Stanislaus County chair touts ARPA investments, infrastructure and behavioral‑health initiatives in State of the County address

Vito Chiesa, chair of the Stanislaus County Board of Supervisors, delivered the county’s annual State of the County address on July 14, outlining recent investments in economic development, infrastructure and behavioral health.

Chiesa framed the county’s strategy around a major infusion of federal American Rescue Plan Act funding, saying the county treated roughly $107,000,000 in ARPA dollars “as seed money, investing in projects that would continue benefiting this community long after the federal dollars were gone.” He cited Stanislaus 2030, a public‑private economic development partnership funded with local and private dollars, as a central vehicle for those efforts.

The chair described a portfolio of initiatives: a child‑care program he said has generated 105 new home‑based child‑care businesses and about 840 permanent licensed spaces; a $10,000,000 county pledge to help anchor a bioeconomy innovation campus with private partners (he said $35,000,000 in additional funding has been generated, including $13,000,000 in private investment); and continued leveraging of Measure L for transportation projects.

On transportation, Chiesa noted the completion of phase one of State Route 132 and said the long‑running North County Corridor remains a major county investment, designed to improve safety and goods movement. He also recognized regional entities and former and current public‑works leaders for advancing projects that have waited decades for funding.

Chiesa described library and parks work, including completed renovations in Turlock and Empire, the Modesto library renovation expected to open in October, and plans to reopen Turlock Lake day‑use areas in partnership with Turlock Irrigation District and California State Parks.

Turning to behavioral health, he described local implementation of statewide behavioral‑health transformation, the regional Hope Forward Children’s Behavioral Health Campus (a partnership with San Joaquin and Merced counties), and new efforts to coordinate substance‑use treatment and crisis response. He said those reforms have reduced inpatient commitments; “over the past two years, the incompetent to stand trial determinations have decreased by more than 20 percent,” he noted.

Chiesa also recounted a fiscal history item he called the “negative bailout,” a decades‑long unintended consequence of state property‑tax formulas that, he said, cost the county an estimated $70,000,000 before legislative fixes began returning revenues to local general funds in fiscal 2015–16.

The address closed with an invitation to increased public participation: the board will offer multiple ways to join meetings (telephone, in‑person, written comment, a QR registration option) and has begun reading closed‑session items into the record ahead of public comment to guard against online‑service disruptions.

Chiesa concluded by reiterating the county’s stated mission: “We build community,” and urged continued partnership across jurisdictions to sustain services and growth.