Alameda County Board of Supervisors Meeting - March 17, 2026
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Alameda County Board of Supervisors Meeting - March 17, 2026
The Alameda County Board of Supervisors met on Tuesday, March 17, 2026 (St. Patrick's Day) in a regularly scheduled meeting. The meeting included supervisors' remarks, public comments, approval of minutes and consent calendar, a mass motion covering multiple agenda items, and a detailed oral presentation on the fiscal challenges facing Alameda Health System (AHS). The board also addressed a continuance request and received public input on non-agenda items.
Consent Calendar
- Items 50 through 57 were approved unanimously on a roll call vote with all present supervisors voting aye.
Public Comments & Testimony
- Samuel Raimi spoke on items 9 and 11, expressing frustration about the lack of affordable housing and the plight of social workers and students sleeping in cars. He urged the board to take action for the poor.
- Anthony Fuentes, ACNE director, thanked the board for their recent leadership and intent listening, expressing hope for consensus moving forward.
- Alison Monroe (FASME) requested that the report from the ad hoc committee on AHS (item 38) be posted promptly.
- Harold Bryant, a 27-year homeowner, complained about illegal dumping in Oakland, asking the board to require hauling businesses to have licenses and to provide resources for environmental services.
- Laura (speaker name not given) urged the county to streamline hiring to fill high vacancy rates, noting the impact on services.
- Jane Kramer raised concerns about graffiti as a countywide problem.
- One speaker expressed support for former President Trump and criticized comments against him.
Discussion Items
- Supervisors' Remarks: Supervisor Marquez asked HR Director Margarita Zamora for an update on Sheriff Oversight AB 1185, noting ongoing meet-and-confer with employee organizations. Supervisor Tam reported on a budget work session, warning of grim financial outlook due to HR1, with 60% of the budget from state/federal sources and citing Santa Clara County's challenges.
- Item 3 – MOU on Immigrant and Refugee Affairs: Supervisor Marquez highlighted a public-private partnership with the San Francisco Foundation and Zellerbach Family Foundation to design an Office of Immigrant and Refugee Affairs, with over $120,000 raised and an update scheduled for April 30.
- Item 10 – St. Rose Hospital Funding: Supervisor Marquez provided a detailed timeline of county efforts to support St. Rose Hospital, culminating in its acquisition by Alameda Health System. She emphasized the importance of preserving the healthcare ecosystem. Supervisor Miley commended her leadership.
- Item 37 Continuance: Originally continued one week by Supervisor Miley, President Halbert exercised his right to continue the item for two meetings until April 7, 2026, overriding the earlier request.
- Item 31 – Salary Ordinance Amendment: Adopted a side letter with ACNE and introduced a salary ordinance amendment (unanimous vote).
- Item 46 – Traffic Code Amendment: Introduced an ordinance amending traffic regulations in unincorporated areas (unanimous vote).
- Item 38 – Oral Presentation on AHS Fiscal Status: County Administrator Susan Marnichi reviewed the background leading to the board's March 3 directive to defer layoffs. AHS CEO James Jackson reported that the Board of Trustees delayed all reductions in force until June 30, 2026, at an estimated fiscal impact of $14.1 million (based on average compensation of $171,000 per FTE, benefits, and administrative costs for reintegration). County staff proposed two strategies to cover the cost: (1) reducing the specialty mental health contract withhold from 20% to 10% to improve cash flow, and (2) adjusting AHS's line of credit with the county treasury by keeping the net negative balance at $100 million through June 2027 (instead of reducing it by $5 million per year) and increasing intra-year flexibility from $50 million to $100 million. The Intensive Outpatient Program (IOP) was discussed but not taken on by the county. Supervisors Miley, Fortunato Bass, and Marquez asked clarifying questions and expressed support for the approach, with formal board action scheduled for March 24.
Key Outcomes
- Minutes from March 3, 2026 approved unanimously.
- Consent calendar (items 50-57) approved unanimously.
- Mass motion (items 2-6, 8-36, 38-44, 46-49) approved unanimously, with item 37 continued to April 7, 2026 and item 45 pulled.
- Item 31 (side letter and salary ordinance) and Item 46 (traffic code) both adopted on first reading unanimously.
- Item 38 – AHS Oral Update: The board will consider formal action at the March 24, 2026 meeting to (a) reduce the behavioral health payment withhold from 20% to 10% and (b) amend the permanent line of credit agreement to maintain a $100 million net negative balance through June 2027 and increase intra-year flexibility to $100 million. An ad hoc committee (Supervisors Miley and Fortunato Bass) will continue working with AHS and labor to address the fiscal year 2026-27 budget.
- Item 37 continued to the April 7, 2026 meeting per President Halbert's exercise of his continuance right (two meetings).
Meeting Transcript
Good morning, everyone. I'd like to call the meeting to order today is St. Patrick's Day, Tuesday, March 17th. This is our regularly scheduled board of supervisors meetings. I would ask that you all rise if you can and join me in the Pledge of Allegiance. Congratulations to the flag, United States to the Republic. Under Indivisible Justice Foral. Will the clerk please call the role to establish our quorum? Supervisor Marquez present. Supervisor Tam present. Supervisor Miley, excused. Supervisor Cortinato Baz. President Howard. We have a quorum. Thank you very much. The first item is supervisors' remarks. Any of my colleagues wishing to speak should press their button and be recognized. I'll recognize Supervisor Mark as then Tam. Yes. Thank you so much, Chair Halbert. Good morning and welcome everyone. Just wanted to ask our HR director. Since I serve as the chair of public protection, just wanted to note for the community that we passed a first reading of the Sheriff Oversight AB 1185 ordinance back in September of 2024. And I now would like to ask Ms. Margarita Zamora if she could please provide an update to the community in terms of the status of AB 1185. Thank you. Good morning, Supervisors Margarita Samora, Human Resource Services Director. We have been mean conferring with the impacted employee organizations. We are mean conferring in good faith. We're exchanging ideas, proposals, concepts, and uh we will continue to do so until we reach agreement. Thank you for that, Dave. Supervisor Tam. Thank you, President Halbert. Uh just wanted to highlight that we had a Board of Supervisors Budget Workroute special meeting yesterday. Um we had the uh executive director of the um of CSAC, the California State Association of Counties, and many of you, I think were part of that uh meeting along with um uh some of our associations on public hospitals and also uh behavioral health and also healthcare executives and um basically the bottom line is everything's pretty grim because of HR1. And what we are also hearing is other counties are facing this weird dilemma where like Santa Clara County in particular, uh their hospital is looking at reductions in force while they're increasing their sales tax um to try to uh close some of the gaps that will be created with HR1. If we the example that they gave was um Santa Clara County was closing uh and consolidating their labor and delivery, and um similarly uh we heard an uh updates from all the other um counties that are also experiencing difficulties with proposition one and the shifting and funding from prevention and early intervention. So uh I think uh we are going to need some relief from the state. Um, as we saw yesterday, almost uh 60% of our budget comes from the state and federal government. So we don't have that relief. Uh we we may be facing some serious challenges. Thank you for that update, Supervisor Fortunatabath. Anything to remark about? No, okay, thank you very much. Um, well, I would like to say that the City of Dublin was able to host its sister city from Bray, Ireland, to come and join us for St. Patrick's Day weekend. If you had a chance to visit the city of Dublin this weekend, you would have seen 80,000 people come to celebrate St. Patrick's Day. It was really kind of fun and interesting. I also want to thank my staff and Supervisor Marquez, who helped to sponsor a um celebration of uh women's month and a women's luncheon in Fremont, located at the Niles um Veterans Hall.
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