Board of Supervisors - Regular Meeting

Good evening, everyone. I'd like to call the Stanislaus County Board of Supervisors meeting to order. The time is 6.32. The date, I don't even know, today's the 18th, August 18th. Before I have everyone stand for the Pledge of Allegiance, we did have a closed session. I'm going to have County Council Bowes report out.

Yes, we do have a report out from closed session for the board meeting of Tuesday, August 18th, 2025. With regard to closed session, agenda item number one, conference with legal counsel, existing litigation pursuant to government code section 54956.9 subdivision D1 in Ray Diablo Grande Community Facilities District number one. bankruptcy case number 2526635 that's in the U.S. Bankruptcy Court, Eastern District of California. On motion of Supervisor Chance Condit, seconded by Supervisor Withrow, the Board unanimously authorized the Chair of the Board of Supervisors to accept and sign a settlement agreement previously signed by the Diablo Community Facilities District, number one, The settlement agreement provides the district with a plan for payment of delinquent property taxes currently totaling $2,287,605.78, secured by 103 parcels, inclusive of ad valorem taxes, special district assessments, and accrued interest. The payment plan includes a $500,000 initial payment together with payment of $40,000 to be paid on the first of each month with the remaining principal to accrue interest at a mutually agreed rate of 12% annualized interest commencing September 1, 2026. A copy of the settlement agreement may be obtained from the clerk to the board. That concludes my report out.

Thank you very much. So now I'm going to ask everyone to please stand for the Pledge of Allegiance and then please remain standing for an invocation from Father Misael Avila from Sacred Heart Catholic Church in Turlock.

Please salute. I pledge allegiance to the flag of the United States of America and to the Republic for which it stands, one nation under God, indivisible, with liberty and justice for all.

God of wisdom and compassion, we gather here today in service to our community and for the common good. Grant us clarity of mind, steadiness of purpose, and openness of heart. Help us to listen well, speak truthfully, and act with integrity. May our decisions reflect justice, fairness, and care for all who call this county home. Guide us to our cooperation, understanding, and peace in all we do today. Amen.

Thank you very much, Father. Next up, we have a presentation to proclaim August 2026 as Child Support Awareness Month in Stanislaus County. Our department head, Marisa De Almeida, will be presenting.

Good evening, Chairman Chiesa and members of the board.

Can you grab that mic and get it real close to you? Perfect.

County Council Bose and CEO Hayes. I am Marisa D'Almeida and I am your Director of Child Support Services and I'm here today with our Assistant Director Lisa Clifton and we're here today to talk to you about Child Support Awareness Month. August is recognized nationally as Child Support Awareness Month and this board passed a resolution on August 4th to recognize Child Support Awareness Month here in Stanislaus County. Child Support Awareness Month celebrates the vital role that financial, emotional, and medical support plays in the well-being of children. It also recognizes and honors the hard work of child support professionals who help families every day. Our theme this year for Child Support Awareness Month is Supporting Children for a Brighter Future. Child support is really much more than just collecting money. It's about enhancing children's futures. Our job is to help parents to be successful in meeting their financial responsibilities so that children have the resources that they need to learn, grow, and thrive. Research has shown nationally that child support lifts approximately 500,000 children out of poverty each year, and that the benefits of child support extend well beyond childhood. Adults who receive child support as children have been shown to have better economic outcomes later in life, including increased earnings, decreased reliance on public assistance programs, and decreased justice involvement. So when we talk about child support, we're talking about long-term economic stability for children and families. So our mission is actually very straightforward and clear. We promote the well-being of children by locating parents, establishing parentage, obtaining and enforcing orders, and helping families move forward towards self-sufficiency. Every day, our staff work to turn our mission into tangible results that matter for children. And we are making a difference here. We have a big impact. In Stanislaus County, we focused on improving the outcomes that matter most, particularly the collection of current child support that remains owed for minor children. During the last federal fiscal year, we collected $57.2 million in child support payments for the families, most of whom are right here in Stanislaus County. We also served 20,841 children and 36,786 parents. But we're most proud about the $57.2 million that we were able to distribute to families. This number represents groceries, school supplies, school clothes, childcare, and medical expenses. The 57.2 million is not just a number on a spreadsheet to us. It is resources going directly to families in this community meeting real needs every single day. This is what we mean when we talk about our department's impact. This impact is actually backed up by our performance. Last year we collected 62.5% of current child support owed and this year we're on track to hit our goal of 63% current child support owed to minor children. We obtained valid and enforceable orders on 94.2% of our cases, and we established parentage for 3,879 children, children who now have inheritance rights as well as Social Security benefit rights from their parents. I believe that our most impressive number is actually our cost effectiveness. With zero county general fund dollars funded solely by state and federal funds, we collect and distribute $3.35 for every dollar that is invested in our program. While California as a whole has one of the lowest cost-effective rates nationally, because we are a judicial system and not an administrative system, we still beat the national average by over a dollar. And now I'm going to turn the presentation on to Lisa to talk about the ways that Stanislaus County DCSS takes our mission beyond traditional child support work and directly into our community.

Thank you, Marisa. Good evening. Employment is one of the greatest barriers many parents face in meeting their child support obligations. Recognizing that challenge, we partnered with Stanislaus County Workforce Development three years ago to connect unemployed and underemployed parents with employment and workforce services. Together, our departments coordinate case management, employment resources, job training, and ongoing support to help parents become self-sufficient while improving outcomes for their children. This year, that successful partnership became the foundation for something even greater. Southwest County, together with Sacramento County DCSS, was awarded the federal NextGen grant, allowing us to redesign and expand our employment program into what is now known as HELP, the Holistic Employment License and Parenting Program. I'd like to introduce you to Mr. Antonio Burgos, the man in the picture on the left side of the screen. He is one of the participants in the program. His story represents exactly why the county teamwork is so important and illustrates the impact of this program. He faced significant barriers to employment, such as a criminal record, no high school diploma, and lack of transportation. He also owed more than $30,000 in child support arrears and had become disconnected from his children. Through help, he secured employment, began making regular support payments, and most importantly, rebuilt his relationship with his children. His story reminds us that child support is about more than collections. It's about helping parents overcome barriers and reconnect with their families and create stronger futures for their children. One of the highlights for our outreach efforts this year is Kids Connect. On August 1st, we proudly hosted our eighth annual community resource fair again at MJC. The purpose of the event was to bring together community organizations and county partners in one location so families can learn about the many free resources available throughout the county, including the services offered by DCSS. Through the generosity of our community partners and sponsors, we distributed 1,200 backpacks and more than 4,700 school supplies and welcomed approximately 2,500 attendees throughout the day. I would also like to give a special shout out to our largest county department donors, Environmental Resources and GSA, as they provided the largest backpack and school supplies donations at $434 and $330 each. This year's event brought together 58 community partners, 13 county departments, and 13 generous sponsors, demonstrating the power of collaboration. We're especially grateful to Hope, a local nonprofit dedicated to serving homeless families, for acting as our fiscal sponsor. Their sponsorship helped make Kids Connect possible. As meaningful as these community efforts are, they represent just one example of the innovation and collaboration our department has been recognized for. I'd like to conclude by highlighting the statewide and national recognition DCSS has received for these efforts. In 2026, we were honored with the recognition at local, statewide, and national levels reflecting the dedication, innovation, and commitment of our staff and partners. At the state level, we received the California Child Support Association's Outstanding Child Support Program Award. Nationally, we were honored by the National Child Support Enforcement Association with the Innovative Partnership and Collaboration Award, recognizing our collective effort with Stanislaus County Office of Education to connect families with child support services through local schools. We were also recognized by California DCSS for achieving the second highest support establishment rate among California's large counties. Finally, we are especially proud that manager Stephanie Bazan received the Stanislaus County CEO's Unsung Hero Award. While these awards recognize our accomplishments, our greatest success is the impact we have on the families we serve every day. Next, Marisa will share how our services reach children throughout Stanislaus County.

So on this slide, I wanted to show you what it looks like right here to have $57.2 million distributed into Stanislaus County. You'll see our child support collections and the number of children served in each of your board members' districts. We want to emphasize today that child support services benefits families in every corner of Stanislaus County. While the number of cases varies by district, every district has children and parents who rely on our services every single day. District 4 currently represents our largest share of the caseload, serving more than 5,900 children. But Districts 2, 3, and 5, we serve more than 2,100 children, and District 1, we serve about 1,100 children. Together, these numbers represent thousands of local families receiving financial support that helps provide housing, food, clothing, school supplies, and other necessities. And so today we wanted to ask for your partnership in helping us reach even more families. We recognize that households in our county, there are many households in our county that are led by a single parent. They need access to our services and we ask that you provide that information to them when you have that opportunity. And last but not least, I would like to end our presentation today where it matters the most, with our employees. DCSS has an incredible team. Child support work is not easy. Our employees deal with complicated financial issues, complex legal matters, and yet every day, every one of our 115 child support professionals come to work and continue to serve. The numbers that I talked to you about today, the 57.2 million that we collected and distributed, the 3,879 children for whom we established parentage, all of these numbers are the result of the hard work of the employees of DCSS. And so to my entire team, because it's a night meeting, I didn't get to have a lot of them here. They don't really volunteer to come here. But we do have some of them here today. I do want to say thank you. Thank you for showing up every day. Thank you for believing in our vision and our mission and thank you for advocating for better outcomes for children and families. To the board, I want to say thank you for your continued support and for the opportunity to share our story and our work with you today. For the public, if you want to enroll in child support services, this is a QR code that will take you directly to our quick application. You can enroll in child support services in less than 10 minutes. And with that, I am happy to answer any questions.

Do you have any questions?

No questions. Just thank you. Great report. And I love this. I know we've talked about it before. Sorry. Am I going to do that? I'm sorry. So, you know, we always talk about this. This is the first time I think you guys have actually put this help program that you're showing here. We always talk about, yeah, we're getting the money for the families, which is great. It's huge what you guys do. But the big thing to me, I always think, is that you kind of reunite dad for the most part right with their families and not only get them to recognize their obligation financially but maybe get them to come back and be dads in the family again and so anyway just love what you guys do and thanks for including it this year.

So awesome.

So a couple of things. First of all, I absolutely love that when I first got on the board, Jim Demartini would always sit right there where Supervisor Withrow is and talk about return on investment. That's not what you call it, but the $3.28. It's $3.35. It's an investment in the kids, and you talked about the outcomes, and I think that's always important because sometimes the... Fathers or mothers, whoever has a support order thinks that they're unfairly targeted, but that's not it. We're trying to help the community because the outcomes of the kids staying out of the justice system, and as you talked about, whether it's food or clothes for school, it really improves what we're doing. I do love that you highlighted the Kids Connect event because at the state of the county, we talked about the Kids Connect event and Stephanie, that's right, and her being singled out And I also love the partnership with workforce development and bringing examples in here of real people who have benefited from this program. So again, to the employees, you guys are gonna come up for the picture if that's okay. All of you can come on up here. But congratulations, I'm going to read just a short part of this. Whereas child support, you guys can come on up, don't worry. Whereas Child Support Awareness Month celebrates the important emotional and financial parental support that creates a brighter future for our children, helping them to become healthy, productive, and well-adjusted adults. Whereas Stanislaus County Child Support Program provides important services to parents and guardians which encourage positive influences in the lives of the children. assisting to improve the economic lives of those who live and work in California. The rest are all the statistics that you already showed. Therefore be it resolved that the Stanislaus County Board of Supervisors does hereby proclaim August 2026 as Child Support Awareness Month in Stanislaus County and commends this observance to all our residents upon motion by Supervisor Grewal and seconded by Buck Condit. This resolution again This is, I always say that this is just a piece of paper. It never signifies what's in our heart. Knowing that we have an understanding of how hard everyone works on behalf of the kids, what I consider the kids of our community. So thank you on behalf of the Board of Supervisors.

Thank you.

Okay. The Board of Supervisors continue to offer multiple ways for residents to engage in meetings, including participating by telephone, attending in person, or submitting written comments in advance. Those attending in person can register to speak electronically by visiting join.StanislausCounty.com, scanning the QR code in the back of the room, or by submitting public comment cards here in the chambers. These modifications are designed to reduce barriers and to make it easier for everyone to stay informed, engaged, and involved. We continue to appreciate your patience as we fine tune our new tools and resources. We are moving on to item number five, which is the public comment period. And I do not believe we have any public written comments. Correct? We will now begin the public comment period. This is an opportunity for members of the public to address the board on matters that are not already on today's agenda. When the clerk calls your name, please state your name for the record. Direct your comments to the board through the chair. And to ensure everyone has an opportunity to be heard, please limit your remarks to five minutes unless a different time limit is set. or announced for special circumstances. The clerk is going to alternate calling speakers who are in the chambers and those who are calling in. If you have registered to speak by telephone, the clerk will call your name when it is your turn to speak. If you are called, if you called in only to listen to the meeting but decided you'd like to make a comment, please press star three on your phone. This will signal staff that you have decided to speak. They will come on the line to assist you with your registration. When it comes to your turn, the clerk will call your name. When you hear the system prompt, you will be live in the meeting and can begin offering your comments. The clerk will try to be alert. will try and alert you when there is a one minute left. Yeah. The clerk will try and alert you when there is one minute left and will advise you when your time is up. In the interest of time and to ensure all speakers are heard, we encourage you to register in advance if you think you'd like to speak. So let's get started.

And we are going to start with no callers online. First caller in chambers, Diane Severud.

Good evening, Diane.

Good evening, supervisors.

county CEO and county council and staff. My name is Diane Severud. I am from the Murphy Senior Center in Calaveras County. Now, why is someone from Calaveras County here to talk to you in Stanislaus County? Well, I have a really good opportunity for you, for your district members for your staff. So the Murphy Senior Center and its partners are hosting a longevity and lifestyle conference at Ironstone Vineyards in Murphy's, California on October 15, 2026. It will be held from 9 to 3 a.m. with registration beginning at 8. Really that's just when the doors open. You should preregister on our website. The Longevity and Lifestyle Conference will feature local and national experts presenting current brain research and aging trends. The conference has been planned for both the general public and those working in the health and age-related professions. The program agenda includes Kyu Lee from the California Department of Financial Protection and Innovation, Claire Day from the Alzheimer's Association, Dr. Beatrice Marone from UC Davis, and keynote speaker, Dr. Celina Bartlett, an internationally recognized neuroscientist and thought leader in brain health. Traveling from Queensland, Australia, Dr. Bartlett is excited to spread the word that brain health is everyone's business. Discover how healthy habits and stronger connections can help us live longer and build truly thriving lives. Speaker bios and lecture topics can be found at murphyscenter.com. Registration is $15 per person and includes not only the day's programming, but breakfast and lunch. This event is sponsored by the Alzheimer's Association, the Mark Twain Healthcare District, Adventist Health Sonora, Adventist Health Home Healthcare, and Dignity Health Mark Twain Medical Center. It is the 17th year the Murphy Senior Center provides exercise, and social activities for older adults along the Highway 4 corridor in Calaveras County. As a nonprofit, the Murphy Senior Center operates the Murphy's Food Pantry and the Murphy's Thrift Store. The Murphy Senior Center is located at 65 Mitchler Avenue in Murphy's, and it's open Monday through Friday, 9 to 3. Please encourage everyone you know who wants to have continued brain health through their life to come and enjoy our beautiful county and wonderful Ironstone Vineyards. Thank you.

Diane, could you get one of our emails? Kelly, maybe you could just write it down so that we can get it out on social media for you.

Absolutely. Thank you so much.

Thank you for making the drive down here. Sure.

She did not share with you. She's the former clerk of the board for Calabria County, retired for five years now.

Next speaker. No wonder she looks so happy.

Right? Retired. Our next speaker is Yvonne Marie Hill.

Good evening, board.

Good evening.

I'm in an emergency situation.

Can you grab that mic and bring it up?

I'm in an emergency situation. I didn't plan on speaking tonight, but I'm here. Just give me a minute. I was placed in the Salvation Army post-hospitalization program, and I'm not supposed to be there. My arm has gotten burned inside of the post-hospitalization program. I was placed there after there was a gas leak at the at a home called Celeste's House. There was a carbon monoxide leak and a gas leak, so they placed me there. I'm supposed to be in a motel. I have federal conditions to be in a motel due to my complex medical conditions. I can't get the HAT team to release a motel voucher to me. The last time I was in this situation eight years ago with my son, Ms. Van Zwelen had to get involved and get the motel voucher released. There are ten women in the post-hospitalization program right now. Two of us don't have files. My medical files, my registration, everything has been disappeared. So has Michelle, the other lady. We don't have a program director. She comes in once a week on Saturday. There's a case manager that's not helping anyone. I feel that everybody in the post hospitalization program is in an emergency situation right now. We've kind of been left on our own. And I've come to you guys to talk about this and ask for some intervention. It's, there's 10 of us there, and like I said, two of us, our files keep disappearing. I don't know if the other women's files have disappeared, but I know that there's two, myself and Michelle, and today another file of mine disappeared, which was my medical file. So now there's no files on me, and I'm like a ghost in the post-hospitalization program. And I'm asking for some help with the situation.

I'm going to have Christine is going to raise her hand right back there. She's going to meet you in the back of the room. She's in charge of the Community Service Agency. Thank you. Thank you for coming this evening.

Next speaker, David Hicks.

Just so everyone knows, David's going to remind me that I own a beer.

Oh, thank you, baby. Okay. Good evening. Thank you. Oh, I'm supposed to announce my name? David Hicks. Okay. Dear Chairman and members of the Stanislaus County Board of Supervisors, thank you for giving me the opportunity to address you today. I know what some of you might be thinking. Here comes that mentally challenged person before us again. But at least he brought his sweet little girl. I would gently remind us all that when compared with all knowledge that exists, every one of us appears a little mentally challenged. When we compare the sum of human knowledge with the omniscience of our creator, all of our knowledge is limited. That realization ought to give us a little humility and a little grace towards one another. I would also suggest something else. We're far more intelligent collectively than we are individually. Each of us sees only a part of a picture, but when people with different experiences, skills, perspectives come together in the spirit of cooperation, we often discover solutions that none of us would have found alone. I come before you because I love Stanislaus County. For my grandparents and my father, coming to California from the Dust Bowl of Oklahoma was like coming to the Promised Land. On my mother's side, my family came from the mountains of Tennessee. One of the great blessings of moving to California was that they finally got to marry someone else's cousin. I stand before you because I've noticed something troubling that has slowly crept into our culture. As our water resources have become more strained, we have begun to view one another as adversaries instead of neighbors. Not long ago, a gentleman was upset because my brother is an almond farmer. He believed my brother was wasting water on almonds. I gently explained that our forefathers built the LaGrange Dam, which makes much of our local agriculture possible. My brother wasn't stealing water from anyone. He was using the resource that the resource they had the division to develop. Later, that same spirit of cooperation led our local irrigation districts and the city of San Francisco to work together to build the new Don Pedro Dam. That partnership benefited agriculture, cities, recreation, flood control, and the environment. It stands as a lasting reminder that when people work together toward a common good, everyone benefits. I believe that that is exactly the kind of cooperation California needs again. When I was a boy, I picked peaches from my grandmother. Every summer, two sweet elderly ladies would drive from San Francisco to buy her Carson clings. My grandmother would tell me, David picked them a little green. I don't want them to spoil on the way home. They'll ripen perfectly by the time they get there. My grandmother never viewed the people of San Francisco as her enemies. She saw them as valued customers and friends. Somewhere along the way, we've drifted apart, but I believe we can find our way back. Farmers need customers, and customers depend on farmers. Our cities and our farms are partners, not competitors. We should not allow politics or scarcity to convince us otherwise. At the same time, we must honestly recognize the challenge before us. California's population continues to grow while our water infrastructure has not kept pace.

Thank you very much for coming in. David and I ran into each other at a funeral recently and he just happened to give me a copy of this. It was in his car and we sat and talked about it. Really forward thinking. Thanks.

Thank you. Next speaker, Samantha Lamb.

Welcome, Samantha.

Good evening. Okay, so technology is not one of my strong points, so I just lost what I was supposed to read, but it's a good thing I read it and took it in. Anyway, good evening. My name is Samantha Bland, and I'm here representing Michael Masuda, who is running for Congressional District 5, which really encompasses 12 counties. all of, or a part of, anywhere from El Dorado all the way down to Inyo. 24,000 square miles, which is really almost the size of the state of West Virginia. So what I'm doing here this evening is to just let you know that we have scheduled some town halls. Michael is an engineer, he's not a politician. We welcome lots and lots of comments from the folks in Stanislaus County. So we'd like to invite people to Oakdale on September 11th at 6 p.m. at the Lemons Senior Center in Waterford, September 15th at the Waterford Community Center, 6 p.m., and Modesto on October the 8th. Those are town hall meetings. Michael will be there talking about his vision for the future, what he looks for here in Stanislaus County, as well as the other counties in the district. One of the things that has been really apparent is that there's a lot of bickering going on in Washington, D.C. Michael is a problem-solution kind of guy. And at this particular point, one of the concerns is that H.R. 1, which was passed by the current Congressman, and I think he's been there eight terms, is having significant impacts on local county budgets. that ultimately will result in probably reduced services to the residents of this county as well as all of the other counties in California. And this really can be problematic for things that are healthcare related, healthcare access, certainly social service programs, behavioral health, and public health. So I think that these are the types of things that Michael wants to get to work on. He wants to bring federal dollars back into Stanislaus County. He wants local government to be working with local folks to be able to bring our issues to Washington and he will be the representative for us. So look forward to seeing you at the town halls. Michael will be there. He wants to hear the questions. Put him on the spot. ask the questions. So thank you very much and look forward to seeing you. Any questions? Thanks for coming in.

Thanks for coming in Samantha. I want to remind everyone my wife says to me that before I was elected I was a part of the solution and the day I got elected I was a part of the problem. So she reminds me of that all the time.

Next speaker, Rhonda Allen.

Welcome, Rhonda. Thank you.

Good evening, Supervisors, CEO. My name is Rhonda Allen. I'm a resident of Modesto, and I'm here tonight as a representative of Urban Forest Modesto, which is a group of local residents who are concerned about our community's trees. We love trees. We have begun to focus on the native oak trees in our community, which we see as the most important tree species and they are in need of protection. So we've written a proposal for an oak protection ordinance that we hope will be considered for adoption. I've brought copies for you to review, which I think is being passed around, as well as some photos of the oaks that we are interested in protecting and the wildlife that utilize them. Is that my notes?

Oh, sorry.

You can pass that back. I would like to share some of the reasons we feel an oak protection ordinance is needed in Stanislaus County. Oak trees are an essential environmental, cultural, and aesthetic resource that contribute to our community's character and our well-being. They also support the ecological integrity of our Tuolumne River and Stanislaus River corridors. Native oak trees are keystone species in the Central Valley that provide the habitat, food, and shelter for more species of wildlife than any other tree. Research shows that over 500 species rely on oak trees. They also provide an important shade canopy for our river corridor. We have lost many oak trees along the Tuolumne River that once shaded the water, cooling the river so that salmon could thrive and reproduce. No longer the case. These trees have not been replaced. Actually, oaks in general are not regenerating as they should due to a lack of management. The valley oak species is endemic to our area and of particular concern as they are now threatened due to urban development, agricultural growth, cattle grazing, climate change, and flood controls. 95% of our original oak woodland is now gone. With only 5% of these trees left in their natural habitat, it is important that we put in place measures to protect them.

Good evening, Milt. Good evening, Chair, board members and staff. Milt Treeweather, are you paying attention and keeping up with the news? Do you really understand what's happening in the world today? Is the Earth's average temperature warming than it was 70 years ago? Yes. Almost every region on Earth, including land and ocean areas, has a higher average temperature today than it did 70 years ago. Global surface temperatures have risen by approximately 1.8 degrees Fahrenheit to 2.2 degrees Fahrenheit over this time span, with places like the Arctic warming two or three times faster than the global average. These averages are determined by averaging the temperatures of the 23,000 weather stations around the Earth. Do we have enough responsibility for our children, grandchildren, and descendants? We sure do, because they can't plan for themselves, because they aren't young or they haven't been born yet. Stanislaus County board members and staff, some of you have been falling short. There is corruption here in Stanislaus County. Most recently is the corruption in Stanislaus County's STANCOG. which is now being prosecuted after the top people there embezzled hundreds of thousands of dollars. This corruption uncovered in Stancom is a prime example of falling short. Not fighting or taking responsibility for our children, grandchildren, and descendants is also a prime example of falling short. Dave and the Building Industry Association do not seem to be concerned about the future of our children, grandchildren, and descendants. The worst part is some of these people may do corrupt things to make money. They may try to bribe you with money, with services for your home, or provide you with trips and other pleasures to get your vote. In some cases, they'll even try to blackmail or intimidate you just to get their way. The building industry will tell you that there's plenty of farmland to grow food on. This is false. Recently, many farmers in the Central Valley have had to take their farmland out of production because of a lack of water. The building industry has not researched how little prime farmland there still is on the earth. Lastly, let me assure you that you must not allow data centers here in Stanislaus County. Data centers will suck up our water, eat up our electric power, warm up the county's atmosphere, and pollute our county's air. Data center advocates are not concerned that we live in an area with the best farmland on earth. Their concern is not what's best for our children, grandchildren, and descendants, but it's how much money they can make. I'm not saying that there's not a need for more data centers. I'm saying that Stanislaus County is not the place to build these data centers.

None of them were about foodborne illnesses. It was just people complaining about people doing business without a permit. After two public records request acts, I still do not have the basic data establishing the scope of the problem used to justify this task force. And DER has not adequately accounted for the records that were not produced. That is especially concerning because enforcement is already happening with full force and criminalizing street vendors. The first job of this task force should have been to establish a baseline, document the need, and create a system for measuring its impact. If DER cannot readily tell us how many people have been cited for what, how much they were fined, what was confiscated, or how many people became permitted, how can this board evaluate whether this pilot is necessary, proportional, or successful? I want to share a little bit about my experience last week with enforcement and what enforcement looks like on the ground. I assisted a Spanish-speaking Latino street vendor family last week, and these are the issues I personally witnessed with them. This family had received four citations, equipment confiscated three times. They ranked up, well, $12,060 were demanded verbally with no written itemization explaining what they owed or how the charges were calculated. until I stepped in. My review of the board-approved fee schedules identified significant discrepancies in the rates and calculation DER verbally provided. Copies of the family citations were ineligible. Most documentation was in English, and the one document that was in Spanish was about the fee structure, and that was outdated. The family did not have clear, accessible information explaining how to appeal. And when I asked DER program manager about appealing, I was told, don't do it. I said, excuse me? And he repeated it himself. And he said, don't do it. So I was being advised not to exercise. Oh, he was being advised not to exercise his rights. The family purchased a compliant mobile food unit and passed DER's inspection, yet the permit was being conditioned on payment of those disputed past fines. I wasn't aware that you guys were a collection agency. The equipment remains in the county's custody. The family was denied a community advocate also in the room. As a community advocate, knowing that they didn't know what to ask for, like a written documentation of the fines they were supposed to be paying, I understood that they needed some help. And I was denied access in this meeting with the DER initially until Rob came in minutes later. And that was after I had submitted an email to you all. I have some requests. I know my time is running up. But require DER to publicly establish the baseline and report its enforcement's data. Require written, legible, and current bilingual documentation. Audit the fees and penalties currently being assessed. Have county council review whether DER has a legal authority to condition an otherwise approved health permit on payment of disputed administrative fines. And stop that practice if the authority does not exist. Review DERs, I'm almost done. Review DERs appeal procedures, public records compliance, staff training, and supervision. And before the task force becomes permanent, create a meaningful public and community oversight. The meetings have begun on Wednesday mornings, and they are not open to the public. And a lot of misinformation and criminalization is ongoing, and I demand that you address it immediately. Oh, and I want my public records without delay.

Thank you very much, Bianca, for coming in.

Next speaker, and I apologize for mispronouncing the first name, Mason Sanchez.

We knew she got Sanchez, right? So I'm going to call you Mr. Sanchez. Good evening.

You got my name correct. Good evening, county board, chairman, county staff. My name is Mason Sanchez, and Ceres is a city that I call home. Please allow me to read this definition quickly. The word is philanthropy. Philanthropy is a Greek derived word of phylos and anthropist. Philanthropy is an active effort to promote positive human welfare and improve the quality of life. The key concepts of philanthropy acts are driven by the desire to help others without expecting personal or financial gain. It is of giving of time, talent, and treasure. The reason I felt to bring up this word philanthropy today Just a couple of weeks ago, the concept, the action, the word of philanthropy was practiced. What I'm referring to is for National Night Out. Myself, along with my beautiful wife and my fellow neighbors on Saturn Court, we spearheaded a National Night Out. But not only myself, this was something that happened of course citywide, countywide, statewide, and of course nationwide. It was of individuals that took time out of their own lives. It was individuals that took time out of their own calendar to advocate, to stand in the gap, and to promote uniting the community. We all know that there is a division. We all know that when it comes to not only the police department and the community, but also neighbors and neighborhoods. This thing called National Night Out, I'm glad it's been going on for over 40 years, but the reason I want to bring it up as well is the next time a fellow constituent that is in your district reaches out to you to be a part of a specific community-based event. Do this, I encourage you, and take a little bit of time and to show your support. In doing that, send a message more than just being sitting where you're sitting tonight. It is more meaningful than being in front of a camera. because it is your actions and your acts being validated as a representative and as their elected official. Before I close tonight, I also want to commend Sheriff Durkski. For the last couple of years, he had made it a point to have officers of his staff involved in National Night Out on Saturn Court. He made sure to have Deputy Romero and Deputy Musoto a part of it. Not only that, but we also had the probation department as well with Officer Barron, Officer Liliana, and Officer Cynthia. And one of the beautiful things about it, they were females and advocating and empowering women in their position. And I want to close off as well thanking the Air Support Unit for doing the flyover. And also I appreciate our supervisor Condon for making a point to be there and awarding the scholarship recipients and helping make a positive impact on those young lives. Thank you.

Thank you very much for coming in.

That concludes the public comment cards from in chambers and there are still no callers online.

Okay. Anyone else from the audience? You don't need to fill out a speaker card if you want to come forward. All right. Seeing none, I'm going to close the public comment period. We're going to move on to the consent calendar before the board takes action on the consent calendar. Are there any comments from any board members or anyone in the chambers or remote audience on any matter on the consent calendar? I know you're pulling C1 you want to comment on. Anyone else? Okay. Any board members want to pull items? Okay. So we're going to take the consent calendar minus C1.

Motion to approve all items except for C1.

Second. We've got a first and a second. All those in favor say aye. Aye. Opposed? Motion carries 5-0. Milt, you want to come forward? Mr. Chair, Rhonda's after her photos if we have the photos. C1 is the approval to set the public hearing on September 29th at 9 a.m. meeting to consider revising the load carrying capacity of the West Tannis House.

I just want to announce the reason I pulled that is not I know it's for signage. I know what the purpose of it is. You have a problem with the canal underneath the road. My question is, With that canal, and it also states in the information that it's going to be repaired in the future. It's in the plans to be repaired. My question is, when that is repaired, how do you break up the payment for that? Is that paid for by the water district? Is that paid for by the county? Is it divided between the two of you? How is that money... broken up to do that repair because you're going to have to put in new piping. You're going to have to put in new road work. So how is that money broken up and about, well, about how much is that going to cost?

So I can tell you that it depends. You don't have to come up here, Dave. You can just nod your head. The irrigation districts don't give us anything for those bridges. It's strictly the county's dime or state funding. We apply for state and or federal funding. And sometimes we're really lucky and sometimes we're not. But it is not an irrigation district expense. It is a county responsibility for the over-crossings over the canals.

Okay. But you have got some money coming?

Yeah, we typically will apply for all kinds. Keys Road, just yell out. It was federal and federal credits. Okay. Thank you. Thank you, Milt. All right, anyone else on C1? All right, I'll take a motion. All in favor, say aye. Motion carries 5-0. Thank you much. All right, gonna move on to our discussion item. I'm gonna grab my glasses. I keep trying to do it. Discussion item 8-1, approval to accept an update on the operational impact of the Fink Road landfill following the closure of the waste energy facility and long-term plans for the landfill's future use and development. Environmental Resources, Todd Rocha, will be presenting. Evening, Todd.

All right. Good evening. Thank you for having me. Good evening, Supervisors, Chairman Case, CEO Hayes, and County Council Those. Tonight, I'll provide an update of the impact of the closure of the waste-to-energy plant on the landfill and our actions and plans for the future of the landfill. And assisting me tonight is Alberto Vasquez, new employee to the county and big help in DER. So a brief history. The Fink Road landfill permitted for 203 acres of landfill on a 219 acre site. The waste energy plant operated by ReWorld formerly Covanta ran from 1988 to 2024. We are currently accepting municipal solid waste construction, demolition, debris, and other non-hazardous wastes. And the landfill is operated by the Department of Environmental Resources. A quick description of the layout. You come in the main entrance. There's an administrative building and the scale. Up the hall road, past landfill one and landfill two, up to the former site of the waste energy plant and landfill three and then on up to the waste tipping pad. Demolition is nearing completion and is expected to finish by the end of September 2026 in about a month. As the area is returned to the county, we are developing plans to repurpose the space for operations support and for ancillary functions related to waste management which I'll touch on later in the presentation. The closure of the Waste Energy Plan effectively doubled the daily intake from about 800 tons per day to about 1600 tons per day. This has accelerated the utilization of the capacity of the landfill, projecting the lifespan to shorten from an estimated 2051 to as soon as 2037. Operational improvements may move that date back to 2041. These are all estimates. We are managing the airspace compaction and fleet investment. The airspace utilization factor, or AUF, is the ratio of tons of waste per cubic yard. AUF is one of the most important operational metrics, directly reflects how effectively the landfill is using the available airspace, and helps estimate the ultimate remaining capacity and planned expansions, tipping fee structures, and disposal agreements. The typical range in the industry is 0.6 to 0.7 tons per cubic yard. Ours is 0.77 and about 10 to 25 percent higher and we have aims to go higher yet. The in Simpler terms, our airspace utilization factor could stretch the lifespan of landfill to 2041. Relatively speaking, in terms more relatable to households, if a trash bin toter weighs about 100 pounds, the industry average is about 12 bins per cubic yard. Ours right now is about 14.5 bins per cubic yard. And our aspiration is to compact to 17 plus bins per cubic yard. All estimates, but it gives you a relative sense of what we're looking at. And we are doing this by using alternative daily covers. By regulation, we are required to cover the daily trash with six inches of soil or an approved alternative daily cover. Our alternative daily cover is a tarping system. We deploy tarps in lieu of soil for good reasons. There's a zero loss of airspace, rapid deployment and removal daily, savings of up to 275 man hours per week with less fuel usage and less wear on equipment and infrastructure because we're using the dirt hauling equipment much less. Other strategies to extend the life of the landfill include actions upstream of the landfill. The county has a continued investment in recycling and waste diversion programs to extending the long-term life of the Fink Road landfill, increasing the amount of material that is recycled, reused, composted, or otherwise diverted from disposal, and reducing the volume of waste requiring burial and helps preserve valuable landfill airspace. The county will continue to evaluate opportunities to expand and improve diversion efforts as part of its long-term waste management strategy. So reduced landfill waste redirects recyclables, organics, and reusable materials away from disposal, protects the environment by lowering emissions, conserving resources, and reducing the risk of contamination, and extend the landfill lifespan, reducing incoming waste volumes, improving long-term operational efficiency. landfill specific examples like tire diversion, household hazardous waste programs, organics composting, e-waste collection, or construction and demolition debris. Another method is, another strategy is a specialized equipment such as the BOMAG brand compactor specifically designed for this one purpose, compacting trash. It is superior compaction density and airspace savings. We've got a couple of examples. The Tasman Road landfill has improved their AUF from .77 to .86 and Larimer County landfill improved their AUF from .63 to .78. We are hoping for an increase from our .77 to up to .85 and beyond. We have some improvements to our infrastructure and site maintenance. We're always looking for ways to more effectively deploy our resources, such as the purchase and deployment of a remote-controlled mower. This mower improves maintenance quality, reduces risk to employees, and greatly reduces labor by doing, in a half hour, what it would take eight hours by two employees. 32 times more efficient. I know you could do the math. Now to emphasize reduce, reuse, and recycle, we are retaining key infrastructure in the former waste energy space, the fire tank and pump and fuel tank for that, the 5,000 square foot warehouse, and the loading docks and former tipping pad. The 5,000 square foot warehouse will help us increase our warehouse capacity, support efficient small equipment maintenance, and improve safety and regulatory preparedness so we can store more materials on site. The former tipping pad, we're reusing that to repurpose for our e-waste recycling area, which we now do in the dirt. And now we can move it to a better pad and a formal loading docks. We're also looking to establish a six-day-per-week household hazardous waste collection center. So we have a site where everybody can drop anything they come with. Other ancillary functions, these are to be determined and they're being investigated for their feasibility. It would pay to restate our continued investment in recycling and waste diversion programs will be important to extending the long-term life of the landfill. And then other proposed uses of the operations pad, which is what we're now referring to, is a heavy equipment maintenance and repair shop akin to that which Public Works has at Morgan Shop. The extended life and usability of the 20 plus million dollars worth of equipment is a return on this investment. And these proposals will be brought to the board for consideration approval in the future. Other strategic capacity expansion and long-term planning to take advantage of the permitted space to maximize the efficiency and utilization of our airspace. We call this the sliver fill between landfills one and two, and it's filling the canyon, which is where the current haul road is routed. Moving further south, cell seven of landfill two is optimized as it two fills over the road. And then the conversion of landfill three to municipal solid waste maximizes the airspace of the Fink Road landfill, which of course necessitates a new haul road, the alignment of which necessitates a new scale house. There's not much left of the existing one anyway, and it's certainly not going to last through the life of the landfill. So in the next, this is what the landfill looks like about a year or two ago, and As we progress to completion of the Fink Road landfill, it will look like this manmade mountain. The canyon fill project is the extension and expansion into the ensuing century. And that will be the continuation and expansion of landfill and activities at the site. Other improvements necessary for the future, as we're looking into the next century of landfill operations, we'll also be looking at the administration building and the needs for the long term. This will also be brought to the board for future consideration and approval. In addition to the physical improvements, we are training our workforce in safety and in And we get to deal with governance. As you may know the landfill is highly regulated for the potential risk to the environment. Kelly PA and her daughter agencies inspect and regulate our operations with countless regulations. And we endeavor every day to comply. So we are investing in the most valuable asset at the landfill, our employees. Partnering with Blue Ridge Services, we're elevating the safety standards with improved training, boosting operational efficiency, and enhancing the environmental protection. In addition, We are building a mindset of safety as a foundation of a safe work environment. We will identify and remove and eliminate safety hazards that can be done. Through training protocols and rules, we warn workers through engineering controls. We protect them from hazards. And finally, as a last resort, we provide them PPE to protect our most valuable asset, our employees. Here are our friends, family, neighbors, and coworkers, our most valuable asset. And that concludes my presentation. I'm available for questions.

Todd, how long, thank you very much, how long have you been pulling tarps rather than putting dirt?

It's been a number of years.

A number of years. So the compaction has been going on, or it's because of the new piece of equipment that you're getting the compaction to 0.77?

Well, we're using a pancake method, actually. prescribed by Blue Ridge Services. They're a national consultant for landfills and their method is a more efficient method to handle and compact the trash daily. And that has got us to the .77 factor. The the tarps is a more efficient and effective way to utilize our resources Because we're not hauling all that dirt every day peeling off What we can salvage to use the next day, but inevitably we lose airspace to dirt every day the tarps allow us to lose zero airspace perfect and then the

The ash cell, because the ash cell wasn't completed, right?

Correct.

And was that L3? Yes. On your map? Yes. Were you complete? Is that the next cell or are you going to do the sliver? Which one are we planning on doing next?

We will likely do the sliver fill and then cell seven while we're developing plans to be permitted to overlay and fill over landfill three.

Okay.

I'll have to say it's subject to change because we're going to do it in the most efficient way and those plans are still under development.

Yeah. Have, because of the change from, you know, essentially doubling of the incoming, has that had any effect on rates? The actual rate structure?

So I was not part of that, and I couldn't answer that, but I'll defer to anybody who can.

Uh-oh.

What was the question?

Rates. Has it affected rates?

Well...

The rates were established using a consultant to look at the useful life of the landfill and see what the compaction ratio was with everything. I do believe that they did factor in a little bit of the increased usage and increased tonnage that's coming in, but I can't speak for certain exactly how they got to their numbers without having it in front of me right now.

That was a little bit off topic, but I think it's going to be an important conversation because as you compact more and you utilize the landfill space better, you probably have a longer runway of not raising rates but doubling That means you had more equipment that was necessary, right, as you're receiving twice as many trucks. So I know there were some impact rates. I'll stop there for the time being. I know there's other questions.

And maybe you already, the BOMAG compactor, we already have that and that's in place and we're using it, is that correct? We don't.

We don't have it yet. Oh.

Yeah, we're still waiting for that.

Got it. That'll help us achieve a higher AUF.

So have we ordered that? Do we have...

We're currently putting the purchase contract together, and we'll be coming for final approval next month.

So not something that's come before us yet. I'm just trying to remember. No, I don't think you've seen it yet. Yeah, I didn't remember a BOMAG compactor. Are they readily available?

Can you order one, or is it something that you've got to order and then wait a year to get because they're building it?

They actually have one. They're made in Germany. There's one on the ground in South Carolina waiting for approval if we get it. And they're ready to ship.

And based on that, I think I heard you say it adds like an extra four years in our situation. It could add an extra four years to the life of it. Did I understand that right? Yes, you did. From 2037 to 2041. Yes. Yeah. Okay.

Any questions? With the thought of moving some of the ancillary services out there, such as the mattress, e-waste, that type of stuff, is it still going to be available? in Modesto, centrally located, is that?

The household hazardous waste collection, yes. That's still, to my knowledge, it's still gonna be the two days a week, Fridays and Saturdays. It's our eagerness to create a six day a week collection so anybody that comes with whatever they've got to dispose of, we can take it from them instead of it being an inconvenience for them or worse yet, ended up somewhere on the side of the road or in a canal.

Yeah, I was just worried that we might have that issue if it was all moved out there and away from the central location of population.

No, it's still intended to keep it there near Morgan Shelf.

Okay, thank you.

I just want to thank you guys. I think we asked for this, asked for you guys to come and give us this update, and I appreciate you coming and filling us in a little bit more on the ramifications of the, shut down the burn plant and what we're looking at. Thank you guys very much for doing this.

The other questions? If not, we do not have any written comments, but I'm going to go ahead and open the public comment period. Does anyone in the chamber or remote audience wish to provide public comment on this item?

Good evening, board. Once again, my name is Bianca Lopez. I'm co-founder of Valley Improvement Projects, and we successfully shut down the incinerator here in Stanislaus County for various reasons. Even though we gave you a heads up for 30 years that this was coming, the county still did not prepare for zero waste practices. You continued to burn trash. and you continue to do the least minimum or the minimum requirements. Our zero waste plan that we created in 2024 clearly states a plan for the county to increase the lifespan of the landfill through various ways. Some of those ways are reducing restrictive disposal and reducing the tons accepted from sources outside of the county. Our zero waste plan continues to expand on other ways by implementing zero waste, I'm sorry, waste reduction instead of waste management, which is what you're currently doing right now. You're currently just managing the waste and putting it where you think it belongs best. We should be thinking and switching gears to waste reduction. And our plan has highlighted several of those opportunities, initiatives. We have a zero waste working group that I've already come to you about some concerns through public records requests. We see that it's clear that the Department of Environmental Resources is not actively engaging and invested in the zero waste working group, yet our organization continues to thrive this space by creating an opportunity for other jurisdictions and community members to learn about zero waste and waste reduction. The zero waste plan shows that if fully implemented we can divert more tons from the landfill than Covanta ever did or ever dreamed of. But yet here we are talking about waste management instead of waste reduction and increasing curbside rates for poor people. Tomorrow is our zero waste working group meeting. It is a hybrid meeting. It starts at 3.30. We host it at the VIP office at 1224 K Street. We have yet to see any of you come, and DER has only showed up a couple, a handful of times, maybe three times total since December of 2024. But we reviewed green schools, green teams at schools to divert green waste from the landfill and from the waste stream. We learned about SB 1383 and compliance, not just for schools but also for the county. We explored funding like the Plastic Pollution Mitigation Fund. learned about behavior change so that we can improve community education and outreach and awareness to create different habits and systems change. We also discussed policies not just like SB 1383 but like skip the stuff. The single-use plastics that's currently in place right now in the state of California that requires restaurants to reduce their single-use plastics that your county is not actively educating businesses on or enforcing. My point here is that there is a lot that you can do to expand the life of this landfill, and you are not doing it. You're not actively participating. You're not actively engaging. You created a table and then took yourself out of that seat and said, go have a blast. We are having a blast. And we will be producing some recommendations to the board. But my question is, when will you ask or direct the Department of Environmental Resources to be more intentional, to actually think about waste reduction instead of waste management. Or are we going to keep living like this for several more years and then I can come back in 20 years and say, well, we told you so. We had a zero waste plan and you just sat on your behind. Thank you.

Thank you.

Good evening Chairman Chiazza, CEO Hayes, board members, and Council Bose. My name is Tom Wolfe. I'm the interim solid waste manager for the Department of Environmental Resources, and I'm very happy to be here this evening. I'd like to acknowledge the role of recycling and diversion, how it plays out at the landfill by discussing some current diversion items. First off, I'll start small and I'll work my way Into some larger items, but as County employees We all have most of us have these blue plastic cans at our desk And we put our waste paper in these cans and our staff from DER picks that up on a weekly basis That accounts for 25 tons annually as of last year also County cardboard collected is 13 tons last year and And we brought up the household hazardous waste collection facility. That attributes to 1,579 tons. And also, we even go to the micro level where small AA batteries, flashlight batteries can be collected in our office and removed. from the landfill. We don't want those batteries in the landfill because, or going to the landfill, because they could potentially cause a fire in a garbage truck, a transfer truck, or in the landfill itself. So we're keeping that hazardous material, the batteries, out of the landfill. Moving on, we have curbside and commingled recycling. That accounted for 9,143 tons last year. Another item is what we call food processing byproducts such as grape pumice, overs and unders and vegetables that are rotten. That goes to, it's a soil amendment and it also goes to cattle feed. That accounted for 110,738 tons last year. Then we have green waste, yard waste and compostable materials that accounted for over 105,000 tons. mattresses collected last year, 16,402 tons. Tires collected were 773 tons and collectively both of those totaled 17,000 plus tons. And note that the tires and mattresses are solid, they don't break down readily, and they take up a lot of air space in the landfill. Those have been, those never made it to the landfill. So we are actively trying to preserve that air space. White goods collected, 1,449 tons. Waste wood products was 19,500,000 tons. So this is just a, it's not all inclusive of what's being diverted. It's a snapshot. And I wanted to get those tonnage figures out there of what we are actually diverting. So moving forward, we want to continue with our robust recycling and diversion efforts because it supports the board's priority of enhancing community infrastructure while promoting effective solid waste management. Thank you.

Tom, I didn't know that these are all waste reduction programs, obviously, and I wish I was writing down how many tons by the time you were done there. He didn't happen to add that up.

No, I didn't, but I have an all-inclusive list. It's very fine print, and there's a lot more items that I mentioned. And countywide, 303,726 tons. Tons per year? For last year. For last year that we diverted. 2025. That we were able, through our waste reduction plans, that we diverted.

Yep. Yeah. Okay, very good. Thank you very much. Yep.

Milt, I saw you wanted to come up.

Thank you, Tom, for that. That was great. Thank you. Thank you.

I just want to make some general comments. Again, we've got to be thinking about our children, our grandchildren, and our descendants. We cannot keep pushing this off. The planet is getting warmer. We're creating more waste. We've got plans here that I have no knowledge of, but I can see that Belanca knows what she's talking about, that can help out. And this gentleman over here, which I guess is part of the county, also has some good ideas, and they're working. But we can't just keep ignoring the facts of life, the facts that the planet's getting warmer, the facts that it's getting drier here in the valley, the facts that we have the best farmland, we need to preserve it. We have to be thinking about our children, our grandchildren, our descendants, and not just tomorrow or two weeks from now or a month from now. And that's all public officials seem to do. They think about two weeks from now, a month from now, not even a year from now. You're not planning ahead. If you don't plan ahead, you're not gonna get anywhere. If you don't be serious about this, it's not gonna get solved. These are serious considerations that are going to affect generations in the future. And if you don't take care of it now, they're going to have to suffer because of our stupidity. There's no need for us to be stupid people. We're intelligent people. We're all college graduates. I've mentioned that many times before. We can handle these issues. So don't be stupid. Do something now before it becomes impossible or very difficult to answer. And also, please do a favor for me. Don't let anyone bribe you. Don't take any bribes. I don't care what the bribe is. You know what they do. You know what you give, they offer you. You know what happens. You guys are knowledgeable what's going on. Stay away from bribes. Be honest. Be honest for yourself. Be honest for your children, your descendants. That's what we have to do. We have to be honest, intelligent people, and that's what's going to save us and nothing else. Thank you.

Thank you very much. Anyone else? Seeing no one. We're back to the board for comments. and or a motion.

Motion to accept.

Second.

Perfect. We have a motion. We have a second. All those in favor say aye.

Aye. Opposed?

Motion carries 5-0. Thank you for the update. Appreciate it.

Thank you guys.

Okay. Correspondence. Acknowledge receipt of correspondence and refer as recommended on the agenda. Are there any Board of Supervisor reports? Looking left.

I do have one.

Or chance that you have.

As a Board representative on the Unpermitted Food Vendor Task Force, I'd like just to provide a brief update on the progress of this regional initiative. The task force continues to build momentum through the collaborative efforts of Stanislaus County, our nine cities, and partner agencies. What began as a coordinated response to unpermitted food vending is evolving into a regional model for inter-agency cooperation, intelligence sharing, and coordinated enforcement. Recent accomplishments include multiple residential properties are currently under investigation for allegedly operating as unpermitted commissaries that support illegal food vending operations. These investigations involve coordinated efforts among multiple agencies and remain active. several joint city-county after-hours enforcement operations have been conducted throughout the county resulting in the removal of multiple unpermitted food vendors from operation and the impounding of equipment Authorized by law, the task force continues to strengthen regional partnerships by sharing resources, coordinating enforcement strategies, and developing consistent approaches that improve efficiency while protecting public health and supporting compliant businesses. The initial success of this initiative demonstrates the value of regional collaboration by working together across jurisdictions. The task force is creating a coordinated enforcement model that is producing measurable results while enhancing public health, public safety, and regulatory compliance throughout Stanislaus County. I appreciate the continued commitment of our county departments, city partners, and participating agencies. Their collaboration is establishing a foundation for a long-term success and may serve as a model for addressing other complex regional issues in the future.

I just want to thank Buck for serving on that committee and being a part of that. Thank you. Absolutely. Thanks, Buck.

I just wanted to report out really quickly that Supervisor Graywell and myself met with Ag Commissioner Penfold and a nurseryman today regarding glassy-winged sharpshooter. And I know that doesn't mean a lot to a lot of people, but it's an invasive species that it's not from here. It creates Pierce's disease amongst grapes. And so the nursery folks, there's not rootstocks yet that are... What's the word? Resistant, but tolerant. I guess tolerance is the word. Tolerant to it. And so Pierce's disease will kill trees. And so the California Department of Food and Ag has their PEIR on what to do with this invasive species is limiting compared to what it was 20 years ago. So we're trying to find some ways to strengthen because the nursery industry is a top 10 commodity in Stanislaus County and other people now they're competing against other counties that might not have it today and so We either have to get in and eradicate or we have to just let it go. Let it be, which would be bad for Stanislaus County because we've got five very large nurseries that employ a lot of folks. Just something I just want to report out on that. And if anything comes of it, I'll let you know. Okay, I think that's it for us. We're going to move on to legislative fiscal management report.

I recognize that the county did send advocacy letters to the state of California on several matters that are under consideration at the end of this current legislative session. Those matters included indigent care funding for our health services clinics, wildfire liability, and AB 2684, which addresses extended foster care policies in California. I also want to note a bit of good news that The Roselle Avenue closure ended on Monday at North County Corridor, which restores through traffic there. Drivers should be mindful of the new stop sign that is at Plainview and Roselle and the 25 mile per hour speed limit. But this is progress. Happy to see that occurring. And if you want any more information on that project, please visit NorthCountyCorridorPhase1.com for latest project information. Thank you.

I also want to thank Buck for getting that road open. For sure. Okay. If there's nothing else, I got rid of my paper. If there's nothing else for the good of the order, this meeting is adjourned. And thank you, Deputy Steeves. Thank you very much again for your oversight.