Board of Supervisors - Regular Meeting

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Good morning and welcome to the August 4th meeting of the Tulare County Board of Supervisors. We will begin our meeting this morning with a pledge of allegiance, followed by a moment of silence. And Supervisor Townsend, would you lead us? under God, indivisible, with liberty and justice for all. Thank you. All right. Our next item is Board of Supervisor Matters, and I will start to my left with Supervisor Vanderpool.

Thank you, Madam Chair. Well, a couple of things just to go over. First and foremost, those of you who've been seeing the news, the community of Earlymark has been facing some very difficult water issues over these last few weeks. They've had some well malfunction and some wells go down that are the major suppliers for the community's water. This past weekend, I wanted to thank Assemblywoman Alexander Macedo for coordinating a water distribution that was contributed by Walmart. They were able to give out water to about 500 households in need. And I know that State Senator Hurtado has also been working diligently on securing some additional state funding to help shore up some of the water issues. The repairs have been completed and the main well that was down should be back on line I'm hopeful that the PUD will get the water supply situation straightened out because I know there are some significant impacts not only to residents but to commercial growth as well as to the school. I heard from the school superintendent that without water in the community, the children were not able to return to school. So the repairs to those wells are absolutely critical. And I know that the county, along with our state partners, are working as hard as we can to assist the PUD which is a completely independent body, but to make sure that we get that water situation resolved. So in addition, I also wanted to wish all of the kiddos great luck and they're all getting ready to go back to school countywide. I know that TCOE had their large all staff at the convention center. So if anyone was trying to get around downtown Visalia this morning, as my wife was, it was absolutely impossible to do anything or park anywhere. So congratulations to all those students and I wish them the best in this upcoming school year. That's all I've got.

All right, thank you. So school started today? No. Oh.

okay getting ready i know my kids are doing back to school shopping and schools start this weekend next week so okay supervisor townsend

Thank you, Madam Chair. Good morning, everyone. A few things to report on. Last week, we had our California State Association of Counties Housing, Land Use and Transportation Committee meeting. And I just wanted to kind of give a shout out to California State Association of Counties for that meeting. We discussed a couple of propositions and how what positions that the committee would like to urge the executive board to take on those two propositions, Prop 1 and Prop 45. It had been a while since we'd had a meeting like that. I was impressed early on with CSAC with those committee meetings and taking stances on propositions, and it kind of seems like it's reviving, so I was happy to be a part of that. And then also had my San Joaquin Valley Regional Policy Council meeting and we were talking about our DC trip coming up this next month. And I will be particularly speaking on the farm to market bill that Congressman Valadao put forward under the surface transportation and it's in the Senate right now. And so we will be advocating for many things, but that's the one thing that I will be concentrating on. I was also asked to emcee the Southern Tulare County Sportsman Association dinner and auction on Saturday and that was a great time. Lots of people turned out. I was really impressed with the amount of donations and they put together events for, the funds are used for events for youth and disabled veterans for the most part. Yesterday, Allison Rodriguez, she's the Central Valley Region Deputy Director of External Affairs for the High Speed Rail Authority and I had a meeting with her here in our chambers. She just wanted to give some updates on where that was going and kind of asking where we are and of course, uh it was a frank conversation so i told her what kind of what we felt about high-speed rail and about the failures of how that's been going and what they might be able to do to uh to make it a little bit better and maybe eventually get a section uh completed and i said at that time we would connect to it with a bus route from uh i guess that's been in planning for many many many years and so uh Anyway, but it was a good meeting, good meeting with her, and we'll have some more connections there. This week, tonight, I'm going to attend the Good News Global Prison Ministry Dinner over at Visaya First Assembly. Thanks to Rick Williams and the group for putting that on. And then Wednesday, I have my Tule East Groundwater Sustainability Agency meeting in Porterville. And Thursday, I will also be attending a ribbon cutting for Porterville Chamber of Commerce celebrating the revived dance studio opening. And that's all I have to report on.

You're going to have you dance there?

I don't think so. Let's hope not.

All right.

Don't want to shut the place down.

Supervisor Macari.

Well, good morning. I apologize for stepping out. I got a text that my alarm was going off at the house, but I got it fixed. So I had to take care of that so they wouldn't dispatch a deputy for no reason. So I want to talk about NACO. And just to give an update, I was at the NACO conference, and I got good news and got bad news. And so the good news is, the great news is, is that they accepted our resolution for the— The guerrilla fighters during the Vietnam War have been pushing that and continuing. There were so many co-sponsors on that bill, on that resolution for NACO that we didn't have enough room to put them all. So we have some great nationwide support. It's on the platform now for a year. I'll have to go back next year to re-up it and go through. and I've already spoke to our chief of staff Israel who did an amazing job on this and our staff did an amazing job helping me put this together and we're gonna reach out, we're reaching out to our local representatives and if they're not interested or unable, we're gonna go nationwide. We have enough support nationwide that we can find someone to help carry this to make it a resolution to get those people the VA benefits that they deserve. And I'm told, well, it's only 4,000 of them now is what their estimate is. Well, it's 4,000 that should be taken care of. They saved American lives. We need to take care of them. So that's the great news over there at NACO. Part of the other great news is I actually got to attend a session with Bob Fenton from FEMA. He was going to talk about everything going on there. The bad news is I got to attend a session with Bob Fenton. He gets up there and touts how he's got broad shoulders and he wants to hear of all the woes and everything going on. And I brought the fact and Pete, Dennis, we all went to DC in 2025 when things were crazy over there and they were all scared about losing their job and they bent over backwards to meet us. Jason, you were there. They sat there, they told us that there was a failure in their system. They promised us that they were gonna fix it. They would tell us to do one thing and we would do it, and then they'd come back and they'd contradict. And that was the entire process. We've invested about $100 million in the 2023 floods. And honestly, what we didn't do was what a lot of other entities did was get bonds to pay for it, which put more tax pressure on these communities to pay more taxes. We did not do that. We funded that. The problem that we have is that with our games and our dragging our feet, There could be a potential problem with future funding on roads. It may have a little bit of an impact and we're trying to avoid that. So during our meeting in 2025, they all sat back, they admitted there's a failure. They told us to be the squeaky wheel. And that's a quote, be the squeaky wheel. You guys got to keep on. We apologize. We're so sorry. Bob Fenton was on Zoom on that meeting. And that was his words as well. And if I misspeak or misrepresent, you guys correct me, but that's the way I understand that meeting. Be the squeaky wheel. So fast forward to NACO, and I bring it up, and I told them, I said, man, 2025, you guys have been over backwards. Want to help us? And now, immediately after all the promises were made, and we felt good about this meeting, you do the $100,000 memo, stop everything, comes down to a grinding halt. And now... There's nothing. We don't even have a representative. We can't get ahold of anyone in NACO. And Mr. Fenton's been in charge of FEMA for the last probably 90 days now. There's a new secretary appointed, but he is the guy who sits up there and says, I got broad shoulders. Come talk to me. And his response to me was, well, just because you guys are loud doesn't mean I'm going to make you a priority. And I thought to myself, well, I'm not going to say what I thought to myself. So it's just unacceptable. unacceptable obviously he is the problem since it's ground to a stop he's the number one guy who wants to hear the problems and that's his that's his thing and our communities are going to suffer what's interesting is that lloyd pereira from merced county went up and spoke to somebody and was saying how merced wasn't being contacted i spoke to supervisor scotty silveira from merced county who's a chair of sjv rack we have our conference coming up in september They actually told me to have this put on the agenda so we can discuss. I've contacted Israel, who's going to bring a letter before this board, and I want to be a very blunt letter. I'm just, we need to point out the bureaucracy is going on and how these entitled employees are not doing anything for us, and that's what they should be doing. So STV RAC is going to discuss it, a possibility to sign. I'm going to bring it here to this board. Hopefully we'll sign. And I talked to Graham at CSAC and they are, Graham says there's statewide issues as well. And so Graham wants a copy of the letter so CSAC can form it into a statewide letter and go. So I think we're gonna get some unity going and I think we'll show Mr. Fenton loud. The other not so good part, well it's good and bad as well, is that we got to hear a lot about data centers. And what's interesting is there were people from California openly commenting, well, we hear about these data centers, never gonna happen. Well, Sunday night, I started getting phone calls because of what went out for the Tulare. And it's very interesting that what was being told to us is that the states are circumventing local control. They're doing what they can to force it upon us where we have no say. And a perfect example is exactly what's happening here today in our county, is they're putting it on the Tulare County Fairgrounds, which is state property, has their own state board appointed by the governor. And the city of Tulare has absolutely no say. The county of Tulare has absolutely no say. And if they continue with it, that could go. Now the difference is, is we need to come up with a definition of what a data center is, is because this is an edge center. It doesn't have the water consumption. It doesn't have the high electricity consumption that they claim. They claim it's modular about the size of what you see at a cell tower. Well, my first question is, is how many modules are they gonna need to put in there? You know, you see solar, solar's modular, and what do you see? Module after module after module. So we got back, Supervisor Townsend and I attended a meeting with Assemblywoman Macedo. She's actually, I got a notification Friday, they're setting up a meeting with the owner of that global tech or whatever it is, sit down, because the only information that's out there is what they're putting on their information sheets on the internet, and that's not good enough. We need to find out exactly what impacts are. So with all that said, as we reached out to RMA, Mike just briefed me yesterday. Thank you, Mike. They're gonna bring a temporary moratorium on data centers for us to consider in the very near future because we need more information. So I bring this up right now because there's a lot of concern and I don't blame you. I mean, if you look at the internet and what was told to us was look at the internet about Mississippi. They planted one right in the middle of a community and what do they do? And people are complaining of how intrusive is their community. And the mayor says, well, consider selling your property. Well, that's not going to happen here in our county if we have any control of it. So I just want everyone to understand that it's taken serious. We're going to do everything we can. It'll come before this board. And then we'll consider it once we get all the information. So thank you. That's all I have.

Well, thank you all for being here. That's all the time we have today.

No, just kidding.

No, Supervisor McCarr, thank you. The diligence that you've done with NACO and your involvement and getting that support for the guerrilla fighters is very commending of you, so thank you for that. Supervisor Valero.

Good morning Tulare County. Although I don't really share personal matters in public, I'm really sharing this as an understanding and maybe some of you have gone through this experience with a family member. So I really want to understand. My mother and I drove my father to UCLA Medical Center on July 25th after a series of medical unknowns and severe pain all over his body. and he has remained in Los Angeles since then, so he's still there. Initially, we were told that it was cancer, but after extensive testing and treatment, doctors determined that he has an autoimmune disease called IgG4, so it's a condition that can mimic cancer by attacking vital organs throughout the body. Since then, I've made more trips between Tulare County and Los Angeles than I can count. Thankfully, this condition is treatable and can be managed with medication, and for that our family is incredibly grateful. And the reason for my sharing is if anyone is familiar with IgG4 disease or has experience navigating it, I would genuinely appreciate hearing from you as our family adjusts to this new chapter in our lives. And I also want to apologize to anyone who has experienced delays in my response over the week. These have been challenging days for our family, and I appreciate your patience, understanding, and prayers. I also want to thank Board Representative Elizabeth Gutierrez for attending the Rising Sun graduation on my behalf and presenting certificates to the graduates. I truly appreciate her willingness to represent our office while I have been away. And then on Saturday, I had the privilege of speaking at the mural unveiling at the Woodlake Botanical Gardens. As always, Colleen Mitchell-Veyna. created a remarkable piece filled with meaning, beauty, and purpose. This mural pays tribute to the children who worked alongside their parents in California's fields, honoring the sacrifices, resilience, and dreams of Valley farmworker families from the 1940s through the 1970s. I'd also like to thank the sponsors who helped make this project possible, and that's Hammer in Hand Construction, community member Juan Lopez, the City of Woodlake, and Colegio de la Tierra. Their investment ensures these important stories continue to inspire future generations. I also want to highlight another event in Woodlake that is happening, and it's celebrating the Los Jardines project that has just been completed. And there will be a ribbon cutting there on Friday at 9 a.m. And again, exciting times for the community of Woodlake. I also had the opportunity to tour the new community center created through a partnership between Neighborhood Degree, Neighborhood Church, and Visayas Unified School District. Supervisor Macari was there yesterday as well. This new gathering space is designed to build relationships, provide educational workshops, host community events and create lasting partnerships with the Houston Elementary School as well as surrounding community. And its goal is to help families break the cycle of poverty. So it was inspiring to see organizations working together and really improving that and working towards collaborating in that area of Visalia. Looking ahead to next week, on Monday morning, I will be attending the groundbreaking ceremony for the new Career Technical Education Building at Orosi High School. That afternoon, I will be participating in the Proteus Executive Committee. I'm on the board for Proteus, followed by a ribbon-cutting ceremony celebrating the opening of Dinuba Intermediate School. So there will be now two intermediate schools in dinuba due to its growth in population and so the former dinuba high school campus has been transformed into a new middle school for the community and that is all i have chair

All right, thank you, Supervisor, and I'm glad your family found some answers and hope all goes well. Just a few things I want to highlight. We were dark last week, so the Friday before that, we had the ribbon cutting for the International Agri-Center, the new exchange on the 99. Supervisor Vanderpool worked very hard with a lot of folks, state, federal, private partners to get that done, so we're very excited about that. Also, Because we were dark, it gave me the opportunity to attend a celebration of life for Jerry Sulz. Jerry was 105 years old, and she came to every one of our centenarian celebrations that we did, and she was just an incredible woman, and it was nice to hear some of her stories about the incredible life that she had. That was very nice to be able to attend that. For matters of time, we're going to just go ahead and move on to our next item, which is the pet of the month. We have Angel here this morning, that's the dog, but we also have Sergio and Sam, some of our great employees at our Tulare County Animal Service Center. Sam, do you want to give a little update about Angel? Of course. Look at that picture.

All right. Good morning. I'm Samantha Torres. I'm the animal services supervisor coordinator for Tulare County. We have the most beautiful angel here today. She is estimated at about two years old. Maybe a lab Pyrenees mix. Our best guess. If anyone wants to do DNA tests, let me know. She is already spayed. She's up to date on her vaccines, which is distinproparvo, bordetella, rabies vaccines. She'll be microchipped. And she's super awesome with people, as you can see. She's just super mellow and chill, really just down to do whatever you guys want, chill on the couch, take a walk outside. It's up to you guys. And she's also very friendly with other dogs, males, females. Just a great girl all around. I couldn't pick another better dog for today.

If somebody is interested, how much is the adoption fee?

Her adoption fee I believe is $50 at this time due to our ladder system of length of stay.

All right, and earlier I was walking through, I noticed that our child support services director, Roger, she really took a liking to Roger, so Roger, if you need 50 bucks, I'll loan it to you, and you can take Angel home today, no. Well, thank you guys. We appreciate you bringing Angel and the information. You can go to our website, Tulare County Animal Services, and not only find Angel, but a lot of other incredible animals that are ready to be adopted.

Thank you very much for having us today.

Thank you guys so much for the work you do. Thank you. Bye, Angel. Did she take a bow? Okay, our next item is public comment under state law what? You looked at me Oh, number four, sorry. I skipped that one. I apologize. I got so excited about Angel. This next item is to present a certificate recognizing the Woodlake Varsity Softball Team for its SoCal Division IV State Regional Championship and Central Section Division V Softball Championship. Supervisor Valero, the Wood Lake is in your district and you asked for this to be brought forward and rightly so, so have at it.

Well, good morning. Good morning, Coach Lara, student athletes, families, and members of the Woodlake community. Today is my honor to recognize an extraordinary group of young women whose accomplishments have brought tremendous pride to the city of Woodlake, the County of Tulare, and the entire Central Valley. Congratulations to the Woodlake Varsity softball team on capturing both the CIF Central Section Division 5 Championship and the CIF Southern California Division 4 State Regional Championship. I believe that those titles were earned through countless practices, unwavering discipline, and an unbreakable belief in one another. To these remarkable young women, you are a powerhouse. You have proven that greatness is determined by the size of your heart, your work ethic, and your commitment to each other, not by the size of your school or community. Looking at your group today, as I can see them from here, I recognize several familiar faces. Why? Because for some of you, this is your second trip into these board chambers after another unforgettable season. That says something special, right? Success, yes, is impressive, but I believe that repeating excellence is what creates legacy, and that is what you have been doing year after year after year. And so Coach Lara and your support team, thank you. Championships are built by leaders who invest far beyond the final score. So thank you for sacrificing your time, believing in these young women, pushing them to reach their potential, and creating a culture where excellence is expected and character matters just as much as the victories that you bring home. And so to your assistant coaches, to the families here as well, to school staff and everyone who has poured into this program, this championship belongs to you also. So ladies, congratulations on a job well done. If you'd like to come up. And if Coach Laro, if you would like to make some remarks.

Yeah, come in.

Congratulations.

Real quick, board, again, thank you for the invitation. This is our second year being here in a row, so we appreciate the invitation again. A great group of kids. We graduated six seniors last year, brought back a good core. What a lot of people don't know about this group of seniors is they're gonna finish their career with three central section titles, two state titles. and an overall record of 114 wins and 11 losses. So the commitment not only from them and their families and the coaching staff has been great. Not only do we get to represent the city of Woodlake, the community of Woodlake, but the county as a whole, especially when we travel to Southern California and Los Angeles and San Diego area, and we're able to compete against those teams. So it shows a lot what we've got going on here in Tulare County. Thank you, guys.

All right, let's, gentlemen, if you want to stand up behind these young ladies, Pete.

And ladies, I don't, you don't have to say it into the microwave, or into the microwave, microphone. How is your coach? I mean, Coach Lara, I mean, be honest, because he does all the talking. I mean, I hope he's a good guy for you guys.

Look at, I see some, eh.

Yeah, okay, just, I'm curious.

He's tough, right? Makes you work hard? That's what it's all about. I like the shirts, on the back of the shirts, it says back to back to back, so 24, 25, and 26. Good job, ladies. Thank you, Supervisor. All right, our next item now, we have public comment. And under state law, matters presented under this item cannot be discussed or acted upon by the board at this time. Comments should be relevant to matters within the board subject matter, jurisdiction, and not repetitive of previous speakers. At all times, please use a microphone and state your name for the record. And as we mentioned at last meeting, under a new state law, folks are able to call in through the telephone on public comment. So madam clerk, do we have any public comment cards?

Madam chair, we do not have any public comment cards and we do not have anybody registered to speak at this time Okay, do we have anybody in the chambers this morning that would like to speak for public comment?

I No pushing, no shoving. Okay, nobody. All right, then we will move on and we are right on time for our public hearing. This is item six. Well, that one says 930. Sorry, Lupe. What's that? We can do the consent calendar. All right, we will move on to the consent calendar. These items are routine and usually approved by one motion. So do we have any items that need to be pulled by anybody?

Madam Chair, we do not need any items pulled, but we do need an oral correction for item number 27. The agreement number should read 31224-B for the record.

31224-B, okay. With that correction, I will entertain a motion that includes that. We have a motion by Supervisor McCurry and a second by Supervisor Valero. Please cast your votes. consent calendar passes unanimously all right we got a minute anybody got a joke you can i don't have any that i could tell here but but walk up really slow lupe okay i can read what was that madam clerk Okay. So our next item is a public hearing at 9.30. It's 9.30. That's why I talked really slow. You could have talked a little longer, Supervisor Macari. We would have been right on time here. All right, so this is a public hearing. It's a request from the Human Resources and Development Department to conduct a public hearing pursuant to Assembly Bill 2561, regarding the status of county job vacancies and recruitment and retention efforts and receive public comment so before we open the public hearing can i please have the clerk provide instructions to members of the public on our procedures for today's hearing

Thank you. To members of the public, if you wish to provide public testimony in person, please complete and submit a comment card. Provide your name and agenda item number six. If you wish to provide public testimony remotely, preregistration is required. Please preregister through the Tulare County public comment portal. You must provide a valid phone number so staff can identify your call, and you must select the specific agenda item you wish to comment on. Please refer to the agenda for additional instructions. Please clearly state your name for the record. Your statements will go out on the live audio stream and will be included in the audio recording of the meeting. The timer will be set to three minutes, so please adhere to the time limit. You may also participate by submitting an email. As this item is being heard, email should include the sender's name for the record. Email should include the following in the subject, agenda item number six, and sent to the clerk of the board's email address at clerkoftheboard at TulareCounty.ca.gov. Public testimony by email will not be read, but will be made part of the record if received before the close of public testimony. Thank you.

okay thank you madam clerk we'll now take up agenda item six a public hearing on job vacancies and recruitment and retention efforts in compliance with assembly bill two five six one the public hearing is now open we will start with staff's presentation and then take board questions employee organizations that have requested time to present will then have five minutes each to present public testimony will be taken at the conclusion of the presentation lupe You may start your presentation.

Good morning. Lupe Garza, Director of Human Resources and Development. Good morning, Chair Shetland, members of the board, CAO Britt, and Councillor Flores. This morning, we are here, as you mentioned, to conduct this public hearing regarding the vacancy rate. In accordance to AB2561, which was introduced and agencies were required to annually address and publicly report on job vacancies as well as their recruitment and retention efforts. Agencies were also required to identify any necessary changes to policies, procedures, and recruitment activities that could create obstacles in the hiring process. In addition, employee organizations are granted the opportunity to present during these public hearings for the unit they represent. The single bargaining units vacancy rate reaches or exceeds 20%. What am I doing wrong? So during this presentation, we will cover the status of job vacancies, recruitment and retention efforts, and identifying changes to policies. This chart shows the monthly vacancy trend countywide for all job classifications. In fiscal year 25 to 26, countywide vacancy average for the year was 11.7%. This time last year, we also did a presentation and it was the average vacancy rate was 13.58%, which is a decrease of 2.5% over the course of the fiscal year. The fiscal year 25-26 has three bargaining units that have a vacancy percentage over the 20% threshold. As you can see here, it is the PACOP vacancy has increased by 6.16%. So they are at 63.16% vacancy. Again, PACOP has three physicians and two vacancies. TCPA, which is probation, Bargaining Unit 12, vacancy percent has decreased by 5.38%. They are at 25.62% vacancy. And G-Law, Bargaining Unit 8, their vacancy rate has remained the same. They are at 23.53%. The staffing transfer fiscal year 25-26 indicate a total of 351 voluntary separations, 438 new hires, and 133 promotions of current employees. Just a breakdown of the terminations. We have, there were 351 voluntary separations, 25%, I'm sorry, 25 or 7% were resignations, 79 79 or 23% were due to retirement and voluntary terminations, 247, which is 70% of the total separations. This year, a total of 394 recruitments were conducted to fill vacant positions, representing an increase of 25 compared to last year's total of 369. The number of applications also rose significantly, likely reflecting a positive response to recent changes in recruitment strategies. Last year, we received approximately 15,000 applications, while this year's total reached over 21,000 applications, an increase of 6,000 applications. Additionally, the average time to hire has decreased from 102 days to 77 days this year, which can be attributed to stronger engagement with departments during the follow-up phase of recruitment. So in fiscal year 25-26, we introduced a range of improvements designed to strengthen our recruitment and retention strategies. One significant upgrade is the adoption of TestGenius, an online testing platform that streamlines the hiring process and embraces a modern approach. As highlighted by Jason Britt in our NEO video, our focus is on leveraging technology to reduce hiring times, cut vendor expenses, and move away from traditional paper-based methods. To further boost our presence at job fairs, we've refreshed our marketing materials. Our new promotional items such as reusable bags and phone tablet stands have increased the county's visibility in a variety of public settings. Additionally, the revamped NEO process now offers a more engaging experience for new hires, including a dynamic video that aims to inspire and retain our talent. We've also enhanced employee support through great buying contributions, which provide practical tips and foster a supportive environment, recognizing the importance of early outreach. We've established connections with high schools in Visalia, Tulare, Exeter, and Hanford, laying the groundwork for the county to be recognized as an employer of choice. Our recruitment materials have undergone a transformation as well. By redesigning job flyers, creating Canva ads, and producing short videos, we've made our positions more appealing and clearly communicated the positive impact candidates can have with the county. Previously, our recruitment relied heavily on newspaper ads through catalysts with costs ranging from $3,000 to $12,000 per month for weekend placements in publications such as the Visalia, Times Delta, Tulare Advanced Register, Porterville Recorder, Hanford Sentinel, and Fresno Bee. To reach a broader audience and reduce expenses, we've shifted to creating visually engaging graphic ads and strategically posting on college and industry-specific job boards. These initiatives collectively support our goal of attracting and retaining top talent while optimizing resources and expanding our reach. So that concludes our presentation. And now I turn it over back to the board for a public hearing.

Thank you, Lupe. Do any members of the board have questions at this time? OK. So at this time, we'll take presentations from recognized employee organizations. Each organization will have five minutes to speak. Do we have any representatives from any recognized employee organizations?

None reached out to us. I don't know if they are in the audience today.

Doesn't look like it. Okay. So now at this time we'll take public testimony from anyone in the audience or on the public comment portal who wishes to speak.

Madam Clerk, do we have anybody on the portal?

We do not. And nobody in chambers? Okay. Do we have any emails? We do not. Is there any other way we can? Okay, we have no people, no emails, no phone calls, any texts? No. Okay, so there being no more public testimony, I will close the public testimony of this hearing and bring the matter back to the board for any decisions or discussion. Seeing none, I will entertain a motion, which has been done by Supervisor Vanderpool and seconded by Supervisor Macari. Please cast your votes. Motion passes unanimously, five-zero. That concludes agenda six, and the public hearing is now closed. Okay, we will now move on to our untimed items. and the first being to receive a presentation from the Tulare County Department of Child Support Services, whose director is gonna be adopting a dog, regarding Child Support Services Awareness Month. And we will be presenting a proclamation recognizing August 2026 as Child Support Awareness Month in Tulare County. Mr. Dixon.

The dog's just a little too big for me. Well, good morning, Board, Roger Dixon, Director of Transport Services, Chair Shuckling, Mr. Britt, Ms. Flores. Thank you for allowing us to.

Roger, we're going to raise the podium just a bit so the microphone is closer to you.

That'll work.

About two feet. Okay, that's good. Thank you.

Oh, okay. Thank you for allowing us to present this morning, part of our Child Support Awareness Month, reaching back out to the community and also gives us the opportunity to let the board know what we've accomplished and what we've been doing over the past year. A couple of things we're going to go over really quick, just what the child support program is. Again, we always want to remind everybody what we do and how we do it. Our mission, Jennifer, we've got two Jennifers here. We go in pairs. Jennifer Guido, who's our assistant director, is going to go over our performance and give some district specifics. We'll try to break it down by districts this year just to get a little bit more down in on what we're doing by your areas. And then our other Jennifer, again, we go in pairs. She's going to give us our Child Support Awareness Month activities, things that we're doing throughout the community, and entertain questions at that time.

Okay, that.

Okay, I might have to bring this down a tad. Yes.

about as tall as I'm gonna get. So to start off, we're gonna talk about, well, first of all, good morning supervisors, CAO Britt, County Council, and Madam Clerk. Again, my name is Jennifer Guido, and as Roger mentioned, I am the Assistant Director with the Department of Child Support Services. I'm gonna start off by talking about the California Child Support Program first as a whole. So it delivers reliable support directly to children as payments come from a parent keeps both parents financially responsible, and connects families with enforcement services. The California Child Support Program delivers high rate on state investment by delivering cost effective support for California's children, reducing child poverty across California communities, and representing major income share for low income households. And last, the California Child Support Program improves child and community outcomes where higher educational outcomes are achieved when both parents are participating in the financial support of the child. Lower levels of family conflict are achieved when there is an open child support case and increases long-term economic stability. So here at the local level, our mission as the Tulare County Department of Child Support Services is to enrich our community by partnering with parents to obtain accurate child support orders to assist families in meeting medical and financial needs. And we do this through the services we provide that include establishing parentage, locating parents, requesting child support and health insurance orders for the court, enforcing and modifying those child support orders, and collecting and distributing child support. So as for our performance at the local level, our current caseload consists of 24,312 cases. That includes a total number of children at 28,015. So just to kind of update a little bit in terms of June's numbers, we have 24,326 cases, but that includes 28,166 children. So as of May, our collections were 29 million As stated on the slide, however, as of our most recent update, the end of June, our distributed collections were 32 million, and our goal for the 25-26 federal fiscal year is $41 million. It is important to highlight we are collecting as of the end of June $3.11 for every dollar spent, maintaining an above statewide average cost effectiveness. We would also like to note our collection percentage of 67% in current support is the highest amongst large counties that include Alameda, Contra Costa, Fresno, Kern, San Joaquin, Santa Clara, Stanislaus, and Ventura. So just as a matter of fact, as of July at the statewide directors meeting I was able to attend, we received a letter from the state director that reads as follows. Since the Tulare County Department of Child Support Services demonstrated outstanding performance in federal fiscal year 25 for a large local child support agency by achieving the highest percentage in federal performance measure three, which is our current support collections of 67.2%, and the greatest reduction in the average number of days required to open a case, establish an order, and issue the first payment to a family which decreased by 61 days. So as we continue to work to refine our data relevant to Tulare County's individual districts, today we look at data based on the 24-25 federal fiscal year. So for District 1, we have a total of 4,348 cases with a total distribution of $6,288,952. For District 2, we have a total of 4,096 cases with a total distribution of $6,863,000. For District 3, we have a total of 3,769 cases with a total distribution of $6,623,945. And for District 4, we have a total of 3,543 cases with a total distribution of $5,972,875. And then for District 5, we have a total of 4,048 cases with a total distribution of $5,538,926. So I'm going to also add that this data is approximate because there are participants with addresses that are not within district boundaries. addresses that could not be placed by the geocoder and or did not have an address in our case management system. So however, this data gives a perspective into the numbers of families we serve, as well as the monies distributed within those families that reside in Tulare County. So with that, I'm going to turn it over to Jennifer Davis, who will go over our back to school drives.

Hello, good morning, Supervisor, CAO Britt, County Council, and Madam Clerk. Angel and the ladies with Woodlake, it's going to be a hard act to follow, and I'm going to try to spice this up the best I can with some information about our back to school with child support. I also wanted to acknowledge we have Kathleen and Victoria here with Valley Strong. All right, my name is Jennifer Davis, and I am the Outreach Specialist for the Department of Child Support. Outreach has been important for us in the past couple of years. While we have participated at resources with Parenting Network, including Project Fatherhood, Farmer's Markets, the County Health Fair, various local events, every year leading up to Child Support Awareness Month, we host our back to school drive. This year, our third annual event partnered with Valley Strong Credit Union collecting backpacks and school supplies to distribute at back to school events. This year's events are scheduled for August 5th at Snowden Elementary in Farmersville, August 11th at Olive Street Elementary in Porterville, August 12th at Maple Elementary in Tulare, August 20th at Houston Elementary in Visalia, and then August 25th at Wilson Elementary in Dinuba. So not only do we distribute the backpacks and school supplies during those events, but we also invite various resource vendors to join the events, spreading the wealth of the resources to the local students and families. Some of these resource vendors are Valley Strong Credit Union, Parenting Network, City of Dinuba, Project Food Box, Dinuba Police Department, Camp Encinas Unidas, Soleri County Sheriff's Department, Master Gardening, Local Libraries, United Way, Milan Institute, Dutch Brothers, Galaxy Theaters, Family Services, Ola Rasa, Visalia Rawhide, and Grid Alternatives. So we want to thank our resource vendors. It is with their support that our resources have such success at these events. Then I also get to share, in addition to Back to School Drive, as part of our Child Support Awareness Month, our employees and families and friends will be attending the Visalia Rawhide game on August 20th, where the Department of Child Support will be announced. And now I'm going to turn it back over to Roger.

Before I entertain any questions, I just want to give a big shout out to our Department of Child Support Professionals. They do a great job day in, day out, as you see from our performance. redistributing and shuffling priorities day in and just do a great job. I also want to, during this period, give a shout out to Joe Halford and his team. Our department had a big audit this year, information security audit, ISA audit. Joe's team, along with our internal team, Kathleen Ayers, Tim... Tim, what's your last name? Wall, Tim Wall. bring fall there, Tim Wall, HR, our HR, and folks really came together and pushed through this very challenging audit that we had and came out on the other side. So Joe and his team, Tyson, Mark, and Larry, excuse me, Larry Lewis, they were great for us. So it was a good effort. And one of the things that we grabbed out of that is that we got some good processes that we have implemented that will help us in the future. With that, as you can see, our outreach event for our Child Support Awareness Month has become bigger. We really do try to get back to the community as much as we can because child support sometimes has a negative connotation, but we're really here to support the families and the community here in Tulare County. With that, I'll entertain any questions.

Supervisor Vanderpool.

So no questions, just really comments. I just want to say thank you to Roger and also to the child support department. I think you guys are doing a wonderful job. Really appreciate seeing this year that your back to school drives are going county wide, so to speak. I know that I attended the first couple and I believe that it was just in Porterville, maybe one in Dinuba, if I was correct. So now seeing them in five, districts all five districts i think that's fantastic your number of vendors increases i feel like every year but you know i i just want to say you are investing in giving back to children and i think that is fantastic because every child deserves to start the school year off on the best foot and you're really helping to do that so congratulations on your your collection rates i think that's something to be very proud of and you've been recognized for that And hopefully with the technology and with the dedicated staff that you have, you'll be able to continue to maintain those rates well into the future. So I appreciate the fact that you're trying to conquer the negative connotation associated with child support as a collections agency and reinvest in the community. Great job.

Supervisor Macari.

Well, Roger, I'd like to echo some of the comments. I can tell you it's not a lot. I don't get a lot of calls regarding your department, which tells me things seem to be running smooth, even though people don't agree, some people don't agree with it. But the times that I've had to call, you and your staff have been just immensely supportive and very responsive. And that means a lot. And I think that goes to show why we don't get the amount of calls we do, because you are being diligent and you're taking care of business. And so I, I just want to say thank you. Because I, it just, it's a hard job. And, but what you are giving back to communities, you're giving these kids a chance. And that, that's the biggest thing right there that people don't think about is they don't think about the children. They think about themselves and their quality of life and what they have that they put before their children. And it should be backwards. That they should put their children first. So thank you very much. I appreciate the response of you and your staff. And I, it's all I can say. I appreciate it very much.

Supervisor Valero?

Yes. I'd like to echo my comments and just say thank you for being rooted in the community, especially building that partnership with schools because schools tend to be the hub of our various communities throughout Tulare County. And so again, establishing that partnership is key in order to continue to meet the needs of families across our area. So again, kudos on a job well done to all of you and your team.

Okay, and I believe we have a proclamation to present. Supervisor McCurry.

This is a proclamation recognizing August 2026 as Child Support Awareness Month in Tulare County. Whereas the vision of the Tulare County Department of Child Support Services is to educate and empower families with knowledge and resources to promote the well-being of children. And whereas the mission of the Tulare County Department of Child Support Services is to enrich our community by partnering with parents to obtain accurate child support orders to assist families in meeting medical and financial needs. And whereas, more than 28,330 children benefit each year from services provided by the Tulare County Department of Child Support Services, with approximately $41 million in child support expected to be collected and distributed in the federal fiscal year ending in September 30, 2026. And whereas, enabling children to grow up in a healthy environment where they receive financial, medical, and emotional support they need from both parents is among the department's highest priorities. Now, therefore, be it resolved that the Tulare County Board of Supervisors does hereby recognize August 2026 as Child Support and Awareness Month in Tulare County. It is dated August 4th, 2026, signed by myself, Larry McCurry, Supervisor Pete Vanderpool, Supervisor Amy Shuklian, Supervisor Eddie Valero, and Supervisor Dennis Townsend. Thanks, both.

And if we could have, yeah, Roger, if we could have the Jennifer Squared up here and any other staff that you have here today, and we'll come down. Okay, we'll stay up here.

Thank you. Thank you.

Okay, we will now move on to our next item, which is a request from the Health and Human Services Agency to approve an amendment to agreement number 31653 with Integrated Wellness Solutions to increase the budget amount by $6,298,290.92 from 72,906.72 to 79,204.992 for comprehensive health and mental health services, early access and stabilization, and jail-based competency treatment services at Tulare County criminal justice detention facilities.

Dr. Boland. Good morning. Good morning, Madam Chair, Supervisors, CAO, Council, Madam Clerk, Natalie Boland, Behavioral Health Director. Also here in attendance, I have Minty Dillon and Rapali Talib from Integrated Wellness Solutions. And today I'm here to present on a renewal of the Department of State Hospital contract specifically for our E's and our JBCT program, which is part of the larger jail contract. So the purpose of these two programs is to support individuals that are found incompetent to stand trial awaiting admission to the Department of State Hospital. EASE is the pre-program where hopefully we can divert individuals from having to be transferred to a state hospital placement. and JBCTs is the competency treatment that occurs within the jail, hopefully treating people at a local level instead of sending them to a state hospital. Both programs are funded by Department of State Hospitals And if you recall back in 2015, there was a lawsuit against the Department of State Hospitals and this is the result of that. There was a settlement agreement in 2019 where they came in to implement EASE and JBCT within a local jail setting. And this is in response to our incompetent to stand trial numbers that have been increasingly over a period of time. I wanna highlight our program for 2024, 2025. Our average length of stay is 71.6 days in our programs within the jail, whereas the state average is 84.6. Our percentage that we can restore at a local level is 90% versus a statewide average of 76. And the percentage that we transfer to Department of State Hospital is 10%, whereas a statewide average, it's 23. We are the only JBCT program that uses a local provider. And so because of that, the state comes and does frequent visits to check out our program and to speak with our integrated wellness staff. Prior to our prior contract, it was a combined contract. So E's and JBCT were combined. With this new contract, we're having to split the contract into two. That's the state directive. And because of that, we are having to shift over some FTEs that we were able to leverage under this contract. We're having to shift back over to our base contract. These FTEs are crucial to keeping our IST numbers down. Part of the lawsuit was that each county has an IST growth cap. And so that means that if we go over, Tulare County is 88, if we go over 88, we have the potential of being sanctioned. And those sanctions can vary from 125,000 to 150,000 per inmate. And so it's crucial that we keep our IST numbers down. Last year, we were at 80. And so we were able to come in under our cap. And this year, after quarter three, we're at 59. We still have one more quarter to go. They haven't given us our final numbers yet. And so we should definitely be under our cap for this next year as well. This is the contract cost breakdown, and so you'll see the total contract is for both our health base and our behavioral health base. Our JBC T&Es contract, amount is fully funded by dsh we're needing to move four hundred and ten thousand twenty eight dollars in 2025 2026 under our base amount and the amount for 2026 2027 will be 422 328 dollars And so with that, we'd like to amend the agreement. This is a two-year total contract amount for both public health and behavioral health with the updated EASE and JBCT amount. And this is a retroactive agreement. And with that, I'll answer any questions that the board may have.

OK, do we have any questions? Supervisor Macari, was that from last time? You have a question? Go for it.

Natalie, thank you. It's great to see that we're actually higher, you know, our statistics are better than the state. AB 109 was because the state couldn't do it, and they put it off on us, but then now we're holding funding. So the biggest question I have is I know I've worked in the jails. I know there's a lot of, it occurred a long time ago, but I know that there's programs in the jails that have been going on for quite some time. There's programs in probation. Are we making sure that we're not paying for duplicate services?

yes these treatment um services under the these programs is mostly psychiatric services and the high acuity services so to answer your question yes all right thank you yeah okay do we have any other questions all right um i'll open it up for public comment do we have any members of the public here today that would like to speak on this item

Okay, seeing none, I will bring it back to the board for I don't think you thought of any questions in the last six seconds. So I will entertain a motion. And we have a motion by Supervisor Townsend and a second by Supervisor Macari. Please cast your votes. Motion passes unanimously. Thank you, Natalie, very much. And thank you also to IWS, Minty, thank you. Okay, that ends our regular session. Madam Council, do we have a need for closed session today?

Yes, Madam Chair, there is need for closed session, and I do not anticipate any announcement out.

Okay, and I do have a statement to read. I have a financial conflict of interest under Government Code Section 87100 regarding closed session item IHSSA because I receive income as an IHSS provider. I will not attend the closed session for item IHSSA, and I will not obtain or review any nonpublic information regarding the governmental decision. the clerk is requested to make this announcement part of the official record of today's meeting with that our regular session is adjourned thank you all for being here and we will see you next week hey gary