Good afternoon and welcome to the Alameda County Board of Supervisors Personnel Administration and Legislation.

Committee meeting of Monday, October the 6th, 2025.

May I have a roll call, please?

Supervisor Fortinetal Bass.

Present.

Supervisor Town.

Present.

Thank you.

And let's move to the federal legislation update from CJ Lake.

Good afternoon.

To kick us off on the schedule, the Senate was in session last week before briefly adjourning on Thursday for the Yom Kippur holiday.

And then they returned on Friday to close out the week and try to vote on the CR, which failed.

And then they proceeded on passing a procedural motion to open up debate on a on-block of 108 executive branch nominees.

The Senate is continuing that work this afternoon.

They have a vote at 5:30 initially on the continuing resolution, which we expect will fail, and then also to close debate on the 108 on-block nominee package.

On the other side of the Hill, the House remains out of session until Tuesday, October 14th.

Speaker Johnson has indicated that members would call back to Washington ahead of the October 14th deadline within 48 hours of notice if and when they are able to achieve a deal or to pass the continuing resolution that was passed by the House in the Senate.

However, if the Senate does not pass the Clean CR, the House will remain out of session.

We are currently in day six of the federal government shutdown.

The debate will continue this week between the Republican Clean CR and the Democrats version, which would extend the ACA tax credits.

Last week, Senators Fetterman, Cortez Masto, Angus King joined Republicans in supporting the House's stopgap measure bill, but it still failed to secure ultimate passage as it stands now.

It still requires 60 votes to pass a bill through the upper chamber.

The Senate is again scheduled to vote tonight, and we expect that again to fail.

The White House has weighed in on the shutdown by canceling billions of dollars in federal funding for energy infrastructure projects in blue states and signaling that it will continue to move forward with mass layoffs of federal workers.

So we are currently waiting for another round of reductions in force or RIFs that could come at any day.

And we do anticipate that those rifts will be targeted primarily in states represented by Democrats in the Senate, very similar to the grants cancellations that took place last week from the Department of Energy, of which California was significantly hit.

There were 79 grant projects that were previously awarded to the state of California that were terminated last week because of the shutdown.

The administration has indicated that without a funding agreement in place, certain services and programs will become increasingly strained, potentially impacting taxpayers nationwide.

The WIC program in particular is the one that is on the top of many people's minds, which could run out of contingency funds in about two weeks.

The WIC program, unlike many other uh welfare programs, is a discretionary program.

And the contingency fund has only about 150 million dollars.

Um typically it's appropriated about $8 billion a year.

So the 150 million dollars to go nationwide does not stretch very far.

Um additional uh in addition to uh the WIC program, TANF and the Title 4B program will be unable to issue first quarter payments because authoration authorization for the program expired on September 30th, which failed uh in the continuing resolution to be extended and would need to be reauthorized by the next funding pill in order for HHS to issue those payments.

Um, similar story with the disproportionate share hospital program that also failed to delay the dish cuts that were originally implemented by the Affordable Care Act, but has since been delayed since the bill's passage uh for many many years by Congress.

Those uh typically send payments out on a quarterly basis, so it probably won't affect um hospitals that rely on dish payments, but that is one of many of the authorizations that fail to get passed, and we'll uh likely see some sort of interruption.

Um, but it's always possible for Congress to retroactively cancel those.

Um, the SNAP program uh will be able to operate at least through the end of October of this year in 2019, uh, at the conclusion of the last 34-day shutdown, Congress passed a bill that uh significantly expanded the carryover and contingency funds for the SNAP program because it was um at risk of expending last time.

Um in addition to the ongoing debate that's going on that's uh happening with the continuing resolution behind the scenes.

Uh there has been significant conversation on a uh Senate and House minibus.

Um, this is when the uh appropriations committee packages together individual appropriations bills and pass them as a single package.

Um, in this case, uh Senate and House appropriators from both the Democratic and the Republican parties have been working on a package to pass the MILCON VA AG, FDA, and LEGE branch bills.

They're nearly done, or they're just putting finishing touches on a final deal.

And today, in a conversation between Speaker Mike Johnson and the Senate appropriations ranking member Patty Murray, um, Speaker Johnson indicated that if the Senate were to pass this three bill minibus that Speaker Johnson would put it on the floor to be passed, most likely in a strong bipartisan vote.

Um, in addition to the MILCON VA, Ag FDA and LEGE branch bills, there's also conversation about potentially a second minibus that would package the uh labor HHS bill, the defense appropriations bill, and the transportation housing and urban development bill.

Now, this would be a full year appropriation, so it would be no longer subject to the continuing resolution like we're under now.

Um, it would also allow for many of the changes in discretionary funding levels that were agreed to on a bipartisan basis to become law rather than a simple extension of FY24 funding, which is what we're currently well, we were experiencing until September 30th as a of this year.

But uh I'll stop there and open the floor for any questions that you may have.

Thank you very much for that update.

Um Supervisor Fortunatabas questions, comments?

Uh thank you.

Um that was a very helpful update.

I am interested in hearing um any more information that we may have regarding layoffs that might occur during the shutdown.

If if there's additional information that we have.

In terms of where we're at right now, there isn't any additional information.

Um, when they do these kind of layoffs, they will send an email to those affected individuals that they have indeed been riffed or they've been part of the reduction in force, and as it stands right now, this meeting, they haven't issued additional RIFs for any of the agencies that would or could be affected.

Um, though I think if the shutdown continues further, we'll continue to see or we might start seeing additional rifts across the agencies.

And when that does happen, we'll be sure to flag it for you all.

Okay, thank you.

And then I do want to hear a little bit more about at what point the county and our services might be impacted, and so uh maybe this is just a note for our future work sessions.

I know we have one on the 21st.

If it goes that long, I think it would be great to have an update on how the county's services could potentially be impacted.

Um, yeah, we're on day six.

Next week we'll be on day 17.

If it continues, I'm trying to get a sense of at what point should we be extremely concerned about our county services being impacted.

Yeah.

I mean, to your point, it really depends on how long the shutdown goes.

Um, I'll note that the first round of paychecks that will be missed by federal civil servants will be this Friday, and then the first round of members of the armed forces will be uh October 15th.

And then the first uh congressional paycheck to be missed, not for the members, but for the staff, is October 20th and the Senate.

The House gets paid once a month, the Senate gets paid twice a month.

Um, so we are starting to enter the phase where paychecks are going to start getting missed, and then depending on the program and how the funding is allocated, will then impact county services.

Obviously, Medicaid is um a mandatory program and is unaffected by the government shutdown at all.

SNAP is has significant contingency funds and should be able to make it to the end of the month.

Uh, but there are some social welfare programs that could see disruptions that are administered by the county, um, as well as the WIC program, um, like I said earlier, but uh I think that we should have a better understanding of kind of what programs could be impacted, um, depending on how long it goes.

Some people are saying that it could last until the third week of October, past that October 20th paycheck period.

Um, but we'll just have to drill down on which programs we most uh most impactful.

Thank you.

Um, just to follow up on a couple of those points.

Um can you remind me um the first time we had the shutdown during Trump's first administration, that was slightly over 30 days, right?

36 days.

36 days.

And um in terms of these um behind the scenes or minibus discussions.

Do you do you have a sense of what that timing would look like?

And was that what happened the last time around in terms of trying to um to resolve and get the government back up and running after the 36 days?

So, as it stands now, that minibus package would not be considered until after the government is reopened in a continuing resolution to allow for that debate to happen, would take place.

So Congress first needs to agree on a continuing resolution, and then that's when Speaker Johnson indicated his willingness um to consider a minibus package that's passed by the Senate originally.

Um, the last time that the the Congress shut down the government, I think it was actually 34 days on 36 days, so forgive me.

Um, they had passed the defense appropriations bill and the labor H bill.

So that's about 70% of the federal government's um paychecks that go out.

So members of the armed services were not uh affected by the last shutdown because they are Congress had already passed um the defense operations bill, but that is not the case this time around.

Um, so the the calculus and the pain that will be inflicted on a missed paycheck is significantly larger than the last long-term shutdown that took place uh in the the end of 2018 and the beginning of 2019.

So we'll remember that uh they were closed over the Christmas break, and we were closed uh for the first part of that incoming Congress.

Um, and they couldn't constitute um the committees at the time because Ledge branch, which funds the committees and is able to allocate, did not have the funding to do so.

So 70% was funded before the shutdown.

That's what you're saying.

So the 34 days that went as close through the holidays.

Um did they I'm just trying to understand whether there's some impetus where the pressure points is to try to resolve this.

Well, I mean, I think the pressure points are going to be missed, those those missed paychecks.

Um, and then the impact on services for programs that are discretionary funding, um, the lack of policies that are being issued, the lot sometimes they're in some cases some permits that are not being issued by the federal government.

Um they're not issuing memo or guidance uh policy guidance as well.

Um federal civil servants will not be receiving a paycheck.

Um, so there were, I mean, and then additional to sort of the the I guess automated um actions of the lack of a federal government issuing kind of opinions and and what have you.

There's also the added pain pressure points that the administration will likely continue to have on key constituencies within the Democratic Party, um, similar to what we saw last week from the Department of Energy targeting uh significant amount of democratically controlled states.

I think they will continue to see that this week and next week um in particular areas.

There's a lot of behind the scenes conversations happening on the Republican side to ensure that certain uh offices in their districts are not impacted, but that conversation is not happening on the Democratic side.

Um, you know, they're not they are going to be targeting those areas um that could impact democratically controlled states.

So we could see additional grants be canceled or terminated either from the Department of Transportation or from the USDA from other places.

Um, and then we could also earlier see additional uh reductions in force.

Okay, I'm just looking for some end in sight and some hopefully that light at the end of the tunnel is not a train.

That's all I'm looking for right now.

Um, I don't know if I can offer that.

I mean at this point in time.

Republicans and democrats are not talking about an off-ramp.

You know, both sides are pretty dug in on continuing the shutdown.

Um, the pain has not really been felt from their constituents, so both of the political bases have been rallying to their side to keep it going and to stiffen their spine and to try to beat the other side at this game.

Um, so they need eight vo Republicans need eight votes to get it across the finish line and get to the 60 vote threshold.

They have three so far, meaning they need five additional moderate Senate Democrats to vote for it, which is the reason why that Senator Thune is planning on having a number of CR votes throughout the week and next week, if it goes into next week, to continue to try to peel off those five Senate Democrats that may crack under the political pressure.

Okay, thank you.

We will hear more about this, I'm sure.

Supervisor Horton Ravas.

Thank you, Chair.

Um, one more question.

I'm not sure if this is something uh John that you and CJ Lake are monitoring.

Um, you know, it's been in the news that on Cala uh here in California, um, we got an emergency court order blocking the deployment of our state national guard to Oregon.

I'm just curious if that's something that you're watching in terms of um, you know, in particular, deployment, continued deployment to other cities and especially to the Bay Area.

I mean, it's absolutely something that we've been watching.

It's a it's a clear uh violation of precedent um and overreach on the part of the president.

Um, something that we're very concerned about in terms of the sovereignty of the state of California and its ability to maintain its own National Guard um forces.

Um it's interesting to see that the courts have already started to step in and try to prevent some of this uh overreach on the part of the white house.

Um, and unfortunately, it'll have to be dealt with in the courts.

The one thing that I will, or at least this particular case, the one thing that I will note, um, where there's a potential area uh for action on the congressional side is in addition to the defense appropriations bill, um, which has not yet been funded, um, the National Defense Authorization Act, NDAA, which authorizes um the DOD still needs to be reauthorized by the end of the year.

The NDAA is an annual authorization bill.

Um, the House passed its version in the middle of the summer, but the Senate has not passed its version.

The committee came out with the bill, um, but they have not um they have not obviously passed a year-end version.

Now they've passed one every year for the past 65 or 66 years, but they haven't done it this year.

It's typically done in December.

And in any event, and this might be an area of opportunity for Congress to step in and clarify the ability for the administration to use um either National Guard troops or the U.S.

military to implement federal law on domestic population.

Now, I'm not saying that that is being considered or or discussed because it would most likely disrupt any sort of bipartisan negotiation going on with the rest of the armed services and the DOD, but it is an area of potential opportunity for legislators to weigh in and make a point of this.

But yes, certainly something that we are watching very closely.

Obviously, it's a good uh significant overreach of the part of the administration to utilize California's National Guard in adjacent state as well, for you know, without the consent of the governor.

Thank you for that.

Um that's an interesting opportunity.

I think I would be interested personally in reaching out to um my federal representatives.

I don't know if that's something that we could potentially explore, having our lobbyists explore with our representatives, Chair Tam.

Are you um suggesting that the committee recommend um that we send a letter to our representative, at least in this area is uh assembly member Latif assignment?

I mean, excuse me, Congresswoman Latif assignment and then the two senators Padilla and Schiff.

Correct.

And I believe um Congress uh Solwell also represents part of the county.

Um yeah, I would be interested in doing that so that we can just explore all of our options for keeping our immigrant and refugee community safe.

Um, so um let me uh find out from um Amy Schrago.

Is this uh something we can move forward through the committee, or is it something that we need to bring back to the full board?

Um you would need to agenda it for next Monday's meeting.

Um, one of your staff can fill out the PAL form and then we can uh work with you to produce the letter, but it would need to be agendized for next week's meeting.

Okay, my staff can work on that.

Okay, thank you.

Are there any public comments on the federal legislation update?

No speakers.

Okay, let's move to the state legislation update with full moon strategies.

Good afternoon, supervisors.

Here uh to provide an update on your state legislature.

Governor Gavin Neo Sim has entered Monday, October 13th to decide which of the hundreds of bills passed by the legislature on the final weeks of the 2025 session will become law.

Last week he issued a signing and veto decisions on over almost 100 bills, leaving more than 600 measures is still awaiting action.

His current veto rate goes around 10 percent.

Governor Gavin Yousem this past week also urged Democrats to hold their ground during the federal government shutdown.

Warning, you lose leverage, you will lose the country.

Speaking at a press conference in Berkeley, Governor Gavin Newsom dismissed the idea of trusting President Trump and the congressional Republicans should then go to negotiate in good faith.

Uh Democrats wants to compromise.

He said, But a Trump and he's a lies, we will they are not serious people.

President Trump and the Speaker Mike Johnson Johnson accused California of using federal funds for aiming grant health care, which uh Governor Nielsen called as false information.

Also, this past week, the Department of Finance released uh the September 2025 bulletin showing a strong month for uh state revenues.

In August, the general fund receipts were 1.7 billion dollars above projections, driven by a higher personal income taxes and the corporate taxes revenues.

Since April.

The total uh revenues are 4.4 billion dollars above the forecast.

The main boost come from the withholding taxes, which continue to auto-perform the expectations up to 4.5% year over year, likely due to the stock-based compensation in the tech uh in the tax sector.

It should be noted that any revenues coming from stocks are highly volatile, so uh this does not represent a certainty on overall state revenue trends.

However, the tax uh receipts uh since April uh were slightly lower, down to 27 million in August and 169 million below the forecast since April.

Consumer sentiments reflect this fragility.

Uh a recent polling data showing California shoppers' optimism hitting a three-month low.

A review from the conference board of the consumer confidence index for California show a drop of a 4% uh from August to September.

And uh over the past year, the golden state confidence has declined 23%, and it sits 9% below its 2007 average.

This declines in confidence are evident in the lower sales tax numbers that we are currently uh seeing.

The upcoming weeks will be very critical in California for revenue tracking since LA County delayed the tax uh deadline to October 15th.

So this should shift more collections into the next month's report.

Going back to the question uh from uh Supervisor Fortunato, Governor Nielsen, yesterday he celebrated legal uh win after the federal judge again blocked President Donald Trump from sending the National Guard into Oregon, including 300 California troops that Trump had federalized without the governor's approval.

The US district judge Karen Amerga uh ruled that the Trump's move to deploy troops from California and Texas violated her earlier order, blocking the use uh of Oregon's National Guard.

She said that the administration's uh justification citing the violence against the federal immigration officials in Portland are unattached with the facts.

Uh Governor Gavin Newson praised uh the ruling as a victory for the American democracy, saying that the California troops will be returning home soon.

Uh now, as a result of that, the Trump administration has asked the ninth uh circuit uh court appeals uh for an emergency state, continue the legal battle.

As I said initially on the report, this is going to be the last week for Governor Nielsen to sign or veto some of the bills, and we are also going to include into the Power Report a tracker with all the bills that Alameda County has taken their position and the current status.

Thank you.

Thank you very much.

I don't have any questions at this time.

Thank you for the report.

Um it's a little troubling to hear we are dealing with the same dilemma at the state level when you are most in need of state revenue to mitigate what's happening with HR1.

You're trending at least for the last month or so, a loss in uh forecasted revenue.

So, do you anticipate that this trend will continue through the fiscal end of the fiscal year?

That's a good question, supervisor.

And that's actually the same feedback that we've been working with the agencies from the county and uh some other folks up here in Sacramento.

Uh we're awaiting now onto the uh once the DOF releases the November numbers, right?

Which is going to be the numbers that the administration is going to release the January budget.

So uh until November, we don't actually have a clear action.

What is going to be the projections since uh once they release the November report?

It's going to be actual the the numbers that we're going to use for 2026 projections.

Okay.

That's also stay tuned, it sounds like.

Thank you.

Yes.

Do we have any uh public comment on our state legislative update?

Elvia.

Hello, I'm Elvia Quiroga with the Alameda County Treasurer Tax Collectors, and our 2025-2026 property tax bills are being mailed out now.

One of the questions that we are starting to get, and I need to inform our staff.

Is there any pending legislation to declare any type of uh emergency declaration or anything else related to federal workers that can prove their federal workers uh to allow them a postponement or a delay or a waiver of penalties should they have to pay their property taxes late this year, depending on how long this thing goes?

Hi, Karoga.

Uh on that I will circle back with you.

I do remember that all the tax package was signed already initially uh right after the the September 13th.

So I'm happy just to circle back with you offline on this one.

Thank you.

Thank you.

Appreciate all the updates.

Um, and that's a very good question in terms of um the consequences of not having a federal paycheck and being able to pay your property taxes.

Um are there any public comments on items that are not on today's agenda but within the purview of how we have no speakers for public comment?

Thank you.

Uh will those online please identify yourself so that we may appreciate your participation.

Elvia Quiroga, Alameda County Treasurer Tax Collector's Office.

Good afternoon, Jessica Blakemore, Alameda County Health.

Hi, this is Hannah Hamilton with Alameda County Social Services Agency.

Good afternoon, good afternoon.

Valerie Arkin from Supervisor Minley's office.

Hey everyone, this is Jessica Montes with Alameda County Community Food Bank.

Thank you.

Hi, this is Alexis Chatier with Cardia Health.

Thank you, everyone, for your participation and this meeting is adjourned.

Thank you.