TO: Board of Supervisors
FROM: Ryan J. Alsop, Chief Executive Officer
REPORT BY: Jennifer Palmer, Assistant Chief Executive Officer
SUBJECT: Presentation from the Rural County Representatives of California (RCRC) on the Organization's 2025-2027 Strategic Plan
RECOMMENDATION
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Receive a presentation from the Rural County Representatives of California (RCRC) President and CEO Patrick Blacklock regarding the organization's 2025-2027 Strategic Plan, legislative priorities, and the activities of its affiliate entities supporting California's rural counties. (No Fiscal Impact)
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BACKGROUND
The Rural County Representatives of California (RCRC) is a 40-member county service organization dedicated to representing the collective interests of California's rural counties by advancing policies, programs, and services that strengthen rural communities.
Founded in 1972, RCRC represents a diverse membership of counties that collectively encompass more than 60 percent of California's landmass, including communities with significant agricultural, forest, natural resource, and public lands responsibilities. While each member county has distinct characteristics, rural counties share common challenges related to geographic isolation, limited infrastructure capacity, economic development constraints, public safety demands, access to healthcare and essential services, and the fiscal impacts of state and federal mandates on local government operations.
RCRC’s vision is to be the premier advocate and innovative service provider for rural California. On the advocacy front, the organization serves as a unified voice for rural counties before the California Legislature, state agencies, Congress, and federal agencies, delivering the policy expertise and representation needed to elevate rural priorities in Sacramento and Washington, D.C. Equally important is RCRC’s role as an innovative service provider, where it designs and scales practical solutions, ranging from specialized public finance programs to technical environmental assistance, that directly help rural counties overcome local capacity, infrastructure, and resource constraints.
Governance
RCRC is governed by a Board of Directors, where each of the 40-member counties is represented by a delegate, and designated alternate, selected from their respective Board of Supervisors. These delegates elect a Chair and officers to lead the organization. In addition, the delegates appoint regional representatives to form an Executive Committee while providing administrative oversight.
The current Executive Committee officers are:
• Chair: Supervisor Miles Menetrey (Mariposa County)
• First Vice Chair: Supervisor Bob Nelson (Santa Barbara County)
• Second Vice Chair: Supervisor Anne Cottrell (Napa County)
• Immediate Past Chair: Supervisor Geri Byrne (Modoc County)
• Region 1 Representative: Supervisor Madeline Cline (Mendocino County)
• Region 2 Representative: Supervisor Sue Hoek (Nevada County)
• Region 3 Representative: Supervisor Gary Bradford (Yuba County)
• Region 4 Representative: Supervisor David Griffith (Alpine County)
• Region 5 Representative: Supervisor John Peschong (San Luis Obispo County)
Strategic Plan and Policy Principles
The daily work, service divisions, and advocacy activities of RCRC are guided by two foundational documents.
The 2025-2027 RCRC Strategic Plan serves as a guiding document for the organization from which the RCRC Board of Directors set policies and priorities over a three-year period. Complementing the Strategic Plan, the Policy Principles are adopted by the RCRC Board of Directors to establish policy positions and advocacy direction on legislative and regulatory matters. The Policy Principles provide guidance to RCRC's Government Affairs team in representing member counties before state and federal policymakers while ensuring advocacy efforts remain aligned with positions approved by the membership.
AD Hoc Committees
To address emerging issues of importance to member counties, RCRC periodically establishes ad hoc advisory committees to provide policy guidance, share local experiences, and help shape the organization's advocacy priorities. Recent ad hoc committees have focused on public sector recruitment and retention, predator management, Carrier of Last Resort telecommunications obligations, property insurance, and the Williamson Act, reflecting the organization's practice of convening county leaders around complex and evolving policy challenges. These committees provide a forum for member counties to collaborate on legislative, regulatory, and budget priorities while ensuring RCRC's advocacy efforts remain responsive to issues identified directly by its membership.
Organizational Structure
RCRC is organized across four divisions:
• Government Affairs Division: Leads state and federal advocacy efforts guided by Policy Principles adopted by the RCRC Board. In addition to direct advocacy at the state and federal level, the division provides policy analysis, legislative updates, and advocacy resources related to wildfire, water, housing, healthcare, infrastructure, predator management, local government operations, and more.
• Economic Development Division: Focuses on expanding economic opportunities by identifying funding sources, supporting grant development, advancing workforce initiatives, and assisting counties with infrastructure and community investment projects.
• Business Development Division: Advances community resilience and economic growth through financing programs, strategic partnerships, and program management. This division, largely run through RCRC’s affiliate entity, Golden State Finance Authority, oversees affordable housing programs and investments in community development initiatives such as broadband deployment and forest resiliency projects.
• Administration and Finance Division: Provides organizational support through financial management and administrative operations.
Affiliate Entities
To address complex challenges facing rural communities, RCRC has established several affiliate entities that provide targeted programs, financing tools, technical assistance, and specialized services.
Golden State Finance Authority (GSFA) is a duly constituted public entity formed in 1993 by RCRC as a Joint Powers Authority to provide affordable housing and contribute to the social and economic well-being of California residents. GSFA develops and administers programs that provide a source of financing for residential home purchases or refinances, commercial and residential energy efficiency improvement projects, multi‐family housing construction and rehabilitation projects and city and/or county infrastructure improvements. Through its single-family financing programs alone, GSFA has provided homebuyer assistance in the form of gifts, second mortgages and/or mortgage credit certificates to help over 83,000 homebuyers purchase or refinance in California.
National Homebuyers Fund (NHF) is a non-profit public benefit corporation and an instrumentality of government under Internal Revenue Service code section 115. NHF was formed by RCRC in 2002 to stimulate and expand homeownership opportunities and strengthen communities nationwide through the provision and administration of innovative, flexible, and fiscally responsible solutions to the affordable housing challenges of our nation. Through its multi-state, single-family financing program, NHF provides affordable mortgage loan interest rates and down payment and/or closing cost assistance for both returning and first-time homebuyers.
Golden State Natural Resources (GSNR) is a non-profit, 501(c)3, forest resiliency company, created by rural counties in California and governed by local elected leaders. GSNR’s directive is to reduce excess biomass in California’s forested lands, using science-based practices, as part of an overarching strategy to build wildfire and forest resilience in the state and spur economic opportunities in rural communities.
Golden State Connect Authority (GSCA) is a joint powers authority of 40 member counties designed for the purpose of increasing access to reliable, affordable high-speed internet for all rural Californians. Governance of GSCA is conducted by elected Supervisors from rural counties that elect to join GSCA. Through the collective efforts of its members, GSCA is focused on building and supporting the development of innovative future proof networks that provide the highest level of quality, service and transparency to rural California. This year, GSCA began construction on a publicly owned, open access broadband network, called Golden State Fiber.
Environmental Services Joint Powers Authority (ESJPA) is a joint powers agency that provides regulatory advocacy and technical assistance to twenty-six rural county members. In response to an ever-increasing number of State and federal mandates regarding solid waste management, ESJPA was formed in 1993 to assist its rural county members in complying with regulatory requirements and waste diversion goals. On behalf of its members, ESJPA supports local public education campaigns and administers grants for recycling and hazardous waste management programs.
Rural Advancement Institute (RAI) is a non-profit, 501(c)3, public benefit corporation, created in 1999 to support RCRC and for the benefit of RCRC. RAI facilitates academic research and educational opportunities that advance understanding of issues impacting rural California amongst policymakers and the public.
RCRC Resources
RCRC provides a number of resources to keep member counties, state policymakers, and the public informed about issues impacting rural California. Some key items include:
• The Barbed Wire Weekly Newsletter: RCRC’s flagship weekly publication, The Barbed Wire delivers timely legislative updates, regulatory developments, calls for action, and other resources directly related to RCRC’s advocacy efforts.
• Legislative Analyses: This includes the annual Legislative Digest, which summarizes key bills tracked and lobbied by RCRC; the Rural Recap, highlighting yearly organizational milestones; and the Rural Rundown, which provides rapid-response analysis of the potential impact of state budget proposals on rural counties .
Napa County and RCRC
Napa County has been a member of RCRC since 2002, actively participating in the organization's advocacy, policy initiatives, and regional partnerships. Through this membership, Napa County helps shape statewide policy positions and utilizes technical assistance, funding opportunities, and collaborative initiatives addressing issues affecting rural communities.
RCRC represents Napa County before the California Legislature, state agencies, Congress, and federal agencies on issues affecting county operations, including wildfire resilience, natural resource management, rural healthcare, infrastructure, housing, economic development, and more.
Napa County maintains a significant leadership role within the organization. District 3 Supervisor Anne Cottrell currently serves as RCRC's Second Vice Chair and is expected to advance to First Vice Chair before serving as Chair of the organization. In addition, Supervisor Cottrell represents RCRC on the Governor's Wildfire and Forest Resilience Task Force, bringing rural county perspectives to statewide discussions on forest health, wildfire prevention, and community resilience. Supervisor Cottrell also serves as the Chair of RCRC’s Sustainable Groundwater Management Act ad hoc committee.
RCRC’s two affiliated entities focused on housing, GSFA and NHF, have made a direct impact on Napa County. Through GSFA programs, 50 Napa County households have received more than $528,000 in homebuyer assistance to purchase homes. An additional seven households have accessed more than $80,000 in assistance through National Homebuyers Fund programs.
GSFA also serves as Program Manager for the ReCoverCA Homebuyer Assistance Program, which provides housing recovery assistance to Californians impacted by federally declared natural disasters, including the 2017 Northern California wildfires. Napa County partnered closely with GSFA to support local marketing and outreach efforts, helping residents become aware of-and successfully access-these recovery resources.
Beyond homeownership, GSFA is helping counties address other critical needs. Napa County is participating alongside Sonoma and Sutter Counties in a regional jail medical care feasibility study launched through a GSFA initiative in October 2025. Following consultant selection in January 2026, GSFA executed agreements with all 25 participating counties, serving as the contracting entity and fiscal administrator. Project kickoff meetings concluded in June 2026, initiating data collection, site visits, and stakeholder engagement to evaluate collaborative, cost-effective approaches to delivering mandated jail medical care.
Additionally, through RCRC affiliate Golden State Connect Authority (GSCA), Napa County has participated in regional broadband planning and technical assistance efforts. GSCA supported Napa County through an Economic Development Administration (EDA) grant that resulted in a Broadband Planning and Feasibility Study. Through the Local Agency Technical Assistance (LATA) program, GSCA also supported the development of refined high-level network designs for priority areas in unincorporated Napa County, helping advance future broadband infrastructure planning and investment opportunities.
In addition to the programs already benefiting Napa County residents, RCRC and its affiliates offer resources that can support future county priorities. Through GSFA, eligible public agencies may access the Grant Advance Loan Fund, which provides short-term financing to bridge the gap between grant-funded project expenditures and reimbursement. RCRC also continues to advocate for rural counties at the state and federal levels while providing technical assistance to help counties access funding for infrastructure, drought resilience, water management, and other emerging priorities.
Through its continued partnership and leadership within RCRC, Napa County remains actively engaged in shaping policies and programs that enhance and protect the quality of life in rural California counties.
Discussion
The presentation will include discussion of issues affecting rural counties and local governments throughout California, including state mandate reimbursements, wildfire policy and forest resilience, rural healthcare, broadband access, infrastructure investment, and other matters addressed through RCRC's advocacy and programmatic efforts.
The presentation also provides an opportunity for Board members to engage directly with RCRC President and CEO Patrick Blacklock, ask questions regarding state and federal policy issues affecting Napa County, and provide feedback on emerging priorities and challenges facing the community. Board members are encouraged to share perspectives on issues they would like RCRC to elevate in Sacramento and Washington, D.C., helping ensure Napa County's interests continue to be represented through RCRC's legislative, regulatory, and intergovernmental advocacy efforts.
FISCAL IMPACT
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Is there a Fiscal Impact? |
No |
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Is it Mandatory or Discretionary? |
Discretionary |
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Discretionary Justification: |
There is no mandate to receive a presentation from RCRC on the Organizations 2025-2027 Strategic Plan |
ENVIRONMENTAL IMPACT
ENVIRONMENTAL DETERMINATION: The proposed action is not defined by 14 California Code of Regulations 15378 (State CEQA Guidelines) and therefore CEQA is not applicable.