Santa Cruz County Board of Supervisors Meeting

At its November 10, 2026 meeting, the Santa Cruz County Board of Supervisors approved the consent agenda, including a two-year, $280,000 platform service agreement with Closure Intelligence Incorporated for an artificial-intelligence platform to analyze digital evidence. Supervisor Cummings abstained on that item, citing concerns about confidentiality and requesting a report on data use. The Board also reviewed the county’s road-funding study. Staff reported nearly $500 million in road-program spending over nine fiscal years and discussed deferred maintenance, disaster-repair costs, grants, and declining fuel-tax revenue. The Board accepted the report and unanimously formed an ad hoc committee to explore additional road funding—including a possible update to CSA 9D, state and federal advocacy, and other revenue or financing options—without significantly reducing other county services. The committee is expected to report around February; no fixed general-fund set-aside was approved.

The Board unanimously approved revised Measure Q grant guidelines and received the program’s first annual report, which reported $6.94 million allocated to projects and estimated $185 in outside funding leveraged per Measure Q dollar. Changes include clearer outcome measures, updated grant tiers, and indirect-cost caps of 10% for public agencies and 15% for nonprofits and tribes. The Board also approved a historic-preservation ordinance intended to prevent neglect of historic structures; a second reading is anticipated in December. It authorized a six-month homelessness-services coordination pilot without additional funding, with a staff update on multidisciplinary teams requested by midyear budget reporting. Road and infrastructure funding discussed included a $1.3 million highway safety grant and $3.8 million in planned CDBG-DR funding for culverts.