California Air Resources Board

Salinas (Central Coast): El Gabilan Library, 1400 N. Main St., Salinas, CA 93906 

Background: There were two people from the public in attendance, so staff did not hold breakout groups, it was one group discussion. The Monterey County agricultural commissioner, Juan Hidalgo, and representative from a non-profit were attendance. A brief description of who CARB is and what we do was introduced. CARB staff (7 present) went around the table and described what they work in as well as the two people in attendance.  

Summary: On November 30, 2023, the California Air Resources Board (CARB) hosted a regional in-person meeting in Salinas to seek recommendations from Central Coast residents on ways CARB can better engage communities when developing programs, policies, and regulations. The discussion started with a round of introductions by the participants and CARB staff (seven present). CARB staff then provided a brief overview of CARB, the purpose of hosting this meeting, and the overall effort around the Community Engagement Model. There was an unstructured back-and-forth conversation among the participants and CARB staff. Participants provided their experience on engaging, developing, and maintaining relationships with rural communities. Participants mentioned that timing, messaging, and dissemination are important factors to consider when engaging with rural communities. They also noted that having a consistent presence in the community is a good practice to build trust and for residents to learn more about CARB.     

Detailed Notes 

On-going Relationships 

• Consistency creates credibility and also education 
• Will need repeated engagement to build relationships 
• Transparency to show intent and begin building credibility 
• What are the residents going to get out of working with CARB? Make the follow-up clear – what is the purpose of the meeting? 
• Partner and collaborate more with ag commissioners  

General 

• CARB needs to do a better job of building awareness and education 
• Most residents aren’t going to know what CARB is, so there needs to be more effort letting people know what CARB does rather than solely inform the community that CARB is hosting a meeting 
• Be transparent about limitations faced 
• Difficult to branch out of usual interested parties 

Outreach 

• Targeted outreach, going into rural communities with established groups 
• This includes attending community events, such as farmers markets, holiday events, fairs, etc. 
• Messaging in dual languages, intentional messaging 
• Text messaging may be more effective than flyers 
• Focus groups later on in the process to learn how their experience was and make changes from there 
• Timing is important, culturally sensitive  
• Feb-March good time to engage with the community here 
• Sunday during this time is when you can reach these families at a park and with music 
• If during a weekday, evenings are generally a good time for meetings since folks are off work and out of school, but can still be difficult if meals aren’t being provided 
• Is an agricultural community.  
• This means many in the community are unlikely to attend public meetings during harvest season (in Salinas April – November). 
• Many workers go home for the holidays (December).  
• Pre-harvest is a good time for meetings (February-late March). People will have returned to get hired etc but won’t be harvesting so there is a little more time.  

Photo of White Board