Board of Supervisors - Regular Meeting

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Good morning and welcome to the August 18th meeting of the Tulare County Board of Supervisors. We will start the morning with a Pledge of Allegiance. Madam Clerk, do we have anybody for the invocation? So we will follow the Pledge of Allegiance with a moment of silence and I'm gonna ask Supervisor Valero to lead us in the flag salute.

Please join me in saluting our nation's flag. Ready? Pledge.

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. Thank you. Okay, our next item is Supervisor Matters, and I'm gonna start to my immediate right with Supervisor Valero.

Good morning to Larry County. Last Saturday, I participated in the celebration of 21 graduates of the Central Valley Latino Leadership Academy, where participants went through four Saturday sessions on assessing strengths, leadership, and policy 101, speed networking with community leaders and governance training, It was a great celebration with personal testimonies on the program's impact, as well as the keynote speaker and networking opportunities. This afternoon, I have a program committee meeting with Proteus, followed by a ribbon cutting for J. Matthews Creative Studio. Tomorrow, I'll be attending the Tulare King's Hispanic Chamber Luncheon, followed by a Mineral King National Parks Monthly Meeting. And then on Thursday, I have a meeting with HHSA leadership. And then lastly, I will be attending the Salt and Light Summer Soiree in Tulare on Saturday. Looking forward to this event as it helps support our most vulnerable in the community. And that is all I have, Chair.

Thank you. Supervisor Macari?

Well, good morning. Not a lot to report this time. We had our discussion regarding the state of the county coming up in the city that we prepared for. That'll be coming up here, what, in a couple weeks, Amy? 27th. 27th. And so we'll be having that. We're looking forward to seeing everybody there. And that's about it. I went to the St. Anthony celebration, worked all weekend. We served, I don't know, probably 6,000 people over the whole weekend. So we had a good time. Actually, I suffered because it was cold up there. yeah i went from 109 here to 61 over there and i was like i should have brought a jacket anyway that's all i have thank you all right supervisor townsend

Thank you, Madam Chair. Good morning, everyone. Just wanted to note that last week we had a ribbon cutting for a rural broadband project out in Tarabella. It was a $10 million project, about 1,350 or so connections, including schools, rural health care clinics, businesses, and homes. So it affected probably around 5,000 people. in that area. So I wanted to give congratulations to VARCOM for putting that together and also kudos to Denise England for helping with all of the grants and guiding that through the process. And also to RMA, the encroachment team, because the project came in ahead of schedule, mostly because the encroachment team did a really nice job of getting those permits through. So congratulations to everybody involved. We also all had our Tulare County Association of Governments, Tulare County Transportation Authority meeting yesterday. And then coming up this week, I have my rural county representatives of California board meeting in Sacramento. A couple of things, a couple of bills that are on the agenda that we'll be looking at, what positions to take there. So it ought to be an interesting meeting up there. And then on Friday, have my San Joaquin Valley Regional Policy Council meeting, and it'll be a planning session for our one-voice trip to Washington, D.C. coming up. And then I will also be attending the Salt and Light Soiree. And I want to mention also Monday, the 24th, we'll have our Measure R Road Rehab Committee, myself and Supervisor McCurry serve on, and that's all I have to report.

Okay, Supervisor Vanderpool.

Thank you, Madam Chair. A few items to go over. This Friday I will be attending the San Joaquin Valley Insurance Authority meeting at 9 o'clock in Fresno. The reason that meeting is important is because it is our actual rate setting meeting for this upcoming year. Insurance rates are going up. It's a trend within the industry. It was initially proposed at our last meeting that we would be facing potentially a 30% rate increase. which is pretty significant. So I know that the consultants were going back to the drawing board and going to make some plan design changes and work with both counties to hopefully come up with something that's gonna be a little bit more reasonable and palatable. And I think they're gonna be able to do that. So we'll see exactly what is proposed on Friday, but it is important nonetheless for all of our plan members and certainly our employees. Then at 1130, I'm going to run back from Fresno as quick as I can because we've got the annual Tulare State of the City and County event at the Heritage Complex. That's always a great event, full of great presentations, lots of questions. Great to see everything going on in Tulare. Tulare is really moving. Not only have they opened their Tulare Cares homeless project, but there's a lot of economic development and a lot of growth happening in the community, and it's wonderful to see. In addition to all those events, I will be meeting with various constituents and departments throughout the week, and that is all I have, Madam Chair.

all right thank you a couple things i want to highlight from last week on last tuesday some of us attended the medal of valor ceremony that the sheriff put on at central valley christian high school to honor many people who went above and beyond the call of duty on the day that Detective Hopper was killed. His wife received a Medal of Honor for him posthumously and also Deputy Navarrete received a Medal of Valor for that day and it was actually the second Medal of Valor that Deputy Navarrete received since being on the sheriff's in the Sheriff's Department. So that was a very honored to be at that ceremony. A couple of things going on this week, this afternoon, I will be attending the Queer Health Stroke Support Group. And tonight Adventist Health is having their annual what they call experience at the Fox Theater. And it's a big pep rally for all of their employees. So I look forward to attending that. Tomorrow we have a Tulare County Economic Development Corporation meeting. I will be having lunch with our TCAD director to talk about some of the great accomplishments that have happened since Measure R has gone into place for road things here in Tulare County and then a homeless task force. On Thursday, I will be traveling to Fresno, where I air the San Joaquin Valley Air Pollution Control District Board of Directors. And then I thought about spending the night, but I'll come back and go back again the next day for our San Joaquin Valley Insurance Authority meeting. And then also on Saturday, I will also be attending the Salton Light Works annual soiree. So that's it for now, and we will move on to our next item. Madam Chair, can I do one more? Is that you?

Yeah, I hit it because, yeah, well, you reminded me when you were talking about the Medal of Valor and the sheriff walked in a minute ago and I wanted to give kudos to the sheriff's tag net team. They did a sweep along Highway 190 up along the river just recently and there's been a lot of gang activity, a lot of tagging and things like that, some vehicle vandalism along the roadway. So we just appreciated the sheriff and his team for taking care of a lot of that, making a lot of arrests And a lot of citations up there along that recently.

Absolutely.

Thanks.

Thank you. OK, now we will move on to our first proclamation today, and that is to honor the 100th anniversary of California Water Service. And today we have Kevin McCusker, who is a director of government and community affairs, and Stuart Skaglin, who is a director district manager for like Visalia Cal water if gentlemen you want to come up and I'll meet you down there but if you want to start and say a few things I think I think supervisor Macari remembers when that first water faucet turned on a hundred years ago with Cal water so yeah I

Hi, good morning, Tulare County Board of Supervisors. Thank you for having us here today. Again, I'm Stuart Skoglund. This is also Kevin McCusker here with me. Yeah, very exciting for us to celebrate 100 years. It's also great to know that even though we have districts up and down the state, and over the last 100 years we've purchased different water systems, Visalia was the second water system that we purchased. The first one was on October 14th. 1926 in chico the very next day october 15th in visalia so very excited not only 100 years but 100 years here in visalia and i will say that our number one goal has always been to provide reliable safe drinking water to our customers we will continue that obviously as we go into the future so again thank you for being a part of this with us it's a very big deal for us and we just appreciate the support so thank you

I also want to mention, you did mention, you know, the service in Visalia, but you also service Goshen, don't you? Which is an unincorporated area of Tulare County, so thank you for that too. So here we go. Whereas California Water Service Company, Cal Water, was founded in 1926 by three World War I veterans, Christopher T. Chenery, Thomas Hollis Wiggin, and George Louis Ohlstrom, with the core mission of providing quality service and value to California communities. Whereas the Visalia District was one of the first for water systems acquired by the company founders, establishing a foundational relationship and deep-rooted commitment to Thai residents of Tulare County that was successfully endured for a full century. Whereas the company has demonstrated exemplary stewardship through conservation programs and rebates that have helped customers reduce their water use by 30 percent between 2000 and 2020. supporting both environmental sustainability and household affordability. Whereas Cal Water has invested responsibly in infrastructure, sustainable initiatives, and community well-being, undertaking proactive ongoing maintenance and upgrades to deliver safe, clean drinking water and improve emergency Readiness. All right, my eyes are bad today. Whereas, Cal Water has been recognized as one of America's most responsible company and world's most trustworthy companies by Newsweek and A Great Place to Work, reflecting the company's commitment to protecting the planet, caring for people, and operating with the utmost integrity. And whereas through generations of employees and leadership, Cal Water has maintained its commitment to enhancing the quality of life for customers and communities, creating jobs, supporting the local economy, and engaging with community organizations and our neighborhoods. Now, therefore, be it resolved that the Tulare County Board of Supervisors does hereby recognize California Water System Company on its 100th anniversary and commends its enduring commitment to providing safe, clean, reliable water to more than 2 million people statewide. Signed by Supervisor Macari, Supervisor Vanderpool, myself, Supervisor Valero, and Supervisor Townsend. So thank you, gentlemen, for all that you do. And we're going to step up here. Kevin, you can join us. You don't want to be in it? Here you go. And I do want to say, just recently, you connected our campus here also to Cal Water. We were on our own well system, and we are now connected to Cal Water. So thank you for all the work and working with our folks on that. All right, thanks, Kevin. All right, our next proclamation is recognizing August 2026 as national breastfeeding month in Tulare County and supervisor Macari will be presenting that proclamation. I'm sorry. Yes, we have our health officer Dr. Tariq here to give a little introduction and then Larry you can present.

Good morning Madam Chair, members of the board, Mr. CAO, Ms. County Council and Madam Clerk. My name is Dr. Asma Tariq and as the County Health Officer it is my pleasure to introduce this very important proclamation recognizing August as National Breastfeeding Awareness Month. All major health organizations recommend breastfeeding as the optimal source of infant nutrition. Exclusive breastfeeding is encouraged for the first six months of life, and most organizations recommend continuing it for at least one year. In fact, the World Health Organization recommends a minimum of two years. These recommendations reflect decades of evidence showing breastfeeding has significant beneficial impacts on the mother and baby. in alignment with these recommendations and our mission to promote the health of our communities tulare county public health recognizes breastfeeding as a public health priority we are committed to fostering environments that support and empower families in their breastfeeding journey much of this work is made possible through the efforts of our wic program and their valuable partners who provide essential education resources and support to families throughout the county I am proud to introduce WIC program manager Sarah Smith and international board-certified lactation consultant Elizabeth Gray, who will come forward and share a brief overview of the impact of our program. Thank you very much for your continued commitment to the health and well-being of families in Tulare County. Thank you. God bless.

Thank you, Doctor.

Thank you, Dr. Tariq, for that wonderful introduction. Good morning, Madam Chair, members of the board, Mr. CAO, Ms. Council, and Madam Clerk. Women, infant, and children, WIC, maternal child adolescent health, MCAH, and nurse family partnership, NFP, all play a vital role in strengthening breastfeeding in our community. The Tulare WIC program is quite large. Monthly, we serve around 22,000 families. Each year, 4,000 babies are born into our program. Of these babies, about 20% are fully breastfed by three months. That's about 800 babies a year. While this is a large percentage of babies, part of our work is raising this number each and every day. Most moms do want to breastfeed, but there are often barriers in their way. Receiving education about breastfeeding while the mom is pregnant has been shown to increase initiation rates. These moms are more prepared for some of the things that might happen during labor and delivery, and thus are able to make it through those challenges still breastfeeding. The Tulare County WIC breastfeeding peer counseling program does just that. We call moms during pregnancy, provide monthly follow-up calls, and walk with them step by step after the baby is here. The key to long-term breastfeeding is support and education. We continue to work with our local health care providers and hospitals to increase education for not only family members, but also for nurses, medical assistants, pediatricians, OBGYNs, family practice doctors, and anyone else who will listen. Our local MCAH and NFP programs serve the same community we do, providing in-home support to young families, meeting them where they're at, and guiding them towards community resources and other supportive programs. It's only when we work together as a community that we can bridge health disparities, income gaps, and other barriers to access when it comes to breastfeeding information. We all know that breastfeeding is natural and normal. That doesn't make it easy, and all of our families deserve support and education to empower them to make the best choices possible for themselves and their families. Thank you very much for your support.

Thank you.

It's going to be an approximation from the Board of Supervisors. It's recognizing August 2026 as National Breastfeeding Month in Tulare County. Whereas the County of Tulare promotes and supports breastfeeding as the best and preferred source of infant nutrition to programs such as women, infants, and children as the WIC program. The maternal Child Adolescent Health MCAH program and the Nurse Family Partnership. And whereas the County of Tulare is committed to advancing breastfeeding as a standard for infant and young child feeding, recognizing its vital role in promoting improved health outcomes for both mothers and infants as an important public health practice. And whereas breastfeeding and skin-to-skin contact builds a strong emotional connection between the parent and infant and provides a safe and reliable food source, especially during natural disasters and emergency situations. And whereas the County of Tulare recognizes the importance of supporting families, particularly working parents, with policies and practices to protect and promote breastfeeding, including access to lactation support services and workplace accommodations. And whereas, the County of Tulare is committed to fostering supportive environments and raising awareness about breastfeeding by encouraging all community members to support breastfeeding families through collaborative partnerships to strengthen individual, family, and community support systems with the goal of increasing breastfeeding rates and improving maternal and infant health outcomes, particularly among underserved populations. And now, therefore, be it resolved that the Tulare County Board of Supervisors does here recognize the month of August 2026 as National Breastfeeding Month and reaffirms its commitment to promoting, protecting, and supporting breastfeeding for the benefit of current and future generations. It is dated August 18th, 2026, signed by myself, Larry McCurry, Supervisor Pete Vanderpool, Supervisor Amy Shecklian, Supervisor Eddie Valero, and Supervisor Dennis Townsend.

All right. Thank you.

Something. Oh.

Okay, thank you. Our next item is public comment. 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 the microphone and state your name for the record. we have a three minute time limit I do want to refine remind folks that now we have telephonic people can call in for public comment but we will mute your microphone at three minutes so I apologize and because of being able to mute the microphone speakers at the lectern also will be cut short, well, not short, but at three minutes. So with that, Madam Clerk, do we have any public comment? Yes, Madam Chair. Patrick Burks? Oh, this is going to be a long one. You get one minute.

Good morning, Madam Chair, Vice Chair, CAO Britt, Council, and members of the board. It's definitely a little different standing on this side of the lectern this morning. Being warned about my three minutes, I think it's best that I stick to my script here. In keeping in tradition with my tour of local government meetings, and my introductory tour of Assembly District 33. For those that I may not have had the opportunity to meet during my just over five years here at the County Board of Supervisors, my name is Patrick Burks. I now have the privilege of serving as the District Director for Assemblywoman Alexandra Macedo in California's 33rd Assembly District. I also wanted to share some exciting news from Sacramento. Assemblywoman Macedo has officially been elected Assembly Minority Leader by the Assembly Republican Caucus, giving her an even greater voice at the State Capitol. While her role has grown, her commitment to the Central Valley has not changed. Later, Mesita remains focused on ensuring that our families, farmers, small businesses, cities, and counties continue to have a strong voice in Sacramento, particularly as California continues to struggle with affordability and the rising cost of living. I also wanted to briefly update the board regarding the proposed GlobalStack AI Data Center project, especially in light of today's agenda item concerning a temporary moratorium on data center development in Tulare County. About three and a half weeks ago, Leader Macedo's office convened a regional roundtable bringing together representatives from the city, county, state, and federal levels. The purpose was not to advocate for or against the project, but to bring decision makers together, identify outstanding questions, and determine what additional information is needed before any conclusions are reached. I especially want to thank Supervisor Vanderpool, Supervisor Mercari, and Supervisor Townsend, CEO Jason Britt, and RMA for participating and ensuring that Tulare County had a strong voice in that conversation. As a result of that roundtable, our office is working with GlobalStack to coordinate and COORDINATED TRANSPARENCY AND INFORMATIONAL MEETING WHERE LOCAL ELECTED OFFICIALS AND THEIR REPRESENTATIVES CAN ENGAGE DIRECTLY WITH THE DEVELOPER, ASK QUESTIONS, AND BETTER UNDERSTAND BOTH THE OPPORTUNITIES AND POTENTIAL IMPACTS ASSOCIATED WITH THE PROJECT OF THIS SCALE. TODAY'S DISCUSSION FURTHER UNDERSCORES THE IMPORTANCE OF HAVING COMPLETE AND ACCURATE INFORMATION BEFORE SIGNIFICANT AND PERMANENT POLICY AND LAND USE DECISIONS ARE MADE. LEADER MACEDO BELIEVES GOOD PUBLIC POLICY IS BUILT THROUGH TRANSPARENCY, COLLABORATION, and informed decision making and we appreciate the county's willingness to continue engaging in that process with us thank you all for being a part of what makes assembly district 33 so great and please feel free to reach out if you need anything from my office or my staff thank you

All right. Thank you, Patrick.

Real quick, we don't respond to public comment, but I just really like Patrick and I worked with him for five years. I just want to clarify I was not in attendance at the roundtable discussion specifically to adhere to Brown Act requirements so that there were only two supervisors present and not a majority of the board. So I just want to clarify that.

All right. Thank you. Okay. Do we have anybody else? Yes.

Maria Perez.

Maria? Good morning, Maria.

Good morning.

Everybody, SEIU, please stand.

All right. Good morning, Board of Supervisors. My name is Maria Paredes. I've been a home care provider for four years. I'm a proud SEIU 2015 member here in Tulare County. Every day I provide essential and personal care, including emotional support that keeps my grandma and my brother out of the hospital and safe at home. Being an IHSS provider shouldn't mean choosing between the care of our loved ones and affordable basic necessities. Yet, we're asked to provide essential quality care for just $17.50 an hour without healthcare. This county's living wages for one adult is $24.46 an hour for a single person without children. It's nearly $7 less than what one adult needs to survive in this county. I'm not close to that wage and I'm doing essential work for this community every single day. Because of that gap, I have to work multiple jobs, and I have to cover my own medical needs while I'm here covering everybody else's. I'm exhausted, and that's truly today. I'm very exhausted. And I know I'm not the only provider struggling to make ends meet. And when we sat down to bargain, the county only offered us only a nickel, a nickel, this nickel, okay? And then they offered us a dime. The board has the power to do better, you guys do. Is that how much my work is valued? Is that how much our recipients across the county like my grandma and my brother are worth? I was here before and I'm here again today and I'm gonna keep coming back for my brother, for my grandma, for myself and for every provider that's standing here with me, okay? We're fighting for the future of care. We are doing our part for Tulare County every single day. It is time for this board to do its part, invest in people, invest in home care providers like me and the rest of these people here. Thank you. Thank you, Maria.

Dolly Munoz.

Good morning. Good morning. Good morning, Board of Supervisors. My name is Dolly Muñoz, and I'm here as an HSS provider and SEIU 2015 member. I take care of my two daughters. My two daughters, Adelina and Melania. To make it clear, it's not a workforce. It's wages that county board has the power of changing that. It's time to tell Larry County to the IHSS providers who keep our community strong. We are apart every day. Now it's time for the IHSS board to do the same. We're the board of IHSS providers to help build a workforce that can to start this work for the to care of Tulare County. Thank you.

Thank you, Dolly.

Myrtle Floyd.

Good morning, Ms. Floyd.

Good morning. First of all, I'd just like to say good morning to the Board of Supervisors and to all of those who are standing behind me. My name is Myrtle Floyd, and I am an IHSS provider and a SEIU 2015 member here in Tulare County. I now care for my son. and I have cared for others in the IHSS program. But the care that I give my son keeps him from being in a institution or in a long-term facility. Without the care that I provide, I don't know what would happen to him. Here in Tulare County, over 80% of the IHSS providers are working multiple jobs just to make ends meet. That should be a wake up call for this board to invest in caregivers. The people this board depends on to keep our seniors and people with disabilities safely at home have to work multiple jobs and remain among the lowest paid workers in the county just to survive. And it's not because this work doesn't require skill, it's because care isn't being treated as a priority. Nursing assistants make $21.68 an hour. Medical assistants make $22.68. We're paid $1.50 to $5 less for a similar care in the same county. We're not asking this board for a favor. We're asking to be recognized for the essential care we provide to be paid fairly across the board and to make ends meet in Tulare County. Until this happens, providers like us will continue to have to work two or three jobs just to survive. It's time to invest in the providers who care for the Tulare County families. As care providers, we give 100% to make sure our clients are well taken care of and can remain safely at home. We're not asking a lot. We're simply asking that to be treated fairly and to have the support that we need. We're simply asking that you treat us like we're caring for one of your family members, one of your friends, one of your children, your mother or your father. We're just asking you to vote with your heart and not with your mind. Thank you.

Do we have anybody else?

That concludes public comment cards and we do not have anybody on remote.

Okay, I just want to mention one thing before we started. Our deputy clerk came to me. We have a lot of different boards and commissions that folks can volunteer for, and we have quite a few openings for our IHSS board, and so if anybody there been having problems getting a quorum, you are all passionate about the work that you do, so I would encourage you, you can get an application here at the front desk or go online and put in an application for our ihss board so thank you very much thank you no callers no colors okay all right We will move on to our consent calendar. These items are routine and usually approved by one motion before action by the board. The chair will ask members of the public if they wish to remove any item from the consent calendar for separate consideration. Items removed from the consent calendar may be heard immediately before or after the approval of the consent calendar or may be set aside until later in the meeting. Do we have anybody who would like to pull anything from the consent calendar this morning? All right, not seeing anybody, I will entertain a motion. We have a motion by Supervisor Valero with a second by Supervisor Townsend. Please cast your votes. That motion passes 5-0. all right we will now move on to items not time the first being item 23 this is a request from the board of supervisors staff to approve modify as needed and authorize the chair to sign a letter requesting assistance in resolving delays in federal emergency management agency reimbursements for damage sustained in the flooding disasters of 2023

Mr. Sotelo. Good morning, Chair, Vice Chair, members of the board, CAO Britt, County Council, This request before you is to approve a letter to the federal administration, the Trump administration, requesting assistance in our FEMA reimbursement claims. More than three years after the disaster, the flooding disasters of 2023, and with more than 140 million in assessed county infrastructure damage, the county is still owed approximately $42 million across 37 road and bridge projects. none of which have been obligated since September of 2025. No project has been obligated since September of 2025. The county has pursued resolution through sustained advocacy at every level, including direct meetings with FEMA and state leadership on December 5th, 2024, February 12th, 2025 and February 26th, 2025. Formal correspondence sent individually to every member of the county's congressional delegation on September 3rd, 2024 and August 13th, 2025. and a direct inquiry submitted to the Secretary of Homeland Security, Mark Wayne Mullen, through Congressman Vince Fong in June of 2026, to which we have still not received a response. Despite these efforts...

Your time's up. My time's up. I don't know what that was, sorry.

Despite these efforts and specific commitments from FEMA leadership at multiple points to move projects forward, the county has experienced repeated delays, a period of several months without a FEMA point of contact or program delivery manager, and continued uncertainty regarding a timeline for resolution. The attached letter requests the administration's direct intervention to resolve the outstanding backlog. Specifically, we're requesting two things. First, that FEMA provide clarity on the pending review process, that is the secretary level review process for grants that exceed $100,000, as well as a point of contact within the department who can establish a reasonable timeline for resolution for the county's 37 pending projects. Secondly, we're asking that FEMA review time extension requests on a case-by-case basis What's happened recently is they are summarily denying our time extension requests Even when the delay can be attributed to FEMA and their processes so we're asking that previously approved projects be held harmless for delays attributable to their own review timelines And lastly, I'd like to acknowledge the amazing work of those who have been working extremely hard on these FEMA reimbursement claims. our folks over at RMA and HHSA Fiscal, our consultants over at Terrafort, Jake and Grady, our federal lobbyists, David Wetmore, Congressman Valadao, Congressman Vince Vaughn, Congressman Costa, and their staff. They've all been doing everything they can to help Tulare County on this for the last three and a half years, and they deserve to be recognized for their efforts, and I'm happy to take any questions.

Okay, Supervisor McCurry.

Aye. Israel, I want to thank you. I asked Israel to put this together and bring it up and this is going, this is addressed to the President, President of the United States on down, everybody. We have done everything we can. We've gone on our legislative trips and we sat there and they, In 2025 when, I don't even want to say it, Doge was going on and they were losing their jobs because of inefficiencies, they jumped over backwards to meet us and we met there at the FEMA headquarters and they assured us then and they apologized. They said it was a failure and there was concessions made. There was a plan made and there was promises made. And they told us at that time, to our face, be the squeaky wheel. Don't stop. You guys got to keep going. Be the squeaky wheel. And I think we've been squeaking quite some time. Bob Fenton was actually at that meeting on Zoom, and I had a chance to talk with him at NACO at the FEMA task force meeting where they put this task force together to try to resolve the issues that FEMA is having. And when I brought up this to him, his response to me is, just because you're loud doesn't mean I'm going to make you a priority. So, it's just proof of the contradiction that FEMA says. They tell us to do one thing, they do something else. He got up there, talks about how broad our shoulders are. I want to hear the truth. I want to know what's going on. I want to fix the problems. And that's his response. And I'm like, you know, I don't even want to say what I thought. I'm sure those of you who know me know exactly what I thought. Supervisor Pereira from Merced went up, Israel was there, went up to this young lady Aubrey, we talked to her, and he expressed the same issues that they're having in Merced County. So I went to Scotty Silvera from Merced County, he's the chair of SJV RAC, and asked for their support on this. And at the time, Supervisor Verboon from Kings County was there, and all these other supervisors were saying the exact same things happened to them. We don't even have a contact person. I think that what's happened, and correct me if I'm wrong, is that since we kind of brought this up at NACO, we're getting a canned message now, so they can at least say they respond, but it's just an auto response, and we're still not getting anywhere. So Israel, we spent a lot of time discussing this. Israel had two other, actually three different versions of this. One was kind of just a soft shoe of, hey, we need some help. But that's not me. I want this to be to the point and blunt and exactly what we're talking about so they understand what we're going to. CSAC has indicated to me that they have state whites having issues as well. So we're not the only ones. So they want to, Graham asked for a copy of this letter so he can adjust it at the state level. We're going to talk about it at SJV RAC, but I want every board member to know that this letter right here, I'm going to say pointed. It's not disrespectful, but it's very pointed. That's something we usually don't really do. We kind of soft-shoe. I think we're done. Done, just soft-shoe. So I directed Israel to write that letter, and if there's any heat or it comes back or it blows up, then it's going to be on me because I don't want staff to do something that I direct them to and then it's like, well, you wrote the letter and you gave it to us.

My signature's gonna be on it, so just a reminder.

Yeah, exactly. So, yeah, I mean, I know, but you know what I mean. I just, I just, because this is kind of unusual. Yeah, we've had a lot of, well, we have had a lot of discussion about it, and I just want to make certain that every board member understands that, that we tried everything we can to even talk to the guy face-to-face who's promising to fix it, and he's just nothing but a lazy bureaucrat. That's all he is, and it's just shut it down. So, with that, I'll be quiet.

Is that in the letter? Yeah. Okay. All right. Any other comments on this? Supervisor Townsend?

Yeah. I just want to encourage Supervisor Mercari to say what he really feels and not to hold back anymore. I do appreciate, though, that Supervisor Mercari took this on after seeing, you know, I was in that meeting in D.C. I saw how they responded quickly and when they were worried about the position being cut completely and how it's been just degrading since then. So I think we do need to do something. I read all three of the letter drafts. I do like the one that's the most pointed. That's the one that's before us today. And so I think Israel did a great job putting those all three together. And I think we should do it just that direction. I don't think we have anything to lose on it. And it's not really talking anybody down. It's just saying this is where we are. This is how long it's been. It's not just our problem. It's throughout the state and other states. But just to let them know that we need some help here.

And so I'm completely for this And I'll just share that the impacts are still felt today in places all across this county and Specifically like in three rivers bridges that are still needing a repair and so it poses a Risk for our residents as well. So yes. Thank you for the letter. I

Okay, and I just wanna mention, we brought this up, I brought this up to our Regional Association of Counties meeting on Friday, and not just countywide, it's statewide. Our friends in Fresno County, you remember the Creek Fire? Five or six years ago, there was hundreds of millions of dollars in damage, and they've received $600,000 from FEMA for reimbursement, so definitely something that needs to happen. um with that i'll open it up is there any public comment on this item i have no public comment cards or anybody online all right so seeing none i will bring it back for a motion we have a motion by supervisor makari and a second by supervisor valero please cast your votes motion passes 5-0 thank you All right, our next item is number 24. This is a request. I'm going to shorten it down here, Mike, because it's like five paragraphs. This is a request from the Resource Management Agency to determine that adoption of the proposed Uncodified Urgency Ordinance is categorically exempt from CEQA. This is establishing a temporary 45-day moratorium on the acceptance, processing, approval, or issuance of permits and entitlements for new data centers development within the unincorporated areas of Tulare County. You're on.

Thank you, Chair Shockley and board members, CAO Brett, Council Flores, and Our esteemed clerk, Ms. Benton. Mike Washam, Tulare County RMA, and yes, I'm here today to present a proposal for your consideration to adopt an interim ordinance establishing a temporary moratorium on data center development. I'll take the next few minutes to briefly go over the following. What's the purpose of the ordinance? Briefly explain what an urgency ordinance is, why it's necessary, why we want to do it now, and what does the ordinance do? Kind of answer the question of why can't we just process them under our existing regulations. And then the development of new permanent regulations, our proposed timeline, and the benefits of acting now. So those are the topics I'll cover on these upcoming slides. So the purpose is not about whether Tulare County supports or opposes data centers. Rather, it's about ensuring that the county has adequate time to evaluate and thoughtfully consider this emerging form of development and establish appropriate regulations before projects are submitted under our existing ordinance code. The proposed ordinance is intended to preserve the status quo. We don't have any large-scale data. We don't have any applications at this point. We have had inquiries, but we don't have any applications. It's to keep the status quo while the county develops a comprehensive long-term policies that balance economic development opportunities with the protection of our public health, safety, natural resources, infrastructure, and agriculture. So briefly, what is an urgency ordinance? Under government code, authorizes cities and counties to adopt an interim urgency ordinance when there's a current or immediate threat to the public health, safety, or welfare. An interim ordinance temporarily prohibits certain types of land use approvals while the jurisdiction studies the issue, prepares permanent regulations. Unlike a standard zoning ordinance, urgency ordinance becomes effective immediately upon your adoption by a four-fifths vote. uh the initial ordinance has a 45-day limit but during that 45 days we can come back the staff would propose we would come back and have a public hearing normal public hearing and that could be extended to 10 months and 15 days. So essentially a year and then if additional times needed there could be one more Extension after that but this process is really specifically intended to prevent development from occurring under our outdated regulations before the jurisdiction has opportunity to update its policies and Why is this necessary? Data center development has rapidly emerged throughout California as demands for cloud computing, artificial intelligence, digital infrastructure continues to accelerate. These facilities differ significantly from traditional commercial industrial development. Large scale data centers require significant electrical capacity, significant water resources for cooling systems, extensive backup power generation, large building footprints, specialized utility infrastructure, and around the clock operations. Many existing zoning ordinance, including Tulare counties, were developed before these facilities became commonplace and therefore do not specifically address the unique operational characteristics of these types of facilities. So without updating regulations, applications could be processed using standards that were never intended for this type of development. Why now? Again, as I mentioned, data center development is increasing throughout California, and we have had a few inquiries in the county, but we haven't received any applications at this point. Several California jurisdictions have recently adopted or are actively considering temporary moratoriums while they evaluate appropriate regulatory frameworks. Waiting until a formal application is submitted significantly limits the county's ability to proactively establish clear standards. Adopting an interim ordinance would now allow the county to carefully evaluate these issues before irreversible land use decisions are made. This is a proactive measure rather than a reaction to a specific project. So what does the ordinance do? The proposed ordinance temporarily suspends the acceptance, processing, and approval of applications for large scale data centers within the unincorporated area of Tulare County. The ordinance does not permanently prohibit data centers. Instead, it provides the county with a limited period of time to conduct research, engage stakeholders, evaluate the impacts, and prepare permanent zoning regulations. Projects unrelated to data centers aren't impacted by this at all. So why couldn't we just process under our existing ordinances? The county's current zoning ordinance does not specifically address or regulate data centers. Most important issues that may warrant additional review include designing and determining the appropriate zoning districts, The water demand and the long-term water sustainability. Electrical infrastructure and energy consumption. You often hear about increases in utility costs for surrounding neighbors, etc. There's a lot of infrastructure improvements that need to be built and those costs could be shared by the rate payers, and that's what increases potential cost for that. So we would be looking at requirements of how those infrastructure would have to be paid for by the developer coming forward. So those are some of the considerations. Again, noise generated by the cooling equipment and all the backup generators, that they would need, the building size, site design setbacks, emergency response considerations for our fire department, our sheriff, environmental impacts, agricultural land conversion, traffic and construction impacts, and community compatibility. We've attached five research papers to your staff report included with this that provide further detail on these issues. Developing these standards requires careful technical evaluation that cannot reasonably occur while you're processing a specific development project or an application. That's why we want to get ahead of the curve here. So during the temporary moratorium, county staff would undertake a comprehensive planning process that would include reviewing regulations adopted by other jurisdictions, researching industry's best practices, consulting with utility providers and the water agencies, evaluating consistency with our general plan, developing objective development standards, identifying the appropriate zoning districts, conducting environmental review under CEQA, engaging stakeholders, industry representatives, agricultural interests, and the public, preparing amendments to the zoning ordinance for future board consideration. So the objective is to establish clear, predictable regulations that provide certainty for both the county and any prospective developer. So the timeline. Assuming that the board chooses to adopt this interim ordinance, it would go into effect immediately. Within 45 days, we would come back with a full public hearing, public notice hearing, and consider extension for up to 10 months and 15 days, so a total of about one year. And in case we need additional time, there's one option to extend that a little bit further. But during those following months after this is implemented, we will be completing research and policy development. We'll prepare draft zoning ordinance amendments, conduct any CEQA review that's required. We'll hold planning commission hearings, and we will return to your board for adoption of permanent regulations. Once the permanent regulations become effective, then the interim ordinance would be no longer necessary. So the benefits of taking action now adopting their urgency ordinance allows the county to protect public health, safety and welfare while regulations are being developed. Pressure or preserve local control over our land use decisions. Ensure consistency with the general plan, protect water and infrastructure resources, consider impacts to agriculture and surrounding communities, provide certainty and predictability for future applicants, reduce the likelihood of approving projects under outdated regulations. Most importantly, it allows the county to be proactive rather than reactive. And with that, that's the conclusion of the staff report. The requested action is here and in your packet. And I'm open for any questions or... Mike, thank you for this.

I know we had a discussion about this. Will this... Part of what the RMA is going to put together, going to identify the data centers, because now there's different types. You got the huge one that everyone envisions, it takes up all the water and electricity. Now they're coming out with the edge model, which they say, oh no, it's self-contained, it's modular. Well, that sounds good, but modular is, look at solar, that's modular too, and it can take up a huge area. Were you guys gonna look at that, the different ones? I mean, we also, not to cut you off, but we also approved a data center for the county business here, but it's an IT room is what it, and so it's being referred to as a data center.

Absolutely one of the first steps is is actually getting a description of what a definition of what a data center is and there may be tiers there may be certain levels of data center depending on the demand electrical demand the water demand or what there may be different regulations for different types of design potentially.

And the one thing to make clear, this isn't a county jurisdiction. We have no authority over cities. They're planning. We have no authority over state properties. They're planning. And it's my understanding that and this may not be accurate, but there may be a city interested in pursuing one and putting it on the outline areas of their area, which may be close to one of our communities. I think we need to take a stand on that, even though we have no say, but if they do that, because depending on the type, it could negatively impact our community.

I understood, um, this ordinance, any, any ordinance that the county has is within our unincorporated areas of the county. That's where we have the jurisdiction.

OK, Supervisor Vanderpool.

Thank you, Madam Chair. Mike, great presentation. I think Supervisor Macari brought up a lot of the issues that I had as well. Just looking at this, do you have any sort of model policies that you've seen out there from other jurisdictions? Because I know that this is, you know, they're spreading like wildfire in certain areas of this country and I just I hope that we're able to kind of see some of what they have undertaken and consider that here as well as much as it would apply locally

Absolutely. The process is, right now, this is like we take a breath. We pause. We don't take any. And then we consider all of those different things that are moving. This technology is moving rapid fire. Things are, at one point four months ago, Something couldn't be done and now it could be in technology wise for for risk reduction reductions in water use. There's new technology that wasn't available just even a few months ago. There's more cost involved in developing that way and there's more utility electrical use in doing that. So there's offshoot. So certainly this is a time to step back. gather this information from what's going on across the country and kind of look forward and have a very prudent path forward to be very stewards of our county.

And just based on that, I mean, these are pretty significant projects, and I think this is going to take a little longer than 45 days. So I hope that we don't feel like there's a time pressure on acting on this. I hope we are able to take very thorough consideration of all different issues, policies that have been adopted in other locations for implementation here. I think that's really important and I also think it's really important, especially in the unincorporated areas of this county, we already have significant infrastructure concerns. We already have farmers that can't farm ground because of lack of water availability. There's a lot to consider here that may be different than other areas, and I hope that this thoughtful and thorough process gets us there.

We definitely won't be hasty on this. This is going to be, yes, 45 days. That's why we will be coming back to extend it and then potentially even extend it a little further. But I would anticipate this is going to be close to a year, if not maybe a year and a half to go through this process.

Supervisor Townsend.

Thank you, Madam Chair, and thank you, Mike, for already doing a great amount of work on this. I know it's a very important topic, and you've touched on most of the things that I had a little list to talk about already. One of the things we didn't talk much about, but I know you're considering it, is just location. One of the things that came up was maybe using the Rural Valley Lands Plan scoring to figure it out to make sure we don't put these on, if any are ever permitted, if they would not be on irrigated prime ag land. I think that might be one method of doing that. And you mentioned the noise, you mentioned setbacks, property line, probably decibel levels at property line would be a consideration. And that's obviously stuff that we can do. And then with the power, since, going back to the noise, most of the noise is coming from backup generators and so we could do some, maybe have them, the applicants do some sort of power studies to see how that would impact our existing grid, how much backup generation would be anticipated and what type of backup generation it would be so that we could evaluate the noise concerns. And then of course you talked about the water and my understanding that they're changing quite a bit real quick on the technology there that most everything is a closed loop system now, but there's still a water generation there so that that's probably part of the definition that you'll be coming up with how much of the water generation there is or how much water usage there is. I don't think we mentioned lighting. I know that we'd heard some complaints about lighting. We have some. If we followed the California Green Code that came out a long time ago, then that talks about lighting can't even bleed off the property line, and so I guess we could just adopt that, but enforcement's probably the toughest one on that. So down lighting and having more of a, maybe not all the way to a dark sky standard, but not directing them upwards, not directing them towards residential areas and roadways. and then we'll have the public hearing it will already be built in because of the use permit process would be in there and then the other one would probably be a hot topic is going to be the the way the tax taxing structure comes down I've heard some discussion that sometimes it's building only but sometimes it's building an equipment which can be a big difference with with these types of centers and so if we do it like we do any other business that uses equipment where we have the tax on the the building and any tax on the equipment um then that would be pretty significant as far as generation and uh i want to put my um i want to put my vote in right now to use that additional revenues towards road improvement into larry county that's all i have all right supervisor valero

I was going to wait, but I'll just share my remarks now. And again, thank you for the extensive material that you provided for this agenda item, as well as the university report that allows us to understand the complexities of the data centers. For me, I've had questions along with several constituent calls and emails about potential data centers in our county. So again, thank you to the staff for looking into this in the coming weeks and sharing your insights on its impact to Tulare County. I also want to say that I have concerns about the potential development of these centres both in large scale and small scale in the county as those concerns are not limited simply to water consumption or to electricity demand, although that's what we've been hearing extensively these past few months. My concern is that we are being confronted with an emerging land use whose scale intensity and long-term consequences to our existing zoning frameworks was not designed to address but again thank you for being proactive not reactive in making sure that you're going to look into this matter and as my colleagues have mentioned too as we are in agricultural county we continue to confront serious questions regarding groundwater sustainability we have unincorporated communities as mentioned by my colleagues as well that have historically struggled with infrastructure capacity We live within an air basin that already faces significant air quality challenges, and we experience periods of extreme heat when both water and electricity become even more critical resources. And so again, I'm just concerned about introducing an extraordinarily resource intensive land use into the existing environment without first understanding the cumulative consequences. But I think that's what we're going to be able to understand based on the reports that you bring forward for us in the future. And I'm hopeful that staff will look into concerns about facility types and impacts to land use. For example, we need to understand what a facility of this magnitude means for the electrical grid, for our groundwater basins, for our neighborhood agricultural operations, for our roads, fire protection, emergency response, air quality, nearby residents, and ultimately the public infrastructure upon which everyone depends on. And I know my colleagues have shared that as well. And then another fundamental question that I think we need to ask as well is what does Tulare County gain and what does Tulare County potentially give up? um and then i would also like staff to examine whether data centers should ever be located on productive agricultural land what separation should be required from residential communities and schools and hospitals and other sensitive receptors as mentioned by one of my colleagues as well and whether they should be confined to particular industrial areas and whether they are portions there are portions of tulare county where the infrastructure simply cannot support this type of development If a project tells us during the entitlement process that it will consume a certain amount of water or electricity, employ a certain number of people, or operate within a certain noise level, how do we verify those commitments five or ten years later? What happens if those projections are exceeded? If the economic assumptions underlying this industry change five or ten years from now, who is left responsible for infrastructure that was constructed specifically to serve these facilities. And so for these reasons, I believe caution is warranted here still. But again, I want to thank our resource management agency for working to establish thoughtful protections before these applications arrive, rather than attempt to address their consequences afterwards. And so again, thank you for being ahead of the issue today.

thank you um do we have any public comment on this item madam chair we do not have any public comment cards but we do have uh remote colors and i will start with the first one mariela laura good morning good morning my name is mariela laura policy manager with leadership council for justice and accountability for over a decade we have been working alongside residents of six lane matini tuladillo These communities already experience significant environmental and social inequities, including limited access to clean and safe drinking water, unreliable electricity service, and poor air quality, all of which will further be strained with the development of data centers. So we do support the proposed 45-day moratorium. We also urge the board to go beyond simply regulating these facilities and instead do an analysis of whether data centers make sense at all in the region. Data centers can further impact the region in various ways, including air quality data centers rely And these are backup generators that in a particular matter, nitrogen oxide, carbon monoxide, sulfur oxide. And Tulare County already struggles with some of the worst air quality in the country. Second, water. Beta centers consume millions of gallons of water each day with significant amount lost through evaporation. Third, noise. Backup generators and other equipment can create significant noise affecting nearby residents. And finally, electricity. Beta centers consume an enormous amount of electricity, placing significant pressure on the existing grid. And for all of these reasons, again, we support the moratorium. However, we respectfully ask the board to direct staff to develop a permanent ban on data centers instead of a current direction to develop policies that allow data centers under certain conditions. And we encourage you to review the permanent ban effort approved by the city of the Monterey Park and also the permanent ban effort underway by the city of Coachella.

Thank you.

Thank you.

Mateo Fernandez.

Hello, my name is Mateo Fernandez. I use he, they pronouns and I live in Visalia. I know Supervisor Vanderpool mentioned that this is spreading like wildfire in certain areas of this country. And I just want to emphasize that these areas are low income immigrant communities where there are a lot of black and brown people. So is I think that's something that we should also think about when we think about this. What are the harms of data centers to the point where we can't put them up in Beverly Hills? And on top of that, I think it was Supervisor Macari also talked about how there are several different types of data centers. And for example, GlobalStack said they were going to build sovereign edge data centers in 70 different counties. And then what happened was they started calling it a resiliency or emergency resiliency center or something like that. And so I definitely think the definition has to be on point once we're done with these 45 days or, you know, however much time this is going to take if you have to add on this 10 months. So I just wanted to bring that into the light of how, you know, for example, they changed it They changed it up so many times. It was the Sovereign Edge Data Center, then it was the Sovereign Edge Computer, because they didn't want to be associated with the phrase data center. But it still held those AI capabilities, which I think is one of the big things that makes it a data center. And another concern is the surveillance that comes with them. A lot of these have heavy, heavy surveillance around them. Like they're talking about having like passenger drones, and like different things like that cameras all over the place all over the place in residential areas. We've seen in other areas where data centers were put, there was a man who lived right next to one and did not feel comfortable talking to news outlets in his own home because he was afraid that something would happen, like it would be recorded or whatever. So I think that's something that wasn't brought up that I am pretty concerned about. And when it comes to noise pollution and other issues, I think we should also consider the construction process. So I know, for example, these are a lot of the times built far enough away from certain communities where people actually live. But when it's not, even the construction process itself that could take months or however long can be really, really disturbing and genuinely detrimental to the health of residents, which I think should also be considered. But yeah, I'm totally for waiting these 45 days and even longer at that. I'm completely against data centers. But I appreciate this being brought up. Thank you so much.

Thank you.

Heather Billings.

Hello. Hi, my name is Heather and I live in Porterville. I'm a mom who was alarmed by all of this. So I initially thought I was opposing a data center when I called this morning. And after listening to the meeting, I am relieved as a mom. I thought it was a lot further along than what it is. So I applaud everyone for your efforts on doing a pause on this whole thing. And I hope that it's passed for the 45 days. I hope it goes further than a year. I hope it's banned completely as a mom and a mom of many, I mean, I'm sorry, a mom of high school students and friends of other parents who feel the same way about these data centers. It's not just the noise and the light, but it's the water. It's about the, I'm not going to repeat all the things you guys already know about, but the costs that are going to be shifted to us later. and the jobs that are gonna be promised, but not fulfilled. And a lot of other promises like that they said, but in 10 years from now will change. So, you know, I'm trying to think of my children's future and I love this area and I am very happy with everything that you guys are doing and working towards and I hope that it passes. And I would like to thank you all again for all your time and effort. And now I can go and let The other moms know that you guys are handling it and you guys are on top of it. So I'm very thankful. Thank you. Anna.

Good morning.

Hello.

Good morning, everyone. My name is Anai, a lifelong Tulare County resident. I reside in an unincorporated Tulare County. I'm here to simply say I'm a supporter of this moratorium, but I actually hope this board goes even further and permanently bans data centers in the entire county. We do not need any zoning regulations for data centers. We need a ban. Creating a ban would send a message to industries trying to come into Tulare County that we actually plan to prioritize the longevity of our finite resources like water and, of course, attempt to keep our energy bills reasonable. even though that might be impossible since rates have already increased every few months. With all that said, Board of Supervisors, I hope you don't get distracted by the superficial offerings of this company and for future proposals to come. You all do not need a company to help you prepare a county so it can be emergency resilient. You can move those funds now in our county budgets. I really hope you look at the impact that all data centers are having across the nation. The temporary moratorium is great, but a permanent ban is what Tulare County should consider. I hope in your research you include how data centers have already drastically raised their carbon emissions. Amazon's latest sustainability report shows that carbon emissions from the online retail giant jumped by 16% in 2025, driven in large part by its multi-billion dollar data center build out. And that's just one company. There's so many. We do not need another natural resource intensive industry here. We have enough of that. Let's have those community meetings, this moratorium will allow, and together think about a future where we combat climate change by building development that centers the protection of our water and the human beings living here. Thank you. Thank you all for your time.

Thank you for your comments. Faith.

Faith Ortiz- Hello, my name is Faith Ortiz. I'm a resident of Porterville, California. Faith Ortiz- I just called in. I just got off my shift at work, but I just called in because I think it's important to support the memoratorium that's going on regarding AI data centers. Faith Ortiz- I like to say a quote by the Sam Altman, CEO of OpenAI. He says, and I quote, I think AI will probably will most likely lead to the end of the world. to lead to the end of the world. But in the meantime, there will be great companies created. I think the presentation that was given about data centers and the PowerPoint, it expresses all the important required information that needs to have attention brought into. But one thing that I would like to add to it is that data centers are for profit. They're not for individuals, families, or farms. If data centers are permitted in Tulare County, there will be price hikes on utilities, poor water pressure, contaminated discolored water that will lead to no water and constant noise pollution radiating from data centers. This is not a small possibility. This is not a what if. It is what's happening in areas where data centers have been permitted despite public outcry and lawsuits. This is happening in Wisconsin, Texas, Ohio, and Arizona, to name a few states. And another thing I'd like to add is that data centers have the common practice of NDAs. They begin projects without sharing all information and very little information due to non-disclosure agreements, which has become standard practice for them. And that's why I support just a full environmental report and any additional audit just truly be carried out. In Oregon, it wasn't until a local newspaper led a lawsuit which forced Google and Amazon data centers to share they were using over a quarter of the city's water supply and two-thirds of them are being built in regions with pre-existing water shortages.

That's all I have off the top of my head.

I just like to express how I feel and I know friends and family support that and I'm just happy that I got a voice even though You know, I just got off my shift and joining this. I yield any time I have left. Thank you.

Madam Chair, that concludes our remote public comments. I do have some emails that I'd like to pass out to the board.

Okay. And do we have anybody in the chambers who would like to speak for public comment? Good morning. Can you pull that microphone down? Thank you.

Good morning, Board of Supervisors. This is the first time that I come to a board meeting, so I'm excited. And I want to thank the management resource for the proposal to put a moratorium on data centers for the entire county. I would like to echo, I'm not going to repeat what the previous speaker spoke about, the problem or my concerns. I am a mom, and I have been living in Tulare County for 18 years. I remember when my babies were little, I needed to check the air quality every single day just to take them to the park. That is something that I know a lot of families struggle in Tulare County. And I would like to respectfully request the board to approve this. this moratorium, but extend that to a full ban. I would like to echo that, what the previous speakers spoke about. And I'm not gonna repeat the concern about water, electricity, air pollution, and noise. I would like to call to your, the power that you have, that community member have entrusted you to take care of your community and represent the community. And as far as I know, you probably heard about that July 21st. public meeting at the fairgrounds and a lot of community members were there. And I know a lot of community members are not here today because they're working, but I would like to echo their voice and make sure that you are aware of their concerns and take that vote into conscience when you pass this moratorium. And I hopefully, I hope that this is a total ban. So thank you for being proactive and I hope that you take that into consideration, and I appreciate Tulare County Board to be proactive in this topic. Thank you.

Thank you. Did we have another? Oh, there you are.

Good morning, board. This is my first time, I'm gonna echo that one. It's my first time here, first time speaking.

The AI Data Center's brought me here.

Oh, my name is Ashley, hi.

Okay, Ashley. In community, I go by Senisa, so you might also affiliate that name with me as well. Born and raised Visalian girl. Parents came here a long time ago. Tulare was our first home, so I have ties and roots to Tulare the city. My family ended up moving here to Visalia. This land is pretty sacred. I think we all know that. We know the responsibility that we have as stewards of this land, right? And the responsibility that we have to provide what we provide to the nation and the world. If we start allowing AI data centers to come in, we're gonna start extracting from this beautiful sacred land that we all are stewards of. Each one of you sitting at the table, you're a steward of it. I encourage you to please extend this moratorium. I do not want to see an AI data center go into this community or any other community that has such a huge responsibility. This is our land. Let's not let venture capitalists come in and extract from our land. Do not get distracted by the shiny carrot. Because not everybody is going to get the benefits of these AI data centers. There's going to be more harm. And all of you have great responsibilities. Spider-Man just came out. I'm going to quote that. Please listen to your communities, all of us within Tulare County. I yield my time.

Thank you. Any more? All right, then I will bring it back to the board. Are there any more questions? Yeah, Supervisor McCurry.

I don't have any questions. I'm going to make a motion.

Well.

OK, so my motion is that we approve the moratorium. But I'd also like to add that we take a position, since it's not on our platform, to oppose any data center developments in other jurisdictions in our county, cities. And if anything comes up, we take an opposition because I think we still need to RMA so finding out what the exact impacts are to the county. And if the city's going to put one next to, on the edge of their town, which could be close to ours, then uh, I think we need, should have a voice. And we have no say what they do, but I think we should take a position of opposition until this is resolved.

JAN SMITH. Madam Councilor. BILLY RADER.

Is that possible?

It's not agendized, I get it, but it's part of it.

You can amend the items listed on there to add that as a position, or we can bring this back later for a fuller discussion on taking that position.

Madam Chair, I'm sorry, just a point of clarification. So Supervisor Macari, you're suggesting that where the county takes a position that if you are a city developing a data center within county, nearing a county, we oppose that or you're talking about our legislative platform?

No. I said because it's not on our platform, we would have to agendize it, come through, and it would take some time. So what I'm asking is, and if I have to make an amendment, you tell me what to say and I'll do it, is I want to, I want to approve the 45-day moratorium. as it continues at the process that RMA's outlined. However, I would like to add that if something develops between that time and someone's going to start doing something, that we are, this board takes a position of opposition until we're satisfied that the impacts to our community and the more, and are more terms lifted.

So that was a question I was going to ask Mike. So you're saying just within this 45 days, because I was going to ask Mike, is there anything going on? Can we wait till we come back in 45 days to add that opposition statement or a letter or something, or are you concerned that within this next 45 days something is going to happen? Fairgrounds are already talking now.

I mean, they already had a conversation of putting them on, on the state fairgrounds, on state property. I, now it's my understanding. I know we don't have a lot. It's my, no, but we should still take an opposition, a point of opposition because it will, it could impact our county. And We have no say, and I understand that, but I think if we're gonna go, and it's more than 45 days, we're talking almost a year is what we're, in reality, what we're looking at. My point is that during this moratorium, we take a position of opposition. I mean, we're doing a moratorium, so obviously we oppose it. I think we should just be able to add that we just fire off a letter of opposition and it'd be approved by this board without having to come back and agendize it. So do I need to amend it, council? How do I amend it?

So just clarification, so you're not saying, In my mind what I thought you were saying was if if a city, you know if it's on the boundary of County City Yeah, we can we can oppose that but but you're saying something like that's in the middle If they're gonna put a big one in it's gonna use millions of gallons of water a day We should be able to oppose it.

I mean we all sit on GSA boards. We know the issue is going on We know the impact of our farming. So I think that what we need to do what I what I'm requesting is is that number one, we approve the moratorium as been provided by staff. I understand immediate 45 days. We're going to come back. It could go to a year, however. So that, that part's done. And then my next part of it is, is I'm requesting that during this moratorium period, we automatically take a position of opposition. That way, if something should come up, you as the chair can just sign a letter.

May I maybe put a finer point on that? So I think what you're trying to say is you want to adopt the 45-day moratorium and oppose any city development on data centers at this time because there would be no development in the county.

No, I understand. Any development because it could, and there's state property too involved. State or city? Yeah, any development of a data center within the boundaries of Tulare County, we take a position of opposition.

So if I may, if we if the board would rather have a more complete discussion, we could direct staff to place this on the next agenda. Right.

Or is there whatever's better?

Hold on supervisor Townsend. You had a comment.

Well, I was just gonna say to that point I wonder if we could just have a statement that we will if there is a proposed anywhere in Tulare County Whether it's on state property on city property that then we would review that one to decide on a position during the moratorium I mean just a man is little softer but because we don't know what any of these might be we don't have a definition yet and because we're gonna be developing definitions. So maybe if we just say, hey, if it comes up during the moratorium period, we will immediately put that on the agenda, agendize and take a position. Not that it'll be an opposed position, but we will debate that position, take public comment, the whole thing on each one.

Supervisor Valero?

But I agree with supervisor Macari if we are already in that moratorium should this pass I think that a clause should already be in there to stipulate that that we are against any data centers that are being proposed or planned by cities that are near our county jurisdiction so I think rather than having to come back every time from a city that's or like I said, the state fair. I think we really just need to state it now. And so I'm in full support of seeing if we can do it now.

All right. I'll stick with my motion.

Tell me how to amend it.

I mean, we have a moratorium, so obviously we're opposed as a temporary opposition. All I'm requesting is that during this moratorium period, until we decide otherwise, if something should come up, that we continue that with just a letter of opposition. We have no say, but we need to take a stand.

Are you open to that if something comes up we we agendize it and take a look at exactly what it is?

No, it takes too long. It'll take two weeks to agendize it. By then it's going to be done and over. I want to be able to have it to work so like a platform item where if something comes up we can immediately write a letter just an opposition state citing our moratorium and and waiting for some time to do more research. Because let's, you know, I, I don't want to name a city because then someone will go, oh my God. But let's just say a city decides, hey, we're going to put this huge one right in the middle of our city. And we're like, well, we have no say. But then they're taking three to five million gallons of water a day out of the ground. Then that's a problem. And that will impact our county, countywide. So I just want, that's my motion. Either somebody second it or not and we'll be done.

I'll second that motion due to its imperative nature. What's that?

Sorry, I didn't push the button.

Okay, so we have a motion to adopt the 45-day moratorium along with an opposition letter to any data center within any jurisdiction in Tulare County to write a letter of opposition to that.

During the moratorium period.

During the moratorium period. Okay.

Do you have a... During the moratorium period while we are considering our own county policy.

Yes. One, if it changes and we don't do, and we remove the moratorium, then that... Correct. It'll change.

All right.

So we have a motion by Supervisor McCurry with a second by Supervisor Valero. Please cast your votes. Motion passes 4-1. Townsend, no. all right thank you mike get to work got 45 days okay we are um we're going to take a break let's um come back in here at 10 45 for our next item Okay, our next item, 25, is a request from the County Administration Office to consider and select one of the following live streaming options for the Board of Supervisors meetings. Option A, approve adding a live video to the supervisor's existing live stream meetings. Option B, defer adding live video to the board, existing live stream meetings and direct staff to return. And item C, continue the current live stream of meeting audio only, presentation materials, vote tallies. So Deanna, take it away.

Good morning, CAO Britt, County Council Flores, and our Chief Clerk. My name is Deanna Montes, and I'm an analyst here with County Administrative Office. The item before you today is a request to consider adding live video streaming to the county's current meeting technology. On June 16, 2026, Your board received a presentation on Senate Bill 707, which amended the Brown Act and made it mandatory to offer either a two-way telephonic or a two-way audio video conferencing platform for public participation. The board approved adding two-way telephonic participation along with the companion administrative regulation AR53, which brought the county into full compliance with SB 707 requirements. At that meeting, the board also requested the staff bring back an agenda item to discuss adding video streaming for Board of Supervisor meetings. Adding live video does not change how our county complies with SB 707 requirements. The proposal before you today is just to add video streaming of the board chambers, making it possible to view board members, staff, presenters, and members of the public on our existing live stream on YouTube. It does not create a two-way audio visual platform for public participation. The public will continue to have their option to call into meetings during our public comment period using our previously approved telephonic platform. Choosing to proceed with live video streaming is voluntary decision of our board. In 2022, when our board conference chambers were remodeled, efforts were also made to upgrade our technology available for our board meetings. At that time, technology was installed to provide the option to video stream our meetings in anticipation the state would mandate video streaming. A decision was therefore made to include all software and hardware for fully functional audio-visual platforms should the need arise. From a fiscal standpoint, there's no additional upfront cost to initiate live video streaming. However, there may be additional staffing support in the future that would be needed to monitor and manage our video stream, which would come at initial cost. So with this in mind, your board has three options to consider. Option A would approve adding live video to the current live stream feed effective October 6, 2026, which would give staff additional time to work through last minute technical issues before going live. OPTION B WOULD DEFER THIS DECISION AND DIRECT STAFF TO RETURN AT A LATER SPECIFIED DATE FOR ADDITIONAL CONSERVATION. AND OPTION C WOULD REQUIRE NO ADDITIONAL ACTION. WE WOULD MAINTAIN OUR CURRENT SETUP OF OUR LIVE STREAM AUDIO, PRESENTATION MATERIALS, VOTE TALLIES AND TELEPHONIC PARTICIPATION. AND THAT CONCLUDES MY PRESENTATION. EITHER I OR CAO WRIGHT WOULD BE HAPPY TO TAKE QUESTIONS.

NEW SPEAKER All right. Do we have any questions for Deanna at this time? Okay, do we have any public comment on this item?

I have no public comment cards and no callers online.

Okay, no comments? All right, I have a few, oh, go ahead. I have a few comments. So I really can't imagine a reason why we wouldn't want to have our constituents, the public, have access through video streaming of our meetings. We have probably most of the counties around us I know Kern, Kings, Fresno definitely do live video streaming. Most of the cities in Tulare County do live video streaming. We have useful taxpayer-funded technology that's been sitting idle for five years. Yes, we are meeting the minimum requirements of the Brown Act right now. We always sit up here and we complain about the state mandated this and the state mandated that and they make us do this and they make us do that. Eventually, they're gonna make us do this. Why don't we for once take the bull by the horns and beat the state to something and provide video streaming for our constituents and the public? um there's people you know two weeks ago we had the woodlake girls softball team up here maybe there's grandparents in oklahoma or rural tulare county or are homebound that would have liked to have seen video of their grandchildren getting up here and receiving awards from the board of supervisors You know, it also identifies. It helps people. There are people who have comprehension issues. And to sit at, you know, on YouTube and see a black screen and hearing voices, you know, back and forth trying to identify who's talking. Some people are more visual people. I think that would assist in that. It's and this is the truth. I had a text this morning. I was talking to a constituent yesterday He sent me a lot of information regarding Data centers which we were talking about and just this morning as I was leaving the house He said good luck with the item. Do you guys live stream? And I said well Hopefully, we will start, but I can't really give you an answer on that. So nonetheless, we have folks in here all the time FaceTiming and live streaming things themselves. So again, we have the technology. There is no reason why we shouldn't be video live streaming our meetings to the public. With that, if there's no other comments. Sure, Supervisor Townsend. Eddie, was this you? Okay, go ahead.

Okay. Yeah. Well, I just had that just brought up a question and in the presentation as well, it said that it may require additional staff. So do we have any cost estimates? Because you mentioned the taxpayer equipment. Sure. But there's going to be an ongoing, it sounds like there's going to be an ongoing annual cost for another possible another FTE.

Well, I talked to the CEO about this. I don't see any reason why one of you know, we have currently have four board reps and a chief of staff. I don't think it's a full time position. I think it's during meetings. But I'll let the CEO answer if you have any ideas on the cost.

no thank you madam chair members of the board um so i just i think it's kind of an unknown because we haven't been using it so and we've just recently had to add the public portal and the telephonic process and so we would need some time if the board chose to proceed to sort of see how all this new technology that wasn't envisioned to be used before we would make that decision. But like with everything, it feels like it just takes more folks to run things. But we'd be happy to give you an actual dollar estimate. But the real question is we don't know yet until we really start using the system.

But we obviously did envision something because we installed all of the equipment. Supervisor Valero.

Yes, I'd like to just echo what the chair said. I really do think that as technology advances and, again, transparency and accessibility to the public is of utmost importance. And so I really do think that option A is something that we should pursue. given the technological advances and the systems that are already in place here in this chambers already. So why have them stay idle?

I guess I also want to add if you know if the cost is going to be a sticking point for approving this today You know, I would be willing to go to option B defer this to as soon as possible next meeting that we could discuss it and have a cost and and time and that would be involved in this. But again, I think the cost that would be involved is well worth having the public to have full access to our meetings. So with that, I'll entertain a motion.

Madam Chair, I would go ahead and make a motion that we entertain option C as the preferred option of the board at this time.

That would be not live streaming any video at all to the public, correct?

We currently have evening meetings out at various locations throughout the county, which is something I think is very important for us to bring the county to our constituents when we can. I think we've done that. We have two-way audio capability currently. I personally think that we've done a lot. We've got a great county and we've done a lot of great things and I don't see why we need to fix something that ain't broke. So that's my motion.

okay but it is broke but that is the motion so we have a motion by supervisor vanderpool to not live stream audio video of the board meetings and we have a second by supervisor townsend please cast your votes motion passes uh with item c to not live stream video from these board chambers three to two that's too bad all right uh with that that is the end of our regular session and madam council do we have a need for closed session yes madam chair there is need for closed session item a is off calendar the balance of the agenda shall be heard and i do not anticipate any announcement out thank you

Bye.