Board of Supervisors - Regular Meeting

Good morning everyone. I'd like to call the Board of Supervisor meeting to order. The date is May 12. The time is 09:02 a. M. I would ask everyone to please stand for the pledge of allegiance and then please remain standing where Reverend Scott Elliott, pastor of weekend gatherings at Big Valley Grace Community Church in Modesto, will be, giving us an invocation.

Father, I thank you for this beautiful day you've given us here in Stanislaus County. We pray a blessing upon it. We ask that you continue to, protect us and provide, great jobs and opportunities for people in our community. Thank you for the board of supervisors and the leadership that they give as they guide and direct the plans for this city. We ask that you continue to give them wisdom and great leadership as they forge ahead, making this place a better community for us to live in with our families.

We ask that you would watch over our schools as students are finishing out the school year. We pray your protection as you watch over families. We pray that you would strengthen families, use the programs, the churches, the other organizations in our community to build up families to be a great support and a great asset in this community. We thank you for the public servants, those that serve in fire and law enforcement and health health care. We just ask that you continue to watch over them as well and bless them as they protect our citizens and keep them safe and keep them healthy. We thank you for Stanislaus County and and such a great place that we get to live. We pray your continued blessing upon it and your blessing on our nation. And I ask this in your name. Amen.

In case you're really good at following the agenda, this is a little bit out of order out of normal order.

I'm gonna open the public

comment period for just a moment to do something that will go back to the scheduled agenda, because I'm going to do a presentation today to someone who finds school important, which is great. Kate, come on up. And this is a, this is awesome sauce at its best. So we have, if you've ever been involved in the Future Farmers of America, and a lot of people have, you've had kids go through the program, you know that it's it's it's about leadership training future leaders, people who are gonna pay our Social Security essentially in the future. And it's a great program.

Not often you have someone from Stanislaus County who's in state leadership, and Kate Cooper had just gotten elected as a '26, 20 '7 officer to the state as the vice president. I'll let her talk about that a little bit, but it is it's really important that we're building continuous leadership in this county, and this is the greatest place to start. You've got these ag teachers, the advisors, Mrs. Larson in Houston, and Mr. Ellington are the two that I know.

I know there's some newer ones, but they spend so much time with these kids. It's not just showing animals at the fair, it's really about preparing people for life, and and and other things that are so much greater than just the FFA. And so when you get elected, it's it's a big deal, as Joe Biden once said, it's a big deal. And so I'm proud to bring her here. I want to present her with a certificate.

I want to tell a story because she comes from the Fraser family. This is her mother, Christy. And the Fraser family is a she's a fourth generation production ag, assuming that you go into farming. Great it would be your great grandfather and great grandmother, Carol, and Kenneth. They grew up on the homestead, Gear Road, where Christie's parents still live, on the original homestead. They had a Jersey farm and they raised chickens. This is a true story. We like to make it folklore, but they had a big chicken operation. And they they had a Jersey dairy. They decided they were gonna stick with the Jersey side, and so they were the largest chicken egg producers not chicken producers, I'm sorry, and they sold to Foster Farms.

So it could have been Fraser Farms instead of Foster Farms. I just want you to know that they chose the wrong path. Maybe they chose the right path, because look at you now. But it, when you have these people that are, have been in production ag, it's very difficult to go generation to generation, and you've got three generations. Mom and dad are currently farming, and then hopefully you'll get into agriculture along with your siblings and your cousins and things like that.

I'm not pressuring you to do that. I just want you to. And and because of your leadership skills, are so many opportunities whether you get involved in farm year when you come back, whether you you you teach people, you can be on the board of supervisors. There's many places where you can impact agriculture and with your leadership skills. So with that, I'm gonna hand the mic over to you. You can just explain what your next year looks like because she's taking a year off of school. She should be going to college. She's graduating here shortly, and but she has a lot of obligations she has to complete before she can actually go to college. Maybe give us a little bit about it.

Yeah, so like he said, I'll be taking a gap year. So in June, I'll move to a house in Galt where I'll stay with my officer team. It's a team of six. And then throughout the year we'll be traveling across the state of California all the way up to the Oregon border down to the border of Mexico hosting workshops and conferences. Overall our job is to serve as like a goodwill ambassador and promote ag education to students but also industry professionals, policymakers, and everyone in between so that's my job for the next year.

Oh yes and then after so 2027 I'll attend Oklahoma State University double majoring in ag communications and ag business. My end goal as of right now is to become an agricultural lawyer to hope I hope to make some change in policy and help advocate for farmers and ranchers.

Again, great hope, with this generation that they're smarter than we are in many ways. We did

it through hard work, and you're going to be smarter than us, and you're gonna have me continue to do the hard work and you're gonna do the the important work because it's it's becoming more and more important, the off farm work as much as the on farm work. Alright. Anyways, I'm so proud and humbled that you showed up today on behalf of the Board of Supervisors. We'd like to present you with a certificate in recognition of your accomplishment as the Vice President, for your exceptional accomplishment in being elected. Kate Cooper's dedication into leadership, agriculture, education, and community service exemplifies the values of the FFA organization and reflects great credit upon herself, Houston High School, FFA and Stanislaus County.

The Board of Supervisors commends her for commitment and looks forward to her continued success in statewide leadership and service. Thank you so much for coming in today.

Right.

Okay. I'm just gonna stay here. So, I'm gonna close the public comment period. We're gonna go on to presentation, which is the regular order. And the first one is honored for twenty five years of service. Community Service Agency Christine Huber is presenting, and it's Mukesh Bolsara.

Good morning, Cherokee supervisors, mister Hayes and mister Bose. I am here today with Mukesh Pulsara who's celebrating twenty five years working for the county. He's been with the Community Services Agency since he began in 2001 as an Account Clerk III in the child care unit processing payments to reimburse child care providers. He's held various positions working in our fiscal division including promoting to an accounting technician in 2005, promoted in 2008 to an accountant one. In 2015, he promoted to an accountant two.

And then as an accountant three, he promoted in September 2022. Mukesh is currently the leader where Standworks programs, which is one of our, which is our largest program at CSA. He has worked in accounts payable, the county expense claim, assistance payments, budgeting and staff development to name a few. Mukesh has also been supervising staff since 2010. Mukesh has an incredible knowledge of the department and maintains attention to detail that rivals others in his field.

Mukesh is most notably known for his work on our county expense claim where all the administrative transactions, contracted services, and overhead costs are submitted to the state for reimbursement. He has developed improvements to data entry that led to increased efficiencies and reductions of errors within our claiming process as well. Mukesh was also instrumental in the Oracle Cloud conversion. The conversion effort required extensive training, data validation and maximum efforts to conform to new business practices. He ensured all of the new processes worked correctly and flowed properly through the claim.

Mukesh has also participated in our Diversity and Cultural Heritage Festival representing Fiji for many years. On a personal note, Mukesh is regarded as the king of rugby. Any world championships and Olympic rugby matches, Mukesh is your go to person for analysis. He's just as detailed as if he was analyzing and projecting financial figures. He is a team player both in the office and on the field as he often plays rugby and soccer. He's also a great cook and his coworkers often request his butter chicken. I want to thank Mukesh for twenty five years of service to CSA. He has worked in almost every fiscal program we have in different capacities. I personally have seen his commitment to the county and the people we serve. Congratulations Mukesh.

Compassion and rugby. Do those go together? Rugby is a rough sport.

Yes. It is.

And your nose is still there and everything is

Well, my arm is a little fall.

Very good. So that that is the most interesting thing. The the rugby component you play rugby?

Well, I I mostly watch a lot.

You watch a lot? Yes. Okay. Alright.

Because it's a very dangerous sport.

It's a very dangerous sport. It's one of those sports that's off my list. Right? So congratulations on twenty five years. We hear this all the time when you have employees that have stuck around and you hear all these promotions they've done throughout the years. And the Oracle transition was very difficult transition for the county as a whole. And the fact that you were able to accomplish it for the largest department, pretty amazing. But again, on behalf of the Board of Supervisory, we always appreciate handing out these certificates. I guess I should have brought yours up here, And we look forward to many more. And then I'm going to hand you the mic if that's okay, if you want. Yeah. Thank

you. I just wanted to thank, Stanislaus County for giving me the opportunity to work for this many years and, it's a really good place to work, promote, enjoy, and as long as you don't do anything wrong, they won't take you out. Well, that's all I would like to say.

Again, thank you very much. And remember to all the employees, you never have to thank Staten Island County. It's just the opposite. We need to thank you for all your time and effort you put in helping all the residents of Stanislaus County. Next up, we have Faye Timmaz, or no, Rob Koslevy, and we're honoring Faye. Come on up, Faye.

Good morning, Honourable Board. Chairman Chiesa, CEO Hayes, County Counsel, Bose. I'd like to take a moment to recognize and highlight Faye Thames and her twenty five year career with the county. Faye began her service on 04/09/2001 as an administrative clerk too with workforce development. Over the years, she has steadily advanced through a number of roles starting with the promotion to an account clerk too in 2002 and an account clerk three in 2003.

Later that same year, she brought her talents to the Department of Environmental Resources, where she has made a lasting impact from that day forward. While continuing to work full time, she made the commitment to further her education. If anybody knows Faye, she makes a commitment. She's she's gonna follow through with it. And in 2011, she was able to get her bachelor's degree in accounting.

Now during that time, she was mentored by Mary Mayhew and who Faye thinks very highly of and helped guide her to where she's at today. Her career progression continued with a promotion to an account technician in 2010 with workforce development followed by a role as an auditor appraiser in 2015. In 2016, she returned back to DER as an account technician, bringing her valuable experience and knowledge back to our department. In 2019, she was promoted to staff service analyst where she supported both the groundwater programs and the Fink Road Landfill. Most recently in 2022, she earned a promotion to an accountant accountant too, where she continues to contribute to the department's success.

Beyond her professional accomplishments, she is a proud grandmother to 12 grandchildren. She and her husband enjoy traveling and are actively involved in ministry work, often serving together as a family. So please join me in recognizing Faye's dedication, hard work, and continued contributions to the county.

Thanks. Thank you.

Hi, Faye.

Hi, Beaver.

So we had this conversation. If you've been around this county at all, you would know Faye. She's she's always got a smile on her face. She's one of the the most pleasant people to be around. And I'm having a bad day, go hang out at environmental resources, pumps me up. So the one thing, you got 12 grandkids, your husband is retired. What the heck are you doing? Working. No.

I'm just working every day so that he can have designing dudes to do. But thank you so much, Vito. Thank you so much, Rob. I greatly appreciate it. I do just want to thank my family and my friends for being here, supporting this milestone in my career.

I started a job and it became a career where we showed our kids that hard work does pay off, you know, and for that I'm forever grateful for the mentorship that I received throughout the twenty five years from different people. I've learned a lot, I still have a lot to learn, but I have a lot to teach people. And so that's my goal before I retire. This is my husband Sam, my daughter Christina, my grandson Eddie, Cassidy, granddaughter Vanilla, my daughter Danielle, and Eliasar. So he kind of got a little fussy, so anyways, but

That's great. Well, again, on behalf of Board of Supervisors, congratulations on twenty five years. Sounds like you're sticking around for a couple more anyways, and thank you for all you do. Again, we appreciate it so much.

Okay.

Next up, Dave Lehman will be presenting Juan Maldonado with his twenty five year.

Morning Chair Giza, Board of Supervisors, COHays, Council Boes, good morning. We're here to celebrate Juan Maldonado for twenty five years. Juan is a dedicated senior roads maintenance worker, recognized for over twenty five years of public service. Throughout his career, Juan has demonstrated an unwavering commitment to maintaining safe, reliable infrastructure for the community, taking great pride in the vital role his work plays in the daily lives of Stanislaus County residents. He began his career with us in 2001 at the Patterson Yard and later transferred to the Morgan Yard in 2004.

Over the years, he's gained extensive experience by working across every crew within public works, developing a comprehensive understanding of operations throughout the department. He has also served as a USA locator for the county for four years, further expanding his technical experience and commitment to safety. 2019 Juan was promoted to senior roads maintenance worker, a role in which he has overseen all crews within public works. He remains committed to continuous improvement and is always open to learning new and better ways to enhance services for the county. Known for his strong leadership, sound judgment and proactive approach to problem solving, Juan consistently upholds the standards of safety and operational excellence.

He is respected by his colleagues for his work ethic, dependability and ability to lead by example in demanding environments. Juan brings a genuine sense of pride and reasonability to his role, reflecting his lifelong connection to Stanseless County. Outside of his job, he's a devoted husband and father of two, balancing his commitment to family with his dedication to public service. Juan remains strong in his mission to serve and support the county he's always proudly called home. Thank you, sir.

Hi, Juan. Hi. Congratulations on twenty five years. So stand on the side. Let let everyone see them on the camera. So, whenever you see public works folks, you always see they're stout because they they work. These are these are the working men. You remind me of farmers, all the the people that are on the road crew. We so much appreciate, again, tough work, typically out in the open, right, in the middle of summer is when we do most of our work. When I say we, I mean you, not I don't want to include myself in all the hard work that you do.

But keeping people safe, really, our biggest liability comes from, generally in the county, comes from our roadways, which is our largest truly investment, and it's the most important component of county business, maintaining the roads. And on behalf of the Board of Supervisors, congratulations on twenty five years. It goes by in a snap, I'm sure. But we appreciate every single day. Well,

I'm gonna say it's been a great twenty five years working for Santa Claus County, starting from the bottom, to the position that I'm in now. There's a lot of experiences, a lot of learnings, and it's been great to work with a great team in Public Works. Thanks for the support, Wes, Zach, Bill, Jason. I'm sorry. I'm I'm nervous right now. Tracy, Eric, and, Izzy, and Darren. Thanks everybody. It's been an honor to work for twenty five years for Santa Claus County and, serve the residents and can't wait to serve them many more years. Thank

you. That's great. Thank you very much.

Well, I got my, daughter and my son here supporting me and have always supported me throughout the twenty five years. Thank you guys. Thank you.

Dave's Alright. Remaining for Darren Tieples and his thirty year.

Congratulations, Darren. Good

morning, again. Darren is a dedicated road supervisor and lifelong resident of Stanislaus County, celebrated for thirty years of exceptional public service. A graduate of Modesto High School and Modesto Junior College, Darren brings deep local roots and strong community pride to his work. Known for his steady leadership, commitment to safety and reliable problem solving, he plays a key role in keeping field operations running smoothly. Darren began his journey with public works in an extra help position in 1994 and became a full time employee in 1996.

Over the course of his career, Darren has seen a lot of changes, adapting to new challenges while continuing to support the community he has always called home. He has served as a road supervisor for sixteen years and has been involved in many projects that have improved the lives of the community. He takes great pride in helping others and being available to support anyone in need. Darren also has vast knowledge of the county's drainage system and is considered a valuable resource for both his team and the community. Darren has been married to his beautiful wife Andrea for thirty seven years and is a proud father of four children and one grandchild. In addition to public service, Darren farms almonds in the Houston and Keys areas of the county, further strengthening his connection to the land and community. Join me in congratulating Darren.

Congratulations, Darren. Thank you. So we were talking earlier. I've known Darren. Well, I when I first got on the board, we went out together and he showed me around the road crew and gave me a shovel and let me play on the skip loader and and other fun things.

But he knows more farmers than I do. It's an amazing part when you're working, as a supervisor out in the road crews, you're continually dealing with farmers and he understands how we operate and, it it's it's been wonderful. So thirty years, every time I go out, every year when we're doing chip sealing, go out and just go take pictures and do a post, because I'm so appreciative, and you'll never go out and see the chip sealer or them skip paving without Darren being around as a supervisor. He's he's you're a man's man. You like to get out there and and lead the troops, which is great.

I I you have a great crew and really a lot of that is because of your leadership. So on behalf of the Board of Supervisors, 30, hopefully you tell me it went by in a snap and you got some more left in you, but congratulations and we thank you from the bottom of our hearts. Thank

you, Pito. I appreciate that. I'd like to thank my beautiful wife Andrea supporting me all these years. Want to stand up Andrea? Come on.

She's the one, you know, during the floods and different things we have, the phone rings and I got to get up and leave and she's worried because it's raining so hard outside and everything, she supports me. And I'd like to thank my coworkers coming down support me And thirty years went by real fast and I enjoy what I do. Thank you.

And so you're You said you're farming almonds in Keys and Houston.

Yeah.

And is that a retirement plan or is that I mean, like, when you're you're done, do you enjoy doing that?

Oh, I love I love farming, so I'll always farm.

Alright. That's great to know. I love it or you hate it. Sometimes it's both. So, alright. On behalf of the board, congratulations. Thank you so much. And thank you to all the family members who came today.

All

right. Thank you very much. One hundred and five years of experience between the four people. County experience. All right. I'm going to move on to the public comment period. Let's see if I can get organized here. During the public comment period, an opportunity to speak on anything that is not on today's posted agenda. Please state your name for the record. Direct all comments towards the diocese and so it's fair for every speaker. Please keep your comments limited to five minutes. First up, I'm going ask Donna Linder, our clerk recorder, to come up. Clerk recorder and elections.

Good morning. Good morning, chairman Piazza, board of supervisors, CEO Hayes, and county council Boes. Thank you so much for giving me a few minutes to speak. I wanted to talk about the upcoming election. You all know that's happening.

But just a few dates and reminders of some things. Ballots mailed, per California law on May 4 to all of our registered active voters in Stanislaus County. And our drop boxes for ballots opened on that same day. So if you want to drop your ballot in an official drop box you can do that. The last three weeks we've been training our volunteers and our part time election clerks for the upcoming election.

Our logic and accuracy testing is complete for all of the equipment that will go out to our vote centers. And then now a few dates coming at you. The last day to register to receive a ballot in the mail is May 18. So if you're not registered yet, wanna make sure you do that by May 18. If not, you have to go to a vote center or office and register conditionally.

May 23, Sorry. May 23 six vote centers will open throughout Stanislaus County and then on 05/30/2020 five more vote centers we will be open on Memorial Day. So if you, wanna vote on Memorial Day, we're out there, ready to take your vote. And then I wanted to remind people that, per law we can accept ballots that are postmarked on or before Election Day. But our mail does go to Sacramento to be postmarked.

So if you're gonna wait till close to Election Day you might want to take that into the post office and make sure it's hand stamped in front of you. But our official drop boxes are always out there. You can drop your ballot in those and then our staff pick that up. The last day for us to receive a ballot, the law says seven days after the election so that will be June 9. And then a couple laws I wanted to mention.

Assembly Bill five states that vote by mail ballots must be counted by thirteen days after the election. Those are the vote by mail ballots that the signatures compared correctly, that everything was fine with them, not conditional or provisional ballots or ones that need a signature comparison completed. And then Senate Bill eight twenty seven also passed and that bill says that we are to accept ballot cures. Those are the forms we send out if the signatures didn't compare until twenty two days after election. So we cannot certify the election until after that.

So it will be over twenty two days before we certify the election. Just a reminder. And I wanted to remind you all that May is Military Appreciation Month, hence why I'm dressed like a flag. So thank you very much. And don't forget to vote. It's very important. This is a top two primary, so our top two vote getters will go on to the November. Thank you.

Thank you very much. Donna, next up, probation chief, Mark Ferreira. Not many times we get department heads that come during public comment. This is nice.

Well, good morning, Chairman Keyes, members of the board, CEO Hayes and County Council Boes, Mark Ferreira, the county's chief probation officer. And I'm here this morning to talk about our open house event, is going to be this Saturday, May 16, from ten a. M. To two p. M.

At our main probation campus located at 2215 Blue Gum Avenue in Modesto right down the street from Home Depot and our Modesto Junior College West Campus. At the event we are going to have a portion of our juvenile hall that's going to be open for tours. We will have our shooting simulator that will be open for the public to be able to participate in and see how our deputy probation officers train. We'll have K-nine demonstrations. We will have partner agencies there.

Our deputy probation officers will be there to be able to talk about their day to day job responsibilities. And then our human resources staff will also be present to assist anyone who might be interested in applying for open positions within our department to apply right there on the spot during the event. So we intentionally try to make this a very family friendly type of event so families are welcome to come. We have plenty of probation swag to give to kids and try to make it fun with games as well. So we welcome anyone from the public, this board obviously, and then anyone who's interested in applying with us, we also welcome to come see us and join us for this Saturday's event.

So if there's no other questions, I appreciate the time. I did put out some flyers in the lobby in case anyone who's physically here wants to get additional information on the event. So thank you.

That's great. Thank you very much. Any questions for Mark? Thank you. All right. Thanks. Next up, Todd Aronson with Visit Modesto. Welcome, Todd.

Good morning. Originally, I was going to thank you all for your service, but with one hundred and five years of presentations, I want to thank them for their service. I'm here today to share that May is tourism month in California, and the results from 2025 show that travel is not just a luxury, it's also a vital economic pillar for our state as well as our county. According to VISTA California and DRA reports from 2025, the statewide impact to travel last year was $159,000,000,000, which has a huge household impact. Tourism generated over 13,900,000,000 in taxes, which saved every household over $1,000 last year.

In Stanislaus County, those same reports have incredible results, and I want to share since the relaunch of Visit Modesto in 2019 what it is that has meant to our county. Overall travel spending since then is up over $17,000,000. Tourism business earnings are up 31% to over 244,000,000, and that does not include ag tourism earnings. Local jobs, employment since 2019 in tourism and hospitality is up 5.3% in our county to over 6,700 jobs. What's great about that is the tourism and hospitality industry nationwide typically employs more people 21 than any other industry, and that means we have a strong impact in youth employment locally.

Locally, the tax story is pretty profound. Last year, taxes were up 26.7%, totaling $20,400,000 in our accounting. Those taxes go to general funds. They support first responders, street repairs, parks, and public services. And beyond the math, the activity has generated incredible media attention.

So from Great Britain to Japan to the Central Valley, the world is seeing and hearing about our county in good ways. And those good lists, we're on them now. No more bad lists for us, thanks to tourism. If we look at the revenue generated in the county just from each visitor, the impact is undeniable. According to Visit California, the average traveler to California spends about $489 during their visit.

In our county, that equates to over $43 in taxes each visit. That's pretty incredible for our community. And since the relaunch of Visit Modesto in 2019, 100% of the funding has come from the city of Modesto. So I look forward to developing a stronger relationship with the county in the coming years. With this being California Tourism Month, I wanna thank the almost 7,000 workers in the industry, their families, and the local businesses that makes Stanislaus County a destination. Their efforts have a tremendous impact on our county and support what makes this county great. Thank you.

Thank you very much for your effort, Todd. Next up, we have Brian Evitt. Welcome, Brian. Good morning, councils.

Brian Evette. Been here for my whole life, Stanislaus County. Anyway, I'm here to discuss on money matters. We did a remodel job or are doing a remodel job on the El Capitan, which we got $18,000,000 to spend. And it winds up costing us $1,500 a square foot.

If we didn't have an oversight, this oversight needs to look at this and say, hey, we can't go over 20% more than the average cost of a custom home, which that is around $300 a square foot. Why are we spending $1,500 a square foot to remodel an old motel? It's kind of ridiculous. So we need to get an oversight to make sure we don't go over 20% of the average cost, which is 20% above 300 per square foot. And this is happening too much with these little homeless things we're putting together.

We're building out costs that are way out of, they're out of their, you're out of your mind spending that much, plain and simple. So if we get an oversight, it'd be a lot better, you know, on these kind of projects because we seem to double up every project that we do. We seem to double the cost at the end of the project And it gets kind of ridiculous. And then it all goes back. And tourism, tourism isn't making us some money in this County.

Agricultural makes us money, developing agricultural equipment makes us money and processing that, that makes us money. But tourism is a What do we got? Woodward? I mean, that really looks at it as there's not much there in the county. So stop looking at that we're earning money that way and start looking at what we need to save money.

And the only way we save it is to turn around and watch what we're spending. And that means monitor the expenditures and don't put ourselves so far out there that we're spending three or four times the amount that it should cost. Second of all, hey, I like to be reimbursed for a false arrest charge. And I think you guys shouldn't fight me in court paying an attorney $500 an hour to reimburse me for the time that I lost. And I don't see why you guys just don't get together and say, we're gonna settle this on this man because he deserves it.

I mean, when you wanna arrest a burglar and the burglar can arrest you, that's a that's a strange thing that your police officers uphold. They're supposed to uphold the law and protect us citizens and protect our properties, not protect the burglar, not protect the drug addict. So we need to change this. Stop focusing on that. We're gonna protect these drug addicts. We're gonna give them a home. They're just gonna go out and steal because that's what they'll say. It's easier to steal than it is to work. And that's what they do in this town. And we've programmed them that way. They don't wanna work because they can get it free. They get their food for free. Here's your food card. Oh, we'll give you a little suss money. Oh, we'll give you a place to rehab, but they still wind up doing the same thing over again.

So let's start monitoring these things closer because we'll save a lot of money for the taxpayers, you know? We're already getting increased at one and a half percent on our taxes. And then we're always trying to come up with more grant money and more grant money to cover these losses that we created. It's like the $10,000,000 swimming pools in each of the high schools. Now we build them on the high school. Why didn't we build them in the parks next to the high school? They would only cost us 2,000,000. We could have took the other $7,000,000 and used it for investments. But no, we spent the $10,000,000 on each one of these swimming pools. That seems kind of ridiculous.

We're not monitoring this. We're just letting it free fall. Oh, what it is, it is. We'll try to pick it up later. Well, who do you pick it up on later? The taxpayers, the people that live here that are trying to make a living? Is that who we pick it up on? So we need to really monitor this stuff a lot closer because it's getting ridiculous. And we just cover it up and carry continue on. And we change these. You guys are the ones that are supposed to make these changes and monitor this stuff. You know, protect us. I have three pieces of property out here and I don't feel I've been protected at all. I've been jailed three times. My family has been guns pointed at it because of vagrant people.

And I'm the owner of the property. And my kids are my kids that I wanna protect, but I wasn't protected by any of them. If I'm just one person, how many of us are out there that same kind of thing happens? It just compounds and compiles. And then the next thing we get slandered and we have to fight our way out of slandered. And it's you guys that can turn around and cover this. Let's just cover it instead of fighting everything. Right now you guys are gonna have to fight me. You're gonna have to pay your attorney $500 an hour to fight me for something that shouldn't even happened. Shouldn't even happen.

So all I ask is for my time loss and my money that I put in, my bail was three times the amount of any bail that we've even structured in this county. Three times. What was the purpose of that? Unless you just want money because you can get out of the guy that has the money in the property.

Thanks, Brian. Okay. Thanks. Next up, Milt Treeweiler. Followed by Alejandro Flores.

Good morning, Chair, Board, staff members, and community members. I'm Milt Treweiler, a lifetime Stanislaus County resident. We're living in a changing world, and it's challenging our minds and our reasoning. The best bedroom communities for our Bay Area people are the cities of Pleasanton, Livermore, Mountain House, and Tracy. The soils around these cities are poor and lack water.

Also, the large landmass area East Of Fairfield along Highway 12 to Rio Vista. Again, the soils are poor and lack water for farming. Yet here in Stanislaus County, you are encroaching on the best farmland on earth. Please remember that only 2% of the land on earth is farmland. Our farmland has the water, the soil, and the climate to grow fruit trees and nut trees that we have here all around Ceres, Houston, North Of Modesto, and North Of Turlock.

Please be aware that this growth will not make Stanislaus County a better place because residential growth never pays for itself. It will be the current residents of Stanislaus County who will pay for this. Building single family homes is all about the Building Industry Association and their influence on the board and the staff of Stanislaus County. There would be no problem if this was the state of Arizona, Nevada, Colorado, or New Mexico. You can build all the houses you want to in these states, and you won't destroy any farmland.

How are we going to provide good, healthy food for our children and descendants if we create a food desert by building single family housing in Stanislaus County? It's not for the residents of Stanislaus County. It's just for a few people to make money. This growth only benefits a few families, and all of the other Stanislaus County families will suffer from the higher utility bills, the pollution, the congestion, and the headaches of sprawl. The Building Industry Association will tell you all kinds of tales to try to convince you that building single family homes is good for the county.

They'll say that the farmland lost will be mitigated by placing farmland in a trust, even when they fully know this doesn't happen here in Stanislaus County. They'll try to tell you that there is farmland like this all over the world, but they can never show it to you because there's no other farmland better than we have right here on earth. I will say that if all of you want to eat wheat, oats, corn, and soybeans, there will be enough farmland for that forever, but not trees and nut crops. When you evaluate your actions with an open mind and reasoning based on facts and reality, you'll realize that it would be a mistake to build single family housing here in Stanislaus County. Do you think their motivation might be money?

Yes, their motivation is money. Our primary responsibility is to provide for our children, our grandchildren, and descendants, not to make money for the Building Industry Association members. Here in Stanislaus County, we need to practice infill development, building up with two, three and four story condos and apartments and repurposing blighted areas. And I want to give you the best example I can. Right now in Turlock, there is a development on Monte Vista.

I want all of you staff that can, they're in housing and all of you supervisors to go out and look at this property. You go down south on 99, you turn off on Monte Vista, you go west, I mean east into Turlock, and you will see the best development I've ever seen in San Islas County. There are twelve three story building complexes there, totaling three forty eight units. These units are single bedroom, double bedroom, and triple bedroom. They are high quality, high beautiful houses.

They even have balconies on all of the units. This is what you want to see. This is the perfect example. This is the best best housing I've ever seen in Stanislaus County. It's right there in Turlock. You need to check it out. Also, our people here, please check it out. It's on Monte Vista, just to the north. It's beautiful. We could duplicate that all over the county. We could build that in just a small footprint. You can get a total of three forty eight units for our seniors and for our first time homeowners. You could build condos. They could be in the same format. There are developers that will do this.

We don't need to keep supporting these single family home developers who are not working for us, they're working for themselves. Thank you very much. Thank you very much,

Milt. Next up, Alejandro Flores.

Welcome, Alejandro. Thank you, Chairman, and good morning to the board. My name is Alejandro Flores, I'm with Congressman Tom McClintock's office. So I just want to take a minute to address the community and just give a reminder of what we offer at our office. This week's weather reminded me that summer is around the corner. I mean, summer travel plans. So if any of our constituents are thinking about going out to DC, please let us know. We'd love to offer you a tour of the capital. And as everyone's favorite season just wrapped up, tax time, if you still have not got your refund from the IRS or never heard back on your extension, please reach out to our office. We're more than willing more than willing and happy to reach out to these agencies and figure out what's going And that goes with any federal agency out there that's run by the federal government.

If you put your dip into the alphabet soup that is the federal government and pull up three letters, probably our office can reach out to them. So please reach out to us. We're more than happy to help out. I just wanted to give an update. The congressman has been in Modesto quite frequently over the past month.

Just recently over with the new post office dedication for corporal Michael Anderson junior, he was a native to Modesto and fell in the Iraq war. So we just dedicated a new post office to him and the congressman's out there for that dedication ceremony. Along with being out here for Duarte's nursery here for his friend's days, congressman had a great opportunity to be amongst a lot of the ag community, hear from them and see what they need from our office. Just want and a legislative update. The congressman's fix our forest act just passed the house not too long ago. It's now in the hands of the senate. It's gonna be vital for our mountain community. So we look forward to the senate giving them the stamp of approval making to the president's desk in the near future. So yep. That's it from us.

If anyone ever needs anything, our office is just down the street over at 1020 15th Street, so feel free to stop by. If you have any complaints or concerns, Please talk to me. Our office operates off the feedback of our constituents. So yeah. Just wanted to reach out. My name is Alejandro.

Alejandro, thank you very much for coming in today. Appreciate it.

Thank you.

Next up is Juan Islas.

Welcome, Juan. Thank you. Good morning. So I'm gonna be trying to be fast and to explain myself. We're gonna talk about the illegal vendors because I don't know you guys take a look by either Cross Landing and hatch in the nighttime. We got a lot like illegal vendors, food vendors. I'm a business owner of food truck. I got two more guys with me right here today. So, we went to the city a couple times, a lot of times, used to report because that's what they say. We just come and fill the report so we could take care of it.

But we don't see like they take care of this illegal food vendors. And right now you can see them Hatch, Cross Landing, Old Modesto, there's a lot of people selling food. And right now it's affecting us because we owners, know, we pay taxes, we pay for the fees, we do inspections, we do everything. It's not hard to do it because you don't need like something special. Just go and follow the rules, they don't want to do it.

They just go open the houses or in the street and they just start selling food. I went to the city to report this place on Hatch and Carpenter nine months ago. So, they've been there selling food like for nine months. So I went Friday to speak to the, you know, the inspector. He was left already.

So I don't have the chance to speak to him because he's never there. So I don't know if you guys can do something with this problem because it's getting like worse. Every time, it's more and more and more. Next to me in the street in Imperial on Seattle, this lady used to open this house. They got like tables and everything, selling food, just like, you know, they post everything on Facebook and TikTok so they can bring more people with them.

And the saddest thing is they have more people than us. There is one more on this Cuasteca by Cross Landing. I got the address over here but I can, I mean, they, we report this for like four months ago and they are still there? They got like a bunch of people. You can see this guy, he got his soccer truck just in front of them And you go over there in the nighttime, they got like 20 people waiting for food. And he only got like one or two people. So, it's not fair, you know. Because they don't pay any taxes. They don't pay fees. They don't pay nothing.

Yeah. So I think there's going Rob, are you gonna yeah. Okay. I wanna make sure you see the gentleman right there. That's who you're gonna go talk with. There's a concerted effort going forward right now on this issue. But that's who you're gonna meet with.

Yeah. Because it's a big problem. Like, you can see cross landing. You can see vendors, like, every every every every corner. Like, one or two even. Because the owners of the taco trucks or the food trucks, they see that the city is is, like, they don't do nothing about it. So, they start doing the same thing in the nighttime. They just get like a, I don't know, like a little food something and they start cooking outside. So, they can bring more people and that's not that's not whether, you know, to follow the rules. I just ask him for that because it's a big problem.

You see it by hatch and cross landing right now. Even in cities, they start doing and I I was talking to some different guys and they're coming from all the cities. They're coming from Los Angeles. They're coming from Sacramento. They're coming because they know right here, they don't do nothing. You know what mean? I don't say they don't do nothing, but that's not like a they put it strong, you know. They lost in, like, their their respect for the city, you know.

So Alright. Yep. Alright.

One Thank So that's

who you're gonna go speak to. Will you? Yep. The guy in the blue suit. Thank you. Thank you, Juan. That's the last speaker card I have. Does anyone else want to add any comment?

Good morning, supervisors. I apologize for not turning in a speaker card. I was a little bit late this morning, and I didn't wanna, fully bear the process. My name is Julian Phillips. I'm a district representative for senator Alvarado Gill. To provide you with a brief a brief legislative update this morning, I wanted to give you an update on S B 1084. This is the senator's home hardening bill. It provides tax exemptions for up to a thousand dollars in fire hazard severity zones for home hardening, projects and up to two up to $2,500 in severe fire hazard severity zones. And I know that sounds redundant. That's not our wording.

And then it also provides an annual $500 a year exemption for dispense defensive space vegetation management. Last week on Tuesday, the senator also hosted the annual frog jump at the capital. And then, the week before that, we had Ag Day at the capital where the senator also greeted our Imagine This award winners. These are students who have written agricultural stories. They were we had two award winners from the city of that got honorable mentions from the city of Modesto. They're both from Our Lady of Fatima Catholic School, and they wrote about strawberries and tomatoes. So we're very proud of them. Thank you so much. Oh, and also, if you have any questions on anything, please let our office know.

Thanks, Julia.

Thank you.

Appreciate you coming in. Anyone else? Steve?

Alright. Thank you, mister chairman. Mister chairman, members of the board, mister Hayes and mister Bose, The reason I'm coming up today to speak is just to report on what's going on with the Regional Transit Authority and also to let you know that my time as a Board member is coming to an end at the end of the month, and we just wanted to give a little bit of report on what is going on. I joined the board a couple of months after the start of combined operations, and as the supervisors Withrow, Chance Condit, and Kiesic can attest to, it was tough times. The agency had a rough beginning, but things were running a lot better.

That's not due to anything that I did. That's due solely to the hardworking employees of the transit agency and our contractor, and things are running a lot better now. So they get all the credit for that. So we still have quite a bit that we need to work on, but our whole operation is running a lot better. But it's also been a period of growth for me.

I have never been in a leadership position before, So it's easy to point fingers and yell at screaming why politicians and public agencies aren't doing things properly, but then when you sit up on the board, it's a whole lot different, because now you have to make decisions. You have to look at what's going on, and there are no easy answers to a lot of problems that we solved. So it was a period of personal growth for me, which I very much appreciate. So for the future, we'll be transitioning to zero emission buses. We have a new bus yard that we're starting on development.

So things are looking pretty good for right now. So we'll hope that the agency continue to advance and move forward. So my seat is now going to be open. We're taking applications until the end of this week, and just want to let everybody who's listening, if you're interested in serving, please submit an application, and we'll look at them at the board meeting at the end of the month, and then that person can step in and keep things going. Thank you very much. Please.

Stephen, I just want to

thank you.

You come to these meetings all the time. We really appreciate and appreciate your input and your contribution at STAN RTA has been invaluable. Humble there in that, yes, staff is very much responsible for a lot of stuff they've done. But you as a writer on the buses has been, it's just been, again, invaluable to have that feedback from that perspective. And you really have made a difference on the CNRTA. We're gonna miss you. And we wish you weren't leaving, but I know you gotta get on with your life here. We very much appreciate all the hard work you've put into this. So thank you very much.

Alright, thank you.

Appreciate it, Steven, everything you've done. It's easy to come and complain. And Steven, if he ever comes with an issue, he brings a solution or options, which is a great characteristic too. Anyone else for public comment? All right, seeing none, we're going to close the public comment period. We're going to move out of the consent calendar before the board takes items. Does anyone in the audience wish to comment on any of the items? I do have three, five, and seven for one person. Anyone? B8. B8 also? Any other ones? Alright, for the board? Anything? Okay.

So minus three, five, seven, and eight. B, three, five, seven and eight, I'll take a motion to approve the rest of the consent calendar. Motion to approve. Second. We have a motion and a second. All those in favor say aye. Aye. Opposed? Motion carries five zero. For comment on B3 and B5 and a question on b seven. Ron McMurtry.

Thank you, mister chairman, members of the board. Ron McMurtry here. Yes. I just had comments. Some of this is kind of positive stuff, so I'm just educating myself and also kind of I want to kind of maybe psychologically applaud some of the good things that are going on.

Let's let's have government go in some of these directions. The first one is I don't wanna bring up a sore point, but there was b three as the item about the payment to Oracle. And I think we all understand why the sheriff's department wanted to use Oracle. But I want I don't know how much you guys keep up on the business news, but Oracle is a mega corporation closely aligned with the current president. And there's they're heavily invested in AI, and we don't know how that's gonna pan out, if that's a boondoggle or of godsend.

So I just would like to ask the supervisors to please please be gracious if in the course of business events or the Oracle choice is not not appropriate anymore. And this could happen quickly because, you know, these companies, the way they behave, they tend to they'll drop certain services suddenly. And so the sheriff's department could be in a bind of, oh my gosh. Now this is not gonna work for us and switch over. So I just, you know, please, let's be gracious.

I know this was a contentious issue for a while, but, yeah, I don't know how much manipulation and what the manipulation is. But please have the appropriate department keep an eye on this oracle issue with emergency services. The b five item, I love this idea. I've never heard of this before, of some jurisdiction somewhere hammering out a deal with with a company and then I guess through some memorandum of understanding or something, other agencies are allowed to take, you know, take the bid kind of, I guess, in a way. So I I love that idea.

It's in Minnesota. This item I don't even remember what the yeah. I don't know even what the item is, but I thought I love that someone cut a good deal in Minnesota, and now this county can say, hey, that's that's worth it. It's not worth us to put out a bid or whatever you would normally have to do. My only concern now is if this is a good way to go, if, you know, some agency good hammers out a good deal and people all over the country wanna use it, It would kinda suck though that that there's these rules about bidding and so on that agencies and counties and whatever have to follow if they were restricted, their hands were tied, and couldn't take advantage of something like this in other cases.

So I just that's a pro thing. And my question on b seven is it wasn't clear who the recipients of the health services prescription, you know, like, gets the prescriptions. Is this just for HSA programs, people that get prescriptions through that? Or does it include county employees? Is it all county or specific programs? I was just unclear. And so I would like director Duvall or chief Hayes, if they could be clear about what who are the recipients of these prescription deals. Thank you.

Thank you very much. I guess I will stop right there. Heather, you okay answering?

Yes. Heather Duvall with the Health Service Agency. Thank you for the question. Those prescriptions are for uninsured patients that are served through the HSA clinic system.

Which okay. Thank you. Thanks. Alright. So before I go on, we're gonna go ahead and take 35, and seven. If there are no more comments or questions, B357.

Motion to approve, three, five, and

seven. Second.

Motion and second. All those in favor say aye. Aye. Opposed? Motion again carries five, zero. B-eight.

On item B-eight, Supervisor Chance Condit has a conflict under the Lovine Act. As a reminder, Lovine Act requires an officer of the agency to disclose and not participate in a decision where a party involved in a contract license permit or other entitlement for use has contributed more than $500 to the officer during the twelve month period prior to the decision. Supervisor Condit has received a contribution and has decided not to participate on this item. So with that Okay. Any And public for the

record, let the record show that Supervisor Chance Condon has left the dais decision. All right, entertain a motion. Motion to approve. Second. Second. Motion to second. All those in favor say aye. Aye. Opposed? Motion carries four-zero.

Thank you very much. Okay, now we're gonna move on to item six, the public hearing. Public hearing to consider the approval of the annual action plan for fiscal year twenty twenty six, twenty twenty seven US Department of Housing and Urban Development entitlement programs and filing of a notice of exemption. Anna San Nicolas and Angela Frates will be presenting. Good morning.

Good morning.

We were just waiting for the slides to come up, so I'll just kind of introduce myself. Good morning, Chair Keys and members of the board. I'm Angela Freitas, the county's planning director. And providing our presentation this morning is going be Anna San Nicolas, our Deputy Director of Community Development. He's everywhere except the large screen. Okay.

Good morning, Chairman, Board members, CEO, and County Council. Before you today, have the annual action plan for fiscal year twenty six-twenty seven, and it's for our Stanislaus Urban County and Home Consortium.

We can barely hear you. Can you bring me closer

to you? Sorry. Okay.

All right. So we'll give to you today an overview of our annual action plan for fiscal year 'twenty six, 'twenty seven. So I trust that you guys can see the slides. So the urban County since 2000, the county has been the lead for what is comprised of all cities minus Turlock and Modesto. And then the Stansell's Home Consortium, the county became the lead in 2023, which involves all the cities minus the city of Turlock.

So to give you a little background, the city the county receives an annual allocation of funds from HUD, the Housing and Urban Development federal agency. So three primary funding sources that we'll go over through today. The funding activities have to align to our consolidated plan's five year goals, and these funds are used to create sustainable communities and help with affordable housing. So our regional approach includes our Stanislaus Urban County with two primary HUD funding sources, CDBG, Community Development Block Grant, and ESG, Emergency Solutions Grants. And our Stansell's Home Consortium is involved with our Home Investment Partnership Program funding.

So what is an annual action plan? So it's one of the many requirements by HUD, helps identify federal funds and how they're to be used, helps focus on housing and community needs, and part of our five year consolidated plan, which is our five year plan that was last approved last May in 2025. Yes. So the four major con plan priorities is to help improve infrastructure, support affordable housing options, address homelessness, and provide essential services. So all the activities before you today need to meet one of these priorities in order to be accepted by HUD.

So the annual action purpose is specifically to present to you the proposed projects and the CDBG home and ESG funding recommendations and methods, distribution of the funding of the funds, a summary, how we went according to HUD's formula of geographical population and poverty rate, and an opportunity for citizen participation. So between the months of April 8 through May 8, we had each city and the county participated in community meetings, stakeholder meetings, project specific meetings regarding the funding recommendations before you today. So another part of the annual action plan is program accomplishments. So up to April 2026, we can probably say we've assisted about 1,000 residents through our six funded CVG public service programs and three ESG homeless service programs, which is roughly 345,430 awarded last year in 2025, or actually this current year, and ESG 202,000 in ESG funding. And up to date, infrastructure investments, about $1,400,000,400,000 dollars specifically for the West Modesto project for the county.

And the cities have done water infrastructure improvements and street improvements. And also, we're reporting to date affordable housing progress. So our home policies and procedures for those programs are currently being updated. And housing rehab program, a new one, is in development. And we completed our affordable housing request for proposals.

Also during this last fiscal year, regional partnerships, we're continuing to coordinate with the cities. As a lead, we not only work with them to provide the funding, we also provide technical assistance and guidance through the federal funding. And continuum of care collaboration to make sure not only meeting the HUD requirement, but we also work with them to make sure we're meeting to identify gaps in services for homeless services. And housing and nonprofit partnerships. We continue to work with our existing partnerships and looking towards additional partnerships in the housing arena.

Now, specifically for this year, our HUD entitlement allocations, according to HUD, is $2,300,000 for CDBG, 202,000 for ESG, and for the home consortium, 1,100,000, totaling about 3,600,000 overall for the group. Now, CEBG funding must meet a must benefit low to moderate income neighborhoods, prevent slums or blight, and address an urgent community need. So those three objectives are the requirements by HUD. So before you have a breakdown of the funding for CDBG and ESG, as you can see, each city receives an allotment for city for projects that the city is undertaking. Undertaking.

So a lot of them have multi year projects. So this won't pay for a project entirely. Some of them some of the cities will save their funding for about two to three years in order to leverage the funding with other resources. And then the county is dedicating their funding for the West Modesto infrastructure improvement project. And then we set aside 15% for public services that we run through a grant cycle that we'll go into in a second.

We set aside federal mandated fair housing funding. And we put our ESG funding to a no flower grant cycle as well with our public services. And each city gets an allotment for administration oversight as well as the county. So the proposed projects for the upcoming fiscal year, again, the county is investing funding into the West Modesto infrastructure program and our fair housing services. This will be to help leverage the state water board funding that we've received.

So we work with Public Works to continue that project. And then each of the cities has chosen to do health and safety projects. Talked about earlier addressing ADA compliance, street and water improvements. So for the emergency solutions grants, three main objectives by HUD is shelter services, homeless prevention, and rapid rehousing. So we did a grant cycle back in December.

The grants were scored by a grant review panel made up of representatives from the urban county. And so the highest ranking one was the We Care program, which was the only applicant for prioritization funding. But even without the bonus points, they scored number one. So they are being proposed to be awarded 172,000, while the next ranked is a Center for Human Services, Children's Crisis Center for their guardian and Marsha's house, CASA for their direct services to work with kids in the foster care system or exiting, and Haven for their legal program. So a total, again, of 345,534.

And then the emergency solutions grants, we do have a requirement by HUD to fund rapid rehousing first. So community housing and shelter services was awarded 80,959. And then two shelters that scored top was Center for Human Services, a low barrier shelter, and Haven Emergency Shelter. Well, the county will be receiving 15,179 for admin. Now, the HOME program is some of the eligible activities for it would be a recap of owner occupied housing, assistance to homebuyers, rehabilitation, construction of rental housing, and assisting projects with tenant based rental assistance.

So these are the eligible projects and activities that could be done. So what the county did in agreement with the cities is we allotted a certain amount of money based on their number of housing units and population. So each city has an allotment. Now, for the first six months from July 1 to starting July 1, if no city has an eligible project to invest the funding in, the funding will go into a pool of funds to be put out into a request for proposals. So that is what the cities and the county have agreed upon.

When did this start? When did we start this process?

We have a three year agreement with them. So back in 2023, when we first became the lead, it was agreed upon to pull our money together if none of us have a project, mostly because projects are so expensive and none of us really had any projects ready to go. We thought that maximizing the money by by pulling it together would assist us.

So I we again, I'm just talking out loud. I would think that the only way to do it is to pull money because we can't we can't complete a project. Mhmm. And dispersing a little bits of money benefits no one. It's always better to move this money around in a block. Anyways, just my thought process. I'm sorry to interrupt you. I should have asked at the No.

Great question. So so, yes, since 2023, when we became the lead, it was kind of, again, fought out just in case any of the cities had an existing project that they needed their funding to be put in immediately. So before you today, we have the staff recommendation to conduct our public hearing and close it out. Approval to our notice of exemption for CEQA, our fiscal year 'twenty six-'twenty seven annual action plan for approval, and authorize the director of planning and community development to sign the HUD applications and certifications, and to authorize our CEO to sign the CDBG allocation agreement with the Irving County members, and to authorize the planning director to sign any HUD agreements, contracts, or documentation needed for implementation of these programs, and let us receive any feedback and incorporate changes as required by HUD. And again, final, authorize staff to submit the final document.

Any questions? So

I want to go back to I think we had allocated money for some home funds for rehab. I remember in Turlock, was it it was home funds, I believe. Right? Correct. And what is the status of that? Because we had a shortfall. I think we had we had prioritized. Right? Number one was funded, and then we went down the list. But there was still money with the city and their home funds when they were the the lead agency. Did did we need some of that money, or did we

We were still working with the City of Turlock on reviewing the proposal for that project. So yeah, we're still in the process of trying to see how much we could fund. There is a limit with home funding, maximum per unit. So again, we're working with Turlock to see if any of their funding could work to help fill in that gap.

Just a follow-up on the funding shortfall that was there. We have been working with the Stanislaus Regional Housing Authority, which was the agency that was awarded the funding. And they have committed that if they were unable to get the funding from the city of Turlock or another source, they have reserves that will pay for that project to move forward. So they're very confident that they do have the funding. We have continued those efforts in working with the city of Turlock to see if we can move some of the older funding that still sits with them. And as Anna pointed out, unfortunately, with the use of home funds, there is a match fund requirement and there is a subsidy limit on the amount of the same funding source that can be used for it. So we're not sure that the home funds that Turlock has are going to be a fit.

Got it. Got it. And then on the block grants, we have this list of projects for each one of the jurisdictions. How long is the money good for? Because I see the same thing that there's not enough money in the block grant, right? So they have to chase other monies. That do they have to have something done within three years? It's gotta be completed? Or

The maximum that HUD lets us, hold the money is, seven years.

Seven years. Okay. So that's enough to, cobble money together from Majorelle or something else for a sidewalk project, say, or something. Okay. Any other questions?

Yes, I did have a couple questions just regarding the project in Paterson on Las Palmas, specifically the senior housing. I know that there have been several meetings myself as well as you and the City of Paterson. I just want to see if there's any update or movement on that project.

At the moment, this I can share that the City of Turlock is reviewing the proposal. They're trying to see if their funding is a fit, trying to review it. Again, there's a maximum subsidy limit, but, it is currently being reviewed by the City of Turlock to see if our old home funds could be utilized.

Great news. Thank you. Anna, could you just describe for those not familiar why Turlock would be involved

in Yes.

That conversation, please? That's a good point.

Sure. The City of Turlock was our lead agency since, I think, for prior to 2023, yeah, for like twenty years or so. And so they control, and still administer the old allocations of funding prior to 2023 and any revenue that comes in from those funds.

And I apologize if this was in the presentation earlier. Do you have an approximate balance of how much funds remain under Turlock's administration?

Last balance was approximately 5,000,000.

Thank you.

So can I, just real quick, so that's been going on since '23 that they've had those funds and then, and we've been working with them to try to figure out what projects they're going to go towards and, example, the Patterson one that?

Well, not the Patterson one since, well, September, October 2025.

Yeah. Turlock has an obligation to the county and its other partners to utilize that funding within the home consortium area that they had. So we have been trying, in conversations with them, to get that money to move forward. When we did our RFP for the affordable rental housing, we did it in such a way that other agencies could attach to it with the idea that those projects that we did not end up funding, that Turlock could move forward with them and fund those projects. And that includes the one in Paterson, the Las Palmas one. There's actually two there. One was a rehab of an existing facility, which was part of the RFP. And then there's another site that would be a new expansion area. We are trying to get Turlock to move the funding. They have not yet moved the funding.

So is there a drop dead date at some point where those funds

Yes. There are deadlines to that. And that is in addition to they also have still some ARPA home funding that they have to utilize.

And if they don't utilize them?

They will be lost.

Okay. And when is that deadline? How close are we I getting

don't have that date with me. It's kind

of a staggered deadline. So it's about half 1,000,000 every December 30. So the first round to start getting possible losses is this December.

This coming December, the first half 1,000,000 or whatever is I mean, are you confident they're gonna do something with this or is this gonna I'm just wondering.

That is the plan for staff to look at possible projects. That's what we've been working with them on.

So you guys are looking for projects they're not? I just don't understand.

They We only have control of the money that came in after

2020 This

board's taken action to commit that funding. So we are committed. And then we have the new funding that's coming in today that you guys will take action on. So for the 2023 money moving forward, we have total control over that, and we're confident we're utilizing that. What's in question is the money that is still held by City of Turlock that they control. So

is there a feeling that that money is just going to they're not going to do anything with it? And what would be the reason for that?

We've understood that they are looking at that money and they are looking at programming that money but we have not actually seen a final product that would put it before the council to commit that money.

And so come December the first half 1,000,000, it sounds like, will disappear?

If it's not committed.

Yeah. And so you think there's potentially by December they would be able to have something that would or is that

I think we're hopeful that they will have something. We have not seen it.

Okay. We would be happy to do some follow-up. I think first order would be to just make sure we have a schedule of when any funds may expire, and then we'll provide that to to each of you, so we at least know exactly what those deadlines might look like. And we can also reach out to our counterparts with the city of Turlock and and see what their latest thinking is on any of those expiring funds. And then I'll come back and and I can include some information in one of my future legislative management reports.

Okay. Yeah. That'd just be great. And if there's anything we can do to try to make that this not happen where we lose those funds, and like you said, we have other projects that they could go to. And if they're they're just not moving on it for some reason, it just doesn't make sense.

Are, like I said, currently, reviewing, especially our projects that came in from our RFP, that we did last September. So they are working with us, seeing again, reviewing their those prospective projects.

Okay. Seems like we've talking about this for a while.

I'm assuming that that 5,000,005 million that's held by Turlock, the interest of that account rolls over into itself.

Yeah. Okay. Any other questions, comments?

All

right. This will the time we're going to go ahead and open the public hearing. We don't have any written comments, but the dais is yours. Milt.

Milt Yes, this is very complex and I can understand that. It's ridiculous that this money is being held up in Turlock. It's totally ridiculous. There's no rightful explanation for that. There's no rightful explanation for that.

It should be taken care of and not lost, Losing a half $1,000,000 each year for no reason is kind of stupid when we know we need this money all over the county. The odd thing is that here Turlock is not even part of the new consortium and yet they've got the $5,000,000 that's just sitting there. I don't I mean, it's not the right thing that's being done. I did have a couple of questions. You said the Turlock I was no mean, the charts showed that Turlock was no longer a part of the consortium.

However, there was money for We Care and We Care is in Turlock. So it was good that that could be managed. And then also with the money that's already available in Turlock, would it I mean, there some part of that money that could have been used or could be used for portable toilets for the homeless in the city of Turlock or anywhere in the Stanislaus County area or even the shower the shower things where you have the portable showers so people can take showers. Does any of that money could any of that money be used for those purposes or that purpose? And I believe that answers I mean, that's my questions for today.

Thank you.

I think there's a point of clarification. There's two different groups that we're talking about. You have the Stanislaus Urban County, which includes the emergency shelter grant funding that got awarded to nonprofits. And for that, Turlock is not part of that. The new Stanislaus Home Consortium, City of Turlock is a member of that, and that is home funding, which has limitations on how it can be used.

I did hear I believe Annie just said that they weren't, but I think you were conflating the two issues. I thought so they are a port a part of the home consortium, just the county is the lead agency on it now, Melt. And regarding the bathrooms?

The funding

that City of Turlock holds, the home funding, is not eligible for those types of uses. Yeah.

Okay. Very good. Anyone else? Please come on up, Ron.

Thank you again, mister Chen and Rami. Okay. I wasn't planning to come up here, but now I have questions. One is for director Freitas. Yeah. I don't know. There's a lot of politics for how these how you know, what the jurisdictions so I'm guessing that Turlock region, the jurisdiction, or whatever you wanna call it, is not covering the whole county. It's just, like, a big chunk of the South County. I kinda wanna hear what area that is, because, you know, we're talking about Patterson. So this is just all part of South County.

I'm kinda I just like a vague idea of that, please. And then this quest now this question might be for councilor Bose or not, but is there since, you know, Turlock is clearly obligated to spend the funds, is there any you know, I don't I don't want this to become adversarial, and I don't think any of us do, but is there a recourse for the county to compel them to use the funds or to transfer them somewhere or something like that so we don't lose the funds? Thank you.

Anyone else? Public comment? So I can I can be before I can say without a doubt, TOWAC doesn't wanna lose the money? I think it's a matter of capacity right within, they had some turnover in the department, and then when they turned over the home funding, I think they might have even downsized further when we took over the home consortium. So I think it's just a matter of us making it very clear and staff that there are projects out there that are fundable because that's that that in lies the problem because there has to be a match.

And so it's a little more complicated than that. We just need to make sure it's their highest priority. And I know they're going through the hiring of a new city manager right now. Probably they're doing interviews. They might be doing interviews tonight. So and we'll have to just impress upon them because nobody wants to give any money back when there's so much need in this community. So he did have a question. I can't even remember.

Oh, that's

a question.

So the easiest way to kind of identify the geographical area for the home consortiums, both the old consortium and the new consortium, is that they cover all of the jurisdictions excluding the city of Modesto.

And then one of them, Riverbank, is excluded on one of the

Riverbank had at times been out of the urban county. They are now in the urban county, so they are part of the consortium.

All right. Seeing no one else, I'm going go ahead and close the public hearing. And any discussion? Or

I'll make a motion to approve staff recommendations. Second.

The motion and a second. All those in favor say aye. Aye. Opposed? Motion carries, five zero. Thank you, Anna. Thank you, Angela.

Thank you, guys.

Okay, have no discussion items. Correspondence, acknowledge receipt of correspondence and refer as recommended on the agenda. Any Board of Supervisory reports? Left to right.

Thank you, Chair. I'd just like to give a shout out to our departments of, Department of Environmental Resources and Public Works. Recently, I was contacted by a constituent who was getting ready to move a lot of cattle through one of their chutes and somebody had dropped off a boat, burned it up, and then he couldn't access any of that. And within just a few hours, they worked together and, got that burned out boat away from the chute, cleaned up, and he was able to move all his cattle through there. So I just wanna say thank you to, Rob.

And he really coordinated the whole thing and really got it going with David Lehman and all the guys and gals out in the field really did a great job in cleaning it up. So I'd just like to say thank you for that.

Okay. Other? So I don't know all the particulars. I had received an email from our treasury tax collector, Donald Linder, on someone, a person that was whose house was in for not foreclosure, but was gonna go to the tax sale. And they thought he had some eligibility. It looked, like there was an issue. Former veteran who wasn't receiving his veterans discount. And then they contacted our veteran aging services, Jose Michel, his team have, found the appropriate, I guess the appropriate way to keep him out of the tax sale. It's a great story that is developing. I'm going to find out more about it.

But it's truly amazing when, you know, things come to light and the team comes around people. It's not for everyone. He has specific circumstances, but it's nice to know when you it feels hopeless that it's not always hopeless. So I wanna shout out to team Stanislaus, and I'm gonna find more particulars and and do something that's more appropriate than, you know, ten seconds worth. Alright. No other Board of Supervisors report, let it legislative fiscal management report.

Thank you. And thank you for that recognition of the county employees. I think what you're gonna find is there were several, departments involved in supporting that effort and yeah whenever you'd like to share a little bit more we'll do that. We'd be happy to tell more about that story. But it starts with the Treasury Tax Collector's Office and it goes on to the our Aging and Veterans Services and then our Community Services Agency that actually closed the deal.

We've got several and no, we'll do this properly in a future time as well. It's a good news story. So a couple items I'd like to recognize this morning. Last week the chair did sign a letter supporting Stanislaus Equity Partners application for what is called the California Strategic Growth Council's Factory Built Housing Regional Pilot Program. And this is consistent with our county's adopted legislative platform.

So hope to see good news for Stanislaus Equity Partners in their application process there. Also want to announce for those of you in the local area here, our Health Services Agency in conjunction with many other agencies and public safety partners are conducting an emergency medical emergency preparedness training exercise today across the street here at Centre Plaza. So if you see a lot of activity going on there, this is an exercise. It's not a real emergency, but we just want to bring that to your awareness. And we appreciate all the work for the partners involved in this to help prepare our community better for emergency response in the future.

Also wanna announce that Hills Ferry Road will be closed beginning tomorrow through Friday as final work is completed on the Hills Ferry Road bridge replacement project, and additional project and detour information is available at hillsferrybridgeproject.com. And final announcement is, as a reminder, our County Office of Emergency Services is holding a virtual workshop for the public to participate in their multi jurisdictional hazard mitigation plan update. Please visit stancounty.com for details. Thank you.

Thank you very much. We do have a closed session.

Yes, we have closed session this morning. It's a conference with legal counsel, existing litigation pursuant to government code section 54,956.9 subdivision D1. The case is Lopez et al versus County Of Stanislaus et al. That case is in the Eastern District Of California. The case number is 225CV1175. That appropriate for public comment? Public comment?

Seeing none, we're going to adjourn to closed session.