 Well, good morning everybody. Welcome to our 10 a.m. Public portion of the closed session of the October 8th 2019 meeting of the Santa Cruz City Council and this part of the meeting the council will receive public testimony Thereafter the council members will move to the courtyard conference room for closed session I'd like to ask our clerk to please call the roll. Thank you mayor council members crone here Here Brown here Matthews is currently absent Vice mayor Cummings and mayor Watkins here Are there any members of the public who would like to speak to us on our closed session agenda items? Please come forward and you'll have two minutes Eric Nelson I'm an attorney here in town. I represent Deborah workman. She has submitted a tort claim that I understand you guys are reviewing Today I'm not here to argue that this was the most egregious police act ever and I'm not a Zealot against the police force. I Do conflict work for the county? I believe in government believe in police and I understand that they have a job to do and that's to protect us in this Specific instance they were caught out to miss workman's home because her son had said that she was depressed and had a handgun in The police went to the went to her house they secured the area they secured miss workman they Determined that there was a firearm in the house and they had her sitting safely on the count. I mean on the curb and then They determined they were gonna take her in for 5150 to make sure she was safe and She was sitting on the curb and they grabbed her about to lift her up to handcuff her and she kind of yelled out Please don't hurt me. I have an injury and they didn't They didn't stop to see what was gone. They just grabbed her and twisted arm as it turned out they broke her arm and They broke it pretty badly. It was in a cast for a while. She didn't receive immediate treatment because she was in the 5150 but then Immediately after getting out of the 5150 hold She got a cast on her arm through her local physicians and then they looked I guess a month later they opened up took the cast off and it turned out she needed surgery. I mean her arm is really broken There's video that shows that the police broke it So at this point we're not arguing It's the most egregious thing and they beat her and abuse her and I understand they have to be able to handcuff people But they did break her arm and she's injured by it and she's gonna be permanently injured by it But you're welcome to leave any documentation you'd like with us if you'd like okay, thank you so much I appreciate your time Are there any other members of the community who would like to address us on this closed session agenda items? Okay, seeing none. We'll go ahead and adjourn to our closed session Okey-dokey well before we begin our regular council meeting We need to have the annual meeting of the board of directors of the industrial development authority IDA and the Santa Cruz public improvement financing corporation corporation City council members serve as board members on these boards which were created for the purpose of providing the city an instrument to issue bonds annually while the bonds are in existence the board members are legally required to hold a meeting of the IDA and the SCPi FC which is the Santa Cruz public improvement financing corporation The meetings are procedural and for the purpose of approving minutes and electing new board members Before we begin I'd like to call to order the October 8th 2019 annual meeting of the board of directors of the industrial development authority And I'd like to ask our clerk to please call the roll. Thank you directors crone Here Here Brown here Matthews here by two fight Vice chair Cummings here and chair Watkins here Are there any members of the public who would like to speak to us on this item? Okay, I'm now looking for a motion on item number one I'll move Item number one. Okay. Okay. We have a motion by council member Myers seconded by councilor Matthews All those in favor, please say aye. Aye. Any opposed? Okay. That passes unanimously So we'll move on to the second item And I'm now looking for a motion for the second item to elect new officers of the industrial development authority by-laws as follows I will move these slate of officers as described in the agenda. Okay So there's a motion by council member Matthews seconded by vice mayor Cummings any further discussion any public comment Okay, seeing none. All those in favor, please say aye. Aye. Any opposed? Okay. That passes unanimously I'd like to call to order the next one, which is the October 8th 2019 annual meeting of the board of directors of the Santa Cruz Public Improvement financing corporation and I'd like to ask our clerk to please call the roll again. Thank you directors Crone Yeah, lover here Myers here Brown here Matthews here by chair Cummings. Yeah chair Watkins here Are there any members of the public who would like to speak to us on this item? Okay, seeing none. We'll go ahead and see if there's a motion for item number one Which is to approve the minutes of the Santa Cruz Public Improvement financing corporation Okay councilmation by council member Brown seconded by council member Matthews all those in favor, please say aye. Aye. Any opposed? That two passes unanimously. I'll go ahead now if we have the election of officers as presented in our packets I'll go ahead and see if there's a motion to bring those officers forward. I'll move the Election of officers. Okay motion by council member Myers seconded by council member Matthews any further discussion all those in favor Please say aye. Aye. Any opposed? That two passes unanimously. We'll go ahead and adjorn that meeting So we're now at our regular meeting Okay, good afternoon everybody and welcome to our 11 40 a.m Session of the October 8th 2019 meeting of the Santa Cruz City Council And I'd like to ask our clerk to please call the roll again. Thank you mayor councilmember. It's crone Here lover here Myers here Brown here Matthews here vice mayor Cummings here and mayor Watkins here Before we begin I'd like to let the community know that we will have over flow seating at the Tony Hill room over at the civic auditorium for our 430 p.m. Meeting agenda It will be the final agenda item before we have to adjorn by a 6 30 p.m. This evening So if I could ask our clerk to please lead us in the Pledge of Allegiance so we are at the point of our agenda where we get to meet our new employees and We have our risk and safety manager Patti Heyman who's here to introduce some new employees I believe It's Patti here. Yeah, Patti's here The boys I hear okay, it's a couple of minutes early 1140 starting. Oh, okay We'll go ahead. Maybe if there are other employees. Oh, okay So when when the new employee that Patti will be introducing arrives We'll go ahead and have that heard but if not and we have the other employees We'll go ahead and invite up our director of libraries Susan Nimitz to introduce her new employees Okay Why don't we go ahead and pause for like three minutes until we are letting our new employees in This is like Okay, perfect, so technically we're at 1139 right now We're good. We have okay We're in all in okay, and I think we're right here. Yep. We're Seconds away from hitting 1140 So It looks like maybe we have is Patti ready with her new employee here Okay, why don't we go ahead and Patti come on up and we'll go ahead and introduce your new employee, please Thank you, sorry It's my pleasure to introduce Annie Martin who is finances new accounting assistant to Annie's a longtime local. She's born and reared in San Jose's called Santa Cruz home for many years She enjoys frequent walks on West Cliff and in Henry Cowell and likes to travel to Hawaii We'd also like to know that she's a huge share fan Before coming to work for the city Annie worked for the city of Mountain View and for several years had her own business Which was a pet store in San Jose? She's been working in finance as a temp during this last year, and we are delighted to now have her in the accounting assistant position Welcome Annie I'll go ahead and see if we have Susan Nimitz here for libraries to introduce her new employees But a beautiful day Hi, I'm Susan Nimitz. I'm the director of the Santa Cruz Public Libraries, and I have the honor of welcoming Riley Garduno and Kyle plus say where's Riley? I'm not sure you're aware but the library realized really heavily on Using a lot of temporary employees And I think these are both great examples of people who've worked in the library for a while And now we're going into permanent employment, and we're really happy to give them this long-term opportunity They've both proven to be great Riley it's been here a while and has been doing some amazing things working at Capitola He worked on our jail programs, which we're very grateful for he's worked with children's programs And now he's being hired permanently for a position in the to be opened Capitola library so we're really excited to have him and Kyle grew up in Sacramento and it's been working for the state controller's office Working in the legal department a law library and about two years ago Started working for us part-time to and is moving into a permanent position in the library And we're just really grateful to be able to attract such amazing young people and Keep them Thank you here here great. Thank you. Welcome Welcome Riley and Kyle I'll go ahead and see if our parks Director is here Tony Elliott to come on up and introduce his new employee All right. Good afternoon mayor and city council. It's my honor to introduce Lindsay Bass Excuse me. Lindsay is our new principal management analyst for parks and recreation So she's a key key player a key leadership member of the parks and recreation team in fact her first day She very eagerly jumped in and drafted a council agenda report that you all read so her first day she sprung right into action Lindsay came to Santa Cruz originally from Indiana For UCSC to study marine sciences She worked at UCSC for 10 years as a project manager In in IT and on strategic planning She worked at the World Wildlife Fund for 10 years in corporate water stewardship And she worked on six different continents. So we're glad to have her here now settled in Santa Cruz Lindsay's husband's name is John. They have two dogs. She is an avid open water ocean swimmer So yeah, that's really it. You can find Lindsay across the street 323 Church Street at the parks and rec HQ. So please join me in welcoming Lindsay Wonderful welcome Lindsay and last but certainly not least we'll invite at Mark Dettl of public works to introduce his employee Afternoon almost afternoon Mayor and members of the council. It's my pleasure to introduce able Campos. He's our new service maintenance worker for the streets department He was born and grew up in Colima, Mexico Currently lives in Soquel He has a wife and four boys and a girl and a dog to keep some busy when he's not working Past experience. He's he worked with Ralston concrete for five years So we really appreciate the concrete experience and when he's not working or spending time with his his kids He plays soccer. So that's his interest. So please join me in welcoming able Welcome able So I have a brief announcement the public works department and the transportation of public's works commission Invites the community to a project open house on Monday, October 21st from 5 30 to 7 p.m In galt elementary schools multi-purpose room This special meeting of the commission offers an opportunity for the community to dialogue with commissioners and public work staff on 10 projects including the Murray Street bridge seismic retrofit State-manded food waste collection and much more all the details are at the city of Santa Cruz comm And we hope to see you all there The city is also proud to be a sponsor of open streets, which takes place on a car-free West Cliff Cliff Drive Sunday, October 13th. We're going to have five different city booths there Resilient coast Santa Cruz Santa Cruz public libraries parks and rec Santa Cruz police department and Street smarts and if you're able to get your passport stamped at all five of our tables You'll be eligible for a rough raffle ticket with a chance to win an adult hybrid bicycle and youth bicycle So details are on the city's website And we hope that you and your family will enjoy this once a year opportunity to walk bike and play on West Cliff Drive free from vehicle traffic I have one other Announcement that I'd like to take an opportunity at this time to have and so for those who don't know the diversity Center of Santa Cruz is celebrating their 30th anniversary on October 12th And I know we have Sharon Papo here from the the diversity center and while we won't be doing a formal presentation I will just like to do an opera to have an opportunity to share the proclamation with her and invite her up Although it's not formally agendized is Sharon here. Oh good Three oh and three of your board members wonderful. Well, welcome welcome up. Thank you for being flexible here today So I I'm happy if you'd like to introduce yourself and the board members and then I'll go ahead and give you the proclamation Sharon Papo executive director Mark Samet board presidents Angel Cruz board member Ron Indra treasure Wonderful. Well, thank you so much for being here. It's really an honor to have this opportunity Just briefly today to be able to present the proclamation I'd like to just read a little bit of it and then I'll come down and hand it to you if that feels program. Okay So where as the diversity Center was founded in 1989 as the Santa Cruz lesbian and gay community Center to advance the causes and priorities of the lesbian and gay community in Santa Cruz County and Whereas the diversity Center's mission is to advocate for to support and to celebrate the lgbtq plus community And whereas the diversity Center thrives To and thanks to the generosity of hundreds of volunteers and donors who give their money and their time to help support The programs and the services offered and Whereas during its tenure the diversity Center has received countless awards in accolades And whereas on Saturday October 12th 2019 the diversity is celebrating 30 years of their services to our community So it's my pleasure as mayor of the city of Santa Cruz to hereby proclaim Saturday October 12th 2019 as the diversity Center day and I encourage all citizens to join me and congratulating it on its 30th anniversary and expressing our heartfelt appreciation for the numerous contributions to the Santa Cruz community I'm glad we were able to make that happen today So we'll go ahead and move on to our presentations And we have a presentation of a 25-year service print pen and it's a recognition And I'll go ahead and invite up Rosemary Menard to go ahead and take us there. Good morning, Mayor and Council It's my pleasure to be here in front of you today to recognize Chris Barry for 25 years of exemplary service to the city of Santa Cruz Chris started at the water department in October 94 as an entry-level temporary this sort of store you hear all the time Water quality lab assistant and 25 years later He now manages some of the most potentially impactful programs for our community and for the department Currently holding in the watershed compliance manager position that oversees Lachloman recreation area all of the department's land holdings And our water rights and dangerous species and environmental compliance programs He also is a hundred percent committed to the department's mission of delivering clean reliable water to our 100,000 customers and there are times when these two sort of issues have some tension between them and He has shown us every day how we can work together and with the community and regulators and other water agency partners To accomplish both goals environmental compliance and resource stewardship as well as water supply in addition to his day job of ensuring active stewardship of our water resources and environmental resources Chris sits on a number of local volunteer boards and commissions including the county water Commission Fish and Wildlife Commission Local fire safe council and has also served as a member of the Gavilan College's water resources management advisory committee Last as if he had any time left over He's he is able to make time to shred at steamers lane backpack the Pacific Northwest trails and other Sort of areas in our state and out of state and to attend grateful that Contribute concerts that he can think of and before I present his pin I'd like to ask another sort of really exemplary water resources leader in our community in our state to come and make a few comments And then I'll present the pin John Laird Madam mayor and council members my name is John Laird. I'm a pensioner from Santa Cruz And if you haven't cleaned up the graffiti, I've written my name in at least five of your drawers It was very important for me to be here to honor Chris today in my role as secretary for natural resources Across the state going to watershed conferences fish conferences and frequently I would run into Chris Because he was representing the interests of the city and making sure he was up to speed on money that was in Available laws that might be enforced against the city Making sure that that that tension that Rose Berry mentioned between sort of water supply and Watershed restoration and protection were things that could be managed and he made relationships in the different departments He made relationships with different people around the State it's something you might not have seen but he represented the city really well and really ably in doing that and the other thing to just mention is that These days it is not totally popular to be a public employee And it is not something that is widely recognized and yet when people spend 25 years Looking out for the interest of the people of Santa Cruz just making sure that while other people are doing other things They're watching the store. They're making sure things happen It is some of the finest public service that goes on and he is one of those people that is just an Exemplary public servant so it's very important for me to come here today and Recognize him because you've been getting great service and he deserves the recognition for 25 good years. Thank you I'd like to call Chris up, but before I do that I'd like to ask those people in the audience who might be here to also send their good wishes to him on this Good occasion to maybe just stand people in the back This has had a really strong amazing effect on our community and it's my honor to present him with this 25 year pin Thanks, everyone. I am totally unprepared and overwhelmed Coming from a long line of public servants, I've just felt honored to be able to serve the city I I'll just tell you I was homeless in Santa Cruz. I was a grad student. I was living in my van out at steamer Lane. I Pursued that lifestyle in order to develop to put down roots here To be able to surf the lane and have a job in a city. I love doing what I studied to do So I feel like it's been a long and windy road But I am blessed and grateful and I've seen the city go through a lot of changes And I this morning I was thinking what happens if I get asked to say something So I thought well, you know I've seen the the city is faced with great peril and great promise and I hope that Understanding that you all will proceed in that spirit understanding that well the whole world faces great peril right now We do have promise ahead of us and these Seemingly insurmountable challenges intention can be worked through if we work together and we work hard and we maintain a long-term Commitment to our people the people that we serve so anyway. Thank you We have you move on Chris. We'll go ahead and see if I know a couple of the council members wanted to say a brief word Sorry, you're not quite done yet But I'll just I'll just start by saying thank you so much for your 25 years of service I don't think you could have said it you said it perfectly that it is a commitment And we're here to serve our people and we're really lucky to have had you and to have you in our community for these Past 25 years. I enjoyed our time together at the set you did that was nice And I know councilor Myers also wanted to say a few thanks so much mayor Chris you and I I think met right after you started working for the city So we've been longtime colleagues, but most importantly longtime friends, and I just wanted to congratulate you you've brought a tremendous commitment to our watersheds and maintaining our native fish and wildlife and I've spent many hours sloshing around in creeks with you and I don't think I know anyone that meets your commitment to really trying to meet Both the goals of providing water for people and water for fish. So thanks and frogs. So thanks for everything you do Well, thank you And I know councilor Brown. I would just really quickly say add my congratulations and Say that I have been so amazed at your ability to navigate the challenging regulatory environment but what really struck me was the day that we went out on tour and Just to be out with you in the watershed and kind of how excited and enthused you are about being out there and Your understanding of the watershed ecology and habitat and commitment to its protection. So, thank you Thank you very much. Thank you. Thank you all for your hard work Hey, and thanks to the supporters for being here as well So I have a few announcements before we get on with the regular agenda So today's meeting is being broadcast live on community television channel 25 and is streaming on the city's website at cityofsanacruz.com our rules of decorum are on the windowsill To my left and it's my job to keep the meeting running without Distruption and we ask that you respect your fellow citizens when you are inside and outside of our council chambers I'd like to ask now if there are any council members who have a statement of disqualification today Hey seeing none I'll go ahead and see if our city clerk administrator has any additions or deletions to the agenda. No, we don't okay I Have a brief announcement about oral communications So oral communications is an opportunity for the members of the community to speak to us on items that are not on the agenda Oral communications will occur immediately following this afternoon's agenda items and will end no later than 6 30 p.m An observance of Yom Kippur and per our council policy 14.6 I'll go ahead and turn it over to our city attorney at this time to provide a report on closed session Thank You mayor Watkins members of city council This morning the council convened in the courtyard conference room at 10 a.m. To consider the following items Item a was liability claims First claim was of Ruth and Michael mayor Second claim was of Debra L. Workman Those items are also listed on your consent calendar this afternoon as agenda item 5 There were two items of pending litigation The council received a report from and gave direction to the city attorney On those items first is the case of Robert Gomez senior and Robert Gomez junior versus the city and county of Santa Cruz Second item is save our big trees versus the city of Santa Cruz There was no reportable action on those items. I will note for the record However, that council member crone recused recused himself from the save our big trees Item and was not present for that portion of the discussion There's one item of initiation of litigation in that item The city council unanimously voted to join a coalition of cities and counties in petitions in opposing petitions filed in late August by the wireless industry association before the federal communications Commission the petitions that the wireless industry Association filed seek to alter the 2014 infrastructure order Which is an FCC regulation that interprets key terms of the federal telecommunications Act The petitions filed by the industry would further erode the the ability of cities and other local government agencies to Regulate the placement of wireless telecommunications facilities in our community and on that basis council Voted to join in that effort. It's a regulatory proceeding before the federal communications Commission Lastly, there was one item of real property negotiations and the council received a report from it's real property negotiator Which is the executive director of the economic development department? concerning the property at 125 Coral Street owners James P. Gillespie and Jean Gillespie trustees and Harley F and Sandra I. Gillespie co-trustees there's no report of election on that item Thank You mr. Condati. We'll go ahead and turn it over to our city manager for his report Yes, thank you mayor. I just wanted to do a brief update on some happenings this month of October start with See the major Activities that are happening around the earthquake this year marks the 30th anniversary of the earthquake Which is a 7.1 quake that struck at 504 on October 17th of 1989 and essentially you know really changed the course of history for the city of Santa Cruz in many ways and Of course many many members of the community employees and others have dedicated a lot of work and efforts to rebuilding the city Which has largely been rebuilt. I think the last hole and is still under construction, but almost completed And so throughout the month of October the city has partnered with several groups and organizations to present a wide range of Local events exhibits displays and discussions to mark the 30th anniversary One of the featured events will be happening this Sunday October 13th from 12 to 4 where our fire department will be hosting an emergency preparedness and safety event Here at the Civic Auditorium several resource booths and historical photos will be available to the public and Then I believe the fire department is going to do a presentation on that at the next meeting as well And then with respect to Another item that's going to be happening with respect to the earthquake is our long-term long-term Economic development and redevelopment manager Joe Hall has shared a collection of photos taken from October 18 1989 the morning after the earthquake through December of 1996 he has this collection of photos and they are dedicated to the residents of the city of Santa Cruz and Participants in the vision Santa Cruz process and city staff members who worked To ensure Santa Cruz emerge from the earthquake as a vibrant prosperous community The full full list of events is available on the city's web page So just go to web page and just on the search page type earthquake and you'll get the full list of events that are happening also this month is October is affordable housing month and our economic development department has put together a series of events To answer some questions and to provide information about affordable housing in our community The events include an affordable housing finance class and an affordable housing bike tour Well, which would conclude at the grand opening of the water street apartments, which are currently under construction and they look very very very nice And here are some of the details around that. So It's a Monday October 21st from 6 to a.m. Is the class and It includes looking at the factors that need to be considered when developing affordable housing. How does financing work? Space is limited to 50 participants. So you could RSVP on event bright to reserve your spot The bike tour is Saturday, October 19th from 1 to 3 And it will go around looking at a variety of affordable housing apartments in the downtown And it will highlight some of the most recently built properties and give you a preview of those that are on in the Horizon because there are some major projects that are we're working on particularly in downtown to provide additional affordable housing units Space is limited so you can RSVP to Jessica Miller over at the economic development department to reserve your spot And then with respect to the grand opening at the water street apartments that's Saturday, October 19th from 3 to 4 And you can join the developer the future of housing for for the future of housing at the grand opening It's at 708 water street and take a tour of the grounds and see the apartments inside again They look very very nice And you can RSVP to communications at eahousing.org to confirm your attendance So if you have any questions you can also reach out to the economic development department and they can give you all the information and details as well And then finally The other thing happening or this this month relate to our Go Santa Cruz program Which on October 4 first launched the expanded Go Santa Cruz program Based on the council's approval to expand a funding for a variety of alternative programs alternative transportation programs and there are a number of Incentives to help downtown employees choose options rather than driving to get to work These includes free transit passes which are being distributed free bike locker cards Reloaded with $20 discounted jump bike Memberships a carpool incentives commute information and carpool ride matching as well as bike safety training. So the this all be kicking off this month with a variety of events and presentations throughout the downtown and in the community So that's there's a lot more things going on But these are some of the highlights for this month that I just wanted to present Thank you for that. Okay wonderful So we'll go ahead now and move on to the meeting calendar, which is attached to the agenda And I'll look to our city clerk to see if we have any changes to that. We have no addition Okay, so we're moving right along to our consent agenda And that's items number three through fourteen on our agenda All items will be acted upon in one motion unless an item is pulled by a council member for further discussion Are there any council members who are interested in pulling an item today? I want to pull an item. I just want to make a comment on item number eight. Okay Council member clever question on number ten. Okay Okay, so we'll go ahead and See if we want to go ahead and have council member Crohn speak to item number eight And then we'll move on to item number ten and then we'll look to the community and make a motion Thank you mayor Just want to say this is executive employees compensation and for the record I am voting no on this item because I believe we could have handled this in a better way. I supported apartment heads I Converse with most quite often on issues of city business. I find their council quite useful informed and at times erudite Knowing this knowing that there is great need in our city And with needs outstripping resources my approach this year with respect to salary negotiations was to channel the most city Resources to the lowest paid employees. I only have the most respect for our department heads But the resources to raise those at the bottom have to come from somewhere And it makes sense to me given our budget constraints and also after consulting with numerous Community members that those at the top might better be able to be able to weather the difficulties of the Santa Cruz cost of living This is why I stand by my decision to vote no at this time on an executive pay raise Although my vote could change in the future depending upon the economic fortunes of our city Thank you. Okay, so we'll go ahead and log that as a no vote for a okay for councilor Cohn vice mayor Did you have a comment? Okay, any other comments? Okay, we'll go ahead and move on to item number 10 and there was a Comment by councilor clever and then by councilor Matthew. Thank you So just there were some as a more question there were some community members that had contacted and were curious about the differences Because in the language it's a friendship city So just wondering if there was someone that could clarify the difference between a friendship city and a sister city for anyone watching on TV or It looks like our city clerk can maybe speak because we had that I had the question also a friendship city You're a friendship city for two years, and then you then move on to be a sister city. Okay, and what's the Benefit of it if any Okay, councilor Matthews Friendship city is kind of a probationary exploratory process sister city relationship is intended as a more long-term Continuous process and we before you go does that answer your question or did you have additional questions? It was just With regards to just if people could hear how sister cities and friendship cities are chosen I think we might have to have our Commission come back and speak to that at a certain point to be on what they described here in our agenda report Okay, okay councilor Matthews and then council member vice mayor Cummings Or did you want to speak to that city clerk? Did you have a response something in your agenda? We do have in our packet it starts at page 10.17 the Santa Cruz friendship and sister city adoption policy and It's it's a fairly detailed Process and it's very much a volunteer and community driven So I would just suggest for details talk to the staff and learn more about the background on that I Did look at this and noticed that it's somewhat out of date. I talked to staff. So I'm not bringing any surprise on them so a couple of the Friendship cities have expired and are not being pursued Another of our named sister cities is inactive and there The committee went through quite a process. I'm going to say plus or minus five years ago in developing this just how to keep the the various relationships fresh and provide a mechanism for new ones and So I'm quite happy to support the recommendation, but I would ask that the that the sister cities committee Update their their policy refresh it So we'll go ahead and add that as potential direction as soon or it can just be casual. We've talked okay consensus if I'm consensus We'll go ahead and have did you have additional questions I was just one it was just more of a comment that followed along with that line of questions was just to make sure that as we're Moving forward with identifying additional friendship and sister cities just being conscious and and intentional with regards to emphasizing the diversity of engagement and diversity of location one of the concerns that I heard from different community members was severe lack of black and brown cities incorporated in The sister cities programs so as well as friendship cities So just something to look into and I would encourage the sister cities commission or the those involved with this selection process I'll definitely reach out to them But also to be cognizant of that when making decisions and exploring potential friendship and sister cities, okay Vice mayor Cummings, and one more comment by councillor Matthews and we're gonna open it and I just had a Brief comment because similarly learning that some of the Relationships that we have with certain sister cities already on the books aren't being maintained as much I was kind of curious why we're bringing a new sister city on board because I know there are costs associated with that and then similarly I know that there's been folks who have expressed potentially having a sister city Relationship with Ohaka, Mexico or other places in Latin America where we have people from our population who are representative And so just trying to understand, you know kind of a little bit more what goes into this process and seeing if we can you know Make sure that when we establish these relationships We're maintaining them and if there are new ones that we need to explore we can do that And if there's ones that we need to maybe not maintain anymore for a variety of reasons and we can look into that as well Councilor Matthews, then we're gonna go ahead. Yeah, I appreciate that I I'll just say the committee itself is very well aware of that all of these sister cities have been formed based on different Relationships over time The in order to be active they do have to be maintained on both sides So if that doesn't happen then they become they expire I will say I felt very I've been quite involved with the sister city program for years It is very much volunteer driven. We don't have the staff's time to support it actively with staff and so We really have to I think not Have an abundance of enthusiasm in adding sister cities that we can't maintain over a period of time the whole idea is to have this be an ongoing relationship and Over the years have been many people come forward. Oh, I want a sister city in China. I want a sister city in India I want a sister city here there. So I think we should be open to new ones, but also Really do a good job on the ones we have I agree with the point you've raised Okay, is there any member of the community who wants to address the council on our consent agenda? This is items number three through fourteen Okay, seeing them. We'll go ahead and return it back to council for action Anybody want to move the consent agenda? Okay, I'll second that so vice mayor move consent agenda seconded by myself Logged no vote on item number eight by council member crone further calm comment and Direction on item number ten Okay, any further discussion all those in favor, please say aye aye any opposed Okay, that passes unanimously So we're going to go ahead and move right along here to our general business item and first on the agenda is item number 15 and That item is the resolution declaring October co-op month in the city of Santa Cruz and providing City support for development and growth of local work worker cooperatives and the process is General for general business items to have a presentation by either council members or staff Then opening it up for questions amongst the council public comment and then returning back for action So we'll go ahead and see if the council members who brought this forward want to introduce the item And we have I see here economic development director Who I'm assuming worked with you on the items the council member Matthews Maybe I'll just say on behalf of all of us. It was a really enjoyable process working with the community group They're coming to us with a concern Learning what services the city already has for small and encouraging small local businesses working with our department It was thoroughly enjoyable So I think with that comment. We'll just turn it over I look forward to this being a first step in an ongoing Relationship and work together with co-op Santa Cruz and other organizations Thanks for bringing it forward and welcome Bonnie. Thanks Bonnie Lipscomb director of economic development And I'm just gonna add a couple of brief comments. We've met a couple times with co-op Santa Cruz They've been great meetings. I think we're all on the same page and we support on the concept of Worker cooperatives and Santa Cruz. So we were all aligned. So I'm excited to be part of this I think my you know my team's excited for these recommendations today and with that I'd like to actually turn it over To faz from co-op Santa Cruz who has a brief presentation Great. Welcome first. I know that you originally wanted some more additional time We're ahead of schedule. If you want to take the you know up to eight eight minutes, Tim It's you're welcome to do that Yeah, I think for the second time I can keep it brief Yeah, but I appreciate it We have a tight meeting today that we have to get through All right, hello council members Yeah, you probably know me by now. My name is faz. I really appreciate the the reception from council members the positive reception from from Bonnie from the Economic Development Department and You know co-op Santa Cruz we've been around we've been active for about a year or a year and a half now And so we've decided that maybe it's time to pursue Potential long-term partnership with the city in developing our workforce of the future So I really appreciate Your your converse your conversation around this issue and moving forward with it. So thank you So I'll just go ahead and start talking. I mean, you know a lot of y'all probably already know I think this is also in part for the community as well for folks watching we want to Kind of just go over this real quick. So basically Yeah, so we're introducing right is the resolution We feel like in a time right now in our country We're you know, we're almost heading towards a recession right working-class people have to work longer jobs around lower wages, right? wealth inequality is ramping up a bit more at a higher point than any time in his recent history, right? So I think that worker quite we feel like worker cooperatives, you know as co-op Santa Cruz is Is one of the many solutions that we can do towards Towards closing though the inequality gap in our community. So the National Coalition of Cooperatives is kind of You know Unofficially declared October Cooperative Month, but we really want to have that in paper and really make that a trend moving forward. So We are pushing them have it as worker Cooperative Month and there's about a hundred forty million Employees across the country who are worker who are doing worker cooperatives Would say the highest density of worker cooperatives probably in Spain and so we hope to get to that level at some point in the future. So So some of y'all may have heard about the silver tsunami I'm not probably Bonnie. I imagine may touch on it again, but you know in Santa Cruz County, right? We have 24 2410 business owner businesses owned by baby boomers. That's a statistic from the project from project equity And so it's 17,360 employees recovered under that But I think that the big challenge right with the silver tsunami is that the idea is that you know, baby boomers who do know businesses are You know, and eventually at some point will retire right whether it's now or whether it's later But the idea is that we want to make sure that they have a succession plan, right? Because we've seen a lot of Corporations kind of pop up in Santa Cruz and a lot of local businesses unfortunately struggling I know that's one of the things we pride ourselves in Santa Cruz is being able to you know To support our local businesses, right? And we want to be able to maintain them So I think it's really we feel like it's really important that those business owners have a succession plan But over 85% of those owners lack a succession plan, right? We want to keep those jobs local. We want to you know, because local jobs, you know, ultimately contribute to the local economy more than More than corporations who you know, their money goes out of town and all that stuff. So So yeah, so we want to make sure we can keep locally owned businesses and retain that those heritage businesses that we all value, right? One of the one of the suggestions right is by transitioning to employee ownership So we hope that moving forward right not just in this resolution and future ordinance But moving forward that we can kind of support our community and being able to do that a lot of local businesses have actually approached us Wanting to figure out a way of how they can transition their business into worker cooperatives, but they lack the resources They lack the technical assistance and there are some community groups that are doing work But we feel like it's really important that the city get involved in this process given the resources that you have the staff that you have And it sounds like there's already some buy-in which we're really thankful for but we really want to be able to help those businesses in whatever way we can By transitioning them into worker ownership And so, you know local businesses contributing three times more money back into the local economy The national chains. So we feel like that's really important There was a federal bill which was really great. It was actually bipartisan bill This was introduced in the House of Representatives and ended up passing which would expand opportunities for employee owned Businesses through loans and through other services as well So some of the things right financing transition of existing businesses to worker ownership Training education tracking right all the things that a lot of local businesses really need And one of the things that we we did kind of outlined some of these stuff in the resolution There are some other things that we were proposing it looks like Kind of at this moment, you know staff is not really exploring that right now Which we understand we hope that we can have ongoing conversations about some of those things But you know some of the things that I think we think would be really great to start off Right is providing those business tax and land use incentives right a lot of local business owners that we talked to not even worker cooperatives Just local businesses struggle with being able to afford to rent in Santa Cruz in terms of their business right not just in terms of living here But you being able to continue paying the commercial rent that a lot of corporations have absolutely no challenge doing so tax use Business tax land use incentives would be really great effective city tools Services and technical assistance right are really huge people You know business owners cannot really think about like how do we technically do that where we put in the ownership You know, how is the filing work right? There's a lot of technical challenges that exist and we hope that the city can Kind of support and move forward with that Education and awareness, you know, not a lot. This is a growing movement, right? But not a whole lot of folks know what worker cooperatives are and know kind of what they look like or what the benefits of what it could be Education awareness or a very easy thing that the city could do And in collaboration with the community And then grants, you know, it costs a lot of money to start a business let alone a worker-owned business Right and learning how to navigate that and all that stuff is really it can't be a challenge But I think funding having Some sort of funding starts whether it be fully funded from the city or whether it be a collaboration with local community groups Is something that we hope the city can explore moving forward As I mentioned before there are some local groups that do the do do this kind of work So Santa Cruz community ventures on some of y'all may have heard about it They do some work with cooperatives and providing that technical assistance Project equity, which is like a national nonprofit. They specialize a lot in In that what we're talking about business conversion converting local business businesses into employee ownership Democracy at work Institute, which is kind of this national nonprofit that's doing this kind of work Sustainable economies Law Center, which actually worked with the cities of Berkeley and Oakland to pass similar resolutions like this and working with them and their city staff to Kind of develop ongoing support The hub for sustainable living There's you know, some folks there who are their worker cooperatives, right? They're they're looking to develop and be able to expand And then of course the county right the county is always a county and city partnership something like that would be really great Exploring that the workforce development board and we actually have a member of co-op Santa Cruz who is involved with the county So there's a really great connection there And of course the city of Santa Cruz moving forward so we hope that we can build that ongoing relationship and do really cool Stuff like this moving forward So yeah, so I think with all these groups, you know, we are there are community groups doing work co-op Santa Cruz We're doing advocacy work, right? But I think that this is a really great first step. We're really thankful for the city for Working with us on this and we're really excited about it. This is a great first step I'm not sure if y'all understand how historic this is, right? But this is the beginning of a potential long-term partnership and being able to really transition our economy to a more democratically owned democratically operated society. So we're really thankful that the city has taken this up and Thank you So unless we have any questions, I'll go ahead and open it up to public comment at this time Any members of the community want to address us on this item? Please come in come forward and you'll have up to two minutes Okay, Garrett Phillips and Cruz once again I see the council is preoccupied with yet another resolution that is too far left of American values the litany of whereas's Justifications are just statements which give no credible evidence such as stating worker-owned cooperatives are more efficient than other kinds of businesses Really it's reads like you're just making that stuff up You assign no fiscal fiscal impact to the directives but the staff time and certainly development expansion of a grant loan program or the related resources Is a cost I would love the idea if the council intends to make it easier to start a business in Santa Cruz generally But if the council wants to put its considerable big toe in the water to prioritize Collectives over non-collective business entities. It has fallen in and off the mainland drifting leftwards It is similar to the often heard unequal praises of unions labor and numerous resolutions faring globalist ideas I've heard here. I want you to hear one thing and this one thing very clearly Membership and a collective is always voluntary in the United States. It better be Collectives have advantages and disadvantages personally own a condo and an association with amenities I would never have been able to afford I pay a price though by losing my control or decisions made or liabilities assumed It is the same with unions These worker-owned businesses would be the same and I doubt ownership or control would ever really be equal as if that really means Anything anyway in a country based on individual liberty The government should always neutrally stay out of the business of taking sides favoring collectives over individuals partnerships and corporations But encourage instead prosperity a word. I never have heard here therefore including Worker cooperatives in the city's local preference policy for city contracts and procurement of goods and services It quite explicitly would now favor such over other forms of business Tilting this voluntary mechanism at a public cost. This is quite un-American and wrong Therefore also considering the creation of business tax and land-use incentives Any other members of the community want to address us on this item item number 15, please come forward and you'll have up to two minutes My name is Michael and I just completed a build-out just filed for my DBA I'm a downtown Santa Cruz business owner And I just want to say at the having completed my full project from beginning to end it took about a year and a half The cost was anywhere from it's about five hundred thousand dollars Just to open up a food prep place and so costs are astronomical and As silver silver wave is like a really interesting term for what's about to happen majority of boomers are 64 right now having been born in 1955 that was the highest peak of birth rate during the boomer period and So 64 so in the next five years, we're gonna see an enormous amount of boomers retiring 29% of the population holds about 40% of the wealth And there's a lot of boomers in Santa Cruz County And so that's gonna beg the question are they gonna spend more because they have more time or less Because they don't have that expendable income from their previous employment And so this could be poses a potential recession for a tourist economy like ours and so It yeah, that's pretty much my only point is that a recession may be coming to our tourist economy Thank you. Hi Pat Milo for the last couple years I've had the pleasure with working on and off with co-ops and a cruise on this issue And I'm really excited to see it up here today I also serve on the board of directors of WAM the oldest medical marijuana collective in the country and you know with We are looking at transitioning from a medical collective into some sort of multi stakeholder worker co-op Entity to fit into the new state regulations. So this is really encouraging at least for that project and you know just a comment on the last Statement, I think that the burden of entry to any business is so high that you know normal folks can't get there usually And so any way that you can lift You know those burdens of entry for the type of businesses or type of work that we need to see in the community I think is a really good idea. I think this co-op thing is a beautiful start to that And then also just as a community member. I think that this is you know in a sense the It touches on the deepest issue that we have and that's equity in our community and by equity I mean ownership and if we could have a different ownership model within this community I think we'd have a lot of different discussions than we've been having So I think that this is a wonderful positive step forward and thank you guys all for your work and everything you're doing My name is Rob Yanagida. I'm a Santa Cruz resident and a volunteer lawyer with the Sustainable Economist Law Center I'd actually like to read a statement from Maria Cadenas Executive director of the Santa Cruz Community Ventures who unfortunately couldn't attend because she's in a conference on asset building in Los Angeles Businesses are an integral part of our daily lives They are pathways to economic mobility and the backbone of our local economies through jobs services and goods they offer This makes our local businesses critical to addressing the income and wealth gaps Putting our economy's diversity identity and ability to thrive at risk Santa Cruz Community Ventures believes worker cooperatives are a way to build democratic ownership And vehicles for community members to participate in the economy and build wealth As baby boomer owners retire local businesses will go through shifts Converting those businesses to employ own cooperatives will be critical To keep many of those businesses locally owned and Benefit workers by ensuring better pay benefits asset building and that profits stay in the community Education financial literacy Employment and even home ownership do not eliminate the wealth gaps we see in our communities But cooperatives do allow Community to move away from addressing Addressing access to existing financial systems That is not working Toward creating an economy that works for workers This resolution is part of helping build a strong and vibrant local economy. Thank you Hi there, my name is Ben Pearl and I'm a relatively new transplant to the Santa Cruz community A resident about a year I moved from Davis, California similar in a lot of ways in terms of our proximity to a large state employer and a lot of the Subject to a lot of the similar forces in terms of the squeezed economy affordable housing, etc And I just want to commend the council for taking up this issue and looking at cooperatives I know there's been a lot of emphasis on worker co-ops housing co-ops as well These are just sort of basic tools that we can add to the city toolbox in addressing a lot of the growing wealth and equity and Creating opportunities for buy-in from local residents So yeah, just wanted to appreciate y'all and appreciate city staff for I know it will be good work on this issue Hello, hello, my name is buyers. I am definitely in support of this resolution And I also just wanted to one thing that wasn't mentioned that I didn't see but maybe I was a little bit late was that California also packed the past the California worker cooperative AB 816 in 2016 so we're not Totally pushing the envelope on anything crazy new And then the other thing was mentioned about like how far left this was which I thought was kind of fascinating because the first co-ops were Electricity going into the rural areas of the United States. So in the 1930s President Roosevelt and the Tennessee Valley Authority Act also did this whole Cooperative movement for to get electric electricity out to rural farms So this isn't insane. I think it's very reasonable and I really hope you support it. Thank you I Would like to make the motion Which declares October Co-op month in the city of Santa Cruz and provides city support for development and growth of local worker cooperatives I'd like to make a couple of comments. Okay, so we have a motion by Councilor Matthews seconded by Councilor Cron Comments by Yeah, I'm sorry seconded by Councilor Glover. Yeah, and then comments by Councilmember Cron I did see something go up and then comments by Councilmember Brown Matthews Brown vice mayor all on board. Yeah Okay, why don't we go ahead and have comments by council yeah, thanks for bringing this to the council really? I'm just wondering a lot of times when things are brought to the council and there's no fiscal impact or no nothing attached to it or What's what's the future look like? I'm just wondering from both of you What do you see is this going to die on a shelf somewhere or are we going to continue? I'm sure it's up partly up to the group that has presented today, too But how is the city that's what I'd like to know how's the city of Berkeley for example involved in worker co-ops And is there a financial some kind of loan program or what is it? Okay, because that was part of what we discussed and different communities do it differently different size communities I think we were very clear in our discussions with the group And in the language of the resolution as presented That we are very committed as a city to supporting acknowledging and supporting the value of worker co-ops They we are already I think this may have been a bit of a Learning experience for some of the people that brought this forward we do a lot already in our economic development department to support local business and small business and There we have a robust program of support within the department and Very good relationships. I noticed one thing that wasn't listed on the presentation was the small business development center Which is not our entity, but it's a very useful entity and a partner for us So I think our feeling and the others can can kick in was that We are very much geared to supporting small local businesses And we see the co-op movement as Yet another variety of that and so without giving necessarily preference to to co-ops. We do for example, we have a local Contracting bidding process for goods and services co-ops would fit into that. So there's some things we can readily do at no cost Through our partnerships and relationships and I'm trying to respond to your question about fiscal impact and in terms of grants Given the city's fiscal situation, I don't see us taking a big plunge in that but we do have relationships with state and federal entities who Do investments in economic opportunity? So I think there's a lot we can do without taking on direct Additional financial burden to this city to support a really important component of small local businesses. Does that answer your question? Yeah, first the first step. Yeah, it's definitely a first step. Councilmember Brown, vice mayor Cummings I'm I just want to say I am so thrilled that we are doing this. I recognize that it is You know resolution is I see if this is a first step certainly I recognize having been involved with various producer co-ops Worker co-ops in the past, you know, I realize that it is a huge endeavor to try to either transition business to cooperative ownership It's there are major challenges. I was assigned to do that it for my And to kind of move towards worker ownership it takes a lot of effort and try to navigate the the system Capital is clearly an issue While and then I worked with worker with producer co-ops as well in Latin America. It's hard to start them Capital is a major issue. I don't believe the city will ever be in a position to provide be a major resource in that regard However, I do think that as we open up this conversation with the co-ops Santa Cruz and other organizations And I'm so glad to see that other organizations turned out to Want to be involved in this That we can begin to better understand what What? the community Would be helpful to businesses who are looking to transition and we can In the future move in that direction accordingly. I think And I want to be part of that conversation But I think as council member Matthews suggested some of the things we're already doing That we can try to be make more accessible or more raise the profile in conversation with Advocates in our community I'm also really excited to see this come forward and really happy that the members of the community brought this to our attention because it seems like there's a lot of interest in Really trying to support co-ops and kind of to what was presented earlier just the difficulty of Navigating the technical field of trying to transition small local businesses to co-ops is one piece of you know This conversation that was brought to our attention in addition to that We through our meetings were also disgusting ways that we can partner with local businesses in our community The city to put on events to raise more awareness Whether there are workshops that we can have to help educate folks on how they can transition their businesses and so this was really a first step and We are very much committed to seeing how we can continue to raise the profile of Co-ops in the city of Santa Cruz to support local businesses and figure out ways that we can have technical Assistance for businesses and the the things that we can do currently with the resources that we have and as more resources come Online and more opportunities become available. We can you know explore those at that point in time Why don't you go ahead now and then we'll go ahead and have councilor Myers. Oh, sorry So I guess with that I just want to To highlight the desire for a continued conversation and for those Of you who are listening in or here in the room from sustainable economies Law Center Co-op Santa Cruz community ventures others. Please stay in touch with us and kind of encourage us to Continue to work with you. So we will do our part and but but keep Come in communication with us about how to move forward customer mayors Yeah, I'm gonna I'll be supporting the motion. I just wanted to thank everyone for bringing it forward And just a little bit of personal sort of reflection. I've worked for worked for two co-ops over my time here in the city And I think it really is a great way to Especially for younger people who are who are starting work here It does it can be a really beneficial way to to earn higher wages and have flexibility to To succeed and so I think they're a really interesting model I had really good experiences with the two that I worked for and So, thank you for bringing it forward Here here comes in for clever. Thanks. I just love cooperatives So it was really wonderful to have this up and props to everyone that helped to make this happen and put it together I think one of the stories that always sticks out to me when we got a chance to meet was when y'all told me about the pizza Delivery person that started at like $12 and then in a boning part of the business and started making like $20 to $23 an hour or something like that So that possibility I think if we think about it extrapolated out throughout the community can make an incredible impact not only on Dressing issues of displacement from housing since we have some exorbitant rent prices that we're dealing with right now But also in the potential of home ownership, which I think is really exciting because of the potential of cooperative Land ownership as well as food distribution and all the other kinds of things that this kind of opens the door for those Conversations, so I really appreciate all the work and will definitely be supporting it because yeah co-ops Repeat what everybody said some and very much with them on that And I like the way this offers opportunities and stuff and I think we we need the group to keep pushing and coming back to council and and for you know Getting a notion of what that bond might look like between a co-op and local government Great, okay all those in favor, please say aye. Any opposed, okay that passes unanimously. Thank you Well, maybe have a like maybe a two-minute transition before we have the next item, which is item number 16 on our agenda Okay, we'll come back to the meeting here and we're on item number 16 of our general business calendar Items and we have now at the Chinatown bridge naming and public art proposal. We have Bonnie introducing the item Good afternoon members of the council again Bonnie Lipscomb director of economic development and normally it would actually be Beth Toby our arts program manager Here presenting. She's worked on this project for some time But she is out of town today. She'll be coming back this evening, but unfortunately, she's not here in time for this item So I get the honor of briefly introducing these remarks and then turning it over to Greg pepping So the motion before you today is to approve the naming of the pedestrian bridge Chinatown bridge and approve the Chinatown public art project as Proposed by the coastal watershed Council there were four Chinatowns in Santa Cruz at different times Over over the years the last Chinatown was located near the river Where the gallery are currently sits and was destroyed during the 1955 flood Except for a plaque in the gallery at a courtyard There's very little little visible recognition of the Chinatown residents and the culture of a community who played a prominent role in shaping Santa Cruz over the last century The coastal watershed council is a long local nonprofit organization whose primary mission is to preserve and enhance the San Lorenzo River Brought forward the idea under Greg Pepping's leadership naming the pedestrian bridge Chinatown bridge Conversations between coastal watershed Council and George Al jr. Led to an idea for a public arc plaque piece which eventually became this beautiful piece that you see Before you today Consisting of a non-traditional Chinese style gate with a mosaic Tiled water dragon on top of it this came before council in June of last year and council directed it be considered by the Parks and Rec Commission and The Historic Preservation Commission and then ultimately it also went to the Arts Commission all three unanimously Approved this art piece and the naming of the bridge in September and so now it's back before you today There's been extensive community outreach and Over the last couple months leading up to this project and then the selection approach with the with the artists leading up to this There the actual structure itself is a steel armature With a foam interior and a concrete sort of skin around it. It is very durable Or we're anticipating it to be very durable It's a similar process that's been used at playgrounds at some airports and some public Very publicly used playground. So we're hoping that it will stand the test of time And the fiscal impact to the city the arts commission is part of the city's economic development arts budget Approved 10,000 contribution to really enhance the ramps signage Educational elements and some enhanced landscaping that use you see there And this would be in collaboration with our parks and rec department to go forward to as part of the honoring of the Chinatown bridge and with that I'd like to turn it over to Greg pepping who has a brief presentation Good afternoon mayor vice mayor council members my name is Greg pepping the executive director of the coastal watershed council and Our vision the coastal watershed council's vision is the community's vision, which is a safe and healthy Healthy San Lorenzo River surrounded by safe and inviting parks And what we're doing every day to work towards that is we're getting kids out there It really changes to get youth out there 2,700 youth will earn this wooden badge You've heard me talk about a watershed ranger after they do a service project Work on the river and pledge to keep learning and share with others hundreds of volunteers will be out there planning over 2,000 plants and testing water quality to and taking action to improve water quality, and so We're that's what we're doing to connect and reconnect Members of Santa Cruz to the San Lorenzo River We ask them to spend time there to learn about the river We all rely on the river and we impact the river so to learn about that and to build an emotional connection to the river the levees are doing their jobs and Physically and visually emotionally and psychologically they're also disconnecting us from the river So we have to overcome that that barrier so speaking of learning about the river and speaking of Remembering and forgetting things. I'll give you some background on why an environmental organization Why why the coastal watershed council was bringing this project to you how these things are related when I'm meeting with donors or partners or Colleagues or peers. I invite people often for a walking meeting We all sit down many of you do in these long meetings and other work too often people are really game to have a walking meeting very often And I say Meet me by the bridge the pedestrian bridge going from San San Lorenzo Park over to Trader Joe's in the Galleria It doesn't really roll off the tongue So it was a very practical consideration. I thought we should name that thing What might we name that just really practical as I was as I would walk or bike it regularly I would think about what might that be named and The Chinatown Bridge came to me as an idea among other ideas So that's not something I should decide or the coastal watershed council should decide the conversation I brought that idea to George Al and He liked the idea and started talking to members of his family and his colleagues and Relatives and he liked it a lot. So the idea Evolved from the renaming into the public art piece you see before you the non-traditional Chinese style gate the water dragon And I want to talk a little bit about the water dragon its and its significance The things I mentioned that we do as a nonprofit I'm at the river all the time for stuff like that our office isn't the good times building right by the river I live at the end of price Street right by the river my kid is to and he goes to daycare at the end of Filker I'm on the river all the time I'm Professionally and personally committed to the river and through these conversations I started talking to George about the importance of this piece of history Chinatown right next to the river and it's forgot how it's forgotten and The role the significance of the water dragon when he went George walks the river regularly He couldn't be here. I think Bonnie said for because of another commitment When he walks the river he sees a water dragon sometimes multiple water dragons in the river He sees different moods in the river Dragons He'll see a really fierce river dragon when there's a lot of flow He'll see it meeting another dragon coming in with the pulse of the tide He'll see another dragon coming in where Brant's 40 Creek meets the main stem And he sees that change and mood and dynamic and energy of a dragon I See the river differently now because of hearing those stories and It's really moving for me to hear George talk about how stuff like this remembering learning and reconnecting To that history and all those people It feeds the ghosts is or that's the those are that's the language he uses it feeds hungry ghosts And that's our duty if we want to honor them so That's the emotional piece to offer with the intellectual and the practical so we're here for any questions you have Thanks Thank you for that great Presentation that was really really helpful and I like the concept of feeding the ghost I was wondering how if I just add Is it 14 and 5 19 feet that's is that's the Height of that right there That is high as it goes somebody was asking me this and they thought it was Higher than that you're looking at the width and height and Dragon as you see the dimensions there is is 12 feet long so we should 5 feet high for the dragon and I think the 18 on the gate is the height so about 23 in height That makes sense. It says 14 feet by 14 feet by 18 inches, right? So is that anyway for the gate part 23 feet? Okay, that's what I wanted to know because somebody was asking that question And I think is that going to be open at all where it is now is there going to be any changes to that? Grill work or cement area or you know stepping through the gate. Is that something that is envisioned? So that half that round that half circle will kind of be under the gate So the most that you can walk through the gate is to step into that and you're kind of walking under But you don't really walk under it and keep going I think I think it'd be better if we did what you're asking about and it's also sort of a It's more engineering. It's more cost. It's more design So right now no and hopefully later There's also been a discussion to maybe us some similar Attractive art piece on the other end of the bridge, but this is phase one That's great. Thank you for Helping to move this forward and it's important for us to be acknowledging and recognizing the history of The Chinese residents of Santa Cruz. How long did the process take from the inception of when you first You know coordinated with mr. Owl to now Probably a year and Ten months and maybe you're in eight months. Yes, wonderful. Well, thank you for that diligence Thank you. Welcome I just thank you for bringing this forward. I'm really excited about it and Just the partnership between you and the artist And the city is exciting I did just have a question. I'm not sure if it's for Bonnie or you I just wanted to make sure I understood How the maintenance of a piece like this is is All right, this is a high traffic area and and I just wanted it says in the staff report The city will maintain the piece as part of the public art inventory. Is that something that we we have? Funds in our So so if if it gets any damage or anything like that And that would include I I hope not but something like a skateboard injury or a little graffiti here there We'd be able to get out there and repair it quickly Yeah, we have a general as part of our budget maintenance category and it's sort of it's for everything So depending on on what else, you know Is if there's other maintenance needs, but typically it's available for any any art project Great, and then I just want to make a note Mr. Peppin that there's actually a dragon on the other side of the river I was going to mention in the playground the San Lorenzo urban river plan committee, which was a committee of 24 members of our community Intentionally left that dragon in that playground and then had a local artist named Kathleen Aboud paint it into a dragon And renew that as a dragon. So it's definitely a dragon for the kids over in the playground And I hope we retain this vision of a dragon along the river. It's super Uh It's just very fortuitous that these two Images have come together this this far apart. So there's one over there, but use one more have a friend soon, right? Thank you for your efforts Any other questions at this time? Okay, seeing none for one more thing before you close It's just that I forgot to acknowledge beth toby Who really guided us on this we went through three commissions That's the the recommendation you have before you includes going through three commissions And beth was really the staff lead amongst others on that. So I wanted to thank her for that Thank you for doing that council member brown a question and then i'm going to open it up to public comment We'll come back to you Is there any member of the community who wants to address the council on this item? This is item number 16 on our general business Okay, come on forward and you'll have two minutes or you're welcome to step up Okay, great. Go ahead and come on biotech funding Shanghai And my experience dealing with the chinese is that things like dragons and Similar kind of things have great significance in chinese culture And I wondered if this type of a dragon in this color Had any significance that we should be aware of in the chinese culture That's my question. I don't know the answer, but that's my question. It's the I'll give you an example A japanese firm built a skyscraper in in In Shanghai and they had a big round sign on the top And the chinese said well that looks too much like the rising sun. You got to take it down And so a lot of sensitivity things like that Thank you Okay, any other member of the community wanting to address the council on this item Okay, seeing them. We'll go ahead and return back to the council. We had council member brown Matthews I mean council member brown Matthews Glover and then vice mayor Cummings And I don't know if there was an answer to the question that was posed if you want you're welcome to do that before we go ahead and So the the question was about appropriateness and cultural The considerations that a lot if you're not from a member of this culture, you might not understand a few things came up during the community outreach meeting at the ma and in our outreach to artists and historians And members of the chinese-american community The color is Is appropriate this type of dragon Is appropriate The gate there was some discussion around the gate some folks think that certain gates should only be at temples And there was a variety of opinion on that. This is a non traditional style gate So anyone who would have that opinion Might be more accepting of this the the dragon should not look down Even though it would be nice for you and I standing under it because then it can't fly those are the types of nuanced things that matter And we also learned from projects in chinese And you know in chinatown and portland had a really bad example of how they kind of fumbled on some stuff like this So we tried to do our due diligence George and Kathleen particularly and others Great. Thank you for answering the question. Appreciate that Okay, council member brown comments council member matthews customer Glover vice mayor Cummings I'm really excited to see this project come to fruition and I want to thank everybody who's involved George owes not here Mr. Pepping. Thank you also for Providing us with some literature that also helps tell the story of the very rich history of the chinese in Santa Cruz in this area on the Coastal coast of california which stretches back To before the spanish so a long long history and some some great material for us to also Digest kind of the bigger Bigger history there and so thank you for that and thank you for all the work you did. Thanks to the various commissioners and our staff And I think that I'll leave it at that Councilor matthews. Yeah, I love this project and again. I want to commend Um This is just a perfect example of involving a community nonprofit A value the community shares Private philanthropy and a public entity all of which have contributed to make this happen. It's just wonderful Um I am personally as someone who loves local history. I really believe in creating Reminders of our history and this is a perfect example And I also worked with many of these same people on the chinese gate at evergreen. Um, so we are just so lucky to have The resources and interest in making a project like this happen I did want to mention i've spoken to the principals here. I'll just for the benefit of others This is a pretty high impact zone And I did raise a concern again with the artist And and greg on on the fragility or apparent fragility of some of these The features on the dragon particularly And it's been explained to me the composition of this and it would be very strong And um, it is something that I want to have be beautiful and lasting For years and years into the future. So um, I just wanted to mention that as a concern that As this this is conceptual as it moves forward that that high attention is paid to the durability Of this of the artistic feature But with that I I am happy to move the item before us I'll be approving the naming of the pedestrian bridge and approval of the chinatown public art project It's a great project Okay, so we have a motion by council member matthews seconded by council member crone Further discussion counts more clever. Yeah, I just had a question that came up from that public comment. Um, what? What artists were engaged in the design of the Features I guess within the the gate and the dragon. I noticed, uh, were there any people that specialize in chinese? uh design or tradition or mythology With regards to that. I know there was the public input process But I'm looking at the lead designers names and I don't want to judge based on their names But I think from my experience with them then neither one of them are of chinese descent Yeah, george owls specifically approached kathleen crachetti because of her extensive Work in santa cruz also on the pedestrian bridges with the mosaics and together they did reach out to Community members in the chinese community specifically for their engagement in the process I also actually want to recognize tom ralston who is here Who is also one of the artists involved with the with the project and he may have a little bit more to add to that Okay Thank you. Yes. Um, I built the uh, chinese monument in the evergreen cemetery five years ago It's a project that lasted that went from august to April I think just an amount of time This will be all of that eight to ten months Um, as far as the design goes, I researched the designs thoroughly as thoroughly as I could for chinese gates and chinese bridges And came up with a whole amalgamation of design and some that I thought would work and look really good And the chinese memorial. Have you seen that in evergreen? You should take a look sometime because I think you'll be um You know just impressed with what I would call the authenticity of a chinese piece and some of you have been there This piece is going to be that and actually more If I can get my have my way But um, I uh, I'm using concrete in here. That's almost uh, 8,000 psi and normal concrete is 2,500 So as far as my end goes in the structural integrity Barring a nuclear warhead hitting directly on it. It's going to be here for a lot longer than the roman coliseum So the dragon, I think cathleen had addressed that with you synthia That uh, there are works of art using this method that have stood the test of time and um We uh, we think it's going to be a really cool Design do you have any other questions? Um, yeah, so I was looking at the Chinese memorial and santa cruz. It is it looks great My main concern or just curiosity had to do with the intentional outreach that was done to people that specialize in Asian historical analysis as well as Asian tradition specifically chinese tradition Chinese architecture and Making sure that their voices were prominent and taking into consideration I know that there was the concern mentioned about the placement of gates not associated with temples So I don't know what kind of a resolution was made around that or whether those were taken into consideration But then ultimately decided on establishing a gate here. Um, just you know coming from Someone with a diverse background. I could understand the perspective of some that may Celebrate this absolutely, but then others that may feel if there was not enough inclusion or um Kind of a valuation of it with the Incorporation of many different voices from that community to make sure that everyone has the buy-in to appreciate I completely understand your concern. We had a meeting at the um Ma the museum of art and history and there were chinese people present and there was one Woman who's very active in chinese history and art and she's over the moon with this She's thrilled with it. I took two visits to moma the museum of chinese ancestor ancestry In new york city and I actually Broach this idea To one of the curators who thought it was a great idea too And as far as the lettering goes on the chinese memorial in the evergreen we actually sought the advice of a Professor in chinese in sacramento and he not only Um Scripted the chinese character, but he said do you want to go pre-mal or post-mal? And so there was They were they agreed it should be pre-mal and I imagine the lettering here will probably Replicate that but I can't speak to that completely But I just really feel that we've Collectively done our homework To make sure that we're including Anybody of chinese heritage and ancestry to make sure that this is authentic and something that they would approve of Thank you for that Thank you all so much for your hard work and then we'll go ahead. I just want to also um say You know to the points made earlier It's wonderful to have these types of efforts come forward to us and to celebrate And one of the things that I did notice about the agenda report was really the call out to the equity and the Inclusionary as well as the sustainability and I think it really encompasses all of those elements So thank you for your due diligence and your hard work in bringing this forward to us I know councilor matthews have one last comment and oh, I'm sorry Councilmember vice mayor Cummings has a comment and then councilor matthews and we'll go ahead and see if we could Councilor con Just want to say thank you to greg pepping the water said council our staff the owl family and all the folks who really Put a lot of hard work into this. I think it It's really important that we Educate, you know the people of santa cruz and the people who visit santa cruz about all the cultures They're really contributed to the city over time and I think this is a great way to honor our chinese Historian culture in santa cruz and additionally. I'm just very excited about you know another Really significant piece of artwork that's going to draw attention to our river and really activate our river space because I think that this is another opportunity to also Not only bring attention to the culture of the chinese people who have helped make santa cruz what it is, but also Engaging people in our natural spaces and getting them to appreciate the beauty of our river And so I just want to say how much I appreciate this and its placement and and everything it means for the city Councilor matthews and then councilor the question was raised about How the artists were selected and I think correct me if i'm wrong, but I think Our arts program envisions two paths for public art one is Selecting a site and doing a request for proposals something like that And the other is an unsolicited proposal which this one was where someone has an idea and comes to the city and so These are the artists that george out particularly Selected himself and brought forward as a as a package and again. I just want to thank Tom And the quality of artists involved in this and the the really thoughtful approach to to making it culturally right We're we're really lucky. Yeah councilor crene Just a question on because it came up on the design We've had two emails on it too. Are the lettering what what does it spell? What how would you translate it? Well, it's one question and the other one is will it be translated on the site as well So people who don't speak chinese know what it says um, I'll address that because um, the last Monument that we did was just uh dedicated to the chinese that helped build the Monterey and sanctor's community and then the two Pieces on each column were were actually chinese poet poems And I envision that this will be much of the same and I pretty sure that george out has Someone of professorial quality that will Make sure that this is and if it needs to be approved what they say It's so be it but if not, I mean that's where we're going to go with it And we're going to probably have the same format poetry on the sides and then A chinese statement saying I don't know welcome to china town or this was china town in 1885 or china town 1870 to 1949 or whenever it was no more I just that's still a little bit in development But it's going to be something of that nature. Thanks. So this isn't for lettering, right? No, this is not thanks And I just want to point out two issues in a row that I think we have a lot of enthusiasm And unanimity and um, I know we haven't voted yet on it, but I just it's really nice to see see that I agree here here. Okay. All those in favor, please say I am. Hi any opposed. Okay. That passes unanimously Thank you very much Okay, we're going to go ahead and move on to item number 17 And that is the residential rental inspection services update and options for modifications And we have lee butler and laura coming forward to present the item Good Good afternoon mayor and council members. I'm lee butler the director of planning and community development for the city and with me I have laura landry. She is our code compliance manager and we'll let laura kick off the presentation Good afternoon mayor and city council members I'm laura landry with code compliance manager with the community and development department Thank you The residential inspection services is a self-funded proactive inspection service That was enacted on august 2011 It was created to improve and protect the tenants. It was created to improve and maintain the housing stock and protect the tenants of our community By assuring that the minimum habitable standards are met The sole purpose of the residential inspection service is again protecting our community. Here we have a concrete driveway That after inspection it was found to be collapsing due to several main posts being deteriorated or That they were completely Did not have any support as you can see from the underneath the driveway You have the main post that's completely deteriorated or it's not being supported as well as The detachment of the site because one of the supports has been completely deteriorated In this particular instance one of the tenants that was living in this unit And this single family dwelling Was irate thinking that they were going to need to relocate due to the condition of the driveway because it's considered to be unsafe After explaining to the tenant what the situation was and how important it was for this to be addressed They were able to understand the situation and work with the rental inspection inspector Here in these pictures are two unpromitted Water heaters Just by looking at this picture. You could see that one is pretty obvious. It has no venting. It has no strapping While the other one might not be as obvious The other Water heater that you can see that there's a vent that actually was venting into the walls And also into the attic space of a single family rental unit The one with no venting was actually in located in a place where a child care center was being conducted Unfortunately both the the rental inspectors in this case is were able to assist the tenants and get The condition rectified promptly Well, these two may seem obvious I mean but well these two may it may not seem obvious The next picture you see where a wide ununprevented water heater is very obvious The inspector was out there Notice the darkening around the water heater waited for the pilot to go on in their flames This is on a four 14 unit apartment complex that was also close to other water heaters that could potentially been catastrophe It could have been a catastrophe for all of that were involved And I just jump in here and say The council has seen some of these photos through the weekly updates But these are all recent occurrences. This is something that our team is out doing Protecting the lives of our community members on a daily basis And I'm really proud of the work that they all do to keep our residents safe These all happened in the last few months and it's something that we come across on a very regular basis is Serious life safety threats to our community that our team is out there addressing Here we see stats of the rental inspection services Approximately we have approximately 11,400 registered units in the city and conduct approximately 3700 inspections a year Out of the 3700 inspections 14 percent pass the first inspection Meaning that 86 percent require additional work in order to improve the conditions of the tenants in these locations And only between one and two are vacated a year due to hazardous conditions This fiscal year the 2019 only one was vacated due to hazardous conditions In may 9th 2019 direction was to bring back for discussion four items one Shift the program to a complaint based only to maintain landlord fees to fund the program Three codify sp 1226 that was adopted by last year allowing for enforcement of codes and effect at the time of construction And for bring construction up to code at the time of sale Two additional considerations Are also listed here for the council's consideration One is expand outreach and two is the amnesty a pilot amnesty program which will be described later on in this presentation Currently the rental inspection services is a mandatory program that provides services to all tenants without the fear of retaliating by the landlord The housing voice outreach Confirms that tenants often live in unsafe dangerous condition and do not report these situations due to fear of retaliation or fear of eviction Moving this program to a complaint based program will leave the most vulnerable of our community members They will leave them vulnerable I would also like to say again that based on the stats, which is 86 percent of the Inspections that are conducted conducted fail We strongly recommend that this program not switch to a complaint based program and be made mandatory Council requested that this program remain cost Self-funded Which we completely agree at this point in time the fees are approximately $76 per a single family single family dwelling Which includes the cost for two code compliance specialists and one code compliance technician We further would like to expand our right outreach program to include other community Organizations as well as other community departments to organize additional events and educate the community on tenant resources Thanks, laura. I'll wrap up the presentation here with a few things first off the council provided direction to bring back a discussion related to the codification of sp1226 and sp1226 would allow the and does allow the Building official to apply on a case-by-case basis Codes that were in effect at the time of the construction of an unpermitted unit or a Unpermitted addition for example and This is current state law It is incorporated into the health and safety code. And so we do not need to codify this into our code We are already implementing the use of sp1226 in our Evaluation of unpermitted units and unpermitted additions Speaking of those unpermitted units and we have about 450 that we have identified those units remain occupied And the the vast majority of them are still occupied. We do end up As laura mentioned issuing vacate orders to one to two units per year based on health and safety violations that preclude occupancy But the vast majority of these are still housing individuals We have about 158 in our current Unpermitted dwelling unit legalization process We have fully legalized 32 of those 15 of those the owners have chosen for whatever reason either Compliance with planning requirements or cost associated with With having the structure meet the applicable codes 15 of them have been removed 17 more are Issued they've been issued building permits. And so they're they're close to having A legal unit and then 94 in various stages of the process preparing plans In plan check and so forth We have about 300 that Are in the queue and some of those have been in the queue for quite some time I mean we've got some that have been there for five years and one of the things that we do is when we've got these units Our goal is to legalize the units. So if we have a unit that may be benefit may benefit from A law that may be coming down the pipeline from the state or from us locally We set that one aside And that's part of those 300 units that we have pending We we the last thing we want is people to remove units and then to find out A few months later that oh You know the state would now have allowed that we try to keep these units online And we try to make sure that we can get them permitted and legal so one of the Actions that the council requested discussion regarding was point of sale reporting requirements council direction was to bring back for discussion the Consideration of structures being brought up to code at the point of sale And we saw a number of members of the public writing about The impression that old homes would have to be brought up to current code And that isn't What we took the the council's direction as we took it more as looking at unpermitted units Looking at unprevented additions and potentially looking at health and safety violations that would need to be rectified and potentially If eligible Using sp1226 to apply the older codes. So I just wanted to clarify that um the the council also because They this was not agendized when the direction was given there. There wasn't a discussion about the intent of the motion and so the Statement of at point of sale Also would need some clarification The council didn't discuss this but the agenda report identifies a number of reasons why um having Structures either legalized or get permits prior to a sale can be very problematic because that process is really time-consuming it it and People have to prepare plans. They have to come in and get permits. They have to get inspections The timelines associated with property sales often don't allow for that. So any type of action that the Council considers staff would recommend that if it's a legalization or permitting requirement that the council is looking at that That wouldn't actually happen After the sale occurs The government code does allow for cities to require point of sale Reporting and both selenus and seaside have done that in different manners. Um, the Report here on the screen is a sample of what selenus does They essentially run a report that shows here all the permits that Have been pulled and that's that's included the city of seaside goes a little bit farther They also require an inspection and so there's an inspection and that inspection compares What's out in the field to the permits that have been identified on their research and There has been a fair amount of discussion amongst The community comments about the effects that something like this may have on sales price So i'd like to delve into that for just a moment First off as indicated in the agenda report there have been multiple studies that show an inverse relationship between sales price appreciation and Filtering rates and filtering rates are the rate at which rental units become more affordable over time and While this is a very complex relationship the studies have shown even in high demand markets like ours this inverse relationship of units getting more expensive inversely relates to rentals rental filtering And so over the course of decades a reduction in the escalation Rates of sales prices could result in lower rental rates than they otherwise would be and i want to be clear here that I can't think of much Maybe anything that we can do that will actually lower Sales and rental prices in this community That's going to take some larger macroeconomic forces to actually lower the prices But we can do a number of things that have the potential to Lower the Rate at which increases occur. There are lots of things that we can do to lower the rate at which increases occur and There is a potential that a point of sale reporting process in some instances Could Lower sales prices. It certainly wouldn't in every instance, but there's the potential and i'll give you an example A buyer could think that well this unpermitted unit has been on the market Or has been in existence for 20 years and the city doesn't know about it. It's rented I can just keep going on as is and not invest any money in it and have that revenue without any costs If the city is aware of that unpermitted unit and requiring that it be legalized Then that potential owner could Take and take that cost into consideration in some instances. It wouldn't matter to the owner or to the new to the buyer I should say but in other instances it may Is this a proven fact? Of course not and You know, could it happen? Yes in some instances. It certainly wouldn't but Because there's that potential and because this point of sales Reporting program could Help us to identify and legalize additional Unpermitted units. We are suggesting we are seeing value in that and suggesting that council provide direction to research and do outreach and Then come back with some ordinance updates. We've got a number of things on our plate right now particularly in the Rental inspection service. We're looking at automating a lot of the payment systems and the registration systems And so that's really a priority right now but We could if the council is interested in doing something like this we could take up an effort like that in In six months or so now There are a lot of things that the council could consider in relation to this first off you could just say Nope, we're not interested in point of sale reporting if you are interested in it Then you don't have to answer all these questions, but if you have Thoughts surrounding that that could help inform our discussions with the community The point of sale reporting options could be Permit history only similar to what Salinas does it could add basic findings So someone reviews that and says based on what we see we think only one single family residence should be there Or it could add mandatory or on-request inspections It could Be inspections of just unpermitted units or unpermitted construction Or it could cover the life safety items that we typically do with a rental inspection similarly There are options in relation to corrections and permitting Would we just be looking for unpermitted units? Would we be looking at unpermitted additions? That have to then be permitted Would there be a specified time frame or would we just include those with the existing legalization program? Which as I mentioned sometimes, you know, they they can sit there for five years or more So really what we need to understand from the council today Is based on the direction to bring back a discussion about this Do you want us to pursue a point of sale reporting option or Would you Suggest that that we do not do that at this point in time The final item for discussion Is something that wasn't explicitly directed But it's in response to a number of the comments that we heard from individual council members And certainly from members of the community Where individuals have expressed concerns about units being taken off of the market as a result of the residential inspection service And In most cases If not all cases the The unit is actually being taken off the market. The residential inspection service may identify it But it's not meeting planning requirements or it's not meeting building requirements And that's why the unit would have to be taken off the market You know, we mentioned before that there's only one or two that are vacated per year And there have been 15 in our legalization program that have opted to to To go out of the program, but Those the inconsistency with building and planning requirements is what brings them offline We have very little flexibility in What we can do from the building code perspective we can utilize sp1226 But those are state codes that are put in place now on the other hand We have a significant amount of flexibility as it comes to Our planning requirements And so if the council really wanted to value the The keeping these unpermitted units And legalizing them then We could pursue an amnesty program. There are 31 units right now that do not that we know do not comply with current planning requirements and We could pursue program that would allow for Those units to be legalized in exchange for example for affordability requirements There are some significant trade-offs there Certainly, we'll have some who may not be in favor of the units in the first place or some that say Hey, I wanted to do something like this and I was playing by the rules And so there are very significant trade-offs here And there are also some very real threats to putting a program like this together one Particularly if there are affordability requirements Some owners could be unwilling to Proceed and certainly if if the city doesn't know about their unit They might be more unwilling to proceed and then of course sp50 Some owners may not want to proceed because of sp50 coming down the pipeline which was made a two-year bill this year And could if it's approved allow up to four residential dwelling units on all single family properties throughout the state So that particular You know if if someone didn't meet the density requirements, for example They had four units on a property where there could only be two according to the planning density They may say hey the state might allow me to do this next year without any affordability restrictions So again with this We have a full plate. This would fall on to our advance planning team. We have We have an approved from council six month work plan that was just approved last month And so we've got our our chart our Our path is Chartered for the next six months And delaying that Would actually be better if you wanted to pursue something like this because then we would know better where sp50 is is heading so that Sums up the The approach that we are suggesting maintain the current residential rental inspection service enhance our community outreach research conduct outreach and prepare a draft ordinance for residential point-of-sale reporting and then Provide we're asking council to provide direction on whether or not you would want us to Pursue some sort of temporary amnesty program and laura and i are both available for questions councilmember mayers I just have a couple quick questions Um Could you remind me was it 11,000 something like 11,400 units? That's correct total rental units In the rental inspection program. Yes, and do you have an estimate of how many do you feel like that's pretty much capturing? Most of the units in town or are you Those are the ones that we have currently registered in the rental program It also includes the units that are exempt also from the rental program meaning that they're being inspected for instance by housing authority, so it also includes those as well and these would include apartments And and multifamily types of situations as well Thank you. Thank you for the presentation. Um, so interesting or curious about this amnesty program idea So you there were 450 unpermitted units that you'd identified 31 of them have been identified as potentially being applicable for the amnesty program, but it Mentioned that they're expected to be more that qualify. So i'm just curious What process was used to identify this initial 31? and How far have you gotten in analyzing the 450? Compared to that 31 so like have you gone through 399 of them and then you've only identified 31 or have you gone through 50 and identified 31? So out of the 450 units that we have identified right now 158 have gone been going through the legalization process So we do have a figure of where they are in the process approximately 300 What uh, one of the planners did and the person that's also involved with the legalization process She went through and just scanned to see one Based on the zoning regulations based on setbacks based on just the planning Regulations, which ones would be able to move forward through the legalization process In which one would not be able to move forward with the current planning regulations and 31 approximately 31 were identified as not going to be able to move forward with them There's certainly the potential that more could be identified. You know, that was that was the first cursory review quickly looking at things that often Come up as roadblocks But as you dive deeper into the analysis other things could come up that number could grow and certainly You know, it's it's intentionally identified as 31 known because there are undoubtedly units throughout the city that we are unaware of and We're not sure whether or not those meet planning requirements or not Thank you. And with the 15 that have been removed that you cited on there Is that after contacting the 450 people or owners of the units Of that initial contact 15 of them were removed While the 300 are still pending or how does that work like with regards to You have 450 Did you send out letters to all of them? They were identified as having issues and then they voluntarily remove those units Or was it that they were being enforced on like they weren't on the queue anymore? And then they were moved into that process of having to fix it for instance the 300 that are Currently pending what we do is a batch of 25 We do batches of 25 and move those through the legalization process to be able to assist the property owners And detail and go through the process. There's six steps that goes that Occurs during this process and it's during that process after the property owner has already obtained all the information of how much it's going to be in order to legalize the unit And it's through this process and after the property owner has been Informants given all the information that they require that they think okay, whether am I going to continue to pursue the legalization process Or if I'm just going to convert it back to what it was originally and out of the Again the 125 that've gone through the legalization and some of them will come forward on their own Does it mean that it's particularly once that we're already moving through that process? They'll go ahead say no We'll just go ahead and obtain a permit to convert it back to what it was originally So out of the I mean I could probably do really quick on my computer But out of the Amount that have been processed through the 25 at a time batches what percentage of those have been removed from the market About 10 percent we've got 158 in the process I 10 percent have been 15 have been removed. So roughly 10 percent. Okay, so it's 158 or is it 125? No, 158 158. Okay Um, a wonderful and then so about 10 loss which is concerning with regards to units and people being able I mean granted that they're out of Out of code or building Other question, uh, you'd mentioned the tenants may I clarify one thing? The 15 units that have been removed from the rental inspection services. Um, those are the ones for instance that Have decided obviously not to go through the legalization process Now the legalization process um has started it started I believe in april in 2017 That's how many units 158 that have um gone through the process These some of the units could have been removed prior to that So it doesn't mean necessarily that it's just been in this Period of time that all these 15 units have been removed. Thank you for that Um, I think I only have about one more question and that has to do with the statement that was made about Not having to be complaint based because of the concern of the threat that tenants would face because You mentioned the tenants don't complain because of fear retaliation and eviction So besides keeping it as a anonymous complaint based anyone can complain and that triggers an investigation thing Which has caused a lot of problems for different tenants in the community Um, what are some things that you would recommend that we could implement that would protect tenants from retaliation and evictions so The program as it currently exists Provides through its proactive approach protection for improving the quality of life health and safety of these units Without tenants needing to fear of retaliation because of its proactive nature um If it turned into a reactive complaint based program then A landlord would likely assume Anyone who is complaining about the living conditions in the unit would be the tenants and even with the new state law 1482 sb 1482 that is I'm gonna Assuming the governor signs it as he likely will I'm gonna put in place Sorry, it's ab 1482. Thank you That's going to put in place rent control and just cause eviction protections That fear and the knowledge of that in and of itself may not be out there in the community And that fear of retaliation regardless of that particularly if individuals, you know are vulnerable in terms of very low income or undocumented status Could drive individuals to not report the program and so The state is Putting in some provisions that can help to address that In relation to the the program now I I firmly believe that As a proactive program We protect tenants substantially more than would be the case in a reactive one Great. And then is it local or state law that um Units if they don't have bathrooms have to be physically connected to the main property One moment You know the answer to that I'm gonna I see uh, john mclucey john mclucus who is our Interim deputy building official who can speak to that That's a basic requirement of any dwelling unit. It has to have a bathroom for the state or for the city The state the state. Okay. Thank you Thank you Okay, I'll just do a quick kind of time check Given kind of our time constraints for this today's meeting Can I get a sense of how many members of the community want to address the council on this item? Okay, okay We'll um, we'll have an opportunity to hear from you. This is a big item So we're going to likely have to take it bit by bit and hopefully get through majority of it None of it is very pressing. I don't think in terms of needing to have a time kind of immediate action by the council I know we have some additional questions I'll just sort of kind of ask my council members to be aware of that And um, and then we'll come back and have a chance to kind of get into what the specifics will be So I had vice mayor council member brown and then council member crown Thank you for the presentation and personally I see how these programs can help by being Non-voluntary because of the concerns around retaliation against tenants that landlords could impose should they want to report mold or any other kind of Condition that might be unhealthy for for living I was curious around the Of the 450 Unpermitted units. What are some of the more common things you're coming across that makes them in violation of the city's code? So I know that some of the examples you showed earlier With you know, for example, there are buildings that might have failing garages. They might have exposed wiring they might have the The water heaters that were you know on the flames were coming out of them being concerns are those Some of the conditions where we find these units coming offline or is it other things like ceiling height? ADA accessibility can you just kind of speak to What are some of the ways that these units or rooms might be coming offline? some of the conditions that um, would uh, where the Inspector would have to post it vacate would have to do with for instance egress That's one of the major issues where there is no egress Um, if there's for instance a water heater in the bedroom, um, that those would be the the situations that Would cost for these units to be vacated I think it vacated. Yeah, that was Because I was really trying to understand for some of these that have been removed, you know like It seems like some of them that that might be an easy solution right trying to relocate a water heater inside of a house But some You know other situations where I've met with people in the community and They have issues around like the height like ceiling height in the houses and that being You know a reason to potentially pull something offline although Some people might be fine living in that kind of situation So just trying to get an understanding of yeah, we have had for instance Structures Unpermitted structures where there is no sanitation where there is no cooking facilities where there is again No egress so there have been instances where it's not considered to be a habitable unit For a person to um be able to stay in those units. It would be considered unsafe And if I could just add correct me if I'm wrong, um, but a ceiling height issue. I have also um talked with a community member who had a unit taken offline and and that's I've had that experience not only in this jurisdiction but elsewhere due to ceiling heights and the the challenge there is the The state codes and you know if It met a state code at the time it was built through one two two six Then we could take that in consideration But if it hasn't met any state codes, then we're very much challenged to do so and and I asked the correct me if I'm wrong In an instance like that, um, that would not be Requiring removal of the tenants We would just put them in through the legalization process and they could for example Try to excavate or try to raise the house as has been done in in certain instances, but that can be costly Thank you for the the report I have two questions. Uh, the first is could you refresh My memory perhaps our collective memories on how When you say it's page one two three on page three Approximately 450 dwelling units have been identified. How are they identified? um, I understand the process after they the contact is made and they um The six steps and all of that but how are these units identified? Well, they're identified through two um Two methods one of them. It could be the proactive inspection program Um Inspection services and the other is also through a complaint base So the code compliance division is made out of the rental inspection services as well as code compliance So they it could be both this number of 450 Identified units could be from either or not just necessarily for from the rental inspection services Follow-up question then If there are units that are not enrolled in the rental inspection program The only way then for them to be identified would be through a complaint Yes, so then the same challenge applies I guess i'm just getting at the the challenge that you talk about going to a complaint only system The same challenge applies for tenants who are living in units where they're not in the rental inspection program Yeah, and we have found that some of the units that um, for instance, we receive a complaint on that are A reactive program goes out there and identifies They're also rental units and therefore we do communicate with the rental program as well as the legalization program So it does get um entered into the system Thank you. And then my second question is um on page six You know then we've discussed it that the city does not have the ability to reduce building code standards below those adopted by the state um However There are some flexibility now with 1226. Uh, what is this the city's? Responsibility to and for enforcement are we required to enforce all of these codes state codes? When we find out about issues then yes It's incumbent upon us to make sure that if people are inhabiting dwellings that they are compliant with the with the state codes and There can be alternative ways in which that compliance is achieved whether it's through sp1226 or through an alternate means and methods of construction There are ways in which An equal amount of protection can be achieved or you know, we we try to exercise flexibility through those While ensuring that the intense of the codes is met Our objective is to legalize the units and to make sure that they're safe and In doing so we look at everything on a case by case basis But we do have those codes that are sort of our boundaries for doing so We're legally required to enforce Correct I'll kind of turn the question around a little bit Is the city legally liable for not enforcing its code? There's another way to look at that there is generally immunity in the government code for failing to enforce the law however recent precedent has sort of altered that and i'm thinking specifically of the ghost ship fire in the city of oakland in which A lawsuit was filed against the property owners the city and others In connection with the tragic fire that happened there The city filed a motion based on its statutory immunity to Essentially taken the position that it didn't have a legal obligation to enforce its own codes And the court rejected that so that that's become an issue that will be litigated but I think there is a risk inherent in Just looking the other way when code violations come to our attention that the city could be ultimately liable for for not Taking steps to address known hazardous conditions Just I just want to say i'm not that i'm suggesting we go that route I just wanted to get a better sense of what our role and responsibility is as we consider Moving in directions that where we may have more flexibility about What we enforce with 1226 Okay, thanks Before we get to more questions from council members and I know councilmember crone you're next for questions I'm going to go ahead and open it up for public comment And then we'll come back and we'll get your questions answered so that we can eventually maybe get some Direction on this item since we're at limited time today So those who are interested in speaking to us on this item, please come forward Anybody who wants to speak briefly in about one minute? You're welcome to come forward first Is anybody wants to briefly speak? Don't like it like this. What what have you in one minute? Let me know Any one minute public comment speakers? By show of hands Okay, seeing none. We'll go ahead and open it up for two minutes Good afternoon council members rick longinati with the campaign for sustainable transportation So our group has as part of its mission preservation of affordable housing and so this is a great opportunity for you I think that the staff is asking for direction They're already have a priority to preserve Units and to legalize them and I think that bringing forward their amnesty program Is is really the opportunity that you have to encourage them to to continue with that We might have had an amnesty before doing the rental inspection ordinance, but now we get a second crack at it So I would ask that you that you do that. There's certainly Many planning regulations, you know a distance from property lines and so on that that That we have the the power as a city to change And it would be just a real shame to to lose units on account of that One of the downsides that was pointed out by the staff report was that people might be resentful because you know Hey, I played by the rules and somebody else gets an exemption. Okay. I get that but If you compare that to losing a housing unit, what's more important? Thank you. Thank you Next speaker Please come forward. You'll have up to two minutes I'm um She and just and I'm um an evil landlord If you could just if you could if you wouldn't mind facing the council. Thank you I'm an evil landlord and um I uh I really resent the the classic characterization of landlords as evil and greedy I have worked as a teacher And at a second job in order to pay for these houses The only people that's making money on these houses this 25 years that I've owned them is the banks And so I've been contributing I go after work to take people's garbage to the dump in my own truck Even at my age of 74 Because I can't afford to pay it. Nobody's doing the math. We don't get to keep the money I have a first mortgage a second mortgage repairs taxes Rental inspection fees Um, so I just love people to consider that when they're doing these things My tenants are my friends. I have students I have I don't discriminate I have elderly people. I have one woman who was hit By a forklift at work. She's disabled. I have people with children. One has cancer The child and it's breaking my heart because of stuff the city inspectors Have done and how they're condemning my units Which they've inspected as safe and good for for five or six years. Suddenly. It's a catastrophe Everybody is going to die if I don't do something. They're safe. There's not a problem It's an eighth of an inch difference in a size of a water meter People these people are going to be out and these people are not going to find another place They don't have the funds to go out in this market and find something the place is safe They love it. They want to be there. I care about them I'm a human being. I'm not just a landlord And uh, I've always done the right thing even if my house isn't right I always see to them first because I committed to that and I know I can't talk anymore. Thank you next speaker Thank you Hi, sandy hawkman. I support the landlord. Um, when you guys are taking these programs like you did just cause Um, I sell real estate and we actually were going around interviewing other co-workers During the time the just cause argument was going on how many people were actually selling That were rentals and are becoming first-time homeowners, which is going to happen Which is going to be nice as well. Maybe a lot of first-time homeowners are going to be able to afford west side Maybe a little more, but you're going to have higher rents You're going to have more students or other people not able to afford rentals You're going to have a lot of people who Um think that this is helping them and actually it's going to only hurt them in the future uh just um From the sewer laterals that the owners already have to pick up right now as well as low flow toilets and everything you're not talking Like $500 you're talking right now with a sewer lateral and if everything is any issues 30 plus thousand dollars so to put on top of that um bringing Certain properties up to code that may or may not be it could turn into just a primary family residence and it may come off of The rental market and that's going to really actually increase rents not decrease. So thank you very much Good afternoon. Darius mostening I'm actually opposed this Measure here for on two two fronts. Let me just talk about the point of sale That's actually rather tricky because it can actually shift the burden of disclosure From the seller Actually to the city the city can't possibly know all the history of a home My brother for instance was sued selling out after he sold a home in berkeley because he didn't disclose that a raccoon Came into the basement or the crawl space and they went to binding arbitration and settled for like 50 000 A city inspector won't know that and anybody and any of the realtors i'm sure there's several in this room will know that they infer Agree that they advise our clients to disclose disclose disclose So so i'm reading these charts and what is asked of being disclosed is Just a fraction of what sellers At least those that get it and are want to avoid further litigation Disclose i just sold a home. I disclosed unfriendly neighbors I disclosed deer coming up on the property raccoons coming on the porch In addition to the unpermitted outlets that i replaced and things like that But if now we use the city choose to go this route with a city-based point of sale Concern is and mr. Kondoti kind of you know mentioned it with a ghost ship out. No cities are not immune from Litigation for their actions and as far as code enforcement inspections concerned it could possibly put a burden on the city And anyway, like I say Most if not all homeowners selling a house um to exhaustive exhaustive disclosures and There's a lot of due diligence on the part of the buyers. They go to the county. They go to the city They go and after all what they have invested interest in doing it They want to drive the house price down so they come and they try to find any kind of flaw. Thank you Next speaker Afternoon bill cook. I live in Santa Cruz I'm a building contractor in this town for 30 years. I'm also a landlord I'm sorry to say that I'm I'm happy to hear Mr. Butler described A shift in policies to my years It's in general the way Actions occur are are very much in my experience very much at variance with what's been described There are no limits to the number of times that a complaint can be filed My property was complained against twice both times it was found that there was no merit to the complaint There are two parts to um Our inspections in our town one is zoning A property can be found not to be in compliance with zoning Or it may be found to be not in compliance with health and safety health and safety has been covered for 75 maybe a hundred years in the city of Santa Cruz by the building department. That's a building inspection We added this process of rental inspections 15 years ago or so And it is duplication Of that effort tenants should absolutely be protected from wrongful eviction as a consequence of A health or safety violation zoning is another question. This is this is entirely up to leadership We are burdened by our current zoning. It restricts what our possibility is SB 50 is in my view a great idea. I hope I hope we find a way to embrace that Thank you Because i'm gonna ramble a little bit. This is carrot philp from Santa Cruz I think uh In my opinion the sale of property is is a random event that means really nothing or should be nothing to you You know when you buy a property you buy the property rights that come with it play doesn't matter who owns it Why does that trigger an inspection? I don't know. I don't get it um, you know, it's just uh Anyway, uh the other Item is just that in general as with these codes You know it comes down to sort of an ex post facto law situation where if something is legal when it is Built or whatever you can't retroactively go back and say that it has to be upgraded Sounds like a nightmare of 100 year old buildings conceivably being compared to codes from long ago and You know, I mean you can find violations of codes like an eighth inch crack in a driveway if you want to get tough about it There's 10 grand or whatever. I mean, I don't know it sounds like it's going to raise Rents by generating huge amounts of money that people are going to have to spend on all these properties And the judgment involved and whether it's really safe or not or just a violation or not or sounds very iffy and I don't know that's that's really all I have to say Okay, next speaker Good afternoon. My name is john flanikin. I have what I consider to be kind of a unique position so i'm both a real estate broker but also an investor and so um I'm listening to the conversation around point of sale And i'm trying to figure out if the point of sale only applies to properties that have been complained about or Properties that are registered in the rental registry or if it's all properties in general And from there I would say that as a real estate broker what I see is a tremendous amount of effort energy money required to Enforce these codes, but from an investor. I mean purely from a financial standpoint I love the idea right because you're going to drive down the price of housing and make it more affordable for me Who has money and resources to buy these houses? And i'm going to pick these houses up cheaper Which means that i'm going to be able to rent them for the same amount maybe even slightly less, but I have less competition so The pragmatic me wants what's best for the community and that is not a point of sales Code compliance, but from an investor point of view I mean i'm going to look at the city of santa cruz as being a prime investment opportunity If you come to enforce code compliance like this, so thank you And next speaker Hello, at least at least casby renter and activist. I just want to say that um first of all And I don't think this is any malintention by anybody on the council, but Renters are not able to be here right now because they're at work So their entire way in on this item is pretty much vacant So I just want to say that i've heard horror story after horror story after horror story We can cite the sociological study that has tremendous credibility That steve mckay and students have done throughout the community Walls that are so mushy that if somebody leans against them or puts their hand up they just cave in Lack of bathrooms all this kind of thing Um People living with children in really hazardous conditions. I wish more renters could have been here But having said that I think at this point in time flexibility is key Because we do need to maintain Affordable units. I just want to disagree also before I finish with Mr. Butler. I think there was in fact a tremendous amount of discussion on the council about this and that happened after Um The city did not actually pass renter protections or any kind of protections from unjust eviction And so the council actually had a lot of discussion And one of the things that came up was that the point of sale could be a time To gather a lot of information about what's really happening out there for renters for owners for everybody So I think that the point of sale might be a good time to do it I just want to say the problem that we're in here is a ridiculous problem of lack of supply And that's because for over a hundred years and santa cruiser has been a refusal for the city to buy and build Low-income housing not just market rate based affordable housing. We need to do that also, please Protect the pennant tenants and yet if it's complaint based The tenants could be protected at that time. Thank you next speaker Lynn Renshaw is santaCruiser together.com If you intend to require new code compliance for every property sold you should be transparent with the community Several questions, you know first i'm glad to see the intent is to limit code compliance to unpermitted units or additions Properties built years ago met the standards of their time However, I think it's a little bit misleading the public by framing this and putting it in the rental inspection program if the intent Is expanded to unpermitted additions on any property when it's sold So to to put it into this particular program does not seem transparent I also think that To be transparent this proposal should clearly state the problem you are trying to solve The report stated goal of lowering property values and it states that multiple times Where is the community input showing that stakeholders want lower property values on balance among all types of The people you represent and then where is the city the study on the city revenue impacts? Have you considered how this proposal could backfire by focusing on buyers? If expensive code compliance is required to purchase homes Entry level buyers with extra cash will be shut out So for many buyers, it's all they can do to scrape together their down payment If then they have to come up with tens of thousands of dollars to remediate the problems identified That is going to shift the That's going to gentrify our community because only people with more money will be able to make those repairs at the time of sale And then you know is the city council's Place to interfere with markets by seeking to lower home values Please oh very slow. Thank you. Thank you Okay, are you wanting to speak? Okay Once you come forward and you'll be our last speaker then Go ahead. They'll have up to two minutes Uh, good afternoon scott graham. Um, i'm in favor of changing to a complaint based, uh system here for the rental inspections um Because the tenants in these places Are the ones that should be complaining not uh neighbors not City employees driving by the properties not drones flying over the properties There should be some sort of whistleblower protections for Tenants so that if they do complain that the landlord can't retaliate against them Um And to uh council person browns Question about how they are discussed how these units are discovered There is a stasi like program that is part of the uh Parking program where somebody comes in and wants a parking permit And the parking department doesn't have that Unit on their list of approved units they get turned into planning This is a terrible program This is this is way overreaching You you you tell people they need to have a permit to park downtown or other areas of town And then you Come in and either close down their housing or put an extra burden In San Luis Obispo used to have a rental inspection program The big difference which they don't the which was has been ended But the big difference when they did have it was that tenants could opt out that if a tenant didn't want their uh Privacy Violated the right to privacy violated by the city they could opt out of the program At the very least I would like to see something like this in place here But I'd like to see the program Change to a complaint based system as far as amnesty goes. I'm in favor of amnesty I'm in favor of legalizing as many units as possible and also The the people that owned units that have been abated in the past Should be contacted and said hey if you want to bring your unit back online and go go for this program Please do so Okay, you'll be our last speaker. Please come forward Hi, I'm carmela weintraub. I'm a resident of about 60 years here 77 I have had 1904 uh rental for years And I have spent a hell of a lot of money Keeping it beautiful And I resent some of the things the costs that have been shifted To me and my husband who are now retired and don't have a lot of money We're responsible for this strip in front of the Property, you know the little parking area We're responsible for the lateral sewer thing if we do want to sell we have to do the lateral sewer inspection Now we're going to have to do the inspection for the whole thing And I don't like it. I do also do not like being characterized as a bad landlord my property has passed numerous Inspections one of which was a month ago and it's fine I don't like this whole program I know for instance in relationship to the other guy who just spoke We had a loss of water pressure. I'm not pressure, but water use Or no and then all of a sudden we had an increase which was actually the result of a leak It was reported by the the water department to your department And they questioned whether or not we were currently renting and we weren't You know and it was like what kind of bull you know is that I don't like that I honestly don't like being characterized that way. I want this to stop My husband I made this investment We have a lot of money in that building. We don't have the money in the bank I don't like the city council and I don't like the planning department Messing around with my bank account that is in a property. So thank you. Thank you Okay, we'll go ahead and return it back to the council at this time I know there were some pending questions by councillor crone. I just want to go ahead and remind My colleagues that we have limited time today and that some of these if we can keep our focus on The policy direction that we want to give at this time I think we could all obviously this is a lot of really complicated policy And I think we could all ask a number of questions But for the purposes of today's meeting with our time constraints that we Try to remember that we need to get procedurally moving this long. I'd like to have this item With some policy direction or potential continuance be wrapped up about 240 or so Given that we have additional items to cover. So I know you had questions at councillor crone Then by some aircomings then councillor brown. Okay. Thank you very much. Um, just real quick the um The housing authority program could you talk about that a little bit and how is our program different? And I know a lot of people who rent under housing authority and would never rent with city inspections The housing authority program Is a state program that The tenant would need to qualify for now the housing authority program doesn't While they do grant the tenants to be able to stay in these units. They don't normally Look at whether the unit is a Legal a permitted unit or not So they can't they don't have the authority to also legalize a unit that is unpromitted I do believe that they do Have inspections, but they're not yearly inspections. They might be by yearly inspections that are conducted and their list as far as the inspection list is Not the same as the rental inspection services that we provide I think lee butler what if we took the housing authorities checklist and use that instead or even actually made them the inspectors I think we would be sacrificing um Some of the health and quality of life issues our our list is more extensive than theirs And so we they have an incentive, you know, that's for section eight tenants and if if they make that program too onerous then um Then Individuals are going to choose not to use section eight We also have an incentive and to Make it an easy program to use and we try to balance that with also making sure that we're meeting minimum health and safety standards I hope we can look into you know using housing authority because they are dealing with the most vulnerable folks in our community And they are looking out for health and safety is what I understand And I think we should be following their guidelines covered parking If you is that ever an issue when you encounter a unit, they don't have covered parking covered parking can certainly be an issue that is definitely the case with garage conversions And sometimes those are new units. Sometimes those are bedrooms in any case For ad use the council addressed that earlier this year however For single family residences covered parking is still required The team is looking to bring back something to the council in the coming months. It may be Sometime early next year that our advanced planning team gets a change in front of the council Looking to that getting that covered parking ordinance off our books Going back to the outdoor bathroom that councilmember glover was talking about I don't think it really got fully addressed. Can you use the outdoor bathroom? and for for various units I'm gonna So if you have two or three bedrooms outside away from the house or something built, can you use an um an outdoor bathroom? I'll have our our code expert here Chime in again, john mclucus. Yeah, generally the the bathroom itself has to be a contiguous part of the dwelling It does okay. Is that a state law or is that a local law? It is a state law. Yeah, thank you very much. Um Do do in tenants have to somebody brought the idea of You don't you can opt out, you know, do tenants have to let inspectors into the house There is a provision in our ordinance that allows for tenants to refuse an inspection of property owner Is not allowed to do that But there is a provision in our ordinance that allows tenants so tenants can opt out of the inspection tenants can Yes, and but if the owner is not living there then It's a moot then the tenants can just say no, we don't want to inspect her They the tenants have that option of Refusing the inspection I'm going back to the Mr. Kandadi. Um, we don't have a legal requirement to enforce codes. I wasn't sure I I'm still running that around in my head and Did you say the ghost ship? Case has gone to the court, but it's and they they ruled in favor of the city of oakland that they Did not have to legally enforce their their codes No, um In that case the city of oakland filed a motion to dismiss the case At the pleading stage Basically saying even if we neglected to enforce our own building codes There's no liability here because we are immune from liability for failure to enforce The codes and the court rejected that argument. So that means that it's It's a an issue for trial and I don't Know the most recent procedural history of that or whether or not that case has been resolved, but I doubt it Thank you. And I just last thing I'll say is I just want to support mr. Cook and ms. Wang trial I don't like the rental inspection program either. I never have liked it I think it's onerous and I think you know if it was up to me and we had the votes up here we would Disband it and then start over and bring in folks like yourselves to what what kind of program would actually Work and be effective and I'm not even and I know you both said your landlords. I'm talking for the students I hear from the students at the university of california santa Cruz who find it very owners And it's not a help to them and I've had the same experiences that mr. Cook has had as well and I don't also like the I'm not in favor of the homeowner inspections either before selling and I don't know where that came from But I'm not in favor of those inspections. Thank you very much. Mr. Mayor vice mayor coming There's a lot that needs to be well I think there's a lot that needs to be learned by the community and council around just all the different integral parts of the the rental inspection program um I think it's I think it's good that we have a program that is actively going out and making sure that the Units that are being rented to folks in our town are safe Because I've come across plenty of students as well Who have said that they've had mold and they're experiencing issues because of that? But they feel scared to go to their landlord and tell them about that in fear of having a rent increase And or being kicked out. So I hear the concerns on on that side And I think it's really important that we you know are really focusing on making sure that the health and safety standards Are being met to protect residents The point of sale program. I'm still a little hesitant on as well because it I hear some of the concerns from folks in the community around You know bringing the units up to code the costs that that Could impose on them and for some units it might not even be possible depending on their age And understanding that you know when some people go to sell their houses by getting an inspector an inspector to come in And check out to the property to determine whether or not there are any code violations Is a really good way for them to be able to um have that influence the price of the houses And then kind of getting to the point that was brought earlier about sp50 and how that might have impacts on Kind of units that can be on a property I think that we really need to better understand where the state's going with that Before we make any decisions around our local policy. So i'm gonna make the A motion to direct staff to explore options For an amnesty program to legalize unpermitted units And provide the council with an updated report and recommendations on or before the first meeting in april Including within that report recommendations to take into account options for the city's rental and Rental inspection program available under sp1226 and as they relate to the passing of sp50 and also Enhance the expansion of tenant outreach that can also be community outreach as was asked for by city staff And then also have a study session on the rental inspection program And include information on how proposed amnesty programs and changes to focus on health and safety can benefit the program in february of 2020 second That was a bit of a tie I will go ahead and say it was that council member clever. So we get a motion by council member vice mayor coming seconded by council member clever Um councilor brown I'll just quickly say yeah, I i'm going to support that motion I am not interested at this time in a point of sale program Through the rental inspection program. I think it is an expansion and it wasn't entirely clear to me what housing would be covered and With all due respect to the folks who uh, the laudable goals that you pursue in maintaining health and safety And I absolutely agree. We need to do that. I'm not a big fan of the rental inspection program either I hear many stories from um, you know property owners from tenants about the You know the ways in which they are Housing stock is put in jeopardy and and the individual cases of that. So, um, you know, I'm hoping that we can do whatever we can to facilitate legalization of unpermitted units and Bedrooms and so I absolutely support pursuit of an amnesty program I'm interested in under better understanding how SB 1226 can help us become more flexible in our interpretation of what You know, what kind of enforcement we will be doing in the future Councilor Matthews A few points And they'll be almost random. My impression is that SB 1226 Is now incorporated into our practices It's fairly new. I'm this is a question. So we don't yet fully understand the full range of How it will affect What's permissible or not? Is that a fair question or correct me? I would say that We look at every case on an individual basis and that's because depending on the year it was constructed depending on the construction type depending on you know, if you've got insulation In the walls and you don't need to do anything in the walls to meet the energy code of the time Or you need to do something in the walls to meet the energy code of the time But you've got an uninsulated attic that's got easy access Then we look at all right. Well insulating the attic will Meet the intent there. So we we try to apply flexibility and we use those codes in doing so and and so We have used that and we will continue to use that and and really it's not a blanket Because everyone has to be looked at individually so I guess the purpose of my question was that the The clause here taking into account options for the city rental inspection available under SB 1226. That's moot. We're already doing that That's correct. We are already doing that. So And then Well, I'll just say for the record. I really do support the rental inspection program because I think what the record shows is it uncovers some truly Genuine serious threats to health and safety and it also identifies many other Conditions which can be readily cured and I speak from personal experience. I was grateful for that Uncovered a few things. I wasn't aware of fixed done And so I think overall that does over time contribute to The rental housing stock in the community. So I support your recommendation which is To continue the rental inspection service and that's implicit in your motion. Okay I do want to ask about exploring options for the amnesty program. I'm certainly open to that. I think you told us that that would Given your work program that would occur In the next six months work program. Did I understand that correctly? We do have a council adopted work program for the next six months for our advanced planning team and As it relates to sp50 Or an amnesty program that would fall onto our advanced planning team And so it would have to occur after that six month period because we've councils already given those priorities So how does that jibe with the motion on the floor? Is that Is that doable? I mean, maybe you've consulted here For the amnesty program in february. I mean we we may not have an opportunity to provide a lot of research In advance of a study session in february But we could In the april timeframe Certainly have some more information and and if it's the council's desire to have something in february We can bring back what we have at that point and we'll know more a little bit more Although that'll be the beginning of the legislative cycle and so We'll certainly know more in april About sp50 just in terms of what we're we're hearing although we certainly won't be a done deal at that point Well, I would just suggest maybe Trying to look at the dates and see how realistic those are for what's already in a heavy heavy duty work program Um And then this motion calls for a study session on the rental inspection program Um I guess that um We have had quite a bit of discussion here. The concern is more On how it affects amnesty than on the health and safety inspections. Do I understand that correctly or not? No, okay um Well, I had at a previous um Council topic on this subject of housing expressed interest in a study session on how All the state laws coming down the pike are affecting what we can do and not do and I would still appreciate that and um, do you want to make a amendment to the motion to incorporate other kind of Policy into the study session. Is that what you're well the study session? This is specifically on the rental inspection program. I'm actually Equally, if not more interested in understanding What more changes in the state legislation how those affect what again what we can and cannot do I think it's going to be pretty substantial um And I will say I I also am not at all interested in point of sale Um Programs coming forth at this time Okay, maybe we could keep our comments and try to move it along But council member clever and then vice mayor coming this and then council members Yeah, just moving into some of this and to respond to some of the things that were mentioned Um, I do think that it's really possible for us to ensure health and safety of tenants With adjustments and or potentially the removal of the current rental inspection program as it's currently structured I am also not a giant fan of it because of the impact that I've seen it have first hand Not on people that I know as well as on uh landlords that I know and the impact that has had on them One of the main issues is that it breeds distrust with neighbors And so we see people that get reported anonymously and then they lose all trust of their neighbors and it breaks down the cohesiveness of a neighborhood Also with that anonymous nature as mr. Cook mentioned during his comments It could open the door for undue harassment. So if there's already underlying neighborhood issues then it could Procure harassment from people Also as mr. Graham suggested and this is something that I think is really important for us to be thinking of as you know I'm an advocate for tenant protections Is to explore the implementation of a whistleblower protection program To ensure that tenants that uh make complaints if we do decide after study sessions or conversations to shift over to a complaint driven process Uh to ensure that tenants are protected from eviction and retaliation and that could include Aspects of exorbitant rent increases or displacement So I just want to let just want to put it out there that it's totally possible for us to achieve all of these things While still um aggressively reassessing the potential structure of the rental inspection ordinance, okay Councilmember Myers You know in the interest of time, I think I'm gonna I many I've shared many I I don't I just Just want to publicly state. I don't I'm glad that we're all in agreement on the point of sale I think that's uh, I was not going to be supportive of that I believe that we've expressed through our planning process that um, we would we will be having a Housing study session. So I don't know that we need to finish this motion, but um, I'm supportive of where we're going and Would be supportive of of calling question Okay Um, okay. Do you have additional comments or do we want to just go ahead and take the vote on the motion? Vice mayor Cummings, I think you were I was just going to say with regards to The study session the idea is that In february, I mean, we've had a lot of discussion here and it seems like we need, you know So I think the public has expressed interest in learning more about the role inspection program you know how what constitutes people being displaced from their their housing and I think that we all still have a lot of questions regarding this in between now and february It would give us an opportunity to really dig deeper Into the role inspection program to share information out with the Community and then have the community come in and we can all have a conversation around the role inspection program Where it's going how it relates to and including information on the proposed amnesty programs. It's not limiting Um, our ability to have more information in that study session But you know just capturing that we're going to include information about these proposed programs And if there's any changes to focus really focus on just the health and safety That's an opportunity as well. But there's no we're we're not leaving out the opportunity for that study session to also focus on other topics as they relate to sp50 or other state bills that might be coming and and I left out the The current rental inspection program just under the impression that we're not going to do anything with it at this time. So Okay, so that's inferred that you're not changing. Yeah, no need to vote on it if we're not going to change it in my Okay, so we're not going to take action on that tonight or today Um, we have council member crone and then council member Brown I'll just briefly make a quick comment that as we move forward with this Direction that we don't lose sight of sort of the whole holistic conversation around housing affordability And get in the weeds around a specific individual Kind of program that we may or may not like in terms of what we're ultimately trying to influence here is how are we supporting tenants? How are we maintaining a healthy and um And livable housing stock and how are we holistically as the city council being responsive to the affordability issues in our community? So that would be my only comment council member crone council member brown and then let's go take the vote I think the um, the rental inspection ordinance has actually broken down Affordable housing opportunity since its inception and that's from a a renter a homeowner and a landlord perspective From not just from me and from all the from other folks I appreciate the study session. I think we could have one next week and and Really tackle a bunch of stuff too just in terms of um rental inspection The mold issue I just wanted to ask Because I I hear that too, but is that included in rental inspection? Do you pick up a lot of mold issues because it doesn't seem like I've seen that in the checklist? That is correct. We do pick up that as well. You do. How do you do that? You do do you have a is there a box if I maybe if I could if we could Council member crone just in the interest of time if you could get your questions answered about some of the specifics off Duty offline that would be ideal. Okay, and I last thing I wanted to say was that the city does similar police department I mean the city Planning department has wide discretion on what it goes after and doesn't go after and I just like to give the direction that The amnesty program is um is really important. Okay. Thank you. Thank you for also understanding council member brown in response to council member matthew's point about sp 1226 and us not needing to take action just to clarify That I guess what would be helpful in that case is to Just ensure that we get as part of the kind of report back and recommendations that come to us we get Uh report on what's happening there What the planning department and the rental inspection program are doing visa v 1226 Um so that we know and we can take that into account as we make any additional recommendations Motion to call its question. Okay. We have a motion to call the question. Is there a second? Second, okay motion by council member crown seconded by council member mires All those in favor to call the question say aye. Hi any opposed Let's do it all those in favor of the motion on the floor. Please say aye. Aye any opposed. Okay. That passes unanimously And um our next item is item number is consent public hearing and these are items 17 through 19 on our agenda Any council member interested in pulling either seven any items between 17 and 19 17 18 or 19 council member crown I had just a question for the city attorney on you know, there was a issue with um ads for for cannabis uh on bicycle taxis and how would we get at at um Working with bicycle taxi owners who wanted to display cannabis ads As we read the code um advertising mobile displays of that sort are are presently prohibited and so um it would simply be a matter of Uh amending the municipal code to authorize that type of advertising that being said I have not researched whether or not The state law would have any bearing on that but we'd have to look into that as well and um as you know This uh Cannabis ordinance that's on your agenda today is really just one piece of a much bigger project that will be returning to the council Uh sometime in the spring and and we could certainly address the advertising issue at that time just so I can respond to folks Is it just those? Uh bicycle tack is it just cannabis that can't be advertised or bicycle taxis in general can't have any advertising mobile advertising I can only answer the first question. We look specifically at advertising cannabis because bicycle taxis are Able to travel throughout the city then they would fall within areas in which Advertising cannabis could be exposed to underaged individuals and so um the analysis that we did was specific to cannabis but You know, that's a broader discussion. Be happy to look into that. Would cigarettes fall into that too? Uh, I believe they're subject to different regulations not the same Another question. Thank you. Yeah, thank you. That was gonna be my question for the city attorney was Does that justify that cannabis or does that also apply to alcohol and cigarettes and stuff? But we can talk about it this is a larger conversation There's generally rules around advertising in regards to those substances. Okay, so this forgive me It was actually items 18 19 and 20 on are the titles of our consent agenda item So giving that none were polled. Um, is there any member of the community who would like to address this on our consent public hearing items? 18 19 or 20 We've seen them we'll go ahead and um return back for action and I'll go ahead and entertain a motion I'll move the consent public hearing agenda. Okay. I'll second. We have a motion by council member brown We have a seconded by council member mires any further discussion All those in favor, please say aye. Aye. Any opposed? Okay Okay, great. We'll maybe have a maybe a three minute window as we do a transition to our next item Which is public hearing and that's item number 21 and we'll take a You ready? Okay. We'll go ahead and call the meeting back um, so our more on our next item, which is item number 21 And it's a public hearing and this is an appeal item so it's a public hearing for 110 cooper street floors 5 and 2 And city council will review the planning commission's approval of an administrative use permit to establish a medical office kaiser Permanent day on the fifth and second floors of the existing 110 cooper street and The process will go as follows. We'll have our staff introduce the item and present the report We'll have a council member mires. Excuse me who requested this item be heard by the council Um, she will be giving given up to 15 minutes to speak and present evidence in support of the appeal The opponents, um, whoever is designated will have also 15 up to 15 minutes If they so choose to present any evidence or position We'll go ahead and open it up to public comment And then we'll have an opportunity for the appellant to Rebut and at that time there's not an opportunity for any introduction of new information And we'll return back for council action and deliberation. So we'll go ahead and hand it over to our staff to kick it Good afternoon. Mayor members of council eric marlatt assistant director of planning I'd like to introduce clara stanger who is the project planner and will be Giving the staff presentation today. I'll also note that Economic development director bonnie lipscomb is also here to talk a little bit about her involvement With the permit process on this particular application. Thanks Good afternoon So quick overview of what i'm going to talk about first I will go through the timeline of actions that have already happened on this item leading up to today Then i'll do a quick description of the project And then a discussion of the staff analysis of the administrative use permit So the project went to the zoning administrator on april 3rd 2019 where it was approved It was then appealed to the planning commission by bob cagle who's the ceo of product ops A local tech company that's also like located in the same building at 110 cooper street The planning commission denied the appeal and upheld the zoning administrator's approval with a three to one vote There were no subsequent appeals filed by the original appellant However, this item was called up for city council review by council member mires Zoning ordinance section 24 Dot oh four dot 175 allows any council member to call up a final action For city council review as long as they make that request within the 10 day appeal period And that was done within that time The item is then heard de nobo or basically all over again from the beginning at a city council meeting so This is a proposal for kaiser permanente to Take up some space at 110 cooper street The location is at the corner of cooper street and pacific avenue. This is located in the central business district Zone district with a general plan designation of regional visitor commercial That encourages a mixture of uses that serve both residents and visitors The site's also located in the pacific avenue retail district of the downtown plan Under the downtown plan a medical center use is allowed on an upper floor of a building in this sub district with approval of an administrative use permit So the total square footage Is uh proposed as 21 641 square feet It includes the entire fifth floor of the building and part of the second floor Kaiser is proposing to have up to 42 staff members and up to 45 patients in the facility at any given time Hours of operation are proposed are 7 a.m. To 8 p.m. Monday through Friday So on the fifth floor, that's what you see on the screen right now is a layout of the fifth floor They're proposing 13 provider offices 22 exam rooms for bi-appointment visits A conference room a reception area and waiting room A lactation room and administrative space And then now we're looking at a Partial of the second floor plan because they're taking a part of the second floor I want to note that product ops Which is the was the appellant to the planning commission is also located on the second floor So the second floor for Kaiser will include a clinical lab A small pharmacy a radiology department A conference room reception area staff break room and also administrative space So there is a condition of approval that allows Kaiser to move To a different floor within the building When they apply for their tenant improvement permits as long as the total square footage Of what they're proposing does not increase from What is approved on the administrative use permit the reason why this condition was added Um, this was done when the project was appealed to the planning commission To allow flexibility in the final floor layout because at that time We had an understanding that product ops and Kaiser were potentially going to make an arrangement where they moved to different floors to work things out Okay, so to approve an administrative use permit for this permit, we need to make three findings The first is that the proposed use conforms to the requirements and the intent of the zoning ordinance The general plan and any relevant area plans The any The second finding is that any additional conditions stipulated as necessary in the public interest have been imposed And then the third condition is that This use will not constitute a nuisance or be detrimental to the public welfare or the to the community So planning staff found that the project is consistent with several policies of the general plan and also the downtown plan um, for example policy um, l u which is the land use section l u 4.2 encourages uses that reduce the need for automobiles Um, so downtown is by far the most densely developed area in the city Um, therefore people who are in the downtown are a lot more likely to walk to their appointment than to drive there um, then if the um If the medical center were located elsewhere in a less densely developed area where people Are further away and are more likely to have to drive um in addition Because there's so many different uses downtown people are more likely to be walking Maybe from their doctor appointment to somewhere else in the downtown to complete a multi-use trip Whereas if the medical center were located elsewhere the people would more likely be driving there and then driving to their next stop general plan policy l u 4.3 encourages the development and expansion of neighborhood commercial services And general plan action l u 4.3.1 seeks to identify areas that allow The expansion of existing neighborhood facilities with an easy walking distance of residential areas or areas well served by transit So the downtown area does have quite a few residents Um, it the downtown area does not have a whole lot in the way of doctor's offices Um, so this is an important neighborhood used for the downtown Um, it's in within walking distance of many residences and also within walking distance of the metro station The community vision of the downtown plan calls for diverse and wholesome environment for commercial cultural civic and social pursuits for both residents and visitors um, the kaiser offices will add to the Diversity of the amenities and services offered to residents within the downtown as well as to other santa cruz residents Who are visiting the downtown? I want to briefly note that for finding number two The language in the proposed resolution Includes language for the applicant to submit a formal request to the public works department To create a dedicated patient pickup and drop off zone on cooper street This language should not have been included in the finding since it reflects a condition of approval That was removed during the planning commission hearing. Um, therefore that language should be deleted from finding number two So overall planning staff determined that several general plan and downtown plan policies support approval of this administrative use permit If the city council wanted to deny the use then alternative findings would need to be made There are some other general plan policies that also come to play for the for this project And bonnie lipskin from the develop i'm sorry the economic development department Would like to take some time to discuss their role in the project. Um, and she's going to do that right now Thank you Good afternoon again mayor and members of the council I'm here to just talk a little bit about one why economic development is is involved in what typically is a planning process I know a lot of people are Have asked that question or why we involved in land use and Actually in the general plan There's a whole chapter um on economic development And there are a number of policies goal goals policies and actions around economic development in the general plan And it's coming from that perspective and the overall long term downtown sustainability and viability, which is why i'm here Um specifically in the general plan um under economic development, and i'm i'm quoting from the general plan Economic development is focused on the well-being of residents and businesses and the overall quality of life in santa cruse The section of the general plan focuses on what we what will be needed to maintain the city's competitive advantages To mitigate its economic weaknesses and nurture a vigorous and diverse economy There are a significant number of Goals policies and actions in the general plan These have the same legal status as the other chapters of the general plan including land use But i would also argue that these two chapters are not mutually exclusive In fact, there there are multiple cross references between the land use chapter and the economic development chapter Encouraging consideration of land use for economic development stability Including maintaining and expanding employment intensive uses that have a long term economic viability Specifically, i have a couple of them here And i wanted to mention that you know the first one ed 4 to 4.2 Point to preserve existing and seek new industries and businesses at the cutting edge of science and technology We have a number of policies in the general plan specifically around supporting tech and the technology In santa cruse, we also have a ed 6.3 foster and retain locally owned businesses and startups I would say over the last 15 years part of our economic development strategy really has been to cultivate Downtown vibrancy filling office space downtown Maintaining that balance between office uses retail uses and businesses and the tech community has responded So well to engaging downtown. I would say over the last 10 years We have filled up a lot of our office space and i'll talk a little bit more about that In general but during the economic downturn it was a tech companies that really kept downtown alive So i think it's really important to talk about the importance of them in our community and specifically in our downtown Additionally, we have A few more policies i'll just mention foster new technology based enterprises And these other references are references across different sections cross references in the general plan foster new technology based enterprises Promote development of new and retrofitted industry on office space that meets the need of technology based businesses And this one's particularly important to talk about how flexible we need to be at times Particularly as our office space is filling up So i'll talk more about that in a second and then work towards expanding the city's technology infrastructure So what this is about, um, I think for us is That while you can make the findings and the findings have been made and they're supportable For allowing medical use on a second floor There are some locations in the downtown where it's not a great fit And when we're looking at downtown and right now some of you may be familiar with the fact that we're actually doing a downtown strategy And we're working We've met with over a hundred stakeholders so far and we're working on Long-term downtown sustainability and what are the appropriate mixes downtown? What does our downtown look like? And the current and future office needs of tech and creative businesses and we have an extremely low vacancy right now in office It's under 2.7 percent When you actually look at availability of spaces office spaces larger than 6,000 square feet This is the last one is in the cooper house. These two spaces on the second and the fifth floor I don't want to understate that There's a variety of smaller spaces But this is you know, arguably the nicest closest to class a office space we have in the downtown And it's the only remaining space over 6,000 square feet We also have a sensitive retail environment. We have an existing growing vacancy and retail We want to support our locally owned businesses We also want to support the remaining anchors that we have down downtown for retail I mentioned this in this context because something that's going to likely come before you within the next year Is going to be to look at some adaptive reuse of some of our larger big box retailer spaces I know that you've been following forever 21 bankruptcy We've been actively engaged with them and with the owner in that space We're concerned about that and we're concerned about being able to fill that space So i'm just providing this context of downtown is changing and we're looking really closely at what the different varied uses are downtown On retail and why i'm also mentioning retail is specifically on cooper street It's the most impacted block that we have in the downtown. It's a vibrant block. We love it You know, it has frequent street closures for festivals events. Ma has done an amazing job activating Abbott square We have a variety of businesses there, but we have a few retail and we have a restaurant You know, we have we have some other uses and the the actual available the very few parking spaces We have mean so much to those remaining businesses that are there If you don't see a parking space as you're driving by you probably won't stop at all So my concern about this particular block And my concern overall about keiser going in on this block is really related to that sensitivity elsewhere in the downtown We have more flexibility. We have other opportunities where there are adjacent parking structures There are parking lots cooper streets the most impacted. So that's why I specifically have concerns on that street Um, so going a little in a little more detail on some viable alternatives and why I I think they're there and what specifically we would be looking for Um, specifically for medical use. We'd be looking for a dedicated entry so that they would have their own dedicated entry Whether it's on a ground floor or an upper level That they can come in they wouldn't be shared with other tenants wouldn't be shared with other users We'd be looking for spaces that are single tenant spaces. No, you know, shared upper floors shared access There's even some there's even more than one opportunity. Actually, that's a standalone building We'd specifically be looking for our off street drop off. So the ability to actually have a patient drop off Off of one of our main downtown streets. So often alley Is preferable. There are a couple of opportunities often alley And being able to designate a space I wasn't supportive of designating a drop off on cooper for the reasons I previously mentioned that street is already so impacted But there are other locations in the downtown where it is appropriate Also be looking for adjacent or connected parking and where possible and there's a couple of opportunities Looking for spaces where the majority ground floor access for For a medical clinic and pharmacy and we do have some for that I think for patients for It's it's less confusing to be able to walk in straight off the street If they don't have to push a call button or have a secure entry point I think for a pharmacy to have that street level access. I think it's going to be Much better for the users and patrons of Kaiser And then finally, I think just maintaining our extremely limited office space for primary office users and utilizing other available spaces for mixed use medical and pharmacy in the downtown And so finally I want to say Kaiser is a welcome community partner I mean, I think you know just I want to end on that because we do want Kaiser downtown. It's really important for our economy It's a needed service that they're providing and they have gone You know over and beyond in engaging with the community supporting the community So I want to mention I really do want Kaiser downtown. I just think there are some better locations that really work For the long term And we want Kaiser long-term downtown. They're going to work better for Balancing downtown business and community concerns and needs that enable long-term downtown sustainability And then going back to the general plan that support that vigorous and diverse economy downtown. Thank you So I'm going to go ahead and wrap up our presentation So in conclusion planning staff has found that the findings can be made to approve the project Council has a couple options. You can either Uphold the planning commission's decision to acknowledge the environmental determination and approve the administrative use permit Or you can deny the permit with alternative findings This concludes the staff presentation and we're available to answer any questions Is there any questions for this for the staff at this time? Seeing No, I'm good, okay, okay, so um, we'll Maybe have to entertain some questions later, but I know we're going to have a process now to hear from a council member Myers who Is essentially speaking as the appellant on this item And council members you'll have to follow the same protocol as any appellant would have and you'll have up to 15 minutes To speak and present evidence in support of your appeal And then at which time we'll go ahead and hear from Responding applicant or or the opponents and they'll equally have up to 15 minutes to speak to the item And we'll go ahead and have you kick off your time now, right? Thank you And I just like to start off by really recognizing what an important community partner Kaiser is and I'll tell you a little bit how we got here In terms of some of my discussions with businesses downtown as well as Working with economic development to really understand the framework of what we're Looking here in terms of this opportunity to have Kaiser expanded services and move into a larger facility My intent with the discussion is really to recognize I think bonnie touched on this This is what we all hope will be a long-term residents in a sense in our downtown for Kaiser and I think that's the the framework that i'm looking at this in I mean We hope that this clinic and these services are available for our community For a few decades at least a decade or more I know it's expensive to move such a facility into a community I'm very respectful of that and but it's really that long-term position of where this this facility sits in our downtown that has really become apparent to me in terms of wanting to continue to Have some discussion with council on this As bonnie mentioned and earlier today it was mentioned, you know, we've been rebuilding our downtown since 19 since the 1989 1989 earthquake and One of the really intentional things we did was to do what a lot of downtown's are trying to do now Which is really a mixed residential business And then have other supporting services and we have a very vibrant downtown with our retail are growing evening types of businesses and then our Housing and then critical facilities like medical clinics as well as supporting nonprofits and various business types And we want to make sure that that vibrancy continues here So when I first initially talked with bonnie, I then went out and talked to several businesses in the downtown And I broadened my discussions beyond tech tech companies. I talked to nonprofits I talked to creative companies that were downtown I talked to several financial service companies I talked to a number of legal service companies and I also talked to some professional engineering companies And what I came away with is everyone is struggling for office based downtown And it's really affecting the way that businesses are deciding whether to stay there or Needing to move to other places within the city or potentially out of the city So in as I uncovered some of these Restrictions it became more apparent to me that Along with the land use findings that, you know, obviously were upheld in in the decision I also couldn't ignore the actual economic development questions around the around the decisions for for the facility here I have met with the kaiser's Leadership and i'm very clear on their really true need and interest and Timeline to expand their facilities and be able to serve more people They've invested in us and We know that they've also committed serious resources to getting this far in our planning process But we've also seen just actually great change in our retail environment downtown just in the last six months And most currently in the last several several months literally in the last 60 70 days We've seen a lot of change and anticipated change in some of our larger retail spaces or excuse me larger spaces in downtown So adding all this together is really why I brought it to bring and called this up for discussion with council because I really feel like this is a very pivotal decision in our downtown at this point in time We want to see this as absolutely a long-term use. We want to see this use be convenient for the patients And so I think having several of the values that are attributes that Our economic development director outlined is really important in thinking and working with kaiser to move forward and that is availability of parking Ground floor if we can find that for them Frontage retail frontage for the pharmacy. I think it's excellent that we would have a pharmacy in downtown another option But within the downtown core So I my greatest interest is is really for us to work as a partner with kaiser moving ahead and So I will stop there and I do have a motion to put on the floor But I know that the appellant has Time to respond. I'll just close with really just saying that This is really a critical question and partnership That we want to move through with with kaiser. We want to See if we can find a place that makes sense for you long term and most importantly for your patients and our for our community And we also at the same time really need to be aware of how we continue to Grow our downtown and have it be a successful place for people to work and live And also find the services that they need and So I thank everyone from kaiser Uh, I know I've seen a number of you sitting in the audience for a long time this afternoon And so I really appreciate you being here. So thank you You go ahead and pause the time for a second Just for clarification for process Is it appropriate for the appellant to share the proposed direction that they might want to go in Even though it's for this case emotion, but just to sort of make that part of the hearing That I don't see any problem with doing that That seems appropriate So you don't necessarily have to put in a motion form But if you're interested in the remainder of your time to show share your proposed direction I've generally I feel like I've generally seen that in these types of it makes makes sense to me Okay, do you want to continue the time? Then just sort of the motion But you can go ahead and just share as part of your presentation your proposed direction because then the appellant could Actually speak to that and you could potentially rebut it. So it's part of just the general process I'd say so So I don't need to do it as a motion You don't need to do it as a motion, but you can you don't have to put the motion But well, but you would you would continue the time based on what we had available. Sorry for the confusion Uh, so I do have a motion. So I think I'm just going to work from that. Sure. That's appropriate So at this point my motion is to deny the applications 19-006 without prejudice for establishment of medical offices on floors 5 and 2 At 110 Cooper street and this is based on the findings of inconsistency with the city's general plan policies including land use 3.2 economic development 4.2 and economic development 6.8 as well as general plan actions land use 3.2 0.1 economic development 1.7 0.1 and economic development 4.2 0.2 And number two to direct our economic economic development director To continue a search for an alternative location for the Kaiser medical office in downtown And for our planning and community development director to prioritize planning review and action at such time that a new location has been identified And I'll just make a note that should a good faith effort to explore alternative locations prove unsuccessful The denial without prejudice would allow the applicant to reapply within the year So i'm really trying to Hopefully work work in a way that we can continue our conversation So thank you. We can debate the motion. This is not on the floor at this time But this is part of the presentation for the appellate. I don't know. Maybe you'd want to speak to I think what you what's you mentioned was you want to deny with prejudice Or without prejudice. I'm sorry without prejudice I gave you the wrong one. Is it not listed up there? Okay, I just want to make sure that you have the right one up on the screen Because that's a that's a clear distinction Okay, I just want to make clear people understand that it's it's without without prejudice. That's that's important to point out Yeah, I had given her a couple of copies. So yes, okay without prejudice Okay, thank you for that and that concludes my Presentation presentation. Okay Thank you. We'll go ahead and ask now that the opponents or the responding applicant Come forward and you'll have also up to 15 minutes to present your case or any evidence to the council Mayor was that a motion was it seconded or it's not a motion on the floor It's part of the presentation. It's just sort of a unique circumstance But that they can speak to it now that it's been presented in nevus christ Good afternoon Mayor walkins vice mayor comings and the council members We appreciate the opportunity here to talk to you about our interest in this project and The belief that this is the right place for kaizu permanente in the clinic to exist for our members and for the community at large A few things were brought up and I think just want to step back and talk more about generally from a kaizu permanente perspective Our brand is one of total health So when you look at it from that perspective and the need that the community has demonstrated largely because we've Outstripped the space that we've we've been in over the past two and a half years, which has been a loka street There's a clear need with the community. I don't think there's that's it doesn't sound like that's up Anybody's debating that particular issue The question is is it is this the right space and is this the right space now? and What I wanted to share with you is a little bit more of the timetable that we've gone through The aup was submitted in january and you saw that the that the Mistanga talked a little bit about that rest of the timetable of when The zoning administrator took a look at it when the planning commission took a look at it now We hear we're here in october uh to discuss The next steps for this particular project Prior to the aup submittal we spent several weeks looking for places And this is the best space we landed on And since then we have spent a significant amount of time and resources Developing the different proposals and design of the space to best optimize it for patient care um, I think it's important to note that This this space, you know the the Downtown areas dynamic I've no doubt we wait six months. We'll find another space that's going to be different We wait another six months. We'll find another space that's going to be different From a businesses perspective and maybe on on behalf of kp, but also on behalf of probably other businesses There has to be some level of predictability in the process And that's where the challenge is at the moment after spending about a year and a half on this particular project itself internally And then about almost 10 months now with the city It's it's a bit challenging to be landing in this space Where we've got this particular concern being presented We've always been good partners. We've always wanted to be partners We have nothing against at all what body mentioned in terms of the vision for downtown a thriving downtown is great for kaiser permanente Having kaiser permanently downtown is great for the community in turn So the focus on retail the focus on tech Focus on business at large whether they're you know anywhere any other industries Is actually a net benefit to kp that what we call we would call future potential members So we've absolutely no no Concerns from that perspective We support that and we actually want to be part of that that conversation and that fabric that that roadmap that's being developed For the next coming several years for the downtown area Where we are at this moment is and a few things I wanted to point out was The impact of not moving forward with this One is uh, we're looking at about a year and a half of delay So if we were to consider and we have considered a number of other Sites along the way, so it's not that we stopped in january. We haven't looked at the market ever since We've looked at other sites And we continue to look at other sites as a backup option But we know that from internally that it's going to take us about a year and a half and my initial timetable Was working with our physician partners to make sure that This particular clinic is up and running in december of next year because of the demand what we don't want to do is delay care And every day every month that gets pushed off we're talking about delayed care And that's that's the challenge that that gives me heartburn as as a chief operating officer for the for the kp santa cruise san jose region Is making sure that people have access to care when they need to and access to care to a high quality Environment and in a very convenient way Which is why we landed on this particular location back in january couple other things to mention that i think are worth bearing one is the Adding us to the downtown environment or where we are whether you're talking about Abbott square or otherwise Just further diversifies the economy You've got you've got tech you've got retail. You've got a number of other businesses Having a thriving health care clinic is one of the two things outside of a good school district That any big employer or any employer generally looks for before they anchor down into a community and decide this is where they This is where they want to build and grow So we think again from that perspective. It's it's a net benefit to the community at large The other pieces too is you know, it It's a jobs ad These are really good well-paying jobs This is an opportunity for folks who are Both blue-collar and early white-collar from EVS workers to security to nurses To a few folks who want to be future physicians An opportunity to connect with the UC Santa Cruz community to be able to provide that access And pathway for them so they can see what the future could be like in a in a health care environment whichever path they choose So there's lots of other You know impacts that come from this particular project That we think again would be a net benefit What i'd refer you to is there's a study by the american medical association from 2018 A national study that they conducted that they looked at the economic impact of adding a physician In a specific in in a community and did it by states And if you went on their website, you that it's readily accessible. It's it's publicly available There's they accounted for the downstream impacts everything from the immediate Infrastructure that's needed to support a clinic from medical assistants to nurses to radiology techs to phlebotomists To what happens to the businesses surrounding it and the and the city and the county in terms of taxes So i'd encourage you to take a look at that because i think that's that's pretty eye-opening in terms of the ripple effects that A 13 provider office clinic Can provide to the downtown area in terms of when you talk about folks coming to downtown and creating a vibrant downtown To be able to have those businesses thrive as we thrive The other piece i'd mentioned to you is we talked about the things of some conversation about The density and how downtown areas congested we're mindful of that because believe it believe me We're one of the first folks to hear it from our members if they can find parking And and our physicians hear about it so Even considering all those pieces again, this was the best location we landed on and we firmly believe that Having invested the time and effort that we've had in this clinic It is the best option to move forward at this given time And i'd like to turn it over dr. Joyce orndorf who's our physician in charge for the santa cruise downtown clinic To speak a little bit more Thank you mayor walkins. Thank you members the council for having us I'm not certain what i can add to that But i would like to speak a little bit more about what goes on in our clinic today and how we envision Moving forward I as I was sitting there. I was quickly tallying up the type of visits that I get in a typical day I was just looking over last week's schedule There was one day when I had about 20 appointments I had four physicals people were just coming in for the well check Wanted to make sure that they were okay They were of a various ages and they just wanted to get their physical make sure everything was okay blood work, etc Few of them had a few chronic conditions rheumatological some complicated things and so we worked through them I we had seven chronic conditions come in that day one gentleman with diabetes out of control blood pressure 196 over 125. I don't know about you, but that's a really high number Overweight the works. He was a heart attack about to happen And I actually didn't want to let him out of the clinic because I was so worried about him But we got him taken care of and Well, he didn't have a heart attack that day and we're going to keep working on him and I Know that we can get him better. So Etc we had five acutes and what I mean by acute means I saw Two two abdominal pains one back pain one knee pain and one lady with ear pain And then I had two folks coming in for evolution of their conditions Sadly, both of them just got newly diagnosed with cancer. So I was helping them arrange for next steps So that's our clinic I was going through this while passing by my obgyn as she was eating her pap smear making sure that we get our patient's screen for Several cancers. I was trying to persuade folks to get their mammograms and hey, you want a flu shot? I have some by the way if you like I have plenty for you if you like I we are pediatricians are working very hard as well And I had some video visits one person across the seas who's having some abdominal pain and I'm actually really concerned about her So we're coordinating her care as she's coming home so that I can make sure she gets to somebody right away That's our clinic That's our locustry clinic right now It's preventative care It's contributing to the health of our members in this community You cited some information about studies and whatnot. Well, I'm a doctor. I read medical type of studies and the studies I show is that folks From 2000 to 2015 who have been with Kaiser Permanente have a 40 48 reduced rate of heart attacks 56 reduced rate of strokes Our members are living and living well I just wanted to provide you a little bit of insight into what we do at this clinic. This is a wellness clinic This is the prevention clinic and We want to do better I have lived in this community since Well, I came here right after the Loma Prieta earthquakes. I remember the dust. I remember book tent Santa Cruz I remember how this community rallied and I see Where we are today. So as a community member, I am proud of all the work We have all done and I think that being Kaiser Permanente will only Make downtown better and thrive So just adding one more thing before I turn it over to Fernando as a member of our team as well Is I think those statistics are important Um to anchor partly because it's not I think uh, there isn't a question of whether Kaiser Permanente should be downtown Whether the question is whether it should be in this location and what I offer in return is for you to appreciate that If we were to move forward with this location We're looking at probably q4 maybe q q4 of 2020 q1 of 2021 If we go to a different location that timeline gets elongated by another year and a half That's when when, you know Dr. Orndorff's talking about care. That's the deferred care Those are the folks that over time will not necessarily have the access because our current office. That's five providers Is busting at the seams So we're turned over to Fernando and see Hi, my name is Fernando Avila. I'm with the Kaiser Permanente legal department Um, could I ask that the motion that uh councilman councilwoman mires had uh presented that it be put up Um It was until this moment that we saw on the kaiser side what the proposed grounds were by which uh, our project could potentially be denied So I'd like to run through those policies if you can Advance it up a little bit more so we can here see the bottom So, um, I wrote a letter and submitted it to the council yesterday And I went through what the standards are for supporting findings of approval or denial for an administrative use permit And those findings have to be supported by substantial evidence, which is facts Conclusions reasonably predicated on facts and expert testimony. It's not speculation or just opinion um I understand now what direction this appeal is going in because I couldn't really tell at first what were the potential grounds for denial because it seemed like our application was Just a you know really good fit for the code in terms of getting this use permit and putting it in this location This is a use that is by the code's requirements and by the zoning map We're allowed to be in this place As long as we meet the conditions and the findings and the findings are very simple, you know, that's general plan consistency Has the project been properly been conditioned and also Is it a public nuisance or is it a detriment to the general welfare? Excuse me the public welfare And so what I understand now is that the idea is is that or the proposal is is that our project is inconsistent with the general plan And so I thought I would just kind of on the fly run through these general plan policies and Statements and let's you know, see if there's a different way of looking at it You know policy land use 3.2 maintain lands currently designated for industrial and office use and land use designations That promote job creation and retention Well, I mean we're going into an existing building. We are commercial use. This is a medical clinic We're not taking commercial or industrial land out of production and changing it to something else So I don't see how that finding can be sustained that we're inconsistent with that Action land use 3.2 point 1 pursue the expansion of employment intensive uses that have long-term economic viability Kaiser, you know when we build the building right now our horizon is that that building be sustainable for a 50 years to 100 years We are an institution. We're not a commercial developer. We're here for the long term Um, that clinic will be there for as long as we can have a the lease go on Um, and you know as our my colleagues have stated uh earlier in this presentation The kind of jobs that kaiser brings are good jobs. The doctors, you know, those are obviously highly educated professionals Our nurses are techs. They're well paid. They're union members. I mean, I just don't see once again how that Land that that land use uh general plan policy can be used to sustain a denial Um policy ed 1.7.1 provide continuing support for cultural events and festivals Especially during the off season Kaiser is great in community Your time is up. Thank you Thank you Okay, so we're at the point in the process where we will have public comment Then we'll return back to the appellant who will have up to five minutes to rebut And then we'll go to council deliberation and action So any member of the community who is interested in addressing the council on this item This is our item number 21 public hearing and if you are interested, please line up to my left And um, you'll have up to two minutes to address the council Hello Hi there, uh, my name is mark davidson. I work for product ops. I'm on the second floor of 110 cooper house um I go to work every day And uh, there's a few things that I I don't like First of all, I do support Kaiser to come to the downtown area, but just not in the cooper house building Part of the reasons is I just don't see how It achieves the goal of reducing the amount of automobile trips For one thing Sick people tend to have to drive cars. Certainly No from personal experience My mother-in-law of which my wife took care of her in the last years of her life had to go to a lot of Doctor visits and had to drive had to find accessible parking as well Fundamentally also I don't like the idea of sharing the second floor due to health reasons with the medical clinic. I'm concerned about getting Sick from the shared bathrooms And elevators and what have you but also just the traffic On cooper street is not conducive for A situation which people are going to be rotating in and out of a building at in you know 15 or 30 minute intervals I just don't think that works. There's only one accessible parking. There's a actually a pole right in front of it for the for the wheelchairs If there were to be used and also there's very little bike parking in front on cooper street as well So anyways, uh, I do not support, um Kaiser coming into uh 110 cooper house. Thank you Over the next speaker I'm a kaiser member as well as an employee product ops on the second floor of 110 cooper street I love kaiser having broken my elbow this past year I received excellent care But I had to drive over the hill to san jose because we don't have the facilities here I would welcome kaiser expanding in our town But we're not here today to discuss whether kaiser should or should not expand in santa Cruz Undoubtedly they should we are here today to determine specifically if the cooper house is the right venue for a medical clinic I believe a medical clinic in this location is a bad idea for those of us who work in the building And it's a bad idea for kaiser's members, particularly those with accessibility needs I ask those of you in support of this plan to imagine if your place of work On the same floor was suddenly shared with the busy medical clinic I fear our greatly increased exposure to illness through the shared hvac system bathrooms elevator buttons, etc And I also fear for the loss of our front door security system I ask the council that when you weigh The needs of the entire community in this decision Please do not throw the safety and health of those of us currently working inside the cooper house Under the bus or callously dismiss our concerns as just a landlord issue We patronize many downtown businesses for errands lunches and business meetings Many of my colleagues have school-aged children or are in school themselves. This is a public health issue A sensible space for medical clinic would have a dedicated parking for the sick injured and those with special needs It would not share common areas with other businesses I would love it if we can find a better space for kaiser and downtown santa Cruz I appreciate your time. Thank you Thank you One more next speaker Hello, my name is Maya Delano, and I'm the general manager of next space santa Cruz I am directly across the street at 101 cooper street And I thought I would just share a little bit of my experience of what it's like to have a single entrance Business on the second floor that is client-based. So one of the biggest things that we deal with is Parking of course. We have a lot of people coming up to our second floor Just trying to get their mail and the amount of frustration of just trying to find a parking spot. It's very difficult I also have folks like delivering groceries to me again. A lot of times I'm having to come downstairs Meet them. They can't deliver up because there's no place to park. So I understand we all know that parking is an issue The other thing that comes into mind is my current members. They all know the deal They know where to park. They know how to you know get themselves settled to get to work on time Unfortunately as much notice as they try to give their clients their clients have a really hard time by the time They get downtown park to arrive on time So generally their clients for the first or second time are arriving about 10 to 15 minutes late The reason I wanted to mention this is for those patients, um, you know who are trying to see doctors They're most likely going to have difficulty finding parking getting down there At least the first couple of times My concern leads to Having been um first of all i'm a resident of santa cruz born and raised here I started working downtown over 10 years ago. I fully support kaiser coming down Cooper street is a gem I've been here my entire life and watching Abbott square grow and having the cooper street closures has been absolutely phenomenal As much as I run a community space now I was an artist before that and so I used to support a lot of art Spaces art community things And now i'm able to support community through next space, but one of our biggest gems is being able to roll out Really? Yeah, thank you. This is my first time. You're welcome to leave any comments So if you'd like to we can review them, please next speaker Mayor council members. My name is ruben helick I'm with kushman awakefield. We're a commercial A real estate firm global And I work for the j paul company who owns the building Of course, thank you all of you for your Illegent participation and service to our community. I wrote a script so I'd stay under time I represent excuse me. I'm I'm here, of course, obviously to support kaiser permanent day and the new clinic at 110 Cooper cooper street Kaiser obviously has been a great community partner and a trusted organization Here in santa cruz and on behalf of j paul company We believe this expansion will bring bring much needed health care services closer To our santa cruz residents that are located in and around the downtown health care touches everyone and in speaking on behalf of my client We're excited that kp continues to invest in our city We appreciate that that they care about quality accessibility Convenience and remain dedicated to serving our residents J paul company is a major commercial real estate owner here in the downtown santa cruz and moreover throughout the bay area They own and manage over 10 million square feet of commercial space They're experts at running successful multi-tenant commercial buildings and their tenants include google facebook amazon and many others Both my client and kaiser know that this location will work well for all involved Including other tenants in the building as well as members who will visit the kp offices at the cooper house Both j paul and kaiser are leaders and experts in their respective fields This is an important location for kp and the people that utilize their health care services I hope you'll consider supporting their expansion and Incidentally, I took this over During the recession and it was vacant 85,000 feet all the tech left Next speaker Good afternoon, mayor walkins and city council members. My name is kisha fras I'm the ceo of united way a santa cruz county and I am in support of kaiser's Office and their office clinic at 110 cooper street and I have full confidence that together just as united is in our Name that we can work united and work together in making sure that this is a space that is conducive to all beings United way of santa cruz county is committed to creating a healthy thriving and safe community for all health care and access to quality health care are essential to the quality of life For our residents and we truly value and deserve that kaiser permanente is an important part of the health care fabric In our community and as an employer that offers kaiser permanente's health plan to over 20 employees Increased access to care is important to my staff Kaiser permanente is a generous community supporter and partners with your united way on several projects With the goal to increase awareness and access to quality health care services Including our county's 211 helpline Hovanna sanos, which is our healthy youth program our healthy eating active living projects And our community dialogues with our local law enforcement Kaiser's ability to provide service in downtown santa cruz will provide valuable will prove valuable In reaching more residents to offer them wellness services by providing more convenient affordable and comprehensive care Increasing accessibility to health care services from a trusted community partner such as kaiser permanente Is vital to the quality of life here in santa cruz county and for our residents United way of santa cruz county supports the expansion of a new kaiser permanente clinic at 110 cooper street And we hope that you will too. Thank you Thanks speaker Hi I'm here again. Hi So looking around santa cruz, it's evident that they've invested in almost everything here. I mean abbott square included Their name is on the the donators plaques also like the arena and so many other things even my girlfriend Got a grant from them and has graduated from ucse So and I think they give like 1.9 billion dollars annually to all the communities or like charitably or to an improvements in the city To the cities that they're in which is like crazy like holy crap. That's like government level stipends and um I'm in a restaurant in the same building on the first floor and so I probably get more Uh foot traffic than a clinic or I would when I open and most restaurants do Abbott square included and there was no debate as to whether they should go in And so parking is just as much if not more of an issue for a restaurant going in Than a clinic And so then the only valid argument seems to be Their bathrooms, you know cross contamination and it seems like the second floor is mostly executive offices Which is where product product ops is As well as a pharmacy and so Seems like maybe there's some negotiation that can be had or I mean that's just my perspective my point of view I just wanted to share that Yeah, thank you for listening. Thank you next speaker Good afternoon mayor and council members. My name is Karen brawn. I'm a managing director with the j-paul company So I'm here in support of Kaiser Permanente's new clinic at 110 cooper street So j-paul company has been a longtime property owner and has committed significant investment in the renaissance of downtown Santa Cruz since the loa ma prieta earthquake Kaiser Permanente has been a great community partner and trusted organization in Santa Cruz And we believe this expansion will bring much needed health care services to Santa Cruz residents that are located in and around the downtown area Health care touches everyone and as a property owner in Santa Cruz We're excited that Kaiser Permanente continues to invest in our city. We appreciate that they care about quality health care accessibility Convenience and remain dedicated to serving the residents and employees of Santa Cruz We hope you're you will agree in supporting the their clinic at 110 cooper street. Thank you Next speaker Mayor Watkins and esteemed city council members. I'm Doug Erickson. I'm with the executive director of Santa Cruz works I represent a five thousand member organization For entrepreneurs and local businesses in Santa Cruz Santa Cruz works would like to express our support of Kaiser downtown Not but not in the cooper house We believe that there are many other options options now becoming available that they should review and per Bonnie lippman Remarks about the general plan ed for six six point seven These offices really should be assigned to science and tech growth And I don't really see how that plays into the current needs of say looker that really is needs to expand and is doing extremely well so I think that There's places like the galleria utc forever 21 that should be looked at I also think that Kaiser is an extremely valuable member of our community. We all agree There so please ask the staff to expedite their assistance in and helping Kaiser find a new place Something that's long term and finally just Saying my dad used to give to me is it's always better to ask twice or three times than to go the wrong direction once Thank you Next speaker Afternoon my name is chris codega. I'd just like to speak about Kaiser and cooper street I think the bummer that came out of this meeting for me because I also went to the planning commission It sounds like there wasn't a lot of upfront communication With the city with city staff. So now we're sort of at this point Some people want it some don't so One of the things that I wanted to bring up with is, you know, the commercial real estate market is very dynamic And like people didn't know for ever 21 was going to go out now. They're out all that so things do change What I'd like to say is just if you look at the panthe clinic Up on mission street It has over 80 dedicated parking spots including disabled Parking and access for it. So their patients and employees can park there They have large patient drop-off and pickup spot in front And they have good access for ambulances medical providers paramedics, etc And also this process was worked through with the neighborhood And so here we are on this. So if you look at the cooper house, there's no dedicated parking spots There will be 42 employees 45 patients per hour And if you look at their plans for Live oak, they have a 730 car parking garage for a larger building 160 000 square feet But if you sort of ran the ratio You would get that they would need a hundred parking spots and cooper street is is narrow There's delivery trucks. There's a lot of activities going on in events And I just don't think it's the right place And I don't know where people are going to get dropped off because most people who go to a lot of the elderly people go to the doctor Or people who are sick are going to be driven to the to the clinic. So I just wanted to say that and thank you very much Next speaker Hi, I'm stacey nagel. I head up workplaces at looker. Thank you so much for your service all of you I also have a script. I'm here today to ask you to reconsider the location of the medical clinic We welcome keiser to santa cruz. Looker is keiser customer. We love keiser But we do know that they will be part of our downtown community for a very long time So since we know that are that kind of a partner, let's make sure we put them in a location That is aligned with our long-term vision The last thing we should do is a community is to take a wonderful community partner like keiser and put them in a location That just is inferior for them and for us I've talked to you before about the problems we have with parking for downtown employees Our new employees the wait list is two years long and that's with a really strong bike to work culture And a lot of people that walk to work If you arrive after 10 30 a.m Many employees at my company just turn around and go home after driving around for 30 minutes They just can't find parking We tell our candidates to please arrive extra early to find parking And a lot of times we have people late for interviews because it's that tight So looking at a clinic that will see over 500 patients a day not counting including staff to staff that clinic I just don't think that's realistic And the infrastructure just can't handle it I'm also very concerned about ill people as my mother is disabled And I don't understand how she could get to that clinic. It'd be way too much for her I'm also here today as a member of the downtown business community And i'm concerned that we're not being heard by the council I really encourage you to notice the location of the speaker's offices that are here speaking in favor of keiser Are they downtown businesses with office space downtown? Will they be affected by this large medical clinic in the cooper house? Or are they located elsewhere in santa cruz and just want keiser and santa cruz? I want keiser and santa cruz. I even want them downtown, but not on the fifth floor of the cooper house The city council has a responsibility to manage I'm bob kegel. I'd like to thank you all for your service Whether something's legal or not is the lowest bar of approval not the highest And there's uh, there's no way policy can be written To accommodate every possible nuance every possible street every possible building and I don't have a large Legal staff to help prepare me for these sorts of things. So i'm kind of been winging it all along The a up allows for all kinds of business. You look at page 43 in the plan There's all kinds of businesses there But there's particular language about compatibility abuse And if you just look at that list you can you can imagine that if you put Any combination of a couple of those you would say that's inappropriate now I don't blame zoning or planning they were simply following the letter of the policy But council can exercise reason And see way beyond the limited perspective of the policy language Which is supposed to be supportive of the community as a whole not the limited view of one dimension The letter from the applicants corporate lawyer suggested that none of the claims around parking could be substantiated Well, let me provide some we got some information from the parking department starting january 1st of 2018 74 weeks. They were 97 percent or more Of capacity In all but two weeks So that's pretty substantive to me as well. He talked about predictability I'd like to the predictability that when I moved into the building that I knew what my neighbors were going to be And then I suddenly didn't have the front doors open We talked about uh Communicability of you know communication excuse me communicable communicable diseases If only one percent of the 10 000 people a month to come through there are sick That's twice as many people as I have in the building Council has an opportunity today to set an important precedent for the management of Santa Cruz Uh, we're going to compromise our long-term vision of our main street on our community square to placate one large corporation Or are we going to have an opportunity to plan and manage for the future? Assuming kaiser be here for a long time and assuming they're truly a public service And not just a private business. Let's make sure we find them the right place For everyone not just them. Thanks. Thank you I'm Patrick Riley. I'm a local patent attorney. I'm a member of next space And being the next space I often look across 101 from 101 cooper to what's going on at cooper street So I have three comments one is I Greatly appreciate kaiser permanente's work. I have a friend for example who has a five-year-old daughter Who very much wants to have easier access from the west sides to emergency services? So I think it's very important the kaiser open up in downtown But I'm opposed to it opening up at 110 cooper street for two main reasons I work with a lot of uh tech entrepreneurs and I would say the best of the tech entrepreneurs are good planners They're both people who know how to be flexible and pivot, but they also need to plan And if they don't see office space available for expansions, it's going to affect their plans today As to how they manage their businesses and I've personally seen more than one clients struggle with planning on how to expand the good business later Therefore moving to the environs to the outside of Santa Cruz And lastly, I would like to say that I would not like to see 101 the cooper street area lose its ability to have pop-up events and pop-up festivals, which I Sincerely believe that having the medical clinic there will will limit that significantly. Thank you All right next week Hi, uh, hello council. Hello everyone. I'm jack. I work at product ops 110 cooper street in the building. Um, I am in opposition to kaiser moving in for a couple reasons number one i'm looking at the legal wording for the Parking they if a parking word A study on whether or not the parking would be infected that it was whether or not 50 Member patients or more per hour were to come through and the numbers that kaiser provided Were about 45 which that seems kind of close and especially since we're about to be losing I'm sure as you all know parking structures in the next upcoming years. Um, It feels like that's kind of very close to the line of whether or not we should do at least do a parking study to see How much this will impact us You know that this is a big sort of fork in the road We go down two paths. It's important that we make sure as he said before, you know, we're making the right decision another one as a Someone who works in there works in that floor or the same floor that the pharmacy would be It's a little alarming that we would be, you know, working in a pharmacy and working in a place, you know With expensive computers and stuff It's important to have make sure you have a good security getting into that building because there are people who would break in Against that which as it stands now, it's fine. We have locked doors and you know, we have plenty of things But knowing that from seven to eight, which is pretty late at night Especially in the winter hours when the sun goes down at five and streets get dark and that Knowing that that's the door doors just can be open for anyone to walk in seems a little You know, it feels like our safety is being compromised and we were not aware of this sort of Permit being around or you know This that this sort of client would be moving into the office before we moved in so it feels a little like the rug is being pulled out from under us Thank you for all your time and have a good day Hey gang. I'm drew meyer. I'm a tech worker downtown and with amazon. We're on two floors in the cooper building But i'm not speaking of his amazon was speaking as a As a four-year veteran of the tech cycle that's here in santa cruz After 20 years of commuting over the hill It's extraordinarily impactful for the community to have an office space that i can walk to That i can hire people into that i can drive business results from being right here in town Taking that opportunity away from the downtown by replacing that very limited space as the economic director described where the different use Is i think a little bit short-sighted and what i'm here to really ask for is not favorite treatment for different industries or Opinions about who's right and wrong about being sick or not getting sick or security or parking Is to inject some vision into the planning process and give us a future that's really going to work for a lot of people As we bring new housing online we need a variety of office space and retail space And medical office space scattered throughout the community Please don't support this particular use case on the floors in the cooper building Reserve that class a office space for us to hire new people for us to expand For uh tech companies to start up and spin out and and come back together and drive innovation here in this community um Please add division it's unusual to have a case where the planning department has met where the applicant has met all the requirements The planning department has rendered a decision But the council has felt it compelling enough to come back and revisit the decision. So thank you Are you speaking on this item? Okay, please come forward and you'll be our last speaker Hi, my name is elise casby and i want to thank donna for postponing this item For further consideration, but i do Have to say that i really like the idea of kaiser being downtown I think we need to open up downtown to more people in terms of more kinds of business. Um I Along with that. I want to ask um that if you if you would consider kaiser to be put in the building Right there. I forget what what the address is on cooper One ten cooper street The reason this is so important is that we really do need to have additional health care facilities In the core downtown area. I want to make sure though that as You consider of the design of this building and the environmental impact report That there um not be additional parking built downtown because as we heard from patrick I believe his last name is seagulman The consultant who is incredibly well versed and very professional in the parking area and did an excellent analysis very presented with lots of pictures and very detail very great amount of detail about the parking that's already here But there's a perception that there isn't enough parking here So day after day weekend after weekend parking goes unused in individual spaces on Many sites that are not necessarily right on pacific avenue or in the structures bordering pacific avenue But just a few blocks out And so I just want to say that we definitely do not need an environmental impact of greater parking also the city and the metro company the The um santa cruz metro have picked a ceo who is trying to privatize our bus company and his cut bus lines And we need to reverse that direction and have A robust um public transportation system that brings people down here There's much that the city has done well including the employee parking passes, but we can do a lot more Thank you. Thank you Okay, so this would be the time now where we would have our appellant um have a five minute rebuttal Given that the appellant is on the council I'm wondering if that would just be Appropriate to have this as part of the deliberation in action at this time Yeah, I'll just look to the city attorney. I think I just cede that five minutes to council deliberation That sounds appropriate to me and I'll just remind the the council and the community We have a time-certain item at 4 30 p.m. So we'll need to have this Figured out before then okay Um any further comments as the council member Okay, councilor matthews brown by smear coming Well, I would just say I intend to support the motion that has been presented I can make my comments now I think I share with everyone here support for kaiser's presence in our community and the value of having them downtown Every benefit that accrues from kaiser that would accrue from kaiser at this location will accrue Pardon. Can't hear me. Okay Um I do support the anticipated motion that will be coming forward I'll restate. I think everyone up here appreciates the value of kaiser in our community as a premier health provider and the value of having a kaiser facility downtown and expanding its downtown presence I don't believe that the Location currently proposed is the best location I would I also stated that I think any benefit that accrues from kaiser in one location downtown accrues to kaiser at any location downtown I also Step back and take the big picture What does it mean for the long-term? Impact on the direction of our downtown and I think this is particularly Especially for me appropriate on the 30th anniversary of the earthquake here in santa cruz Which destroyed so much of downtown and the community went through A long engaged process of what do we want for the future of our downtown and we envisioned a Downtown that had a strong economic base. It had housing. It had community and civic activities In a fairly dense environment And pretty much we've been able to deliver on that One of the issues was activating our upper floors for office use And also I think what this brings to me now is That vision santa cruz looked far into the future And has it has been largely successful. It is important to realize that downtown's change Culture changes economies change and downtown's change So what we're looking at right now is a decision that our downtown will live with Decades into the future Kaiser will be an economic engine I think my my main objections To the current location and I will say also We've we've quoted General plan policies that might favor The presence at this location many of those general plan policies would favor kaiser at a similar downtown location but there are other General plan policies that have been quoted here that are different and for me the ones that are most important If I could I just want if we could just briefly however you want to frame your comments because we have a limited time I'm taking up too much time For me the the key issues are Taking prime office space that is essential to one of the key economic factors downtown the interference with the robust activity closing of cooper street often pacific avenue that was a very core Concept in the original downtown. I think we all Honor that and the concern for the access of patients and mixing uses So that'll that'll be it for the short version. Thank you. Sorry councilmember brown and then vice mayor coming is then council member crown So this is a difficult decision To contemplate in many ways Um, I don't believe that the proposed location is the best location myself However kaiser does and As a policy body, I think we have a relatively limited role in the management of Rental agreements in in the private market and This space has been has not been taken up by Other potential tenants kaiser has invested quite a bit in that in their plans None of which I'm trying to to not include that in my decision because I believe that my decision should be based on What is allowable and our planning department and our planning commission have acknowledged that the Environmental determination can be made to Approve an administrative use permit here And I think that is the limited role that we have to play in this case as much as I would like to have A larger role in kind of orchestrating what goes where in the downtown. I think that our Our land use policies are directed at that and it's kind of up to the private actors who want to make these arrangements to proceed Additionally It's mayor Cummings and then councilmember crown had a question regarding Some of the topics that were brought up And the first one being how long has because my understanding is that the space that Kaiser is actually looking to occupy has actually been vacant for some time And I just wanted to get a sense of how long that space has been vacant for Oh, wait. Sorry. We've had a chance to hear from the community. This is a chance for now our staff to respond If they have the answer to that so it's okay Go ahead Do you have a response to that? I don't know the exact answer to that question. I do know that And ask folks in the audience to please keep your voices down and go ahead. I don't I'll I'll say it again I don't actually know the answer to that question. I do know that it was vacant for some time However, there was also an offer on the table I'll reiterate one thing that I said earlier is that it's the last remaining office space in downtown Larger than 6,000 square feet at a time when other tech businesses and other companies downtown are looking for active spaces Those tech companies and other office users downtown will not have the same opportunities as Kaiser will for many of the reasons Stated here. Kaiser's a very desirable tenant But we have many locally owned businesses that are looking for office space downtown right now Okay, and if you want to confer with the woman who may have an answer to that question Please let us know and you can come back. Okay. Did you have another question? and one of the things that Is a little bit troubling is that, you know, I feel like if this space had been Desired by some of these companies the question I have is, you know, why aren't those companies currently there? They thinking about, you know in the future the potential for people to move into these spaces But if we leave these spaces empty for long periods of time, there's no guarantee of who's going to move in there Another thing I'd like to point out is that there's a lot of proposal for development in the downtown in the near future And if office space is limited then that should be one of the the things that's taken into consideration When we're thinking about what are what are we developing in our downtown? we know that retail is on the decline and We know this to be true, especially because of the fact that 20 Forever 21 is going to be leaving and so a lot of these spaces have the potential for being repurposed and so The idea that we're not going to have space for these tech companies downtown Is it's a bill it's a big question. You know, it's something that I question a bit We've you know, I mean with the old good times of building we were able to repurpose that into more office space and so It's just a concern for me knowing that kaiser's They've been able to Make deals to take on this space. They've invested in the space. They invest in the community They think that this is a good space for them and their clients um, and so I'm not very comfortable right now with the proposed Motion, especially since it's been approved by the planning department and uh, the planning commission, so councillor I'm just going to say that uh I'm feeling rushed I think that we should be at this. I have a bunch of if I was if I could ask questions I'd say how many docs are going to be there? How much staff how many patients we're going to have per week Um, why aren't you worried? Why aren't you kaiser worried about parking if we hear so many concerns about parking? But I won't ask that because I think this is being uh rushed right now a decision Because we have another item coming up after this And in the interest of time, I will Make the I will move the recommendation the resolution upholding the planning commission's acknowledgement of the environmental determination and the approval of the administrative Use permit based on the findings listed in the draft resolution and the conditions of approval Attached to exhibit a We have a motion by councilmember crumb. Is there a second second by vice mayor Cummings I had a question my um, one of the things that I um For me it feels something that's a new development since this happened was the fact that the forever 21 building Is going to be vacant and could be a potential Single story site that would be Probably more ideal. I mean the split site. I kind of had so I don't know if there's a place here in this process to say Can you exhaust that before moving forward in like a One to two month time frame as opposed to kind of this all or nothing at this moment I'm not sure if there's an answer from staff on that Well, I think the the motion that was put forth by councilmember mires would do just that Because otherwise if you adopt the motion that's currently on the floor There's an active permit and they have three years within which to begin construction to to vest it Okay So but the motion on the floor would be that they have to reapply within the year But I'm thinking more of just like a kind of we have maybe a one month window. We've learned that forever 21 was potentially Good to be an maybe a more optimal space that could be looked at I'm not sure if that's already been looked at before coming to the conclusion of cooper street um just To interject one point I believe that the motions on the the motion on the floor is to uphold the planning commission's approval of the of the project Councilmember mires put forth Some motion language, but I don't think the motion is actually on the floor No, I know I'm just wondering in terms of just specifically is that what that would look like if it was a one month time frame I mean, what would that what would that be? Is it you either adopt it or you have maybe a month to go explore this option? If not by default they'll go to cooper street I don't know if there's a potential solution in in the middle I guess I would say I think maybe we can explain what Denying without prejudice means and the timing are associated around that sure so um lee betler planning director and There are two different approaches. I think that you would be seeking Excuse me mayor walkins the first could be The motion that councilmember mires laid out would achieve that the second Would and and that denial without prejudice. I should note Allows for reapplication Within at any point in time if it's just denied they couldn't reapply for the same project for a year Another option would be continuance So you could continue an application and say, you know seek information on other On other options during that time They would still be able to come back to the council and have this particular option on Uh under consideration and so, you know different options for you to consider Okay, so I think I'll just sort of state my preference. I know we have a motion on the floor We have a limited time frame just because of our council policy To honor yom kapoor and so um, you know if we could do a continuance of maybe You know a few months to now look at forever 21 as a potential option Which I don't know if was made available before Now Kind of learning that they're going to be um going out of business or was looked at I think it's worth to look at it before we go ahead and move forward and if not then And cooper street proves to be the best fit or the only fit at this time Then I I think we can go ahead and and have that move forward that that would be my kind of overall preference But maybe knowing this or learning this new information. We can um potentially exhaust that before making the decision So, uh council member glever and then vice mayor coming Thanks, I saw some um Un some disapproving head movements from different representatives from some of these conversations So I would be curious to know about kaiser's thoughts on uh the proposed alternative location at forever 21 If that's something you've already looked at assessed if it's something that you don't feel something that's viable and kind of go from there because uh, I can understand the perspectives from Both of the different uh groups essentially it sounds like we have tech versus medical here with regards to the The prioritization of the space it was brought up and I do agree with um Vice mayor Cummings that if there was a laundry list of Other tech organizations that were ably waiting to get into the space Then I would be like well that would be something to consider but since there's not and uh from the property manager's perspective and from the representatives from kaiser as well as the united way and Other groups that have come up and spoken um if there's not uh You know if they're if they don't feel the other spot is tangible and there is uh an outpour of support from some very um Important stakeholders is what not to say that the santa cruise downtown business stakeholders is a problem But we also heard from someone who also is housed in that building and does not concur with the issue of parking Being an issue and also brought up some pretty fantastic points about the Aspects of Abbott square and other amenities that have gone in and have not received the resistance as this medical facility Also, i'm a little concerned that we would postpone The potential of high quality health care to people for the fear of individuals that they may get sick Because of a shared bathroom. I understand that that's a concern and i'm sure there can be uh Negotiations that can take place between the two organizations to cohabit The building instead of just uh striking them from being able to participate So I would be interested in hearing kaiser's perspective on all of this and I will agree with council member crone as well that I think it is Inappropriate irresponsible A variety of words to rush through this Because obviously there's a lot of things that can be impacted by this and I understand the interest of Some of my colleagues to get to this next agenda item But at the same time I really think that we should be putting some attention Into this really important decision that could impact as council member. Matthew said the downtown area for a generation I think well, I'll just speak to the fact that I think a motion can of continuance could allow those conversations to take place Essentially, but it would slow down the process if it was even in within a short time frame Hopefully wouldn't be too detrimental Vice mayor Cummings and then councilman Matthews one thing that has come up that i've been just looking at throughout this conversation is the proximity of cooper street to Parking in the downtown and just looking at the map of the downtown There's the soquel front garage the cedar street church garage and the river street the river front garage Which are all within about a block and a half From the proposed site at cooper street My understanding too is that kaiser's all kaiser currently is on locus street and It's not that far from where they're proposing to change So I think that there's a you know, there are a variety of issues of parking downtown But the other point is that by moving it to forever 21. I haven't heard any conversations about how Moving it there is actually going to improve their clients with with regards to parking so I think that You know, I also feel like this is is a bit rushed Seeing is how we're going to be making a decision on where this is going But it apparently appears that kaiser feels like this is a good space I would you know would be happy if they can work with Our staff over the next month two months to identify a new space if that's Sufficient of time I think that that would be okay And if they can't find the space then we move on with the application as it's been proposed But that's just where I stand right now on this Okay before we maybe could we get an answer to that because that's sort of where i'm at too Is that possible? Would you say One or two months to have those conversations to exhaust The new kind of understanding of forever 21 I will say on the on the alternative sites. There's more than one alternative site But that does take some time to Find out if that is a good fit from kaiser. I haven't heard specifically back from them on some of the sites that have been presented to them I will say i'll turn it over to lee The question did come up on the forever 21 site and the suitability In general it being a ground floor site being able to have ground floor access for the pharmacy and the medical clinic Is preferable to a second story secured, you know Access point in the cooper house. So overall it's a better location. I think from the user and for the downtown And I'd just speak to the process in terms of the timing it's uh We target 90 day 90 days to get these types of projects to hearing the first hearing that this came to was 75 days We can cut that down slightly But that's sort of the timeline to to get to a public hearing if it's a greater than 16,000 square foot ground floor Space then that would require a council hearing Meaning you'd go to planning commission and council you roughly add 30 days to that So, um, you know, then we would be in a three or four month timeline As the sort of a fast process three to four months is a fast process. Can council member matthew's council member mires council member clever I will just say it's my understanding. There's more than one potential site Uh, I think there was an unfortunate lack of communication By keiser to the city very early on in the process I would support a continuance for up to three months For exactly the reason that others have suggested that we have the chance to Seriously explore those other sites if they don't pan out Come council member clever. I'm sorry council member mires Yeah, I I guess I the other thing I would add is that in conversations with uh, some businesses downtown I do understand there is there is um interest in the cooper house I'm not going to divulge who those businesses are but I'm not sure that that it's correct to say that those spaces would be sitting empty if keiser doesn't move in Um, so I just want to clarify that council member clever and then council member crumb Well, I don't know if operating on secret potential deals in the future is a good way for us to make this decision I've also asked a couple times. I'd love to hear from keiser with their thoughts on that uh, location So if the chair would be the conversation that would be having if we continue the item We don't have to if we continue the item, but I'd love to hear from keiser Now we're guarding the space so that we don't have to if we maybe we don't need to continue the item And we can just hear from keiser. We don't we don't I would second that if that's a motion to A motion to hear from keiser Well, my ruling is that we don't have time to open it up for the process of the public and we have a 430 type certain item The motion is second right and so I'll you can I you can appeal my ruling apparently By motion. Okay. So you made a motion Is that to appeal the ruling that you would like to Now change the agenda to not have a time certain into motion to hear from keiser to hear from keiser See if they can Okay, so you have a motion by council member clever Seconded by council member cone all those in favor, please say I Opposed no, no, okay that pass to the council member brown vice mayor Cummings crone and clever I don't know if a keiser representative wants to come forward right now. Can I just confirm that was to put to Postpone the 430 time certain to finish this one to hear from keiser, which will then likely lead to the delay of the 430 time certain So, uh, thank you very much. We appreciate the opportunity to respond We've considered the forever 21 site When it was brought up to us and it is not an appropriate site for us The other piece to consider too is we don't have control of 110 cooper From the timetable the way it's laid out. We owe them another we've been paying them just to keep them on hold If we walk away from this, it's a three quarters a million dollar hit right off the bat just to walk away from it And it's all non refundable. So continuance is just in effect a way that would basically Put us in a box to be able to put it lightly We would owe them another another tranche of money just to hold the site going longer Which I think is an issue for us I'll wait till you respond. I have a motion Well, I I guess the point I want to make is there's been a lot of discussion about, you know The site search and we've done extensive searches From 2011 to 17 we looked at 43 different sites Before we landed on locust and we came back in 2018 Reexamine those same sites as well as every other site that's come up So we put a lot of time and effort into this and we didn't land on 110 cooper lightly So there's a lot of reference here about just, you know, let's go pick another site We're not finding them. We've looked and we continue to look Motion to call the question second All those in favor to call the question I Opposed no, no, okay that pass over the council member crone, glover brown and Vice mayor Cummings in support Um, so now we have the main motion on the floor to debate to note to not have any further debate to take the vote on Okay, may I ask a procedural question? You can ask a procedural question Is it possible to make a substitute motion at this point? Is it possible to make a substitute motion at this point? It's not Okay, okay all those in favor of the motion on the floor, which is to approve the kaiser permit Please say I I have posed. No, no, okay that passes with council member crone, glover Myself vice mayor Cummings in Brown voting in support Matthews and Myers voting against Okay, we'll have a moment. I was brought to my attention that we're at capacity We're going to need to sort of clear out this item and then bring forward Um anybody who wants to be here for the next item I think so well, don't you think for safety purposes? Okay Hey harsh Hey rent as they go through the Long with our safety measures We are on item number 20 Excuse me 22 And this is the re-agendizing of a motion to table item that took place at the last meeting Before we start this item I want to just remind the community Our rules of decorum and my role So my um role as the presiding officer is to ensure that everybody has an opportunity to speak to us without fear or intimidation And I take that responsibility seriously. We want to hear from you. We have A time certain item because we have limited time this afternoon We have to conclude our meeting by 6 30 p.m And to honor Yom Kippur and so um although there will be limited Opportunity in terms of our our time frame today We hope to be able to hear from everybody who wants to speak to us on this item I ask that you respect your fellow citizens while you're inside and outside of our chambers You can disagree with each other you can fall on different sides of the issue That's okay. That's how our government and democracy works But it's not okay to interfere with our ability to govern nor is it okay for you to Um intimidate another uh resident in our community I will also ask per Those that have signs to please keep your signs below your shoulders as to not obstruct the view of those Behind you as in respect for your other citizens who are here to participate in today's proceedings Um, I I know that I I appreciate in advance your respect in that matter And I think um and I think the others who are here would also appreciate your respect in that and that matter As well If there is a interruption throughout today's um meeting I will give a verbal warning if i'm able to see the person who interrupted If I see somebody who continues to disrupt our proceedings this afternoon I will go ahead and ask that you um leave And uh, that's not uh what I want to do But it's the responsibility of the presiding officer to ensure that we can have a decorum in our meetings This item was brought to my attention by numerous groups and community members who are asking to have the item Come forward and I will uh say that the commission for the prevention of violence against women took the item Up the day after we had this motion to table the item without further discussion or community input We also heard from our democratic women's club and a number of other organizations asking that I put this item back on the agenda And so I feel that the community um wants to at least have an opportunity to speak to the item And um and that's what precipitated this coming back to the agenda today Before I invite up the commission to uh share their perspective as our commission for the prevention of violence against women I'd like to ask our city attorney to weigh in on uh An email that came before us in regards to how the procedure took place last Meeting with the motion to table and then I'll go ahead and um ask our commission to come on out I want to be careful because um there have been some attorney client privilege communications that I've shared with the council on this issue um The day after the last council meeting the city manager and I were copied on an email from A member of the community to council member mires Which forwarded a message sent by council member crone to supporters in advance of the last council meeting the The community members email raises the question of a possible brown act violation Suggesting that the outcome of the vote on the censure item was a foregone conclusion Based on the fact that the message speaks to the proposed censure of council members crone and glover But asked supporters to attend the meeting And and quote stand with drew glover sandy brown just in Cummings and me The member of the public raised a concern or at least An inference that Because the request was to stand with four council members that that there was a preordained decision to table the item Um I'm not opining on whether or not that was the case But I do think given that the motion to table was made before public comment in the event that a legal claim were made under the brown act The first step in so doing would be to demand a cure so while This is a business item that's come back before the city council in my view Is also an opportunity to to fix a potential brown act issue By having a do-over So essentially if I am understanding you correctly, you're recommending that we Not have That happen again per The legal considerations or the do-over being we have the item proceed forward and then council can make their motions after public comment It would be appropriate to Should a motion to table be made again and it can To do it after public comment. Okay So that would be um my preference and before I see my colleagues with their hands up I'd like to hear from the public. I respectfully ask that you um Recognize that you'll have your opportunity to speak after the public has able to weigh in And I will acknowledge council member brown and then council member crone immediately after But I don't want to acknowledge that right now We were unable to hear from the public at the last meeting and that did not settle well I'd like to invite up our commission for the prevention of violence against women to come forward to Share their perspective before as our commission Before we open it up to public comment at which time I'd like to bring it back for Acknowledgement of council members. So this time i'm not prepared to do any I'm making a motion to appeal the the ruling from the chair because um He just the city attorney just spoke about me and I'd like to respond Is it okay I'll second that Okay All those in favor of the appeal, please say aye. Aye. Aye. Opposed Okay, go ahead and respond if that's the the discussion My motion originally was going to be to go right to the public tonight and listen to them and and and hear from them There's nothing that I know about the brown act and in fact city attorney just said it but I there's communications all the time going out and I'm happy to communicate with the public and I do would make a motion that we go right to the public to uh to hear them second that too Okay, before we do we'll go ahead and invite up the the commission who's going to speak briefly as our commission I think under five minutes and then we'll open it up to public comment. So go right ahead Oh Okay, we'll go ahead. Okay. Are you saying that you'd like to not include the responses of our commission? I'd like to go right to the to the line to the public. I mean, that's You know, but and and not hear from our commission. Of course. I want to hear from them Okay, so the commission will hear every member from the public. I want to hear from okay So the commission will have you here first because your your letter was impetus to having this item beforehand and then we'll go ahead and open it up to public comment Is that your motion? So to have the commission speak first that wasn't mine. That wasn't necessarily my motion. I said You're saying we didn't hear from the public last time. We we did hear from from the commission I believe But we didn't hear from the from the public and that's my motion was to go right to the public That the that the city council doesn't weigh in right now what we hear from the public first Okay Matthews There's a motion on the floor my understanding would be if we Voted for the motion to go to the public the cpva w could come as Representing an organization which we commonly do and so they could go first That's fine. That's fine. I you know, I just wanted to recognize the fact that you heard the item beforehand Okay, all those in favor. Please say I Okay That passes unanimously. You'll go forward. You'll have up to four minutes We took the vote. We'll go ahead and ask that you um Go ahead and we'll we appreciate your respect as we have our commission speaking now Go ahead. Good afternoon. Mayor Watkins Vice mayor Cummings and council members My name is lila kramer the vice chair for the commission for the prevention of violent skins women And we're here again to affirm our commitment to the women complainants who came forward with regard to the pattern of abusive And disrespectful conduct of council members crone and lover We are here to reiterate that we came to say what we came to say to you on september 24th As a commission we start by believing those who have the courage to come forward and share their stories of harassment and abuse That night vice mayor Cummings council members brown crone and lever moved to table the censure item This decision prevented the public from speaking directly to the issue and ended the possibility for the council to use the only Tool it has to publicly acknowledge this pattern of abusive and disrespectful workplace behavior And to make a formal statement of disapproval The commission strongly believes that accountability is required on behalf of council members crone and lever Council member crone attended our september 25th commission meeting And when asked why he didn't attempt to stop the public victim blaming and shaming that went on at the previous council meeting He said I didn't realize it was going on Acknowledgment that there is a problem and that these two council members are at the root of the problem Not the women complainants is a necessary first step on the path toward reconciliation And working towards improving relationships amongst council members and staff You had an opportunity on the 24th to denounce this pattern of behavior and to let current and future city staff And council members know that we all deserve to work in a safe and respectful environment Tonight we ask you to do the right thing and not Compartmentalize your sense of equity and justice because it may be politically dangerous to do so This censure is not about a recall. It's not about just cause evictions and measure m It's not about the homelessness and affordable housing in our community This censure is about believing people who have the courage to speak up when they are afraid to do so Because the stakes are high. It's about supporting those people through an already difficult situation And it's about speaking truth to power. Thank you Thank you Okay, we'll go ahead and open it up to public comment Those who are interested in speaking to us on this item can please line up to my left Before we have you go forward We'll go ahead and see if there's anybody who wants to just briefly address the council in one minute Is there any any community member who wants to briefly address the council in one minute? If you're interested in doing so, I'd like to ask you to please come forward first We'll go ahead and start with the one minute input and then we'll hear from those who want the two minutes in the interest of time So go right ahead Thank you members of the council. The very next day following this council meeting I had the opportunity to hear Again and then reflect on what happened the previous night and then I asked Why didn't this go to the union? And I was told that the union would not hear it And I'm wondering why it didn't hear it because a lot of this could have been dealt with we wouldn't have had The stalling On hearing this Thank you Thank you Other members who want to speak for the one minute time frame, please come forward Hello, my name is Shalom dream piece compost I'm here in support of of Christopher and drew, but I also want to say that duck that mayor Watkins Didn't want to recognize uh councilmember brown at the last time we discussed this in the interest of getting public input Yom Kippur starts very quickly Deadline for people to finish their last meal before 25 hour fast Is 653 or 623 Keep a below minute. I just I'd ask you mayor Watkins if you think that it's fair that you Shut down try to shut down you unsuccessfully tried to shut down sandy brown at the previous discussion In the interest of hearing the public and I think we should be in the civic auditorium and have Time for everybody to talk. There's also no rush with the censure Someone's going to time me at one minute. There's no rush Thank you. I just have some questions And so mainly why was the press release about the commission the commission for the prevention of violence Why was that released on next door before the commissioners had all the commissioners had a chance to review it? That seems odd that we're too making a private platform our Official channel of communication for the city Also, I was present at the last meeting and a lot of angry words very angry words were exchanged about what people say on facebook And I just want to say you may see who you see as supporters are drew Saying unkind things on facebook. I see synthia mathews former web Designer of her campaign website Calling women a dumb c word making all kinds of abusive statements. I've never seen a disassociation of that from from her So yes, we do associate your supporters with what they say to people on facebook And they can be very very abusive And also your anonymous blogs Okay next speaker for one minute Hello, I just want to say that conflict is not abuse I have witnessed you guys basically taken to bullying chris and drew now for weeks For very minor things you guys have wasted money 18 thousand dollars And for things that I have never ever seen chris or drew behave the way that I witnessed donna mayer's behave at the last city council She was screaming she slammed her hand down and we're here discussing a censure of two people that have done way Less than that. Um, I think that this is ridiculous I think that you guys should follow the rose report It said not to publicly do this to one another and to deal with this in mediation And I think you really should be ashamed of yourselves for putting this back on the agenda Jackie griffith one minute. Okay, um I support drew and chris I I support the the Commission for violence against women But I think that they've been pushed into This is trivializing it and as she just mentioned they're not everyone even got to speak to it I've served on city and county boards. I want you to know that that is really outrageous if not everyone was even consulted We have in this town NVC nonviolent communication I just feel that this should have been there were way better ways to handle this and if you were in Taking over my meeting time. I don't think I would have probably been any nicer Then then drew was at that point because it's taking up his people that are waiting to meet and his needs as well The this whole thing it just Okay, new time is up next I'm norah hawkman. I'm the former executive director of women's crisis support and shelter services now Defensa de mujeres When I was 17 or 18, I co-founded a rape crisis center, which is now The second largest in the country in santa barbara california. So I am speaking with those hats on This is very painful when we start comparing the hurts of women To the hurts of african-americans There is nowhere to go but bad And that is under the mayor's leadership happening here So let me just say this since only have one minute Everybody got punked on this Except councilmember meyers and the person doing the punking is your city manager You got to think about that. He punked you on homeless services. He's punking you on development deals And he's punking you on disliking each other My name is jane becker. I wanted to address The issues surrounding councilmember donna meyers who I feel has been unduly shot Spoken rudely about defamed On on facebook and other locations I happen to believe that you have accomplished a great deal with your life And that I as the grandmother of two young Granddaughters I would want them to look up to you as a role model because I think you are a role model And all this other stuff is shooting the messenger. Thank you Good afternoon. I'm jeff riss medberg I believe the women And I think the city institution did believe the women Took into consideration their concerns their allegations spent six months and dollars Seriously considering What they claimed found that the claims were unsubstantiated this All but some very minor things the this whole censure Procedure is a big waste of time. Why don't we move on to the mediation And conflict resolution it would be wonderful if our council members could work together for the benefit of the city residents Thank you I just wanted to start off by saying that you can still be a lesbian and be racist And um, so I feel really nervous to be up here right now as a as a woman of color I'm terrified of like the kind of rhetoric that donna meyers said. Oh my gosh. I don't even know about the crowd behind me I'm terrified This isn't about believing women a recall petitioner assaulted me when I tried to read the petition Recallers have been harassing me online since that incident in july This is not about protecting all women or believing all women And honestly may or you should be ashamed of yourself for bringing this back You want the public comment before a vote on tabling the censure? This isn't tabling the censure I guess I got it in a minute Hi, I'm brett garrett and I'm Feeling a lot of pain both because I believe women have been hurt and I believe progressive council members have been hurt My great hope is that the reconciliation process will improve the situation that people can all hear one another I don't think it's helpful to kick off reconciliation with punishment I strongly encourage to participate to practice compassionate communication and listen to one another A lot more before considering any punitive measures Um, this agenda item no matter how it's decided. I think it just fans the flames of the recall effort It exacerbates the divisions in our community Um, I believe tabling the motion was the right thing to do last time Because it allowed a very constructive process on reconciliation And I think tabling it could be good again tonight I just don't think it's the right time to be even considering the censure motion toward anybody. Thank you Hi, my name is alex king. Uh, I want to echo my uh, my fellow constituents Message that what happened to mediation and conflict resolution? Why why are we bringing this up again? I think this whole issue started back in january when the mayor declined to put drew and chris on their requested committees and she's exhibited a abuse of power pattern ever since since that time I just witnessed the last meeting when she tried to refuse to recognize sandy brown's appeal of Not being able to table the resolution So I'd just like to say Please work on uh city business Stop trying to tear tear the city apart and do your jobs I'm here to speak on behalf of women women public servants in the city who their public service does not mean that they get to be abused by community members They are public servants. They are not servants to be abused. Let me keep repeating that That is not part of their job description to take abuse and bullying from politicians On a constant daily basis and their followers who they have no problem Private messaging on facebook Things like bitch bag. I'll fuck you up the ass with the razor. Okay. Okay. Let's keep the language appropriate. This is the reality Okay, okay. This is the reality of what the public has to deal with. We'll go ahead and start the time again with that. Okay This is what the public has to deal with the people that serve you The commissioners the people in this community who do the work the nurses The firemen the law enforcement the city staffers who actually do the work start showing some respect Okay, next speaker And I'll remind those who are here to To adhere to the to the rules of decor, please you'll have one minute Daryl Darling Probably the least known Of my claims to fame is that I was the merchant of venice in the senior class play in Rock Island, Illinois The soliloquy that of Portia Has been burned in my brain and has been a guide for me throughout all of my life Even before Senior class play, but that one is particularly poignant Portia leads off the quality of mercy Is not strained We have been fighting over our piece of flesh From the time that the election was decided the day after Actually the day at the night of Okay, let's not do it anymore. We all suffer Okay, thank you So is there any other member of the community who wants to address the council in one minute? If you're interested in addressing the council and women we have one more coming forward. Okay Hi, Laura Lee Martin I first want to say that council members Cummings Brown and Glover. I've written you emails I'd love to chance to meet with you. I've sent twice to you and one of the each of you I totally get that you don't see the bullying that others see and i'm talking to you mr Crone and mr. Glover Even though my husband was arrested for domestic violence Everyone thinks he's a really good guy So I totally get that The claims were from credible women And they were brave enough to step up I would suggest that the two of you learn from this Don't dismiss it Acknowledge we have a problem and work to heal In fact, I'd love to see you vote for the censure It is just a statement that we're going to change how business is You could heal and council member Cummings. I ask you to step up and help with that. Thank you I'm going to go ahead and open the item now for two minutes If you're anybody else that's interested in the one-minute time frame Did you have one you want to do the one minute? Please come forward You'll be our last for the one minute. We'll then go ahead and open it up for two minutes You have one minute to search. Okay. Thank you. My name is Catherine Herndon I've been a feminist since the golden years of women's liberation movement I believe that this has been a misuse of feminism I hope if you haven't already read Jillian Green Sight's Statement on Bruce Bratton's Website that you will Because when I read it just last night It absolutely captured brilliantly and exactly how I Think and feel about this This is not the first time that I've experienced A misuse of feminism To co-opt something for another purpose I moved here about 20 years ago after having visited for 10 years before that and wanting to live here I was a school nurse in Los Angeles and I took early retirement. Your time is that okay? So you'll have one minute also. Is that right? You're wanting the one minute We're on the one minute time frame. Yeah, I asked for four minutes And I got an email that said you weren't giving anyone for but you just gave somebody four go ahead and pause the time They were part of the original presentation as the impetus for the item coming forward So they were not in part of the communications as our commission They were going to bring forward their position as to why I understand that as they were as you said that they're public I got over root rule to do it So I'm not doing group presentations And I hope you can understand as to respect of the others who want to speak here tonight as to why And so you'll have up to one minute or we can transition to two minutes if you like at this time I'll take two. Okay. We'll go ahead and transfer to two minutes unless you want to go right after mr McHenry since he was waiting in line Okay, you'll have two minutes Okay, um There's been a lot of talk about wanting to hear the community and I really respect that and just on How things go they shouldn't Yeah, I can speak into the mic But it's it confuses me that um It was you who cut everything to two minutes when you started your tenure And you often leave the room to get water and to get a drink during oral communications But on this it's something that you really want everybody to speak about which is fair I think people should be allowed to speak about everything um the official investigation and report didn't have any substantiated findings and Coming forth and there's frustration about that and people wanted something Wanted it to say something that it was substantiated or not But instead of having some specific thing that was wrong with the report or we're wrong with the investigation that There's this claim of Last time the claim was nothing was false And we all said false isn't an option in these kind of investigations. And so now the resolution says nothing is unfounded Once again, I'll push back and say that's not an option in these kind of things Unsubstantiated substantiated withdrawn are the only three things that that investigator was looking at So I think it's fine for you guys to talk about How you don't get along and I think there's four of you that are pretty negative towards each other and you guys Do have to learn to get along but on the specifics specifics of those frustrated guys mouth and off a little bit Well, there's been a whole lot of stuff in six months nine months. It's gone into them being frustrated One apologized one could apologize a little more But there's some more apologies that could come out of this room Like I have to apologize when I mouth off at people too. It's just something we all have to do So for me the censure thing that on the resolution of unfounded. Well, that's that's just not true Next speaker I think a number of you were at the federal court case with the temporary restraining order to block the Eviction of the people at ross camp without creating a safe alternative And those of you that were there heard a number of women testify that before ross camp they had been either raped Or in one case raped and killed According to one of the testimonies Her friend was raped and killed Before she went to ross camp and I know from personal experience that every weekend I run into women who want to know where the women's shelter is because they have been sexually assaulted Or afraid of being raped and those numbers of women are growing That many of them lose their vehicles to being towed and are now like having to go into doorways So as you probably have already heard we have to set up Men who we trust with women to sleep in specific doorways on front street So I I was wondering where the women's Uh group was at ross camp to defend the women who are now this we speak Tonight going to have to face The possibility of being raped because none of druze and chris's Questions would be agendized And so more, you know martin you have a direct Implication of the violence against these women as does martin brunau of course, and tony So I think we're speaking out of you know It's sad if anybody disrespects anybody man or woman, but the disrespect that that the Mayor has shown in this chambers is outrageous There's also supposed to be a law about how you bring up censure in a in a public Hearing there's supposed to be attorneys on both sides There's supposed to be a conversation about it and that is not happening here time is up next Coming from abuse for the last 24 years it was psychological emotional and financial and there was definitely physical abuse I've studied and I know what i'm talking about Cynthia matthews you said so long ago that you wanted to end divisive politics Please start being sincere and stop the divisive politics We elected a majority of people who are liberal to progressive fairly over the last several years And all of this is an end run around all of that There is a difference between conflict and abuse many hundreds of experts assert The thousands of studies have been done and the women that claim last week to have been abused are confused They are white privileged women. They earn enormous amounts of money per hour To plot and to divide this city. They are paid to divide So the seppo the seppo study which was a stakeholder study that involved our entire community That man came up and he said he felt sorry. Do you remember that martin wackens? How sorry it was and you said that we had to be somber Well, I am somber right now and to say this is an outrage It is an end run around the two studies that were ordered at large expense to our city Mr. Seppo said that there were trump-like national issues happening right here And they are being waged by donna miers martin wackens and Cynthia matthews They are extremely cynical So I want to talk about a trump-like thing that I heard happening I have not substantiated this claim It is right now a rumor that a certain council member has a vacation property in Mexico City That she built a wall from her property to the beach, but we don't know why Maybe it was so her dogs wouldn't go into the property next door Maybe it was so that she didn't have to look at the hovels if there are hovels On the other side of the wall, but this same person is claiming That she wants to not be seen as a racist But at the same time she's using her white privilege and her status and her enormous wealth The mexicans are asking your time is up elisa donna trump. Okay. What is donna trump doing with her wall? Thank you next speaker Next speaker ask you to be to keep your voice down We're going to go ahead and try to get to as many people today during public comment. Go ahead You'll have two minutes. Good afternoon I think I share something with everybody here This is not very fun Not for me. I don't think for anybody here and I just want to say this is this is a me too town It really is I mean, we have a super majority of people who support the me too movement. I don't blame victims I don't I support the ladies who have complaints But who should have fixed this before it turned into a civil war? Who should have done that? I just browsed through the budget person at the top at 259,092.94 Dollars a year is the city manager Who could have said okay children? We're going to do this differently from now on Easily easily could have said okay between any two meetings in a conference room We'll have five minutes of dead time for it to transition so that this doesn't happen again I Can't stop christopher from coughing. I'm sorry Um, I don't even think the city manager should do that. That's all he did. It was cough. I listened to the tape several times That was the two substantiated charges. The others are not substantiated So why are we here in this misery? If anybody should and could Smooth these things out before they happen It's the city manager who could take people aside and say okay. There's how we're going to fix this I hear your complaints. I hear your concerns as many times as it takes so that people are satisfied that they were heard everybody I'm annoyed at our city for having a civil war. It's wrong. It's hurting everybody who lives here And who's doing it People who are misguided. Good afternoon. I'm here Unusually as both phil postener and rabbi postener As reported As reported today's meeting is to end early for those city employees. I gather Who observe yom kippur the day of atonement? When we are asked to consider our actions And if we have hurt someone we are expected to ask god for forgiveness No accusations Just ask forgiveness But not before According to jewish tradition. We go first to the person or persons. We've hurt In that context of vote to censure councilman crone and clover seem particularly egregious Especially since as reported in the sentinel last wednesday. This council is spending $11,000 quote for professional mediation and conflict resolution training closed quote Now some of you this past year have suffered Hurt feelings regarding abuse as have many of us fellow human beings However, especially when councilman crone has written a letter that was described in the sentinel as quote a beautifully a beautiful example of self responsibility and reconciliation I want to suggest that on the eve of yom kippur and hopefully the rest of year that Forgiveness and magnanimity will accomplish far more than censure and reprisal for old hurts And may everyone in our community likewise be ready to forgive and reconcile differences Each observing atonement in our own meaningful beautiful way. Thank you Before we get started, I'd like to get a sense of how many more members of the community want to address the council on this item Okay, in the interest of trying to get to everybody I want to hopefully have Public comment concluded by 10 to 6 because we have to reserve time at the end for oral communications So we're going to go ahead and go to 90 seconds To hopefully be able to hear from all folks. Go ahead. I hope I hope I can still have two minutes because that's what I planned on I'm in the interest of having so that others I hope that you could understand as well as those that were waiting for the two minutes that we want to hear from everybody So we're going to go ahead and move it to 90 seconds Okay, well I see that everyone here has been hurt. I think the community has been hurt as well And I would like to ask everyone ask donna martin All the women who have spoken susie Is censure really what you want? Is that really what your deepest need is or perhaps your deepest need is to be heard To be completely heard to be completely understood Because that's what my sense is that people want that's what we all want And I don't think there's been a process for that to happen If that process had been in place as was just said I think all of this could have been dealt with and I wish my wish is that that would be what happens from now on When marshal Rosenberg worked with those warring tribes in Nigeria The reason it worked was because he made space for that to happen For everyone to be deeply heard for their needs to be heard and understood by both sides I mean it was quite amazing to listen to him describe how that worked And quite beautiful and it took a while But you know we have time And I heard you all vote in favor of mediation a couple of weeks ago And so I my my wish is also to see that go forward like really soon not to wait do it now And and maybe reconsider the censure as you know Just look in your heart and see if that's really what you want Or is that going to get you what you want or is that going to lead to more resentment on everyone's part? Because I I do care what I I really care what you need and I really want to know I'd like to understand what everybody needs And that that includes Drew and chris too all of us. We're no different. We're all people. We all have feelings. We get upset. We have conflicts I think if we see each other is different It's a problem. Thank you It was a council demonstrated at your last meeting that you can all work together You rightly chose a path of mediation conflict resolution and the reform of personnel grievance processes Tonight. I want you to reject censure as antithetical to that path People in santa cruz are bearing witness to a deeply painful episode that has enveloped our government The public has suffered too both in the degrading of our public life and the deflection of attention From the serious issues that face our city This is a sad chapter being written in santa cruz history one etched in escalation of conflict And the amplification of chaos and how will it end? That's the question you face I ask you to act together to bring an end to the public trauma of this collective Fugue this dissociative pathological departure in which you all have wandered away from the ethos of public life You are caught up in a disorder that is collective Your fugue has taken you far away from thoughtfully engaging consideration of conflicting legitimate political interests The public business of the city council should be the business of the city Personnel and behavioral issues certainly have to be addressed But informs very very different than public city council meetings Centuries antithetical to the spirit of reconciliation that must be the foundation of mediation and conflict resolution. Thank you Okay When I came home from Germany, I stopped by friends house. They had two kids another adult coming over with an impossible child And uh, they wanted a babysitter and I said hell no, I'll take care of them Don't worry about it. So they all left for the afternoon and I took the kids Three to seven got them all together and I said You guys go out and play and have a good time And if anybody comes to me with a complaint You will all receive the same punishment Interestingly, I had a very easy time babysitting and the parents didn't believe me So in that spirit and in the spirit of atonement I make a motion from the floor from the people That this censure motion be for all seven of you And the eighth member The city manager and I would invite you to allow the city manager to vote And in the spirit of atonement You should all raise your hand and say I agree to this censor and let's move on Every one of you well, not everyone but Right here and right here and right here You are as guilty or more guilty of any of these trumped up and I mean trump in the capital t trump Trumped up charges that you have leveled against these two fine gentlemen I'm going to stand before you some of you know me. I haven't given up The two years young Richard if you wouldn't mind moving a little bit to the over here see Alzheimer's Number one. I'm here because of friendship A 10 year old kid was asked what a friend is a friend of someone who knows you and still likes you Two people who sit there are very very close to over the years At least listening I've been told I talk a lot My purpose is the same as our mayor youth voice and student empowerment. It's an international human right I'm also a graduate of landmark. I'll never forget this That's a magic wand to all of you Takes the right wing and the left wing For a bird to fly I'm looking at city manager and the people here What could be some concrete next steps beyond whatever the action is going to be I cannot tell you that as we we try to empower student government locally and beyond That if you as our leaders of this city council the greatest city in the state of california progressive But also with that right and left wing if we can't make a better Santa Cruz It's going to happen with the people back here and people like me. Thank you for blah blah blah Hello, I'm an simon and I'm on the commission for the prevention of violence against women and I didn't realize I was jumping into such a horrific Hornet's nest when I became a member of the commission I'm feeling extremely torn by the situation because I didn't come to the 24th of Meeting that was held and I didn't see what had happened there And I can see this community is falling apart and that makes me really sad And so I want to start by believing because I I think that that's the the what they're saying And I have never stated that I didn't believe any of these accusations going forward But what I've noticed is that the commission for the provisional violence against women their bylaws Actually state that we're supposed to be dealing with rape domestic violence and sexual harassment I called the hr department. I said please tell me where there indicate was there substantiated anything was any of these Coming anywhere close to sexual harassment rape or battery And no that was not the case and so then I had a question I thought well g what am I supposed to do and I I voted To censure because I they were using terms like victim blaming and they were using very inflammatory Language which again are is language you use about rape victims and about violence And that is something that is really important to to distinguish between As a survivor of multiple rapes in my life. It's something. I think that you know, I really want to focus on anyway Okay Before you get started I want to remind those that when the person who's speaking they can speak to us Hopefully without interruption if I see you interrupting I'll go ahead and give you a warning I want to be able to get to everybody. So I hope that we can do that So please let the person speak whether you agree with them or not go right ahead. You'll have 90 seconds My name is carol fuller. I'm I'm president of the democratic women's club and we wrote a letter to Um you mayor marwatkins asking you to put this back on the agenda, which you did. Thank you very much I'm speaking as an individual right now, but I'm relieved to see that nobody's trying to say that the women didn't experience the experiences that they say they had So in this and that's that's very encouraging and I agree with the woman who said people want to be heard And I think that what I would like to see tonight is I would like to see councilmember crone and glover apologize I think in the spirit of atonement as rabbi posner said That's that's what it means. You may not know how you offend but clearly you do And I think that it's time for you to acknowledge that and that would go a long way towards probably mending a few fences around here Because it's pretty discouraging to see what's happening to the council I feel like you're not getting the councils the city's business done because of all of this. It's a big time sink I noted that in addition to the people that made the official complaint Reading over some things the last week that councilmember Cynthia chase said that the reason she didn't one of the reasons she didn't run for second term Was because it was very difficult dealing with councilmember crone And his antics and that she commented on his habit of talking over her So going forward, I hope you'll apologize. Thank you. Okay. Thank you. All right next speaker Hello, my name is Maggie Duncan Merrill. I'm a lifetime resident of Santa Cruz and I stand here today Appalled by the actions taken two weeks ago in this chamber the act of silencing our community and disenfranchising your fellow council members And city staff who are booed shouted at disparaged loudly in front of their children Spouses co-workers and friends was so overwhelming to take in I had to leave the room and discussed and hang my head in sorrow at what has become of our local governance So-called progressives claim to be feminists But they claim to believe these women felt abused, but they normally would stand with women But they think these points may be valid But the victims were even offered old-fashioned advice to simply talk to their abusers And let them know the hostile environment they're forced to work in was somehow their fault if only they had handled it better I watched council member brown stomp behind her fellow council member mires complaining loudly to the city attorney Refusing to give her counterpart the decency of simply hearing her out. Had she not caused such a stir Perhaps some in the audience would have heard Donna say she did speak with Drew multiple times before the final straw When she filed her complaint Donna was then lectured by some women claiming to be feminist Who said if she had just taken a moment to talk nicely to the man yelling at her in front of her colleagues This whole mess could have been avoided. I'm guessing while sandy sandy was attempting to shut Donna up She must have missed that vital point the reason given for the tabling of the censure by council member Cummings Was that he was ready to move on the man poised to be our neighbor our mayor next time Next year decidedly shut down the discourse of the women looking for recourse in a clearly hostile environment because he was over it This is what we can expect from just in next year. Rock your roads are ahead My name is drew lewis it appears to me that the real reason that The three members on the council and their supporters are not interested in reconciliation and mediation on this issue is because the real The real goal of all this is to create as much negative pr as they can For council members Glover and crone and support the recall petition I think that the developers and big money interests are very upset that they're too count that these two council members Listen to their constituents in the city and neighborhoods and voted against the corridor scam plan And the drive to turn Santa Cruz into san jose by the sea This agenda is doomed to fail because the hypocrisy and double standards are very apparent for all to see I know that if I was in city council member Glover's place when council member Myers Acted out shouting and pounding her fist on the counter next to him. I would have felt very intimidated indeed I do think that mediation nonviolent communication and arbitration Are good for this issue, but first we need to Acknowledge the elephant in the living room, which is the blame shame and preposterous allegations smoke screen by the developers agents And their agenda to recall council members drew Glover and chris crone City manager martin Bernal without preps meaning to do so has become a powerful and dictating institution and influence He and his staff heads every wednesday Before city council meeting they meet behind closed doors with the mayor to preset the agenda Over the years they have prioritized the seaside company the downtown association Santa Cruz neighbors the police department real estate and developer interests and expanding their own bureaucracy Retters students workers the disabled the elderly and the homeless have taken last place for the homeless Bernal staff has solicited state and federal monies and used them to support limited and preferential services for a favored few reactionary council members regularly shift blame to state and county authorities for the flood of people sleeping in doorways council members Watkins and matthews Prefer to discuss plan and concoct endless timetables goals and procedures rather than take substantive actions When a newly elected progressive majority moves to act on long delayed promises they grow alarmed For homeless people locally the key issues are shelter services and equal treatment under the law City councils under Watkins and matthews and those before them have delayed ignored and masked the city's failure to address these issues Through assistant city manager susie o'hara Will be speaking soon They've created a false narrative claiming the city is prudently and adequately addressing the snowballing situation So when crone and glover come along with a potential new majority seeking to stop a library dismemberment Address the forbidden third rail of justification protection and rate control and seek to democratize Your time from your other they cut off time For the speakers your time is up. Okay Before you get started, um, I will go ahead and and if there's nobody else interested in speaking who's not lined up We'll go ahead and end after susie and we'll keep the 90 seconds You have one more We have more people Okay, so i'm going to go ahead and reduce the time then to one minute in the interest of being able to hear from everybody And that's because we have a we have an we have a time certain to be Ending if you want to share your time you're sharing it with others who want to speak so you'll have one minute to speak at this point Hi, i'm nancy cruzo go ahead and go ahead um Well, I would like to point out that whatever you are feeling the other side is feeling it as well all of it Just as deeply just as painfully And you have to be able to understand and acknowledge that that comes so far before Centering and apologies and all of this accountability. You need to understand feelings go both ways Matt ibe journalist has a new book out today called hate ink We We are at risk in santa cruz If you've seen public media, there's hate talk We need to pay attention to that and we need to move on and do work the work of the city Mayor city council members. My name is jillian greenside I was one of the founders of the commission for the prevention of violence against women I was its first chair in 1982 and chair again in 2004 and 2005 The charge of the commission is rape Sexual harassment and domestic violence And well, I have no doubt that the complaints that the women brought forward were serious in their eyes And thoroughly investigated they had nothing to do with the commission And it's very sad for me to see the commission come forward and that it's and and In this manner and that the only article op ed in the paper that i've seen from the commission on october Which is domestic violence months is basically an attack on council member crow I would say the complaints were well investigated the rose report is out to move forward Without a censure and to follow those recommendations would be in everyone's interest. Thank you Thanks I'm sali Gwen satterley And I don't even know where to begin. I helped campaign for drew glover and his name is drew glover Correct drew Okay, I just I everyone keeps mispronouncing it anyway and chris krone. I I adore both of them I campaigned for each of them. We were tired. We were campaigning We were doing things, you know over and over they were never rude or disrespectful I understand there are women who have complained about them. I feel bad for them. I am a retired registered nurse That is my job Is to help people and I feel terrible that these women felt bad. Please all of you Care for each other Do what was recommended, which was Conflict Resolution, please work together on this get past this and end this Please for the good of the city. Thank you Speaking on behalf of myself I will say that I'm offended that public time and money is being used to further the recall efforts I'm mostly here though just to read a statement from my friend micha posner who was unable to be here tonight because of Family family business. He says As you know, I was the last person censured by the city council I voted for my own censure and I think that gives me a certain perspective Hoping you will listen to it Before I came to an opinion about this issue. I carefully read the report on potential violations on the part of crone and glover I tried to be open to the idea that people I know could have a pattern of misogyny or other clear violations of ethical behavior After all, I'm a good person and I made a mistake worthy of censure I am inclined in clients to think that the report was at the least objective After all the report was supervised by senior staff who have no great love for the two of them The report found a couple of instances in which glover and crone did not act perfectly as council members Even if other instances occurred at the same level of Others can speak. Thank you. One minute is really not enough Like this letter Even if other instances occurred at the same The report found a couple of instances Which they did not act perfectly as council members Even if other instances occurred at the same level of offensiveness these behaviors while regrettable are common among council members Council member matthews for example has been known to make somewhat patronizing remarks during council meetings Council member robinson was repeatedly rude to me in the hall and conference rooms Etc. Her behavior was passively supported by council member bryant The idea that I would try to censure them or other council members for slightly rude behavior would never have occurred to me Everyone should do the best they can to be respectful. It doesn't always happen Mayor wadkins has also called out in the report for publicly accusing another council member of a serious offense prior to talking to him privately I did not think mayor wadkins should be censured, but I think she should try to emphasize Empathize with others in perfect behavior What is more noteworthy about this report as it does not substantiate serious allegations of misogyny directed at the two council members publicly by mayor wadkins It is unreasonable You're taking your time from your fellow residents here at this point. I'm going to go ahead and ask that you stop Your time is up. Please stop. Okay, I'll go ahead and ask. Perhaps some of you are actually going to leave the Cronin Library more guilty I came here an hour and a half ago, and I got in line when you said we had two minutes Your time is up and respect for the council policy to honor yom kippur Please steve if you wouldn't mind I would ask that you please go ahead We'll go ahead and ask that you exit at this time Okay So you're going to go ahead and resume public comment I'm going to go ahead and say we're going to need to have this finished up with about Five minutes before 6 p.m. So if we aren't able to get to everybody that is Not the intention if we have extra time at oral communications, which we have to have before 6 30 p.m Then we'll go ahead and allow for you to speak to us at that time But i'm trying to honor our council policy to honor yom kippur and we have to have it completed So we'll go ahead and hit as soon as we hit 555 we're going to go ahead and wrap up public comment. Go ahead. You'll have one minute It was my understanding that time was dropped. Wait a minute. This is not on my time The clock said one minute. I thought I had a minute and a half. No, we were into one minute So others can speak. It's been dropped to one minute. Yes at the time down. I didn't know that. Okay In my opinion and that of many in positions of responsibility It is the responsibility of the city manager To intervene when there are difficult interactions among staff or between staff and public officials whom he oversees I do not support censure But if you believe censure is due Then the city manager who let matters get to this state Without intervening without protecting the back of his staff It is the city manager who should be censored for failing in his responsibility Especially as I said because his responsibility to his staff and to have a good working environment Is not a place where he seems to have ever stepped in. Thank you Good afternoon council members. My name is Rick Longinati on the 26th of this month I'm teaching a workshop called politics in the art of communication Invite you to come My last workshop one of the council members came. Thank you You know Wanting to reconcile is just native to us. We all want that and we all have the experience of that And I invite you to think about a time when Someone you loved, you know, you and that person got into a really, you know, very angry conflict And you said stuff that you didn't mean and then you went away and then you when you came back One person said, you know what I regret what I said and then almost immediately the other person says, you know And I'm sorry for what I said, you know, that's the experience we we want to invoke here Censure doesn't do that. That's just more shaming. Thank you Good evening city leaders We have a backlog of civic issues many of which have ended up on the agenda for deliberation in the past And that's terrific. But what happens when these discussions hit a dead end? They get tabled for a short period sometimes indefinitely or so it feels indefinite But today here we are airing the dirty laundry that is hr affairs within the council to the public Less than a month from the last attempt at doing such it is very disappointing to see how internal affairs within city staff Take priority over the real issues and policies that affect us the folks who subsidize your payroll What's more is that one of the city leaders who are in favor of this topic of censure is also engaged in unprofessional behavior on this Same stage previously. I understand we have our off days myself included and it's completely valid to be upset over this collective mud slinging But failing to acknowledge their own wrongdoing while also trying to ostracize two other council members In my view it displays an attitude of trying to have it both ways as well as sheer pettiness What i'm trying to state is that if this censure passes that either council member mires acknowledge her table slamming outbursts Or also face censure as well in order your time is up to ensure accountability for all council members Thank you All right, I thought I had two minutes by one minute So let me make this short my earliest memory is my mother on the floor asking me to call the doctor because my stepfather Had just hit her. That's my earliest memory. So I hear the stuff believe woman. Yes, I'm right there with you Believe woman believe victims believe victims of violence Here's the thing though. I've only been hearing the take back sand and cruise crowd be responding with that believe woman Redrick recently very very recently and the same crew back there that applauded fervently at the Outraged woman account here spoke out against the perceive misogyny the unsubstantiated misogyny They laughed when another woman out here said that the recall petitioners assaulted her They laughed this isn't about believe women This is clearly not about believe women. Thank you Good evening. I'm suzio here and I'd like to reflect on public comment dozens of people have addressed the council Opposing the censure not one person has said these are good men and they did not behave badly not one person What they said was what's the time? I'm going to go ahead We're going to go ahead. We we will try we want to hear from everybody whether we agree with them or not without disruption I'm going to go ahead and ask that you please respect your fellow colleagues I would just also say you know, we've been trying to listen to each other all night and Um, this is one of the people who's coming forward I think that'd be really respectful if we all remain quiet during when she speaks please What they said was Bernal, this is your fault walkins. This is your fault mires. This is your fault Matthews, this is your fault capfals shame on you for even talking about this This is a waste of time and money shame on you for even considering a censure So it sounds like everybody who's against the censure Um, basically thinks that everybody except for these two council members is responsible for their conduct All of you except for those two. So I want to say I'm not Responsible for drew's behavior. It is not my fault because I'm a white woman. It's not my fault because I'm A public servant. It is not my fault Justin was it your fault when chris screamed in your face in the public after you took an opposing vote Sandy the same question goes for you. Was it your fault? Okay So I want to say is what I want somebody said what do we want? I want the victim blaming and shaming to stop it is retaliatory and abusive It must stop it must stop and that is true for your constituents as well I want to just leave it Very much on a personal level. I am part of this community as you All are and this whole thing is just tearing through the community It's tearing families apart. It's tearing friendships apart This cannot go on And there has to be a way to come together and heal for god's sake Thank you Okay Next speaker My seiu t-shirt is an artifact. It's it's chance today. I'm not speaking for seiu. I'm just speaking for myself Um, I wouldn't want your jobs Honestly, I'm impressed with all of you. I think you're all good hearted people And I think you all behave a lot the same and I've seen that In the last meeting when there was an attempt to shut down communication one way And there was an attempt to shut down communication another way One of which I supported and one of which I opposed but they really weren't very different And I think that's the main point that I draw from the report The really well researched and documented report which said This behavior is basically what council members do It happens all the time men and women do it to men and women So thus all of the all of the sexual discrimination Charges were not substantiated because there's no sex discrimination going on I am a little bit embarrassed both for my friends on the council and for my not as much friends on the council By your behavior Hi, I'm going to attempt to read the rest of Mike Posner's I don't know where she ended. So what is more noteworthy about the report is that it does not substantiate serious allegations Of misogyny directed to the two council members publicly by mayor Watkins It is unreasonable and clearly subjective to ignore an objective report and continue to try to punish or shame or reprimand other council members Unprofessional would put it mildly Perhaps some of you actually believe that crone and glover are more guilty than indicated in the report If so, you need to remind yourself of your lack of objectivity and rely instead on a report that you commissioned It also behooves you to remember that a move to censure will be used as part of a recall effort that will if successful serve your political agenda Whether you are purposefully timing the two together or not You are responsible for the reasonable public perception that you are Inappropriately using the censure process to move your political agenda While some of the other some of the people attempting to censure me were also involved in raw politics The difference was that there was a definable breach of city rules on my part, which an objective party could identify Your time is up We'll go ahead and have a public comment end after the woman with the hat And we'll have you all be heard for the last remaining time. So with the hat, you'll be our last speaker Beverly they show here I made a mistake in something I said last week about Having been a therapist and that people can't do it even when they work together That's actually was a mistake on my part. What I meant to say is it's very difficult even for people who want to Do something And and I have a degree in women's studies. I'm for women. So women need to have a place to Have their Issues addressed What happened what was presented by hr is just more rules people There's there's a conflict going on. It needs to be resolved. There needs to be something coming from hr What is the channel when person has an issue if you have an issue you need to have it addressed and not have it Go on and fester in the community and tear the community apart as this is doing So I meant to call hr personally didn't but I say that to you all Please have a way that people can address it instead of tearing the city apart. Thank you next speaker next speaker Good evening scott ram the rose report Said to have mediation it didn't say anything about censure and in the in the Spirit of mediation the censure is actually creating a bigger chasm whereas mediation is a bridge So instead of creating this chasm Let's build a bridge. Let's uh Have people come together even if you don't see iti and everything which is almost impossible to do with anybody There's got to be common ground. There's got to be somewhere where everybody can see see things The same and there's got to be respect. Everybody deserves respect You know a ritha franklin said respect, you know and so In the words of rodney king Can't we all just get along? i'm not going to give one whole minute We who will pay the 29 000 in bills for the rose report and its recommendations Feel that we should fully understand why these personnel issues were not first handled privately and immediately But we're allowed to fester as she said and grow until they became a public spectacle If the same over zealous attention we see now Had been utilized at the very beginning The public may not have had to be paying 29 000 to resolve the issues that should have been addressed earlier And between all of you not with us We deserve a full report from the city manager Explaining why and how these personnel problems were not controlled and managed in the prescribed methods that already existed Thank you Hey pat malo, um, I just want to say really quick that um, you know, unfortunately I think we've reached the point where Center mediation any of the things that are on the table are not going to help this situation I personally don't have a way out of it All I can really do is acknowledge that, you know, this thing may have started in some ways as political and for I think every single person involved Everyone in this room. It's gotten at some degree personal I don't know how we, you know, each take responsibility For give and move past this point. Um, I hope that it doesn't escalate, but I think that this we're watching it escalate right now Um, you know, all I can do as an individual in this community is say, I'm sorry to everyone I'm sorry Susie. I'm sorry all of you. I'm sorry everyone But I'm just one person and um, I plan on living here forever I plan on doing politics with everyone here forever and we're all gonna have to live in the same Community, you know, if we're lucky enough to be able to stay here. So thank you and one second. Thanks Afternoon I've heard talk of a fugue talk of conspiracy talk of moving on here this afternoon I haven't heard anything about accountability But it's far simpler than that Allegations have been laid. They've been investigated and some have been substantiated. None have been determined unfounded There's also been talk of reconciliation Sentry is a simple public acknowledgement of wrongdoing nothing more nothing less if anyone is sincerely Sincere and wanting reconciliation of public recognition is where it starts The wrongdoing that was investigated and substantiated was by two council members Not the whole council not the mayor and not the city manager I'm glad that at a minimum people have been heard on the question today But every time someone says we're in a fugue that it's all conspiracy that we need to just move on They're saying that the allegations the investigation and yes the victims don't matter Do please keep your voices down next speaker Okay, so I feel like I've been in here Pause the time. I'm gonna go ahead and remind the community. We've tried to hear from everybody We're gonna go ahead and listen with respect to the person who's speaking at the podium at this time Go right ahead. I appreciate that um, I've been in here enough times to know that like people will say All sorts of things and have dozens and dozens of really compelling arguments to You know call this out for what it is and it really doesn't matter like people on the council who are voting have already made their decisions There's like a very clear cut division between people so um, we've heard from the community and I think the case is clear, but um Instead, I just want to talk about this whole thing. I read this thing in the article a couple months ago in the sentinel about how It's been a GOP tactic and conservative tactic across the country to instigate recall effort because Conservatives win when there's lower voter turnout which happens in special election and I think it's clear the censure is like a political tactic to reinforce Okay, we have one so Kathy you'll be our last speaker go right ahead Marilyn Garrett I've known Chris crone from the time he was on the city council several and two decades ago And I feel like Chris crone and Drew Glover are some of the council members Who most represent the public interest and not big developer interest and it appears there's a lot of money to recall them and Looking into where that's coming from. So yes, I support Chris crone and Drew Glover and That's it, thank you Please lower your sign I'm going to ask you to please please lower your sign to not obstruct the view of the person behind you You'll be our last speaker So my name is Kathy agnome. I'm a community member for more than 60 years I'm city staff for more than 29 I spoke at the last meeting From a city staff point of view and I had more than 50 city staff thank me and I was Very scared but I knew I had to say something Same thing happened tonight. I'm not prepared I was very touched by what rabbi posner was talking about atonement And I must say a city staff. I'm so demoralized at the lack of accountability That's it's hard Thank you Thank you We'll go ahead and bring the item back up to the council for action and deliberation I'll just basically say and then I'll turn it over to my colleague council member brown That this item to table is just a table It's to to bring it back at a future time and having heard from the community It felt like it was a left open kind of place where we didn't have not only community input Or any type of council direction And it felt it was appropriate to have that take place and I feel that to have Some closure on this will help propel us to move forward in a way that's going to lead to more healing Accountability is part of healing. It's part of the restorative process. It's part of the conversation That's what this is about. We had two council members who felt inclined to bring this item to us for consideration And I think that it's appropriate for us to hear their item and to hear their to consider it That's what we do. And so that's what's before us today. I thank you for being here. I know these conversations are difficult I'm hopeful we can move forward in the best interests of our community and city But also in terms of creating a workplace that's free of harassment as well And so I'll bring it back to the council for hopefully action and deliberation And we'll go ahead and have to hope reserve at least about 10 minutes at the end for any oral communications council member brown Yeah I'd like to make a motion that the city council finds that the evidence for centering two of its members Is inadequate based on the findings of the rose report As it relates to procedural order to Dash 1b of the city of santa christ fair workplace policy Which states that a single act shall not constitute disrespectful conduct unless especially severe and egregious second Okay, we have a motion by council member brown. We have a seconded by vice mayor Cummings council member crone I'd like to call the question Is there a second to the call the question second? Okay, all those in favor of calling the question. Please say aye. Aye opposed Okay, that passes with council member matthews voting against Okay, we'll go ahead and call the question any all those in favor of the motion to not censure council member crone and council member glover. Please say aye. Aye opposed No, so that passes with council member crone glover brown and vice mayor Cummings voting in support of not moving the item to censure We'll go ahead and we want you to hear from our city attorney I'm gonna ask for you to please keep your voices down Had an opportunity for to hear from you We'll go ahead and ask that you keep your voices down and we can hear from our city attorney Go ahead. Just want to remind the council that there's a second action item associated with this agenda item concerning updating apio to One be respectful worst workplace conduct policy and city council policy 25.2 Okay For your consideration All right, does any do council member matthews? I'll go ahead and move that part of the recommendation motion to direct staff to review an update as necessary the apio I'll also just mention for the interest of the public here that we have already engaged in the conflict resolution process And we have in the course of the afternoon Engaged in several unanimous votes and several split votes in which we disagreed civilly Okay, we have a motion by council member matthews second by vice mayor Cummings any further discussion council member glover Thanks, I just wanted to clarify that the staff review and update of the administrative policy will come to the council for authorization before it gets finalized Yes, it has to Any further discussion? Okay, all those in favor, please say aye. Aye. Any opposed? Okay, that passes unanimously Okay, so um that concludes this item I think at minimum we deserve to hear where the council stood on this and I appreciate the motion coming forward one way or the other We need to have some of these move decided council member. I mean, um city manager per norm I just want to clarify the the council policy will come back to you the apio is an administrative procedure So that technically doesn't come back to you, but if they're linked, so obviously you'll you'll see the correlation there Okay, council member govern. Thank you. Um, so thank you everyone for coming out tonight to speak. I really appreciate everyone but especially uh rabbi posner and The suggestions around there. So, you know, I was just thinking about it and I think it's important Especially an observation of yam kippur to offer my deep Apology to anyone male or female that I may have inadvertently or unintentionally hurt through disagreements or various interactions As a person that advocates for mediated conflict reconciliation and someone's been asking for it for months I'm really happy that we were able to close this chapter of What's been going on in the council and hopefully move forward together to not only build The relationships and come closer together as a team But also to be able to more effectively use our time to serve the community And especially address some of the prevalent issues that we face like homelessness affordable housing and other kinds of things so I extend My hand to my councilmen fellow council members as well as the staff and other council or community members so that we can meet Combine our efforts and figure out how we can move forward to a more prosperous future for everyone right, so We'll go ahead and conclude this item now is the time for oral communications. I'm wondering who here is To present to the council on items not on today's agenda. That's for items not on today's agenda Okay, if you could please line up to my left And if we have additional time and others who are here to speak on this item that didn't get to speak We'd be happy to entertain that until 6 30 I'd like to do Well, let's see if We'll just do the two minutes. Yeah Okay, we'll go ahead and ask to keep your voices down as you exit the chambers And we'll ask you to come forward if you're here to speak on today's items that are not on today's agenda And you'll have let's do 90 seconds to be on the safe side to try to get through everybody We'll go ahead If you're not prepared We're going to go ahead and ask that you if you could keep your voices down as you exit the chamber so that we can have Oral communications begin have you keep your voices down as you exit the chambers so we can have oral communications begin I'm going to say it one more time if you could please keep your voices down as you exit the chamber So we can have oral communications again as we have to conclude our meeting by 6 30 p.m You'll have 90 seconds. Please go ahead Hard to hear you. What did you say? You have 90 seconds. Go right ahead oral communications items not on today's agenda Okay, how much time? Oh 90 seconds Uh maryland garret And go ahead and please keep your voices down as you exit to respect those that are here to speak us at oral communications And everybody in the chambers, please Keep your voices down to respect the person here who is wanting to speak to us at oral communications You'll have 90 seconds those who want to speak to us light up to my left You can go ahead and close the doors. Okay. Go right ahead. I'm looking at the sign housing is a human right health is a human right and the right not to be microwave I'm going to pass out these half page flyers the picture on here is near where I live freedom little barred and redwood heights road. It's a picture of a Verizon 4g antenna That is emitting Radiation that is known to have severe biological effects And you've been provided with the data on the outburst health effects a promotional I saw by Verizon and AT&T showed that They just come and put their 5g devices on these poles and on your city light standards everywhere What is going on with the 4g as a precursor to the 5g? I gave you copies of the documentary called 5g apocalypse The extinction event and thank you sandy brown. I know you viewed that and it starts out and it's important to understand What the 5g is doing And what they say it's doing we're told now this is off No, it's it on We're told on the IEEE bean forming document that this technology cooks your eyes Like eggs in world war two. We all need to understand these are military Weapons your time is up and we need to stop it. Your time is up. I have a hard stop time at 6 30 I'm going to go ahead and have one minute so we can hopefully get to everybody go right ahead We are volunteers at cri cob research institute a non-profit all volunteer organization that has existed since 2008 Working with universities and professional labs testing the physical properties of cob also known as sculpted adobe and developed a safe Modern cob building code that meets current seismic and thermal requirements The cob building code provides us with an option to build our homes with cob Which is durable last centuries is affordable is non-toxic and does not place a burden on the environment Doesn't burn in a fire and would not be destroyed by an earthquake This october 23rd through 30th us building officials will gather in las vegas for the icc public comment hearings To vote on proposals for icc's 2021 international model building codes This important vote will decide if cri's efforts to include cob in the 2021 international residential code will succeed The list of supporters includes elected and appointed officials chief building officials building officials Thank you. Your time is up next speaker The list of supporters include elected and appointed officials chief building officials building officials architects fire experts and other professionals From different jurisdictions Specifically, we have found strong support amongst those Who are wildfire vulnerable destroyed by and damaged by uh communities? Many communities already using cob building code including new zealand australia new mexico arizona england germany and france There are cob structures all over the world that were built and still function after hundreds and thousands of years We ask that each council member Individually support the cob code and that the council collectively vote to support it We ask also that the council instruct the santa cruz building official To support the cob building code We recur we request that you review the information we have provided you And uh contact cri to express your support Next speaker. Thanks Thank you for the opportunity to speak. I'm here to thank you for supporting The climate strike week and particularly this police did a wonderful job of expediting the marches I'd like to very quickly show you this Quilt that was produced by the children Um the kids get it and we deserve and they deserve The most the best action we can possibly put into this tiffany wise west is doing a good job She needs thorough support from you all um We have been collecting signatures only since the 20th and we got 465 signatures from people around the county in support of Zero carbon by 2030 reduce vehicle emissions limit single use plastic facilitate food waste reduction and other steps as needed There is huge public support. Thank you Next speaker, please My name is jessica chewitt in ingersaw I'm here to inform the council about the reality of retaliatory evictions and rent increases Facing tenants here and all over the state due to ab 1482 While this bill is promising there are many tenants who have received no cause evictions or rent increases During this gap period where landlords are aware of new protections But have the unlimited ability to hike up rents or evict before they begin In fact around five section eight Elderly and or disabled tenants in lower ocean are currently facing eviction And they live in one of the last few below market rate complexes and Santa Cruz and more notices are expected to come Many of these people have nowhere to go One tenants already living in their van others are trying to get in touch with homeless services Which are already at capacity What are we going to do? Clearly many landlords are urgently acting to get as much profit as possible before these protections go into effect I asked the council to have similar urgency by considering interim tenant protections So those who have received or will receive these notices before january of next year Please Please lower your excuse me for the person in the front Please lower your sign as to not obstruct the view of the person if you want to hold it You're welcome to stand up in the back if you want to hold it up. You can stand in the back Go right ahead. You have one. Oh, i'm ron wams on behalf of eviction Lower income and on housing. I am uh, I just got to receive an eviction notice the first was 68 now it's a 90 day thing And i'm a senior citizen. I'll be legally blind. They said About eight months ago six months. I'll be totally blind just that well Now I got a couple months left. I'll be totally blind homeless at my fall Might I could be paralyzed from my back down my neck down. Also, I found out that also my hearing is going so What do I do? Where do I where do I live at? You know, I can't afford nothing and All of a sudden I got an eviction notice for what because a complicated a bunch of people put in to buy some land That has problems with it and they're evicting people that's been there 30 years me 10 years 20 years senior citizens And people with handicaps where are we supposed to go? What is real reform and what is required here? It has to start with the replacement of the city manager and the department heads unelected powerfully paid Unaccountable city officials without oversight and the creation of a regular oversight process The city attorney also has become a key player an increasingly authoritarian mayor calls on him for Helpful rulings. This is on top of interrupting council members Refusing to recognize others confuse Wavering council members and if necessary throwing matters into closed session, which further gags the progressive majority Council members crone and glover themselves and their allies are not without blame By not holding public meetings press conferences and taking independent action to educate the community They essentially allow themselves and their constituents to be muzzled Frivolous recall and censure actions loud cries of uncivil echo We need change Let's do it Good evening council. I just want to congratulate everyone in this city on a wonderful climate strike and the week of climate change awareness activities and the young people especially I just want to say that right now when we are going through a reconciliation process and understanding We need to shift our values and the faster the better So I just want to say Santa Cruz is a town that is extremely wealthy one of the most expensive places to live in the world I heard the fourth most expensive For example, I would like us to start doing things like partner with cities who are Cities of color cities whose places to live have already gone underwater because of climate change Like Santa Cruz. We are fighting rising sea levels. We're pumping out a lot of water Cynthia said a few times So I'm just asking that in every single council agenda item that we really look at the impending crisis And how it pertains to that particular item. Thank you Hey, my name is margalita zikia and I'm a mom. I'm a long-term resident in I've lived in Santa Cruz since 1982 And I'm also while I was until recently when I retired. I was a teacher for 33 years And I want to really urge all of you to take the move to to Get to carbon zero by 2030 very seriously As a mom and as a teacher of 33 years worth of students, you know, this is their future And we don't have enough time to waste We need to move forward boldly and Take decisive action And I want to see I want to see our city council taking the lead and Being innovative and being strong and leading the way for other communities. Thank you You'll have one minute Hello city council members. My name is Owen Thomas. I'm speaking also in support of the tenants who are going to be impacted by The slew of evictions with the upcoming assembly bill that's going to be passed in January first providing rent protections in a rent cap So I think of city council members if you're supportive of tenants remaining housed Also, if you're supportive of of you know folks Of houseless residents as well or of houselessness as an issue It would be in your interest to pass some form of eviction protections and some form of rent cap To protect the folks who are most vulnerable at this like very crucial window Being unhoused during fall is a potentially disastrous time for anybody. It's getting colder It's going to start raining This is a very very easy thing that you could all do to Support a small handful of people. Thank you Hi everybody, uh, dany drysdale lifelong resident current city voter not here to talk about needles today despite my really cool t-shirt Actually here also in support of some stopgap tenant protections to get us through until ab 1482 goes into effect I think we're seeing right now as much as we can see about the like retaliatory evictions that are happening That's probably a lot. We're not hearing about Don't have a lot to add but I will ask that everyone in the room who supports tenants and supports the council passing something around this Please stand up Yay, thank you Hi council members. I'm Cynthia burger with Santa Cruz tenants association a year or so ago You sold like your free land in scott's valley for eight million dollars And I think that you could have bought that property where those people are living for 500 thousand of that Or maybe less and I think there are other properties in this town such as possibly the one owned by Joe Gio who doesn't seem to have any apparent family That you could be negotiating and trying to buy and having in a community land trust And I don't see and I see your eyes are glazing over so thank you I am Nancy cruzo speaking on behalf of the People who are being currently evicted And speaking as one of the elderly who could be in that situation I would like to see you do something to protect this vulnerable population By next time you meet that's what we're asking. Thanks My name is Kyle Davenport. I was here to encourage and try to help with solutions for homelessness I realized that I need to be a part of the solution and that I need to be the solution myself And I've been trying to figure out what that means last night I was reading my aa book and I realized the solution for me for me to be the solution is in the aa book And a part of that is the 12 steps which is making amends. I'm here to make amends with the city of Santa Cruz an institution which I have abused and When I was drunk And I kind of had a grandiose self-righteous attitude against a lot of people emotional abuse Some bullying beliefs behaviors intimidation and I that was me five years ago And I'm here to commit to this city and all the people wonderful people here that I'm changing and I'm going to do better And That's all I have to say. Thank you I don't remember the first time I talked to the city council here, but it was more than 30 years ago I ran out of things to say I'm humbled by our last speaker. I would like to use the remainder of my minute For a minute of silence in memory of all of those who've died Due to their vulnerability and lack of housing and all those who will in the coming year And you don't have to say it martin. We're saying it times up I'm mayor council Brent Adams of the warming center program I have super good news. Of course not one person has to sleep outside on the coldest wettest nights of the winter warming center program What would you do if you were managing a warming center program and people with wheelchairs or people who were terribly smelly couldn't come in To the regular shelter. We actually have a cleaning program We put the highest priority on people who sleep outside people with uh physical mobility challenges and mental health challenges We go out into the community and bring them in Uh, I just wanted you to know that last year, uh, there was only 60 beds at the salvation army starting at the season And finally you you upped it up Opened the the salvation army in march in that in that 60 beds where it was eclipsed by the encampments So really at a net of zero beds last winter we doubled down warming center every time you talk about winter shelter impending We have to talk about warming center Um, we're all volunteer community supported program. Thank you Good evening city council My name is jeff howe and i'm also here in support of the folks at lower ocean who are in danger of being evicted I want to let you know that you have a whole council Full of people who are here in support and I think that that's a sign that this is a part of a much bigger issue That needs to be addressed in santa cruz Um to come up time and time again Um, it sounds like that it's time for you to step in especially in this situation where folks are in danger of being houseless and as someone that has said one of the worst times of the year when it is cold when people are unfortunately suffering in the in the weather, um, and Yeah, so please step in do something Don't add more folks outside who have to rely on services like the one we just heard about. Thank you Good evening council. My name is tau. I think when it comes to housing we talk a lot about housing providers and good landlords but um A person's livelihood whether or not they're going to be living on the streets tonight should not be dependent on a single person You have to pass some kind of policy because before this ab 1482 has passed a lot of landlords are going to find that as an opportunity To raise rents to evict people to profit and that's just the reality of the situation So do like you did back in february. I forgot what year 2018 and pass some protections right now Before you know the homelessness issue Gets even worse than it already is That concludes oral communications council member lover. Thank you. Um, so Appreciate everyone coming out. I'm really disconcerted about some of the stuff We were just hearing about with the evictions taking place is separately with some of our most vulnerable community members both facing age and physical Disability issues. So I would make the motion that we prioritize an action item on the next meeting agenda to address emergency tenant protections second Seconded by councilor cohn. Mr. Cundady Yes, council member glover Spoke with me before making the motion during the oral communications pertinent Provision of the brown act states no action or discussion shall be taken on any item not appearing on the posted agenda Except that members of the legislative body or its staff may briefly respond to statements or questions made Uh Questions posed by persons exercising their public testimony rights under section 5495 4.3 That's what just happened. Uh, in addition on their own initiative or in response to questions posed by the members of the public um A member of the legislative body or the body itself subject to rules uh, or procedures the legislative body may provide a reference to staff Or other resources for factual information requests staff to report back to the body at a subsequent meeting Concerning any matter or take action to direct staff to place a matter of business on a future agenda So we can't talk about the content, but this was brought up I have a question for you. Mr. Cundady One of the things that was also a motion to table was a second reading of just cause evictions Can I ask for clarification as to whether or not that's the direction that this would be Or is this a new potential? Directed item that would come forward in a different direction. Maybe that would be a clarification. Good questions I recall there was a motion to table the just cause eviction item I think that could be seen as an opportunity to Place that back on the agenda because it sounds like that's the sort of thing that councilmember Glover might have in mind Can't respond to that My interest is in the uh protection of the people that just came up to speak about their in their imminent Removal from their places of housing and with no other place to go that are going to end up sleeping on the streets of Santa Cruz So we're whatever that it might be I think it should be a broad agenda topic of exploring all of our options around emergency tenant protections to ensure that we limit or Eliminate the displacement of our low income community members, especially in reaction or in retaliation to the potential passing of the state legislation So it could potentially include that if that's what it includes. Is that correct? I I believe could okay based on the the statement that was just made. Yeah, okay councillor cream Without discussing the item in detail very very nice try, mayor. Um, I would My second it was only about the tenant protection The issue on bixby street and that that's a very narrow Focus that this council needs to take it up and that's what I was seconding I don't know if that's what the motion was that was not the motion Mine was to address emergency tenant protections, whatever those might be So I would imagine that the situation on bixby street is not unique Bixby street and that there are other tenants in the community that are potentially facing the same Threat of being displaced. So I'm not saying that one way or another what we should bring back what we shouldn't bring back I think that we should have an actionable item on the next agenda So that at least within the next two weeks We can do our own due diligence and then come back with some ideas on some tangible solutions to prevent displacement Is that are you still seconding that motion? I'm gonna withdraw my motion my second you're withdrawing the second Okay, so we have a motion. Is there a second? There's no second. Okay, so that motion will die. We'll go ahead and adjourn the meeting at this time Welcome to my life everyone It's a trap to justify and try to protect people. I don't care if it's a trap come and get me like I'm here to protect the constituents that we were voted to protect