ELK GROVE, CA (MPG) - Sacramento County Supervisor Pat Hume delivered the annual State of the County address on July 19, covering the county’s actions in areas such as timely hospitalizations, water management and road maintenance. He announced $100,000 in funding for Cosumnes Fire District’s telehealth initiative.

Speaking during a luncheon at District56, Hume discussed “wall time,” the amount of time first responders wait with a medical patient until a hospital can admit the patient. The first-responder crew is unavailable for other calls until the hospital accepts the patient, and Hume said long wall times tie up emergency-response resources.

Hume pointed to state Assembly Bill (AB) 40, signed into law last year, which requires local emergency medical services agencies to come up with plans to reduce wall time to 30 minutes or less, in 90% of cases. Hospitals with emergency departments are required to develop wall time reduction protocols.

A bill still being considered by the state Legislature, AB 1180, would allow emergency response agencies to be reimbursed for transportation to medical facilities other than hospitals.

Hume pointed to county funding in support of Sacramento Metropolitan Fire District’s Mobile Integrated Healthcare program, which assesses patients in the field to avoid an emergency room visit.

Hume announced that the county would commit $100,000 in COVID-19 relief funds to Cosumnes Fire Department, to bolster its telehealth program, in which a patient can consult with a doctor remotely before deciding whether to request transport to an emergency room.

Hume, who won the District 5 board seat in the 2022 election, said he responded to the Cosumnes River flooding that struck the area in winter 2023.

“I have convened of stakeholders, land owners, land conservation groups, reclamation districts and water districts to resurrect efforts that had been undertaken the last time the river overflowed its banks in 1997,” Hume said, explaining that his goal is to develop projects focused on flood attenuation, improved water management and groundwater recharge.

He said the county is studying the matter and gathering information on the area’s hydrology.

In one setback, Rep. Doris Matsui, D-Sacramento, secured $2 million to allow the Army Corps of Engineers to participate in the studies but the Army Corps didn’t accept the appropriation. Hume said “they did not have the ability to accept the funding because they didn’t have the capability or the capacity to do that work in this area at this time.”

“We were very displeased by that news,” Hume said, “and we are all committed on circling back and figuring out what we can do better position ourselves, and beter position the Corps, so that they would be able to accept that funding.”

Managing water in the Sacramento-San Joaquin River Delta is another major concern for Hume. He represents the county on a coalition of counties that touch the Delta, which he said exists “to hold the state accountable in their pursuit of the Delta Conveyance Project.”

He said the coalition had representatives of the Metropolitan Water District of Southern California, a major backer of the project, take a tour of the Delta to learn about the impacts the coalition foresees. Hume and other coalition members visited Southern California to understand the water needs there.

“And so our ask of them is that we allow the water to flow through the Delta before they take it out, so that they are not condemning the Delta into permanent drought status, and really causing the tipping point for what is a precarious situation already for our fisheries as well as our flyways and of course, certainly, our farmers,” Hume said.

The Harvest Water Project, under construction along Bruceville Road, will install pipelines that will take treated wastewater to the south county, where it can be used for irrigation.

Hume said the county will have the roads affected by the construction fully repaved.

“So that will at least be one section of unincorporated Sacramento County that will have fresh roads,” Hume said.

Hume said maintenance backlogs and increasing costs mean the county now has more than $1 billion in deferred roadwork. 

With the county receiving just half of the money it needs to maintain the current state of the roads, Hume said he saw “no realistic way” of addressing the issue other than continuing to bring it up.

A $25-million grant will improve a dangerous section of Grant Line Road as part of the planned SouthEast Connector Expressway.

On homelessness, Hume noted that the Sacramento Steps Forward Point in Time Count suggests that the county population of unsheltered homeless people had decreased. 

He also spoke about a recent Supreme Court decision that allows local governments to impose penalties for camping on public land.

Hume noted recent changes in leadership, including David Villanueva’s appointment in December last year as county executive. 

The board of supervisors on July 9 approved Joshua Green as the director of general services. 

Green is currently vice president of government and community affairs at Sky River Casino and he previously served as the general manager of Cosumnes Community Services District.