It’s meetings like this that make me appreciate Janet’s notes! There were several items with extensive discussion: #13 has to do with the Internet in the County. #16 & #17 had lengthy presentations on Agriculture and Weights & Measures and were extremely informative. Please review the notes and video for additional information. Thank you to Janet!
bos-meeting-notes-01-09-2024Or watch the video. As always, an excellent job Janet!
Staff Announcements
• Lisa Medina – Environmental Management Agency Director – In addition to our cat and kitty foster program, I am happy to announce we now have a dog and puppy foster program too. Grateful for all our volunteers. Fostering will provide the animals with a safe, healthy, nurturing time, socialization, and any medical needs necessary for the dogs and homeless dogs.
• Kathy Gallino – Economic and Community Development Director – next week on Wednesday, 01.17.24, 10 a.m. to noon, the first drop-in business center, working with small businesses thinking about start-ups or expansions or needing help with financing.
• Rick DiBasilio – Sheriff – Regarding the search and rescue incident – the family members were very happy with the contact we had with them and wanted to thank the county. The following are the stats per the request of the BOS: 8-day search, 17 agencies, 137 search teams, 494 total searchers, 34 dogs, 3,987 searchers = over $85,000 if not done through volunteer rescue personnel, 276 hours – $6,000, air support – 3 agencies, national guard, US Army, CHP; 40 air search hours – $100,000 cost; 24 hour National Guard and US Army Blackhawk $3,016 per hour if rented, cop had 16 hours, donated lunches by Moose Lodge in Arnold – 494 lunches = $3,000; Foothill Sanitary – two portable restrooms; CCSO OT hours 1,500 = $77,000; hotel rooms – 45; 1,080 purchases for food and fuel. Total cost to County $93,087.01 (was the actual cost to the County). Cost not paid by Calaveras – $195,136 – $288,217.17 if we had to pay for everything.
Supervisors thanked the Sheriff for all their work and for having a meeting on how we can add signage to the Rim Trail to avoid this from happening in the future. They were sorry it didn’t end up being a rescue but appreciated all the Sheriff and other agencies did in this matter.
• Rick DiBasilio – Sheriff – going to have an ag pass training session soon which entails an emergency livestock path that was created after all the issues with the Butte fire. Will provide a uniform way for emergency workers regarding emergencies with animals. The Emergency Ranch Act is now required in California. If a road is closed due to fire, or water lines across the road, it is not a guarantee you will get in. In January 2024, in partnership with CalFire, will begin doing training. I don’t have a date of classes yet but they are coming up quickly. Wanted BOS and the public to know we are working on this and have been even before it was mandated by the state.
• Rachelle Whiting – Undersheriff – The first training date is January 11, 2024, at HQ in San Andreas from 5:30 p.m. to 9:30 p.m. We have two more dates for the training as well, January 27 and February 21. Any ranch owners interested, you need to come attend.
General Public Comment – Please see the video and notes for additional information.
Consent Agenda
2. Action Item – Administrative Office (ID # 7706) Authorize allocations to the nine fire districts for water apparatus maintenance and repair in the amount of $140,000.
3. Action Item – Administrative Office (ID # 7710) Authorize the Board Chair to sign a Letter of Opposition to AB 702 – Local Government Financing: Juvenile Justice.
4. Ordinance – Building (ID # 7602) By a 4/5 Affirmative Vote, adopt an Uncodified Ordinance Reducing the Cannabis Cultivation Tax Rates Specified in Section 3.56.050(B) (1)-(3) By 60% on a Temporary Basis as Authorized by Section 3.56.070; Authorize Summary Publication.
5. Action Item – Clerk of the Board of Supervisors (ID # 7670) Appointment of applicants to serve on various Committees, Commissions, Advisory Boards and County Service Areas.
6. Agreement – Health and Human Services Agency (ID # 7715) Authorize the Board Chair to sign an Agreement with Behavioral Health Center (BHC) Sierra Vista Hospital, Inc. for psychiatric inpatient hospital services in an amount not to exceed $200,000 for the period of July 1, 2023 – June 30, 2025.
7. Agreement – Information Technology (ID # 7635) 1) Approve the attached quote for Microsoft Enterprise Agreement (EA) with CDW-G in the amount of $708,394 for a three-year period from January 1, 2024 through December 31, 2026 and enter into EA, 2) Authorize payment by County Executive Officer or designee for the first year of the agreement for $236,131, and 3) Authorize payments of the same amount for Fiscal Years 2024-2025 and 2025-2026, and authorize the annual true-up costs for increases, provided there are adequate appropriations in the Information Technology Budget.
8. Action Item – Sheriff (ID # 7708) Authorize the Purchasing Agent to issue blanket Purchase Orders (PO) to Dooley Enterprises, Inc. and Axon Enterprises, Inc. in the not-to-exceed amount of sixty thousand dollars ($60,000.00) each for the acquisition of law enforcement ammunition and taser equipment, respectively, during current Fiscal Year 2023-2024.
9. Agreement – Sheriff (ID # 7709) Approve and authorize the Board Chair to execute a Professional Services Agreement with Justice Systems Corporation for preventive maintenance services to the Calaveras County Sheriff’s Office buildings’ Detention Controls and Video Surveillance Subsystems in the not-to-exceed amount of $165,837 during a three-year term from December 01, 2023, through November 30, 2026.
• Supervisor Folendorf removed item #8.
• Guy Meyers requested to remove item #8.
Motion to approve consent items 2 – 9 with the exception of 8 – passed 5 – 0.
Item #8
• Guy Meyers – re item #8 – not against funding for these items but thinks you can get a better bang for your buck by not using two companies. The Daily Enterprise is not a big distributor and you should allot it but without allotting it to a specific company. Should send a couple of officers to attend the ammo convention that is coming up in a couple of weeks.
• Rachelle Whiting – Undersheriff – appreciates Guy’s comments. We do need to do product comparison and we do that and have our staff attend POST training and trade shows and collaboration with firearm instructors. This item does not restrict us to use this company solely. This just doesn’t require us to come back each time we make a purchase. Not asking for additional funding because this amount was already budgeted previously and approved. If we determine there is a vendor that is more fiscally responsible we will do business with them.
Motion to approve consent item 8 – passed 5 – 0.
Regular Agenda
10. Action Item – Clerk of the Board of Supervisors (ID # 7667) Election of the 2024 Chair and Vice Chair of the Board of Supervisors.
• Supervisor Stopper – nominates Supervisor Garamendi for Chair and Supervisor Huberty for Vice Chair.
Public Comment – Please see the notes and the video for additional information.
Motion to approve Chair and Vice-Chair – passed 5 – 0.
Supervisor Garamendi took over the meeting as the new Chair.
11. Action Item – Clerk of the Board of Supervisors (ID # 7668) Adopt the 2024 Board of Supervisors meeting calendar.
• BOS Clerk – All meetings will be the second and fourth Tuesday of the month and the December meeting will be the 10th.
Public Comment – Please see the notes and the video for additional information.
Motion to approve action item – Passed – 5 – 0.
12. Action Item – Clerk of the Board of Supervisors (ID # 7669) Assign members of the Board of Supervisors to various committees for calendar year 2024.
• LAFTCO committee – Supervisor Tofanelli will take over, and Chair Garamendi will be the alternate. Environmental Service JPA – would like a second alternate designee to go to Jen Ellis per Supervisor Folendorf. Strategic Planning and Vice Committee – will add Supervisor Huberty as an alternate. Supervisor Folendorf and Chair Garamendi will remain Chair and Vice-Chair.
Public Comment • None
Motion to approve action item – Passed – 5 – 0.
13. Informational Item – Economic & Community Development (ID # 7663) Receive a presentation from Tilson Technology on the draft countywide broadband strategic plan.
• Kathy Gallino – Director of Economic & Community Development – Kathy introduced Shelly Westall from Tilson Technology. Barbara Hayes from RCRC was on via the phone, Stan Moore – IT Officer was on via the phone. This document was done via a grant so there was no cost to the county for this.
• Shelly Westall – PowerPoint presentation presented. Please see the notes and the video for additional information.
• Purpose of Today’s Presentation: To introduce you to a single document that includes everything local government may need to know to actively engage in broadband planning and deployment within the County.
Public Comment • None
Informational Item Only – Passed – 5 – 0.
14. Action Item – OES (ID # 7714) Authorize the Board Chair to sign the attached letter per the request of the Calaveras County Resource Conservation District and their partners, in support of the project entitled San Andreas East Fuelbreak.
• Mike Massone – OES Director – requesting BOS to approve this request.
Public Comment • None
Motion to approve action item – Passed – 5 – 0.
15. Action Item – Human Resources (ID # 7713) Introduce an ordinance repealing the portion of Ordinance 2251 codified as County Code Section 2.64.575, the County Alcohol/ Drug Abuse Policy, waive first reading, and authorize summary publication.
• Judy Hawkins – HR Resource and Risk Management Director – requesting we pull this policy out of the personnel code so it allows us to update policy to be more timely. Will still be brought forth to the BOS. AB2188 – we have to have in our policy we will not discriminate against off-duty cannabis use. This is our non-DOT policy. We need to update the policy accordingly. Putting in more clarification regarding reasonable suspicion testing. Would like to pull out of the ordinance and bring back a new policy by resolution. Has discussed this with all labor unions and they agree with the change.
Public Comment • None
Motion to approve action item – Passed – 5 – 0.
16. Informational Item – Agriculture (ID # 7656) Receive an informational presentation on current projects and programs by the University of California Cooperative Extension (UCCE).
• Brian Oneto – Farm Advisor – power point presentation presented. Please review for detailed information.
• 2023 Farm Advisor Research & Program Update – Scott Oneto, Farm Advisor, sronero@ucanr.edu, 209.223.6834.
•Public Comment – Please review the notes and video for additional information.
Informational Item Only – Passed – 5 – 0.
17. Informational Item – Agriculture (ID # 7707) Receive an informational presentation on department programs and funding by the Department of Agriculture/Weights and Measures.
• Jesse Fowler – Agriculture Commissioner Director of Weights & Measures – PowerPoint presentation presented. Please review for detailed information.
Public Comment – Please review the notes and video for additional information.
Informational Item Only – Passed – 5 – 0.
Supervisor Announcements
• Supervisor Huberty – Happy New Year.
• Supervisor Garamendi – look forward to working with everyone this year.
• Supervisor Folendorf – UC Extension – we lost our livestock advisor (promoted), next meeting is February 8th in Tuolumne County with the ranchers who have been contacted. COG – we did not get planning grant money for Copper Community Safe Route to School or the first round of evacuation planning money. We will continue to apply for grants and opportunities. Calaveras County has not adopted the evacuation access needs assessment. Only 1 JPA member has adopted it. I hope we can bring this back to the board for adoption. Will meet again in February.
• Supervisor Stopper – Happy New Year.
• Chair Tofanelli – Had a great holiday season.
