Good afternoon, and welcome to the Almeida County Board of Supervisors Personnel Administration and Legislation Committee meeting for Monday, March the second, twenty twenty six.

May I have roll call, please?

Supervisor Fortune on a boss.

Supervisor TAM?

Present.

We have a quorum.

Thank you.

Do you need to go through instructions on participation?

For all participants, please state your name for the record prior to your comment.

If you wish to speak on a matter not on the agenda, please wait until Supervisor Tam calls for public input on non-agendized items.

Only matters within the committee's jurisdiction may be addressed.

To notify the clerk that you wish to speak, please listen closely to the following.

Raise and lower lower your hand.

Um of course, top of mine is Iran and Congress is set to vote on bipartisan war powers resolutions this week, meant to limit President Trump's military operations uh in Iran.

The dual efforts in the House and Senate face uphill battles uh to become law, as previous efforts have failed in asserting congressional authority to declare war.

Um, if made law, the measures would block further U.S.

military action in Iran without congressional approval.

Um it's my understanding that the Senate could vote as early as tomorrow, and then the House would plan to vote on um the war powers resolution on Thursday.

Uh moving on just to Department of Homeland Security funding.

I know we've talked about it the last couple weeks.

Really don't have an update there.

Uh we still don't have an agreement between the House and Senate on uh FY26 Homeland Security appropriations.

So the the department continues to be in a partial shutdown.

Um again, we are hoping, I think the House and Senate could potentially vote later this week, but again, until they reach a deal, um, you know, there's nothing to really take up.

I know when we talked previously, we had said that it's when you know TSA and others start to miss paychecks.

Um I do believe that this week they will not be receiving full paychecks.

And so that may start to put some pressure uh, you know, moving forward.

But as of now, we don't have any sort of resolution there.

Um John, I don't know if you want to touch on housing.

I can I can keep going if you want.

Up to you.

Um, well, just real quick on housing.

Again, not much of an update there.

Um, I know Lynn reported last week on the the two different bills, uh, road to housing on um the Senate side and then the housing for the 21st century act on the House side.

And we did include a side-by-side uh with the notes last week.

Negotiations are continuing between the House and the Senate.

Um, and they continued through the weekend.

The Senate uh was working on a deal that can include a mix of some of the house housing priorities and an int institutional investor ban from purchasing single family housing, and then much of the original Senate bill, the Road to Housing Act.

Um the idea is to have a procedural vote this evening.

Uh as of earlier today, and it may have happened since we've been on the caller in the last hour.

Um, they were trying to release text prior to that uh procedural vote this evening, but I have not uh seen that just yet.

Um and then John, I can pass it to you for just that house farm bill update if that works.

Yeah, sure.

Um, and also confirming we have not seen text on the updated Senate language.

I was talking to a colleague that works in the Senate office, whether or not we're going to see text before this 530 vote, and they said we haven't even seen the text yet.

So it's TBD, whether or not that uh 530 vote still holds today or it might get punted to later in the week.

Um I think Lynn may have touched on this last week.

Um, but the farm bill markup on the House side did get postponed um to this week.

Um, just a brief summary uh on February 13th.

Um, the House AG Committee introduced its version of the 2026 farm bill.

Um they will start the markup of the bill tomorrow, starting at five, uh, and it will most likely roll into all day Wednesday.

At this point, it's uncertain whether the bill will make it to the House floor, as there are a number of fiscal conservatives who are opposed to the measure as drafted, as well as a significant number of Democrats who are opposed to the measure because of the SNAP program that was significantly reduced in HR one.

The Farm Bill's nutrition title authorizes the nation's uh nutrition assistance and feud distribution programs.

Um this bill um would largely remain or keep the program untouched, so it would not undo um many of the cuts that took place under HR 1.

Um it's possible that the bill does make it out of committee with the support of several Democrats um that represent farm areas um of the country, but um the likelihood that it sees floor action is still I think fairly low.

Um, and this is to say nothing of any potential action in the Senate.

There have been basically no negotiations between the majority and the minority um on the future of the farm bill.

Um the bill does expire at the end of the fiscal year this year.

The programs will lose their authorization at the end of the calendar year.

So we're likely to see um another at least year extension of the current farm bill, which is 2018 farm bill in the continuing resolution that will come up before the September 30th fiscal uh year deadline.

So it'll be interesting to see what the amendment process kind of spells out uh on Tuesday and Wednesday in terms of what members want to see included in the bill, but ultimately not get included.

Um, but uh the likelihood that it sees a light of day after that is still, I think fairly low.

Which honestly would, you know, I think Democrats are fine if it uh moves slowly.

Uh again, looking towards the fall with uh midterms and um you know a chance potential uh flip in the House.

I think Democrats in general could then re rewrite the bill in the 120th Congress, and it would look very different than what House Republicans have put forward so far.

So I think they're fine to kind of move slowly.

Um that is uh our report.

Happy to answer any questions.

Thank you for that update.

And sounds like a good strategy, at least on the forum bill.

Um comments, questions, uh supervisor fortunata.

Thanks for the update on the ongoing issues that we're monitoring as it relates to our county services.

Um I don't have um many comments or questions regarding what's happening in Iran and the war powers vote.

It's it's hard to imagine we're in this situation where Congress is having to assert their power, but it obviously is um where we're at.

So I guess we'll just wait and see how Congress moves forward on that front.

Thank you.

Thank you.

Uh can you remind us uh when there was the um military action in Venezuela?

Did um did Congress end up considering any action at that time?

Because I guess there was always a definition of what's considered authorization to go to war.

Sorry, I go ahead.

The war powers resolution for Venezuela.

Yeah, I can't remember exactly how I was I was trying to pull it up, but I mean they did uh take up a war powers resolution and it failed.

Um I just can't remember the vote count, but I'm trying to pull it up right now.

Let's see.

In the Senate, it was 5150.

Uh, Vice President Vance breaking the tie.

Um and then the House failed to pass it 215 to 215 also at a tie.

So they both failed.

Okay.

And this time um are they facing similar uh positions?

Both in the House and in the Senate.

Uh it's gonna be a tough slog to try to get these passed in both chambers.

Um, there's been a number of Democrats that have opposed the war powers resolution because they're in support of the strikes.

So they will likely not be voting um with the the rest of the Democratic caucus, um, at least in the House.

And we know that Mr.

Fetterman uh of Pennsylvania will likely be voting with the Republicans as well.

I haven't seen any indications that uh Republicans in the Senate beyond probably Mr.

Paul are going to be voting um in support of the resolution.

So you could see probably a close vote to what we saw uh in the Venezuela Venezuela vote 5050 in the Senate and probably close to it in the House.

Okay, thank you.

Appreciate that.

Um we have two uh legislative position requests at the federal level.

One is HR 7267 and Senate Bill 3706.

This is to um essentially authorize the veterans health administration to provide produce prescriptions as medical service for qualifying veterans, more like the food as medicine program.

There's been a request by Almay County Health to put in a support position.

Similarly, Alameda County Health has asked for support position on congressionally directed spending requests, primarily for the mobile medical units that are being used right now for homeless services and health care for the homeless.

And there's a recommendation for support.

Yes, I am definitely supportive of both of these, and I'm happy to make a motion to approve these two requests from AC Health and to forward them to the full board.

Okay.

I will second those motions for support positions on the two legislative directives.

May I have a roll call, please?

Supervisor Fortune on the bus.

Yes.

Supervisor Town.

Do we have any public comments on the federal updates?

There are no speakers.

Okay.

Let's move to the state legislation update from Full Money Strategies.

Good afternoon.

Good afternoon, supervisors and members of the public.

We had a busy week in Sacramento, as we often do.

As you know, we had the bill introduction deadline on February 20th.

And so now we enter the phase where each of those bills must be in print for 30 days before they can be acted upon.

And as bills complete this requirement, they will begin to be formally assigned to the committee with jurisdiction, and we will mark kind of those calendar events and provide updates here at PAL for you as the committee process begins in earnest after the 30-day mark.

Attorney General Bonta secured a second court order blocking the Trump administration's SNAP data demands.

We've talked frequently in this committee about some of these data demands coming out of the federal government.

And in many cases, the attorney general's office has entered suit sometimes with other states.

He announced our Attorney General Rob Bonta that the federal district court has issued a second order blocking the federal administration attempt to require states to provide personal and sensitive data for supplemental nutrition assistance program or SNAP applicants and recipients.

The U.S.

District Court for the Northern District of California determined that the federal government's data request was likely unlawful and could allow information to be used for purposes unrelated to the administration of the federal benefit.

The court also ruled that the U.S.

Department of Agriculture cannot collect state SNAP records without an agreed-upon data security protocol siding with the states in the suit that rejected the proposed framework due to privacy concerns.

Attorney General Bonta emphasized that the decision protects millions of low-income families from potential misuse of their personal data, while the governor reaffirmed California's commitment to safeguarding residents' privacy and ensuring continued access to critical nutritional assistance program.

State leaders contend the changes undermine science-based public health standards, threaten vaccination rates, and could increase preventable disease outbreaks and the associated health care costs.

Attorney General Bonta and Governor Gassam Gavin Newsom emphasize that the legal action seeks to restore lawful vaccine policy, protect public health, and ensure immunization decisions remain grounded in scientific evidence rather than political influence.

The governor announced expanding uh local resources to support the care court program.

The governor also threatened to divert any funds from counting counties, including some in the Bay Area that were not making progress in the care court implementation implementation.

The governor announced they would direct uh 131.8 million dollars in proposition one funds to eight home key plus sites, another 159 million dollars in homeless housing assistance and prevention funding or ha to accelerate proven proven local intervention.

The governor called Alameda County a shining example of care implementation.

And in the subsequent press release by the governor, Alameda County was named one of the 10 counties that were designated a care champion by the governor.

As I've noted previously, our budget subcommittees are meeting last week on February 25th.

Um, the Assembly budget subcommittee number two on human services held an oversight hearing on uh the California Department of Social Services, specifically some of the major safety net programs and the proposals within the governor's budget, primarily focusing on Cal Crush, County Administrative City, food insecurity, housing instability among CalWorks families, immigration services, and emerging anti-poverty initiatives.

And our PAL notes will have uh full committee uh hearing notes for your review.

And then lastly, I would note um that the governor's race um continues to be fairly wide open.

Last week the Public Policy Institute of California or PPIC released their survey fines on the 2026 gubernatorial race, uh and it's shaping up to be highly competitive and a very fairly open contest.

Uh likely voters are closely divided among five leading candidates uh Steve Hilton, Katie Porter, Chad Bianco, Eric Swalwell, and Tom Sire, while all other candidates remain at 5% or less, and about 10% of voters remain undecided.

Partisan alignment remains strong with Republican voters largely consolidating around Hilton at 39% and Bianco at 32%, and Democratic voters split uh among Porter at 19%, Swalwell at 18%, and STIRE at 14%.

Independent voters uh remain dispersed across the field, reflecting an unsettled electorate.

Um, compared to the uh PPIC survey in December, uh we've had some new candidates in the race, um, which has reshaped some of these numbers, um, contributing to a decline in support for Javier Becerra and Porter, uh, while support for Hilton and Bianco has remained fairly steady.

Obviously, more to come.

We're still very early in the season, um, but it is unique in that uh we haven't had really an open race like this for governor in quite a few cycles.

Uh, with that, I'm happy to answer any questions.

Thank you.

That was very informative and good news on the recognition from the governor's office at our St.

Regis site.

Um, comments, questions, Supervisor Fortunatabas.

Thank you.

Yes, um, very good news from the governor and his team, and uh good to see a couple of our colleagues were there at the press conference in Hayward.

Um glad to know that um Alameda County is uh doing well, which we all know we are in terms of um those issues regarding housing and mental health.

I don't have any questions or comments per se.

I did want to share with the PAL committee that last Thursday I was able to visit Sacramento together with Oakland Mayor Barbara Lee.

Um, she held a round table with a number of legislators to advocate for $500 million for HAPROM 7, as well as $1 billion for HAP Round Eight.

And um, she also testified in front of the Senate budget subcommittee on HAP funding and oversight.

Overall, it was uh a very good visit.

Um the Senate Pro Tem uh Limon was there, as well as Assembly members Bonta Lee and Senator Eric.

And we made the case that um the county is working very collaboratively with our cities to address homelessness, and that the HAP funding is very, very critical to continuing to address homelessness and helps um leverage local funding that we may have, including Measure W.

So fingers crossed, um, we will be able to get that allocation this next fiscal year as well as in future years.

Thank you for that advocacy.

Um I have no other questions or comments.

We are asked to um take action on a number of bills.

Um the first is SB 1218, which is a bill to refuse DMV registration for those with illegal dumping violations.

This is a request from Supervisor Miley's office.

And there's been a request from Alameda County Health to seek along with a coalition of LGBTQ plus advocates, uh 26 million dollar in one-time general funding because of the destabilization of gender affirming care at the federal level.

We have a request from Supervisor Miley's office for support SB 936, which is um the handling of nitrous oxide containers, and then also a request from Supervisor Miley's office to support AB 1617 on household hazardous waste reporting and uh changes and a request from Supervisor Miley's office to propose um 5.1 million dollars in uh the upcoming budget to modernize landfills.

Um do I have concurrence on those bills?

Yes, absolutely.

And the transgender health care um allocation is very timely as well.

So I am happy to make a motion to advance these five requests to the full board.

Okay, I will second that motion.

Um are there any public comments before I call for the vote?

We have one speaker.

Okay.

You have a speaker.

We do I'm sorry, please.

Kelly, go ahead.

Thank you for taking this public comment.

I'm commenting on the um landfill excursion events, which um are these are not excursions, an excursion may sound like a transient or temporary event.

An event is not uh these uh these are um in some cases rather ongoing and and permanent uh uh fires, underground fires, and uh they emit toxic gases.

They just they cause uh cave-ins, uh, which then lets more oxygen in to let the fire uh spread.

They don't want to use the word burning or fire, by the way.

Um the toxic gas, they change the nature of the toxic gases and the leachates that's the liquids that are coming out of the landfill, and all this affects the workers at the landfill.

Also affects the neighboring communities.

And I would ask, why is where is Supervisor David Howbert?

Why is he not taking care of this uh issue?

And why would Supervisor Nate Miley be sponsoring this when it's not even in his district?

Um that's a little bit strange.

You know, we need to have staff.

Uh Nate Miley's staff is very overworked, I heard.

So maybe we need, you know, the uh highly technically competent staff from district one, you know, those tremendous uh people with scientific knowledge over there to get get on this and uh and and help protect the people of the Tri-Valley from this kind of a threat.

By the way, these uh events or these um uh conditions are spreading to uh landfills across the state and across the country as the landfills are getting bigger and as the types of materials and the more plastics, you know, the more lithium batteries, the more things that are going into landfill, it's a different, more dangerous toxic mix is going into these landfills.

And I'd like to you know really call upon Supervisor David Haubert to start taking uh an interest in this issue and not just worry about how to overturn measure D and how to pave over the Tri-Valley.

Thank you.

There are no more speakers.

Thank you for those comments.

Um may I have roll call vote, please?

Supervisor Fortune on the boss.

Supervisor Tam.

Aye.

Motion carries.

Um this time let's go to uh public comment on items that are not on today's agenda, but within their peer view of the personal administration and legislation committee.

There are no speakers.

Oh one speaker.

Kelly, go ahead.

Uh right.

There's there's my microphone.

Okay, there's my microphone.

Um, yeah, this is uh new software, it's the Microsoft.

Um of the uh things that one of the pieces of legislation that was passed, it was uh a uh ballot initiative in Alameda County, and it passed about uh uh 25 years ago and was called Measure D.

Um if that's not in the purview of this committee, let me know.

Um it had uh it passed uh uh overwhelmingly and in the year since has gathered uh um enormous support from uh uh people uh from the voters all over the county from the residents.

Um Measure D is uh loved and uh supported by um by the electorate and by the tri-valley especially.

Um and uh one of the measure one of the uh provisions in Measure D is that uh there there shall be nothing uh the board of supervisors is allowed to to make it uh more protective of the environment, but not allowed to make it uh uh uh to uh more harmful or more less protective of the environment.

Um so uh you know for the for the uh the the kind of uh uh it seems like the board of supervisors might be thinking about um actually trying to undermine that and you know try to to uh undermine measure D and uh and get that uh get you know so in order to pave over the Tri-Valley.

Um and that would be a very, very bad thing.

It would cause a lot of uh public concern and maybe public opposition.

Um so I would urge you your staff to get out there and look around, not just in your own districts, but look in district one, look in district four, and try to figure out if they're doing anything to try to undermine measure D.

Thank you.

There are no more speakers.

Thank you, everyone, for your comments and for your participation.

This meeting's adjourned.