild with the property tax oversight committee. It was something that was brought up to their attention by myself prior to that special meeting. However, they had confirmed that the rate they had provided was correct. Um, in our previous connection, in our current connections between mid-March, no mid April and to now, they uncovered that indeed we were correct, that they had provided an incorrect rate reduction rate. And so they were able to provide finally in writing um which I have here for you the updated state aid reduction rate that was applied for district 28 um to ensure that we met the 1%.

Thank you sir.

You have two documents in front of you. One just gives out the breakdown of how they calculate the additional state aid rate. Um and then the second one goes over the same information and the third one is the first state aid reduction rate that they had provided our office which again was incorrect. So the misstated uh state aid reduction rate they had provided was 3.9837 and the correct state aid reduction rate is 3.2034. That's exactly what was applied to all residents of district 28, which was 555 parcels um that were impacted. The um the proofs were also changed as part of what was discussed in the special meeting that our policies and procedures in regards to tax statement creations would change and part of that included more eyes on it. So we did present proofs to county management to district 28 administration as well as well as the school superintendent's office for review of proofs which they all reviewed and pro and uh confirmed um as well as the treasures office along with PET talk working together. So, we are fully confident that this rebuild is correct and accurate and uh all district 28 members who have not paid their parcels um as we've mentioned to those who have been visiting our office or making phone calls, they are forgiven for any penalties or interest charges due to the error. Um so, we uh did encourage some of them to hold off on payment, come pay once you receive your new tax bill. Um some chose to pay it in advance and they'll get a reimbursement in the mail. Um, so that's to go along with this. They're getting a second refund check. The first one they've received already probably two, three weeks ago and the second one will be coming out as soon as it's the tax rule is input into the treasur system. Any questions on district 28?

No, thank you so much for the continued, you know, um, work on in in this area. Very much appreciate it and I'm sure it's appreciated by those in district 28.

Yes, we've kept in touch with them. They're they are um very happy and they're going to be more happy once they get their new bills and see the reduction in their tax statements. Um number two, um we are finally getting our new treasur system. We will go dark for two weeks. We will not be taking any payments from any constituents. No tax payments can be applied for the first two weeks of July. So from July 1st to July 19th, the treasur's office will be closed to the public where we will not be able to take any payments. You can come and ask questions, inquire, but we will not be taking any payments um checks or cash. If they wish to still make any payments, they can make payments via credit card or e checkek online. However, be keep it in mind that those payments will not be processed until 3 to four weeks after you've made the payment. Again, why that will happen is because we will have no system for the first two weeks of July. So that is why we are stating that we will not be accepting payments. We will publish it in the Ngalas International. We'll provide a press release with dates, but no tax collections can occur.

Wonderful. That that was going to be my question, making sure we communicate that with our constituents. Thank you. Absolutely. Maybe Shannon could can post something, too. Yeah, we'll definitely get her the dates. Um July 20th is our go live date. That is when our treasur system will be up and running uh and effective. Um we will have to do everything that was provided to our office for the first two weeks of July. Treasures receipts, journal entries, deposits, those are still being processed in the first two weeks of July, but they need to be reinput into the new system once we are live. So we will have a backlog of work as well. Any questions on the new system, Mr. Sure.

Um, just wanted to ask the honorable uh treasure, how old is the current system,

I want to say before anybody in this room combined together, it's extremely old. Um, and it's about to die anytime soon. So, I'm very happy. July was not the ideal month. I'll be honest with you. If you want to add some more stress to my plate, give me a new system in July. we have to take it anyway. So, we're just going to roll with the punches and go with the transition. Um, we were supposed to go in March, but due to some delays and we prefer the delay due to the system not being ready. Um, and then of course we go into tax season September through December. So, really the only ideal month for any treasures office to transition is March. Uh, that was not achievable. So, we're going to take the hit and do it in July.

And I think uh county manager Valdez makes a good point. I think that needs to be part of the uh narrative um when we send that information out to constituents as to why we're doing this. Absolutely. Mr. Quick question. So I I it's obvious that the new system is going to be much better, right? Because the other one is really really old. But are there something that stands out that you're going to be able to do now that before it was like impossible with this new system? Maybe the public should know. Everything everything

is going to be a lot easier. Um just simply to begin with, we have support. We have a person or a team that we can reach out to to either come and help us in person or over the phone, which in this we currently do have some of our internal IT system, but they're not the system creators. The creators are probably six feet under, I'm going to say. Um so we have no other resource to contact when we run into any issues. It's kind of figure it out and hope for the best that it works. Um and luckily it's been working well. But uh just the fact that we're going to have support and somebody that can help us with any issues first of all. Um and then the system will be talking internally to the to the assessor system. It'll also relay information out to the school superintendent to finance journals treasures receipts. So it'll be communicating a lot more with the departments that we bank with.

Are there other counties that are using this system? There are four counties that are currently transitioned. when Navajo will be first in June and then Graham will be in August after us and the fourth county I think is gonna wait till next year. Great. Good. Thank you. Of course. Any other questions on the system?

All right. So, my third update and I could have waited till June, but I'm very excited. I don't want to wait. I can give you another update on this. Um, and it is to toot the treasur's office horn um since we don't get a lot of it. Uh right now um our our office has really focused on the investments piece of the funds that we have for the county and making sure that our constituents monies are working for us um and helping us. So, I just want I did a comparison this morning just quickly reviewing um the prior treasures investments and year-to-year year-to- date year-over-year interest earnings. And I was able to find that the highest interest earning they were able to achieve prior to my time was 1.51,531,66. Um, and I'm not counting last year. I'm only counting this year and we still have three months to go. Our office has already earned the county $2,823,224.39 for a difference of 1,291,618,000 year to date. So again, we still have three months to that. We can add a roughly another 600,800,000 of interest we'll earn within the next three months to our current uh interest earnings. So, we wanted to share that we have it diversified. We want to make sure we don't have all our eggs in one basket. Um, we are working with Meter Investments. That's who hold our majority of our holdings. It's a large savings. Um, but we also work with Hilltop Security and Barrett Financial who do some more of the bonds and treasury bills and agency bills investments for us for longer terms locked in rates. So, um, we are definitely looking at our portfolio and we'll even come probably before the end of the fiscal year or beginning of the fiscal year with a presentation with Ben Finkelston where we can review what our

plan is, where we currently are, and how we're going to achieve our plan. Any questions? Congrats.

Thank you. And then lastly is our PNC bank transition. We're in the final stages finally. And please knock on wood and pray to every god that you believe in. Um because I'm ready for this transition to be done and over with. But we are just waiting for one more entity to complete a very necessary training for uh payroll and a we want to make sure there's no interruption to anybody's pay. Um so we're making sure we're taking our time with that with the bank and reviewing the files and the processes to ensure that there's no interruption between the transitions from JP Morgan to PNC Bank. And that is all I have. Any questions?

Good news all the way around. Thank you. Thank you to you. Thank you to your team. Yes. Thank you guys. We appreciate it. Nowhere to find us. Good. All good. Always nice to have good news. County School Superintendent, Miss Maya. Here come good news. Right, Maya?

Good morning. Good morning, Chairman Fanning. Oh, that has a nice ring to it.

Supervisor Davis, County Management, members of the public. Hope you're doing well today. We're going to do a two-part little update here for you. So, it's a I guess it's a common misconception that our office must slow down since schools are closed uh during the summer, but that could not be farther from the truth. Uh we'll be working handinhand with the treasur's office on all the the updates that Alejandra just shared, making sure that our districts are adequately served and teachers never miss a paycheck and and all of those good things. So, thank you to the treasures office for continuously uh working with our office um through these new times. These are our summer camps that we're offering in front of you. Uh a lot of them are already full and so the these camps do fill up quickly. Please make sure that you share with family and friends. We have wonderful partners and instructors. Um there's fire safety camps that we work with all four fire districts on. There are um a livestock uh camp that we work with the University of Arizona Cooperative Extension and the 4 clubs. Uh let's see another couple that I want to point out to you. um our regulars, Stores Bike Camp. Um a new mural will go up in in Tubec for sure and hopefully Cenoida should be a wonderful um healthcare careers. I did mention that last time. And the Southern Arizona Filmfest is also being incorporated into our into our summer camps. um wonderful partners within Ngalas Unified, Santa Cruz Valley, the community college, the provincial community college district, the library. Um everybody pitches in to offer different sites. We'll also have the filmfest camp there in the 1904 courthouse. So, I think um our families, our community will be really uh happy

with the offerings of the summer to keep kids busy and away from those screens and um fully uh edutained educ educy educ educationally entertained. Okay. Um uh so please share. There's a QR code uh there where people can um register, visit our website, follow us on social media, all that good stuff because we want these camps to be full. Uh and then Carrie is going to share with you about the leaders in training internship. Thank you again to the county for funding this amazing summer program so that our office can manage uh 30 interns this summer. Thank you.

Thank you. I just want to say it. Chairman Fanning, hello. Um, and Supervisor uh Davis, thank you. And management. Um, yes, leaders in training. Uh, it's on the u board agenda today. Um, I have reached out to all the departments that uh were um participating in the last couple years. Uh uh we haven't heard from all the departments, however. So, I just want to kind of do a shout out for that to hear from the departments. We have um about so far 30 kids already registered for the program. So um registration is uh we're going to run the registration up till um May uh 15th or 18th. I probably go till the 18th um and get some more kids. We'll be doing some interviewing here at the end of May. Um the program will be starting June 8th through July 10th. Um again for the with the 10 uh with the 30 students uh here at the county department. So, we're really excited about that and thank you so much for for approving that program. Any questions?

No. No. Everything is is good. Congratulations for everything and and all the work that you do for the community and the students to be busy this summer. Thank you. No, I'm excited to see all those students. It's great. It's great to see those uh the kids uh during the summer um working and hopefully we'll see them as they grow older. Definitely. The county One last thing, we're also preparing for the teacher of the year um celebration. We are holding this this um event at the Pearson newly renovated gym. The theme is a sock hop. Um so um thank you Mr. Fanning for helping us judge. We do have 20 teachers in the running for county teacher of the year. Thank you. Thanks. Exciting.

Any other department? Okay. I am going to deviate uh from the uh agenda and the reason I am deviating is because our men and women in khaki or tan or whatever color um that is they have jobs to do and so we are going to uh deviate and we're going to go to action item I two uh discussion possible action to approve proclamation declaring May 11th 2026 through May 1720 2026 as National Police Week and Peace Officer Memorial Day. And I'm going to turn to Supervisor Davis if you'd like to please read that proclamation.

Absolutely. So, National Police Week. Whereas the Congress and the President of the United States have designated May 15, 2026 as Peace Officers Memorial Day and the week in which May 15th falls in National Police Week. And whereas the members of the law enforcement agency of Santa Cruz County play an essential role in safeguarding the rights and freedoms of Santa Cruz County. And whereas it is important that all citizens know and understand the duties, responsibilities, hazards, and sacrifices of the law enforcement agency. And the members of our law enforcement agency recognize their duty to serve the people by safeguarding life, property, and protecting them against violence and disorder, and protecting the innocent against deception and the weak against oppression. And whereas the men and women of the law enforcement agencies of Santa Cruz County unseenly provide a vital public service. Now therefore, the board of supervisors of Santa Cruz County call upon all citizens of Santa Cruz County and upon all patriotic civic and education organizations to observe the week of May 11th through 17, 2026 as police week with appropriate ceremonies and observances in which all of our people m may join in commemorating law enforcement office past and present who By their faithful and loyal devotion and their responsibilities have rendered and dedicated services to our communities and in so doing have established themselves as inviable and enduring reputation for preserving the right and securing all citizens. We further call upon all citizens of Santa Cruz County

to observe May 15, 2026 as a peace officers memorial day in honor of those law enforcement officers who through their courageous deeds have made the ultimate sacrifice in service to their community or have become disabled in the performance of duty. and let us recognize and pay respect to the survivors of our fallen heroes. In witness thereof, we have here in two set our hand and cause the seal of Santa Cruz County to be affixed this 13th day of May, 2026 from the board of supervisors.

Thank you, sir. Under Sheriff Castillo, if you'd like to come up and say a few words and then we'll make sure we get a picture. and to the men and women sitting uh in front of us. Thank you. Thank you for putting your lives on the line every single day and thank you for keeping our community safe.

Good morning, Mr. Chairman, members of the board public. This is the opportunity to recognize our fallen heroes and obviously our men and women in uniform. Um we thank you for the board always being there for us and also for the public. Um On Friday, we will have a ceremony at 10 o'clock right behind. So, you guys are invited. Uh we look forward and hopefully uh we lose no one else in in the process. Thank you.

Thank you. If we'd like to come up, please. Perfect. And now we'll move back to E. Thank you for waiting patiently um team. At this time we're going to move to uh say something real quick please.

Mr. Castillo. So I always see Mr. Musk is working really hard when I go and drop my daughter to school and so it's really really nice to see him here. I also see my nephew Victoria. I hope she's doing good and and congratulations to everybody and I'll see you guys Friday. Thanks for your service. Just just a second. Um I'd like to entertain a motion to approve proclamation declaring May 11th, 2026 through May 17, 2026 as National Police Week and Peace Officer Memorial Day. So moved. Second. Any further discussion? Hearing none. All those in favor, please signify by saying I. I. I. Motion carries unanimously. Thank you. Thank you guys.

Now we're going to move to three um awards, recognition, and accomplishments. 3A recognition of the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints for their commitment to keeping Rio Rico clean through their volunteer cleanup efforts. And um so if you could have one of the individuals sitting there if you would like to Mr. Armyho if you could uh please say a few words and then we'll go from there. Yeah definitely. Um well good morning um Chairman Fanning I guess. Chairman Fanning we go back a little bit. Just a little.

Just a little. Just a little. um supervisor uh um Davis and everything members of the community uh just want appreciate this opportunity that we've uh that we had to do this the coordination that was taking place um churchwide about in the fall about September we do it every year um there's a community project that we're asked to do and that could take many forms um this year this past year we elected and this was actually through the coordination efforts of of uh brother Gabriel Paddio uh to do a cleanup to you know look at look at the uh the county there in Rio Rico, what streets uh we think that we can assist, we can help out on. Um he came up, I believe he came up with the idea. He went to his his bishop in the Spanish congregation and then he came over to I oversee him bishop for the English congregation came over said, "Hey, we have this plan. Want to do it?" I was like, "All right, go ahead. Go ahead. Push forward." And he was able to. Um you know, I appreciate also Jorge Luna and Jay Corona um being here also. and also Colin Bishop too over here. Um yeah, we you can see there a picture this I believe this was uh this was recently in April. So we do plan on doing this community cleanup every six months where September to April, October to April and everything. Um this we did a mile cleanup. This was over by Ga Kam Kalami and then Ga Galabasas. Then went over Damon Park and had some breakfast and our kids were out there. And I know my we wake up early, met at Garrett at 7:00 a.m. by 7:30 divvied up into groups and just went out there. I know I took my six-year-old um and my six-year-old and my 12-year-old and I know they weren't happy waking up that early on a Saturday, but once we got out there, they just feel that spirit of service um spirit of service and being out there. and there's a lot of trash, but we did well and I appreciate I appreciate you guys assisting us with that.

Well, thank you, sir. Quick question. So, you said that you're planning to do this again, right? Yes, sir. Can you do it in District One? I'm just kidding. But congratulations. That's really good. We know that that's something that we need and it does makes a difference when you see like when you see the the freeway and you see a little bit of trash and then when it gets cleaned up. So, thanks for everything.

Thank you. Thank you so much. Thank you for all you you you do. It makes a difference. Um you are appreciative. So, thank you. And for that, we not only have a challenge coin to continue to do great work within the community. Um but we also have a certificate of recognition presented to the Church of Latter-day Saints for their commitment to keep keeping Rio Rico clean through their volunteer cleanup efforts. And that's signed by uh all three of us. Um Supervisor. So Saint, thank you so much. Come on up and let's take a picture and commemorate wonderful thing. Colin, do we expect to see you out there next time? Yes, sir.

All right. Okay. At this time, I'd like to entertain a motion to recess regular session and move into flood control district. So move. Second. Any discussion? Hearing none. All those in favor, please signify by saying I. I. I. Opposed. Extension. Motion carries unanimously. Alan Lou, good morning. Glad to see that you're up and moving and and healthy. All right. Thank you. on the road to

appreciate it. Glad to be here. Uh, Supervisor Fanning, Chairman, Supervisor Fanning, and uh, Supervisor Davis. Uh, this is the flood control district report for period April 1st through April 30th of 2026. Just want to say uh ahead of time that I a shout out to Angie Pimeient for giving the report last time in my absence. So in April we did receive some rain, much needed rain. However, it was below uh the average uh for the Ngalas area. Uh the average being 35 inch. Uh we received about uh 0.20. Um however, other places within the uh county received more um right around a half an inch in some locations. Uh so as a result, even though we did get some um rain last uh month, we still are in a um drought. The drought has continued to moderate, which is good. Um, so Santa Cruz County is categorized as a D1 moderate uh drought in the southwest corner. Uh, a D0 abnormally dry in the middle uh portion of the county and the eastern uh county is not in drought at this point. So, we're looking forward to um a wet monsoon. Not too much that it floods, but it should be coming along. with the El Nino and things like that. Um, you know, maybe we'll get a little bit uh more uh tropical storms kind of a thing this year. Um, on to uh housekeeping. Um, the district received 175 uh flood hazard information sheet

requests uh in uh April. 154 of those were in Santa Cruz County, 19 in Ngalas, two in Patagonia. Uh we we received um nine flood plane use permits uh seven in Santa Cruz County and two in Ngalas and we also had one drainage complaint. Uh moving on to projects. Uh Efron Canyon project uh CMG our consultant is assisting the county by providing an alternative structure to meet some of the objectives to meet the same objectives objectives of the FEMA grant. stakeholders and property owners uh were met with on 421 uh and 30% design stage uh plans for utilities has been submitted. Uh the county continues to work with the department of environmental management uh administration to extend the schedule. Um moving on to Patagonia regional flood control project. Uh with the signing of the recent agreement to fund the project, the consultant is reviewing the scope and fee they submitted a year ago to confirm um that it's if it needs to be amended uh if there needs to be any amendments needed. Uh Portro Creek letter of map revision. Uh our letter of map revision letter was issued January 6 and will become effective June 4th. So coming up uh and uh it's still within its 90day technical appeal period and as of uh right now I don't think we've received any appeals. Um moving on to Monte Carlo Monte Carlo and Ocean Garden Drive. Uh our consultant U CMG has completed the existing conditions analysis and

alternatives are being looked at at at this time. Um, as far as the town of Patagonia, they did uh submit a flood and flow report and it's attached to the report. So, and that's all I have for today. President Davis, when it comes to to Monte Carlo, uh,

when do you think you're you're going to have some u like possible solutions or ideas for for that area? I mean I mean just um the way I feel about it is that we should be uh getting some updates by next next time. So hopefully by next time we'll have some alternatives. Sounds good. Thank you. Thank you, sir. Thank you for all you do and let's uh keep that rain coming. Thank you. Okay. At this time uh entertain a motion to reconvene into regular session. So move. Second. Any further discussion hearing? None. All those in favor, please signify by saying I. I.

I. Opposed.

Abstension. Motion carries unanimously. And with that, we'll move to G public hearing. Do we need to uh um exit regular session for that? Okay. Then uh I'll entertain a motion to recess regular session and uh move into the public hearing. The purpose of the public hearing is to formally present the matter to the board and the public and to allow the public comments. Public hearings are part of the decision-making process and the input received may be considered before board actions taken. Number one, resolution number 2026-02, case number PZ-26-02 for a one-year extension of the 2016 Santa Cruz County Comprehensive Plan extending its effective period through May 18th, 2027. This was requested by Community Development.

So move. It's been moved. Uh I'll second. Um all those in favor, please sign. Well, no. We need public comment. Is there any public comment at this time? Okay. Should I ask Colin to uh Colin or or Chris, if you if you'd like to explain what this is, please before we uh go to a vote.

Good morning, Chairman Fanning, Supervisor Davis, management, and members of the public. So the 2016 comprehensive plan um which is updated or the comprehensive plans are updated every 10 years and the 2016 plan actually would be due to expire uh May 18th of this month since obviously I on boarded in this position in late November and we need time to actually go through the comprehensive plan process um to to have time to develop it get the stakeholder input from the community, work through the technical committees and so forth. So, in order to keep us statutoily clean, um I'm requesting this extension, even though the state has informed me there would be no ramifications if we didn't do it. Um but in the spirit of public trust and transparency, I felt it was important that, you know, we keep our house in order and and do what we're asked to do statutoily. So this is truthfully more of a formality. Um but it also keeps us where we need to be

legally. Thank you sir. Thank you.

Go ahead sir.

Good morning Mr. Chair and Mr. and Supervisor Davis. Uh did Mr. Uh I'm sorry it's kind of morning. Uh Ken is correct and the statutes are a little bit unclear. Basically it talks about uh an extension. the board can approve an extension uh the andor readdopt uh the current one and if nothing happens then the current uh pro development uh plan is is just kind of continued until the board adopts a new one. So, uh, this meets the technicality. I suggest or recommend that, uh, the board both approve the extension and readopt the current for up to a year.

Thank you. And there's no need at this point to move forward with the motion. I was premature or we were premature in that. So, that happened in I this is just uh public hearing information. Um, with that being said, is there any anyone from the audience who has anything to add? Okay. So, with that, um, at this point, I would like to entertain a motion to reconvene into, uh, regular session. So, moved. Second. All those in favor, please signify by saying I. I. I.

Opposed. Abstension. Motion carries unanimously. Um, and then we'll be voting on this uh momentarily. Prior to that, let's go ahead and move into H study session. Um, number one, government 101, roles and responsibilities of the community development department by Colin Bishop, community development director and staff. Uh, Chairman Fanning, Supervisor Davis, um, obviously Colin Bishop, the community development department director. I have Roberto Rojas with me. um he is a manager in the planning department and we're gonna split this presentation up into two. So I'm going to do the first part and then Roberto is going to talk about uh the the last half of the presentation. Go ahead. Next slide. So like most county agencies or departments, we have statutory authority under uh ARS title 11 and we we essentially function as two divisions in one department or almost two departments under one roof and that's the planning and zoning which there are specific you could see the list of references statutory references there and then also we are the building department and those functions are separated apart from planning and zoning. So, we tend we're all we're all together, but we do tend to have separate bins that we operate in both legally, but also operationally. Next slide. So, here's just the org chart. You can see on the the left side is the building function and on the right side the planning. Uh the planning side on the right, we're a lot smaller. our department is. So, Roberto is the manager of that part of the department. And then we have Francis Peralta

underneath who is a one of our lead planning technicians. Um, and most most people have probably talked to Francis at some point. Um, the building side on the left, we have Juan Sios, who's our chief building official. Uh, the chief building officials actually have a lot of authority and responsibility. Um, Juan is like myself. He's new in the department. He's been with the department since last July and he's been doing a a wonderful job. Um, but it's also been a steep learning curve as as a lot of these positions can be. Um, Juan would have been here today, but he's off this week um tending to some personal matters. So, um, and then we have our building inspectors or building officials. have Victor Velasco and then we also have our two planning and development techs and Mooney. So, um that's how we're split. And then if I go back to the planning side, just to point out, we're also involved um with different groups that that function um underneath our department or a part of that. We have boards of adjustment and we'll get into that a little bit later about what boards of adjustment actually do. And then we also work with the planning and zoning commission. And then we'll also talk a little bit about uh what the planning and zoning commission does as well. We have uh one of our planning and zoning commission members with us today. So thank you for being here. So I don't know if I saw any of the others if I missed them. Um next slide. One thing I will say with our staff is having come into this department. been very impressed with the staff that we have, their knowledge level, their attention to detail, um, and their passion for the community.

Our our department is very, uh, active. The phone rings non-stop. The emails come in all day. Um, we're out, of course, doing inspections, which we'll talk a little bit about later. Um, and so we're engaged very heavily with the community, being out among the community. But I've been very impressed with the professionalism of our staff and and their dedication to doing their job. So I I would say Santa Cruz County is very fortunate to have the dedicated group of people that we have housed under community development. Next slide, please. In terms of operating procedures, you know, I always like to kind of break things in different ways so people get get a little glimpse. It's if if you're not inside a department, sometimes it's hard to understand how a department actually functions. We we have this regulatory framework umbrella that we operate under. Um from a county level and in community development, we have a zoning and development code on the planning side and then on the building side, there are there are basically national international standards that are adopted or building codes um that become part of that regulatory framework. Um Allan was just up here. We we interface with other departments like public works on flood plane. And then of course there's a whole web of state and federal regulations that overlay all land use and development. So for example, if you want to go down into a wash uh that's a actually a water of the US, you're now under federal jurisdiction and and and state overlays and whatnot. So there it can be very complicated in how land use occurs and so it does require our staff to have a deep technical knowledge of regulations. There's administrative procedures that go along with everything and I won't get

any large details here but you know we have everything we do there's protocols and procedures and how that occurs. So if you go to our web page for example there's a number of checklists you can download. So, if you have a project and you come through the front door and you want to start land development, there's checklists to help walk you through that process. So, it could be as basic to that as that all the way up to um Roberto could probably spend hours up here sharing with you um how he goes through a development plan and some of those things and and they can be quite detailed. Um obviously we have public hearings um like planning and zoning commission meetings that are public meetings and other types of things that occur. And then the last one that actually is very important is we are repository for records. So record recordkeeping is incredibly important. So if you go to our office sometimes I mean honestly it can look like a cluttered closet and we'll be working on that but it's like blueprints everywhere, file cabinets everywhere and people go why do you have all that? Well, we're legally required to keep it all. And so, and and oftentimes we have to go retrieve those records. If if somebody asks about, for example, an old subdivision or development or something, we have to try to see if we can find those records. So, that's an important administrative function we perform as well. Next slide. Enforcement and compliance, which of course in our county is a hot topic, um, and rightfully so. So, you could see the whole planning department. There's two twothirds of the planning side is here. Me, Roberto, and then we have Francis. And we cover all of Santa Cruz County from a planning and zoning enforcement um point of view. And then of course the billing department has their side of it. So we're we're working on a lot of initiatives right now to really address this. We we know the community is frustrated with you know what they

perceive as like nobody's doing anything and so we hear that loud and clear. Um, so we have a number of initiatives underway to try to address that. Some of those are the notices of violation and procedural. We've been working with Bob May in the county attorney's office in terms of roadmapping that better. Um, we are working on kind of the escalation roadmap when you start from initial complaint like how serious is it? It's kind of think of an emergency room that has to triage patients and we're going to implement some type of framework in terms of triaging the complaints because there is a difference in severity of a complaint in the speed with which we need to reply to that. So th you know we thankfully we're going to get our hands around it but it's going to take it just take a little bit of time to get us there to roadmap it. Um, and the last part is the transparency and govern governance. Um, having been a person that's worked on both sides of the fence, so to speak, both private sector and and government, that this is very important that we're we can become trusted, that we're transparent, that our door is always open. So, we always want to listen and hear what people have to say, and we are ultimately here to serve the public and and serve you um as well with your constituents that you have. So, our our goal is to be transparent and be honest. Um, even if sometimes that may not be what everybody wants to hear, but we'll we'll be real with people and tell tell you what we can do and and what our limitations are, but we'll always do our best to, you know, drive to the outcomes that need to happen. Next slide. So, now I'm going to turn it over to Roberto now for key functions. There's about four slides on this and and we

we're'll try to keep this as abbreviated as we can. Um but Roberto,

good morning U Sheriff Fanning, Vice Chair Davis and members of the management and members of the public. So like uh Colin was mentioning on planning uh we do have uh one code that regulates that is the sonia development code which is back up but a comprehensive plan uh that it was talked just minutes before that it's being uh an extension for that. So the purpose of those two is to regulate the the land use in the county. So the county is uh divided throughout zoning districts. So for us to regulate what can be done in certain areas of the county like residential, commercial, industrial areas, uh multif family um then we have conditional use permits. We have variances that goes to the board of adjustments. So those type of special use permits on there are permit on certain parts of the county. Uh we have subdivisions uh land divisions, we do the process for those. Right now we have one residential subdivision going in Cenoida. They are in the final stages to present it to you for the final plat. They are working with ADQ right now for their waste and management there. Uh we also do the process for plan area development which are kind of of overlay districts over our designated zoning districts. We do the site plan development plan reviews. Those involves are for the development of new land for commercial industrial thing. Uh and the main thing right now it's warehouses and the one thing that is rising in the county it's our tasting rooms in Elgen and Sonoida. So we have been doing a few of them on the last years. So then uh we also do soning interpretations for the uh people when they're trying to they have a doubt on what they can do or not on the property the director will do a son interpretation and we do the support for

planning and the zoning commission uh and the board of adjustment. We set up the meetings. We create the staff reports for their requests. We present to them and we make sure the the the meeting goes as is required by the open law meetings. Next slice please. So on the building side so it's uh basically the building permits and plan reviews and right now the most common permit that we issue is new residences which Rico is booming right now. So has been we have been issuing in over a 100 permit for last three years. Um for the permits we have to be uh with coordination with flat control with health services uh with public works to make sure every department has approved the the new sub uh new lot for for construction. We also verify license um contractor license if they're applicable because sometimes the property owner can also do owner building permit uh building department do the inspections make sure everything is compliant with code with the safety codes that are adopted by the county and at the end we issue a certificate occupancy so they can occupy that residence or a new uh commercial building. So next slides and so like uh Colleen was mentioning just before a zoning uh call compliance. Um so right now we are working to get a better uh service to the public on that. Right now we are complaint driven department because we don't have the the amount amount of staff to cover all the county right now. So the process kind of do a once we receive a complaint it's a do a site investigation if we confirm the violation issue a notice of violation which by code gives them 30 days to be in compliance. uh if they don't respond or they don't

uh cure the violations then we do the next escalation which is a citation and right now there we are is the tax we have with bought from uh the attorney's office to make this more um string to the to the person to who are not clearing the violations and next slide So public service and administration. So it's about the our customer service is basically explain people uh our code what they the regulations that we have the requirements they need to met to get a building permit to build a residence to get a new electric box a new water meter. So the service for the for the water mirror, sorry. And also the poly records that Colleen was talking about. And then we have the the addressing coordination there. We verify addresses in the county. Uh and we assign new addresses to the new construction, new residents. Um and we also do the support for the board of adjustment and PNC commission like I mentioned before. So that concludes my presentation. if you have any questions.

First, I'm going I want to say a little comment that is not related to the to the presentation. So, during the marathon, right, Roberto got first place in his category and you received third place in your category, right? Yes, sir. So, thanks for participating and winning. That was very cool. So, we have some runners. So you said that you have that that the office looks like like a closet, right? Yes, sir. There's no digital files. There's only like like physical copies of everything.

There there are digital records and we're we actually transitioned to a new system last year called cloud permit. Um so we're still in the process of implementing that. Um and so a builder for example like right now if you're building a new house you could submit completely digital like your building plans and your application whatnot. So that that will be there. So that'll be there. But then statutoily we are required to still keep certain paper records. Some things no but certain things yes.

Uh and the other question that I have is Mr. Roa said that Rio Rico is booming right now. So when it comes to inspections and permits, h how active you're in in in the city of Ngalas, Patagonia, and the county, like if you were to say like a number or what do you see the the big differences?

So we don't have we don't permit city of Ngala. So that would be the city. We do have matter of fact, it's on the agenda today to renew the intergovernmental agreement with the town of Patagonia. So we do provide building services to the town of Patagonia. Frankly, the amount of permits in Patagonia each year is very small. Um, it's it's not very significant. So, I think we're doing roughly in the neighborhood, our department, which is mostly Rio Rico in excess of 300 building permits a year and that number seems to be increasing a little bit. So, thank you.

I don't have any questions. I just want to say um that you have a very highprofile department. um like you said at the very beginning of your presentation, um calls the entire day, emails the entire day. I just want to say thank you so much. Um every person that I've talked to that you've come in contact with and your team, um there's always been a positive outcome. Um even if it's not what they want to hear, they understand that. and and the fact that one of your slides talked about transparency and so forth, I think that uh goes a long way. I also want to say thank you um and I know this is kind of off topic, but the uh comprehensive plan um your presentation at uh at at in two back uh this week, nothing but nothing but positive uh feedback. So to you and your team, keep up the great work and let's continue to to focus on that uh enforcement

for sure. And and thank and thank you uh since I've been here the the board and the and the county staff has been incredibly supportive. Um and on a personal note, I can't ever ever imagine walking in a situation where everybody's kind of pulled me in like I'm a family member. And so I've I deeply have appreciated, you know, having moved back to Arizona and coming here. Um the welcome with which not only within the county but outside the community county and larger community has been it it actually overwhelms your point. I'm almost not going to be able to talk a little bit but I'm grateful for that and thankful for the the love that the community has shown me as I've come into this position.

Kind of like what we talked about earlier, not only the place of amazing places but uh amazing people as well. It truly is. Yes. Just another like quick comment, but also you calling your approaches, it's been like like really unique because it's not just you're just not working, but you're getting involved in the community. You want to learn the people. You participated in the the marathon at the Cinco de Mayo celebrations. I saw you there. So, I mean, you're going beyond, right? You want to really like get to know everybody. You're very active. So, so thanks for that. You know, you also have you play a big role in this as well. and your experience in Santa Cruz County. Yeah, I appreciate it. We're happy to have you here. Thank you. Thank you, gentlemen.

And thank you to your team and keep running for next year practicing. On that note, I think for the public's I think uh Jesus and you committed to running with us, correct? But you're going to get like a lower ranking if that's okay. If we do like a team team u race, you're going to be ranked like I don't know Mr. Mr. Chair, what I do, I don't think you could call running either. That's what I'm saying. You got to think about it twice. And And just to embarrass Roberto a little bit more, it was actually his first 5K he I think you've ever run competitively, right?

Yeah. And so not only was his first 5K that he actually ever ran competitively, but he blew away everybody in his age group. I think the closest one to you was two minutes slower, right? Yeah. So his his run time having a person who is a runner his run time is very impressive. So good good. Awesome. Congrats. Thank you.

Okay. Okay, at this time we're going to go ahead and move to uh I action items and uh we'll move to number one discussion possible action to approve resolution resolution number 2026-02 number PZ-26-02 for a one-year extension of the 2016 Santa Cruz County comprehensive plan extending its effective period through May 18th, 2027. And this was uh requested through community development. Um entertain a motion. So move and I will second it. Any further discussion? Hearing none. U all those in favor please signify by saying I.

I opposed. Abstension. Motion carries unanimously. Okay. At this at this time we will uh recess regular session and we will move into uh jail district. Do I have a motion? So moved. Second. All those in favor? I I All right. We are now in jail district. Um number one, discussion possible action for authorization to approve two detention officer positions requested by the sheriff. Mr. Chavez. Mr. Chairman, both bud both positions are budgeted.

Thank you, sir. Uh do I have a motion to for authorization to approve two detention officer positions? moved. Second. Um, any discussion? Hearing none. All those in favor, please signify by saying I. I.

I. Opposed. Abstension. Motion carries unanimously. Number two, discussion possible action to approve letters of engagement with Marter and English LLP to serve as the county's jail district bond council at an hourly rate of $500 for senior attorneys with additional rates as outlined in the engagement letters for legal services related to a maintenance of effort payments and b refinancing the district's pledged revenue refunding obligation series 2017. Mr. manager. Anything to add there?

I I can add Mr. Chairman, members of the board. There's two those two items that we're requesting for consideration. It's the first one is the mains of effort under uh state statute 48-424. The county is required to pay a means of effort to any jail district that the voters have approved. We've been doing that since the inception of of of the jail. It's a formula based that every year it changes and every year it increases. The general fund has to provide uh additional funding or or or funding for the jail district. During several years, the county had to provide additional funding because the jail district was running in the negative. those uh hasn't been done in in in quite some time. However, that total has gone up to about $7 million now of additional means of effort that the general fund has provided. Being that the cash that's available right now in the jail district fund seems to be healthy enough to support, we're entertaining uh a situation that we would like the jail district to pay back the general fund those 7 million. So in order for that to happen, we uh we spoke to of course the sheriff and and and administration there. They there are supportive of of making that happen. We have to engage bond counsel so we can have some legal advice regarding that process. Okay, that's on point A for the mains of effort. And then the other one, the re uh B is refinancing the district's pledged revenue. That's uh many bonds are structured with a 10-year maturity and that 10-year maturity is going to be coming up specifically for that one. And it gives us the option of maybe

restructuring that that bond. It's that's the jail district bond itself. maybe we have a better opportunity to refinance and uh lower the payments and have a a better structure moving forward because that doesn't mature until 2038 but every 10 years it gives us the opportunity to revisit that. So that separate contract would enable bond council to provide legal advice for that. Thank you sir. With that, I'll entertain a motion to uh approve. So moved and I'll second it. Um any further discussion hearing? None. All those in favor, please signify by saying I.

I opposed. Abstension. Motion carries unanimously. At this time, I'll entertain a motion to reconvene into regular session. So moved. Second. All those in favor, please signify by saying I. I. I. Opposed. Extension motion carries unanimously and I believe the only thing left on our agenda is K consent agenda. Um motion or excuse me uh entertain a motion to approve the consent agenda as presented. So moved. Second. All those in favor please signify by saying I.

I opposed. Abstension. Motion carries unanimously. And with that, we'll move to uh L and entertain a motion to adjurnn. So moved. Second. All those in favor? I I opposed abstension. Motion carries unanimously. We are now officially adjourned at 11:13. Thank you for everyone for being