Good morning, everyone. Good morning. We will get this show on the road here. So we'll ask everyone to take a seat. Are you going to hear the gala? First time you get to use it. I've never used it. I'm free. Okay, we're going to get ready to go here. So we'll ask everyone to take their seats. Okay, we're going to get started. So we'll ask everyone to take their seats. Yeah. All right, we're ready to go. We'll ask everyone to take their seats and get ready to go here. Want to wish everyone a happy new year. And we have a few chair announcements before we start the meeting. There are hearing devices available on the left side of the dias. These board chambers are T-coil compatible for hearing devices. And then there are speaker slips available at the back of the chambers and the right side of the dias. So if you wish to make any public comments, grab a speaker slip and just drop it off in front in the front here and you'll have your chance to do that. Okay, with that, I'm going to ask everyone to join me for the Pledge of Allegiance. 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. Well, again, I want to wish everyone a happy new year today is kind of a special meeting as this is the swearing in of the elected and re-elected county officials. First thing we're going to do is open this meeting to public comments. If anyone wishes to speak or make any comments, grab a speaker slip. I don't know if we have any requests. We do have one request to speak. Well, it looks like two people, one request, but Jacqueline Frederick and Erica. Well, good morning to everyone and happy new year. This is I'm delighted to be here today. I am the CEO of Latino Outreach Council. And this is our 30th year being involved in this community, building bridges between all members of our community, of all ethnicities, and we want to express our sincere gratitude to the Board of Supervisors for joining us as a Board member and also supporting our organization for the past 30 years. At this time, I would like to introduce our new president, Erica Rivel-Kalba. And I would also like all the members of our board who are here today to stand up, please. We have an amazing board of directors and who work very hard. We're an all-volunteer, nonprofit, non-political organization. And once again, I'd like to introduce our new president, Erica Rivalkalba. Good morning. As you all know, I'm Erica Robalkava and it's a pleasure for me to be the president of Latino Average Council. And also, I'm looking forward to work with you in this 2025. And I know that we have many plans to continue providing the Latino community resources, especially this point of the year where we need to provide resources and keep them updated with a new legislation. So that's something that we're gonna be working with. Thank you. Okay. And I'm just thank you, Erica. Thank you, Erica, Jacqueline. Yeah. Thank you. Thank you, everybody. Thank you. Yes. Thank you. Thank you. Okay. Thank you. Thank you. Thank you. Thank you. Thank you. Thank you. All right. Courtney, Courtney Keano. I just saw Courtney and Russell with reach. Good morning, Chair Arnold and members of the board. My name is Courtney Keano and I serve as the director of Community Relations and Economic development in the office of the president at Cal Poly. I'm here to speak on behalf of president Armstrong this morning. It is an honor to address you as we reflect on transitions and look forward to exciting opportunities for future collaboration. First, we'd like to extend our heartfelt thanks to supervisor Arnold. For her years of dedicated service to the fifth district in the County of San Lois, Vispo, Supervisor Arnold, your commitment to the community and steadfast leadership have left a lasting legacy. We deeply appreciate the collaborative spirit you've brought to your work and your support of education, innovation, and community well-being. The president also wanted to say from day one, whether it was meeting with you or out of the branding, that he has appreciated your friendship and camaraderie so much. We wish you all the best in your next chapter. We also extend our congratulations to Heather Marano as she steps into the role of fifth district supervisor. We look forward to working closely with you to strengthen the connections between the university and the county. We'd also like to extend our congratulations to first district supervisor, John Pashong, on his reelection. Supervisor Pashong, your continued leadership and dedication to the residents of the first district and San Luisosua County are greatly appreciated. We value your strong partnership that we've built with you over the years and look forward to collaborating with you often in the future. We also want to congratulate Supervisor Don Ortiz Legge on your selection as the chair of the board of the upcoming year. Your leadership and vision are inspiring. We are excited to see the direction. You'll help the county guide it the county and Cal Poly is eager to strengthen our work with you and the board on shared goals. Lastly, I want to express how proud we are of the partnership between Cal Poly and the county. The relationship between our university and the county is stronger than ever, and we couldn't be more excited about the possibilities that lie ahead. A special thanks to Matt Pontez, County Administrative Officer for a steadfast leadership, outreach and support. Together, we will continue to make San Luisoso County an exceptional place to live, learn, and thrive. Supervisor Paul Ding and Gibson, we appreciate you as well, even though we're not celebrating a big moment this today. Thank you for your time, your leadership, and your unwavering support of our shared community, and we look forward to an incredible year ahead. Thank you Courtney. And this Russell, yeah. Good morning members of the board. I would read, my name is I'm Russ to go to the committee to ask the committee to ask the committee to ask the committee to ask the committee to ask the committee to ask the committee to ask the committee to ask the committee to ask the committee to ask the committee to ask the committee to ask the committee to ask the committee to ask the committee to ask the committee to ask the committee to ask the committee to ask the committee to ask the San Luis Obispo and Santa Barbara counties. But today, I'm here on behalf of Reach. And we'd like to thank and recognize several of you today. Supervisor Arnold for your distinguished service and the Envancement of Economic Opportunity for our region for the close partnership we have had over the years. We are very grateful. We also want to welcome Supervisor Moreno, as she takes a seat on this board. Welcome. We are welcome Supervisor Moreno, and she takes a seat on this board. Welcome. We are welcome Supervisor Pashan and Supervisor Ortiz Lang for your continued service, and also Supervisor Ortiz Lang. Congratulations and good luck in your role as incoming chair. We are looking forward to working closely with each of you in the creation of more economic opportunity for many more people and stand with Supervisor Bistpo County and across the Central Coast region and continue to partner on such important issues like housing, job creation, and workforce development. And again, on behalf of the Reach Board of Directors and our entire team, thank to each and every one of you for your dedicated service on this board to stand with service milk County I mean very much look forward to your leadership and an impactful year of progress. Thank you Thank you That's my last request to speak. I don't see anyone else coming forward. So we are going to close public oh Yes, for sure yeah Just be sure and state your name and we'll get to speak or slip for after the after your comments. Thank you Francisco Ramirez with the Hispanic Business Association at a bus of robles. I also want to say congratulations to Heather Marano for this new past election and also to John Prasha and also to the other board members and congratulations to all three of you on re-election. And thank you and we're looking forward to working great with the community, uniting everybody and working together as all. I also Maria Garcia is here who is also part of the Hispanic Business Association and we're here to congratulate you guys and see what else we can work with with the community. Thank you. Thank you, Francisco. I thought I saw one. Did we get one more slip in the box? No, no, perfect. Then we are going to, at this time we're going to close public comment. I saw one, did we get one more slip in the box? No, no, perfect. Then we are going to, at this time, we're going to close public comment and call up our county clerk recorder, Elena Cano, to the podium to swear in the officials. And I think, if we do, like we usually do down here, bring. Okay. Do I push? Okay. There it goes. Yes. If I could please just have a supervisor or a tea slide, supervisor, Pashan, and incoming supervisor, Marino, join me down here. Yeah, just right in front of me. Yeah, we're going to get the back of my head. So I'll move, I'll move as soon as we're all done. So the tradition of the oath of office states back to George Washington's first inaugural inauguration in 1789. Even today, these words connect public servants to centuries of democratic values. The oath of office is the foundation of public service, outlining the commitment we each make to the community and to the loss. Every decision, action, and service we provide is tied back to this oath. So it is my honor and my duty as your county clerk recorder to administer your oaths of office this morning. So if you wouldn't mind, please raise your right hand and repeat after me. I state your name. I cannot please name. Do you solemnly swear or affirm? Do you solemnly swear or affirm that I will support and defend the Constitution of the United States and the Constitution of the State of California against all enemies, foreign and domestic, that I will bear true faith and allegiance to the Constitution of the United States, and the Constitution of the State of California, that I take this obligation freely, without any mental reservation, or purpose of evasion, and that I will well and faithfully discharge, the duties upon which I'm about to enter, congratulations to each of you. All right. It's official. We're going to bring the meeting back to the board here for board comments. All righty, it's official. We're going to bring the meeting back to the board here for board comments. Any board comments? No lights on? Alrighty. Then I have a chance to make a comment at this time. And first of all, I want to thank Matt and the rest of the crew up here for these gorgeous flowers. If we're we can see how pretty those are. And I just want to say it was a funny feeling coming in those doors for the last time after 12 years where we work up here, all of the board members work up here on this dius several times a week. So I can't even tell you the hundreds, potentially thousands of meetings that I've been part of sitting up here on this dius. And I want to thank all of you here today and all that are listening. Just thank you for the opportunity to represent you all for these past 12 years, the county that we all love so much. And it was the honor of my lifetime. So I feel good about retiring and having this board takeover. All the county business here, I know they'll all do a good job. And again, I just can't thank everyone enough for, this is a big part of my life and I appreciate all of you. So with that, I am actually gonna hand the meeting over to our vice chair, Supervisor Donarty's leg, and let you take it away. I'm going to take my gear. Okay. Well, before you do that, thank you very much, Chair Arnold, and I appreciate your service as well as we all do. And of course, we want to recognize that with this galvil. So another plaque for your walls. Thank you. Thank walls. Thank you. But thank you. Thank you. Thank you very much. Thank you. Thank you. Thank you. Thank you. Thank you. Thank you. Thank you. Okay. It's situated here. Okay. Come on. Good. Okay. All right. Wow. This is how it all goes, huh? So good morning, everyone. Let me follow the script here. So through this reorganization of the county, board of supervisors, the chairperson, and then the vice chairperson, which is then the way we do it is that we do it in order. We have a rotation. So, I believe the vice chair will be Mr. Paul Ding. Is that correct? Supervisor Paul Ding. So I believe the vice chair will be Mr. Pauling. Is that correct? Supervisor Pauling. So welcome. Thank you. Do we need to make a motion on that? I'll move that we install, use the chair and supervise Pauling as a vice chair. Chair, would you like to take public comment first? Yes, yes we may take public comment first. Yes, yes, we may take public comment first. You know any public comment? Open closing public comment. Okay, thank you. And I will second the motion. Thank you. Motion second. Under discussion. I just want to say thank you for the honor of being vice chair, congratulate chair Ortiz Lake. You're going to do a wonderful job. I also want to welcome Heather Moreno to our board, really excited to be working with you this year. I think there's a lot of good things in store for Slow County and then of course, I wanted to congratulate you, supervisor Pashong on your reelection as well as supervisor Ortiz Lake. Thank you. Very good. Very good. Okay, we'll take the roll call. Thank you. Supervisor Gibson. Yes. Supervisor Moreno. Yes, ma'am. Supervisor Paul Dean. Yes. Supervisor Pashong. Yes. And vice chairperson, Ortiz Lake. Yes. Thank you. The next item is that board comments or questions. Motion on the consent, oh, we did that already, right? Okay, again, you can see I'm new to this. So, 30 seconds. Yeah, 30 seconds in. All right, so we did the roll call and we did it. Okay, I have a few comments to make if that's okay at this point in time. And again, I want to thank everyone for coming today and taking the time out of your busy Tuesdays. And of course, I want to thank my colleagues for their vote of confidence and to work together. But I do want to say some things that I've written down and that's, you know, it is humbling and sobering to be an elected representative of the people in your own community. Of course, I want to acknowledge that this is a land of the Shumash, the original descendants of this incredible land where we live. And I want to thank the citizens who entrusted their vote in me and I will remain in perpetual candidate mode of listening. And District three that I represent hosts some of the most magnificent assets. The most popular beach in the county, beautiful Avila Beach. And I thank all that make that place a wonder for so many. The agricultureists of the Rolling Hills of Edna Valley and their beautiful vineyards and the bountiful fields of fruits and vegetables. And the San Luis of Bistapal County Regional Airport, these are all in District 3. The important role it plays in tourism and business, the cities of slow and pizmo beach and Grover Beach and all their numerous small businesses and the working families who make our region successful. And the lifeblood of our state's clean energy, Diablo Canyon, nuclear power plant, the robust 24-7 safely operating plant, sitting on our pristine and well-managed coastline. Thank you all for your contributions. I want to thank those who get involved in campaigns and to help get us elected and to support me as a candidate and attend campaign events and write checks and knock on doors and all of that. Your generosity and belief in the representative system of democracy is very much acknowledged. And here being elected is one thing, but it is important to acknowledge and thank the county workforce for their tireless efforts to enact the policies and programs for our county. And there are those who stand with us, who see every good deed and frustration and disappointment that comes along in this work. And I want to thank my daughter, Georgia, and my future son-in-law, Nathan, for being there for me. And as long as, as well as my trustee assistant, Kelly Abbas, for her competence and her patience and working with me, and helping me do this role. I ran unsuccessfully in 2016 for the California State Assembly. And one never knows how life twists and turns. So somehow from the tragedy, unfortunately of Supervisor Hill, I came into this role in 2020. I ran again in 2022 because of the way it happened, and then I ran again in 2024. Thus, this is the start of my second term, and in our rotational style, my first time as chairperson. And I hope I make you all proud as the citizens of the county and how I run our meetings. And as Supervisor Gibson says, it's where we do the people's work. My intention is to follow our code of conduct, to listen first, respect different opinions, be courteous, disagree constructively and finally most importantly, debate the policy not the person. I hope that sounds okay for everybody. Finally, one does not get to this day without remembering who and where we came from. I am proudly the granddaughter of Czech immigrants who were small business people who lived in the American dream and building a Chicago bakery and sausage factory, as well as the granddaughter of an uncompanyed miner from Mexico who worked on the railroad, met my grandmother in a railroad camp in Illinois where my father was born in a railroad car that they gave workers to live in. And from that, my mother and father instilled in me the values of hard work and honesty are the necessary ingredients for a successful life. So while I have some fancy degrees and wear some fancy clothes, the struggle of making better life for your children is never lost on me. I look forward to getting to work with my colleagues on all that we have to do to over-dress the issue that over-shadowed so much of our potential and that's the issue of affordability here in San Luis Obispo. And I hope that we work together and that we can help you all achieve your dreams together. Thank you. So. We work together and that we can help you all achieve your dreams together. Thank you. So. Any other questions? Yes. Any other further comments or be? I didn't know if the incoming board member wanted to share some words. Sure. I've been in public service for 12 years and it is one of those, it is really a supervisor on Arnold said as she was leaving the diet, she said it's the honor of a lifetime and it really is, whenever I've been asked to speak to students, typically let's say third graders and you know right in that range plus or minus. And I will ask them, and this was as mayor of a taskadero and ask them, you know, who do you think my boss is? And they come up with all sorts of ideas. Usually they think the president or the governor or that you know, come up with all these ideas. And quietly, and they start thinking and maybe one of the adults in the room says, how do you know? Maybe it's us. Yeah, right? It's all of you. And you know that. And that's why it is such an honor. And as my colleague said, I commit to listening, to collaborating with my colleagues, to really working, doing the people's work, doing what you sent us here for. And we have a lot of big challenges ahead, and I look forward to tackling those with, we have a great staff, and I really, I'm just look forward to working with all of you, and I think all of you for your support, Supervisor Ortiz Leigh mentioned, or Chair Ortiz Leigh, mentioned campaigning, and campaigning is really about talking with constituents, building consensus amongst constituents listening, and bringing that to bear in the work that we do. And so thank you all. Whether you have voted for me or supported me or not is immaterial in this role. What's important is that we all get to work on the things that are facing our county and I pledge to do that. So thank you and thank you for placing your trust in me. Very good, I did. Can you guys have a question? I'm going to continue to be simple, clear and concise. So I have very little to say today. I just want to thank God that constituents and the people that live in District 1 for putting up with me for the last eight years and looking forward to working with you for another four years. Thank you. Very good. Great. Great. You're right, Gibson. You're right, son. Yes. Thank you, Very good. Great. You're right, Mr. Gibson. You're right, son. Yes, thank you, Madam Chair. Welcome. Supervisor Moreno, it's a pleasure to have you here on the Dias with us. I absolutely look forward to working with you. I know that you're dozen years in public service at the city level. Give you a great leg up in understanding what's ahead of us. And what's ahead of us is uncertain. We face unprecedented times, challenging. But to me, I want to I want to maintain an optimism, a positive outlook. The situation at the federal level is going to be unsettled. That's the most polite word that I can summon to describe it. And there's going to be ripple effects into the state. But I am absolutely convinced and committed to service at the local level as being the most important level of government, and also one that provides extraordinary opportunity. We have a number of issues before us. We're going to be deep into them before too very long. And I am hopeful, I should detour slightly. These swearing in ceremonies are always a tremendously hopeful time. It is the renewal of our democratic system and expression of our democratic values. We celebrate here the peaceful transfer of authority and, you know, we're early in the year and so far things are going pretty well. But it's early yet. We have an opportunity to do great things here. I hope you enjoy this job as much as I have. What I'm hopeful for keeping with a theme of hopefulness is the ability of this board to come together at a new level of strategic thinking, because that's what's really gonna be required here, to take on vexing problems, and to make progress. In some instances where progress has been a bit sparse over recent years, our ability to thoughtfully discuss solutions and then follow through on them is going to be key. And as we are fond of saying among many of my colleagues, many of whom you have met across the state, when we make progress, we can expect a certain level of discomfort. And I'm very much want of embracing that discomfort because it is out of the effort that we put forward to reconcile competing ideas and competing interests and allocates scarce resources that we truly make progress and so thank you for your willingness to step up with this. Thank you to the constituency of District One for tolerating Supervisor Pashong for another term. His words, ladies and gentlemen, his words. Thank you, Supervisor Paul Ding for your energy and Madam Chair, congratulations on achieving that seat. I look forward to working with you. Thank you. Thank you Supervisor Gibson. Supervisor Pauling. Just one brief comment. I think that we're in really good shape with this new board. Again, look forward to working with you, Supervisor Moreno. I'm really excited that we have CAO Matt Ponte is at the helm. I think the county is in good shape. We do have challenges. There's a lot of work to be done, but we have a wonderful community. And welcome all of you to continue the process of engaging with our board as we make policies and hopefully good decisions this next year. Thank you. Those are all awesome comments for everyone. I will now get into close the meeting and our next meeting will be Tuesday, January 14th. It's a week from today. And then I would like to invite you to a little reception. It's at the last door on this side of the hallway. We have wonderful pastries from our bridge cafe. So we'd like you to join us and have a cup of coffee with us and all of that. So with that this meeting is adjourned and thank you.