Board of Supervisors - Regular Meeting

It's always important that we wear jackets. Good evening, everyone. Welcome to the Stanislaus County Board of Supervisors, our evening meeting. The time is 6.32, and the date is June 16th. I'm going to ask everyone to please stand and join me in the Pledge of Allegiance and then remain standing for an invocation from Rabbi Caitlin Bromberg of Congregation Beth Shalom.

Ready? Salute. I pledge allegiance to the flag of the United States of America,

Thank you and Shalom. I'm very pleased at the honor of addressing you again. Today, I want to give you all a personal blessing. If your hearts and spirits are nourished, you will have much more to give to those you serve. On Friday evening of Shabbat, we have a custom of blessing the children. We bless our sons in the names of Ephraim and Menashe, the sons of Joseph. who resisted the temptations of Egypt and kept faith in the one God. We bless our daughters in the names of Sarah, Rebecca, Rachel, and Leah, the matriarchs who made sure that the Torah was passed on. And then I will bless you with the three-fold blessing of the book of Numbers. I invite you to imagine the hands of your mother on your head. May God make you like Ephraim and Menashe. May God make you like Sarah, Rebecca, Rachel, and Leah. May God bless you and protect you. May God look upon you and give you grace. May God lift up God's face to you, lift you up, and give you the gift of shalom, peace, and wholeness. May we all receive God's protection, grace, and peace And let us all say, amen.

Thank you, Rabbi. Okay, now we're going to move on to item number four, which are presentations. And the first one is recognition of Central Valley High School's varsity cheerleading team. And Supervisor Chance Condit will be presenting.

I'm gonna go ahead and welcome you girls up. So we do have a special recognition tonight commending the Central Valley High School Varsity competitive cheer team on winning multiple JAMS national titles in Las Vegas. The Central Valley High School Varsity Competitive Cheer Team demonstrated outstanding athleticism, teamwork, discipline, and school pride at the 2026 JAMS Schools National Championship held in Las Vegas. The Central Valley Hawks Cheer Team competed against talented programs from across the nation during the two-day championship held every February. showcasing exceptional skill, composure, and entertainment value throughout their performances. The Hawks earned multiple prestigious titles at the national competition, including grand champions for achieving the highest score across all levels, level champions for the highest score in level one, and first place in the varsity non-tumbling level one large division. The team achieved an outstanding overall score of 97.99 out of 100, including a remarkable day two score of 98.20, the highest score Central Valley has ever received in three years competing while finishing ahead of several highly competitive programs from across California. The accomplishments of the Central Valley High School Varsity Competitive Cheer Team brings tremendous pride and recognition to their school, the city of Ceres, families, and the greater Central Valley community, serving as an inspiration to young athletes throughout Stanislaus County. Now, therefore, let it be resolved that the Stanislaus County Board of Supervisors does hereby recognize and commend the Central Valley High School varsity competitive cheer team for their outstanding achievements, national championship titles, and commitment to excellence. And I congratulate the student athletes, coaches, families, and supporters for representing their community with pride. Congratulations. Which one of you would like to speak or say a few words? Or maybe we'll do a cheer.

Thank you. My name is Lacey McLean. I am a part of the Central Valley Varsity Comp Cheer Team. My team and I would like to thank all of you for this wonderful opportunity and recognition. Throughout the season, our resilience and perseverance has helped us through our obstacles, resulting in many achievements, as well as our most recent being national champions three years running. as well as level champs and grand champs. There were definitely many hardships, but we pushed through, and I feel like the upcoming season will be better and better. We'd also like to thank our coaches as well as family members and friends for helping us be where we are today. Thank you so much. Have a wonderful day.

Thank you.

Okay, the second presentation we have is proclaiming June 2026 as Pride Month in Stanislaus County. And Jessica and Ryan will be presenting. Hello.

Oh, perfect, thank you so much. Hi everyone, my name is Ryan Hall and I am the Vice President of Communications for CalPride. I'd like to start out tonight by thanking the Stanislaus County Board of Supervisors for recognizing June as Pride Month here tonight. We are thankful for your work as leaders, organizers, and community members. CalPride was founded by CEO John Aguirre in 2015 here in Modesto, California. Ten years in, we are proud to be able to serve the LGBTQ community members throughout Stanislaus, Merced, Madera, Tuolumne, Calaveras, Amador, and Mariposa counties. We are a veteran-owned, veteran-founded, and veteran-operated organization. As an LGBTQ serving organization working towards building a world that begins with love, the intersecting intergenerational experiences of our employees is essential. I am proud of this team and I am proud to work with them every day. Last year in 2025, we made 31,394 connections. We are proud of the work that we have done. We are proud of the work that we will do and we are excited to see what 2026 has in store. CalPride is a mental wellness and health equity organization. We're in the business of saving lives. That means reducing suicide rates by providing free mental health support and gender-affirming care at our centers. That means fostering support systems for our community members through our social events. That means reducing overdose deaths by providing free life-saving overdose prevention resources and education. That means reducing the transmission of HIV, HCV, and STIs by providing free access to testing, prevention resources, and treatment navigation. That means reducing the likelihood of hate-related victimization by increasing awareness and accountability in our communities and in our law enforcement. That means advocating for the safety, health, and dignity of everyone at the local, regional, and state level. Our Pride events are just a fraction of our work. This is our day today. I invite all of you to Cal Pride Stanislaus' pride events throughout the month. They're the kind of summer parties you want to be at. Good music, great people, local businesses, handmade art, you name it. You might have missed series pride this weekend, but we're still partying on. I'll let Jessica Parman, my friend, my mentor, and the executive director of Cal Pride Stanislaus tell you more about her and her team's work at the local level.

JESSICA PARMAN, Hi, that's me. My name is Jessica Parman. Our resource center is located at 111 Modesto Avenue in Modesto, and it was made possible through the leadership and vision of my predecessor, Roman Scanlon. We are open Monday through Friday from 9 a.m. to 5 p.m., and we provide services and support to community members ages 18 and over. Since January 1, 2026, CalPride Stanislaus has served over 2,000 community members. We offer peer support services, weekly support groups, a food pantry open daily from 10 to 3, laundry services, transportation assistance, community events, resource navigation, and very soon, enhanced care management. Our goal is simple and it's to ensure that everyone who walks through our doors can access support, connection and community. Every member of my staff and volunteer team is state certified in peer support and many are continuing their education as community health workers. What makes my team special is lived experience. We understand the challenges many community members face because we have experienced them ourselves. Julian, Anna, Alex, Margie, Bobby, and I show up every day committed to serving our community with compassion, dignity, and understanding, and I'm so proud of all of us. Since January, Cal Pride Stanislaus has distributed approximately 300 bags of food through our partnership with FIGS. We provided more than 400 sandwiches, coordinated over 100 rides to healthcare appointments, delivered more than 400 hours of peer support, distributed 275 bus passes, facilitated over 80 support groups, and hosted 27 free community events through partnerships including that with Behavioral Health and Recovery Services in Stanislaus County. Behind every number that comes into my door is a person. Whether someone comes to us for a hot meal, a cup of coffee, a haircut, transportation resources are simply a safe place to be heard. Our team is committed. to meeting people with compassion, dignity, and understanding. Every day we work to ensure that those who walk through our doors know they belong, they matter, and that support is available when they need it the most. This work is deeply personal to me. As someone who was born and raised in this community and who has also sought and received services here, I know firsthand how life-changing support can be. My why is my community. My why is my team. Julian Moonlight, Brianna Davila, Margie Johnson, Alex Totaro, and Bobby Horta. My why is Anthony Arauza, April Gutierrez, James Brown, Hunter Moonlight, Salma Torres, John Aguirre, Catalina Zambrano, Natalie Leo, Carmen Dorantes, and the best boss and friend I've ever had, Alexander Gutierrez. On behalf of Calbright Stanislaus and everyone I love, thank you for this Pride Month proclamation and for your continued support of our community. We are grateful for the opportunity to serve and grow alongside everybody every day. To finish our presentation, I will let Vice President Ryan Hall take this one. Thank you.

Vice President of Communications, I should clarify. When we accepted the city of Modesto's proclamation of Pride Month earlier this month, many took to social media to insult, threaten, and discourage us. Residents took to Oakdale City Council last night to demand that the city revoke our public event permit and attempted to shut down the very first Oakdale Pride on June 28th. Many asked why we're still doing this. This is my why. LGBTQ Pride Month continues because there is still work to do. There is still hate. There is still fear. LGBTQ plus veterans still struggle to receive adequate health care and still have significantly higher odds of lifetime suicidal ideation than heterosexual veterans do. Since 2013, over 400 identified transgender and gender diverse people have been murdered in the United States. And the majority were black, brown, and indigenous transgender women. And that data is entirely explicitly incomplete. About half of all violent victimizations are still not reported to the police, often in fear of further victimization, neglect, or death. LGBTQ immigrants to the US still experience barriers to employment associated with their legal status, as well as the added challenges related to stigma and racism. There are still 668 bills across 43 states prohibiting transgender people from accessing basic health care, education, legal recognition, and the right to publicly exist. And there is still community. There is still support. The Trevor Project found that LGBTQ plus youth in accepting communities are three times less likely to attempt suicide than those living in unaccepting communities. And acceptance is on the rise. Seven in 10 non-LGBTQ plus adults in the United States say that if a family member or close friend told them that they were LGBTQ, they would support them. 74% of non-LGBTQ US adults support equal rights for our community. Look at Oakdale City Council last night. Hate draws a big crowd, sure, but love draws an even bigger one. Still, there are moments like tonight where we are recognized, seen, celebrated, and shown that we have allies, that a world that starts with love is possible. Here at CalPride and here in Stanislaus County, we will celebrate what we have today so we can continue our work, fight for what is right, and protect each other tomorrow. So when we invite folks to celebrate Pride Month with us, yes, we are inviting them to get some free food, support local businesses, and watch a drag show in the park. We are also asking everyone to show their pride. We are asking everyone to vote for our future, to support the businesses and organizations that are owned and operated by us, to protect our youth so that queer kids have the chance to become queer adults, and to stand up to hate when you see it. We deserve more nights like this, more nights like last night, where we see solidarity, where we see systemic change, where we see action. So see it through. And you don't have to have all of the answers. You don't have to know everything. I sure don't. But community means that we'll figure it out together. So if you're looking for a place to start, Cal Pride is here, and we always will be. Thank you.

Let me do the first part, and then we'll take the picture together, if that's okay. Oh yeah, smart move. Make a run for it. Make a run for it while you can. Hey, they don't have school tomorrow. What's up with that? So first of all, thank you very much for coming in here. This is exciting and I wouldn't disagree with anything you said here tonight. Really good. Roman had come in last year to receive this, maybe the last couple of years. And I serve on a board with him. And he is such a good advocate for the LGBTQ community, very sincere in his thoughts. And it's always nice to have good spokespeople. And you guys are following in those footsteps. That's great. So you heard CalPride is not just essentially a space for people to come and be who they want to be. But that whole list of things you do, a food pantry, housing aid, and all the other things that come with it, especially the peer support, I would imagine one of the most important things that you do, making people feel wanted. Someone left their shirt there. Yeah, they'll come back and get it. I'm sorry. So again, on behalf of the board, I'm going to read this proclamation. And I'm going to put on my glasses so that I can read it correctly. Proclaiming June 2026 as Pride Month in Stanislaus County, whereas every year during the month of June, the LGBTQ plus community celebrates Pride Month in several different ways across the globe. Various events are held during the special month in a way of recognizing the influence LGBTQ people have had around the world, whereas the roots of the gay rights movement go back to the early 1900s. when a handful of individuals in North America and Europe created gay and lesbian organizations such as the Society for Human Rights, founded by Henry Gerber in Chicago in the 1920s. Whereas in most places, Pride is celebrated throughout the month of June each year in commemoration of its roots in the 1969 Stonewall riots prompted by a raid that took place during the early morning at the Stonewall Inn in Greenwich Village, Manhattan. Whereas the first gay pride parade took place one year later during the anniversary of the Stonewall riots, activists in New York City marched through the streets in Manhattan in commemoration of the uprising, The March, which took place on June 28th of 1970, is now considered the country's first. An estimated 3,000 to 5,000 participated in the New York City event that stretched 51 blocks from Greenwich Village to Central Park. Marches and parades also took place in June in Chicago, LA, and San Francisco. Whereas parades are prominent features of Pride Month, and there are many street parties, community events, poetry readings, public speaking, street festivals, and educational sessions, all of which are covered. by media and attracting many participants, whereas Pride Month symbolizes an opportunity for visibility and community. In addition to celebrating LGBTQ+, it's also often a time to highlight important policy and resource issues the community faces, and whereas Pride Month influences awareness and provides support and advocacy for Stanislaus County's LGBTQ plus community. Therefore, be it resolved that June is hereby Pride Month, So now we're going to bring everyone up for a picture. So the Pride Month celebration is the next one is in Turlock, Donnelly Park, 12 to 4. And then it will be in Waterford the following week. Come on in. Hey, let's even this out. On this side. On this side. Thank you.

Thank you.

I have to quickly introduce a couple of VIPs. Liz Talbot, Waterford City Councilwoman, sitting here in the front row. And Mick Krosnick, who I can't see in the very back over there, but our former county council. He's been retired for 18 years. And that is your grandson, who's here with him tonight, and he has to do this for class. Eagle Scout. Eagle Scout, I'm sorry. That's right, we talked about that. Eagle Scout. Thank you for being here. All right, now we're going to move on to public comment period. This is an opportunity for anyone in attendance to speak on anything that is not already on today's posted agenda. Please state your name for the record. Direct all comments towards the dais. And so it's fair for everyone, please keep your comments to five minutes or less. We do not have any public written comments, and so I will acknowledge that. The first person I have, first speaker card I have is Alex Claussen with the East Stanislaus Conservation District. Welcome, Alex.

Thank you. Hi, good evening. My name is Alex Ribeiro Claussen, legally. And this should be under five minutes. Good evening, board members. My name is Alex Ribeiro-Clawson. I'm with the East Stanislaus Resource Conservation District, and we are celebrating 30 years of serving this community. Thank you for your time tonight. Our mission at the ESRCD is to support farmers, ranchers, and community members with hands-on education, agricultural conservation, and habitat restoration to strengthen stewardship of our soil, water, air, and native habitats so our community can thrive together for generations to come. We do that work in three ways. First, agricultural conservation. This year alone, our team supported over 37 local producers directly and secured over $600,000 in conservation funding for working lands right here in eastern Stanislaus County. We help farmers improve soil health, strengthen pollinator habitat, and support water efficient practices. We do conservation assessments, conservation planning, and on the ground implementation and monitoring. Second, we operate a youth and community education program. This past school year, we installed 12 Head Start gardens, engaged 46 students through our watershed stewardship program, supported 36 interns, reached 150 junior chef and junior farmer participants, and donated over 1,000 pounds of fresh produce locally. We are connecting the next generation to this land and the food it grows. Our third department is habitat and restoration. This year, our restoration team completed 24 native hedgerow projects, installed 2,365 native plants, enhanced 256 acres through restoration efforts, and established over 8,700 feet of habitat across Stanislaus County. We work with landowners, local agencies, and community partners to restore what makes this place worth protecting. All of that work is happening right now in your districts with partners you know, the Farm Bureau, UC Cooperative Extension, Modesto Junior College, the Stanislaus County Office of Education, TID, USDA, NRCS, and many more. Here's what we need you to know. 98% of our revenue comes from grants, state programs, and federal programs. Competitive awards that we work hard to win, but when federal priority shifts or a program gets cut, and right now, as many of you know, federal funding is unpredictable, we have no floor to stand on. Our local property tax revenue generates roughly $4,200 a year, and that doesn't cover a single staff member for a single month. We have built something real here for over 30 years, real programs, real partners, and real results for the people of Stanislaus County, and we want to keep building it together. What we're asking for tonight is simple. We would love the opportunity to sit down with this board and your staff to have a conversation about how the county and the ESRCD can work together to find a path forward. We believe there are ways the county can support us that work for everyone, and we would like to find them together. The people we serve are your constituents. The land we restore is in your districts. And the farmers we support feed this region and drive a $38 billion agricultural economy. We are not asking you to solve our funding problem tonight. We are just asking for a seat at the table. And I brought our Community Matters portfolio tonight for you to see the whole picture of what we do. And we hope we can start a conversation. Thank you.

Thank you so much, Alex. Thank you. Next up I have Angela Swanson, Stanislaus Regional Transit Agency.

Good evening, Mr. Chair, members of the board. Angela Swanson with the Stanislaus Regional Transit Authority, Standard TA. We're your regional transit providers, those big blue buses with the big yellow S on them. I am here to request the public get involved in the community outreach process we are going through this summer related to our short-range transit plan. Standard TA, like many agencies across the country, are experiencing unprecedented cuts in service, having to make unprecedented cuts in service due to sharply rising costs with fuel, like everybody else. Our buses run on those very expensive fuel. We also are seeing that we've had federal funding cuts and our state funding source has been declining revenues, along with inflationary pressures. Because of that, we are having to look at a $3 million cut to our budget, approximately 15% of our operating fund. And with that painful decision we have to do, we are urging the public to get involved. Having given over 3.3 million bus rides in the last fiscal year, we are a vital resource and we know that any cuts or changes will harm the community. So I'm here to invite the people to come to a couple of events to let us know the best ways we can make these needed changes. At www.connectthes.org, you can go take a survey, look at the proposed transit changes we are urging in the And you can also leave an opinion. We have two upcoming events next week, which was part of why I wanted to be here tonight. The first is an open house on Monday, June 22 at the West Modesto Community Collaborative on 529 California. It's from 5.30 to 7.30 where you can come in and talk about what's going on. We have other pop-up events. Again, I'll direct you to the website, connectvs.org, where you can find about our other pop-up events going on. We'll also be at the Municipal Advisory Councils for Salida, Keys, South Modesto, and Empire to share the news with those communities. Then the last thing that we have coming up is scheduled right now is the Zoom meeting on June 24th at 6 p.m. Again, you can go to the website connectthes.org to learn more about it. We know that these cuts are not, can be devastating to those who have their service changing and will change their habits. But we're inviting you to please come in with us, work with us to make the best solutions possible. You can also learn more about our plans by going to StanRTA, write the S on Facebook. The final feedback will result in a recommendation to our Board of Directors at the end of summer and the approved plan will go into effect in 2027. Thank you for giving me your time to share this vital information.

So Angela, there was a little bit of good news in the budget, just a little bit, that they set the money aside to negotiate the TIRCP, LCTOP, some of the transit money. And so they still have to negotiate that. I think some of that will be put back into the budget.

It will be very helpful to see some of that come back in. The unfortunate part is, though, as we're looking long run, it may be able to lessen the impact, but not completely. Every hour of revenue service saved is a person that we are able to connect to health, school, community life, and food and resources.

Thank you very much.

Can I just jump in real quick? Nobody wants to do this. We do have to cut, and hopefully not as bad as it's going to be. But it's crucial that you're a part of this, because unfortunately, when we make these decisions, if we don't have the input of everybody, and then individuals show up later and say, why are you cutting this? And we wish they would have been there when we were trying to determine what areas to cut, what routes to cut. So it's crucial that I appreciate you coming here and trying to sound the alarm, and hopefully we get individuals to show up to help have input throughout this whole process.

Thank you so much for helping to spread the word. Thank you. Thank you.

Next up, we have Jean Okuye. Oku.

Good evening, Chair and Supervisors. My name is Jean Okui. I am here to express my concerns of the proposed Del Puerto Canyon Dam. I oppose it. I've been a farmer for 46 years in Livingston, who is very aware of the importance of water to grow our food. As you know, we continue to move water south to large corporate farms and people who live in Southern California. Water is too precious a commodity to be diverted away from the local farmers who sustain our communities. I am one who is suffering. It is becoming increasingly scarce, and we cannot afford to sacrifice our local ecosystems and the future of our farming families profit by a few. Water is a human right. It should not be considered a commodity. We have many dams now, and dams don't last forever. We can't even take care of the ones we have. Just look at the massive, costly, seismic retrofits required right now for the BF Cisco Dam on Pacheco Pass. Why would we build more and create more liabilities? Why not put the water back in the valley floor where it used to be stored naturally before we drained it. For thousands of years, the indigenous peoples of the valley managed water not by trapping it behind massive walls or piping it away, but by allowing it to follow its natural course to replenish the land. They understood that water in the West is a cyclical lifeblood, not a commodity to be hoarded. Instead of building a multi-million dollar liability like the Del Prado Canyon Reservoir, we should look to those time-tested practices, allowing water down and letting it sink back into our depleted aquifers naturally. Thanks to indigenous foresight, we have a blueprint for true water resilience. For millennia, the original stewards of this land didn't rely on massive dams or destructive reservoirs to survive the dry years. They understood how to slow water down, spread it across the flood plains, and let it naturally sink into the valley floor. We don't need a 260-foot earthen wall in Del Prado Canyon. We need to return that ancestral wisdom and treat our underground aquifers as the natural reservoirs that they always were meant to be. Thank you for allowing me to speak.

Thank you very much. Next up, I got Elias Funes. I'm sorry, I should have got to you first, Elias.

Hello, my name is Elias Funes, mostly a constituent of the historically underserved District 5 of West Stanislaus County. First, I want to start off by saying that we are standing on the unceded land of the Northern Yokuts tribes, including the Huyumne and Mayumne tribes, whose evidence here has almost all but been forgotten or lost to history. However, their closest relatives, the Yokuts tribes of the eastern San Joaquin Valley, are still very much alive and visible in the valley as they continue to work on rebuilding their presence following the destructive genocidal history that began with the Spanish and endured for generations. Today, representatives from the Tule River Yokuts tribe from their reservation in the area east of Porterville are here to show their support in the local efforts to save Del Puerto Canyon from a destructive, small, and costly reservoir project being pushed by the Del Puerto Water District and the San Joaquin River Exchange Contractors Water Authority. Despite incorrect information from the Del Puerto Water District stating that there is no tribal significance to the proposed reservoir's footprint, Yokuts members say otherwise. Following various site visits to the canyon by Yokuts members, they have indicated that the sites within the entrance of Del Puerto Canyon are very significant to them and their ancestors, whose burial grounds still inhabit that area. Aside from burial and habitation sites, there is a generational grinding rock, a birthing stone, and even an ancient pathway carved into the very gateway rocks that the Water District wants to destroy to build their dam, among many other significant sites. Recently, our supervisor Chance Condit informed us that the $18 million being advocated for the dam project by this body through the 2026 Stanislaus County Legislative Platform will be removed. And we agree, this body should not be showing support for this dangerous and short-sighted project. So we are here to follow up on that statement and see through that you follow through with that. The opposition to this project have surpassed 25,000 signatures, mostly from those in the community here, but from others up and down the state and across the country who have visited Del Puerto Canyon for educational purposes in the fields of biology, geology, archeology, and many others. It's been great to see Supervisor Condit showing support for tribal communities, including his recent trip to the Midwest to show support for the Cherokee Nation. However, I would challenge Supervisor Condit and this board to show support to the documented tribal entities of this region, the Yokuts. and support their efforts to rebuild their peoples and protect their cultural sites here on the west side of Stanislaus County. Over the past few months, I have made several trips to the Tule River Tribes Reservation and stood before their elder and tribal councils, and not only has it been a humbling experience, but a wonderful insight into the beautiful peoples of this area and to know that the ancestors of the original peoples of this area are still very much alive and part of this community. Thank you.

Thank you very much. Next up, we have Shine. Followed by Manuela will be next.

I don't know if you guys know, but we're here to support this opposition to this dam. I've been out there to that place. I've been a part of that place. I don't know if you guys are familiar. Our land goes from Teon to Stockton, the Delta to Stockton, Mountain Range to Mountain Range. So if tribes are claiming that they're from this area before pre-contact, that's where our tribes are from, our Yokoch tribes. It was one big tribe. There was no bands at the time. So for us to be here today, we're the only tribe, Tulu River's the only tribe that got the rights to the land from Stockton to home and Bakersfield, the grapevine. So anybody else that's claiming this land as their rightful owners of this land, no one's actually the owner of the land. We're the land keepers of it. We've always been. So if we're pre-contact, that's where we've been at. You all know you're familiar with the Tillery Lake, but it went all the way up here. So there would be no Patterson if that lake wasn't drained. There would be no other places where that lake wasn't drained. And I've been out there to the canyon, and our people are out there. What are you going to do with those owls? What are you going to do with those animals out there? What are you going to do with the minnows? Everybody wants to protect everything. But our grinding homes are out there. Our people are out there. We just don't tell you where they're at, because they'll be in Berkeley, and they'll be in other universities for anthropology studies. So I'm just letting you know we're here to strongly oppose this dam. And I'm just letting you know that we've got resources and everything else. to go ahead and do what we have to do, if that's what you guys want to do, because I hope you guys make a good decision on not letting these guys move forward with this dam, because it's not a good thing. The dams are good in certain places, but not to kill off what belongs there. So I leave that at that.

Thank you, Shane. Next up is Manuela, followed by Rhonda Allen.

Hello everyone, my name is Manuela and my theme tonight is gonna be the word life. So keep that in mind, life. So on Thursday evening, June 4th, 2026, Shane Harlan was killed in a dangerous wrap hold with the Stanislaus County Sheriff officers. They negligently utilized a wrap hold, which is a hog tying device that is known to have caused several deaths. So according to the manufacturer's website, the wrap was designed to stop these conflicts quickly, achieve fast de-escalation, and provide rapid recovery for both subject and personnel. However, we have seen that the findings show that an in-depth article published by Bloomberg in January 2026 investigated 41 instances where the wrap was used and it resulted in their deaths. 32 out of the 41 deaths, body cam footage and public records show that the officers involved applied the wrap incorrectly or did not follow instructions. So what we need to do is we, this is death. The cops in Stanislaus County are not known to be giving life. We have killed a man regardless of why he was arrested and it is disgusting. And to be using such barbaric measures for people is something we need to stop. And as I was listening to our LGBTQIA plus brothers and sisters, I'm thankful that the county sees June as Pride Month, that is life. When I think about the dam, that is death. When I think about our indigenous brothers and sisters here and holding on to Doa Porto Canyon, that brings life. Water should bring life. So I want to thank Chance Condit so much for not wanting to go forward with the dam. And I thank you for that support. We can make a decision here in Stanislaus County. What do we want to be known for? Do we want to be known for killing things, killing people, killing the land? Or do we want to be known to be supporting it, to be supporting life? I quite frankly know life is most important. And some of you may not agree because of who supports you, who's backing you, but you know what? The county, the people that you say you represent want life. That's what we are asking you. So we need to hold the county sheriffs accountable. The Modesto Police have the Community Police Review Board. We need something like that in the county. We continue to see the disgusting acts these cops are doing within this county, and it needs to end. Also what we saw with ICE as well. So I beg you and I ask you to look towards what is giving life and what is giving death. And I hope you choose life. Thank you.

Thank you. Next up is Rhonda Allen followed by Anthony Drobrick.

Good evening. My name is Rhonda Allen and I'm a resident of Modesto. And I'd like to follow up on what some of the other speakers said earlier about protecting Del Puerto Canyon. We are blessed to have the scenic Wild Canyon on our western boundaries of our county. Its close proximity allows for county residents to have a place to explore, connect with nature, as well as providing a place for our native plants and animals to thrive. I know there is an interest in developing water storage here, but this is not the place, nor is it a wise idea. Del Puerto Canyon is more than just a stretch of land west of Patterson. It is one of the last intact wild canyons in the Diablo Range, a place where geology, wildlife, and history come together in a way that simply cannot be replaced. And that is exactly why building a dam here would be a mistake, with consequences far greater than any short-term benefit. Del Puerto Canyon is a living classroom. Its steep walls hold millions of years of geological history, and its creeks support native species found nowhere else in the region. This canyon is home to golden eagles, the California red-legged frogs, burrowing owls, and countless pollinators that depend on the rugged, undisturbed habitat there. Once we flood this canyon, that biodiversity is gone. Not just damaged, not just disrupted, but gone. Supporters of the dam argue that it would provide water storage, but we know that climate-driven droughts are making surface reservoirs less reliable every year. Storing water in a hot, exposed reservoir means losing enormous amounts to evaporation, especially in the Central Valley's extreme summer heat. There are smarter, more resilient solutions, groundwater recharge, recycled water expansion, and modernized irrigation, that don't require destroying an entire canyon ecosystem. These alternatives are already being used successfully across California, and they cost far less than building a big new dam. We should also consider safety. Del Puerto Canyon sits along the Tesla fault zone, part of a seismically active region. Building a dam in an earthquake-prone canyon puts downstream communities, including Patterson, at risk. A dam failure, even a partial one, would send water, debris, and mud straight towards homes, schools, and businesses. No water project is worth gambling with public safety. And then there's the cultural and recreational value. The canyon is a beloved place for hikers, cyclists, bird watchers, and families who simply want to experience the outdoors. It's one of the few remaining natural gateways between the Central Valley and the Coast Ranges. Flooding it would erase a landscape that generations have explored and cherished. We should not trade an irreplaceable natural resource for a project that is expensive, risky, and outdated. The truth is simple. Once Del Puerto Canyon is flooded, it's gone forever. But if we protect it, we can continue to serve our community not just as a place of beauty, but as a refuge for wildlife, a natural buffer against climate change, and a reminder of the landscapes that once defined our state of California. Let's choose solutions that strengthen our water future without sacrificing our natural heritage here. Let's protect Del Puerto Canyon. And I hope you will not continue to support the $18 million matching funds, as I've heard. Thank you very much.

Thanks, Rhonda. Next up is Anthony Drobrik, followed by Bea.

Good evening, all. Before I get into the remarks that I jotted down today, I do just want to say, hearing from the folks in opposition to this dam, could not express greater agreement. That seems like an issue of huge importance to this community. So glad to see so many folks speaking truth to power here today on that. What I want to talk about today, mirroring another speaker, is examining the wake of Shane Harland's death in the custody of the Sheriff's Office. Our community is in mourning at the death of one of our neighbors. That's a human life snuffed out. And in this grim reminder, now is unfortunately a time that we must again say that there is greater need for oversight and accountability of our sheriff's department. And I deliberately say our, because public safety belongs to everyone. Every member of every district of this county deserves to feel safe and not have to worry about whether they're gonna be hogtied and lose their life. I am all for accountability. I've come before this body before to express the need for a civilian review board for the sheriff's office. And last I spoke on the matter, it wasn't long thereafter that our sheriff acted quickly, I would say hastily, to cobble together an advisory board. Note, advisory board is not the same thing as a review board. The existence of this advisory board is political theater, pure and simple. Rather than any true oversight or accountability, this hastily launched board came together with little warning, little publicity, And even then, I did consider joining it myself until I learned that members of that board are subject to removal by the sheriff. That's not accountability. That's a ploy to create the illusion of accountability. When the only voices welcomed into that space are those approved by the sheriff himself, we do not have an advisory board. We have an echo chamber. We deserve better than that. Just earlier in this public comment period, we heard Supervisor Withrow emphasize the importance of citizens getting involved at public meetings. But in order to do that, we need the proper structure to facilitate real community input. The sheriff's so-called advisory board isn't enough. We need a proper civilian review board. That means an independent auditor. That means giving civilian members the power to call for independent investigations into critical incidents. That means a review board that is independent from the sheriff's office rather than an extension of it. Residents of all five districts deserve to feel safe in our communities. From the most ardent supporters of law enforcement to the most vocal critics, accountability is good for everyone. Everyone benefits from a more accountable law enforcement department. So to those of you who feel proud of the conduct of our Sheriff's Department, you should welcome the opportunity to reveal the good work that you see in the community. And to those who think the Sheriff's Department is failing to protect our safety, to those who cannot tolerate another death in the custody of the Sheriff's Office, the right time for this change was a long time ago. But we cannot change the past. We can only steer the present as we prepare for the future. Every single one of you has the power to push for the oversight mechanisms that we so desperately need in Stanislaus County. If you do nothing, and I hope that you do not choose inaction, but if you do nothing, the next time one of our neighbors dies in sheriff's custody, and at this rate, there will be a next time, their blood will be on your hands. A constituent's blood will be on your hands. A human being's blood will be on your hands. Tonight, I am calling on this board to organize real accountability. I understand that you work with the sheriff, but you do not work for the sheriff. You work for the people, and it's time to get to work. Thank you.

Thank you very much. Next up is B, followed by Anne Main. Annie Main.

Hello, my name is B.

As I get started, I just want to take a moment to show this picture to my fellow, this is the wrap hold.

I'm going to tell you to keep it.

Yeah, but I'm going to go ahead and show them because this is what I'm talking to, right? I'm talking to y'all, but I'm talking to them. So I want them to see the barbaric device that Shane was put into. I have five minutes.

You have five minutes to address the board. And I'm doing so.

Thank you. I am doing so. But they need to see it as well. And to be clear, as I was sitting in the crowd watching y'all watch us, you guys aren't doing a great job at giving us your attention either. In January, Bloomberg published an article titled, I Can't Breathe, Police Use Restraint with Fatal Results. In it, authors Alexia Fernandez Campbell and Umar Farouk give us in-depth details of the investigation completed by Bloomberg Law. Since its inception 30 years ago, there have been 41 occasions where the rap was applied and the person died. In 32 of those cases, the officers involved were found to have not correctly followed the manufacturer's instructions. On June 4th, Shane Harlan, a loving father, son, and brother, was taken, was killed in this very same device, bringing our new numbers to 42 deaths, and from the looks of the article regarding Shane, 33 cases in which the officers negligently applied this barbaric modern hog-tying device. I say this because the article clearly states that they left him in the device when they noticed he had become unresponsive. If he truly was under constant supervision, these officers stood by and watched this man slowly asphyxiate to death. The wrap was finally removed when the ambulance arrived and the officers were asked to do so, so they could continue giving life-saving aid. We are calling for a ban on the wrap in Stanislaus County by all law enforcement. Transparency throughout this investigation, which is to include the names of all officers involved, and most importantly, body cam footage of all officers involved. This has been an issue. Us being able to get a hold of these body cam footage, you guys do not offer us adequate avenues to do so. We cannot come as a community, and if there is, please enlighten me. Please enlighten me. I will get my pen and I will take notes. But as far as I'm concerned, in most of these cases, we need a lawyer to sue for these body cam footage. That is confusing to me because these body cameras that the taxpayers pay for... are supposed to be so we can hold them accountable when shit like this happens. Further, this is, The bureaucratic bullshit of dividing up MPD, Stanco County Office sheriffs, as well as CHP, but only for the purposes of jurisdiction and scathing accountability are tired and worn the fuck out. Because y'all all hide behind, y'all, every one of y'all, right? MPD, CHP, as well as Stanco County sheriffs sure as hell hide behind the same blue line.

Next up is Anne Main followed by Steve. Evening.

Good evening. My name is Ann Marie. I am a citizen of Modesto. I came here to speak on the death of Shane Harlan. And I agree with all of the points that people have brought here before you. There needs to be independent ‑‑ an independent investigation into what happened, not an internal investigation, which police departments tend to do. There needs to be a civilian review board for the county sheriffs. There has been for the Modesto Police Department and that has been extremely useful and it's a great idea. Yeah, I also agree with banning the rap device as it is extremely dangerous and unnecessary. Police officers get way too much of our taxpayer money and to need to rely on such a dangerous device. There needs to be an investigation into what happened so that justice can be brought to Shane Harlan and his family. I also agree with the people bringing forth concerns about the Del Puerto Canyon project. It's not a good idea. It will destroy the environment and is also dangerous. That needs to be completely scrapped. There's one other thing. I just want to reemphasize all the points that people have brought forward to you today. And also address the comment about people not being here at these meetings and wanting the community input. And the community is happy to give you the input. That's what we're here doing now. Unfortunately, in instances like with the Modesto City Council and the mask municipal code banning masks at protests, people did come forward to those meetings for months with the same criticisms over and over again, and we were ignored, flat out ignored, not listened to. And only when a lawyer was brought forward from the ACLU and a lawsuit was brought forward saying, we're going to sue the city if you do not drop this municipal mask code, then we were listened to. All to say is that the community is happy to give you input, but when the community is not listened to, when we're not listened to, then we get discouraged and then you get a disconnect of the community from these meetings, right? That's why people don't show up. So we're on the record now saying, here is we need an investigation into the county, the sheriff, the sheriff's department, and we need to have a civilian review board, which I'm sure it's not the first time this has been brought to you. But since the sheriff's department is under your jurisdiction, we hope that, I hope that you will listen to us, listen to me, and act on this information and not just brush it under the rug because we will be paying attention to what you do next. So please take this into account and yeah, justice for Shane Harlan. Thank you.

Next up is Steve followed by Laura Connor.

I'd like to thank you, Vito, for your honesty earlier. It was brief and subtle. But you did say something that was historically factual and honest. You pointed out that the Stonewall riots were started by the cops. And I just want to, that's a perfect segue into why I'm here tonight. But I want to point out that that is not an isolated incident. It is the norm. I HEAR SO MUCH CRAP FROM PEOPLE SITTING RIGHT WHERE YOU'RE SITTING AND FROM PEOPLE SITTING IN THE BACK OF THE ROOM DURING CITY COUNCIL MEETINGS THAT WANT TO SAY THE OPPOSITE. FOR EXAMPLE, BRANDON GILLESPIE LIKES TO BLAME THE GOOD PEOPLE OF LOS ANGELES WHEN HE WAS TRYING TO SAY, MAKE AN EXCUSE FOR HIS NONSENSE. NOT THAT WE LIVE IN LOS ANGELES. BUT HE WAS MAKING COMMENTS ABOUT HOW LOOK AT THE VIOLENCE IN LOS ANGELES. KNOWING A LOT OF IGNORANT PEOPLE WILL JUST FALL FOR IT. COPS IN LOS ANGELES WERE THE ONES COMMITTING THE RECENT VIOLENCE, JUST LIKE THEY ALWAYS DO. JUST LIKE THE COPS IN MODESTO INITIATE CONFLICT AND VIOLENCE AND AGGRESSION, JUST LIKE THE COPS ARREST PEACEFUL PROTESTERS, JUST LIKE THE COPS DICTATE THE LAW TO THE CITY COUNCIL. Where in the world is the democracy and all that? I'm here tonight because Shane Harlan should still be alive. And because regardless of whether he actually committed a crime, his life is worth more than that. And nobody deserves to be publicly executed in the street because somebody else said that they did something bad that cost them money. Raise your hand if you are endorsed or have been at any time in your campaigns, in your political career here by law enforcement. YEAH, HE'S PROUD, I KNOW, THE SAME GUY THAT PRETENDS TO THINK. YOUR COMMENT WAS DESIGNED TO PUT BLAME ON THE PEOPLE, NOT TO ENCOURAGE PEOPLE TO BE INVOLVED ABOUT THE BUS ROUTES. WE SEE THROUGH YOU. OKAY. I KNOW THAT YOU ARE, OR YOU HAVE BEEN. SO WHO ELSE IS JUST NOT TELLING THE TRUTH? RAISE YOUR HAND, MONEY. OKAY. WE DON'T WANT TO RAISE OUR HANDS. OKAY. YEAH. OKAY. SO HERE'S THE THING. HARLAN'S DEATH IS NOT THE FIRST TIME THAT JEFF DERKSEY AND HIS DOGS HAVE TAKEN LIVES. IT HAPPENS ALL THE TIME. WE NEED A COUNTYWIDE BOARD, A BODY THAT CONSISTS OF COMMUNITY MEMBERS THAT ACTUALLY HAVE SOME AUTHORITY TO SERVE THEIR COMMUNITY. NOT LIKE THE NONSENSE HERE IN MODESTO THAT SUE AND HER PALS PUT TOGETHER. an obvious ploy to avoid any kind of real change. People are not as stupid as you guys think, okay? But I do thank you for that tiny morsel of historical truth that you spoke earlier, Vito. The rap is disgusting. If you guys look it up, your first thought is going to be, yeah, that does look like a medieval torture device. Do you honestly think that what the people need, instead of people dying or just being injured from being hogtied, is a fancier hogtie that can make a corporation a bunch of money? That's silly, right? That's not common sense. Normal people don't think like that. When their neighbors die at the hands of peace officers, they don't go, oh, they need more like creepy medieval torture devices. So I would urge you to ban the rap. It should not be used in the county where you have a say. It is only natural, fair, and logical that the names of the deputies involved be released. IN NO OTHER OCCUPATION, WHICH IS WHAT LAW ENFORCEMENT IS, IN NO OTHER OCCUPATION ARE OUR MISDEEDS COVERED UP SO MUCH. IF I DID SOMETHING SHADY AT MY JOB, THEY WOULDN'T BE LIKE, WE DON'T WANT TO TELL YOU WHO DID IT. WE COVER FOR THEM BECAUSE THE STATUS QUO GIVES POWER TO THE WRONG PEOPLE. I'D LIKE TO ADMONISH YOU TO MAKE SURE THAT ALL VIDEO EVIDENCE IS RELEASED. That includes any squad cars that may be parked there that caught some of what was going on. And Shane deserves an independent investigation. It is almost comical that Jeff Dirksy thinks he can investigate himself. It's disgusting. It's the same thing I've heard from Brandon Gillespie. It's the same thing you hear all over the place and everywhere you go where cops take lives and are given immunity. That oversight board is a long time in the coming, and there has been a movement. People have been calling for it, and you know damn well it's necessary. I urge you to choose the people over your political interests. Thank you. Thanks, Steve.

Next up, Laura, Connor, and that's the last speaker card I have, so if anyone else wants to speak, come on over to the aisle.

Good evening, Board of Supervisors. My name is Laura Connor, and I am a concerned community member of Modesto, Stanislaus County. Like others before me, I am here to express my deep concerns about the killing of Shane Hartland on June 4th at the hands of the Stanislaus County Sheriff's Office. I'm here to call for justice in the wake of his death. I strongly believe, and I hope you all do too, that simply because someone wears a badge should not mean they should be let off the hook for the loss of human life. The officers involved with Shane Harlan's death must be held responsible for the end of his life, regardless of their intent. If they had not used the dangerous rap device to restrain him, Shane Harlan would be here today, and his 10-year-old son would still have a loving father to raise him. The Modesto Bee has cited a report that revealed that the use of the RAP device by law enforcement as well as ICE agents has led to the deaths of multiple individuals who have pre-existing mental and physical conditions. To continue using such a device when it puts the lives of disabled people at risk is unacceptable. Not to mention at least 10 lawsuits have been filed by the families of people who have died from being restrained by law enforcement using this device. This county does not need any more shameful lawsuits brought forth by victims and targets of excess brutality from local law enforcement, by which I am referring to the county's agreement to pay $5 million to the mother 40-year-old Anthony Silva, who was killed by the sheriff's office in 2022, according to my research. I call for the sheriff's office to release all evidence, including the names of the officers involved, as well as body cam footage, to the public and to Shane Harland's family, that the officers responsible are disciplined accordingly, that this board leverage their power to create a sheriff review board. and to call for an independent investigation into Shane Harland's death, and to ensure that the sheriff's office no longer uses the rap device or other restraints that can result in the death of civilians, and that people's lives are prioritized over mere property. Shane Harland should still be alive, as others have said. His child should still have a living, breathing father to hug and hold. Justice for Shane Harland, his 10-year-old, and his family. On another matter, I also want to say that while recognition of Pride Month is important, more must be done to ensure that queer and trans people in the Central Valley are affirmed, protected, and celebrated. The lives of queer and trans people have been under attack. In particular, the lives of trans women have been under attack. I ask this board what each of you are doing to protect our queer and trans people in the community from harm and discrimination beyond words of recognition and a group photo. Queer and trans people deserve dignity, safety, respect, and equal rights, not just during the month of June, but every day, every month, and every year. Additionally, I just want to name that I stand with the people who are fighting to save Del Puerto Canyon. Thank you.

Thank you. Anyone else for public comment? Come forward. Thank you very much. Anyone else for public comment? Okay. Seeing no more public comment, we're going to close the public comment period. We're going to move to item six, which is the consent calendar. We're going to...

I think now would be appropriate for me to reiterate that the Del Puerto Dam is not a county project. The county's Board of Supervisor has not approved the project and has no jurisdiction over the decision of the Del Puerto Water District.

Okay. Thank you. So on item A3, we're just going to have a comment. I'm going to turn it over to our acting CEO tonight, Jewel Warr.

Thank you.

Item A3, approval to appointment of Debbie Antigua to the Del Porto Health Care District Board of Directors. This item contains an incorrect term ending date. The correct term ending date is December 4 of 2026, the date of the next election, rather than December 1, 2028, the term expiration date that is currently stated in the item. We just wanted to add to that clarification.

Clarification. Thank you. And then the item C1. Mr.

Chair, I would like to acknowledge Debbie is here tonight, if that's okay. Yeah. And I want to congratulate her and thank her for stepping up. Also, Karen Fries of the Del Porto Health Care District is also here. She's done a great job as CEO of that organization. Debbie, thank you so much for your willingness to serve.

Thank you for acknowledging. And so we have C1. We're going to pull that for a separate vote.

Yes, we have.

The Levine Act prevents a member of the Board of Supervisors from participating in a decision in which they have received a contribution in the previous 12-month period. Jeff Reed of Reed Family Companies has informed the board that he has made such a contribution to Supervisor Graywall and Supervisor Withrow. Therefore, they will not participate in the decision. Okay. And C1.

Yep, C1. Any board member want to pull any other items? Does anyone in the public want to comment on any of the consent items? Okay, we're going to take everything right now with the change in A3, or the acknowledgement that the term is shorter than is posted, minus C1. Move to approve minus C1.

Second.

We have a motion. We have a second. All those in favor say aye. Aye. Opposed? Motion carries 5-0. All right, you two. Let the record show that both Supervisor Graywall and Supervisor Withrow have left the dais. Take up C1.

Motion to approve. Second.

First and second. All those in favor say aye. Aye. Opposed? Motion carries 3-0. Thank you. Okay, we have no public hearings. We have discussion item. I'm going to go to number one, approval of the Behavioral Health Services Act three-year integrated plan for fiscal years 2026 through 2029 and related actions. Moving Imperial will be presenting.

Good evening, Chairman Chiesa, Board of Supervisors, Council Bows, and Assistant Executive Officer Warr. Ruben Imperial, I am the Director for the County's Behavioral Health and Recovery Services. I'm accompanied here at the dais with Maribel McCarroll. She is our Behavioral Health Services Act Policy Manager. I'm also accompanied today with several of our senior leadership from the department as well, and we are all here to bring forward the Behavioral Health Services Act, or BHSA, three-year integrated plan. So the plan is required by the passage of Prop 1 and SB 326 and serves as the county's roadmap for behavioral health services housing investments and improvements of the department over the next three years. The plan does reflect these new state requirements as well as community input that we have engaged with our community over the last year. And the action today by the Board of Supervisors to approve the integrated plan is so that we could submit it by the deadline of June 30th, 2026. I do want to emphasize a few things as I get started is that this plan is a planning document. It's an overarching framework for us. It establishes our strategic direction overall and our funding priorities under this new Behavioral Health Services Act framework. The approval of the plan does not authorize all of the programs, expenditures, staffing changes, or contracts, or potential contracts identified within the plan. As implementation moves forward, the department will continue to return to the Board of Supervisors with future recommendations related to budgets or contracts, housing investments, or any other actions we need to implement the plan. So I'm going to go over overall the shift from what was called the Mental Health Services Act to the Behavioral Health Services Act. So the voters approved the Mental Health Services Act in 2004 through what was called Proposition 63. It created a dedicated funding source for county behavioral health departments of 1% on personal income over a million dollars. This funding gave counties a stable revenue source for the last few for the last, what, 20 years now? Yeah. And, well, because I remember when it passed, and I can't believe it's 20 years ago. That was quite a bit. This funding provided counties with an additional stable revenue stream. The act over the past two decades has funded a wide range of community-based mental health programs, including prevention and early intervention, workforce development, and innovative approaches to treatment. It has also helped shift California's behavioral health system, and it was a priority when it was passed, to a recovery-orientated, culturally responsive and community-based care. A lot of the programs that were funded under the Mental Health Services Act brought on new partners, new collaborators, new program service providers. So BHS was replaced on January 1st, 2025. What the act does, it restructures funding priorities and program expenditure requirements. It places a greater emphasis on housing and homelessness interventions and expands the use of these funds for substance use disorder treatment. It does that, and I'll share it in the next few slides, primarily by redirecting resources away from other more of the more community-based prevention programs. The other main point to make about VHSA is that it also strengthens accountability through outcomes, reporting, and performance monitoring. This is a substantive increase in the regulations and requirements now enshrined in law in terms of how the department reports on behavioral health programming, distributes the funds, and then the targeted populations. So this slide shows the major funding shift from the Mental Health Services Act to the Behavioral Health Services Act. You can see on the left-hand side the categories that were under the Mental Health Services Act was the community services and supports, the prevention and early intervention, and innovations, and then there was 5% for administration at the state level or retained at the state level for administration. The community services and supports was primarily programs that we label and call full service partnerships. We also funded housing with those programs, workforce development, technology needs, so on and so forth. The new funding structure and requirements now move us towards three categories of housing interventions, full service partnerships, and behavioral health services and supports. And their 10% is retained at the state for statewide activities and administration. And I'll go over what those, what full service partnerships and behavioral health services and supports are just in a few moments. A key component to developing this plan was a community planning process that approximately lasted well over a year. During that time, we made a deliberate effort to go out into the community and gain input in terms of what the priorities of our plan should be. We connected with veterans, individuals experiencing homelessness, youth, families, behavioral health providers, community-based organizations, county staff, and other systems partners. In the behavioral health or in the board agenda item, we outlined who these partners were and we reached up to 600 unique individuals in terms of the input that we received on the plan. We gathered this type of input through forums, through focus groups, through surveys, advisory committees, stakeholder meetings, and targeted outreach, and in some instances we actually formed collaboratives to help not just with the initial community input, but long-term implementation planning. Across nearly every stakeholder group, the input was consistently along the lines of what you see on the slide here. There was an interest and recommendations in terms of improving timely access to behavioral health treatment. expanding housing supports and housing stability services, strengthening care coordination and warm handoffs between the major providers and key stakeholders where individuals access mental health care. Examples include, you know, between our department and shelters, the justice system, the jail, you know, social services, child welfare, and the education system, amongst several others. There was recommendations in increasing outreach engagement and community awareness. I had the opportunity to go out myself and talk to quite a bit of folks and I was surprised at what I had felt community members or certain groups to really understand and know what BHRS is and what we do. And we had found that, no, we have some work to do there. So some of the recommendations include how to address that. There was also recommendations around expanding the workforce capacity and service accessibility. With these new opportunities, one of the challenges we continue to face in our community is a workforce challenge within the behavioral health community and systems. We are doing better and have improved our vacancy rate, so we're grateful for that, but we do know as thinking about expansion, we're going to continue to have some challenges there. And then improving continuity of care across systems. That was reiterated over and over. Individuals receiving behavioral health care and needing support to navigate other systems and other support services, managed care, housing, social services, and other very essential programs and services needed to help folks sustain their recovery. Another major change with Behavioral Health Services Act is the focus on outcomes and accountability. And the state has identified a set of statewide behavioral health goals that focus on some of the most significant challenges in the state of California as well as our community. As you can see here on the slide, these are prescribed goals. These are at least the first, I think, seven. And the last two there, reducing suicide and reducing overdose or accidental poisoning, those are the options that we had. We actually picked those last two. But the first several there are actually mandated outcomes that we as a department will be responsible to report on an annual basis and to ensure that within our integrated plan, we've got strategies to address those issues. I will say the increased access to care was definitely an interest that aligned with our community stakeholder input and across the board we heard also recommendations on how to address these issues. I would also note that if We are going to make a difference as a department in these goals and that is definitely our aim. Our connection with our partners and that are also working in these areas will be critical and essential and that's also what has happened over the last year or so. In terms of developing this plan, we have been creating partnerships that we feel help us in the implementation and addressing these broad community goals. We have been able to organize a justice system collaborative that includes board members, includes our leaders within our justice system, like the district attorney, the presiding judge over our collaborative court, our CEO of the court system, our public defender, our partners in probation, the sheriff and law enforcement officers, all coming together to really figure out how we can work towards addressing justice involvement, not just in terms of holding people accountable but offering services and support for those that are experiencing a mental health issue or substance use disorder. We've created collaborative partnerships with our superintendent of schools and our child-serving organizations and agencies within the community to address issues like reducing the removal of children from home and justice involvement for our teenagers. So we, in addition to the strategies we've listed in our plan, you will see not just programs and services, but there was also an emphasis on building partnerships and building collaboratives so that this work as we implement it starting July 1st will not be done in isolation or alone. That we feel we do have partners that will help us make a difference and really address these issues. So before moving on to programs that we're recommending to expand or new programs, I do want to just loop back really quick back to the slide earlier where we showed the shifts. And here what it looks like for us in our county in terms of those shifts. So for housing interventions, we have investments outlined in the plan of about $12.5 million. $14 million in full service partnerships and $14.6 million in behavioral health services and support programs for the amount of around $41 million in total Behavioral Health Services Act funds. I do want to spend a few minutes just explaining what those categories are. The plan identifies each and every program in each of these categories. It not only describes the programs, but it describes each of the budget for these programs, and then it also highlights the number of individuals served and the intended outcomes and what we are trying to address in terms of those programs. So this is a very high level summary but the plan has a lot of detail about these programs and then the board agenda item did actually did a little bit more of a breakdown of each of those categories. So just to provide you a little bit of context of what those three areas are. So full service partnerships are our most intensive outpatient treatment programs and focus on individuals with the highest levels of need, including those experiencing homelessness, justice involvement, repeated psychiatric crises, and serious mental illness. So behavioral health services and supports fund much of the broader treatment system, including outpatient services, children's services, crisis services, workforce development, outreach, engagement, and other treatment and recovery supports, as well as some early intervention programming there as well. And then housing interventions are major changes under the Behavioral Health Services Act. This is the new category. And these funds are dedicated to housing related services such as including rental assistance, housing navigation, tenancy support, and other services designed to help keep people in housing. Before I go on to the new programs, a lot of our programs that have rolled over, not just roll over in the same way and in the same manner. Although these programs are not new, what is changing is the level of accountability and expectations about how these programs operate. So the state is requiring counties to place greater emphasis on evidence-based practice, performance outcomes, and measurable results. So evidence-based practices are a structured way on how to deliver treatment, and it has caseload requirements, it has clinical intervention requirements, it has the way you operate the program. And so although that we have not, in this initial phase of the plan, have very substantive increases in programs, I think it's very important that the board and the community note that the programs that are rolling over are going to be, there is going to be a lot of behind the scenes work in terms of bringing them up to compliance around the new standards in terms of their clinical delivery and care. as well as reporting requirements both fiscally and for performance outcomes. So as we get into the new programs, I just want to make sure that this plan also and that the community also knows that there is quite a bit of work that we need to do just to the existing programs as well. So Behavioral Health Services Act is, it does represent a reprioritization of behavioral health resources towards populations with greatest needs. But equally important to note, it is also coupled with a stronger focus on accountability, evidence-based practice, and measurable outcomes. In addition to the programs that we have rolled over, which the majority we have rolled over and will now then begin to work on enhancing those programs, I wanted to make sure you were all aware of the very specific funds that were new that were not under the Mental Health Services Act expenditure plan. So the line items highlighted here amount to about $6 million and they are primarily housing and in the areas of subsidies and in terms of rental subsidies and operating subsidies. And so this is the major new investments that we are making with the Behavioral Health Services Act. Now we still have to go and we have to come back to the board with the contracts and the partners and how we're going to expend those funds. But we have allocated within our Behavioral Health Services Act planned funds for these purposes in the next fiscal year. The top sections there are the operating subsidies and rental subsidies. And then the one capital development project, we've set aside $500,000. And we will return to the board with a recommendation to make that investment into the Al Capitan project at a future date. So after reviewing the Behavioral Health Services Act regs and community input, after looking at our statewide behavioral health goals and the challenges we're seeing there, after looking at our internal data around access and how people are accessing care, we developed a series of what we are calling new and expanded recommended programs and services. So on the left of this slide, you will see all the list of the expansions we are recommending of existing programs. And then on the right, these are new programs and services that we are recommending. There's a few things to say about these before I go into a little bit of detail. Some of them we have already brought to the Board of Supervisors and are funded. Some of them are not funded, and we still need to do some work to bring back plans. So on the left for expansions, the crisis response team, in the plan you will see a description of us expanding the community crisis response team. This is the team that goes out and responds to mental health crisis calls, including 911 related calls. We have built partnerships with our law enforcement agencies. We are also building new partnerships with our fire and EMS partners and are looking to bring back a board agenda item to expand crisis response services in our community, adding more capability to go out in the community beyond the hours and beyond the capacity that we currently have. We are also gonna be reorganizing and targeting our outreach We're going to be targeting emergency departments, shelters, and street homelessness. The emergency departments, one of the challenges that we have right now in terms of outcomes that we need to focus on is when folks enter the emergency department for a substance use issue, getting them connected to treatment in a timely manner. And we have some data that shows that we are not doing as well as we need to in that area. and we are making investments in that whole system there to get people into treatment after an emergency department. School-based behavioral health services, that's a focus on organizing child-serving organizations. The plan describes the integrated executive team, the integrated leadership team, the school-based mental health working group. We've done a lot of work to organize child-serving organizations to expand behavioral health services on school sites. not just behavioral health and recovery services, but our Medi-Cal Managed Care Plan benefits that include mild to moderate. We are expanding our justice diversion behavioral health services. We had challenges with our incompetent to stand trial rate. We have new programs like Prop 36. We are going to be expanding the reintegration team, the collaborative court, full service partnerships that serves the justice population. We should be bringing a board agenda item in the next few weeks, expanding that program as well. We have some new programs. The START program was presented to the board just a few months ago. Actually, I'm really pleased to announce that the request for proposal has been released. And so we are hoping to get a provider that can launch that program. At least we'll identify a provider hopefully by the fall of this year. We are starting a new program called Neighborhood Access and Treatment. We are working towards being really targeted where the data shows that we have disparities in access for certain populations within our community. We're going to be targeting certain areas geographically and building and access programs that can bring people in easily to treatment rather than some of the ways we do it now. We are also working on a recommendation to the board for the Hope Forward Children's Residential Treatment Facility in Turlock or in the southern part of the county, southern part of Turlock. This is a psychiatric health facility, a crisis residential unit, and a crisis stabilization unit. Currently, we do not have any in-county residential psychiatric facilities for children and youth. And this is going to eliminate what happens now. We send these kids out of the county. We're going to have a place in the county where children and families can go to get the care they need. We are launching a behavioral health collaborative. This is primarily an effort focused on identifying the number of individuals that are currently open and being served by the department and really getting a good number in terms of the number of units we need to solve homelessness for this group. So these are folks that are in treatment. This isn't the broader point in time count. This isn't the broader homeless community. This is the folks that are currently in treatment. And then enhanced community health workers. This is primarily an access strategy. We've identified whether it's the Latino community, Southeast Asian community, LGBTQ, veterans. We are rural communities. These are services and health outreach workers. that have trusted relationships and communities throughout the county. And we are bringing them on into our treatment structures and programs. We've had a previous program funded through the Prevention Early Intervention Program called Community Health Workers, or , in Spanish, that targeted Latino Spanish-speaking communities. We are now going to be able to bring that model into our treatment team and help address some of the access issues that we are experiencing with some of our priority populations. To give you a scope of what Behavioral Health Services Act is in terms of the overall budget, the overall budget I proposed was $265 million. Of that, we are projecting the use of $41 million Behavioral Health Services Act money. That's a pretty substantive amount of the budget. So it's about a third of what we use to fund the behavioral health system. So it is a substantive amount of funds that supports the organization's delivery of mental health and substance use services. We currently have, at the time of the report, we have about $18 million of unspent funds or funds in reserve. We will be working with the CEO's office in bringing back recommendations on a strategic use of that fund balance over the next two to three years. As I mentioned, there were several programs that we've got to return to the board and make recommendations on launching new programs or expansions. We're anticipating the use of that $18 million as well as other fund balance that the department currently has. One of the other big changes under the Mental Health Behavioral Services Act was the elimination of prevention and early intervention funds. These were the community-based organizations and county programs that were identified as not having a funding or a revenue stream no longer. And we've had to terminate the agreements, or in some cases, transition them to another model. These are the Sierra Vista Child and Family Services Youth Assessment Center. It was a child and youth resiliency program. The program, from what I understand, is not subsided or closed. There is a partnership with the probation and other partners still that we were one of a few funders for the program. So the program continues. It's just not with the funds that we have. The agent and veteran services program, just a few weeks ago, the board approved the closure of that program. The Eleconcilio Youth Outreach Program also was a program that we no longer have funding for. The Promotores Program. although we are redirecting those staffing in some cases, not all of the programs, but in some cases those staff will be brought into treatment team environments to help us around some of the access issues. There was a NAMI education and training program that was also identified as a program we no longer have funding for. And then there are some county-operated PEI programs also that will be impacted. So as you know, some of these have come to you all in terms of previous board agenda items and just want to be clear that these reductions or these elimination of funding for these programs is not the act of the local behavioral health department or the act of the board of supervisors here. This was part of the Behavioral Health Services Act and we are implementing policy and this was the outcome of that. With approval today, the implementation of the Behavioral Health Services Act will begin immediately for the existing programs that we are transitioning over. As I said, there is quite a bit of work to do in terms of aligning the programs with new clinical and evidence-based practice requirements. New initiatives will be phased in through future board agenda items. We're going to continue to go out into the community and provide them education and updates on what we're doing. We are currently conducting an assessment of the administrative and operational capacity of the organization actually to implement the plan and all of its reporting requirements that are now mandates and requirements and come with fiscal sanctions or other corrective actions if we do not adhere to those regulations. And then continue to focus on treatment, housing, and hiding populations. That's what we do as a behavioral health department. We provide treatment for severe mental illness, for serious mental illness and substance use disorder. And we continue to focus on that. So with that, our staff recommendations for today is to approve the Behavioral Health Services Act three-year integrated plan for fiscal years 26 through 2029. Authorize the Chairman of the Board of Supervisors to sign the Board of Supervisors Certification for Behavioral Health Services Act three-year integrated plan for the fiscal years 2026 through 2029. Authorize the Behavioral Health Director to sign the Behavioral Health Director Certification for the Behavioral Health Services Act three-year integrated plan fiscal years 26 through 29. and then authorize the behavioral health directors to submit the three-year integrated plan for the fiscal years 2026, 2029, along with all other required certification and documents to the Department of Healthcare Services and the Behavioral Health Services Oversight and Accountability Commission. And with that, we are here to answer any questions.

When you present the plan, are you going to get comments? Is it a pass-fail, we like what you're putting forward, the way you're doing it?

Yes, what we did, We submitted the draft plan to the Department of Healthcare Services, and basically what they're reviewing is to ensure that it is abiding by the Behavioral Health Services Act, all of the laws and regulations related to that. And so the plan was sent back to us with some edits. We made those edits, and they did sign off and say that it was meeting the state requirements. Perfect. Any questions of staff?

No questions. Okay.

I do have one. In the new and expanded recommended program services slide, I think it's the justice diversion part of it. You mentioned Prop 36. Has that service been funded by Prop 36? Because we know that 36 is not fully funded.

Yes. So when we implemented Prop 36 in our county, the department made the decision that we would accept referrals into our established substance use treatment system of care. So since over a year now, we have been accepting referrals and we do provide the screening assessments. And then we're referring into our current substance use treatment system of care. We didn't start new programs. Initially and they've just been been treated within our regular system of care since then we did return to the we did come to the Board of Supervisors just a few months ago with the opioid settlement funds Request and we added some staffing capacity to help with the care and coordination of the prop 36 referrals So as people are referred we now have a team that can coordinate the referrals from the district attorney public defender and then into treatment services. We built up some capacity there. And then lastly we have been we have applied for some funds that the state has put out to support Prop 36 implementation within communities and there are some restrictions on how those funds can be used but we have applied and I do not as of now I don't think we've received the final approval to move forward with what our plans were. I do anticipate within the next few weeks we will. So, yes, there has been some statewide discussion about whether or not this has been fully funded, but at least for our community, we've accepted those furrows within our existing system and have built out some supports along the way. Great. Thank you.

Thank you very much. All right. I'm going to go ahead and acknowledge we do not have any written comments on this item. I'm going to go ahead and open up the public comment period. Anyone in the audience wish to come forth? All right. Seeing none, I'll close the public comment period, bring it back to the Board for comments.

OK, if I could. So first, Ruben, great job. And great job to you and your staff, everybody who's here. We all know this is a monumental task here, a real change in doing business through BHRS. And I would argue very a long time coming. We have great staff doing great things for a long time. And a lot of times our hands are tied, we've got handcuffs on, there's things we can't do that we know we should do. And I think this is finally starting to recognize some of the things that we need to do and hopefully taking some handcuffs off staff and everybody to do what we need to do to treat these individuals that need. I think this is probably the fifth time I've heard this presentation, I think. Sorry about that. No, it's all right. It's good. It's a good presentation. And it's, you know, whether it's through briefings or stakeholder meetings or mental health board, whatever it is. And each time I hear it, I get excited, which sounds crazy. I'm just like a simple-minded accountant, but I get excited about this, about the possibilities of what this is going to do. And as you talked about in your presentation, your slides here, He talked about focus on outcomes and accountability. And I know we've always had that focus. It's not something new for us. But this is requiring us to really have focus and accountability. And we've got to answer to the state. And these funds are coming to us to be used. And if they're not used, and if we than we do have others to answer to besides just ourselves. And that's what's so great about this. I love this slide, back slide on page five, statewide behavioral health goals. I mean, you just look through that and how noble of a goal of all these goals is that for us to have to achieve? And if you think about it, this is a lot of money we're gonna be kind of throwing at this, right? That the state is throwing at this. in but if you think about the return on our investment if we could if we could reduce and help all these things that we talked about reducing think of the return on our investment think of the dividends that will that we will have as a result of the money that we're spending now if we can fix so many of these things help so many people dealing with these issues i mean all these all these issues that we're looking at involve our criminal justice system for the most part you know individuals with severe mental health drug and alcohol addictions that work their way through our system, whether it starts with our sheriff's department and works our way into our DA and our public defender and our probation and our court system and our mental health department as we're trying to treat them there. If we can be successful with these funds that have come our way and we can actually produce results and achieve these goals, it'll be ten times over. The money that we're spending here, the return on our investments, the health of our community will just be phenomenal if we're successful at this. So I know there's things, this is a change in focus from the MHS, MHS? Yeah, the old MHSA Act. But I think it's a long time coming. And I think the state has finally recognized that we have got to get these individuals into treatment, housing of course, but treatment with the housing, and focus on these issues. And if we're successful, I have no doubt that this will change our community. From a human standpoint, unbelievable if we're successful at this. From a dollar standpoint, unbelievable return on our investment. So it's just a win all the way around. And I can tell you that I have more confidence in doing it than you and your staff. When I see the work that you guys do, I just have all the confidence in the world. You guys are leaders in the state, and I think we're back to being leaders in the state again with what's going on here. And I look very forward to the reports of the results and us achieving these goals. So thank you guys very much for this. Totally support this.

Terry just hit it out of the ballpark with his comment. Great presentation. Great plan.

Yeah, and it's a big change, and I like that we're attacking the – because we do have a shortfall of people in certain positions, and we continue to whittle away at that. I always like to tell a story about – mayors wallen who was a nurse in case you guys didn't know an emergency room nurse and i could think a dozen years ago or more of her calling me and saying it people kids are sitting here minors are sitting here in the hospital emergency room There's no place to take them. You've got to do something about it. So we're doing something about it 12 years later. And this is, unfortunately, the way government works. But I think the Hope Forward Campus, I have so much hope for the possibilities there as a step-down unit for people under age. Again, the most vulnerable in our community. So great to see that. Great work to all of you.

Thank you very much.

Finally, you'll take a vote now.

I do want to recognize just our leadership team here in the room. They have been working tirelessly over the last year, not just on this plan. We get, like, you know, stuff like this every other week to implement and to change and to, you know, do things. And I want to recognize Mayor Bell McCarroll, our VHSA planning manager, and her team. She had one job was to get this approved today and get it to the state. And she's done a great job. She has been out in our community talking to hundreds of people about something very personal as mental health and substance use disorder. And she's done a great job of bringing in those voices into the plan and making sure as we're making decisions and we're putting these documents forward that those voices are heard and that we're responsive to those voices. So I want to thank her and her team and all the work they've done. So with that, Chairman, I'll turn it back to you. I want to say we're on the one-yard line right now, right?

Yeah. We haven't scored yet. We're there. Okay. If there's nothing else, I'll entertain a motion.

Okay. I'll make a motion to approve all staff recommendations.

We have a motion. We have a second. All those in favor say aye. Aye. Opposed? Motion carries 5-0. Thank you very much. Okay, before we move on to the second item, I do want to first apologize that there was a public comment on 6B1 from Brad Johnson. I just want to acknowledge that and apologize to Mr. Johnson for not catching that. And if anyone comes up here and wants to see what's around me, it's just a big mess here. I can go through paperwork. It's true. Everyone can sit here and look at it. Jewel's seeing it firsthand right now. So I want to apologize for that. And we're going to enter that into the record. OK. We're moving on to the, let me get my page right. See? Because I had to acknowledge that, now I have to go back to my agenda. Okay. Item number two, eight two, approval of the policy for technology disruptions affecting remote public access during Stanislaus County Board of Supervisor meetings. Tina Rocha and Mary Hartsfield, our clerk, will be presenting.

Thank you. Good evening, Chairman, Supervisors, County Council, and Assistant Executive Officer Warr. Today we're going to provide an overview of Senate Bill 707 and its impact on Board of Supervisors meetings, and I'll also present the proposed technology disruption policy required for compliance with that Senate bill. I'm accompanied at the presentation table by Assistant Executive Officer Tina Rocha, and we represent a broader work group that has spent countless hours going through the Senate bill, playing out scenarios to come up with policy that would gain compliance to this bill for the county. So the public meeting update and purpose. Senate Bill 707 was signed into law on October 3rd of 2025 and goes into effect on July 1 of 2026. It is scheduled to sunset on January 1, 2030, and its goal is to increase access, remove barriers to participation, and improve transparency in local government meetings. The bill establishes a consistent framework for remote public engagement.

Next.

The requirements are that eligible legislative bodies provide real-time remote access to meetings. The public must have a two-way audio option to provide comments remotely. Remote participants must have an opportunity to engage in the meeting process. and Stanislaus County will meet these requirements through live video streaming, which is not a new practice, and Public Input's two-way telephone participation platform. Public Input is a vendor offering specialized services to assist legislative bodies in meeting the requirements of the Senate bill. These requirements apply specifically to eligible legislative bodies such as the Board of Supervisors. Advisory commissions and similar bodies remain subject to the Brown Act but are not required to provide remote public participation under SB707. They are also not required to adopt a technology disruption policy. The Board of Supervisors is. SB 707 also requires agenda translations into applicable languages. An applicable language is one spoken by at least 20% of residents who speak English less than very well. In Stanislaus County, Spanish meets that threshold. The requirement applies to agendas only. Agenda packets are not required to be translated. That means moving forward after July 1, the county will post the agenda in English and in Spanish. The county must post translated agendas at the same time and in the same manner as the English agenda. The county must also provide a location for translated agendas submitted by members of the public. To support this requirement, an accessible public posting board has been installed at 1010 10th Street. And there's a picture of it in the background of this slide. And the county is not going to verify or certify the accuracy of any publicly submitted translations on that board. The technology disruption policy. is required by Senate Bill 707. We're required to adopt a policy addressing the technology disruptions that would affect remote public access. If a disruption occurs, the meeting must be recessed while staff makes good faith efforts to restore services. The proposed policy establishes clear roles, responsibilities, and procedures for responding to any such disruptions. The objective is to preserve public participation whenever possible. If remote access cannot be restored, Senate Bill 707 allows the Board to continue meeting under limited circumstances. Before doing so, the Board must make specific findings by roll call vote and the finding must determine that good faith efforts were made to restore service and that the public interest in continuing the meeting outweighs the public interest in remote access. The board priority, this priority meets one of the priorities of the county of delivering efficient public services. This proposed action aligns with that priority. It expands access to board meetings and increases opportunities for participation. It also improves language accessibility, transparency, and community engagement. Overall, these efforts help make the county government more accessible to the public. Staff recommends adoption of a policy for technology disruptions that affect remote public access during Board of Supervisors meetings. This action will ensure compliance with state law and maintain Brown Act compliance. The action can also serve to support remote participation, improve accessibility, and strengthen transparency. We are requesting Board approval of the proposed policy today, and we stand ready to answer any questions that you may have.

Timing was impeccable. Any questions?

Just a question. What if we didn't approve this? What would be the... Do we have that option? I mean, we're asking for board approval. What if we didn't approve this?

I'll defer to county council. What happens when you don't comply with the Senate bill?

The state legislature comes down and smacks you on the hand.

It's in the law. So...

Point to us whether we approve this or not.

This is just... Well, it's in the law, and on top of that, they tell you what has to be in the disruption policy. Okay. So it's already in the law.

Okay. Okay, just want to point that out.

Good question. Thank you.

Supervisor Condon.

Thank you, Mr. Chairman. Wonderful presentation. I really appreciate all the hard work in getting this all together and it is a task, so thank you. I did have a question just in regards to language accessibility. It does mention that only the agenda must be translated and that full agenda packets are not required. But then on the next page, it says that the post of translated agendas at the same time are in the same manner as English agenda. So what exactly do we have to post in Spanish since it meets that threshold? And I would probably make the argument that if we're going to commit to something and do it, we should just do it all and commit to it fully.

So what the Senate bill requires is that we post the agenda in Spanish. So the agenda is the only item.

Just the front page, not the packet.

Just not the entire packet, but the entire agenda. So from Pledge of Allegiance to adjournment.

Got it.

Okay. If a member of the public would like to translate the entire packet, We are going to have web accessibility through the Recite Me feature, and they will be able to pull up the agenda packet and translate it on the screen. I think it might be physically impossible to translate an entire packet and post it on a bulletin board because of the volume of some of the agendas that we produce. But we will have the space where people can provide just the agenda.

Yeah, we don't have the space to even provide an English version of the agenda when it's posted. I guess what I would like to see is to have the Spanish option virtually just as the same as the English option. That's where I, because you can access the meat of the agenda online. WHEN IT COMES OUT ON FRIDAY. WE DO POST SIGNAGE OUT FRONT, AND WE MAKE THAT AVAILABLE HARD COPY, AND OBVIOUSLY WE'RE GOING TO DO THE SAME WITH THE SPANISH VERSION. BUT THE MEAT OF IT, I THINK THAT SHOULD BE ACCESSIBLE AS WELL IN SPANISH ONLINE. AGAIN, IF WE'RE GOING TO CLAIM THAT WE'RE DOING THINGS IN THE SAME MANNER AS IN THE ENGLISH VERSION, I DO THINK WE SHOULD COMMIT FULLY. my argument with the board here and my colleagues. If we're going to do it, we meet the threshold, we meet the criteria, we should go ahead and do it 100%.

Supervisor, just to add on, the presentation right after us is going to talk about language access and they're going to explain it a little more and talk about how it will be working. So that might answer some of your questions or maybe alleviate some of the concerns on accessibility.

And I appreciate that. I just, and I look forward to that presentation. I just, I think if we're going to upload both versions, I think it's possible, especially with all the technology advancements that we have. Obviously, AI is a great tool. I think there's a way to do it. We meet the threshold. We meet the criteria to do it. Language accessibility, specifically for Spanish, has been a hot topic. It's a concern of mine having a minority-majority district, a large percentage of folks in my district who are monolithic speakers, primarily in Spanish. So I think it's important and I know my constituents want to be a part of the process. They want to be engaged. I think it's a great step forward to have the agenda, just the front portion, obviously mandated to be in Spanish. But if we are going to act in the same manner, you act fully. And that's where I would just like to see once we upload the English version online, you also have an option to download the Spanish version of the entire packet. Okay. Any other questions?

Just real quick. Yep. Thank you, Mr. Chair. And I think I've asked this question before. Because of Senate Bill 707 and the state mandate to follow this, are we receiving any funding from the state to do this?

This bill came with no funding associated with it. We are making application for a refund of the monies, but that is not a guarantee.

Thank you. I just wanted that on record. Yes. We are still going after the money.

We are. The SB 90 test claims, we've talked with our CFO and we have someone on our finance team that's been working on those. And so we're going to be tracking on this one and see if it's something we can submit and would be able to accumulate the costs and turn those in. Thank you.

Something made me think that you knew the answer before you asked that question. You've already asked it. Very well. Okay. If there's no more questions, we're going to go ahead and open the public comment period. We do not have any public or written comments on this. Does anyone in the audience wish to speak on this item? Seeing none, close the public comment period and bring it back to the board.

I'm just going to do my little commentary on this, sorry. First, I agree with Chance, whatever we can do to try to make language more accessible, you know, I go with that. But this is just a disaster, I think. I appreciate all the hard work you've done on this, Mary, and everybody's done on this. I get it. We have no choice. But I think this is going to have the exact opposite effect of what they intended here. I think the length of the meetings are going to just be... off the charts and I think that people will just get to the point where they just tune us out you know for the few who listen to us anyway who are watching look how few are left here tonight and the few who are online watching I think they'll just it'll just it'll it'll cause people just to disengage from this whole thing you know I always think of the term you have to be present to win you know, and I kind of think of this as saying that you have to be present to win. And I think of the presentations that we have here at our meetings, the impact is when you're here in front of us and we can see, you know, what you're dealing with. We can feel your emotions and we can, we don't get that online. We don't get that one bit online. And the same applies to to Zoom meetings. I feel the same way about Zoom meetings. If you want to meet, then you meet me in person. Meet us in person. We don't do it online because you just don't have the impact and you can't really see how people are reacting or how we're reacting. Human beings need that physical kind of touch and interaction for things to work. This is not going to help that at all. Again, Mary, this is not your problem. This is going to be our problem, obviously, because we're stuck with this thing. But like I said, it will have the exact effect of what they think they're going to be doing. And it will only make people more distant from government. And we'll end up with a few who call every time. And it will cause the ones who maybe really want to speak, they won't get a chance. So I know we're probably going to have to let them. But it just won't have that effect. Come down here. Come to the meetings. That's what makes a difference. And be present to win is what I say. And so I see the sunsets in 2030. I hope by then it does sunset and it disappears and I anticipate that that will be the result of they'll find that this thing just didn't work and I don't know who could have thought this was a good idea. Okay, I'll shut up.

Thank you. Thank you for your comments. So I'm going to hope because the Air Board and Stancock have had public comment online and I I think people get used to it. It's when there's a hot button issue, I think there's a chance to be overrun. But we surely don't want a sentence, but I would agree with your sentiment that if you're not here seeing the emotion of people, and Gene's been sitting here all night. I can't wait to see what you think about the meeting when you're done. But we give it a shot. We give it a shot and see how it works out.

All right. Mr. Chair, in regards to my concern about the language accessibility portion, I have a hard time voting in the affirmative without knowing our technological capabilities. I don't know, are we capable of uploading both the Spanish version and the English version simultaneously? I don't know. So I don't know if we should table this and hear the presentation about that.

Jennifer, is that a question you can answer? You have the capability? I hate to get to the final product, but if you come up here, because I would rather not skip this item, if we think that we're going to be, you're the right person, or the next item is the proper place for us to request that.

And to answer your question, yes, with the proposal to move to the Recite Me translation feature, which we already have for accessibility, you will be able to translate all the documents on our website directly on the website without having to download them and then re-upload them like you do in Google Translate currently. So it happens simultaneously. Yes, you could do that.

Based on that, I would make a motion that we would do it simultaneously. And let's commit all the way. I know, Terry, this is a pain. It's the state law. We have to follow it. It does sunset in 2030. But I would think if we're going to do it, let's go all the way. Is that proper?

Because, again, you're going to surprise me with the next item. Is it proper to do it on the next item or on this item? Make a motion to...

I wanted to, can I ask a clarifying question on this? You actually can. Okay. So the way the, and Mary, step in if I'm saying something incorrectly. So right now when we post the agenda, there's a paper copy downstairs. I think everybody's clear on that. There's no links or backup documentation. Right now when we post in English, there are hyperlinks in that document that take you to the agenda item, right? That's the staff report and any attachments. In order to do that same thing for Spanish, staff would have to, I believe, download all of those and link them up. I don't think Recite Me is going to create those automatic links in our agenda the way we post it now, but the public would have the opportunity, if they're clicking on an item that's saying, is English right now, it would be translating it. There would be an extra staff step, I would say, if we were to be mirroring how we do it in English right now with hyperlinks to every item, that if you had the Spanish, let's say, agenda, right? This is our two-page agenda with hyperlinks to each item. I do believe that would be more... I think there would be staff time involved with each agenda item, if that...

I thought if it opened up on our website, then it would translate it because it's part of our website. So if it opens externally, then ‑‑ So what does it do?

I guess I would need to see a demonstration. I don't know.

I think that what you're asking for is on the web page that has the agenda link and the minutes link, that there would be an English agenda link and that there would be a Spanish agenda link.

Exactly. Just how we provide the drafts at the beginning of the week, you would have an English one comes out and a Spanish one comes out and then, like you said, Mary, an English link and a Spanish link because that's what the threshold is, that's what the criteria is, and that's what we're kind of required to do. And I would just like us to fully do it instead of just a two-page agenda. It would be the meat and bones of it.

Okay. Certainly not to be argumentative. The requirement, the criteria that must be met is that the agenda be posted in English. We can certainly explore the possibility of building out the framework of the webpage, but it is not something that I can tell you now without consulting with my ITC colleagues as to whether there's space within that framework to provide the additional translation. Can we do it? Well, certainly we can. But it will probably take some reconfiguration of the existence of the webpage and it will take staff time to do the translation of each individual item. Many of the pages which are attached are not generated by the county but are generated by external sources and they're part of the agenda packet. We can use the technology to do the translation, but we, again, will not be in a position to verify the accuracy of the translation. It will be done with the web accessible RECITE ME FEATURE.

YES. AND I UNDERSTAND THAT WE'RE MEETING THE BARE MINIMUM OF THE STATE MANDATE. I UNDERSTAND THAT WHAT I'M ASKING IS TO GO A STEP FURTHER JUST BECAUSE, AGAIN, I DON'T THINK WE SHOULD HAVE HALFWAY THIS. I THINK YOU SHOULD FULLY DO IT. IF YOU'RE GOING TO DO IT AND YOU SAY THAT, YOU KNOW, WE'RE GOING TO DO IT, THEN WE SHOULD DO IT ALL THE WAY. THAT WAY IT'S FULLY ACCESSIBLE. THERE'S NO CRITIQUES OF, WELL, YOU ONLY DID THE AGENDA, BUT I CAN'T READ THIS DOCUMENT, THIS DOCUMENT, THIS DOCUMENT. SO BECAUSE OF THAT, I'M GOING TO PROBABLY WITHHOLD MY SUPPORT ON THIS ITEM.

and i think there's consensus here to to try and do whatever we can to if it's not a hyperlink we have to people have to be able to access it through our website right that's how we're going to get to recite i can't wait to hear the next one i hate putting the cart in front of the horse but i don't blame uh supervisor condit for withholding his support on this i I'm OK moving it forward right now because I want to hear the next one. But you hear, I think, the will of the board that we're looking for a methodology to have equally accessible as best as practicable, or if that's the right word.

So we're happy to address the procedure and to become compliant with the request as quickly as we can with the resources that we have available. What's before you today is only the approval of the technical disruption policy that is required by the Senate bill. And it must be enacted, it must be approved by the board by July 1. And so procedurally, we can continue that conversation. Policy-wise, that is what is before you today, the approval of only the policy, not the procedure. We've definitely heard and made note of the procedure request and we'll make every attempt to comply with that request.

Okay. I think we're okay moving forward again with this. And then they have a charge. And if not, we'll bring it back. But I think on this item, I don't think we have any choice but to move forward. I know.

I know you're trying to get me. I know.

I agree. Okay. So I'm up for anything.

Motion to approve.

Do we have a motion? The chair never seconds the motion. But I'm going to second the motion. I'm going to go ahead and second the motion. Thank you very much. All right. All those in favor say aye. Aye. Opposed? No. Motion carries 4-1.

Thank you.

Thank you very much. This is, you know, dropped into your lap. Thank you, guys.

Good work. Okay.

Okay, we're gonna move on to item three, acceptance of an update on language access services using technology solutions. Jennifer again, and Erica.

All right. Good evening, Charkieza Board, Assistant Executive Officer Warr and County Council Bowes. I'm here to provide an update on language access services using technology solutions. I'm Jennifer Hidalgo, the Community Relations Manager out of our Chief Executive Office, and this presentation relates to updates to Title II of the Americans with Disabilities Act, also known as ADA. Just for a brief background, in December of 2023, staff was asked to research our translation and bilingual service obligations and return with updates and recommendations. So staff returned in April and July of 2024 after exploring language access in the county and machine translation products to make our county more language accessible. In August of 2024, staff recommended the Google Translate product. It was approved and it was fully integrated into our county-maintained website by October of 2024. And we've been using Google Translate, but we have continued to explore new options when presented, such as the one presented to you today. So updates to Title II of the Americans with Disability Act were made in April of 2024 to establish new requirements for public entities, including Stanislaus County, to ensure that all county provided web content and mobile applications meet the web content accessibility guidelines. So although the deadline has been extended to April of 2027, the county is actively working on implementing these changes as soon as possible. And one of those changes happened in April of this year. Stanislaus County transitioned from the user way to the ReciteMe accessibility assistive toolbar. ReciteMe enhances the functionality that's currently available and it supports disability access needs. One of the features of ReciteMe is its translation feature with over 134 languages. So since this toolbar is already integrated into our websites, staff was tasked with comparing Recite Me's translation capabilities with Google Translate to determine which one provides a better user experience and more accurate translations. And based on this evaluation, staff then assessed whether Google Translate should be removed from the county's website in favor of using Recite Me for translation services to avoid duplicating tools on our web platforms. Staff used a similar process to what was utilized to assess the quality of Google Translate in 2024. In this round, we invited seven certified bilingual Spanish-speaking county staff and four Spanish-speaking community members to participate in this round of testing. We asked them to assess Recite Me and Google Translate based on the same translation rubric that we utilized previously. And this rubric was adapted from a tool published in the International Journal of Language. So the rubric considered six translation areas. Grammar. Does a translated text follow grammatical rules? And additions and omissions. Does a text insert something not clearly expressed or does it omit information? Punctuation and capitalization. Are quotation marks, semicolons, accents, et cetera used appropriately? Spelling. Is it free of spelling errors? Formality. Does the text preserve the appropriate register, like the language level and degree of formality? And genre. Does the text align with the genre, like not making the medical text sound journalistic or using medical terms instead of legal terms? So this evaluation was focused primarily on ReciteMe, since Google Translate has already gone extensive testing in the past. Participants were paired into teams. And each team was asked to use Google Translate, ReciteMe, or both. to translate existing documents from the county website, including applications, guides, agendas, and forms, as well as documents from external websites already utilizing ReciteMe. One team was provided with a document that was translated by a third-party vendor specializing in professional translation services, and they were asked to score using the same rubric. Some reviewers only evaluated ReciteMe across the platforms, again, since we were focused on ReciteMe on this testing round. 11 participants tested ReciteMe across 12 different sources, including websites, documents, and third party translator documents. ReciteMe received an overall score and an ease of use score of 3.33. Google Translate was used for comparison by four of the 11 participants across four sources. It received an overall score of 3.5 and an ease of use score of 3.75. And this was a similar average overall score from the previous testing in 2024, where it received a 3.57. And it's very important to note that out of those who reviewed Recite Me and Google Translate side by side with the same platforms, the same documents, both of the products received identical scores of four out of four for an overall rating. So from these side-by-side comparisons, a common comment that we heard was that both products provided decent translations, with Recite Me scoring slightly higher than Google Translate, as the word choices were easier for the reader while maintaining the formality of the text. But Google Translate edged out Recite Me on overall ease of use, since Recite Me's translation function is part of its accessibility tools, while Google Translate is a standalone feature. Some comments noted that Recite Me was not as intuitive as Google Translate. So this is because users who don't regularly utilize ADA website accessibility features, they don't necessarily recognize the icon that launches the accessibility toolbar, which is that little guy at the bottom right there. while most users who regularly use website translation tools recognize either the Google Translate icon or other translation icons. An advantage of Recite Me is that it allows users to translate documents directly on the website without needing to download files and re-upload them into Google Translate or its application. This simplifies the process and it helps reduce confusion, especially for users who may not be technically experienced. In addition, ReciteMe can read the translated text aloud. It provides helpful support for individuals with reading challenges or those who need larger print. So last week, as a compliment to the SB707 testing that you previously heard about, staff invited a small group of community members from our local community-based organizations, including both staff and some program participants, to share the Recite Me toolbar and obtain their feedback and ease of use. So we included members of the West Modesto Community Collaborative, California Rural Legal Assistance, Valley Improvement Projects, Catholic Charities, and the California Health Collaborative. So the initial feedback was positive, and the participants were supportive of transitioning from Google to ReciteMe. They liked that ReciteMe did not require additional steps to translate documents, and that the text could be read in the translated language. So this really reduced the concerns for community members who have lower literacy skills and those with limited sight. So their feedback included recommendations such as preparing a document or a short video to explain how to utilize the toolbar and community outreach to explain the changes. So based on that feedback and the testing, the staff recommends ReciteMe as the primary translation product to bolster language access services. Because ReciteMe is being implemented to enhance ADA accessibility, consolidating translation services into a single accessible tool will create a more consistent user experience. Based on the feedback from both the comparison testing and the community feedback, staff also recommends that the county implement a prominent and isolated translation widget on the county website. This is to reduce confusion for those who normally only utilize the translation tools. And this would help address ease of use concerns and streamline the translation experience. Staff from the Information Technology Central Department have confirmed that this recommendation can be implemented. And lastly, staff recommends that we continue providing outreach as the transition occurs, and we'll continue to monitor best practices related to language access and make adjustments as needed. And we did, or Erica spoke briefly to one of our testers, and she confirmed that once you click on any link, if it comes up as a PDF on the website, it does get translated. So that should ease the concerns. We'll continue to test it, but that was confirmed that it does. So even the links, because they are part of our website, if they're a PDF and they pop up web-based, they get translated.

And I do want to clarify that as long as Recite Me, the tool, is active, as they're clicking on that link, it will translate it.

So here on the screen, you see what the translation widget would look like. We still have the Translate button next to the Customer Service button on the left-hand side of the screen. But it's also going to be prominently displayed at the very top, so people can easily click it. And it's going to pop up the same as Google Translate does, where you can choose your language and then click Translate. And then from there, it would open the Recite Me toolbar with the translation feature already opened. And with that, I am open for questions.

Any questions of Jennifer? I'm pulling up the Stanislaus County website. Any questions?

No, this sounds very hopeful. I appreciate both of your efforts on this. This has been a long haul and thank you so much for your commitment and seeing it through. Like I said, very hopeful. I would like to probably have a reassessment six months from now, maybe in December. We'd bring it back and just kind of hear what the input is and see if it's working. And if we have to fine tune it, we'll fine tune it. But I do have confidence in you guys. I think we're on the right track. We're making progress here, and I just want to thank you for all your effort.

If I can, I wanted to emphasize something that Jennifer did mention. The Recite Me tool, not only will it allow you to translate the document, it actually will read the document for you in whatever language you have it. So for those that are illiterate, they'll also be able to just have the document be read to them in whatever language they have selected, which I also think it's an additional enhancement.

OK. The widget. So I never heard the widget. So the widget is like that little spot that says transit. See, in the accounting world, widgets are like an inventory item that you make. It's an inventory of the website. Yeah. Okay.

Thank you. All right. I'm going to go ahead and open the public comment period, and we do not have any written comments on this item either. Public comment? Anyone want to come forward? Seeing none, bring it back to the board. And with the caveat that when you make a motion that I would agree, we'd come back and we'd get some sort of primer in six months to see how it's working. Motion? I move to approve. Second. Motion? There was a second. Gray wall? All those in favor say aye. Aye. Opposed? Motion carries again. 5-0. Thank you guys. Good job. On to item nine, correspondence. Acknowledge receipt of correspondence and refer as recommended on the agenda. Any Board of Supervisors reports looking left to right? Hold on. I'm starting left.

Go ahead.

I defer to my older cousin.

Thank you, Chance. Last week I had the opportunity to attend a CSAC regional conference in Kings County. Had a lot of great discussions. One of the discussions of repurposing fallowed land. Looking like that might be a possibility in some of the areas in our non district east areas So we had some good discussions about that at which followed right into Sigma The other counties are in worse shape than we are although we have some areas that we need to correct but I listening to them and what they're going through, we are in a good spot, at least comparably speaking. Also, tomorrow, 9 o'clock a.m., we'll be doing a ribbon cutting for the Topeka Santa Fe. It's our first ARPA project that has been completed, and we'll be doing that at 9 o'clock at 6600 Claus Road. It's at the Oasis Church, so I hope to see everybody there. All right.

Thank you. Thank you, Mr. Chair. I did want to just advertise our series community cleanup that will be taking place on Saturday. It will be taking place at Central Valley High School, which is 4033 Central Avenue in series, and it will be from 7 a.m. to 1 p.m. So I want to thank in advance all of our volunteers that will be showing up Saturday and hopefully will be giving my back a break from hauling trash to the van. So I hope to see you there on Saturday. Perfect. Thank you.

And I want to acknowledge that Supervisor Withrow, myself, the CEO, and our PIO did the quickest trip to D.C. ever, 71 and a half hours from leaving my house at 4 a.m. and getting back at 3.22 a.m. three days later, less than three days later. Can't do that anymore, too old. But we did it. Department of Housing and Urban Development, USDA, both US senators, Schiff and Padilla, and three congressmen, I think Harder, Gray, and McClintock visits all of them. They had a packed agenda. And back here, I didn't even tell my mom I was leaving, and she didn't know I was gone. So that's how quick it was. I'll tell you everything you need to know. All right. Legislative fiscal management report.

Thank you. Since our last meeting, Chairman Chiesa signed onto a coalition letter coordinated by the San Joaquin Valley Regional Association of California Counties opposing SB 1329 McNerney. The bill would establish new property tax valuation methodologies for active solar energy systems that counties believe could reduce the assessed value of commercial solar projects and negatively impact local property tax revenues. Counties have also expressed concerns regarding the bill's prohibition on state reimbursement for any resulting revenue losses. Late yesterday evening, the State Assembly and Senate completed action on a budget framework and transmitted the Maine Budget Bill AB109 to the Governor. Staff is currently reviewing the Assembly Floor Report and other budget materials to assess potential impacts to county programs and services. Budget negotiations between the administration and legislative leadership remain ongoing. Additional policy and fiscal changes are expected to be considered through budget trailer bills and subsequent legislation that will amend and implement provisions contained in AB 109. And that's it.

Thank you. Do you have an announcement?

I do. I do have an announcement. So there will be a special meeting of the Board of Supervisors on Monday, June 22nd. It will be the County Supervisors Board Workshop. It will be starting at 9 a.m. at Samaritan Village in Houston. That's Building A Ballrooms, identified as Almond and Walnut, at 7700 Fox Road in Houston. And that starts at 9.

9 o'clock. And so we're the chairman. We have two retreats a year. They're not called retreats. They're board workshops. And they're in the district. I think we started that about maybe 10 years ago. Last year when Supervisor Codd was there, we went to the fire station, Consolidated Fire Station in Riverbank, and then to Oak Valley Hospital and a public space. We're doing Samaritan Village in Houston for our first one. and we haven't chosen a second location in December. So please come on up if you want to see, again, it's a little different than governance here where we sit informal. It's very informal and we talk about issues, try and plan for the future. That's kind of the deal. All right. And so again, You're going to make your Eagle Scout. We're going to come when you're done. Mick, I expect to get a review on how our county council did. And Jean, I'm coming down to talk to you here in one second. I want to thank Deputy Gonzales and Deputy Estes for keeping us safe, as always. This meeting is adjourned.