Quick Take
The Santa Cruz County Board of Supervisors approved a three-year pilot program that will require developers to pay Native American tribal members for the consulting work on culturally sensitive sites that they have been doing for free.
The Santa Cruz County Board of Supervisors on Tuesday unanimously approved a three-year pilot program that will compensate Native American tribes for their time spent consulting on development projects and monitoring construction in archaeologically sensitive areas.
Previously, the state-required consultations relied on volunteers from local tribes, even while all other consultants present were paid to be there. During the pilot project, the developer will be responsible for paying tribal consultants and the county will help negotiate the rates, consistent with how other consultants are treated in the development process.
When a proposed development is determined to be on a culturally or archeologically sensitive site, the California Environmental Quality Act (CEQA) required that tribes whose ancestors lived on that land be consulted and allowed to monitor the construction process on site in case any in case any important historical artifacts were found. This process can also include consultation about the knowledge the tribe has of the land’s significance and suggestions to redesign sections of projects to avoid building over culturally significant sites.
On July 1, Gov. Gavin Newsom signed a bill that grants the majority of development projects complete exemptions from CEQA in order to stimulate housing development. Local tribal leaders have voiced concerns about what the changes mean for preserving culturally significant Indigenous sites, as CEQA was the only statewide protection.
The new pilot program won’t inherently change which projects the tribes will be consulted on, only mandating that tribal members be paid for their time. At Tuesday’s meeting, staff estimated that this process of including tribal consultation occurs only a few times a year in Santa Cruz County.
First, a project on a sensitive site requires research into whether further consultation is needed. Under the pilot program, the developer will pay a minimum flat rate of $200 to a tribe when it provides proof that it adequately researched the site during a given time period. Then the tribe can determine whether it will monitor the site.
If a site is deemed culturally significant and in need of monitoring, the county, developer and tribe will agree on a payment based on the scope, scale and location of the project, with a financial cap provided with a maximum dollar amount. The cap can later be adjusted if archaeological or cultural resources are discovered at the site, which would mean that the project requires significantly more time from the consultant than anticipated to monitor activities and coordinate what will happen to the artifacts or human remains.
“I think this is going to be a really good model for other communities, and I’m really just thankful, again, and appreciative that we’re able to consider this here today,” said Supervisor Justin Cummings, who brought the issue to the board.
Cummings also scheduled a review for the pilot program at next year’s budget hearings, roughly a year out from the program’s start.
Supervisor Manu Koenig raised questions about the system putting additional financial burdens on developers as well as people potentially abusing the system for financial gain or interpreting the requirements for archaeological sensitivity more broadly than intended — such as when his friend’s house in the mountains was surveyed to determine if tribal consultation was needed after crews found oyster shells in their backyard that turned out to be from his friend eating oysters for dinner. Staff clarified that the process for determining which sites require a tribal consultation won’t change, just the fact that tribes are paid for their time.
Koenig said he supports the intention of the program, and that the “fairness” argument in favor of the program resonated with him as well.
“Part of why we wanted to do it as a three-year pilot is so along the way, we can see if there are challenges that come up, and we can make changes throughout the process,” Cummings said in response to Koenig’s concerns.
Julisa Lopez, a member of the Amah Mutsun Tribal Band and Amah Mutsun Land Trust Board of Directors, voiced her vehement support for the pilot program and urged the board of supervisors to approve the item.
Lopez said that centuries of state-sanctioned violence against Indigenous people drove members of the Amah Mutsun away from their homelands in the Santa Cruz County area. She said she is one of the only tribal members who lives in the county, meaning for most other tribal members, the consulting process requires long drives along with hours of work that currently go uncompensated.
“There are so many barriers put up against us, and yet we are persistent, determined and tenacious,” Lopez said during public comment. “Today, you all can be a part of taking down those barriers by ensuring that tribal consultation is valued and compensated on par with all other attendees at the meeting.”
Kate Anderton, board chair of Land Trust Santa Cruz County, called the move a “step toward the healing of the historical trauma” and praised the board for putting action behind the words of the county’s land acknowledgement, the formal statement that recognizes the Indigenous stewards of the land the county occupies said before each meeting.
Anderton noted the burden that consultation can put on tribes and how the limited resources and capacity of local tribes have posed challenges to conducting comprehensive consultations.
“You have the opportunity to ensure that tribes have the resources to engage meaningfully and expeditiously in consultation with the county, to balance the pressures of change against the potential loss of our county’s legacy,” Anderton said to the board.
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